Por JUSTIN SPIKE

BUDAPEST, Hungría (AP) — Las autoridades húngaras detuvieron a siete ciudadanos ucranianos, entre ellos un exoficial de inteligencia, e incautaron dos vehículos blindados que transportaban grandes cantidades de efectivo a través de Hungría por presunto lavado de dinero, dijeron funcionarios el viernes.

Ucrania acusó a Hungría de tomar a los ucranianos como rehenes y de incautar ilegalmente millones de dólares en efectivo.

“Esto es terrorismo de Estado y extorsión”, escribió el ministro ucraniano de Exteriores, Andrii Sybiha, en X el jueves por la noche.

Según Sybiha, los siete eran empleados del banco estatal ucraniano Oschadbank, y viajaban en dos vehículos blindados que llevaban el dinero desde Austria a Ucrania cuando fueron detenidos.

Los vehículos blindados transportaban el dinero en efectivo como parte de servicios regulares entre bancos estatales, apuntó agregando que se desconoce la situación de los trabajadores.

En otro comunicado, Oschadbank escribió que Hungría había incautado 40 millones de dólares, 35 millones de euros y 9 kilogramos (19,8 libras) de oro —valorados en alrededor de 1,5 millones de dólares al precio actual.

La Administración Nacional de Impuestos y Aduanas de Hungría confirmó el viernes la detención de siete ciudadanos ucranianos y la incautación de los dos vehículos blindados de transporte de efectivo. La agencia apuntó que se estaba llevando a cabo un proceso penal bajo sospecha de lavado de dinero.

Los ministerios de Interior y Exteriores y el Centro Antiterrorista de Hungría no respondieron a las solicitudes de comentarios.

Datos de GPS mostraron que los vehículos estaban en el centro de Budapest, cerca de una de las agencias de seguridad pública de Hungría, pero el paradero de los empleados del banco seguía siendo desconocido, explicó la entidad financiera.

El incidente avivó aún más las tensiones entre Hungría y Ucrania, que mantienen una amarga disputa por el acceso húngaro al petróleo ruso a través de un oleoducto que cruza territorio ucraniano.

Los envíos de petróleo a través del oleoducto Druzhba están interrumpidos desde el 27 de enero. Kiev sostiene que un ataque con drones rusos dañó la infraestructura del ducto y que su reparación suponía riesgos para los técnicos. Además, apuntó que, aunque se repare, seguirá siendo vulnerable a nuevos ataques rusos.

El gobierno de Hungría, por su parte, ha acusado a Ucrania de retrasar de forma deliberada el suministro de crudo ruso y prometió contramedidas contra Kiev hasta que se reanude el flujo.

El primer ministro húngaro, Viktor Orbán, quien mantiene una estrecha relación con el Kremlin mientras intensifica su agresiva campaña antiucraniana de cara a unas cruciales elecciones, calificó a Kiev de “enemigo” del país y ha acusado al presidente ucraniano, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, de tratar de provocar una crisis energética para influir en la votación del 12 de abril.

Orbán no mencionó directamente la detención de los vehículos blindados, pero aludió al incidente en declaraciones a la radio estatal el viernes, al afirmar que “Detendremos el paso por Hungría de cosas que son importantes para Ucrania hasta que obtengamos la aprobación de los ucranianos para los envíos de petróleo”.

“Los ucranianos se quedarán sin dinero antes de que nosotros nos quedemos sin petróleo”, agregó.

A la zaga en la mayoría de las encuestas frente a un popular rival de centroderecha, el populista Orbán ha apostado por convencer a los votantes de que Ucrania representa una amenaza existencial para la seguridad de Hungría.

En el cargo desde 2010, el líder más veterano de la Unión Europea ha afirmado que, si pierde los comicios, Bruselas llevará a Budapest a la quiebra al suspender las importaciones de energía rusa, y los jóvenes húngaros serán enviados a morir en el frente en Ucrania.

Hungría y la vecina Eslovaquia han desafiado los esfuerzos de la UE para dejar atrás los combustibles fósiles rusos y han seguido comprándolos pese a la invasión rusa de Ucrania.

Orbán ya había suspendido los envíos de diésel a Ucrania, vetó una nueva ronda de sanciones del bloque europeo a Moscú y bloqueó un importante préstamo de 90.000 millones de euros (106.000 millones de dólares) a Kiev en represalia por la interrupción de los envíos de petróleo. También ha desplegado fuerzas militares en sitios clave de infraestructura energética en todo el territorio, acusando a Ucrania de planear sabotajes.

Orbán dijo en un foro económico el jueves que Hungría usaría la “fuerza”, incluyendo “herramientas políticas y financieras”, para obligar a Kiev a reanudar los envíos de petróleo.

En su publicación en X, el ministro ucraniano de Exteriores criticó los comentarios de Orbán y escribió que “Si esta es la ‘fuerza’ anunciada más temprano hoy por el señor Orbán, entonces es la fuerza de una banda criminal”.

Por su parte, el Ministerio de Exteriores ucraniano pidió el viernes a sus ciudadanos que no visiten Hungría alegando que no se puede garantizar su seguridad ante las “acciones arbitrarias de las autoridades húngaras”.

Además, solicitó a las empresas ucranianas y europeas que tengan en cuenta “el riesgo de incautación arbitraria de bienes” en Hungría.

___

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/2026/03/06/ucrania-hungra-incauta-80-millones-de-dlares-en-autos-blindados-y-detiene-a-7-empleados-bancarios/ 

“Bruh, You Were Calling For War With Iran A Month Ago”

Tyler Durden
Fri, 03/06/2026 – 06:30

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/bruh-you-were-calling-war-iran-month-ago 

With Easter approaching, some might think a cute and cuddly bunny would make a perfect gift.

But before picking up a rabbit for that Easter basket, you may want to consider all that’s involved in adopting a small animal.

“Many folks don’t realize that rabbits are not always the best companion animal for a child,” said Liz Rench, rabbit coordinator for the Animal Care League in Oak Park. “They are a 10-plus-year commitment. They should not live in cages, and most do not like to be held.”

Alayna Hanna, the league’s director of operations, said interest in adopting animals typically increases around the holidays.

