For more than 45 years Gloria Chatman has used her passion for dance to teach, inspire and mentor.

She is credited with having built one of the most exceptional high school dance programs in the state as coordinator of the award-winning dance program at Richton Park-based Southland College Prep Charter High School and chairperson of the fine arts department.

Her impact reaches far beyond choreography, said Blondean Davis, superintendent of Matteson Elementary District 162 and founder and CEO of Southland College Prep.

“She has poured her heart into our students, using dance as a language of hope, healing and empowerment,” Davis said. “Her leadership has shaped confident, expressive young people who understand the power of discipline, artistry and excellence.”

Chatman was honored Sunday at Chicago-based Timeless Gifts Performing Arts Program for Youth and Young Adults 16th Annual Christmas Duets Concert & Fundraising Gala. Timeless Gifts was created to fill the gap left as performing arts programs were removed from many public schools. It was founded by producer, songwriter and Emmy Award-winning vocalist Joan Collaso and provides instruction, exposure and professional performance opportunities for young, aspiring artists.

Chatman received the organization’s Juanita Passmore Legacy Award, named in honor of the late Passmore, a longtime Chicago community activist who worked in Mayor Harold Washington’s administration and helped found the Chicago Gospel Music Festival.

“My mission is to inspire through the gift of dance,” said Chatman.

She uses her skills and expertise to teach students to develop their technical, choreographic and performance skills, “but also as a tool for self-expression, to develop social emotional skills,” Chatman said.

“Some of our students have such a difficult time expressing themselves verbally, articulating what they really feel. But they can through music, through dance, through movement.”

Chatman was brought on board by Davis to launch the dance program at Southland College Prep when the school opened in 2010. Although Southland is not a performing arts school, more than half of its students participate in the performing arts program. School leaders credit dance and other arts programs as major reasons for the school’s strong academic performance.

Southland College Prep is the only charter high school in Illinois to earn the state’s highest rating of “exemplary” this year, placing it in the top 10% of high schools statewide. It has earned the designation six of the past seven years and ranks 11th out of 712 schools, according to school representatives.

Students in the dance program range from beginning to intermediate level. They graduate from the program with four years of technique and performance experience in ballet, tap, modern, contemporary, jazz and ballroom dance, said Chatman. The program produces annual productions including in the winter and spring.

Gloria Chatman, Southland College Prep coordinator of dance, instructs students during a rehearsal Dec. 3, 2025, for the upcoming winter concert. Chatman is the recipient of the Timeless Gifts Youth Performing Arts Program’s Juanita Passmore Legacy Award. (Southland College Prep)

Chatman has a bachelor’s degree in dance and art education, a master’s degree in dance/movement therapy and is a registered dance/movement therapist.

Prior to shifting her career path to education, she treated patients with learning, behavioral, physical, emotional and cognitive disorders through the use of dance/movement therapy at Chicago area medical facilities, she said. She is a former middle school art teacher and founder and former director of the liturgical dance ministry at Apostolic Church of God in Chicago.

Her dance experience includes producing, directing and choreographing dance productions over the past 45 years and performing, she shared. Among her choreographic works are theatrical renditions of “The Wiz,” “The Lion King” and “Raisin in the Sun,” she said.

Chatman previously operated her own private dance studio site, the Danspiration Center, where she taught children and adults, among them students with special needs. Classes included dance education, therapeutic dance and liturgical dance tailored to the needs of the individual.

The studio helped students build confidence, self-esteem and body image. It is where Timeless Gifts board member Pam Oliver, who nominated Chatman for the legacy award, first met her. Oliver has long attended Southland College Prep’s dance productions.

“I was just in awe of the professional productions, the music, the choreography, the themes,” she said. “I was amazed. What Gloria does, the mentor that she is to these young people, I have true admiration for her. I thought we should honor Gloria because of her commitment to the arts, to mentoring and to education.”

“It all comes from her heart for these kids,” said Fred Nelson, artistic director at the school, who is musical director for various artists and owns his own production company. “It’s not just about dance. She cares about them and makes them want to give their best. It’s an amazing program she’s built.”

Gloria Chatman and members of the Southland College Prep Charter High School dance program practice for the upcoming winter concert Dec. 3, 2025, at the Richton Park school. (Southland College Prep)

Chatman’s love of dance began at age 6, when her mother enrolled her in a Park District ballet class.

She estimates she has taught dance to roughly 1,200 students over the years at Southland College Prep. Some have gone on to pursue careers in dance education and performing, she said. Among them is Stephanie Charles, who graduated from Southland College Prep in 2017.

“She pushes you,” Charles said. “She knows who you are, and she expects a lot of you. She’s very concerned and interested in the things happening in her students’ lives and interested in figuring out how to nurture, help assist and encourage growth.”

Charles earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts and dance from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She worked with Chatman at summer performing arts camps, she said. Charles is now in her fourth year of teaching dance at Park Forest-based Michelle Obama School of Technology and the Arts.

