The Rundown: ICE agents spotted at O’Hare Airport

Good afternoon! I’m not on TikTok, but apparently axolotls are trending on the platform. You can see the amphibians in real life at Brookfield Zoo Chicago. Here’s what else you need to know today.

1. ICE agents were spotted at O’Hare Airport as the partial government shutdown continues to impact travelers

At least three agents in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement gear were seen at Terminal 3 around 10 a.m. this morning after the Trump administration said agents would be deployed to airports nationwide, my colleagues Mohammad Samra and Araceli Gómez-Aldana report.

White House border czar Tom Homan said yesterday that ICE’s increased role at airports was subject to discussions with the agency’s leadership and the TSA “to find out where we can fit in.” Immigration officers, for example, could cover exits currently monitored by Transportation Security Administration, freeing them to work screening lines, or have ICE agents check identification before people enter screening areas.

No ICE agents were spotted at Midway, but some travelers still said they felt impacted.

Anayeli Castro, who was waiting for her husband at the security checkpoint with her two young kids, had heard online they should arrive at least four hours early. She tried checking the TSA app to see how long the security line was, but the app was not updating.

“They’re ICE agents. It’s different from TSA, so it does kind of freak you out a little bit,” Castro added. “I am an immigrant, so it’s scary but it seems pretty calm right now.” [Chicago Sun-Times/WBEZ]

2. Can replacing Illinois’ toxic lead pipes lead to a workforce boom?

Illinois has the most lead pipes in the country: An estimated 667,000 known lead service lines and another 820,000 suspected lines carry drinking water to homes and businesses. Lead is a neurotoxin linked to cognitive, reproductive and cardiovascular problems.

Now, public health and workforce advocates want to turn the state’s long-overdue pipe replacement backlog into a statewide economic engine, creating up to 90,000 jobs over a decade, my colleague Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco reports for WBEZ and Grist.

A recent report proposed a plan to replace the state’s toxic lead pipes and create tens of thousands of jobs. To do so, the analysis called on state and local officials to fast-track pipe replacements for communities that have suffered from the most lead exposure and to use the projects to build a more diverse local workforce. It also urged the Illinois General Assembly to help plug a multibillion-dollar budget gap for lead pipe replacements.

“The longer we put off taking care of our water infrastructure, the more expensive it’s going to get, the more that we’re going to be looking at water rates increasing to deal with that, and the more people are going to be in the position where they’re not going to have access to safe and clean drinking water,” said Justin Williams, a senior manager at the Metropolitan Planning Council, one of the policy think tanks that helped develop the plan. “And that’s not a situation we should be in as a state or region.” [WBEZ/Grist]

3. Chicago-area Lebanese Americans are mourning the dead and trying to help their loved ones as Israeli strikes displace 1 million people

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, or roughly 20% of the population just over a year since the last conflict uprooted a million Lebanese residents from their homes.

Thousands of Lebanese Americans — about 15,000 in Illinois, the state with the sixth-largest Arab population, according to Arab American Institute estimates and Census data — are watching their home country come under fire as the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran continues to ignite the region.

Muhammad Sankari, a Southwest Side resident, has spent weeks checking in on family and friends. The government has only been able to accommodate roughly 120,000 displaced people as it scrambles to open shelters, the Associated Press reported.

“It’s a country full of some of the best memories of my childhood,” Sankari told the Chicago Sun-Times. “It’s difficult to be so far removed when your loved ones are experiencing these horrors… Even if the bombs stop tomorrow, there’s a huge economic and humanitarian impact.” [Chicago Sun-Times]

4. Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi lost big where property taxes in the city and suburbs soared

Homeowners’ frustration over rising property taxes showed loud and clear in last week’s race for county assessor, helping pave the way for Lyons Township Assessor Pat Hynes’ victory, my colleagues Violet Miller and Alden Loury report.

Last year, Chicago’s median residential tax bill rose 16.7%, to $4,457 — the largest percentage increase in at least 30 years. It was the third year in a row median homeowner taxes increased by more than 15%, according to the Cook County treasurer’s office.

In the 24th Ward, where bills skyrocketed the most, the median homeowner tax bill increased nearly $2,000, about 102%. Kaegi won just 34% of the vote, while Hynes came away with nearly 66%.

The 16th Ward, which encompasses Chicago Lawn, Englewood, Gage Park, New City and West Englewood, saw a 92% median increase in tax bills. Hynes landed more than 68% of the vote in that ward, compared to Kaegi’s roughly 32%. [Chicago Sun-Times/WBEZ]

5. Steppenwolf Theater received a Sondheim Foundation grant to restart its program for new plays

The grant will go toward rebuilding Steppenwolf’s Scout program, which supports new works by emerging writers and was shuttered during the COVID-19 pandemic, WBEZ theater reporter Mike Davis writes. Steppenwolf has developed and launched more than 130 plays in its 50-year history.

Brooke Flanagan, executive director of Steppenwolf, said the last play to go through the program was “Mosque4Mosque” by Omer Abbas Salem. In 2021, the final reading was hosted via Zoom due to the pandemic shutdown.

“Over the course of a year, the playwright not only meets with the team to get counsel on the process of writing for an ensemble like Steppenwolf, but also gets coaching and feedback,” Flanagan said. “Then over the course of drafts, the culminating and crucible for the process is a week-long workshop that has a director, a dramaturg, a team of actors, and finally, a staged reading in our 1700 theater.”

Neither Steppenwolf Theatre nor the Sondheim Foundation would disclose the amount of the grant. [WBEZ]

Here’s what else is happening

• In a case that could drastically change elections, the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority sounded skeptical about grace periods for late-arriving mail ballots. [AP]
• Two pilots died when a jet collided with a fire truck at New York’s LaGuardia Airport. [AP]
• The man accused of starting the blaze that led to a Chicago firefighter’s death had set other fires, prosecutors said. [Chicago Sun-Times]
• A man was charged with first-degree murder in a Loyola University Chicago student’s killing. [Chicago Sun-Times]

Oh, and one more thing …

To find goofier, happier humans having more fun, you’d probably need to watch kids at an open fire hydrant in August, my colleague Mitch Dudek writes for the Chicago Sun-Times.

And that’s the whole point for the Chicago Snowballs — the city’s newest co-ed baseball team that will offer up a brand of ball made popular by the Savannah Bananas in recent years. Think baseball’s version of the Harlem Globetrotters.

The Snowballs, which have no affiliation with the Banana League, take the field for their first game in front of paying customers on May 2 at Kerry Wood Cubs Field in Roscoe Village.

Tickets go on sale April 1 and will run $15 for kids 12 and under and $30 for everyone else, Snowballs CEO Cherie Travis said. She likens the team, which has no home field at the moment, to a traveling circus, with about 10 games a month scheduled through September at ballparks largely in the Chicago area but also around the Midwest. [Chicago Sun-Times]

Tell me something good …

What song gives you a pick-me-up when you need it most?

For the past couple years, mine has been “Crawling” by Eli Brown, which coincidentally came out right as I was getting over some pandemic-era mental health issues. I still listen to it anytime I get anxious (and here’s hoping he plays it during his Lolla set this summer).

Feel free to email me, and your response may be included in the newsletter this week.