“We start with ‘yes’ and look for reasons to adopt instead of turning good people and families away,” Hanna said. Each prospective pet parent starts by filling out an adoption application, which gives the shelter team a starting point, to determine how much education the applicant may need.

“We will talk through that with the prospective family,” Hanna said. “You don’t have to be an expert pet owner to provide a great home for a shelter pet. You just have to be willing to provide them a safe and loving home while you teach them how to be a member of your family.”

And the Animal Care League is ready to help, Rench said.

“We supply people with educational materials and conversations so that they understand what domestic rabbits need to have a happy and healthy life,” she said. “From there, they may decide whether or not rabbits are a good fit for their family and home.”

For those who are looking for a companion animal for their current pet, the league takes care to arrange a compatible match.

On a recent Saturday morning at the league’s Garfield Street shelter, Rench was working with Elizabeth Doornbos and Matt Davis, a Chicago couple looking to adopt a new companion for their rabbit, Henry, whose previous bunny buddy died two years ago.

Elizabeth Doornbos, right, of Chicago, watches as her rabbit Henry gets to know potential new companion Cash under the supervision of Animal Care League rabbit coordinator Liz Rench during a recent visit to the League’s Oak Park facility. (Jim Dudlicek/Pioneer Press)

“We both had to spend time getting ready to invite another rabbit,” Doornbos said. “Henry’s been ready longer than I have. He’s never been happier than with a companion.”

First up was Cash, a large male rabbit. Rench helped the two pets get acquainted, sitting with the animals within a wire enclosure, observing their behavior and intervening as needed while they got to know each other and worked out their “relationship dynamics.”

The pair seemed to get along, sitting quietly, munching grass and grooming each other, with Henry occasionally attempting to exert authority over his potential new roommate.  “He’s just trying to be the boss,” Rench said. “We’ve had rabbits that are fighting and, all of a sudden, they’re fine. Sometimes it just takes time.”

Next, Rench and her team paired Henry with Iris, a small, white female bunny that was surrendered by a family last summer.

“First and foremost, we want a rabbit Henry gets along with,” Doornbos said, adding that she’d consider taking on a rabbit that might otherwise get overlooked by families looking to adopt, such as a white rabbit with red eyes, which many feel look scary.

Iris seemed to be a bit more wary of Henry’s advances. “Sometimes with two rabbits together, one can’t leave the other one alone,” Rench said.

Following Iris, Henry was introduced to a large female rabbit named Strawberry.

“He really does love having a bunny friend. He hasn’t been around another rabbit for two years,” Doornbos said, noting Henry lives in her office at home.

“They’re super good pets. They don’t make a mess,” Davis acknowledged.

Elizabeth Doornbos, left, of Chicago, watches as her rabbit Henry gets to know potential new companion Cash, under the supervision of Animal Care League rabbit coordinator Liz Rench, during a recent visit to the League’s facility in Oak Park. (Jim Dudlicek/Pioneer Press)

Ultimately, Doornbos and Davis opted to foster Iris, with an eye toward adoption if she proved to be a good match for Henry at home.

According to Rench, rabbits are the third most common companion animal in the United States, behind dogs and cats. “Exotic veterinary care is constantly growing, making their lives healthier and longer than ever,” she said.

Hanna said small animals like rabbits are becoming more common at shelters. “There are quite a few organizations in the Chicagoland area that offer small mammal adoptions,” she said. “Within the field, more is being done than ever before to create a standard of care for small mammals.”

Last year, Hanna said, the Association of Shelter Veterinarians released the first-ever guidelines for humane rabbit housing in animal shelters. Additionally, the league’s medical director completed courses on rabbit medical care and learned how to perform surgery on rabbits.

These moves have enabled the league to more effectively care for small animals, a category that also includes Guinea pigs, hamsters, gerbils, rats, ferrets and small birds. “We see an influx of abandoned rabbits a few months after Easter, once the baby rabbits have grown,” Rench said. “Breeders and pet stores generally sell rabbits at 2 months of age and they reach adolescence between 3-6 months.”

If a rabbit is not spayed or neutered in adolescence, Rench explained, they can become territorial and show difficult behaviors, compelling people to get rid of their animals. “This is another reason why education is so important when bringing a rabbit or any animal into the home,” she said.

Rench noted a rescue group called Dumped Bunny keeps a tally of abandoned domestic rabbits found outdoors following Easter; last year, the group rescued 430 rabbits in Chicago and the suburbs.

“Many of our rabbits are direct strays from our area jurisdictions or are transferred to us,” Rench said. “We also work closely with other area shelters that may need our help. If we have the capacity, we occasionally will take in an owner surrender, should it be an urgent situation.”

The league serves as the stray holding facility for Oak Park and seven surrounding villages, Hanna explained.

“Most of our animals come as strays through our village contracts. Each stray animal serves the stray hold period set by the village while we work to find their owners. If no owner is found, the animal will move through our medical system to receive everything they need prior to adoption,” including spaying/neutering, vaccination, microchipping and deworming, Hanna said.

Once medically ready, animals will be placed up for adoption. “When resources allow, we will assist with local owner surrenders, pull animals from local shelters such as Chicago Animal Care and Control, and accept transports from southern states that need assistance,” Hanna said.

Liz Rench, rabbit coordinator for the Animal Care League in Oak Park, explains the dynamics of pairing up pet rabbits as she assesses the compatibility of bunnies Henry, left, and shelter animal Cash. (Jim Dudlicek/Pioneer Press)

Finding the right animal for the home and family should never be a rushed decision, Rench cautioned. “Being open to learning and preparing the home is key when making a lasting choice such as adoption,” she said. “Adoption counselors want the best for the animals as well as their adopters, and they will take the time needed to be a guide.”

A key part of the league’s mission is to go beyond the basic functions of an animal shelter, explained Eli Knapp, the league’s communications manager.

“We are continually updating our programs and initiatives to not only ensure that homeless animals in our area have somewhere to go, but that we are moving toward a better community for all pets and people,” Knapp said. “We offer a pet food pantry for those in need, low-cost vaccines and spay/neuter surgeries, humane education programs for children, and dog training courses. The Animal Care League has been operating since 1973, and as a part of this community, we are committed to being a resource for our neighbors.”

What advice does the league offer people thinking about adopting an animal?

