Good morning, Chicago. ✶
🔎 Below: Mayor Brandon Johnson said the city will enforce a 10 p.m. curfew for unaccompanied minors on New Year’s Eve in hopes of avoiding another “teen takeover.”
🗞️ Plus: Increases in flu cases and property taxes, early Chicago’s single ladies, and more news you need to know.
📝 Keeping score: The Bulls fell to the Timberwolves, 136-101.
🧩 After you’re caught up: We have a new Chicago Mini Crossword — and clue — for you to try.
⏱️: A 7-minute read
TODAY’S WEATHER 🌤️
Partly sunny with snow likely and a high near 24, wind chill values as low as zero and wind gusts as strong as 20 mph, as fast-moving weather systems arrive.
TODAY’S TOP STORY 🔎
Mayor Johnson stresses New Year’s Eve curfew, hopes to avoid another ‘teen takeover’
By Mitchell Armentrout
Countdown to curfew: Resolving to avoid another violent holiday season “teen takeover,” Mayor Brandon Johnson on Monday stressed the city’s 10 p.m. curfew for young people who head downtown without adult supervision for the city’s nationally televised New Year’s Eve festivities.
Key context: The mayor and police Supt. Larry Snelling implored parents to “know where your children are” to help the city avoid a repeat of the chaos that followed hundreds of teenagers who flocked to the Loop after last month’s Christmas tree-lighting ceremony. Nine teens were shot, one fatally, when large gatherings devolved into violence Nov. 21.
Downtown party: Johnson and Snelling promised a heightened police presence for the “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest” spectacle that will take over the Riverwalk on Wednesday night. The downtown party — broadcast on ABC and co-hosted by Chance the Rapper — will take place along the Chicago River from Franklin Street east to Columbus Drive, capped by a midnight fireworks show blasted from the bridges.
Also planned: The city is also deploying outreach workers along the Riverwalk to offer directions, guide people to public transportation, and “help calm situations that may feel unsafe or overwhelming,” Johnson said. CTA bus and train rides will be free from 10 p.m. Wednesday through 4 a.m. Thursday.
EDUCATION 📚
CPS Board OKs small property tax hike but cash-flow problems likely to persist
By Emmanuel Camarillo and Sarah Karp
Tax bump: The Chicago Board of Education approved a small increase to its property tax levy Monday that will allow the district to collect about $40 million more than originally planned. For taxpayers, that means someone with a $250,000 home will pay about $8 more next year.
Key context: The school board approved a property tax increase in August, but this revision means the district will fetch 4.78% more in property taxes than last year. Board members in favor argued the cash-strapped district needed to take advantage of all its revenue-raising tools, while opponents said residents couldn’t afford any further increases to their taxes.
Legal challenges: In other news, two lawsuits are challenging the Trump administration’s decision to abruptly pull a grant that provides schools across Illinois with extra support like after-school programs, food pantries and mental health services. The lawsuits, both filed in federal court Monday, ask for an emergency injunction so that students don’t return to school in January to find that these programs have disappeared.
MORE NEWS YOU NEED 🗞️
- TikToker charged in fatal crash: Tynesha McCarty-Wroten, known to her followers as Tea Tyme, was livestreaming while driving with an 8-year-old passenger when she allegedly struck and killed a pedestrian in Zion last month.
- Threat of deportation: Asif Amin Cheema, a 63-year-old Pakistani restaurant owner in Humboldt Park, may be deported after an appeals court ruled Monday his removal order could proceed. Cheema’s family says he’s been in detention since September and has severe health conditions.
- Calls for prison health oversight: Illinois lawmakers and advocates are demanding stronger oversight of the state’s new prison health care provider after a Sun-Times investigation highlighted its history of giving inadequate care.
- Flu surge: Chicago health officials are urging residents to get the influenza vaccine to keep themselves safe as the region and nation are seeing an uptick in cases.
- Remembering Sister JoAnn Persch: A longtime immigrant activist, Sister JoAnn served with the Sisters of Mercy for 73 years. She died Nov. 14 at age 91.
