By the time Shawn Dunning returned to the U.S. after living abroad for two decades, he was nearly bankrupt. All his family members were dead, and his health was rapidly declining, leaving him unable to work.

Dunning, 54, spent nights on the street, in shelters, in hospitals, on friends’ couches and in a nursing home during the COVID-19 pandemic, where he said he saw neighbors carted out in body bags. Dunning said being homeless broke him, and he contemplated suicide.

“There is nothing possible in this world when you’re homeless,” Dunning said. “It’ll kill you. If it doesn’t take your physical health, it’ll take your mental health, and you’re done.”

But Dunning said his life changed when he got help from the nonprofit Heartland Alliance Health. With their help, he was given a voucher through the Chicago Housing Authority, which has housed him in Rogers Park for three years.

Now the same programs that changed Dunning’s life are in jeopardy, advocates say, and the Chicago area may be hit especially hard with funding cuts.

Local organizations providing support and housing to the city’s homeless population are sounding alarms over potential cuts from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. There are clear indicators, they say, that HUD intends to defund its permanent housing programs as soon as it’s able, likely during the next grant cycle opening this summer

Permanent housing is an umbrella term that encompasses different types of long-term housing without a designated time of stay, according to HUD. The most common type is permanent supportive housing, in which tenants who have a disability affecting their ability to find housing, such as a mental or physical illness, receive supportive services alongside a rental subsidy.

The looming funding cuts could force people in permanent housing programs across the state back into homelessness. Five regions in Illinois — a state with over 14,000 total permanent supportive housing units — rely on HUD funding for all of their permanent supportive housing programs.

Chicago has over 9,000 permanent supportive housing units, around 60% of which are financed by HUD, according to data from the National Alliance to End Homelessness. Of the combined $120 million in HUD funding that Chicago homelessness organizations are receiving, 80%, or $96 million, goes to permanent housing programs.

In May, the Trump administration proposed cutting half of HUD’s budget, and in July, an executive order directed HUD to “increase requirements” for participation in housing programs.

HUD will instead fund transitional housing programs, which have a maximum subsidy of two years, and has also indicated that it will shift priorities to projects with work, service or treatment requirements.

“HUD is committed to measuring success by self-sufficiency and recovery, not permanent government dependence,” a HUD spokesperson said in an email to the Tribune. The statement said homelessness relief funding “has been on autopilot for years with nothing but record-high levels of homelessness and taxpayer spending to show for it. Americans deserve better.”

HUD signaled changes in the types of programs it wishes to fund. According to a side-by-side comparison of past and recent HUD documents from the National Alliance to End Homelessness, the department now wants to reject funding for a project if it involves race or LGBTQ+ communities.

Lawsuit seeks to block changes

In November and December, states, including Illinois, and homelessness organizations sued HUD over cuts proposed in a November notice. The judge issued a preliminary injunction to temporarily block the sweeping changes to homelessness funding that the notice would have initiated. The case is ongoing in the U.S. District Court of Rhode Island.

If the notice had taken effect, 170,000 people nationwide would have lost housing, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness.

What advocates fear — and what was written into November’s notice — is a cap on permanent housing funding and a competition for funds that are usually guaranteed.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen with the next set of HUD funding … but if last year is any indication of it, we have to be ready,” said Sendy Soto, the city’s first chief homelessness officer.

Nicole Bahena works at All Chicago, the group that coordinates grants for Chicago organizations serving homeless communities. Bahena said she worries these organizations will face greater disadvantages because of recent changes, shuttering key programs that break the cycle of homelessness.

Some people supported by permanent housing will be evicted and thrown back into homelessness without the rent subsidies provided by the government. With an eviction record, Bahena explained, it becomes more difficult to get another place, which contributes to the cycle.

“We’re going back like 30 years in the evolution of how we end homelessness,” Bahena said. “And so agencies are concerned. They know HUD doesn’t want to fund them.”

Housing before treatment, advocates say

Christian Community Health Center, a medical care nonprofit, has provided housing to people facing homelessness for over two decades, CEO Kenneth Burnett said.

The organization provides over 500 permanent supportive housing units for people with medical conditions, Burnett said, all of which are funded by HUD.

“Housing is health care,” Burnett said. “Without that subsidy, that would be a tremendous loss and cause instability for clients who are residing in permanent supportive housing.”

Advocates say permanent housing programs — a type of “housing first” program — provide better solutions for individuals facing homelessness than “treatment first” programs that require an individual to meet criteria to receive housing. Research backs their claims. A 2020 study from the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice found that “housing first” programs, when compared with “treatment first,” decreased homelessness by 88%.