“I’d consider your lifestyle and what type of animal would be the best fit for you and your family,” Hanna said. “Adding a new member to the family will always be an adjustment, but the transition can be a lot easier if you adopt an animal that is a great fit for you. If you love to go on adventures, hike and stay fit, an energetic dog would likely be a great fit for you. If you love to sit on the couch and read or watch movies, adopt an animal that loves lounging around and relaxing.”

More information is at https://www.animalcareleague.org/.

Jim Dudlicek is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press. 

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/03/06/oak-park-animal-care-league-rabbits/ 

For 27-year-old Kenneth Slowik, an affordable vehicle is the 1998 Chevrolet GMT truck he bought last month for $900, complete with a broken driver-side door that he taped shut to keep out the cold during the frigid Michigan winter.

The truck runs, he said. That’s about it.

“I was looking for something just to transport for work, for me and my wife,” said Slowik, who lives in Port Huron near the Canadian border and works as a dishwasher. “I got that out of it, at least until I can get my taxes in and then get a better vehicle.”

While Slowik made do crawling out the passenger-side door of his nearly 30-year-old truck, the average sale price of a new full-size pickup hit roughly $66,000 in January, according to Cox Automotive.

Even as consumers and elected officials increasingly call for less expensive options, demand for profit-rich pickups and SUVs has been “incredibly resilient,” Cox Automotive executive analyst Erin Keating wrote.

“The expensive stuff sells,” said Doug Smith, president of the Missouri Automobile Dealers Association. Adding: “And there’s profit in those cars for the manufacturers, too.”

Demand for both high-end and affordable vehicles is a symptom of what experts call a K-shaped economy. While the wealthiest benefit from a booming stock market, lower earners are struggling with inflation and stagnant wages.

The dynamic is pushing middle- and lower-income people away from new vehicles, which on average now cost roughly $50,000, and toward used vehicles. Many are sticking with what they have, hiking the average age of vehicles to nearly 13 years as of 2025.

“Especially on a new vehicle, we’re hitting you with a $40,000 price,” said Perry Watson IV, president of the National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers. “If you’re a dual-income household with two professional working individuals, that’s great. But if you’re a just-graduated college student carrying student loan debt, that’s a challenge.

“We as an industry, along with our partners — the banks and everyone else — need to find a way to make vehicles more affordable,” Watson said.

High-income spenders are helping prop up new car sales and the economy as a whole. Excluding commercial vehicles, U.S. sales inched slightly up in 2025 compared to 2024, according to S&P Global Mobility.

Analysts don’t expect that to last. S&P Global Mobility forecasts a roughly 2% dip in sales this year, to 15.98 million new vehicles.

“Uneasy consumers — combined with potential OEM price adjustments — translate to low expectations for 2026 US auto sales,” S&P auto analyst Stephanie Brinley wrote at the start of the new year.

To manage the natural ups and downs of the economy, U.S. automakers must take a cue from the Chinese and figure out how to make cheap cars, analyst and market researcher Sam Abuelsamid said.

“If you have more affordable vehicles, even in a tighter economy, people are still going to have a need to buy them,” said Abuelsamid, vice president of market research and insights for Novi, Michigan-based Telemetry. “And then you can keep people employed (and) keep your factories running.”

GM, Ford and Stellantis

The Detroit Three automakers — General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Jeep-maker Stellantis NV — helped fuel the rise of money-making SUVs and pickups in the United States. Now that President Donald Trump’s administration is striking rules that limited tailpipe emissions and nudged vehicle makers toward hybrid and electric models, U.S. automakers are renewing their commitment to gas-powered behemoths.

“That to me does not seem like the right strategy,” Abuelsamid said. “When you’ve got a potential down cycle, investing a huge amount of money in expanding production of those vehicles does not to me seem like the right strategy to be able to deal with a down cycle.”

“Those are the products that are going to suffer in a down cycle because people won’t be able to afford them,” he added.

It’s hard going back to inexpensive offerings, especially sedans, after U.S. companies ceded the small-car market to foreign automakers such as Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co., said Tu Le, managing director of consulting firm Sino Auto Insights.

But automakers are reevaluating their lineups in response to calls for affordability.

After leaning into luxury with Jeep Grand Wagoneers that can reach surpass $100,000 and Ram full-size pickups that can cost $70,000 or more, Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa now says the company is considering new offerings in the sub-$40,000 and sub-$30,000 range.

For now, the carmaker’s cheapest U.S. model is the Jeep Compass, which starts at $29,355, a price that does not include destination, title and registration fees. The newly-revived Jeep Cherokee starts at $35,000.

On the higher-end, Ford is prioritizing off-road trims like Raptors, V-8-powered F-150s and Lariat models. The Lincoln luxury brand is encouraging Corsair buyers to upgrade to Nautilus SUVs following the discontinuation of the compact crossover.

Currently, Ford’s cheapest model is the compact Maverick pickup, which starts at $28,145 plus fees. With production ending of the Ford Escape compact crossover, Ford is promoting the Maverick and Bronco Sport SUV, which starts at $31,845, as alternatives.

Ford says it will have five affordable models under $40,000 by the end of the decade, including the first vehicle on its Universal EV Platform, a midsize truck starting at $30,000, a new gas truck and a new gas and hybrid commercial van.

“What Ford is doing with their universal EV program is directionally correct,” Abuelsamid said. “Stellantis, GM and everybody else need to be looking at: How can we do that? How can we get some products into the marketplace that will be more affordable?”

GM is simultaneously cranking out more of its best-selling trucks and SUVs and promoting the Cadillac luxury brand through Formula 1 while doubling down on lower-end models.

“Now, historically what you would have heard from a General Motors presentation is, ‘OK, well you made all your money in trucks and SUVs and you gave a little bit of it back at the low end,’” GM Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson said during a Chicago Federal Reserve Bank conference this month. “We’ve been able to create a portfolio where we can make money top to bottom.”

GM’s No. 4 best-selling model in 2025 was the Chevrolet Trax subcompact SUV, which starts at $21,700 plus fees. The brand’s small SUV, the Trailblazer, starts at $23,300, and GM has been teasing the under-$30,000 price tag for its upcoming, limited-release 2027 Bolt electric vehicle.

