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Friday, Oct 2, 2026 - Posted by Rich Miller * We need to do a little reset this weekend. This year has been just crazy for both of us, so we need to turn it around - and we will. We’ll be back Tuesday… Is your heart higher
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Isabel’s afternoon roundup
Friday, Oct 2, 2026 - Posted by Isabel Miller * WAND…
* Illinois Education Association President Karl Goeke…
* Chalkbeat | Education tax credit rules are here. Will they lure Democratic governors off the fence?: Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois previously said he’s worried about discrimination and the lack of accountability measures — concerns many critics share. A Pritzker spokesperson said Thursday the governor’s office is reviewing the rules and will “make a decision grounded in what best supports working families, students, and our public schools.” * Center Square | $4M in taxpayer funds proposed for ballistics investigations: Along with state Rep. John Cabello, R-Machesney Park, Hirschauer cosponsored House Bills 5750 and 5751, filed by state Rep. Rita Mayfield, D-Waukegan. The legislation appropriates $4 million from the state’s general revenue fund for Illinois State Police to partner with the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police and provide grants for NIBIN-supporting equipment. * Daily Herald | Libraries pay more for e-books than consumers. State lawmakers are trying to change that: Legislation approved unanimously by the Illinois House in April and awaiting Senate review would prohibit libraries from being treated differently from individual consumers when purchasing digital books. Meanwhile, publishers are pushing back, saying they need to charge libraries more for e-books and digital audiobooks to stay financially sustainable. * Tribune | Marimar Martinez to file federal lawsuit over shooting by Border Patrol agent: The lawsuit is expected to be filed in U.S. District Court on Monday, almost exactly a year to the day after agent Charles Exum opened fire on Martinez during a traffic altercation in the Brighton Park neighborhood, according to her attorneys, who plan to hold a news conference to show the video to the media. “The presentation will illustrate the sequence of shots and the relative positions of Exum and Marimar’s vehicle, demonstrating how the physical evidence contradicts the government’s account of events,” Martinez’s attorneys said in a news release Friday. * Tribune | Mayor Brandon Johnson’s 911 mental health response teams see uptick, CPD help: “They told us there was no demand,” Johnson said at his City Club of Chicago address on Wednesday. “But calls increased by 51%.” Left unsaid was that the increase still netted a little over 100 emergency responses from May to August — an amount the program saw in just one month at its height in years past. It followed a nadir of calls earlier this spring, when a Tribune investigation found CARE dispatches slowed to a crawl amid a perfect storm of bureaucratic mishaps and political infighting within the Johnson administration. * Sun-Times | Mental health response teams now have night time hours, city officials say: Starting Monday, the Crisis Assistance Response and Engagement (CARE) program will extend its hours of operation to 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday and add a second shift of evening staff. “This program ensures that we no longer criminalize and traumatize individuals in crisis, but instead we offer them pathways to heal,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said at a news conference Friday at the Lawndale Mental Health Center on the Near West Side. * Sun-Times | Mayoral candidate John Kelly vows to use lobbyist clout to block Amtrak move to Bridgeport: Kelly predicted that the insider relationships he has built as a career lobbyist would be used against him in the crowded race for mayor. “My opponents are gonna come at me and I’m sure they’ve got commercials in the can… [saying], `John’s a lobbyist.’ Sorry, lobbyists get s—t done,” Kelly said. “We’ve worked the system for 30 years and we know ins and outs better than anybody. And I don’t know why that is a negative, because I don’t believe that it is. “ * Crain’s | Chicago entrepreneurs plan $250 million deep-tech fund: Two veteran Chicago entrepreneurs plan to raise a $250 million venture capital fund focused on how deep technologies such as artificial intelligence and robotics will expand human capability and extend life. Senu Ventures is headed by Jeremie Bacon, fintech entrepreneur who founded software maker Backstop Solutions, and Garry Cooper, a neuroscientist who launched Rheaply, an exchange for lab equipment. Chris Gladwin, founder of software companies Ocient and Cleversafe, will be an adviser to the fund. * Tribune | As quantum’s presence grows on the Southeast Side, Chicago State University students eye future careers: The chance to get up close with data, experiments, and technology so early in their college careers drew both twins to CSU, especially after growing up in the city’s Austin neighborhood, John Kountz said. “It’s beautiful, because you’ve got normal kids (here) and we’ve never seen ourselves in this position, especially at our age,” John Kountz said of himself and his brother doing research in the lab. “We were like, we’re going to be 50 when we get to this level, but here we are.” * Rick Kogan | Back home in Chicago, singer John Prine gets the celebration we’ve been waiting for: Though he lived for four decades in Nashville, this is where Prine was born and where he first picked up guitar and first wrote the songs that worked their way into local hearts and heads for keeps. His small family home in Maywood was filled with the sounds of folk and country