Good morning, Chicago. ✶
🔎 Below: With winter’s arrival comes the departure of U.S. Border Patrol boss Gregory Bovino and his agents — but four times as many could be back in March, sources tell the Sun-Times.
🗞️ Plus: CPS employees’ travel spending is investigated, full SNAP benefits are blocked, a “Siskel & Ebert” salute and more news you need to know.
⏱️: An 8-minute read
TODAY’S WEATHER ☀️
Sunny with a high near 50.
TODAY’S TOP STORIES 🗞️
Border Patrol boss Greg Bovino and agents will soon leave Chicago, could return fourfold in March
By Jon Seidel and Tina Sfondeles
Eight weeks: It has been more than 55 days since U.S. Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino announced on social media, “Well, Chicago, we’ve arrived!” Since then, it has been downtown patrols and boat tours. Tear gas and pepperballs, even while children played and pastors prayed. Defiance and violence and a hunt for “the worst of the worst” and several use-of-force incidents a judge said “shocks the conscience.”
Sources say: Now Bovino and many of his agents are expected to leave Chicago, signaling a downshift in the Trump administration’s “Operation Midway Blitz” while winter descends on the city. But the federal presence could return fourfold in the spring. All this is according to three law enforcement sources in contact with the Sun-Times.
What we know: One source said Bovino could leave town as soon as Tuesday. Another, with Homeland Security, said 1,000 agents could come back and hit the streets in March.
More headlines:
- At Veterans Day rally, vets blast Trump on immigration, VA service cuts
- Carl Sandburg’s ‘Chicago’ poem finds fresh relevance in a city occupied by ICE
- Theater artists say plays must go on despite immigration arrests around them
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▶️ WATCH: HOW FEDS JUSTIFY USE OF FORCE
WBEZ reporter Chip Mitchell explains how the feds have justified using force against civilians these last eight weeks. | Zubaer Khan/Sun-Times
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CPS employee travel spending doubled after COVID with trips to Las Vegas, Finland: Watchdog
By Emmanuel Camarillo and Sarah Karp
‘Exorbitant’ travel: The Chicago Public Schools’ watchdog found spending on overnight travel doubled after the pandemic when schools and the district were flush with federal COVID relief money — and that some trips were “questionable, excessive and even exorbitant.”
Travelogue: The No. 1 destination was Las Vegas, even though some of the seminars staff attended also were offered locally or included virtual options, the inspector general said in an investigative report released Wednesday. There were also staff excursions to far-flung places like Finland and Estonia.
CPS responds: Inspector General Philip Wagenknecht said deficient policies allowed travel to go unchecked. In response to the report, CPS froze almost all overnight travel. It is also forming a travel review committee that will consider Wagenknecht’s recommendations.
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Chicago’s cultural department could see funding decline
By Courtney Kueppers
Money matters: In a rocky era for arts groups, funding for Chicago’s cultural affairs department would decrease by 15% under Mayor Brandon Johnson’s proposed $16.6 billion budget for 2026.
How much?: Johnson’s proposed budget allocates just north of $62 million for the Department of Cultural Affairs, which produces some of the city’s most popular Downtown events, like Taste of Chicago and Jazz Fest.
Key context: Arts groups are still trying to rebound after the pandemic led to venue closures and audience declines. Plus, the Trump administration has clawed back national grant dollars and changed rules that prevent some local organizations from qualifying for funds, resulting in closures.
MORE NEWS YOU NEED ✶
- Couple helps after hurricane: Chicagoans Jeff and Lila Funderburg have been living part time in Jamaica, developing a hurricane-proof atmospheric water generator that provides clean water for people who struggle to get it.
- 3 shot at Jewel: A man and two women were shot Tuesday inside a Bronzeville Jewel Osco, leading shoppers to hide inside a freezer and at least one person to tumble down stairs.
- Nova Music Festival exhibit: A new immersive exhibit features items recovered from the Israeli trance music festival, a major site of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks that launched the war in Gaza. Yet curators are determined not to sink into tragedy alone.
- Bailey presses on: Former downstate legislator Darren Bailey says he is staying in the Illinois GOP primary race for governor following the deaths of his son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren in a helicopter crash.
