Good morning, Chicago. ✶
🔎 Below: Where — and when — most smoking complaints are filed as the CTA grapples with snuffing out the problem of lighting up on buses and trains.
🗞️ Plus: A high-stakes hearing on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Broadview facility, U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia exits, SNAP resource guides and more news you need to know.
📝 Keeping score: The Blackhawks fell to the Kraken, 3-1.
📧 Subscribe: Get this newsletter delivered to your inbox weekday mornings.
⏱️: A 9-minute read
TODAY’S WEATHER 🌤️
Mostly sunny with a high near 62.
TODAY’S TOP STORIES
Judge will hear claims of unsanitary ‘black hole’ conditions at Broadview’s ICE facility
By Jon Seidel
High-stakes hearing: Conditions inside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility in Broadview will be at the center of another high-stakes hearing at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse, where a federal judge says he’s ready to devote his entire day Tuesday to it.
At issue: Lawyers want a temporary restraining order governing conditions inside the facility, where they say people are being held without sufficient food and water, opportunities for hygiene, or access to proper medical care. The Sun-Times and WBEZ have documented how the facility, meant to hold people for a few hours at a time, is instead keeping them for days.
Key context: The lawsuit sets the stage for another pivotal hearing at the federal courthouse, where lawyers have argued in recent weeks over the feds’ treatment of protesters and whether President Donald Trump should be allowed to deploy National Guard troops here.
More headlines:
- Broadview board meeting cut short as protesters confront mayor
- Mayor Johnson scores win in legal battle with Trump over frozen federal funds
- Suburban man hospitalized after arrest by ICE agents
- Lawyers swap complaints of obstruction, ‘sandbagging’ during deposition
✶✶✶✶
CTA logs 14K smoking complaints in 14 months
By Leigh Giangreco
Smoke screen: More than 14,000 complaints about smoking were filed with the CTA by email and through the agency’s chatbot over a 14-month period — between late April 2024, when the chatbot first launched, and last June.
Red Line leads: The Red Line, the busiest on the CTA, leads the system in smoking complaints, with nearly 5,500 about smoking over the same period, according to the data. Also in that same period, Blue Line riders filed almost 3,500 smoking complaints while Green Line riders filed about 1,800. Riders filed the most complaints at the peak of afternoon commuting hours.
CTA citations: The CTA uses the chatbot’s smoking complaint data to decide where security guards are deployed on “anti-smoking missions,” the CTA said. The CTA’s contracted, unarmed security guards can only inform riders of the no-smoking policy. Chicago police have issued 3,486 citations for smoking on trains and buses through Sept. 20 this year, according to the CTA. In 2024, CPD issued 4,092 such citations, which can carry a $300 fine.
✶✶✶✶
Garcia won’t seek reelection, leaves seat for chief of staff in move panned as ‘coronation’
By Tina Sfondeles
Garcia out: U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia will not seek reelection — leaving in place a succession plan for his chief of staff with a last-minute maneuver that critics likened to a coronation and a Chicago political machine play.
Pulling petitions: Garcia filed petitions Oct. 27 with the Illinois State Board of Elections to run for his 4th Congressional District seat, but his chief of staff, Patty Garcia, no relation, filed petitions ahead of 5 p.m. Monday, the deadline for filing. Garcia is expected to pull his petitions.
Key context: Rep. Garcia’s decision is the latest to shake up Illinois politics this year, and there are now five open congressional seats and an open U.S. Senate race in the March 17 primary.
MORE NEWS YOU NEED
- Dick Cheney dies: As vice president, Cheney was a powerful, polarizing figure and a leading advocate for the invasion of Iraq. He died Monday at age 84, his family said.
- Man charged with threatening Trump: The Lake County man allegedly posted a video on Instagram threatening to buy guns and kill the president, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
- Gov. mulls ‘right to die’: Gov. JB Pritzker wouldn’t commit to signing legislation narrowly approved by the Illinois General Assembly that would allow terminally ill people to end their own lives with a doctor’s prescription.
- Campaign for governor: Suburban video gambling kingpin Rick Heidner formally joined the fray for the GOP nomination for governor, as Illinois’ candidate-filing period ended Monday ahead of March’s primary election.
- Hack attack: Rogue employees of River North-based DigitalMint, which specializes in negotiating ransoms to mitigate cyber attacks, were carrying out their own piracy in a plot to extort millions of dollars from a series of companies, prosecutors say.
