* ICYMI: What will Johnson’s CPS power play mean in Springfield? More state funding — or more headaches for mayor. Sun-Times…

State Rep. Curtis Tarver, D-Chicago, said the political turmoil would undermine the case Johnson hopes to make for additional state funding for CPS.

Johnson has argued repeatedly and emphatically that the state “owes” CPS more than $1.1 billion.

“Everyone wants to help children, but I don’t think anyone wants to help him — given his lack of leadership,” Tarver said. “I don’t believe he has four city legislators that are willing to give him, give CPS any money, and I doubt that he has anybody outside of the city of Chicago who wanted to do so, and primarily because there’s been no plan put forth about what they would do with the money.”

* Related stories…

∙ Tribune: Mayor Johnson unveils new Chicago Board of Education members after stunning shakeup
∙ Sun-Times: Mayor Johnson deflects criticism on school board resignations, argues he’s preventing CPS budget cuts
∙ Greg Hinz: Johnson rolls the dice on chaos at Chicago Public Schools

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* Sun-Times | Madigan judge has experience with Shakespeare, Michael Jordan — and law used to target ex-House speaker: Judge John Blakey’s father wrote the federal racketeering law that has famously been used to take down organized crime figures. But Blakey also established himself as an authority on the subject long before Madigan’s historic trial.

* Jill Jaworski | Opinion: The city’s $1.5B bond refinancing plan is a no-brainer. Here’s why: Mendoza’s entire argument against the refinancing rests upon an egregiously repeated false claim that there is some kind of shadowy “additional borrowing” outside of the “cost-saving refinancing component.” Mendoza’s op-ed repeats misinformation, stating that the bond offering would “create a slush fund for operating expenses.” In fact, the authorizing ordinance specifically stipulates that the entire $1.5 billion transaction can only be legally used for cost-saving refinancing purposes. Any other use of proceeds from the sale of the bonds would require another amendment passed by the City Council. Mendoza’s op-ed seems to have been written without any consultation or understanding of the ordinance in question.

* PJ Star | ‘More than a sports writer’: Retired Peoria Journal Star columnist dies at age 83: Theobald had a personality as enormous as his talent, handling the biggest stories, standing up to the biggest challenges. He was terrifying in the newsroom when he was irritated, an irascible character who’d strip down to his classic old man undershirt, cigarette between his lips, spoiling for a clash.

*** Statehouse News ***

* KMOX | Illinois State Rep. Jay Hoffman discusses amendment to raise income tax on state wealthiest: In November, Illinois voters will be asked if they would support an additional 3% income tax on those making more than $1 million a year. Illinois State Rep. Jay Hoffman (D) says the trade off would be property tax relief.

* Daily Herald | House 51st candidates discuss Democratic control of Springfield: Incumbent Nabeela Syed said she consistently works across the aisle, but defended the record of state Democrats. The Palatine Democrat highlighted the accomplishments of her party by invoking the legacy of former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner. “I probably think about Bruce Rauner more often than I would like to, because I hear about the horror stories from when social services all across our state were about to shut their doors,” Syed said. “They were about to stop their services because Gov. Rauner was cutting funding.”

*** Statewide ***

* SJ-R | Job postings will look different in Illinois next year. Here’s what you need to know: Employers with more than 15 employees are required to share pay scale and benefits in job postings. In the case that these postings show up on a third-party job site like LinkedIn or Indeed, they would be required to either to show on that site or have that information linked. The Illinois Department of Labor will be receiving complaints of job postings not including this now-required information. From there, the department will notify the employer and give a set date for when it must be remedied.

* SJ-R | Frozen food delivery service announces closure, 119 Illinois employees to be laid off: Yelloh, formerly known as Schwan’s Home Delivery, announced last month it’s closing its delivery service this November. The company cited multiple insurmountable business challenges for the decision, including economic and market forces, as well as changing consumer lifestyles. In a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN act, filed to the state of Illinois on Sept. 30 by parent group Cygnus Home Service, LLC, 119 Illinoisians will be affected across the state from the layoff. The final day of work for employees will be Nov. 22 of this year.

*** Chicago ***

* WGN | City of Chicago shells out millions in overtime pay while CFD needs new ambulances, contract: CFU: Members of the Chicago Firefighters Union (CFU) spoke out Monday, saying the City of Chicago is spending millions on overtime pay for paramedics — money, they say is needed for new ambulances, on top of a new contract. The Chicago Fire Department has been operating for more than three years without a contract, which has capped the department’s expansion of its ambulance fleet. CFD currently has 80 ambulances, but ideally, they would like to have 127, which would move the department in line with the national average when it comes to the residents-to-ambulance ratio in major cities — 21,000-to-1.

* FOX Chicago | Chicago Fire Department adopts new cleaning tech to fight cancer risks: “Furniture is no longer made of wood. Carpet is no longer made of typical textiles,” said Mark Smith of Alliance Safety Solutions. “Everything is now petroleum-based. So that petroleum base burns hotter. It burns quicker. And it has more polyaromatic hydrocarbons.” Which is where a new massive machine comes in. It’s called a high-pressure liquid carbon dioxide cleaner.

* Tribune | Biden EPA requires Chicago to dramatically speed up replacement of toxic lead pipes: Chicago must replace every toxic lead pipe connecting homes to water mains within two decades — an aggressive deadline imposed this week by President Joe Biden after his administration initially proposed giving city officials twice as long to complete the job. The more stringent requirement is part of a broader package of changes in federal regulations intended to protect Americans from a metal so dangerous it is unsafe at any level of exposure.

