* ICYMI: Illinois voters asked to weigh in on IVF coverage, taxing high-earners in statewide ballot questions. Tribune…

Illinois residents heading to the polls in November to register their choices for president and a host of lower offices will also have the option to weigh in directly on three policy issues.

Voters will be asked if millionaires should help fund property tax relief, whether insurance should cover in vitro fertilization and if there should be civil penalties for candidates who interfere with election workers.

“All three of the issues that we’re talking about have been at the forefront of political discourse and discussion,” said Democratic state Rep. Jay Hoffman of Swansea, who sponsored the legislation to get the advisory questions on the ballot.

The results of the three referendums are nonbinding and do not carry the power of law. But, in addition to potentially driving election turnout, they could show district-by-district support for specific policies and, if passed overwhelmingly, provide more firepower behind policies promoted by the General Assembly’s Democratic supermajority. A 2014 ballot question on minimum wage, for example, preceded 2019 legislation that ramped up the rate and will bring it to $15 an hour at the start of next year.

* Related stories…

∙ WBEZ: What you need to know to cast a ballot in Illinois
∙ WGEM: Illinois voters to weigh in on potential election interference penalties

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* Crain’s | City Hall may have disqualified itself from getting millions in federal housing dollars: Since 2018, the city has been engaged in a legal fight with Access Living, a disability rights group. Access Living alleges the city ignores federal requirements that it confirm a portion of the affordable housing that gets built in the city with federal funds is designed according to disability-access standards. The litigation may disqualify Chicago’s application under HUD rules issued in July that said cities would be ineligible to receive new discretionary funds from the agency if they have “with “unresolved civil rights matters” that the US Department of Justice has taken a role in.

* Capitol News Illinois | A mentally ill man was restrained in a chair for 68 hours at Franklin County Jail, violating policies, report says: Franklin County Jail restrained two mentally ill men in chairs for prolonged periods, in violation of state standards and county policies, a new report from an Illinois disability rights watchdog group found. The jail provided inadequate medical and mental health care and improperly restrained Travis Wade Braden for 68 hours in 2022, as well as another man for 27 hours, said the report from the Human Rights Authority of the Illinois Guardianship and Advocacy Commission, a state agency.

* NBC Chicago | Deadline to submit Illinois flag designs rapidly approaching: According to the Illinois Flag Commission, the public submission deadline for designs is Friday, Oct. 18. The commission will look through the designs submitted, and will chose a total of 10 to be put up for a public online vote, which is set to take place in January.

*** Madigan Trial ***

So to recap, ZERO jurors chosen today in Mike Madigan's trial.

And Judge Blakey seems to be leaning solidly toward opening statements on Monday. https://t.co/KjJwEPMuNz

— Jon Seidel (@SeidelContent) October 15, 2024

* Tribune | No jurors picked in landmark Madigan corruption case Tuesday as painstaking selection process enters second week: A total of 13 people were interviewed, but no final decisions were made on who might serve on the panel because there are still more prospective jurors in their group who did not get a chance to be questioned. That means that seven panel members — one regular juror and six alternates — still need to be selected before the trial can begin in earnest with opening statements.

*** Statehouse News ***

* SJ-R | Illinois lawmakers pushing for more stringent gun storage laws. What you need to know: The Safe Firearm Storage Act, filed under Senate Bill 3971 and House Bill 5891, would prohibit the possession of a firearm outside its owner’s “immediate possession or control” and increases the age to 18 from 13 where safe storage in homes are required. In the case of a lost or stolen firearm, Senate Bill 3973 and House Bill 5888 would require the owner to report it with local law enforcement within 48 hours instead of the original 72. It comes after reports show that approximately 380,000 guns are stolen per year nationwide.

* Center Square | Final hearing held in a series on Illinois’ public transit systems: State Sen. Don DeWitte, R-St. Charles, said providing reliable mass transit should not be exclusive to the Chicago area. “I think this state has to make mass transit, across the state, a priority,” said DeWitte. “Getting people from point A to point B, to work, school, to the hospital, a doctor’s appointment, is critical.”

*** Statewide ***

* Midwest Books to Prisoners | IDOC Shouldn’t Ban Mail and Books in Prisons: Facing pressure from Republican legislators, the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) is considering draconian new restrictions on incoming mail and books, including banning all mail pending a transition to controversial privatized mail digitization services. We are organizing to stop this egregious censorship attempt that undermines education, rehabilitation and community connection. To the IDOC and the IL general assembly: do not ban people from accessing physical letters and books through the mail, do not concede to easily disproved right-wing drug war copaganda—invest in resources, not restrictions!

