Good morning, Chicago. ✶
🎉 And happy birthday: Today marks the official incorporation of our great city in 1837. Want to celebrate, flex your crossword skills and win a free hot dog? Meet us at Wiener’s Circle at 1 p.m.
🔎 Below: A network started by the Chicago Botanic Garden is racing to save the Midwest’s native seeds as climate change increases threats and demand.
🗞️ Plus: Homeland Security head Kristi Noem denies knowledge of Chicago shooting, the Fire’s flashy groundbreaking on a new stadium and more news you need to know.
📝 Keeping score: The Bulls lost to the Thunder, 116-108; the Blackhawks fell to the Jets, 3-2.
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⏱️: An 8-minute read
TODAY’S WEATHER ☁️
Partly sunny with a chance of showers and a high near 46.
TODAY’S TOP STORY 🔎
Javier Ramirez and Leonardo Garcia Venegas, U.S. citizens who were detained by ICE, and Marimar Martinez, a U.S. citizen who was shot five times by U.S. Border Patrol in Chicago, stand as U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington, DC.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty
Noem says she doesn’t know about case of Chicago woman shot by Border Patrol
By Tina Sfondeles
Tuesday hearing: Marimar Martinez, the Chicago woman who survived being shot five times by Border Patrol agents last year, stood just five rows behind U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem as she was pushed by U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal to acknowledge the shooting was “wrong” during a testy Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday.
What happened: With Blumenthal describing the October shooting that left Martinez with nerve damage to her right hand, the Connecticut Democrat asked Noem whether Martinez’s shooting was “wrong” and also highlighted — via large posters — images of text messages that showed Border Patrol agent Charles Exum bragging about the shooting and allegedly writing, “I fired 5 rounds and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book boys.”
Noem’s response: Despite comprehensive coverage of Martinez’s shooting and charges of impeding law enforcement that were later dropped, Noem repeatedly claimed she didn’t know about it. “Sir, I don’t know the situation or the case,” Noem said. “I’ll look into it to ensure that all the procedures were followed properly.” She also would not provide details on whether Exum, the agent who shot Martinez, is still on the job “carrying a gun.”
Key context: Noem’s testimony in Washington comes as DHS funding remains halted during a partial government shutdown — with Congress at an impasse over immigration policies. Despite the shutdown, senators largely focused on ICE enforcement in major cities and the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good by federal agents in Minnesota.
ENVIRONMENT 🌱
Coalition races to save the Midwest’s native seeds
By Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco
The need for seed: As climate change intensifies wildfires and other extreme weather events, demand for native seeds is surging. In 2024, the Chicago Botanic Garden helped launch the Midwest Native Seed Network, a first step in improving the region’s fragile seed supply.
Program’s growth: The coalition now includes roughly 300 restoration ecologists, land managers and seed growers across 150 institutions in 11 states. Together, they are researching which species are most in demand, where they are likely to thrive, and what it will take to produce them at scale and get them in the ground.
The goal: The collaborative is compiling information on seed collection, processing, germination and propagation while identifying regional research gaps and planning collaborative projects to address them. Ultimately, the goal is to connect people who need seeds with those who know how to grow them, the Chicago Botanic Garden said.
ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN 📐
West Side church gets blessed by National Trust
By Lee Bey
Building backing: Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church — listed on the National Register of Historic Places — has received a $500,000 grant to help fix up the 125-year-old building, the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund announced.
The structure: Designed by architect Hugh M.G. Garden and built in 1901 as the Third Church of Christ, Scientist, Metropolitan, the building at 2151 W. Washington Blvd. is as beautiful as it is unusual. It is clad in light blue glazed brick — a rare color choice for a house of worship. And with its classical proportions but modern, almost proto-Art Deco detailing, the church somehow managed to be classic and contemporary for its time.
Key context: Though a national effort, the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund has contributed money to help a number of historic Chicago sites, including the Muddy Waters MOJO Museum, 4339 S. Lake Park Ave.; and First Church of Deliverance, 4315 S. Wabash Ave.
MORE NEWS YOU NEED 🗞️
- Probation after fatal stabbing: Keshia Golden, accused of killing her abusive boyfriend, left court in tears Tuesday after prosecutors refused to drop the charges and instead offered a plea deal that would require her to serve probation.
- Pritzker calls Clinton ‘mistaken’: Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker emphatically denied any ties to convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Tuesday after former President Bill Clinton told a congressional panel he flew on Epstein’s plane with Pritzker and his wife, MK Pritzker.
- Sheltering in Qatar: Christina Paschyn, an assistant journalism professor at Northwestern University in Qatar, has been living in Doha for the last 15 years. Over the weekend, she began sheltering in place with her husband and children as Iranian missiles rained down.
