WBEZ’s Weekly News Recap: July 2, 2026

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
Hey, it's Nudia from Vocalo. Got plans July 11th? Now you do. Join me for Vocalo's free Summer Meltdown Concert at Bottom Lounge with Adam Killa and Taylor Bennett. We'll have merch giveaways and surprise guests. Learn more at wbez.org/events.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:18)
Illinois's fiscal year starts tomorrow, and that means a whole new set of laws will be going into effect.

**SPEAKER_4** (0:25)
Workers in Chicago and Parsacook County, they're getting a raise.

**Rummana Hussain** (0:28)
Drivers 87 and older will be required to take a driving test annually.

**SPEAKER_6** (0:32)
The Supreme Court ruled against the Trump administration's efforts to end birthright citizenship.

**Shia Kapos** (0:37)
It took the court this long to come out with an opinion that many of us thought was an easy thing to do.

**Patrick Smith** (0:43)
Hey, Chicago, I'm Patrick Smith in For Sasha Ann Simons, and this is In the Loop.
We're breaking down the biggest stories of the week in our Weekly News Recap. Police Superintendent Snelling and the Chicago FBI chief both announced abrupt resignations. Mayor Johnson introduces a bill giving Chicago renters new protections. Plus, Governor Pritzker issues a disaster proclamation over recent storms and tornadoes, as the Chicago region remains under extreme heat warning.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:17)
Day three of this dangerous heat wave. Heat index readings around 105 each afternoon.

**Shia Kapos** (1:23)
The heat dome, as it's known, shifts east by the end of the week.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:26)
Landlords could soon be paying another fee to rent out their units.

**SPEAKER_8** (1:30)
It would create a rental registry so that landlords can be more easily identified and it would reduce or ban hidden fees.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:36)
And Chicagoans deserve an approach that puts people first and not profits.

**Shia Kapos** (1:42)
Snelling said he's retiring July 15th.

**SPEAKER_9** (1:45)
I'm worried. Who's going to take this job just to be superintendent for five months?

**Patrick Smith** (1:49)
We'll get into those stories and much more. Before we get into the conversation, we want to thank the Chicago Sun-Times Opinion Pages editor and columnist, Rummana Hussain, who's one of our panelists today, joins me now. Hey, Rummana.

**Rummana Hussain** (1:59)
Hey, how are you?

**Patrick Smith** (2:00)
I'm doing well. Thanks so much for making the time. Okay. So for folks at home who might want to share their opinion with the Chicago Sun-Times, what is the difference between an opinion column and a letter to the editor?

**Rummana Hussain** (2:12)
So we have op-eds that we run a couple days, times a week. And so those are longer pieces that people write. They're about 750 words. And then we also have letters to the editors, which sometimes we tell people who turn in op-eds to us, we're like, this can be turned into a letter. So those are shorter opinion pieces they can be, or they can just be like a one-sentence thought that people have about news that's going on. A lot of times we have people reacting to the op-eds in other letters that we have. Just a couple days ago, we had someone who had written an op-ed.
It was about how people from Naperville can still be Chicagoans. He was a professor from an out-of-state university.
We go, this could be like a talker. So we had him shorten it down to 375 words. Of course, it generated a lot of responses, especially from Chicagoans who weren't happy that he said that people who were born and raised in Naperville. I think he was born in a different suburb but never really lived there, but talked about always being there and he had ancestors who were from there. So it brought on a lot of conversations.

**Patrick Smith** (3:23)
So it was your fault I had to read that drivel. No, I'm just kidding. What are you looking for, both in an op-ed and in a letter to the editor?

**Rummana Hussain** (3:31)
So we try to look for pieces that are conversational. We have a lot of people who are really smart individuals who send us op-eds, but they're written so dryly.
And so we try to tell people like we're trying to get a bigger audience to read this. We have a lot of professor types who write and we're just like try to make it seem like you're talking to someone about it. So conversational is the number one thing that I tell people to look out for. Sometimes we have people who write letters and they're great, but it just doesn't sound like a good letter. Like I find myself getting really bored reading it. So I like the snappier for letters. I like the snappier, even sometimes a one line sentence can be a great letter. It can say so much. So conversational is the one thing I try to tell people to keep in mind.