Chicago's violent year hit a deadly milestone on Monday when the city saw its 435th homicide — surpassing last year's murder count, says the Chicago Sun-Times. President Obama has talked about the violence in his adopted hometown, including in an MTV interview on Friday. “Some of these murders are happening just a few blocks from where I live,” the president said. “I have friends whose family members have been killed.”
“What I know is that gun violence is part of the issue,” he said. “But part of the issue also is kids who feel so little hope and think their prospects for the future are so small that their attitude is, 'I'm going to end up in jail or dead.' And they will take all kinds of risks. If they've got mental health issues, are they getting the kind of services and counseling that they need early on?”