No one denies Jawad Fakroune pretended to be the son of a Colombian drug lord, or lied about connections to the Chicago mob, or that he went “bonkers” and threatened to castrate and kill a Chicago restaurateur and his family in a 2024 tirade caught on camera.

The question presented to a federal jury has been: why?

Fakroune’s attorney said in closing arguments of his extortion trial Tuesday that his client flew off the handle over a failing business relationship with Adolfo Garcia, the then-owner of a string of fledgling restaurants in Chicago, including Yours Truly, the River North oyster and martini bar where the beating took place.

But going “ballistic” isn’t proof he was trying to collect on a debt, defense attorney Damon Cheronis told the jury.

“(Fakroune) said horrible things, no doubt,” Cheronis said. “But look at the fuse that lit the wick that led to that.”

Cheronis said Garcia, who was cooperating with the FBI at the time, set Fakroune off by lying about how much money he’d repaid him — one of just a string of self-serving falsehoods Cheronis said Garcia put forth in the case.

“Watch how many times (Fakroune) is trying to walk out the door,” Cheronis told the jury about the recorded beating. “Garcia says two-eighty ($280,000) and ladies and gentleman, that is when everything goes bonkers.”

In his rebuttal argument, Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Rothblatt said calling Fakroune the victim in a case where he attacked someone and threatened to murder their entire family is “interesting” but “not the case you just saw.”

“You cannot beat someone or threaten someone if there is a disagreement over how much money someone owes,” Rothblatt said. “That is not the law.”

Rothblatt also mocked the defense’s portrayal of Garcia as out to dupe Fakroune. Why would he go to such lengths, the prosecutor asked, to try to trick someone he believed was the son of infamous Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, who had a history of violence that included threatening Garcia with a gun in public, and had falsely told Garcia that some of the money he’d arranged as a loan came from the Chicago mob?

“This the guy that Adolfo Garcia is planning to rip off with a fake promissory note?” Rothblatt said, sarcastically, as Fakroune sat at the defense table rubbing his temples. “…This is not a close case. The evidence is overwhelming.”

Fakroune, 47, a Moroccan national also known as Angelino Escobar, Giovanni Costello and a host of other aliases, is charged with two extortion-related counts. After a weeklong trial, the jury began deliberating the case at about 12:45 p.m. Tuesday.

The trial has offered a fascinating window into the often-cutthroat restaurant industry in Chicago, as well as some of the people Fakroune encountered, including well-known Chicago restaurateurs and a former aide to Gov. JB Pritzker.

Much of the evidence the jury saw over the past week dealt with the events leading up to the Nov. 25, 2024, beating at Yours Truly, which shut down shortly thereafter.

Security camera footage watched by the jury showed García standing alone in the bar’s basement when Fakroune, dressed in a long, grey coat and black baseball hat walked in and demanded money.

“Get my money,” he said. “Ready tomorrow. Or I (expletive) kill you …. I will hunt you down, man. Every day, every night. Believe that.”

The two wound up in the kitchen where Fakroune stalked Garcia around a stainless steel table, punched and kicked him and shouted questions and threats as García, holding his head from an earlier blow, begged him to “please just stop.”

García testified last week that he took Fakroune’s statements very seriously, driving around the Loop and South Loop and taking a butcher knife from his kitchen to put beside the bed that night.

In a phone call secretly taped by the FBI the day after the encounter, he told Fakroune he was trying to scare up cash to replace the $8,000 check he’d made out to Angelino Escobar, Fakroune’s alias, which had set off the confrontation in Yours Truly.

“I’m already a dead man walking by your standards, so (expletive) it,” he said.

“I hope you understand that,” Fakroune replied.

“I do, thank you,” García said. “You told me last night 9,000 (expletive) times.”

On cross-examination, Cheronis zeroed in on García’s difficult history in the city restaurant scene and legal skirmishes with other people he’d worked with over the years.