Bob Palmer, the policy director at Housing Action Illinois, said HUD’s actions represent a “drastic, counterproductive” policy shift that he thinks will worsen homelessness.

“Ideally, we wouldn’t spend time arguing about what the best method is of ending homelessness,” Palmer said. “We’d actually be talking about, ‘How do we commit the resources that are needed (for) permanent supportive housing and other evidence-based solutions that are known to work and be the most cost-effective and the most humane?’”

Requiring a tenant’s participation in services and revoking housing if expectations aren’t met, as the Trump administration aims to do, isn’t consistent with past legal interpretations of fair housing laws, said Jennifer Hill, executive director of the Alliance to End Homelessness in Suburban Cook County.

“We’re all ready to be in housing, and being in housing gives us a better chance of whatever challenges we might face than trying to overcome those challenges while still experiencing homelessness,” Hill said.

The alliance is the group that coordinates HUD homelessness funding in suburban Cook County. Of the $27.5 million its members received from HUD last year, 86%  went toward permanent housing programs, according to Hill.

If permanent housing funding is slashed, the people facing homelessness again as a result would likely wind up making more hospital trips or end up in jail, Burnett said. He added that cutting funding would cost taxpayers more than continuing to fund permanent housing programs.

“We see the favorable outcomes with permanent supportive housing,” Burnett said. “We see the increased engagement for our clients in primary care, behavioral health and preventative services.”

Fear that HUD will penalize blue states

Bahena said she’s also worried about HUD penalizing grant applications from blue states and sanctuary cities during the upcoming grant competition.

On the November funding notice, HUD added questions surrounding “criminalizing homelessness,” Bahena said, like questions about encampment bans and prohibiting drug use. Answers to these questions will be used in determining grant funding.

Bahena expects that the divergence from previous application questions means cities with these types of legislation on the books — likely in red states — will fare better in HUD’s adjudication process, leading to less funding for Democrat-led states.

According to Palmer, Illinois has no state encampment ban. But there are around 30 local encampment bans, still fewer than that of other states, he said.

Palmer said encampment bans are harmful, and most of the people working to end homelessness that he knows are opposed to them. Still, he noted that homelessness organizations aren’t the ones passing legislation.

“It’s not fair to punish service providers and people experiencing homelessness for policies of their state,” Palmer said.

Homelessness organizations have been working with the state and advocacy groups like Housing Action Illinois to voice their concerns and develop contingency plans, Palmer said. Advocates say they expect the lawsuit to go their way after the judge’s preliminary injunction, and were happy to see Congress moderately increased the HUD budget in a Feb. 3 bill from what it was last year.

Shawn Dunning adjusts his hat while resting at the steps of a statue of Jesus Christ on the Loyola University campus, Feb. 13, 2026, in Chicago. Dunning was homeless for several years before finding permanent housing three years ago with help from the Heartland Alliance organization and Chicago Housing Authority. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)

Dunning said he’s tried to stay away from the news, including that about permanent housing cuts. It’s too dark and doesn’t help his healing, he said.

Instead, he goes for walks, prays and meditates. He hasn’t seen a doctor in three years, and when he’s well enough to start work again, Dunning said he knows doors will open up for him because of his “amazing spirit.”

“At some point, I lost everything — material possessions, and I lost everyone and everything I ever loved or cared about,” Dunning said. “And wow, what a transformation. That’s what housing did for me. It saved my life.”

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/17/proposed-cuts-homelessness-funding-housing-first/ 

Bartender and author Nick Kokonas has transformed a former neighborhood Polish dive bar into a historical cocktail bar in Chicago. Belmont Tavern is expected to open in Avondale sometime in February. Kokonas (not the previous co-owner of Alinea with the same name) announced an opening date earlier this month, but had to postpone due to licensing delays.

The bar lay dormant for decades, in a building built at the turn of the last century.

“It was a grocery, butcher shop and saloon pre-Prohibition,” said the new business owner. “And it ran as kind of a restaurant and delicatessen at one point until it was bought and taken over by a Polish family, who lived in the apartments upstairs, and ran it for roughly around 60 plus years.”

Brothers Mitchell Kaczmarek, who died at 81 in 2001, and Edwin Kaczmarek, who died at 87 in 2011, were the last longtime proprietors.

When the building sold in 2024, the new landlord put a for lease sign up in the blue-framed windows.

“I walked in not expecting to open a bar,” Kokonas said. “Immediately, it was like, I guess I’m opening a bar.”

