* ICYMI: Mayor Brandon Johnson’s bond refinancing plan passes after stalling effort by opponents. Tribune…

The City Council approved Mayor Brandon Johnson’s cost-cutting effort to refinance $1.5 billion in debt Tuesday, despite criticism from aldermen who said the maneuver wouldn’t deliver the windfall the administration claims.

The bid to take advantage of lower interest rates passed in a 35-to-12 vote. City finance leaders estimate the move will save Chicago $90 million this year and another $35 million next year without loading the city up with additional debt.

“We know if we do a refinancing deal, we are going to save money. And we’ve been pretty conservative in our estimates,” Chief Financial Officer Jill Jaworski said. […]

Ald. Brian Hopkins, 2nd, opposed Johnson’s refinancing plans, arguing that the savings might be vastly overestimated and that the plan could harm Chicago’s credit rating. But he thought the tactics that made Tuesday’s meeting necessary were “nonsense,” he added.

* Related stories…

∙ Crain’s: City Council approves $1.5 billion bond plan to refinance debt as budget deficit looms
∙ ABC Chicago: Chicago Council delays vote to lower speed limit; $1.5B bond issue to refinance debt approved

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* CNN | How elderly dementia patients are unwittingly fueling political campaigns: One 82-year-old woman, who wore pajamas with holes in them because she didn’t want to spend money on new ones, didn’t realize she had given Republicans more than $350,000 while living in a 1,000 square-foot Baltimore condo since 2020. By the time a Taiwanese immigrant from California passed away from lung cancer this year at age 80, she had given away more than $180,000 to Trump’s campaign and a litany of other Republican candidates – writing letters to candidates apologizing for not getting donations to them on time because she was going into heart surgery. She had only $250 in her bank account when she died, leaving her family scrambling to cover the cost of her funeral.

* WTTW | Over 1,000 Illinois Students Are Signed Up to Receive Plant-Based Lunch, 1 Year After Law Went Into Effect: The milestone comes over one year after an Illinois law went into effect requiring public schools to provide a plant-based lunch for students who have, or whose parents have, requested that option in advance. Chef Rodolfo Cuadros of Bloom Plant Based Kitchen in Wicker Park has two daughters who are signed up to receive plant-based lunch twice a week at their school. The restaurant has teamed up with the campaign More Plants On Plates Illinois to increase awareness of plant-based meals being an option for students.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Shaw Local | State representative candidate Liz Bishop pledges to seek repeal of SAFE-T Act: A La Salle Republican running for Illinois state representative pledged Tuesday to try and overturn the SAFE-T Act and denounced three measures that would, if enacted, cut down on the time inmates would serve in the Illinois Department of Corrections.

* WCIA | New Clem ad claims Schweizer campaign is aided by ‘extremists’.: “Schweizer’s campaign is funded with the help of wealthy extremists who think the 2020 election was stolen and who financed the rally that led to the armed insurrection on January 6th,” the ad states. The ad immediately drew push back from House Republican Leadership, who said it was wrong to say Schweizer — who is a veteran — was somehow connected to the events of January 6th.

*** Statewide ***

* WMBD | Board urges state commission to cut Ameren rate hike request: The Citizens Utility Board has requested state regulatory judges with the Illinois Commerce Commission cut a rate hike on Tuesday. According to CUB Communications Director Jim Chilsen, a proposed order granted by three ICC administrative law judges granted Ameren 90% of the $334 million the utility company had requested.

* WTTW | Understaffing at Illinois Prisons Increases Lockdowns, Impacts Mental Health: Watchdog Report: Prisons in Illinois are currently facing a staffing crisis, according to a new report from the prison watchdog group the John Howard Association. It found understaffing greatly increases the amount of lockdowns and staff overtime and impacts the overall health, safety and well-being of staff and incarcerated people.

*** Chicago ***

Here's Brandon Johnson threatening a reporter for asking a follow up question: https://t.co/pOTaRbPPHH pic.twitter.com/eoOcbmkAoI

— Alex Tamwicz (@ATamwicz) October 22, 2024

* Chicago Reader | Blue Line blues: Blue Line ridership to Forest Park has seen one of the weakest recoveries of any route on any CTA line since the start of the pandemic, according to data from the Regional Transit Authority. As of May, the route saw just 46 percent of its 2019 riders return, compared to 59 percent overall—the weakest recovery agency-wide other than the Yellow Line.

* Chalkbeat | Mayor Brandon Johnson appoints seventh Chicago school board member: Mayor Brandon Johnson has picked a seventh member, Rafael Yáñez, to join a new school board he appointed earlier this month after the entire seven-member board stepped down. Yáñez, a hate crimes investigator with the Chicago Police Department according to his LinkedIn profile, and the other new appointees will meet for the first time Thursday to review the board’s October agenda — a meeting that was pushed back a week. The Rev. Mitchell Johnson, former executive director of the Developing Communities Project, is expected to serve as president of the new board, and Mary Gardner, a West Side community organizer, as vice president.

* Sun-Times | Gen Z voters around Chicago want solutions, not social media vitriol from presidential candidates: About 8 million Gen Z voters are eligible to vote in their first election this year. Young voters around Chicago say candidates’ TikToks and other social media pages are helpful — but they want to hear concrete solutions for problems facing the next generation.

* WBEZ | CPS School Board: The race in the Southwest Side’s District 7: The 7th District serves a large percentage of students learning English as a second language. Ensuring proper services has emerged as a priority for some of the candidates. Two candidates are getting lots of attention from groups on opposite sides of the ideological spectrum. Lopez is endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union. As of Tuesday, she has received about $25,000 in in-kind support from the CTU and another union-affiliated PAC.

