Diplomats face an uphill battle to reconcile Russian and Ukrainian “red lines” as a renewed U.S.-led push to end the war gathers steam, with Ukrainian officials attending talks in the U.S. over the weekend and Washington officials expected in Moscow early this week.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s peace plan became public last month, sparking alarm that it was too favorable to Moscow. It was revised following talks in Geneva between the U.S. and Ukraine a week ago.

Marco Rubio says US-Ukraine talks on Russia war were productive but much work remains in search of a deal

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said the revised plan could be “workable.” Russian President Vladimir Putin called it a possible “basis” for a future peace agreement. Trump said Sunday “there’s a good chance we can make a deal.”

Still, officials on both sides indicated a long road ahead as key sticking points — over whether Kyiv should cede land to Moscow and how to ensure Ukraine’s future security — appear unresolved.

Here is where things stand and what to expect this week:

U.S. holds talks with Kyiv then Moscow

Trump representatives met the Ukrainian officials over the weekend and plan to meet with the Russians in coming days.

Ukraine’s national security council head Rustem Umerov, the head of Ukraine’s armed forces Andrii Hnatov, presidential adviser Oleksandr Bevz and others met with U.S. officials for about four hours on Sunday. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the session was productive but more work remains. Umerov praised the U.S. for its support but offered no details.

Zelenskyy’s former chief of staff and former lead negotiator for Ukraine, Andrii Yermak, resigned Friday amid a corruption scandal and is no longer part of the negotiating team. It was only a week ago that Rubio met with Yermak in Geneva, resulting in a revised peace plan.

Trump said last week that he would send his envoy Steve Witkoff to Russia. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed Monday that Putin will meet Witkoff on Tuesday afternoon.

Trump suggested he could eventually meet with Putin and Zelenskyy, but not until there has been more progress.

Witkoff’s role in the peace efforts came under scrutiny last week following a report that he coached Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, on how Russia’s leader should pitch Trump on the Ukraine peace plan. Both Moscow and Washington downplayed the significance of the revelations.

Where the two sides stand

Eager to please Trump, Kyiv and Moscow have ostensibly welcomed the peace plan and the push to end the war. But Russia has continued attacking Ukraine and reiterated its maximalist demands, indicating a deal is still a ways off.

Putin implied last week that he will fight as a long as it takes to achieve his goals, saying that he will stop only when Ukrainian troops withdraw from all four Ukrainian regions that Russia illegally annexed in 2022 and still doesn’t fully control. “If they don’t withdraw, we’ll achieve this by force. That’s all,” he said.

The plan, Putin said, “could form the basis for future agreements,” but it is in no way final and requires “a serious discussion.”

Zelenskyy has refrained from talking about individual points, opting instead to thank Trump profusely for his efforts and emphasizing the need for Europe – whose interests are more closely aligned with Ukraine’s – to be involved. He also has stressed the importance of robust security guarantees for Ukraine.

The first version of the plan granted some core Russian demands that Ukraine considers nonstarters, such as ceding land to Moscow that it doesn’t yet occupy and renouncing its bid to become a member of NATO.

Zelenskyy has said repeatedly that giving up territory is not an option. One of the Ukrainian negotiators, Bevz, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Ukraine’s president wanted to discuss the territory issue with Trump directly. Yermak then told The Atlantic in an interview on Thursday that Zelenskyy would not sign over the land.

Zelenskyy also maintains that NATO membership is the cheapest way to guarantee Ukraine’s security, and NATO’s 32 member countries said last year that Ukraine is on an “irreversible” path to membership. Since he took office, Trump has made it clear that NATO membership is off the table.

Moscow, in turn, has bristled at any suggestion of a Western peacekeeping force on the ground in Ukraine, and stressed that keeping Ukraine out of NATO and NATO out of Ukraine was one of the core goals of the war.

Putin seems to have time on his side

Zelenskyy, meanwhile, has been under pressure at home.

Yermak’s resignation was a major blow for Zelenskyy, although neither the president nor Yermak have been accused of wrongdoing by investigators.

“Russia really wants Ukraine to make mistakes. There won’t be mistakes on our side,” Zelenskyy said. “Our work continues, our struggle continues. We don’t have a right not to push it to the end.”

An activist with Ukraine’s nongovernmental Anti-Corruption Center, Valeriia Radchenko, said letting go of Yermak was the right decision and would open a “window of opportunity for reform.”

Putin, meanwhile, seeks to project confidence, boasting of Russia’s advances on the battlefield.

