Good morning, Chicago. ✶
🔎 Below: Border Patrol agents with guns were spotted Thursday on the Chicago River. While federal officials said the boats were needed as part of their anti-immigration blitz, 42nd Ward Ald. Brendan Reilly called the effort a “photo opp.”
🗞️ Plus: A City Council recap, a look at Chicago Public Schools’ enrollment drop and more news you need to know.
📝 Keeping score: The Cubs fell to the Mets, 8-5; the White Sox lost to the Yankees, 5-3.
📧 Subscribe: Get this newsletter delivered to your inbox weekday mornings.
⏱️: An 8-minute read
TODAY’S WEATHER ☀️
Sunny with a high near 82.
TODAY’S TOP STORIES
City Council OKs new stadium, $90M corrupt cop settlement, housing measures
Reporting by Fran Spielman and Kade Heather
New Fire stadium: The City Council on Thursday approved the Chicago Fire FC’s plan to build a $650 million soccer stadium at a vacant South Loop lot known as The 78. The stadium is being bankrolled by billionaire Fire owner Joe Mansueto, but tens of millions of public dollars are still needed.
$90M settlement: Alderpersons also approved a $90 million settlement for 176 shakedown victims. The deal, approved unanimously, put to rest 180 lawsuits tied to one of the city’s most corrupt police officers, former Sgt. Ronald Watts, who was accused of framing hundreds of people.
Granny flat ordinance: Mayor Brandon Johnson was forced to accept a far weaker version of a long-stalled additional dwelling units ordinance likely to result in just a fraction of the affordable housing he had hoped to produce. The Council unanimously approved the measure.
Housing pilot: Council members approved an affordable housing pilot program in an effort to prevent the displacement of residents living near the Obama Presidential Center, which is scheduled to open next year.
Council reorg stalls: Mayor Johnson had hoped to usher in a reorganization of City Council. Instead, the Council only voted to install Walter Redmond Burnett to replace his father as 27th Ward alderperson. The rest of Johnson’s proposed line-up of committee chairmanships was stalled indefinitely, a casualty of his diminished clout, Fran Spielman writes in an analysis.
✶✶✶✶
Border Patrol spotted with guns on Chicago River in Trump’s latest deportation push
Reporting by Mohammad Samra, Violet Miller and Kade Heather
Show boats?: At least two Border Patrol boats carrying uniformed armed officers cruised through downtown Thursday along the Chicago River, in the feds’ latest show of force as part of Operation Midway Blitz. The boats — one of which carried at least seven Border Patrol officers armed with long guns — could be seen passing through the river near Dearborn and State streets before heading toward the Chicago Harbor Lock.
‘Escalation’: “It’s an escalation of tension,” said Colin Smalley, president of local 777 of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, the union that represents the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers employees who operate the harbor lock separating the river from Lake Michigan.
More headlines:
- Protest heats up again outside Broadview ICE facility
- Prison company hiring for ICE centers around Chicago ready to cash in on Trump ‘blitz,’ ‘Big Beautiful Bill’
- Before Midway Blitz, a quiet creep of immigration cases in Chicago
✶✶✶✶
From music to art, is Chicago’s tradition of free fall fests at risk?
Reporting by Erica Thompson
Free fall?: Several free local festivals lost funding in May after President Donald Trump’s administration canceled grants issued through the National Endowment for the Arts.
Key context: After announcing changes to the NEA’s grantmaking criteria and programs in February, President Trump said in May that he would withdraw grant money previously promised for 2025. He also proposed eliminating the federal agency’s budget for the future.
Funders step up: Festivals like Afrofuturist Weekend (Oct. 1-5), the Hyde Park Jazz Festival (running Saturday and Sunday) and last week’s Englewood Jazz Festival found replacement funding this year — but support for next year’s iterations is still uncertain.
GAMES AND CROSSWORDS 🧩
This week’s Chicago-style crossword theme is: Theaters.
Here’s your clue:
13A: Chicago theater that premiered “August: Osage County”
MORE NEWS YOU NEED
- New grocery store: A ribbon-cutting ceremony Saturday will mark the opening of Forty Acres Fresh Market, along with a new PNC Bank branch next door, on Chicago Avenue in Austin.
- Illinois braces for patients: Illinois elected officials and abortion providers foresee an uptick in Wisconsin patients after that state’s Planned Parenthood branch announced it would pause abortions Oct. 1, as it faces losing Medicaid funding due to President Trump’s sweeping tax law.
- Machine gun consequences: State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke’s prosecutors are seeking pretrial detention for almost every person charged with having a machine gun — mostly handguns converted into automatic weapons. Cook County Public Defender Sharone Mitchell Jr. calls her blanket policy “dangerous.”
- CPS enrollment drops: After growing slightly for two years, mostly due to an influx of migrant students, Chicago Public Schools’ enrollment dropped significantly this school year, continuing a long-term slide. As of Sept. 15, CPS had about 316,000 students, down by about 3%.
- Traffic safety funding rescinded: The U.S. Department of Transportation has recently been canceling grants for traffic safety projects across the country, including a McLean County project that would finish a 47-mile countywide bike and pedestrian trail. The DOT said the plan “no longer aligns with DOT priorities” to “promote vehicular travel.”
