* Lee Enterprises’ Brenden Moore with the latest early voting numbers…

The latest early vote numbers from @illinoissbe:
Early in-person - 1,520,513
VBM returned - 832,898
Grace - 31,4476

That's about 29% of Illinois' registered voters who've already cast a ballot. There are also 438,088 VBM ballots still outstanding. #twill

— Brenden Moore (@brendenmoore13) November 4, 2024

* FYI…

Heads up! Electioneering is prohibited within 100 feet of polling places. Places of worship and private schools can opt for a Campaign-Free Zone too! Let's keep our democracy clean! 📷📷 #FairElections #CivicEngagement pic.twitter.com/jZUPO3FW9I

— Illinois SBE (@illinoissbe) November 4, 2024

* RTA Board Chair Kirk Dillard in the Sun-Times…

I noted with interest your Oct. 24 editorial, “Merging Chicago area transit agencies could be just the ticket for riders.” As a lifelong transit rider, advocate and chair of the Regional Transportation Authority, I am focused on outcomes and on what will ensure our transit system works better for riders today and in the future.

The RTA is ready to implement critical reforms that will make meaningful improvements to the system and help riders by providing greater safety, frequency and reliability. Yet, we do not believe full consolidation of the transit operators into a newly created agency is the best way to deliver on those common goals.

The survey referenced in your editorial mentioned that consolidation would “save” $250 million. Readers should understand that would require the elimination of more than 1,000 employees at a time when riders are demanding more and better service, and historically, Chicago’s transit system has the lowest operating cost per mile of any peer system.

The RTA is advocating for $1.5 billion in new operations funding to come with reforms that would establish a stronger RTA that directly interacts with riders to address their day-to-day issues. Sadly, the state of Illinois ranks last among state support for mass transit operations.

*** Statehouse News ***

* BND | Where do IL House 114th District candidates Greenwood and Schmidt stand on the issues?: The race for Illinois State House of Representatives 114th District in the metro-east features the incumbent, Rep. Kevin Schmidt, R-Millstadt, against the previous incumbent, LaToya Greenwood, D-East St. Louis. Greenwood and Schmidt each completed a candidate questionnaire from the Belleville News-Democrat.

* RiverBender | Senator Erica Harriss Honored as ‘Friend of Agriculture’ by Illinois Farm Bureau: “Since taking office, Senator Harriss has shown strong support for our local farming community and continues to maintain an open line of communication with our office and beyond,” said Paige Langenhorst, President of the Madison County Farm Bureau. “We appreciate her support and look forward to working together on policies and legislative ideas for the future.”

*** Chicago ***

* Sun-Times | Here’s why that early voting line was so long: “We are seeing some long lines,” said Max Bever, director of public information for the Chicago Board of Elections. “A good number of locations are bottlenecked today and some places over the weekend had upwards of three-hour long waits.” One reason for the long lines: Only one early voting site is open in each of the city’s 50 wards. On Election Day, thousands of precincts will be open. Early voters also tend to go to the nearest locations, or those in locations they are most familiar with. The downtown supersite also has been busy, but with 72 voting machines, the line moves much faster.

* WTTW | Push to Use Cameras to Bust Chicago Drivers Who Park in Bus, Bicycle Lanes Finally Starts: Eight city vehicles will be equipped with cameras to enforce parking violations. Next year, six CTA buses on priority routes will be equipped with cameras to snap pictures of scofflaws. The program will also be used to ticket cars parked at an unpaid meter, officials said. After the incriminating photo is reviewed by city staff — much like the speed violations captured by cameras mounted near schools and parks — the registered owner of the vehicle will get a ticket in the mail. Violators will get a warning until Dec. 4, and the first ticket for each driver will also serve as a warning, officials said.

* Tribune | Decades-long uptick in attacks on transit workers, including on the CTA, carries implications for employees and riders: In 2023, there were 90 major assaults on CTA workers: 52 on bus employees and 38 on rail workers, federal data shows. Across both bus and rail, it was the highest number of major attacks on employees since at least 2008, the data shows. Complete data isn’t yet available for 2024, but through June there had been 13 attacks on rail workers and 26 on bus workers.

* ABC Chicago | CTA increasing train trips by 20 percent for fall schedule: This will add more than 1,200 weekly rail trips, a 20-percent increase from the spring schedule. The CTA hopes to return service to pre-pandemic levels by the end of this year.

* Sun-Times | CTA Yellow Line train operator in crash faces firing under alcohol use rules — but agency can’t take action yet: The employee faces automatic termination under employment rules, but the CTA hasn’t had the opportunity to begin disciplinary action because the operator remains off the job due to injuries he suffered in the November 2023 crash.