- Ex-cop sentenced in scam: Hassan “Eric” Abdellatif, a former Chicago police officer, was sentenced Tuesday to four years in prison for bilking $14 million from the federal Women, Infants and Children, or WIC, program.
- Rev. Jackson’s services: Former Democratic Presidents Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Clinton plan to attend a Friday service honoring civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson at Chicago’s House of Hope.
- Parental responsibility ordinance fails: Local parents will not be held accountable for curfew violations, street racing, drug, alcohol or firearms offenses committed by their children, after City Council’s Committee on Public Safety rejected a proposal to do so.
- People’s Gas price hike: Chicagoans could see an average of $130 tacked onto their gas bills next year. People’s Gas says it’s working to finish a legally mandated pipe retirement project and meet with customers. Advocates are pushing cheaper alternatives.
- Chicago on TV: Chicago chefs Beverly Kim and Diana Dávila will compete for $1 million on Padma Lakshmi’s new show, “America’s Culinary Cup,” airing Wednesday.
ELECTIONS ☑️
What to know about the Democratic primary race for Cook County assessor
By Violet Miller
Stage is set: Vying for his third term in the office, Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi faces a challenge in the March 17 Democratic primary from one of his own — first-term Lyons Township Assessor Patrick Hynes, who spent 23 years working in the county assessor’s office as a residential field inspector, including three under Kaegi.
Key context: This election comes at a tumultuous time for many Cook County property taxpayers. Residential property tax bills are rising fastest in predominantly Black neighborhoods on the South and West sides. It’s because the county’s tax burden is being shifted away from the economic center of the city — as large businesses and wealthy landowners appeal at higher rates and more successfully — and onto low-income homeowners, according to Sun-Times analysis of five years of tax bills.
Challenger endorsed: With that backdrop, the Cook County Democratic Party chose to endorse Hynes over Kaegi, though top Democrats are still split between them.
Key links:
- More on the Cook County assessor race
- See more races on your ballot explained via our Voter Guide
- Build your ballot, then print it out, to be prepared at the polls
WATCH: TIPS FOR FIRST-TIME VOTERS ▶️
FROM THE PRESS BOX ⚽🏈⚾🏀
- Fire breaks ground: The soccer club began work on a $750 million stadium in the South Loop, marking a first step toward developing the long-dormant parcel known as The 78. The stadium is expected to be complete by the 2028-2029 season.
- Drew Dalman to retire: At just 27 years old, the Bears center told the team he is retiring, a shocking development for the man who is a key part of the offensive line that helped boost Caleb Williams to become a single-season passing leader.
- Eyes on Opening Day: The Cubs’ Cade Horton is focused on preparing for the season. Could he start Opening Day?
- Boys basketball: We’ve got Tuesday’s IHSA state basketball tournament scores, including DePaul Prep’s decisive 56-38 win over New Trier.
CHICAGO MINI CROSSWORD 🌭
Today’s clue: Chicago’s is March 4th—today!
BRIGHT ONE 🔆
Monday Night Foodball showcases city’s rising dining stars
By Jennifer Tanaka
In late August 2021, the Delta variant of COVID-19 was kicking the pandemic into a terrifying new phase of unknowns. Here in Chicago, the city reinstated an indoor mask mandate for stores, restaurants, gyms and other places where humans gathered in public. Into this dismal scene, local food writer Mike Sula launched a tiny, hopeful project.
The idea was simple: Invite an up-and-coming chef to offer a special menu at a local bar for one night only, pop-up style.
“All these unknown restaurant workers — bartenders, servers, line cooks — that had been furloughed or laid off started cooking out of their apartments or out of a shared kitchen and doing preorder deliveries or drop-offs,” Sula said. So he started writing about these interesting, emergent cooking projects for the Reader and, eventually, the two things merged.
On Aug. 23, 2021, chefs Jeanette Tran-Dean and David Hollinger brought their Vietnamese-Guatemalan mashup cuisine to Kedzie Inn, a since-shuttered dive bar in Irving Park, and Monday Night Foodball was born. Next Monday will mark Foodball’s 201st event. Originally offered as a seven-week series, Foodball just kept rolling.
The economics of a Foodball are meant to boost everyone’s fortunes. Held on Mondays, when traffic can be so slow that many restaurants close anyway, the event brings in new business. Chefs pay for ingredients and labor and, correspondingly, take 100% of food sales. The host venue loans the use of its kitchen and space for free and pockets all beverage sales, including any special menu of drinks it creates.
YOUR DAILY QUESTION ☕️
What’s the best Chicago-themed gift you’ve ever received — or given? Tell us about it.
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Written and curated by: Matt Moore
Editor: Eydie Cubarrubia
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