The Russian leader “feels more confident than ever about the battlefield situation and is convinced that he can wait until Kyiv finally accepts that it cannot win and must negotiate on Russia’s well-known terms,” Tatiana Stanovaya of the Carnegie Russia and Eurasia Center wrote on X. “If the Americans can help move things in that direction — fine. If not, he knows how to proceed anyway. That is the current Kremlin logic.”

Europe’s conundrum

NATO and the EU are holding several meetings this week focused on Ukraine.

Zelenskyy is holding talks with French President Emmanuel Macro n in Paris on Monday. In Brussels, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte is hosting Ukrainian Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal and EU defense and foreign ministers are gathering to discuss European military support for Ukraine and Europe’s defense readiness.

On Wednesday, NATO foreign ministers will gather again in Brussels.

The main issue for the EU right now is what to do with the frozen Russian assets in Belgium that the Trump peace plan in its initial version sought to use for post-war investment in Ukraine.

Those funds are central to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s strategy to ensure continued help for Ukraine while also maintaining pressure on Russia. But Belgium’s prime minister is holding out, worried about the legal implications of tapping the frozen assets for Ukraine, the impact that could have on the euro — and of Russian retaliation.

The diplomacy set in motion by Trump’s peace plan “painfully exposed” Europe’s weakness, Nigel Gould-Davies of the International Institute for Strategic Studies wrote in a recent commentary.

“Despite being the main source of Ukraine’s economic and military support, it is marginal to the diplomacy of the war and has done little more than offer amendments to America’s draft peace plan,” Gould-Davies wrote.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/01/russia-ukraine-trump-peace-proposal/ 

Kaneland High School is expanding its weighted grading system to include honors classes, and adding some new courses for the 2026-27 school year, Kaneland School District 302 recently announced.

Currently, the district applies a weighted grading system for Advanced Placement and dual credit courses, a news release from the district noted.

But, starting next school year, all 11 honors courses the district offers will be on a weighted grading scale, they said in the release. Those courses are: Algebra 1 Honors, Geometry Honors, Algebra 2 Honors, Food Science Honors, Madrigals/Chamber Choir Honors, Music Theory 2 Honors, English 9 Honors, English 10 Honors, Journalism 2 Honors, Journalism 3 Honors and Spanish 4 Honors.

All of those courses are existing offerings, with the exception of Algebra 1 Honors, which will be new starting next year, according to a district presentation.

“These enhancements across multiple departments underscore our dedication to fostering a rigorous and relevant educational experience,” Kaneland Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning James Horne said in the news release. “The expansion of weighted grading to our honors classes is a crucial step in recognizing our students’ hard work and better positioning them for competitive college admissions.”

Students selecting their courses will see some other changes starting in the fall of 2026.

For example, the district is offering new dual credit options for high-schoolers: a first-year English composition course, and AP Chemistry, which will be newly designated as dual credit, the district news release noted. The district is also adding AP Pre-Calculus to the curriculum, and will be offering AP Microeconomics annually due to increased demand. The high school will also have a transitional English course meant to place students directly into college-level English courses after completing the class.

Kaneland is also launching new electives — and updating some existing courses.

For example, starting in the 2026-27 school year, Kaneland High School will have a new Career and Technical Education course on web design and development, the news release said. The school will also be offering its child development course every year and changing the name of the current animal nutrition course to Veterinary Science.

Additionally, the district is revising current environmental science content into a new semester-long elective called EcoSphere, per the release. It is also making the general biology course into a full-year life science class and removing the term “enhanced” from the full-year chemistry and physics classes.

And, at Kaneland Harter Middle School, students in eighth-grade Spanish will be able to earn high school credit.

Lastly, the district is changing some of the prerequisites for a few of the high school classes.

For example, Pre-Calculus now requires students to first complete Algebra 2, the news release said. The school will strongly recommend students hoping to take AP Biology complete Chemistry first, and complete or be concurrently enrolled in Algebra 2 in order to take AP Chemistry and AP Physics 1. And AP Government will, starting in the fall of 2026, be limited to seniors only.

mmorrow@chicagotribune.com

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/01/kaneland-district-302-to-weight-grades-for-honors-classes-and-expand-course-offerings-for-2026-27-school-year/ 

West Aurora High School Marching Band members Asher and Emily Lesniak had plenty to smile about after performing as part of the Macy’s Great American Marching Band in the 99th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on Thursday in New York City.

“It was exciting to be amid all of the gigantic helium balloons,” Asher Lesniak, 16, said.

The brother and sister duo – who have been playing the trumpet and saxophone respectively since elementary school – were chosen to perform alongside approximately 180 other high school musicians from around the country as part of the Macy’s Great American Marching Band.

