INDIANAPOLIS — Disagreements among Indiana lawmakers could stop passage of a bill aiming to address antisemitism on college campuses for the second year in a row, leaving Indiana students and professors uneasy as divisions surrounding the ongoing Israel-Hamas war deepen.
Indiana House Republicans passed House Bill 1002 two months ago as one of their five priorities for the 2024 session. The legislation — largely aimed at higher education — broadly defines antisemitism as religious discrimination and promises to “provide educational opportunities free of religious discrimination.”
The House bill used the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, and explicitly included “contemporary examples of antisemitism” provided by the alliance, which make references to Israel. These have been adopted by the U.S. Department of State.
State senators debating the bill this week, however, passed an amended version of the bill Tuesday in a 42-6 vote that removed language opposed by critics of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. The amended version still includes the IHRA’s broad definition of antisemitism but deleted the alliance’s name and examples that include explicit references to Israel.
Opponents argued that using direct references would stifle criticism of Israel in academic settings and advocacy on campuses for Palestinians in a worsening humanitarian crisis.
But the bill needs final approval from the House before lawmakers plan to adjourn Friday, and Republicans in the House want the original language restored.
The divide between the chambers is familiar. An identical bill passed unanimously in the state House last year but died after failing to reach a vote in the Senate.
For students on Indiana campuses, the legislation comes during a painful year of heightened anxiety over the conflict. To some, the Senate’s changes are a welcome relief following weeks of protest against the measure. Others see the changes as a betrayal and feel unheard by lawmakers.
Maya Wasserman, a 22-year old Jewish student at Indiana University Bloomington wants to see the examples that reference Israel returned to the bill because they provide guidance on what antisemitism looks like.
“Without the examples and without the reference to the IHRA, it doesn’t have the same effect,” she said.
Mikayla Kaplan, a 19-year-old freshman from Houston who chose to attend Indiana University because of its strong Jewish student community, said while she was suspicious of the changes, she still wants to see the bill advance.
“Jewish students need the protection of the law,” she said.
Kaplan said she’s experienced antisemitism since she was in the 7th grade, when someone dropped a drawing of a swastika in front of her. Normally open to sharing Jewish holidays and practices with friends, she has found herself holding back since Oct. 7.
Jewish students have been verbally harassed around campus, she said, some while wearing the star of David or other symbols of Judaism. Kaplan said she only feels comfortable now in her dorm or at the Helene G. Simon Hillel Center, a center for Jewish students at the university.
Yaqoub Saadeh, a 21-year-old senior at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis and president of the Middle Eastern Student Association, said he is all for defining antisemitism, but the original proposal made him fear being able to speak against Israel. The amendment felt like his voice was heard at the statehouse for the first time, he said.
Saadeh, who is Palestinian and grew up in an Indianapolis suburb, often wears a keffiyeh, a checkered scarf that has come to embody Palestinian solidarity. Instances of physical and verbal harassment against Arab and Muslim students have also increased since the war began, he said, adding that he finds himself on guard in public, especially after three Palestinian college students were shot in Vermont in November.
“Is there a car that’s going to hit me?” he wonders when he crosses the street. “Sometimes I’ll wear a pin or something if I feel a little more anxious.”
Daniel Segal, a retired professor of history and anthropology who lives in Bloomington, is on the coordinating committee for Jewish Voice for Peace Indiana. He called the IHRA’s examples “fundamentally flawed” for conflating antisemitism with criticism of Israel.
“We think the Senate bill remedies the harmful flaws in the House bill,” he said.
The state House sent the bill to a conference committee, where lawmakers from both chambers will work to resolve differences in only days.
The push to define antisemitism in numerous states predates the Oct. 7 attacks in which Hamas killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, sparking a war that has killed more than 30,000 Palestinians. But the war gave supporters another motivation. This year, governors in Arkansas and Georgia signed measures and a proposal is still awaiting gubernatorial review in Florida. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem on Wednesday signed a bill defining antisemitism.
Associated Press writer Geoff Mulvihill in Cherry Hill, New Jersey contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – In his State of the Union address, President Joe Biden announced a plan for U.S. Army and Navy forces to build a temporary pier on the Gaza coast.
It will allow the U.S. and other countries to deliver shiploads of food, water, medicine and other critical supplies to the more than two million Palestinians caught in the Israel-Hamas war.
“Prevents us from putting boots on the ground in Gaza while at the same time ensuring that we can deliver and distribute aid securely,” said Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder.
Ryder said the emergency mission will require about a thousand troops, mainly from a Virginia base. He said other countries will be responsible for securing and distributing the aid.
“Sixty days from now, this will be up and operating,” Ryder said.
White House Communications Director Ben LaBolt said land missions and air drops will continue, but the new port will more effective.
“Ships can carry so much more humanitarian assistance than trucks,” LaBolt said.
The Pentagon expects the mission to eventually provide two million meals a day to Gaza.
“No one should be able to accept the suffering that we’ve seen,” said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY.).
Congress has been largely supportive of the announcement, but even Biden administration officials worry about protecting the aid.
“Once within Gaza, the assistance has to be distributed more effectively to people who need it,” said Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Blinken pointed to chaotic distribution efforts, where Palestinians have rushed aid trucks.
Blinken stressed the best solution is a ceasefire.
“The issue is whether Hamas will decide or not to have a ceasefire that would benefit everyone,” he said.
The U.S. was hoping for a deal before Ramadan this weekend, but negotiations are still stalled.
The owners of Bar Siena, Fioretta, and Lyra are about to open their sixth restaurant in the West Loop and Fulton Market area. La Serre, which should open mid-March, is a French-Mediterranean restaurant from DineAmic Hospitality Group with a unique all-season ledge room and guillotine windows overlooking Fulton Market.
Ownership describes the menu as coastal French-Mediterranean cuisine, something DineAmic’s team has experience in. Lyra partner Athinagoras Kostakos, the former Top Chef: Greece champion, has cooked in Monaco, home of legendary chef Alain Ducasse. Chef Nikitas Pyrgis has cooked at La Guérite, a restaurant in Cannes, France that’s only accessible via boat.
“Once we started talking about this, we thought, ‘Wow, you guys have a lot of background in [French cooking], we should do something with that,’” says DineAmic co-founder David Rekhson.
La Serre will break away from heavier brasserie fare and focus on the south of France, Saint-Tropez, and Provence in particular. Rekhson calls the “the Napa Valley of France” where a bounty of quality ingredients exists. Of course, being DineAmic, Rekhson and fellow DineAmic co-founder Lucas Stoioff blend all these ideas to create a restaurant that they think will appeal to local Chicago customers.
“Ours is a distinctly coastal French brand and fare, as opposed to a lot of the more inland Parisian classic brasseries that have opened up in the last couple of years,” Stoioff says, referring to a certain restaurant that opened in River North without mentioning its name.
Stoioff and Rehkson mention several tableside preparations and opportunities to splurge. A 44-ounce, double-cut beef ribeye cote du boeuf is cooked over hardwood charcoal before being trotted out on a tray outfitted with a satellite burner. The steak is sliced tableside while the sauce is prepared and finished Au Poivre or truffle Diane style (Stoioff is a big fan of the latter). An Old Fashioned uses truffle-washed bourbon and served with black truffles shaved tableside. A drink called the Caspian uses dill olive oil and is paired with a bronze bunny statue holding a small bowl of caviar. There are a few others that the duo wants customers to discover at the restaurant and be surprised. A raw bar and a menu of one-bite starters are also served in the French amuse-bouche tradition.
