* ICYMI: Head of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s legislative affairs team resigns amid staff shakeup. Crain’s…

- Sydney Holman, the city’s deputy mayor of intergovernmental affairs, submitted her resignation yesterday.
- According to sources, two of Homan’s deputies also left the team as part of a larger upheaval within the close-knit team charged with building relationships across the City Council and whipping votes to secure Johnson’s progressive agenda.
- The mayor’s office circulated an internal organizational chart late last week that showed Holman’s team and staffers in community engagement would report to Kennedy Bartley, a leader in Johnsons’ progressive movement hired into the administration in May. Holman had previously resisted having to report to Bartley.

* Related stories…

∙ Sun-Times: Johnson’s chief liaison to emboldened City Council resigns
∙ Sun-Times: Deep freeze? Mayor halts hiring in ‘all departments’ — even police and fire — to confront budget crisis
∙ Tribune: City Council spars over ShotSpotter once again as end date in Chicago nears

Governor Pritzker will be at the Aspire Center for Workforce Innovation at 12:30 pm for a grant award presentation. Click here to watch.

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* WCIA | By the numbers: Illinois State Fair Grandstand Acts: WCIA obtained the number of tickets sold for each Grandstand Act at the 2024 Illinois State Fair from the Illinois Department of Agriculture. After the record breaking crowd for Lil Wayne’s concert, the next most popular acts were the pop boy band Jonas Brothers with 9,952, then country singers Keith Urban with 8,778 and Miranda Lambert with 8,216.

* SJ-R | Former Springfield police sergeant arrested after crash as residents protest: Michael A. Egan, 50, has been charged with aggravated DUI causing great bodily harm, a Class 4 felony. Authorities said Egan’s vehicle was traveling northbound on East Lake Shore Drive and made a left turn in front of a motorcycle which crashed into Egan’s SUV. Egan was taken into custody by Illinois State Police troopers and U.S. Marshals around 12:45 p.m. Monday. Egan will make his first appearance in Sangamon County Tuesday afternoon.

* RIP James Earl Jones…

*** Statehouse News ***

* Daily Herald | When it comes to funding state-level campaigns, Pritzker in a league of his own: Even though he’s not running now, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has donated a whopping $25 million to his campaign committee this election cycle, according to Illinois State Board of Elections data. None of the Illinois residents on the nonprofit group OpenSecrets’ list of Top 100 donors at the federal level comes close to that kind of in-state giving ahead of the Nov. 5 election.

* WGEM | New Illinois law mandates coverage for medically necessary jaw treatments: Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) signed legislation Aug. 9 requiring insurance companies cover all medically necessary treatments for major jaw injuries. This includes oral and facial surgery, dental implants and prosthetics. “This law closes a major loophole for patients requiring necessary medical treatments for a life-threatening disease. It ensures that in a time of crisis, no one has to experience financial roadblocks to receiving medical care,” said state Sen. Laura Fine, D-Glenview, the bill’s Senate sponsor.

* SJ-R | Insurance coverage of abortion care protected by Illinois judge. What to know: A Sangamon County judge upheld a provision of the Illinois Reproductive Health Act in a ruling last week, maintaining that state-regulated health insurance plans that cover pregnancy care must also do so for abortion services. The Illinois Baptist State Association filed suit in 2020 against the law passed by state lawmakers in the prior year, claiming it violated their religious beliefs. Named in the suit was the Illinois Department of Insurance.

* Sun-Times | After Georgia school shooting, Illinois lawmakers, firearms safety advocates push stronger gun storage law: Illinois Democrats are calling for stronger gun storage legislation just days after 14-year-old Colt Gray allegedly killed two teachers and two students at a Georgia high school with an AR-15 style rifle purchased by his father. The legislation, sponsored by state Sen. Laura Ellman, D-Naperville, and state Rep. Maura Hirschauer, D-Batavia, would require gun owners to securely lock weapons in homes with anyone aged 18 or younger. Current state law requires storage in homes with those 13 or younger. Similar legislation was introduced in the spring session, but Hirschauer said she’s hoping to pass a new version — with some changes negotiated with Gov. JB Pritzker’s office, during the November veto session or in early January.

