* I thoroughly enjoyed reading this profile of courtroom sketch artist Lou Chukman from Block Club…

The artist, who lives in Pilsen, keeps the originals of thousands of courtroom sketches — of the innocent, the guilty and the in-between — in an indiscriminate Bridgeport storage locker.

The folders date back to 1975. Flipping through the sketches, Chukman, 69, pulled out “a white haired judge with a long face,” an 11-year-old hit man, a row of renegade “super gang” members and former Mayor Lori Lightfoot making a case as a young federal prosecutor. […]

“You usually have to get indicted for me to draw you,” Chukman said. “I don’t like people.” […]

DuPage County State’s Attorney Bob Berlin has four of Chukman’s courtroom sketches hanging in his office, stretching back to a double murder at a Chicago bar he prosecuted more than two decades ago.

“Lou seems to use color more often than other artists,” Berlin said. “I keep the sketches because they keep the memory of the trial alive. People need to be reminded of the impact these crimes have on our community, and that there are folks who work hard for justice. I consider Lou a journalist. His sketches capture more than a few paragraphs can.”

Go read the rest.

* At 7 pm the governor will give remarks at La Casa Norte Annual Gala Esperanza. Click here to watch.

*** Chicago ***

* Sun-Times | A Chicago cop faces firing over a fatal shooting. Months earlier, he shot and paralyzed another man: Ruiz arrived with other officers, approached the driver’s side of Comer’s friend’s vehicle “and immediately fired his weapon at Mr. Comer at least eleven times without issuing commands,” the lawsuit claims. Comer was trying to park the car closer to the curb when the cops showed up, and he wasn’t holding a gun at the time. “At no point did Mr. Comer grab a weapon, much less threaten an officer with it or pose a threat to any officer or citizen of bodily harm or death,” the suit holds. The shooting left Comer, 39, paralyzed from the waist down, according to the suit, which targets the city of Chicago, Ruiz and other officers.

* Chicago Reader | ‘A common sense problem’ : A coalition of Black women alders led by Jeanette Taylor (20) and Stephanie Coleman (16), along with Mayor Brandon Johnson, pushed for the hearing. The resolution that called for the hearing cited the seven-part investigation “Missing in Chicago,” copublished by Invisible Institute and City Bureau in November, an excerpt of which also ran as a Chicago Reader cover story. The series was awarded the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting. Alders also highlighted a 2023 series by CBS Chicago journalist Dorothy Tucker on crime and violence against Black women.

* Bloomberg | Bally’s $1.8 Billion Chicago Casino Hinged on Landlord Redesign: For months, casino industry veteran Peter Carlino pondered whether to back the massive gambling resort Bally’s Corp. had won approval to build in downtown Chicago. Carlino, chief executive officer of Gaming & Leisure Properties Inc., liked the idea of financing the only casino in America’s third-largest city, but he had issues with the design. So he dispatched one of his staffers to engage with Bally’s on a top-to-bottom rethink of the property.

* Block Club | Latino-Owned Cannabis Dispensary Opens In Avondale: Bloc Avondale opened last week at 3545 N. Kedzie Ave., a former mattress and paint warehouse building. Bloc is the first social equity license dispensary for Avondale and the second dispensary to open in the neighborhood. Louis Lopez, who grew up in Hermosa and Belmont Cragin, owns the dispensary. It’s one of 11 stores nationwide from operator Justice Cannabis Co., which was started by Chicago civil rights attorneys in 2014. Justice CEO Alexzandra Fields, who lives in Lakeview, helps run the shop.

* Sun-Times | Former Loyola football teammates battle cancer together as doctor and patient: Mike Lowe and Dan Dammrich watched the Loyola vs. Providence game together. The two former Loyola football teammates blended in with all the others hanging out on the sideline. They greeted old friends, talked with assistant coaches and enjoyed a warm mid-October Saturday afternoon. […] Lowe, a reporter for WGN-TV, was diagnosed with stage 3(c)N+ colon cancer in May. […] But the personal connection and the old high school football tie is making it easier for Lowe.

* Sun-Times | Substandard Media: Chicago Sports Network’s broadcast partner isn’t doing channel, fans any favors: The decision by the White Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks to partner with Standard Media for their new regional sports network was perplexing from the start. Here was a small media company based in Nashville, Tennessee, carrying the teams’ hopes and dreams. Its job would be to get the network distributed as widely as possible. For that to happen, Standard would need to agree to a carriage deal with Comcast, the largest TV provider in the Chicago market. More than three weeks into Chicago Sports Network’s existence, no deal is in sight, validating concerns that Standard was not equipped for the job.

* WTTW | Day of the Dead’s Iconic Flower Plants Seeds of Cultural Connection in Chicago: For the past six months, staff and students at the University of Illinois Chicago have been tending thousands of marigolds on the grounds of the school’s Plant Research Laboratory, sowing seeds in the spring and nurturing plots of the flowers throughout the growing season. The brilliant orange and yellow blooms aren’t part of an official scientific study, but they do represent a cultural experiment of sorts. […] Turns out the marigolds in UIC’s garden — specifically the species known as Aztec marigolds (Tagetes erecta) — are destined for use during Dia de los Muertos.

* Block Club | Old Irving Park Lawn Transformed Into ‘Six Hags Boosment Park’ For Halloween: The Old Irving Park Halloween display features amusement park rides like Skelly the Striker, The Bone Rattler roller coaster, the Wheel of Death and the Fright Flight swing tower. An archery target with a skeleton is spinning in the background, and a skeleton dog and human are at the park enjoying the fun.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* AP | DNA tests identify 19th-century teenager’s skull found in Illinois home’s wall: The skull went forgotten until March of 2021, when museum supervisors discovered it during an inventory audit. They called police, who sent the skull to the coroner’s office. Working with Othram Laboratories, a forensic laboratory in Texas that assists law enforcement, the office was able to build a DNA profile from the skull that suggested it was that of Esther Granger, a 17-year-old woman who died during childbirth in Merrillville, Indiana, in 1866.

