Most of Cameron Mackintosh’s monster Broadway hits — “Cats, “Les Miserables,” “Miss Saigon,” “The Phantom of the Opera” and “Mary Poppins” — are decades old now. But two things have swung in the famous theater producer’s favor.

The first is that major new Broadway musicals, always high risk, now are widely seen as so prohibitively expensive to produce as to be inevitable loss makers. A case in point: “The Queen of Versailles” closes on Broadway on Dec. 21 with a loss of its entire $22.5 million capitalization, despite the presence of “Wicked” composer Stephen Schwartz, some favorable reviews and a high-quality star performance from Kristen Chenoweth. So far this anemic year for musicals, the Tony Awards are struggling to make up the desired number of nominations in the category of best musical.

The second is that social-media influencers and TikTokers have rediscovered the powerhouse shows of their parents’ generation for themselves, meaning that the celebrity wattages of the ever-canny Mackintosh, now 79, and his famous collaborator Andrew Lloyd Webber, 77, have not dimmed. Lloyd Webber is an industry legend willing to take risks on young collaborators like the director Jamie Lloyd, or the drag queens who will reinvent “Cats” on Broadway this spring.

They still have the sexiest shows and the 40-year-old “Phantom,” which opens yet again in Chicago on Saturday, remains the hottest of the lot.

“I think it was a big mistake to close ‘Phantom’ on Broadway,” the ever-cheerful Lloyd Webber says by phone from London. “We have just had our best season ever in London, even adjusted for inflation, even better than our original first year.  I don’t completely understand social media but those around me do. They just took over the marketing of ‘Phantom’ some two and a half years ago and found a new generation of young girls and women, especially. You have to remember that young girls and women also were the show’s original audience — they even published their own ‘Phantom’ magazine — but there is a new equivalent of that now, all following the show.”

Mackintosh argues somewhat differently about closing the marquee Broadway “Phantom.”

“We’d been running for more than 35 years,” he says from his U.K. home, late one recent evening, accompanied by the clink of a nightcap rum, “so for one thing, it was falling to bits. Really, the only sensible thing to do was to close it because, as with any show that has been running for years, otherwise you risk a show being seen as wallpaper. By closing down, we’ve actually been able now to reinvigorate the title and now, 40 years later, we’ve had the chance to completely redo it for this U.S. tour.”

That redo, which is bigger than many realize, is what is opening in Chicago this weekend after a preliminary tryout in Baltimore.

“It’s still very much the brilliant, original Hal Prince production with Maria Bjornson’s designs,” Mackintosh says, naming the two most pivotal “Phantom” artists (along with Lloyd Webber, of course), neither of whom are still alive.  “But we’ve brought all of the elements together again as if we were doing a brand new show, rather than treating it as a museum piece. There is technology you can use nowadays that we just didn’t have 40 years ago and that has allowed us, with the very judicious use of some digital projections, to move the show far faster than we ever were able to do before. We’ve brought back some of the original ideas that were discarded by Maria along the way and we’ve probably changed 70% of the show.  I think audiences are getting the grandest production of “Phantom” now that they ever will have seen.”

Isaiah Bailey as The Phantom in the national tour of “The Phantom of the Opera” at Cadillac Palace Theatre. (Matthew Murphy)

This is not the first time Mackintosh has redone one of big hits for the road; a new streamlined staging of “Les Miserables,” accompanied by an intense focus on stellar vocals, rejuvenated that show on tour, too.

This time around, Mackintosh has used some scenic elements from a prior U.K. tour and, of course, the costumes remain the same. So it’s a more cost-effective production at the same time as a fresh vista on the material; long gone are the days of “Phantom” needing a dozen trucks to traverse the country. Still, he says, “this production has cost a huge amount of money to put on the road, even though we’ve designed it to survive in this incredibly expensive era.”

What of the super-fans who know every beat of the show? Will they notice any difference?

“I think it depends how well you know the show,” Mackintosh says. “Something Maria always wanted from the outset was for the horse on the roof of the opera house to come alive, and that now becomes part of the deus ex machina at the end of Act 1. It’s really a far more elaborate version of the whole opera house than anyone has seen previously. The chandelier also now does far more things: it moves faster, it explodes and it is far more beautiful than it ever was before.”

“Phantom” has proven the most versatile of stories. Aside from the various competing versions over the years that had nothing to do with Lloyd Webber or Mackintosh, Lloyd Webber also recently approved, and clearly liked, an immersive version of the show, titled “Masquerade,” that Broadway in Chicago very much wants to bring to Chicago. It’s all part of a broad notion of keeping the pieces alive — as with the drag-queen “Cats,” a well-reviewed new take that is coming to Broadway in the spring.

“With Phantom and my other shows,” Lloyd Webber says, “we’ve always tried to reach an audience that does not regularly go to the theater. But I’ve found out over the years, sometimes to my cost, that while I believe in well-constructed musicals, the key always has to be the story. A great story can save an OK musical score but not the other way round.”

“Masquerade” is an example of a major trend: the purveyors of popular entertainment, even at the level of “Phantom,” looking beyond the traditional Broadway theaters due almost entirely to the cost of production there. Lloyd Webber made mention of Madrid and Barcelona, where live entertainment is thriving at lower cost. The expense of Broadway producing, and the lack of business-driven logic behind it, also explains the relative buoyancy of the West End of London, but also of the touring market, where a familiar show like “Phantom” in a big market like Chicago (with theatrical venues with greater seating capacity than in New York) still can do boffo business.