music, brought from the family’s native Kentucky. He served as an Army mechanic in Germany, then came home to work as a mailman, composing songs on his route and tentatively walking onto stages at Chicago’s folk clubs. It’s fitting that we’re now getting several days and nights of celebration of what would have been Prine’s 80th birthday. Many of the upcoming events will benefit his family’s Hello in There Foundation. * WTTW | Daily Herald Journalists Win Union Vote to Form Daily Herald News Guild: The vote comes after journalists at the suburban newspaper announced efforts in August to form a union following the layoffs of a dozen staffers. “The union election reflects Guild members’ efforts to secure competitive wages and pay equity, transparency, a strong voice in the future of their newsroom and the ability to continue reporting on the suburban communities the paper has served for more than 150 years,” according to a news release from the Daily Herald News Guild. * Daily Herald | ‘If not here, then where?’: Teen promoting sustainable farms to consumers: Rattin’s vehicle to spark this change is the mylocalfarmer.org website he built. The website includes interviews he’s conducted with local farmers and photos by fellow Lake Forest High student Noah Goldfayn. So far, the site profiles three farms: Wanda Farms in Harvard, Elewa Farm in Lake Forest, and Local Leaf Farm, an indoor hydroponic growing operation in downtown Highland Park. * Daily Herald | https://apnews.com/article/wyoming-grand-teton-national-park-baseball-game-5a97d844fba76f39ff16e6f7684e0c4: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents returned to Lake County in recent days, apprehending two men in Waukegan, patrolling Gurnee Mills, and being spotted in Round Lake. Rekindling some of the fear instilled during Operation Midway Blitz a year ago, when dozens were arrested by federal immigration officers during a 70-day period. “Last year was awful to experience,” Maria-Elana Jonas, the founder and president of Waukegan-based HACES, said. “They still follow people with racial profiling. I carry my passport.” * WGLT | City of Bloomington leaves questions unanswered about excessive overtime by retired officer: In an interview for WGLT’s Sound Ideas, Jeff Jurgens said Mayor Dan Brady heard about a June traffic stop that’s resulted in a lawsuit before there was a chance to brief him. “I’ve told the mayor that. I said in retrospect, I could have mentioned something sooner, but honestly, it was just trying to get all the information put together,” he said. * WGLT | Draft of Bloomington data center regulations to be made public next week: City Manager Jeff Jurgens said the drafts will be available to the public on Oct. 9. The planning commission will meet at 4 p.m. on Oct. 16 at the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts. Another meeting is planned for Nov. 16 at the same time. * WCIA | Champaign County suspends early voting due to ‘technical issue’: The Clerk’s Office said it became aware of the issue Thursday evening. Officials didn’t explain what the issue is but said it would result in the polls at the Bennett Administrative Center closing on Friday. “We apologize for any inconvenience,” they said. * KFVS | Rail line maintenance disrupts Carbondale-to-Champaign Amtrak service through October: Because of the shift, Amtrak passengers traveling to and from Carbondale and Champaign will be taken by bus during the weekdays. According to the city, there is not an alert about the current change while booking an Amtrak ticket online. Once your ticket is booked, an Amtrak agent will reach out to passengers via email with further information on how to modify your reservation, rebook your trip or request a full refund. * BND | Pride Fest returns to downtown Belleville: The event is organized by Metro East Pride under the banner “Love Is Louder Than Hate.” The first Pride Fest was held on Second Street in 2008. It now spans several city blocks on either side of Public Square, with three entertainment stages and a full slate of events and displays. Its title sponsors are Meridian, Scott Credit Union and YouthCare. * Yahoo Finance | 8 Things That Don’t Add Up About Anthropic’s IPO: Anthropic lost $8.06 billion from operations, up from $2.98 billion in 2024. The headline $42 billion loss exaggerates the cash burn. Yet the underlying business is still losing billions, and those losses are growing. * AP | MLB won’t consider game at Grand Teton National Park, says was only conducting initial due diligence: “MLB has no formal plan to play a game in Grand Teton National Park,” Manfred wrote. “Our team was conducting initial due diligence on many potential sites when this story was reported and we had made no decision of the feasibility of staging a game in Grand Teton National Park. We also had not reached the stage in our due diligence in which we evaluated the environmental impact or spoke to members of the community to solicit their views — steps that would have certainly been a part of any process should it have moved forward.” * Reuters | US job growth undershoots expectations in September, but labor market remains stable: The Labor Department’s closely watched employment report on Friday also showed the unemployment rate increased to 4.2% last month from 4.1% in August as more people entered the workforce. The sharp moderation in job growth likely does not mark a sudden deterioration in labor market conditions. Economists noted that payrolls have a tendency to underperform when the Labor Day holiday falls relatively late in September, as was the case this year. There have been no signs of a broad increase in layoffs. First-time applications for unemployment benefits have been hovering at 57-year lows amid robust corporate profit growth and resilient domestic demand.
