Churchill Downs has listed the nearly 100-year-old Arlington International Racecourse for sale in February. (WTTW News)

Morning Arlington International Racecourse It’s quiet, except for the barking of a sprinting horse during training most mornings from 6am to 10am.

Thoroughbred horse jockey Chris Emmy says those early hours are essential.

“Every morning you are trying to move the horse here, understand it, make it better, and keep it in shape,” he said. “Then usually a crowd comes in to see the final result, but it can take months, sometimes years, to reach that point in that one race.”

Emig is not a stranger to horse racing.Since moving to the racecourse in 1996, he has won more than 1,000 of the approximately 4,000 career wins at Arlington Park and has won the park’s Third best rider ever..

He was introduced to sports when his junior high school bus driver suggested that he and his twin brother, Aaron, try it.

“Fast, adrenaline rush … I always tell everyone it’s better than the actual job,” he said. “There is nothing like this in the world.”

Another familiar face on the racetrack is Larry Riveri, who calls Arlington Park his “hometown.”

A third-generation Thoroughbred trainer, owner, and breeder, Riveri has been the chief trainer at Arlington Park for nine years, following in the footsteps of his grandfather and uncle.

Riveri says he trains 120 horses nationwide. 80 of them are in Arlington Park.

“It’s like an uncontrollable wildfire,” he said with a laugh.

The COVID-19 and economic closures of the last 15 months have been tough for Riveri and Emi.

For Riveri, it’s “less chance to run, less race to win, less money to earn,” and Emig says it’s the cheering crowd that “feels like you’ve done it.” I will.

As a result, they say visitors are excited to return to Arlington Park after the 2020 season is shortened and spectators are approaching.

The racetrack began its current season on April 30 with limited capacity, social distance guidelines, and sanitary stations.

Tony Petrillo, president of Arlington Park, said:

Since the full reopening of Illinois on June 11, vaccinated guests have been admitted without masks. There are no plans to return Family Day or other live entertainment, but Arlington Park’s capacity will increase from 4,500 to 8,000 next month.

But as the number of guests increases, more workers will be needed, Petrillo said.

“That was our biggest challenge. Finding people to come back to increase and expand attendance,” he said, Arlington Park was designed based on the user experience and raced many times. Has been called Disneyland.

“We’re just trying to find enough people to properly service our business and meet the service and safety expectations when people come here,” he says.

Resuming during a pandemic is not the only challenge. Arlington Park faces an uncertain future after its parent company Churchill Downs launched a racetrack nearly 100 years ago in February. The 326-acre real estate proposal expires on June 15.

Arlington Heights Planning Commissioner Approves Overlay Zone for Potential Redevelopment of PropertyThe Daily Herald reported that it has banned the use of adult businesses and car washes. The committee’s recommendations now go to the village board. The village board will vote on what can and cannot be built on real estate. Voting dates are not set.

However, it is Churchill Downs who has the final say on the choice of proposal.

“Hopefully Churchill will sell it to keep it on the racetrack,” Riveri said. “It’s just hard. I don’t know what they’re thinking or planning. It’s a shame not to race here.”

Petrillo says he wants visitors to get the most out of the season at Arlington Park, which is called the “final turn.”

“We call this the’last turn’and send people a message to relive Arlington or revisit Arlington’s memories to create new ones,” he said.

For Emi, a new memory is his wedding at the racetrack next month. He and his fiancé Brittany Vandenberg met at Arlington Park and once competed with each other. Currently, they own and train horses together.

“I just want to keep [Arlington Park] I’m going, “said Emmy. “I have a house here, a nice horse farm. We are here and love to race all year round. It’s a family-friendly place. So we never leave. I hope to stay here. “

Note: This story will be updated in the video.

Arlington Park will enter its “final turn” in the midst of a pandemic.Chicago news

Source link Arlington Park will enter its “final turn” in the midst of a pandemic.Chicago news

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Rembrandt van Rijn, “Christ in the Storm on the Sea of ​​Galleria,” 1633.

Recently released Netflix documentary series “This is a robbery” Explore the twisted story surrounding the theft of Boston’s 13 works of art Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum In 1990.

One of the potential ways to recover $ 500 million in stolen artwork is a scientific analysis of paint chips by microscopic detective work done by Chicago-based innovators in the field.