“The Trax, the Trailblazer and the Bolt all hit in the lower end of the market, where very few players are,” Fiorani said. “And Chevrolet has demonstrated the ability to sell large numbers of those vehicles. Consumers are finding it tough to buy a new product and are pushing themselves into the used market. But the low price of the Trax and the Trailblazer are giving new vehicles to hundreds of thousands of (buyers) a year.”

When ‘affordable’ is still too much

Car payments — on top of rent, utilities, medical bills and insurance — are not in 26-year-old Hastings, Michigan, resident Zoe Myers’ budget. Myers, a stay-at-home mom, has been dumping money into the 2005 Pontiac Grand Prix she shares with her partner, who works at a Ford supplier in Saranac.

Repairs on her “beater with a heater,” she said, are easier to manage than a down payment.

“When it has issues, it’s not always an issue after an issue,” she said. “You do the issue, and then you wait a little bit. And then there’s another issue. Gradually, when you have the funds, you can fix it, instead of paying upfront for something so expensive.”

For Slowik, even the industry goal of “affordable” $25,000-$30,000 vehicles is too high.

“That’s a lot of money,” Slowik said. “More money than I make in a year, that’s for sure.”

Slowik’s plight reflects what’s becoming a hard reality for many, Le said: “Vehicles are becoming a luxury item for rich people, unfortunately.”

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/03/06/automakers-prices-buyers/ 

Overlooking the shoreline of Lake Michigan and an aging coal plant, a packed conference room was filled with families, advocates and Illinois legislators celebrating the graduation of two dozen newly trained clean energy workers.

“It’s not lost to me today that we’re sitting on the fifth floor of the College of Lake County in the shadow of fossil fuel energy, talking about clean energy,” said Richard Ammon, the college’s executive director of workforce initiatives. “There’s a reason we’re here, and that’s because the state of Illinois is doing some great things to ensure that we have a clean future, and this program is part of that future.”

With tears in his eyes, Alan Corea, a graduate of the latest cohort, spoke to the crowd last week, reflecting on what this achievement means to him.

“Through this journey, something changed for me,” he said. “I didn’t just gain knowledge about clean energy, equity and justice. I gained confidence, I gained discipline, I gained a vision.”

A Waukegan resident, Corea, 28, plans to enroll in the college’s electric vehicle program with hopes of becoming an EV technician.

“I started to understand that this work is bigger than the career,” Corea added. “This is about serving our communities. This is about making sure that the next generation doesn’t have to struggle the way many of us did, and find a door that will open.”

Graduate Alan Corea, center in hat, listens to speakers during the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act graduation ceremony at College of Lake County in Waukegan on Feb. 27, 2026. Corea spoke to the crowd, saying, “This work is bigger than the career.” (Talia Sprague/for the Chicago Tribune)

Corea is one of 146 graduates of Waukegan’s monthlong Bridge program under the Illinois Clean and Equitable Jobs Act, known as CEJA, passed in 2021. Illinois’ ambitious climate law aims to transition the state to 100% renewable, carbon-free energy, as well as electrify the state’s transportation sector, by 2050.

Core to the landmark climate law is creating “a just transition,” said Francisco Lopez Zavala, the Illinois Environmental Council’s policy program associate. For lawmakers, this means building a clean energy workforce in Illinois’ most environmentally burdened communities.

Over 700 Illinoisans have graduated from CEJA workforce training hubs across the state, said the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Development, which oversees the program in partnership with local nonprofits and community colleges. That number continues to grow as CEJA hubs prepare for new cohorts every month.

These hubs have been launched in 14 disadvantaged and historically disinvested communities across the state, from Chicago’s South and West sides to cities like Rockford, Joliet and Aurora.

Waukegan was a natural fit as a hub.

With five Superfund sites, groundwater pollution and toxic coal ash from the nearby Waukegan Generating Station, the Lake County city has long grappled with environmental harms, said Mayra Mendez, executive director of Clean Power Lake County, an environmental advocacy group in Waukegan and member of Illinois’ Clean Jobs Coalition that helped craft CEJA’s bill language.

Lake County residents experience a reduced life expectancy linked to poor air quality, Mendez said, much of it tied to the former coal plant along the lakefront. Although CEJA accelerated the plant’s closure in 2022, coal ash continues to leach into groundwater near Lake Michigan.

Recent federal delays to close ash impoundments by the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency will allow Waukegan’s coal ash to remain unaddressed until 2032, raising concerns for Illinois legislators like state Sen. Adriane Johnson, a Buffalo Grove Democrat.

“Massive flooding, which is soon to come on these shoreline cities like Waukegan, could disturb the coal ash, and it could contaminate our source of drinking water,” Johnson said.

The Waukegan Generating Station with coal ash ponds, far left, on Feb. 27, 2026, in Waukegan. The facility closed in June 2022 after operating for nearly 100 years. (Talia Sprague/for the Chicago Tribune)

She said the clean energy workforce movement is important for Waukegan, a community that “has experienced historic disinvestment” and “been dumped on with all of the brownfields.”

The Waukegan hub, located at the college’s Lakeshore campus, has successfully graduated 14 cohorts in its first year, training students in heating, ventilation, air conditioning, weatherization, solar construction and electric vehicles.

CEJA students arrive with significant financial struggles, Ammon said. Some have been unhoused, and others were formerly incarcerated.

“We got enough support from the state of Illinois to be able to change lives,” he said.

The 120-hour program provides green energy certifications, workplace safety training and college credit. CEJA also offers “barrier reduction services” — paying for gas, renewing driver’s licenses, helping to expunge conviction records, even securing temporary housing — to ensure students can complete the course, said Larry Dawson, CEJA’s northern regional administrator at the state commerce department.

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Support continues for up to a year after graduation, including help with child care and counseling.

“You want to try to make sure people can get rooted before we have the birdie fly out,” Dawson said.

Still, challenges remain. While Illinois’ clean energy sector is poised for growth, and state legislators feel CEJA is on track for 2050 goals, administrators say some employers remain hesitant to hire workers from disadvantaged backgrounds.

“There are some of the participants who are justice impacted, and they’re some cases rightfully so, of some employers having some reluctance (to hire),” Dawson said.

Getting more employers in the room at these monthly graduation ceremonies is a priority for Dawson and Antonio Garcia, director of CEJA programs for Lake County Workforce Development.