When pressed, Mackintosh says there is a chance this new “Phantom” might, in coming months, move into a Broadway theater for a limited run, as “Mamma Mia!” did this fall with remarkable fiscal success. “A ‘Mamma Mia’-style engagement would be the only way it would work now on Broadway,” he says, although one can discern he has thought hard about the idea.  Mr. Producer still is a Broadway baby, whatever its challenges.

“The big problem for Broadway,” he says, “is where are the new big shows that will be the revivals of the future? My little collection of classics have never been more in demand. I’m nearly 80. I find it hard to keep up.”

Dec. 11 to Feb. 1, 2026 at the Cadillac Palace Theatre, 151 W. Randolph St.; www.broadwayinchicago.com

cjones5@chicagotribune.com

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/12/andrew-lloyd-webber-phantom/ 

Por MICHAEL KUNZELMAN

BALTIMORE, Maryland, EE.UU. (AP) — Kilmar Ábrego García debía presentarse ante las autoridades migratorias el viernes, unas 14 horas después de haber sido puesto en libertad por orden judicial.

Ábrego García se convirtió en un símbolo de la campaña migratoria del gobierno del presidente, Donald Trump, a principios de año, cuando fue deportado erróneamente a una conocida prisión en El Salvador. Fue detenido por última vez en agosto durante un control similar.

Está previsto que el viernes por la mañana comparezca en una oficina del Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas (ICE, por sus siglas en inglés) en Baltimore.

La agencia lo puso en libertad poco antes de las 5 de la tarde del jueves tras el fallo de la jueza de distrito de Estados Unidos Paula Xinis en Maryland, que determinó que, tras su regreso al país, las autoridades federales lo detuvieron sin ninguna base legal.

Deportado por error y devuelto

Ábrego García es un ciudadano salvadoreño con esposa e hijo estadounidenses que lleva años viviendo en Maryland. Emigró a Estados Unidos sin los permisos pertinentes cuando era un adolescente para reunirse con su hermano, que se había convertido en ciudadano estadounidense. En 2019, un juez de inmigración le concedió protección contra la deportación a su país de origen, donde podría estar en peligro por los ataques de una banda a su familia.

Aunque se le permitió vivir y trabajar en Estados Unidos bajo la supervisión de ICE, no se le otorgó la residencia. A principios de año, fue deportado por error y retenido en una prisión salvadoreña conocida por su brutalidad a pesar de no tener antecedentes penales.

Ante la creciente presión pública y una orden judicial, el gobierno republicano de Trump lo trajo de regreso a Estados Unidos en junio, pero solo después de emitir una orden de detención en su contra por presuntos cargos de tráfico de personas en Tennessee. Se ha declarado no culpable de esas acusaciones y ha solicitado a un juez federal que las desestime.

Demanda para bloquear la expulsión de EEUU

El acuerdo de 2019 determinó que tenía un “temor fundado” a correr peligro en El Salvador si era deportado allí. Por ello, el ICE ha estado tratando de deportarlo a una serie de países africanos. En una demanda, Ábrego García alegó que el gobierno de Trump está utilizando de forma ilegal el proceso de expulsión para castigarlo por la vergüenza pública causada por su caso.

En su orden de liberación de Ábrego García, Xinis escribió que las autoridades federales “no solo obstaculizaron” al tribunal, “sino que (lo) engañaron activamente”. Xinis también rechazó el argumento del gobierno de que carecía de jurisdicción para intervenir en una orden de expulsión definitiva para Ábrego García, ya que no encontró que hubiese ninguna orden de este tipo.

El ICE liberó a Ábrego García del Centro de Procesamiento del Valle de Moshannon, a unos 185 kilómetros (115 millas) al noreste de Pittsburgh, el jueves, justo antes de que se cumpliese la fecha límite dada por la magistrada a la Casa Blanca para proporcionar una actualización sobre la puesta en libertad de Ábrego García.

Regresó a su hogar en Maryland unas horas después.

Control migratorio

Los controles son la forma en que el ICE realiza el seguimiento de algunas personas liberadas por el gobierno para buscar asilo u otros casos de inmigración mientras avanzan en un sistema judicial saturado. Estas citas solían ser rutinarias, pero desde que comenzó el segundo mandato de Trump, muchos migrantes han sido detenidos durante los controles.

Sandoval-Moshenberg dijo que está preparado para defender a su cliente contra nuevos intentos de deportación.

“El gobierno todavía tiene muchas herramientas en su caja de herramientas, muchos trucos bajo la manga”, afirmó Sandoval-Moshenberg, agregando que espera que el ejecutivo vuelva a tomar medidas para deportar a su cliente. “Estaremos allí para luchar y asegurarnos de que haya un juicio justo”.

El Departamento de Seguridad Nacional criticó con dureza la orden de Xinis y prometió apelar, calificando el fallo de “activismo judicial descarado” por parte de una jueza nombrada por el expresidente Barack Obama.

“Esta orden carece de cualquier base legal válida, y continuaremos luchando con uñas y dientes en los tribunales”, dijo Tricia McLaughlin, secretaria adjunta del departamento.

