In a show of community and a grand yuletide celebration, Park Ridge residents and more gathered at a local park near City Hall on Christmas Eve for a crowd sing-along of tunes of the season.

In his invitation to all to join the city’s second annual “Christmas Eve Community Sing,” Mayor Marty Maloney called it “something truly special.”

For 30 minutes at Hodges Park on Christmas Eve, in the city’s Uptown area, having had, “No rehearsals. No professional voices. No pressure at all,” the mayor had called for, the community sing took place. It was “just neighbors standing together, singing familiar carols, and sharing the simple joy of being part of this incredible community we call Park Ridge,” as the mayor had said.

Maloney said the community holiday sing-along was created to help bring people together in what he called a joyful way.

Residents of Park Ridge, and others, participated in the second annual “Christmas Eve Community Sing” on Dec. 24, 2025 at Hodges Park, near City Hall, in Park Ridge. (Talia Sprague/for Pioneer Press)
The city of Park Ridge held its second annual “Christmas Eve Community Sing” on Dec. 24, 2025 at Hodges Park, near City Hall, in Park Ridge. (Talia Sprague/for Pioneer Press)
Park Ridge Mayor Marty Maloney calls the city’s annual “Christmas Eve Community Sing” an event that is “something special.” The sing-along was held on Dec. 24, 2025 at Hodges Park, near City Hall, in Park Ridge. (Talia Sprague/for Pioneer Press)
Community members sing Christmas carols during the second annual “Christmas Eve Community Sing” on Dec. 24, 2025 at Hodges Park, near City Hall, in Park Ridge. (Talia Sprague/for Pioneer Press)

“Whether you come straight from church, take a break from dinner prep, or slip out after setting cookies out for Santa, we hope you’ll find half an hour to be part of it,” he said in his invitation posted on social media.

And people did just that: Took a break to join the community chorus of carolers.

The mayor said the event takes a beat from a tradition started nearly a century ago in Basking Ridge, New Jersey. He said the local version helps build something special in Park Ridge.

“Once you see it, it’s hard not to imagine the same warmth and magic right here in Park Ridge on Christmas Eve,” the mayor said.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/04/park-ridge-mayor-marty-maloney-leads-the-christmas-eve-carols-near-city-hall-its-just-neighbors-standing-together/ 

Judge Convicted Of Helping Illegal Escape ICE Resigns, Faces 5 Years In Prison

Tyler Durden
Sun, 01/04/2026 – 12:15

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/judge-convicted-helping-illegal-escape-ice-resigns-faces-5-years-prison 

The Bearish Counterpoint: What Could Go Wrong For Markets In 2026?

Tyler Durden
Sun, 01/04/2026 – 11:40

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/bearish-counterpoint-what-could-go-wrong-markets-2026 

Cuba, Venezuela, China, And America’s Left-Wing Revolution

Tyler Durden
Sun, 01/04/2026 – 11:05

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/cuba-venezuela-china-and-americas-left-wing-connection 

CARACAS, Venezuela — Deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro arrived in the United States to face criminal charges after being captured in an audacious nighttime military operation that President Donald Trump said would set the U.S. up to “run” the South American country and tap its vast oil reserves to sell to other nations.

Maduro landed late Saturday afternoon at a small airport in New York following the middle-of-the-night operation that extracted him and his wife, Cilia Flores, from their home in a military base in the capital, Caracas — an act that Maduro’s government called “imperialist.” The couple faces U.S. charges of participating in a narco-terrorism conspiracy.

The dramatic action capped an intensive Trump administration pressure campaign on Venezuela’s autocratic leader and months of secret planning, resulting in the most assertive American action to achieve regime change since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Legal experts raised questions about the lawfulness of the operation, which was done without congressional approval. Venezuela’s vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, meanwhile, demanded that the United States free Maduro and called him the country’s rightful leader as her nation’s high court named her interim president.

Some Venezuelan civilians and members of the military were killed, said Rodríguez, who didn’t give a number. Trump said some U.S. forces were injured, but none was killed.

Speaking to reporters hours after Maduro’s capture, Trump revealed his plans to exploit the leadership void to “fix” the country’s oil infrastructure and sell “large amounts” of oil to other countries.

After arriving at a small airport in New York City’s northern suburbs, Maduro was flown by helicopter to Manhattan, where a convoy of law enforcement vehicles, including an armored car, was waiting to whisk him to a nearby U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration office.

A video posted on social media by a White House account showed Maduro, smiling, as he was escorted through that office by two DEA agents grasping his arms.

