Daywatch: How home gardeners are helping to save the monarch butterfly
Good morning, Chicago.
On a suburban street with smooth lawns and trimmed bushes, Martha Chiplis’ yard stands out. It’s not just the wildflowers: purple wild petunia, golden lanceleaf coreopsis, hot-pink Bush’s poppy mallow. It’s the lemon-yellow goldfinches that snack on the seeds, the fluffy bees that feed on the blooms.
And then there’s the star of the show: a monarch butterfly that descends within minutes.
At a time when monarch butterflies are struggling for survival, Chiplis is one of over 400 home gardeners throughout the Chicago area who have participated in a four-year Field Museum research project aimed at understanding how urban areas can provide much-needed habitat for the iconic insects.
Read the full story from the Tribune’s Nara Schoenberg.
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Affordable rental units large enough for families are in short supply, but new developments could help
Chicago is seeing more rental housing developments geared toward families as buildings with higher concentrations of two-bedroom or larger apartments are coming on the market or under construction.
On top of the shortage of housing broadly, there is also a shortage of family-sized rental housing — typically defined as units with two or more bedrooms — in Chicago and nationally. Rental housing for families that is affordable is in especially limited supply, as two- to four-flats have continued to be gobbled up or priced up by gentrification in Chicago.
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The prosecution’s case has also included the audio of Mapes’ entire grand jury testimony, offering a rare glimpse into a secretive process and illuminating how big-time political corruption investigations play out behind the scenes.
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Beckie Menzie and Tom Michael have been making music together for more than 25 years
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Please do not mistake these two for a cover band, writes Rick Kogan.