After a late-night robbery, investigators, museum staff, and journalists spent years chasing dead-end tips. A lead was brought to Tom Mashberg, a former Boston Herald reporter. A small scammer who claims to have one of the stolen works, Rembrandt’s “The Storm on the Sea of ​​Galaria”. However, Mashberg was not an art expert and had to prove that his work was genuine.

“We thought about paint debris, and I say in a documentary,” Is it so difficult to scrape off a little paint? ” “Walter McCrone in Chicago has done a lot of work to uncover fraud using an electron microscope.”

Well, it’s not accurate. In fact, McCrone favored a polarizing microscope, a rather simple but less powerful tool.

“It’s a kind of vulnerable person,” McCrone told WTTW’s “The New Explorers” in 1990. I’m absolutely sure I can’t do without it. “

After studying at Cornell University, he took up a research position in Chicago in 1944. In 1960, he McKrone Institute In Bronzeville. It is now run by his disciple Gary Laughlin.

McCrone Research Institute (WTTW News)

“During all the years I worked with him, the first 17 years of my career, he started his day at 3:30 am,” Laughlin said. “I hadn’t seen him leave the building or quit his job until after he heard the news at 6 pm every night. 7 days a week.”

The institute continues its mission initiated by McCrone, including research, journaling, holding symposiums, teaching intensive courses on how to use microscopes, and learning specific optical properties of materials such as shape, size, color, and transparency. I’m focusing.

“The range of students is huge,” Laughlin said. “They come from almost every laboratory where microscopes may exist, with all industries, academia, governments, and scientists working.”

Since its establishment in 1960, the institute has attracted more than 30,000 students from all over the country and around the world.

McCrone has also become world-famous for his analysis of hundreds of works of art and other historical objects. One of McCrone’s most notable works under the microscope was the Turin shroud, allegedly the burial shroud of Jesus, stained with traces of believers claiming to be blood.

“His conclusion was that there was no blood-in fact, these were pigments. Red ocher,” Laughlin said.

Gary Laughlin handles specimens at the McClone Institute in Bronzeville, founded by Walter McLone in 1960. (WTTW News)

With trained eyes like McCrone and Laughlin, two colors that look the same on the canvas look very different under a microscope. Laughlin used French ultramarine as an example and had bright blue paint in the jar.

“It’s modern because it’s a synthetic fiber. The original ultramarine was crushed rock, lapis lazuli. It’s very expensive,” Laughlin said. “No one is using it today because it’s so expensive … Now, if the counterfeiter knew it, they would use the original material. They would grind it themselves and ex May make their own pigments in the way artists might have done. “

Laughlin made a known laugh at the suggestion that a micrographer might make a good counterfeiter.

“That’s absolutely true. In fact, Dr. McCrone said,” What every good counterfeiter needs to know. ” “

McCrone analyzed his work using a polarizing microscope and then handed it to Laughlin to confirm the results with an electron microscope, including Rembrandt’s analysis, which was allegedly featured in “This Is a Robbery.”

“With that limited taste, his immediate conclusion-he was given only a few chips-was that this could certainly be Rembrandt,” Laughlin said. “And that was the question he was asked,” means that the paint debris could have come from one of Rembrandt’s contemporaries.

The attention to detail Mac Krone wrote a correction to a copy of an article about his work at the Boston Herald. Sadly, the paint shards turned out to be yet another spark of false hope to regain the stolen art.

Macrone’s work of analyzing art may have been exciting, but Laughlin says it was really a side project. McCrone’s core work of teaching people about microanalysis continues today. The pandemic has forced a shift to online learning and a significant reduction in enrollment, but the situation is finally improving.

“I know there is this instrument that other instruments can’t do, and I want to share it with the world,” Laughlin said.

Walter McCrone starred in WTTW’s “The New Explorers” in 1990. (WTTW News)

McCrone died in 2002. In an interview with WTTW in 1990, he described the sophisticated work in simple words.

“What you are doing is magnifying these small particles to a size that normally looks like a macroscopic object. And if you can see them all at a glance here, you can do the same under a microscope. It’s that easy, “said McCrone.

What about the suspicious Rembrandt McCrone analyzed paint chips? Neither that nor any other work stolen from the Gardner Museum has been recovered.

Note: This story will be updated in the video.

