How far to the right will the Illinois GOP go? – Chicago Tribune

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More than just picking nominees for governor and other offices, Illinois Republicans’ choices this June 28 primary also will determine the GOP’s future — and, the Tribune’s Rick Pearson reports, whether the state party’s gradual move to the right in recent years will accelerate.

In the Downstate congressional GOP primary between five-term Rep. Rodney Davis and freshman Rep. Mary Miller, the Trump factor looms large.

And this is the latest Illinois has had a primary election since at least the Great Depression. Do voters even know Election Day is coming up, or are their minds already drifting to Wisconsin Dells?

Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day.

The Illinois Supreme Court chamber in Springfield. (Seth Perlman / AP)

The state’s wealthiest man, Citadel CEO Ken Griffin, is again exerting influence in a race for an Illinois Supreme Court seat during an election cycle that could give Republicans a high court edge.

Griffin has funneled $6.25 million to an independent expenditure committee that two years ago spent millions in a successful effort to unseat a Democratic high court justice by linking him unfavorably to former House Speaker Michael Madigan.

Damage from a tornado that tore through Naperville and Woodridge is seen from the air on June 21, 2021, in Woodridge. (Erin Hooley/Chicago Tribune)

One year after a tornado tore a three block-wide strip of devastation through Chicago’s western suburbs, a hard-hit neighborhood in Woodridge remains a work in progress.

The trees that smashed through roofs and littered the streets are long gone, replaced by saplings swaddled in green irrigation bags. Plenty of sawed-off trunks remain, though, bearing witness to what happened in a few violent moments the night of June 20, 2021.

Likewise, while many houses are adorned with gleaming new siding and freshly shingled roofs, a few are still boarded up and one is simply gone, leaving nothing behind but a foundation, a security fence and a construction company’s advertising sign.

Incarcerated person Carrie Pierce, right, hugs Kim Dadou Brown after a screening of the documentary film “And So I Stayed” on June 8, 2022, at the Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln, Illinois. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

Inside a rec room at the downstate Logan Correctional Center, a projector screen leaned slightly forward but was upright enough as an audience gathered in front of it to watch a film.

“And So I Stayed” — which documents efforts to pass a law in New York that allows survivors of gender-based violence to present the abuse they suffered as consideration for new, shorter sentences — was being shown for the first time to an audience inside a correctional facility, and specifically to people who had been convicted of serious crimes they argue were related to abuse.

As the group, mostly women, watched the film’s stories of three survivors, including the abuse and torture they suffered, the anguished 911 calls they made to report their crimes and the strained phone conversations with their children from prison, those at Logan nodded in agreement and shook their heads in frustration. They reached for support, holding hands or touching each other’s shoulders in shared grief.

Former Tribune sports writer John Mullin, who died June 19, 2022 at the age of 74. (LAB tba / Chicago Tribune)

During his final weeks, as a stream of family members, friends and former sports media colleagues came to his bedside at Lake Forest Hospital, John “Moon” Mullin remained full of resilience, positivity and gratitude. One after another, each visitor left inspired by Mullin’s strength and impressed with his grace.

From the day he was diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer in 2019, Mullin set his mind on fighting his battle with a positive attitude, beginning a push to squeeze the most from whatever time he had left. He was still intensely engaged in that quest until the end.

Savory brioche at Sugar Moon, a Logan Square bakery open only three mornings a week. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)

Dina Cimarusti, owner and baker of Sugar Moon, opened the small storefront in Logan Square nine months ago. Now she thinks she should call it an experimental baking studio.

What Tribune critic Louisa Chu discovered were some of the best bites she has had this year were made at Sugar Moon.

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