“I’m still using a lot of the techniques that I learned from Mrs. Chatman in my classes,” said Charles.

She said she was the first student at Southland College Prep to choreograph a dance and have it presented at a show. Charles is teaching that dance to her students.

She tells her students there are opportunities available to them in the arts if they choose to pursue them, work hard, pay attention and focus. She lets them know she’s an example of what can be accomplished.

Some of Charles’ students went on to become Chatman’s students, Charles said.

“Seeing the full circle of it all is a blessing,” she said. “I wanted to be able to provide quality dance teaching to people who can’t afford going to traditional dance studios because that’s how I was. I’m doing what I said I wanted to do.”

She gives Chatman much credit for that.

Chatman says she is humbled and honored to have been recognized for pursuing her passion.

Francine Knowles at Fknowles.writer@gmail.com is a freelance columnist for the Daily Southtown.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/08/column-southland-college-preps-gloria-chatman/ 

Months after Chicago firefighters discovered a North Lawndale man dismembered inside his burning home, authorities have charged the man’s live-in caretaker with shooting the man to death, trying to cut his body into pieces and setting fire to the home they shared to conceal his killing.

In the days following Michael Lipford’s March 7 death, prosecutors alleged that the caretaker, DeParris Slaughter, searched the internet querying, among other things, whether death is painful and what the best knife was to cut through a human arm.

Slaughter, 32, appeared before a judge at the Leighton Criminal Court Building Monday morning. He sat back in his chair at the defense table and listened with no apparent reaction as Judge Susana Ortiz read through the charges against him: one count of first-degree murder, one count of concealment of a homicidal death, once count of dismembering a human body and one count of residential arson.

Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Mike Pekara said surveillance camera footage, cellphone data and transaction records show that Slaughter had spent the early days of March buying a used Pontiac, a dolly from a nearby Menards, and taking Lipford to a March 5 doctor’s appointment. Lipford made that appointment, Pekara said, and his last phone call took place later that afternoon.

On the evening of March 7, Chicago firefighters were called to the house where Lipford and Slaughter both lived in the 2300 block of South Kirkland Avenue. There, they found Lipford’s partially dismembered body, with some limbs in green plastic wrap and placed inside a trash bag. Police found two reciprocating saws in the home and later determined that the fire had begun in three separate locations. One of those locations, Pekara said, was Lipford’s body.

Pekara said that the Cook County medical examiner’s office ruled that Lipford — who’d previously landed in the Tribune’s pages after a warrantless raid on his apartment led to a federal civil rights lawsuit — had died as a result of a gunshot wound to the neck, while his body had been taken apart and burned after he was killed.

Police records obtained in a freedom of information act request show officers first arrested Slaughter two days after the alleged murder and arson, with a can of gasoline on the floor of the Pontiac he’d allegedly bought in the days before the killing. Police questioned him and let him go before arresting him again Saturday, in a south suburban parking lot.

A Cook County public defender argued that Slaughter had not evaded police over the course of the investigation and would return to Chicago, where his two children live, voluntarily if released on bail. Ortiz ordered Slaughter held, saying his alleged actions showed more concern for consequences he might face than the violence inflicted on Lipford.

“He stood in a caretaking position to (Lipford),” Ortiz said. “This appears to have been contemplated and planned.”

Prosecutors did not offer a possible motive for the alleged murder. When Lipford’s family first got word of his killing in the spring, they were stunned that someone would be violent toward him.

One of Lipford’s 10 siblings, Evelyn Moss, said she had never met Slaughter, but knew of him. After Lipford’s mobility worsened following hip and knee surgeries, Moss said Slaughter had been the one “to get him where he needed to go.”

Occasionally she’d overhear arguments between the two men during phone conversations or he’d show up in a picture her brother sent her, she said. It had occurred to her that he could be behind the killing, but she’d had her doubts that she’d ever get closer to a firm answer.

“I’d been praying for this for a long time,” she said. “I thought it was going to be a cold case.”

Moss has not been looking forward to the holiday season, which for her typically involves “a big old family gathering with all the nieces and nephews” and a lot of food.

“We’d cook and talk about how God has blessed this family,” she said. “This Christmas is going to be different. When that happened, it just tore apart my whole world.”

She said the news of an arrest for the killing would make the first holiday without her brother a little easier. Slaughter is next set to appear in court Dec. 24.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/08/charges-dismembered-north-lawndale-man/ 

Triton hospitality program makes 1,000 meals for students, pantries

Students at Triton College in River Grove and families in the community dined on Thanksgiving meals thanks to Chef Manuel “Manny” Uribe and his Hospitality Industry Administration students.

Half of the meals went to Troy Mart for students and the other 500 meals were given to local food pantries before the holiday. The packaged meals included roast turkey, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese and corn.

