* ICYMI: Motive unknown in fatal shooting of 4 on Blue Line. Sun-Times…

- Rhanni Davis, facing four counts of first-degree murder, is expected to appear for an initial court hearing today in Maywood.
- Cook County State’s Atty. Kim Foxx said “right now we don’t have answers as to why anyone would engage in such a heinous, heinous act,” she said. “I think it is safe to say that this was a random attack.”
- When asked about the safety of people who sleep on trains CTA President Dorval Carter Jr. said that Monday’s attack doesn’t mean those who choose to sleep on trains should fear for their lives.

* Related stories…

∙ CBS: Suspect charged in shooting that killed 4 sleeping people on CTA Blue Line train
∙ Sun-Times: CTA worker shot outside Howard Street station in Rogers Park
∙ AP: 4 people killed on Chicago-area L train likely didn’t even see the shooter, official says

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* Tribune | He boasted on social media about paying strangers to take pictures of his children and ex-partner. Now he’s under arrest.: Micah Berkley, 41, had outstanding warrants in Cook County, Miami and Florida’s Palm Beach County at the time of his arrest, according to the Miami-Dade Police Department. He is being held without bond pending an extradition hearing later this month, according to records from Miami-Dade County Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

* Tribune | UAW-Stellantis faceoff over Belvidere plant’s future centers on a single contract sentence: One sentence in a contract document that runs more than 300 pages is drawing scrutiny as the United Auto Workers warns it could strike Stellantis NV over the automaker’s delays reopening the Belvidere Assembly Plant in Illinois. The language says that the company’s investments and employment levels are “contingent upon plant performance, changes in market conditions, and consumer demand continuing to generate sustainable and profitable volumes for all of the U.S. manufacturing facilities described above.”

*** Statehouse News ***

* Crain’s | Banks push for quick end to Illinois law reducing credit card processing fees: The industry is already racking up costs to prepare for implementation of the law, which is to take effect next summer. […] The Illinois Attorney General’s Office downplayed the urgency, arguing there was currently no enforcement of the law so there was no need to expedite a hearing on the banking industry’s request for a preliminary injunction.

*** Statewide ***

* Center Square | More Illinois communities explore reinstating grocery tax: Highland, Normal and River Forest are just some of the communities considering reinstating the tax, with more likely to follow. Each Illinois city will have until October 2025 to pass an ordinance to continue the 1% tax on groceries in order to avoid a lapse in revenue.

* NBC Chicago | Debates, Illinois early voting and other key dates ahead of November election: Early voting starts on Sept. 26 in Illinois and Oct. 8 in Indiana. The National Conference of State Legislatures has a full list of when each state begins early voting. On Oct. 1, the running mates, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Ohio Sen. JD Vance, are set for their televised debate.

* NBC Chicago | All Illinois newborns to be screened for genetic disorder, thanks to Oswego family: The developmental discrepancies illustrate why early detection is key. The Robinsons worked with their medical team and other advocacy groups to push for creatine deficiency disorders to be part of the heel stick screening that newborns undergo in the hospital. “Adding GAMT or creatine disorders will be a significant milestone because you can diagnose them first week, second week of life,” [Dr. Carlos Prada, the Division Head of Genetics, Genomics and Metabolism at Lurie Children’s Hospital] said.

* The Real Deal | State regulators slow to act when Illinois brokers behave badly: FPR receives an average of 450 complaints against real estate professionals each year, according to state data from 2020 through June of this year. The number of annual complaints has grown in recent years, with a 20 percent increase from 2022 to 2023. Of those complaints, about 30 percent are closed at the intake interview. This may be because the complainant did not file enough evidence, or because their complaint does not constitute “unlawful or unprofessional conduct,” according to the agency.

*** Chicago ***

* Crain’s | Agricultural hub for small biz, energy and produce sets up shop on the South Side: The Green Era Campus, a 9-acre facility at 650 W. 83rd St., transformed a site once used as an auto impound lot for the Chicago Police Department into a hub for green energy, jobs, fresh produce, small business incubation and educational programming, according to a statement from the joint venture.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* ABC Chicago | Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard appoints new village staffers despite absence of trustees at meeting: Tuesday night’s regularly scheduled Board of Trustees meeting was canceled because there were not enough trustees present. But Mayor Tiffany Henyard still showed up and appointed a new village administrator and a new village attorney. Dolton Trustee Jason House told ABC7 those appointments are not valid, and the appointees will not be paid.

