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Federal prosecutors in Chicago are preparing to deliver opening statements Wednesday in the first trial tied to “Operation Midway Blitz,” but they’re doing so after a judge barred more key evidence of an alleged murder plot aimed at U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino.A jury made up of eight men and six women, which includes two alternates, has been chosen to hear the case against Juan Espinoza Martinez, the man accused of offering $10,000 for Bovino’s murder.Prosecutors pressed forward with the trial Tuesday after a damaging ruling last week from U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow. She barred any attempt to tie Espinoza Martinez to the Latin Kings street gang after the feds acknowledged they wouldn’t try to prove his membership in it. Related Chicago’s first Midway Blitz trial could center on feds’ Bovino murder-for-hire claim The judge went further Tuesday, barring text messages in which Espinoza Martinez allegedly wrote “saints, sds, and 2six being b----es,” “Chapo has our back bro. if they they take one its gunna be bad,” and “sinaloa dont f--- around.”The jury will be allowed to see other alleged texts from Espinoza Martinez that say, “my guys are ready in the vill,” “they havent teken non from the vill … n they wont” and “Kings on they a-- n theu scared.”Prosecutors had previously told the judge, “we absolutely have to have evidence of what [Espinoza Martinez’s] affinity and his relationship to the Latin Kings was.”Lefkow also barred portions of Espinoza Martinez’s interview with law enforcement, as well as a video that Espinoza Martinez allegedly passed along to explain his offer of $10,000.In audio of the video played in court, a man can be heard saying “got reports that ICE is out here doing some bullsh--. … Now that ICE is out here taking our people, ain’t nobody out here.”Defense attorney Dena Singer made clear to the judge that Espinoza Martinez “is not in the video.” She said, “he is not a speaker, he is not seen, he is not the taker.”Lefkow said she was “skeptical” of the video and eventually rejected it completely. She called it a “cover” for “trying to make it look like [Espinoza Martinez] is adopting what’s being said in the video.” Related Judge in Bovino murder-plot case warned of threats to judiciary after her family members were killed in 2005 The judge and lawyers managed to choose a jury by about 3 p.m. But Lefkow agreed to put off opening statements until Wednesday to give prosecutors a chance to adjust to her rulings.The jury includes a truck driver, a teacher, and a man who said he had a second interview for a job scheduled Tuesday.The case is a major test for U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros’ office. The feds have yet to secure a conviction for a non-immigration crime tied to the Trump administration’s deportation campaign, despite repeated claims of violence against immigration agents.Lefkow spent a significant amount of time Tuesday speaking to potential jurors at sidebar — and out of earshot of the public. Near the end of the day, she agreed to excuse a candidate who told the lawyers he didn’t agree with federal immigration policy and whose friends were apparently hit with tear gas.However, the judge only agreed to excuse him from the trial after he said it could disrupt his work plans and cost him a “good chunk of money.” Related Bovino murder-for-hire case on thin ice after judge bars gang evidence from trial The case hinges on the testimony of an anonymous “source of information.” Prosecutors say Espinoza Martinez sent that person a picture of Bovino via Snapchat in early October. A message allegedly followed that said, “2K on info cuando lo agarren,” “10k if u take him down,” and “LK … on him.”Authorities say that meant Espinoza Martinez had offered a $2,000 reward for information about Bovino, as well as a $10,000 reward for his murder, while indicating the Latin Kings were involved.Though prosecutors have kept their “source of information” anonymous, that person is expected to take the stand…

Sky forward Angel Reese's acting skills are growing with each project.The second season of "The Hunting Wives," the buzzy Netflix series that premiered in 2025, is in production. Many cast members, like stars Brittany Snow as Sophie O'Neil and Malin Akerman as Margo Banks, are returning to sexy, soapy drama, but the second season will also include Reese as a new face. The two-time WNBA All-Star is joining the cast as "Trainer Barbie" in a co-starring role.Reese shared the news on X, tweeting "Trainer Barbie" with a basketball and several entertainment-related emojis. She also posted behind-the-scenes photos on her Instagram story. View this post on Instagram It also seems Reese may have spoken her role into existence. In August 2025, she wrote, "Just let me know if you need me for Season [Two]" to the show's creator, Rebecca Cutter.A premiere date for the second season of "The Hunting Wives" is still pending. Season one debuted in July 2025, and Netflix could be aiming for another summer launch for the second season.This is the second major acting project involving Reese announced within the last week. On Jan. 14, makers of the upcoming Stephen Curry-produced animated movie "GOAT" revealed that Reese and Las Vegas Aces star A'ja Wilson would make cameos. Reese plays a polar bear named Propp, and Wilson plays a reptile named Kouyate. Curry's film "GOAT" is Reese's second movie role. In 2025, she made her debut with a cameo in the thriller "A House of Dynamite."Read more at usatoday.com

