Justin Bull: Good morning. I'm Justin Bull infer Erin Allen, and this is the rundown. Yesterday was May Day, international labor day, a day known for protest and in Chicago activists marched despite the rainy weather. The Chicago Tribune reports that a group of migrant workers and activists marched from Union Park to Federal Plaza to advocate for immigration reform and the rights of essential workers. Their protest coincided with a crisis that I mentioned yesterday: there’s an influx of asylum seekers being sent to Chicago from U.S. border states, and the city is still struggling to find space for them. My colleagues at the Sun-Times are reporting that many migrants have been housed in police station lobbies in recent weeks, and that the conditions are not good. Some migrants have been given expired meal rations, infections and infestations, of things like bed bugs and lice, are a common problem. John Catanzara, the president of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police, said quote “This isn’t an anti-migrant stance one way or the other. We just are not equipped to do this.” Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s office accused Texas Gov Greg Abbot of creating a quote “humanitarian crisis.” Her office also said the city has not received any federal funding to support migrants this year. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker also weighed in yesterday. He said he spoke with President Joe Biden and he’s hoping Chicago will receive federal money in the coming weeks to aid with asylum seekers. 

J.B. Pritzker: We’re going to do everything that we can to care for them, for anybody that’s arriving but it is true, and the current mayor said it, that our resources are stretched.

Justin Bull: Meanwhile, Mayor elect Brandon Johnson is trying to make a game plan. Here’s Emma Tai, who works on Johnson’s transition team:

Emma Tai: He’s fully committed to making sure that we are collaborating closely with state, state, county officials and that we’re working with other states to mount a federal response on this because this is ultimately a national issue and this is going to require a national response.

Justin Bull: Johnson’s inauguration is in two weeks. Thanks to my colleagues Camryn Cutinello and Mariah Woelfel for their reporting on this.

In weed news, nearly 27 hundred people have applied for the 55 cannabis dispensary licenses that Illinois is making available. That comes after the state recently changed its rules to make it easier to apply. How easy? Well, the big change is that the application fee dropped from $2,500 to $250. But applicants also have more time to show how they meet social equity criteria. My colleague Alex Degman says that the social equity parameters ensure people disproportionately affected by old marijuana laws get priority.The state has already issued 192 licenses, but only a handful of those dispensaries have actually opened. 

I mentioned yesterday that there’s a temporary pause in Illinois’ Assault Weapons ban. A southern district judge blocked the law statewide on Friday. Well my colleague Clare Lane called around and found out that Chicago-area gun shop owners say sales are up.

Clare Lane: Roger Krahl owns RGuns in suburban Carpentersville.He says when the injunction came out – his phone started ringing “right away.” By Saturday...

Roger Krahl: I don't want to say it was overly crazy but uh we were all working really hard.

Clare Lane: Krahl says the state now has to quote, “play defense” to unblock the ban, but he expects sales on assault style rifles to continue until then.

Roger Krahl: The more the government wants to take things away, the more people wanna come out and buy these things. I mean I personally would prefer just to have a normal business and go about our thing. But ya know you look for example at prohibition. What did prohibition do? Everybody went, went and started drinking.

Clare Lane: The ruling comes after request to block the ban were denied by two federal judges in northern Illinois.

Justin Bull: That’s WBEZ’s Clare Lane. A new report questions whether or not the president of the CTA even uses the transit system. Records obtained by Block Club Chicago found that CTA president Dorval Carter only swiped his pass once in the year 2021. It also shows that he only used his unlimited company ride pass on 12 days over a recent two year period. CTA officials told Block Club that those figures don’t show all the times Carter used the system, but they also didn’t offer any data to back that up. Now at least one city official has said the CTA needs a new president. Alderman Andre Vasquez said that if the person in charge of fixing the transit system isn’t using it, they won’t have the same “burden and urgency” as the people who ride CTA every day.

And now for a few quick hits. A major dust storm downstate caused dozens of vehicles to crash on Interstate 55 south of Springfield yesterday, killing 6 people and injuring more than 30. the dust caused something similar to “whiteout” conditions. 

A couple updates on monthly crime statistics reported by the Chicago Police Department: April ended with 52 murders. That’s one more than April of last year. But shootings during the month dropped more than 5 percent. CPD reports transit crimes and carjackings are also trending downward. 

The price of gasoline is up from a month ago. The average price for a gallon in Cook County was $4-37 as of yesterday. A spokesperson for Triple-A Chicago told WBEZ that gas should be cheaper this summer, compared to last year.

If you’re in the creative arts business, there’s $50 million worth of grant funding available from the state of Illinois to support quote “ongoing recovery in hard-hit industries.” It’s called the B-2-B Back to Business Grants. The deadline is May 10th. Eligible businesses include theaters, museums, cultural heritage organizations and more. Find more info on it at the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity website. 

And Mayor Lightfoot opened up about her future in an interview with ABC-7 reporter Craig Wall: She said quote, “I don’t see myself running again for any office. Politics is a part of everyday life. But, I’m done with electoral politics for myself.  And in the weather, cloudy windy and cool today with a high around 50 degrees in the afternoon.

And that's it for today. Thanks so much for listening to The Rundown. I'm Justin Bull. You got me for one more day tomorrow. I'll talk with you then.

WBEZ transcripts are generated by an automatic speech recognition service. We do our best to edit for misspellings and typos, but mistakes do come through.