* CBS Chicago…

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is threatening to pull federal funding to the Chicago Transit Authority over safety concerns.

Duffy sent a letter to Acting CTA President Nora Leerhsen demanding she present a plan to deter crime and stop fare evasions within 14 days […]

“While local leaders seem intent on putting the needs of criminals first, we’re not waiting for the next Iryna. Chicago and Boston are on notice to take actions that enhance safety and reduce the crime affecting their riders and transit workers – or risk federal support,” the letter says.

Efforts to reduce crime on the CTA have been a city priority for years. As the Department of Transportation letter notes, the CTA is the third-largest public transit system in the U.S. by ridership. In 2024, the CTA reported 309.2 million rides total, including 181.7 million bus rides and 127.6 million rail rides. Officials reported a total ridership increase of 10.8% in 2024 compared to 2023.

* Tribune…

After Will County prosecutors dropped several criminal charges against two New Lenox business owners in July, the state’s attorney’s office refiled the charges, and a new trial is scheduled for Nov. 17. […]

The case is also scheduled for a discovery status date on Oct. 16.

The state refiled the charges against Jeffrey Regnier, the owner of Kee Firearms and Training in New Lenox, and Greta Keranen, with Kee Construction on Aug. 7, after Circuit Court Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak moved in late July to drop the charges, first filed in 2023.

The dropped charges included theft by deception, burglary, loan fraud, wire fraud and burglary fraud, which Regnier and Keranen will now face again in November.

*** ICE Coverage Roundup ***

* Block Club | Federal Agents Tear Gas, Detain Protesters Outside Broadview ICE Facility: The agents assaulted protesters repeatedly starting in the early morning, with the scuffles coming as agents tried to drive vehicles — some apparently containing detained people — in and out of the facility while protesters tried to block the drivers. One altercation came just after 6 a.m. when agents shot several demonstrators with pepper balls and detained others.

* MediaIte | Democratic Congressional Candidate Kat Abughazaleh Slammed to the Ground by ICE: Commenting on the shocking encounter on her social media account, Abughazaleh said: “My body hurts and will probably hurt way more tomorrow.” She added: “What ICE just did to me was a violent abuse of power — and yet it’s nothing compared to what they’re doing to immigrant communities.” Abughazaleh later posted the video on her X account, warning, “This is what it looks like when ICE violates our First Amendment rights.”

* Tribune | At Broadview ICE facility, federal agents hurl tear gas and pepper spray at protesters blocking vans: Other elected officials, including Lt. Gov. Julianna Stratton and Chicago Aldermen Andre Vazquez and Byron Sigcho-Lopez, also showed up. […] The ACLU of Illinois said in a statement last week that Broadview protesters “have the right to express themselves about government policy.” They said federal officers shouldn’t respond to First Amendment activity with “physical force and the firing of projectiles.” Biss said “it’s obvious these guys are trying to intimidate.” He said the agents, who were armed and masked, rushed out into the crowd. He could be seen at one point on his knees on the street.

* The Daily Northwestern | Biss, Abughazaleh, Amiwala confronted by agents at Broadview ICE protest: Around 11:25 a.m., a van arrived, and protesters swarmed as another vehicle left the gate. A tire of the van popped as protestors surrounded it. Protesters chanted “let them go.” At 11:26 a.m., Amiwala released a statement that she was also teargassed at the protest.

* Daily Herald | ICE arrests student at Elgin Community College: Federal immigration authorities arrested a student at Elgin Community College Thursday morning, the college announced. The student was arrested in a parking lot on the college’s main campus. ECC officials said the college does not participate in immigration enforcement and does not voluntarily share information about students’ immigration status.

* WGN | ICE agents target roofers in Naperville, leaving workers and residents shaken: Witnesses said federal agents appeared to target a suburban roof repair to the distress of workers and many Cress Creek residents. The agents converged on a two-story home early Wednesday afternoon without warning, sending roofers running in all directions. Bobby Fischer said his Naperville home has a giant hole in the roof and no one to fix it after the ICE operation sent roofers running in all directions. “Our neighbors witnessed agents with guns drawn running down a residential street, which seems irresponsible,” Fischer said.

*** Statewide ***

* Sun-Times | Illinois professors face threats after landing on Charlie Kirk group watch list: Nearly 50 instructors from public and private colleges across Illinois are named in an online database dubbed “Professor Watchlist” that was created by a group affiliated with slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk to unmask “radical professors,” WBEZ has found. Since landing on the list, some professors have gotten hateful emails, online messages and letters threatening rape or death, and in some instances they have seen that activity intensify since Kirk’s death. WBEZ reached out to all of the roughly four dozen Illinois-based instructors on the nonprofit Turning Point USA list. All those who responded said the allegations lodged against them were distortions of their work.

