*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* Tribune | Members of Midwest farming community connect with shrimper, researchers in Gulf dead zone visit: Six members of Midwestern farming communities huddled around Louisiana fisherman Lance Nacio earlier this month as he showed family photos and spoke about the shrimping business he inherited from his father and grandfather. “It’s very much a culture, just like farming,” said Megan Dwyer, a fourth-generation farmer and the director of conservation at the Illinois Corn Growers Association.

* Sun-Times | Man charged in theft of laptops from Cook County state’s attorney’s office: A man has been charged in the thefts last month of laptops possibly containing confidential information on criminal cases from the Cook County state’s attorney’s offices at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse. Jordan Jose Ocampo, 44, is charged with felony counts of burglary and theft after detectives identified him on surveillance video allegedly wheeling a cart out of the main lobby of the courthouse on the night of July 22.

*** Statewide ***

* Journal Courier | Illinois launches training initiative for those who help LGBTQ+ seniors: Free training known as OUTSafe is being offered by Springfield’s AgeLinc, the Area Agency on Aging serving central Illinois. The initiative is using state funds obtained by state Sen. Doris Turner, D-Springfield, through the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority. The training is an introductory course to educate groups including health care providers, caregivers and law enforcement officials. It is meant to be the start of continued education on violence prevention and improved competency on LGBTQ+ relations.

* NBC Chicago | What is Illinois’ official state pie? There’s a reason it is this very popular flavor: In 2015, then-Gov. Bruce Rauner signed a bill making pumpkin pie the official state pie of Illinois. It makes sense given Illinois produces more pumpkins than any other state in the country. Ninety five percent of the pumpkin crop in the U.S. intended for processing is grown in Illinois, according to the Illinois Department of Agriculture. If you buy canned pumpkin, chances are it was processed in Illinois too.

*** Chicago ***

* Sun-Times | Nearly 20% of CPS students with disabilities have no bus ride on the first day of school: The district prioritizes busing for students with disabilities, as well as unhoused students, as required by law. Some 10,695 students with disabilities have requested transportation — an increase of 33% compared to last year, according to the district. The percentage of disabled and unhoused students enrolled in CPS has also been going up.

* Tribune | Some CPS parents take transportation into their own hands, as busing woes continue for 2024-2025 school year: Since busing was not provided for selective enrollment CPS students last year, the two-hour commute each way on public transit was the best option for Lichwick-Glesne, who has epilepsy and cannot drive her 7-year-old son Laike to school. Midway through the school year, a carpool relieved some of the stress. But, a year later, Lichwick-Glesne’s family found themselves in the same position. Still not guaranteed busing for this school year, the family was scared to repeat the same routine. After spending months on the waitlists of selective schools closer to home, Laike is switching to a new school this year, Beaubien Elementary School’s Regional Gifted Center in Jefferson Park, just a 12-minute CTA bus ride or 10-minute drive from home.

* Tribune | Chicago White Sox lose their 100th game — and now need to go 12-19 to avoid tying the most losses in a season: The Sox became just the second team in the modern era of Major League Baseball history to lose 100-plus times over the first 131 games of a season after falling 9-4 on Sunday in front of 16,928 at Guaranteed Rate Field. The Sox joined the ranks of the 1916 Philadelphia A’s — who were 29-101-1 after game 131.

* Crain’s | Want to catch a coastal cruise from Navy Pier? You can in 2025.: The two Victory Cruise Lines vessels, Victory I and Victory II, will return to Chicago after a yearlong hiatus. The 190-passenger vessels were out of commission in 2024 after their previous owners went bankrupt and were forced to sell the ships at auction in April.

* Sun-Times | Behind Kamala Harris’ DNC balloon drop was a tribute to a Chicago artist battling cancer: Balloon-industry titan Treb Heining helped gather more than 50 volunteers on short notice to ready 100,000 balloons for the big drop as well as to honor Tommy DeLorenzo, a local balloon artist who is fighting stage 4 cancer.