“If someone says, ‘Oh, there’s no (clean energy) talent for hiring,’ tell them to come to Waukegan,” Garcia said. “We have plenty of folks ready to go.”

Antonio Garcia, Climate & Equitable Jobs Act program administrator at Lake Country Workforce Development, speaks during at the graduation ceremony at College of Lake County in Waukegan on Feb. 27, 2026. (Talia Sprague/for the Chicago Tribune)

While the state works toward its sweeping clean energy goals, Garcia said this CEJA program prepares communities like Waukegan to meet the renewable moment when it comes.

“From the governor’s vision of 2050 being all electrical, that’s going to create jobs,” he said. “So we have to prepare our community to be ready for those jobs.”

For graduates like Zion resident Gregory Smith, 55, the opportunity feels long overdue.

“I wish this could have come sooner, a lot faster, because this is where the future is going,” said Smith during his graduation speech. “Energy products, clean air, not burning coal no more, saving the economy, house owners, and communities being able to breathe better.”

He plans to enroll in the college’s home inspection program after graduation.

As applause echoed through the conference room, optimism was palpable about a new workforce taking shape — one trained not to extract or burn but to build and restore.

“Look at us,” Smith told the crowd. “We’re making history right now, whether you know it or not.”

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/03/06/graduates-of-illinois-clean-energy-workforce-program-gain-a-vision-and-skills-for-the-future/ 

Since the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s death on Feb. 17 at age 84, leaders from across the globe have been giving thanks for Jackson’s contributions to society.

And the details of his final homegoing events Friday and Saturday in Chicago were coordinated by Tarrah Cooper Wright, CEO of public relations and political consulting firm Rise Strategy Group, and Alexandra Sims-Jones, president and founder of APS & Associates.

“We will see the best of our country and our world,” Cooper Wright said. “People all want to celebrate the humanity, the humility and the moral compass the reverend had.”

She and Sims-Jones are two of the many Black women who say their professional trajectories have been deeply impacted by the civil rights leader and founder of the Rainbow PUSH social justice nonprofit.

Others include Minyon Moore, activist and chair of the 2024 Democratic National Convention; Donna Brazile, political strategist and member of the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee; the Rev. Shavon Arline-Bradley, president and CEO for National Council of Negro Women; and Keisha Sutton James, campaign manager for Alvin Bragg, the first Black person elected district attorney of Manhattan, New York.

Many of these women say the intersectionality with Jackson still guides them.

Sims-Jones’ grandfather was instrumental in getting Jackson his residence when he served as the first shadow U.S. senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997.

Her father, a member of the Omega Psi Phi, the same fraternity in which Jackson was a member, volunteered and knocked on doors for the reverend during his presidential campaigns. Sims-Jones came to Chicago with her own nonprofit focused on voter registration. She campaigned and worked with former Chicago City Treasurer Kurt Summers Jr. and worked on former President Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.

“When I came to Chicago and met reverend for the first time, it was such an honor,” Sims-Jones said. “I remember … stopping at Rainbow PUSH and learning about voter registration, which was a passion of mine. I learned the origins of how Rainbow PUSH was responsible for the way so many learned how to organize.

“I later worked on the Obama campaign, and they used the same tactics that Rev. (Jackson) created,” Sims-Jones said. “Reverend was a progressive before it was popular. He believed in women’s equality and pushed it throughout his staff. And throughout the work he did, he was always quick to support women running for office and in leadership roles. You’ll find that a lot of the people who ran PUSH are powerful women. I never forget whose shoulders I’m standing on.”

Sims-Jones is a co-organizer of Black Bench Chicago, a training program for Black public affairs leaders. It’s an endeavor she shares with Cooper Wright.

Cooper Wright, who grew up in Chicago, said Jackson was one of the most accessible leaders. She remembers the many times she or her team would call him and his staff to ask for advice, and he answered every time.

She used his guidance to solve clients’ challenges and encourage business owners to do more minority hiring for professional services, including legal and public affairs.

“He wasn’t just focused on solving one person’s problem, he was focused on leveling the playing field and giving everyone more access,” Cooper Wright said. “If you look at who he surrounded himself with, starting with his brilliant wife, Mrs. (Jacqueline) Jackson, to Rev. Willie Barrow to Rev. Janette Wilson, he understood not only women’s ability to execute and get things done, but also their power of collaboration.”

Family of Rev. Jesse Jackson honors legacy of civil rights icon

Cooper Wright said Jackson taught her to bring everyone along on your journey. “You’re always looking around the room making sure there’s someone older than you, someone younger than you, someone who doesn’t look like you,” she said. “We’re all more successful when we bring that rainbow along with us for every experience.”

Tarrah Cooper Wright stands in House of Hope in the Pullman neighborhood on March 5, 2026. Cooper Wright is the media and press lead for the celebrations of life for the Rev. Jesse Jackson. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)

Had Jackson not laid the foundation, Sims-Jones said, she wouldn’t be where she is today. “No organizer would,” she said. “He mapped it out for all of us. … He paved that way for organizing and Democratic politics.”

Brazile said you cannot talk about Jackson’s achievements without talking about women. “We were the left out, the last, but he put us in the center of action, and here we are,” said the political strategist. “When I think about (former U.S. Sen.) Carol Moseley Braun, who was a Jackson delegate in ‘88; when I think about (U.S. Rep.) Maxine Waters, a Jackson delegate in ’84, when I think about (Oakland Mayor) Barbara Lee, who worked with Shirley (Chisholm), and then assisted us in ‘84 — this is part of who Rev. Jackson was.”

Brazile said she did not grow up in a movement that was male dominated. “He had no problems putting us in the room with the boys. I never felt like I was a second class citizen in Rev. Jackson’s world,” she said.

Minyon Moore, who worked for Operation PUSH in the ’80s, said she considers volunteering her avocation. What she learned from Jackson: “Return every call. There’s no big I’s, no little you’s. People are people. Most people can never get access to anything, and understand when they call there, they want something, but they might not always have the right words to say it.”