Source link Chicago-based scientists who helped find art world scams | Chicago News

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In this May 28, 2021 file photo, travelers wait for their luggage at a baggage carousel at Miami International Airport in Miami. (AP Photo / Wilfredo Lee, File)

DALLAS (AP) — The airline industry’s recovery from the pandemic passed a milestone as more than 2 million people streamed through U.S. airport security checkpoints on Friday for the first time since early March 2020.

The Transportation Security Administration announced Saturday that 2.03 million travelers were screened at airport checkpoints on Friday. It was the first time in 15 months that the number of security screenings has surpassed 2 million in a single day.

Airline bookings have been picking up since around February, as more Americans were vaccinated against COVID-19 and – at least within the United States – travel restrictions such as mandatory quarantines began to ease.

The recovery is not complete. Friday’s crowds were only 74% of the volume compared to the same day in 2019. However, the 2.03 million figure was 1.5 million more travelers than the same day last year, according to the TSA.

The 2-million mark represents quite a turnaround for the travel industry, which was hammered by the pandemic. There were days in April 2020 when fewer than 100,000 people boarded planes in the U.S., and the CEO of Boeing predicted that at least one major U.S. airline would go bankrupt.

Most of the airlines are still losing money. Southwest eked out a narrow first-quarter profit thanks to its share of $64 billion in federal pandemic relief to the industry, and others are expected to follow suit later this year.

The fear of large-scale furloughs has lifted. United Airlines, which lost $7 billion and threatened to furlough 13,000 workers last fall, told employees this week that their jobs are secure even when the federal money runs out in October.

That’s because airlines like United are upbeat about salvaging the peak summer vacation season. International travel and business trips are still deeply depressed, but domestic leisure travel is roughly back to pre-pandemic levels, airline officials say. 

The airlines are recalling employees from voluntary leave and planning to hire small numbers of pilots and other workers later this year.

Hotel operators say they too have seen bookings improve as vaccination rates rise.

Mike Gathright, a senior vice president at Hilton, said the company’s hotels were 93% full over the Memorial Day weekend. He said the company is “very optimistic” about leisure travel over the summer and a pickup in business travel this fall.

“The vaccine distribution, the relaxed travel restrictions, consumer confidence — all of that is driving occupancy and improvement in our business,” Gathright said. 

Prior to the pandemic, TSA screened on average 2 million to 2.5 million travelers per day. The lowest screening volume during the pandemic was on April 13, 2020, when just 87,534 individuals were screened at airport security checkpoints.

By the middle of last month, TSA’s average daily volume for screenings was approximately 65% of pre-pandemic levels.

As the summer travel season approaches, TSA is advising passengers to arrive at the airport with sufficient time to accommodate increased screening time as traveler volumes are expected to approach and in some cases exceed pre-pandemic levels at certain airports.

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CHICAGO — A man who carjacked a woman’s SUV in Humboldt Park returned to the scene of the crime moments later after realizing the woman’s 3-year-old daughter was in the backseat.

Police said the woman, 26, was delivering food around 6:40 p.m. Friday on the 900 block of North Richmond Street when a man pulled her out of her Nissan SUV and drove off.

Police said the suspect drove around the block and returned the toddler to her mother unharmed before driving off again in the car.

The woman was treated at Norwegian Hospital for minor bruising to her arm.

No one has been taken into custody and Area Three detectives are investigating.

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Ping Tom Park, exemplifying Chicago’s motto of “City in a Garden.” (Patty Wetli / WTTW News)

The Trust for Public Land’s annual ParkScore rankings of park systems in the nation’s 100 largest cities added equity as a metric for its latest ratings, creating significant shifts in its 2021 index.

Chicago jumped to fifth place, up from 10th in 2020. The city came in behind first place Washington D.C.; St. Paul, Minnesota, in second; Minneapolis in third; and Arlington, Virginia, in fourth.

Chicago continued to earn high marks for access, with 98% of residents living within a 10-minute walk of a park versus the national average of 55%. The level of access holds true across age, income level and race/ethnicity.

The city’s parks are also ahead of the curve in terms of amenities measured by the index, including basketball hoops, bathrooms, playgrounds, splash pads and senior centers. 

Where the city falls short is acreage. With just 9% of its land devoted to parks and recreation, Chicago lags the national median of 15%. 

Along with access, acreage and amenities, ParkScore also rates investment and now equity. The new equity factor was inspired by the national awakening on racial justice, according to a statement from the Trust for Public Land. 

