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This Thursday, read stories from WTTW News on conservation efforts, the fallout from a Chicago Border Patrol shooting and City Hall.
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The bluff along Greene Preserve's Lake Michigan shoreline has been hard hit by erosion. Restoration efforts will focus on stabilizing the bluff using nature-based solutions. (Courtesy of Lake Forest Open Lands Association)
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If landscapes could talk, the 61-acre Greene Nature Preserve in Lake Forest would have quite the tale to tell.
This is where the last glacier deposited a mix of sand, gravel, silt and clay. Water running over this moraine carved channels into the comparatively softer soil, creating a ravine-bluff ecosystem that stretches along 22 miles of Lake Michigan north of Chicago up to Wisconsin. Greene Preserve harbors one of the finest remnants of this ecosystem, one of the rarest and most fragile landscapes in Illinois.
Apart from supporting threatened and endangered plants and wildlife, the ravine-bluff's characteristic ridges and valleys offer a welcome bit of topography in a part of the state that otherwise has all of the interest of a flat line.
“This is a regional treasure,” said Ryan London, president and CEO of Lake Forest Open Lands Association, the nonprofit that owns the preserve.
To protect that treasure, the organization is preparing to embark on the latest phase of ongoing restoration work at the site, thanks to a $5.75 million federal grant — the largest in Lake Forest Open Lands' history.
More context:
The incursion of invasive species and commercial and residential development has threatened the Greene Preserve. The latter, in particular, has dramatically increased the amount of water entering Lake County's coastal ravines, which are conduits in a narrow watershed that drains into Lake Michigan.
For millennia, the ravines performed admirably as natural infrastructure, but have been overwhelmed by manmade alterations. So for the past decade, Lake Forest Open Lands has been engaged in a series of projects at the site, aimed at stemming the damage, restoring the landscape and building resilience. Its partners have included the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and the Army Corps of Engineers.
Initial work by Lake Forest Open Lands focused on removing invasive trees (primarily buckthorn), dams and concrete; regrading slopes; rebuilding ravine beds; and replanting areas all but stripped of vegetation.
The benefits were almost immediate. Fish returned to restored streams and spring ephemeral flowers reappeared once sunlight — formerly blocked by impenetrable buckthorn thickets — could reach the forest floor.
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Marimar Martinez appears at a press conference in downtown Chicago on Feb. 11, 2026. (WTTW News)
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As Marimar Martinez sat in a hospital bed last October, hours after she was shot five times in Brighton Park, friends and colleagues of the Border Patrol agent who fired his gun at her showered him with praise.
“You are a legend among agents you better f---in know that,” one text sent to Agent Charles Exum read. “Beers on me when I see you at training.”
That text was among a trove of evidence released by Martinez and her attorney Wednesday as they plan to file a civil suit against Exum and Department of Homeland Security officials, who labeled the 30-year-old Montessori school teacher as a “domestic terrorist” before prosecutors abruptly dismissed their case against her.
What happened:
The new evidence includes texts to and from Exum following the shooting, surveillance photos and body camera footage from agents who were at the scene of the Oct. 4 shooting. Much of it contradicts the narrative spread by DHS, which alleged that Martinez “ambushed” Border Patrol agents and rammed them with her vehicle, Parente said.
“I think (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) was hoping they would get some radical individual so they could support some of their false claims, but they picked the wrong victim to mess with,” Martinez’s attorney Christopher Parente said at a news conference Wednesday.
Martinez and her attorneys say they plan to file a federal claim Wednesday ahead of an eventual civil lawsuit against Exum. In a statement Wednesday, a Border Patrol spokesperson said Exum was placed on administrative leave and referred any further questions to the Department of Justice.
Parente added that he believed federal prosecutors in Indiana have launched a criminal investigation into Exum for the shooting. That case cannot be prosecuted by prosecutors in Illinois because Exum acted as their witness in the Martinez case.
Parente on Wednesday said that evidence shows Exum also lied to federal investigators when he claimed that he fired five shots through Martinez’s windshield as she drove directly at him. According to Parente, the government’s own evidence shows one bullet hit the rear passenger window and another bullet traveled from the rear of the vehicle to the front.
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(WTTW News)
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Chicago taxpayers are poised to pay $29.2 million to four men who spent a combined 71 years in prison after they were framed by a disgraced ex-CPD detective for separate murders between 1991 and 1997.
Without debate, the City Council’s Finance Committee voted unanimously Wednesday to recommend that each of the lawsuits be resolved without a trial. A final vote by the full City Council is set for Feb. 18.
All four men’s convictions were based on evidence gathered by former Chicago Police Detective Reynaldo Guevara, who has been accused of routinely framing suspects.
A spokesperson for Corporation Counsel Mary Richardson-Lowry said the proposed settlements “bring the matters to a responsible close” after extensive negotiations to reach resolutions that are fair, fiscally responsible, and in the best interest of taxpayers.”
What else happened:
A key City Council panel voted 15-18 to reject a proposal to pay $8.3 million to the family of a woman who was struck and killed by a driver being chased by Chicago police. Dominga Flores Gomez, 55, died in the crash that ended the chase launched by two Chicago Police Department vehicles just before 9 p.m. Sept. 28, 2022, in McKinley Park, records show.
Owners of some cars reported as abandoned would get another shot at preventing their vehicle from being towed to the city’s dreaded impound lot under a measure endorsed Wednesday by the City Council’s Finance Committee. The agreement to settle two long-running lawsuits would cost taxpayers $1.96 million, which the City Council’s Finance Committee unanimously approved Wednesday. Approximately $1.43 million will be used to create a compensation fund for Chicagoans whose cars did not have a valid state registration and were towed after
June 11, 2017.
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More From WTTW News:
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Your last chance to vote in the Chicago snowplow naming contest is Saturday. Finalists include Abolish ICE, Buckingham Plowntain, Mustard, Snow Ketchup, Svencoolie and Urbs in Hortsnow.
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Back in the Day: February 12, 1939 - Ray Manzarek, Keyboardist for the Doors, Born in Chicago
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The Doors were not a Chicago band. They formed in Los Angeles and released six studio albums in five years before the Florida-born frontman Jim Morrison died unexpectedly at age 27. But the instrumentalist who’s arguably the most responsible for the pioneering rock’n’roll outfit’s distinctive sound was from Chicago. On this day 87 years ago, Ray Manzarek, the grandson of Polish immigrants, was born in the city in 1939 and raised on the South Side. He attended the Southwest Side’s St. Rita of Cascia High School and later DePaul University, where he played jazz piano in his fraternity band and graduated in 1960. In 1965, after getting his Master's from UCLA film school, he
formed the Doors with Morrison in Venice. His masterful organ tones added rich color and groove to their brooding compositions. 20 years before his death in 2013, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
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This Week’s Arts and Culture Events
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Every Thursday, WTTW News newsletter producer Josh Terry highlights his picks for the week’s must-see cultural events.
Josh Terry: It’s Valentine’s Day weekend. As you take time to celebrate your loved one, don’t sleep on the rich bouquet of cultural roses delivered straight to your city. From a documentary screening in Evanston with a director Q&A, a neighborhood craft market in Ukrainian Village and more, make the most of your hopefully romance-filled week.
Film: “Union” — The Block Museum of Art (Evanston)
In 2020, workers at Amazon’s JFK8 Warehouse in Staten Island launched an unprecedented unionization effort and filmmaker Brett Story chronicled the drive in his 2024 documentary “Union.” On Thursday, he’s appearing at the Evanston Art Center for a screening and Q&A. Buy tickets here.
Market: Handmade Market — Empty Bottle
Want something totally unique, handmade, and memorable? Stop by the Empty Bottle on Saturday for the Handmade Market. It runs there every second Saturday from November through April, from noon to 4 p.m. It’s a free event, but you can learn more about it and its vendors here.
Culture: Lunar New Year — Constellation
Head to Bricktown, a cozy pocket of Roscoe Village near the Avondale border, to Constellation for a celebration of the Lunar New Year. It’s the Year of the Horse, so the Chinese Fine Arts Society and Chinese American Museum of Chicago have put on a night of traditional and contemporary dance performances alongside food, drink and a market. Performers include Irene Hsiao, multidisciplinary artist and Chinese Fine Arts Artist in Residence, Menghua Guan, CCCC Lion Dance Troupe and the Yin He Dance Group. Buy tickets here.
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What's your ideal date night in Chicago?
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Email DailyChicagoan@wttw.com with your responses and your answers might be published.
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5:30 PM | 10:00 PM
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Want more WTTW News content? Follow WTTW on Instagram to check in with us daily, go behind-the-scenes, and more.
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Newsletter Producer: Josh Terry
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