Good morning, Chicago. ✶
🔎 Below: Lebanese Americans in the Chicago area mourn those killed in U.S.-Israeli war and attempt to help loved ones.
🗞️ Plus: Union TSA workers push back on plan to deploy ICE agents to airports, Chance the Rapper prevails in rights trial and more.
📝 Keeping score: The Chicago Fire beat the Union, 2-1; the Blackhawks lost to the Predators, 3-2; Illinois defeated VCU, 76-55.
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⏱️: An 8-minute read
TODAY’S WEATHER 🌤️
Mostly sunny, with a high near 42.
TODAY’S TOP STORY 🔎
Lebanese Americans mourn dead, try to help loved ones as 1M displaced by Israeli strikes
By Violet Miller
Impacts of war: Thousands of Lebanese Americans — about 15,000 in Illinois, the state with the sixth-largest Arab population — are watching their home country come under fire as the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran continues to ignite the region.
Key context: Israeli strikes have killed at least 1,500 people in Iran and more than 1,000 in Lebanon after the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah fired on Israel, while Iranian strikes have killed at least 15 in Israel, according to officials in those countries. Israeli fire has displaced more than a million people in Lebanon, a year since the last conflict uprooted a million Lebanese residents.
Chicagoans watch on: Three of Rodolph Saliba’s friends in Lebanon have been killed by rockets in recent weeks, the Oak Lawn resident said. More are sleeping in tents or going hungry. “There are a lot of innocent people who don’t deserve this,” Saliba said. “I just hope this war stops.” Muhammad Sankari, a Southwest Side resident, has spent weeks checking on family and friends. “It’s difficult to be so far removed when your loved ones are experiencing these horrors,” Sankari said. “Even if the bombs stop tomorrow, there’s a huge economic and humanitarian impact.”
POLITICS ✶
TSA workers push back, demand pay as Trump plans to deploy ICE agents in airports
By Violet Miller
ICE at airports: After President Donald Trump threatened to deploy U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to airports amid a Department of Homeland Security funding fight in Congress, Transportation Security Administration union workers in the Midwest are expressing concern about agents’ lack of training and their own lack of pay.
Funding fight: Trump made it clear Sunday he would use immigration officers for airport security starting Monday unless Democrats agreed on a bill to fund the DHS. Democrats are demanding major changes in immigration agents’ conduct. Hundreds of thousands of homeland security workers, including those from the TSA, have worked without pay since Congress failed to renew DHS funding last month.
The concerns: Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents TSA agents and other federal workers in Illinois, said immigration agents’ deployment raises security concerns for passengers. Darrell English, president of AFGE Local 777, which represents Chicago TSA workers, cited the agents’ lack of training in aviation security and said they could slow the screening process for travelers.
MUSIC 🎶
Jurors side with Chance the Rapper in $3.8M legal battle with ex-manager
By Selena Fragassi
Jury rules: The five-year-plus legal battle between Chance The Rapper, real name Chancelor Bennett, and his former manager, Pat Corcoran, ended Friday. A Cook County jury found Corcoran had failed to prove he was owed the $3.8 million in unpaid commissions and royalties he sought in his lawsuit against his former friend and business partner.
$35 in damages: Jurors also ruled in Bennett’s countersuit, which was combined with Corcoran’s lawsuit for purposes of the trial. Bennett had originally sought $1 million in damages. The jury decided Corcoran must pay him $35, and recommended that Corcoran turn over the internet domain name ChanceRaps.com, which Corcoran used to sell Chance the Rapper merchandise.
Fraught relationship: Over their eight-year working relationship, Bennett and Corcoran had been the industry model for a successful, independent artist-manager partnership without record label interference. But as both parties rested their cases, a different narrative emerged. Corcoran’s legal team described a hardworking manager who deserved to be paid for contributing to the ascent of the Grammy-winning rapper. Bennett’s attorneys tried to portray him as an opportunistic ex-employee who was fired for a reason.
MORE NEWS YOU NEED 🗞️
- Murder charge: A Venezuelan migrant has been charged with the murder of an 18-year-old Loyola University Chicago student, police announced Sunday, prompting outrage from Trump administration officials who branded her killing as the result of sanctuary policies in Illinois.
- Arson and murder: A man was charged Friday with murder and arson in connection with a fire in Rogers Park that resulted in a firefighter’s death.
