* The Lions handed the Packers their fifth straight loss last night…

* A roundup to start your day…

* Tribune | As Election Day nears, officials across Illinois boost security amid fear of violence: Election officials across Illinois offer a variety of answers about security and precautions being taken for the Nov. 8 elections and what, if any, harassment or intimidation they’ve received. Some say they haven’t felt tremors from the national threats. Still, many acknowledge there’s been a sea change in how elections are perceived by the public, and they know Illinois isn’t immune.

* Tribune | How an indicted state official who had volunteered for J.B. Pritzker became an issue in the attorney general race: A 2018 J.B. Pritzker campaign volunteer who was indicted last year for allegedly ripping off the Illinois State Police Merit Board is now at the center of a campaign tussle over whether she should face additional charges — a question that has roiled the Nov. 8 race for attorney general.

* Sun-Times | Biden, in Joliet to bolster Rep. Lauren Underwood, calls Medicare, Social Security critics ‘idiots’: Referring to protesters outside the school, Biden, talking about Social Security and Medicare said: “I love those signs when I came in — ‘socialism.’ Give me a break. What idiots.” Democrats accuse Republicans of pursuing policies that would weaken the two programs that senior citizens depend on the most. Though this was an official event, the political appeals were clear, with House Republicans only needing a net gain of five seats to switch control of the chamber — which is why flipping even one Democratic seat in Illinois could have a major national impact.

* Sun-Times | In final push, Kamala Harris frames election as fight for democracy and Republicans vow to ‘restore’ Illinois: Vice President Kamala Harris’ visit to Chicago comes a day after President Joe Biden campaigned for congressional Democrats in the suburbs, as the president, with his low approval ratings, has largely avoided some of the most competitive states.

* ABC7 | Illinois candidates make final push on final day of early voting: Chicago Board of Elections officials will be at the early voting Super Site in the Loop Monday morning to give an update on turnout. Meanwhile, the sprint to the finish is underway in the campaign for Illinois governor. Republican candidate Darren Bailey joining several dozen supporters in the Loop Sunday night for a flag-draped rally.

* Daily Herald | Are political ads more negative this year? Experts say no, there are just more of them: But is the tone and tenor of this election cycle’s negative campaigning especially heightened, or any different from the usual? Not necessarily, according to experts in the advertising and political science fields. There’s just more of it overall: on television, radio, glossy mailbox flyers, billboards and increasingly on social media.

* WTTW | Advocates Look to Combat Election Disinformation Campaigns Targeting Latinos: According to Equis Research, 70% of Latinos use social media as a primary source of political and election news, where fact-checking in Spanish is often sparse. Young Latinos are more than twice as likely as the general population to use messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram, which also lack fact-checking. Jaime Dominguez, political science professor at Northwestern University, says social media entities should take responsibility for moderating disinformation on their platforms.

* Center Square | Candidates hold rallies across Illinois ahead of election: It was a busy weekend of campaigning in Illinois ahead of Tuesday’s midterm election. On Friday, President Joe Biden arrived in Illinois to campaign for two incumbent Chicago-area Democratic members of Congress. Saturday at an event in Joliet, when talking about social security as a safety net for senior citizens, Biden addressed protesters.

* Capitol News Illinois | Contextualizing cash bail’s end:Research from the Loyola University of Chicago’s Center for Criminal Justice examines how arrests in recent years would have been categorized under the Pretrial Fairness Act that ends cash bail beginning Jan. 1, 2023.

* Tom Kacich | The million-dollar race for the 104th Illinois House District: But Rep. Mike Marron, a Republican from rural Fithian who is seeking a third House term, has a race with enough competition to make up for the others. Marron is being challenged for the third consecutive time by Cynthia Cunningham, a social-service worker from rural St. Joseph.

* State Journal-Register | ‘Biased and defamatory:’ Fake, inaccurate newspapers target Dem officials, Illinois voters: Political mailers have been commonplace in election years, telling voters who or who not to support and where they stand on the issues. However, in recent weeks, a similar albeit alternative form of dissemination has occurred throughout Sangamon County in the lead-up to Election Day.

* WCIA | Lawsuit alleges Champaign County election official mishandled ballots: Official says they are sample ballots: In the past 24 hours, a lawsuit was filed in Champaign County alleging a top election official mishandled official ballots, a judge ordered that official be removed from all of her Election Day duties, and that same judge scrapped the order, allowing the Champaign County Deputy Clerk to continue working for the office.