The idea for the meals came from the students, Uribe said, adding that the students wanted to support fellow students and help address food insecurity of Triton’s neighbors. “No one should be hungry on Thanksgiving. That’s really the idea behind this effort, and we’re thankful to be able to give back,” he shared via a news release.

First Chanukah lighting celebration set in Hinsdale

Hinsdale will host its first public Chanukah celebration from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Dec. 14 at KLM Lodge, 5901 S. County Line Road in Hinsdale.

Music and songs, arts and crafts and refreshments will be featured, as well as a menorah lighting. The event is offered by the Chabad jewish Center of Hinsdale.

RSVP at www.jewishhinsdale.com/chanukah25.

Lisle veterinarian recognized for his creation

The Illinois State Veterinary Medical Association recently presented Dr. Jason Szumski, a veterinarian at Golf Rose Animal Hospital in Lisle, with its 2025 Dr. Erwin Small First Decade Award.

The honor is given at the association’s annual convention to a veterinarian who has graduated in the last 10 years and who has participated and contributed to organized veterinary medicine, via time and effort.

Szumski co-founded Vet SOAP, an artificial intelligence-powered platform that streamlines veterinary medical records, automatically generating electronic notes, which saves time for certified veterinary technicians and veterinarians. He also has developed seminar curriculum that aims to help recent veterinary graduates determine the right career and connect with an employer.

The 2023 University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine alum, who graduated with honors, serves as class president of his graduating class.

Historical society tour includes holiday sips, sweets

People 21 and older are invited to Holiday Sips and Sweets Tour for an evening of drinks, desserts and hors d’oeuvres from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Dec. 14 in four historic homes offered by the La Grange Area Historical Society.

The Devitt home and Younce home are on Sixth Avenue, and the Powell home and historic Samuel Vial home are on south LaGrange Road. Reservations are required for the tour, which allows a glimpse into how families share traditions and decorate for the holidays.

Tickets cost $75 and can be picked up from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Dec. 11-13 and 5 to 5:30 p.m. Dec. 14 at Vial house, 444 South LaGrange Road. Sign up online at lagrangehistory.org.

A capella chorus presents holiday show in Elmhurst

The West Towns Chorus performs “Tinsel, Tunes & Toymakers at 3 p.m. Dec. 14 in Huizenga Auditorium at Timothy Christian School, 188 W. Butterfield Road in Elmhurst.

Holiday-themed raffle baskets will be on display in the lobby. The chorus, known for its men’s a cappella performances, will be joined by South Shore Brass Quintet, Affinity Strings, flutist Danielle Wolf and percussionist Gina Knight.

Tickets cost $27 for general admission and $32 for preferred seating. Credit card purchases add a fee. Groups of 10 or more should call 630-201-5544. Visit www.westtowns.org/public-events.

Brass band headlines concert at La Grange church

The Illinois Brass Band plays at 5 p.m. Dec. 13 at First United Methodist Church of La Grange, 100 Cossit Ave. in La Grange.

The performance will include holiday classics such as Christmas fanfares, Christmas favorites such as “The Little Drummer Boy” and symphonic highlights from “Frozen” and sacred carols such as “In the Bleak Midwinter” and Handel’s “For Unto Us a Child Is Born.” Vocalist Amy Bearden also will be featured.

Tickets cost $15 for adults, $5 for children 18 and younger and $35 for families, which is two adults and up to four children. They are sold in advance at illinoisbraddband.org or at the door that evening.

Cookies, photos opps with Mrs. Claus, Santa offered

Enjoy cookies with Santa and Mrs. Claus from 1 to 3 p.m. Dec. 13 at Kiddie Academy of Darien, 1502 75th St. in Darien.

The couple will pose with little ones for photos, and cozy holiday movies will be shown. Cookies and hot cocoa will be served at the free event, and families are encouraged to make crafts at a series of stations. All ages are welcome.

Send news to pioneerwest@tribpub.com.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/08/community-news-triton-hospitality-program-makes-1000-meals-for-students-pantries/ 

Supreme Court Seems Poised To Side With Trump In FTC Firing Case

Tyler Durden
Mon, 12/08/2025 – 15:20

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/supreme-court-seems-poised-side-trump-ftc-firing-case 

From jobs to housing to grocery prices, the U.S. economy has been weakening for months.

But the stock market is telling a different story, thanks to a handful of companies called the Magnificent 7: Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Nvidia and Tesla.

These tech giants — which deal in everything from e-commerce to software to chip manufacturing — comprise a disproportionate share of the market and have pushed it to record highs in the AI boom.

Without spending by the Mag 7 and other tech companies, the U.S. economy “would have barely grown” in the first half of the year, Oxford Economics lead economist Adam Slater wrote in an Oct. 3 research briefing.

In other words, tech is helping keep the economy afloat. But if these companies’ fortunes change, the downstream impact could be severe.

Though economists aren’t forecasting an AI crash, they have acknowledged similarities between the AI boom and previous bubbles, from the dot-com bust of the early 2000s to the ultimately catastrophic bull market of the 1920s.

