LOS ANGELES — Director-actor Rob Reiner and his wife Michele were the two people found dead Sunday at a Los Angeles home owned by Reiner, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation.

The official could not publicly discuss details of the investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Rob Reiner, son of a comedy giant who became one in turn, dies at 78

Investigators believe they suffered stab wounds and a family member is being questioned by investigators, the official said.

The Los Angeles Fire Department said it responded to a medical aid request shortly after 3:30 p.m. and found a 78-year-old man and 68-year-old woman dead inside. Reiner turned 78 in March.

Detectives with the Robbery Homicide Division were investigating an “apparent homicide” at Reiner’s home, said Capt. Mike Bland with the Los Angeles Police Department.

Los Angeles authorities have not confirmed the identities of the people found dead at the residence in the upscale Brentwood neighborhood on the city’s west side that’s home to many celebrities.

Reiner was long one of the most prolific directors in Hollywood, and his work included some of the most memorable movies of the 1980s and ’90s, including “This is Spinal Tap,” “A Few Good Men,” “When Harry Met Sally” and “The Princess Bride.”

His role as Meathead in Norman Lear’s 1970s TV classic “All in the Family,” alongside Carol O’Connor’s Archie Bunker, catapulted him to fame and won him two Emmy Awards.

Relatives of Lear, the legendary producer who died in 2023, said they were bereft by the news.

“Norman often referred to Rob as a son, and their close relationship was extraordinary, to us and the world,” said a Lear family statement. “Norman would have wanted to remind us that Rob and Michele spent every breath trying to make this country a better place, and they pursued that through their art, their activism, their philanthropy, and their love for family and friends.”

Messages to Reiner’s representatives were not immediately returned Sunday night.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called Reiner’s death a devastating loss for the city.

“Rob Reiner’s contributions reverberate throughout American culture and society, and he has improved countless lives through his creative work and advocacy fighting for social and economic justice,” Bass said in a statement. “An acclaimed actor, director, producer, writer, and engaged political activist, he always used his gifts in service of others.”

The son of comedy legend Carl Reiner, Rob Reiner was married to photographer Michele Singer Reiner since 1989. The two met while he was directing “When Harry Met Sally” and have three children together.

Reiner was previously married to actor-director Penny Marshall from 1971 to 1981. He adopted her daughter, Tracy Reiner. Carl Reiner died in 2020 at age 98 and Marshall died in 2018.

Killings are rare in the Brentwood neighborhood. The scene is about a mile from the home where O.J. Simpson’s wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman were killed in 1994.

Balsamo reported from Washington. Associated Press Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton in Los Angeles contributed.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/15/rob-reiner-wife-found-dead/ 

Rob Reiner, the son of a comedy giant who became one himself as one of the preeminent filmmakers of his generation with movies such as “The Princess Bride,” “When Harry Met Sally …” and “This Is Spinal Tap,” has died. He was 78.

Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer, were found dead Sunday at their home in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. A law enforcement official briefed on the investigation confirmed their identities but could not publicly discuss details of the investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Rob Reiner and his wife found dead in Los Angeles home, AP source says

Authorities were investigating an “apparent homicide,” said Capt. Mike Bland with the Los Angeles Police Department. The Los Angeles Fire Department said it responded to a medical aid request shortly after 3:30 p.m.

Reiner grew up thinking his father, Carl Reiner, didn’t understand him or find him funny. But the younger Reiner would in many ways follow in his father’s footsteps, working both in front and behind the camera, in comedies that stretched from broad sketch work to accomplished dramedies.

“My father thought, ‘Oh, my God, this poor kid is worried about being in the shadow of a famous father,’” Reiner said, recalling the temptation to change his name to “60 Minutes” in October. “And he says, ‘What do you want to change your name to?’ And I said, ‘Carl.’ I just wanted to be like him.”

After starting out as a writer for “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,” Reiner’s breakthrough came when he was, at age 23, cast in Norman Lear’s “All in the Family” as Archie Bunker’s liberal son-in-law, Michael “Meathead” Stivic. But by the 1980s, Reiner began as a feature film director, churning out some of the most beloved films of that, or any, era. His first film, the largely improvised 1984 cult classic “This Is Spinal Tap,” remains the quintessential mockumentary.

After the 1985 John Cusack summer comedy, “The Sure Thing,” Reiner made “Stand By Me” (1986), “The Princess Bride” (1987) and “When Harry Met Sally …” (1989), a four-year stretch that resulted in a trio of American classics, all of them among the most often quoted movies of the 20th century.

A legacy on and off screen

For the next four decades, Reiner, a warm and gregarious presence on screen and an outspoken liberal advocate off it, remained a constant fixture in Hollywood. The production company he co-founded, Castle Rock Entertainment, launched an enviable string of hits, including “Seinfeld” and “The Shawshank Redemption.” By the turn of the century, its success rate had fallen considerably, but Reiner revived it earlier this decade. This fall, Reiner and Castle Rock released the long-in-coming sequel “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues.”

All the while, Reiner was one of the film industry’s most passionate Democrat activists, regularly hosting fundraisers and campaigning for liberal issues. He was co-founder of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, which challenged in court California’s ban on same-sex marriage, Proposition 8. He also chaired the campaign for Prop 10, a California initiative to fund early childhood development services with a tax on tobacco products. Reiner was also a critic of President Donald Trump.

That ran in the family, too. Reiner’s father opposed the Communist hunt of McCarthyism in the 1950s and his mother, Estelle Reiner, a singer and actor, protested the Vietnam War.

“If you’re a nepo baby, doors will open,” Reiner told the Guardian in 2024. “But you have to deliver. If you don’t deliver, the door will close just as fast as it opened.”

‘All in the Family’ to ‘Stand By Me’

Robert Reiner was born in the Bronx on March 6, 1947. As a young man, he quickly set out to follow his father into entertainment. He studied at the University of California, Los Angeles film school and, in the 1960s, began appearing in small parts in various television shows.

But when Lear saw Reiner as a key cast member in “All in the Family,” it came as a surprise to the elder Reiner.

“Norman says to my dad, ‘You know, this kid is really funny.’ And I think my dad said, ‘What? That kid? That kid? He’s sullen. He sits quiet. He doesn’t, you know, he’s not funny.’ He didn’t think I was anyway,” Reiner told “60 Minutes.”

On “All in the Family,” Reiner served as a pivotal foil to Carroll O’Connor’s bigoted, conservative Archie Bunker. Reiner was five times nominated for an Emmy for his performance on the show, winning in 1974 and 1978. In Lear, Reiner also found a mentor. He called him “a second father.”