“When Emily and I started playing our instruments, we never thought we would one day perform on the streets of New York City in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade,” said Asher, a high school junior.

The students performed a Disney-themed song and a holiday-themed song with the Macy’s band. They had a few rehearsals prior to Thursday’s step-off from Central Park.

The brother and sister said it was a rather “surreal experience” when they arrived at Macy’s Herald Square for an early morning rehearsal.

“When we got to Herald Square, everyone in the band seemed to be jumping with excitement,” Asher said.

“When I first started playing the trumpet, I thought it would be just for fun. After this experience, I plan to stick with it,” he said.

Emily Lesniak, 17, a senior, said she never thought she would actually one day march on the streets of Manhattan during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade.

“I never thought I would actually march in the parade. It was really cool,” she said.

Parents David and Lydia Lesniak made the trip to see their children perform. David Lesniak is a band director at Plainfield East High School. He had previously performed in the Macy’s parade and in Pasadena at the Rose Bowl parade with the Band Directors Marching Band.

Macy’s Great American Marching Band performs during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on Thursday, Nov. 27, 2025, in New York City. West Aurora High School students Asher and Emily Lesniak performed as part of the band during the parade. (Lesniak family)

Marching in the parade takes some work. Lesniak said the kids in the band had a rehearsal at 3:30 a.m. on the day of the parade.

The parents luckily didn’t have to go out quite that early.

“We sat in the Grand Stand on Central Park South and saw them coming,” Lesniak said on Thursday. “Fortunately, we saw their rehearsal earlier this week so we knew where to look for them. It was a fantastic moment as parents to see our children in the spotlight enjoying what they like to do.”

Linda Girardi is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/01/for-aurora-siblings-marching-in-macys-thanksgiving-day-parade-really-cool/ 

In her new book “Popcorn Disabilities: The Highs and Lows of Disabled Representation in the Movies,” film critic and author Kristen Lopez says she wasn’t interested in writing “an academic book or one that felt like eating your vegetables.”

Even so, some publishers were skeptical.

“It’s not a sexy topic, which I’m aware of!” she says. “I wanted to write something that people can read where they’re not going to feel judged and can laugh a little. But also where I can talk about how movies have shaped a generation of disabled viewers — how these stereotypes leap off the screen and can hit the person watching them, and I use myself as the example. I talk about how these movies have affected me and how I see myself.”

A wheelchair user, Lopez talks about her frustration watching disabled characters played by abled actors, especially female characters.

“The disability is directly tied into how she looks. You don’t want to mess with the face, so you get a lot of blind, deaf, nonverbal performances, what I call ‘pretty disability.’ When you do see a wheelchair user, the woman is 5’6” and she’s sitting and she could pass for abled. For me, growing up, I couldn’t pass for abled. I’m not proportionate, I’m very small, I’m very compact. And growing up I was like, if these women have problems finding love and going about their lives and they’re beautiful women, what the hell does that mean for me? I don’t see anybody that looks like me!

“Most women that are disabled in films, who aren’t conventionally aesthetically attractive, are monsters,” she adds. “I talk in the book about my fear growing up of Zelda in ‘Pet Sematary ’ (1989) because she looked more like me than someone like Jane Wyman in ‘Johnny Belinda’ (1948). So when you’re a young girl and already dealing with beauty standards in terms of weight and makeup and all of the ways that you can look attractive, if you’re a disabled girl and you’re watching movies about disabled women? You’re like, well, I don’t look like that, so I guess I’m unattractive and I shouldn’t exist. I worry about the next generation of disabled girls, because they don’t have something better.”

The book also includes chapters on mental and cognitive disabilities in film, a reluctance to acknowledge the way racism can complicate a disabled person’s experiences in the world, and whether abled actors playing disabled characters is a blatant play for awards.

We talk more about Hollywood’s conception of disabled people.

Q: There’s a phrase you use throughout the book, which is the Tiny Tim principle. Explain what that is.

A: Tiny Tim is the one that screwed it up for everyone! He’s obviously the character from “A Christmas Carol” and he’s kind of the de facto definition of what a disabled person is, where you have a character that’s disabled and therefore sickly, but he has such a good heart. His soul is pure. And through his purity and goodness and unselfishness, he is able to teach the miserly Scrooge how to be a good person. And that was something that set the tone for shaping the belief that disabled people were children in need of caring.

So that extended to movies more generally, where disabled characters are always good and almost saintly and they help teach able-bodied people how to be good people.

Q: In the book, you talk about the idea that what we see on screen often shapes how we understand or think about the world. 

A: Culture influences movies, and movies have the ability to influence culture. I’ve had so many personal experiences with people where they feel that they understand me or understand my life because they’ve seen a movie.