Located on the second floor of a new building on the corner of Green and Fulton Market, the space is light and airy with the kitchen in the back and a large bar greeting visitors at the front. The terrace, a ledge that flows along Fulton Market, features overhead heaters and the aforementioned windows which open vertically. DineAmic wants diners to feel like they’re in southern France, even when temperatures dip. Stoioff says the space looks like “an old provincial greenhouse that’s been here for 100 years.” The greenhouse design and the resources invested in the HVAC system will allow the restaurant to keep its windows open even on cold fall nights.
“When you come inside, it feels like it’s summertime in the south of France, and you’re overlooking Fulton market, and our heating, engineering, and capabilities give us the ability to have the windows open a lot longer than we would normally have because of all of our heat we’ve installed,” Stoioff says.
Not to be forgotten is a companion restaurant that will soon open. Bar La Rue is separate from La Serre. Look for more details in the coming weeks. But for now, take a walk through La Serre before it opens next week and enjoy photos of a few of the food and drink options.
A six-table restaurant in Seaside, Florida, named Lazy Daze Cafe is to blame. The 1991 restaurant opening was the first from Kevin Boehm, who 12 years later would, along with Rob Katz, go on to establish Boka Restaurant Group. Boehm, then a University of Illinois student, was encouraged to drop out to pursue his dreams by his future famous writer roommate, Dave Eggers.
“It was a two-person operation: myself and my girlfriend at the time, Theresa. Small menu, small wine list, centered around fresh fish from the gulf, a few pastas, sandwiches, and salads at lunch,” says Boehm. I’ve always thought of it as my bachelor’s and master’s education in restaurants, as every responsibility rested on both our shoulders.”
Boehm went on to open other spots, including Indigo in Springfield, before meeting Katz, a Vancouver, British Columbia, native who moved to Chicago to work in the trading pits. Katz became a nightlife impresario, opening up places like the Elbo Room in Lakeview.
Katz wanted to leave nightclubs and Boehm wanted an in to the Chicago restaurant market. The two met through mutual friends in 2002 in Old Town. “We sat for coffee at Nookies, and the meeting was supposed to be 15 minutes. We sat for four hours. We just clicked instantly, felt the same way about hospitality and food, and were both big believers that design was a huge part of the puzzle. We basically shrugged our shoulders and said, ‘Let’s do one. What’s the worst that could happen?’” says Boehm.
Boka Restaurant Group’s Rob Katz (left) and Kevin Boehm.Boka Restaurant Group/Anthony Tahlier
Boehm and Katz were once very much like the ex-GM of their beloved Chicago Cubs, Theo Epstein. Like with Epstein, who won two World Series championships with the Boston Red Sox and one with the Cubs, Boka’s success came in identifying unknown and undervalued top-level talent like Giuseppe Tentori, Lee Wolen, and Gene Kato. Now Boehm and Katz mostly partner with big-name celebrity chefs like Stephanie Izard, Michael Solomonov, and most recently, although it didn’t work out as planned, Daniel Rose.
The real hidden feather in their cap is partnership with designers like Karen Herold of Studio K Creative, as well as AvroKO, who create interiors that beget immersive experiences. Through this formula, Katz and Boehm have earned reputations as empire builders.
The following is a ranking of the restaurants that make up Katz and Boehm’s Chicago empire, from 2003 to present (though their influence now extends to New York and Los Angeles, with noteworthy spots like Laser Wolf Brooklyn and Girl & the Goat LA). We also stuck to restaurants, thus omitting Lazy Bird, Boka’s cocktail bar in the Hoxton hotel. Whether the contender is one of Boka’s OG stalwarts or its clubbier offerings, the paramount criteria for the rankings below was food quality followed by the level of commitment to experiential design and/or original style.
Deciding which of Boka’s stellar lineup of chefs is the greatest is kind of like asking which Avenger is the best. They’re almost impossible to separate. However, if someone put a Global cleaver to my jugular and made me pick, I’m probably choosing Lee Wolen. Wolen is a student of culinary history and a veteran of Eleven Madison Park. Though he runs a three-star restaurant (by choice) in Boka, many of his plates are four-star prix fixe-level studies in impeccable technique. From chefs Meg Galus to Kim Mok, the pastry program at Boka has also always offered a double threat unmatched by almost any other place in town save Daisies (whose chef Joe Frillman worked at two shuttered Boka restaurants, Perennial Virant in Old Town and Balena in Lincoln Park).
Pairing it with a Top Chef and Iron Chef champion like Izard would make McDonald’s a first-tier restaurant. Adding in Boehm and Katz’s business and service acumen and Herold’s creative interiors made G&TG the real inflection point of Boka’s rise in Chicago, and maybe the launching pad for its current celebrity chef-driven multimarket restaurant domination.
The smoky wood-fired oven, which churns out first-class bread you don’t mind being charged for, and the flame-charred walls make you feel like you’re eating inside a Pappy Van Winkle bourbon barrel. I’ve been to Girl & the Goat many times and it seems like I wait months or years between visits. But every time I return to a platter of wood oven-roasted pig face glistening with red wine and maple syrup, gooey with the remains of a breached sunny side egg, I wonder why I waited. At almost 14 years old, few local spots — save sister restaurant Boka, or Alinea and Avec — have stayed on top of their game for so long.
Generally, after you’re assaulted by the pomp and circumstance of a well-designed restaurant, the luster often wears off. Stick around a while and you start inspecting a dining room, notice the smoke alarms, the exit signs, and the cheap paint. You start to feel like you’re in a fake set piece.
Momotaro, though, is more than a restaurant. It’s a story. It’s not reality per se. Certainly never in history has a Japanese salaryman’s office/sushi bar/ 1960s airport lounge as frequented by Don Draper ever existed. And yet, the attention to detail, the pen stroke graffiti in the bathrooms, the bar menu — a vintage split-flap airport departures/arrivals style display — makes up a world so unique that it feels real.
On my first visits, the hot food was the thing, but on subsequent visits, the sushi execution finally caught up with the vision. Silky lithe scrims of toro blanket plump toothsome grains of rice. Outside the city’s omakase stylings there may be no finer place for raw fish in Chicago. Girl & the Goat may have made the empire, but Momotaro is the spot that put Boehm and Katz on par with the best of the mega-restaurateurs.
4. Alla Vita, 564 W. Randolph Street, (312) 667-0104
Alla Vita/Anthony Tahlier
There are hundreds of Italian restaurants in Chicago, but most are of the multigenerational-owned, Frank-Sinatra-got-hammered-in-this-very-booth, red-sauce variety. At Alla Vita, Lee Wolen brings a top chef’s eye to the cuisine, elevating beyond fried calamari with pillowy ricotta gnudi dripping in cacio e pepe cream. You also likely won’t find a more beautiful or stylish dining crowd in Chicago, a reflection of the sleek space that features hanging gardens and gauzy undulating lanterns that mimic the blazing energy weaving through the room.
I remember running over as fast as I could when GT Prime’s namesake Giuseppe Tentori took over the kitchen at Boka after he left as chef de cuisine of Charlie Trotter’s. Tentori had spent nine years working for Trotter, which, based on its exacting standards, is like spending 100 years in most other kitchens. Few, except maybe Matthias Merges, had put in that much time at Trotter’s and lived to tell the story with a great second act.
