Good morning, Chicago.

Before she went into surgery, Elizabeth Wehrle knew that doctors wanted to transplant four new organs into her body.

She didn’t know, at the time, that the operation at Northwestern Memorial Hospital was potentially the first of its kind in the country — a quadruple-organ transplant performed on a person who had already had a previous lung transplant.

“I’m incredibly grateful that they decided to take this chance on me, but I’m also very glad that I didn’t know that I was the first,” Wehrle, 36 of Montezuma, Iowa, said with a laugh yesterday.

Though seven quadruple-organ transplants have been performed in the U.S. in recent years, Wehrle is the first known person to get a liver, a kidney and a second set of donor lungs, after her body rejected lungs she received during an earlier transplant and after her liver and kidney were damaged by cystic fibrosis, according to Northwestern, citing information from the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients.

Read the full story from the Tribune’s Lisa Schencker.

Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day, including Chicago Public Schools announcing layoffs, the cost of a Bears stadium for Indiana residents and restaurant reviews of Da Local Boy, The Greggory and The Radicle.

Today’s eNewspaper edition | Subscribe to more newsletters | Asking Eric | Horoscopes | Puzzles & Games | Today in History

Darline Graham Nordone, sister of Lindsey Graham, picked to fulfill remainder of his US Senate term

Lindsey Graham’s sister, Darline Graham Nordone, has been named as his temporary replacement in the U.S. Senate after his unexpected death over the weekend. Nordone will be the first woman to represent the state in the Senate.

Illinois elections board judge recommends Mayra Macías’ name not be on 4th Congressional District ballot

A hearing officer for the state Board of Elections is recommending to the board that independent candidate Mayra Macías be blocked from running for Illinois’ 4th Congressional District in the contest to succeed retiring U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García.

Chicago Public Schools lays off 162 central office, citywide staff

Chicago Public Schools laid off 162 central office and citywide staff last week, the district’s latest move to help close its $732 million deficit.

The layoffs are projected to save the district $18 million, a CPS spokesperson said yesterday. The district did not specify which positions were impacted, but said the staff worked across more than a dozen offices.

Lawsuit alleges IDOC inmates denied exercise in ‘dungeon-like’ solitary cells

The Illinois Department of Corrections confined inmates in “dungeon-like conditions” in solitary confinement and refused to allow them to exercise, causing chronic physical and psychological pain, a complaint filed yesterday alleges.

Inmates also were held in excessively long, dirty and restrictive periods of solitary confinement, the newly-filed complaint said, adding to a long history of scrutiny of the state prison system’s practices around holding prisoners in isolated conditions.

The AI effect: University of Chicago Law School opts to prohibit electronic devices in some classrooms.

Come fall, first-year students at the University of Chicago Law School will be prohibited from using electronic devices like laptops, tablets and phones in the classroom throughout the 2026-27 academic year. The new policy comes as artificial intelligence continues to affect the higher education landscape and schools grapple with how to handle the ever-evolving technology.

Key City Council committee green-lights $424 million in public funding for Chicago Fire stadium site

The City Council’s Finance Committee voted yesterday to use $424 million in property tax revenue to help build new infrastructure around the site of the Chicago Fire’s downtown soccer stadium, currently under construction at The 78, a planned 62-acre, mixed-use development along the Chicago River just south of Roosevelt Road.