* CBS…

The Department of Homeland Security has escalated its clash with so-called sanctuary states this week, warning California, New York, and Illinois in letters obtained by CBS News that refusal to honor immigration detainers could trigger federal legal action.

In letters dated Sept. 10, Acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons ordered the attorneys general of the three states to declare within two days whether they would comply with “thousands of ICE detainers” lodged against individuals in state custody, according to DHS. Immigration detainers are formal requests by ICE asking local jails and prisons to notify the agency before releasing an individual, and to hold them briefly so federal agents can take undocumented migrants into federal custody.

According to DHS, Illinois and New York formally declined to cooperate. California initially did not respond. On Thursday, Lyons sent follow-up letters obtained by CBS News accusing each state of obstructing immigration enforcement and vowing to enlist the Department of Justice in response. Senior DHS officials tell CBS News the department will tap the DOJ to sue states, blocking future federal funding.

In his follow-up letter to Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, Lyons wrote that the state’s refusal “will result in thousands of criminal aliens being released into Illinois communities,” adding that “ICE will engage with the U.S. Department of Justice and other federal partners to pursue all appropriate measures against you.” […]

The Illinois attorney general’s office referred CBS News to a letter it sent to Lyons on Sept. 12, which also said ICE detainers are “requests” and state and local authorities cannot be forced to comply with them. The office also noted that it doesn’t oversee pre-trial detention in Illinois, so the office “rarely, if ever, receives ICE detainers,” and it can’t “unilaterally override state law” by forcing local police departments to honor ICE’s requests.

“Responding to an ICE detainer based on erroneous information could subject Illinois law enforcement agencies to liability for ICE’s mistakes,” the letter read. “And unfortunately, the number of erroneous detentions by ICE continues to grow at an alarming pace.”

* AP…

U.S. Steel reversed course and said Friday that it will continue processing raw steel at its Granite City Works plant in Illinois, nixing a decision that had put the plant on track to stop work in the coming weeks.

U.S. Steel did not explain its reasons for changing course, now barely three months after Nippon Steel sealed a deal with President Donald Trump to buy the iconic American steelmaker by giving the government a say over decisions that affect domestic steel production.

In a brief statement, a U.S. Steel spokesperson said it will continue to supply raw steel slabs to Granite City “indefinitely.”

Initially, it had said ending processing operations at Granite City would allow U.S. Steel to “maintain future flexibility.” On Friday, it said “our goal was to maintain flexibility, and we are pleased to have found a solution to continue slab consumption at Granite City.”

*** Chicago ***

* Crain’s | Chicago dealmaking ahead of the curve despite slower than expected ramp-up: While mergers and acquisitions activity has remained light this year as potential buyers and sellers wait for borrowing costs to come down and economic conditions to stabilize, Chicago is ahead of the curve. Local dealmakers have been busier than their national counterparts, with data from research firm PitchBook pegging the number of Chicago-area deals announced this year at 318 through August, down just 1.2% from the comparable period of 2024. Nationally, 9,425 deals had been announced through August, a drop of 9.9% from the 10,462 in the first eight months of 2024.

* Crain’s | Compass scoops up 2nd-largest Chicago-area residential brokerage in latest mega-deal: New York-based Compass announced a $1.5 billion acquisition of New Jersey-based Anywhere, a deal that is expected to close in the second half of 2026. Anywhere’s residential real estate brands with offices in the Chicago metro area are Coldwell Banker, Sotheby’s (represented locally by Jameson Sotheby’s International Real Estate), Century 21 and Corcoran. Compass was already the nation’s biggest real estate brokerage by far before announcing this latest deal that will make it a $10 billion firm. It became the leading firm in the Chicago-area market when it acquired @properties Christie’s International Real Estate. The deal, reportedly valued at $444 million, was announced in December and closed in early 2025.

* Tribune | A Tribune photographer describes capturing a compelling image from protests outside Broadview’s ICE facility: On Friday, she was assigned to document a protest outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement holding center in Broadview, where activists have been gathering routinely to show their opposition to the Trump administration’s surge in illegal immigration enforcement actions in the region. During the protest on Sept. 19, federal agents deployed a significant amount of a chemical agent upon protesters who were attempting to obstruct ICE workers and others at the facility. During an ensuing melee after gas was deployed, Wescott made a photograph of former Marine Curtis Evans carrying an American flag amid a cloud of gas in the middle of the confrontation.