* Block Club | Rogers Park Squirrels Dying In Droves — Likely Due To Rat Poison: ‘It’s Terrifying’: Hadden’s office has been “investigating” in recent weeks and is reaching out to local building management companies, she said. “Right now, it seems it just might be an individual doing this,” Hadden said. “If you are that individual, please stop.” When reached by Block Club on Thursday, Hadden said there was no update. Police did not return a request for comment.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Daily Herald | Battle for control of U.S. House includes suburban matchups: A music school owner, a software consultant and a real estate agent are among the Republicans hoping to unseat Democratic congressional representatives serving the North, West and Northwest suburbs. Even though state lawmakers deliberately drew the borders for the suburban congressional districts to favor Democratic candidates, none of the incumbents is getting a free pass to reelection. Every one of them has a challenger.

* Daily Herald | Buffalo Grove Fire Department performed largest smoke detector installation blitz in Illinois: The Buffalo Grove Fire Department (BGFD) installed 539 smoke detectors in senior housing units from Oct. 22-24, marking the largest effort of any fire department in the state participating in the “blitz.” Approximately 50% of the units had no fire protection (no detectors, bad batteries or old batteries).

* Tribune | Politics feel like a circus? Go see ‘The Great Farce,’ an art exhibit now at Northwestern: Some of the obvious faces in “The Great Farce” — marching, firing rifles, waltzing, greeting Native Americans in pre-colonial wilderness — include Donald Trump and Julius Caesar. I spotted Napoleon in there. And Marie Antoinette, George Washington, Idi Amin. They have the ghostly, gliding marionette aura we associate with motion-captured digital bodies. And also, the crazed, undead faces of children’s drawings. All of it is shown against a backdrop so kinetic, stuffed and saturated with color, it’s as if we are seeing it from behind a kaleidoscopic downpour of ticker tape in Times Square.

* Lake County News-Sun | Lake County Black Lives Matter co-founder going to jail on contempt charge: ‘They said I was trying to incite a riot’: Black Lives Matter in Lake County had to scrap plans this year for a traditional Thanksgiving turkey and ham giveaway, along with taking underserved children on a school-break field trip, because its co-founder Clyde McLemore is headed to jail to serve a negotiated 40-day sentence for contempt of court, starting Wednesday. The misdemeanor charge stemmed from his taking cell phone photos during a Lake County court hearing in August and posting them on social media. McLemore, 65, also posted a video admitting to the breach in protocol. Although he had a press pass, he was not properly credentialed through court services, authorities said.

* Lake and McHenry County Scanner | County board advances plans for path project anticipated to be most popular path in Lake County: The Lake County Board is looking to spend $30 million to build what they hope will become one of the county’s most popular paths extending from Libertyville to Naval Station Great Lakes. The Lake County Board approved a resolution at its Oct. 8 meeting moving segments 2 and 3 of the proposed Patriot Path into Phase II Engineering.

*** Downstate ***

* WCIA | Iroquois Co. burn ban lifted after three weeks: Ashkum Fire Chief Jeff Glenn determined the decision as the President of the Eastern Illinois Mutual Aid Fire Association, and announced it to the Iroquois County Emergency Management Agency. Glenn put the ban on place on Oct. 11. “Recent rainfall has provided enough moisture to safely remove the burning restriction,” Iroquois County EMA Coordinator Scott Anderson said.

* SJ-R | Ten-story Myers Building in downtown Springfield to go on auction block: The nearly century-old Myers Building in downtown Springfield is going up for auction, one of its heirs and minority owners confirmed to The State Journal-Register. The ten-story building at the southwest corner of Fifth and Washington streets was the longtime location of Myers Brothers Department Store, which later became Bergner’s before closing in 1989. The building had been for sale, said Michael Myers, 79, a Springfield attorney, and its last major tenant was the Illinois Treasurer’s Office, which moved to the former Marine Bank.

* WSIL | Millstone Water District informs customers of arsenic levels above drinking water standards: We routinely monitor for the presence of drinking water contaminants. Testing results we received on Monday, October 7h, 2024 show that our system exceeds the standard, or maximum contaminant level (MCL), for arsenic. The standard for arsenic is 0.010 milligrams per liter (mg/L). The average level of arsenic over the last year was 0.011 (mg/L).

*** National ***

* 60 Minutes | Doctors say strict abortion laws in Texas put pregnant women and their physicians at serious risk: In 2023, Dani Mathisen joined 19 women with similar stories in a lawsuit against the Texas government for denial of care. The lawsuit did not seek to overturn the bans. rather, to clarify which exceptions were allowed under the law. The Texas Supreme Court ultimately rejected their case. But after the women filed their lawsuit, Texas legislators quietly passed a new law to include two exceptions to the ban – one for ectopic pregnancies – when a pregnancy occurs outside the uterus. the other, when a woman’s water breaks prematurely.

* Migration Policy Institute | Explainer: Noncitizen Voting in U.S. Elections: Claims that migrants are being allowed into the United States so they can vote rest on the unfounded assumption that immigrants can quickly become voters. But to become U.S. citizens and thus be eligible to vote, immigrants must first receive legal permanent residence (aka getting a green card) and typically spend five years in that status (three if married to a U.S. citizen) before becoming eligible to naturalize. In the case of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, they face a complicated path of a decade or longer to U.S. citizenship and may not ever have any pathway at all.