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Connecting some rat dots
Friday, Oct 2, 2026 - Posted by Rich Miller * WGN TV…
* The address posted in the accompanying video points to a house owned by Barre Seid, who is one of the quietest billionaires in Chicago but is nevertheless a major contributor to various causes. This is from 2022…
Also 2022…
That state policy network includes the Illinois Policy Institute. Seid’s state and local campaign contributions are here. The moral of this story appears to be: A few municipal fines apparently ain’t gonna stop billionaires from hiring people to serve upscale treats to rats. Discuss.
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Rate Pritzker’s new ads
Friday, Oct 2, 2026 - Posted by Isabel Miller * Press release…
* The spot…
* Pritzker’s campaign also launched four regional ads airing on broadcast and digital platforms downstate. First up, Metro East… * Rockford and the Quad Cities…
Your rating?
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News coverage roundup: NFL commissioner meets with Pritzker, state lawmakers (Updated)
Friday, Oct 2, 2026 - Posted by Isabel Miller * Subscribers know more. Crain’s…
* Sun-Times…
* Tribune…
…Adding… Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson…
* More…
* NBC Chicago | Bears’ stadium update prompts responses from Arlington Heights, Hammond mayors: Now, the mayors of suburban Arlington Heights in Illinois and Hammond in Indiana are sharing their reactions to the news that the two sides met, with Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. saying the Bears informed him of the meeting before it took place. He conceded he wasn’t happy with the meeting taking place, but said he understood the decision during an online community meeting Thursday. […] Arlington Heights Mayor Jim Tinaglia says the village remains in constant communication with state officials about the possibility of hosting the new Bears stadium. “We were aware of today’s meeting between Governor Pritzker, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, and other state leaders, and we are encouraged by the Governor’s statement following that discussion,” he said in a statement. “We welcome continued progress toward keeping the Bears in Illinois and continue to believe that Arlington Heights offers the best opportunity for the Bears to build a state-of-the-art stadium and entertainment district.” * Politico | Bears at the table with Pritzker: Lawmakers who have worked on stadium legislation say any eventual proposal would likely preserve a path for either Chicago or Arlington Heights, consistent with the previous Senate proposal that was designed to be location-neutral rather than favor one site over another. Looking at November: Whether the issue surfaces during the veto session will come down to a familiar Springfield calculation: having enough votes.