* Shaw Local | Downers Grove at odds: Video gambling referendum stirs passionate debate: Residents will be asked to vote on a nonbinding advisory referendum that would allow restaurants and recreational/club/private facilities to operate video gambling terminals beginning Jan. 1. If approved, the measure would restrict the number of licenses to 10. The ordinance also would have specific stipulations on the number of terminals (six), terminal configuration and terminal visibility.

* Sun-Times | At this Northwestern professor’s lab, plastic-eating microbes show promise to gobble up microplastics in nature: The 18-person team’s latest finding has helped science inch closer to answering a question that’s perplexed researchers for years: Can the bacteria that cling to plastic bottles in rivers eat up all of that plastic and help get rid of that pollutant? The answer, according to Aristilde’s team’s recently published research, is yes.

* Daily Herald | Delnor Hospital’s drone delivery program saves time transferring specimens, medical supplies: A partnership between Northwestern Medicine and the Valqari drone delivery company in Lombard sends specimens and medical supplies in time-saving flights between the hospital and the Delnor Cancer Center. Without the drones, most deliveries at Delnor are made during four scheduled courier trips, or by nursing staff or laboratory technicians who make the deliveries on foot across Delnor Drive. It takes about a half-hour to cover the half-mile round-trip on foot. Staff does this more than 40 times a month. […] “A half-hour is a good chunk of a nurse’s day,” said Ryan Walsh, Valqari CEO and founder. “We can make that same delivery in about 4 minutes.”

*** Downstate ***

* WCIA | Former deputy accused of murdering Sonya Massey now in Macon County Jail: Macon County Jail records show Sean Grayson was transferred Thursday afternoon to the facility. He was previously held in Menard County Jail. […] Grayson’s next trial date is Dec. 2. His lawyer appealed for pre-trial release for him under the SAFE-T Act, but two courts so far have denied him.

* Rockford Register Star | Winnebago County Mental Health Board appointee drops out after questions are raised: County Board Chairman Joe Chiarelli during a Thursday night board meeting said that Terri Hitzke of Loves Park no longer wanted to be considered for the four-year appointment “for reasons that she is going to put in a letter to the county board chairman and to the county board about what she has had to endure during this process.” […] Chiarelli said he looked into concerns that had been raised and ultimately decided they were unfounded. Chiarelli had planned to bring her appointment back to the County Board floor on Thursday night.

* WIFR | Winnebago County Board members react to RAVE Board vacancy: ‘Surprised’ is how some Winnebago County Board members describe the news that Hard Rock Casino Rockford President Geno Iafrate is stepping down from his position with the RAVE Board. […] John Guevara, Winnebago County Board member, says he’s surprised to hear about Iafrate leaving RAVE. “I think the contributions, you know, spoke for themselves. There was a significant partnership between entities across the board,” he says.

* SJ-R | Public gets a look at new master plan for downtown Springfield, medical district: The 278-page document was recently rolled out online, but members of the public got a close-up of specifics at an open house at Memorial Learning Center on Oct. 24. […] “We all kind of want to see, in my opinion, the end result. We want cool shops. We want good restaurants,” Stremsterfer said. “We do have a lot of those great things already. We just want more of them.

* SJ-R | City of Springfield will resume showing faces of public commenters at meetings: The city of Springfield will resume showing faces of public commenters at its committee of the whole meeting Tuesday. For the past two meetings, the city preempted video but not audio during public commentary citing “unauthorized recording and sharing of meeting content.” Haley Wilson, a spokeswoman for the city, told The State Journal-Register last week the move was “temporary” and may be lifted.

* STLPR | A Metro East nonprofit increases after-school programs with a $450,000 Illinois state grant: East Side Aligned, a local nonprofit serving youth, received a nearly $450,000 Illinois state grant to help bring more after-school programs and services to children and families in East St. Louis and the surrounding communities. The Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority’s Restore, Reinvest and Renew program funds community organizations that work in areas that have been harmed by economic disinvestment, violence and excessive incarceration. It is funded through state revenue from adult recreational cannabis sales.

*** National ***

* Semafor | Why there are fewer polls this election: In addition to the usual concerns about accurately predicting a race that’s effectively deadlocked in every swing state, the sheer number of high-quality, brand-name polls has been in decline for several cycles. Politico’s polling reporter Steven Shepard lamented that last weekend bizarrely passed without any major polls of note nationally or in battlegrounds, although they picked up later this week on both counts. That means less grist for obsessive news consumers and less data for big aggregators and forecasters trying to make sense of the race.

* The Atlantic | Election officials are under siege: ”Stop counting votes, or we’re going to murder your children”: Around the country, election officials have already received death threats and packages filled with white powder. Their dogs have been poisoned, their homes swatted, their family members targeted. In Texas, one man called for a “a mass shooting of poll workers and election officials” in precincts with results he found suspicious. “The point is coercion; the point is intimidation. It’s to get you to do or not do something,” Al Schmidt, the secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, told me—to get you to “stop counting votes, or we’re going to murder your children, and they name your children,” a threat that Schmidt said he received in 2020. This year, the same things may well happen again. “I had one election official who said they called her on her cellphone and said, ‘Looks like your mom made lasagna tonight; she’s wearing that pretty yellow dress that she likes to wear to church,” Tammy Patrick, the chief programs officer at the National Association of Election Officials and a former elections officer in Maricopa County, Arizona, told me. “It’s terrorism here in America.”