García admitted to being “an absolute failure” as a restaurant operator and to facing serious personal problems as he sank deeper and deeper into financial distress throughout his dealings with Fakroune.

“You had a reputation in the restaurant industry for being a bad operator … and for taking money from your partners,” Cheronis said. “Almost every business partner that you’ve worked with has called you a fraud.”

Cheronis also pointed out inconsistencies in García’s statements between meetings with federal agents, documents that the federal government hadn’t reviewed and generally poking holes in his assertion that his relationship with Fakroune — as opposed to his own bad decisions — was what had bled the oyster bar dry.

In his closing argument Tuesday, Cheronis said the lies from Garcia should add up to a not guilty verdict.

“He’s their star witness. He’s the one that you have two believe when you’re deliberating this case,” Cheronis said.

There was one fascinating aspect of Fakroune’s case that the jury did not hear, due to a pretrial ruling by U.S. District Judge Manish Shah.

Three weeks after the beating, the FBI tracked Fakroune to an apartment in New York and knocked on the door.

According to prosecutors, he fled nearly naked out a back door as two female acquaintances watched in shock, then ran nearly a mile down the chilly streets of Manhattan with a black garbage bag over his head as a smock, entering a high-end Italian restaurant and asking for clothes.

Fakroune was eventually arrested in January 2025 at a home in Michigan City, Indiana.

In addition to the extortion case, Fakroune is also charged with fraud and tax evasion in a separate indictment alleging he bilked millions from investors who’d been promised handsome returns on various ventures, including a marijuana-growing operation, coffee shops and a Mexican restaurant, court records show.

That case is expected to go to trial next year.

jmeisner@chicagotribune.com

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/27/jury-deliberating-case-of-man-who-posted-as-drug-lords-son/ 

PADS of Elgin is close to reaching its emergency goal of raising $500,000 to remain open, but officials say they do not have the time or money to hold its annual Stars Dance for PADS fundraiser next month.

PADS, a 30-bed nonprofit homeless shelter at 1730 Berkley St., put out an plea for donations in September when it realized it would be $500,000 short of the $1.7 million it needs to operate annually.

It’s raised $438,000 so far and anticipates it will collect enough to complete its fiscal year on June 30 in a good financial position, Executive Director Katie Shaw Thompson said.

“The public has shown up in incredible ways,” she said. “There is more fundraising to do to finish out this fiscal year strong, but we are in a better financial position due to the community. It’s been an incredible response.”

They’ve been successful in reaching out to residents, maintaining the foundation and company relationships they’ve built since 1989 and forging new ones, Shaw Thompson said. But there was not enough money or time available to put together its annual fundraiser, forcing the PADS Board of Directors to make the difficult decision to cancel it, she said.

While Stars Dance for PADS typically generates about $80,000, the organization did not have the $5,000 needed to secure a location while going through a financial crisis, Shaw Thompson said. They’d also need another $15,000 to stage it.

The event has been a tradition for about 18 years ago, inspired by the television show “Dancing with the Stars.”

“Our goal was to provide a professional dance instructor with community leaders who provided a dance team,” Dan Fox, a former PADS board member and Stars Dance for PADS chairman, said in a video message. “As a fundraiser, they would go out and get pledges in advance. And the night of the event, when they performed, the audience could vote (for their favorite) with one dollar per vote.”

One standout team was organized by former Elgin Community College President David Sam, who worked with ECC staff on dances representing their cultural music, Fox said. At the end, Sam put on silver socks and a silver glove to moonwalk to Michael Jackson music.

“It brought the house down,” Fox said.

People started asking Shaw Thompson in the fall if the event would return, she said, but they couldn’t justify the expense.

“It was a big financial outlay,” she said. “We had a choice to make, putting on this event, which cost a lot of time and money, or making the appeal directly to the community. It was a hard decision for staff. It’s too bad really that we can’t do it.”

Putting their focus on fundraising paid off — spending $1,500 on a mail campaign at the end of the year brought in about $100,000, Shaw Thompson said.