- New in Niles: A developer hopes to start soon on a roughly $150 million housing development in Niles that will replace the White Eagle banquet hall, a longtime hub of the area’s Polish community.
CHICAGO HISTORY ⏳
How single women lived independently in early Chicago
By Ari Mejia
Picture this: It’s Chicago in the year 1900. The trains are packed, department stores glitter on State Street and thousands of young women are pouring in from all over the country and the world. They’re looking for work and seeking freedom and autonomy.
Women ‘adrift’: Reformers and society at large at the time called these women “adrift.” It meant if they were without a husband or family that they were lonely, unprotected and vulnerable. But these women weren’t drifting at all — they were making choices that took them to different addresses.
Curious question: A listener of WBEZ’s Curious City program asked, “When single women started coming to Chicago, where did they live?” The simple answer: Boarding houses, furnished flats and brothels.
Deep dive: Talking about the types of housing available to single women at that time gives way to a broader conversation about women and labor at the turn of the century. WBEZ’s Ari Mejia looked into where you’d find single women living more than a century ago.
MUST-READ COMMENTARY 🗣️
Rich overseas medical tourists rig American organ transplant system
By Neil Steinberg
In theory, scarce organs are allocated based on medical necessity. In reality, they’re sometimes sold to the highest bidder, leaving patients like my cousin Harry to face slow, agonizing deaths.
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When will Illinois stop allowing predatory property tax sales?
By Andrew W. Kahrl
A federal judge recently ruled the most egregious feature of Illinois’ tax sale law — allowing for the total loss of property over missed tax payments — violated the U.S. Constitution. Legislators must rewrite the law.
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Businesses owned by undocumented immigrants create U.S. jobs
By Amy Yee
More than 1 million undocumented entrepreneurs in the U.S. are part of a hidden economic engine.
FROM THE PRESS BOX 🏈🏒🏀
- Bag of tricks?: Coach Ben Johnson’s trick play with the game on the line against the 49ers speaks volumes about the Bears’ progress offensively, writes Jason Lieser.
- In their corner: In a speech to his team, Blackhawks coach Jeff Blashill went to bat for the squad’s young players following a blowout loss Sunday.
- Williams’ patience tested: The Bulls’ Patrick Williams recently talked about his lack of playing time and staying a good soldier.
- High school basketball: Danny Houlihan stepped up in Christopher Kirkpatrick’s absence, leading New Trier into the Pontiac quarterfinals.
CHICAGO MINI CROSSWORD 🌭
Today’s clue:
2D: Rainbow ___ (ice cream shop celebrating 100 years in 2026)
BRIGHT ONE 🔆
Uniting Voices Chicago choir records with The B-52s singer Kate Pierson
By Tricia Despres
The B-52s flourished long before Uniting Voices Chicago member Stella Corotis was even born — and yet she grew up on them and their music.
But never did the 17-year-old high school senior at DePaul College Prep imagine joining voices with the queen of The B-52s herself — Kate Pierson — on a completely reimagined cover of “People Have the Power.” The song was written by Patti Smith and her late husband and released in 1988 on Smith’s album “Dream of Life.” Pierson released her single in November.
Pierson laid down the vocals over the summer and then Uniting Voices Chicago, a citywide youth choral organization previously known as the Chicago Children’s Choir, recorded their part in September.
“It is such a song for now,” Pierson told the Sun-Times. “To have [Uniting Voices Chicago] on board makes it something that pulls [the song] forward to the next generation and makes it even more current than it is. It just seemed like now is the time to bring the message forth.”
YOUR DAILY QUESTION ☕️
Are you participating in “Dry January” this coming year? Tell us why — and how you plan to stick with the challenge.
Email us (please include your first and last name). Your answers to this question may appear in Wednesday’s Morning Edition newsletter.
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Written and curated by: Matt Moore
Editor: Eydie Cubarrubia
Hat tip: The Sun-Times’ Joel Carlson for today’s subject line, which you’ll find on the front page of today’s print edition.
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