“The cocktail menu itself is a cross-section of cocktails that I’ve created over my past 25 years,” said Nick Kokonas, owner of Belmont Tavern at 3405 W. Belmont Ave., on Feb. 10, 2026. Kokonas was last at Avondale Bowl and previously at Queen Mary, Longman & Eagle and GreenRiver. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)

An existing wooden bar was still there, under a copper colored tin ceiling that had been hidden by a dropped ceiling.

“The space was talking to me,” said Kokonas, who has silent investors who are all Avondale residents or business owners, except for one who used to live in the neighborhood.

Kokonas designed the interior himself, incorporating elements from the 1920s and ’30s, as well as the ’70s and ’80s.

“I want people to have the feeling like they are having a drink in an antique shop,” he said.

The original storefront from the ’20s or so had structural issues and needed to be replaced and updated to meet modern standards for accessibility and other compliance codes.

“We were able to save the original door with the original paint and original plate glass,” said Kokonas.

Phil Schultz of Chicago Sign Systems hand-painted a re-creation of the familiar blue-framed windows with the Belmont Tavern lettering and Old Style beer logotype.

Old Style is the only beer on tap on a drink menu featuring cocktails, nonalcoholic drinks, wine and bar snacks.

The barstools at Belmont Tavern in Chicago, Feb. 10, 2026. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)
The mint shrub julep cocktail at Belmont Tavern in Chicago on Feb. 10, 2026. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)

“The cocktail menu itself is a cross section of cocktails that I’ve created over my past 25 years,” said Kokonas, who was last at Avondale Bowl, another restored historic space, and previously at Queen Mary, Longman & Eagle and GreenRiver.

He also wrote a book called “Something and Tonic: A History of the World’s Most Iconic Mixer” with 60 original cocktail recipes.

“We have four cocktails that are going to be pre-batched takes on classics,” he said.

One of his favorites is the mint shrub julep.

“I typically find classic mint juleps cloyingly sweet,” said Kokonas. So he adds Kina L’Aero d’Or, a quinine liqueur and an Amontillado sherry to find “that balance between sweet, bitter and acidity.”

He will also have a nonalcoholic selection. The first house-made spirit-free drink will be a riff on one of the cocktails, but with peach, lemon, honey and tonic water instead.

The peach, lemon and honey tonic water nonalcoholic drink at Belmont Tavern, Feb. 10, 2026. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)

There’s no longer a kitchen, where Irene Kaczmarek, who died at nearly 90 in 2013, once made a meal of the day.

“My goal was to get things that are shelf stable and work with local purveyors,” said Kokonas. One of his first thoughts was to reach out to Paulina Market about their smoked meat snack sticks. “We’re going to have a rotating selection of their meat products.”

He’s also working with Vargo Brother Ferments, the Black-owned pickle shop in Chicago.

For a sweet treat, Kokonas created an unusual dessert deviled egg, which is not a chicken egg, but a coconut milk and lime gelatin white, with pineapple and lime curd filling, featuring Tajín Mexican seasoning and fresh chives.

“It seems weird, because of the juxtaposition of the savoriness from the chives,” he said. “But everybody that’s tried them thus far has been like, ‘Oh, I don’t understand what I’m eating, but I like it.’”

The deviled egg dessert at Belmont Tavern in Chicago, Feb. 10, 2026. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)

Speaking of eggs, a number of Easter eggs, or hidden messages, can be found throughout the space, many referencing rabbits.

His friend and designer Ruby Western created the logo with a rabbit. Western explained to Kokonas that one thing that always reminds them of bars in Chicago is walking home in the middle of the night and seeing all the rabbits hopping around in different neighborhoods.

“And rabbits signify rebirth, which works perfectly with what I’m doing,” said the bar owner. “Also luck, which was great.

Kokonas kept as many existing elements in the bar as possible, including seven chairs and four tables that were left behind. Salvaged church pews, from the Fourth Congregational Church in Logan Square, serve as banquettes. There will be seating for 60 or so, with an expected occupancy of 98.

The lot adjacent was where the beloved Belmont Snack Shop once stood open for 24 hours all day and night, before burning down in 2020. The open space will become the Belmont Tavern patio by early to mid-summer. The outdoor seating area will be dog-friendly. Do note that human tavern patrons must be 21 or older inside or out.

An antique cash register made by the National Cash Register company sits behind the bar at Belmont Tavern in Chicago on Feb. 10, 2026. The bar’s owner found the register online and bought it from someone who intended to install it in a basement bar 20 years ago but never did. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)

Kokonas, who lives five minutes away, also leased and converted the four-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment upstairs into an Airbnb. The space, steps from the dramatically canopied Belmont Blue Line station, has been open since October. He plans to offer the short-term rental to chefs and bartenders visiting from out of town for future pop-ups.