“I think this community, which includes Elgin and extends to northern Kane County, is really a community that cares,” she said. “They understand what we do and how we walk with families experiencing a season of homelessness. They want to help.”

In addition to providing emergency overnight accommodations for 30, it’s also open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily so that people can get a meal and have access to hygiene kits in addition to receiving assistance to help address their situations.

“It’s a warm place so people can get out of the cold,” Shaw Thompson said.

Financial problems began after COVID funding through the American Rescue Plan Act ended and changes in available federal funding began, Shaw Thompson said. Money typically provided through the Federal Emergency Management Agency has been frozen and there’s been no funding coming from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, she said.

State and local funds, some from local township mental health boards, have helped but PADS continues to grapple with how it’s going to solve the problems beyond this fiscal year, Shaw Thompson said.

“No matter what happens with any government system, it’s wiser in the long run to have a diversity of funding streams,” she said. “We need to make plans for the future. We need to (create) a new funding model.”

They want to build a new strategic plan and are reevaluating the organization’s name, among other things, she said.

“One of the big things we are doing is asking ourselves if this is the right name for the organization we are today,” Shaw Thompson said. “We are not the old PADS model.”

A public brainstorming session is scheduled for 6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 29, at First Congregational Church of Dundee at 900 Eighth St. in West Dundee.

Anyone who would like to attend should register at secure.qgiv.com/for/padsofelgin/event/rebranding so they know how many people they should expect. Ideas can also be submitted through the Google form at docs.google.com/…/1FAIpQLScJnO2ZvI26ZG…/viewform.

Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/27/pads-elgin-emergency-fundraising-stars-dance/ 

A recently developed Tech Time Drop-In program at the Evergreen Park Public Library is already a hit with older patrons experiencing nagging problems with their phones, tablets and computers.

It’s also popular with the high school students who are helping to solve the issues for anyone who drops in from 1:15 to 3 p.m. Wednesdays at the library, 9400 S Troy Ave.

Only in its second week, a recent session drew a group of residents with questions ready.

One issue for patron Jayshree Soparawala, the first question involved trouble unlocking her iPhone quickly to access text messages.

That was a cinch for Israel Fagbulu, a senior at Evergreen Park Community High School.

“You can remove the touch ID, and then just open,” he explained. “You tap and hold on the app. Then you just have to tap on the message.”

The advice was refreshing for some of the less-tech savvy patrons who have sometimes experienced impatience when asking younger people such questions.

“I’ve been waiting for this type of opportunity, so we can learn,” said Soparawala, who also asked for help translating links and messages from her native Hindi to English, using her GPS monitor and accessing her financial information on the phone.

Across the room, Emilio Gonzalez, also a senior at EPCHS, was busy helping Ursula Slotkus figure out why her phone’s battery was losing juice so quickly.

“I’m technology challenged,” Slotkus said.

Evergreen Park Community High School student Emilio Gonzalez helps library patron Ursula Slotkus with a question about her phone during a drop-in Tech Help program Wednesday, Jan. 21 at the Evergreen Park Public Library. (Janice Neumann/Daily Southtown)

Gonzalez had a few tips.

“Usually a big reason is either apps running in the background or a lot of things open,” he said. “A good thing you can do is shut down your phone for five minutes and turn it back on because it reboots everything. Sometimes phones get the hiccups.”

Evergreen Park students Fagbulu, Gonzalez and Zackary Rosario cited a variety of reasons for attending the weekly sessions.

“It’s a great opportunity and gives us job experience,” said Gonzalez, who plans to go into computer engineering. “I wanted something that wasn’t a class but also gave me the opportunity to help people out.”

The library already offered a Financial and Digital Literacy program, but technology coordinator Jessica Ramos and other staff members noticed some seniors needed extra help.

Sometimes even just updating devices would stymie people.

“Everything is on the computer but how do you download the manual?” Ramos said. “You can’t move on until you set the update.”

Mary Black, the library’s head of Adult Services who helped organize and coordinate the new program with the high school, said there was “a real need” for one-on-one help.

“The kids will get this real-world experience and they’re helping out in the community,” she said, pointing out that younger people have grown up with the technology. “They’re natives — we’re not.”

Evergreen Park Community High School student Emilio Gonzalez discusses phone apps with library patron Michelle McSwain during a drop-in Tech Help program Wednesday, Jan. 21 at the Evergreen Park Public Library. (Janice Neumann/Daily Southtown)

Terence Masterson, who teaches business at the high school, helped create the partnership and said his students were excited about helping with tech problems.

“They love having the chance to share their knowledge and technology skills in ways that genuinely help others,” he said.

Masterson originally wanted some of his tech-savvy students to help the school’s IT team, but it is busiest early in the day and the students aren’t free until late afternoon. So last year, the students helped out at Central Middle School setting up Chromebooks for pupils and also at Mercy Circle retirement community.

Then he brought the idea of tech help to Black, who was all in.

“This could be a nice little tech time with the community,” Masterson said. “We’ve got some good students who took my computer maintenance class and it gives them a chance to help out in a real world situation.

“They’re exactly what you’d want — polite, have the background and knowledge, and are good-hearted,” said Masterson.

Soparawala said she hopes the program continues beyond May 6, when the sessions end for the school year.

“I hope you guys are here forever,” said Soparawala. “You’ll always be seeing me.”

Janice Neumann is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown. 

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/27/evergreen-park-library-technology-seniors/ 

A 39-year-old woman is in critical condition after a shooting early Tuesday morning on Aurora’s near East Side, Aurora Police Department officials said Tuesday afternoon.

At around 4:08 a.m. on Tuesday, Aurora police officers responded to a ShotSpotter alert in the 600 block of South LaSalle Street, a news release from the police department said. On their way, officers were told that a woman had been shot outside a residence.

Upon arrival, officers began rendering aid to the woman until Aurora Fire Department paramedics arrived and assumed care, the news release said.

The woman was taken to a local hospital and later transferred to another hospital, according to police. She was listed in critical but stable condition as of Tuesday afternoon, police said. No other injuries were reported.

Detectives from the department’s Investigations Bureau, who responded to the scene, are investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident, according to the news release. Evidence technicians also processed the scene and collected forensic evidence.

An investigation into the incident remains active, per the police department. Police are asking anyone with information about the shooting to call the Aurora Police Department’s Investigations Division at 630-256-5500. Individuals can also submit tips anonymously to Aurora Area Crime Stoppers at 630-892-1000 or via its website: www.p3tips.com/135.

mmorrow@chicagotribune.com

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/27/aurora-shooting-woman-critical-condition/ 

Medicaid and Medicare typically cover 80% of Methodist Hospitals’ patient base, according to president and CEO Matt Doyle.

But, the reimbursements don’t keep up with the cost of patient care at the facilities in Gary and Merrillville, Doyle said. Currently, Medicaid covers 57% of the cost of providing care and Medicare covers 82% of the cost of providing care, he said.

And it, like many Indiana hospitals, is facing financial headwinds with thin margins and looming Medicaid cuts, officials said at a Tuesday press conference held by the Indiana Hospital Association.

Scott Tittle, president of the Indiana Hospital Association, said Indiana hospitals “are facing a combination of significant pressures” including persistent workforce shortages and high labor costs, inflation impacting the cost of medication and utilities and Medicaid and Medicare continuing to reimburse “well below” the cost of care.

Meanwhile, hospitals are being asked to invest in the access, quality, workforce, behavioral health, and rural extension services, Tittle said.

“Margins remain very thin and unsustainable for Indiana’s hospitals,” Tittle said. “ Hospital finances aren’t abstract. They directly affect patient access.”

