Good morning, Chicago. ✶
🔎 Below: Federal immigration enforcement agents were in the Chicago area over the weekend, including during tense confrontations in Elgin between agents and residents.
🗞️ Plus: Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Raja Krishnamoorthi’s MAGA money, a quarter-zip meet-up fosters community and more news you need to know this chilly Monday morning.
📝 Keeping score: The Bears fell to the Packers, 28-21; the Blackhawks were pecked by the Ducks, 7-1; the Bulls lost to the Warriors, 123-91.
📧 Subscribe: Get this newsletter delivered to your inbox weekday mornings.
⏱️: A 9-minute read
TODAY’S WEATHER ⛅
Mostly cloudy with a high near 25.
TODAY’S TOP STORY 🗞️
ICE agents use tear gas in Elgin as hourslong standoff ends in man’s arrest
By Mohammad Samra, Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere and Cindy Hernandez
ICE action continues: A man was detained at an Elgin apartment complex after an hourslong standoff with federal agents Saturday that sparked clashes with protesters and saw tear gas and a flash-bang grenade deployed.
The scene: Protesters at the scene say the standoff began shortly before 10 a.m., when someone being pursued by federal agents ran into a second-floor unit of an apartment complex and was pushed onto the balcony by residents inside. “Some folks were throwing him blankets and food, and ICE had all this region surrounded [and] eventually broke in, grabbed him and yanked him out,” Elgin-born state Sen. Cristina Castro said.
Key context: Immigration enforcement efforts appear to have slowed in recent weeks. However, on Friday, federal immigration agents were seen making arrests in suburban Cicero. Social media videos captured agents chasing workers through a Menards parking lot.
Noem at Navy Pier: Hours before ICE and protesters clashed in Elgin, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was at Navy Pier, presiding over the annual “Christmas Tree Ship” tradition, which provides trees to families in need. Noem, who’s overseeing President Donald Trump’s mass deportations, spoke as dozens of demonstrators led chants and held signs.
More headlines:
- Black Chicagoans express solidarity with immigrants amid federal raids
- Federal deportation campaign to have chilling effect for Chicago’s snow removal companies
- Wind, cold temps can change impact of tear gas and pepper balls, experts say
WATCH: ICE IN ELGIN ▶️
Footage of Saturday’s scene in Elgin. | Mohammad Samra and Zubaer Khan/Sun-Times
POLITICS ✶
Krishnamoorthi rails against Trump — but takes money from MAGA donors
By Tina Sfondeles
Krishnamoorthi cash: U.S. Senate candidate Raja Krishnamoorthi is running a TV ad about his plans to “stop” President Trump, but he also has accepted more than $90,000 in contributions from key Trump and MAGA donors.
War chest: The fundraising leader in the Senate Democratic primary race to replace outgoing Sen. Dick Durbin also has taken in more than $120,000 in corporate PAC contributions from the same companies that are helping to fund Trump’s new $300 million White House ballroom construction, including Google, Amazon, Booz Allen Hamilton, Microsoft, T-Mobile, NextEra Energy, Union Pacific and Lockheed Martin.
MAGA money: Krishnamoorthi’s donors include Marc Andreessen, a Trump adviser and venture capitalist; Michael Pillsbury, a Project 2025 contributor and Heritage Foundation senior adviser; and Shyam Sankar, a Trump adviser who donated at least $260,000 to Republican causes this year alone.
COMMUNITY BEAT ✶
Cook County drug court program is helping nonviolent offenders overcome substance use
By Anna Savchenko
Class of 2025: Last week, 14 graduates stood before a packed courtroom at 26th Street and California Avenue to accept their diplomas for completing Rehabilitative Alternative Probation, a recovery program meant for people who’ve committed nonviolent offenses related to their substance use. The grads all had their records expunged for completing the program.
The program: Known as (W)RAP, the nationally acclaimed program offers people an alternative to incarceration by supporting participants through their recovery and helping them reintegrate into the community. It has graduated 1,151 participants since its inception in 1998. Program leaders say they look for people facing nonviolent charges that show a clear link between a substance use disorder and their criminal history.
Community is key: The program relies on community partnerships to help participants get jobs and housing. Cara Collective, a Chicago-based workforce development organization, helped one of last week’s grads get a job at Rush Medical Center as an environmental services technician.
MORE NEWS YOU NEED ✶
- From church to housing: Work has begun to transform the historic Humboldt Park United Methodist Church into 22 units of affordable housing.
- Families in mourning: After a collision early Wednesday on I-57 in West Pullman, Ruben Lujano and two other men, good friends Daekwon Cunningham and Martese J. Williams, stepped out of their cars to help — then an approaching vehicle killed them.
- Vaccine rec: Illinois health officials will still recommend the hepatitis B vaccine for newborns, despite new CDC guidance.
- Ex-judge sentenced: Former Cook County Judge Patricia Martin was sentenced Friday to four years of probation after pleading guilty to stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from World War II veteran Oscar Wilkerson Jr., who was one of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen.