“I want to see this bar become something of a nod to its history,” said Kokonas. “But also pull it out of its 25-year dormancy and into a little bit more of the modern bar age.”

3405 W. Belmont Ave., belmonttavernchicago.com

More new restaurant openings, in alphabetical order:

Burl

Chef Tom Carlin (Galit, Publican Quality Meats, Dove’s Luncheonette) and business partner/wife Rachel Canfora-Carlin (Hogsalt, Boka Restaurant Group, One Off Hospitality) have finally opened their highly anticipated wood-fired, farmer-driven first restaurant. Burl began burning in Evanston on Jan. 30. Their debut winter menu features a fish fry with crispy walleye and Kennebec potatoes; burnt honey ice cream with a honeycomb crumble; and The Windowsill cocktail with cinnamon and O.C.G. apple cider liqueur from Journeyman Distillery in Michigan.

2545 Prairie Ave., Evanston; 847-425-0177; burlevanston.com

HerBachi

Chef Marissa Terry (sister of The SoulFood Lounge chef and owner Quentin Love) has launched her own Asian fusion grill. HerBachi began firing in Chatham on Jan. 20. The signature item on the menu at the Black woman-owned business is the HerBachi Bowl with your choice of noodles, fried rice, or half and half with proteins and vegetables; plus there are Korean rib tips and Gangnam shrimp.

522 E. 79th St., 872-303-3100, herbachi.com

In restaurant fire news:

Leon’s BBQ on Archer Avenue suffered a fire on Feb. 2, and remains temporarily closed, but the location on 106th Street is open, offering the same menu.

3309 E. 106th. St., 773-374-9663, theoriginalleonsbbq.com

Old City Pizzeria & Sports Bar (formerly known as Nancy’s Pizzeria on Golf, the last location owned by the family of namesake Nancy Palese, whose husband Rocco Palese invented stuffed pizza) also suffered a fire, on Feb. 3, and is closed temporarily, but repairs and cleanup are underway.

8706 W. Golf Road, Niles; 847-824-8183; oldcitypizzeria.com

Palace Grill, which suffered a fire two years ago this month, on Feb. 8, 2024, and has remained closed, is up for sale, according to a report by Crain’s Chicago Business.

In restaurant reopening news:

Bell Heir’s BBQ, which closed its original location in Canaryville last September, reopened the Black-owned business in the River Oaks Mall in Calumet City on Feb. 6.

River Oaks Mall, 96 River Oaks Center Drive, Calumet City; 773-786-3030; bellheirsbbq.com

Haru Haru by chef Junho Lee will take over as the first residency at the Coach House, after chef Zubair Mohajir’s last service at his restaurant on Valentine’s Day, with the new evolution beginning on Feb. 15.

1742 W. Division St., 773-697-8794, coachhousechi.com

Do you have notable restaurant news in the Chicago area? Email restaurant critic Louisa Kung Liu Chu at lchu@chicagotribune.com.

Big screen or home stream, takeout or dine-in, Tribune writers are here to steer you toward your next great experience. Sign up for your free weekly Eat. Watch. Do. newsletter here.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/17/restaurant-news-belmont-tavern-bar-avondale-chicago/ 

The arrival last October of a wine and charcuterie bar was an unexpected addition to the quiet stretch of low-lying brick storefronts in Park Manor, the historically Black, residential neighborhood of Chicago’s South Side.

But Park Manor 75, founded by Jacare Thomas and Charlette Stanton-Thomas, was “a much-needed third space” for the South Side, says Thomas. Not merely a wine bar, but a gathering place beyond work and home, centered on community, conversation and the joy of Black social life.

At Park Manor 75, there are no televisions for watching sports. Seating sprawls out openly from the bar and music is kept low, all efforts to encourage conversation and communion among neighbors and guests. Every wine on their menu — whether Champagne or a Sierra Foothills grenache — was produced by a Black winemaker or sourced by a Chicago-based Black négociant, the French term for a wine merchant.

The restaurant is anything but exclusionary. Park Manor 75 welcomes anyone, regardless of race, gender, age, or how they identify, says Thomas. But it is also intentionally corrective. In rejecting a traditionally Eurocentric wine culture that has long treated Black culture as peripheral, the wine bar reflects a broader shift underway in Chicago. As a city where nearly a third of residents identify as Black, Chicago is uniquely primed for the blossoming of a distinctly Black wine culture — one that’s creating new spaces, reframing how wine is discussed and sold, and redefining who belongs at the table.