The fear is, if trillions of dollars in projected spending on AI infrastructure fail to generate revenue, there is potential for a downturn with global ramifications.

The Mag 7 for years have exceeded the rest of the S&P 500, the index that tracks the stock performance of the leading 500 public companies. The gap started widening after OpenAI released ChatGPT in 2022, launching the AI boom.

The impact of the Mag 7 on the markets is clear when those companies are out of the picture. Between January 2020 and Nov. 14 of this year, the S&P 500 outperformed the S&P 493 (the index minus the Mag 7) by a median annual return of nearly 8 percentage points, according to analysis from Piper Sandler Technical Research.

The bull market has been good news for high-income Americans, who tend to hold more stocks than the average consumer and so benefit more from rising stock prices. Those high-earners also tend to keep spending when economic headwinds cause lower-income consumers to pull back.

Higher-income earners are driving about half of U.S. consumer spending, said Anthony Saglimbene, vice president and chief market strategist at Ameriprise Financial.

“With the market up right now, one of the things that we’ve been talking about is, markets and the economy stand on pretty narrow pillars, or at least they have so far this year,” he said.

The University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers reported in October the economic sentiment of stockholders, especially those with the biggest portfolios, has improved since May. Sentiment of nonstockholders has declined in that time, landing where it was in 2022 when post-pandemic inflation peaked at 9.1%.

Overall consumer sentiment has fallen this year in the face of rising prices, a frozen job market and anxiety over a possible recession. But how high-income consumers feel about the economy “may help buoy consumption spending even amid views of the economy that are relatively subdued from a historical perspective,” according to the survey.

The Federal Reserve’s November Beige Book, which outlines economic conditions across the central bank’s 12 districts, reported an overall decline in consumer spending “while higher-end retail spending remained resilient.” In the Ninth District, which the Minneapolis Fed oversees, employment declined and prices rose.

The Mag 7 account for more than a third of the value of the S&P 500. Nvidia, which last year skyrocketed to the No. 1 spot as the go-to chipmaker for powering AI data centers, makes up about 8% of the index.

For comparison, the companies in that top spot at the end of 1990 (IBM), 2000 (GE) and 2010 (Exxon Mobil) comprised about 3%-4% of the S&P, according to research from Ameriprise.

The weight toward the Mag 7 and other tech stocks means the fortunes of the average 401(k)- or pension-holder are tied disproportionately to the fate of a handful of companies in a single industry.

“You have a market that is going to be very dependent upon the performance of those particular names,” said Craig Johnson, managing director and chief market technician at Piper Sandler.

Consider the week of Nov. 17, when investor anxiety about tech spending on CapEx – capital expenditures, such as data centers — led to a sell-off that produced a 1.9% drop in the S&P and a 2.7% drop in the more tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite.

Nvidia’s banner third-quarter earnings report allayed fears, and the markets ended the week on a positive note. CEO Jensen Huang, during the company’s Nov. 19 earnings call, addressed investor concern head-on.

“There has been a lot of talk about an AI bubble,” he said. “From our vantage point, we see something very different.”

The AI gold rush has prompted comparisons to the dot-com bubble, when CapEx spending on early Internet infrastructure outstripped demand. Of respondents to Bank of America’s November Global Fund Manager Survey, 45% said the biggest “tail risk” to the economy and the markets is the “AI bubble.”

Though the two moments rhyme, there are key differences. The Mag 7 includes established players like Microsoft, Apple and Amazon that have survived previous tech bubbles.

And so far, companies have been relying more on revenue for CapEx spending than debt, even though massive debt deals like Meta’s $27 billion to build a Louisiana data center have made recent headlines.

“The starting point is that these companies don’t really have any debt; their balance sheets are very healthy,” said Daniel Grosvenor, director of equity strategy at Oxford Economics. “It’s a risk that’s worth monitoring, but our view is that it’s not an immediate risk.”

Big Tech is expected to spend up to $7 trillion on capital investments by 2030, McKinsey estimated in April. Supporting the demand will require about $2 trillion in new revenue, according to a September report from Bain & Co.

What happens if the tech giants can’t deliver revenue to match their spending remains an open question investors are waiting to answer. In a worst-case-scenario comparison, the increasingly deregulated U.S. economy could be riding its second Roaring Twenties high. A century ago, that era of financial speculation after the Spanish flu pandemic crashed into the Great Depression.

For now, the stock market continues to power through headwinds, with the S&P 500 concluding its third-consecutive year of double-digit returns.

But the markets’ record-setting rise means they have further to fall.

“The concentration, while it has been great on the way up, might also be painful in a corrective phase,” Piper Sandler’s Johnson said. “People forget that coming out of the overhang of the dot-com bubble, it took multiple years before you actually saw a lot of tech stocks doing well again.”

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/08/economy-stock-market/ 

By the third hour in chains, Adan Caceres’ head was pounding and his lips were cracking from thirst.