*** Chicago ***

* ABC Chicago | Chicago Inspector General asks state regulators to ban some CPD officers from law enforcement: Since Jan. 6, 2021, more than a dozen CPD officers have been tagged as members of radical, sometimes violent groups, even as they deny it and remain on the job. […] “In order to serve as a police officer in any department in Illinois, a person must be certified as eligible to do so by the state of Illinois,” said Chicago Inspector General Deborah Witzburg. Witzburg is recommending that the state de-certify a number of CPD officers and has sent the names and alleged misdeeds of those officers to the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board headquartered in Springfield.

* Sun-Times | Former Business Affairs and Consumer Protection official accused of creating hostile work environment: A former high-ranking official at the city’s Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection accused of creating a hostile work environment by using “prolonged verbal abuse and discrimination” to underlings so shaken by the treatment, many of them quit, then lied to investigators when questioned about it. A Chicago Public library clerk who used access to personal information to sexually harass library patrons on social media.

* Sun-Times | Bally’s Chicago casino enters 2nd year on the rise, but behind projections in loaded Illinois market: Bally’s finally put to bed questions about financing their permanent $1.34 billion entertainment complex, remapped their site plan at Chicago Avenue and Halsted Street after old water pipes forced them back to the drawing board — and saw steadily increasing returns from their temporary operation in River North. But the money still isn’t flowing like city budget officials initially hoped, and in a new report released this month, state revenue forecasters say they have questions about how many more dollars can be squeezed from a crowded and ever-growing Illinois gambling market.

* Sun-Times | Blackhawks chairman Danny Wirtz ‘disappointed’ by Chicago Sports Network’s lack of carriage: One week into the Blackhawks’ season, the team’s new TV network has yet to reach a carriage agreement with Comcast. That appears unlikely to change before the home opener Thursday. That scenario would’ve been tough to imagine a year ago, but the difficulties that Chicago Sports Network — which launched Oct. 1 as the new home of the Hawks, Bulls and White Sox — has encountered in negotiations with the area’s dominant cable provider has made it a reality.

* WTTW | New Comet Is ‘Living Up to the Hype’ and Chicagoans Could Get a Glimpse in Coming Days: Michelle Nichols, director of public observing at Adler Planetarium, knows Chicagoans are skeptical about being able to see space phenomena, having been burned plenty of times by light pollution. “It’s living up to the hype,” Nichols said of the comet’s brightness.

* WGN | Lincoln Square restaurant spearheads campaign to end 117-year alcohol ban: The ban was originally put in place in 1907, which wasn’t a bad year overall for the City of Chicago. An economic boom fueled the city’s industrial sector, while the Chicago Cubs swept the Detroit Tigers to win their first-ever World Series. […] It was a little-known law unbeknownst to Lucia Herrejon, owner of XOchimilco Mexican Restaurant on the north side of Montrose, until they discovered it accidentally as a part of a 2023 city inspection. “Last year, June 2023, we applied for a liquor license,” Herrejon said. “Every thing went well. We had inspectors come out … We found out that day this was boarded dry in 1907.”

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Tribune | Leaking Chicago Bears Arlington Heights tax appeal information earns Cook County official a slap on the wrist: County Inspector General Tirrell Paxton’s report did not name any officials. But the facts of the case match allegations in a whistleblower lawsuit filed against Board of Review Commissioner Samantha Steele this summer, dealing with the wrangling between local school districts and the Bears, who bought the former Arlington racetrack property and set their sights on building a new stadium there. The team has since focused on staying on Chicago’s lakefront, though officials have said the suburban location remains a possibility. The IG’s finding does not carry a penalty, only a recommendation that Steele take ethics training for violating the board’s ethics policy and the state’s property tax code by leaking confidential information about the pending Bears’ appeal of their property assessment and exhibiting bias against the team in comments to the media.

* Daily Herald | Gun violence, public corruption top issues for Cook County state’s attorney candidates: Prosecutors will file detention petitions “each and every time someone is caught with an assault weapon, including guns that have switches and extended magazines,” Burke said during a recent Daily Herald endorsement interview. Prosecutors also will ask “for detention each and every time someone is charged with forcible felony with a gun, knife or some type of weapon,” she said. And they will request detention for individuals charged with a forcible felony in sexual assault cases and individuals charged with committing a violent crime on public transit.

* Daily Herald | Arlington Heights country club where Ray Kroc made business deals turns 100: Much has changed at Rolling Green Country Club, the Arlington Heights golf course celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, and where a members-only black-tie gala was held Saturday night. Its textured history is detailed in a new 113-page coffee table book by Larry Bruck, a board member and unofficial club historian who spent the last year combing through thousands of articles in the Daily Herald and other newspapers, county records, board meeting notes and genealogy documents at the Arlington Heights Memorial Library. Bruck also reached out to a long list of current and past members and employees to gain their insights and recollections.

