WBEZ’s Weekly News Recap: July 24, 2026

**SPEAKER_1** (0:04)
Chicago police have finally issued guidelines on how to collect and retain evidence against federal immigration agents who are suspected of violating state law.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:14)
Chicago voters will be asked whether they believe the city should try to recoup all the costs it incurred due to Operation Midway Blitz.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:21)
Customers of Save-A-Lot Grocery Stores hope someone will save them from closing.

**SPEAKER_4** (0:26)
That chain announced it would close seven stores by Saturday if new investors do not step forward.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (0:39)
Hey Chicago, I'm Sasha-Ann Simons and this is In the Loop. It is our Weekly News Recap. Chicago police have issued official guidelines on how officers should collect evidence against immigration agents suspected of violating laws. Three-time Stanley Cup champion Patrick Kane is returning to the Blackhawks on a two-year contract. Plus, we continue to see fallout over how sexual assault allegations against a state rep were handled.
Before we get into the conversation, Sun-Times reporter Mary Norkol, who's one of our panelists today, joins us to dive a little deeper into a story that she worked on this week involving the shooting of a police officer in the Albany Park neighborhood. Hey Mary, good to see you. Hello. As a general assignment reporter, I'm really glad you're here because you're in a different situation and that you cover a wide range of issues.

**Mary Norkol** (1:24)
Oh yeah, baby.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (1:25)
Day to day, and sadly that also means that you need to cover tragedies involving gun violence. There's a new poll from the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, and it shows generally that our perception of crime doesn't always reflect the actual reality of how safe or not safe our neighborhoods are. So I'm curious, how do you approach telling that human cost of gun violence?

**Mary Norkol** (1:51)
There's a lot of logistics, which is like a really dry way of approaching something that is so sad and is so emotional. But, you know, reaching out to the family to see if they want to talk more about their loved one. That's how I approach it, is I try to say, you know, this is like, there's going to be a lot of talk from the police, from the mayor maybe, from people that may not have known this person, but you did. And if you want to talk about them as a person, what you'll miss about them, what you're going through, and what the real cost, like you said, of this gun violence is, instead of just a number on a page, this is your opportunity to do that.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (2:31)
Yeah, and the Albany Park shooting that you covered, we'll get into details of that later in this podcast episode. But while I have you here, I'm wondering, how are you taking care of you, right? How are you managing the emotional weight of these kinds of stories? Because, you know, there's the journalists, Mary the person.

**Mary Norkol** (2:50)
Totally, yeah. And I think they have to work in tandem, right? Like you said, you know, Mary the journalist is the one that's, you know, responding quickly. And like I said, there's so many things that you have to, like, check off the to-do list. You have to go to the press conference, you have to listen to the scanner, you have to call the police or whatever you need to do. That's to-do list items like anybody else's job. And then you leave and it's hard sometimes to walk away from, you know, the to-do list item.
I mean, talking about it with other people in the newsroom is really helpful, especially, you know, my fellow GAs, shout out to them, where we are always in contact and, you know, they get it.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (3:35)
Your fellow general assignment reporters.

**Mary Norkol** (3:37)
Yes, yes, yes. It's a very complicated set of emotions because sometimes too, you do just kind of carry on with your life and there's almost a little bit of guilt there and a little bit of like, that was really easy for me to move on from because I do it every day.
But then, you know, sometimes there's one, this Albany Park one is a good example that just like kind of hits you in a different way.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (4:04)
Yeah, I really appreciate you sharing your thoughts with us.
Thank you. There's so much news to get into. Also at the table to help make sense of the week's news was freelance journalist Kim Bellware and Ravi Baichwal, anchor at ABC 7 News. Now, we started the conversation with cyclosporiasis. The state continues to see a growing number of cases, more than 400 confirmed or probable causes of the illness. Mary kicked things off by painting a picture of how the outbreak has been spreading in Illinois. Here she is.