Out of 100 possible points, Chicago earned 90 for equity.

According to ParkScore data, Chicago residents in low-income neighborhoods have access to 25% more park space per person than the city median and 25% more than those in high-income neighborhoods.

Furthermore, Chicago residents in neighborhoods of color have access to 22% more park space per person than the city median and 12% more than those in white neighborhoods. This included what ParkScore identified as Black neighborhoods, Asian neighborhoods and neighborhoods of multiple races, which had 26%, 39% and 57% more space per person than the city median, respectively. The exception was what ParkScore identified as Hispanic and Latinx neighborhoods in Chicago, which had 40% less space per person than the city median.

In a statement, Park District officials pointed to ongoing investment in communities “most in need.” Projects cited include Gately Indoor Track and Field complex in Roseland and the Ford Calumet Environmental Center in Big Marsh Park on the Southeast Side.

Contact Patty Wetli: @pattywetli | (773) 509-5623 |  [email protected]

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CHICAGO (CBS) — We are now only hours away from the reopening of Chicago and the state of Illinois.

Phase 5 officially starts Friday – which means no limits anywhere.

READ MORE: Person Reported In Water In Lake Michigan Near Buckingham Fountain

CBS 2’s Brandon Merano reports from Wrigleyville where the neighborhood is gearing up for a huge day Friday.

It’s an unofficial holiday for Chicago.

“It seems like everybody is gearing up for it to be something like that, and we’re certainly gearing up for it too,” said Roost owner Joe Scroggs.

As Illinois plans to fully re-open Friday, more than 41,000 fans will flock to Wrigley to watch the Cubs take on the Cardinals.

“Looks like it’s going to be a great fun weekend,” Scroggs said. “Weather is great, there’s going to be a lot of people and it’s going to feel like the old world I guess.”

But for many businesses like Roost, the road back to normal has been rough.

“For this street, no Cubs, nothing really going on, nobody really out here having a good time. It’s been slow,” said Scroggs.

And as businesses like Roost pick up the pace and try to hire more workers, one common problem plagues bars and restaurants from Clark street, throughout Chicago and across the country.

Finding help.

READ MORE: Chicago Weather: Hot Weekend On The Way

“People hesitant to go back to work yet,” Scroggs said. “And you hear people talking about and I don’t know if this is true but people talking about sitting on long term unemployment.”

Those extended unemployment benefits are scheduled to run out in September.

Joe Scroggs said even then, the business he started and many like it may have to adapt.

“I think the restaurant industry is going to face a reckoning in the next year about how people get paid,” Scroggs said.

Some Clark Street cornerstones are already upping the ante, increasing salaries and offering extra incentives.

“Right now we are definitely hiring bus boys, servers, anyone to just help out especially this weekend,” said Sean Brown, a server at Smoke Daddy’s.

And as Wrigley gets set to host its biggest crowd in a year and a half, Scroggs and his staff are preparing for a return to normal.

Even if it looks different.

“Restaurants are really going to have to rethink their labor strategy moving forward,” Scroggs said.

Even though Thursday marks day one of the state being fully re-opened not all restrictions will be lifted.

MORE NEWS: Families With Young Children Still Under COVID-19 Restrictions As State Fully Reopens

Illinois still recommends social distancing indoors and for unvaccinated people to wear a mask.

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CHICAGO (CBS) — Even for good swimmers, the Chicago River is dangerous.

That’s the message from two Chicago Police Marine Unit officers shown in dramatic rescue video.

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A woman fell into the water at the Riverwalk in Streeterville earlier this month.

Her boyfriend jumped in to help, but police had to save them both.

READ MORE: University Of Chicago New Venture Challenge Winners Developing ‘Life Changing’ Cure For Peanut Allergies

Officers said it might not look like it, but the water is hazardous.

“The male occupant, his knees and legs were cut up from trying to hold onto the buoy,” said Officer Richard Antonsen. “Hypothermia sets in real quick. It can cause heart attack just on entry.”

“It’s not like going to the beach where it’s nice, smooth and sandy,” said Officer Mike Belluomini. “You have all kinds of obstacles in the river.”

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The officers also said because of COVID, people might not be used to the Chicago Riverwalk or the lakefront, so be extra careful.

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CHICAGO (CBS) — For the first time, we’re learning there are cases of the COVID-19 variant called Delta in Chicago.