But Tentori dusted off his shoulder and rode his bicycle/pasta machine, aka “The Black Stallion,” to glory at Boka and then at GT Fish & Oyster. Prime, which features the coolest taxidermy in Chicago (the oryx and sable antelope mounted in the front vestibule are nicknamed Chuck and Tenderloin, respectively) is Tentori’s true masterpiece. At Prime, Tentori took the steakhouse to a clientele beyond expense account folks who buy Louis Vuitton trunks by the busload. By curating small cuts of Japanese A5 wagyu and prime strip loin and mixing them in with silky tagliatelle or world-class lasagna, Tentori made a meat emporium a welcoming place for all real food enthusiasts again. As a bonus (ever since his other spot GT Fish & Oyster closed), you might even find its legendary clam chowder as a special here.
6. Cabra at the Hoxton hotel, 200 N. Green Street, (312) 761-1717
Boka Restaurant Group
The first time I ate at chef Izard’s Cabra, I thought it was some kind of time warp from the 1980s. Everyone on staff seemed to be wearing acid-washed mom jeans. The food wasn’t quite of the era, but it was inconsistent relative to Tanta, the superior Peruvian choice in River North. Since then, a tightening of the menu, focusing on mouthwatering ceviche and delightful chorizo queso dip, has created an infusion of new energy that allowed the brand to extend to Los Angeles.
Duck Duck GoatAnthony Tahlier/Boka Restaurant Group
My love for Izard’s mashup of authentic and American Chinese is deep and endless. Were this a roundup of my subjective personal favorite Boka restaurants, it might be ranked higher. But in this ranking I’m looking for a superior mix of food quality, interior design, innovation, influence, and service, and the food quality and consistency at Duck Duck Goat has wavered in recent years, as with the recent receipt of a soggy Chongqing chicken. Still, as a regular diner, I just want to have fun, and DDG’s set-piece decor makes me feel like I’ve been dropped into Spielberg’s Shanghai in Indiana Jones. (No time for love, Dr. Jones!) And that environment still gives me pure delight.
8. Swift & Sons,1000 W. Fulton Market, (312) 733-9420
Swift & SonsBarry Brecheisen/Eater Chicago
This might be the best-designed of all the Boka restaurants. While I love the story of the Japanese salaryman told through Momotaro, I am foremost a Chicagoan — a faithful denizen of this former hog butcher to the world, one who screams “Da Bears!” and all that. Which is to say, my belly is often full of pork and my mind is truly raptured by the stories of the all-time local greats like Algren, Burnham, Sullivan, Wright, and Gustavus Swift.
The vestibule of this place looks like the abandoned offices of Swift, the great meatpacking magnate, and the interior simultaneously conjures the elegance of the Titanic ballroom and the corporate art deco aesthetic of the Coen Brothers’ The Hudsucker Proxy. You can almost smell the aftershave dripping off the leather bench seating. Though it is the most “steakhouse” of all the Boka restaurants, chef Chris Pandel doesn’t just give you a simple baked potato bigger than a T. rex egg. He’s putting out bacon-larded and horseradish cream-spiked potato and ricotta-stuffed pierogies that would make most babcias jealous. There is creamed spinach on offer, but also chile crisp- and gojuchang aioli-spiked roast brussels sprouts, which is to say, just like GT Prime, Swift & Sons is not a Gibsons knockoff.
9. Cira, inside the Hoxton hotel, 200 N. Green Street, (312) 761-1777
Boka Restaurant Group/Galdones Photography
Hotel restaurants demand all-day rigor, and few chefs are up to the challenge like Chris Pandel. The Hoxton hotel has become a coworking and de facto meeting spot for me over the last few years, and while the central location and comfy lobby play a role, it’s mostly because I know Cira’s gonna sate my cravings any time of day. If it’s early morning, there’s a perfect shakshuka waiting to break my fast. If it’s lunchtime, I’m digging into the crisp cumin- and coriander-perfumed falafel. If work is done and a celebration dinner is in order, I’m ordering a bowl of pistachio ravioli roofed with crisp breadcrumbs and gilded with saffron orange butter.
10. Itoko, 3326 N. Southport Avenue, (773) 819-7672
ItokoBoka Restaurant Group
I can count maybe a handful of dishes I still think about months after I visited a restaurant, but Gene Kato’s octopus at Itoko — a carpaccio flayed out like a giant hibiscus blossom and sprinkled with shiso and red onion slivers, then drizzled with the lifting acidity of ponzu — is one of them. If you’re looking for pristine sushi or perfectly toasted nori hand rolls bulging with king crab in an informal setting, Itoko is the spot in Lakeview.
The Izakaya under Momotaro in Fulton Market has that hidden speakeasy vibe. Even though it’s not invite-only like the Aviary’s the Office, or hidden behind a graffiti wall as with the Violet Hour, like both those spots, Izakaya is a windowless lair where time seems to stand still. You can drink and drink and drink with friends, and even better, sop it up with salty snacks like sweet soy-pepper glazed tebasaki wings or a big bowl of chicken curry. The design magic of AvroKO is in full force, as the space feels the kind of place John Wick might stop by to plot his next assassination over shots of sake.
Stroller parent-friendly salads and crispy chicken sandwiches are usually the domain of a Chick-fil-A, not a super chef like Wolen. But add in perfect mahogany-crusted rotisserie chicken and incredible consistency, and this might be one of Boka’s most dependable and delicious spots. The only thing keeping it from ranking higher is its informal nature.
13. Little Goat, 3325 N. Southport Avenue, (773) 819-7673
Little Goat Diner has moved to Lakeview.Boka Restaurant Group/Keni Rosales
In the move from the more spacious OG location on Randolph, Little Goat lost square footage, but gained more character. The new vibe, a kind of retro Fonzie-meets-midcentury modern, is actually more creative than the original. But what it’s gained in design, it’s lost in consistency of service and food quality. Stick to Izard’s classics like the This Little Piggy, a sesame cheddar egg biscuit sandwich stuffed with Sichuan pork sausage, or the okonomiyaki packed with bacon and bonito crunch, and you’ll still be satisfied.
Swift & Sons Tavern is across from Wrigleyville.Swift & Sons Tavern
Except for the nearby Mordecai, this is probably one of the best restaurants in Wrigleyville. Then again, that’s a lot like being the tallest kindergartener: Everything is relative to the competition. Thronged on Cubs game days, service sometimes suffers. Not as serious as its brother, the bigger original Swift, informal eats like fried cheese curds or an Italian beef stuffed with shaved rib-eye are the moves here.
820 W Randolph Street, Chicago, IL 60607 312 888 3455
Snack on grilled pineapple and cardamom doughnuts at Ramova Grill. | Clayton Hauck
Enjoy a Bloody Mary or benedict at these 20 spots
Brunch — not quite breakfast, not yet lunch — is one of the best parts of the weekend. The Eater Chicago Brunch Heatmap is here to help by highlighting the newest options for a delicious midday meal. The latest additions to the list include Kevin Hickey’s revival of Bridgeport’s Ramova Grill, clubby Fulton Market spot Costera Cocina Tulum, and mole-focused Mexican restaurant Manchamanteles. These restaurants join a growing number of kitchens offering exciting brunch menus. So start the day off right with eggs (and much more) at these 20 destinations.
SAN FRANCISCO — A tire fell off a United Airlines flight departing from San Francisco International Airport to Osaka, Japan Thursday morning, officials confirmed.