Mayor Brandon Johnson said Tuesday City Hall has dropped out of the competition to take back Chicago parking meters after determining that the $3 billion asking price “would have made a bad deal even worse.”“The price is too high and requires debt service payments that extend too far and impose too much risk. Chicagoans would most likely end up footing the bill, yet again… The more we looked into it, the more problems emerged,” Johnson said Tuesday.“The City would have been required to debt-finance the entire purchase," Johnson continued. "This would eliminate the flexibility to… remove parking meters to make way for pedestrian ways and bike lanes. Instead, we would be locked into ever rising debt payments that would require City Council to consistently vote to raise parking rates year after year.”Johnson said it “would have been deeply irresponsible” not to “run the numbers and look at every variation of a potential deal” for the 57 years that remain on the parking deal that Chicagoans love to hate.The window opened last summer when Morgan Stanley, Allianz Capital Partners and the Sovereign Wealth Fund of Abu Dhabi signaled their desire to unload Chicago parking meters and started inviting potential bids.But after submitting an undisclosed bid, the mayor quickly learned that the asking price would have been nearly triple the $1.15 billion that Chicago received from the 75-year lease in 2008. Johnson decided that the risk wasn’t worth the reward, either financially or politically.The leveraged buyout would have pledged parking meter revenues as collateral, requiring a steep schedule of rate hikes even higher than the ones built into the lopsided deal signed in 2008 by former Mayor Richard M. Daley.Whether the math even worked would have depended on the interest rate on the borrowing, and the annual growth in parking meter revenues amid a fast-changing landscape for parking demand that includes everything from self-driving vehicles and robot deliveries to congestion fees that discourage people from driving downtown.“If for whatever reason parking habits shifted and revenues were significantly reduced due to changes in user behavior, the City would still be responsible for 100% of the debt repayments. That represents an even greater level of risk than what we face with the current contract,” the mayor said.Ald. Bill Conway (34th), vice chair of the City Council’s Finance Committee, was relieved that Johnson ultimately decided not to reopen the political can of worms.“If we were to have bid $3.4 billion, that would have been a bad choice, a bad investment for the taxpayers of Chicago,” said Conway, a former investment banker who still teaches college finance.“At a time when we face billion-dollar deficits as far as the eye can see, a $40 billion unfunded pension liability and $25 billion in debt, we cannot afford to make a terrible financial decision or make what is already a disastrous deal for the taxpayers even a bigger disaster by throwing good money after bad.”Conway urged Johnson to use the required city approval of an ownership transfer to exact changes benefiting the city, like reclaiming control of city streets and reducing payments due investors when meters are taken out of service.Former Mayor Rahm Emanuel similarly managed to make the best of a bad situation by reducing the city’s liability via increasing the hours and days motorists pay for parking.“When Mayor Emanuel faced this exact same situation in 2013, the contract got amended… We were able to make the deal a little bit better for the city,” Conway said. “We do have a bit of leverage here. And I hope that more rigorous analysis is done into how to negotiate that leverage as opposed to the initial bid we put in.”Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd) cast one of only five “no” votes against the parking meter deal in 2008.As much as he would like to use the required city approval of an ownership transfer to exact changes benefiting the city, Waguespack said he does not…

A magnitude 3.8 earthquake was recorded overnight northwest of Springfield, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.The quake occurred early Tuesday morning about 2.5 miles northwest of the village of Ohlman, roughly 36 miles northwest of Springfield, USGS geophysicist Rafael Abreu Paris said.“A magnitude 3.8 is a small earthquake. This is a quake that is typical for the central U.S.,” Abreu Paris told the Sun-Times. “Anything above a 4.5 is a little high for the region, so a magnitude 3.8 is something that you could expect anywhere in the world.”No injuries or damage have been reported, and none would be expected for an earthquake of this size, Abreu Paris said.The USGS has not detected any aftershocks from the temblor.The U.S. Geological Survey provides additional earthquake information at earthquake.usgs.gov, including an interactive public map of recent seismic activity, Abreu Paris added.