WBEZ9%
Chicago’s day of hazardous air quality: The Rundown 43%
By Bianca Cseke13%
7/16/2026, 8:45:00 PM
Keywords: Air Quality, Wildfire Smoke, Chicago, Housing, Mosquitoes, West Nile Virus, Cps, Budget Deficit, Dive Bars, William Shatner
BS Summary: This article contains 31 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Authority, Attempt to Sell a Product or Service, and Hasty Generalization, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 15.7% saturation with 218 hits. Analysis detected 1,821 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,392 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 46.6% and a BS Rank of 43% (12,537 of 21,887 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 57.30% of the article peer group.
Good afternoon!
It’s Thursday, and I can smell smoke even indoors.
I hope everyone is staying safe.
Here’s what you need to know today.
1.
Hazardous wildfire smoke from Canada prompted an air quality alert for most of the Chicago area
More than 800 Canadian wildfires are burning, many of them out of control, leading to the smoke we’ve been experiencing today.
A map of city air monitors shows a large swath of “very unhealthy” air quality covering most of the city, with “hazardous” readings in northern neighborhoods Rogers Park, Edgewater, West Ridge and Lake View.
“Very unhealthy” warnings stretch down to South Chicago and Hegewisch.
The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency declared an Air Pollution Action Day for Chicago and Northern Illinois, and individuals were urged to limit prolonged outdoor activity and take more frequent breaks.
In a rare move, the city closed beaches and all 50 outdoor swimming pools.
Evanston beaches also were closed due to the air quality.
The Chicago Park District canceled all outdoor activities that couldn’t be moved inside.
The air quality alert expires at midnight.
The National Weather Service said winds moving southwest could slightly improve conditions tomorrow, but the air quality is still expected to be unhealthy for sensitive groups.
Fires create fine particulate matter, or PM 2.5, that can lodge deep into your lungs and travel through your blood once inhaled.
These microscopic particles are particularly dangerous for people with asthma and other medical conditions or weak immune systems.
They can lead to heart attacks and strokes after exposure for long periods.
“I think everyone should close their doors and windows to try to prevent the smoke from getting into their homes as much as possible,” said Dr.
Jack Zhao, a pulmonary critical care doctor at Rush Copley Medical Center.
“I equate being outside with a forest fire to smoking.
I think over time it will cause long-term side effects.”
[ Chicago Sun-Times ]
2.
Here’s what the ROAD to Housing Act means for Chicago
The bill, touted by experts and leaders as the most significant federal housing legislation passed in decades, includes more than 40 measures meant to boost the country’s housing supply through incentives, grants and reduced regulations.
It directs the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development to review federal construction financing programs to identify and remove barriers for modular housing developers, as well as fund a study for standardizing modular home code.
There’s also a provision that blocks large institutional investors from purchasing single-family homes if they already own 350 or more properties.
Chicago-area developers told my colleagues the bill will help build more housing when labor shortages and higher material costs are causing fewer construction starts and higher prices for buyers.
However, some say more needs to be done to address the housing shortage for low-income renters.
“Illinois’ most severe housing needs are [those of] renters with the lowest incomes and people experiencing homelessness, and we really need more direct federal investment right now,” said Bob Palmer, Housing Action Illinois’s policy director.
[ Chicago Sun-Times/WBEZ ]
3.
Mosquitoes biting?
The ‘Sewer Monster’ is on the case
The insects everyone hates aren’t just annoying, Brett Chase writes for the Chicago Sun-Times.
In Illinois they can carry the potentially deadly West Nile virus, an illness that sickens thousands of people across the country every year.
There have been no human cases reported in Chicago this year, but health officials said that could change.
Justin Harbison, a Loyola University researcher, associate professor and self-described “Sewer Monster,” helps reduce mosquito populations by treating Chicago-area sewers with insecticides aimed at killing recently hatched larvae before they become bloodsuckers.
After feeding on blood, female mosquitoes need water to lay eggs during warm-weather months.
The larvae munch on decaying leaves and other muck that fall into the sewer through drain openings.