Q: Let me push back a little. Isn’t that one of the things we love about the movies — that they give you a window into someone else’s experience?

A: They do! But at the same time, if the representation is bad and you don’t know that, then the bad representation becomes solidified as truth. That’s the problem. Unless you’re an active viewer and want to take the time to research and maybe read a book about it, you’re probably going to believe certain things that a movie is espousing, and movies codify ideas that trickle down into people’s perceptions of disability.

A lot of people who have met me are like, “You have sweet government money! The government pays you as a disabled person.” And I’m like, where do people get that idea? Movies don’t even discuss the issues inherent in the Social Security disability insurance system. And as I was watching movies for the book, I realized how often disabled characters are financially well-off or at least comfortable. We never see disabled characters struggle for money. But a lot of that is because the movies situate the character as being cared for by somebody — a wife or their parents — and movies don’t discuss how disabled people make money, or even have jobs.

Kristen Lopez is a film critic and author of “Popcorn Disabilities: The Highs and Lows of Disabled Representation in the Movies.” (Nate Buchman)

Another example was watching David Gordon Green’s film “Stronger” (2017) with Jake Gyllenhaal, which was really kind of eye-opening because it was the first time in a long time I had seen a disabled character living in a house that was not designed for a wheelchair. And watching that character struggle to move around, to transfer to a toilet in a small bathroom, to transfer into a car — these moments are not big moments, but the fact that Green shows them is kind of amazing because I still meet people who are shocked that I can drive a car, because they’ve never seen it. And if you’ve never seen it and you don’t interact with disabled people, then, yeah, you’re not going to know that we can drive cars.

Q: Is there a stigma against hiring disabled actors?

A: There definitely is. Marissa Bode, who plays Nessarose in “Wicked” has talked about the fact that we still have abled actors “cripping up,” which is the terminology for when abled actors play disabled characters. I come at it from a slightly different perspective because I am an entertainment journalist and I understand, OK, butts in seats and movie stars sell.

In 1932, when Todd Browning does the horror-drama “Freaks,” it sets up this idea that disabled actors are inexperienced and can’t act and therefore can only play themselves. So if a movie doesn’t call for a disability, why would you hire a disabled actor?

Q: Let’s talk about disability in the horror genre.

A: Horror has always been hospitable to the disabled, I think, because monsters are coded that way, going back to the Boris Karloff version of “Frankenstein” (1931).

But horror movies also often have disabled lead characters and disabled women, in particular. I love the Chucky films; actress Fiona Dourif is not a disabled woman, but the character uses a wheelchair and the director Don Mancini spends time showing you how she cooks, how she navigates space. A criticism of the premise is that Chucky is 3 feet tall, you could just kick him, and Mancini’s like, wouldn’t it be great to look at a heroine who wouldn’t have that ability? And the way that she gets out of situations is really inventive and it’s great to see that she’s not a victim. That she’s not a helpless damsel waiting for an abled person to save her.

Q: What’s one film you think captures disability well?

A: I love “Coming Home” from 1978. It’s the story of a Vietnam vet, played by Jon Voight, who is a wheelchair user who is trying to find his way in a world of changing political morals, and being a disabled man, and he falls into a relationship with a woman, played by Jane Fonda, who is the wife of another vet. There are some abled actors who have done an amazing job playing disabled characters and that’s true here. I love the bits of business, like the way Voight wheels the wheelchair, the way that he moves through space. It feels authentic.

Q: Also, he’s a sexual character and I feel like most depictions of disabled people tend to be asexual.

A: And if you’re a woman? Don’t expect to have sex at all. But yeah, “Coming Home” has a beautiful sex scene that’s hot regardless of the disability or not. And it’s a sex scene where the sexiness is in their communication. There’s a lot of discussion around, what’s going to work for him and “are you comfortable?”

Q: What’s one film that makes your skin crawl with its depiction of disability?

A: There are so many, but the one I always go for is “Me Before You” (2016) with Emilia Clarke and Sam Claflin. He plays a wealthy wheelchair user who lives in a castle and he is a curmudgeon who wants to kill himself because he doesn’t want to be disabled anymore. His family hires him an unqualified caregiver played by Clarke, who flirts with the line of being a sex worker. The hope is that he’ll fall in love with her and not want to kill himself. It’s based on a romance novel and it always makes me mad. I’m like, dude, you have nothing to complain about, you live in a castle, you have a tricked out van so you can go wherever you want and you’re still not happy.

