* Here you go…

* Center Square | Judge in Mapes case says evidence of immunity deal allowed at trial: A judge rejected a bid from Michael Madigan’s former chief of staff to keep mention of his immunity deal out of a trial in which prosecutors allege he failed to keep his end of the deal and lied during grand jury testimony.

* Crain’s | For their first big post-Madigan fundraiser, Illinois Dems land a star: The party today is announcing that U.S. Sen. Rafael Warnock of Georgia will be the keynote speaker at what’s being billed as the party’s inaugural Illinois Gala in Chicago on Oct. 27. Tickets start at $150 a pop and then go way, way up, with platinum-level individual tickets priced at $10,000 each and corporate and PAC sponsorships available for $13,700 to as much as $68,500, according to promotional materials being sent to potential donors.

* WAND | Top Illinois committee suspends controversial DCFS day care rule amid worker shortage: The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services allowed assistants at day care centers to watch children under two for up to three hours per day throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to help address the worker shortage. Now, DCFS is facing scrutiny for trying to reduce the time assistants spend monitoring rooms.

* WTTW | Media Matters When It Comes to the Public’s Perception of Crime and Violence: “Mainstream media very narrowly defines crime as shootings, homicides and property theft, the most sensational types of crimes that have Black/Brown faces often attached as perpetrators and victims,” says Morgan Elise Johnson, co-founder and publisher of The TRiiBE, a digital media platform reporting on the experiences of Black Chicagoans.

* Tom Kacich | Miller, Budzinski taking different routes to re-election: Rep. Mary Miller, the second-term Republican from Oakland in Coles County, reported nearly $150,000 in campaign contributions for the quarter that ended June 30. Her campaign spent about $155,000 during the period and reported $390,161 on hand on June 30. By contrast, Rep. Nikki Budzinski, a freshman Democrat from Springfield whose district includes Champaign-Urbana, reported nearly $450,000 in campaign contributions with expenditures of about $158,000. Budzinski’s campaign said it had $720,125 on hand on June 30.

* Center Square | Freedom Caucus calls for Illinois public libraries to withdraw from American Library Association: The Freedom Caucus said in April 2022, Emily Drabinski wrote in a Twitter post “I just cannot believe that a Marxist lesbian who believes that collective power is possible to build and can be wielded for a better world is the president-elect of @ALALibrary. I am so excited for what we will do together. Solidarity! And my mom is SO PROUD I love you mom.” State Rep. Jed Davis, R-Newark, said the remarks should raise a red flag about the organization.

* Pioneer Press | State Rep. Canty hears constituents’ concerns, discusses needed legislation over servings of fro-yo: In addition, she said she’s working with a few legislators on reexamining how to manage safety and inspections at carnivals after some recent incidents of injuries on carnival rides. “I want to do everything, I want to help everyone,” Canty said, adding education has been her most recent focus. “But at my heart, I’m truly a generalist.”

* Sun-Times | Mayoral allies lay groundwork for mental health plan dubbed ‘Treatment Not Trauma’: Speakers included psychoanalyst Dr. Eric Reinhart, an anthropologist of policing, prisons and public health. Reinhart is among those being pushed by community advocates as a possible replacement for Dr. Allison Arwady. Reinhart isn’t just urging Johnson and his Council allies to re-open the six mental health clinics famously shuttered by former Mayor Rahm Emanuel. What post-pandemic Chicago really needs, Reinhart said, is to reopen the 19 mental health clinics it had during the 1980s under former Mayor Harold Washington.

* Tribune | Marilyn Mulero — once sent to death row without a trial — sues Chicago after her conviction is overturned: A mother of two young children when initially incarcerated as a 21-year-old in 1992, Mulero joins a growing number of exonerated ex-inmates who have sued former detectives Reynaldo Guevara and Ernest Halvorsen. Her lawsuit accuses the Chicago Police Department of fostering an environment in which the detectives, in framing her for murder, were allowed to fabricate evidence, coerce a false confession through psychological torture, manipulate lineups and violate her civil rights in spite of her innocence.

* Tribune | Vice President Kamala Harris uses Chicago appearance to call for Latinos to act against extremists: Harris stressed the “challenges of the moment we are in” as a result of “extremist so-called leaders.” She referenced recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings that reversed a federal right to an abortion and affirmative action at universities and limited the Voting Rights Act, as well as efforts within states to curb the availability of books and teaching of race in U.S. history.

* Crain’s | Old Post Office developer looks to defy a brutal market with a new project: The New York-based real estate developer is ramping up marketing for Canal Station, a refurbished office building at 801 S. Canal St. with 683,000 square feet of workspace that it aims to have mostly ready for tenants to move into by the end of the year. The $265 million project is breathing new life into a six-story property stretching almost a full city block along Canal Street between Polk and Taylor streets; it was fully leased to Northern Trust from 1990 until the bank’s lease expired in late 2020.

* Crain’s | Crain’s adds reporter to government and politics beat: Before coming to Crain’s, Giangreco worked for several years as a freelance reporter whose work has appeared in The Guardian, Politico Magazine, Bloomberg CityLab, The Washington Post and Pew’s Stateline. Before coming to Chicago, she covered the defense industry in Washington, D.C.

* Crain’s | Back-to-school spending this year may break records, reports forecast: U.S. families expect to spend $4.6 billion more in back-to-school shopping for grades K-12 and $20 billion more in back-to-college shopping, according to a survey by the National Retail Federation.

* NYT | From Twitter to X: Elon Musk Begins Erasing an Iconic Internet Brand: Inside Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco on Monday, X logos were projected in the cafeteria, while conference rooms were renamed to words with X in them, including “eXposure,” “eXult” and “s3Xy,” according to photos seen by The New York Times. Workers also began removing bird-related paraphernalia, such as a giant blue logo in the cafeteria. Outside the building, workers took off the first six letters of Twitter’s name before the San Francisco Police Department stopped them for performing “unauthorized work,” according to an alert sent by the department.

* Daily Herald | Where does Arlington Park wreckage go? Some bricks to be preserved, other debris being recycled: Arlington Heights Mayor Tom Hayes said Monday the village is leading an effort to preserve about 1,000 bricks and make them available to the public. Plans for how or when the relics would be distributed are still being formulated.