Prepare for train service interruptions – Chicago Tribune newstrendslive

Good morning, Chicago.

Planning to take the Blue Line tomorrow? Read this first.

From Friday to Monday, train service will be replaced by shuttle buses between the Addison and Western stations on the O’Hare branch of the Blue Line, which is one of the busiest in the system. The California, Logan Square and Belmont stations will close.

Train service could be suspended along the section of track on as many as eight other weekends through late May, the CTA said. The three stations could be fully or partially closed for track work, and when they are fully closed shuttle buses will replace train service.

Read the full story from the Tribune’s Sarah Freishtat.

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A dramatic legal saga that began in a Cook County courtroom 20 years ago will draw to a close today when disgraced R&B star R. Kelly is slated for sentencing in Chicago’s federal courthouse on convictions related to child pornography and sexual conduct with minors.

While Kelly faces anywhere from 10 to 90 years, the sentence itself might seem superfluous since he’s already serving three decades in prison on a federal racketeering case in New York. Just about the only question left is whether he gets more time tacked on in a consecutive sentence that would make it a virtual certainty he’ll never be released.

Less than two weeks before the federal ComEd Four bribery conspiracy trial, prosecutors revealed in a court filing that a confidant of former Speaker Michael Madigan was interviewed twice by federal authorities before the probe became public about his use of code words to refer to the longtime House leader.

The first interview of Michael McClain, the speaker’s friend and ComEd lobbyist, came in August 2014, the same month that Madigan was secretly recorded by an FBI informant at his law firm discussing a desire to secure property tax business with a Chinatown developer, the filing shows.

Less than a month after George Floyd’s death, Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson introduced a nonbinding resolution calling for the county to “redirect funds from policing and incarceration to public services not administered by law enforcement.” The “Justice for Black Lives” resolution was symbolic, but it overwhelmingly passed that July.

But two years later, as Johnson declared his candidacy for Chicago mayor and his campaign has surged in recent weeks, the 46-year-old who is championed by many progressives has sounded less strident on the issue of defunding the police.

The new 36th Ward is arguably the most gerrymandered in Chicago. Stretching diagonally from West Town to the Far Northwest Side, it runs slender in the middle and expands out at each end. It resembles a playground seesaw, while others have described it as a “pool noodle” or a “waterslide.”

The result is a contentious race in the newly drawn ward in which three residents are challenging Gilbert Villegas and accusing the two-term alderman of not being familiar with the new ward’s neighborhoods and not working well with law enforcement to cut down on crime.

In the hours after Patrick Beverley signed with his hometown team, the veteran guard’s phone was overtaken with a deluge of calls and texts from family and friends welcoming him back to Chicago.

It was a long time coming for Beverley, who logged 11 seasons in the NBA before signing with the Bulls on Tuesday. As he prepares to make his Bulls debut Friday at the United Center, Beverley embraced the opportunity to make an impact on the court in Chicago.

The Mel Brooks sequel “History of the World: Part II” premieres on Hulu March 6, but there’s room for more than one amateur sociologist / historian / gagmeister on the planet. To wit: the British mockumentary series “Cunk on Earth,” now on Netflix.

It’s the funniest thing critic Michael Phillips seen in months, and not just on Netflix.