* ICYMI: For every person in an Illinois prison college class, another waits their turn. Sun-Times…

- Roughly 2,000 people in Illinois prisons are participating in higher education programs, according to a report released at the beginning of September.
- At the same time, though, another 2,000 are stuck on waiting lists to get into classes because there’s not enough programming available.
-“Some of the things that hold programs back from sustainable growth include access to classroom space inside prisons and funding,” Rebecca Ginsburg, director of the Education Justice Project at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign said.

* Governor Pritzker will be at McCormick Place for the FABTECH Expo at 1:30 pm, with a press availability at 2:15 pm after his tour. Click here to watch.

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* WGN | Here’s how ICE agents operate at courthouses, inside jails: Outside of Chicago’s largest criminal courthouse Tuesday, there was an unmissable ICE presence. Agents drove off when the WGN News photographer took notice. “It really creates this atmosphere of fear and uncertainty and incentivizes people not to show up for court,” Cook County public defender Sharone Mitchell Jr. said. Mitchell said the presence of immigration agents at local courthouses has a chilling effect on the judicial system for victims, witnesses and the accused.

* CNI | Sources: Darren Bailey to run for governor again in Illinois: The former state senator and farmer from Clay County would become the highest-profile Republican to enter the race, having lost the 2022 campaign against Gov. JB Pritzker and a close primary race in 2024 against U.S. Rep. Mike Bost for a downstate congressional seat. […] Bailey plans to enlist Cook County Republican Party Chair Aaron Del Mar as his running mate, a source said. Del Mar ran for lieutenant governor in 2022 alongside Gary Rabine, receiving 6.5% of the vote.

* WAND | IL Supreme Court hears arguments over whether good conduct credits should reduce pretrial jail sanctions: Geoffrey Seymore has asked the Illinois Supreme Court whether good conduct credit can be used to cut down on jail time he received after violating pretrial release conditions. Seymore is facing several drug charges related to meth, but a circuit court judge released him on electronic home monitoring last year. Court records show Seymore violated the conditions of his release the very next day by leaving his home and visiting three unauthorized locations, leading the state to ask for pretrial jail sanctions.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Rep. Margaret Croke for Comptroller…

Today, State Representative Margaret Croke announced the endorsement of Illinois House Speaker Emanuel ‘Chris’ Welch and a diverse group of 31 additional Illinois House Democrats representing communities from across the state.

These endorsements include: House Speaker Emanuel ‘Chris’ Welch (D-07), Speaker Pro Tempore Kam Buckner (D-26th), Majority Leader Robyn Gabel (D‑18th), Deputy Majority Leader Bob Rita (D‑28th), Assistant Majority Leaders Eva-Dina Delgado (D-03rd), Marcus Evans (D-33rd), Jehan Gordon‑Booth (D‑92nd), Jay Hoffman (D‑113th), Camille Lilly (D-78th), Katie Stuart (D‑112th), Curtis Tarver (D‑25th), Ann Williams (D‑11th), Majority Officer and Sergeant at Arms Nick Smith (D‑34th), and Representatives Jaime Andrade (D-40th), Michael Crawford (D-31st), Lisa Davis (D-32nd), Marti Deuter (D-45th), Kimberly Du Buclet (D-05th), Mary Gill (D-35th) Jennifer Gong‑Gershowitz (D‑17th), Nicolle Grasse (D‑53rd), Gregg Johnson (D‑72nd), Mike Kelly (D‑15th), Natalie Manley (D‑98th), Yolonda Morris (D‑09th), Marty Moylan (D‑55th), Suzanne Ness (D‑66th), Rick Ryan (D‑36th), Justin Slaughter (D‑27th), Dave Vella (D‑68th), Larry Walsh (D‑86th), Jawaharial Williams (D‑10th).

* Evanston Now | Gabel plans run for Evanston Dems top job: Illinois House Majority Leader Robyn Gabel is preparing to circulate petitions for the spring primary ballot as a candidate for Evanston Democratic Committeeperson, according to a source with knowledge of the plan. A win would give the 72-year-old state representative from Evanston substantial local political power. The current committeeperson, Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, is engaged in a hotly contested campaign for Congress next year.

*** Chicago ***

* Tribune | Immigration enforcement subdued Tuesday as local officials brace for Trump’s ‘Operation Midway Blitz’: A day after President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security launched “Operation Midway Blitz,” its latest immigration crackdown, area politicians and immigrant rights groups said it was relatively subdued on the ground Tuesday with minimal arrests. But they’re preparing for more. Speaking before more than a dozen cameras on a quiet street in Pilsen, Gov. JB Pritzker on Tuesday said the federal immigration enforcement agency has plans to send in more than 200 agents and 100 vehicles in its Chicago immigration “blitz.”

* Tribune | Aldermen press Mayor Brandon Johnson’s team for report on potential savings: Downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly, a frequent Johnson antagonist, was one of a handful of council members who asked Budget Director Annette Guzman whether the council would be given access to the firm’s full conclusions. Guzman told him that any report would “go through many iterations,” including fact-checking and “filtering.” The administration will then release “the final options that we believe are — after talking to our own departments who have to do this work — practical for the city of Chicago,” Guzman said.