“At approximately 11:35 a.m., United Flight 35 departing to Osaka lost a portion of landing gear tire during takeoff,” a United representative said.
WATCH: United plane loses tire while taking off in San Francisco
A United Airline plane bound for Japan lost a tire while it was taking off from San Francisco International Airport Thursday.
The tire debris landed in one of the airport’s employee parking lots. There were no injuries reported, but SKY7 was over the scene, where police placed caution tape around cars that appeared to be hit by the tire.
In a statement, United Airlines said the flight was diverted to LAX where it landed safely. The company says crews are now working to arrange a new aircraft to take passengers to Osaka on Thursday evening.
United said the flight had 235 customers, 10 flight attendants and four pilots — for a total 249 people on board.
SKY7 was over a parking lot near SFO, where several cars were damaged by a falling tire from a United flight on Thursday, March 7, 2024.
KGO-TV
“The 777-200 has six tires on each of its two main landing gear struts. The aircraft is designed to land safely with missing or damaged tires,” the airline said.
Officials say the runway was briefly closed to clear debris, but was soon reopened, with no further impact to airport operations anticipated.
An eyewitness is describing what he saw after the tire fell and damaged several cars.
“At the speed and velocity that it was coming down, it would have crushed somebody like a grape,” said Gary Glass.
He described to us what it looked like watching that tire. The plane it fell from had just taken off at SFO, seen on video that was recorded by Cali Planes on YouTube. Glass was driving near the rental car facility and just 50 feet away as he watched the tire hit nearby vehicles.
“I look up and it’s a tire spinning at a rapid speed. It bounced in the staff parking lot and it bounced onto a car, a small compact car and I thought that it was going to crush that car and stay there but it actually bounced again really high, and tires still spinning and then landed on a red Tesla and completely totaled and crushed the red Tesla,” said Glass.
“I’ve never seen anything like that, I was in shock for about 15 or 20 minutes,” he added.
The plane, that was initially headed to Japan, rerouted to LAX where it landed safely. Those in the Bay are just a bit taken back after what happened.
“I knew it was a plane tire right away because they are huge, right? They are like the size of the entire wheel well of a car. When it hit that Tesla, I just remember the glass, the metal crunch and the shatter of the glass – was just really a lot,” said Glass.
Aviation experts said planes losing tires is a rare occurrence and not indicative of a larger safety issue.
“In aviation, we never want to have single points of failure if they can be avoided, and this is a case in point,” said Alan Price, a former chief pilot for Delta Air Lines.
“The remaining tires are fully capable of handling the load,” he added.
Price said a loose tire it’s normally a maintenance issue and not a problem created by the manufacturer.
John Cox, a retired pilot and professor of aviation safety at the University of Southern California, agreed. “I don’t see any impact for Boeing as it was a United maintenance team that changed the tire,” he said.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released a statement saying it will investigate this incident.
Read United’s full statement below:
United flight 35 lost one tire after takeoff from San Francisco and landed at LAX. Our team quickly arranged for a new aircraft to take customers to Osaka this evening.
We’re grateful to our pilots and flight attendants for their professionalism in managing this situation. We’re also grateful to our teams on the ground who were waiting with a tug to move the aircraft soon after it landed and to our teams in the airport who assisted customers upon their arrival. We will work with customers as well as with the owners of the damaged vehicles in SFO to ensure their needs are addressed.
DEAR ABBY: I have known my husband for 10 years. We have been married for four. We love each other very much, but I did something that has caused him to no longer trust me, and he won’t forgive me. I went to a pub while my husband was at a class. I told him I was going to the pub and he was fine with it. We know everybody who works there very well.
The problem is, a nice man sat down a seat away from me and we started talking about all kinds of stuff. At the end of the evening, we exchanged phone numbers. He texted me a week later wanting to know if I could meet him for lunch. I said yes — big mistake — but we DIDN’T meet because I realized it would be wrong.
My husband saw his text on my phone, and he is upset and angry. He hasn’t spoken to me since. It’s been almost a week. He said he can no longer trust me, and he won’t accept my apologies or forgive me. What can I do? — LOSING LOVE IN CALIFORNIA
DEAR LOSING: Although your intentions may have been innocent, for your husband to have found out about the planned lunch the way he did couldn’t have been worse. Had you told him you met someone “nice” and had been invited to lunch, it might not have made him angry. I don’t blame him for feeling he may not be able to trust you.
Remind him that you did not GO to that lunch. Tell him you love him and ask what you need to do to earn back that trust. Ask if he would go to counseling with you. However, if you are unable to do that, accept that your marriage is toast. What a shame.
DEAR ABBY: My sister “Claudia” recently asked me on a Saturday to take her to the eye doctor the following Tuesday. Well, I forgot. She didn’t call me the night before (like normal people do) to remind me, nor did she call me the next day to confirm. She did call our cousin to take her. (She should have called me that day instead of calling our cousin.)
Now Claudia is mad at me. I think it was both our faults — mine because I forgot. (There is a lot going on here. My mother-in-law, who has dementia, lives here and it has grown worse.) It was also Claudia’s fault for not calling me.
She told me it was an important follow-up appointment and she was really upset. Is she being childish? By the way, Claudia is 13 years older than I am and has always been jealous of me. — JUST PLAIN FORGOT IN OHIO
DEAR “FORGOT”: Oh, my goodness. You are human and you forgot! I don’t think it was a hanging offense. However, Claudia managed to come up with a Plan B and the cousin saved the day. See how resourceful she can be in a pinch?
In the future, when your hands are full — and from what you have described about your mother-in-law, it is safe to assume they will be — when Sissy asks you to take her to a medical appointment, perhaps Plan B should become Plan A.
Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Contact Dear Abby at www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.
To order “How to Write Letters for All Occasions,” send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $8 (U.S. funds), to: Dear Abby — Letter Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. (Shipping and handling are included in the price.)
Parts of the Chicago area in a marginal risk (Level 1 of 4) for excessive rainfall that might cause localized flooding Friday and Friday night
Rainfall intensity to vary at times Friday, but it’s likely to be persistent much of the day into Friday night—some thunder possible
RAINFALL TIMING:
7:30 AM
11:30 AM
4 PM
7 PM
11 PM
Much of the Chicago area in line to receive 1”+ of rain by Saturday morning
March-2024 off to a wet start and about to get wetter with impending soaking rain Friday
Parts of the far NW Suburbs classified as “abnormally dry” from the latest update from USDA—while portions of the Midwest remain in severe or extreme drought
Despite minimal amount of sunshine, Thursday highs were about 8 degrees above normal
The Continuing Mild Streak: 42 of the past 46 days in Chicago have been above normal!
Since Jan. 22, 91% of the days in Chicago have averaged above normal—42 of past 46 days.
Another big warm-up on tap early next week
Forecast highs and how far from normal
Temperature departures from normal a mile above the ground which give a good indication of what is happening here at ground level—illustrates the warmer-than-normal trend by and large, through later next week—minus some modest cooling this weekend
The just completed Meteorological Winter period globally—easily the warmest of any season dating back to 1941 in this stunning analysis by Climatologist Dr. Brian Brettschneider
One more from Brian Brettschneider: Snowfall ranking near the bottom of the list for the contiguous United States
While mild weather dominates the scene here deep into next week, there are hints that a trough may develop over the eastern US causing the jet stream to buckle in from Canada.
This would at least temporarily support a colder weather regime: will be interesting to monitor these developments.