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Isabel’s morning briefing
Friday, Oct 2, 2026 - Posted by Isabel Miller * ICYMI: ‘Broadview Six’ judge wants to put prosecutors under oath, keeps contempt charges on the table. Sun-Times…
- She did so at the end of an hourlong hearing in which she asked an attorney for Boutros’ office, point-blank, whether any of the prosecutors who worked on the politically charged case would invoke their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. He said he didn’t know. - She told Boutros’ team she’d be compiling a list of issues for which she wanted more evidence. Their response could come in the form of live testimony or in writing, she said. Regardless, the judge added, it “has to be under oath, under penalties of perjury.” * Related stories… * Gov. JB Pritzker has no public events scheduled today. * ABC Chicago | Illinois Supreme Court asked to review DUI conviction tied to troubled UIC lab testing: Lee is seeking exoneration from the Illinois Supreme Court after his latest post-conviction appeal was rejected. According to the appellate court ruling, Lee’s legal team missed a filing deadline. While the court acknowledged the laboratory had admitted problems with its cannabis testing, it found disputes remained over the facts of the case and concluded: “We affirm the trial court’s judgement.” * Crain’s | Labor ready to block Johnson’s data center moratorium: “We are hotly opposed to any moratorium where a politician wants to take the lazy way out and not actually put a pen to paper, or get staff to put a pen to paper, to solve a problem,” said Marc Poulos, executive director for labor management relations with the Local 150 of the International Union of Operating Engineers. “If you’re going to legislate by polls, then you should probably find a new job.” * Subscribers know more. Capitol City Now | Acting legislative inspector general Risley lays out his priorities: David Risley has the job on an acting basis. And, in a ten-minute video message posted on the office’s web site, he didn’t mention his predecessor’s name, but he did spend a lot of time talking about priorities which at the end were not attributed to Mike McCuskey. * Cook County Record | State contractor exemption doesn’t shield UP from truckers’ IL fingerprint scan suit: On Sept. 30, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of named plaintiff Ernest Payton and many other truck drivers over the question of the reach of an exemption in the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), shielding government contractors from being sued under the law. In the decision, the appeals court judges said the case comes down to the question of what the phrase “while working” means for the purposes of deciding which businesses should be shielded from lawsuits worth many millions of dollars or more, and which ones should not. * QC Times | Illinois gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey, running mate stump at Black Hawk College: Darren Bailey said that if he is elected Governor of Illinois, his first act will be to suspend the state’s gasoline tax and roll back toll increases to make Illinois more affordable for its residents. * Tribune | Illinois attorney general files motion to halt operations at South Deering plant accused of excessive odors: The motion for a temporary restraining order aims to stop operations at the plant while a motion for a preliminary injunction would require the company to address the odors and violations of environmental law and its operating permit. * Tribune | $261 million mass settlement for Guevara police misconduct, Mayor Brandon Johnson proposes: The mass deal pitched by Johnson’s Law Department appears to be the largest single police misconduct settlement in U.S. history. And it will leave a deep and costly mark on the city’s finances as City Hall faces the daunting challenge of crafting a 2027 budget — even as Johnson and key aldermen praise it as a move that will save taxpayers a fortune. And as expensive as it is, it covers roughly half of the outstanding Guevara-tied police misconduct lawsuits. Chicago taxpayers will almost certainly be on the hook for more huge payouts in the not-too-distant future to people suing on the grounds that Guevara framed them for murder. * Tribune | Chicago joins lawsuit over Trump’s EPA repealing rule that limits emissions from power plants: Twenty-one states, led by New York, are challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s power plant rule. The coalition also includes Pennsylvania’s governor, the District of Columbia, New York City, Chicago and the city and county of Denver. They argue that “gutting one of the country’s most significant climate protections” will set the nation back decades and worsen the climate crisis. * Tribune | World Business Chicago skips City Council ethics hearing about videos featuring Mayor Brandon Johnson: Members of the City Council’s ethics committee addressed empty chairs Thursday after officials from World Business Chicago — the city’s public-private economic development organization — didn’t show up to a hearing on the group’s videos featuring Mayor Brandon Johnson. Eight committee members, many of them Johnson critics, had asked WBC officials to explain the organization’s “communications and advertising practices” after it posted several videos prominently featuring the mayor touting neighborhood investments and affordable housing. * Block Club | Council Hearing On City Domestic Violence Program Canceled After Not Enough Alders Show Up: The hearing was in direct response to a Block Club report published in June that revealed the office has struggled to be effective. The program, which was expanded last year, has touched a nerve because it has produced few documented results for domestic violence survivors, Block Club reported at the time. Advocates and survivors on Thursday hoped to provide comment on their experiences with the program and hear more information from city officials. Some survivors and advocates have been critical of the office, while others said they have found it to be helpful. * Sun-Times | Chicago parking rate hikes should be tied to inflation, and out-of-towners should pay more, Ald. Dowell says: “We haven’t raised parking rates since 2022… It makes sense to do an escalator… Making