* Crain’s | Fire South Loop soccer stadium wins alderman’s blessing — if Sox stay away: Speaking during a virtual town hall meeting last night on the proposal from developer Related Midwest and the Major League Soccer team, 3rd Ward Ald. Pat Dowell said she supports the plan for a 22,000-seat stadium to anchor the 62-acre development along the Chicago River south of Roosevelt Road. Dowell’s blessing puts the development on track for consideration by the city’s Plan Commission on Sept. 18 and possibly the full City Council the following week. But Dowell’s support comes with a catch: Related’s 62-acre site can have only one stadium, not a second. That would seem to shut the door on the Chicago White Sox, which teamed with Related last year to publicly pitch plans for a ballpark at the site. The Sox suggested in June that it’s still an option to build a stadium alongside the Fire.

* WBEZ | What local colleges are telling students to do during increased federal immigration enforcement: Several of the campuses, including UIC, Northwestern University and the University of Chicago, have their own police forces. Under a state law implemented in 2017 known as the Trust Act, state and local law enforcement, including campus police at both public and private universities, cannot cooperate with federal immigration enforcement. However, none of the universities disclosed how administrators at their campuses interact with federal immigration authorities. DePaul University officials referred WBEZ to a campus communication sent last week, noting that leaders at the private university are monitoring the situation and staying in touch with local and state authorities.

* Block Club | As North Park Homeless Encampment Cleared, Residents Say They Have Nowhere To Go: Ronaldo Gonzalez, 54, said city workers came to the encampment about 7 a.m. Tuesday and told residents they had two hours to gather their things. He put all of his valuables into a cart and left his home, which he had been living in for a little over a year. […] In a statement, a Department of Family and Support Services spokesperson said outreach workers will be at the park all week helping connect residents with shelter and other resources. Only five encampment residents have accepted shelter placement since early August, the spokesperson said. Gonzalez said he declined shelter placement because he has spent time in shelters before and had to deal with bed bugs and people stealing from him.

* WTTW | Prairie in a Pot: Chicago Plant Scientist Tackles Challenge of Native Gardening on an Urban Balcony: Over the past 15 years, Fant, who has a Ph.D. in plant genetics, estimates he’s tested some 200 prairie species in containers on his balcony. “Which is crazy, I’m not recommending it,” he said. “But, as a nerd, I enjoy it. I’ve learned a lot about what succeeds and doesn’t.”

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Tribune | Organizers hope new political group Elevate Oak Park will offer alternative to progressives in power: About 35 people gathered Sept. 4 in a small room on the second floor at One Lake Brewing in Oak Park for the first meeting of Elevate Oak Park. The crowd was mostly a mix of middle aged and older people and included only two Black people. “If I’m honest, that’s something I’m very worried about,” Saam said. “There’s a lot of groups of, kind of, the old guard liberals that skew a little bit older in this community and we don’t want to get branded as that. If we do this right, the next time we have a gathering I would hope that it would be a much more diverse crowd and I would hope that it would skew a little bit younger. I’m 50, I want to be a bit above the median age of the group, not below. To be successful we need a much larger cross section of Oak Park.”

* Daily Herald | Mayor: Public meetings to review Bears’ Arlington Heights stadium plans coming soon: Tinaglia and village officials have been meeting weekly with Bears brass since the team returned its stadium development focus to the 326-acre former racetrack site in May. The mayor said he’s happy with the way the project is advancing, and those efforts will continue to move forward through a multitiered approval process that engages the community.

* Daily Herald | ‘We need $500,000 and we need it now’: PADS of Elgin facing dire budget crisis as winter approaches: The budget shortfall stems from an end to federal American Rescue Plan Act funding that the organization had come to rely on during and after the pandemic. While PADS of Elgin leaders knew that COVID relief funding would expire, other federal dollars they were expecting have been frozen. As a result, the organization is short nearly half the annual $1.7 million operating budget projected for the next fiscal year.

* Daily Southtown | Will County Board member Jacqueline Traynere pledges vigorous defense to computer tampering charge: Will County Board member Jacqueline Traynere pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges of computer tampering in Will County Court. Traynere, a Bolingbrook Democrat and the past Democratic Leader, was charged last month with three counts of computer tampering, a class B misdemeanor, for allegedly accessing the email of fellow board member Judy Ogalla, a Monee Republican and the former board chair, in March 2024. […] The case was continued to Oct. 21.

* Crain’s | After Schill’s exit, pressure mounts on Northwestern board to get it right: “The pressure really couldn’t be higher to get the next appointment right,” said Ron Culp, a veteran public relations consultant who teaches at DePaul University. “They’ll be under a microscope.” Schill came under fire for missteps in navigating multiple crises, and, at each turn, managed to anger and frustrate different Northwestern constituencies. “For three years I guarded the integrity of Northwestern as it faced crisis after crisis — ranging from the hazing scandal I inherited, to the campus activism following Oct. 7, and now the federal funding freeze,” Schill said in a written statement to Crain’s. “I realized in recent months that, for a variety of reasons, it was time for a new leader to take over who was unencumbered by the past.”