* Tribune | Voters in some suburban areas will decide Tuesday whether to pay for expanded mental health services: Addison, Naperville, Lisle and Winfield townships in DuPage County; Schaumburg and Wheeling townships in Cook County; Vernon Township in Lake County; and all of Will County will hold referendums on whether to establish property tax levies to fund services for mental health, developmental disabilities and addiction.

* Post-Tribune | Franciscan Health Hammond closing its ER by end of the year, leaving Lake County’s largest city with no hospital: After a century of having a hospital in its limits, the City of Hammond will no longer have emergency care services as Franciscan Hammond will close its operations there by the end of the year.

* WCIA | Springfield Clinic ‘not optimistic’ about deal with Blue Cross Blue Shield: A year after Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois (BCBSIL) kicked Springfield Clinic, along with its 450 doctors and 200 advanced practice nurses, out of network, a top executive revealed that the clinic is “not optimistic about an agreement.” In response to an update request from WCIA 3 Thursday, Chief Financial Officer Chase Hammon said Springfield Clinic is “disappointed” that efforts to restore a previously decades-long relationship with the largest insurer in Illinois “have not been more fruitful.”

* NBC Chicago | Illinois’ Secretary of State Election a Battle to Replace Jesse White: The 88-year-old White has served as secretary of state since 1999 when George Ryan was elected as governor of Illinois. Since then, he has routinely collected nearly two-thirds of the vote in every one of his reelection bids, including a 68.3% vote share as he rolled to victory over Jason Helland and Steve Dutner in 2018. Now, White will take a step out of the political theater, and three different candidates are hoping to replace him in office.

* Red Line extension needlessly caught in the switches due to CTA/City Council beef:Sun-Times | If there’s any chance at all to rebuild and repopulate the Far South Side, the Red Line extension is key — and far too important to be caught in a standoff between the CTA president and the City Council.

* Sun-Times | CPS faces $600M financial cliff as costs shift to schools with no long-term funding plan in place: Mayor Lori Lightfoot has moved millions in pensions and other costs to CPS before it becomes independent, run by an elected board. Those new payments and longstanding financial challenges could lead to dire choices once federal pandemic relief runs out.

* Tribune | Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs to buy Chicago-area cannabis operations in deal connected to $2 billion Cresco-Columbia Care merger: Sean “Diddy” Combs has agreed to buy nine cannabis retail stores and three production facilities in Illinois, New York and Massachusetts for $185 million as part of required antitrust divestitures for the pending $2 billion Cresco-Columbia Care megamerger.

* Grown In | Three Illinois dispensary licensees racing to open by early 2023: There’s been little word from Illinois’ first social equity dispensary licensees since they got their licenses from the state in late summer 2022. Although dozens of license winners attended Grown In’s Cannabis Business Conferences in September 2022, one cultivator told us that it’s been, “Very quiet out there.” Illinois is one of the nation’s most lucrative cannabis markets, with just 110 dispensaries that are making $160 million in sales a month. With those kinds of numbers, one would expect dispensary license holders to move as quickly as possible to get a store open.

* NYT | Russia Reactivates Its Trolls and Bots Ahead of Tuesday’s Midterms: The user on Gab who identifies as Nora Berka resurfaced in August after a yearlong silence on the social media platform, reposting a handful of messages with sharply conservative political themes before writing a stream of original vitriol. The posts mostly denigrated President Joe Biden and other prominent Democrats, sometimes obscenely. They also lamented the use of taxpayer dollars to support Ukraine in its war against invading Russian forces, depicting Ukraine’s president as a caricature straight out of Russian propaganda.

* The Hill | Biden on people calling him a socialist: ‘Give me a break, what idiots’: President Biden on Saturday said people holding signs calling him a socialist were idiots, while warning that Republicans want to cut health care benefits for Americans three days before Election Day.

Gov. Pritzker is on the final stretch of the campaign trail. He’ll be holding rallies in Marion at 6:45 a.m., Metro East at 8:45 a.m., Springfield at 11 a.m., Peoria at 1:15 p.m., Quad Cities at 3:30 p.m. and Rockford at 5:30 p.m.

More to come!