Good morning, Chicago. ✶
🔎 Below: From emotional outbursts to nervous tics, families saw immediate changes in children of parents detained in Operation Midway Blitz.
🗞️ Plus: Venezuelan Chicagoans react to Nicolás Maduro’s capture, remembering Edith Renfrow Smith and more news you need to know.
📝 Keeping score: The Bears fell to the Lions, 19-16; the Blackhawks beat the Golden Knights, 3-2.
🚫 Closed: The CTA’s elevated State/Lake station in the Loop is now closed for a multiyear reconstruction project.
🧩 New puzzle: It’s a new week with a new daily Chicago Mini Crossword — and clue — for you to try.
⏱️: A 7-minute read
TODAY’S WEATHER ☀️
Mostly sunny with a high near 39.
TODAY’S TOP STORY 🔎
Trump deportation campaign will leave lasting mark on kids of detained parents, experts say
By Cindy Hernandez and Mary Norkol
Community toll: Since the start of Operation Midway Blitz in September, President Donald Trump’s aggressive deportation campaign in the Chicago area, federal agents have targeted immigrant communities for arrest. In many instances, they’ve tear-gassed protesters opposing their tactics. The emotional toll has been profound, with many experiencing heightened anxiety and panic attacks.
Children affected: Family separations are clearly leaving visible, lasting marks on kids. Families tell the Sun-Times they saw immediate changes in children when their parents were detained, ranging from physical shifts to emotional outbursts. Although their parents are back home for now, many kids continue to wrestle with the effects of separation.
‘Biggest adversities’: “Family separation is considered one of the biggest adversities that kids can experience,” according to Colleen Cicchetti, a pediatric psychologist at Lurie Children’s Hospital. The impact’s severity often depends on the level of trauma the child experienced — whether they witnessed it firsthand, were exposed to violence or felt a sudden loss of safety.
MORE NEWS YOU NEED 🗞️
- Maduro’s removal applauded: Venezuelans across Chicago say they’re hopeful for their homeland after U.S. military forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who now faces criminal charges. But they also say they’re worried about President Trump’s motives.
- Officer mourned: Chicago police are grieving following the sudden off-duty death of Deputy Chief William Betancourt, who officials said died early Saturday after a medical emergency. He was 60.
- Data breach: The names and addresses of thousands of patients of the Illinois Department of Human Services were incorrectly made publicly viewable for the last several years, the agency said Friday.
EDITH RENFROW SMITH 1914-2026 ❤️
Edith Renfrow Smith, a ‘memory keeper’ and living link to history, dies at 111
By Neil Steinberg
Extraordinary life: Edith Renfrow Smith was born in Iowa two weeks before the start of World War I. Her earliest memories involve the end of the war in 1918 and a neighbor who came home having lost both legs. She met aviator Amelia Earhart while a student at Grinnell College, where she became the first Black female graduate, class of 1937. After graduation, she came to Chicago to work at the YMCA and was living in the city Friday when her long, extraordinary life ended. Mrs. Smith was 111.
Link to history: Mrs. Smith was one of perhaps a thousand supercentenarians — people who live to 110 — in the world, and a living link to history. She clearly remembered her grandparents, born in slavery. Her memory was so sharp that she was included in the SuperAging Research Initiative at the University of Chicago, a similar study at Northwestern University and a genetics study in Boston. Mrs. Smith was revered at Grinnell, honored as a pioneer and role model to young women.
‘Enjoy just being here’: At her 110th birthday, Mrs. Smith told the Sun-Times: “The Lord gives you the birthdays, and you take ‘em. You have no choice. Take what you have, make use of it, and be thankful for what you have. Don’t let life pass you by. Remember, this is your life. It’s wonderful to live long enough to enjoy just being here.”
ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN 📐
Here’s what’s happening architecturally in Chicago this year
By Lee Bey
Chicago faces — and braces — for another new year. What will 2026 bring architecturally? Sun-Times’ architecture columnist Lee Bey looks ahead.
