Good morning, Chicago. ✶
🔎 Below: The city is counting on about $26 million in next year’s budget from a new tax on sports betting — which big sportsbooks are trying to stop, arguing it would violate the state constitution.
🗞️ Plus: A lobster heist, creative New Year’s Eve plans and more news you need to know.
📝 Keeping score: The Blackhawks fell to the Islanders, 3-2.
🧩 New puzzle: We’ve got a new puzzle — and clue — for you to try further down.
📧 Subscribe: Get this newsletter delivered to your inbox weekday mornings.
⏱️: An 8-minute read
TODAY’S WEATHER 🌨️
Mostly cloudy with snow likely, a high near 32 and wind gusts as strong as 30 mph.
TODAY’S TOP STORY 🔎
FanDuel, DraftKings, other big sportsbooks sue to block new Chicago sports betting tax
By Mitchell Armentrout
Calling foul: A coalition of multibillion-dollar gambling companies are suing to block the city from taxing online sports betting revenue that FanDuel, DraftKings and other major sportsbooks rake in from Chicago bettors.
The suit: The Sports Betting Alliance filed Tuesday for a temporary restraining order in Cook County Circuit Court against the 10.25% tax, which is supposed to be levied on the companies’ revenue from online sports bets placed in Chicago when the 2026 city budget kicks in with the new year Thursday.
Key context: Mayor Brandon Johnson proposed the tax to raise an estimated $26 million to balance the budget, and an emboldened City Council kept the measure in the spending plan they passed without the mayor’s support. Johnson announced last week he’d let the budget legislation go into effect without his signature.
PUBLIC SAFETY ✶
Immigrants arrested in Chicago at start of Trump’s second term now face prison time
By Frank Main
Likely imprisonment: Four men, one from Venezuela and three from Mexico, are likely heading to prison. They were arrested about the time President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, visited Chicago in later January after saying the city would become “ground zero” for mass deportations due to its sanctuary status.
Unusual cases: What makes their cases unusual, according to federal court records, is that one man admitted to a serious gun charge and the others, while pleading guilty to entering the country illegally, previously served prison time for gun and drug offenses.
Key context: Most of the thousands of people taken into custody during the Operation Midway Blitz deportation campaign, which ran from Sept. 8 to mid-December, weren’t accused of committing crimes other than immigration violations and didn’t have any serious crimes in their backgrounds.
MONEY DESK 💰
Ex-CEO of Chicago Public Media saw $900,000 payout in 2024, IRS filings show
By David Roeder
New filings: The nonprofit owner of the Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ paid its outgoing CEO more than $900,000 in 2024, new tax filings show, as it engaged in staff cuts and other measures to deal with declining revenue. Chicago Public Media’s payout to former CEO Matt Moog was substantially higher than his compensation in prior years.
Key context: Moog was in charge when the Sun-Times and WBEZ combined in 2022, a deal that netted $61 million in a five-year pledge from foundations to support the organizations’ journalism. But revenue for both media outlets has declined in recent years, according to tax filings, and WBEZ is wrestling with a cutoff of federal grants for public broadcasting. As a result, the company has stepped up its requests for donations.
By the numbers: Moog in 2024 received a total compensation of $943,475. In 2023, filings show his total compensation was $722,861, up from a total of $633,610 in 2022. The filing breaks down Moog’s 2024 compensation as a base salary of $407,378, “bonus and incentive compensation” of $240,188 and “other reportable compensation” of $257,344. There’s also $38,565 in other compensation, which typically includes benefits and reimbursed expenses. Chicago Public Media also paid $107,227 to Moog’s company Wavetable Studios “for transitional services after his departure.”
Staff cuts: While Moog’s pay rose, the company encountered challenges. In 2024, Chicago Public Media ordered cuts largely affecting staff and programming at WBEZ. This year, the belt tightening encircled the Sun-Times, with buyouts that culled 20% of the news staff, including senior editors, high-profile columnists and most of the editorial board.
MORE NEWS YOU NEED 🗞️
- The story of ‘Eckie’: A new book tells the story of the University of Chicago’s improbable winning quarterback Walter “Eckie” Eckersall, a slight South Sider who led the school to a national football championship at the turn of the last century.