* Crain’s | After decade of reinvention, an icon of the plastics world cashes in the suburban family business: Patricia Miller, one of the plastics industry’s most high-profile and unconventional leaders, has sold M4 Factory, the family-owned injection molding business she transformed into a design-driven, sustainability-focused manufacturer. The factory building in Woodstock is now home to AFA Dispensing Group BV, a Netherlands-based packaging firm known for sustainable dispensing systems. The sale, which closed in late June, included the building, equipment and an opportunity for existing employees to stay on under new ownership.

* Daily Southtown | Orland Park District 135 approves $133 million 2026 budget, discusses hiring 2 more assistant principals: The approved budget projects about $120 million in revenue and $133 million in expenses from July 1 through June 30, 2026. District 135 Finance Director Scott Beranek said about $13 million of expenses went toward construction projects completed over the summer, which were covered by selling bonds. “If you were to remove the construction projects from the budget, it’s almost a balanced budget,” Beranek said.

*** Downstate ***

* Shaw Local | NIU freshman enrollment up, second-largest incoming class since 2014, officials say: This year’s freshman class at Northern Illinois University is the second largest since 2014 and made up of a majority of first-generation college students, marking a break in a two-year incoming class slump and what officials said Tuesday shows NIU’s commitment to making higher education accessible to all.

* WGEM | School vaccine deadline draws near: The Adams County Health Department (ACHD) is reminding parents about the Oct. 15 deadline to get their students their required school vaccines. ACHD Director of Nursing Emily Hendrickson said if students don’t have their required vaccines by the deadline they will have to leave school. “So, exclusion day, if you have not vaccinated then you cannot go to school anymore, so after Oct. 15, that’s that deadline for all the schools within the state of Illinois, you have to have it or you can’t go back to school,” Hendrickson said.

* WGEM | Parents accuse Macomb School District of not being transparent following alleged threat: The Macomb School District released a post over the weekend explaining they had been alerted to a social media post by a student that involved what they said was bullying and harm material. “In the video, he’s really only speaking to two or three other students about his desire to have cyberbullying stopped,” said Macomb School District Superintendent Patrick Twomey. Twomey explained several parents who had been alerted to the student’s post had reported it to the district and the Macomb Police Department.

* Week 25 | Peoria moves forward on Riverfront amphitheater, $11 million donation a ‘wonderful gift’: The council unanimously signed off on a letter of intent in which the Hengst Foundation agrees to pay for the venue, but the city would pay for infrastructure upgrades, and the city would have to maintain the property. The foundation is the same organization that withdrew a letter of intent to build the amphitheater in Washington. Its former mayor, Gary Manier, attended Tuesday night’s council meeting representing his friend and foundation founder Jim Hengst, who intends to name the amphitheater after his late wife, Dee.

* 25News Now | Opinions mixed on proposals to boost Bloomington’s housing stock: “I think we’ve gotten to a point where this community realizes that we’re in the midst of a housing crisis. We heard it [Monday night]. This is beyond just needing a few units; we need to do something and do it now,” said Deputy City Manager Billy Tyus. The first item amended the zoning code classification of accessory dwelling units city wide. ADUs are permitted in all Bloomington neighborhoods, but city staff said current zoning rules make them hard to build. The ordinance removes the unnecessary barriers and allows more flexibility.

* WPSD | Cairo’s iconic overpass to remain as landmark after Sunday removal project: The city confirmed Tuesday that, while Cairo’s iconic red overpass is also on Highway 51, that overpass will not be removed — the “CAIRO” overpass is more than 100 years old and serves as a landmark for travelers into the city. The removal project is set to begin at 9 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 14, during which time U.S. 51 will close. The project is expected to last until 5 a.m. Monday.

*** National ***

* Bloomberg | Trump announces crackdown on drug ads, a sign of trouble for big-spending AbbVie: President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum on Tuesday that calls on federal health agencies to require pharmaceutical companies to disclose more side effects in their ads and enforce existing rules about misleading ads. The administration is pitching the moves as a way to increase transparency for patients. The US is the only place, besides New Zealand, where pharma companies can directly advertise to consumers. Limiting pharmaceutical advertisements has been a longtime priority for Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., though the new regulations would stop short of banning the ads entirely.

* AP | Should you carry your passport amid ICE concerns? Experts weigh in after SCOTUS ruling: Attorney Layla Suleiman González said those who might be concerned should consider carrying their passport. “I think yes, it’s better to carry your passport, that’s the best. But everyone needs to have this very, very clear: you don’t have to answer their questions, you don’t have to say where you’re from, you don’t have to say whether you are a citizen or not,” she told Telemundo Chicago. “You don’t have to talk to them or give them any information. They are the ones who have to prove who you are. The truth is they have taken so many people who are citizens. And even when they say, ‘I’m a citizen, I’m a citizen,’ they still get taken anyway.”