* WBEZ | Here’s who endorses each Chicago School Board candidate: Below are endorsements from education-related groups for each Chicago School Board candidate. We also list organizations that do education-related work that are providing meaningful financial support to candidates. Election Day for the city’s first elected board is Nov. 5.

* Tribune | Robert Helman, helped diversify Mayer Brown client base, dies at 90: “Bob was always promoting me and other younger partners to clients, and was incredibly generous in doing so — he never hoarded clients, but instead always tried to get us in front of clients, reveling in any success we had,” said U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Durkin, a Mayer Brown partner from 1993 until 2012. Helman, 90, died after an extended illness on Oct. 4 at his home, said his son, Adam. He was a longtime resident of the South Side Kenwood and Hyde Park neighborhoods.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Naperville Sun | DuPage County clerk files suit against county board, auditor over right to control office in ongoing billing dispute: Kaczmarek’s lawsuit, filed in DuPage County Circuit Court through private attorneys, is the latest development in what’s been a longstanding dispute between the clerk and the county board over bill payment procedures and what authority Kaczmarek has over her office’s budget. “This lawsuit repeats the same points of law my office has been raising for over two years,” Kaczmarek said in a news release from her office Monday. “Despite plain and unambiguous language backing us up, the state’s attorney chooses to ignore it.”

* Daily Southtown | Landlord tells court she’s been unable to serve eviction papers to Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard: The owner, Genetta Hull, filed eviction papers last month, saying Henyard and Kamal Woods owe more than $3,350 in unpaid rent and late fees for the home in the 14600 block of Harvard Street. During the hearing, where she appeared by Zoom, Hull said the occupants have “been elusive” and that she’s not been able to gain entry to the home to inspect the property.

* Daily Southtown | Video shows Harvey dispute that led to two arrests of Ald. Colby Chapman, a Chapman complaint and attempted order of protection: Harston said Chapman filed the police report after the Aug. 14 meeting, claiming she was “pushed and battered” by Davis. But after Harvey police examined surveillance footage and heard from witnesses, officers determined they disagree with how Chapman described what happened, Harston said. said the Cook County state’s attorney’s office decided not to pursue charges against Chapman. Police Chief Cameron Biddings was quoted in the news release criticizing that decision.

* Daily Herald | New DuPage program would give county board members $100,000 each for grant awards: DuPage County Board members could soon look for ways to spend $100,000 each to benefit county residents. A proposed “member initiative” program would allow board members to work with nonprofit groups or other government agencies to support programs or services benefiting county residents. Under the proposed program, each of the 18 board members would get $100,000 — or $300,000 for each of the six districts — to spend on capital improvement projects or programs benefiting their district or the entire county.

* Daily Herald | New Aurora casino construction going well, mayor says: Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin scrawled A-plusses on a giant report card Tuesday for the progress being made building the new Hollywood Casino Aurora. “This progress is amazing,” Irvin told laborers and their bosses, saying the project is on time and on budget and that the workers are doing high-quality work.

* Sun-Times | Cook County commissioners sound alarm on syphilis spike: “This is not just a health care crisis, but a call to action for all of us that the consequences of this disease, particularly when passed from mother to child, are devastating yet entirely preventable,” Cook County Commissioner Monica Gordon said.

*** Downstate ***

* Bloomberg | Cracked Skull, Fractured Bones Show Danger for Rivian Factory’s Workers: These are among the injuries suffered by workers at Rivian Automotive Inc., which has only one factory yet has racked up more US safety violations initially deemed “serious” than any other automaker since the start of last year. And there are incidents alleged by workers at the plant in Normal, Illinois, that haven’t made it into government reports. One former employee interviewed by Bloomberg News said she complained to doctors last year of vomiting bile with a “Rivian blue” hue after painting automobiles without a respirator.

* Tribune | Kankakee County Board chair steps down after taking job with firm building controversial EV battery plant: The chairman of the Kankakee County Board resigned from his post on Tuesday ahead of a special board meeting to consider his ouster after he recently took a job with the firm behind a controversial electric vehicle battery plant being built in Manteno. Under Andrew Wheeler’s leadership, the board was one of several taxing bodies that agreed to provide millions of dollars in incentives to lure Chinese-owned Gotion’s $2 billion EV battery plant, which was vigorously opposed by far-right Republicans who raised fears of communist infiltration.

* PJ Star | $2 million in state funding allows Salvation Army to expand new homeless shelter project: The City of Peoria received a $2 million grant from the state that they will in turn give to the Salvation Army to build a new homeless shelter on the 400 block of SW Jefferson Avenue. The shelter will replace the Labor Temple, which will be torn down. The grant money will allow the Salvation Army to build a two-story shelter instead of a one-story shelter like originally planned. Additionally, the new plan will allow the Salvation Army to keep its existing shelter on Jefferson Street open while construction of the new shelter in underway.

* News Channel 20 | Illinois prepares for massive test against No. 1 Oregon’s explosive offense and loud fans: Offensive coordinator Barry Lunney said preparing for the crowd noise “priority number one” for his unit. Eugene will be Illinois’ third road trip to a ranked school. “Everybody from A to Z talks about how loud the environment is, maybe the loudest place in the country,” said Lunney. “I thought we handled (crowd noise really well against Nebraska, but against Penn State) we didn’t handle as well.”

* NYT | At This Illinois Museum, the Exhibits Are Larger Than Life: For more than two decades in this no-stoplight town in central Illinois, a 19-foot-tall fiberglass man has stood alongside a stretch of Route 66, holding a giant hot dog. Now, up the block at the American Giants Museum, more giants have joined him. There’s a giant Texaco gas station attendant, a gaptoothed fellow called a Snerd, a waving man in a blue bow tie.