* ICYMI: Pritzker touts Illinois’ economic development at data center groundbreaking. Capitol News Illinois…

- A Texas-based company broke ground on a new data center in Aurora on Wednesday.
- The development by CyrusOne – the company’s second in Aurora – is expected to be complete in two years, according to the governor’s office.
- But data centers in particular pose a unique challenge to the state due to the amount of electricity necessary to keep them running 24 hours a day.
- Pritzker on Wednesday positioned Illinois’ grid as an asset to attract data center investment by saying electricity in Illinois is “readily available and reliable.”

* Related stories…

∙ Crain’s: Opinion: New data centers aren’t the dream they may seem
∙ DCD: T5 breaks ground on Chicago data center, Illinois
∙ RE Journals: From cold storage to data centers: The rise of specialized industrial facilities in Chicago

At 11 am Governor Pritzker will announce new state park electric vehicle infrastructure. At 2 pm the Governor will announce Illinois Grocery Initiative grant awardees. The governor will join a Children’s Behavioral Health Listening Session and highlight state behavioral health investments. Click here to watch.

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* Injustice Watch | Two Cook County judges claim homestead exemptions in Will County: One of the judges says he is living apart from his wife, who still lives there; and the other, the presiding judge of the First Municipal District, declined to answer questions. The law requires judges to live in the jurisdiction they serve.

* Herald-Review | City of Decatur selects environmental law firm to represent interests in ADM carbon capture leak: City Manager Tim Gleason told the Herald & Review on Wednesday that he and city legal staff felt it was necessary “to have somebody that has an expertise in this be able to digest what’s already known publicly and be able to put the city, if necessary, in a position that we’re not playing catch up if we ever needed to act on something.” “So that’s not a hint that we think that there is something wrong,” Gleason said. “I think it’s a prudent move on the city’s part to be represented on something this important to the community.”

*** Statehouse News ***

* Daily Southtown | District 79 candidates say economy a key issue among voters: Both candidates running for the 79th Illinois House seat say the economy is a top concern for voters in a district that encompasses parts of Will, Kankakee and Grundy counties. Incumbent Jackie Haas, 58, of Bourbonnais, who has been serving in the House since 2020, is facing Monee Township Trustee William “Billy” Morgan, 33, in the upcoming November election.

* Tribune | Illinois treasurer’s home defaced hours after protest over state’s investments in Israel: Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs’ home on Chicago’s North Side was defaced with paint by a group of people early Tuesday, just hours after pro-Palestinian activists staged a protest outside a fundraiser for him at a downtown bar because of his oversight of the state’s investments in Israel. Chicago police said the incident at Frerichs’ home in the Lakeview community was “defaced by use of paint” about 4 a.m. Tuesday. No injuries were reported and no one was in custody.

* NBC Chicago | Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs’ home targeted by vandals, scene of protests: Frerichs said that the paint splattered over the front of his home and also damaged toys belonging to his 1-year-old twins, who were asleep in the home at the time. “The lead woman had a bullhorn, and she made it very clear what her reasons were (for protesting),” he said. “She made it very clear by singling out my children, calling out, saying she knew that they were at home, knew that they were in their cribs and that they shouldn’t be allowed to sleep.”

*** Statewide ***

* BND | Illinois officials on lookout for invasive, semi-aquatic rodent. How to report sightings: Southern Illinois has seen a couple of verified reports of an invasive species native to South America in the last couple of years, and anyone who sees one is asked to make a report to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. The nutria, which has been spotted in the southern tip of the state, is a semi-aquatic rodent that’s larger than a muskrat but smaller than a beaver, according to IDNR.

*** Chicago ***

* Center Square | Judge denies Illinois’ motion to hold transit carry ban ruling pending appeal: In late August, Northern District of Illinois federal Judge Iain Johnston ruled Illinois’ law prohibiting concealed carry license holders from carrying concealed firearms on mass transit violated the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. He issued an injunction against the state from enforcing the law against the four named plaintiffs in the case.

* Chalkbeat | Pro-school choice super PACs nearly double the money spent so far in Chicago’s first school board elections: The super PAC of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools poured more than half a million dollars into Chicago’s school board elections in the past week, nearly doubling the total money flowing into these historic races so far. The influx of cash also lifted the limits on campaign contributions to candidates in certain districts, according to state campaign finance reports.