Making Black wine visible

According to the Association of African American Vintners, less than 1% of American winemakers and winery owners are Black. Outside of labels backed by rappers, athletes or celebrities, “Black winemakers are pretty much unheard of,” says Thomas. Even when the quality of the wines is exceptional, he adds, Black producers often struggle to secure representation on distributor portfolios. It’s an absence that Park Manor 75 seeks to rectify.

“We’re putting Black brands at the forefront,” Thomas says, “because it’s important for us to be a point of reference.”

A few miles away in one of the South Side’s historic hubs of Black art and culture, Bronzeville Winery embodies a similar spirit. Since opening the wine bar in 2022, owners Cecilia Cuff and Eric Williams have cultivated a wine program that centers minority-, women- or LGBTQ+-owned producers. Bronzeville Winery, Cuff says, was “an opportunity for a new kind of cultural storytelling through wine,” one that reflects the lives of the community they serve.

Wine bars as a sanctuary

Cuff spent years designing hotels and resort concepts worldwide before opening her first restaurant in rural New Mexico. It was there, she says, that she realized the power of “hospitality — food, beverage and service — to repair broken communities.”

The chance to open Bronzeville Winery, a restaurant rooted in Bronzeville’s heritage, drew Cuff back to her hometown. She imagined the wine bar as not only a destination that could draw patrons from throughout Chicago to the South Side, but as “a sanctuary space” for the community, she says.

Bronzeville Winery is designed as a place where people from all walks of life can feel comfortable exploring wine, says Cuff, but in a way that’s also representative of the Black cultural experience. The Wine Collective at Bronzeville Winery, a monthly gathering where wine tasting intersects with history, culture and civic engagement, has become so popular that its membership has increased 50% year over year, she says.

Past events have paired wine with stories from the South Side, led by Shermann “Dilla” Thomas — the historian and social media figure whose Chicago walking tours are local legend. This month, members will convene for a wine and chocolate pairing by Kilwins, a Black female-owned chocolatier.

At Park Manor 75, a monthly series called Blaq Talk is presented as a collective for open dialogue. Recently, David Stovall, a professor of educational policy and African American studies at the University of Illinois Chicago, guided a conversation on engineered violence in the South Side. This month, Blaq Talk will spotlight local business owners reflecting on the realities of entrepreneurship, Thomas says.

Rewriting the language of wine

But building a more inclusive wine culture isn’t just about bottles or spaces. It’s also about the language — who has fluency to participate, and who decides what fluency sounds like.

Chicago-based wine educator and writer Kiana Keys understands that tension firsthand. The founder of Unpolished Grape, a wine blog and wine education resource, Key received a Diploma in Wines from the UK-based Wine and Spirit Education Trust in 2025 after years of formal wine study.

Despite already having a master’s degree in public management, the diploma program, completed while working full time and raising a family, was “by far the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life,” Keys says.

The challenge wasn’t just mastering technical content, she says, but navigating cultural translation too. Because most wine education programs are rooted in European traditions, students must adapt not only to British phrases and essay structure, but a sensory framework built on references that may feel entirely foreign.

“There’s a dual consciousness required of many Black people studying wine,” Keys explains, “constant code-switching” between the language used in wine classes and the language spoken in their own communities.

When she leads tastings now, Keys moves deliberately between those worlds. “I use words I know my community knows,” language that’s often dismissed as informal, but is historically rich, uniquely nuanced and expressive.

The result isn’t simplification, but an expansion beyond the confines of traditional wine language. “Translating wine into a language that’s actually useful, human and enjoyable makes people so much more interested,” she says. After all, “wine is so much more multidimensional,” says Keys.

Who controls the list

A reclamation of wine culture is not only symbolic, but structural too, affecting which wines enter the marketplace, and ultimately which wines reach consumers at home or in restaurants. As the corporate wine director for DineAmic Hospitality, the Chicago-based group that operates 20 venues, Marsha Wright wields that kind of purchasing power at scale.

Like many Black leaders in Chicago’s wine industry, wine was Wright’s second career. After years in accounting at major CPA and law firms, her interest in wine blossomed from a casual interest into a calling. Her ascent in the industry was swift, though not frictionless.

“Being an African American female, people automatically assume that you don’t know anything about wine,” she says. Even today, “I still get those looks,” she says, with “people in disbelief that I’m the sommelier.” It’s an opportunity Wright says she relishes “because it’s a real mic-drop moment when they realize I know more about wine than anyone in the building.”

These biases extend beyond individual assumptions too, she says. Assumptions persist within the wine industry itself “that Black or brown customers don’t have the equity to purchase good wine, that they don’t know anything about wine, or that they only like sweet wines.”

