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Isabel’s afternoon roundup (Updated)
Thursday, Sep 18, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller * Crain’s…
* Sun-Times courts reporter Jon Seidel…
* Edgar Fellows Executive Director Janet Mathis…
…Adding… Press release…
More here. * Press Release | Illinois Unemployment Rate Drops to 4.4%, Payroll Jobs Decrease in August: The Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) announced today that total nonfarm payrolls decreased over-the-month in August, down -13,300 (-0.2%) to 6,153,700. The July monthly change in payrolls was revised from the preliminary report, from -2,500 to -1,100. The industry sectors with over-the-month jobs increases included: Information (+800), Manufacturing (+400), and Construction (+300). The industry sectors with the largest monthly payroll jobs decreases included: Trade, Transportation and Utilities (-4,500), Private Education and Health Services (-4,000), and Professional and Business Services (-2,600). * Press Release | AG Raoul files lawsuit against Live Nation Entertainment Ticketmaster over deceptive business practices: Attorney General Kwame Raoul, in partnership with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and a bipartisan group of state attorneys general, filed a lawsuit today against Live Nation Entertainment Inc. (Live Nation), and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Ticketmaster LLC (Ticketmaster), over the company’s unlawful coordination with ticket brokers that drives up prices for tickets in resale markets. The lawsuit also alleges that Ticketmaster deceptively displays lower ticket prices on its website, only to charge customers substantially more at checkout. * WTTW | Feds Threaten to Withhold CPS Grant Funds Due to Black Student Success Plan, Transgender Student Guidelines: “The Black Students Success Plan, however, is designed for and exclusive to black students and black educators,” Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for Civil Rights, wrote in the letter. “It is not, for instance, available to white or Asian American students and educators. This is textbook racial discrimination, and no justification proffered by CPS can overcome the patent illegality of its racially exclusionary plan.” […] A CPS spokesperson said Wednesday the district would not comment on “ongoing investigations.” The district’s Black Student Success Plan aims to bring in more Black teachers, reduce suspensions against Black students, promote teaching on Black culture, increase belonging and close opportunity gaps. It provides a five-year roadmap to improve the outcomes of Black students, who make up a third of the district’s population. * Block Club | Cook County Public Defender Opens Legal Center In Austin: The centers specialize in supporting neighbors navigating criminal court, including offering walk-ins for free legal information. Private pods are available at the office to attend virtual court hearings with staff support, if allowed by the court. The Public Defender’s Office will also use the Austin center to offer legal education for situations such as traffic stops, immigration issues, how to get a gun license and carry a firearm, how to legally possess cannabis and other topics that involve potential encounters with law enforcement. * Block Club | In Little Village, Residents Are Blowing Actual Whistles To Warn Neighbors About ICE: In June, after consulting with Los Angeles residents who have recently experienced immigration raids and a militarized federal law enforcement presence, the Little Village group added a new tool to its efforts: a bright orange whistle. “We had the idea of coming out with a whistle so people could hear that noise, and if they don’t have legal status, go the other way — run as quickly as possible to safety and to make sure they don’t open their doors,” said Baltazar Enriquez, president of the Little Village Community Council. * Block Club | South Loop Fire Stadium Traffic Won’t Snarl Streets — If Fans Bike Or Take Transit, Traffic Study Says: The $650 million stadium project will have limited on-site parking, development representatives said at a recent community meeting. Between on-site parking and the use of nearby lots and garages, there will be roughly 2,800-3,000 parking spaces available on Fire game days. Shuttle services are planned for fans using off-site parking facilities. To accommodate fans, the development team is pitching a plan to use temporary street closures on game days along with temporary parking restrictions and increased public transit service. The stadium would also rely on existing infrastructure, including pedestrian and bike lanes and water taxis. * Chicago Mag | Jeff Tweedy Just Wants to Let His Light Shine: Fresh from a rehearsal with his 20-something musical sons, Spencer and Sammy, and local musician and songwriter Liam Kazar for a show at the Newport Folk Festival, and before that a promotional photo shoot, Tweedy is tired and feeling a bit wonky in the head at the moment. While the migraines he’s long suffered from have abated of late, he’s well attuned to signs that his body needs recharging. For now, though, he’s still game for talking. And so he does, about everything from his long marriage and his latest album to the downside of ego and his determination to fight for democracy. “What I have control over,” he says, “is keeping my mind free.” * WTTW | Minority-Serving Colleges in the Chicago Area Push Back Against Federal Funding Cuts: Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the agency is cutting this funding because MSIs racially discriminate “by restricting eligibility to institutions that meet government-mandated racial quotas.” But Michael Anthony, president of Prairie State College, a community college in Chicago Heights, said he wouldn’t describe how his school handles enrollment that way. “These are our students,” Anthony said. “These are your citizens, your constituents that are in this community that choose to come here. 90% of our students are from the southwest Chicago region. This is not a quota. This is who lives here.” * Daily Herald | Mount