- CTA sues feds: The Chicago Transit Authority is suing the federal government over its withholding $2 billion in funds earmarked to extend the Red Line to 130th Street.
- Mural erased: A Park District mural featuring César Chavez has been painted over as pressure grows to remove memorials and rename public buildings after a New York Times investigation found Chavez groomed and sexually assaulted young girls.
- Spring break: Spring break travel will be busy, unpredictable and more expensive, due to the war in Iran and a partial government shutdown as TSA employees work without pay.
- Curfew ruling: A federal judge on Sunday struck down Broadview’s curfew on protests, ruling that restrictions set for demonstrations outside the ICE facility in the village have violated protesters’ First Amendments rights.
THEATER 🎭
Steppenwolf Theatre gets Sondheim Foundation grant to restart program for new plays
By Mike Davis
New plays boost: Steppenwolf Theatre will reboot a program that supports new plays after receiving a grant from the Stephen Sondheim Foundation. Neither the theater company nor the foundation would disclose the monetary amount of the grant.
Rebuild plans: Steppenwolf executive director Brooke Flanagan says the grant will go toward rebuilding its Scout program, which was shuttered during the COVID-19 pandemic. In its 50-year history, Steppenwolf has developed and launched more than 130 plays. The Scout program partners playwrights with Steppenwolf’s new play development team. It will return for the theater’s 2026-2027 season.
Key quote: “I think we are really thrilled to be able to have the program back up and running, and we know that we’re looking forward to the collaboration and what it means to the industry and to the artists that are involved,” Flanagan said.
FROM THE PRESS BOX ⚾️🏒🏀
- Odd man out, another in: The White Sox signed catcher Reese McGuire to a one-year, $1.2 million contract. Manager Will Venable said Korey Lee won’t be on the roster.
- Cubs roster not set: The Cubs may wait until they break spring training Tuesday to finalize their Opening Day roster, which will depend on the recovery of Seiya Suzuki’s right knee.
- Race to the bottom: The race to the bottom in the NBA standings is far from over. If the Bulls do hold at No. 9, they could be weighing different scenarios come draft time.
- Shootout struggles: The Blackhawks suffered their 13th overtime/shootout loss of the season Sunday, falling 3-2 to the Predators.
- Houston next: By the end of tournament play Saturday, the only Sweet 16 matchup determined was Illinois-Houston — and for those on the outside looking in, it felt almost as big as it gets.
CHICAGO MINI CROSSWORD 🌭
Today’s clue: 1A: 🌭 Event like the Shamrock Shuffle or BTN Big 10K
BRIGHT ONE 🔆
Definition of a company man? Calbert Wright, who’s been working at Ford’s Chicago Heights plant since 1963
By Neil Steinberg
He didn’t think he’d stick around. When Calbert Wright began work at the Ford Motor Company’s Chicago Stamping Plant in Chicago Heights in 1963, the factory was a noisy, smelly, smoky hellscape with a leaky roof. Plus Black workers, such as himself, were given the hardest duties. But stay he did.
When Wright, at the age of 23, began work at Ford, John F. Kennedy was president. Henry Ford II, grandson of the man who founded the automobile manufacturer in 1903, still ran the business. That means Wright, who walks the floor today, has worked for Ford for more than half the 123 years since the company sold its first car, a two-cylinder, two-passenger Model A, in red, for $850 to Ernest Pfennig, a dentist on Clybourn Avenue.
Why did he stay?
“There weren’t jobs paying like this,” he said, laughing: $1.40 an hour. “Big money.” He had a wife, Thelma — now married 65 years — and an infant son to consider. And things were changing. “[Martin Luther] King, plus the union, made everybody be classified,” Wright said. Conditions improved. He moved up from stacking steel. “That’s why I stayed so long.”
PICTURE CHICAGO 📸
Last week, we asked you: Where’s the first place you enjoy taking a walk as the weather warms up?
Here’s some of what you said…
“I totally love walking to Chicago’s beautiful lakefront.” — Jan Tee Cra
“In my small town neighborhood! It’s a hopeful feeling to walk through a neighborhood and to see Spring emerge. People working together to clean up and clear away the dirty drab winter remnants, making room for new growth.” — Anna Casey
“The Dan Ryan woods beautiful walking trails and a huge hill for stair work.” — Bobby Veejay Marley
Thanks for reading the Sun-Times Morning Edition!
Got a story you think we missed? Email us here.
Written and curated by: Phyllis Cha
Editor: Eydie Cubarrubia
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