Trump says US will ‘run the country’

The Trump administration promoted the ouster as a step toward reducing the flow of dangerous drugs into the U.S. The president touted what he saw as other potential benefits, including a leadership stake in the country and greater control of oil.

Trump claimed the U.S. government would help lead the country and was already doing so, though there were no immediate visible signs of that. Venezuelan state TV aired pro-Maduro propaganda and broadcast live images of supporters taking to the streets in Caracas in protest.

“We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” Trump said at a Mar-a-Lago news conference. He boasted that this “extremely successful operation should serve as warning to anyone who would threaten American sovereignty or endanger American lives.”

Maduro and other Venezuelan officials were indicted in 2020 on narco-terrorism conspiracy charges, and the Justice Department released a new indictment Saturday of Maduro and his wife that painted his administration as a “corrupt, illegitimate government” fueled by a drug-trafficking operation that flooded the U.S with cocaine. The U.S. government does not recognize Maduro as the country’s leader.

The Trump administration spent months building up American forces in the region and carrying out attacks on boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean for allegedly ferrying drugs. Last week, the CIA was behind a drone strike at a docking area believed to have been used by Venezuelan drug cartels — the first known direct operation on Venezuelan soil since the U.S. campaign began in September.

Early morning attack

Taking place 36 years to the day after the 1990 surrender and seizure of Panama leader Manuel Antonio Noriega following a U.S. invasion, the Venezuela operation unfolded under the cover of darkness early Saturday. Trump said the U.S. turned off “almost all of the lights” in Caracas while forces moved in to extract Maduro and his wife.

Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said U.S. forces had rehearsed their maneuvers for months, learning everything about Maduro — where he was and what he ate, as well as details of his pets and his clothes.

“We think, we develop, we train, we rehearse, we debrief, we rehearse again and again,” Caine said. “Not to get it right, but to ensure we cannot get it wrong.”

Multiple explosions rang out that morning, and low-flying aircraft swept through Caracas. Maduro’s government accused the United States of hitting civilian and military installations, calling it an “imperialist attack” and urging citizens to take to the streets. The explosions — at least seven blasts — sent people rushing into the streets, while others took to social media to report what they saw and heard.

Restrictions imposed by the U.S. government on airspace around Venezuela and the Caribbean expired early Sunday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on X, an announcement that suggested any further immediate major U.S. military action was unlikely. “Airlines are informed, and will update their schedules quickly,” he posted.

Under Venezuelan law, Rodríguez would take over from Maduro. Rodríguez, however, stressed during a Saturday appearance on state television that she did not plan to assume power, before Venezuela’s high court ordered that she become interim president.

“There is only one president in Venezuela,” Rodriguez said, “and his name is Nicolás Maduro Moros.”

Some streets in Caracas fill up

Venezuela’s ruling party has held power since 1999, when Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez, took office, promising to uplift poor people and later to implement a self-described socialist revolution.

Maduro took over when Chávez died in 2013. His 2018 reelection was widely considered a sham because the main opposition parties were banned from participating. During the 2024 election, electoral authorities loyal to the ruling party declared him the winner hours after polls closed, but the opposition gathered overwhelming evidence that he lost by a more than 2-to-1 margin.

Venezuela’s capital remained unusually quiet Sunday with few vehicles moving around and convenience stores, gas stations and other businesses closed. A road typically filled with runners, cyclists and other fitness enthusiasts on Sundays only had a handful of people working out the day after Maduro was deposed.

The presidential palace was guarded by armed civilians and members of the military. At a nearby plaza, only a street sweeper and a soldier stood, and across the street, a church remained close for a second day in a row.

Caracas resident David Leal arrived to the lot where he parks vehicles for a living only to quickly realize that he would likely not see any clients for a second day.

“People are still shaken,” Leal, 77, said.

Questions of legality linger

Whether the United States violated any laws, international or otherwise, was still a question early Sunday. “There are a number of international legal concepts which the United States might have broken by capturing Maduro,” said Ilan Katz, an international law analyst.

Pope Leo XIV, who last month had expressed concern about growing U.S. threats of military intervention in Venezuela, raised alarms during his Sunday noon blessing and said the good of the Venezuelan people must prevail above everything else. History’s first U.S. pope demanded an end to violence and for Venezuela’s sovereignty to be guaranteed.

In New York, the U.N. Security Council, acting on an emergency request from Colombia, planned to hold a meeting on U.S. operations in Venezuela on Monday morning.

Lawmakers from both American political parties have raised reservations and flat-out objections to the U.S. attacks on boats suspected of drug smuggling. Congress has not approved an authorization for the use of military force for such operations in the region.

Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said he had seen no evidence that would justify Trump striking Venezuela without approval from Congress and demanded an immediate briefing by the administration on “its plan to ensure stability in the region and its legal justification for this decision.”

Toropin and Tucker reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Jorge Rueda in Caracas, Venezuela; Lisa Mascaro, Michelle L. Price, Seung Min Kim and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington; Farnoush Amiri in New York; Larry Neumeister in South Amboy, New Jersey, and Nicole Winfiled in Rome contributed to this report.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/04/nicolas-maduro-arrives-in-us/ 

President Donald Trump’s plan to take control of Venezuela’s oil industry and ask American companies to revitalize it after capturing President Nicolás Maduro in a raid isn’t likely to have a significant immediate impact on oil prices.

Venezuela’s oil industry is in disrepair after years of neglect and international sanctions, so it could take years and major investments before production can increase dramatically. But some analysts are optimistic that Venezuela could double or triple its current output of about 1.1 million barrels of oil a day to return to historic levels fairly quickly.

“While many are reporting Venezuela’s oil infrastructure was unharmed by U.S. military actions, it has been decaying for many many years and will take time to rebuild,” said Patrick De Haan, who is the lead petroleum analyst at gasoline price tracker GasBuddy.

American oil companies will want a stable regime in the country before they are willing to invest heavily, and the political picture remained uncertain Saturday with Trump saying that the United States is in charge — while the current Venezuelan vice president argued, before Venezuela’s high court ordered her to assume the role of interim president, that Maduro should be restored to power.

“But if it seems like the U.S. is successful in running the country for the next 24 hours, I would say there would be a lot of optimism that U.S. energy companies could come in and revitalize the Venezuelan oil industry fairly quickly,” said Phil Flynn, a senior market analyst at the Price Futures Group.

And if Venezuela can grow into an oil production powerhouse, Flynn said “that could cement lower prices for the longer term” and put more pressure on Russia.

Oil isn’t traded over the weekend, so there wasn’t an immediate impact on prices. But a major shift in prices isn’t expected when the market does reopen. Venezuela is a member of OPEC so its production is already accounted for there. And there is currently a surplus of oil on the global market.

Proven reserves

Venezuela is known to have the world’s largest proven crude oil reserves of approximately 303 billion barrels, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That accounts for roughly 17% of all global oil reserves.

So international oil companies have reason to be interested in Venezuela. Exxon Mobil didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday. ConocoPhillips spokesperson Dennis Nuss said by email that the company “is monitoring developments in Venezuela and their potential implications for global energy supply and stability. It would be premature to speculate on any future business activities or investments.”

Chevron is the only one with significant operations in Venezuela, where it produces about 250,000 barrels a day. Chevron, which first invested in Venezuela in the 1920s, does business in the country through joint ventures with the state-owned company Petróleos de Venezuela S.A., commonly known as PDVSA.

“Chevron remains focused on the safety and wellbeing of our employees, as well as the integrity of our assets. We continue to operate in full compliance with all relevant laws and regulations,” Chevron spokesman Bill Turenne said.

But even with those massive reserves, Venezuela has been producing less than 1% of the world’s crude oil supply. Corruption, mismanagement and U.S. economic sanctions saw production steadily decline from the 3.5 million barrels per day pumped in 1999 to today’s levels.

The problem isn’t finding the oil. It’s a question of the political environment and whether companies can count on the government to live up to their contracts. Back in 2007, then President Hugo Chávez nationalized much of the oil production and forced major players like ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips out.

“The issue is not just that the infrastructure is in bad shape, but it’s mostly about how do you get foreign companies to start pouring money in before they have a clear perspective on the political stability, the contract situation and the like,” said Francisco Monaldi, who is the director of the Latin American energy program at Rice University.

But the infrastructure does need significant investment.

“The estimate is that in order for Venezuela to increase from one million barrels per day — that is what it produces today — to four million barrels, it will take about a decade and about a hundred billion dollars of investment,” Monaldi said.

Strong demand

Venezuela produces the kind of heavy crude oil that’s needed for diesel fuel, asphalt and other fuels for heavy equipment. Diesel is in short supply around the world because of the sanctions on oil from Venezuela and Russia and because America’s lighter crude oil can’t easily replace it.

Years ago, American refineries on the Gulf Coast were optimized to handle that kind of heavy crude at a time when U.S. oil production was falling and Venezuelan and Mexican crude was plentiful. So refineries would love to have more access to Venezuela’s crude because it would help them operate more efficiently, and it tends to be a little cheaper.