And it sets a bad precedent for caregivers of disabled people. If you’re a woman, what’s the line between sex work and caregiving? That’s a thing that happens way too much in these types of movies. And the fact that she doesn’t listen to him; there are so many scenes where he tells her, as a wheelchair user, what works for his experience, and she’s like, “You don’t know!”

It’s just so stereotypical that disabled people are angry about their disability, but also financially well-off and are just waiting for their turn to die. It never ceases to piss me off.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/01/popcorn-disabilities-book/ 

Por MOLLY QUELL

LA HAYA (AP) — El presidente de la Corte Penal Internacional afirmó el lunes durante la reunión anual de la institución que no cederá ante la presión de Estados Unidos y Rusia.

Nueve miembros del personal, incluidos seis jueces y el fiscal de la corte, han sido sancionados por el presidente estadounidense Donald Trump por llevar a cabo investigaciones sobre funcionarios de Estados Unidos e Israel, mientras que Moscú ha emitido órdenes de arresto para el personal en respuesta a una orden de arresto contra el presidente Vladímir Putin por la guerra en Ucrania.

“Nunca aceptamos ningún tipo de presión”, afirmó el juez Tomoko Akane a las delegaciones de los 125 estados miembros de la corte.

Las sanciones han afectado al trabajo de la corte en una amplia gama de investigaciones en un momento en que la institución lidia con cada vez más presión sobre sus recursos.

En su discurso del año pasado, Akane advirtió que la corte estaba siendo amenazada por el gobierno entrante de Trump. Tres semanas después de asumir el cargo por segunda vez, Trump firmó una orden ejecutiva imponiendo sanciones al fiscal Karim Khan por investigaciones sobre Israel, un cercano aliado de Estados Unidos.

La corte ha emitido una orden de arresto contra el primer ministro israelí, Benjamin Netanyahu y su exministro de defensa, Yoav Gallant, por presuntos crímenes de guerra durante la ofensiva militar de Israel en Gaza tras los mortales ataques de Hamás del 7 de octubre de 2023.

La reunión de una semana de la corte comenzó el lunes. Los temas en la agenda incluyen la aprobación de su presupuesto en un contexto de creciente presión y titulares desfavorables.

La CPI se fundó en 2002 como la corte permanente de última instancia del mundo para procesar a individuos responsables de las atrocidades más atroces: crímenes de guerra, crímenes de lesa humanidad, genocidio y el crimen de agresión. Estados Unidos, Israel, Rusia y China están entre las naciones que no son miembros.

La corte sólo actúa cuando las naciones no pueden o no quieren procesar esos crímenes en su territorio. La CPI no tiene fuerza policial y depende de los estados miembros para ejecutar órdenes de arresto.

Además de las sanciones y órdenes de arresto que enfrenta el personal, Khan ha renunciado temporalmente a la espera del resultado de una investigación sobre acusaciones de conducta sexual inapropiada. Él niega las acusaciones.

La presidenta de la Asamblea de los Estados Partes, Päivi Kaukoranta, reconoció que la investigación sobre lo ocurrido entre Khan y una asistente ha tardado más de lo esperado. “Soy muy consciente de que los estados han estado frustrados con la duración de este proceso”, dijo en sus comentarios de apertura.

No hay una fecha establecida para que se complete la investigación.

___

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/2025/12/01/el-presidente-de-la-cpi-promete-resistir-la-presin-de-eeuu-y-rusia-pese-a-sanciones-y-amenazas/ 

6,000 Airbus A320 Jets Receive Critical Update After “Intense Solar Radiation” Exposure

Tyler Durden
Mon, 12/01/2025 – 06:55

https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/6000-airbus-a320-jets-receive-critical-update-after-intense-solar-radiation-exposure 

Watch: Somali Enclave Standoff; ‘No English, No Women On Camera’

Tyler Durden
Mon, 12/01/2025 – 06:30

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/watch-somali-enclave-standoff-no-english-no-women-camera 

A month after Tinley Park resident Donna LePinske raised concern about dangerous driving on her street at a village meeting, she returned to the public comment podium in last month with reassurance.

She said that besides a tree in her front yard that was taken down, which she said was the main barrier between her house and the cars zipping by, she has felt safer.

Her neighborhood, along 167th Street, is known for having a high rate of car crashes due to the curve of the road and speeding motorists. But LePinske said conditions recently improved, and credits this to a new lighted stop sign along with increased police presence.

“The police presence has definitely been noticed,” LePinske told village officials. “We did get the flashing stop sign, and I think when people are coming around that curb right now, they’re thinking that there’s something going on that corner because it’s flashing now, so once they get used to it, I don’t know.”

