Good morning, Chicago.
Nearly 81 years to the date after 20-year-old Army Pfc. John L. Moore was wounded while fighting to liberate Europe during WWII, the Purple Heart he earned that day is now in the hands of his only surviving sibling.
Jerry Moore was little more than a toddler when his brother went off to war.
Now 86, Moore held the heart-shaped medal for what he said was the first time after Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs presented it to him yesterday at the World War II memorial in Decatur. The poignant ceremony, which included the Macon County Honor Guard, was held just days before the Independence Day holiday weekend.
“It means a lot to my heart,” said Jerry Moore, fighting back tears. “I don’t think there can be any higher honor than getting this back.”
Read the full story from the Tribune’s Christy Gutowski.
Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day, including a look back at a suburban company’s role in the creation of DeLorean time machine, why Cook County political leaders are pointing fingers over tech troubles and which Chicago players were named All-Star Game starters.
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People walk near an ambulance while officers work the scene where 4 people were killed and at least 14 people were wounded in a shooting near the 300 block of West Chicago Avenue in the River North neighborhood, July 2, 2025, in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)
4 dead, 14 wounded in Near North Side mass shooting
A drive-by mass shooting killed four people and wounded 14 more late last night on the near North Side, Chicago police said.
The shooting took place around 11 p.m. yesterday and little detail was available this morning. A large group of people were on the 300 block of West Chicago Avenue when people inside a dark vehicle drove past, fired into the crowd and drove away, police said.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration campus in Silver Spring, Md., is photographed on Oct. 14, 2015. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
FDA vaccine official restricted COVID vaccine approvals against the advice of agency staff
The government’s top vaccine official working under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently restricted the approval of two COVID-19 vaccines, disregarding recommendations from government scientists, according to federal documents released yesterday.
The new memos from the Food and Drug Administration show how the agency’s vaccine chief, Dr. Vinay Prasad, personally intervened to place restrictions on COVID shots from vaccine makers Novavax and Moderna.
Gov. JB Pritzker, right, and his running mate Christian Mitchell, stop at Peach’s Restaurant for a meet and greet with patrons in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood on July 2, 2025. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)
Gov. JB Pritzker’s running mate is a fellow Chicagoan, but says he will ‘represent all of Illinois’
The Chicago versus downstate dynamic has been a source of friction in state politics for years, and Gov. JB Pritzker’s choice figures to play into that issue going forward. For his part, Christian Mitchell said he is ready to meet people from all over Illinois.
A rented vintage DeLorean, replicating the car from the 1985 movie “Back to the Future,” is displayed at Allstate’s Northbrook/Glenview headquarters on July 1, 2025. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)
On 40th anniversary of ‘Back to the Future,’ Allstate celebrates its role in creation of DeLorean time machine
On the 40th anniversary of the “Back to the Future” movie premiere, Northbrook-based insurance giant Allstate is traveling back to the past to reveal its little-known role in developing the DeLorean, the futuristic but short-lived, gull-winged, stainless steel car that served as Doc Brown’s time machine.
Without Allstate, Marty McFly might never have left 1985 or perhaps he would have traveled back in time in a Buick, forever disrupting the space-time continuum of the seminal movie trilogy.
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle leads the Cook County Board meeting on Mar. 13, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
Cook County’s troubled tech overhaul boils over, as political leaders start pointing fingers
Cook County property tax bills already on track to be at least one month tardy may arrive even later as controversial contractor Tyler Technologies’ upgrades to the countywide property tax systems are again running behind schedule, leading to mounting frustration and political fighting among county leaders.
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s office yesterday published the first of what is expected to be several reports detailing the technology delays and assigning blame for whether the fault lies with Tyler or with Assessor Fritz Kaegi, Treasurer Maria Pappas or Clerk Monica Gordon, the three county officeholders who handle property taxes.
Yolanda Rivera calls for greater transparency in the investigation into the shooting death of her daughter, Chicago police Officer Krystal Rivera, with attorney Antonio Romanucci, left, and Krystal’s stepfather, Rico Thompson, at Romanucci & Blandin law office in Chicago on July 2, 2025. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)
‘I need to understand what happened’: Family of Officer Krystal Rivera asks for answers as lawyers announce civil investigation
The family of slain Chicago police Officer Krystal Rivera is calling for city agencies to relinquish the investigation of her death and, instead, turn over the probe to the Illinois State Police as they pursue legal avenues.
The slain officer’s parents and their attorney also asked that the city release the body-worn camera footage that captured the fatal June 5 shooting — despite a standing order from a Cook County judge preventing the public release.
Brian Crowder gets into a vehicle after leaving the Leighton Criminal Court Building in Chicago on July 1, 2025. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)
Former CPS dean found guilty of sexually abusing student
A jury found a former Chicago Public Schools dean guilty of multiple felony counts for sexually abusing a student, after the young woman testified that he coerced her into a relationship years earlier while she attended a Little Village high school.
Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong, left, is congratulated by right fielder Kyle Tucker after Crow-Armstrong hit a two-run home run against the Pirates on June 12, 2025, at Wrigley Field. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)
Chicago Cubs outfielders Pete Crow-Armstrong and Kyle Tucker are named All-Star Game starters
For the first time in nearly 90 years, the Chicago Cubs will have two outfielders in the starting lineup at the All-Star Game.
Center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong and right fielder Kyle Tucker earned enough votes in the second phase of the process, which ran from Monday until 11 a.m. yesterday, to be named National League starters for the Midsummer Classic on July 15 at Truist Park in Atlanta.
In this courtroom sketch, Sean “Diddy” Combs, rights, leads his family in a prayer before the verdict was read, convicting him of prostitution-related offenses but acquitting him of sex trafficking and racketeering charges, July 2, 2025, in Manhattan federal court in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)
What is the Mann Act? Here’s what to know about the law used to convict Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs.
Sean “Diddy” Combs was convicted yesterday of prostitution-related offenses under the federal Mann Act, an anti-sex trafficking law with a controversial, century-old history.
Here’s what to know about the law.
The Grateful Dead, with singer Jerry Garcia, play Chicago’s Soldier Field on July 8, 1995. (José M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune)
It’s been 30 years since the Grateful Dead’s final concerts at Soldier Field in Chicago
The longest, strangest trip embarked upon by a rock ’n’ roll band ended 30 years ago this week at Soldier Field. On July 9, 1995, the Grateful Dead played what would be its final concert with its full lineup at the stadium — the harmonious echoes of “Box of Rain” concluding a fascinating musical journey that began in May 1965 at a small pizza parlor in California and encompassed more than 2,300 shows.
Photographer William Zbaren shows historic photos as he pages through a book he took photographs for, “The Wrigley Building: The Making of an Icon,” while in his Chicago home on June 5, 2025. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)
Column: I could never figure out the Wrigley Building but now I know why
This will be a great big DUH for many of you, particularly armchair architecture historians, professional historians and anyone who ever took an architecture boat tour and now has strong opinions about bricks — but Christopher Borrelli didn’t really know why the Wrigley gave off such odd vibes until he read “The Wrigley Building: The Making of an Icon,” a fascinating and pretty entertaining new $95 coffee table book devoted to this terra cotta mainstay.