* Here you go…

* Lee Enterprise | Public defenders work 3 times too many cases, milestone study and new data show: In Illinois, public defenders in St. Clair County each handled more than 350 felonies in 2022. The old standards indicate that’s slightly more than double the recommended maximum while the updated standards suggest it’s at least six times too many cases, assuming the felonies were all low-level.

* Daily Herald | Elgin U-46 joins lawsuit targeting social media companies for harming youth: More than 300 school districts across 11 states have joined the mass lawsuit against social media giants like Meta, YouTube, Snapchat and TikTok. The lawsuit has been filed in U.S. District Court in California.

* Sun-Times | Black CPS teens benefit most from shift from suspensions to restorative practices: Black male CPS students historically have had the highest baseline suspensions and arrests. Over the last decade, rates for students dropped the most as schools switched to restorative practices, Education Lab Research Director Fatemeh Momeni said. This study focused on high schools, but the authors say the benefits were also seen in elementary schools.

* Rockford Register Star | Rockford-area official placed on administrative leave following theft, misconduct charges: An investigation into Bliss began in April 2023 after an employee with the county clerk’s office reported irregularities that she had discovered in two of the County Clerk’s bank accounts. […] The county has hired Sikich, LLP, an accounting firm, to assist the Illinois State Police in the investigation.

* Chalkbeat | COVID relief helped Cook County child care providers stay open, but advocates say more support is needed: The federal Department of Health and Human Services says child care should only cost 7% of a family’s income according to the report. For many families who don’t meet the threshold for the state’s child care assistance program and have infants or two or more children, child care consumes a large portion of household income. In 2022, the monthly income limit to qualify for assistance for a family of four was $5,203. According to the report, the average price for center care for a 2-year-old accounted for 15% of family income in 2021, two times higher than what’s recommended. Illinois Action for Children recommends increasing eligibility for the state’s child care assistance program to support more families.

* WBEZ | Here’s what we know about Mayor Brandon Johnson’s plan to set up migrant ‘base camps’: As for the structures themselves, Ramirez-Rosa said they would be more like “prefabricated buildings” rather than tents, and that the rendering he saw looked like the walls were made of some type of metal, not canvas — though he wasn’t sure, and it’s unclear from a provided photo.

* BND | Closing of agency that has helped metro-east residents since the ’70s leaves ‘a big gap’: Maya Sansard was shocked to hear the “bad news” from her counselor at Call for Help Inc. that the East St. Louis nonprofit known for assisting people in need since the 1970s was shutting down. The group has “worked tirelessly to ease the burdens of people with mental illness, homeless individuals, people suffering abuse, people with major unmet immediate needs, people in despair, and families at risk,” according to a statement from Call for Help.

* WBEZ | Robberies in Chicago are at a six-year high: Robbery sprees are being reported on the West and Northwest sides of the city in larger numbers, University of Loyola Chicago criminal justice professor Arthur Lurigio said. The well-orchestrated robberies target small businesses such as liquor stores or body shops that tend to have lots of cash on hand, he said.

* Reuters | Yield hopes decline in Iowa and Illinois: The latest dry spell, which began in mid-August, has featured periodic heat and has pushed U.S. Corn Belt crops toward maturity too quickly, preventing maximization of yields. Some Crop Watch producers say their crops are now shutting down, meaning weather benefits are waning.

* SJ-R | HSHS restores MyChart electronic health records platform after two-and-a-half week outage: HSHS representatives said “federal law enforcement” was investigating the case. Rebecca Cramblit, a public affairs officer for FBI Springfield, told The State Journal-Register last week that “per FBI policy, we cannot confirm or deny whether we are or are not conducting an investigation.”

* Sun-Times | Riot Fest owner says ‘things finally made sense’ after his recent autism diagnosis: “I’m sure I’ll be thinking back on [this diagnosis] for the rest of my life in a way. … When I talked with my doctor, it was like a floodgate opened, and things finally made sense,” Petryshyn shares. Such as why he can focus on seven to eight things at a time but has trouble verbalizing them, why he can think of solutions to problems, but struggles with execution, or why he was into punk music so early on in his life that ultimately led to his calling.

* Crain’s | Northwestern, U of C move up in rankings of startup founders: Northwestern University and the University of Chicago moved up in PitchBook’s annual ranking of MBA programs for producing founders of venture-backed companies. Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management improved from ninth to sixth place, edging out U of C’s Booth School of Business, which cracked the top 10 by moving to seventh from 11th place in last year’s ranking.

* Tribune | ‘Heartbreaking’: Moroccan community across Chicagoland rallies to help after country’s devastating earthquake: As of Monday afternoon, more than 2,600 people have died and 2,500 are injured following a rare and powerful earthquake that struck Morocco on Friday. Authorities anticipate that the death count will rise as rescuers work to reach isolated mountain areas that are difficult to access. Historic sites in Marrakech, the nearest major city, were also damaged.

* Naperville Sun | Washington Post names Naperville pizzeria as the best New-York style pizza in the state: For New York-style Pizza, Naperville’s Little Pops NY Pizzeria came in first, followed by Zazas Pizzeria in Chicago and Jimmy’s Pizza Cafe in Chicago. Nearby Pomodoro E Mozzarella in St. Charles ranked fifth.