A murder on the month’s last day, a restructuring of city government, and a new high-rise project proposed for the edge of downtown were among the stories readers read most on Evanston Now in August. Here’s a rundown of the top 10.
- One dead in early morning shooting — Aug. 31 — Two gunmen on bicycles shot two men in the 1800 block of Dodge Avenue in Evanston early this morning — leaving one victim dead, the other hospitalized.
- City to consolidate departments, Robinson out — Aug. 21 — City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz this morning announced plans to consolidate Evanston’s public works and utilities departments into a new Public Works Agency. He also announced that Public Works Director Suzette Robinson is leaving the city workforce effective immediately.
- Report: Evanston not attractive for minorities — Aug. 20 — Picking up on a national study of metro areas, Evanston officials have applied the study’s data framework to Evanston and concluded that the city ranks relatively low in attractiveness to ethnic and racial minorities.
- Prosecutors cite Evanston case in call to defeat encryption — Aug. 11 — In a New York Times opinion column today, the Manhattan district attorney and leading prosecutors from three other countries cite an Evanston murder case as an argument for overturning new privacy protection systems on smartphones.
- DNA backs Evanston woman’s story of Harding love child — Aug. 14 — Nan Britton, a woman who for many years lived quietly in Evanston, scandalized the nation 88 years ago with a book claiming that she’d carried on a long-running affair with President Warren G. Harding and that Harding was her daughter’s father.
- High rise planned for site on Emerson — Aug. 29 — Northfield-based Focus Development has submitted plans to construct a 14-story rental apartment building at 831 Emerson St. in Evanston.
- Sudden storm leaves 1,500 without power — Aug. 2 — About 1,500 ComEd customers are without power after Evanston was hit with what city officials describe as a severe microburst of rain and hail just before 3 p.m. today.
- Appeals court affirms dismissal of suit against police — Aug. 14 — Evanston Police Chief Richard Eddington Thursday said he’s extremely proud of the work officers did in a burglary investigation nearly three years ago that led to a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of an officer’s action in detaining a 13-year-old youth as a suspect.
- Drug bust on Florence — Aug. 15 — The Evanston police special operations group executed a search warrant for narcotics in the 300 block of Florence Avenue Friday morning.
- ETHS fails to make ‘top schools’ list — Aug. 26 — Evanston Township High School wasn’t included in a ranking this month by Newsweek of what the magazine described as the nation’s top 500 high schools.