Good morning, Chicago.

The movers and shakers strolling through Rosemont aren’t your normal power brokers. Some still have braces. Others observe a strict bedtime.

But don’t be fooled. The children working deals at this year’s National Sports Collectors Convention control inventories worth more than many adults earn in a year.

“Kids literally have a down payment on a house in their case,” said Zach Grygier, a 29-year-old sports card dealer. “They can’t even drive a car and they have a down payment on a house.”

The National returned to the northwest suburb last week, drawing hundreds of dealers and tens of thousands of collectors from across the country for five days of buying, selling and trading sports cards and memorabilia. It marked the convention’s 16th appearance in the Chicago area and its first consecutive return to the same venue in 43 years.

Read the full story from the Tribune’s Lila Hempel-Edgers.

Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day, including: the latest candidate to announce a run for Chicago mayor, Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin’s quarter-century fight for the DREAM Act and how Lollapalooza closed out the four-day festival with vibes and mud.

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Hundreds of Chicago police officers barred from testifying as discipline slowdown drags on

For three years, Chicago police officers accused of serious misconduct have had to sit and wait for the Illinois Supreme Court to decide the future of officer discipline. Bad cops are not being fired, and good cops who may be wrongfully accused are stuck in professional purgatory.

And as the city and the Fraternal Order of Police await resolution in the yearslong legal fight, records reviewed by the Tribune show local prosecutors have disqualified dozens of current Chicago Police Department officers from testifying in criminal cases, even as their disciplinary matters remain pending.

Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias announces run for Chicago mayor

Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias announced yesterday he will run for mayor of Chicago, ending over a year of speculation and making official his frontrunner status in the already-crowded field.

Giannoulias entered the race buoyed by high name recognition, support from trade unions and a towering lead in campaign cash. He announced his campaign at a rally inside the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 134 headquarters in Bronzeville, joined by a cadre of supporters from the City Council, trade unions and the business community.

Related:

• Chicago mayoral election 2027: Who are the candidates so far?

Judge rules Illinois not required to turn over voter rolls to Feds

A federal judge tossed a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice, saying the federal agency cannot compel the Illinois Board of Elections to release sensitive information about the state’s roughly 8.3 million registered voters.

Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin’s quarter-century fight for the DREAM Act remains illusory, but its effects are real

At a tidy Lutheran church near the U.S. Capitol in mid-July, Tereza Lee, a 43-year-old professional musician who has performed at Carnegie Hall and with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, sat at a grand piano near the wooden altar and played a portion of Frédéric Chopin’s iconic “Fantaisie-Impromptu.”

In the pews, more than a dozen well-dressed young Black, Hispanic and Asian men and women gathered for an unusual ceremony. They wore caps and gowns of various colors — mostly black, but also shades of blue and cardinal red — from colleges across the country. One decorated her green cap with flowers, a butterfly and the message: “Dreams without borders. Gracias mami y papi.”

At a place of honor up front sat U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, an 81-year-old Democratic lawmaker on the verge of retirement, whom many in the room credited for allowing them to attend college, find jobs and start families because of — and this doesn’t happen often — a bill he has for decades tried, but failed, to pass.

An Indiana pastor became an Illinois oilman. Spills and pollution followed.

Tens of thousands of gallons of fluid spilled from the open pit, urged on by heavy spring rains and unencumbered by an emergency pump disabled by a power failure.

The toxic mix of oil and an underground water called brine, several times saltier than the ocean, poured into a ditch along Petrolia Lane and crept toward an unnamed stream.

It then flowed for 3 miles along a serpentine creek, heading east and north en route to the Embarras River. From there, the current of the river known downstate as the “Ambraw” took it toward the Wabash River along the Illinois-Indiana state line.

Related:

• Read the Tribune’s investigation into Illin