Shackled at the wrists, ankles and waist, the Orange County wedding photographer sat pinned in his seat on a government plane, listening as the guards mocked the men around him as “criminals.” When one man begged to use the bathroom, he was refused, he said. So the stranger slid his shackled hands down, unzipped his pants and urinated into the same plastic water bottle he’d been given to drink from.

“I avoided drinking water because I didn’t want to have to go,” the 26-year-old said. “But then my head started hurting. We were dehydrated, the AC was off, people were fainting. It felt like we were dying in there.”

A week earlier, on Oct. 18, Caceres had been headed to Texas to photograph a wedding when he was detained while going through security at John Wayne Airport.

Caceres and his wife of a year and a half, who is a U.S. citizen, had been wary of travel as mass deportations increased nationwide under the Trump administration. Still, he had clients counting on him. And he believed he would be safe: Caceres said he had fled to the United States as a teenager seeking asylum and had continued following immigration requirements over the years, including completing biometrics and updating his address the previous year.

But his immigration case had grown complicated years earlier. In 2018, Caceres was issued a deportation order — something both he and the Department of Homeland Security confirmed. However, Caceres said he never received the order to appear in immigration court, as it was sent to an incorrect address, and he was not notified by the legal counsel he’d retained at the time.

Caceres’ current attorney filed a motion to stay his removal on Oct. 22, four days after he was detained, asking the immigration court to halt any deportation until the motion was decided. Caceres said he was deported days later without meeting a judge or being allowed to appeal.

DHS did not respond to a request for comment regarding the motion to stay the deportation.

Caceres said he was never advised of his rights throughout the eight days of his detention, and was misled into signing paperwork he was told was related to his belongings. He later learned it was an agreement barring him from reentering the United States for five to ten years, he said.

‘I’ll be fine’

Before he left for the airport that morning, he assured his wife that everything would be okay, and he would update her after he cleared security.

“I told her, ‘Babe, I’ll let you know when I’m inside of the airport. Don’t worry about it. I’ll be fine,’” he said in a telephone interview in November.

But while standing at the back of the security line, three masked men and one woman approached him, informed him he was being detained and seized his belongings.

“When she never heard the text from me,” he said, “I knew that she knew.”

His wife, who requested anonymity because of safety concerns, had driven him to the airport that morning. After kissing him goodbye, she waited until he disappeared into the terminal before heading home, unaware it was the last time she’d see her husband in person.

When no text came through, she checked his location to find that he was already at the ICE field office in Santa Ana.

It was just around the corner from the church where the couple first met. She rushed to Santa Ana and began knocking on the locked doors of unlit buildings still hours away from opening, hoping someone could help her. A landscaper working nearby eventually directed her to the right entrance.

Once she was inside, a worker handed her a sheet with information for an online detainee locator.

“I don’t know where my husband is, and they’re handing me a piece of paper,” she said. “I just felt so distraught. I didn’t know what to do.”

See also: ‘We may be deporting the wrong people’: New poll shows doubts about immigration crackdown

Immigration enforcement 

Caceres is one of over 527,000 people who have been deported under the Trump administration as of November 2025, according to DHS. Despite claims the administration would go after “the worst of the worst,” data shared by DHS showed that 73.6% of people in ICE custody do not have a criminal record. A search for any criminal records for Adan Caceres in Orange or Los Angeles counties turned up nothing.

A survey released on Dec. 4 by Goodwin Simon Strategic Research, which the firm described as an “independent opinion research poll,” found that 7 out of 10 California voters believe a person should have “due process, including a judge reviewing their case to determine if they should be allowed to remain in the U.S.” – even if that individual has a criminal record.

Washington D.C. in particular has seen a sharp increase in the number of non-criminals detained. Within the first seven months of President Trump’s second term, ICE arrested around 150 people without a criminal record in the nation’s capital, the Washington Post reported. Between August 11 and mid-October, that number jumped up to 932 individuals.

In a press briefing in February, when asked how many people arrested by ICE had criminal records, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt responded, “All of them, because they illegally broke our nation’s laws, and, therefore, they are criminals, as far as this administration goes.”

Community Support

After she was introduced to her future husband at a church gathering, Caceres’ wife-to-be went around to other friends and members, asking what they knew of him.

“They said he was kind, a great friend, and would give you the last dollar in his wallet,” she said. “He truly, deeply, loves everyone.”

She also shared how uniquely forgiving her husband is, citing a conversation she’d had with Caceres about his early life in El Salvador. Her husband said that if he ever met the people who had killed his aunt, he would forgive them, she said, in hopes that it might change their path in life and lead them to God.

After Caceres was detained, his wife set up a GoFundMe in the hopes of raising $7,000 for legal fees to file a motion to appeal his pending deportation. Within days, they had raised $22,000, all donated by their church community, friends and family.

‘What’s going to happen?’