- Remembering Maureen Cotter: A longtime Sun-Times editor, Ms. Cotter, known as Mo, saw herself as a guardian of the paper’s editorial standards who formed a bond of trust with readers. She died Nov. 3 at age 64.
- SNAP still blocked: The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday extended an order blocking full SNAP payments, amid signals that the government shutdown could soon end and food aid payments resume.
- Flight cuts may linger: Air traffic controllers will get most of their pay within two days after the federal government reopens, but traffic restrictions at the nation’s busiest airports could continue, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said.
CHICAGO HISTORY ⏳
Artists highlight lasting impact of 1919 race riot with markers
By Erica Thompson
Riot victim: More than 100 years ago, Paul Hardwick was on his way to his job at the Palmer House hotel when he was chased by a racist white mob that shot, beat, robbed and ultimately killed him. Hardwick, who was Black, was long forgotten as one of the 38 people killed in the Chicago Race Riot of 1919. A new arts initiative aims to change this.
Glass markers: Hardwick was immortalized last weekend with a marker at the site of his death, thanks to The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 Commemoration Project. For years, a team of volunteers has been installing brick-shaped glass memorials in sidewalks throughout the city where the killings occurred. The pieces were created by young people who have been impacted by violence.
Public tour: Hardwick’s plaque is among the most recently installed markers and was featured on a public walking tour. The remaining 19 will be installed over the next several months, organizers say.
Key quote: “Our goal was to have something embedded in the community — literally embedded in the concrete,” project director Myles X Francis said. “As people are heading to work, walking to parks and going out to restaurants, they’re stumbling across this history.”
FROM THE PRESS BOX 🏈⚾🏒🏀
- Durable Bears: With QB Caleb Williams at the helm, the Bears are holding everything together — so far, writes Mark Potash.
- Will he re-sign?: By next Tuesday, the Cubs will know whether Shota Imanaga is accepting a $22 million-plus qualifying offer to re-sign for 2026.
- Blackhawks’ surprising success: The keys are Connor Bedard, Spencer Knight and Jeff Blashill, writes Ben Pope.
- Boys basketball: Toledo’s big win, Ivy League presence, ISU stays local and best unsigned seniors — Joe Henricksen breaks down the top recruiting stories from the Class of 2026.
GAMES AND CROSSWORDS 🧩
This week’s Chicago-style crossword theme is: Chicago food 🌭
Can you solve this clue?
32A: Chicago “Bar-B-Q” restaurant so famous it had its own Wikipedia page
BRIGHT ONE 🔆
Film events mark 50th anniversary of Siskel and Ebert’s pairing on TV
By Darel Jevens
In November 1975, Chicago Tribune critic Gene Siskel and Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert went into a WTTW studio to tape their first review show. With some coaching, the two became friends and put Chicago on the film criticism map.
The pair were working for rival papers when they were recruited for the experiment in dueling movie critics on TV. The show’s formula of educated commentary and movie clips brought viewers something special in the pre-Internet age, but its secret weapons were its hosts, less-than-telegenic fellows who knew what they were talking about, routinely differed and weren’t afraid to make that known.
The Chicago Cultural Center is marking the milestone with a series of free events honoring the show best known as “Siskel & Ebert.” Appropriately enough, most are screenings of films championed by the duo, featuring post-show discussions with guest speakers.
“Breaking Away” (Wednesday), “Drugstore Cowboy” (Nov. 19) and “Lone Star” (Nov. 25) are among the lineup. Then there’s “Siskel & Ebert at 50: A Live Performance,” which will have actors playing the two critics in re-creations of their TV commentaries and arguments.
YOUR DAILY QUESTION ☕️
Where do you like to take out-of-towners visiting during our coldest months? Tell us why.
Email us (please include your first and last name). We may run your answer in Thursday’s Morning Edition newsletter.
PICTURE CHICAGO 📸
Carl Sandburg’s iconic poem “Chicago” greets passersby from the side of Damen Tavern in West Town.
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
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Written and curated by: Matt Moore
Editor: Eydie Cubarrubia
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