“It wasn’t just that he hired me for ‘All in the Family,’” Reiner told “American Masters” in 2005. “It was that I saw, in how he conducted his life, that there was room to be an activist as well. That you could use your celebrity, your good fortune, to help make some change.”

Lear also helped launch Reiner as a filmmaker. He put $7.5 million of his own money to help finance “Stand By Me,” Reiner’s adaptation of the Stephen King novella “The Body.” The movie, about four boys who go looking for the dead body of a missing boy, became a coming-of-age classic, made breakthroughs of its young cast (particularly River Phoenix) and even earned the praise of King.

With his stock rising, Reiner devoted himself to adapting William Goldman’s 1973’s “The Princess Bride,” a book Reiner had loved since his father gave him a copy as a gift. Everyone from François Truffaut to Robert Redford had considered adapting Goldman’s book, but it ultimately fell to Reiner (from Goldman’s own script) to capture the unique comic tone of “The Princess Bride.” But only once he had Goldman’s blessing.

“At the door he greeted me and he said, ‘This is my baby. I want this on my tombstone. This is my favorite thing I’ve ever written in my life. What are you going to do with it?’” Reiner recalled in a Television Academy interview. “And we sat down with him and started going through what I thought should be done with the film.”

Though only a modest success in theaters, the movie — starring Cary Elwes, Mandy Patinkin, Wallace Shawn, André the Giant and Robin Wright — would grow in stature over the years, leading to countless impressions of Inigo Montoya’s vow of revenge and the risky nature of land wars in Asia.

‘When Harry Met Sally …”

Reiner was married to Penny Marshall, the actor and filmmaker, for 10 years beginning in 1971. Like Reiner, Marshall experienced sitcom fame, with “Laverne & Shirley,” but found a more lasting legacy behind the camera.

After their divorce, Reiner, at a lunch with Nora Ephron, suggested a comedy about dating. In writing what became “When Harry Met Sally …” Ephron and Reiner charted a relationship between a man and a woman (played in the film by Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan) over the course of 12 years.

Along the way, the movie’s ending changed, as did some of the film’s indelible moments. The famous line, “I’ll have what she’s having,” said after witnessing Ryan’s fake orgasm at Katz’s Delicatessen, was a suggestion by Crystal — delivered by none other than Reiner’s mother, Estelle.

The movie’s happy ending also had some real-life basis. Reiner met Singer, a photographer, on the set of “When Harry Met Sally …” In 1989, they were wed. They had three children together: Nick, Jake and Romy.

Reiner’s subsequent films included another King adaptation, “Misery” (1990) and a pair of Aaron Sorkin-penned dramas: the military courtroom tale “A Few Good Men” (1992) and 1995’s “The American President.”

By the late ’90s, Reiner’s films (1996’s “Ghosts of Mississippi,” 2007’s “The Bucket List”) no longer had the same success rate. But he remained a frequent actor, often memorably enlivening films like “Sleepless in Seattle” (1993) and “The Wolf of Wall Street” (2013). In 2023, he directed the documentary “Albert Brooks: Defending My Life.”

In an interview earlier this year with Seth Rogen, Reiner suggested everything in his career boiled down to one thing.

“All I’ve ever done is say, ‘Is this something that is an extension of me?’ For ‘Stand by Me,’ I didn’t know if it was going to be successful or not. All I thought was, ‘I like this because I know what it feels like.’”

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/15/rob-reiner-dies/ 

“I’ve always had this idealistic impression about the United States,” says musician Wanees Zarour, who is co-director of the Chicago Immigrant Orchestra. “This country is diverse and embraces multiculturalism, to an extent. So the fact that I’m not white — I’m brown — shouldn’t pose any issues from a security standpoint. But that totally shattered in the past few months. I’m literally carrying my passport around with me, which is not something I’ve done before.”

The recent and often chaotic federal immigration raids across Chicago’s neighborhoods have rocked the city. “We’ve had conversations with the members of the Chicago Immigrant Orchestra and we went from being really concerned to becoming defiant,” he says. “We’re doing more performances than we used to. More activity in general. We recently released an album and called it ‘Sanctuary.’”

Journalists at the Tribune and other local outlets have done thorough work documenting the upheaval and fear of the moment, but perhaps less so as it affects the immigrant-as-artist. The Chicago Immigrant Orchestra, says Zarour, is “doubling down, because whether anyone likes it or not, we’re part of the fabric of this country.

“We’ve been even told to consider changing our name,” he added. “And we’re not changing the name.”

The orchestra’s co-director, Fareed Haque, explains further. “You’ve got two targets in one name: Chicago’s a target and immigrants are a target. Since we’re primarily composed of green card holders, there’s more at stake for some of the members of the orchestra. But that being said, everyone has been pretty strong and cohesive.”

The Chicago Immigrant Orchestra was originally founded under the auspices of the Department of Cultural Affairs from 1999 through 2004. A new version was started back up in 2020 and majority of the ensemble are professional musicians. It’s a global representation, hailing from countries including Chile, India, Mongolia, Taiwan, Palestine, Peru, Nigeria and Iran.

Their next performance is scheduled for Dec. 21 at the Epiphany Center for the Arts and will feature guest musicians Joe Rendon on Latin percussion, Romanian folk singer Anna Everling and Malian Kora virtuoso Tani Diakate.

Wanees Zarour, co-director of the Chicago Immigrant Orchestra, plays music on his oud while he and his co-director, Fareed Haque, select the songs for their upcoming concert as they sit in Zarour’s studio in West Town, Dec. 4, 2025. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)

Zarour plays multiple instruments, such the oud, “the quintessential instrument of the Middle East and which is the ancestor of the lute,” he says, and the buzuq, “which is another stringed instrument like a lute that sounds almost banjo-y, but with a deeper tone.” He came to the U.S. as a preteen with his family from Ramallah in 1997, first to Michigan and then settling in Chicago.

“I would say it was traumatizing,” he says with a wry laugh. “Not in a way that was severe, but it’s because it was a very different place. I had an advantage, which is that in Palestine, the second language is English, so we learned it in school properly; we learned both Arabic and English in tandem. So that helped and at least I didn’t have much of a language barrier. But it’s a very different place culturally. But as the years have gone by, I’ve really feel like I’m part of the fabric of this city.”

Though he was aware of the previous version of the Chicago Immigrant Orchestra, “I didn’t know it well because I was younger. When the City of Chicago approached me and Fareed to re-establish it, what drew me to it was the idea that we can make music in a very unconventional yet authentic and real way that speaks to the immigrant experience in Chicago.