When Caceres arrived at the ICE field office in Santa Ana at around 5:30 a.m., about 30 minutes after being detained at the airport, he was placed alone in a cell.

“I was in my head for those three hours just thinking, ‘What’s going to happen? What am I going to do? What is my wife going to do? What happens if they deport me, where am I going to go?’” he recalled. “My whole family is in the States.”

When he was 10 years old, he exited his grandmother’s home in El Salvador early one morning to find the body of his 21-year-old aunt, he said. She had been stoned to death and her tongue cut out, according to Caceres.

By the time Caceres turned 11, he had been sexually assaulted twice, he said. Shortly afterwards, he and his brother began receiving threats from MS-13 members demanding they join the gang, according to Caceres. In 2014, the two boys decided to make their way to the U.S. in hopes of joining their mother, who had left the country when Caceres was 8.

“We literally just walked to the border of the U.S.,” he said. “We told them we are looking for our mom and we are looking for asylum because we are fleeing from our country. And so they took us in.”

After he turned 18, he moved out of the house he was living in with his mother and into a house with friends he’d made through his church. It was at that time he began honing his photography and building his career as a wedding and portrait photographer.

His career was thriving, until it came to an abrupt halt that Saturday morning.

Around six hours after arriving at the ICE field office in Santa Ana, Caceres was allowed to call his wife.

“All I said was, ‘Babe, call a lawyer. I love you. I’m really sorry. Don’t worry about me,’” he said.

More hours passed. At one point, two agents pulled him aside to take a photo of him, according to Caceres. From behind the camera, the two men smiled at him.

“That photo felt like one of those photos you see online of people that went fishing or that went hunting, and they captured a deer or a fish,” he said.

The agents offered no explanation for why the photo was taken.

Later that day, he was driven to the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, located about 85 miles northeast of Los Angeles.

Caceres explained that detainees are given what he described as prison clothes, in varying colors to signify their criminal statuses and corresponding danger levels. Caceres was in blue, designated for low-risk offenders or those with no criminal records, while detainees with criminal records receive either orange or red uniforms, indicating medium-risk or high-risk, respectively.

“They put you in a room with all of them,” he said. “I’m not gonna lie to you — it’s scary because you don’t know what the heck these people have done in their life.”

During the three days he was in Adelanto, Caceres said he suffered from sleep deprivation. Being in a room with unknown men of varying backgrounds didn’t lend to a restful environment, and detainees were continually disturbed throughout the day and night by staff checking identification bracelets.

“They just come and call your name out of nowhere and it’s like really loud,” he explained. “You’re barely getting three hours of sleep and then you’re up for the whole night because it sends you into panic mode of like, ‘Okay, where am I going? What’s going to happen? What’s next?’”

Many of the men tearfully shared their stories, mentioning wives, children and families they’d been separated from. Caceres said some suffered chronic health conditions and were not given their medication on time. Family members would arrive with medicine in hand, he said, but were turned away.

The online locator his wife was directed to was slow to update, she said, leading to days of confusion and uncertainty about where her husband actually was. After determining he was in Adelanto, she made plans to make the multiple-hour trip to visit him.

But on Thursday night, Caceres was already on a plane to El Paso. His wife was never notified.

“That’s when I knew I was getting deported for sure, because people in Adelanto told me once you’re sent to Texas, that’s when you’re going to be deported,” Caceres said.

The detainees were all shackled with handcuffs on their wrists and ankles, connected to another chain at their waist for the duration of the flights and layover.

“They treat you like you don’t feel anything,” Caceres said.

The discomfort grew as he and the other men were not allowed to stand or use the bathrooms. When detainees asked why, he said agents replied, “Well, you don’t have a right. We tell you what to do. And we don’t take orders from criminals.”

He saw men become sick from lack of medication. Some urinated in their pants.

After landing in El Paso, the group was kept in an un-air-conditioned bus for around four hours with no water or food, Caceres said.

“The people on the buses started moving to shake the bus to show them we needed help, we’re freaking dying in here,” he said.

The detention center, he said, was no improvement. Men were given aluminum blankets to fight the cold and told to use bathrooms that were covered in fecal matter and urine.

After that, they flew to Louisiana to pick up more men, then headed for El Salvador.

Caceres’ wife, again, was unaware her husband had been moved. Instead, she learned from a detainee, who was using an app called GettingOut, that he was no longer in the country. Even after he had landed in El Salvador, the locator still showed he was being held in El Paso.

DHS, in a Nov. 28 email, said that “Caceres will remain in ICE custody pending removal.” He had already been in El Salvador for over a month by then. DHS did not reply to questions addressing this apparent error.

“When we arrived, they started saying things like, ‘You’re free now. You don’t have to be afraid, you’re in your home country,’” Caceres said. “Nobody’s afraid of them — we’re afraid of what it’s like for our families left alone, our families unprovided for.”