Sandoval-Moshenberg señaló que la jueza dejó claro que el gobierno no puede detener a alguien de forma indefinida sin autoridad legal y que su cliente “ha soportado más de lo que cualquiera debería tener que soportar”.

Ábrego García también ha solicitado asilo en Estados Unidos ante un tribunal de inmigración.

Cargos en Tennessee

Ábrego García fue acusado de tráfico de personas y conspiración para cometer tráfico de personas cuando el gobierno de Estados Unidos lo trajo de regreso desde El Salvador. La fiscalía alegó que aceptó dinero para transportar, dentro del país, a personas que no tenían la documentación en regla.

Los cargos derivan de una parada de tráfico en 2022 en Tennessee por exceso de velocidad. Las imágenes de la cámara corporal de un agente de la Patrulla de Carreteras de Tennessee muestran una interacción tranquila con Ábrego García. En el vehículo había nueve personas y los policías discutieron entre ellos sus sospechas de tráfico de personas. Sin embargo, le permitieron continuar su viaje con solo una advertencia.

Un agente del Departamento de Seguridad Nacional declaró en una vista previa que no comenzó a investigar la parada de tráfico hasta después de que la Corte Suprema de Estados Unidos dijo en abril que el gobierno de Trump debía trabajar para repatriar a Ábrego García.

___

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/2025/12/12/brego-garca-queda-libre-pero-debe-presentarse-ante-autoridades-migratorias-14-horas-despus/ 

Rekia Boyd would have been 36 years old last month. To honor that milestone, A Long Walk Home — the art organization that empowers young people to end violence against Black girls and women — held a party for family and community to celebrate her life.

An off-duty Chicago police officer shot and killed Boyd near Douglass Park in 2012. She was 22 years old. The officer was acquitted of criminal charges in the case.

ALWH has been saying her name ever since — honoring her and the Black girlhood that she and others like her embody. ALWH provides artistic, advocacy and leadership programming to Black girls and young women to help them drive change within their communities. Boyd was one of several Black girls and women featured in ALWH’s “Black Girlhood Altar,” a community monument to missing and murdered Black girls.

The November celebration at Homan Square’s Nichols Tower was ebullient with food, camaraderie and conversation about Boyd’s legacy. Many attendees wore Boyd’s favorite color, yellow, and commiserated amidst pictures of a young, smiling Boyd and renderings of projects artists hope will be developed to pay homage to Boyd in North Lawndale’s Douglass Park. Artists Nina Cooke John, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, Tiff Massey, Sonja Henderson and Nekisha Durrett gave presentations. The proposals are finalists for the Rekia Boyd Monument Project.

“Rekia was something different,” said Boyd’s sister, Natasha Williams. “We used to call her the $5 sister, because she’d ask for $5 and take our children — have them for 10 hours a day. She just needed $5 for nine children to take out to the park. I don’t know what they did, but they were happy. Rekia was all about smiles. She had this crazy laugh. That’s how a lot of people know her and her saying, ‘Hey girl!’”

Cooke John’s vision for the Rekia Boyd Monument Project is called “Sweet Harbor.” It centers various wood shapes in a lush green space for sitting, playing and engaging with.

A rendering of the proposed installation, “Sweet Harbor.” (Nina Cooke John)

“I see 10-year-olds walking on it like you might a balance beam or jumping off and over it,” said Cooke John about her public art proposal. “I see a lot of temporary activation as well. The idea that you can bring with you your ropes, tie them and use them for double dutch. It (the wood) becomes the instigator for new creativity, but it still has parts of it that stay the same. It can be dynamic in terms of how you engage with it. … It changes with the seasons.”

Cooke John is interested in collecting words from healing circles and capturing sounds of people having a good time to create a score that plays. The soundscape is an audio component that makes the park space multi-sensory.

Massey’s endeavor, “Rekia’s Sound Garden,” features sunflowers; Durrett’s work “R.E.K.I.A,” makes each letter of her name a playground where children can play; Fazlalizadeh’s project “For Rekia, For Us” is ladened with flowers; and Boyd’s visage incorporated in a plaza with powerful words about Black girls; while Henderson’s monument concept includes a sonic garden tuned by Sadie Woods with a 9-foot bronze statue of Boyd in the parabola garden. Boyd’s bodice is draped in a gown covered in bronze bells that can be rung and engraved by community members. The space is multi-generational and centers play and rest. Henderson said it’s about frequency, and coming together in fellowship. If her proposal is chosen, she will also have a film component, one about the making of the monument and retelling Boyd’s story.

A rendering for the Rekia Boyd Monument Project. (Sonja Henderson)

“Rekia Boyd, who we revere and love, was a human being, and it’s important to acknowledge her as such,” Henderson said in her presentation. “She was taken from us because she was being too loud. And so our vision is to give her her voice back. We’re doing that with a bell. This is the voice that is going to be heard around the world. Your voices now perpetuate Rekia’s story and her promise. You are the future. You are her future.”

Each proposal showcased ALWH’s decades-long mission of empowerment.