“There’s a lot of overlap in our experiences. But what’s really cool about this is that we, as a group, come from very different cultures, both culturally but also musically, with very different approaches to things. Exploring that is very special. If you think about this as a model and apply it generally in life — and even policy — you create something that’s truly amazing. The objective is to embrace different perspectives.”

Fareed Haque, co-director of the Chicago Immigrant Orchestra, plays music with his co-director, Wanees Zarour, while they select the songs for their upcoming concert as they sit in Zarour’s studio in West Town, Dec. 4, 2025. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)

Haque is a guitarist and the son of immigrants. “My mother is from Chile and my father is from Pakistan. They met in Ohio and then I was born and raised in Glen Ellyn. I am a fully naturalized American citizen, born here. But if you want to extend it back, if there’s no birthright citizenship, I could be at risk. I have more than my share of Islamic blood; my father is Muslim and his entire side of the family are Muslim. Very peaceful, very productive, very secular, very embedded in American culture. But that won’t make a difference if those times come.”

Recent anxieties around immigration status have affected him professionally. “I have musicians who have green cards who say no, I can’t travel to Canada or abroad for a gig because I don’t know if I’ll get back into the country. And these are big gigs, like, $5,000, $10,000, $15,000 appearances. It’s a huge deal. These petty restrictions and petty definitions being used to divide and conquer are really helping nobody. They’re costing Americans money. They’re costing Americans peace of mind, which also costs Americans money at the end of the day.”

He says he’s heard “little discussion among local musicians about substantive changes to their day-to-day lives, but there is a lot of discussion among Hispanic workers that work for me (as a property owner) and who work for friends of mine, and it’s a substantial amount of destruction to the community. One of my guys will say, ‘I don’t want to go to Home Depot to pick up some more paint for that apartment we’re repainting because I don’t want to be on ICE’s radar.’”

There are also more subtle ways this has affected Haque.

“I have been driving around and saying to myself, OK, I just finished my gig and it’s 11:30 and I’d like to get a bite to eat, but maybe I’m not going to go to those Mexican restaurants. I’m not going to go into the lion’s maw waving my papers. I’m just not going to show up.

“But if anything,” he adds, “I feel more inclined to dig my heels in and continue on the path that I’m on. If there’s any idea out there that what I’m doing is threatening or dangerous or un-American, I want to put those ideas and fears to rest. So I’m more committed than ever to the Chicago Immigrant Orchestra and what it has to say about the immigrant experience.”

Another member of the orchestra is Juan Pastor, an Afro-Peruvian and jazz percussionist who came to the U.S. in 2006 from Lima, Peru to study music. “I was interested in learning about jazz and we didn’t really have universities for that in Peru at the time. I ended up coming to Northern Illinois University.” He also attended graduate school at DePaul University and after eight years, “I had a pretty solid idea of what I wanted to do with my career, so I started looking into how I could stay. It’s unavoidable that the longer you stay in a place, the more attached you get to that place.”

When he joined the orchestra, “what was most important was figuring out how to work with other musicians from other cultures who don’t use (or read) sheet music, or their notation system is completely different from the one I know. So it was about, how are we going to do this? That piqued my interest and I was like, this could be fun.”

A group photo of members of the Chicago Immigrant Orchestra hangs in the office of one of the co-directors, Wanees Zarour, in West Town, Dec. 4, 2025. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)

He says the more he played with the ensemble, “the more I realized it was like a family. The struggle of living in the city and trying to make it as a musician — whatever ‘making it’ means, but being able to support yourself as a musician — as an immigrant, it felt really hard. It’s not an easy path. When I joined the orchestra, I was finalizing my steps of becoming a permanent resident, but I knew people who were just starting it, so I felt like I could help them and share my knowledge about how it works and that created a connection too.”

Have the recent months of upheaval affected his state of mind or his creativity? “As an artist, I’m sure that the moment I start writing music, I won’t be able to not think about it. This is something that takes time to process.

“But I wasn’t so afraid so much at first. My wife was like, Hey, we have to be careful because this is happening, and maybe I was a little in denial. I’ve been here for a while and, even though I’m Peruvian, if you saw me in the street, I look more European; Peru was colonized by Spain.

“But I started to see what was happening more on the news. And I have students whose parents were not born in the States and they’re afraid for them. That’s when I started realizing, this is closer than I thought. My lawyer at some point recommended that I not be outspoken about it on Facebook and Instagram, because if I want to get citizenship, they’re going to look at how proactive I was about this.”

Pausing to check in and ensure he’s comfortable with that appearing in the story, he confirms yes, he is.

“I don’t think I’m scared of much at this point,” he says. “I know what I’m not supposed to do. I think it’s more important that if I say something that could change someone’s mind by reading this, or they’re encouraged, then I will stand by that instead of living in fear.”

When he performs in concert, “I talk about the need for support. Chicago is a sanctuary city and we need to preserve that because immigrants create communities and culture within cities, and that’s what makes the city so important — that we have this kind of cosmopolitan environment where everybody can coexist, and we should support that for the benefit of the human race.”

Initially, he says, “I had a little fear. Like, gosh, should I say something? Should I not say something? And the way the audience reacted, I was glad I said something because people were like yes. And it was very validating, that this isn’t just something that I’m thinking, but that other people are too.”

Even so, he’s experienced the opposite. “I remember taking screenshots of some of the comments on our Facebook page, where it’s hard to tell if it’s real humans commenting or bots, but there were some hate comments in there. Like: ‘An immigrant concert? I’ll make sure to report it to ICE.’ Things like that. And I was like, wow, people are really instigating fear.”

Wanees Zarour, co-director of the Chicago Immigrant Orchestra, plays music on his oud while he and the other co-director, Fareed Haque, select the songs for their upcoming concert as they sit in Zarour’s studio in West Town, Dec. 4, 2025. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)

The orchestra’s co-director Zarour says, “I never thought I’d witness this here. Chicago is a very supportive place for the immigrant community. Can there be improvements? Absolutely. But we have a culture in Chicago that embraces multicultural engagement. This is bad for everybody and it just needs to stop. I would love to not be in this position where I have to be fighting for something that’s so basic. I would love nothing more than to just be playing my music.”

Unfortunately, this is a moment that demands more. “We don’t have another option,” he says. “We either act defiant and strong and make our voices heard, or we go into hiding. And we’re not going to go hide. This is our country.”

