* ICYMI: Regulators once again reject a record rate increase request from ComEd and Peoples Gas. Sun-Times…

- The Illinois Commerce Commission rejected Peoples Gas’ request for “clarification” on its order last month that cut off spending for the pipe program pending an investigation into the project.

- The order slashed a request from the utility to raise rates on its 884,000 Chicago customers by a collective $402 million, down to $301 million.

- The panel previously noted it “will not remove any funding related to emergency response to leaks, pipe breaks, or other critical safety measures.”

* Related stories…

∙ Sun-Times: Smaller electric bill increases for Chicagoans as regulators pull plug on ComEd’s rate-hike bid
∙ Capitol News Illinois: State regulators once again flex muscle in rejecting utilities’ grid plans, lessening rate hikes
∙ Tribune: Illinois regulators reject record rate increase requests from ComEd and Peoples Gas

* Isabel’s top picks…

* WJBC | Candidates for March primary election in Illinois assigned their spots: The process of determining which candidates place where on the Illinois primary election ballot is high-tech enough to attract an audience on Zoom – and simple enough to require only Ping Pong balls and a wooden box. “I do think the lack of complexities makes it easier for us to have a transparent process,” said Brent Davis, director of election operations for the Illinois State Board of Elections. “Not much can go wrong with an empty box and a set of Lotto balls.”

* Crain’s | Thompson Center assessed at more than double 2022 sale price: Kaegi’s office pegged the market value of the 17-story building at 100 W. Randolph St. at $222.8 million for tax year 2023, according to the assessor’s website. That estimate represents what the assessor thinks the property was worth as of the beginning of this year, which is the key number used to determine its next property tax bill. It also marked the first time the assessor’s office estimated the value of the Thompson Center, since it was owned by the state of Illinois and tax-exempt from its completion in 1985 until it was sold last year.

* SJ-R | Haley issues apology; has backing of NAACP branch presidents: The one-minute-and-forty-eight-second video of Haley making the remarks during an NAACP state presidents’ meeting last month was recorded and made public by former NAACP DuPage County president Patrick Watson. It was a segment in a nearly two-hour-long video.

* Here’s the rest of your morning roundup…

* Crain’s | Durbin takes beef about Union Station rehab funding to Buttigieg: In a letter Thursday to U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., urged the feds to place a greater priority on modernizing the historic but outmoded Union Station and surrounding rail access so that the facility can serve as a more effective anchor for Amtrak’s midcontinent operations and a base for Metra commuter lines.

* WAND | New Illinois Laws: Here are 18 key education bills taking effect in 2024:
HB 0342: The state Board of Education must develop a district-level Children’s Adversity Index to measure community childhood trauma exposure and requires teachers to provide instruction on trauma-informed practices.

* CBS Chicago | Illinois offers rebates for electric vehicle purchases, but many find themselves ineligible: As CBS 2’s Tara Molina reported Thursday, there are more than 88,000 electric vehicles registered in Illinois. Gov. JB Pritzker has said his goal is to get that number to a million in the next seven years. But right now, only a few thousand people can take advantage of the state’s incentive program.

* SJ-R | Pritzker lights menorah in Springfield, calls for Illinoisans to defy hate: “But here today, as I look out on all of your faces, a coalition of Illinoisans of faiths and backgrounds of all sorts I am filled with hope,” [Pritzker] said during the ceremony held at the Governor’s Mansion. Anti-semitism and islamophobia have increased nationwide due to the war and being felt in Illinois following the fatal stabbing of 6-year-old Wadea Al Fayoume in a Chicago suburb.

* Borderless | Investigation: Migrants Describe Inhumane Conditions At Chicago’s Largest Shelter: Just days after Illinois Gov. Pritzker shut down a proposed shelter due to health concerns, Venezuelan migrants living in the Pilsen shelter say they are being treated “like dogs.’’

* Tribune | As police stations are cleared, some migrant families are separated, volunteers and migrants say: The women, along with Maria’s husband, had been staying at the Gresham District (6th) police station for a month when they were told they might be separated by city officials who are working to move migrants into city shelters. They’ve been hiding from city workers ever since.