The Obama Presidential Center
After years of legal battles and a lengthy federal review, both triggered by the city’s and the Obama Foundation’s decision to build on historic Jackson Park, the 20-acre, $850 million complex is finally scheduled to open in June.
The project has brought together some of the nation’s best design talent. Will it be enough to offset the center’s hard-edged 225-foot-tall museum tower and the shock of building over a section of a National Register-listed park?
Google headquarters gets completed
The $280 million conversion of the former James R. Thompson Center into Google’s new Chicago headquarters is set to wrap in 2026.
The new exterior glass facade and revised ground level entry have come at the cost of the building’s original 1980s look. Renderings released by Google in 2024 show a more sober interior as well, although the building’s atrium will be kept.
A Bears stadium, somewhere?
The longer the Bears’ itinerant hunt for a new stadium site goes on, the more it seems like a traveling show scouring the region for a government that’s sucker enough to help them pay for a new facility.
Now the team is looking at northwest Indiana after buying and wrecking Arlington Park Racecourse, then running into brick walls in Springfield after unveiling a wrongheaded plan to build a giant Roomba-looking stadium next to Soldier Field. Here’s hoping the New Year brings some clarity and a solution that seeks to benefit the public instead of fleecing it.
MUST-READ COMMENTARY 🗣️
I went to college, lived within my means, but my career stalled amid economic fog
By Sarah Rand
The rapid rise of artificial intelligence and the decline of reliable economic data have made things worse.
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‘Northwest Passage’ connecting Ogilvie, Clinton CTA station deserves another go
By Benjamin Morrell
The two-block covered walkway between the stations was closed in 1989. The shutdown was supposed to last three or four years, but the walkway ended up becoming extinct.
FROM THE PRESS BOX 🏈🏒🏀
- No. 2 seed: Though the Bears lost to the Lions, they secured the No. 2 seed because of the Eagles’ loss to the Commanders, and will host the Packers in a wild-card game Saturday at Soldier Field.
- Bears assessment: Sunday’s game started at 3:25 p.m. Apparently, the offense didn’t get the memo, Steve Greenberg writes.
- Blackhawks analysis: Ben Pope analyzes the Blackhawks’ slowly improving team statistics from the first half of the 2025-2026 season.
- Bulls breakdown: Coach Billy Donovan continues stressing the little things his players have to do, but the Bulls’ loss Saturday to the Hornets was a reminder that it’s an uphill battle from game to game, writes Joe Cowley.
- High school boys basketball: Benet takes over at No. 1 as Glenbard East returns and Mount Carmel debuts in Michael O’Brien’s Super 25 high school basketball rankings for Jan. 4.
CHICAGO MINI CROSSWORD 🌭
Today’s clue: 1D: Greek sandwiches introduced to the United States at a restaurant in Lawndale
BRIGHT ONE 🔆
Lesbian couple makes history in Cook County’s first wedding of 2026
By Cindy Hernandez
As others welcomed the new year with resolutions, Melissa Nunez and Elizabeth Brenske became the first couple of 2026 to marry in Cook County.
They made history as the county’s first lesbian couple to win the annual lottery and take part in the tradition.
The Humboldt Park couple met on a dating app two years ago and got engaged in September. A month later, Nunez surprised Branske by entering them in the lottery.
“I wanted a big proposal and a big wedding,” Brenske said at Friday’s ceremony, officiated by County Clerk Monica Gordon at her Loop office.
“But after winning this, I don’t need a big one anymore. I think this is a big enough gesture of love,” said Brenske.
YOUR DAILY QUESTION ☕️
Have you taken up pottery, dance or another hobby to beat the winter blues? Tell us what you liked about a great class you’ve taken recently.
Email us (please include your first and last name). We may run your answers in Tuesday’s Morning Edition newsletter.
PICTURE CHICAGO 📸
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Written and curated by: Matt Moore
Editor: Eydie Cubarrubia
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