The Winter Solstice Concert by the Chicago Immigrant Orchestra is 7 p.m. Dec. 21 at the Epiphany Center for the Arts, 201 S. Ashland Ave.; tickets $35-$200 (ages 21+) at epiphanychi.com

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/15/the-chicago-immigrant-orchestra-is-defiant-in-the-wake-of-recent-raids/ 

Interactive Brokers Now Accepts Stablecoins In Bid To Remain Competitive

Tyler Durden
Mon, 12/15/2025 – 06:30

https://www.zerohedge.com/crypto/interactive-brokers-now-accepts-stablecoins-bid-remain-competitive 

Por MAE ANDERSON

NUEVA YORK (AP) — La tienda Ah Louis en San Luis Obispo, California, se transforma en un país de las maravillas invernal cada temporada navideña.

Guirnaldas verdes, cascanueces gigantes, bolas y lazos se colocan a principios de noviembre en el histórico edificio del centro que alberga la tienda de regalos. En el interior, los clientes pueden elegir entre más de 500 tipos diferentes de adornos y una variedad de cestas de regalo navideñas.

“De verdad lo convertimos en un lugar mágico. Entres o no, queremos asegurarnos de que estamos difundiendo esa alegría navideña” Emily Butler, copropietaria de la tienda.

Pero Butler dice que ella y su hermana gemela, su socia en el negocio, tuvieron que trabajar más duro este año para convertir a los curiosos en compradores y obtener ganancias. Muchos de los adornos y pequeños obsequios que venden se fabrican en el extranjero y, o bien no llegaron, o se encarecieron cuando el presidente Donald Trump impuso impuestos inusualmente altos a los productos importados, dijo.

En respuesta, las hermanas centraron su selección en artículos más rentables como cascanueces y cestas de regalo. También han notado que los clientes están reduciendo sus compras, eligiendo una cesta de regalo de 100 dólares en lugar de la versión de 150 dólares, o comprando un adorno en lugar de varios, comentó Butler.

“Definitivamente estamos viendo un gasto más prudente este año”, expresó.

La combinación de aranceles impredecibles, inflación persistente y débil contratación han sacudido la confianza del consumidor en la economía estadounidense. La gran mayoría de los adultos en Estados Unidos dicen que han notado precios más altos de lo habitual para comestibles, electricidad y regalos navideños en los últimos meses, según una encuesta de diciembre del Centro de Investigación de Asuntos Públicos de The Associated Press-NORC.

Un índice de Gallup que resume las evaluaciones de los estadounidenses sobre las condiciones económicas actuales cayó a un mínimo de 17 meses en noviembre. Los consumidores también mostraron menos entusiasmo por gastar dinero en regalos navideños: sus presupuestos estimados para regalos disminuyeron 229 dólares entre octubre y noviembre, la mayor caída que Gallup ha registrado en ese punto de la temporada de compras navideñas. La encuesta se realizó en noviembre, parcialmente durante el cierre del gobierno, lo que podría haber moderado los planes de gasto.

Sin embargo, el impacto en los precios al consumidor que muchos economistas preveían como el peor escenario debido a las políticas arancelarias del gobierno de Trump no se ha materializado. Algunos productos se han visto más afectados que otros. A continuación, un vistazo a lo que ha sucedido con los suministros y precios en categorías populares de regalos.

Juegos y juguetes

Los juegos y juguetes fueron particularmente susceptibles a los aumentos de precios relacionados con los aranceles, ya que la mayoría de los que se venden en Estados Unidos se fabrican en China, según el grupo comercial de la industria The Toy Association. La tasa arancelaria que el gobierno de Trump impuso a los productos chinos se convirtió en una montaña rusa que comenzó con un 10% adicional, alcanzó un máximo del 145% y terminó en un 47%.

La incertidumbre hizo difícil para las tiendas de juguetes decidir qué pedir para las fiestas. Dean Smith, copropietario de las tiendas de juguetes independientes JaZams en Princeton, Nueva Jersey, y Lahaska, Pensilvania, dijo que los fabricantes en China a los que compra juguetes no trasladaron sus costos arancelarios de una sola vez, pero ha visto que sus precios aumentan con cada nuevo pedido.

Smith estimó que los precios al por mayor para el 80% de su inventario aumentaron entre un 5% y un 20%. Algunos compradores que no compran juguetes regularmente podrían sorprenderse por los aumentos de precios que él adoptó a su vez, dijo Smith. Una muñeca que se vendía por entre 20 y 25 dólares el año pasado ahora cuesta de 30 a 35 dólares en JaZams, comentó.

“Para las personas con ingresos marginales, estas van a ser unas fiestas muy difíciles”, dijo Smith.

Electrónica

La electrónica de consumo se fabrica principalmente en China y otros países asiáticos. En 2023, China supuso el 78% de las importaciones de smartphones de Estados Unidos y el 79% de las importaciones de laptops y tabletas, según el grupo comercial Consumer Technology Association.

Best Buy dijo en mayo que aumentaría los precios debido a los aranceles. Pero la director general Corie Barry dijo a finales del mes pasado que la cadena de electrónica de consumo se aseguró de tener computadoras, teléfonos y otros productos a diferentes niveles de precios, una decisión que ella atribuyó a ayudar a Best Buy a atraer a más compradores de bajos ingresos.

“El consumidor no es un monolito”, dijo Barry a los periodistas.

Las videoconsolas siempre son un artículo popular en las fiestas, y los fabricantes de consolas fueron noticia a principios de este año cuando anunciaron subidas de precios. Sony aumentó el precio de la PlayStation 5 en 50 dólares a 550 dólares en agosto, siguiendo a Microsoft y Nintendo que aumentaron los precios de sus consolas.

Joyería

Los compradores de joyas probablemente verán precios más altos, pero eso tiene más que ver con el aumento del precio del oro que con los aranceles hasta ahora, según David Bonaparte, presidente y director general del grupo comercial Jewelers of America.

Las tasas impositivas variables que Trump estableció para los países que importan bienes estadounidenses con un valor total menor que sus exportaciones a Estados Unidos afectaron a la joyería de diversas maneras. Los relojes de Suiza, por ejemplo, estuvieron sujetos a un arancel del 39% desde el 31 de julio hasta que el país llegó a un acuerdo con el gobierno de Trump el mes pasado para reducir la tasa de impuestos de importación de sus productos al 15%.

India, que refina muchos de los diamantes vendidos en Estados Unidos, apresuró los envíos de las piedras preciosas antes de que un arancel del 50% sobre los productos del país entrara en vigor el 27 de agosto. Los precios más altos para las joyas hechas con diamantes enviados desde India probablemente comenzarán a sentirse en 2026, dijo Bonaparte.

“Realmente es una cuestión de lo que suceda después del 1 de enero”, comentó. “Si estos aranceles siguen vigentes, entonces los precios probablemente aumentarán”.

