Good morning, Chicago.
Joabe Barbosa hates running. But he loves to explore.
Since August 2024, the Roosevelt University graduate student has been chipping away at an ambitious, if a little unwieldy, personal feat: to become the first person to run every single one of the city’s streets.
What began as a means for Barbosa to get his muscles moving following an injury has since grown into a year-plus pursuit, spurred on by the 25-year-old’s inclination to get to know more of the city after moving to the area more than three years ago.
As of the year’s end, Barbosa had just over 79% of Chicago’s more than 4,000 miles of street covered. He plans to finish by the spring, then eventually move on to other cities and repeat the venture on a new maze of streets.
“Some people travel by plane,” he said. “I travel by foot.”
He isn’t the only one. For years, from coast to coast, “run-every-streeters” have been taking on their version of the challenge, turning their metropolitan areas into bona fide treadmills.
Read the full story from the Tribune’s Tess Kenny.
Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day, including: what we learned from top Cook County candidates’ tax returns and ethics filings, 10 thoughts on how the Bears backed into the No. 2 seed and museums for winter 2026.
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Deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro set to make first appearance in US courtroom on drug trafficking charges
Deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is set to make his first appearance today in an American courtroom on the narco-terrorism charges the Trump administration used to justify capturing him and bringing him to New York.
Maduro and his wife are expected to appear at noon before a judge for a brief, but required, legal proceeding that will likely kick off a prolonged legal fight over whether he can be put on trial in the U.S.
- Trump’s plan to seize and revitalize Venezuela’s oil industry faces major hurdles
- US intervention in Venezuela could test Donald Trump’s ability to hold GOP together in an election year
Here’s what we learned from top Cook County candidates’ tax returns and ethics filings
As Cook County voters begin to decide who will oversee billions in public spending and the county’s property tax system, a review of tax returns from leading Democratic candidates shows sharply different sources of wealth, investment strategies and levels of financial disclosure.
Prosecutors link South Side gang faction to 14 slayings in 2 years
Federal and state prosecutors now say a single gang faction on Chicago’s South Side committed 14 murders and shot at least 18 other people in just two years as part of a brazen crime spree meant to tighten the group’s grip on the West Chatham neighborhood.
Cost of Operation Midway Blitz: $59M and counting
As the Trump administration steadily hypes the benefits it sees from its monthslong immigration enforcement surge in Illinois, federal officials have been less eager to address the other side of the ledger: the fiscal cost of Operation Midway Blitz.
Activists, Illinois Democrats in Congress and members of the public have repeatedly sought an accounting of the operation, only to see their requests repeatedly stonewalled. But a Tribune review of court filings, databases and other public records detailing the scope of the incursion and the typical costs of its components begins to paint a clearer picture.
Outreach workers pass out free fentanyl detection devices to help screen drugs, reduce risk of overdose
A young man approached a card table set up under the Green Line tracks on the city’s West Side and asked the woman behind it if she had any clean needles or naloxone, a medication that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.
While rummaging through a box of supplies in search of those items, the woman also handed him another small package: a fentanyl detection device, which is designed to screen illicit drugs for the presence of that highly potent — and potentially fatal — substance.
Edith Renfrow Smith, part of Northwestern’s ‘SuperAgers’ study, dies at 111
Edith Renfrow Smith, the first Black woman to graduate from Grinnell College in Iowa and a longtime Chicago schoolteacher, remained mentally sharp well past 100, becoming the subject for medical researchers studying what they called “SuperAgers.”
Smith, 111, died of natural causes on Friday at the Breakers assisted living facility in Edgewater, where she had moved in October, said her daughter, Alice Frances Smith. She previously had lived in Lakeview.
‘Still imprisoned in his mind.’ Illinois exonerees struggle without support after wrongful convictions.
Paul Terry walked out of prison more than 20 years ago after DNA evidence cleared him of a crime he was convicted of as a teenager. He was free, but the life he lost has never returned.
Now 67, Terry rarely speaks. He spends much of his time confining himself to his bedroom inside a South Side home he shares with his family, still grappling with mental health issues he developed behind bars.
It’s on to the NFL playoffs: Brad Biggs’ 10 thoughts after Chicago Bears backed into the No. 2 seed
The Bears’ 11-6 season and worst-to-first turnaround has been a success that has reaffirmed the organization’s decision to hire coach Ben Johnson and thrilled a fan base that weathered so much losing and hasn’t seen a playoff victory since Jan. 16, 2011.
But it’s on to the playoffs. Here are 10 thoughts after yesterday’s disappointment with a forward look ahead and one statistic that will really open your eyes.
- Week 18 recap: Bears lose 19-16 but secure No. 2 seed — and will face Green Bay Packers in 1st round
- ‘We came off flat’: Bears defense gave up ‘too many long drives’ in allowing 433 yards of offense
Musician Natalie Merchant brings Mother Goose and other rhymes to life for the next generation with Cabinet of Wonder
Do you remember Mother Goose? Are you familiar with the nursery rhyme, “Mary Had a Pretty Bird?” What about “The Cuckoo”?
Thanks to singer-songwriter-artist-activist Natalie Merchant, students from one dozen Chicago Public Schools are experiencing them reimagined.
Arlington Heights’ ‘Stranger Things’ star Jake Connelly got ‘the call’ he was going to Hawkins during a tornado warning
Jake Connelly plays Derek Turnbow this season, a loudmouth bully-turned-unlikely hero. He fits right in with the series’ long-tenured cast, but fans have especially taken a liking to the local newcomer, relishing in his painstakingly endearing performance.
Museums for winter 2026: ‘Oz,’ owls and ‘Costumes of Paul Tazewell’
Bummed Open House Chicago is over? Getting really into birding? Fresh from a “Wicked: For Good” showing, where you belted along to the whole thing?
Boy, do we have a winter museum roundup for you. Even as the rest of Chicago shifts into hibernation mode, our city’s finest museums remain busy and open for business.