“This is a rare thing — there aren’t that many Black women monuments,” said Scheherazade Tillet, ALWH’s co-founder and executive director. “Not only is it about Rekia … we don’t have these sculptures to represent us. It’s even more sacred as a reclaiming of space. I was told to look for a yellow banner around a tree in 2015 to remember Rekia. That was the only marker that you had. I think there is something joyful in this moment. It’s a heavy topic, but that’s the work of a long walk home — every project we do, we keep on remembering her, and we bring on other people.”

A rendering of the proposed installation, “R.E.K.I.A.” (Nekisha Durrett)

ALWH is helming the Rekia Boyd Monument Project in partnership with the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, Chicago Parks District and Monument Lab (part of the Chicago Monuments Project). The monument is among eight new monuments funded through a partnership between DCASE and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. A decision on the selection for the monument is slated for January 2026, with fruition expected in 2026-27, according to Lydia Ross, DCASE senior strategist, who has been leading the Chicago Monument Project recently. The project started in 2020 as a response to the city of Chicago’s need for a larger reckoning with monuments and more inclusive narratives of the city’s history.

“These projects are deeply emotional, personal, also political,” Ross said. “When people have been suppressed, ignored, misrepresented for centuries… to have an opportunity where we’re saying, ‘how do we change the built environment of our city?’ That passion isn’t going away.”

A rendering of the proposed installation, “Rekia’s Sound Garden.” (Tiff Massey)

Just like the love and memories of Boyd.

“I know she loved children. She always loved children. She liked the color yellow, and she was very outgoing, adventurous,” Williams said. “To see that someone is taking time out to keep Rekia’s name alive… I really appreciate what everyone is doing for our family.”

drockett@chicagotribune.com

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/12/rekia-boyd-monument/ 

Imagine that your child has been kidnapped and taken far away. That child is scared, and you can offer no comfort. You don’t know if your child is being tortured, abused or militarized, but you know that someone is trying to turn your child into someone else entirely. It’s a parent’s worst nightmare.

Imagine that trauma and then scale it up thousands of times, and you have the reality that Ukraine is living with today. 

Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, tens of thousands of Ukrainian children have been kidnapped from their families and communities, taken to Russia and Russian-held territories and forced into indoctrination camps, military training camps, the Russian adoption system and who knows where else. Some have been tortured and sexually abused, while some have been forced to fight against Ukraine as child soldiers. At least two of these children, a 12-year-old girl named Misha and 16-year-old named Liza, ended up in a camp in North Korea.

These children are fed pro-Russian propaganda and forced to speak in Russian in a deliberate effort to deny their national identity. Their documents, histories and citizenship are being erased to wholly sever their ties to their families and nation. They are told lies about who they are and where they come from. 

The facts are well documented, thanks to the Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL), which uses satellite imagery and open-source intelligence methods to track these crimes.

Some children were taken after their parents were killed in Russian strikes or by Russian troops or were separated from families in occupied areas. Others were taken from Ukrainian orphanages and foster care and put up for adoption in Russia after their identities were falsified. Children who resist this Russification are labeled extremists or terrorists. 

Russia has, in fact, been stealing Ukrainian children since it invaded Crimea in 2014. This is a war crime that is on the rise across the globe. If Vladimir Putin can continue to do so with impunity, we can only expect more children and families will face this terrible fate. 

Russia has committed many gross human rights violations against the Ukrainian people in this war and continues to ruthlessly assault civilians and critical infrastructure. But its attack on Ukraine’s children is particularly grotesque, as they are put through hell to stoke fear in Ukrainian society and used as tools in Russia’s attempt to extinguish the Ukrainian nation. 

Ukrainian authorities have officially confirmed 9,221 cases of abduction and are actively reviewing thousands more, but experts investigating these crimes believe at least 35,000 children have been stolen so far. This doesn’t account for the 1.6 million Ukrainian children subjected to Russian “reprogramming” within Russian schools, camps and social institutions in occupied Ukraine, where children are taught to be ashamed of their Ukrainian roots.

HRL has so far identified at least 210 “reeducation” facilities, most managed by the Russian government and many that include military-style training. As HRL Executive Director Nathaniel Raymond testified, “Kids as young as 8 years old were dressed in gas masks and military uniforms, taught to assemble machine guns, and — in at least one instance — were taken to a camp where children assembled drones, rapid loaders for assault rifles and other devices for Russia’s military use.”

A Senate hearing on Dec. 3 detailed this large-scale and systemic abduction program, with powerful testimony from Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States and experts from organizations working to bring these children home. 

Just one day after the hearing, the Trump administration released its new national security strategy, which presented Putin’s Russia in a very different light. Instead of calling out the threat Russia poses to stability and peace in Europe and beyond, this administration chastised Europe for viewing Russia as a threat. President Donald Trump continues to blame Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the lack of progress toward peace, while holding Russia, the only aggressor, wholly blameless. Trump has now formalized his warming relations with Russia and, in doing so, normalized Putin’s crimes. 

In an interview with Politico, Trump shared his expectation that Russia would inevitably prevail, saying that “at some point, size will win, generally.” Just consider what it would mean for weaker countries, vulnerable populations, and, of course, children if we accept that premise.  

The United States could play a positive role here instead, as Congress seems inclined to do. A bill introduced in December would designate Russia as a state sponsor of terror if it fails to return these kidnapped children, and another, the Abducted Ukrainian Children Recovery and Accountability Act, would provide ongoing support for investigation and accountability to address these crimes. Passing and implementing these laws could provide the information and pressure needed to end the nightmare these children are enduring. 