Decoración navideña

Las decoraciones navideñas son otra categoría que en su mayoría proviene del extranjero, particularmente de China.

Jeremy Rice es copropietario de House, una tienda de decoración para el hogar en Lexington, Kentucky, que se especializa en flores artificiales, coronas y decoraciones de mesa. Dijo que los aranceles ralentizaron la producción de gran parte de su stock de otoño y mercancía de temporada como cintas. Algunos artículos más grandes y más caros no los pidió en absoluto porque habrían sido demasiado caros para vender al por menor.

Rice aumentó los precios de los productos que sí obtuvo. Los populares tallos de bayas rojas que House vende desde hace mucho tiempo aumentaron de 8,95 dólares el año pasado a 10,95 dólares debido a los mayores costos de importación, dijo.

“Vendemos miles de estos tallos de bayas, y cada vez que vendíamos uno, me estremecía al saber lo que debería haber sido, sabiendo que nuestro proveedor pagó más por ellos, lo que nos hizo pagar más por ellos, lo que hizo que nuestro cliente pagara más por ellos”, comentó Rice.

Compras estratégicas

Para aquellos que buscan evitar aumentos de precios relacionados con los aranceles, John Harmon, director gerente de investigación tecnológica en la empresa de consultoría tecnológica Coresight Research, recomienda visitar tiendas de segunda mano y minoristas de descuento como T.J. Maxx, Marshall’s y HomeGoods. Las cadenas de precios bajos compran gran parte de su inventario de stock sobrante que habría ingresado a Estados Unidos antes de que entraran en vigor los nuevos aranceles.

Joe Adamski, director senior en la empresa de servicios de adquisiciones ProcureAbility, dijo que los libros, alimentos y bebidas son algunos de los productos de fabricación nacional que son buenos regalos.

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Esta historia fue traducida del inglés por un editor de AP con la ayuda de una herramienta de inteligencia artificial generativa.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/15/los-aranceles-de-eeuu-afectan-de-forma-desigual-a-los-precios-y-compras-navideas/ 

Palos Park police Sgt. Ross Chibe said he recently discovered when listening to a podcast that experts are using lidar technology to discover lost cities in the Amazon Rain Forest, the same technology that is now coming to the Palos Park Police Department, but to enforce safe driving.

The department received a grant from the Illinois Department of Transportation, along with several other grants, to purchase a lidar device, which uses a laser to specifically measure the speed of individual vehicles.

Chibe said speeding is an issue in Palos Park, so although the Police Department already has a similar device in use, he said the lidar units will be specifically accurate.

“That’s kind of one of the biggest issues that we face in our town,” Chibe said. “There’s a lot of roads in our town that are just very open, and there’s a lot of forest preserves, so people go fast.”

Chibe also said the technology, purchased for $1,859 with support from $1,750 in grant funding, are important because the Police Department is small and limited in resources.

The grant program supporting the technology, the Sustained Traffic Enforcement Program, aims to address traffic violations, specifically the “fatal four” issues — speeding, occupancy protection, distracted driving and impaired driving — that Chibe said are leading causes of death or serious injury in car crashes.

He said lidar was chosen over other speed enforcement technology because they could be more effective and precise than the radar units already in the squad cars.

He said a traditional radar sends out a signal wave to try and detect objects moving forward. Once the radar wave hits the cars driving forward, it bounces back and measures the time it takes for those waves to bounce back.

A lidar unit uses a singular point instead of a wave and has a small aiming device that can point to a singular car, which makes it more accurate and overall a better piece of technology, he said.

Palos Park police Officer Cohen Piechocinski uses a lidar unit during the Arrive Alive on Route 45 traffic safety initiative in summer 2024. (Palos Park Police Department)

The technology is also used in a variety of scientific fields, specifically for surveying and mapping geospatial data.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration website, the instrument is able to be mounted on vehicles in the air, on the ground or on the water and collect important data in many different environments and for many different purposes.

Chibe said several departments use the technology, such as Orland Park, and said it first became popular about five years ago. But it has advanced and some devices used by police can take video, he said.

The STEP grant program also included funding for Palos police to compensate more officers to work details addressing traffic violations, which most recently focused on seat belts.

The officers were paid overtime for their extra hours conducting seat belt checks on the roadways in October, which he said was helpful.

“Our officers do a great job doing traffic enforcement during their normal shifts, but sometimes they get busy with calls and it’s just one of those things, it’s just really really beneficial to have extra officers out,” Chibe said.

Chibe said this initiative showed a lot of people are not using their seat belt, a pattern he saw in his own time conducting seat belt checks.

He said one day they had seven to eight seat belt violations in under an hour at just one intersection.

“It’s a shame,” Chibe said.

He said officers would pull people over and have an educational moment where they tell them why its important to wear a seat belt.

Chibe said the department has participated in the STEP grant in the past, but last year was the first year it become involved again.

He said the department participated in the program’s mini grant initiative in 2024. He said this program consisted of traffic enforcement periods throughout the week that would focus on different topics, such as speed enforcement in July, distracted driving in April or DUI enforcement around the time of the Super Bowl.

The department elected this year to participate in the full program, which means officers will participate in all of the enforcement periods and also qualify for technology grants, Chibe said.

Chibe said the department aims to slow people down to the posted speed limit, have people wear seat belts or put their kids in car seats when it’s necessary, stop people from texting when they’re driving and find impaired motorists and get them off the road.

“If we continue doing these things, I mean, that’s going to really make a big difference with the number of crashes and how severe they are, and that’s basically the goal of all of this,” Chibe said.

Chibe said he expects the department to receive the new technology by January 2026 and said once it arrives, it will be used immediately, as all officers are already trained to use the technology when they’re hired.

awright@chicagotribune.com

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/15/palos-park-updated-laser-technology-speeding/ 

Irma Garcia’s life revolves around food. Eight hours a day, she prepares hundreds of meals for students at James Russell Lowell Elementary School in Humboldt Park. She can list the menu offhand — popcorn chicken, pepperoni pizza, mozzarella sticks.

But at home, her kitchen shelves are often empty: Once a month after work, she leaves Lowell and visits a food pantry down the block. Bundled in layers on a recent afternoon, she walked home with four bags of produce and canned goods.

“We either pay our bills, or buy food,” Garcia, 55, said.

Garcia makes $21 an hour as a cook, which last year totaled $34,000 after taxes. She’s worked for Chicago Public Schools for 23 years.

Wages are the sticking point in the bargaining process for CPS lunchroom workers, who have been without a contract for nearly six months. The 1,800 members of UNITE HERE Local 1, including lunchroom attendants, cooks and porters, remain among the lowest-paid CPS employees. Many, like Garcia, say they struggle to afford basic expenses.