* Sun-Times | CTA L mapmaker Dennis McClendon, who found a calling in cartography, dead at 67: He also was a Chicago history expert tapped by WTTW-Channel 11 host Geoffrey Baer for answers. As a mapmaker, his vast output also included creating the Chicago Bike Map. His last project was creating the maps of the Near West Side that were provided to all delegates to the 2024 Democratic National Convention.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Daily Herald | Arlington Heights planning chief who prepped for Bears and reshaped downtown set to retire: The municipal planner who has shaped downtown Arlington Heights into a mixed-use entertainment destination and worked behind the scenes on the Bears’ now-stalled Arlington Park redevelopment plans will retire from his long-held position at village hall this fall. Charles Witherington-Perkins is a rare breed in suburban planning and community development circles, having spent nearly 35 years out of a four-decade-long career as department director overseeing the review and permit processes for projects large and small across the Northwest suburb.

* Daily Herald | Four already expressing interest in three Buffalo Grove village board seats: With the candidate filing period still months away, a contested race already is shaping up for three four-year terms on the Buffalo Grove village board. Incumbent village trustees Joanne Johnson and Lester Ottenheimer III have both said they will seek additional four-year terms in the April 2025 election. They’re expected to be joined on the ballot by Trustee Denice Bocek, longtime village volunteer Paulette Greenberg, and perhaps others.

* Tribune | Proposed dam removals on Fox River pit environmental groups against some residents: To improve water quality and habitat by restoring the river of its natural state, while lowering the risk of flooding, the state and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have recommended removing nine dams along the Fox River through the far western suburbs. […] [T]he corps has agreed to further study the impacts of dam removal, including how it would affect water levels and what sediments might be released. The environmental analysis will take longer, but the corps is not stopping its program. Officials aim to make a final decision on most of the dams in 2025 and start removal in 2027

* Daily Herald | ‘She is my wildest dreams’: DNC women delegates envision female president: “I think having a woman become our next president is historic for so many reasons but for me as an African American woman … she is my wildest dreams,” delegate and Hanover Park trustee Yasmeen Bankole said. “She inspires me to reach for the stars,” Bankole added Thursday, hours before the vice president accepted her party’s nomination.

*** Downstate ***

* STL PR | Green Party candidate did not qualify for U.S. House race in Illinois’ 13th: Chibu Asonye of Urbana did not gather enough signatures to appear before voters in the election for the congressional district that stretches from the Metro East to Springfield and Urbana-Champaign. Asonye gathered 1,557 signatures, according to the state’s top election authority. However, 12,710 is needed under state law.

* WSIL | Illinois asks for resident feedback on abandoned mines: The state of Illinois has asked residents for feedback surrounding recent funding from President Biden for abandoned mine reclamation. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) first announced the funding on August 6. This is the second year Illinois has received money through Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). The IDNR says the $75.7 million awarded to the state will focus on 40 mines across Illinois that were abandoned on or before Aug. 3, 1977.

* WCIA | Monticello Railway Museum working to fix tracks: Right now, the tracks will lead you into a dead end. The plan is to connect them so trains can eventually run more efficiently. “It’ll give us another route that we can take with a museum or potentially what we have Railroad Days coming up,” Museum Ticket Agent John Downing said. “You could have one train heading to White Heath and another train coming back and pass each other then.”

* WSIL | Phineas and Ferb creator to appear at SIU Carbondale: SIU’s Student Programming Council has announced Dan Povenmire as the featured guest for Saluki Family Weekend 2024. is most well-known for the creation of the hit Disney Channel show, “Phineas and Ferb.” The cartoon ran for four seasons and a movie from 2007 to 2015. A reunion movie premiered on Disney+ in 2020, and the show is set to return for two more seasons on the streamer soon.

*** National ***

* NYT | Latino Civil Rights Group Demands Inquiry Into Texas Voter Fraud Raids: A Latino civil rights group is asking the Department of Justice to open an investigation into a series of raids conducted on Latino voting activists and political operatives as part of sprawling voter fraud inquiry by the Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton. The League of United Latin American Citizens, one of the nation’s oldest Latino civil rights organizations, said that many of those targeted were Democratic leaders and election volunteers, and that some were older residents. Gabriel Rosales, the director of the group’s Texas chapter, said that officers conducting the raids took cellphones, computers and documents. He called the raids “alarming” and said they were an effort to suppress Latino voters