Daywatch: Celebrations planned to mark 420 this weekend
Good morning, Chicago.
Four years into cannabis legalization in Illinois, celebrations of the April 20 informal weed holiday known as 420 are getting bigger and more widespread.
Named for the time of day a group of friends met to get high, 420 has become a chance for marijuana users to publicly share a previously illegal drug and the counter-cultural atmosphere surrounding it.
The Tribune’s Robert McCoppin takes a look at the biggest events in and around Chicago this weekend.
Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day.
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Jury selection could be nearing a close in Donald Trump’s hush money trial in New York
After a jury of 12 New Yorkers was seated Thursday, lawyers are now expected to turn their attention to picking remaining alternates who can vow to set aside their personal views and impartially judge the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Thursday’s court proceedings demonstrated unpredictability in the jury selection process of such a high-profile case, with two jurors who had been seated a day earlier being dismissed from the panel.
Democratic National Convention organizers leaning on locals to handle possible migrant surge in August
Along with tensions over the Biden administration’s ongoing support of Israel in its war in Gaza, disputes over the response to the migrant crisis have the potential to sow discord among Democrats as the party seeks to display unity while sending the president into a general election rematch with former Republican President Donald Trump.
Walgreens pharmacists’ union to demonstrate outside 46 Chicago-area stores
A union representing Walgreens pharmacists plans to demonstrate outside of more than 46 local Walgreens stores over the next month to protest pay and working conditions.
Chicago Public Schools launches a new, ‘more equitable’ funding model
While legislators in Springfield consider a bill that would prevent Chicago Public Schools from closing schools or making changes to its admissions policies through 2027, district officials have begun finalizing a budget they claim will benefit all of the district’s schools – neighborhood and selective enrollment – in the upcoming school year.
The district’s proposed budget for the 2024-25 school year will use a new method for distributing funds so that all of the city’s more than 600 public schools will be guaranteed a minimum number of teachers in core subjects like reading and math, as well as in arts and physical education, according to budget documents provided by CPS.
How Paris is preparing for the Olympics, from the venues to transportation to security
The talk before the opening ceremony of the Paris Games ideally should be about its grandiose backdrop: a summer sun setting on the Seine River as athletes drift by in boats and wave to cheering crowds.
But behind the romantic veneer that Paris has long curated, mounting security concerns already have had an impact on the unprecedented open-air event. In January, the number of spectators allowed to attend the ceremony was slashed from around 600,000 to around 320,000.
Ayo Dosunmu helps forge a winning identity for the Bulls in play-in victory. Can they replicate it tonight against the Miami Heat?
For 48 minutes Wednesday night, the Chicago Bulls put together an offensive performance that reflected the ideal vision for the team since it began training camp last fall in Nashville, Tenn.
The ball rarely stuck in one place. It flowed through the half-court — slashing drives to the rim, forcing the defense to crumple in the paint before whipping passes back to the perimeter.
‘Shame of Chicago, Shame of The Nation’ series premieres on WTTW, showing how segregation was built into foundation of real estate
If the “shame,” in the first episode which premiered on WTTW last night, raised your blood pressure, Bruce Orenstein — creator, writer, director and producer of the work — is hoping the rest of the series kickstarts a call to action from everyone.
“It’s a series about the history of housing segregation … 120 years of racial segregation … it raises issues of reparations, how to repair and heal,” Orenstein said. “There’s no easy answers as to how to solve the issue.”
‘We Grown Now’ review: Coming of age in Chicago’s Cabrini-Green projects, in a movie of true distinction
Can we really trust tears as a sign of a film’s quality? A century of so many shameless, relentless cinematic mediocrities suggest the answer is no. If a movie will stop at nothing in its mission to make you cry, yes, statistically speaking, you’ll probably comply. Or not, because you feel jerked around as a viewer. But just as there are what Mike Nichols used to call “expensive laughs” in comedies — bits that get laughs, but at the expense of truth, or a scene’s pacing, or whatever — our movie history is full of weepies all up and down the quality scale.
This is one of the beautiful aspects of “We Grown Now,” the supple, vital third feature from writer-director Minhal Baig. Rather than go for the throat, its central friendship makes room for feeling, but also for listening, and watching, and reflection. You may cry or you may not. But the movie is up to far more than making sure you do, writes Tribune critic Michael Phillips.
Column: As ‘Tortured Poets Department’ arrives, we wondered: Can Taylor Swift be poetry?
Since February, when Swift announced that her next album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” would be arriving on April 19, Christopher Borrelli has wondered about the ins and outs of this department, and if Swift knew what she was doing, aligning herself with poets. We know she would be chairman because that’s how she signed her name to a letter announcing the record. But, Borrelli thought, would other songwriters be allowed into this department? Because, as long as there have been song lyrics, there’ve been debates:
Can lyrics ever be poetry? Are pop lyrics literature?