* The Triibe | Unpacking the underlying political tensions driving the effort to repeal Chicago’s sanctuary status: Black communities are still grappling with decades of disinvestment and racist real-estate practices, and many Black Chicagoans and their businesses have been forced out of the city due to a lack of nourishing public institutions and support for Black entrepreneurship. Among the many examples are ones highlighted in a 2021 Politico article titled “The Demise of America’s Onetime Capital of Black Wealth” and Eve L. Ewing’s investigation into the widespread racist school closings on Chicago’s South Side, Ghosts in the Schoolyard.

* WGN | Rosemont Mayor Brad Stephens: We need a better plan for migrants coming to Illinois: Rosemont mayor Brad Stephens joins John Williams to talk about buses of asylum seekers being dropped off in Rosemont and how they are handling the crisis.

* Tribune | ‘Home for the holidays’: Court vacates convictions for cousins in 1981 double homicide, Illinois’ longest-serving exonerees: Just 8 years old when her brother was incarcerated following a double slaying in a Southwest Side park, Pilar More, now 50, watched her older sibling grow up behind bars. Her brother, James Soto, and his cousin, David Ayala were convicted of murder and other felonies in the shooting deaths of 16-year-old Julie Limas and Hector Valeriano, 18, a U.S. Marine on leave, on Aug. 16, 1981. They were sentenced to natural life in prison.

* Chicago Reader | What’s happened since the Reader reported on the number of overdoses on CTA property?: Two months after the Reader found that more than 150 people have died from opioid-related overdoses on the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) in the last four years, the CTA has increased its engagement with harm reduction advocacy groups and extended, and expanded, a contract with outreach agencies. Here is a look at what the CTA has been up to since the Reader published its findings…

* WTTW | Nonprofits Must Register Before Lobbying City Officials Under New Rules: The rules were included in a package of ethics reforms backed by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot that were approved by the City Council 50-0 in July 2019 as federal investigations shadowed City Hall. The rules were set to go into effect Jan. 1, 2020, but were delayed after dozens of nonprofit groups objected, saying the regulations would force them to pay costly registration fees or risk fines.

* Tribune | Ex-Ald. Ed Burke’s defense blasts FBI mole in closing arguments: ‘Why did we have to bring Danny Solis in here?’: “The fact alone that they didn’t call Danny Solis in their case creates a reasonable doubt,” Duffy said. “Why did we have to bring Danny Solis in here? That should give you pause, the fact that they ran an investigation on Mr. Burke for 30 months with a star witness Danny Solis undercover and they didn’t have the decency to bring him here.”

* WGLT | ‘When are you going to resign?’: Public blasts WTVP board’s handling of financial crisis: As promised by station board chairman Andrew Rand, the rumors that the station would be permanently dissolved by its board of directors on Tuesday didn’t come to pass, but it’s been a difficult year for the beleaguered public television station nonetheless. Former president and CEO Lesley Matuszak took her own life a day after resigning in late September. The station’s financial problems first publicly came to light a couple weeks later, when Rand announced the station would cut costs by $1.5 million. The Peoria public television station has since laid off nine employees and indefinitely suspended publication of Peoria magazine.

* Block Club | Riot Fest Switching To Later Dates In 2024, Presale Tickets Go Up Thursday: The West Side festival will be Sept. 20-22 to avoid overlapping with Mexican Independence Day celebrations, organizers said. Presale for three-day passes starts noon Thursday.

* Chicago Defender | Alabama Prison Work Programs Are ‘Modern Day Slavery’, Lawsuit Alleges: “If you didn’t work, you were at risk of going back to the prison or getting a disciplinary (infraction),” LaKiera Walker, who was previously incarcerated for 15 years, said. According to the suit, the state is violating the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution, anti-human trafficking laws, and the Alabama Constitution through its prison labor program. The state claims that the prison jobs prepare inmates for after their release.