DALLAS — Once again, most Americans will set their clocks forward by one hour this weekend, losing perhaps a bit of sleep but gaining more glorious sunlight in the evenings as the days warm into summer.
Where did this all come from, though?
How we came to move the clock forward in the spring, and then push it back in the fall, is a tale that spans over more than a century — one that’s driven by two world wars, mass confusion at times and a human desire to bask in the sun for a long as possible.
There’s been plenty of debate over the practice, but about 70 countries — about 40% of those across the globe — currently use what Americans call daylight saving time.
While springing the clocks forward “kind of jolts our system,” the extra daylight gets people outdoors, exercising and having fun, says Anne Buckle, web editor at timeanddate.com, which features information on time, time zones and astronomy.
“The really, really awesome advantage is the bright evenings, right?” she says. “It is actually having hours of daylight after you come home from work to spend time with your family or activities. And that is wonderful.”
Here are some things to know so you’ll be conversant about the practice of humans changing time:
HOW DID THIS ALL GET STARTED?
In the 1890s, George Vernon Hudson, an astronomer and entomologist in New Zealand, proposed a time shift in the spring and fall to increase the daylight. And in the early 1900s, British home builder William Willett, troubled that people weren’t up enjoying the morning sunlight, made a similar push. But neither proposal gained enough traction to be implemented.
Germany began using daylight saving time during World War I with the thought that it would save energy. Other countries, including the United States, soon followed suit. During World War II, the U.S. once again instituted what was dubbed “war time” nationwide, this time year-round.
In the United States today, every state except Hawaii and Arizona observes daylight saving time. Around the world, Europe, much of Canada and part of Australia also implement it, while Russia and Asia don’t currently.
INCONSISTENCY AND MASS CONFUSION
After World War II, a patchwork of timekeeping emerged across the United States, with some areas keeping daylight saving time and others ditching it.
“You might have one town has daylight saving time, the neighboring town might have daylight saving time but start it and end it on different dates and the third neighboring town might not have it at all,” says David Prerau, author of the book “Seize the Daylight: The Curious and Contentious Story of Daylight Saving Time.”
At one point, if riders on a 35-mile bus ride from Steubenville, Ohio, to Moundsville, West Virginia, wanted their watches to be accurate, they’d need to change them seven times as they dipped in and out of daylight saving time, Prerau says.
So in 1966, the U.S. Congress passed the Uniform Time Act, which say states can either implement daylight saving time or not, but it has to be statewide. The act also mandates the day that daylight saving time starts and ends across the country.
Confusion over the time change isn’t just something from the past. In the nation of Lebanon last spring, chaos ensued when the government announced a last-minute decision to delay the start of daylight saving time by a month — until the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Some institutions made the change and others refused as citizens tried to piece together their schedules. Within days, the decision was reversed.
“It really turned into a huge mess where nobody knew what time it was,” Buckle says.
WHAT WOULD IT BE LIKE IF WE DIDN’T CHANGE THE CLOCKS?
Changing the clocks twice a year leads to a lot of grumbling, and pushes to either use standard time all year, or stick to daylight saving time all year often crop up.
During the 1970s energy crisis, the U.S. started doing daylight saving time all year long, and Americans didn’t like it. With the sun not rising in the winter in some areas till around 9 a.m. or even later, people were waking up in the dark, going to work in the dark and sending their children to school in the dark, Prerau says.
”It became very unpopular very quickly,” Prerau says.
And, he notes, using standard time all year would mean losing that extra hour of daylight for eight months in the evenings in the United States.
A NOD TO THE EARLY ADOPTERS
In 1908, the Canadian city of Thunder Bay — then the two cities of Fort William and Port Arthur — changed from the central time zone to the eastern time zone for the summer and fall after a citizen named John Hewitson argued that would afford an extra hour of daylight to enjoy the outdoors, says Michael deJong, curator/archivist at the Thunder Bay Museum.
The next year, though, Port Arthur stayed on eastern time, while Fort William changed back to central time in the fall, which, predictably, “led to all sorts of confusion,” deJong says.
Today, the city of Thunder Bay is on eastern time, and observes daylight saving time, giving the area, “just delightfully warm, long days to enjoy” in the summer, says Paul Pepe, tourism manager for Thunder Bay Community Economic Development Commission.
The city, located on Lake Superior, is far enough north that the sun sets at around 10 p.m. in the summer, Pepe says, and that helps make up for their cold dark winters. Residents, he says, tend to go on vacations in the winter and stay home in the summer: “I think for a lot of folks here, the long days, the warm summer temperatures, it’s a vacation in your backyard.”
If you typically carry credit cards, a debit card, a driver’s license or a passport, you could be vulnerable to hackers — even if those cards never leave your wallet. Criminals can use special tech to wirelessly access the information stored in those cards and IDs. There’s a way to fight back, though: Consider investing in an RFID-blocking wallet, passport case or bag.
Most of the latest credit cards, debit cards and government IDs have an RFID chip installed. In the case of credit and debit cards, this tech comes in handy; it lets you tap to pay for all kinds of purchases at stores worldwide. But that same tech is what a criminal is looking for. Hackers can scan your credit or debit card numbers or IDs, allowing them to steal your money or identity. An RFID-blocking wallet prevents contactless scanning, which is also known as a “skimming attack.”
What is the best RFID-blocking wallet or bag?
RFID-blocking wallets, passport cases, fanny packs, purses and crossbody bags incorporate a layer of carbon fiber or aluminum that can prevent a skimming attack and keep the information stored in your cards and IDs protected. Our in-house team of travel experts has curated this roundup of the best RFID-blocking options out there.
Best RFID blocking wallet overall: Bellroy Hide & Seek
Bellroy
Available in seven stunning colors — including this green that we really like — this slim, classically designed wallet offers multiple interior pockets hold five to 12 cards. This includes quick access slots for your most commonly used cards. The entire wallet offers RFID blocking.
This Hide & Seek wallet is crafted from eco-tanned, environmentally certified leather. It’s available in two heights, to accommodate paper currencies from around the world. There’s also a separate section for business cards.
If you’re seeking an elegant and versatile wallet that holds a lot (without generating bulk) and that offers the RFID protection for your cards and ID, we recommend Bellroy’s Hide & Seek for yourself or to give as a gift.
Best budget RFID-blocking wallet: Herschel Hank II
Amazon
Here’s an affordable, unisex wallet that offers a classic bi-fold style. It has a currency sleeve, card slots and an ID window — all of which offer RFID blocking. The wallet comes in your choice of four color combinations, including a classic saddle brown.
This is a durable, everyday wallet made from EcoSystem 600D fabric that’s created from 100% recycled, post-consumer water bottles, along with synthetic leather.
Best minimalist RFID blocking wallet: The Ridge wallet
Amazon
Not into leather — faux or otherwise?
For that person looking for a wallet where less in more, take a look at the Ridge. This is a super slim, minimalist wallet that’s made from carbon fiber.
The inside of the wallet securely holds up to 12 cards in a compartment that offers RFID blocking. On the outside, you’ll find a handy, easy access aluminum money clip.
The Ridge is available in more than a dozen colors and comes with a lifetime guarantee. The RFID blocking material used is 6061-T6 aluminum. The entire wallet weighs just 4.9 ounces and is a bestseller on Amazon.
Best leather bi-fold RFID-blocking wallet: Harber London leather bi-fold zip wallet
Harber London
Since 2012, this London company has been designing and creating handmade, premium leather wallets, bags and accessories crafted in Spain. They’re beautiful to look at, durable and versatile.