- Environmental threat: Nearly half a million gallons of liquid asphalt spilled into the storied canal of the Chicago River earlier this year, leading to a massive cleanup that is continuing almost nine months later.
SNAP DECISIONS 🍎
Chicago residents, restaurants offer meals for people left without SNAP funds
By Elvia Malagón and Casey He
Stepping up: Across the Chicago area, restaurants and residents are jumping in to provide free meals and pantry staples to people cut off from Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits this week.
Key context: On Monday, the Trump administration said it would partially fund SNAP benefits for November, following a pair of rulings in federal court Friday ordering the government to keep the program running during the shutdown. It remained uncertain when those funds would reach the prepaid cards used to buy groceries.
Resource guides: We’ve got a growing list of restaurants offering free and discounted meals to SNAP recipients — and a guide to where to find food pantries in the city and suburbs.
EDUCATION 📚
- School futures: The Chicago School Board on Tuesday will vote on whether to take over Chicago High School for the Arts and to allow Epic Charter School, a small charter high school in South Chicago, to close.
- New CPS inquiry: A Cook County Circuit judge ordered Chicago Public Schools to redo its investigation into whether Tim King, the once-lauded founder and former CEO of Urban Prep Charter Schools, committed sexual misconduct.
- State sues Trump again: Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul joined 21 other attorneys general in suing the Trump administration over a rule change in forgiving federal public service student loans.
FROM THE PRESS BOX ⚽🏈🏀
- Homophobic chant: During the Fire’s playoff match in Bridgeview, coach Greg Berhalter pleaded with fans to halt an offensive chant.
- Coach gives credit: Sunday was the first time the Bears won because of QB Caleb Williams and this team’s offense, coach Ben Johnson said.
- Bulls brace for change: The Bulls’ roster is headed for key changes, so coach Billy Donovan had a discussion with his team.
- College basketball preview: National title contenders, national player of the year candidates, Big Ten standouts — it’s all right here.
GAMES AND CROSSWORDS 🧩
This week’s Chicago-style crossword theme is: Famous Chicagoans 🌟
Here’s your clue:
1A: “The Fugitive” star and Chicagoan-by-birth, Harrison ___
BRIGHT ONE 🔆
Meet musician Mara Love, Chicago Made Music Showcase winner
By Morgan Ciocca and Nudia Hernandez
It took Chicago indie-jazz vocalist Mara Love two tries to win one of the city’s most coveted prizes for emerging musicians: The top honor at the Chicago Made Showcase.
Love said she didn’t even plan to enter again until she was encouraged to do so by competition organizers Mark Hubbard and Reggie Ayers.
Each year, the competition put on by Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, in partnership with Next Showcase, honors one grand prize winner with $10,000. The showcase wrapped up Oct. 25 with a performance at the Chicago Cultural Center’s Claudia Cassidy Theater.
Love took home the $10K for “her powerful voice, storytelling and commitment to representing Chicago’s vibrant music culture,” according to DCASE.
“By the grace of God, I got it. I’m very grateful,” Love told Vocalo, WBEZ’s sister station, during a recent interview.
YOUR DAILY QUESTION ☕️
How would you like the CTA or the city to handle smoking on trains and buses?
Email us (please include your first and last name). We may include your answer in Wednesday’s Morning Edition newsletter
Yesterday, we asked you: Who’s a history-making Chicagoan more people should know about?
Here’s some of what you said…
“Jesse Binga, the first Black banker in Chicago. I read his biography by Don Hayner, the retired editor-in-chief of the Chicago Sun-Times, and it was a revelation.” — Robert Pierce
“Rudy Lozano! A visionary activist who changed the city for the better and gave his life for it. His legacy still lives on strongly today.” — Antonio Ramirez
“Hazel M. Johnson, for spotlighting the ways that environmental pollution contributed to racist social policies.” — Bilal Dardai
“Lucy Parsons, for her massive influence on the labor movement at the turn of the century, especially the eight-hour day.” — Dustin Henry Currier
“Alice Gerstenberg! A playwright and theater maker who pioneered the Little Theatre Movement and explored the inner life of women onstage in the 1910s. Berger Park Cultural Center has produced a short play festival dedicated to her work for the past few years.” — Eileen Tull
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
Hat tip: Sun-Times’ Bryan Barker for “CTA’s smoking problem,” which you’ll find on the front page of today’s Sun-Times print edition. Members and home delivery subscribers can access the e-paper here.
The Chicago Sun-Times is a nonprofit supported by readers like you. Become a member to make stories like these free and available to everyone. Learn more at suntimes.com/member.