Good morning, Chicago. ✶
🔎 Below: After a mother was arrested by immigration agents, her three kids were left alone. Isabel Conde couldn’t find adults in their lives to take them in. So she did it herself.
🗞️ Plus: Mayor Brandon Johnson’s budget director pays up, Lincolnwood Town Center’s last days and more news you need to know this May Day.
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⏱️: An 8-minute read
TODAY’S WEATHER 🌤️
Partly sunny with a chance of showers and a high near 49.
TODAY’S TOP STORY 🔎
When immigration agents arrested Chicago mom, stranger stepped in to care for her 3 kids
By Chip Mitchell
Families separated: During President Donald Trump’s second term, immigration agents have taken away the parents of thousands of U.S.-born children. Some of those kids, who are citizens, moved in with relatives or friends. Others landed with strangers or languished in shelters. People who open their homes to care for these children often don’t know how long they’ll be needed or what emotional fallout they’ll face when the kids leave.
Stepping in: Three siblings ages 17, 14 and 6 were left to fend for themselves after immigration agents arrested their mother and moved her to a detention center in Kentucky. Isabel Conde heard the kids were living alone and couldn’t find adults in their lives to take them in, so she did it herself, for nearly three months. After a federal judge ruled the mother’s detention was unlawful and ordered her immediate release, Conde also took charge of getting her out of detention.
Sharing her story: Conde spoke with WBEZ about her experience as the children’s temporary guardian and what’s next for their mom’s case.
More:
- After six months of gathering testimony, video footage and legal records, the Illinois Accountability Commission put out its final report Thursday, examining Operation Midway Blitz and alleged abuse carried out by federal agents in and around the city.
- Through her nonprofit Mano a Mano Unidos, Oak Brook resident Patricia Gamboa is supporting immigrant families still living in fear after Midway Blitz.
PUBLIC SAFETY ✶
Alleged cop killer robbed store, fled on scooter before hospital shooting, prosecutors say
By Sophie Sherry
Before shooting: Alphanso Talley’s deadly rampage started when he and another person rode electric scooters to an Albany Park dollar store and snatched $110 during a violent robbery, prosecutors said during a Thursday detention hearing.
Deadly interaction: The crime spree continued after Talley was arrested and taken to Swedish Hospital, where he fatally shot Chicago police officer John Bartholomew and gravely wounded another cop before terrorizing hospital staff during a chaotic escape, prosecutors said. After shooting out a glass door, Talley ran naked through the neighborhood and was ultimately found hiding under a porch.
At issue: Prosecutors haven’t explained how Talley got the gun into the hospital despite being arrested and searched after the robbery. But they said he was captured on video fidgeting and adjusting himself in the back of a police car.
More:
- Funeral services for Bartholomew will be held next week at Andrew’s Greek Orthodox Church in Edgewater.
- Republican lawmakers in Springfield are calling for amendments to the SAFE-T act. Talley had a multiyear rap sheet, was awaiting trial for multiple violent charges and had been granted pretrial release with an ankle monitor.
CITY HALL ✶
Mayor’s budget director pays up after getting years of illegal property tax breaks
By Tim Novak
Payback time: Two months after a Sun-Times investigation revealed Mayor Brandon Johnson’s city budget director, Annette Guzman, had taken illegal property tax breaks for five years, she’s paying back the rest of what she should have paid.
Key context: The Sun-Times previously reported that Guzman had taken property tax breaks to which she wasn’t entitled, saving $3,432 in taxes on a South Loop condo she leases to tenants. Annette Guzman got the approval she needed to claim those tax breaks from Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi, her ex-boss.
MORE NEWS YOU NEED 🗞️
- Lincolnwood Town Center closing: The 36-year-old plaza has been on a downward slide for years, with ever-rising store vacancies. It’s expected to close in a few months as a developer — with the village’s blessing — pursues a new plan for the tract at 3333 W. Touhy Ave.
- Man admits to sending $3M to cartels: A Chicago man has pleaded guilty in federal court to helping a money-laundering ring move about $3 million in illegal drug proceeds from Chicago to Mexico through China.
- Busy quarter: The Chicago Abortion Fund, the largest such fund in the country, took more calls from — and spent more money on behalf of — people seeking abortions last quarter than in any other quarter in its history of more than 40 years.