- Remembering Bruce Sagan: Mr. Sagan built what was one of the country’s largest community newspaper groups when he sold it in 1986. He was also a patron of the arts, pushing to create permanent homes for Steppenwolf Theatre and the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago. He died Sept. 21 at age 96.
- 2 stars for ‘Catch Me If You Can’: This production is defined by a cast with four-star talent trapped in a show with one-star content, writes Catey Sullivan in a review for the Sun-Times.
WEEKEND PLANS 🎉
🇩🇪 St. Alphonsus Oktoberfest
5-10 p.m. Friday; noon-10 p.m. Saturday; noon-7 p.m. Sunday
📍St Alphonsus Church, 1429 W. Wellington Ave.
A weekend packed with German food; craft beer; music from Fletcher Rockwell, Dancing Queen, Bratwurst Brothers and others; and dancing.
Admission: $10 suggested donation
🎶 Ragamala
6 p.m. Friday-8 a.m. Saturday
📍Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St.
This all-night celebration of Indian classical music kicks off World Music Festival Chicago, spanning Friday to Oct. 5 at multiple venues.
Admission: Free
💃 Uptown Rhythm Festival
10 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday
📍Wilson Abbey, 935 W. Wilson Ave.
A daylong community gathering with workshops and drum and dance performances.
Admission: Free
❤️ IndigiFest
11 a.m.- 5 p.m. Saturday
📍Jackson Park, Grove B., 5700 E. Hayes Drive
This celebration of Indigenous cultures will include performances, exhibitions, food, dancing and drumming.
Admission: Free
🇵🇭 Musika SamaSama Filipino Festival
12-4 p.m. Saturday
📍Eugene Field, 5100 N. Ridgeway Ave.
Artisanal crafts, Filipino food, storytelling and live music from local performers including folk fusion act SamaSama Project.
Admission: Free
🎷 Hyde Park Jazz Festival
Saturday and Sunday
📍Multiple venues in Hyde Park
Among the many highlights of this year’s Hyde Park Jazz Festival are performances by Maurice “MoBetta” Brown, Carl Allen and the Messengers of Jazz: Tribute to Art Blakey, and more.
Admission: $10 suggested donation
PRESS BOX 🏈⚾🏒
- Defense is offense: No longer a novelty, the Bears’ use of DJ Moore at running back is part of their offense.
- Schultz hopes: White Sox top pitching prospect Noah Schultz hopes a season of rest for a knee injury could propel him to the big leagues.
- Rest and recovery: How Alex Vlasic plans to maintain his energy during another grueling Blackhawks season.
- High school football: Reporter Mike Clark previews Week 5’s top high school football games.
BRIGHT ONE 🔆
Chicago act Case Oats ‘accidentally’ made one of the standout debuts of 2025
Reporting by Selena Fragassi
If there is such a thing as a quintessential Midwestern record, Case Oats has crafted a solid one with “Last Missouri Exit,” her debut album released Aug. 22.
The Chicago musician’s record offers 10 tracks that bask under that familiar front porch glow where pedal steel, fiddle and acoustic come alive. The lyrics, too, carry deep storytelling and small-town lore.
Yet as the bandleader and principal songwriter, real name Casey Gomez Walker, tells it, the record happened by accident.
“It’s kind of the joke now. I wanted to write a novel, but I accidentally made an album,” the 30-year-old artist told the Sun-Times.
“Last Missouri Exit” has been years in the making. It began when the Wildwood, Missouri, transplant was enrolled in creative writing and journalism classes at Columbia College Chicago.
“I was trying to write a novel that was kind of coming of age with the same themes that are in the record,” she said.
YOUR DAILY QUESTION ☕️
Yesterday, we asked you: Which restaurant would you take someone who hates Chicago pizza to change their mind? What would you order? 🍕
Here’s some of what you said…
“Take them to the counter at Art of Pizza [and] let them choose a deep dish slice of their choosing. This way they won’t be intimidated by the whole pie, and they can even try and eat it without a knife and fork because it won’t be super hot and goeey.” — Dan Schiller
“I’d take them to Vito and Nick’s or Pat’s. Both places are exceptional representations of Chicago pizza and even hardcore East Coast pizza snob friends of mine have to give them props for the job they do. I maintain there is room for both pizza styles of [New York] and Chicago to be great.” — Josh Copland
“Pizzaboy Chicago. Order a thin crust pizza or deep dish pizza. The sauce is fantastic, all fresh ingredients! I would start with a basic sausage and cheese pizza. Then go back and try all the specialty pizzas. I have taken many friends and all have said [it was] delicious. My father is one who does not like pizza. Loved Pizzaboy. He asks to go back.”— Gerry Diaz
“Morritis for thin. Lou Malnatis for deep dish.”— Theresa Murphy
“Vince’s on 63rd Street, Chicago. Extra thin crust, well done. Second would be Connie’s in Bridgeport.” — Sandie Belluomini
Thanks for reading the Sun-Times Morning Edition!
Got a story you think we missed? Email us here.
Written and curated by: Matt Moore
Editor: Eydie Cubarrubia
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