Any agreement to end this war should require the unconditional return of all the children. If we pressure Ukraine to cede more territory, thousands will be trapped behind new borders with no hope of being returned. 

If we do nothing but help rehabilitate Putin on the world stage, we are legitimizing Russia’s mass child kidnapping and abuse. Is that really the role we want our country to play in the world?    

Elizabeth Shackelford is a senior adviser with the Institute for Global Affairs at Eurasia Group and a foreign affairs columnist for the Chicago Tribune. She is also a distinguished lecturer with the Dickey Center at Dartmouth College. She was previously a U.S. diplomat and is the author of “The Dissent Channel: American Diplomacy in a Dishonest Age.”

Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/12/column-ukraine-russia-children-abductions-shackelford/ 

Chris Wilcek loved big and was loved big.

He was the friend you’d call when you needed something. He was the employee who had a smile for everyone. When he was younger, he was the kid who would sit on his neighbor’s front stoop and talk for hours, never mind the decades that separated them. He was a proud big brother and a tender-hearted son.

“He was one of the kindest, most loyal souls, with a passion for cars and a deep love for his family,” his friend Angela wrote on Facebook. “He was a proud mama’s boy, and the love between them was something rare and beautiful.”

His mama is Samantha Wilcek. She was 21 when Chris was born, and she raised him on her own. He was born on Valentine’s Day, and she couldn’t imagine a better gift.

On July 17, Chris died of a heart attack, the result of a rare genetic condition that went undetected. He was 21 years old.

“We had dinner together that night,” Wilcek told me. “It was his day off. He ate, he put his plate in the sink, and 40 minutes later I went in his room to ask if he wanted some key lime pie.”

She found him unresponsive. She tried CPR, but it was too late.

“It kills me now because as a parent you know your kids always need you,” she said. “Now he’s so far away from me and I know he still needs me.”

Christmas was his favorite.

“He’d start making his Christmas list in August,” Wilcek said. “He’d ask me, ‘What’s my budget this year, Mom?’”

So when the holidays approached, Wilcek couldn’t imagine decorating. Joy felt impossible to conjure and a little phony to perform. Her daughter, a sophomore in high school, would understand.

Samantha Wilcek decorated her Christmas tree in Hot Wheels this year in honor of her car-loving son, Chris, who died in July at age 21. (Samantha Wilcek)

But then Wilcek remembered a promise she made to Chris after last Christmas. She had decorated their tree in a Candyland theme and he teased her that next year he wanted something manlier. They settled on a car theme — a nod to another great love of his life.

Chris worked at a Honda dealership and spent all his extra money tricking out his own 2024 Honda Civic. He and his friends spent most weekends gathering in parking lots and other open spaces for car shows.

“They pop open their hoods and open their doors and show off their work,” she said. “Most of them work in dealerships. They’re good kids. They’re the most respectful kids. No one is calling the authorities on them.”

When Chris was 5, he and his grandpa built a go-kart together and Chris drove it anywhere he was allowed.

“He always loved cars,” Wilcek said. “Loud mufflers, garbage trucks, anything cars. From the time he was little.”

A few weeks ago, she decided to go ahead with the car-themed Christmas tree. She messaged his carhead friends and asked if they wanted to donate Hot Wheels cars and write messages or sign their names on the bottoms of the cars.

They did. Of course they did.

She started hanging the cars on her tree.

She found a checkered racing flag tree skirt on Amazon.

She found a little stop light that flashes red and green and fixed that to the top of the tree as a star.

She took out Chris’ Hot Wheels from when he was little, hot-glued them to a bright orange Hot Wheels track and wrapped it around the tree as garland.

She posted about the tree on her Facebook and Instagram pages and cars kept pouring in.

“I have people I haven’t seen in 10 years from past jobs literally sending me Hot Wheels through the mail,” Wilcek said.

She works in the cafeteria at Schurz High School on Chicago’s Northwest Side. The other day at work, one of the security guards handed her a 5-pack of Hot Wheels.

“It made me cry in the lunchroom,” she said. “In front of everybody.”

The weekend before Christmas, she’s going to host Chris’ buddies for a tree lighting ceremony.

“I almost feel like his friends hurt as much as I do,” she said. “I”m trying to be there for them because it kind of gives me a little bit of warmth.”

She decided to go ahead and buy Chris the new set of tail lights for his Civic that she wanted to give him for Christmas. She’ll ask one of his friends to install them.

“They’re always checking on me,” she said. “It kills me he’s not here to see how truly loved he was by so, so many people.”

She pictures him, she said, watching this all unfold with his hands on his chin, smiling, the way he always used to sit. She pictures him with her mom, who died in 2021.

“He made a big impact on the world in a short amount of time,” she said. “There’s a hole in my heart. In a lot of hearts. A lot of people are lost without him.”

Maybe the tree lights a little path forward. Maybe the tree, so often a place to stash presents, is the gift this year.

Maybe the tree reminds his mom that when she was given the gift of Chris, she didn’t squander a moment. She cherished and grew him into a guy who touched more hearts and lives than she even imagined.

All those cars prove as much.

Join the Heidi Stevens Balancing Act Facebook group, where she continues the conversation around her columns and hosts occasional live chats.