* WBEZ | A lawyer who helped clear three accused cop killers scolds police and prosecutors: Cook County prosecutors on Wednesday dropped their case against Alexander Villa, who was convicted in the 2011 murder of Chicago Police Officer Clifton Lewis. The decision led a judge to throw out Villa’s conviction and his sentence of life in prison. That means all three men charged with Lewis’s killing have had their cases dismissed — and no one is being held responsible for a cop’s murder. Villa’s attorney, Jennifer Blagg, worked nearly five years to get the conviction reversed. She spoke with WBEZ’s Chip Mitchell.

* ABC Chicago | Mayor Brandon Johnson says leaders against progressive agenda for CPS must ‘get out of’ the way: Did he or did he not ask Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez to resign? Earlier this week, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said he did not ask anyone to do anything, but when asked to clarify that statement Wednesday the mayor was tight-lipped. “I don’t ever discuss personnel issues,” he said. “I find it to be highly offensive, irresponsible and raggedy, and I don’t do raggedy.”

* Chalkbeat | Chicago Public Schools: Lack of buses for students with disabilities due to driver shortage, strike: Last month, special education advocates filed a complaint with the state board alleging that CPS is in violation of a federal law that requires districts to provide transportation services for students with disabilities. It’s the most recent of several complaints related to busing filed in the past three years. Chicago Public Schools responded to the most recent complaint on Sept. 27 outright denying that they have denied students with disabilities a Free and Appropriate Public Education. CPS said it has ongoing challenges with busing students due to a lack of bus drivers and recent issues with vendors that provide transportation for Chicago students.

* WTTW | Mayor Brandon Johnson Acknowledges He Has Been Unable to Reign in CPD Overtime Spending as Spending Blows Past Budget: The city spent $129 million on overtime for members of the CPD during the first six months of 2024 — nearly 30% more than the Chicago City Council set aside for police overtime for the entire year, according to records obtained by WTTW News. “This is still very much a frustration I have,” Johnson said Wednesday at an unrelated news conference. “I’ve been in conversations with the superintendent, with our budget director to come up with better systems.”

* Tribune | Chicago police chase crash set to cost taxpayers another $1.7M in settlement: A car crash sparked by an Avalon Park police chase allegedly in violation of department rules is on track to cost Chicago taxpayers $1.7 million. Aldermen on the City Council’s Finance Committee approved the hefty settlement Wednesday, alongside two more deals to settle lawsuits alleging police misconduct. If approved by the full council next week, the agreements will cost the city over $2.5 million.

* Tribune | Union targets aldermen over support for climate change-focused ordinance: A political mailer sent to Chicagoans in wards where aldermen are supporting the measure slammed them for backing the stricter emissions standards that would all but ban natural gas lines in favor of electric stoves, heaters and other appliances in new construction. The flyers that arrived in mailboxes recently are a rarity in that they targeted specific City Council members for a legislative stance they’ve taken, even though the next council election is years away. They came with no clear sender, but were backed by the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150, according to a union leader.

* Sun-Times | United Center’s $7B transformation could break ground next summer, ownership says: Ownership has said the multi-billion dollar project will be privately financed, but the Reinsdorf and Wirtz families are “still in the early stages of infrastructure discussions with the City and are in preliminary discussions on the question of tax increment financing for the project,” a United Center spokesperson said in a statement to the Sun-Times.

* Crain’s | Chicago is home to the youngest billionaire on Forbes’ richest Americans list. Who else made the cut?: Walmart heir Lukas Walton, born in 1986, once again topped Illinois’ representation on this list. The grandson of Walmart founder Sam Walton saw his net worth grow from $24.2 billion last year to $33.9 billion now, thus moving him up six spots in the national rankings to No. 25.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* ABC Chicago | Candidates for Cook County State’s Attorney lay out priorities, vision ahead of Election Day: One of the most critical local races voters will decide in November is for Coo County State’s Attorney. Incumbent Kim Foxx is not seeing reelection. Republican candidate Bob Fioretti and Democratic candidate Eileen O’Neill Burke both said they will prioritize getting illegal guns off the streets, knowing it will require cooperation with other law enforcement.

* NBC Chicago | Attorney asking for Dolton mayor to be held in contempt of court: An attorney is asking for scandal-plagued mayor Tiffany Henyard to be held in contempt of court as village trustees allege she is not following a temporary restraining order issued last week. A Cook Count judge granted the order, preventing three people Henyard recently appointed from taking office. That includes Ronnie Burge Sr, whom she appointed as police chief. The appointments were not approved by trustees.