But data increasingly contradicts those narratives. According to U.S. Census and Nielsen data, collective Black buying power in the United States has grown 2.4 times since 2000, reaching approximately $2.1 trillion, a scale of economic influence that extends deeply into lifestyle and beverage markets.

Nationally, Black wine culture has gained unprecedented visibility in recent decades, marked by increases in Black-owned wine brands, inclusive hospitality spaces, Black industry leaders and media figures. What was once dismissed as peripheral is increasingly harder to ignore.

Within that broader landscape, the vibrance of Black wine culture in Chicago is palpable, explains Cuff, with the city’s rapidly expanding ecosystem of Black sommeliers, educators, retailers and restaurateurs reflecting not only heightened demand but firmer infrastructure too.

The question is no longer whether Black wine culture exists, but perhaps, how decisively Chicago will continue to shape it.

Park Manor 75 is located at 600 E. 75th St.; more information at 773-919-3986 and parkmanor75.com.

Bronzeville Winery is located at 4420 S. Cottage Grove Ave.; more information at 872-244-7065 and bronzevillewinery.com.

Anna Lee Iijima is a freelance writer.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/17/black-wine-visionaries-chicago/ 

As a high school student, it has been very easy for me to feel helpless while watching what has been going on in our country this past year. We have watched an elected president start to look more and more like an authoritarian leader as he silences media corporations, persecutes political enemies, harasses innocent civilians and cozies up to the most powerful billionaires in the world.

We no longer have a government that serves the people, as the Founders of the Constitution intended. Seeing all of this has left me feeling: “What can I, as an American teen, do to ensure my government is working for me?”

This has caused me to do some research. Although I cannot personally fix these problems in their entirety, there is a lot I can do to voice my concerns to make this government work for me and the many Americans who are upset right now.

For one, I can attend protests. This year, there have been many demonstrations. From the millions of people who attended the “No Kings” protest, to even the small school walkout I attended to voice my concerns about the abuses of force used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, there are many demonstrations I can attend.

I can also write my representative in Congress, voicing my concerns to compel them to take some action to help.

And most importantly, I can do what I am doing right now, spreading information to teens like me — showing teens what is going on right now and why we need to take action to fix it. This is imperative to the hope that our country can be what it is intended to be, as President Abraham Lincoln said in his Gettysburg Address, a “government of the people, by the people, (and) for the people.” We are living in the scariest of times, especially for teens who don’t want to live in a world like the one we’re in for the decades to come, but there is so much we can do.

I am currently registered to vote for the midterms and intend to continue to exercise my rights as an American to make my opinion heard.

— James Woodson, Chicago

Walkouts show disrespect

I understand how students feel about Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity. Protest against things with which one disagrees is part of our national heritage.  However, walking out of class demonstrates disrespect to the teachers who care for their well-being and support these students on a daily basis.

The truth is that George W. Bush and Barack Obama each saw more people deported during their terms in office than Donald Trump has seen deported during his terms.

— Ira Schafer, Bourbonnais, Illinois

Bravo to today’s teens

When I was in high school almost 70 years ago, the state of the world was not uppermost in my mind. Today’s teenagers are more informed and involved. I salute the thousands of young people who are marching and demonstrating for change in our country.

Their voices will be heard in the next elections and will hopefully make this country stronger and more inclusive.

— Joy Orlowsky, Northbrook

Stop naysaying and act

Please don’t tell me “Congress won’t do anything” unless you’ve really, really tried to make them. I have people tell me, “Congress won’t do anything,” and in the same breath say, “No, I don’t write or call my rep.”

Y’all, you can’t have it both ways. If you’re not trying, then no, you won’t see any change. Politicians respond to the pressure of the people who do care enough to call or write or protest at their office. If that’s not you, then don’t complain when you don’t see any results.

It is our role as citizens in a representative democracy, our right, responsibility and privilege, to tell our reps what we want them to do. So go do it.

— Linda Falcao, Baltimore

Editorial board analysis

Thank you for the thoughtful analysis of the candidates running in the March primary for U.S. senator (“Our thoughts on the primary race for Dick Durbin’s Senate seat,” Feb. 15). When I received my mail-in ballot last week, I had no idea which of the many candidates I would vote for. After reading the editorial, the choice became clear.

I appreciate the Tribune Editorial Board’s help.

— Jeffrey E. Fireman, Deerfield

LaHood looks other way

The front-page interview with U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood (“Illinois Republicans weigh fealty to Trump amid backlash, shutdown threat GOP,” Feb. 13), in which the congressman describes strong differences with the Donald Trump administration on immigration enforcement and widespread use of tariffs, reveals exactly why he needs to be replaced in November.