- Remembering Frank Gehry: An architectural titan, Mr. Gehry’s music pavilion and its accompanying serpentine-like bridge helped turn a sunken and forlorn section of Grant Park into the globally celebrated Millennium Park. He died Friday at age 96.
- Small business minded: Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration unveiled an initiative to cut red tape to make it easier and faster to open and run small businesses, at a time when many local owners face a litany of challenges.
CHICAGO STORIES ✶
Quarter-zip sweater meetup is ‘bigger than what you’re wearing’
By Erica Thompson
Chicago Quarter-Zip Link-Up: On Sunday, Shawn Michelle’s Homemade Ice Cream in Bronzeville was packed with about 50-60 customers wearing the same attire: A quarter-zip sweater. Some quarter-zips were bright, some were muted. Some were paired with bow ties and neckties.
Who attended: The patrons — mostly in their teens or early 20s — socialized and laughed as they sampled caramel cheesecake, strawberry cheesecake and lemon pound cake flavors. At one point, Mayor Johnson showed up in his own quarter-zip and led the customers on a walk to Sip & Savor coffee shop down the street, where they sipped on matcha.
Community support: Sunday’s Chicago Quarter-Zip Link-Up was created to show support for the businesses, which were burglarized last month. Organizers said they were capitalizing on the social media trend of Gen Z men — embraced by all demographics but most popular among Black men — trading in their Nike Tech sportswear for the sweaters, which are claimed to be popular among “tech bros and suburban dads.”
‘Positive things’: Online critics have described the trend as a form of respectability politics, claiming participants are making themselves more acceptable to white, mainstream society. Quarter-zip enthusiasts push back on that, saying their intention is to be fashionable, build self-confidence, foster community and show Black men doing positive things while having fun.
FROM THE PRESS BOX 🏈🏒🏀
- Bears analysis: The Bears went from Black Friday high to Pack Sunday low. Will this one-sided rivalry with the Packers ever change? Steve Greenberg weighs in.
- Olympic dreams: Blackhawks star Connor Bedard “wants to be” on Canada’s Olympics roster, but he knows others do, too.
- Health update: The Bulls are making progress in the health department, as Isaac Okoro, Jalen Smith and Kevin Huerter worked out on the court before Sunday’s game.
- Boys basketball: Thornwood and Homewood-Flossmoor joined Michael O’Brien’s Super 25 high school basketball rankings this week.
GAMES AND CROSSWORDS 🧩
BRIGHT ONE 🔆
After some soul searching, Whitney knows where they want to be
By Justin Curto
For nearly 10 years, Max Kakacek and Julien Ehrlich have occupied a folk, at times twangy corner of indie rock as Whitney, building a fanbase on Kakacek’s breezy arrangements and Ehrlich’s distinct falsetto.
Whitney’s songs are imbued with a Midwest charm, their songs giving nods to the lake and kissing on the CTA. Their latest album, “Small Talk,” released Nov. 7, was born from a moment a couple of summers ago, when Kakacek thought he’d move to Los Angeles for a lover and leave Chicago for good.
The relationship ended and Kakacek, recommitted to the city, learned to “fall back in love with Central Time,” as he sings on the record’s lead single “Dandelions.”
Ahead of the album’s release, the band climbed into a booth at their favorite dive, Rainbo Club, and spoke with the Sun-Times about where Whitney’s been — and where they’re headed.
YOUR DAILY QUESTION ☕️
How do you feel about the city’s plan to close the State/Lake L station until 2029 for a $444M rebuild?
Email us here (please include your first and last name). We may include your answer in Tuesday’s Morning Edition newsletter.
On Friday, we asked you: What’s one change or enhancement to Chicago’s downtown that you’d like to see in the next 20 years?
Here’s some of what you said (edited for clarity) …
“I’d love to see a massive reduction in emissions from big buildings downtown … We can bring [this] about … plus huge savings on energy bills and cleaner, healthier air by deploying heat pumps, efficient electric appliances, clean energy generation, smart thermostats and other proven technologies. But we need the political will and the initial capital investment to do it!” — Rachel Fredericks
“Fewer cars, more/better public transportation and a marketplace. A large indoor open space with food, shops, produce and specialty items. Think Reading Terminal or Victoria Markets.” — Joe Krutz
“Zoning that replaces empty storefronts with affordable housing.” — Michael Davis
“Through-run trains at Union Station; and build the tunnel from the Metra electric lines onto the UP lines.” — Collin Pearsall
“I’d like to see the Bears find a conscience and self-fund a new downtown stadium for the coming generations.” — Michael Vicari
“Retail and working class diners brought back to State Street.” — Kevin Kitchen
“Put [DuSable] Lake Shore Drive underground to extend Grant Park to the lake.” — John Falk
PICTURE CHICAGO 📸
Skaters enjoy the Midway Plaisance Ice Rink in Hyde Park on Sunday after overnight snow showers. Chicago has seen 17.1 inches of snow over the last few weeks — the fastest start to the city’s snowfall season since 1978.
Candace Dane Chambers/Sun-Times
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Written and curated by: Matt Moore
Editor: Eydie Cubarrubia
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