The Trump administration’s budget bill proposed further federal reductions to Medicaid, which means the hospital will receive less in reimbursements, Doyle said. Meanwhile, the expiration of Affordable Care Act subsidies will increase the number of Medicaid and charity cases the hospitals would have to take on, he said.

Methodist saw an additional $27 million reduction annually in its budget under a federal cut, which changed the way funds were divided among Indiana hospitals, passed three years ago, Doyle said. But, Doyle said a current bill is being considered in the Indiana Legislature to correct the way the funds are divided among Indiana hospitals.

Despite the budget shortfalls, Methodist continues to provide charity care within northwest Indiana, which amounted to $82 million in 2024, he said.

“We remain committed to ensuring every patient’s need is taken care of and that access to all is provided regardless of their ability to pay. But this becomes more challenging during these difficult reimbursement declines,” Doyle said.

In 2024, Doyle said Methodist reported a negative operating margin and likely will again in 2025.

“We’re doing everything possible to ensure that we can continue the mission of providing high quality care to all of those in need in northwest Indiana,” Doyle said. “We’re working with our state and federal lawmakers to help find meaningful pathways for reimbursement reform.”

Erik Swanson, a managing director of Kaufman Hall, said the organization conducted a study of Indiana’s hospitals and found that margins “remain quite fragile and somewhat anemic” at 1.9% in 2025, which is less than the national median.

About 40% of Indiana’s hospitals had a negative operating margin in 2025, Swanson said.

The total Indiana hospital operating margins in 2024 and 2025 were below pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels, Swanson said.

The study found that most hospitals reported a decline in operating income by 5.5% through August 2025 compared to 2024, which resulted in $50 million reduction in income available for reinvestment, Swanson said. That means, Swanson said, $50 million less to invest in patient care.

Operating expenses grew 4.7% at the median in 2025, outpacing growth in operating revenue of 4%, Swanson said.

Indiana hospitals reported a 4% increase in net operating revenue in 2025, compared to 8% nationally, Swanson said.

Indiana inpatient revenue growth outpaced the national average in 2025, at 8.3% compared to 7.5% respectively, but outpatient revenue lagged behind the national average, at 7.2% compared to 9.3% respectively, Swanson said. The state saw an increase in emergency room care as well in 2025, he said.

“This is somewhat unique to the state of Indiana. What this highlights here is that the patient acuity in the state of Indiana has risen. As care begins to shift towards an outpatient setting, those lower cost settings, we find higher and higher concentrations of higher acuity, high cost care being delivered through the hospitals,” Swanson said.

Meanwhile, labor expenses increased 4.2% and medical supply expenses increased by 6.8% for Indiana hospitals in 2025, he said

Indiana hospitals see slightly higher than the national average when it comes to charity care, Swanson said.

Without any changes to the Indiana hospitals, an analysis found a $1 billion reduction in income over the next five years, Swanson said.

“Hospitals in the state of Indiana are in a relatively tenuous position and face a number of financial challenges and headwinds,” Swanson said.

To help offset the lost tax revenue in the tax cut bill signed into law in July, it includes $1.2 trillion in cutbacks to Medicaid, health care and food stamps, largely by imposing new work requirements, including for some parents and older people, and a major rollback of green energy tax credits.

The bill also directed nearly $350 billion toward national security, President Donald Trump’s deportation agenda, and to help develop the “Golden Dome” defensive system.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the package will add $3.3 trillion to the deficit over the decade and 11.8 million more people will go without health insurance.

While Indiana hospitals are currently struggling, Tittle said the impacts of the Trump Administration budget bill won’t go into effect for another two years.

“There are certainly things that the federal and state governments could focus on (to address hospital budgets),” Tittle said. “We’re hopeful that there’s still an opportunity to have a productive conversation, but that remains uncertain at this time.”

Brenda Reetz, chief executive officer of the Greene County General Hospital, said the hospital system’s profit margin last year was a negative 1.75%, which means the hospital lost $1.4 million. This is especially concerning as the hospital’s cash-on-hand could only cover 10 days of operation, she said.