*** Chicago ***

* Tribune | Wheatland Tube closes Southwest Side plant, will lay off nearly 250 workers: Wheatland Tube reported the closure of its 4435 S. Western Blvd. factory in accordance with Illinois’ Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which requires companies to report certain mass layoffs and plant closures two months in advance. Layoffs at the factory will begin about Nov. 1 and continue on a rolling basis through next year, a company spokesperson said. The company did not provide an exact date on which the factory would close.

* Block Club | Cleaning Up Contaminated Acme Steel Site Could Take Years, Feds Say As Neighbors Focus On Its Future: The property is contaminated, threatening nearby wetlands and waterways, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Neighbors may be exposed to contamination if they trespass on the site, officials said. Past studies and cleanups have found compounds which can cause cancer, reproductive disorders and nervous and immune system issues, as well as soil contaminated with cyanide.

* WTTW | Chicago Taxpayers Have Already Paid $1.1M to Fight Lawsuit Filed by Family of Adam Toledo as Trial Approaches: Chicago taxpayers have already paid more than $1.1 million to fight a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of Adam Toledo, the 13-year-old shot and killed by a Chicago police officer after a brief foot chase in March 2021, according to documents obtained by WTTW News. Three and a half years after Adam’s death spurred demonstrations and renewed calls for police reform, the lawsuit filed by his parents is set to go to trial Nov. 6, ramping up the pressure on lawyers for the city to negotiate a settlement in the high-profile case or face the possibility of a trial that could lead to a multimillion-dollar jury verdict.

* ABC Chicago | Jury awards $50M to man who spent 10 years in prison for Chicago murder he didn’t commit: Marcel Brown sued the City of Chicago, alleging he was coerced into making a false confession to an August 2008 murder. […] Brown was released from prison in 2018 after his sentence was vacated.

* Tribune | Chicago White Sox are ‘not going to rush into anything’ regarding managerial search, says GM Chris Getz: “I think if you would have told me (before the season) we were going to end up flirting with the (major-league) record (for losses) I would have been a little surprised,” Getz said Monday afternoon at Guaranteed Rate Field. “Now if you would have told me prior to the year that we would have ended up with over 100 losses, 105, 110, I wouldn’t have been as surprised. But this is the cards that we’ve been dealt at this point.

* WGN | Angel Reese uses social media to explain wrist injury that will sideline her the rest of WNBA season: “I fell on my hand when I got the and-one, when I fell back (and) fell on my hand and it is a small crack in my bone,” Reese said in a video posted to her TikTok late Sunday night. “Basically, the doctors told me that I could either not get surgery or have surgery. The risk of not having surgery – I could literally have arthritis at 22 years old. That wasn’t an option. The bone could literally crack and completely shatter. Right now, it’s like a hairline… They’re going to put a small screw in it. And I wasn’t going for it getting any bigger.”

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Daily Herald | Union says Palatine wrongfully terminated public works employee: The International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150, AFL-CIO, announced it has filed a grievance in the termination of Charles Swanson, a seven-year employee. In a release, the union said the “village’s actions raise questions of workplace fairness and the value shown to employees working at the municipality.” Swanson suffered a workplace injury that required back surgery in January 2023, the union said.

* Daily Herald | Lake Zurich sales tax hike to help defray cost of $154 million Lake Michigan project: Village officials recently authorized a local sales tax increase of 0.5% to help defray scheduled rate increases associated with a pending switch to Lake Michigan water. The increase will bring the municipal sales tax rate to 1% or a penny on every dollar of goods sold in town. The overall sales tax rate will increase to 8% as it is in Buffalo Grove, Deer Park, Barrington and Highland Park for comparison. Village officials say the rate increase will generate an additional $2.5 million annually to be used for project-related expenses and debt service of the $154 million Lake Michigan water project.

* Daily Herald | Judge denies Mount Prospect’s request to halt operations at malodorous business: A Cook County judge Monday denied Mount Prospect’s emergency request for a temporary restraining order against animal feed producer Prestige Feed Products. Although the village provided ample testimony from neighbors about noxious odors reaching them from the plant at 431 Lakeview Court in Mount Prospect, Circuit Judge Clare Quish said the facts did not show “irreparable harm” without the emergency relief.