* Sun-Times | Highland Park massacre suspect was denied access to attorney during interrogation, defense lawyers claim: Crimo’s lawyers argue that authorities misled Crimo about how a family-hired lawyer was sent to speak with him at the Highland Park police station during his interrogation. The lawyers also alleged an assistant state’s attorney denied the lawyer from speaking with Crimo several times. “While the defendant was handed a business card and informed that an attorney was in the lobby, he was not informed that this attorney was specifically his attorney, retained by his family, for the purpose of representing him while in custody,” his lawyers wrote in the motion.

* Daily Herald | Glendale Heights president wants to represent self in criminal case: Attorney Scott Marquardt was allowed to quit Wednesday after telling Judge Daniel Guerin there was “fundamental disagreement about how to proceed” between him and Khokhar. Khokhar told Guerin he wanted to represent himself, but Guerin urged him to consider hiring another attorney. Khokhar is due back in court on Oct. 30. Khokhar is charged with felony disorderly conduct. He is accused of falsely reporting to police that a village trustee, Mohammad Siddiqi, had threatened to bite Khokhar.

* ABC Chicago | Joliet police detective arrested, charged with domestic violence: officials: When they arrived, they learned a confrontation had taken place there involving a woman and her husband, off-duty Joliet police detective Peter Ranstead, who is 41, police said. […] He turned himself in Wednesday morning at the Kendall County Sheriff’s Office in Yorkville, police said. Ranstead has been placed on administrative leave.

*** Downstate ***

* SJ-R | ‘A complete misdirection’: Speakers lash out at city council over unhoused encampment: Phelan Chappell, who lives at Fifth and North Grand, said he lost art supplies, which he called his “meditation.” “I don’t want to fight with the police, so I had to remove myself and after that, they didn’t give me no options and they took everything,” Chappell said at the meeting. “Just because we’re homeless, that doesn’t mean we’re not people and don’t have morals and values.”

* WREX | YWCA holds event, allowing voters to meet with candidates before election: “I think people are becoming more aware of what might be misinformation,” said Kris Machajewski, President/CEO YWCA Northwestern Illinois. “Providing an opportunity to meet candidates in a language that is native to you absolutely helps people get to know who they are and makes them more comfortable in the process and asking questions.”

* BND | Metro-east cop charged with battery used position of trust to ‘terrorize,’ judge says: An Illinois State Police agent from Edwardsville who was recently charged with battering children and an elderly woman used his position of trust as a police officer to “terrorize,” a judge said in a court order this week. Madison County Associate Judge Ryan Jumper on Tuesday ordered Thomas M. Hatley, 46, be detained in jail pending his trial.

* Illinois Times | Governor’s Mansion block slated to become a park: The vacant block in downtown Springfield across from the Governor’s Mansion may be on the brink of becoming a city park, Mayor Misty Buscher told Illinois Times recently. “I’m referring to it as the ‘North Mansion Park,’” she said. “We’ve had conversations with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and with landscape architects to create a park-like setting that would be an Illinois natural habitat: plants and trees.”

* WICS | SIUE celebrates final concrete pour for new $105 million Health Science building: The scope of work involves constructing a three-story health science building that includes new academic classrooms, teaching and simulation laboratories, and administrative offices. Additionally, site circulation will be improved around the complex, two parking lots will be resurfaced, and several sidewalks will be connected for the campus community.

* PJ Star | How Peoria and Pekin are featured in new Netflix documentary ‘Will & Harper’: The road trip doc features comedian and actor Will Ferrell and his longtime friend Harper Steele. The two met while both worked at “Saturday Night Live,” where Steele was a writer and Ferrell a performer. Steele came out at transgender in 2022. The duo spent 16 days crossing the country visiting sporting events, dive bars, diners and tourist traps from New York to California — places Steele once loved to frequent but now is wary to return. The trip proved not only a way for Ferrell and Steele to connect as friends, but for Steele to finally traverse America as her true self.

*** National ***

* KSDK | Kindergarten vaccination rates dip with nonmedical exemptions on the rise: The share of kids exempted from vaccine requirements rose to 3.3%, up from 3% the year before. Meanwhile, 92.7% of kindergartners got their required shots, which is a little lower than the previous two years. Before the COVID-19 pandemic the vaccination rate was 95%, the coverage level that makes it unlikely that a single infection will spark a disease cluster or outbreak.

* The Hill | Election betting is legal, federal appeals court says: A federal appeals court declined to block a lower court’s decision that allowed betting on 2024 federal elections Wednesday, a blow to the government agency that argued doing so could undermine election integrity. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) had asked the appeals court to block the prediction exchange platform Kalshi from offering “Congressional Control Contracts,” which allow buyers to bet on which political party will control the House and the Senate after the upcoming election.