- Thefts in Illinois: A string of at least three brazen, large-scale Illinois-related thefts have caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in protein powder, coffee products and lobsters to disappear.
- Theater scene: Supporters and company members gathered earlier this month in Edgewater for the groundbreaking ceremony of Steep Theatre’s new home. The company joins the reported 10% of the city’s theaters that have buildings in the area.
HOLIDAY GUIDE 🎉
How to party on New Year’s Eve
By Ambar Colón
Chicago always throws a good New Year’s Eve party or two. But this year’s slate of events promises to be over the top.
The biggest celebration will be downtown, where Chance the Rapper will co-host the first local edition of “Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve” in its 55-year-history. Here’s how to watch in person or on your television.
But the city also offers plenty of interesting things to do — including burlesque shows, pop-up bars and loads of family-friendly fun — to kick off 2026.
FROM THE PRESS BOX 🏈🏒🏀
- These Bears are the real deal: For Bears fans of almost any age, it’s a brand of football they’ve only seen from the wrong side: Fear of giving the other quarterback too much time. This is like a new toy, writes Mark Potash.
- Calling new Bears fans: Everyone’s excited about the 2025 Bears, and if you just started following the team, here’s what to know.
- Be aggressive: Blackhawks Coach Jeff Blashill has asked Alex Vlasic and the rest of his young “D” corps to put aside their nice personalities and dish out some jabs and cross-checks to protect the crease.
- Bulls lineup woes: The latest injuries to the Bulls’ backcourt might be the push to end “Bulls luck.”
CHICAGO MINI CROSSWORD 🌭
Today’s clue: Chicago aquarium home to Beethoven the Beluga
BRIGHT ONE 🔆
Illinois native sets Guinness record by visiting 185 places of worship in Chicago in a month
By Casey He
After a monthlong quest, the Rev. Vicki Garlock is now the current holder of the Guinness World Record for visiting 185 places of worship in one month.
Garlock’s final count included churches, synagogues, mosques and temples — as well as galleries, auditoriums and rented spaces where Chicagoans congregate. All in September.
She said her personal single-day record was visiting 14 places in Evanston and Wilmette.
After growing up in Kankakee, Garlock now lives in North Carolina. She chose Chicago for the challenge because of its religious diversity and her familiarity with the city, she said.
She told the Sun-Times that she hopes her record will inspire people to visit places of worship to which they otherwise wouldn’t pay attention and to reach out to others who follow different religions.
“We can share spaces. We can revamp spaces,” Garlock said. “This is an old, old story in America, and people can figure it out in a way that is in harmony if we let that happen and encourage that, rather than creating all this division.”
YOUR DAILY QUESTION ☕️
What’s a New Year’s tradition that you or your family observe?
Email us (please include your first and last name). Your answers to this question may appear in Thursday’s Special Edition newsletter.
ONE MORE THING ♥️
The Sun-Times is possible because of you.
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Every story we tell, every neighborhood we visit, every conversation we spark — it all happens because you believe that Chicago deserves a strong, independent source of local news.
Give by our midnight deadline at suntimes.com/yearend to help power the news in the new year.
Any contribution of any amount makes a difference, but as a “thank you” to those willing to make a monthly recurring donation, we’ll throw in a 2026 calendar of historic photos or iconic artwork.
Thank you for supporting news that’s for, from and about Chicago.
WATCH: LYNN SWEET ON WHY DONATE ▶️
@chicago.suntimes Help us hit our 2025 goal with Lynn! Every contribution — no matter the size — strengthens independent journalism and supports a stronger, more connected Chicago—while giving you a beautiful piece of that history to keep. Go to: suntimes.com/donate The Chicago Sun-Times is Chicago’s newsroom — independent, community-funded, and committed to telling the stories that shape our city. We’re free from hedge-fund ownership, shareholders, and political influence. Lynn Sweet is a special correspondent for Chicago Public Media and previously the Washington Bureau Chief for the Chicago Sun-Times. She appears frequently on CNN and other outlets as an analyst.
Sun-Times’ Lynn Sweet on why your donation to the Sun-Times matters. | Sun-Times
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Written and curated by: Matt Moore
Editor: Eydie Cubarrubia
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