Jackson was always surrounded by strong women at Operation PUSH, Moore said. “He knew no other way than to cultivate us,” she said. “Start with his wife, Jacqueline Jackson, she’s an organizer, a movement person. I looked up to Rev. Barrow, who was my mentor at Operation PUSH. Betty Magness and Rev. Janette Wilson — all of these women help form and shape how Reverend Jackson treated us all.”

Moore said these women helped propel Jackson to becoming who he was. “One of the things that he did for us is make sure you take your values with you wherever you go,” she said. “When I went into a room, I didn’t just go in with Rev. Jackson, I went in with all those women that had surrounded him and made him understand, to the world, that we were important and that we should be listened to.”

Campaign manager Sutton James belongs to the Daughters of the Movement, descendants of those on the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement. As the granddaughter of Percy Sutton, an activist, a Tuskegee Airman, a Freedom Rider, the legal representative for Malcolm X, and the first Black man to run for mayor of New York City, Sutton James refers to Jackson as an uncle. She said her grandfather mentored Jackson and supported Jackson’s family financially while he was running for office. She found some of the canceled checks when she cleaned out her grandparents’ home.

There was a lot Jackson accomplished in his life, she said. “But to me,” she said, “the biggest thing he accomplished was making it possible for Barack Obama to be elected. Period.”

The Daughters of the Movement, she said, are focused on continuing to lift up the engagement conversation — political engagement, engagement with social movements, with civic organizations — to ensure that people stay vigilant “because that was what was passed on to us, and we feel a responsibility to pass that on.”

“Our ancestors worked hard all the time, and they would want us to continue marching on, literally,” Sutton James said. “We keep moving because that’s what he would have wanted for us to do, and so we support one another in enabling us to find the strength physically and emotionally to do the work in these incredibly brutal times.”

We have to take care of one another, she said. “This was built into my value system by Rev. Jackson and others like my grandfather and other people who I was exposed to,” Sutton James said. “Understanding the history and the sacrifices that they made, I feel very strongly about making my ancestors proud.”

Arline-Bradley’s lineage stems from South Carolina, Jackson’s home state. Born and raised in New Jersey, all her summers were spent in South Carolina.

“As painful as South Carolina’s history was and is, he personified what it meant to have South Carolina soil under your feet on a global mission,” said the head of the National Council of Negro Women. “I am a Black woman preacher. I am a mother, a wife, an entrepreneur, activist, and what Rev. Jackson did was put women in position.

“What Rev. Jackson did was make sure women spoke in pulpits,” Arline-Bradley said. “He was one of the few Black men that honored women’s gifts in ministry. He was one of the few people who understood that diversity, equity, inclusion was actually a lifestyle that corporations could activate in and he did it in Black communities and Black spaces too, because DEI has been a problem in all of our industries — in faith, in education and in business — where there has been this massive gender divide between us and outside of our own community.”

Cooper Wright is hopeful the Chicago homegoing ceremonies will showcase the beauty of locking arms, being hopeful and ready to work for the future Jackson envisioned.

A public service will be held Friday at House of Hope, 752 E. 114th St., Chicago, with doors opening at 9 a.m. and services beginning at 11 a.m. It will be livestreamed at jessejacksonlegacy.com.

A Saturday service will be at Rainbow PUSH headquarters, 930 E. 50th St., Chicago, with doors opening at 9 a.m. and services beginning at 10 a.m.

Former Presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, former Vice President Kamala Harris, along with former first lady Jill Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, will be in attendance at the South Side church.

Mayor Brandon Johnson, Gov. JB Pritzker, U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, the Rev. Al Sharpton, Judge Greg Mathis, the Rev. Michael Pfleger, the Rev. Otis Moss III and Chicago Cubs owner Tom Ricketts are slated to speak at the service.

Performers include LeAndria Johnson, Fred Nelson, gospel singer Darius Brooks, Jennifer Hudson, Bebe Winans and Pastor Marvin Winans.

Gospel artists Marvin Sapp, Hezekiah Walker and R&B singer Terisa Griffin, will perform at PUSH on Saturday, with a special musical tribute by Stevie Wonder.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/03/06/rev-jesse-jackson-black-women-leaders/ 

It’s politics as usual during unusual times, as glossy campaign mailers overflow in my mailbox with early voting underway. They arrive printed on heavy cardstock, promising revelations. I’m decorating my refrigerator with them like they’re holiday cards, but I’m running out of magnets. At this point, the campaign for the congressional district that covers part of the northwest suburbs and the North Shore and a corner of Chicago is taking up a lot of space.

A mailer from Friends of Daniel Biss reads, “Say NO to AIPAC and Trump/MAGA donors. Say NO to Laura Fine.” Some voters may actually like her unconditional support of Israel.

Elect Chicago Women, reported to be funded by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, states, “Daniel Biss broke his promise to serve his full term as mayor by announcing his run for Congress.” How was he supposed to anticipate U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky’s retirement? What precisely is wrong with ambition?

A mailer focused on my state Senate district, in support of candidate Rachel Ruttenberg, accuses her opponent Patrick Hanley of being a former management consultant and living in Winnetka.

I’m still trying to decide which part is meant to scare me.

Campaign professionals would say the mailers are working exactly as designed. Negative campaign literature has long been part of the political playbook. Consultants argue that defining an opponent through past legislative actions can sharpen contrasts and motivate voters.

But the moment we’re living through is anything but ordinary.

Our democracy feels fragile. As President Donald Trump asserts himself anew, concerns about preserving democracy are growing — from aggressive immigration crackdowns that test legal boundaries to a Congress that appears paralyzed. Even now, Trump’s rhetoric remains centered on the “stolen” 2020 election and grievances about Joe Biden. The red-blue divide is already wide enough. Do we really need to foster division inside a party that is trying to rebuild a governing majority?

For years, Democrats have warned about the corrosive effects of scorched-earth politics. That warning rings hollow if the same tactics appear in their own primaries.

Democrats cannot fight Trump-style politics in Washington while practicing similar tactics at home. Their credibility depends on how they conduct their own campaigns.

When national politics grow unstable, voters look to governors, state legislators and local officials for calm and competence. State governments now carry an outsize responsibility to demonstrate that government still works.

In Texas, James Talarico is running a different kind of campaign. This week, the state lawmaker defeated U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate. Instead of stoking outrage, he talks openly about faith and Scripture, asking less “gotcha” questions and more “who are we serving?” At a moment when anger fuels in Democratic politics, he’s betting that decency still wins votes.

