Good morning, Chicago.
It’s a tale as old as time, or at least as old as TikTok: chicken nuggets lovingly topped with a dab of caviar.
McDonald’s is embracing the trend this Valentine’s Day with a limited-time McNugget Caviar kit. The free kit pairs a one-ounce tin of Paramount’s Siberian sturgeon caviar with a $25 McDonald’s gift card to buy McNuggets. McDonald’s is even throwing in some crème fraiche and a caviar spoon.
Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day, including a step toward state wetland protection, who does what in the Chicago Bears organization and our picks for where to eat and drink during the Super Bowl.
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President Donald Trump smiles after signing a spending bill that ends a partial shutdown of the federal government in the Oval Office of the White House, Feb. 3, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
What Democrats are demanding in the fight over ICE funding
Despite rare negotiations between Democrats and President Donald Trump, a bipartisan agreement on new restrictions for federal immigration enforcement in the next two weeks will be exceedingly difficult — or even “an impossibility,” as Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune said.
Here’s a look at Democrats’ demands and what Republicans are saying about them.
Marimar Martinez speaks during a public forum on violent use of force by Department of Homeland Security agents on Capitol Hill on Feb. 3, 2026, in Washington. Martinez was shot five times by a Border Patrol agent after an encounter in Chicago last fall. (Win McNamee/Getty)
Marimar Martinez recounts shooting by immigration agent at Washington forum
When Marimar Martinez noticed a carload of U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents driving through Chicago last fall at the height of Operation Midway Blitz, she thought she had little to fear from following them.
While testifying at a public forum on the actions of immigration agents in Washington yesterday, Martinez, 30 and a U.S. citizen from a family of Mexican immigrants, recalled how as she turned onto South Kedzie Avenue in Brighton Park, the federal vehicle she’d been tailing swerved into the side of her car. She froze and slammed her brakes. The agent who had been driving got out of his car.
“It seemed like time stopped,” she said.
Mayor Brandon Johnson answers questions during a news conference on the fifth floor of City Hall, Feb. 3, 2026. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)
Mayor Brandon Johnson says it’s up to Cook County state’s attorney to prosecute federal agents
Mayor Brandon Johnson yesterday said it’s now up to Cook County state’s attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke to decide whether to prosecute federal immigration agents for crimes they committed in Chicago, after he signed an executive order he said lays the groundwork for the unprecedented move.
Mayor Brandon Johnson, right, shakes hands with Matthew Brewer, interim chairman of the Chicago Housing Authority, during a ribbon-cutting event for the Edith Spurlock Sampson Apartments in the Lincoln Park neighborhood on Feb. 27, 2025. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)
Chicago schools, transit, public housing remain rudderless under Mayor Brandon Johnson
Chicago’s schools, its train and bus system and its public housing agency have all been without permanent leaders for at least a year now under Mayor Brandon Johnson, complicating their mission to deliver essential services without someone setting clear goals and funding priorities at the top.
The Indiana Statehouse appears on May 5, 2017, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Indiana firing squad bills fail to advance into second half of session
Two bills pertaining to firing squad executions for death row inmates won’t advance further this session unless the authors propose them as amendments to other bills.
Paul Botts, president and executive director of the Wetland Initiative, walks across the ice on Feb. 2, 2026, at Indian Ridge Marsh Park on Chicago’s Far South Side. The wetlands, frozen in the winter, have been restored in recent years from past industrial use and are open to the public via walking trails. Indian Ridge Marsh is public land so it is not at risk of being developed. But it is the kind of wetland that is no longer protected by federal regulations. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
Illinois Rewilding Law, first in US, a step toward state wetland protection
As sweeping changes to the federal Clean Water Act in recent years have weakened protections for wetlands, Illinois has become the first state in the nation to officially recognize a conservation tactic known as rewilding.
The Illinois Rewilding Law, which took effect last month, empowers the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to pursue projects that restore land to its natural state, said Illinois Rep. Anna Moeller, an Elgin Democrat and primary sponsor of the bill.
Chicago Bulls center Nikola Vučević (9) drives the lane against Atlanta Hawks’ Onyeka Okongwu (17) in the third quarter, Oct. 27, 2025, at the United Center in Chicago. (Dominic Di Palermo/Chicago Tribune)
Chicago Bulls’ flurry of deadline activity includes trading Nikola Vučević and acquiring Jaden Ivey
The Bulls are taking a more aggressive approach to the NBA trade deadline this year.
After years of muted activity at the midseason, executive vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas kickstarted a flurry of activity Tuesday — first cementing a three-team trade to acquire Jaden Ivey from Detroit, then offloading Nikola Vučević to the Boston Celtics.
The exterior of Halas Hall on Monday, Jan. 1, 2018 in Lake Forest. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
Who does what in the Chicago Bears organization? Here’s a breakdown.
The 2025 season was one of great transition for the Chicago Bears. For the first time since 1922, Virginia Halas McCaskey wasn’t alive to witness it. The team’s principal owner and matriarch died Feb. 6 at age 102.
The Bears also went through significant change on the football side. They hired Ben Johnson as head coach on Jan. 21, 2025, and he led the team to its first playoff appearance in five years and its first playoff victory since the 2010 season.
The wing tray from Bub City. (Lindsay Eberly)
Super Bowl 2026: Restaurant and bar specials in Chicago
Local bars and restaurants are hosting gatherings and offering packages to go, so you can easily provide your friends and family with enough snacks and drinks to last until the final play. Just make sure to book in advance to avoid fumbling your Super Bowl Sunday.
Shenise Brown as Sara and Monique Marshaun as Sandra in “Confederates” at Redtwist Theatre. (Aaron Reese Boseman)
Review: ‘Confederates’ at Redtwist Theatre asks, can trust survive racism?
John C. Calhoun, a powerful South Carolinian politician and one of the most outspoken defenders of slavery in the first half of the 19th century, popularized the phrase “peculiar institution” as a euphemism for the brutal practice then thriving throughout the southern United States, writes Emily McClanathan. In Dominique Morisseau’s 2022 play “Confederates,” now onstage at Redtwist Theatre, one enslaved woman’s experiences of this peculiar institution are juxtaposed with those of a modern-day Black woman navigating another institution, less overtly insidious but still thorny: higher education.