Tinley Park Mayor Michael Glotz said after LePinske and four of her neighbors demanded solutions at a September Village Board meeting, he met with them and asked the Public Works and Police Department to start working on solutions.

The residents proposed landscape barriers, signs with flashing lights on the road curve, a pedestrian walkway and other traffic calming measures recommended by an engineering expert.

The village engineer conducted a traffic study and recommended potential solutions. They included adding some sort of raised surface on the road such as speed table, speed hump or speed bump; extending the curb to narrow the roadway; adding a series of alternating curves using curb extensions; and adding a median landscaped with trees and dense bushes that would shift traffic to outside lanes and provide pedestrian crossing safety.

Brian McDermott, deputy chief of operations for the Police Department, said that his department worked with the mayor’s office and residents to identify other long-term solutions. These possible solutions include speed humps, guardrails, stop signs and speed cameras.

Each of these options are somewhat limited due to state law, roadway design standards and safety considerations.

McDermott also said over the past three months, officers conducted dozens of targeted safety missions, resulting in a 43% increase in traffic stops.

“Their consistent presence, attention to detail and willingness to adjust their patrol strategies demonstrate a level of professionalism and dedication that often goes unseen,” McDermott said.

He said the department responds to speeding complaints, not only on 167th Street but throughout the entire village, by conducting daily directed patrols and traffic safety missions focused on areas where the complaints originate and where there is a history of crashes.

A car flipped onto Tinley Park resident Angelica Habas’ lawn on 167th Street Sept. 5, 2025. (Angelica Habas)

He said 167th Street from Harlem to 84th Avenue has been a primary focus because it includes several curves where drivers tend to speed. He said the street was the site of two recent collisions resulting in numerous complaints: one related to a medical incident and the other a drunken-driving crash that resulted in an arrest.

LePinske said in November she and her neighbors still want more safety around the sharp curve.

Glotz said once the village is closer to finalizing plans for traffic calming measures, he would like to meet with the residents and make sure they’re on board. He said that meeting would take place sometime around January.

awright@chicagotribune.com

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/01/tinley-park-speeding-167-street/ 

Illinois farmers have almost finished this year’s harvest and, for many, it’s a bin-buster. Crop yields have set records, and storage facilities are operating at full capacity across much of the grain belt.

American farmers once again have proven to be world beaters, capable of outproducing all comers. Unfortunately, their hard-won competitive advantages are being squandered.

The Trump administration’s trade wars have cost Illinois farmers dearly and many do not anticipate making a profit from this year’s harvest. On top of the direct impact from the Trump tariffs, inflation has raised the cost of labor, fertilizer, pesticides and other basic inputs.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is expected to announce another huge taxpayer-funded farm bailout on top of massive direct-payment plans Congress has previously approved. Farmers always say they’d rather sell their crops for a profit than take a government handout, but today they’re pushing hard for government checks because they know the marketplace has changed for the worse.

Until recently, China was a hungry customer of U.S. farm exports. But the trade war Trump launched during his first term put the nation’s agriculture sector in harm’s way. The Chinese retaliated against his tariff attacks by cutting off exports of soybeans, a key Illinois cash crop, along with pork, sorghum, dairy and other commodities.

China didn’t stop there. In the years between Trump’s two terms, Chinese agricultural companies made massive investments in expanding the production and export capacity of Brazil, which has become China’s No. 1 soybean supplier, by far.

The Chinese built infrastructure such as ports and railways and supplied low-cost fertilizer to support increased production. Big swaths of forest and savannah were cleared to increase arable acreage. As a result, the Chinese don’t depend on Midwest beans anymore.

Even before Trump imposed tariffs on China this year, Brazilian beans were accounting for about 70% of Chinese imports, while the once-robust U.S. share had dwindled to 21%. Predictably, as the trade war heated up, China flexed its market power, dropping its purchases of U.S. soybeans to zero. Trump could ill afford that hit and after he backed down from his trade demands, the Chinese agreed to make some large purchases, but they have all the leverage now.

That creates a dilemma for policymakers. The U.S. either needs to keep funneling billions into supporting excess domestic production, or the farm economy vital to rural Illinois will face a reckoning. In fact, both of those negative outcomes could come to pass, and that’s just one long-term consequence of scrapping America’s status as the global leader of free trade.

This page has long supported free trade. The administration’s rejection of it undermines economic growth, raises prices for consumers and hurts job creation — not only in agriculture, but also manufacturing and other sectors with global supply chains.

American corporations have coped with the trade war roller coaster this year partly by absorbing costs, but also by passing along price increases. They’ve worked overtime to secure trade exemptions and reorganize supply chains, so today many pay much less than the headline-grabbing tariff rates that Trump has touted.

