Pritzker slams Trump post-debate • Cook County homeowners warned about taxes • Walgreens to close some stores

FRIDAY NEWS FLASH - Following the first debate between President Joe Biden and Donald Trump on Thursday, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker released a statement ripping into the former president.

Read the statement below:

"Tonight, voters were presented with a clear choice – a president working hard every day to improve the lives of all Americans or a convicted felon, a selfish blowhard looking out only for himself. The contrast between these two men was clear before the debate – it is even clearer now.

"At every turn, Donald Trump lied, rambled, and misled the American people about what a second Trump term would look like, but voters won’t be fooled. This is a man who brags about ripping reproductive rights away from women, tried to gut healthcare for millions of Americans, shipped jobs overseas, and sold out the middle class to the wealthiest bidders. Trump’s second term will only be worse."

Cook County homeowners in these 15 suburbs will pay more in property taxes: treasurer

A recent analysis from the Cook County Treasurer's Office revealed that property taxes for some homeowners in the south and southwest suburbs will significantly increase.

Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas said the median tax bill jumped a record 19.9 percent in the region after analyzing the second and final round of tax bills for the 2023 tax year.

The steepest increases in homeowners' tax bills were seen in 15 southern suburbs, where taxes surged by 30 percent or more. Of the 15 suburbs, 13 have mostly Black populations. In two of the suburbs, Dixmoor and Phoenix, the treasurer's office said the median tax bill more than doubled.

"Many homeowners are going to be shocked and angry when they get their bills," said Pappas. "South suburban homeowners already pay some of the highest property taxes in the county, and these increases will make paying those bills even more difficult."

Chicago weather: Showers and storms poised to return

Today will be mostly cloudy and warmer with highs in the low 80s.

There will be a few light showers around. Heavier showers and storms are more likely late tonight into tomorrow morning. There may be a bias for more activity over our southern counties in the morning.  

Highs tomorrow will be even warmer, with temps in the upper 80s likely. Sunday will be lovely with sunshine and highs in the 70s.

Monday will be just as nice as July opens with a sunny day and upper 70s. 

Walgreens planning to close significant number of US stores, CEO says

Walgreens is planning to close a significant share of U.S. stores as it deals with weak consumer spending, according to the CEO of its parent company.

CEO Tim Wentworth of Walgreens Boots Alliance, which owns both pharmacy chains Walgreens in the U.S. and Boots in the U.K., told the Wall Street Journal this week that the company is planning to close a substantial number of poorly performing U.S. stores.

A final number of store closures has not yet been decided, Wentworth added, but said the company is reviewing about a quarter of its stores that aren’t profitable and could shutter a "meaningful percent" of those over the next few years, according to the outlet.

Walgreens currently has about 8,600 stores in the U.S.

Las Vegas Aces, A'ja Wilson offer glimpse of what Chicago Sky, Angel Reese can be

Before the Sky hosted the Aces, Becky Hammon had a pointed question for Teresa Weatherspoon.

"Do you have your readers yet, by the way," Hammon asked her former teammate.

Don't worry about it," Weatherspoon said.

Two of the earliest players in the biggest women's professional league in the world, cut from very similar cloth as former teammates with the New York Liberty, coached against each other on Thursday evening at Wintrust Arena.

Hammon, with her reader glasses and two WNBA championships under her belt, boasted the experience only a WNBA Champion can have in the Las Vegas Aces' 95-83 win over the Sky.

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Who won the Biden-Trump debate? Here are the night’s key moments

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump participated in their first 2024 presidential debate on Thursday night, passing on a handshake at the start and making their cases on key issues before a national television audience.

The animosity between the two men was palpable as they argued, sometimes in deeply personal terms, over abortion, the economy, age, the criminal convictions of Trump and Biden’s son Hunter, and even their golf game.

Biden’s raspy voice caught viewer’s attention, which his campaign said was the result of a cold. The president sometimes mumbled, got tongue-tied or lost his train of thought – a performance unlikely to calm anxiety among Democrats and many Americans about the 81-year-old president.

Meanwhile, the 78-year-old Trump spoke with force but with some falsehoods, too.

Here are some of the key moments from their debate.