* Naperville Sun | Naperville police make 24th gun-related arrest since August 2023 at Topgolf parking lot: A 24-year-old from Calumet Park was arrested Friday night for having a firearm inside his car while it was parked in the Naperville Topgolf parking lot, the 24th time a suspect’s been charged with a firearm-related offense since August 2023, officials said. […] Consistently making headlines for more than a year now, the trend of people bringing guns into Naperville’s Topgolf parking lot was first observed in August 2023. Since then, Naperville police have been routinely doing foot patrols around the business and making arrests for illegal gun possession, among other offenses.

* Daily Herald | Mount Prospect passes ethics ordinance; trustee says it unfairly targets him, wife: The ordinance covers a wide range of potential ethical pitfalls. They include rules regarding trustees representing clients with business before the village board and would ban immediate family of trustees serving on commissions. It also carries penalties including possible fines and even expulsion from the board.

* Daily Northwestern | ‘A gut punch’: End of CTA 201 Ventra card program draws student rebuke: Days after Northwestern announced it would discontinue its Chicago Transit Authority 201 Ventra card program — which provided free 201 bus fares for undergraduate students — the response from students has been swift and sharp. Since Saturday, a petition to restore the program has gathered over 850 signatures, with a goal of reaching 1,000 before being delivered to University administration next month, according to Weinberg junior Beth Asfaw, the petition’s organizer.

* Daily Herald | DuPage County offers rare glimpse at Elmhurst Quarry: The first line of defense against flooding in DuPage, the mammoth reservoir has a floodwater capacity of 2.7 billion gallons and is the largest of the county’s 17 flood control facilities. In previous years, tours of the facility have quickly sold out.

*** Downstate ***

* SJ-R | ‘Everybody just wants you to be OK.’ Sonya Massey was subject of 911 call hours before shooting: The roughly 45-minute footage shows a Springfield Police officer, who had responded to a call about Massey the week before, talking to her calmly. “(Your kids) are worried about you, too,” the officer said. “They’re both good. Everybody just wants you to be OK, that’s all it is.”

* WCIA | First listening session for Massey Commission co-chairs announced: The three co-chairs of the commission — Dr. Jerry Kruse, Dean and Provost of the SIU School of Medicine; Pastor T. Ray McJunkins, pastor of Union Baptist Church; and Nina Harris, chair of the Illinois Commission on Equity and Inclusion — will all be in attendance.

* SJ-R | Springfield pulls ordinance that would give city authority to address homeless encampments: Mayor Misty Buscher said the ordinance was put on “emergency passage” because two “campers” have died with the past couple of weeks and Springfield Police were “concerned about the safety of campers.” But Buscher, who proposed the ordinance with Ward 5 Ald. Lakeisha Purchase, also acknowledged that route created “angst within the community.”

* Sun-Times | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign settles federal civil rights complaint: The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights investigated 139 incidents reported at the school between 2015 and 2023, of which 135 were anti-Jewish discrimination complaints and the others were allegations of anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab discrimination allegations, the department said. Allegations included reports of swastikas drawn throughout campus, a brick thrown through a Jewish fraternity’s window, and a university employee writing, “I won’t tolerate Islam,” on social media, the agency said. Another employee allegedly hit a pro-Palestinian student who was protesting the war in Gaza.

*** National ***

* Louisiana Illuminator | Doctors grapple with how to save women’s lives amid ‘confusion and angst’ over new Louisiana law: When a woman starts bleeding out after labor, every second matters. But soon, under a new state law, Louisiana doctors might not be able to quickly access one of the most widely used life-saving medications for postpartum hemorrhage. […] In May, Gov. Jeff Landry signed legislation reclassifying misoprostol and mifepristone as Schedule IV controlled dangerous substances, despite more than 200 doctors signing a letter against the measure. The law goes into effect on Oct. 1, and doctors and pharmacists are scrambling to come up with postpartum hemorrhage policies that will comply with the law while still providing proper medical care for women.

* WaPo | In a first, Phoenix hits 100 straight days of 100-degree heat: At 11 a.m. local time, temperatures in Phoenix hit 100 degrees for the 100th day in a row. The longest previous 100-degree streak was 76 days in 1993. In other words, this year has seen an uninterrupted stretch of 100-degrees days at least 3½ weeks longer than in any other year since records began in 1896.

* STL Today | Cost of Missouri secretary of state’s failed ‘woke’ investing rules could top $2 million: Two weeks after a federal judge struck down a controversial set of investing regulations pushed by Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, an industry group filed a request for attorney fees in connection with the case. The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association said in a court filing last week that Ashcroft’s failed gambit cost the group $1.3 million in attorney fees. In addition to potentially paying for the organization’s legal bills, public payroll records show taxpayers have already paid more than $876,000 to a politically connected law firm representing Ashcroft, putting the initial price tag for the lawsuit at $2.1 million.