* Tribune | Lurie, Comer and Advocate Children’s named best children’s hospitals in Illinois by U.S. News: “We’re obviously very proud to be ranked No. 1,” said Dr. Marcelo Malakooti, chief medical officer at Lurie. “I think the rankings are an important tool and guide for families when they might have a complex child and they’re trying to figure out what works best for their families and the specific conditions they might have.” He said he’s confident Lurie will be back in the top 10 nationwide “in the near future.” While it’s important to Lurie to focus on clinical outcomes, the hospital also prioritizes “holistic comprehensive care that really extends beyond the areas that are being ranked,” he said, which includes family support, community outreach and cutting edge treatments.

* Block Club | Trump To Address The Economic Club Of Chicago Next Week: The interview, co-hosted by the Economic Club and Bloomberg News, will take place next Tuesday, Oct. 15. Trump’s visit marks his first return to the city since a contentious July interview with members of the National Association of Black Journalists.

* Sun-Times | After 23 years behind bars, Chicago man set free as he appeals murder conviction: A Cook County judge on Monday appeared reluctant to release a man from prison while he continues to fight his murder conviction, but did anyway at the order of a state appellate court. Judge Angela Petrone ordered Kevin Jackson, 43, released on electronic monitoring while he appeals her ruling earlier this summer that denied his bid to vacate his conviction in a 2001 gas station shooting on the South Side.

* Chicago Mag | Why Is the Chicago Marathon So Fast?: Olympic marathon champion Frank Shorter once said, “There are three reasons Chicago is fast: It’s flat, it’s flat, it’s flat.” (“The only hill is with 400 meters left,” says Rupp.) Knowing they won’t face uphill stretches, runners display “a kind of fearlessness,” says Pinkowski. But flatness is not the only factor: Because of Chicago’s grid system, the course has few twists and turns, with some straightaways going for miles, allowing runners to build up a head of steam.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Daily Herald | Lockport woman sentenced to jail for role in Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot: A federal judge sentenced a Lockport woman to serve time in jail for her role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol but not her husband, who instead must serve probation, court records show. On Oct. 1, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton sentenced Kelly Lynn Fontaine, 54, to serve 21 days in jail for engaging in “disorderly or disruptive conduct.”

* Crain’s | Hyzon in race against time as it revs up new hydrogen fuel cells in Bolingbrook: Hyzon Motors, a small clean-tech company that came to Bolingbrook three years ago, is about to find out whether its big bet on hydrogen-powered trucks is going to pay off before it runs out of cash. The company is set to begin commercial production of new, larger fuel cells that turn hydrogen into electrical power for semitrucks. Hyzon developed a 200-kilowatt fuel cell to replace a 110-kilowatt model, giving it an edge. The company says the new fuel cells are 30% lighter and smaller and 25% more cost-efficient than using two smaller systems.

* Daily Herald | Underwood, Marter blame each other for cancellation of congressional candidate forum: In an email to the Daily Herald on Monday afternoon, league co-presidents Tania Traverso and Nadia Kanhai said the forum was canceled because both candidates wouldn’t agree to a virtual forum. “This decision was made by the LWV Aurora Area alone without any input from either candidate,” Traverso and Kanhai said. The group’s statement didn’t explain why the league moved away from an in-person discussion, as both Underwood and Marter had agreed to such a program.

*** Downstate ***

* ABC Chicago | Video shows driver running tanker off road, causing deadly leak in central Illinois: investigators: Investigators showed the girl dashcam video from the tanker. She acknowledged she was at the wheel when her minivan passed the tanker then cut it off to avoid a collision with oncoming traffic. The tanker hit a trailer on the side of the highway.

* WSIL | Federal Grant to Address Nursing Education Shortage in Rural, Underserved Areas in Southern Illinois: McKendree University’s Division of Nursing was recently awarded $980,000 from Congressionally Directed Spending (CDS), which Senator Dick Durbin secured as part of the 2024 fiscal year’s Consolidated Appropriations Act. This grant pays the tuition cost for 60 students who have been enrolled in McKendree’s MSN nurse educator program.

* Chicago Reader | Champaign-born phenom Somi brings her African immigrant heritage to her vocal jazz: Jazz singer Somi Kakoma is a multihyphenate talent—she’s also a composer, actor, and writer—but she’s best known for her rich, soaring voice. Born in Champaign to parents who’d come to the U.S. from Rwanda and Uganda, Somi split her childhood between Zambia and Illinois. Her father worked as a professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where in the early 2000s she earned a dual degree in cultural anthropology and African studies; she then pursued a master’s in performance at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Her work is informed by her multinational upbringing and activist spirit, honoring the distinctive traits that make cultures and communities precious while celebrating the universals that connect them—and condemning forces of division such as racism, xenophobia, and misogyny.

*** National ***

* Daniel Kaplan | Political ads dominating sports telecasts with seemingly no end in sight: It’s not just you if it seems the commercial breaks of sporting events are inundated with political advertising. Listen to a political podcast, and invariably the host or guests will note they were watching say the LSU game one Saturday and the tsunami of political ads was inescapable (that one comes from The Bulwark podcast). I have even noticed them in solid blue New York, dashing my boast that I live in a city that political advertising avoids.