👮‍♀️ Happy Thursday! On this day in 1913, the Chicago Police Department appointed its first female officers.

🌧️ Today's weather: Of course, more rain. Thunderstorms likely, with a high of 76.

🎂 Happy birthday to our member Christine Dudley!

Today's newsletter is 1,106 words — a 4-minute read.

Tuesday's derecho wasn't just a storm; it was a stress test.

The latest: The fast-moving, powerful storm produced several tornadoes and battered several south suburban and Northwest Indiana communities.

• With five tornadoes now confirmed from Tuesday, Illinois has become the second state on record to surpass 200 tornadoes in a single year.

State of play: While this year's storm season is historic, a new analysis ranks Cook County as the nation's second-least-prepared large county for natural disasters.

Flooding has become a lightning rod for criticism.

• Mayoral candidate Joe Holberg said the city needs to rethink flooding mitigation with the new strength and severity of thunderstorms.
• "Flooded streets and backed-up sewers aren’t inevitable," Holberg said in a viral video. He wants the city to treat heavy rain like snowstorms, deploying crews to keep sewer grates clear.

For ComEd, this week's storms marked the utility's 19th major weather event of 2026 — the most in more than two decades.

• More than 370,000 customers lost power after this week's storms, with ComEd and NIPSCO crews still working to restore electricity today.
• “Utilities increasingly have to plan for extreme weather as a recurring stress on the grid, not an exception,” West Monroe's Danny Freeman tells Axios. West Monroe is a Chicago-based business and technology consulting firm.
• “The goal isn’t a grid that never loses power during a major storm, but one where severe weather doesn’t repeatedly create widespread, prolonged outages.”

Friction point: Federal help is no longer something Illinois officials assume they'll receive. The Trump administration has repeatedly denied the state's recent FEMA requests, including Illinois' appeal seeking assistance for residents affected by the August 2025 storms.

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For the first time, Chicagoans can weigh in on how the Park District spends $500,000.

Why it matters: Participatory budgeting gives residents a say in how city officials spend tax dollars on public amenities and services.

How it works: Community members have until Aug. 27 to vote on what they want prioritized.

• Park district officials compiled a list of feasible ideas from more than 1,000 suggestions submitted by parkgoers.
• Those ideas were then placed into one of four categories, which voters rank, with at least nine projects from the winning category to be completed.

To get a sense of how far $500,000 could go, here are some common costs, according to the Park District.

How to vote: Pick up a ballot at a park fieldhouse or vote online.

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Meta is opening a Meta Lab store in Chicago's Gold Coast neighborhood.

Driving the news: The company confirmed to Axios yesterday that it's opening its first Midwest location at 932 N. Rush St., the former home of Glossier.

The big picture: Meta Lab retail shops sell AI glasses, including the company's collaborations with Ray-Ban and Oakley, as well as virtual reality headsets.

How it works: Meta's AI glasses essentially put your phone on your eyes. They're equipped with a camera to snap photos and record video, microphones and speakers to listen to music and talk on the phone, and internet capabilities.

The latest: The smart glasses are among Meta's most popular consumer products, and while the devices have sold well, the company is also facing growing controversy over privacy.

• Meta has added some features in response to concerns, like the white LED indicator light, which lets bystanders know when someone is recording. The company recently updated the software on the glasses so recording is disabled if the light is tampered with.

What's next: Meta expects to open the Chicago lab "ahead of the holiday shopping season," Meta's Matt Jacobson said.

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🚨 An ICE agent has pleaded guilty to battering a protester at a Brookfield gas station while off duty. (Tribune)

WGCI radio personality and hip-hop booster Dion Jackson, also known as "Spank Boogie," has died at 51. (Sun-Times)

🧢 This week's Sox game honoring Pope Leo XIV, with a fifth-inning blessing and commemorative pontiff hat, proved quite pope-ular. (Block Club)

👋 Hey, it's Justin! I promised to get out to the suburbs this year to review coffee shops. I'm finally doing it!

Today's spot: Maple Leaf Coffee House (1 W. Illinois St., St. Charles)

The vibe: A homey, family-friendly coffee shop right along the Fox River. Delightful views!

The coffee: This place cares about coffee. It has its own roaster in Roselle. On the barista's advice, I sipped one of the shop's go-to drinks — the Maple Vanilla Latte.

• It was a delightful mix of flavors, but probably more for a cozy fall visit. My colleague Ike ordered a more seasonally appropriate iced version.

The service: I arrived closer to closing time, so there wasn't a line, and the baristas were super nice when they alerted me that it was time to go!

☕️ Seven-word review: Great coffee and views in downtown St. Charles.

It's Justin again...

While I was in St. Charles, I found out that several local breweries are teaming up this month to celebrate the city's Belgian heritage.

The latest: Six breweries are pouring Belgian-style beers to raise money for the St. Charles History Museum, which recently opened an exhibit exploring the suburb's Belgian roots.

How it works: Customers can sample a brew at each spot and vote for their favorite.

Flashback: At the turn of the 20th century, a Moline-based iron company relocated to St. Charles after a fire, bringing with it an immigrant workforce that was predominantly from Belgium.

• They even brought their own game called Rolle Bolle, which is a cross between horseshoes and bowling.

If you go: The winning beer will be announced on Aug. 29 during "Blues & Brews" at Pollyanna Brewing & Distilling, 106 S. Riverside Ave.

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Edited by Larry Graham.

🪕 Carrie wants to hop on the Red Line to Argyle today to check out Tzu-Tsen Wu Quartet as part of the Red Line Jazz Project.

🦟 Monica keeps getting attacked by mosquitoes when she takes the dog out for a pitstop at dusk. She wants to know your best anti-itch remedies.

📺 Justin loved the first episode of Ryan Murphy and Brett Easton Ellis' new show "The Shards." They've done a good job of making it feel like you are watching a novel.

Want more Axios Chicago content? Check out our Instagram for extra stuff to do, behind the scenes photos, videos and more!