* WTTW | Stewardship Programs Get Boost From Nearly $1M in Illinois DNR Grants: Organizations in Cook, Lake and McHenry counties were among the grant recipients, with funds in many cases earmarked for the least glamorous aspect of conservation work: buying tools. […] Local recipients included Friends of Illinois Nature Preserves and the Nature Conservancy for work in Cook County. The Friends organization received nearly $50,000 to purchase tools and equipment for volunteers, as well as to hire a contractor for invasive species control. The Nature Conservancy will put its nearly $90,000 grant toward equipment for prescribed fire.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Herald-Review | Jim Edgar brought license plate production back to Illinois and to MRI: Former Gov. Jim Edgar, who died Sept. 14, served as Illinois Secretary of State from 1981 to 1991 and was instrumental in bringing license plate production back to Illinois and to MRI. “One of my priorities as Secretary of State has been to bring production of Illinois plates back to Illinois where it belongs,” Edgar said in a news release dated June 8, 1983, announcing the awarding of the contract to MRI, then known as Macon County Rehabilitation Facilities Inc. “But I am doubly happy today because we are saving substantial tax dollars, reversing the trend of sending millions of dollars to other states and we are providing jobs for the disabled.”

* WAND | Governor Pritzker announces $16.2M in grants to support Illinois Arts Community: This grant initiative will benefit 1,123 artists, arts organizations, and communities across Illinois, empowering the state’s creative sector and enhancing regional arts initiatives. “The arts enrich our lives, our communities, and our culture,” Governor Pritzker stated during the announcement. “With federal arts funding under threat, I’m proud Illinois remains committed to investing in our talented artists, encouraging young people to follow their passions in the arts, and expanding community access to these vital initiatives.”

* WTVO | Illinois GOP pushes for SAFE-T Act revisions amid public safety concerns: House Republicans have introduced several pieces of legislation to reform the SAFE-T Act, aiming to expand judges’ discretion to deny pre-trial release. They believe these reforms are common sense and hope to collaborate with the Democratic supermajority to enact changes.

*** Chicago ***

* Block Club | Chicago Starbucks Worker Did Not Write ‘Loser’ On Order Honoring Charlie Kirk, Company Says: Starbucks now says that time-stamped footage from the store at 6332 N. Northwest Highway does not show any of its workers writing that message. Instead, the note appears “to have been added after the beverage was handed off, likely by someone else,” a spokesperson told Block Club. The controversy started with a post Tuesday from Jacqueline Garretson, who, according to her X bio, is the Illinois state director for The Conservative Caucus and previously worked as a staffer for failed Republican attorney general candidate Thomas DeVore.

* Bloomberg | Chicago bond penalty widens as Johnson weighs how to close deficit: Spreads on several tax-exempt Chicago bonds that were the most-actively-traded this week have widened recently, according to trading data compiled by Bloomberg. For debt due in 2042, the spread above benchmark muni securities jumped to 1.54 percentage points on Thursday, up from 1.17 percentage points a year ago, the data show. The price of the security — the city’s most frequently traded bond this week — fell to 98.6 cents on the dollar from $1.054 in mid September 2024. The city faces “a serious budget crisis” and tough choices between cuts and ways to raise revenue, a financial task force commissioned by the mayor said in a report issued this week.

* Sun-Times | How Oscar D’Angelo, ‘mayor of Little Italy’ and a Daley crony, got entangled in a crooked Bridgeport bank: When regulators closed the century-old bank that had ties to the Daley family and its political organization, they were left with a long list of clout-heavy customers who had been skipping their loan payments for years. D’Angelo, who died in 2016, a year before the bank was closed, was on that list of deadbeats. D’Angelo and Kowalski were mixed up in a deal 25 years ago to sell a Little Italy three-flat to Patrick R. Daley, though his father, Mayor Richard M. Daley, reportedly squelched the sale after D’Angelo arranged for government-owned equipment to rehab the building. Kowalski has told the Sun-Times that Gembara planned to finance the deal for the mayor’s son.

* Tribune | EPIC Academy school votes to close as students and staff rally in support: Dwindling enrollment numbers since 2020 have severely impacted the school’s bottom line, which ties its revenue to each student that attends the school, EPIC Academy Executive Director LeeAndra Khan told the Tribune. When Khan started at the high school in 2020, the total enrollment was 566 students. Five years later, enrollment has plunged 55% to 255 students in the current school year. This drop came in tandem with rising operational costs for the school. There are also multiple other high schools that compete with EPIC for students, including two down the street, which makes it difficult to increase enrollment, Khan said.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Aurora Beacon-News | Former police department employee files lawsuit against St. Charles, alleging sexual harassment, sex discrimination: The lawsuit states that Lisa Lullo worked as a police Records Division manager for the city from April 2023 to September 2024, and that she was the only female supervisory staff member at the time. According to the police department’s organizational chart, the police Records Division manager role reports to the deputy chief of administration, who reports to the police chief. The lawsuit alleges that the police chief at the time made “unwelcome sexual statements” to Lullo that “were sufficiently severe and pervasive to alter the conditions of her employment and create a hostile work environment.”