Reetz said she’s concerned when she hears Indiana legislators say that a profit margin for a nonprofit hospital is a bad thing.

“They are villainizing health care for making money,” Reetz said. “No individual is profiting when we make $1.4 million. That $1.4 million would go into a rainy day fund that we would then use to maintain our critical infrastructure.”

For example, Reetz said she could’ve used that money to replace the hospital’s boilers, which have a 40-year expectancy and have been in use for 50 years. A new boiler costs $15 million, which would take 15 years to raise funds for at a 1% profit margin, she said.

“We’re seeing the critical infrastructure continually decline throughout our state in our hospitals because we don’t have the profit margins to actually maintain the critical infrastructure that we have,” Reetz said.

Reetz said Trump’s budget bill offered some hope for rural hospitals through rural health transformation funds because the federal government seemed to recognize that rural hospitals would have “a few really rough years” through cuts to Medicaid. But, ultimately, the funds were heavily restricted, especially with limited use for infrastructure projects, Reetz said.

“While this rural health transformation fund seems like it’s going to be this great big beautiful bandaid to help rural healthcare survive the Medicaid cuts that we’re seeing, it’s not going to happen. There are too many rules in place that we can’t use that funding for what it actually needs to be used for in rural healthcare,” Reetz said.

Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield and UnitedHealthcare have been underpaying for the patients going to the hospital, Reetz said. Last week, Anthem sent Reetz “claw backs” to request reimbursement for third trimester ultrasounds going back to 2023, she said.

“In any other industry this would be absurd,” Reetz said. “No one would accept this in any other industry, but in healthcare we’re forced to accept it because patients walk through our doors every single day and we have to give them care.”

The hospital’s obstetrics unit, which has been open for 100 years, will close Sunday as a result of budget constraints, Reetz said. It’s likely that the last baby delivered in Greene County will be on Wednesday, she said.

“It’s heartbreaking for our community,” Reetz said. “It is heartbreaking to hear the comments from our patients saying, ‘We’ve had three generations of our family delivered in this hospital and now we can’t have our baby here.’”

The hospital gets paid $6,000 for a vaginal birth and $13,000 for a cesarean, Reetz said. The hospital delivers 70 babies a year, she said, and just the cost of physicians alone is $1.7 million to cover a 24-hour obstetrics unit.

“It doesn’t take very much math skills to realize those numbers don’t break even,” Reetz said. “We are losing a ton of money on our OB unit.”

The Associated Press contributed. 

akukulka@post-trib.com

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/27/indiana-hospitals-brace-for-budget-squeeze-with-medicaid-cuts/ 

Good afternoon, Chicago.

In an often-heated session with the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board, the Democratic candidates for Cook County assessor this week hurled accusations about each others’ character, competence and plans for the office.

Incumbent two-term Assessor Fritz Kaegi and challenger Pat Hynes met for an endorsement session yesterday afternoon, hours after Kaegi highlighted donations Hynes accepted from property tax attorneys. Hynes responded that Kaegi had also taken thousands from real estate investors and developers.

Candidates for Cook County Board president also tussled in an endorsement session with the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board yesterday.

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

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Chef Trevor Fleming, left, works behind the counter at Warlord on June 12, 2023, in Chicago’s Avondale neighborhood. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)

Owner of Warlord restaurant in Avondale accused of sharing sexual images of woman

The chef of the acclaimed Avondale restaurant Warlord has been issued a second order of protection after he was accused of distributing private sexual images of a woman without her consent, Cook County court records show. Read more here.

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Getting high at concerts now an option as THC beverages soon to be sold at the United Center
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Grubhub’s Super Bowl ad pans along a dining table filled with trays of food as an announcer delivers the mangled idiom, “This February, one food delivery app will finally put their mouth where their money is.” (Grubhub)

Grubhub will air its first Super Bowl ad, directed by Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos

The Big Game is a big bet for Grubhub, a former tech unicorn that has sold twice in the last five years at a significant decline in valuation as it continues to lag market leaders DoorDash and Uber Eats. Read more here.

