Good morning, Chicago. ✶
🔎 Below: Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino returned Tuesday to Chicago, leading a new round of immigration raids.
🗞️ Plus: Mayor Brandon Johnson’s Council opposition passed an alternative budget plan, the people who showed out at the inaugural Chicago Fashion Awards and more news you need to know.
📝 Keeping score: The Blackhawks fell to the Maple Leafs, 3-2.
🧩 After you’re caught up: Try our new Chicago Mini Crossword. Every day, we’ll bring you a new puzzle — and new hint — below.
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⏱️: An 8-minute read
TODAY’S WEATHER ☀️
Mostly sunny with a high near 34.
TODAY’S TOP STORY 🔎
Border Patrol commander Bovino leads new round of immigration raids in Chicago area
By Cindy Hernandez, Chip Mitchell, Anthony Vazquez and Kade Heather
Bovino’s back: Gregory Bovino, the U.S. Border Patrol official who has led the Trump administration’s deportation efforts, returned to the Chicago area Tuesday with federal agents in tow, targeting immigrants on the Southwest Side and in the west suburbs a month after their first efforts came to a chaotic end.
15 detained: At least 15 people were detained by federal immigration agents, including day laborers and a tamale vendor, according to community activists. It’s unclear how long Bovino and his agents will remain in the Chicago area after short stints in Charlotte, North Carolina and New Orleans.
No comment: Bovino didn’t respond when a reporter asked for comment on a recent Sun-Times/WBEZ investigation that traced his family’s roots to Italy and later North Carolina, where his father killed a young woman in a drunken crash in 1981.
Related coverage:
- 10 things to know about Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino
- Bodycam shows feds’ aggressive tactics in October, September: ‘Deploy f—ing gas’
- After vandals wreck anti-ICE Nativity scene, Evanston church gets creative
PUBLIC SAFETY ✶
Chicago police Officer Andres Vasquez Lasso’s killer is sentenced to life in prison
By Sophie Sherry
The sentence: Nearly three years after Chicago Police Officer Andres Vasquez Lasso was fatally shot on a Gage Park playground, a judge on Tuesday sentenced Steven Montano to natural life in prison. Because Montano was younger than 21 years old at the time of the shooting, he is eligible to seek parole after serving 40 years under Illinois law.
Key context: A jury found Montano guilty of first-degree murder after a weeklong trial in late July that featured emotional testimony from Vasquez Lasso’s widow and fellow responding officers. Montano was 18 at the time of the shooting. Vasquez Lasso was 32.
Mom mourns: Vasquez Lasso personified the American dream, according to his fellow officers. He came to the United States from Colombia at age 18, learned English and joined the Chicago Police Department at 27. “For us as a family nothing is ever going to be the same. Part of me died with him,” his mother, Rocio Lasso, said Tuesday.
MORE NEWS YOU NEED 🗞️
- Dangerous rides: In videos circulating on social media, people in Christmas-themed outfits are shown “subway surfing” atop the CTA holiday train, climbing to its roof and standing, walking and at times waving while engaging in the illegal, dangerous trend.
- Jury sides with police: A federal jury on Tuesday rejected claims and awarded no damages to a man who brought a lawsuit over his February 2020 shooting by a Chicago police officer inside the Grand Avenue CTA Red Line station.
- Cop accused of sex assault: A Chicago police officer has alleged another officer sexually assaulted her Friday morning after they attended a Christmas party with other cops assigned to their Chicago Lawn district. A police spokesperson said a “known offender” was responsible but that no one had been arrested.
- VA vacancies targeted: Hundreds of job vacancies at Chicago-area VA hospitals are being wiped out as part of the Trump administration’s sweeping effort to cull the federal workforce, with many local workers warning the effort could exacerbate staffing shortages and lead to worse health care for veterans.
- Vaccine recommendations: The state’s vaccine advisory committee voted Tuesday to reaffirm and continue the practice of administering the hepatitis B vaccine to all healthy and stable infants within 24 hours of birth in Illinois.
- Alcohol use report: Illinois has issued a new statewide report on alcohol use by adults and teens. Among the findings: Nearly 23% of high schoolers reported drinking at least one alcoholic beverage in the past 30 days; and binge drinking was reported by 15% of female students and 8% of male students.