Twitter @heidistevens13

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/12/heidi-stevens-christmas-tree-cars/ 

Mayor Brandon Johnson and the majority of the Chicago City Council are deadlocked over next year’s municipal budget, an impasse that could halt all city services if they can’t find common ground on tax increases by year’s end.

Chicago residents aren’t deadlocked, though, over who’s to blame if city government actually shuts down — it’s Johnson, hands down. In a citywide poll we just conducted, three quarters of representative respondents say they’ll hold the mayor responsible if he vetoes the council’s alternative budget, versus a quarter who’ll pin it on the council.

The opposition is widespread. Across all age groups and among both men and women, most Chicago adults in our poll hold the mayor accountable for this breakdown, with the share rising to supermajorities of 4 out of 5 residents among those 35 and older. 

A plurality of 43% of residents says they’ll also turn against aldermen who side with Johnson in a budget vote, while just 15% say they’ll rally for his allies. (The rest say this vote won’t affect their preferences one way or another.)

However it ends, this budget battle seems likely to hamper Johnson in a reelection bid. Though he won handily in 2023, his nonstop efforts to raise taxes are a turnoff. Half of Chicago adults now have unfavorable opinions of the mayor — twice the number who see him favorably. This net favorability gap leaves him with minimal political capital to negotiate a budget resolution or rally public support for difficult choices.

Johnson brought this rebellion on himself. To help close a massive $1.15 billion deficit, he proposed reimposing an employee head tax. The tax was repealed in 2014 under Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who called it a job killer. Rebranding it a “community safety surcharge,” Johnson initially asked the City Council in October to enact an annual $252 per employee tax on corporations with 100 or more city employees, which he said would net $100 million annually. 

Facing public opposition from 26 of the 50 members of the City Council, he began backpedaling by limiting the tax to those employing 200 or more and, earlier this week, reducing it further to only “corporate behemoths” with headcounts of 500 and up. At the same time, though, he raised the annual rate to $396.

Neither modification changed the minds of aldermen in the majority bloc. Instead, they drafted their own budget, which avoids any head tax by increasing the fee for household garbage collection by nearly 70% and raising taxes on ride-shares and liquor. Johnson has vowed he’ll veto any budget that swaps “regressive taxes” such as those for his head tax.

Cate Plys: How Mayor Brandon Johnson can help the budget and make the city’s trash fee more equitable

It’s unclear how this duel will end. The majority would need to grow to 34 members to override a veto. Conversely, Johnson would need to peel away at least two aldermen from an opposition majority that is now up to 27 members.

Our polling doesn’t reveal any easy workarounds. The city could avoid these taxes by borrowing more. But 56% of residents oppose that. Another option, which neither the mayor nor the council majority endorses, would be to cut spending by reducing benefits to municipal employees. In our poll, 40% reject that idea, while 37% favor workforce sacrifices. (The other 23% say they don’t know.)

If Johnson and the City Council can’t find an acceptable compromise, Chicago will enter 2026 without a budget, something that’s never happened. With no legal authorization to spend any more money and employees getting no pay, city government could be forced to cease operations overnight.

Though Johnson may look weak by compromising with the council majority on the head tax, it’s what the Chicago residents have told us they want: a local government that takes a commonsense approach to taxing and spending, and not one that gives employers or employees yet another reason to leave the city behind

Will Johnson is the Chicago-based CEO of Outward Intelligence, an artificial intelligence-powered quantitative research company, and former CEO of The Harris Poll.

Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/12/opinion-chicago-budget-mayor-brandon-johnson/ 

Forget for a moment memories of Walter Payton, Dick Butkus and Dan Hampton, among many legendary Bears. Because as incredible as their individual game achievements were, they all stand in the shadow of what Gale Sayers accomplished 60 years ago on Dec. 12. It’s not only a fun recollection given the Bears’ surprising 2025 success; it’s also an important one, given Sayers’ contributions to the team and to the city.

1965 was a transitional year for the Bears. They won the NFL championship in 1963, only to suffer a disastrous 1964 season. By 1965, the roster was aging rapidly, and team pursued an influx of youth. And they struck gold, drafting future Hall of Famers Butkus and Sayers.

The team started slowly, with a crushing 52-24 defeat by the San Francisco 49ers, followed by two more losses. But with Butkus leading the defense and Sayers the offense, the team was in contention by the Dec. 12 Wrigley Field return match with the 49ers. 

Chicago Bears owner and coach George Halas, right, with top draft picks Dick Butkus, left, and Gale Sayers, at Soldier Field before the players left for All-Star camp on July 9, 1965. (Phil Mascione/Chicago Tribune)

The day was typically cold and rainy — miserable for anything outdoors, including a football game. “A muddy field for everybody but Gale Sayers,” Bears tight end Mike Ditka noted. Indeed, it was a day when everything went right for the rookie running back. Sayers scored six touchdowns, tying an NFL record that has never been exceeded.

But it wasn’t that he tied the record, but rather the spectacular manner how he did it, that made for football legend. In the first quarter, he took a screen pass for an 80-yard score. Talk about yards after catch! The second quarter saw touchdown runs of 21 and 7 yards. In the third quarter, he had 50-yard and 1-yard scoring runs. He finished the day with a fourth quarter punt return of 85 yards. And current head coach Ben Johnson says he likes explosive plays! Future Hall of Famers Ditka and George Halas each referred to it as the greatest performance in NFL history.