* WTTW | Longtime Chicago Publisher, Arts Leader Bruce Sagan Dies at 96: Bruce Sagan, the longtime owner and publisher of the Hyde Park Herald and arts leader who served on the WFMT Radio Committee for more than two decades, has died at the age of 96. The former journalist, who was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Joe Biden in 2024 for his contributions as an arts leader in Chicago, died at his home Sunday following a brief battle with cancer.

* Block Club | Kennedy Mural Blasted As ‘AI Slop’ By Local Artists, Commuters: The building currently features an organization that commissioned AI-generated art, which was hung about nine weeks ago. Since then, passersby have taken to Instagram and Reddit to slam the use of AI on a mural that would typically be created by local artists. […] The current artwork was intended to highlight Hope Ignites Chicago, a nonprofit whose mission is “to guide and nurture young people in need to become college-educated, career-ready, and community-minded men and women.” The group’s work is important, and it’s unfortunate that the use of AI has distracted from that, artists and commuters told Block Club. Hope Ignites did not respond to critics in an Instagram post about the artwork, and has not returned Block Club’s requests for comment.

* ABC Chicago | Free tours of Obama Presidential Center to start soon in Chicago: The Obama Foundation will start offer free community tours to take a look at the property. People can ask questions, see the renderings, and take a walking tour outside the fence of the construction site. Michael Strautmanis, the chief corporate affairs officer at the Obama Foundation joined ABC7 to talk about the tours.. The next monthly perimeter tour will take place on Tuesday, September 30, at 5:30pm.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Daily Herald | Inmates sue McHenry County over jail bus crash in Grayslake: Six inmates who were traveling in a McHenry County Sheriff’s Office bus when it was involved in a crash last year are suing the county, the bus driver and the other driver involved, claiming negligence and carelessness. The crash occurred about 1:30 p.m. Sept. 4, 2024, when 16 inmates were being taken back to the county jail after court hearings at the Lake County courthouse. […] According to the lawsuit, the driver of the sedan “suddenly and without warning made an improper left turn within the intersection and failed to yield the right-of-way and collided with” the bus. The suit claims that the driver of the bus “carelessly and negligently failed to avoid a collision.”

* Aurora Beacon News | Oswego locally extends grocery tax that would have expired at end of year: Trustees as a committee of the whole will meet Oct. 25 to discuss whether the approximately $1 million expected to be generated annually by the grocery tax should remain in the village’s general fund or to transfer some of the revenue to the Water and Sewer Fund to help offset the costs associated with the project to bring Lake Michigan water to Oswego. Oswego’s 2026 proposed budget would have had a $200,000 deficit had the grocery tax not been extended, village officials said

* Aurora Beacon News | Batavia modifying its EV charging station rates: Under the modified ordinance, users of city charging stations will be charged 25 cents per kilowatt-hour for Level 2 charging stations and 50 cents per kilowatt-hour for Level 3 charging stations. Currently, Batavia has just one Level 2 charging station in the west parking lot at City Hall, per the city. But it’s set to get two Level 3 chargers soon: one downtown and another at Batavia High School, a project partially funded by state grant money.

* Daily Southtown | Officials unveil state’s first 24-hour library in Palos Hills: The futuristic-looking library material vending machine sits outside the main entrance of the library, 10331 S. Interlochen Drive in Palos Hills. Teri Wilson, head of Patron Services, said the new feature “gives patrons the opportunity to browse, check out and return materials whether we are open or closed.” “It’s useful to a lot of patrons, especially those who are unable to come in directly during opening hours,” she said. “No need to rush over to retrieve available holds or check out last-minute films for a late-night movie or book read.”

* Daily Herald | With controversial church plan progressing in South Barrington, could lawsuit’s end be near?: “Area N Development and the church welcome the progress recently made with the Village of South Barrington,” the Schaumburg-based organization said in an e-mailed statement. “Both sides have been working to resolve outstanding issues.” South Barrington Trustee Daniel Zierk is hopeful. Village officials can’t be perceived as “dragging our feet” on real estate developments, he said.

* CBS Chicago | Village of Romeoville, Illinois to plant 2,500 new native trees: Many of the trees will be brand-new plantings, but some will be replacements for trees that belong to invasive species — which will be cut down because they are either already dying or are a threat to the environment, the village said. New plantings will fill open spaces where trees have been lost due to storms, or will replace trees that are damaged or dying. They will be planted in residential subdivisions, roadside rights-of-way, and park sites and village owned properties, the Village of Romeoville said.