CITY HALL 🏛️
Mayor’s Council opposition passes alternative budget plan through committee
By Fran Spielman
Renegade group: An emboldened City Council majority made a clean break with Mayor Brandon Johnson on Tuesday, advancing its own plan to balance the 2026 proposed budget without a corporate head tax, but with a revenue mix that includes a surprise 5-cent increase on Chicago’s 10-cent shopping bag tax. After hours of debate, the Finance Committee approved the plan by a vote of 22 to 13.
The plan: The alternative revenue plan embraces Johnson’s proposed 15% tax on cloud computing, but includes no corporate head tax and no increase in Chicago’s monthly garbage collection fee. Instead, it relies on $8.7 million in annual revenue by raising Chicago’s tax on shopping sacks to 15 cents a bag; $6.8 million by licensing newly legalized video gambling terminals; and $6 million by taxing off-premises liquor sales.
What’s next: The renegade bloc set a revised schedule of meetings to beat the Dec. 30 deadline to avert a government shutdown. It calls for the Council to hold a rare Saturday meeting to defer and publish the alternative budget, and a meeting on Christmas Eve to pass it.
ANALYSIS 💭
“Chicago alderpersons haven’t seized control over a budget process long dictated by Chicago mayors to this extent since the 1980s power struggle known as Council Wars, which saw 29 mostly white alderpersons led by then-Alds. Edward Vrdolyak and Edward Burke thwart Mayor Harold Washington’s every move.
“But not even Council Wars featured the role reversal that occurred Tuesday. Former Finance Committee Chair Scott Waguespack (32nd) and Nicole Lee (11th) spent hours defending their budget while the mayor’s finance team sat on the sidelines and responded to questions when called upon.” — Fran Spielman, Sun-Times City Hall reporter
TRANSPORTATION 🚆
Pritzker signs CTA/Metra/Pace overhaul that ‘makes transit safer and more reliable’
By Mitchell Armentrout
All aboard: Gov. JB Pritzker signed legislation pumping $1.5 billion per year into Chicago-area transit agencies and instituting a new oversight system, ending years of debate over how to govern and finance the CTA, Metra and Pace as they struggle to bounce back from the COVID-19 pandemic.
NITA ride?: The law will also replace the Regional Transportation Authority with a strengthened Northern Illinois Transportation Authority after it takes effect next spring.
New task force: The overhaul includes a task force led by the Cook County Sheriff’s Office to coordinate law enforcement across the transit system. It also calls for unarmed transit ambassadors to patrol buses, trains and stations, as well as the introduction of a new mobile app for real-time crime reporting.
FROM THE PRESS BOX 🏈🏀
- Thuney upgrade: Bears GM Ryan Poles’ acquisition of veteran guard Joe Thuney is his biggest move to accelerate rebuild, writes Mark Potash.
- Bulls commentary: Players, coach Billy Donovan, fans and the standings are telling the front office about the Bulls’ reality — is executive Arturas Karnisovas paying attention? Joe Cowley comments.
- High school football: The Illinois High School Association will expand the state football playoffs by 128 teams and move next season’s start date one week earlier.
CHICAGO MINI CROSSWORD 🌭
Today’s clue: “City in a Garden: Queer Art and Activism in Chicago” venue (abbr.)
BRIGHT ONE 🔆
Chicago Fashion Awards celebrate innovation and community
By Brittany Sowacke
The inaugural Chicago Fashion Awards on Saturday honored scores of emerging and established creatives pushing the city’s culture forward, showing that creators and artists don’t need to leave to be a force in the industry.
Held at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and hosted by the Chicago Fashion Coalition, the awards recognized designers, photographers and stylists across 10 categories, as well as 77 Best Dressed people – the number being a nod to the city’s community areas.
The 10 categorical winners represented both longtime Chicago designers and transplants committed to the city.
“Chicago is filled with the most amazing and talented people and we’re a bit overlooked in the arts … This is paving roads for people to be seen. They don’t need to move out of Chicago,” model Seoul Adams said.
YOUR DAILY QUESTION ☕️
For today’s question, we’re looking for a two-part ode to this city’s tried and true watering holes:
What’s something every authentic Chicago tavern has? Which bar would you say is a quintessential Chicago tavern? Tell us why.
Email us (please include your first and last name). We may include your answer in Thursday’s Morning Edition newsletter.
PICTURE CHICAGO 📸
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Written and curated by: Matt Moore
Editor: Eydie Cubarrubia
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