Sayers had enormous self-confidence in his physical gifts but expressed it in a humble and team-oriented way. He truly believed that if he was given the ball, no one could catch him: “Give me 18 inches of daylight. That’s all I need.” And he was right. Bears announcer Jack Brickhouse described his elusive running style as “he cuts, weaves, stops and goes; he runs with power and precision.” Teammates and opponents alike compared him to magician Harry Houdini, an acrobat and a ballet dancer.

Gale Sayers plunges over the goal line from yard out for the fifth of his six touchdowns for the Bears against the 49ers at Wrigley Field on Dec. 12, 1965. Editor’s note: This historic print shows crop markings. (Chicago’s American)

Yet the “Kansas Comet,” as Sayers was known, streaked across the football sky for only a few years. He led the league in rushing yards in 1966, followed by another outstanding season in 1967. But he suffered a major knee injury in 1968 against, ironically, the 49ers. He underwent arduous rehabilitation (often assisted by teammate Brian Piccolo) and returned to lead the league in rushing again in 1969. But unable to overcome another knee injury in the 1970 season, he retired. In 1977, he became the youngest person to be inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame.

Sayers went on to a successful post-Bears career, working in a variety of sports leadership and business ownership positions. He supported the adoption charity The Cradle and founded the Gale Sayers Center in Austin. But the real Sayers was on display in the memorable film “Brian’s Song”, which told of his bond with Piccolo, who died in June 1970 at age 26. The centerpiece of the film was Sayers’ moving acceptance speech for the George S. Halas Award:

“You flatter me by giving me this award, but I tell you here and now that I accept it for Brian Piccolo. Brian Piccolo is the man of courage who should receive the George S. Halas Award. It is mine tonight, it is Brian Piccolo’s tomorrow. … I love Brian Piccolo, and I’d like all of you to love him too. And tonight, when you hit your knees, please ask God to love him.”

Piccolo died less than a month later. Watch the film again, 55 years later, and you’ll still cry.

NFL Films greats Steve Sabol and John “The Voice of God” Facenda provided the narration for a film about Sayers: “In a generation or a lifetime, the great runner arrives in pro football. He is one of the select few whose number is burned into the memory of every fan.”

Indeed, No. 40 was burned into the memory of every fan and player shivering in Wrigley Field on that muddy mid-December day in 1965. They knew what they had seen — the greatest performance ever. They’re unlikely to feel differently today. Eighteen inches of daylight, indeed.

Michael Peregrine is a Chicago lawyer. He watched the Dec. 12 game from Wrigley’s right field upper deck.

Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/12/opinion-gale-sayers-bears-1965-six-touchdowns-49ers/ 

Regarding the story “‘Really reckless’” (Dec. 7), I agree. The conduct of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in enforcing immigration and border laws could have been less rough and more professional during Operation Midway Blitz. The agency should have been more communicative. We have a right to know the who, what and why.

Then again, we see the Tribune ignoring American border and immigration laws. The Barack Obama administration deported millions. That was followed by the Joe Biden administration’s border policies, which allowed millions into our country.

All of this “really reckless” behavior could have been avoided if the Biden administration had not refused to enforce the immigration and border laws of our country.

Surely the Tribune respects that all laws of America should be enforced. Our elected officials created them. They are the laws of our land passed to protect Americans!

— Joseph A. Murzanski, Orland Park

A breeding ground

When I saw the front-page of the Tribune with a picture of a masked federal agent sitting in a vehicle and pointing a handgun through the window, I could think of no better headline than “Really reckless.”

As someone who served for 45 years as a police officer (including 22 years as a police chief), I totally agree with the comments made by former Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske and former Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson, as quoted in the article. The federal agents’ actions were inconsistent with acceptable police practice and represented a breeding ground for disaster.

In my mind, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents are not well trained in the proper law enforcement tactics for the job they have been assigned. The blame for that lack of training rests squarely on the shoulders of Department of Homeland Security leadership. Rather than accepting responsibility for providing the required training and supervision, DHS leadership exacerbated the problem by discounting the criticism it has received.

That resistance to change will result in more violence against the agents and the protesters.

— David E. Dial, Naperville

Just political theater

The tactics and actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents during Operation Midway Blitz beg explanation and description of the hiring practices and training provided for these agents. The reckless behavior described in the Dec. 7 article was very disturbing. I have to believe that the Donald Trump administration’s rapid expansion of Customs and Border Protection has been done at the expense of the vetting and training of candidates.

Operation Midway Blitz has been little more than political theater, harmful to the Chicago area and its citizens.

— Richard Wambach, St. Charles

Peace in his hands

It is simultaneously heartening and depressing to witness President Donald Trump’s flailing attempts to end the war in Ukraine. Similar to one’s hand getting stuck in a pickle jar and refusing to let go, Trump has peace in his hands but can’t seem to pull it out of the jar. This is for a very simple reason — while Trump asserts that Russia “holds all the cards” in its ability to prosecute the war, he simultaneously claims that Russia has no capability to end its own invasion and that only Ukraine does.