- School faces federal probe: The U.S. Department of Justice said it is investigating 35 Illinois school districts and a Chicago charter operator to see if they are teaching LGBTQ-related lessons in classrooms and if so, whether parents are allowed to opt out.
- Don’t bet on it: Ald. Timmy Knudsen (43rd) is proposing an ordinance that would prohibit present and former city employees — and elected officials — from using insider information to bet on prediction markets.
- Utility settlement: Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas have reached a settlement with Attorney General Kwame Raoul that’s expected to allow more than a million utility customers to share $125 million in bill credits, according to Raoul’s office.
- Gas prices surge: Gas prices in Chicago have jumped to more than $5 a gallon for the first time in four years, squeezing drivers who likely will see even higher prices in the coming months. The increases are tied to Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
- Chicago Critics Film Festival: Running Friday through May 7 at the Music Box Theatre, this year’s fest features several heavy hitters. We’ve listed our can’t-miss picks.
LET’S HEAR FROM YOU 🗣️
What’s your defining memory of going to the Lincolnwood Town Center?
Reply to this email (please include your first and last name). We may run your answer in a future newsletter or story.
CASINO CONSTRUCTION 🎰
Bally’s hits Chicago casino construction milestone with fanfare — and big questions
By Mitchell Armentrout
Full fanfare: Mayor Johnson celebrated Thursday alongside Bally’s chairman Soo Kim for the installation of the final support beam at the long-sought casino under construction in River West, which officials say is on track to open early next year.
Questions remain: All the company has to do until then is persuade state lawmakers to give them extra time operating their temporary casino, await potential discipline from state regulators for using a waste hauler once connected to the mob, and navigate competition from video gambling terminals that could light up across the city later this year.
ON WBEZ 91.5 FM 📻
In the Loop with Sasha-Ann Simons, 9 a.m.
- Weekly recap: Sun-Times’ Mary Norkol, Block Club Chicago’s Mack Liederman and Better Government Association’s Alex Nitkin discuss the week’s headlines.
Say More with Mary Dixon and Patrick Smith, 10 a.m.
- May Day: Today is International Workers’ Day, also called May Day. Are you striking today? What do you think will be the rallying cry for workers in 2026? Guest Dana Blanchard, of Haymarket House, and callers weigh in.
FROM THE PRESS BOX 🏟️🏀⚾
- Students’ stadium solution: University of Chicago tackled the issue of stadium policy last week during an annual “Shark Tank”-style competition. This year’s winners presented a three-pronged approach to help solve the city’s woes.
- Skylar Diggins’ moment: Vibes are high in training camp, but Diggins’ tough standards are already being felt — that’s why the Sky wanted her.
- South Side optimism: The White Sox are building hope with their first month of .500 baseball in almost three years, writes Mitchell Armentrout.
CHICAGO MINI CROSSWORD 🌭
Today’s clue: 3D: Chi City ___ Club (studio that hosts embroidery and painting workshops)
BRIGHT ONE 🔆
Agriculture students add puppies to their resumes
By Emmanuel Camarillo
Alan Aguirre has more experience caring for creatures with no legs, eight legs and webbed feet than those with fur and paws. The Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences junior has had turtles, vampire crabs, spiny eels, tarantulas and various fish as pets.
Now he’s getting his first taste of what it’s like to raise a puppy.
Alan and a classmate are fostering puppies as part of a partnership between the school and the nonprofit PAWS Chicago, which culminates with an adoption event at the school’s Mount Greenwood campus on Saturday.
The students volunteered to care for the dogs to get them out of the shelter for a few days and raise awareness about the event — and also to get more experience working with animals. They’re learning how to raise livestock and other critters as part of the school’s animal science program, and hope to go into animal care after they graduate.
Alan and fellow junior Jada Toussaint met their foster puppies for the first time Wednesday as PAWS volunteers visited the school to teach nearly 60 students in the animal science program about the shelter adoption process. The students also learned tips for looking after the puppies and what a career in veterinary medicine could look like.
PICTURE CHICAGO 📸
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Written and curated by: Matt Moore
Editor: Eydie Cubarrubia