This popular leather bi-fold zip wallet with RFID protection is available in tan, black or deep brown. It offers a slim design and a handful of useful compartments for bills, coins, cards and an ID. There’s also an integrated zippered pouch. This wallet is made from premium full-grain leather and incorporates a layer of RFID-blocking material.
The leather is designed to develop a unique patina over time. When closed, the wallet measures 3.54 x 4.09 inches. In the wallet’s front pocket, you can store four to eight cards. An additional four to eight cards can be kept in the inner compartments.
Best women’s RFID-blocking leather wallet: Royce New York continental wallet
Neiman Marcus
For an elegant leather wallet with a continental design, head over to Neiman Marcus to purchase this Royce New York wallet in your choice of red, black, navy blue or pink. Free monograming (with up to three initials) is included.
The wallet measures 8 x 4.25 x 0.75 inches when open and has separate compartments for bills, cards and other essentials. There’s also a convenient, zippered center section.
Treat yourself to a wallet that’s designed to last for years, or buy one as a gift for someone special. In addition to offering the functionality people need from a wallet, this one offers the peace of mind provided by RFID blocking.
Best RFID-blocking handbag: Sherpani Metro convertible travel sling
Shermani
RFID blocking can be found in more than just traditional wallets. Here’s an example of a convertible travel mini sling from Sherpani, featuring an adjustable and cut-proof strap that can be reversed to give easy access to what’s stored inside. Even better, the strap is centered, so this bag is great for either right- or left-handed people.
The bag is made from recycled material and features RFID-blocking and anti-theft protection. Locking zippers, a wire-loop chair lock, a return-me tag, and a slash-proof bottom are among the other impressive features. It’s a great accessory to hold your important belongings while traveling.
This travel sling measures 7 x 12 x 3 inches and comes in a variety of color combinations. It’s made from Ballistic nylon, vegan leather and a durable fabric made from 11 recycled plastic bottles, all diverted from landfills. The Metro is water resistant and includes four pockets and one padded sleeve. The strap can be adjusted between 22.5 and 40.5 inches.
Best RFID blocking passport cover: Royce New York leather passport wallet
Neiman Marcus
Avoid potential identity theft via your passport, with a travel-friendly cover that offers RFID blocking. And enjoy a little luxury while you’re at it.
This personalized leather passport cover from Royce New York is available in your choice of five colors. It offers a compartment for your passport, several card slots and an inside 3 x 4 inch pocket for a vaccine card or another important documents (like an airline boarding pass).
Three-initial monogramming is included for free, and the wallet itself is made from soft leather. It measures 5.6 x 4 x 0.25 inches and will be a wonderful travel companion for years.
Best RFID-blocking money belt: Boxiki Travel hidden waist pack
Amazon
When you’re touring major cities worldwide, navigating your way through busy airports or visiting crowded tourist spots, pickpockets are always a threat. To protect your valuables, consider a hidden waist pack that fits securely under a shirt.
In addition to securely holding cash, credit cards and other valuables, there’s enough room to hold a smartphone, too. This pack offers RFID blocking and is designed to keep your possessions secure and away from potential pickpockets. You get three sections with two spacious pockets that are held shut with zippers.
Measuring 11.22 x 5.51 inches, this waste pack is slim, lightweight, durable and has an adjustable strap. It’s made primarily from rip-stop nylon. It only comes in one color, but since it’s designed to be kept under your shirt, nobody will be seeing it.
Best RFID-blocking travel neck wallet: Zero Grid travel neck wallet
Amazon
Instead of securing your cash, credit cards, your passport and other essentials in a hidden waist pack, the Zero Grid travel wallet can be worn securely around your neck.
This bag is available in your choice of six colors and is primarily made from moisture-resistant, rip-stop nylon. The bag contains seven RFID-blocking sleeves and compartments — all of which are easily accessible.
The Zero Grid bag comes with lost and found coverage and two recovery tags from ReturnMe. It measures 7.5 x 5.7 x 1 inches and offers a unisex design that’s perfect for travelers and urban explorers.
Best RFID blocking leather travel wallet: Harber London travel wallet
Harber London
In addition to Harber London’s bi-fold zip wallet, another piece in this company’s beautifully designed leather collection is this travel wallet. It comes in three color combinations and is designed to hold a passport, up to 12 cards, paper-based currency and other essentials — each in separate, easy-to-access compartments.
The wallet is handmade in Spain from full grain leather that will age over time and develop a unique patina. All of the internal pockets offer RFID blocking. This is a well-designed, versatile and durable travel wallet that’ll serve as an heirloom if it’s treated right.
Do you really need an RFID-blocking wallet?
Keep in mind, criminals are more apt to steal your physical wallet, cards or IDs, because not every key piece of info can be gleaned wirelessly. In many cases, the information stored in your cards or IDs is encrypted, so even if a criminal does try to wirelessly steal your info, chances are, they won’t be able to do too much with it.
That said, using an RFID-blocking wallet or bag does give you an added level of protection for your identity, since they could prevent someone from illegally accessing your driver’s license or passport information wirelessly and without your knowledge.
Or, instead of carrying around your physical debit or credit cards in a wallet, another option is to rely on an electronic payment service, like Apple Pay, Google Pay, or Samsung Pay using your smartphone or smartwatch.
Jason R. Rich (www.JasonRich.com) is an internationally recognized consumer technology expert with more than 30 years’ writing experience. He’s also an accomplished author and photographer. One of his most recently published books, The Remote Worker’s Handbook: How to Effectively Work From Anywhere ($24.99, Entrepreneur Books) is now available from Amazon and wherever books are sold.
CHICAGO — Jaylon Johnson is going to be a Chicago Bear for the foreseeable future after reportedly signing a contract extension Thursday.
According to Bleacher Report’s Jordan Schultz, Johnson and the Bears have agreed upon a 4-year/$76 million extension, with $54.4 million in guarantees.
In comparison to his peers around the league, the 54.5 million in guarantees is the fifth-most for a corner in the NFL, with the total value of the reported contract ($76 million) checking in at seventh highest.
Heading into the 2023 NFL regular season, Johnson said it was his personal goal to make an NFL All-Pro team — and on Jan. 12 of this year — he was announced as a member of the Associated Press’ All-Pro Second Team.
According to Pro Football Focus, Johnson was tops among all corners in overall defensive grade (90.8), coverage grade (91.0) and gave up the fewest receiving yards among corners who were the primary defender on pass plays (196) in the NFL last year.
With Johnson locked in long term, the Bears no longer have to worry about keeping their best defender in house when NFL free agency kicks off, which is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. EST on March 13.
Three years after the debut of stylish and family-friendly Lebanese restaurant Medi in Lincoln Park, its ambitious owners have unveiled an upscale sister lounge that leans into a resurgence in Downtown nightlife. Mya by Medi, a chic Mediterranean dining and drinking spot featuring live belly dancers and fire performers on weekends, is open at 311 W. Chicago Avenue.
Medi’s emphasis on Lebanese cuisine and aesthetics extends to Mya, but the atmosphere is markedly different. “Everyone goes to Medi for comfort and family,” says owner Paul Alqas. “Mya is more of a night out with dinner, cocktails, and entertainment.”
