Good afternoon! I’m rewatching The Sopranos, which has led to a lot of interesting conversations with my husband about the similarities to old school Chicago politics. Here’s what you need to know today.

1. Mayor Johnson backs removing police officers from public schools

In an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ, Mayor Brandon Johnson said he will give the Chicago Board of Education the green light to end its $10.3 million contract with the Chicago Police Department.

“To end that agreement, there’s no qualms from me there,” Johnson said in his conference room on City Hall’s fifth floor.

CPS officials have already told principals to prepare for the possible removal of police officers by next fall.

Calls to remove uniformed police officers reached a fever pitch during the racial justice protests of 2020.

During that time, a Sun-Times analysis found students attending a high school that had a Chicago officer stationed inside were four times more likely to have the police called on them than kids at high schools that didn’t have in-house cops.

And there was a stark divide in the rate at which Black students were policed compared to their peers. [WBEZ]

2. An effort to keep Trump off Illinois’ primary ballot moves to state court

A bid to remove former President Donald Trump from the state’s March 19 primary ballot has moved to state court, where challengers are hoping to move quickly in a case expected to reach the Illinois Supreme Court, my colleague Jon Seidel reports.

In a lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court, the objectors argue Trump should be barred from the ballot “for having engaged in insurrection having previously sworn an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution.”

The news comes after the Illinois Board of Elections yesterday rejected a similar challenge, saying it lacked the authority to determine whether Trump violated the 14th Amendment, which prohibits insurrectionists from seeking public office.

Challengers in the Cook County lawsuit are requesting to make their argument in court as soon as Monday. [Chicago Sun-Times]

3. A resolution calling for a cease-fire in Gaza passes the City Council with a tie-breaking vote from Mayor Johnson

After a tense and emotional debate mirroring conversations taking place around the world, a deeply divided City Council voted to support a cease-fire in Gaza.

And in a sign of just how contentious the resolution was for council members, 23 voted in support and 23 voted against, setting up Mayor Brandon Johnson to cast the tie-breaking vote.

Cheers could be heard from the public gallery after Johnson voted to support the resolution, which calls on President Joe Biden to support an immediate cease-fire.

In the days leading up to today’s vote, the mayor’s union allies held a rally in support of the resolution. And hundreds of Chicago public school students walked out of classes yesterday and headed to City Hall, calling for an end to the war. [WBEZ]

4. Concerns grow over criminals taking advantage of migrants

The Cook County sheriff’s office this week announced it arrested the leaders of an alleged identity theft ring that promised fake IDs to migrants if they stole items from stores on the Magnificent Mile, my colleague David Struett reports.

Sheriff Tom Dart said the ID fraud ring is a sign of a bigger problem.

“We have no illusions that this is the only one going on out there,” he said.

More migrants are being arrested every month for retail theft in River North, Dart said. Monthly arrests were in the single digits a year ago, but have risen to 92 migrant arrests for shoplifting in December, according to the sheriff’s office.

That number is expected to keep rising.

“The numbers are staggering,” Dart said. “They’re increasing exponentially every month.” [Chicago Sun-Times]

5. A local rising star is at the forefront of bringing more nuanced Black characters to the opera

Whitney Morrison’s character in the new opera, Champion, is complicated, and that’s not something you always see in opera, WBEZ contributor Candace McDuffie writes.

Champion, which runs through Feb. 11 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, tells the story of Emile Griffith, a real-life world champion boxer who infamously threw a fatal blow in the ring after being ridiculed for his sexuality by opponent Benny “Kid” Paret.

Morrison plays Griffith’s mother, offering the rising soprano another chance to play a multidimensional Black woman — a type of character audiences still rarely encounter on operatic stages.

“It’s difficult to play someone who doesn’t necessarily have a moment of redemption, but that isn’t necessarily a villain – that is where we find a lot of people in life,” Morrison said. [WBEZ]

Here’s what else is happening

• The CEOs of Meta, TikTok, X and other social media companies were grilled by senators over concerns of child exploitation. [AP]

• FBI Director Christopher Wray warned Congress that Chinese hackers are preparing to “wreak havoc” on American infrastructure. [USA Today]

• The Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged as it gathers more evidence that inflation is in check. [AP]

• Here’s a look at what you need to know about Neuralink, a brain implant from Elon Musk. [NPR]

Oh, and one more thing …

In case you missed it, Chicago-born rapper, actor, author and activist Common was on WBEZ’s Reset this week, talking about his new book that emphasizes self-care.

In And Then We Rise: A Guide to Loving and Taking Care of Self, Common shares advice on avoiding “foods that don’t do our bodies right,” including some of the soul food and Harold’s Chicken he said he used to frequently eat.

“I love Harold’s Chicken, I love Leon’s Barbecue,” Common told Reset host Sasha-Ann Simons.

“I would put a whole pack of bacon in the microwave, which I know is not good for you. But you know, I just started to notice the difference. And it was because of hip-hop that I even was aware of like, wait, ‘What do you mean vegetarian? … I can’t remember anybody in my circle or at my school or any of my mother’s friends that were vegetarian. We just ate foods that we love and, you know, could afford.” [WBEZ]

Tell me something good …

The nephews were over this weekend and we gave them a bunch of books. What were some of your favorite books as a kid?

Lauren Dowden writes:

“The Wayside School books by Louis Sachar are primo! The stories take place in a building that was accidentally built sideways, so it’s a 30-floor building with one classroom on each floor. Each story is totally absurd. I currently work in education and sometimes things happen that are so equally absurd that I get transported back to reading these paperbacks in my 3rd grade class.”

And Mark Burlingame writes:

“When I was a kid, I read J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Robert A. Heinlein’s The Past Through Tomorrow. In middle or early high school, so getting old by then but still in my ‘kid’ memories, is George Eliot’s Silas Marner, perhaps oddly enough.

“My wife and I read The Hobbit to our kids when they were little. Now my daughter tries to reread the entire Middle Earth series every year or so, and my son is writing his PhD thesis on science fiction and fantasy as literature. Significant?”

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