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Chicago Bulls guard Coby White (0) narrowly avoids a referee while turning to celebrate after hitting a 3-pointer in the first half of a game against the Boston Celtics at the United Center in Chicago on Jan. 24, 2026. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)

Chicago basketball report: Triple Heat week for Bulls — and Illinois coach Brad Underwood hits win No. 100

The Bulls really do play the Miami Heat three times in four days this weekend. Thursday’s home matchup is the rescheduled date for the Jan. 8 game. Read more here.

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The Big Sis lamb burger at Cafe Yaya in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood on Jan. 20, 2026. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)

Restaurant review: Cafe Yaya exceeds expectations as an ephemeral bakery and neighborhood bistro in Chicago

Cafe Yaya, the familial Mediterranean and French bakery and bistro in Lincoln Park, by the chefs and owners of Michelin-starred Galit next door, exceeds high expectations with deep explorations. Read more here.

More top Eat. Watch. Do. stories:

Review: Everything you ever needed to know about the sex lives of puppets, plus Manual Cinema’s latest
Kaytranada, Keyshia Cole will headline new music fest in Union Park

Milan’s Mayor Giuseppe Sala attends the Olympic cauldron lighting in front of the Quirinale Presidential Palace, in Rome in 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

US sending ICE unit to Olympics for security, prompting concern and confusion in Italy

News that a unit of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would be part of the security detail for the U.S. delegation during the upcoming Winter Games has set off concern and confusion in Italy, where people have expressed outrage at the inclusion of an agency that has dominated headlines for leading the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Read more here.

More top stories from around the world:

Shooting involving Border Patrol leaves 1 in critical condition in Arizona near US-Mexico border
Philip Glass cancels Kennedy Center symphony premiere in protest of President Donald Trump’s leadership

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/27/afternoon-briefing-assessor-candidates-spar-over-property-tax-donations-competence/ 

On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we remember Auschwitz, the largest complex of German Nazi concentration camp and killing centers that represents the tragic culmination of years of escalating hatred. It was liberated on Jan. 27, 1945, a date that marks this solemn international observance. 

Auschwitz did not emerge out of a vacuum. It was the twisted end point of a long, deliberate process in which the Nazi regime consolidated power, dismantled democratic safeguards, silenced opposition and built an edifice of dehumanization brick by brick. Propaganda aggressively reframed the so-called Jewish enemy as both subhuman and an existential threat. Hundreds of discriminatory laws stripped Jews of citizenship, livelihoods, visibility and safety. Jews were demonized, attacked and arrested simply for existing. Long before Auschwitz, seeds were planted in language, laws and silence. 

It is against this historical backdrop that we understand the enormity of what followed. And it is why, 81 years later, we gather on International Holocaust Remembrance Day across the world not only to commemorate the victims but also to confront the urgent reality that their suffering cannot be treated as a distant, sealed-off chapter of history. The conditions that made Auschwitz possible did not vanish with the camp’s liberation.  

Amid a documented, global resurgence of antisemitism — violent attacks, online harassment and the reemergence of toxic, normalized tropes — the Jewish community is experiencing levels of fear and insecurity not seen in decades. This is a crisis that has reached a tipping point in the United States and beyond. 

At the same time, we see an old and dangerous playbook reemerging in America — this time directed not only at Jews but also at immigrant communities. We hear rhetoric that paints human beings as “invaders,” “garbage,” or existential threats to the survival of the nation and Western civilization. Terms and phrasing such as “influx,” “invasion” and even “poisoning our blood” are deployed to stoke fear, justify cruelty and rationalize extreme action. These words are not harmless. They are seeds. They prepare the ground for cruelty by making inhumanity sound rational. 

To mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day is to remember what inevitably happens when dehumanizing language goes unchallenged. Words soften the ground for cruelty; they make violence first imaginable, then permissible, then inevitable. When people are spoken of as animals or garbage, their humanity becomes negotiable. 

And so, we return to the story of one Holocaust survivor — Fritzie Fritzshall — because her life carries the lessons we desperately need today. 

In 1944, Fritzie, then a young teenager, and her family were deported from Klucarky, Czechoslovakia, to Auschwitz-Birkenau. While lined up on the selection platform, a prisoner in a striped uniform brushed past and whispered in Yiddish, “You are 15. Remember, you are 15.” This counsel was essential: Camp authorities typically sent the vast majority of young Jewish children under the age of 15 directly to the gas chambers upon arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau and other killing centers, classifying them as incapable of work. That single, raw courageous act for Fritzie to lie about her age spared her life in the moment.  

Her Aunt Bella, deported weeks earlier, bartered her own food ration to bring Fritzie into her barracks. Each night, she held her and whispered that “tomorrow will be better.” That fragile but fierce promise helped Fritzie endure the unimaginable. But Aunt Bella, who had saved Fritzie, could not save herself; within weeks, she was murdered in the gas chambers. 

Fritzie survived — a story of brutality, of profound bravery, of desperate kindness and of the unyielding resilience that carried her into a life devoted to remembrance and education. And through her, we understand the essential purpose of Holocaust memory and institutions such as the Illinois Holocaust Museum: to relentlessly tell the story. To ensure that every life taken, every life shattered and every life saved continues to teach us. 

The lesson is unmistakable: Democracy does not collapse in a single night, and genocide does not begin with killing. It begins with words. With division. With scapegoating.  

So, what is our imperative? We must take an uncompromising stand for humanity. Every time we hear an entire group labeled as “the other,” we push back with force. As Fritzie once said, “Words matter, and my fear is if we allow this to happen today, the flame of hatred is going to get bigger. So, I challenge all of us to stand up and speak out.” 

This challenge requires us to combat falsehoods, refuse to share or tolerate hate online, support organizations defending targeted communities and fiercely hold leaders accountable when rhetoric turns cruel. We teach our children — and remind one another — of our shared, inviolable dignity. 

Because Auschwitz teaches us that silence is never neutral. 

Because International Holocaust Remembrance Day calls us not only to mourn, but to act with conviction. 

The most profound way to honor Fritzie’s story — and the millions of stories that ended before they could fully unfold — is with a living, breathing commitment to action. 

May their memory guide us. May their stories strengthen us.  

Defense of humanity requires courage, moral clarity and our unwavering action.  

Bernard Cherkasov is CEO of the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center. Kelley Szany is senior vice president of education and exhibitions at the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center and co-chair of the Illinois Holocaust & Genocide Commission. 

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

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/27/opinion-holocaust-remembrance-day-auschwitz-fritzie-fritzshall/ 

EU, India Sign ‘Mother Of All Deals’ Free Trade Agreement In Rebuff To Trump: What’s In It

Tyler Durden
Tue, 01/27/2026 – 15:00

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/eu-india-sign-mother-all-deals-free-trade-agreement-rebuff-trump-whats-it 

One person was shot and in critical condition Tuesday in a shooting involving the Border Patrol near the U.S.- Mexico border, authorities in Arizona said.

The Pima County Sheriff’s Department said it was working with the FBI and U.S. Customs and Border Protection in response to the shooting in Arivaca, Arizona, a community about 10 miles from the border.

The shooting involved a Border Patrol agent and a suspect, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department told the Arizona Daily Star.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the FBI did not immediately respond to emails and telephone calls seeking more information.

The Santa Rita Fire District said it responded to the shooting and the person who was wounded was in custody.

“Patient care was transferred to a local medical helicopter for rapid transport to a regional trauma center,” the fire district said.

The Associated Press left messages seeking comment with both level-one trauma center hospitals in Tucson.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/27/shooting-border-patrol-arizona/