it more predictable helps everybody…Anytime we can take some revenue and put it in a lockbox and put it towards our pension liabilities, we should do that,” Dowell said. “It may [also] be time to look at… different rates between Chicago residents — giving them a break — and charging suburbanites who use our parking system more… Suburbanites put wear and tear on our streets and use our system, and they don’t pay anything towards that.” * Daily Herald | Lake County GOP launches opposition to school sales tax referendum: On Thursday, the Lake County Republican Central Committee launched a campaign against the measure, saying families already are stretched thin by rising costs and high taxes. “This is not a Democrat issue or a Republican issue,” said committee Chair Dawn Abernathy. “This is a resident of Lake County issue.” Volunteers are knocking on doors and distributing information in all 18 county townships to ensure voters understand the potential impact of a sales tax hike before heading to the polls. * Daily Southtown | Supporters of laid-off custodians rally in Crestwood, cite ‘gross stuff’ at District 130 schools: Diaz said she’s still heartbroken that she and 30 other custodians were forced out two days after classes resumed, having worked extremely hard over the summer to ensure all 12 schools were clean and welcoming for students. “Others of my co-workers, they were here for 28 years, and they were still outsourced,” she said. Six maintenance staff were retained, expected to handle the work until custodians from a new company started work Sept. 7. * Daily Southtown | Judge appoints receiver to manage Calumet City’s River Oaks West shopping center in foreclosure lawsuit: Less than a month after a $45.6 million foreclosure lawsuit was filed against the owner of River Oaks West shopping center in Calumet City, a Cook County judge has appointed a receiver to manage the struggling property. Frontline Real Estate Partners was chosen to manage day-to-day operations of the shopping center at 410 to 500 River Oaks West Road as of Sept. 3, the same company currently overseeing operations of the dilapidated Autumn Ridge apartment complex in south suburban Park Forest. * NBC Chicago | David Braun, Northwestern thrilled for new Ryan Field’s debut: “My goodness. I don’t think words do it justice,” Braun said on NBC Chicago’s ‘Tonight With Lou Canellis.’ “It’s in a lot of ways unbelievable. What we do understand is we’re moving into the best stadium in all of college football.” Braun called the stadium the “best homefield advantage in the Big Ten,” and it will be in the spotlight on Friday night, with the sold-out game airing nationally on Fox. * WCBU | Plans for Peoria riverfront amphitheater move forward despite death of benefactor: “It’s just something he wanted to do for his wife, and he wanted to call it ‘the Dee;’ he didn’t want to put his name on it. It was kind of a late-in-life love story.” Hengst is survived by his nephew Mark Hengst and Dee Hengst’s daughter, Michelle Lott. The philanthropic foundation announced Hengst’s death in a media release sent this week to WCBU. * WAND | Sarah Bush Lincoln Regional Cancer Center expands to better serve Coles County: Director Leigh Cheney says the expansion will create more future opportunities to serve patients. “This is basically going to help increase our clinic area by over 50%, as well as our infusion oncology area by the same amount,” Cheney said. “We’re adding additional chairs for infusions, and we’re also going to be moving our medical infusions over into that same area.” * WGLT | Documentation Project highlights how Trump policies are impacting higher ed, museums and health care in McLean County: Spalding spoke about the loss of various science grants and the impact on universities. Illinois Wesleyan participation in National Science Foundation [NSF] grants previously included Step Up, for professional development to high school physics teachers; OPTYCs, which addressed disciplinary isolation among two-year college faculty; Physics and Astronomy SEA Change that improved environments for retention of undergraduate students; and a NASA HEAT grant for developing research-based instructional materials. For each cancelled grant, there was no opportunity provided for IWU or other similarly-affected universities to appeal, he said. * NYT | Taking On Trump Immigration Agenda, Justices Will Review Migrant Detention Policy: The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to review the Trump administration’s policy of indefinitely detaining immigrants who crossed the border illegally years ago, signaling the court plans to weigh in on major pieces of President Trump’s aggressive deportation agenda as it begins its new term on Monday. The policy is a departure from past practice, when such migrants were generally allowed an opportunity to seek release after a hearing before a judge. * New Republic | Trump Uses Decades-Old Law to Collect Flock Data Nationwide: Thanks to a 1980s anti–drug trafficking program, cities across the U.S. are being forced to turn over their license plate reader data to the Trump administration. 404 Media reports that the federal government is using the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program to collect data from Flock, Axon, and other cameras used by local police, so that it can be used for a national surveillance program. The plan is to centralize the data on the government’s servers and make it available to other law enforcement agencies. Data collected by HIDTA can also be shared with the National License Plate Reader Program run by the Drug Enforcement Agency.
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Good morning!
Friday, Oct 2, 2026 - Posted by Isabel Miller
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Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Supplement to today’s edition
Friday, Oct 2, 2026 - Posted by Isabel Miller
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Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Today’s edition of Capitol Fax (use all CAPS in password)
Friday, Oct 2, 2026 - Posted by Rich Miller
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Selected press releases (live updates)
Friday, Oct 2, 2026 - Posted by Isabel Miller
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