Despite objecting to the tariff policy “from an affordability standpoint, from an inflation standpoint and an open market standpoint,” LaHood joined other Republicans in voting against legislation to rescind Trump’s Canadian tariffs. As long as the GOP is in control of the U.S. House and Senate — and politicians like LaHood continue to look the other way on all the self-dealing, environment-wrecking, health care-gutting and voter-intimidating policies their leader insists on imposing on an American democracy that thousands of veterans have died trying to preserve — these lawmakers are just as culpable as enablers in that destruction.

While downstate Republican U.S. Reps. Mike Bost and Mary Miller preside over what Tribune reporters Daniel C. Vock and Rick Pearson describe as “deep-red” Illinois districts, LaHood’s 16th contains a mix of rural and urban communities with significant population centers such as Bloomington-Normal, Rockford and the outskirts of the Quad Cities. All have residents whose current views deserve honest representation.

Until redrawn after the 2020 census when the state lost a district through reapportionment, the district was represented by Adam Kinzinger, a principled Republican who made it his business to uphold the Constitution in seeking the truth about efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. Kinzinger chose not to engage in a primary contest with LaHood; as a commentator who relocated to Texas, he remains an outspoken critic who no longer can vote against the excesses of this administration. Vock and Pearson note that LaHood has no primary challenger in 2026, yet he still appears to be handcuffed as a member of the fragile Republican majority rather than representing his constituents or even acting on his own beliefs.

Perhaps the Democratic primary can fill the void by producing a credible candidate who will return real representation to the people of central Illinois.

— Bob Johnston, Chicago

More choices are needed

A Tribune reader waxes nostalgic when talking about third-party candidates (“Alternative to 2 parties,” Feb. 12).

He thinks they disappeared because voters ignored them. Voters ignored them because they realized our elections are made for only two parties. A third candidate splits the votes of one party and hands the victory to the other party.

We have a serious problem with our elections, and we shouldn’t expect the parties to try to fix it. They don’t want more competition. The only way this will get fixed is if some influential outside entities, such as newspapers, take up the cause. They must apply relentless pressure on our politicians to make the election system amenable to third-party candidates.

The easiest way is when there are three major candidates: Allow the voters to pick a second choice. When there are more serious candidates, things get complicated.

In a nation of 342 million people, we are long overdue for more choices in our elections.

— Larry Craig, Wilmette

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

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/17/letters-021726-student-walkouts/ 

Asians More Optimistic Than Most For Their Countries’ Future

Tyler Durden
Tue, 02/17/2026 – 05:45

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/asians-more-optimistic-most-their-countries-future 

Today is Tuesday, Feb. 17, the 48th day of 2026. There are 317 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Feb. 17, 2014, Jimmy Fallon made his debut as host of NBC’s “Tonight Show,” taking over from Jay Leno.

Also on this date:

In 1801, the U.S. House of Representatives broke an electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, electing Jefferson president; Burr became vice president.

In 1863, five appointees of the Public Welfare Society of Geneva announced the formation of an “International Committee for the Relief of Wounded Combatants,” which would later be renamed the International Committee of the Red Cross.

In 1864, during the Civil War, the Union ship USS Housatonic was rammed and sank in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, by the Confederate hand-cranked submarine HL Hunley, in the first naval attack of its kind; the Hunley also sank.

In 1897, the National Congress of Mothers, the forerunner of the National Parent Teacher Association, convened its first meeting in Washington with over 2,000 attendees.

In 1964, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Wesberry v. Sanders, ruled that congressional districts within each state must be roughly equal in population.

In 1992, serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty of 15 counts of first-degree murder.

In 1995, Colin Ferguson was convicted of six counts of murder in the December 1993 Long Island Rail Road shootings; he was later sentenced to 315 years in prison.

In 2008, Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia.

Related Articles

In 2013, Danica Patrick won the Daytona 500 pole, becoming the first woman to secure the top spot for any Sprint Cup race.

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Brenda Fricker is 81. Actor Rene Russo is 72. Actor Richard Karn is 70. Olympic swimming gold medalist and television commentator Rowdy Gaines is 67. Actor Lou Diamond Phillips is 64. Basketball Hall of Famer Michael Jordan is 63. Film director Michael Bay is 61. Hockey Hall of Famer Luc Robitaille is 60. Olympic skiing gold medalist Tommy Moe is 56. Actor Denise Richards is 55. Musician Billie Joe Armstrong (Green Day) is 54. Actor Jerry O’Connell is 52. Actor Jason Ritter is 46. Media personality Paris Hilton is 45. Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt is 45. Singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran is 35. Actor Jeremy Allen White is 35. Tennis player Madison Keys is 31. Actor Sasha Pieterse is 30.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/17/jimmy-fallon-tonight-show/ 

Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Feb. 17, according to the Tribune’s archives.