*** Downstate ***

* WSPY | Former DeKalb County administrator indicted on 15 counts:: A former DeKalb County administrator is being charged with concealing and destroying public records, as well as official misconduct. Court documents accuse 70-year-old Gary Hanson of DeKalb of destroying email records without receiving written permission, as required under state law. Fifteen indictments were filed in DeKalb County Court by a special prosecutor on Friday. Hanson was issued a notice to appear in court on October 14 at 9 a.m.

* Tribune | Setbacks and hope as America’s oldest Black town fights for its survival: The brick building at Madison and South 5th streets is still vacant, still boarded up, still tagged with faded gang graffiti. For the second time in as many years, it’s been slated for a $2.5 million makeover, courtesy of the federal government, that would transform the building — once a grocery store and, later, a skating rink — into a community center for this historic town of 650 people across the Mississippi River from St. Louis. And once again, the project has stalled, its future uncertain, amid partisan spending battles in Washington, D.C., and the looming threat of a government shutdown.

* PJ Star | Who is Cameron Jones? Illinois native chosen for 2025 NASA astronaut candidate class: An astronaut candidate from Illinois was introduced today as one of 10 selected by NASA for potential exploration missions to the moon and Mars. The class will now begin nearly two years of training before being eligible for space missions in 2027. […] Cameron Jones is a 35-year-old native of Savannah, Illinois, according to a press release published by NASA. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in aerospace engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is a major in the U.S. Air Force.

* Fox2 Now | Former O’Fallon bank executive sentenced in $2M check-kiting scheme: A federal judge has sentenced a former second-in-command Bank of O’Fallon executive to several years behind bars in connection with a $2 million check-kiting fraud scheme. Andrew Blassie, 70, was sentenced to five months and three years in prison on Thursday and also ordered to pay nearly $2.5 million in restitution. He pleaded guilty to charges of bank fraud and interstate transportation of security or funds obtained by fraud in May. Blassie served as the Executive Vice President for the Bank of O’Fallon from September 2023 to September 2024 and stole $1,972,887.67 in a check-kiting scheme while employed, according to his federal indictment.

* Fox 2 Now | Little Mary’s River Bridge in Chester, Ill set to reopen: The restoration project, which cost more than $300,000, included modern safety modifications to the bridge. The bridge was originally closed after a severe windstorm in 2023 that caused damage to its roof, fire suppression system, and video monitoring equipment. The 86-foot-long pedestrian-only bridge, located along Illinois 150 about 4 miles north of Chester, was built in 1854. It is the oldest remaining covered bridge in Illinois and the only one in Southern Illinois.

*** National ***

* LA Times | ICE offers big bucks — but California police officers prove tough to poach: “We’re not trying to pillage a bunch of officers from other agencies,” said Tim Oberle, an ICE spokesman. “If you see opportunities to move up, make more money to take care of your family, of course you’re going to want it.” But despite the generous new compensation packages, experts said ICE is still coming up short in some of the places it needs agents the most. “The pay in California is incredible,” said Jason Litchney of All-Star Talent, a recruiting firm. “Some of these Bay Area agencies are $200,000 a year without overtime.”

* NYT | Kennedy Said to Focus on Unproven Link Between Common Painkiller and Autism: Federal health officials are expected to link rising rates of autism to the use of acetaminophen, the active ingredient in the common painkiller Tylenol, in a report to be released on Monday. Scientists have studied a potential connection for years, but the research so far has yielded inconclusive results. “I think it’s a very big factor,” President Trump told reporters on Sunday, referring to acetaminophen.

* La Times | Predator drones shift from border patrol to protest surveillance: When MQ-9 Predator drones flew over anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles this summer, it was the first time they had been dispatched to monitor demonstrations on U.S. soil since 2020, and their use reflects a change in how the government is choosing to deploy the aircraft once reserved for surveilling the border and war zones. Previous news reports said the drones sent by the Department of Homeland Security conducted surveillance on the weekend of June 7 over thousands of protesters demonstrating against raids conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Predators flew over Los Angeles for at least four more days, according to tracking experts who identified the flights through air traffic control tower communications and images of a Predator in flight.

* NBC | Jimmy Kimmel’s show returning on Tuesday, ABC announces: “Last Wednesday, we made the decision to suspend production on the show to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country,” the Walt Disney Company said in a statement Monday. “It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive.”"We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday,” Disney added.