Afternoon Briefing newsletter
Chicago Tribune editors’ top story picks, delivered to your inbox each afternoon.
 ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌
Header Logo

Afternoon Briefing

Tuesday, December 2, 2025

Good afternoon, Chicago.

For one day in September, José Coronado Meza became the Trump administration’s poster child for why Chicago needed to be flooded with federal agents. Coronado Meza had been ordered deported. But the Biden administration let him live in Chicago, where he got arrested and was charged with murder. Democrats’ “sanctuary” ways had coddled a would-be killer. Or so the argument went.

But a deeper look at the case offers a window into the erratic nature of immigration enforcement — even in eras when administrations tout crackdowns. The case shows how someone like Coronado Meza can slip through the cracks of both Democratic and Republican administrations, once the facts get separated from the bluster and politics.

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.

Subscribe to more newsletters | Asking Eric | Horoscopes | Puzzles & Games | Today in History

news
Adam slides down the stairs as he eats a banana in his host family’s home in Tinley Park on Sept. 4, 2025. Adam’s parents and siblings were killed in Gaza last year then he was evacuated with his grandmother by Heal Palestine. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)

4-year-old evacuated from Gaza finds sense of normalcy in Tinley Park while being treated for amputation

Adam is one of six children temporarily living in the Chicago area after being medically evacuated by Heal Palestine, an organization founded in response to the destruction caused in Gaza by Israel’s response to the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas.

Read more →

More top news stories:

business
Militza M. Pagan, then-staff attorney at the Shriver Center on Poverty Law, talks during a news conference at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago on Feb. 26, 2020. (Zbigniew Bzdak/Chicago Tribune)

Chicago’s Shriver Center on Poverty Law closing at the end of the year

The Shriver Center, which has spent more than 50 years advocating for economic, health care and racial justice, plans to close at the end of this year, it said in an email announcement.

Read more →

More top business stories:

sports
Illinois coach Brad Underwood reacts during the second half against Connecticut on Nov. 28, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)

Chicago basketball report: How the Illini aim to toughen up — and what’s sidelining Bulls rookie Noa Essengue

Illinois’ focus on toughness, the latest in the WNBA labor situation and a Bulls rookie’s injury lead the Chicago basketball report this week.

Read more →

More top sports stories:

eat. watch. do.
Photographer Steve Schapiro in Chicago in 2013. (Jason Marck/for the Chicago Tribune)

Column: An exciting movie about the legendary photographer Steve Schapiro

Steve Schapiro died three years ago in Chicago, where he had lived for some years, but he comes alive in a new documentary, the appropriately titled “Steve Schapiro: Being Everywhere.”

Read more →

More top Eat. Watch. Do. stories:

nation & world
Smoke rises as Israeli forces demolish the home of Abdul Karim Sanoubar, a suspected Palestinian militant who has been accused by Israel of planting bombs on buses in central Israel, in Nablus, West Bank, Dec. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

Israel says it receives ‘findings’ handed over by Palestinian fighters in Gaza

The “findings” were believed to be remains of one of the two hostages still in the territory: an Israeli and a Thai national.

Read more →

More top stories from around the world: