Good morning, Chicago. From Project 2025 to Evangelicals for Harris, graduates and former faculty of Wheaton College are playing an outsize role in the upcoming presidential election, as American evangelicalism faces a crossroads over a potential second term for former President Donald Trump. Wheaton College graduate and former Trump administration official Russell Vought is a key architect of Project 2025, the conservative blueprint that seeks to drastically overhaul the federal government under the next Republican president. At the same time, a growing movement within evangelicalism to stave off Trump’s bid to return to power also includes strong voices emanating from Wheaton College, a flagship evangelical school of under 3,000 students roughly 30 miles from downtown Chicago. A recent Evangelicals for Harris zoom call featured about 20 speakers, including former Wheaton College visiting assistant professor Joey Cochran. He told the Tribune he’s “thrilled” to support Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris. “For all of us who believe in democracy, we believe there should be a peaceful transfer of power every four years in the executive branch,” Cochran said. “Until the last transfer of power, I don’t think we ever thought this wouldn’t happen peacefully.” Read the full story from the Tribune’s Angie Leventis Lourgos. Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day. Subscribe to more newsletters | Puzzles & Games | Today’s eNewspaper edition A sign indicates low water levels for the Illinois River at the William G. Stratton State Park in Morris on Sept. 20, 2024. (Tess Crowley/Chicago Tribune) Water levels on the Mississippi River are low. That’s raising concerns for Illinois farmers during the harvest. Water levels in the Lower Mississippi River have dipped unusually low for a third year in a row, restricting how much grain can be transported downstream as harvest season gets underway. If levels keep dropping and barge traffic slows navigation, some Illinois farmers worry that soybean and corn prices will drop too or that they won’t be able to get fertilizer from downstream to begin prepping their fields for next year’s crops. Carolina Hidalgo, left, and her husband, Jackson Pedron, attend a religious service along with their daughter Dariannys, 6, in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood during the Labor Day holiday weekend on Sept. 1, 2024. Jackson had his leg amputated in Venezuela in 1999 after he was shot while a group attempted to steal his shoes. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune) After a treacherous, monthslong journey from Venezuela to Chicago, migrant amputee marries longtime love: ‘She’s my life. My everything.’ On a sunny day in Little Village in September, Jackson Pedron and his wife, Carolina Hidalgo, stood next to each other and prayed, as they have done thousands of times before. They raised up their hands. Under a large white tent in a parking lot, heat radiated from the concrete. A pastor for New Life Centers stood at the front of the church gathering and reminded people in the crowd to treasure where they came from. “Your culture is a gift from God,” he said. Mayor Brandon Johnson looks on as Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez speaks during a ribbon-cutting ceremony outside Uplift Community High School in Chicago on Sept. 3, 2024. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune) Editorial: Chicago’s school board has a duty to taxpayers to back Pedro Martinez against Brandon Johnson They say you can’t fight City Hall, writes The Editorial Board. But Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez is doing just that, refusing to bow to Mayor Brandon Johnson’s desire to replace him with a new boss of the city’s troubled school system. A woman holds two boxes of at-home COVID-19 test kits in Washington on Dec. 22, 2021. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) Americans can order free COVID-19 tests beginning in September Starting in September, Americans will be able to order free COVID-19 test kits that will be mailed to their homes. Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams (18) walks off the field after losing against the Indianapolis Colts 21-16 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on Sept. 22, 2024. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune) Caleb Williams took a step forward, but Chicago Bears did too much wrong: Brad Biggs’ 10 thoughts on the Week 3 loss Rookie quarterback Caleb Williams took a pretty good step forward in his third start, but the Chicago Bears did far too much wrong to beat a previously winless team in losing to the Indianapolis Colts 21-16 on Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium. Here are 10 thoughts on the offense and what’s next for the Bears. Bears say Week 3 loss is about ‘missed opportunities’ — a strip-sack, two INTs, a special teams penalty, a red-zone failure Column: Bears opt for finesse over force during their moment of truth on the goal line Former Mets pitcher Jay Hook, a Grayslake native and Northwestern alumnus, shown in 1963. (New York Mets via the Society for American Baseball Research) ‘The whole thing is too bad’: 1962 New York Mets pitcher Jay Hook feels the Chicago White Sox’s pain as they near loss record Jay Hook knows exactly what the 2024 Chicago White Sox are going through. Hook pitched in the major leagues from 1957 to 1964 and made a career-high 34 starts for the 1962 expansion New York Mets. That team set the modern-day major-league record with 120 losses. White Sox tie the modern MLB record with their 120th loss this season, falling 4-2 to the San Diego Padres Column: How did the White Sox fall to such depths? Gradually — and then suddenly. A truck rumbles across the Crawford Avenue bridge over the Cal-Sag Channel near the Alsip/Robbins border on Feb. 25, 2019. The bridge has been identified as a “unique Parker-style truss bridge and is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places,” according to a Cook County overview of a planned project along Pulaski Road. (Ted Slowik/Daily Southtown) Landmarks: Pulaski Road cousin of Golden Gate Bridge earns historical status Chicago’s bridges are internationally famous and celebrated locally, except perhaps by those waiting in traffic when a drawbridge is raised. “They’re part of the fabric of our city,” said Margaret Frisbee, executive director of Friends of the Chicago River, which operates the McCormick Bridgehouse & Chicago River Museum downtown. “Chicago is here because the river is here, and the bridges tell the story of our history and how it evolved.” Deputy Chief John Hartnett informs a group of over 300 protesters of their rights and the law about stopping construction work on Aug. 13, 1969, in Chicago. The group had gathered at a construction site at the University of Illinois and then marched to the Civic Center. (Dave Nystrom/Chicago Tribune) Picketers shut down construction sites in 1969 in push for more Black union jobs In July 1969, a strange scene unfolded outside a building on the 3400 block of Douglas Boulevard: Picketers demanded that a building project be shut down, causing workers to walk off the job. It was a familiar scenario in labor-friendly Chicago, but the players were not the usual suspects. Nafsi, a finer dining soul food restaurant, located inside the South Shore Cultural Center. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune) Restaurant news: Nafsi reclaims the South Shore Cultural Center with elevated soul food  The finer dining soul food restaurant Nafsi just opened inside the historic South Shore Cultural Center, a former country club that once barred Black and Jewish people from membership on the South Side of Chicago. Trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire performs at the Hyde Park Jazz Fest on Sept. 26, 2015. He plays the opening day of this year’s festival. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune) Hyde Park Jazz Festival is back, packed with primo music — but facing its biggest challenges ever The Hyde Park Jazz Festival sprawls across a setting overflowing with jazz history. Hyde Park, as well as surrounding Woodlawn, Kenwood, Bronzeville, Washington Park and Englewood, were crucibles for the genre, from big band stages that welcomed Louis Armstrong to the ongoing sonic forays of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians and Sun Ra Arkestra.