* Daily Southtown | Flossmoor man arrested after racist graffiti found at Metra station and park: Flossmoor resident Sean Helton, 32, was charged Tuesday with two counts of criminal damage of government property costing $500 or less, a Class 4 felony, according to Cook County circuit court records. The graffiti found painted on a wall of the Metra Station and on a sculpture installation included in Leavitt Park on Aug. 22 included “racial slurs and racist symbols,” according to Flossmoor police.

* Aurora Beacon-News | Aurora Public Library takes part in push to reach Metra commuters: Through the new collaboration, ads are now greeting riders on BNSF Line train cars to highlight ways a library card can help them save money and enjoy their time onboard, according to a news release from the Aurora Public Library District. The ads focus on downloadable books and audiobooks, streaming media platforms and more, district officials said.

*** Downstate ***

* News-Gazette | Champaign mayor: Homelessness ‘a countywide issue that needs a countywide solution’: Council member Michael Foellmer voted against the fencing contract and expressed concern about what had been said during public comment. Though he didn’t mention [Former Champaign police Officer Mark Medlyn] by name, it seemed apparent that his use of the word “mutt” was on his mind. “These are people that we’re talking about impacting,” Foellmer said. “They’re not dogs. They are people. People. I am so sick to my stomach about the public comments. Unfortunately, I think I am in the minority. I will not be supporting this. But yeah, I just — these are people that we’re impacting.”

* Center Square | Temporary Rockford Courthouse fence sparks debate over security and costs: A temporary fence surrounding the federal courthouse in downtown Rockford, Illinois is drawing sharp criticism and competing explanations from federal and state officials. Illinois U.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen, D-Rockford, said in a recent social media video that the Trump administration has not been transparent about why fencing went up around the building.

* Crain’s | Western Illinois University’s enrollment remains in free fall: The school reported a fall 2025 enrollment of 5,337 students, down from 6,332 in fall 2024, a drop of almost a thousand students. WIU’s new enrollment figures are a drop of 60% when compared to its peak of 13,602 students in 2006. The continued drop in students has put strain on the school’s ability to balance its budget. Last year, WIU’s board of trustees approved a round of layoffs as it stared down a $22 million deficit, which it estimated would be reduced to $10 million following the cuts.

* WGLT | Town of Normal financial trends look healthy: City Manager Pam Reece said a significant chunk of that is from expansions to the Rivian auto plant, although the housing shortage Rivian growth helped cause also has contributed to a huge run-up in residential assessments. “It’s a good story and a not-so-good story when you look at both sides of the equation. The more we can move some of that burden to commercial-industrial-manufacturing, the better impact it has on residential,” Reece said on WGLT’s Sound Ideas.

* WGLT | Moderate drought expected to persist in Central Illinois despite rain threats: The lack of rain has led to moderate drought for nearly all of McLean County. The far southeastern tip of the county is in severe drought, along with Champaign-Urbana and eastern Illinois. Ford says the Mackinaw River is running low enough that it could hurt plant and animal life in and near the water. “Even though it’s only been extremely dry for the last 30 days or so, many of these rivers that are actually pretty sizable … that’s certainly the Mackinaw and Sangamon [rivers], are dropping pretty substantially,” Ford said.

* WMBD | Peoria shelter waives fees to find homes for 200+ animals: The fee amnesty will be from Sept. 22 to Sept. 27. The ASPCA’s is happening to get more pets into good homes and soon. PCAPS has a “an urgent and immediate need for adopters,” according to a PCAPS official. The shelter, located in Glen Oak Park, has more than 200 animals in its care now and space is limited.

*** National ***

* AP | Federal judge tosses Trump’s $15B defamation lawsuit against The New York Times: U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday ruled that Trump’s lawsuit was overly long and was full of “tedious and burdensome” language that had no bearing on the legal case. “A complaint is not a megaphone for public relations or a podium for a passionate oration at a political rally,” Merryday wrote in a four-page order. “This action will begin, will continue, and will end in accord with the rules of procedure and in a professional and dignified manner.” The judge ruled that Trump has 28 days to file an amended complaint that should not exceed 40 pages in length.

* NYT | Vaccine Panel Postpones One Vote and Reverses Another Amid Confusion: On Friday morning, the committee voted not to allow a federal vaccine program to cover the cost of a combination vaccine that protects against measles, mumps, rubella and varicella, or chickenpox. This reversed a vote on Thursday to allow coverage, apparently because some members had misunderstood the way it was worded. And the panelists said they felt unready to decide whether to limit the use of a vaccine for hepatitis B that is typically given to all newborns. Some said they still had questions about the vaccine’s safety, while others seemed relieved that the panel did not make what they saw as a rash decision that might harm children.