If campaigns in Wilmette, Evanston and Glenview mirror the same suspicion and character attacks that Democrats criticize nationally, we reinforce the very political culture we claim to oppose.

The stack in my mailbox suggests where we’re already drifting.

I’ve been following the campaigns closely, reading candidates’ statements and social media posts. But most voters are not political obsessives. They sort their mail between bills and real estate flyers, glancing at a headline between carpools. Many will realize there is a primary only weeks before Election Day. And instead of learning in depth what each candidate hopes to accomplish, they are invited to view the others with suspicion: too connected to donors, too ambitious and living in the wrong ZIP code.

Yet these candidates agree on far more than the mailers suggest. They are Democrats who support reproductive rights, public education, environmental protection and a more equitable economy. The real differences — how aggressively to pursue zoning reform along the North Shore, how to expand pre-K access in Evanston and Skokie, and how to prioritize commuter rail funding — are worth debating. Those are the distinctions a primary is actually for.

But there is a difference between making the case for your candidacy and defining your opponent through insinuation.

Negative mail may move voters a few points, sometimes enough to matter, but it reliably deepens cynicism and punishes the nominee who will need those same voters in November or when they take office. Distrust is a costly closing message when the winner has to govern with the people they just defeated.

My refrigerator will probably keep collecting campaign mailers between now and Election Day. I just hope the next one earns its place there — not by warning me about someone else, but by telling me what the candidate actually intends to build.

Dr. Jennifer Obel is a retired oncologist who writes about the intersection of medicine, ethics and public policy. 

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

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/03/06/opinion-illinois-campaign-mailers/ 

When the news broke two years ago that locally based credit card company Discover Financial Services had agreed to be acquired by out-of-town rival Capital One, this page declared that, company reassurances to the contrary, little good would come of this tie-up for our region.

We’re sorry to report that we may have underestimated the damage.

McLean, Virginia-based Capital One is laying off 1,139 workers based in Discover’s former headquarters in Riverwoods, the Tribune reported Thursday. That total is on top of about 600 let go late last year following the merger.

More than 1,700 workers who either worked at Discover’s sprawling Riverwoods campus or were remote employees tied to the operation have lost their jobs or soon will. That’s nearly half the Riverwoods workforce of roughly 4,000 that predated the deal.

That is tough news.

These sorts of good-paying, white-collar jobs are becoming harder to get — and to keep — thanks to AI and other belt-tightening effects, even without the fallout from cutthroat wheeling and dealing. Financial services are critical to the economy in the Chicago area and indeed in Illinois as a whole. A whopping 6.4% of Illinois workers rely on the sector for their livelihoods, and Chicago depends even more heavily on the industry, with 7.3% of its jobs in financial services, according to the state of Illinois’ most recent annual economic forecast, published last month.

The Discover deal hits especially hard in Lake County, once a hotbed of corporate activity but a county that has seen no growth in the number of financial services jobs compared with 25 years ago, lagging other Midwest regions, according to that same report. And that was even before these latest Capital One cuts.

With Discover’s $35 billion sale now an indisputable jobs disaster for Chicagoland, the only real question is whether Capital One intends to hold onto the 25.5-acre campus on Lake Cook Road that is home to 1.1 million square feet of offices housed in four separate buildings.

It wasn’t as if all 1,700-plus of the affected workers had been physically present at Riverwoods even before these cuts. More than 950 had worked remotely; many of those weren’t even living in Illinois, according to Capital One.

After these new layoffs, that 1.1 million square feet is going to feel awfully cavernous, we’re sure.

An instructive example lies just a short ways down the road from the former Discover headquarters. There sits an even larger tract that until recently housed a considerably bigger corporate campus — that of insurance giant Allstate. With Allstate years ago concluding that remote work made its massive real estate footprint superfluous, that 232-acre swath of land is in the process of being converted to warehouses. Better warehouses than vacant land, we suppose, but still.

We’ve said before, and we will reiterate here, that the earnings performance of our gradually dwindling number of Fortune 500 companies is critical to our economically stagnant region’s future.

Discover’s missteps made it vulnerable to takeover, and we are paying a steep price now.

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

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/03/06/editorial-discover-capital-one-merger-layoffs/ 

Michaeleen Doucleff set out to examine her family’s relationship to — reliance on, really — screens and junk food.

Why was she checking texts at every stop sign when biking with her daughter, Rosy? Why was she mindlessly devouring Pringles? Why did Rosy impatiently count the minutes to nightly cartoons from the moment she got home? When was the last time they ate a whole food?

At the beginning of her reckoning, Doucleff prepared herself for a lesson in willpower. If she was going to come to terms with how lousy these guilty pleasures were for her and her family, she was also going to have to find ways to forgo them.

“I believed that I had fallen in love with pleasure and that I had too much pleasure in my life,” Doucleff writes in her new book, “Dopamine Kids: A Science-Based Plan to Rewire Your Child’s Brain and Take Back Your Family in the Age of Screens and Ultraprocessed Foods.”

“Therefore, to lift away the gray gloominess that I felt,” Doucleff continues, “I needed to accept less pleasure in life. I needed fewer rewards. And as a parent, I needed to show Rosy how to accept less pleasure as well.”

She had internalized the message that she was, like so many of us, chasing the next dopamine hit.

“According to this theory, when I picked up my phone or bit into a slice of pumpkin bread, it triggered a surge of this tiny molecule inside my brain,” she writes. “And this surge gave me a little bump of pleasure.”

Hence the slavish social media posting, the manic email checking, the constant baked goods craving.

“I was constantly seeking dopamine and the pleasure it provided,” she writes.

What she learned instead — by poring through hundreds of studies, interviewing dozens of neuroscientists, psychiatrists and psychologists, and tuning into her own nervous system — was that the guilty pleasures only brought her guilt (and fatigue, restlessness and melancholy, to name a few feelings). No pleasure.

Because dopamine isn’t actually a burst of pleasure. Dopamine, she learned, sends us on the chase for pleasure. And dopamine magnets (her term for ultraprocessed foods and screens) pull us — often subconsciously — toward them.