Owner Paul Alqas designed the lounge’s Art Deco-meets-Mediterranean aesthetic.Ryan Beshel/Mya by Medi
Alqas opened Medi in 2021 with business partner Elias Younan, whose father, Hermiz Younan, founded shuttered Lebanese favorite Kan Zaman in Andersonville. Hermiz Younan now helms the Lincoln Park kitchen with wife Helene Younan, but their homey style of cooking wasn’t the right fit for Mya. Instead, he’s tapped executive chef Alexander Willis, a Lebanese American who has worked at Dusek’s, Mordecai, and Soul & Smoke.
Willis’s combination of personal and professional experience has resulted in a menu that places Lebanese ingredients and flavors in a new context. Mezze options include grilled octopus, which is sous vide for 24 hours and served with black tahini remoulade and preserved lemon chili crisp, as well as deep-fried potato bureka and seasonal pickles made on-site. A trio of pasta options includes babaganoush-stuffed ravioli (pasta shapes are subject to change) with braised lamb alongside entrees such as lamb shank shawarma with black garlic toum and red zhoug.
A Moroccan-style brass lamp hangs over every table.Ryan Beshel/Mya by Medi
Bright and colorful drinks are a theme.Ryan Beshel/Mya by Medi
Mya’s menu is an ever-evolving project, says Alqas. He and his team audit their sales each month to identify the least popular items, dropping one or two older submissions and adding fresh entries every 30 to 60 days. Willis and his team are also mindful of seasonality and want to make sure diners have new dishes to discuss (and ideally, post to social media).
That same rotation practice extends to the bar menu, which Willis developed with local jack-of-all-trades Bismark Vega. Cocktails are a key component in Mya’s identity with aesthetically striking drinks like Smoke Show (mezcal, basil syrup, lime, Ancho Reyes Verde), which is immersed in smoke under a glass bell jar, as well as Watermelon Sugar (Titos, watermelon cordial, Mavi Apertivo, grenadine) and the foam-capped Cyprus Sour (Sapphire Gin, Campari, sweet vermouth, egg white). The team also serve wines by the glass from all over the Mediterranean and there’s a reserve list of pricier bottles.
Smoke Show (mezcal, basil syrup, lime, Ancho Reyes Verde).Ryan Beshel/Mya by Medi
Fun and playful cocktails are a core part of Mya’s identity.Ryan Beshel/Mya by Medi
The lounge seats 80 inside.Ryan Beshel/Mya by Medi
In addition to his ownership duties, Alqas (previously of boozy bakery Donut Slut) also filled the role of interior designer at the 80-seat lounge, seeking to weave together Art Deco elements and Mediterranean style. A fan of pampas feathers, he spent around 48 hours installing individual feathers on light fixtures, and the fluffy plumes appear throughout the space. Bold printed wallpaper juxtaposes against ornate Moroccan-style chandeliers, and there’s a private dining room with enormous sliding doors imported from Mexico. Workers are currently setting up heating and cooling for a back patio, which will seat 20.
On Fridays and Saturdays, Mya ups the ante with live shows from performers who belly dance and do fire tricks, including donning a lit candelabra and moving through the lounge. These presentations kick off around 10 p.m. with an act every 20 to 30 minutes. “It’s a layer that adds to the ambiance and makes it very sexy and elegant,” Alqas says. “It’s something that everybody appreciates.”
Mya by Medi, 311 W. Chicago Avenue, Open 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday; 4 p.m. to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday, Reservations available via OpenTable.
The exhibition spotlights two beaches during the 1930s through 1960s: Grant Street Beach in Cape May and Chicken Bone Beach in Atlantic City.
Featured artist Chenelle René took inspiration from her mother and grandmother to paint scenes of Grant Street Beach, the beach that generations of her family frequently visited growing up.
Her paintings are displayed along with archival photos of New Jersey’s historically Black beaches.
“I wanted to capture everyday joy at the beach. All the moments that everyone that goes to the beach can relate to. When people come to the exhibit, I want them to see themselves,” René said.
“Line in the Sand: Segregated Beaches in Cape May and Atlantic City” will be on view at the Carroll Gallery on the Emlen-Physick historic estate until March 26.
Adwoa Sarkodie has not been able to work since 2020 when she tested positive for COVID-19 while working full time as a certified nursing assistant at a nursing home. Now suffering from long COVID, she has been unable to work and has — like thousands of others in Illinois — relied on food pantries to feed her boys, ages 9 and 10.
“If the kids are hungry, they can’t do their homework. If a kid is hungry, they can’t function,” Sarkodie said as she waited in line for four hours this past December at Nourishing Hope’s food pantry in Lake View.
Kellie O’Connell, CEO of Nourishing Hope, said the past four years have “felt like one crisis after another.”
“We’re providing more services to more people than we did at the height of the pandemic. And now we’re really responding to a major influx of migrants and asylum-seekers who have arrived in Chicago in the past two years, while continuing to serve Chicagoans who have turned to us for years,” O’Connell said.
Yet while local food pantries report an increase in demand for help, a federal nutrition assistance program serving women and young children has seen a big drop in the number of families taking part. The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children — commonly called WIC — has seen an overall 17% decline in participation in Illinois despite the eligibility rate being the highest since 2018, according to an analysis of enrollment data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
WIC offers food packages and other support programs to pregnant women and their children up to age 5, as long as their income doesn’t exceed the maximum level based on their household size.
Advocates pushed for a funding increase as the program faced a $1 billion shortfall this year. Congressional leaders on Sunday released a package of bills setting full-year spending levels for some federal agencies, including $7 billion for WIC, covering the projected shortfall that would’ve cut off access to nearly 50,000 eligible families in Illinois. The House passed the spending bills Wednesday, and the Senate is expected to take up the legislation before a midnight Friday government shutdown deadline.
“Funding for WIC remains a priority for me, and I am encouraged that we have released Fiscal Year 2024 legislation that will include a $1.03 billion increase in WIC funding, while also protecting … other nutrition programs,” said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., in a statement.
While WIC appears to be getting full funding for the current fiscal year, the program is still underutilized. The paradox of increased need and low participation is due to several factors, advocates say, including barriers to apply and maintain benefits, lack of awareness and, for some, fear stirred by misinformation.
Food pantries see record numbers
The number of U.S. households lacking access to adequate, healthy food increased to 44 million, including 13 million children, in 2022 according to the USDA. This represents the highest number since 2014 and the largest one-year increase since 2008.
And the issue doesn’t seem to be improving for struggling families. The Greater Chicago Food Depository, which provides food to a network of 800 partner sites across Chicago and Cook County, has experienced a year-over-year increase in household visits during the past few years since the pandemic, said Man-Yee Lee, spokesperson for the Greater Chicago Food Depository.
The depository served 186,000 households in December, a 29% increase from the previous month, she said.
The increase can be traced to a combination of reasons, experts say: families are still struggling from the lingering effects of the pandemic such as job loss and medical debt as well as high inflation, elevated food prices, increases in rent and the elimination of a temporary boost in benefits for WIC and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly called SNAP, which provides food aid to low-income families, during the pandemic.
Lee said the organization has been able to keep up with the increase in demand thanks to donations from supporters; however it’s not enough.
“Relying on philanthropy alone to solve hunger is not sustainable, ” said Lee. “Public benefit programs like SNAP and WIC are essential to alleviating hunger, and we need to strengthen the safety net, not weaken it.”
Staff at Nourishing Hope say they are operating at numbers higher than at the height of the pandemic. In fiscal year 2021, the pantry provided about 174,000 individuals who received food and social services, which includes connecting people to jobs, housing and utilities support and mental health counseling. In the current fiscal year, the food pantry expects to surpass 197,000 clients.
