Afternoon Edition: Unregulated gas station hemp packs potent punch

Good afternoon, Chicago. ✶

My colleagues and I are pouring extra cups of coffee today after a long night of covering Tuesday’s primary elections.

While most of the races have been called, the “Bring Chicago Home” referendum and the state’s attorney race remain undecided. That’s due, in part, to thousands of mail-in ballots.

You can follow along with live results here, catch up on Tuesday’s live coverage here, and find our latest election day stories here.

Plus, we’ve got reporting on precinct-by-precinct primary results, hemp products that undersell how potent they are, a push for rooftop ads near Wrigley Field and more community news you need to know this afternoon.

⏱️: A 7-minute read

— Matt Moore, newsletter reporter (@MattKenMoore)

TODAY’S TOP STORY

Hemp products often mislabeled, posing potential danger to consumers, Chicago researcher finds

Reporting by Stephanie Zimmermann and Tom Schuba

Unregulated hemp: It’s hard to travel a few blocks in Chicago without coming across a store selling hemp-derived products offering feelings of relaxation or a weedlike high — from joints to edibles that look like kid-friendly treats. But unlike medical or recreational cannabis, the items aren’t regulated.

A potent punch: A new study found such products, typically sold at smoke shops and gas stations, often have a higher potency than advertised and fail to mention which psychoactive substances they contain, adding a new level of urgency to lawmakers’ efforts to regulate an industry with few guardrails.

Key context: Hemp, a weaker botanical cousin of cannabis, contains far less Delta-9 THC — the chemical compound, or cannabinoid, best known for getting weed users high. Under Illinois law, hemp products are not supposed to have more than 0.3% THC potency by weight, compared with recreational weed that is often 20% or more.

What research shows: Testing at the University of Illinois Chicago by researcher Jennifer Bash showed that out of 15 edible products and 17 flower samples marketed as hemp, the vast majority were mislabeled.

READ MORE

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?

Associated Press

• Rooftop ads near Wrigley? The Cubs would get the go-ahead to install two new rooftop signs on a pair of buildings owned by the Ricketts family under a proposed ordinance.
• City Council OKs $52.75M in settlements: Alderpersons on Wednesday delivered $52.75 million to settle three different cases tied to police abuse and wrongdoing. The largest of the settlements — for $45 million — will go to Nathen Jones, 18, who suffered a massive traumatic brain injury after an unauthorized police chase.
• Man sues funeral home: A man filed a lawsuit against Leak and Sons Funeral Home, alleging the body of his father was switched with another corpse before a viewing. It’s not the first time a client has accused the funeral home of switching bodies.
• Migrant evictions continue: Four days into the rollout of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s plan to evict migrants from Chicago shelters, 40th Ward Ald. Andre Vasquez and other alderpersons are calling for a halt to evictions before they exacerbate the city’s already intractable problems with unhoused Chicagoans.
• New York City Ballet returns: Chicago will join just four other locales outside of New York in honor of NYCB’s 75th anniversary when the Harris Theater for Music and Dance presents three programs — spread across five performances Wednesday to Saturday.
• Olivia Rodrigo rocks the UC: During the Tuesday opener of her two-night, sold-out stint at the United Center, the pop-rock star delivered a supercharged set balancing swooping ballads and riotous numbers, writes Selena Fragassi in a review for the Sun-Times.

ELECTIONS 2024 SNAPSHOT 🗳️

Sun-Times

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s plan to fight homelessness appears headed to defeat

Reporting by Fran Spielman

With more than 100,000 mail-in ballots outstanding, the fate of the “Bring Chicago Home” referendum to combat homelessness is not yet known.

See a breakdown of the votes that have been counted here.

But by Tuesday night, it appeared Chicago voters were rejecting a binding referendum that would have authorized the City Council to raise the real estate transfer tax on high-end property transactions to generate an estimated $100 million in annual revenue to fight homelessness.

Tuesday’s election also saw the lowest turnout in at least 80 years for a presidential primary.

The Bring Chicago Home referendum was supported by members of the Chicago Teachers Union, CTU-affiliated United Working Families and progressive unions — all who have proven their ability to turn out their own voters in a low-turnout election by electing Mayor Brandon Johnson last year.

But the Building Owners and Managers Association and other real estate and business interests mounted a furious campaign to block the referendum, first in the courts, then through television commercials urging voters to reject a plan they said would raise rents.

Read a full analysis here.

BRIGHT ONE ✨

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Seventh grader Nidhi Kulkarni takes top spot at citywide spelling bee

Reporting by Erica Thompson

Months of preparation, a little luck and a bit of science knowledge propelled Nidhi Kulkarni to the top spot at the Chicago Public Schools Spelling Bee Championship Tuesday afternoon.

The seventh grader, who attends Alexander Graham Bell Elementary School, won first place at the competition, hosted at Marie Curie High School. She will advance to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., in May.

“I’m stunned,” said Nidhi, 12, as she gripped her golden trophy. “It’s like you prepare, but you don’t know which word you’re going to get onstage. So it’s really scary.”

Nidhi, a first-time participant, beat 43 other students in first through eighth grades, and took the title after correctly spelling “myocarditis,” defined as inflammation of the heart muscle. She said she became familiar with the word while participating in another competition series: the Science Olympiad, which will have a statewide tournament at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in April.

Though Nidhi was confident about “myocarditis,” she was challenged by the word “froward” in an earlier round but excited the crowd when she got the spelling right.

“You need to know the word, or you just need to guess correctly,” she said. “I think it’s also the luck factor, [but] it’s a lot of preparation.”

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YOUR DAILY QUESTION ☕️

What do you think can be done to get more voters to turn out for November’s general election?

Email us (please include your first and last name). To see the answers to this question, check our Morning Edition newsletter. Not subscribed to Morning Edition? Sign up here so you won’t miss a thing!

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Editor: Satchel Price
Newsletter reporter: Matt Moore
Copy editor: Angie Myers