An uncertain future

Once he set foot in the capital, San Salvador, he was given $5 for a taxi and the belongings that had been taken from him at the airport — except for his passport, which he said was kept by American officials.

His wife helped him arrange an Airbnb in the Salvadoran countryside, where he has been for the last month. He spends his days taking long walks and having long phone calls with his family and friends back home. He’s also been writing in a journal he bought on his third day back.

While he processed his imminent removal, Caceres said he thought of his photography clients who had already signed contracts and paid deposits for weddings into 2026. Most of all, he said, he worried for his wife.

“I’m not sure how my wife will be able to pay rent and pay all the bills by herself,” he said.

Back in Orange County, his wife is navigating daily life without him.

“It feels like I’m living a life that’s not mine,” she said. “I’m going to work, coming home, taking care of our dog, and it feels like I’m missing a piece of me. There’s an empty void.”

Caceres said his wife will be unable to visit in the near future, since she just started a job and cannot take extended time off — especially now that household expenses and legal bills fall on her. Additionally, Carceres mentioned that he worries for her safety in the country, even if she was able to visit soon.

She said they are waiting for confirmation on how long her husband may be banned from the U.S. Despite her new job, his wife said she will relocate if she and her husband need to start over somewhere else, though she clings to the hope that the U.S. can still be their home.

“I want to hold firm and believe that we can get him back,” she said.

For now, they connect through FaceTime calls and photos of their day-to-day lives.

“We are holding on to our foundation, which for us is God,” Caceres said. “Our commitment is to one another and God — not to our countries, not to our governments.”

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https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/08/oc-photographer-el-salvador/ 

Por ERIC TUCKER

WASHINGTON (AP) — Doce exagentes del FBI despedidos tras arrodillarse durante una protesta por la justicia racial demandaron el lunes para recuperar sus empleos, argumentando que su acción tenía la intención de desescalar una situación volátil y no estaba destinada a ser un gesto político.

Los agentes afirman en su demanda que fueron despedidos en septiembre por el director Kash Patel porque se les percibía como no afiliados políticamente con el presidente Donald Trump. Sin embargo, sostienen que su decisión de arrodillarse en Washington el 4 de junio de 2020, días después de la muerte de George Floyd a manos de la policía de Minneapolis, ha sido malinterpretada como una expresión política.

La demanda indica que los agentes fueron asignados a patrullar la capital del país durante un período de disturbios civiles provocados por la muerte de Floyd. Sin equipo de protección ni entrenamiento extenso en control de multitudes, los agentes se vieron superados en número por las multitudes hostiles que encontraron y decidieron arrodillarse con la esperanza de reducir la tensión, según la demanda. La táctica funcionó, afirma la demanda: las multitudes se dispersaron, no hubo disparos y los agentes “salvaron vidas estadounidenses” ese día.

“Los demandantes estaban desempeñando sus funciones como Agentes Especiales del FBI, empleando una desescalada razonable para prevenir una confrontación potencialmente mortal con ciudadanos estadounidenses: una masacre que podría haber rivalizado con la Masacre de Boston en 1770”, dice la demanda.

El FBI declinó hacer comentarios el lunes.

La demanda en el tribunal federal de Washington es el último desafío judicial a una purga de personal en que la dirigencia del FBI ha destituido tanto a supervisores de alto rango como a agentes de línea, mientras Patel trata de remodelar la principal agencia policial del país. Además de los agentes que se arrodillaron, el FBI también despidió a empleados que trabajaron en investigaciones de Trump o sus aliados e incluso a un agente que puso una bandera LGBTQ+ en su espacio de trabajo.

Después de que surgieran fotografías de los agentes arrodillados, el FBI realizó una revisión interna, con el entonces subdirector determinando que los agentes no tenían un motivo político y no debían ser castigados. El inspector general del Departamento de Justicia llegó a una conclusión similar y culpó al departamento por haber puesto a los agentes en una situación precaria ese día, dice la demanda.

Fue solo después de que Patel asumiera el control de la agencia en febrero que el FBI adoptó una postura diferente.

Varios agentes que se arrodillaron fueron removidos de sus posiciones de supervisión la primavera pasada y se lanzó una nueva investigación disciplinaria que resultó en que los agentes fueran entrevistados sobre sus acciones. Ese proceso interno aún estaba pendiente cuando los agentes en septiembre recibieron cartas escuetas que estaban siendo despedidos por “conducta no profesional y falta de imparcialidad en el desempeño de sus funciones, lo que llevó a la politización del gobierno”.

La demanda asevera que el FBI despidió a los agentes “en un esfuerzo partidista para tomar represalias contra los empleados que el FBI percibía como simpatizantes de los oponentes políticos del presidente Trump”.

El FBI, añade, actuó “sumariamente para evitar crear cualquier registro administrativo adicional que revelara sus acciones como vengativas e injustificadas”.

Los demandantes están entre 22 agentes en Washington que fueron desplegados en el centro de la ciudad el 4 de junio de 2020 para demostrar presencia durante protestas en la capital y en todo el país.

