Good morning, Chicago. ✶
🔎 Below: At a Joliet prison designed to treat people with serious mental illness, desperate men are setting themselves on fire.
🗞️ Plus: Temporary protected status ends for Haitian and Syrian immigrants, storms batter the Chicago area, data center rumors and more news you need to know.
📝 Keeping score: The Cubs beat the Cardinals, 7-3; the White Sox fell to the Yankees, 9-5.
📧 Subscribe: Get our morning newsletter delivered to your inbox weekday mornings.
⏱️: An 8-minute read
TODAY’S WEATHER 🌤️
Mostly sunny with a high near 78.
TODAY’S TOP STORY 🔎
At Joliet prison, desperate men set themselves on fire
By Shannon Heffernan
Prison on fire: There have been more than 70 fires at the Joliet Treatment Center in the last three years, according to an investigation by The Marshall Project, WBEZ and the Sun-Times. They include a dozen cases in which incarcerated men set themselves on fire.
Inside the facility: The Joliet Treatment Center opened in 2017 with the promise of being a new kind of prison in Illinois, designed to provide intensive mental health treatment. But those incarcerated as well as civil rights lawyers said conditions declined. Men were kept locked in their cells for long stretches with nothing to do. They complained about a lack of medical care and mental health treatment, which the prison system is legally obligated to provide. They also reported that guards used excessive force.
Drastic measures: As the men grew more despondent, some became willing to do anything to draw attention to their troubles and resorted to setting their cells — or themselves — on fire. One person needed surgery to graft new skin onto his charred calf. Another lost a leg. Two have died. Last year, the prison — with a population of about 200 people — recorded roughly three fires a month. Officials at the Joliet Treatment Center have repeatedly failed to meet their responsibilities to prevent or respond to fires, records show.
WATCH: PRISONCAST! LETTERS ▶️
WBEZ’s Prisoncast! is a statewide radio show and journalism project made with and for people incarcerated in Illinois and their loved ones.
Over the last few years, people in Illinois prisons have sent hundreds of letters to the Prisoncast! team, asking to share the sounds they miss most on the radio show, to which they can listen on the inside. Click the video above to see one request the Prisoncast! team has gotten repeatedly.
The latest Prisocast! episode aired Sunday. You can stream it here or wherever you get your podcasts.
IMMIGRATION ✶
Temporary protected status ends for Haitian and Syrian immigrants
By Violet Miller, Adriana Cardona-Maguigad and Tina Sfondeles
Uncertain status: Temporary protected status ended Monday for more than 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians, leaving them vulnerable to being deported to the countries they fled — which are still coping with violence and instability.
Key context: In June, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to end the 36-year-old Temporary Protected Status program for hundreds of thousands of Haitian and Syrian migrants.
‘Devastating’ conditions: Also on Monday, U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez was among three Democratic members of Congress who visited a federal immigration detention center in Kentucky to check on two Chicagoans who say they aren’t receiving proper medical care for diabetes, including a man who has been detained since September. Ramirez called the facility’s conditions “devastating.”
ELECTIONS 🗳️
Mayoral campaign revs up as nominating petitions start circulating
By Fran Spielman
Gathering begins: Mayor Brandon Johnson’s reelection petitions will hit the streets Tuesday, the first day to start gathering the 12,500 signatures needed to qualify for the mayoral ballot, but that doesn’t mean he has decided to seek a second term.
Will he run again?: Until Johnson officially launches his campaign for a second term, there’s always a chance that he won’t, even though his political foot soldiers in the Chicago Teachers Union will have no trouble gathering more than enough signatures by the Oct. 26 filing deadline to get him on the ballot.
Crowded field: Aspiring candidates in the rest of the mayoral field might face trouble. Veteran political operative Victor Reyes says he expects the field of roughly a dozen mayoral challengers to shrink to eight candidates who can gather 25,000 valid signatures, the amount he believes is needed to survive a petition challenge.
MORE NEWS YOU NEED 🗞️
- Storms hit Chicago area: Two rounds of storms hit the Chicago area Monday, downing trees in the city, destroying homes in the suburbs and leaving thousands without power.
- Heat blamed for 7 deaths: Seven people have died of heat-related causes so far this year in Cook County, the most in a single year in more than a decade, according to an analysis of county data.
- 4 killed after police chase: Four teenagers died after fleeing police, driving off an overpass and crashing into a train car early Sunday in Bedford Park, according to officials.
- Edgewater e-scooter ban: Geofencing restrictions went into effect to prevent Divvy and Lime e-scooters from riding on Sheridan Road and its sidewalks from Bryn Mawr to Devon avenues.
- Data center rumors: Cicero trustees will consider resolutions Tuesday to oppose two rumored data centers, one at the historic Hawthorne Race Course in neighboring Stickney.