Prospect renews contract with controversial license plate camera reader outfit: “We inadvertently clicked on (it) because we didn’t realize (on) the other side, anybody who checked on nationwide lookup had access to everybody else who clicked that same box,” explained Mount Prospect Police Chief Michael Eterno. “That was something we did not know at the time.” Flock Safety implemented several new safeguards in response, including complete removal of agencies that violated Illinois data-sharing agreements and AI-powered audits to flag any search terms that go against Illinois law. * Shaw Local | ‘We have lost our minds’- Debate over Dome of Unity sculpture for downtown Joliet gets heated: The City Council is divided on whether to move ahead with the $197,000 sculpture that proponents say will help bring visitors to downtown Joliet but which one councilwoman derided as resembling an “old wiffel ball.” The City Council is slated to vote Tuesday on whether to add the sculpture to a $9 million city square under construction. The matter was hotly debated at the pre-council meeting Monday night. * Sun-Times | Sen. Tammy Duckworth wants ICE agents out of Hines VA Hospital parking lot: “It is preposterous that VA would believe allowing ICE to operate on the Hines campus will not adversely impact delivery of care for Hines’ patients,” Duckworth wrote. The senator said she is a Hines patient — and has experienced the limitations of the parking lot, which has long lacked the capacity to handle the daily volume of patients, family members and caregivers. * CBS Chicago | Central Street Busker Fest in Evanston, Illinois to celebrate street performance: The businesses on Central Street offer up everything from cuisines of the world, fashionable clothing, books, toys, games, plants, dance classes and hand-ground spices. But a day on Central Street does typically not involve mimes, puppeteers, poets with typewriters strapped to their bodies, or the mayor of Evanston himself juggling fire. * Illinois Times | Grayson’s background ruled irrelevant for trial: Jurors at former Sangamon County sheriff’s deputy Sean Grayson’s murder trial won’t hear potentially disturbing details from Grayson’s military service and previous jobs in law enforcement even though the revelations led to new requirements for background checks of police statewide. Sangamon County Circuit Judge Ryan Cadagin on Sept. 12 agreed with Grayson’s defense lawyers that the information wasn’t relevant and could unfairly sway jurors based on longstanding rules of evidence and case law. Except in certain circumstances, testimony, evidence and legal arguments must focus on what happened immediately before, during and after an alleged crime. Prosecutors argued the details they want the jury to hear are exceptions to those rules. * STLPR | Increased SIUE enrollment and program cuts led to balanced budget, chancellor says: After a $10.3 million deficit last year at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, the SIU Board of Trustees voted on Thursday morning to unanimously approve a balanced budget for the 2026 fiscal year. The now accepted proposal has the university bringing in and spending nearly $341.6 million, according to university documents. Along with the deficit came “really difficult decisions by the university,” said SIUE Chancellor James Minor, who’s led the campus since 2022. * WCIA | Little rain, high variability in farmers’ yields trending in Central IL this harvest season: The Champaign County Farm Bureau said that the name of the game this year is variability Yields aren’t only varying from farmer to farmer, but from field to field, and sometimes, within fields. […] “There’s been a lot of differences in rainfall, even mile to mile this year. And so, that’s making a big difference in our numbers. I think some farmers are getting out there, and they’re finding more crop than they maybe expected. But then, there’s also farmers that are out in the fields, and they don’t have near the crop that they would in a year where they got normal rainfall,” Champaign County Farm Bureau’s Manager, Bailey Conrady, said. * Health Care Dive | House lawmakers scrutinize nonprofit hospitals’ tax-exempt status: Nonprofit hospitals have long been criticized by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle for benefiting from tax breaks and under-delivering on promises to deliver community or charity care to low income patients. Several watchdog reports and investigations from lawmakers have concluded large nonprofits routinely receive more benefits from tax breaks than they provide in community care, and can even “price gouge” low income patients. However, on Tuesday, Republicans at a Ways and Means Oversight subcommittee hearing mostly led the charge for reform, claiming nonprofits don’t pass along financial benefits to patients. * Crux | In Crux interview, Pope stresses welcome of LGBTQ Catholics, won’t change teaching: “What I’m trying to say is what Francis said very clearly when he would say, “todos, todos, todos.” Everyone’s invited in, but I don’t invite a person in because they are or are not of any specific identity. I invite a person in because they are a son or daughter of God,” the pope said. * Change Research | The New American Mythology: Belief in Conspiracy Theories and Their Political Impact: A consistent theme across all three groups is the belief that much is hidden from the public. These sentiments are not confined to the most conspiratorial segments but run broadly through the electorate. In fact, more than four in five voters say many very important things happen in the world without the public ever being informed. Nearly eight in ten agree that politicians usually conceal their true motives, while two-thirds suspect that powerful people work in secret to shape major political and economic events. Even when accounts of an event conflict, large numbers assume deception: over four in ten think such contradictions almost always signal a cover‑up, and nearly as many believe it happens at least some of the time. * Bloomberg reporter…  The story is here.
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