“Once we’ve locked into these powerful magnets,” she writes, “they take hold of our attention and throw off our internal compass. They can make us forget about the genuine rewards and pleasures in our life. They make us lose track of what we value and really want out of life.”

Which explains why Doucleff felt anxious, rather than joyful, when she and Rosy spent a phone-free morning building sand castles at the beach. And why sometimes I panic that I can’t find my phone while I’m holding my phone. (That might also be menopause.)

“Dopamine Kids” provides a detailed, five-step process for remodeling our habits and creating boundaries around screens and junk food. Whether you wholeheartedly adopt all five steps or just use the guidance to reorient some of your priorities, it’s a fascinating read.

Starting with the very premise.

“On the surface,” she writes, “screens and ultraprocessed foods don’t appear to have much in common. At first I didn’t see the connection either. But as we’ll learn, they’re intimately entwined inside our brains. The neurological pathways that drive our desires for high-fat and high-sugar foods overlap substantially with those driving our consumption of videos, games and social media. Once we understand how one technology works, we understand how the other works.”

She writes about how both tech and ultraprocessed foods arrived in our homes like a tsunami in the last few decades — the latter helped along by tobacco companies who bought up food manufacturers, such as Kraft and Nabisco, when cigarette sales plummeted in the late 1980s.

“In many ways, these foods carry just as much power and influence on our lives as apps and devices.”

Doucleff is trained as a biochemist and spent two years as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health. Now she works as a reporter for National Public Radio, focusing on children’s health.

Shortly after the 2021 publication of her first book, “Hunt, Gather, Parent”— which sold more than 1 million copies— she and her family moved from San Francisco to West Texas.

Now she raises chickens and grinds her own grain. For a while she and her husband ran a home-schooling co-op out of their greenhouse. She encourages us to choose one room at home for our phones and leave them there, plugged into the wall.

Some readers will likely experiment with the five steps and many, I’m sure, will succeed. To me, the book isn’t really about deciding whether to remake our lives to look more like Doucleff’s. (I’m not sure live Christmas trees are allowed in my apartment building. Chickens aren’t happening.)

It’s about understanding the forces at work that shape our habits, our days and, honestly, our family dynamics. For better or worse.

“Scientists now believe that about 40 percent of all our actions occur without much thought or deliberation,” she writes. “We are still conscious of what we’re doing, but we don’t pause and intentionally scrutinize if an action is really worth its costs.”

We ought to, she maintains. And her book explains how.

I’m grateful for any guidance that shakes us out of autopilot in our one wild and precious life. (Hat tip Mary Oliver.) Chickens optional.

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

Twitter @heidistevens13

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/03/06/heidi-stevens-dopamine-kids/ 

Kristi Noem has been removed from her perch atop the Department of Homeland Security. Like the vast majority of Chicagoans, we will shed no tears.

As secretary of homeland security, the former governor of South Dakota oversaw an immigration enforcement operation so poorly managed, and so brutalizing, that two American citizens were shot dead on the streets of Minneapolis in broad daylight, for the world to see.

Whatever your views on the actions of protesters, all reasonable people should agree that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents killing Americans was an unacceptable outcome. And, to reiterate, it happened at least twice.

Before dispatching thousands of poorly trained, masked federal agents to the Twin Cities, Noem had flooded the Chicago area with a somewhat smaller but still hefty, and just as poorly trained, force of agents who bravely staked out Home Depot parking lots to hunt down migrants looking for work, captured and detained tamale vendors. We don’t doubt a tiny fraction of their quarry was worth deporting in this manner, but that was overwhelmed by the vast number of people who clearly posed no immediate threat. As a city, we also witnessed far too many performative scenes intended primarily to intimidate city neighborhoods and suburbs long home to immigrants. Unforgivably. those here legally were made to feel just as unsafe.

In America, for God’s sake.

Halloween celebrations for a host of Chicago-area kids inexcusably either were filled with fear or were disrupted by the enforcement actions overseen by Noem.

Agents stormed into a Chicago day care center in November to chase down a teacher, who ran into her place of work as she was being hunted, thereby terrorizing the preschoolers who were there.

Chicagoans responded to the incursions by blowing whistles to alert their neighbors when Border Patrol agents were about and by protesting (mostly peacefully) on city and suburban streets as well as at the federal immigration detention in Broadview. These protests didn’t take place only in hard-bitten Chicago. Residents in suburbs from Wilmette and Evanston to Mount Prospect and Arlington Heights rose up to confront agents in their communities, in accordance with our Constitution’s right to peaceful protest.

Chicago didn’t make the national news or become the stuff of Bruce Springsteen songs the way Minneapolis’ travails did, but we too saw too many injuries stemming from DHS’ weekslong “operation” here — although that is a term that affords Noem’s ragtag band too much dignity.

Agents shot to death 38-year-old Silverio Villegas-González in Franklin Park in September and justified their actions by saying he’d tried to run them over in his car. We certainly heard a similar explanation for why Renee Good was shot to death in her car in Minneapolis, but in that case, there was video that raised major questions, to say the least, about just how threatened the agent who killer her truly was. We don’t have similar video for the shooting of Villegas-González. If we did, you might be reading his name nearly as often as you do that of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, also shot to death by agents in Minneapolis.

In all of the chaos her troops sowed throughout Chicagoland, Noem barely engaged with the local media to explain the need for such heavy-handed tactics or to address outrageous actions such as the heavily armed agents who burst into the day care center. We wanted to hear what she had to say and tried hard to get her to talk to us but we failed in our quest.

It is a shame that Noem’s pitiful performance as homeland security secretary reportedly wasn’t the primary reason for her dismissal, although it surely should have helped push her out the door. Instead, President Donald Trump apparently removed her after she testified before Congress that he had approved the spending of more than $200 million on ubiquitous television ads featuring Noem in very glamorous getups talking tough to those in the country without legal authorization.

Trump said afterward he’d never done any such thing, effectively accusing her of lying. Terrorizing American cities isn’t enough to get you fired as secretary of DHS, apparently, but making the president look bad most definitely will do the trick in this administration.

Good riddance to Noem. Trump plans to nominate Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin as her replacement. We’ll hope for better. In this arena at least, the Trump administration can hardly do worse.

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

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/03/06/editorial-kristi-noem-homeland-security-firing-donald-trump/