With the midterm elections coming in November and an electorate furious about the rising cost of living, the administration may be backing away from further tariff attacks. Plus, the U.S. Supreme Court is set to rule on a lower-court decision that challenges the legality of the president imposing tariffs via executive order, bypassing Congress.

Even if the court rules against the administration, as appears likely, a lot of damage has been done. And once it’s done, it is difficult to undo.

Consider diplomatic and trade relations with key allies. Under Trump, the U.S. has become an unreliable partner. And while the American economy is so big that other countries continue to negotiate on trade, they recognize that the U.S. can be expected to arbitrarily tear up agreements it once honored. Any future deals will take that risk into account, hurting America’s negotiating position.

It’s past time for Congress to step in and save what it can of a battered farm economy. The best route to comprehensive reform is through a new Farm Bill, the legislation that traditionally revamps farm and food stamp programs every five years.

The outlook for a 2026 Farm Bill, however, is bleak. In ending the recent government shutdown, lawmakers passed a one-year extension of the obsolete 2018 Farm Bill — the third extension since that measure expired in 2023. Previously approved programs will continue, but without updates needed for today’s drastically different marketplace.

Instead, the White House reportedly has moved billions of dollars from the Agriculture Department’s Commodity Credit Corp. into a slush fund that it could use for tariff relief. Trump made the same move during his first term, funneling taxpayer money directly into the pockets of farmers, ranchers and wealthy landowners.

Short-term cronyism will do nothing to put the U.S. farm economy back on track. Without more comprehensive action, the long-term viability of rural economies will be in jeopardy and profits will remain elusive on the farm.

America’s grain belt could feed the world if politicians would let free trade flourish. Instead, American agriculture, over time, is becoming less important to the global food chain and less lucrative for the farmer — and that’s bad news for Illinois.

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

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/01/usda-farm-bill-farmers-free-trade-china-brazil/ 

It took little time after this year’s Cook County property tax bills became public for the political gamesmanship to begin.

This year’s bills showed Chicago homeowners’ median property tax bills jumped 16.7% over last year, according to the Cook County treasurer, while the collective bills for commercial real estate in the Loop dropped by $129 million.

Within days, the metastasizing debate over who was responsible for the rising tax burden collided with deepening ideological rifts in Chicago and Cook County. And it happened at an especially combustible moment — in the middle of the city’s delayed budget season and as several key Democratic primary contests ramp up.

Mayor Brandon Johnson and his allies, eager to steer public anger away from City Hall, pointed to the so-called head tax — a levy on large employers that Johnson is trying to revive — as an alternative to raising property taxes to close next year’s deficit.

Several aldermen, meanwhile, trained their fire on Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi, whose office set the new assessments last year. Kaegi, a frequent target who is up for reelection in 2026, responded by accusing the county’s Board of Review, a three-member appeals body with which he has long feuded, of slashing downtown values.

And then there was the Chicago Teachers Union, one of Johnson’s most powerful supporters, which cast the bills as evidence of inequity. “Billionaires are paying less taxes for skyscrapers downtown while tax increases hit OUR neighborhoods,” the union wrote on social media, urging support for the head tax.

The head of the umbrella organization for local unions, the Chicago Federation of Labor’s Bob Reiter, has the opposite message from CTU: It’s urging aldermen not to reject a property tax hike outright.

On the other side, commercial building owners countered that their declining valuations reflect a bleak downtown market still struggling with pandemic-era vacancies and falling rents — not political favoritism. They argue that layering a new head tax on top of those conditions would worsen the city’s recovery.

Fueling much of it is a crisis of timing: a monthslong technology snafu involving Tyler Technologies, the Texas-based vendor whose software underpins the county’s tax system. The glitch delayed the release of bills by months, landing them not in the usual quiet of midsummer but at the peak of budget negotiations and election-season maneuvering.

Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, who is challenging Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle in March’s Democratic primary, said the bills left homeowners stuck with massive increases in their escrow accounts. Fresh off unanimous approval of her own budget, Preckwinkle reminded voters that the county has not raised its base property tax levy since 1996.

The political back-and-forth has obscured a more humdrum truth: There is no single architect of this year’s tax increases. Instead, the bills reflect a confluence of decisions — some technical, some political, some structural.

The levies: Who raised what

For any property owner, the most important fact about taxes is also the simplest: Bills rise when levies rise.

The collective levies of governments inside the city of Chicago grew $528.6 million in 2024, reaching $8.87 billion, according to the treasurer’s analysis. Chicago Public Schools make up the largest part of Chicagoans’ bills. CPS increased its levy by 4.5% to nearly $4 billion earlier this year, a hike unanimously approved by the Chicago Board of Education this summer, including members aligned with the teachers union.