The fast-spreading variant devastated India and is now the dominate strain in the UK.

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CBS 2’s Jim Williams reports on the new variant and how well the COVID vaccine works against it.

First detected in India, and spreading rapidly there, the Delta variant is now the dominant strain of the coronavirus in the United Kingdom with an estimated 60% of new cases in the UK.

University of Chicago infectious disease Doctor Anu Hazra said there’s good reason to be concerned.

“The Delta variant has shown to be more contagious and more lethal both in South Asia and in the UK,” Hazra said.

That is, more contagious and more lethal among those who have been not been vaccinated.

Those who’ve had the shots are largely protected against the Delta variant, according to Doctor Hazra.

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“In the UK, we have a good amount of evidence to show while there may be vaccinated people who become infected with the Delta variant, their hospitalizations and deaths remain low to nothing in those folks,” Hazra said.

“All three of our existing COVID vaccines in the U.S. continue to be broadly protective against all of the known variants.”

Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Doctor Allison Arwady said 12 cases of the Delta variant have turned up in the city.

“The good news is that, at this point, we have not seen concerns with variants making people significantly sicker here or the Delta one being very widespread,” Arwady said.

But with so many Americans still unvaccinated and communities opening up this summer, millions could be vulnerable to the Delta variant.

“It’s important to note 50% of the United States is still unvaccinated,” Hazra said. “And so those folks are still at risk and particularly at risk of this more contagious variant particularly as begin to open up and start to re-socialize this summer.”

MORE NEWS: Video Shows Armed Suspects Attacking Man In Mount Greenwood Subway Restaurant Before Taking His Keys In Carjacking

The World Health Organization said the Delta variant has spread to 62 countries, but it is hitting young people the hardest.

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Vice President Kamala Harris and Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei, pose for an official photograph, Monday, June 7, 2021, at the National Palace in Guatemala City. (AP Photo / Jacquelyn Martin)

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris offered an optimistic outlook for improved cooperation with Guatemala on addressing the spike in migration to the U.S. after her meeting with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei on Monday. She also delivered a direct warning to migrants considering making the trek: “Do not come. Do not come.”

Her comments, during a press conference after she met privately with the Guatemalan president, underscored the challenge that remains even as Harris engages in substantive talks with the Guatemalan and Mexican presidents during a three-day visit to the region this week, her first foreign trip as vice president.

“I want to emphasize that the goal of our work is to help Guatemalans find hope at home,” Harris said. “At the same time, I want to be clear to folks in this region who are thinking about making that dangerous trek to the United States-Mexico border: Do not come, do not come.”

In conjunction with Harris’s trip, the Biden administration announced the Justice Department would create an anti-corruption task force and an additional task force to combat human trafficking and drug smuggling in the region. Harris also promised a new program focused on creating education and economic opportunities for girls there, among other new initiatives.

But for all the talk about new ways to cooperate, reining in corruption and improving living conditions in the region have been long-running challenges that previous administrations have been unable to achieve in their efforts to stem the tide of migration to the United States.

Part of the challenge remains that, despite the best efforts of U.S. officials, corruption underpins many of the region’s governments. Indeed, Giammattei himself has faced criticism over his handling of the issue.

Last month, two lawyers who are outspoken critics of Giammattei’s administration were arrested on what they say were trumped-up charges aimed at silencing them.

And the selection of judges for Guatemala’s Constitutional Court, its highest, was mired in influence peddling and allegations of corruption. Giammattei picked his chief of staff to fill one of the five vacancies. When Gloria Porras, a respected force against corruption, was elected to a second term, the congress controlled by Giammattei’s party refused to seat her.

On Monday, Giammattei seemed less than eager to address those issues.

Asked by The Associated Press about criticism of his record on corruption, Giammattei initially ignored the question. When being pressed by another journalist to answer for the complaints against him, Giammattei seemed to bristle at the allegation that he was at fault on the issue, insisting that there were “zero” allegations of corruption against him and labeling drug traffickers the biggest corruption issue in his nation.

Still, Harris expressed optimism about their ability to work together on the issue, telling reporters that the two had a “very frank and very candid” conversation that included “the importance of anti-corruption and the importance of an independent judiciary.”

Harris said the Justice Department, Treasury and State Departments would work together on anti-corruption investigations and train local law enforcement to conduct their own.

