Friday, April 11, 2025
HomeBusiness newsChicago information roundup: Ex-dealers say McDonald’s was the enterprise mannequin, college students...

Chicago information roundup: Ex-dealers say McDonald’s was the enterprise mannequin, college students sue Loyola for ‘mishandled’ intercourse misconduct claims and extra

Date:

Related stories


Good afternoon. Right here’s the most recent information it’s essential know in Chicago. It’s a couple of five-minute learn that can transient you on at present’s largest tales.

This afternoon can be wet and cloudy with a excessive close to 70 levels. Tonight can even be wet with an opportunity of thunderstorms and a low close to 58 levels. Thunderstorms are anticipated tomorrow with a excessive close to 61. Sunday can be sunny with a excessive close to 63.

Prime story

From flipping Huge Macs to importing tons of cocaine: Chicago twins who helped deliver down El Chapo say McDonald’s was their enterprise mannequin

The dual brothers who authorities say had been probably the most prolific drug sellers in Chicago historical past — and, after being caught, helped deliver down Sinaloa cartel drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera — say they discovered a few of their administration expertise whereas cooking french fries and dealing the drive-thru at a McDonald’s.

In new interviews, Pedro Flores and Margarito Flores say they had been 17 once they determined to work on the burger chain’s restaurant at twenty sixth Road and Kedzie Avenue in Little Village.

The Golden Arches gave the brothers a primary training in operating a enterprise, every thing from having a constant product to being ready to soak up a monetary loss, they are saying within the new podcast “Surviving El Chapo: The Twins Who Introduced Down A Drug Lord,” providing a uncommon inside take a look at the drug commerce.

The twins say they obtained their first classes about operating a drug enterprise from their father within the late Eighties after he completed serving jail time for arranging a heroin deal on the identical McDonald’s in Little Village.

The brothers say they had been simply 7 once they accompanied him on street journeys to purchase marijuana in Mexico. They discovered to compress the marijuana to move it to Chicago, spraying Coca-Cola on the leaves to make them stick collectively, in response to the podcast, and discovered about crossing the border, which routes to take and keep away from the eye of customs brokers. Their father moved to Mexico, and their older brother Armando Flores, a drug seller, grew to become their father determine, making them assist round the home, attend a Catholic college and are available dwelling earlier than the town’s night curfew. However Armando Flores went to jail on a 1998 drug cost, and the twins had been on their very own.

The brothers made their first drug deal on the McDonald’s at twenty sixth and Kedzie, not removed from their dwelling, in response to the podcast. By 17, they are saying, they had been promoting a whole lot of cocaine, sitting on $1 million in earnings and wanted to create a system “the place you’ll be able to’t mess it up.” For them, McDonald’s was the mannequin.

The podcast doesn’t all the time establish which brother is talking, however one is heard saying, “I used to be studying the enterprise half at McDonald’s. I’m studying to do fries. I’m studying to grill. I washed the dishes. I did the drive-thru. I did the entrance.

“It was a fantastic expertise for the each of us, I feel.”

Frank Mainhas extra context on the Flores brothers’ latest feedback right here.

Extra information you want

  1. Bail was denied for a restaurant proprietor charged with killing his girlfriend, who was eight months pregnant together with his little one, prosecutors stated. Yaer Shen, 46, was charged with first-degree homicide, intentional murder of an unborn little one and concealment of a homicidal dying, prosecutors stated.
  2. In a brand new lawsuit, three ladies say Loyola College Chicago “systemically mishandled and underreported pupil complaints of sexual misconduct” and “maintained a de facto coverage” to “suppress studies of sexual violence and sexual harassment.” Our Mary Norkol has extra on their tales and the place the college stands right here.
  3. In different campus security information, the College of Chicago has acquired seven studies from undergraduate college students up to now couple of months that they might have been drugged at events on campus, and one in every of them reported being sexually assaulted. The college despatched out an alert yesterday encouraging college students with comparable experiences to file a report.
  4. Two officers who allegedly lied concerning the deadly taking pictures of a 25-year-old man are actually going through dismissal greater than 12 years after the lethal encounter, which has value the town thousands and thousands of {dollars} in a lawsuit. Our Tom Schuba has extra on the disciplinary costs filed by Chicago police Supt. David Brown right here.
  5. With tensions excessive throughout the nation forward of the hotly contested midterms, Chicago officers gathered at a downtown polling place at present and pledged to guard voters and ballot employees. In addition they insisted there are not any looming threats forward of Election Day.
  6. Gov. J.B. Pritzker pledged to take away a barrier to abortion for folks in jail. The announcement comes after a WBEZ investigation discovered that incarcerated folks needed to pay for the process and the wages of the correctional officer required to accompany them to appointments exterior the jail.
  7. For the previous couple of years, Shara Washington has been cooking meals for Chicagoans experiencing homelessness, delivering the meals to encampments on the Close to West Aspect whereas funding the hassle principally herself. “Cooking is my love language,” Washington informed our Michael Loria for his latest protection of her outreach.
  8. Tucked into the brand new and much-debated 764-page regulation that does away with Illinois’ cash-bail system is a paragraph that would have a big effect. It implies that folks caught with small quantities of medicine gained’t have to take a seat in jail for days till they’re introduced earlier than a decide. The change follows a Solar-Instances/BGA investigation final 12 months that documented the influence of “dead-end” drug arrests during which individuals are briefly locked up, solely to see the costs quickly dismissed.
  9. Sean “Diddy” Combs might grow to be a dominant participant within the hashish business with a pending, estimated $155 million deal for manufacturing and shops within the Chicago space and in New York and Massachusetts. Combs is shopping for belongings being spun off by Cresco Labs as a part of its acquisition of a competitor, Columbia Care, making Combs the nation’s first Black investor in marijuana with multistate operations.