The union’s four-year contract expired June 30. Bargaining sessions began in early May, and negotiations have continued monthly, according to the district. But UNITE HERE maintains that there has been little progress.

“It’s been incredibly slow,” organizing director Patrick Griffin said. “I’ve been in a lot of different negotiations over the time that I’ve been with the union, and these are probably some of the slowest I’ve ever been in.”

The union is pushing for increased staffing, citing a ballooning workload after gradual position cuts. The number of lunchroom attendants — who assist with meal prep and cleaning — has dropped about 38.5% over the past decade, from 1,140 to 701 this fall, according to the district’s employee rosters. (District enrollment has declined too, though only 19.4% over the same period.)

This summer, CPS also eliminated about 250 vacant kitchen positions to help plug its $734 million budget deficit. Reduced staffing means simplified menus and fewer hot meals for the school year, the district told families.

In her Humboldt Park bungalow, Garcia pointed to her wedding album, perched above her dining room table. Hours after her shift, she still wore her uniform, proudly sporting the district logo. She met her second husband, a now-retired cook, in a CPS kitchen in 2000.

Before she remarried, Garcia was a single mother raising four young children. Even then, money was tight: She shuffled through odd jobs in between shifts, from cleaning houses to delivering food. More than two decades later, she relies on her 30-year-old son for help covering bills.

After visiting the food pantry — where she also volunteers — Garcia carefully stacked cans on her kitchen shelves. “They don’t see us,” she said of the district. “No one sees us. They just know that the kids get fed.”

Pay for lunchroom workers is based on experience and position. A first-year attendant makes $16.78, just above the city’s $16.60 minimum wage. The most senior role, an associate lunchroom manager, makes $23.36. Under the union’s previous contract, each position received annual raises ranging from 1.5% to 2%.

In its new wage proposal, CPS offered across-the-board raises ranging from 8.6% to 31.5%. (To be sure, only 22 associate lunchroom managers would receive a 31.5% raise. More than 1,600 employees would receive raises under 12.6%.) The district also proposed eliminating a tiered system for associate managers and cooks, which would provide more predictable pay, a spokesperson said in a statement.

“CPS values the dedication and hard work of its staff and remains committed to working closely with its labor partners,” the spokesperson said.

UNITE HERE officials countered that it isn’t enough. “We have a long way to go,” Griffin said. “The folks that work in the lunchroom … are so far behind the other people that might work as janitors, or any of the support staff positions.”

UNITE HERE is a smaller player compared to CPS’ other unions, including the powerful Chicago Teachers Union, whose contentious bargaining this year soured relations with district leadership. Under CTU’s new, four-year contract, the average teacher salary is expected to exceed $110,000. The entire agreement will cost the district $1.5 billion over four years, with 80% of those costs allocated for raises to offset the cost of living.

Under the district’s proposals, future annual raises for lunch workers would follow the cost-of-living adjustment formula applied to the CTU and SEIU Local 73, which represents school-based support staff.

Ivery Pierre held her daughter’s hand tight as they weaved through icy Chicago Lawn sidewalks. The sun had just begun to rise above Marquette Elementary School. Pierre’s daughter, 10-year-old Somaya, bounded through the doors of the red-brick building.

This was their ritual: Pierre, 27, starts her shift as a cook and prepares students’ breakfasts. About 8 a.m., she takes her break to walk Somaya to McKay Elementary, five blocks south. Then, back to work.

“I love the kids. I come to the school for the kids. I make it my business to be known in children’s lives,” Pierre said, her breath fogging in the cold air. “When I was that age, I wanted someone to love me, and be there for me.”

Pierre was a 16-year-old CPS student when she became pregnant with her daughter. As a young mother, she completed her high school’s culinary program and started working as a district cook shortly after graduation.

Ivery Pierre, 27, left, who has been a lunch worker at Marquette Elementary School for seven years, walks with her daughter, Somaya, 10, to Marquette Elementary School on Dec. 9, 2025. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)

But Pierre’s CPS wages only stretch so far, especially during the holidays. She makes $23 hourly. “I’m thinking, ‘How am I going to be able to pay my rent?’” she said. “Then, we have Christmas coming up. And (Somaya’s) birthday is in December. … I struggle very hard.”

Across the country, many school districts are experiencing high vacancy rates and turnover in cafeterias — largely because of low wages, according to Jennifer Gaddis, a University of Wisconsin Madison associate professor who studies food labor and policy. A 2024 study found that school food service workers make an average of $3.16 less than custodial staff.

“It is much harder to not only improve meal quality, but also to provide a really caring, constructive environment for young people in schools when you’re dealing with that much turnover,” Gaddis said.

Lunchroom workers are significantly more female and older than the average workforce, Gaddis noted. More than 90% of UNITE HERE Local 1 members are people of color, according to the union.

Staffing has been trending downward nationally as more schools shift from scratch kitchens to pre-made meals. In 2012, UNITE HERE Local 1 officials negotiated a contract temporarily preventing CPS from converting more full-cooking kitchens into warming kitchens.

But after summer budget cuts, fewer hot lunches are being served in schools, according to CPS officials. The district’s supplemental afterschool programs transitioned from hot suppers to pre-packed snacks because of reduced staffing.

Alexis Camarena always dreamed of being a chef. As a teen, he watched videos of celebrity chefs Jacques Pépin and Julia Child making elaborate French meals. He’s still passionate, even after eight years in CPS kitchens.

“When I present it, if it’s broccoli, I want to make sure it’s thawed all the way out, so when they get it, it’s not mushy,” said Camarena, 29, a cook at  Cesar Chavez Multicultural Academic Center. “I want it to be authentic. I want to make sure when they get it, it’s good, not just like, ‘Oh, I just put this in the oven and I burned it.’”

He bounced his 1-year-old daughter, America, on his lap in his West Lawn home. She babbled happily. It was a rare, quiet afternoon for the pair: Most days, Camarena works a second job as a security guard. He’ll spend the day in the lunchroom, then pick up an hourslong shift for an event.

“I can’t just sit around knowing that we’ve got these bills to pay,” Camarena said from his couch. His wife also works full time.

Camarena sits on the union’s rank-and-file bargaining committee. He seethed at the district’s latest raise and tiered-pay proposals. “What they presented, I think it’s a slap in the face,” he said.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/15/cps-lunchroom-workers-contract-negotiations/ 

The process for meting out discipline in the most serious cases of misconduct by Chicago police officers has been largely at a standstill for more than two years.

