Gov. J.B. Pritzker, shown in December at a news conference at which he defended the tollway after the agency’s then-board chairman Will Evans pushed a resolution through the tollway board that gave him unprecedented power over the agency’s day-to-day operations.
State of Illinois
Good afternoon. Here’s the latest news you need to know in Chicago. It’s about a five-minute read that will brief you on today’s biggest stories.
This afternoon will be cloudy with a chance of drizzle and a high near 59 degrees. Similar weather will continue into tonight with a low near 45. Tomorrow will be sunny with a high near 67.
Top story
Pritzker’s ex-tollway chairman accused in lawsuit of trying to steer contracts, hire pals at agency
Not long after taking office in 2019, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed legislation that restructured the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority, promising “transparency and accountability” and declaring: “Our new leadership will uphold the highest ethical standards, deliver the value to taxpayers and serve Illinoisans in every corner of our state.”
A new lawsuit filed by two former high-ranking tollway officials paints a different picture of the state agency under Pritzker’s chosen team, accusing now-former board chairman Will Evans of trying to steer contracts to favored firms and engaging in patronage hiring.
“After an initial honeymoon phase, beginning in late 2020 and continuing throughout 2021, Evans, with the help of the tollway’s new general counsel, Kathleen Pasulka-Brown, began trying to exert enormous control over the operations of the tollway and in doing so violated several state laws and tollway policies,” according to the lawsuit, filed in DuPage County by Kimberly Ross and Dionna Brookens.
“Some leaders within the tollway allowed this to happen while others, including plaintiffs” and the agency’s top administrator, then-executive director Jose Alvarez, “tried to stop him.”
Ross and Brookens say in the suit that they were fired in retaliation for doing that and that Pasulka-Brown took the unusual step of sending the Illinois State Police to Brookens’ home “to collect her tollway property.”
Evans, a former People’s Gas executive who resigned his tollway post in February following a power struggle with Alvarez, among other controversies, couldn’t be reached for comment.
Pritzker appointed Evans and Alvarez to the tollway in 2019 after signing legislation, backed by then-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, he said would reform the agency. Alvarez resigned last March.
Pasulka-Brown, who was appointed to the tollway post in 2019 by Attorney General Kwame Raoul with the consent of Evans, declined to comment.
A lawyer for Ross and Brookens says “neither I nor my clients will be commenting” on the suit, which names the tollway, Evans and Pasulka-Brown as defendants.
A Pritzker spokeswoman said last Friday: “The administration doesn’t comment on ongoing litigation and had not seen the lawsuit until yesterday. We take all allegations of wrongdoing seriously and would not tolerate any violations of state law. . . . The governor is committed to ensuring that the tollway operates effectively and ethically.”
Robert Herguth has more on the accusations facing Evans here.
More news you need
- Police in northern Indiana announced murder charges today in the February 2017 killings of Liberty German, 14, and Abigail Williams, 13. Richard Allen, 50, of Delphi, Indiana, has been charged with two counts of murder, authorities said. Our Mitch Dudek has more on this tragic case that has vexed a community for years.
- A Chicago police supervisor retired earlier this month amid an investigation into racist and other incendiary comments he made on a Facebook account he falsely claimed had been hacked. Police Lt. John Cannons stepped down nearly a year after the Civilian Office of Police Accountability found he showed a “flagrant disregard” for department policies and recommended he be fired.
- Democratic state Comptroller Susana Mendoza and state Treasurer Michael Frerichs are facing challenges from Republicans Shannon Teresi and Tom Demmer and Libertarians Deirdre McCloskey and Preston Nelson. Our Allison Novelo breaks down what you need to know about these six candidates fighting for two offices here.
- Faculty and professional staff at the City Colleges of Chicago have reached a tentative agreement on a new union contract and called off their planned strike later this week. The workers represented by the Cook County Colleges Teachers Union had been in negotiations with City Colleges administrators for more than a year over pay, class sizes and other educational supports.
- “Game of Thrones” author George R.R. Martin has donated $5 million to Northwestern University. The gift from Martin, a Medill school alum, will fund a writers workshop and professorship for undergraduate and graduate students, the school announced today.
- Ready or not, Christmas music will start tomorrow on Chicago station WLIT-FM (93.9). It’s Lite FM’s earliest switchover to holiday jingles yet.
- For some, it may come as a surprise to learn that professional wrestling once made Chicago its king of the ring. Our colleagues at WBEZ’s Curious City have the story of how promoters used TV and strong-arm business deals to put the city on the pro wrestling map.