A vibrant one

Morton Grove household donates Chicago’s 2022 Christmas tree for Millennium Park website

Vesna Glisovic of Morton Grove is sending the Metropolis of Chicago a really particular vacation greeting this 12 months.

A 55-foot-tall Colorado blue spruce that stood on the entrance garden of her household’s dwelling for a lot of a long time has been chosen to be this 12 months’s official metropolis Christmas tree, it was introduced this morning. The tree, chosen from practically 80 entries within the metropolis’s annual Christmas tree hunt, can be making its new dwelling in Millennium Park for the vacation season.

Vesna and her husband, Mike, each from Serbia, moved into their Morton Grove dwelling in 1990 and located the younger spruce tree — barely taller than her husband on the time — to be an ideal part of their panorama, particularly through the holidays.

“We might beautify it with Christmas lights yearly,” she stated. “However then it simply grew so tall that we couldn’t beautify it anymore.”

This 55-foot Colorado blue spruce from the Glisovic household of Morton Grove will make its solution to downtown Chicago the place it should grow to be the town’s official Christmas tree in Millennium Park.

Courtesy of the Glisovic Household

The tree was beloved by the household nonetheless, because it grew to become the “lovely backdrop” for a lot of of their celebrations.

“We might take photos on holidays and for graduations, in entrance of it, and when our son obtained married in the midst of December, he and his spouse got here right here to take their pictures, opening a bottle of champagne proper in entrance of it, to have a good time the day. So now we have simply beloved the tree,” Glisovic stated.

Glisovic stated she had considered getting into the tree contest for a number of years however by no means did. This 12 months she determined it was time because it was changing into obvious the tree was in its twilight years and would wish to return down anyway.

“I’m so blissful to share our tree with the world, and be a part of this custom,” Glisovic stated.

Miriam Di Nunziohas extra with the Glisovic household and the origins of this 12 months’s tree right here.

From the press field

Your day by day query☕

What’s one thing solely Chicagoans know do?

Ship us an e mail at newsletters@suntimes.com and we would characteristic your reply within the subsequent Afternoon Version.

Yesterday, we requested you: What’s one thing each Chicagoan can agree on?

Right here’s what a few of you stated…

“Each Chicagoan can agree that our winters are frigid, our summers are broiling and once we are alone we put ketchup on our scorching canines.” — Gene Tenner

Summer time in Chicago us the rationale we put up with Winter in Chicago.” —Howard Moore

“Alleys are higher than no alleys (like New York).” — Sean Nightingale

“The skyline is the very best!” — Reni Blue Spruce

“Our baseball groups will disappoint us 9 instances out of 10 however we nonetheless can’t assist however love them.” — Christopher B. Alexandrov

“Italian Beef is the King of all sandwiches in the USA.” — Niz Mike

“Good home music.” — Maurice Moore

“It should all the time be the Sears Tower!” — Jose Lozano

“Our pizza is the very best.” — Amit Bhambri

“Lake Michigan is gorgeous!” — Joe Flynn

“Don’t swim within the river.” —Giannis Michaels

“Mustard is the one reply.” — Kurtis Arndt

Thanks for studying the Chicago Solar-Instances Afternoon Version.Bought a narrative you suppose we missed?E-mail us right here.





Supply hyperlink

Subscribe

- Never miss a story with notifications

- Gain full access to our premium content

- Browse free from up to 5 devices at once

Latest stories

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here