CPS is subject to caps on how much it can increase property taxes, thanks to a state-set Property Tax Extension Limitation Law, or PTELL. But loopholes have allowed the district to raise money beyond that limit, according to a recent University of Chicago and Civic Federation analysis.

In CPS’ case, that includes a special property tax levy to help pay for Chicago teacher pensions and other special levies to pay for interest on borrowing, capital projects and payouts for workers injured on the job. Last tax year, that analysis found, the “uncapped” amount totaled nearly $700 million.

The city of Chicago’s levy rose 10.4% year over year to $1.77 billion, even though aldermen did not vote to increase base property taxes and haven’t for years. That is because governments routinely “extend” their levy to include new buildings or property value returning to the tax rolls after a tax increment financing district or other tax break expires.

Local officials could choose not to extend those levies, but while the move would lower bills, it would also sacrifice revenue needed to cover rising pension payments, wages and borrowing costs.

Cook County does the same: Its “base” levy hasn’t gone up in years, but its overall levy has to capture new property. The county’s increases have stayed below the rate of inflation, though.

Other smaller government levies also increased, including for the City Colleges of Chicago, Water Reclamation District and Chicago Park District.

The assessments: Splitting the pie

If levies determine how much governments collect, assessments determine who pays what share of the total. Typically, neighborhoods or property types whose values climb faster than average pay more than the previous year.

That was the case in Englewood and North Lawndale, where historically lower-valued assessments rose sharply.

Residential greystone buildings stand in Chicago’s North Lawndale neighborhood, seen on Nov. 16, 2025. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)

Downtown office and hotel values, by contrast, plunged. So did their bills. That meant homeowners had to carry a bigger slice of the property tax pie.

Kaegi argued his office set realistic numbers for the Loop and that the Board of Review’s appeals reduced them too steeply.

“You cannot tell me that any hotel today is doing worse than it was in 2021 when these hotels were empty. Go look it up, their bills fell. And it’s not because of things that I did. We set those values high,” Kaegi told a Rainbow PUSH Coalition audience last weekend. “We’re picking up the tab for them. I feel the same indignance you feel.”

Larry Rogers, one of the Board of Review commissioners and a Kaegi adversary, accused the assessor of “bamboozling” the public and misjudging neighborhoods like Englewood and Garfield Park.

Both can be right: Increased investor interest has pushed up sales prices in certain South and West Side neighborhoods. And many high-profile Loop properties sold for losses in recent years or are experiencing record vacancies.

A forthcoming “sales ratio study” from Preckwinkle’s administration, expected in December, will compare actual sale prices with both agencies’ assessments, potentially offering a rare independent verdict. A previous study found a mixed bag when it came to accuracy from both offices.

How that lands on a tax bill

Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas, whose name appears on the bills (and who is considering a mayoral run), said she is often wrongly blamed for rising property taxes. Instead, her office calculates and distributes what comes from the assessor, the reviewing agencies and the taxing bodies.

According to Pappas’ office, the median Chicago home saw its assessed value rise from $210,000 in 2023 to $250,500 last year, increasing its median bill by $638.

Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas, right, greets people arriving at the treasurer’s office at the County Building on Nov. 20, 2025. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)

A good example of a typical, median home can be found near the corner of Kostner and Marquette avenues in West Lawn. The brick 1950s bungalow that is less than 1,000 square feet saw its market value jump by the Cook County assessor’s office from about $210,000 in 2023 up to $250,000 last year.

That’s close to what the home would go for on the open market. According to sales data tracked by the assessor, the median single-family home sale price in that area was about $257,000 in 2024.

The owner did not appeal and received the one tax break granted to homeowners. Their bill totaled $4,380, up from $3,751 the year before. Roughly $350 of that increase came from CPS, $125 from the city and about $40 from the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District.

There are only a few ways to get a break on bills: appeals or mistakes.

Unfortunately for most homeowners, it’s too late to appeal to the assessor or the Board of Review. They’ll have to wait until next year.

Appeals are mostly based on whether you can prove your property is worth less than what the assessor claims based on sales of comparable properties or by proving the assessor’s records are wrong — for example, if your home is smaller or has fewer features than what the assessor has in records or has been damaged by a flood or catastrophic even.

That West Lawn homeowner could try to get a “certificate of error,” to make some money back if they’re mistakenly missing an exemption for being a senior or disabled veteran, for example. Kaegi estimates about a third of property owners aren’t getting an exemption they’re owed.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/01/cook-county-property-tax-bill-blame/