Boosting Venezuelan production could also make it easier to put pressure on Russia because Europe and the rest of the world could get more of the diesel and heavy oil they need from Venezuela and stop buying from Russia.

“There’s been a big benefit for Russia to see Venezuela’s oil industry collapse. And the reason is because they were a competitor on the global stage for that oil market,” Flynn said.

Complicated legal picture

But Matthew Waxman, a Columbia University law professor who was a national security official in the George W. Bush administration, said seizing control of Venezuela’s resources opens up additional legal issues.

“For example, a big issue will be who really owns Venezuela’s oil?” Waxman wrote in an email. “An occupying military power can’t enrich itself by taking another state’s resources, but the Trump administration will probably claim that the Venezuelan government never rightfully held them.”

But Waxman, who served in the State and Defense departments and on the National Security Council under Bush, noted that “we’ve seen the administration talk very dismissively about international law when it comes to Venezuela.”

Associated Press writers Matt O’Brien and Ben Finley contributed to this report.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/04/trump-seize-venezuela-oil/ 

NEW YORK — The Brooklyn jail holding Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is a facility so troubled, some judges have refused to send people there even as it has housed such famous inmates as music stars R. Kelly and Sean “Diddy” Combs.

Opened in the early 1990s, the Metropolitan Detention Center, or MDC Brooklyn, currently houses about 1,300 inmates.

It’s the routine landing spot for people awaiting trial in federal courts in Manhattan and Brooklyn, holding alleged gangsters and drug traffickers alongside some people accused of white collar crimes.

A throng of Venezuelan expatriates, many draped in flags, gathered on the sidewalks outside the jail Saturday night to celebrate Maduro’s capture. The crowd cheered as the law enforcement motorcade believed to be carrying the deposed leader and his wife arrived at the jail.

Maduro is not the first president of a country to be locked up there.

Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras, was imprisoned at MDC Brooklyn while he was on trial for trafficking hundreds of tons of cocaine into the U.S. Convicted and sentenced to 45 years in prison, Hernández was pardoned and freed by President Donald Trump in December.

Current detainees include the co-founder of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada Garcia, and Luigi Mangione, who is accused of killing the CEO of UnitedHealthcare. Past inmates have included crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried and longtime Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell.

Located next to a shopping mall in a waterfront industrial area and within sight of the Statue of Liberty, the jail has been described, at its worst, as a “hell on earth” and an “ongoing tragedy.”

Detainees and their lawyers have long complained about rampant violence. Two prisoners were killed by other inmates in 2024, and jail workers have been charged with accepting bribes or providing contraband.

During the winter of 2019, a power outage plunged the facility and its inmates into a cold darkness for a week.

Recently, however, the federal Bureau of Prisons says it has worked to improve conditions.

The facility added correctional and medical staff, remedying more than 700 backlogged maintenance requests and answering judges’ concerns. Improvements were also made to electrical and plumbing lines, food service and heating and air conditioning systems.

In addition to the physical upgrades, federal authorities have tried to crack down on crime inside the lockup. Last March, 23 inmates were charged with offenses ranging from smuggling weapons in a Doritos bag to the stabbing of a man convicted in the killing of hip-hop legend Jam Master Jay.

“In short, MDC Brooklyn is safe for the inmates and staff,” the Bureau of Prisons said in September. The inmate population also decreased from 1,580 as of January 2024, which, it said, led to a “substantial decrease” in crime and contraband.

While there Maduro is likely to see some familiar faces if he is allowed out of the isolated quarters where he will initially be housed.

One is co-defendant Hugo Carvajal, the former Venezuelan spy chief who broke ranks with Maduro in 2019 and has indicated that he wants to cooperate with U.S. authorities.

There is also Anderson Zambrano-Pacheco, an alleged member of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang who was arrested last year in New York on firearms charges. Zambrano-Pacheco was among those caught on security video terrorizing residents at an apartment complex in a Denver suburb, an incident that Trump seized on during his presidential campaign.

The MDC has drawn more scrutiny since 2021, when the Bureau of Prisons closed its other New York City jail — the Metropolitan Correctional Center — after Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide there highlighted its lax security, crumbling infrastructure and dangerous, squalid conditions.

Associated Press writer Joshua Goodman in Miami contributed.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/04/venezuela-maduro-brooklyn-jail/ 

Multiple organizations wrote a letter to the Northern Indiana Public Service Co. detailing their concerns with a U.S. Department of Energy order that would require the utility to keep its R.M. Schahfer generating station operating.

