* Chalkbeat Chicago…

New data released today show Illinois students continue to rebound from pandemic-era academic setbacks in most metrics, but SAT scores continue to drop.

Declining SAT scores mirror a national trend but come as more Illinois students are graduating from public high schools, raising red flags for top state education officials.

The Illinois State Board of Education’s latest report card data show the four-year high school graduation rate at 87.7% at the end of the 2023-24 school year, compared to 87.6% the previous year, and it has been steadily climbing over the past decade. However, graduation rates for Black and Latino students are still low compared with white and Asian American students.

About 31.1% of high school juniors who took the SAT this past spring were considered proficient in reading, while 26.1% met or exceeded state standards in math. That’s a drop from 2018-19 when 36.2% were proficient in reading and 34.4% were proficient in math.

* Daily Herald…

Just days after an Orthodox Jewish man was shot while walking to his Chicago synagogue, and amid record numbers of hate crime reports nationwide, state leaders on Wednesday announced a new initiative to help those affected by hate-fueled attacks.

Help Stop Hate features a website, ilstophate.org, and a phone number, (877) 458-4283, where people can confidentially report hate crimes and receive referrals to community resources that offer assistance. […]

The initiative also will allow the state to better identify the frequency and location of hate acts to improve services, strengthen policies and increase resources, advocates say. […]
According to FBI statistics released last month, 11,862 hate crime incidents affecting 14,416 victims were reported across the country last year, the most since the bureau began keeping track in 1991. […]

Illinois bucked those trends last year, with hate crime reports falling from 346 to 319, according to the FBI. But that dip followed a massive surge, from 56 in 2020 and 98 in 2021, to 346 in 2022.

* Dewitt Daily News…

It will be a slow veto session in Springfield according to one central Illinois lawmaker.

State Sen. Sally Turner indicates there is nothing to veto in this veto session so she’s not really sure what lawmakers will be doing while they’re in Springfield.

As the legislature turns over a new year coming up, Sen. Turner is focused on some wind farm legislation. She explains they are focused on wind turbines and their location to weather radars as well as proximities to communities.

According to the Lincoln Republican, while there will not be a busy veto session, that doesn’t mean they are standing around doing nothing. She explains they have committee meetings and meet with constituents associated with various groups in Illinois.

* Capitol News Illinois | By the numbers: Unions lead the way on funding state elections in Illinois: This year in Illinois, there are no statewide elections. There are no fights over a Supreme Court seat. There are no constitutional amendments. At the Statehouse, more than half of general election races are uncontested. And yet, political campaigns in Illinois raised about $600 million in itemized individual contributions, according to a Capitol News Illinois analysis of state campaign finance data. Accounting for loans, transfers between political committees and other contributions, more than $1 billion changed hands among Illinois’ political organizations between Nov. 9, 2022, and Oct. 15, 2024 – the final required disclosure deadline before the election.

* Rich Miller | The Next Person Who Tries to Sell Ram Villivalam on Transit Funding without Reform Will Get Run Over by Him: “I have said from the beginning that we need to provide adequate funding for public transit,” Senator Villivalam told me. “It is good for our local economy, public health, quality of life, mitigating climate impact, and much more.” However, Villivalam continued, “With that said, I have heard from colleague after colleague. The appetite to vote on this unprecedented amount of funding without reform is just not there. Period.”

* Chalkbeat | Mayor Johnson’s budget would send Chicago Public Schools $300 million – less than what CPS wants: Facing a nearly $1 billion deficit next year, Mayor Brandon Johnson proposed a city budget Wednesday that would send roughly $300 million to Chicago Public Schools. That’s nearly $140 million more than what CPS already budgeted to receive from the city. But it’s still roughly $190 million short of what CPS wants to help cover critical upcoming costs that have been at the heart of leadership conflicts between the mayor’s office and CPS.

* Sun-Times | City’s record $300 million proposal for CPS budget deficit would still leave shortfall: To fill the CPS budget hole, Martinez asked Johnson for $484 million in TIF funds this year, a request that was always unlikely to be granted because it would have required declaring a more than a $900 million total surplus. That would be politically challenging since City Council members rely on that money to attract development to their wards.

* Tribune | Mailers for school board race go negative — from Project 2025 to attacks on the mayor: “If Trump Republicans and out-of-state billionaires get their candidate — Ellen Rosenfeld — elected,” reads one pamphlet paid for by a CTU Local 1 Political Action Committee. Then, in smaller lettering: “Donald Trump’s 2025 agenda will crush our public schools.” Charter proponents and CTU have been longtime enemies and now their Board of Education fights are spilling into people’s living rooms in the form of these mailers. As all of them are likely Democrats, the labels paint a bizarre picture of the people running for school board seats.

* Crain’s | Chicago’s first apartment building designed for the blind opens in Illinois Medical District: Printed on walls in a new nine-story apartment building on Wood Street are the words peace, joy, family, community and hope, but not everyone can read them. The words are printed in Braille, legible only to those who know this tactile printed language for people who are blind or visually impaired. The wallpaper lines elevator vestibules in a new $47 million building, called the Foglia Residences at the Chicago Lighthouse. It’s the first apartment building in the city designed expressly for people who are blind or visually impaired and living independently

* CBS | How an 1884 painting at Chicago’s Art Institute saved Bill Murray’s life: “I think it’s called ‘The Song of the Lark,’ and it’s a woman working in a field and there’s a sunrise behind her,” Murray said in the clip. Murray said it was early on in his career and he was feeling hopeless after a performance. So CBS News Chicago’s Marie Saavedra went looking for that painting.