- Lastly, if you bought Halloween candy this year, you may have noticed that costs for the sugary sweet stuff have soared. Thanks to inflation, candy prices are up 14% from last year, the biggest one-year price increase since 1999, according to a report from S&P Global Market Intelligence.
A bright one
He brought Wakandacon to Chicago, now David Barthwell is creating his own world
David Barthwell isn’t afraid to try his hand at big things.
He dreamed up Wakandacon, a convention dedicated to all things “Black Panther” that was held at McCormick Place in 2018 and 2019. He’s looking to resurrect the costumed spectacle next year at the Sheraton Grand Chicago Riverwalk.
But the experience of bringing Wakanda to Chicago left him wanting to create a new world of his own.
So the Oak Park and River Forest High School grad teamed up with a classmate from Yale University to form a gaming company and create a vivid science fictiontale he hopes will capture the imaginations of gamers when it’s released in 2023.
His college friend is Kevin Lin, a co-founder of the streaming platform Twitch and a good guy to know in order to raise an initial round of $24 million from tech investors.
David Barthwell is designing a futuristic computer game titled “Twilight Shift.”
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
“I learned a lot from Wakandacon, meeting people and seeing how people came together to celebrate a Black superhero and all the energy that surrounded that. And I started thinking about telling stories that don’t get told much and how, hopefully, I could someday create a story world that stands alongside that and give back the way ‘Black Panther’ did,” Barthwell said.
Their company is Metatheory, and the game they’re forging is called Twilight Shift. The intricate characters are navigating a futuristic resource-depleted Earth and a mysterious alien spaceship that’s appeared above a city in central Africa. The city will largely resemble Chicago.
The company has 60 employees around the globe who collaborate in a mostly work-from-home model. But they have office space, too.
“The hope is to make really immersive, vivid worlds that fans can occupy, they can learn the lore, play and really deeply feel and see themselves reflected in that world,” said Barthwell, 40.
Our Mitch Dudek has more from his interview with Barthwell here.
From the press box
- The Bears continued their roster makeover today by trading veteran linebacker Roquan Smith to the Ravens for second- and fifth-round picks.
- Following the Bears’ 49-29 loss to the Cowboys yesterday, our reporters break it down: Patrick Finley on Justin Fields’ performance in Dallas, Rick Morrissey on the positives despite a 20-point defeat, Mark Potash on Micah Parsons’ game-sealing fumble recovery, and Jason Lieser on a brutal day for the Bears’ defense.
- Blackhawks defenseman Seth Jones will miss several weeks with a thumb injury, which puts the team’s blue line in dire shape in the meantime, Ben Pope writes.
- From a technical standpoint, Bulls center Nikola Vucevic hasn’t changed a thing with his three-point shot. But he is taking a different approach mentally as a shooter this season, Joe Cowley writes.
Your daily question☕
What’s something every Chicagoan needs to prepare for winter here?
Send us an email at newsletters@suntimes.com and we might feature your answer in the next Afternoon Edition.
On Friday, we asked you: What’s the best Halloween costume you’ve ever worn?
Here’s what some of you said...
“The clown costume my mother made. It fit over my winter coat.” — Linda Jena Fisher
“The year our dad made robots from paper grocery bags, for me and my brother.” — Kathey Koziol
“I went to a work Halloween party as a flush toilet. Wish I had a picture of it. I tied a toilet seat around my waist so when I sat down the seat was in my lap. I wore a white box on my upper body (the tank) and added a flush handle to the side, and on top, I glued a roll of toilet paper and a men’s magazine. Won first prize. I almost forgot, I taped the sound of a flushing toilet and played it periodically from a small tape player I had.” — David Wiegers
“When pregnant with my first daughter I made costumes for my husband and me. He was the bumblebee bee and I was the flower. We won a prize for originality.” — Harriet Meaders
“I wore a FedEx Ground sweatshirt and ball cap to my job at UPS. That’s the logistics industry equivalent of wearing a Chicago Bears sweatshirt to a Green Bay Packers Super Bowl celebration parade.” — Dennis Fritz
“As a child, Little Red Riding Hood costume my mother made. As an adult, Wonder Woman.” — Janice Gehrman
“McDonald’s milkshake with a big yellow straw.” — Elaine Hannigan
“John Belushi winning the Decathlon while smoking and eating little chocolate donuts.” — Jim O’Connor
“Pinhead from Hellraiser. I won 500 bucks for best costume in 1993.” — Michael Belsky
“Sailor/ballerina. Sailor on top/ballerina on the bottom.” — Robin Randall
“Tin Man, when I silver duct tapped my face and almost took my skin off when removing.” — Mary V. Czarnik
“Humpty Dumpty made out of chicken wire and newspaper.” — Denise Jackson
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