The letter comes from EarthJustice, Citizens Action Coalition, Hoosier Environmental Council, Just Transition Northwest Indiana, and the Sierra Club, and it’s addressed to Erin Whitehead, NIPSCO’s vice president of regulatory policy and major accounts.

“We write to emphasize the following points: NIPSCO must carefully evaluate whether it would be prudent to expend money to repair R.M. Schahfer Generating Station Unit 18 due to the order,” the letter said. “There are several legal bases to conclude that DOE lacks authority under section 202(C) to direct NIPSCO to revive the generation facility. We intend to litigate the recovery of any imprudently incurred expenditures.”

In the letter, the organizations claim that Schahfer Unit 18 is broken and cannot operate without “substantial expenditures.” The unit had a 2,890-hour forced outage from Feb. 16, 2025, to June 23, 2025, because a turbine blade separated from its root. On July 9, 2025, Schahfer had another 1,996-hour outage because of significant damage to the upper portion of the condenser tubes.

“We expect that the expenditure to procure and install the referenced long lead time equipment to revive Unit 18 — instead of allowing the units to retire as previously planned — will be substantial,” the letter said. “Before incurring any of those costs, NIPSCO must carefully evaluate whether the expenditure is prudent.”

The organizations also claim that the DOE cannot direct NIPSCO to revive the Schahfer unit, saying that Congress has not given the department the authority. The order would require the repairs or modifications to the unit that would go far beyond electric power generation, according to the letter.

The order would require rebuilding significant parts of the plant because the unit is “beyond its useful life.”

The organizations also claim that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s prudence requirement doesn’t allow NIPSCO to recover costs expended pursuant to an unlawful directive, according to the letter.

“It would be imprudent for NIPSCO to expend money to revive Schahfer Unit 18 without, at minimum, carefully evaluating the legality of the department’s order, particularly any element of the order that could be interpreted to direct repair of Unit 18 to an operational condition,” the letter said. “ … A reasonable utility management does not in good faith expend money in response to an unlawful directive, particularly when the utility management is on notice of the unlawful nature of the directive.”

In a Friday email, a NIPSCO representative referred to a previous statement regarding the Schahfer order, saying that compliance is mandatory. The utility is reviewing the details to assess its impact on employees, customers and the company to ensure compliance.

The order alters the timeline for decommissioning Schahfer, according to the statement, but NIPCSO’s long-term plan to transition to sustainable energy remains unchanged.

“Guided by our Integrated Resource Plan, NIPSCO and NiSource recognize the importance of reliable and affordable energy as we manage costs and adapt to changing regulatory requirements,” the statement said. “Our commitment to providing safe and dependable energy remains steadfast both now and in the future.”

According to Post-Tribune archives, NIPSCO plans to convert the Schahfer station into a natural gas plant as part of the plan to provide energy for data centers, including a $15 billion Amazon Web Services plans to invest in the region, including Hobart.

U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, on Dec. 23, issued an emergency order that would keep Schahfer operating, according to Post-Tribune archives. The order went into effect on Dec. 23 and ends on March 23, 2026.

According to Post-Tribune archives, the order was made to ensure Midwesterners “have access to affordable, reliable and secure electricity heading into the winter months.” The Midcontinent Independent System Operator was also told to continue operations at its F.B. Culley generating station in Newburgh.

“The Trump administration remains committed to swiftly deploying all available tools and authorities to safeguard the reliability, affordability and security of the nation’s energy system,” Wright said in a previous statement. “Keeping these coal plants online has the potential to save lives and is just common sense. Americans deserve reliable power regardless of whether the wind is blowing or the sun is shining during extreme winter conditions.”

Earlier this year, the Citizens Action Coalition has found that statewide electric utility bills have increased more than $28 per month, or 17.5%. NIPSCO residential customers were hit hardest, with about a $50 per month, or 26.7% increase, in one year, according to the organization’s July report.

“The federal government’s order to force extremely expensive and unreliable coal units to stay open will result in higher bills for Hoosiers who are already reeling from record-high rate increases in 2025,” Ben Inskeep, program director for Citizens Action Coalition, said in a previous statement. “We can’t afford this costly and unfounded federal overreach.”

mwilkins@chicagotribune.com

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/04/concerns-raised-about-delay-of-nipscos-schahfer-closure/ 

Russia, China Demand That US Immediately Release Maduro From Custody

Tyler Durden
Sun, 01/04/2026 – 09:55

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/russia-china-demand-us-immediately-release-venezuelas-maduro