* Subscribers know more. At an unrelated news conference, Governor Pritzker was asked about the Illinois AFL-CIO’s decision to withdraw from the decades-old “agreed bill process” for workers’ comp and unemployment insurance…

Pritzker: This is an old methodology that’s been around for a long time. It has worked in many circumstances. I understand the frustration of the leaders of the labor movement about the fact that Republicans across the country have been unwilling to actually cut deals that make sense with labor, and therefore they want action on their behalf. So I understand the perspective. I have to say, we’ve seen the process work reasonably well in the state of Illinois before, but, you know, it’s their prerogative to choose not to be part of that process.

* Attorney General Kwame Raoul…

Attorney General Kwame Raoul and the Illinois Department of Labor (IDOL) today urged the Illinois Supreme Court to reject Amazon’s request to limit the Illinois Minimum Wage Law in a lawsuit filed against the company by its Illinois warehouse workers. Raoul and IDOL filed an amicus brief in Johnson v. Amazon.com Services LLC in support of the workers, who say Amazon failed to pay them for time they spent undergoing mandatory public-health screenings at the warehouses before their work shifts.

“Illinois law goes further than federal law when it comes to protecting the rights of our workers,” Raoul said. “In Illinois, when a worker is required to spend their valuable time at a workplace for pre-shift tasks, they’re entitled to be paid for that time. I will continue advocating for Illinois workers and ensuring our wage-and-hour standards are respected and enforced.” […]

The warehouse workers sued Amazon under both the Illinois Minimum Wage Law and the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. A federal trial judge dismissed the workers’ federal claims based on an exception in the Fair Labor Standards Act for “preliminary” and “postliminary” job activities. The judge also dismissed their state-law claims, reasoning that the Illinois Minimum Wage law implicitly incorporates the same exception. The plaintiffs appealed the ruling on their state-law claims. However, instead of ruling for either party, the federal appellate panel asked the Illinois Supreme Court to clarify whether Illinois law incorporates the exception, explaining that the case raised an “unsettled question of state law” with “profound significance to workers and employers in Illinois.”

In their brief in the Illinois Supreme Court, Raoul and IDOL argue that Illinois has never enacted an exception like the one that exists at the federal level. Although Illinois courts sometimes look to federal law for guidance when interpreting state minimum-wage law, the brief explains, doing so here would be inappropriate because that would add a sweeping exception into a law that Illinois passed to protect workers, and no provision of state law mirrors the relevant federal provision. Raoul and IDOL emphasize that the Fair Labor Standards Act permits the state to enact wage-and-hour standards that exceed federal standards, which Illinois has consistently done.

* Tribune…

Cook County Public Defender Sharone Mitchell Jr. and a coalition of legal groups and social service organizations are petitioning Chief Judge Timothy Evans to enter a general order prohibiting warrantless immigration arrests in or around courthouses.

Court facilities have historically been spared when it comes to immigration enforcement in order to create conditions in which defendants and witnesses are likely to show up for appearances. But sightings of federal immigration agents have increasingly been reported in and around area courthouses. […]

“We are asking Chief Judge Evans to do the right thing and to please protect that right by signing the general order,” said Alexa Van Brunt, director of the Illinois office at the MacArthur Justice Center. […]

On multiple occasions, immigration agents have been spotted around the domestic violence courthouse, raising particular concern about a chilling impact on people seeking orders of protection.

* Tribune…

Education in Illinois shows promising areas of growth — including improved kindergarten readiness and increased graduation rates — but remains hampered by stagnant reading and math literacy, as well as rising higher education costs, according to a new report.

Other problems plague the state as well, including chronic absenteeism and student mental health issues, which continue to be pervasive post-pandemic, according to the biennial analysis by Advance Illinois, a bipartisan education and advocacy organization. The report, released Wednesday, offers an in-depth look at the state’s education infrastructure and how public school students are faring.

Obstacles to schooling begin even before a child’s education journey, and persist after high school, due to increasing costs, according to the report.

“The bad news is there are very serious gaps, and those gaps by income, by race, by learning style, by language, have emerged even before students get to kindergarten,” said Robin Steans, president of Advance Illinois. The good news, Steans said, is that classroom rigor, persistence and graduation rates continue to increase. “Those are all moving in the right direction,” she said.

Overall, Illinois outpaces the nation in academic growth, Steans said, but there is still work to be done to ensure that all students reach their full potential, Steans wrote in the report.

* Citizens Utility Board…

After an expensive summer, Commonwealth Edison’s new supply price has dropped slightly but is still about 47 percent higher than last year, the Citizens Utility Board (CUB) said Wednesday.