During that stretch, a backlog of unresolved cases has grown as a legal fight between the city and the largest CPD officers’ union has worked its way to the Illinois Supreme Court.

In 2025, cases in that category swelled to near 500. As of mid-December, police Superintendent Larry Snelling still must decide whether or not to bring administrative charges in 490 cases in which the Civilian Office of Police Accountability sustained allegations of misconduct, city records show.

“We now find ourselves in a place where unadjudicated cases involving allegations of serious misconduct by police officers are stacking up,” Chicago Inspector General Deborah Witzburg told the Tribune. “That is a bad and unfair thing for all the people involved in those cases — members of the public, family members of people who’ve been hurt, members of the department who have discipline hanging over them.”

In 2025, Snelling did move to fire 11 police officers, records show. But overall, there are 26 pending misconduct cases with allegations serious enough to warrant the involvement of the Chicago Police Board. Of those, just four cases are proceeding.

In the meantime, COPA and the bureau of internal affairs have continued to investigate allegations of misconduct.

For now, the future of those cases remains hazy as the Illinois Supreme Court will soon hear arguments from the Fraternal Order of Police and the city in a case that could further reshape Chicago’s police discipline apparatus. A ruling would likely come in 2026.

Chicago Inspector General Deborah Witzburg speaks with Ald. Matt O’Shea, 19th, Oct. 16, 2025, in City Council chambers after Mayor Brandon Johnson delivered his budget address at City Hall. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)

“This is where the rubber meets the road,” Witzburg added. “No amount of good and timely investigative work matters at all if we don’t have mechanisms in place to dispose of these cases fairly and appropriately at the end.”

At the most recent Police Board meeting, President Kyle Cooper said the ongoing court case “has brought to a standstill consideration of the vast majority of cases in which the recommendation is to discharge the accused officer from the Chicago Police Department.”

The decision of the state’s high court could break the logjam.

“Once the Supreme Court issues its decision, we look forward to the Fraternal Order of Police and the city working expeditiously to finalize an arbitration process,” Cooper added.

Department goals

Speaking Thursday, Snelling said one of the department’s goals for 2026 was to bolster the public’s understanding of police accountability and discipline systems.

“If we need accountability, if we have officers amongst us who are not here faithfully, then we need to do what we have to do to ensure that we maintain a reputation of our hardworking officers who are out there every day doing the work faithfully,” Snelling said. “And I will work closely with COPA and any other investigative body to make sure that we do that.”

“Ensuring the community knows how complaints and misconduct are handled and what the process is can help strengthen public confidence and (address) the concerns that the investigation is handled in the best way possible and is transparent,” Snelling added.

Transparency question

The adjudication process for the most serious misconduct cases has remained mostly stagnant since late 2023 after an arbitrator, overseeing contract negotiations between the city and FOP, ruled that Chicago officers, as public sector employees in a collective bargaining unit, may have the most serious disciplinary cases heard and decided by a third-party outside of public view.

The city later appealed in Cook County Circuit Court, and, in March, Judge Michael Mullen ruled that CPD officers may have those cases heard and decided by a third-party, but those proceedings must be held in public.

Mullen’s order held that officers who face charges can still elect a hearing by the Police Board, but just four officers have so far.

The FOP appealed, but last August a panel of Illinois Appellate Court judges concurred with Mullen and said the hearings should be publicly accessible, in keeping with 60 years of precedent.

However, the appellate judges also ruled partly in favor of the FOP and ordered that officers accused of serious misconduct can still be paid while their cases move forward.

The FOP in September filed its petition to the Illinois Supreme Court. The union’s attorneys argued that the Appellate Court’s opinion, if allowed to stand, would threaten the arbitration rights of every public employee in the state, not just police officers in Chicago.

“In so ruling, the (Appellate Court) majority rejected long-standing Illinois Supreme Court precedent on the level of deference given to labor arbitrators’ findings and interpretations in arbitration awards,” the union argued.

“The Appellate Court has thus opened the door for all Illinois government employers to argue that their employee disciplinary cases require public attendance or participation,” the argument said, “thereby allowing employers to seek to vacate any arbitrator’s award that is not heard publicly, or even to void CBAs because they do not provide for public arbitration hearings.”

Three other unions that represent local municipal employees — AFSCME, AFL-CIO and Associated Fire Fighters of Illinois — signed an amicus curiae in support of the FOP’s petition.

Complaint numbers

While disciplinary cases progress, accused officers are often assigned to the department’s alternate response section — sometimes referred to as “callback” — which handles non-emergency calls for service.

As of October the department had 265 officers assigned to alternate response, according to data from the inspector general.

2025 saw a decline in the overall number of misconduct complaints lodged against CPD officers. Through Dec. 1, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability initiated 936 investigations, while the department’s bureau of internal ffairs opened 4,931.
Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability President Remel Terry listens during a public meeting at JLM Abundant Life Community Center, Dec. 11, 2025. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)

Through early December, COPA reported 15 shootings by Chicago officers, up from the nine in 2024. Since the start of the year, COPA has opened investigations into 36 weapon discharges by officers, city records show. The majority of COPA’s investigations concern allegations of civil rights abuses, operational violations and excessive force.

The most recent police shooting occurred late Tuesday when a man was fatally shot by officers in the 5700 block of North Washtenaw Avenue. His identity has not officially been released.

Though they garner the most attention, cases that involve the Police Board account for only a small fraction of officers’ alleged misconduct. Each year, Police Department supervisors issue thousands of Summary Action Punishment Requests that can result in an officer reprimand or a one- to three-day suspension from work.

The department recently changed policy to see that every firearm pointing incident is now reviewed by a district captain — one of the highest ranking officers in each patrol district, who uniformed officers interact with often.

Reports of use-of-force incidents involving officers increased again in 2025, the fourth year in a row.

Accounting for increases

Snelling stressed that the department’s internal policies now require officers to fill out use-of-force reports more often, even in instances where an officer was the victim of an attack.

“The more you get on paper, the more you can assess what’s going on,” Snelling said. “The more you create training around it, you can determine if there (are) patterns or practices that you need to address.”

In October, the monitoring team tasked with gauging the city’s and Police Department’s adherence to a federal consent decree released its 12th report. The monitoring team, led by Maggie Hickey, found the department to be in preliminary compliance with 94% of the consent decree’s mandates as of June 2025.