CHICAGO’S BALTIC BOND 🇱🇹
Lithuania’s economy a bright spot amid Trump’s tariffs
By Stephanie Zimmermann
Furnished legacy: For the final installment in our Lithuania-set series, reporter Stephanie Zimmermann takes a look at the country’s economy. If you buy furniture containing birch or pine, there’s a good chance the wood came from Lithuania. Manufacturer SBA Home recently opened a $70 million state-of-the-art factory in North Carolina, the heart of the U.S. furniture making industry. The investment has helped dampen the impact of Trump’s tariffs
Trees and tech: Besides making furniture Lithuania is also known for financial technology startups and laser production. The country of 2.8 million people has six unicorn companies, or businesses valued at more than $1 billion, and its capital, Vilnius, is called the Baltic Silicon Valley.
Series catch up: Stephanie and photo desk editor Ashlee Rezin spent two weeks in Lithuania as the Pulitzer Center’s 2026 Richard C. Longworth Media fellows, interviewing dozens of sources and trekking through the Baltic nation — all to shed light on a region with strong Chicago ties and an increasingly important role on the world stage. Read the full series here.
ON WBEZ 91.5 FM 📻
In the Loop with Sasha-Ann Simons, 9 a.m.
- Long COVID: Women with Long COVID-19 experience more intense neurological symptoms like brain fog, dizziness and numbness than men, with more severe impacts on quality of life. That’s according to new research from Northwestern University. Talking about it are patients, a doctor leading the research, and the co-founder of a group that advocates for participants in research studies of long COVID.
- Whale journey: Four beluga whales are adjusting to life at Shedd Aquarium after being moved from a defunct tourist attraction in Canada, which had threatened to euthanize them. The move isn’t without controversy. The Sun-Times’ Stefano Esposito, Kaitlyn Mitchell of Animal Justice Canada and Shedd’s Johnny Ford break down the backstory.
Say More with Mary Dixon and Patrick Smith, 10 a.m.
- Talking business: Running a business, especially a small business, comes with challenges like operating costs, hiring staff and tariffs, and some of these obstacles can lead to a business closing. Mini Hut restaurateur Brett Gomez discusses, and callers answer the question: What Chicago business would you bring back?
FROM THE PRESS BOX 🏈⚾🏀
- Bears training camp starts: Team veterans report to Halas Hall for the start of training camp Tuesday, and general manager Ryan Poles and coach Ben Johnson have some pressing issues they need to face.
- 10-on-10 drill: With Big Ten media days starting Tuesday in Chicago, here are 10 burning issues.
- Cubs cut Jameson Taillon: The team couldn’t afford to keep sending the struggling right-hander to the mound in the middle of a playoff race, so they cut loose their longest-tenured active pitcher.
- Dusty Baker on deck for HOF: The former Cubs manager of four seasons (2003-06) will be up for election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame at the end of the year.
- Everson Pereira presses on: After returning from his first career concussion Monday against the Yankees, the White Sox outfielder says he still won’t think twice about running into walls to catch the ball.
- Sky’s to-do list: To make the playoffs, the Sky need an epic surge and a Mystics collapse, writes Alissa Hirsh.
CHICAGO MINI CROSSWORD 🌭
Today’s clue: 10.25% add-on, for most purchases in the city
BRIGHT ONE 🔆
Robbins renames Dwyane Wade’s childhood street after NBA champ
By Violet Miller
Dwyane Wade, a 13-time NBA All-Star and a three-time NBA champion, was once a 5-year-old boy whose dad would take him to play basketball in high school gyms on Friday nights and who would watch Michael Jordan’s “Come Fly With Me” VHS tape religiously.
Sunday afternoon, he added yet another accolade to his list, seven years after retiring from the court. His hometown renamed the street where he grew up after him, unveiling the signs at a ceremony Sunday. Not just honorarily either — South Claire Boulevard is now Dwyane Wade Boulevard.
“How do you put into words what it feels like to be honored on a street that helped raise you?” Wade asked the crowd. “I’ve been blessed with a life I never could’ve imagined … But standing here today, seeing familiar faces, being on this street I’ve run up and down so many times, it feels different than anywhere else I’ve been in this world.”
YOUR DAILY QUESTION ☕️
If you were to be incarcerated, what sound from the outside world would you miss most?
Reply to this question via email (please include your first and last name). We may run your answer in a future newsletter or story.
On Monday, we asked you: If you became your ward’s alderperson for a week, what would you do?
Here’s some of what you said, edited for length and clarity.
“Push to trim bushes in alleys, have abandoned properties properly secured so homeless people can’t enter and set up shelter, follow up on issues that have been voiced. Town hall meetings are nice, but … some elders … can’t navigate those. Set up an elderly roster and check in with them regularly to see if they need assistance.” — Faye Johnson
“Improve citizen, business, police and elected [officials’] relationships. There is some connective tissue that needs … nurturing and repair.” — Annie Miskewitch
“I’d spend one day with young people, not talking to them nearly as much as listening to them. I’d ask what makes them proud of the neighborhood, what makes them want to leave it and what would make them stay. Their ideas wouldn’t be an afterthought. They would help shape everything that followed.” — Dion McGill
“I’d go after the litterbugs and dog owners.” — Steven Head
“I’d fix all the potholes in the wards, the damaged streets and water problems to stop [flooding].” — Pjean McPherson
“Organize a weekly block clean-up day and provide basic cleanup supplies. Partner with local churches to share community events, programs, and resources … Host a community resource fair.” — Elexis Bowden
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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