At The Friendship Center in Lincoln Square, the pantry has seen the number of clients seeking food assistance skyrocket in recent years, from 5,502 clients in 2018 to 20,469 clients, representing almost 50,000 household members, in 2023, a staggering 272% increase.
The number of eligible families is growing. In 2021, 44.2% of Illinois families qualified for WIC were not enrolled, the highest it has been since 2018, according to the latest estimates.
In Illinois there are more than 419,000 eligible women, infants and children but only slightly more than a third of eligible participants are signed up, according to the USDA. There has been a slight uptick in participation in the last two years due to increased outreach, but overall participation in Illinois has dropped in recent years; nearly 165,000 participate in WIC, down from 199,000 in 2018.
“It looks like we’re capturing quite a good share of eligible families right after the baby is born,” said USDA Deputy Under Secretary Stacy Dean in an interview. “And we might be losing them by their second or third birthday.”
Some families drop out after a child is no longer on formula, which is expensive, parents and advocates said.
Eligible families face barriers
There are several reasons why WIC is underutilized. Lack of awareness is a major one cited by advocates.
One of those parents is Amanda, who was unaware of WIC until she confided in someone at her Arlington Heights church that she had lost her job recently after her second child was born.
“I’ve always been someone that has had several sources of income,” said Amanda, who asked that her last name not be used. She added that she quit her side job because she felt secure financially, but then she was shocked when she got laid off from the second one.
She used all her savings and was struggling to pay her mortgage and property taxes and to feed her two children, ages 1 and 3.
“Going from making $100,000 a year to needing public assistance is very nerve-wracking and humbling and like, how did this happen?” Amanda said.
While talking to other moms at the WIC office she’s realized her situation is not unique and wishes more people would talk about the benefits of the program.
“I just found it astonishing that nobody teaches you this. This isn’t something that any of us are learning at school, right?” Amanda said.
Low-wage earners may not realize they qualify for programs like WIC, said Margaret Saunders, director of the Community and Economic Development Association of Cook County, which runs the WIC program serving about 43,000 women and children.
For young families, there can be changes in income, and sometimes those families aren’t aware that they can apply before their financial struggles become too severe. And programs like WIC are especially meant to help these families.
“For the parent through pregnancy, delivery, their breastfeeding choices, we are just a safety net,” Saunders said. “A growing brain needs that help and support, even if the parent is going to have a job change and income flux.”
Sarkodie now relies on the food pantry, but she participated in WIC between 2013-2018, from the time her children were born until they aged out at 5 years old. Because she was a single mom with limited resources, receiving milk, cheese and cereal on a regular basis was a huge help. While it provided a safety net for her family, Sarkodie said fear and misinformation across immigrant communities is deterring some families from signing up.
“People will tell you don’t go [apply] because it will mess up your immigration status. … They tell you if you do this, you will get in trouble with the law. And that’s not true,” Sarkodie said.
Nathalie Querales, director of food services at Casa Central in Humboldt Park, has also heard those fears, especially from the migrants her group serves since more than 36,000 migrants have arrived since 2022. The nonprofit predominantly serves the Hispanic community with child care, food assistance and adult wellness services.
“That’s the biggest [concern] I hear from our participants is that they just don’t know. And they’re kind of scared,” Querales said.
“Our focus is [women and children’s] health and well-being, not their citizenship or immigration status,” Saunders said.
Advocates also cited staffing shortages in WIC offices, insufficient street advocacy spreading the word about the program and a lack of options in the food packages compared to food pantries or other assistance programs as other factors in the drop in enrollment.
According to a 2022 study published in Pediatrics, parents said the variety of foods that can be purchased with WIC benefits was limited and they wanted to buy more fruits and vegetables and less dairy and cereal. Furthermore, some less-processed foods as well as culturally appropriate food were not WIC-eligible.
However, one of the biggest barriers for would-be participants is that WIC requires an in-person application and regular check-ins. This poses a whole host of challenges for the parent, including needing to take time off from work, having transportation to and from the WIC clinics and having all the necessary documentation that includes birth certificates, Social Security cards and W2 tax statements. These aren’t necessarily required for undocumented immigrants in Illinois who are WIC-eligible.
In Illinois, there is no online application, such as the one for SNAP. Casa Central has tried to remove some of the barriers to accessing WIC by providing pop-up clinics that provide enrollment resources.
“Families said it was convenient for them as they drop their children off in the morning, provide the information to WIC and by the time they are back to pick up their children, their coupons are ready,” said Nori Santiago, nurse health manager at Casa Central.
Sarkodie said she wants to go back to work and has tried applying at nursing homes several times but has been told her medical condition poses a risk for the employer. She said it breaks her heart that she can’t give her children certain types of food or special treats from time to time.
“A lot of people don’t know how your kids look when they want something that you can’t give to them, like food,” Sarkodie said. “They tell you that they want this kind of food, and you don’t have money to give it to them. A lot of people don’t know, and I wish they knew.”
Contributing: Associated Press
Hoda Emam’s reporting on WIC enrollment and food insecurity in Illinois was undertaken as a USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism 2023 Data Fellowship Grantee.
WASHINGTON — The third-party presidential movement No Labels is planning to move toward fielding a presidential candidate in the November election, even as high-profile contenders for the ticket have decided not to run, two people familiar with the matter said Wednesday.
After months of leaving open whether the group would offer a ticket, No Labels delegates are expected to vote Friday in favor of launching a presidential campaign for this fall’s election, according to the people familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the group’s internal deliberations.
No Labels will not name its presidential and vice presidential picks on Friday, when roughly 800 delegates meet virtually in a private meeting. The group is instead expected to debut a formal selection process late next week for potential candidates who would be selected in the coming weeks, the people said.
Democratic President Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump’s romp on Super Tuesday all but ensured a November rematch of the 2020 election. Polls suggest many Americans don’t have favorable views of Biden or Trump, a dynamic No Labels sees as an opening to offer a bipartisan ticket. But Biden supporters worry No Labels will pull votes away from the president in battleground states and are critical of how the group won’t disclose its donors or much of its decision-making.
No Labels officials would not publicly confirm plans for Friday’s meeting. In a statement, senior strategist Ryan Clancy said only, “We expect our delegates to encourage the process to continue.”
The two people familiar with the group noted that No Labels’ plans could change ahead of the vote. But they said there has been enthusiasm across its regional chapters for running a candidate, giving momentum to the idea of a vote on Friday.
The group has been weighing what it would present as a “unity ticket” to appeal to voters unhappy with both Biden and Trump. No Labels’ strategists have said they’ll give their ballot line to a bipartisan ticket with a presidential nominee from one major party and a vice presidential nominee from the other if they see a viable path to victory.
Group officials have said they are communicating with several potential candidates but have not disclosed any names.
Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley has said she’s not interested in running as a No Labels candidate. After Haley dropped out of the Republican race on Wednesday, No Labels in a statement congratulated her for “running a great campaign and appealing to the large swath of commonsense voters.”
West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a moderate Democrat who is not seeking re-election this year, has said he will not seek the presidency. Republican former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who had been involved with No Labels, is instead seeking a U.S. Senate seat in November.
No Labels has stockpiled cash from people it has declined to name, including former Republican donors who have become disenchanted with the party’s direction in the Trump era, and worked to secure ballot access in every state.
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