Good afternoon, Chicago.
The nearly 30,000 people incarcerated in Illinois prisons may begin having their mail scanned and subjected to other security measures following reports that those incarcerated and staff members who work in state prisons were in danger of being exposed to harmful chemicals from illegal drugs and other substances being smuggled into the facilities.
The stricter security rules, which are being implemented for the next five months on an emergency basis, were quietly imposed a few weeks ago by the Illinois Department of Corrections. They allow, but do not mandate, IDOC to implement a process to electronically scan and digitize incoming mail and print it for a person incarcerated or send it to them electronically. The head of IDOC also would have the authority to exclude incoming mail from the process.
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.
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Veteran Aaron Hughes speaks in Chicago’s Federal Plaza on Sept. 2, 2025, about ways for members of the Illinois National Guard to oppose a possible federal deployment in the city. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
Veterans, advocates urge National Guard members to resist potentially unlawful Trump orders
As Chicago prepares for federal agents and soldiers to arrive in the city, a group of military veterans, attorneys and advocates urged service members to resist potentially unlawful orders from the Trump administration if deployed. Read more here.
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Eric Lefkofsky, founder and CEO of Tempus, a Chicago-based AI-powered health care technology company, stands outside of the next-generation sequencing laboratory in the Tempus office in Chicago on June 18, 2025. (Audrey Richardson/Chicago Tribune)
Chicago tech entrepreneur Eric Lefkofsky has launched six unicorns, building a legacy far beyond Groupon
For most Chicagoans, however, the soft-spoken Eric Lefkofsky remains something less than a household name, a billionaire entrepreneur whose brand is not emblazoned on a skyscraper, despite helping to put the city on the tech world map. Read more here.
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A Northwestern football game against Miami (Ohio) kicks off Aug. 31, 2024, at Martin Stadium in Evanston. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)
Chicago Stars will play their 2026 NWSL season at Northwestern’s lakefront Martin Stadium
Stars President Karen Leetzow said Martin Stadium is the right size for a professional women’s soccer team at the moment and its accessibility by train, car or bike is an important factor. Read more here.
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Holocaust survivor Rodi Glass becomes emotional watching her story in a video on Aug. 25, 2025, during the opening of Experience360, a downtown Chicago location of the Illinois Holocaust Museum. Fellow Holocaust survivor Marion Deichmann is at left. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
Holocaust Museum opens Experience360 downtown with hologram stories of genocide — including a Rwandan survivor’s story
The new location is open during the Skokie museum’s renovations and includes its first featured genocide survivor outside of the Holocaust, Kizito Kalima of Rwanda. Read more here.
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President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Polish President Karol Nawrocki in the Oval Office of the White House, Sept. 3, 2025, in Washington. (Evan Vucci/AP)
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“So we’re making a determination now,” the president told reporters in the Oval Office during a meeting with Polish President Karol Nawrocki. “Do we go to Chicago? Do we go to a place like New Orleans, where we have a great governor, Jeff Landry, who wants us to come in and straighten out a very nice section of this country that’s become quite, you know, quite tough, quite bad.” Read more here.
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