There are few things more nauseating than having to listen to the Kremlin assert that the war cannot end until its “root causes” are addressed, which is a thinly veiled reference to Russia’s claims that Ukraine is being led by Nazis. Yet, this line has been fully adopted by the U.S. administration. Whether Trump truly believes the power to end the war lies with Ukraine or whether he doesn’t actually believe this and will simply do everything in his power to avoid criticizing Putin lest he risk future trade deals, there is no conceivable way that these “peace” talks will end in actual peace. There is no common ground between Russia and Ukraine: One wants to exist, and one wants the other to not exist. There is no overlap here.

It’s reassuring to know that Trump is unable to force the Ukrainians to accept a deal. However, it’s beyond unfortunate that the only attempts to end this war revolve around Ukrainian capitulation. The result is that Ukraine retains its sovereignty, but also that the pressure necessary to end this war will not be exerted on Russia, the only party that is truly capable of ending the war.

Ukraine will survive, but the pressure from the U.S. is being squandered by not being leveraged on Russia. This war will thus continue to be falsely seen as intractable.

— Ethan Feingold, Chicago

Campaign for civility

The U.S. Department of Transportation has launched a civility campaign for air travelers: “The Golden Age of Travel Starts with You.” Our unqualified U.S. secretary of transportation, Sean Duffy, formerly a Fox Network host and MTV reality television star, condescendingly lectures us about manners and respect in a public service announcement.

Promoting the campaign on Fox News, Duffy said, “We’ve asked Americans to bring their better selves — to bring civility back to travel.”

There is no “better” self for our increasingly uncivil president to bring to travel. On a recent flight on Air Force One, the Republican standard bearer, angered by a female reporter’s question regarding the Jeffrey Epstein files, snapped, “Quiet. Quiet, piggy.” Having overused “dog,” “vermin,” “scum” and “low IQ” as his standard insults, President Donald Trump has added “piggy,” “ugly,” “terrible,” “stupid” and “nasty” to his repertoire to hurl at female journalists.

Two suggestions for Duffy: Focus on vitally important transportation issues, such as the urgent need for more air traffic controllers, and forward your civility campaign PSA to your boss.

— Jane Cox, Wheaton

Extrajudicial killing

When the U.S Supreme Court majority ruled that a president has “absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented, noting, among other things, that the ruling would allow the president to commit murder. As an example, she wrote that if the president “orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune.”

To many, her comment seemed extreme — reductio ad absurdum. No president of the U.S. would ever order a murder.

But now we have President Donald Trump ordering the killing of boat occupants far from our border. Law professor Gabor Rona, echoing many other legal scholars, wrote that “these killings are simply murder — extrajudicial killings in violation of United States and international human rights law because the boats’ occupants are not attacking the United States, nor do they pose an imminent threat of attack.” That seems pretty straightforward.

It seems like the decision to kill was made first, and then a justification — any justification, even if preposterous — was then sought.

Sotomayor’s thinking now seems prescient. Indeed, the president of the United States can get away with murder.

— Sheldon Hirsch, Wilmette

No replacement yet

When the Affordable Care Act was passed, Republicans said it was horrible and they were going fix it for the millions who signed up. And how are they doing with that? Not one Republican has put forward an insurance policy for poor Americans.

Perhaps it is that Republicans want nothing to do with poor Americans.

— Marsha Lieberman, Chicago

Vaccination matters

I read the obituaries every day. A 78-year-old man recently was listed who died from complications of whooping cough. In 1936, I exposed my 76-year-old grandmother to it, and she became very ill. Luckily, she survived.

Today, vaccines not only protect the child; they also protect the family.

— Jacqueline Nussbaum, Wilmette

Note to readers: We’d like to know your hopes for the new year. Please send us a letter, of no more than 400 words, to letters@chicagotribune.com by Sunday, Dec. 28. Include your full name and city/town.

Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/12/letters-121225-ice-border-patrol-operation-midway-blitz/ 

A multi-unit building under renovation in Aurora was deemed uninhabitable following a structure fire Thursday morning, according to the Aurora Fire Department.

At around 10:38 a.m. on Thursday, the department responded to a reported structure fire in the 400 block of West Downer Place, a news release from the fire department said. Initial reports noted smoke and flames coming from the roof of a three-story multi-unit building under renovation.

Upon arrival, crews confirmed fire showing from the roof and began an interior attack, while simultaneously conducting primary searches and checking for fire spreading in the attic, the release noted.

The incident was ultimately upgraded to a second alarm because of the complexity of the structure and the fire conditions on multiple floors, officials said.

Firefighters advanced multiple hose lines inside the building and up to the roof using ground and aerial ladders to reach and extinguish hidden fire, the news release said. The fire was ultimately brought under control within 30 minutes.

Firefighters access the roof of a multi-unit building in the 400 block of West Downer Place in Aurora on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, during a fire that left the structure uninhabitable. (Aurora Fire Department)

Four engine companies, two truck companies, two medic units and five chief officers, for a total of 25 personnel, responded to the scene, the news release said.

A man, 26, who had been living in the building during renovations, evacuated, and a firefighter sustained a minor injury during the incident and was taken to the hospital for evaluation, the department said. The building was ultimately deemed uninhabitable.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, according to the fire department.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/12/aurora-multi-unit-building-under-renovation-deemed-uninhabitable-after-thursday-fire/