* Tribune | Verna Clayton, former Buffalo Grove village president and state legislator, dies at 87 : According to Clayton’s daughter, one of the achievements that she was proudest of was bringing Lake Michigan water to Buffalo Grove through the creation of the Northwest Water Commission, which was formed to build a pipeline to carry water to four northwest suburbs. Lake water began flowing to Buffalo Grove in early 1985. While village president, Clayton also served for a time as the first female president of the Illinois Municipal League.

* Crain’s | Developers try again to remake Highland Park’s former Solo Cup factory: For the third time in six years, the long-vacant 28-acre site of a former Solo Cup factory in Highland Park is in a developer’s sights, this time for residential development that would be half as dense as a plan that dissolved in 2018. The Habitat Co. is in the early stages of proposing a total of 262 units in townhouses and two-flats, with about 11.7 acres of existing trees and wetlands preserved on two sides of the property, which is at Old Deerfield and Ridge roads west of U.S. Highway 41.

* Daily Southtown | Blue Island considers plan to bring a Cook County Fair to former landfill site: Blue Island officials are considering a proposal to convert the long-vacant site of a former landfill into a venue for hosting a Cook County Fair. Former Cook County Deputy Clerk John Mirkovic outlined his plans this month for the multiacre property at 119th Street and Vincennes Road in Blue Island. “I’ve been out there, I’ve looked at it. I think that it is large enough and it’s really great for something of this scale,” Mirkovic told the Blue Island City Council.

* FOX | A look at local election security as 600K Cook County voters have already cast ballots: Around 600,000 Chicago and suburban Cook County residents have cast their ballots early. Chicago Board of Elections spokesman Max Bever says each machine tabulates the numbers at the end of the day, but they are kept secret until the polls close on Election Day. “So they’re going to a secret server – all the voting machines are never connected to the internet – so that’s why we don’t have live voting updates in real time,” Bever said. “We have to take those memory cards and we have to take those paper ballots at the end of each night and put those paper ballots under lock and key in our warehouse.”

* Daily Herald | ‘Vivid creatures’ will be taking over Morton Aboretum next year: Construction already is in progress at the BeGaetz workshop and studio in Portland, Oregon. The pieces — the tallest is 24 feet high — will be made from recycled steel and fiber-reinforced cement and painted with acrylic so the five “Vivid Creatures” can withstand Midwestern weather. “Eighty percent of the steel that they use has been recycled at least once, and steel actually has a lower carbon footprint than most other materials that are used in large-scale sculptures,” Scott said.

* BND | Former employee admits embezzling from Dupo School District activities fund: Linda J. Johnson, 58, of Waterloo, faced three counts of theft from Dupo Community Unit School District 196, where she worked. “Stealing funds from student activities directly deprives children of opportunities within their extracurriculars,” said U.S. Attorney Rachelle Aud Crowe. “Although the defendant tried to conceal her crime from school officials by preparing two sets of records, her deceit was discovered, and she will be held accountable.” The loss to the school district is $135,566.80.

* WMBD | Program working to fix childcare shortages in Peoria County: Peoria County is one of 15 counties within the area that has the attention of the Women’s Business Development Center which is working with local leaders to expand its virtual no-cost programs to empower women to run as well as inspire them to open new childcare businesses. According to the center, there are more than 23,000 children under the age of 10 in Peoria County, but the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services says there are only 96 state-licensed childcare facilities. This averages out to 239 kids per facility, which they say is unrealistic.

* SJ-R | Franklin’s Bergschneider elected National FFA president: Thaddeus Bergschneider, who grew up on a fourth-generation farm in Franklin in Morgan County, was elected National FFA President at its conventional and expo in Indianapolis last week. The Illinois FFA State President, Bergschneider is a freshman at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign where he is pursuing a degree in agricultural and consumer economics in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES).

* Today | McDonald’s may finally have a fix for its broken ice cream machine epidemic: McDonald’s often maligned, seemingly perennially-broken ice cream machines could soon become a thing of the past. On Oct. 25, the United States Copyright Office granted a copyright exemption that gives restaurants like McDonald’s the “right to repair” broken machines by circumventing digital locks that prevent them from being fixed by anyone other than its manufacturer.

* AP | 2 New York Yankees fans who were ejected have been banned from Game 5 of World Series: The league and club released a statement saying the two fans who were involved in a ball being pried from Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Mookie Betts’ glove would not be permitted at the game. “Last night two fans were ejected from Yankee Stadium for egregious and unacceptable physical contact with Dodgers outfielder Mookie Betts,” the statement reads. “The safety and security of players, fans and Stadium staff is the foundational element of every event held at Yankee Stadium, and it cannot be compromised.

* WaPo | Musk’s plan to cut $2 trillion in U.S. spending could bring economic turmoil: Musk first outlined his highly aggressive target at a raucous campaign rally in New York last weekend, promising to identify “at least $2 trillion in cuts” as part of a formal review of federal agencies that he would conduct if Trump wins next week’s election. But the audacious pledge, which drew rapt applause, belied a harsh fiscal reality: Slashing the budget that steeply would require decimating an array of government services, including food, health care and housing aid — and it could erode funding for programs that lawmakers in both parties say they want to protect, from defense to Social Security.