Good morning, Chicago. ✶
🔎 Below: How one man went from working at Dunkin’ Donuts to becoming a convicted gun trafficker.
🗞️ Plus: Feds fire tear gas at protesters again, the health care hangups at the center of the government shutdown and more news you need to know.
📝 Keeping score: The Blackhawks beat the Lightning, 3-2.
⏱️: A 9-minute read
TODAY’S WEATHER ☀️
Sunny with a high near 53.
TODAY’S TOP STORIES
Federal agents detain high schoolers in Little Village, deploy tear gas against protesters
By Cindy Hernandez and Adriana Cardona-Maguigad
Little Village targeted: Federal immigration agents targeted Little Village for the second consecutive day Thursday, detaining at least five people — including two local high school students — and deploying tear gas at dozens of protesters who gathered at the scene. Chicago police officers also arrested a woman amid the chaos.
Residents respond: Led by U.S. Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino in a caravan of SUVs, the feds rolled into the Southwest Side neighborhood that’s the heart of Chicago’s Mexican community, prompting residents to post on social media and blow whistles outside to warn neighbors.
Bovino scrutinized: A video shows Bovino tossing what appears to be a tear gas canister into the crowd, sending people running. Also on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis more than doubled the amount of time Bovino could be questioned under oath in a deposition — for potentially five hours.
More headlines:
- Masked immigration agents erode trust and intimidate, former top federal law officials say
- Pritzker forms panel to document alleged abuses by feds during Chicago deportation campaign
- Board members urge CPS to consider ‘emergency’ remote learning amid continued immigration raids
✶✶✶✶
WATCH: FEDS IN LITTLE VILLAGE ▶️
Federal agents deploy tear gas in Little Village on Thursday. | Provided
✶✶✶✶
Portrait of a convicted Chicago gun trafficker
By Frank Main
Driving forces: Benjamin Cortez-Gomez says an empty wallet — and greed — drove him to sell guns after the COVID-19 pandemic torpedoed his low-paying catering gig.
‘Quick buck’: “All you think about is that quick buck,” says the 32-year-old South Sider, who corresponded with the Sun-Times by email from jail because federal officials denied him permission to meet with a reporter. “I’m talking about perhaps up to $10,000 in a day,” Cortez-Gomez says.
9-year sentence: Federal agents arrested Cortez-Gomez in July 2020 after he bought seven handguns in Indiana and drove them back to Chicago to sell. On Wednesday, he was sentenced to almost nine years in prison after pleading guilty to gun trafficking.
✶✶✶✶
What to know about the expiring Obamacare tax credits at the heart of the government shutdown
By Elvia Malagón
Shut down standoff: As the federal government shutdown approaches nearly a month, the fight over access to health care for Americans is at the center of the standoff between Republicans and Democrats.
Health care hangups: Democrats want to extend enhanced tax credits for people who use the Affordable Care Act marketplace, which are set to expire at the end of the year. Experts say this will cause insurance costs across the country to skyrocket, forcing some to become uninsured. Democrats are also pushing to reverse cuts to Medicaid enacted as part of President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and policy bill passed this summer.
State marketplace: For the first time, residents in Illinois this year can sign up for insurance in the new state-run marketplace called “Get Covered Illinois.” It launches Nov. 1, the day open enrollment begins. If the federal government shutdown is still happening, enrollment should not be impacted because the marketplace is state-operated, a state official said.
LET’S HEAR FROM YOU 📧
Are you enrolled in the ACA and have you received a notice that your premium will rise?
We want to hear about how this will impact your household and health.
Reach out to reporter Elvia Malagon here or via the button below.
MORE NEWS YOU NEED ✶
- Bailey mourns family: Former Illinois state lawmaker and 2026 Republican gubernatorial hopeful Darren Bailey is grieving the “unimaginable loss” of his son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren in a helicopter crash.
- Fatal shooting verdict: Alphonso Joyner was found guilty of first-degree murder in the 2021 shooting death of Woom Sing Tse, a beloved elder in Chinatown who was taking his daily walk to get a newspaper.
- Wicked Town boss sentenced: Donald Lee, who led a street gang labeled the “most vicious” ever prosecuted in Chicago’s federal courthouse, has been sentenced to 34 years behind bars.
- Firing questioned: In a lawsuit filed Thursday, Kelly Tarrant, a longtime Chicago Public Schools investigator, is alleging she was fired as she delved into politically and racially charged cases and refused to change reports, despite pressure from high-level officials.
- Transit troubles: Time is winding down in Springfield for lawmakers to pass a funding bill that saves the CTA, Metra and Pace from drastic service cuts beginning in the last half of 2026.