The Police Department had reached secondary compliance in 65% of consent decree paragraphs, meaning the department had established a policy and started training officers. Full compliance — where the policy is incorporated in police day-to-day operations — was reached in 23% of the consent decree, according to the monitoring team.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/15/number-of-unresolved-cpd-discipline-cases-crawls-toward-500-during-court-fight/ 

There was a time when sweet wines were embedded in the fabric of everyday American life. Madeira, a fortified wine that developed a tawny, caramelized character over the long, hot sea voyage from the Portuguese island of the same name, was the unofficial wine of Colonial America. By the 19th century, port and sherry had become fixtures of middle- and upper-class dining rituals.   

Over the past century, however, sweet wines have quietly slipped to the margins of American culture. I adore them still — their hedonism, their winding backstories and the easy, lingering pace they encourage. In my home, no dinner party or holiday gathering feels complete without a slightly sweet aperitif to start — the lemonade kiss of a German Spätlese, or late-harvest riesling, or a vibrant, fizzy Lambrusco. Later, I turn to headier, richer sips of port, Hungarian Tokaji or French Sauternes with cheese, fruit or chocolate for a stylish, no-fuss finale. 

Especially amid the rush of holiday gatherings, sweet wines are an everyday luxury worth rediscovering. Not out of nostalgia, but because they offer the kind of modern ritual many of us crave — a sweet, simple pause to slow down, linger and reconnect. 

Forgotten pleasures

You might blame Prohibition, or the rise of dry wines and cocktail culture for the decline of sweet wines in America. But the rapid pace of modern life combined with a surplus of rich, sugary desserts left little room for the slower pleasures sweet wines offer. 

There’s a stigma, too, around sweet wines in America, explains André Hueston Mack, the sommelier and founder of the Oregon wine brand Maison Noir. Americans love sweetness, but “sweet wines became something you weren’t supposed to like,” he says.

Still, sweet wine traditions have endured quietly in America. Steakhouses, alongside classic fine-dining and special-occasion restaurants, offer a glimpse of how festive and connective they can be.  

Királyudvar Tokaji Cuvée Ilona is paired with lemon pavlova dessert at Hawksmoor in Chicago, Dec. 9, 2025. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)

“It’s just part of the culture of what a steakhouse is,” explains Dylan Estey, head sommelier at Hawksmoor in the River North neighborhood. “Guests come for a long, luxurious evening, the kind of night you want to stretch out as much as possible.” 

And while sweet wines may seem like overkill after a decadent meal, many offer unexpected freshness and lift.

“A lemony dessert, like our lemon pavlova, and a glass of Tokaji finishes the evening on a high,” says Estey, referring to the iconic sweet wines of Hungary known for their honeyed richness and electric acidity. 

Port at the heart of holiday traditions

Perhaps no sweet wine is more tied to the holidays than port, the fortified wines of Portugal’s Douro Valley, popularized by generations of British merchant families. The intensely concentrated, warming wines are an especially cozy companion to cold, wintry months. 

For Natasha Bridge, whose family established Taylor Fladgate, the port house founded in 1692, the holidays bring a flurry of family and friends to her homes in Porto and the Douro. Today, Taylor Fladgate operates in partnership with fellow founding houses, Fonseca and Croft. 

In true British fashion, Bridge says, “all December, we serve mince pies — little pastries filled with dried fruits and nuts — with a ruby-style port.” On special occasions she suggests splurging on a vintage port, special bottlings made only in the best years and labeled with that vintage. More accessible options include late-bottled vintage or reserve rubies like Fonseca’s Bin 27, styles with big, concentered berry flavors that stand up to the spice and richness of a mince pie, she says. 

Sweet wines at Hawksmoor, including from left, Bugey-Cerdon La Cueille sparkling wine, Alvear Solera 1927, Taylor Fladgate’s 2019 late-bottled vintage port, Boston Bual Madeira and Királyudvar Tokaji Cuvée. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)

Port, however, isn’t just a dessert wine. In Portugal, it’s also a popular pre-dinner aperitif. White port, like Fonseca’s Siroco or Croft Pink, the first rosé port on the market, can be served chilled in a white wine glass with a twist of orange, she says, or mixed with ice and tonic water as a “portonic,” a playful riff on a gin and tonic.  

Adapting old traditions for modern life

Sweet wines like port might strike some as a bit retro, but “there’s something special about resurrecting older traditions to fit our own lifestyle and the time and place we’re in,” says Mack. This year, he’s been collecting vintage ports tied to special birth years and anniversaries to share with his family over the holidays.  

But there’s no reason to reserve sweet wines for special occasions, he insists. In recent years, sweet desserts have largely given way to post-dinner servings of cheese in his household.

“Even the kids love cheese,” he says, and for adults, it’s often accompanied by small pours of sweet wine.  

Indeed, even after the holidays, sweet wines offer simple rituals easily integrated into the most ordinary moments of our lives. In colder months, “one of my favorite pastimes is an aperitif of port while watching football,” says Estey. “After all, I’d much rather have a little port or Tokaji than a Miller Lite.” 

Sweet-wine tips for the holidays and beyond

Rainwater Madeira is an ideal introduction for anyone skeptical about sweet wines, says Estey. Reminiscent of hazelnuts, caramel and toffee, he says, “it’s almost like liquid Nutella.”

Alvear Solera 1927 is poured at Hawksmoor in Chicago on Dec. 9, 2025. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)

For a sparkling wine that’s subtly sweet, consider a Clairette de Die “Tradition” from the Rhône Valley, a floral, muscat sparkler that’s an elevated alternative to the more commercially popular Moscato d’Asti. Estey loves Bugey-Cerdon, a lightly sparkling gamay from the foothills of the French Alps. “It drinks like an adult version of Martinelli’s sparkling grape juice,” he says, zippy, fruity and a favorite pairing with hamburgers.

For sheer decadence, Estey pairs Hawksmoor’s sticky toffee pudding with Pedro Ximénez sherry. Made from grapes raisinated in the sun to intensify their sweetness, it’s an unapologetically rich, syrupy sip — “really jumping off the deep end,” he says, but the fig and date flavors are a match made in heaven.

Blue cheese is a classic accompaniment to ruby port. “The acidity of a ruby and its brambly black-fruit flavors just make the pairing sing,” says Estey. At Hawksmoor, he pours Taylor Fladgate’s 2019 late-bottled vintage port, aged in oak casks for four to six years to gain depth while retaining its fruit-forward intensity.

Tawny ports aged 10, 20 or even 40 years in oak lighten in hue and adopt complexities of dried fruits and nuts, caramel and spice. They’re the ideal pairing with chocolate, says Bridge, “whether a really good piece of dark chocolate, or a brownie or chocolate mousse.” She also recommends aged tawnies with apple or nut desserts like an apple tart or pecan pie.

Anna Lee Iijima is a freelance writer.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/15/sweet-wines/