*** Downstate ***

Joe McGraw, the Republican nominee in #IL17, raised $435,331 last quarter. He had just $384,791 on hand as of Oct. 1 — four times less than incumbent Rep. Eric Sorensen.

But McGraw may soon get a boost as @SpeakerJohnson is headlining a fundraiser for him in Peoria on Sunday. https://t.co/tMsAXD5jFo

— Brenden Moore (@brendenmoore13) October 16, 2024

* Journal Courier | Jacksonville schools take stance against teacher mistreatment; NAACP says handling of past incidents contributed to climate: The superintendent of Jacksonville schools is taking on what he says is mistreatment of teachers by some students and parents. While his call that “enough is enough” is getting plenty of backing, the message is also drawing heat from places such as the Jacksonville NAACP, which said some of the attitudes he targets are the result of how the administration has handled problems in the past. […] The letter was inspired by an incident between a parent and a teacher that occurred in the same week the letter was published. According to Ptacek, the teacher changed a seating arrangement in response to concerns about how a student was behaving toward others. The parent of the student then contacted the teacher and threatened them with physical violence.

* WCIA | Housing project planned for a growing Paxton: Developer Joe Warner originally put the plan in motion, but now his daughter and brother are building on his foundation. The first phase plans to provide 35 single-family homes and 11 duplexes. The site will also have a half-acre park in the middle to be used as a green space.

* WAND | Advocates say central Illinois communities deserve more bus service, funding: Experts say 30% of the population can’t drive, leaving many people with unsafe and inadequate options to get them where they need to go. Champaign-Urbana transit planner Cynthia Hoyle told the Senate Transportation Committee that people in small central Illinois communities desperately need rides.

* Pantagraph | Heartland starts equity tax levy talks, hears from Lincoln campus director: Heartland Community College is continuing to use the state’s equity tax provision to levy additional revenue from property in the district. In a meeting at the college’s Lincoln campus on Tuesday, trustees adopted an equity tax resolution for taxes payable in 2025. Under state law, Heartland can to levy the additional property tax to bring its revenue in line with other community college districts throughout the state, said Noah Lamb, vice president of finance and administration.

* PJ Star | Bernie Sanders in Belvidere: Climate change is real. Electric vehicles can help: Before firing up the crowd at last week’s “Rally with the Working Class to End Trump’s NAFTA 2.0″ in Belvidere, U.S. Sen Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, sat down with Register Star reporter Jeff Kolkey to talk about his views on the auto industry, electric vehicle production, free trade and climate change.

* SJ-R | Central Illinois microbrewery debuting new beer supporting Hurricane Helene relief efforts: Obed & Isaac’s Microbrewery & Eatery at 500 S. Sixth St. announced sales from its new Appalachia Strong IPA will support the relief efforts following the devastating impacts of Hurricane Helene. […] The central Illinois brewery has partnered with the North Carolina Brewers Guild to help displaced people from Hurricane Helene, alongside eight to 10 other brewers across the Prairie State. Through the Pouring for Neighbors initiative, Obed & Isaac’s aims to rally the central Illinois community to contribute to the rebuilding efforts.

* WCIA | ‘That place should be rocking’ Bielema asking for crazy crowd vs Michigan: The game versus Michigan is already sold out, but the Illini head coach wants more than just a full house. “We haven’t lost a game [at home] this year,” Bielema said on Monday. “That place should be rocking. That place should be going crazy. To have two ranked teams, that’s what I want to hear… When we go to Michigan we have to prepare for crowd noise there. I would really like for someone to have to prepare for crowd noise here. That’s when we’ve arrived.”

* WAND | Illinois apple farmer sees decreased harvest after cicadas: It’s been a year of ups and downs for apple farmers in central Illinois. On top of an early bloom, many trees were devastated by the influx in cicadas this spring and summer. Mike Mitchell, who owns Okaw Valley Orchards, said his yield has dropped by about 60% since last year. Because the cicadas laid their eggs on the key branches apples grow on, the trees weren’t able to provide the necessary nutrients for fruit to thrive.

*** National ***

* WSJ | This AI Pioneer Thinks AI Is Dumber Than a Cat: Yann LeCun helped give birth to today’s artificial-intelligence boom. But he thinks many experts are exaggerating its power and peril, and he wants people to know it. While a chorus of prominent technologists tell us that we are close to having computers that surpass human intelligence—and may even supplant it—LeCun has aggressively carved out a place as the AI boom’s best-credentialed skeptic.