* Daily Southtown | Sept. 11 ceremonies set for some south and south suburban communities: Observances are planned in some south and southwest suburbs Wednesday in remembrance of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 1, 2001. Southland communities will gather at firehouses, city halls and memorials to observe the 23rd anniversary of the attack, which killed nearly 3,000 people after al-Qaida hijackers sent two planes into New York’s World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon and another into a field in Pennsylvania.

* Daily Herald | ‘Big Boy’ chugs through the suburbs, delighting observers: Thousands of spectators lined the tracks to photograph and view 4014’s passage. It is the second time massive black-and-graphite painted “Big Boy” has visited the area — the first was in 2019, shortly after the engine’s restoration to service. Sporting a 4-8-8-4 articulated wheel arrangement and stretching to a length of more than 132 feet, the engine is one of 25 examples of the largest successful steam locomotive ever built and is the only one of the eight remaining operable. The locomotives were produced by the American Locomotive Company between 1941 and 1944 and used by the UP for heavy freight service on Sherman Hill, west of Cheyenne, Wyoming.

*** Downstate ***

* WAND | Family of motorcycle crash victims meets with mayor and police: Caitlin Weiss and Cicely Leonetti — Farley’s sisters — said that she is currently sedated and on a ventilator. “We have a huge road to recovery.” explained Weiss. “He completely smashed my sister, so her pelvis was completely broken as an open loop fracture. She had broke her hip. She’s broke her clavicles and, maybe some internal organ injuries that they found when they opened [her] up during surgery.”

* Herald-Whig | Southern Airways officially objects to city request for new airline, denies safety issues: In a new letter to the U.S. Department of Transportation, Southern Airways Express objects to a request for the early termination of its contract with the city of Quincy. “Southern fully intends on not only serving the remainder of our current contract but also garnering (public support) as airline proposals are reviewed (for the next contract period),” reads the Sept. 4 letter from Southern Airways Chief of Staff Keith Sisson. “To this end, we respectfully ask the Department to allow the improvements and investment Southern is making in the marketplace to be realized … we implore the Department to resist the urge to comply (with the city of Quincy’s request) as such drastic action would lead to a globally unsustainable and damaging precedent for the EAS program and the airlines which serve its needs.”

* WCIA | Champaign high schools locked down after ‘unfounded’ 911 call of armed person: Officials said that as details of the call developed, the story the caller gave had several inconsistencies. No threat was found, and the lockdowns were lifted at 2:30. The Champaign Police Department is investigating the source of the call and is looking for any information that may assist in the investigation. At this time, no one has been arrested.

* WAND | Unit 4 board approves audit of special education department: Parents and advocates say there is a disconnect between special education teachers and leaders, the school principal, and district officials. One advocate claims an Elementary special education student was assaulted last month, stating during the public comment section, “The audit is a good audit, but its going to take time, and meanwhile we’ve got broken bones. And the same thing that happened to that little boy at Bottenfield, that same system happened again- we did not learn from that boy that was out of school for six months.”

*** National ***

* NYT | He’s Known as ‘Ivan the Troll.’ His 3D-Printed Guns Have Gone Viral: Court documents, corporate records and information posted on his social media accounts link the Ivan the Troll persona to a 26-year-old Illinois gunmaker named John Elik. The nephew of a state representative, Mr. Elik has emerged as one of the most important figures in the nascent international industry of 3D-printed guns. […] Dr. Basra and a security researcher, Nathan Mayer, first linked Mr. Elik to the Ivan the Troll accounts using online clues after he was identified in a lawsuit as an owner of a website promoting 3D-printed guns. The Times replicated and built on that research, using photographs and videos that Mr. Elik posted of his home and shooting ranges on his family’s property, including his aunt’s.

* DNYUZ | Greed, Gluttony and the Crackup of Red Lobster: New management had arrived in 2020 and tried to revive the chain with the corporate version of heart paddles. Thai Union, a seafood giant based in Samut Sakhon, Thailand, administered the shocks in the form of stern lectures, surprise inspections and cost-cutting measures that strained the staff to its breaking point. Now, by unveiling perpetual Endless Shrimp, Thai Union wanted Red Lobster employees to work even harder. “When they dumped this on us in June, we’d already been squeezed to the bone,” said Malcom Clarke, then a service manager at the Red Lobster in Orem, Utah. “We got emails from corporate saying: ‘This is a free-for-all. Get that shrimp out as fast as you can.’”