La demanda afirma que los agentes fueron lanzados a una escena caótica, diciendo que una multitud los reconoció como del FBI e “intencionalmente” se acercó a ellos, volviéndose “cada vez más agitada” y gritando y gesticulando hacia ellos. Algunos en la multitud comenzaron a corear “arrodíllense”, un gesto que en ese momento era ampliamente reconocido como un signo de solidaridad con Floyd, quien fue inmovilizado en el pavimento por la policía con una rodilla en el cuello.

Los agentes más cercanos a la multitud fueron los primeros en arrodillarse. Después de que la atención de la multitud se dirigiera a los otros agentes que permanecían de pie, los otros empleados del FBI siguieron su ejemplo, arrodillándose al reconocer que era el “medio táctico más sólido para prevenir la violencia y mantener el orden”. La multitud se movió.

“Los demandantes demostraron inteligencia táctica al elegir entre la fuerza letal, la única fuerza disponible para ellos en ese momento dada su falta de equipo adecuado de control de multitudes, y una respuesta menos letal que salvaría vidas y mantendría el orden”, dice la demanda. “Los Agentes Especiales seleccionaron la opción que previno bajas mientras mantenían su misión de aplicación de la ley. Cada demandante se arrodilló por razones tácticas apolíticas para desactivar una situación volátil, no como un acto político expresivo”.

Además de buscar la reincorporación, la demanda también solicita declarar los despidos como inconstitucionales, salarios atrasados y otros daños monetarios y la eliminación de los archivos de personal relacionados con los despidos.

___________________________________

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

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/08/agentes-del-fbi-despedidos-por-arrodillarse-demandan-para-recuperar-sus-empleos/ 

“Do Not Mistake Compliance For Surrender” – Alina Habba Steps Down As Acting US Attorney For New Jersey

Tyler Durden
Mon, 12/08/2025 – 15:00

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/do-not-mistake-compliance-surrender-alina-habba-steps-down-acting-us-attorney-new-jersey 

Good afternoon, Chicago.

Mayor Brandon Johnson delivered a public message today to aldermen who are threatening an imminent vote on their own 2026 budget plan: Bring it on.

Speaking at a City Hall news conference, the mayor castigated the slim City Council majority and said that if those 26 aldermen are so confident in their counterproposal to his $16.6 billion spending plan for next year, then prove it.

Here’s what else is happening today. And remember, for the latest breaking news in Chicago, visit chicagotribune.com/latest-headlines and sign up to get our alerts on all your devices.

Subscribe to more newsletters | Asking Eric | Horoscopes | Puzzles & Games | Today in History

Miscanthus grass grows at AEC Supply’s farm in Minooka on Nov. 25, 2025. AEC Supply has a program for erosion control and a greenhouse program that both use miscanthus fiber as an input. The crop won’t be harvested until around March. (Dominic Di Palermo/Chicago Tribune)

Illinois researchers say versatile grass could be used for sustainable fuel, building materials and more

Similar to soybean cultivation in the last century, annual production of miscanthus — mostly grown on tens of thousands of acres in the eastern U.S. — is projected to skyrocket to millions of acres by 2050. Read more here.

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Dan Rowan exits a Waymo vehicle after arriving at San Jose Mineta International Airport, Nov. 12, 2025, in San Jose, California. (Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP)

Waymo wants to bring self-driving taxis to Illinois. Does the Land of Lincoln want them?

The company has been advertising in Illinois for some time, urging residents to contact their legislators to encourage them to bring Waymo here. Read more here.

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Bulls center Zach Collins grabs a rebound in the third quarter against the Warriors on Dec. 7, 2025, at the United Center. (Dominic Di Palermo/Chicago Tribune)

3 takeaways from the Chicago Bulls’ 7th straight loss — their longest skid since February 2020

Coach Billy Donovan sent in the end-of-the-bench players with 4 minutes, 21 seconds remaining in Sunday’s 123-91 loss to the Golden State Warriors at the United Center.  Read more here.

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Leonardo DiCaprio in “One Battle After Another.” (Warner Bros.)

‘One Battle After Another’ leads Golden Globe nominations, while ‘Wicked: For Good’ falters

Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” scored a leading nine nominations to the 83rd Golden Globe Awards on Monday, adding to the Oscar favorite’s momentum and handing Warner Bros. a victory amid Netflix’s acquisition deal. Read more here.

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President Donald Trump walks the red carpet before the 48th Kennedy Center Honors, Dec. 7, 2025, at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP)

President Donald Trump is proposing a $12B aid package for farmers hit hard by his trade war with China

Farmers have backed Trump politically, but his aggressive trade policies and frequently changing tariff rates have come under increasing scrutiny because of the impact on the agricultural sector and because of broader consumer worries. Read more here.

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https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/08/afternoon-briefing-what-to-know-about-the-golden-globe-nominations/