Good morning, Chicago.
A former Chicago resident who publicly boasted about paying social media followers to take pictures of his children and ex-partner in violation of a restraining order has been arrested on fraud charges in Florida.
Micah Berkley — a computer whiz with a significant social media following — was featured in a recent Chicago Tribune story about cyberstalking and electronic harassment after he acknowledged paying strangers to take photos and videos of his twin daughters and their mother despite a restraining order that barred him from harassing or intimidating them.
He told the Tribune he believed he had a First Amendment right to solicit the pictures and had paid about $6,000 for images in the past two years. He described it as “technological warfare” to fight back against custody and child support rulings that didn’t go his way.
“I hear she’s scared,” Berkley said earlier this year. “She should be scared. She should be terrified. I want her to worry about who’s waiting on the corner whenever she walks outside.”
Read the full story from the Tribune’s Stacy St. Clair and Joe Mahr.
Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day.
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US charges Hamas leader, others in connection with Oct. 7 massacre in Israel
The Justice Department announced criminal charges against Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and others in connection with the Oct. 7, 2023, rampage in Israel, marking the first effort by American law enforcement to formally call out the masterminds of the attack.
The seven-count criminal complaint filed in federal court in New York City includes charges of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals and conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, resulting in death. It also accuses Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah of providing financial support and weapons, including rockets, that were used in the attack.
Federal judge rejects Donald Trump’s request to intervene in wake of hush money conviction
A federal judge on Tuesday swiftly rejected Donald Trump’s request to intervene in his New York hush money criminal case, thwarting the former president’s latest bid to overturn his felony conviction and delay his sentencing.
UAW-Stellantis faceoff over Belvidere plant’s future centers on a single contract sentence
One sentence in a contract document that runs more than 300 pages is drawing scrutiny as the United Auto Workers warns it could strike Stellantis NV over the automaker’s delays reopening the Belvidere Assembly Plant in Illinois.
The language says that the company’s investments and employment levels are “contingent upon plant performance, changes in market conditions, and consumer demand continuing to generate sustainable and profitable volumes for all of the U.S. manufacturing facilities described above.”
‘Horrific, heinous, inexplicable’: Charges filed in shooting deaths of four on CTA Blue Line
Cook County prosecutors have charged one person with murder after four people were shot to death Monday on a train at the Forest Park Blue Line station, an early morning attack that ranks among the worst acts of violence in memory on the CTA system.
Experts say anti-immigrant rhetoric led to viral — and incorrect — allegations of a migrant takeover
Experts say that anti-immigrant rhetoric that has intensified in the last several weeks ahead of the presidential election in November led to viral — and incorrect — allegations by right-wing social media accounts that migrants took over a South Side building Monday night.
Indeed, authorities said migrants did not trespass with weapons and motorcycles, despite rumors circulated by X owner Elon Musk and others.
Illinois man charged with killing fellow University of Wisconsin-Whitewater student and Plainfield native Kara Welsh
Police have identified the suspect charged in the Friday shooting death of Plainfield native and gymnast Kara Welsh, 21, who was a rising senior at the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater. At the initial court hearing Tuesday, a judge kept the $1 million bond set for Chad T. Richards, 23, also a student at the university.
Column: Fate of Justin Steele’s sore left elbow could determine whether the Chicago Cubs can remain in the wild-card race
In a season lacking drama for the first four-plus months, the Chicago Cubs flipped the switch after the calendar turned to September, writes Paul Sullivan.
Now it’s all drama, all the time.
The NFL season begins this week. Here’s a look at some of the big games and rule changes.
The NFL season begins Thursday night when the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs host the Baltimore Ravens.
Here are some big storylines as the games rapidly approach.
Elmhurst History Museum opens ‘Chicagoland Movie Palaces’ exhibit Sept. 6
The exhibit will include looks at the first movie palaces built in the Chicagoland area, some of the architects who built them, the movie-going culture during the early age of Hollywood and the Blockbuster era, and the evolving digital movie experience. The exhibit will also highlight Elmhurst’s own movie palace, the York Theatre, celebrating its centennial with a special section on famous performances and films that have made a splash on the familiar marquee since 1924.
Miles Harvey’s short stories in ‘Registry of Forgotten Objects’ travel from rural Indiana to a dystopian future
There are many reasons to go to this weekend’s Printers Row Lit Fest, now in its 39th year and stretching along a few blocks of Dearborn Street, south from Ida B. Wells Drive to Polk Street, alive with dozens of events and hundreds of authors and many thousands of readers, all happily celebrating the written word.
On Sunday at the North Stage, Miles Harvey will appear in conversation with Garnett Kilberg Cohen, the author of four short story collections. Harvey is new to the short story realm with his powerful debut collection, “The Registry of Forgotten Objects” (Ohio State University Press), but not new to Lit Fest, having participated in the past to talk about his three non-fiction books.
Gold medal chocolate muffins recipe: A wholesome, but still chocolatey take on those viral Olympic treats
Last month, Olympians — and the internet — went mad for chocolate muffins at the cafeteria in the Olympic Village. We watched world-class athletes devour these gooey, sticky, giant muffins oozing with chocolate ganache. Since then, professional and amateur bakers have re-created that recipe for those viral treats. But can we call it a muffin? Isn’t it more like a cupcake? What if we turned this indulgent treat into something more wholesome but just as chocolatey for those of us who aren’t burning 5,000 calories a day like Olympic swimmers?