The insects are usually active June through early October before the first frost, though they’ve shown up as early as May.
To keep mosquitoes away, Harbison recommends people use repellent with 30% of the chemical DEET or another government-registered ingredient, such as picaridin or lemon eucalyptus oil.
You can also buy clothing that repels the pests or treat clothes with a chemical known as permethrin.
And after heavy rainstorms, people should dump any standing water around a home or property, such as flower pots and tires.
[ Chicago Sun-Times ]
4.
CPS will lay off 760 teachers and cut 5 student nonattendance days in a bid to close a $732 million budget deficit
Not paying staff for five days would save the district around $85 million, my colleagues Sarah Karp and Emmanuel Camarillo report.
For the average teacher, that would translate to a $2,300 pay cut, Chicago Teachers Union officials said, or about 2.3% of their salary.
Chicago Public Schools has not furloughed staff in a decade, and the CTU and other staff unions are likely to challenge the cuts, as they would eliminate some of their negotiated pay raises.
District officials said the spending freeze and furloughs won’t take place until the second half of the school year and could be prevented if the city, county or state comes up with more money for CPS — likely a bid to capture the attention of lawmakers and other officials who have so far ignored pleas for more funding.
[ WBEZ/Chicago Sun-Times ]
5.
Chicagoans love dive bars.
Now there’s a new play staged in one
As WBEZ theater reporter Mike Davis writes, a longing for third spaces inspired and set the tone for the production.
“We need to remember, honor and bolster third spaces,” said Michaela Petro, co-founder of The Dark Room District, the new theater company producing the immersive show.
“Whether that is church, whether that is a library, whether that is your local watering hole, we’re losing that connection.
We’re losing these spaces that people once upon a time went to when they didn’t want to go home yet.”
While it is billed as “immersive,” because the audience is seated in the bar for the show, the creators noted this is not “muder mystery”-style theater.
What audiences do get is an authentic experience of a dive bar in 2010 as a fly on the wall.
The approach was inspired in part by Petro being a cast member in the first show produced by Spencer Huffman’s New Theater Project at the titanium factory in Bowmanville.
From that show, she said she learned, “all you need is a space.”
[ WBEZ ]
Here’s what else is happening
President Donald Trump is expected to make election conspiracies a focus of tonight’s national address.
[ AP ]
The U.S.
Food and Drug Administration approved a first-of-its-kind pill that sharply reduces artery-clogging cholesterol in people who remain at high risk of heart attacks despite taking statins.
[ Chicago Sun-Times ]
The number of ebooks published on Amazon has tripled since the release of ChatGPT, with nonfiction most likely to be written with help from artificial intelligence, two business school professors found.
[ New York Times ]
Today I learned many Marvel superhero stories are set in New York City because that’s where the publisher was headquartered.
Now the company is relocating to California.
[ Hollywood Reporter ]
Oh, and one more thing …
Move over, Kirk Hammett.
Captain Kirk wants to be the next heavy metal star — and he’s kicking things off at Riot Fest, Selena Fragassi reports for the Chicago Sun-Times.
Festival organizers have announced that 95-year-old entertainment icon and apparent metalhead William Shatner will debut his newly assembled band The *uckers on Sept. 20 at Douglass Park on the final day of the fest, joining a lineup that includes Twenty One Pilots, Tool, Alanis Morissette, Patti Smith and Morrissey.
The appearance coincides with Shatner’s forthcoming album on Cleopatra Records, reported to include covers of Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, in addition to several original tunes.
Backing him up will be an assembly of metal musicians, including guitarists Marcus Nand (Mike Tramp, Candice Night) and Britt Lightning (Vixen, Cactus), bassist Phil Soussan (Ozzy Osbourne, Billy Idol) and drummer Fred Aching (Kings of Thrash, Dead Groove, Fraxures).
[ Chicago Sun-Times ]
Tell me something good …
What is your favorite Chicago-area beach?
Feel free to email me, and your response may be included in the newsletter this week.
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