“We are creating this task force to address corruption. We are working on a task force that is about human smuggling. We are doing the work of requiring certain progress be made if we are going to attract U.S. investment, private investment, to this region,” said Harris.

Giammattei said the U.S. and Guatemala also agreed to collaborate on a “very simple process” through visas to allow for regular migration to the U.S., and that the two countries would work to prioritize family reunifications.

The White House also announced a $7.5 million commitment through USAID to support entrepreneurs and innovators in Guatemala, as well as millions more in investments in affordable housing, agri-businesses and loans to small businesses in the country.

Besides her meeting with Giammattei, Harris was to participate in a roundtable with Guatemalan community and civil society leaders, and to meet with young innovators and entrepreneurs, including a number of female entrepreneurs.

In addressing the root causes of migration, Harris has laid out an approach centered on creating better opportunities and living conditions in the region through humanitarian and economic aid. She’s focused many of her public events and listening sessions before this visit on work with civil society organizations and international businesses, which her aides say is an acknowledgment that the work of improving the situation in the region cannot be done by its governments alone.

In remarks prior to meeting with Giammattei, Harris emphasized the need for both leaders to act to improve the situation on the ground for Guatemalans, whom she said don’t want to leave their homeland but are forced to by poor living conditions.

“Hope does not exist by itself, it must be coupled with relationships and trust, it must be coupled with tangible outcomes in terms of what we do as leaders to convince people that there is a reason to be hopeful about their future and the future of their children,” she said.

Harris had previously announced plans to send $310 million to provide support for refugees and address food shortages, and she recently secured commitments from a dozen companies and organizations to invest in the Northern Triangle countries to promote economic opportunity and job training.

Washington won some goodwill through its vaccine diplomacy this past week. Giammattei and Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador both received calls from Harris on Thursday telling them the U.S. would be sending 500,000 doses and 1 million doses, respectively, of COVID-19 vaccine.

While in Latin America, Harris is also navigating the politics of immigration. Congressional Republicans have criticized both President Joe Biden and Harris for not visiting the U.S.-Mexico border and contend the administration is ignoring what they say is a crisis there. April was the second-busiest month on record for unaccompanied children encountered at the border, following March’s all-time high. The Border Patrol’s total encounters in April were up 3% from March, marking the highest level since April 2000.

Conservatives are watching Harris closely for any missteps, hoping to drag her into further controversy on an issue that they see as a political winner.

On Monday, Harris defended her decision not to visit the border, telling reporters she was focused on addressing the root causes of migration in a way that delivers “tangible” results “as opposed to grand gestures.”

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CHICAGO (CBS) — A man was almost killed in a shooting right downtown overnight, and we have learned it was not the only gunfire nearby.

Police said a man of an unspecified age was near the Riverwalk at Wabash Avenue and Wacker Drive around 2 a.m. when he was shot in the back. He was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in serious condition.

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A witness who was in his hotel room feet from the shooting said he saw the victim lying next to a light pole. Multiple shell casings were found at the scene, and hours later, a nearby restaurant window was boarded up.

The witness told CBS 2’s Steven Graves he heard about 10 gunshots. He described the incident as a shootout between two people or a group of people.

Police have yet to say if it was targeted.

“It was one of those things where you don’t think it’s going to happen around you until it actually happens,” the witness said. “Last night was the first night I’ve ever been in Chicago, and it was like right below our hotel room. You could see it out the window, but we hit the deck and laid low.”

READ MORE: Man Wounded In Early-Morning Shooting On Dan Ryan Expressway

Our cameras spotted that nearby restaurant window being boarded up Sunday afternoon. The business is owned by Hotel Monaco, 225 N. Wabash Ave., and was closed at the time.

Police said another business in the Loop also had a window shot out four hours before the shooting that left the man wounded. Around 10:18 p.m., a round struck the window of a business in the 700 block of South Dearborn Street, but no one was injured.

It was unclear late Sunday if the two incidents were connected. Chicago Police said no one was in custody in either.

So far this year, there have been 10 shootings in the Central District, which includes the Loop, the West Loop Gate, the South Loop, and parts of the Near South Side. That is up from four shootings through this time last year.

MORE NEWS: 5 Killed, 44 Wounded So Far In Weekend Shootings Across Chicago

When Graves asked police if patrols have been stepped up, a spokesperson said the department has “sufficient” police resources downtown and around the city.

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