Good morning, Chicago.
Kansas health officials confirmed five new cases of measles yesterday in an outbreak in the southwest corner of the state that’s linked to Texas and New Mexico.
Last week, U.S. measles cases topped 700 as Indiana joined five others states with active outbreaks. Even as the virus continued to spread and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention redeployed a team to West Texas, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed in a televised Cabinet meeting that measles cases were plateauing nationally. The U.S. has more than double the number of measles cases it saw in all of 2024.
Texas is reporting the majority of measles cases. Two unvaccinated elementary school-aged children died from measles-related illnesses near the epicenter of the outbreak in rural West Texas. An adult in New Mexico who was not vaccinated also died of a measles-related illness.
Other states with active outbreaks — defined as three or more cases — include Indiana, Oklahoma and Ohio.
Here’s what else you need to know about measles in the U.S.
And here are the top stories you need to know to start your day, including: what Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said in a Chicago speech, Sen. Dick Durbin’s slow fundraising and how the Chicago Bulls ended their season.
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Officials demand answers as crews work to restore power after another Puerto Rico blackout
Crews worked early today to restore power to Puerto Rico after a blackout across the entire island that affected the main international airport, several hospitals and hotels filled with Easter vacationers.
It’s the second islandwide blackout to hit Puerto Rico in less than four months, with the previous one occurring on New Year’s Eve.
Trump tariffs will drive up inflation, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell tells Economic Club of Chicago
The economy will likely stumble as it adjusts to new trade policies announced by the Trump administration, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said yesterday. But it’s unknown whether any inflationary effects will be long term or a one-time hit for businesses and consumers.
“The level of tariff increases announced so far is significantly larger than anticipated, and the same is likely to be true of the economic effects, which will include higher inflation and slower growth,” Powell said during an address to The Economic Club of Chicago. “Our obligation is to keep longer term inflation expectations well-anchored and to make certain a one-time increase in the price level does not become an ongoing inflation problem.”
Dick Durbin’s slow fundraising fuels speculation about his political future
By reporting raising only $42,695 between Jan. 1 and March 31 on his first-quarter campaign funding statement filed with the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday, the 80-year-old Dick Durbin renewed questions about whether he will be a candidate on the March 2026 primary ballot.
Durbin, who has served in the Senate since 1997, has said he will make public his decision about running for reelection “soon.”
Illinois Senate President Don Harmon appeals $4M dispute with state elections board
Illinois Senate President Don Harmon filed notice that he plans to appeal the State Board of Elections’ assertion he took millions of dollars more in campaign contributions than allowed under a law designed to reduce the impact of big money in Illinois politics.
The filing by Harmon, a Democrat who championed the law at the heart of the dispute, comes just days after he made clear in a Tribune interview that he disagrees with the state board’s interpretation that he accepted nearly $4.1 million above the contribution limits.
‘He reminded me of a used car salesman’: State Sen. Emil Jones III blasts FBI mole, calls former colleague Martin Sandoval a ‘bully’ as testimony continues
State Sen. Emil Jones III told a federal jury yesterday that a red-light camera company executive who was wining and dining him in the summer of 2019 reminded him of “a used car salesman” and that he never asked him directly for any money, only possible support for a fundraiser.
Testifying in his own defense in his bribery trial, Jones also had critical words for his now-deceased colleague, former state Sen. Martin Sandoval, describing the once-powerful head of the Senate Transportation Committee as “kind of a bully.”
An American flag is painted on a barn in Illinois’ Iroquois County.
Indiana-Illinois border bill passes Indiana Senate
The Indiana-Illinois border bill was passed out of the Indiana Senate Tuesday with Democratic senators calling the bill a “political stunt” and “a waste of time.”
House Bill 1008, authored by Speaker Todd Huston, would establish an Indiana-Illinois boundary adjustment commission to research the possibility of adjusting the boundaries between the two states. If the bill becomes law, Gov. Mike Braun would have to set the commission’s first meeting no later than Sept. 1.
Chicago Sky player Angel Reese buys home in southwest suburban Lemont for $1.3M
Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese paid $1.275 million for a newly built, four-bedroom, 3,600-square-foot house in southwest suburban Lemont. Her new house has 3 ½ bathrooms, a first-floor study, a media room, a three-car garage and a lookout basement, all on a 0.41-acre property.
Chicago Bulls collapse in 109-90 blowout, ending season with play-in loss to Miami Heat for 3rd straight year
Playoff dreams died for the Chicago Bulls in the same way they always do — at the hands of the Miami Heat.
This year’s iteration of the toxic cycle — a brutal 109-90 loss at the United Center in the play-in tournament — highlighted every ugly weakness that has limited this Bulls roster for the last three years.
‘Secret Mall Apartment’ review: When an extra-special shopping trip lasts 4 years
In 2003, a group of Providence, Rhode Island, artists embarked on a project combining installation art and surreptitious living arrangements. Four of them located a strange little tucked-away space in the bowels of the newly built Providence Place mall. For them, the mall exemplified everything not right with city officials and developers displacing entire waves of young artists, squatting or legally renting, in the name of better living through upscale retail.
They found the space and sneaked in, wondering: Could they evade mall security for an entire week? They could. Four years later, their adaptive reuse project came to an end, writes Tribune film critic Michael Phillips. The delightful and finally rather moving documentary “Secret Mall Apartment,” opening April 18 at the Music Box Theatre, combines footage shot between 2003 and 2007 of this adventure.
‘Towards Zero’ review: The real murder is what they did to the Agatha Christie original
Why adapt a murder mystery if you don’t care about the mechanics of the story to begin with? I ask myself this often when it comes to the work of Agatha Christie, and the question was ever-present throughout the three-part series “Towards Zero” on BritBox, writes Tribune TV and film critic Nina Metz.
Inside the factory where Peeps are made
Love them or hate them, those marshmallow Peeps that come in blindingly bright colors and an array of flavors are inescapable around the Easter holiday.
On average, about 5.5 million Peeps are made each day in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, by Just Born Quality Confections, a family-owned candy manufacturer that also churns out Hot Tamales, Mike and Ike fruit chews and Goldenberg’s Peanut Chews. That adds up to 2 billion a year — or roughly 6 Peeps for every man, woman and child across the U.S.