Is an important event missing from this date? Email us.

Front page flashback: Feb. 17, 1992

Jeffrey Dahmer was sentenced to 15 life sentences — one for each of his victims — by a judge in Milwaukee on Feb. 17, 1992. (Chicago Tribune)

1992: Convicted serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was sentenced by a Milwaukee judge to life in prison for 15 consecutive terms without the possibility of parole.

Dahmer was killed in prison by a fellow inmate in 1994.

Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)

High temperature: 67 degrees (2017)
Low temperature: Minus 11 degrees (1903)
Precipitation: 1.1 inches (2008)
Snowfall: 8.5 inches (1893)

Four players try out for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League at Wrigley Field for the league’s first season, 1943. The league was founded by then-Cubs owner Philip K. Wrigley. Players’ uniforms consisted of one-piece skirts over shorts. Photo circa May 16, 1943. (Chicago Tribune historical photo)

1943: Chicago Cubs owner Philip K. Wrigley travels to Springfield to charter what would become the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

Helen Vorhees Brach disappeared on Feb. 17, 1977 and was never seen again. (Chicago Tribune)

1977: Candy heiress Helen Vorhees Brach was last seen alive. She left an appointment at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where she had a routine checkup and was given a clean bill of health.

Not many seemed to notice, at first, that she had disappeared. Brach’s husband, Frank, president of E.J. Brach & Sons candy company, died in 1970. They had no children and she was close with few relatives. Her handyman Jack Matlick, who claimed he picked up Brach from O’Hare International Airport on Feb. 17, 1977, drove her to her palatial house in Glenview, then took her back to O’Hare on Feb. 21, 1977, didn’t submit a missing-person report to police until March 1977. Five checks were cashed — forged with her signature — after she vanished.

A $100,000 reward (or roughly $500,000 in today’s dollars) was offered for “actually finding and identifying” her, either dead or alive.

She was declared legally dead in 1984, though her body was never found.

Charles Vorhees and his wife, Eileen, leave court in Chicago, March 26, 1984. Vorhees, brother of missing heiress Helen Vorhees Brach, have asked that she be declared “presumed dead,” seven years after her disappearance. Mrs. Brach, with an estate worth $35 million, vanished in 1977. Vorhees is beneficiary of a $500,000 trust fund established in her will. (Mark Elias/AP)

The hunt for Brach continued for years while law enforcement officers tracked down intersecting leads that led them to Matlick and a clan of criminal horsemen associated with Brach’s friend Richard Bailey. Bailey was sentenced to 30 years in prison for conspiring to kill Brach. Prosecutors argued that he and several others in the horse business would hoodwink wealthy women into paying inflated prices for show horses. They said Bailey planned to kill Brach because he feared she had found out about being cheated and planned to tell authorities.

But the Brach puzzle remained largely unexplained. Then in 2005, former Chicago horseman Joe Plemmons, who had testified against Bailey, confessed to authorities and to the Tribune that he had shot the heiress twice before he took the body to a steel mill.

Although some officials at the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives believed Plemmons’ story solved the case, the Cook County state’s attorney’s office declined to bring charges based on his confession alone.

U.S. women’s hockey team captain Cammi Granato (21), right, hugs teammate Jenny Schmidgall after the US defeated China 5-0 in their debut Olympic game in 1998. Granato scored two goals, while Schmidgall had one. (Nuccio DiNuzzo/Chicago Tribune)

1998: The U.S. women upset Canada 3-1 to win a gold medal when women’s hockey made its Olympic debut in Nagano, Japan.

Vintage Chicago Tribune: Our local Winter Olympians of Games past

Captain Cammi Granato, of Downers Grove, was a flag bearer during the closing ceremony.

Miami Steven Spinell (44) falls to the ice with the puck as Notre Dame Steven Fogarty (26) looks on in the second period of the OfficeMax Hockey City Classic played at Soldier Field in Chicago on Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013. (José M. Osorio/ Chicago Tribune)

2013: Notre Dame’s win over Miami University of Ohio was the first outdoor hockey game played at Soldier Field. The inaugural Hockey City Classic — which also featured Wisconsin knocking off Minnesota — drew more than 52,000 people.

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https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/17/february-17-chicago-history/