- Airport slot machine plan: Chicago’s aviation commissioner and the City Council’s Aviation Committee chair said Thursday they were concerned installing slot machines would cheapen the look and feel of O’Hare and Midway airports.
MUST-READ COMMENTARY 🗣️
ICE only gives joy to those who’ve said, ‘Go back to your own country’
By Rummana Hussain
I am among the lucky ones. Although I have been told repeatedly I don’t belong in the U.S., federal agents haven’t yet manifested these ugly words into reality for me as they have for so many others.
____
Trump completes demolition of White House’s East Wing
By Lee Bey
Trump’s blitzkrieg on the East Wing happened without as much as a hint of public review, due process or even consideration for the White House’s historic status.
FROM THE PRESS BOX 🏀🏈🏒
- NBA’s gambling problem: Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups, Heat guard Terry Rozier and former Cavaliers player and assistant coach Damon Jones were arrested as part of an investigation related to illegal sports betting and Mafia-backed rigged poker games.
- The one that got away?: Ravens LB Roquan Smith is still making the Bears regret trading him, but Tremaine Edmunds’ recent uptick eases the sting.
- Why James jumped: Before Thursday’s matchup, ex-Blackhawks prospect Dominic James explained his decision to sign with the Lightning instead.
WEEKEND PLANS 🎉
👻 Forbidden Newberry
5:30-8:30 p.m. Friday
📍Newberry Library, 60 W. Walton St.
This event will showcase a “spine-chilling selection” of items from Newberry’s collections, plus seasonal drinks and light bites.
Admission: $40
🎃 Upside Down Halloween Parade
12-2 p.m. Saturday
📍Washington Park at Russell Drive
Families in costume can join the procession or watch dance teams, musicians and acrobats from the sidelines.
Admission: Free
❤️ Día de los Muertos Xicágo
3-8 p.m. Saturday
📍National Museum of Mexican Art, 1852 W. 19th St.
Honor loved ones who have passed and enjoy performances from Ballet Folklórico Back of Yards, Laura Itandehui and more.
Admission: Free
👟 Meet Me On Milwaukee
10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday
📍Milwaukee Avenue from Damen Ave/North to Ashland avenues
The street will close for pedestrians to shop, eat and catch live music.
Admission: Free
BRIGHT ONE 🔆
New Adler CEO aims to usher in the future at nation’s oldest planetarium
By Ambar Colón
As the oldest planetarium in the Western Hemisphere, the Adler Planetarium has garnered a reputation for feeling dated in recent years.
But the planetarium’s astrophysicists are working on “new discoveries every day” around gravity waves, star formation, black holes and exoplanets — and more of that research deserves to be on display, the museum’s new president and CEO Elizabeth C. Babcock said.
She has moved back to Chicago after 15 years to lead the nearly 100-year-old institution. Babcock worked at the Field Museum from 2002 to 2010 and most recently at the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum in Washington.
Nearly three weeks into her new role, she has spent weekends and late nights meeting with staff and chatting with visitors. “Coming back here is like coming home,” Babcock told the Sun-Times.
GAMES AND CROSSWORDS 🧩
This week’s Chicago-style crossword theme is: Concert venues!
YOUR DAILY QUESTION ☕️
For today’s daily question, we’re taking inspiration from “Say More,” WBEZ’s call-in morning talk show, where listeners chimed in Thursday with their home remedies. So we want to know: What is your tried and true remedy when you have a cold?
Email us with your answer (please include your first and last name). We may run your answers in Monday’s morning newsletter.
Yesterday, we asked: How do you feel about the possibility of installing slot machines at O’Hare and Midway Airports?
Here’s some of what you said…
“I’ve traveled to a lot of other states that have slot machines in airports and various places like restaurants and I consider it quite normal … I’m fine with it. As long as there are clear signs that say what the odds actually are.”— Lisa Janoschka
“Putting aside my antigambling feelings, I can understand airports or the city wanting to install more slot machines for financial reasons. But for heaven’s sake, not if you have to kick out a Chicago treasure like Gene & Georgetti to facilitate that.”— Manisha Makwana
“Gambling is a particularly pernicious vice that allows the people running the game to prey on people who usually don’t have money to throw away.”— Alex Lubertozzi
“This kind of stealth tax on stressed travelers only exists because the city can’t easily tax the corporations actually winning in this economy. That authority sits with Springfield … though [Mayor Brandon Johnson’s] current budget proposal with a tax on Chicago’s most profitable corporations is a step in the right direction.”— H. Kapp-Klote
“The Sun-Times asked readers last year what changes we wanted to see at the airports. I don’t recall anyone asking for slot machines.” — Benjamin Recchie
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
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.