Even though ComEd’s price is elevated, the watchdog urged consumers to review the “Supply” section of their bills to confirm they are not overpaying with an expensive alternative supplier offer, including offers negotiated by local governments.

ComEd’s new non-summer power price (from October 2025 through May 2026):

● 9.689 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) (Appears as 0.09689 on bills.)
● The price above includes the supply price plus a transmission charge.

While ComEd’s price is down slightly from what it was this past summer (about 10.03 cents per kWh), it’s still up about 47 percent from what it was last October. Overall, ComEd has estimated the price increase will cost customers an average of 10-15 percent, or $10.60, more per month—but the impact can be much higher for individual customers, depending on factors such as weather.

*** Statewide ***

* Chalkbeat Chicago | Illinois now ranks 18th in nation for state education spending per student, report says: Illinois is no longer one of the worst states in America when it comes to funding K-12 schools, an improvement that may have helped it weather some of the COVID pandemic’s disruption to student learning, according to a new report released Wednesday. In its annual “The State We’re In” report, the independent advocacy organization Advance Illinois said Illinois moved from 47th in 2008 for state spending per student to 18th. “This is unprecedented,” said Advance Illinois President Robin Steans. “It’s stunning. It was badly, badly necessary.”

*** Statehouse News ***

* Capitol News Illinois | Stratton aims to bring Pritzker administration policies to national stage: One of Stratton’s top economic priorities is raising the federal minimum wage to $15. Pritzker signed a bill about one month into his first term in 2019 to raise Illinois’ minimum wage to $15 over six years, checking off one of his top campaign promises. The federal minimum wage has been $7.25 since 2009. Stratton also called for expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit for low- and moderate-income workers. She did not specify what changes she would support.

*** Chicago ***

* Block Club | Chicago Public Schools Should Sue Feds Over Magnet School Money, CTU President Says: Trump administration officials said $5.8 million will not be awarded to Chicago in the coming year under the Magnet Schools Assistance Program and $17.5 million would not be awarded for the remaining years of the district’s grants. The move created an $8 million hole in the current school year’s CPS budget, district officials said.

* Block Club | Bronzeville Homeless Shelter Residents ‘Traumatized’ After Feds Chase, Arrest 4 People: Agents arrived Wednesday morning at the shelter run by the charitable arm of Bright Star Church and “started chasing people outside,” said Caryl R. West, executive director of Bright Star’s community development program. “People were afraid, and they didn’t know who they were being chased by, because the agents didn’t identify themselves,” West said. “So they ran into the field, and were chased there.”

* Crain’s | Chicago hotels set summer record, but profits prove elusive: Choose Chicago today announced there were nearly 3.6 million nightly stays at downtown inns from the beginning of June through the end of August, breaking the all-time high for that three-month stretch set in 2019. Hotels in the central business district posted a record-high of $949 million in revenue during those three months of this year, up by 0.8% from the same period in 2024. Nationwide, that number dipped by 0.5% over that span, according to Choose.

* WGN | Spirit Airlines announces furloughs of flight attendants in Chicago, other cities: A similar WARN notice has also been posted in Illinois, warning that more than 60 Spirit employees at O’Hare International Airport will be impacted come December. More than 330 at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport will be furloughed, according to a Georgia WARN notice.

* Daily Herald | ‘Many live paycheck to paycheck’: Shutdown will impact local workers, airports and services, stakeholders say: The fallout could disrupt travel at O’Hare and Midway international airports, impact the federal courthouse in Chicago and suspend U.S. Environmental Protection Agency pollution monitoring locally, among other problems. […] Many staffers at U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5, which serves Illinois and five neighboring states, will be furloughed until the dispute is resolved, said American Federation of Government Employees official Nicole Cantello.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Injustice Watch | Cook County’s New Prosecutor Has Weakened An Already Broken System For Freeing The Innocent: Claims of police abuse are all too common in the Cook County courts. But Wells and Mason have an uncommon piece of evidence from an unusual source: a 77-page report commissioned by prosecutors themselves, citing more than a dozen cases where witnesses or defendants allege that one of those detectives, Brian Forberg, or his partners did the same thing to them. Snowballing claims of coercion by specific Chicago detectives have historically signaled wrongful convictions waiting to be revealed. Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke, however, has shown no sign she plans to act on the bracing report ordered up by her predecessor, Kim Foxx. Instead, Burke — 10 months into her first term — has continued to handle cases involving Forberg one by one in court, rather than systematically investigating their glaring similarities.

* ABC Chicago | Neurodivergent man released from custody pending trial after Broadview protest arrest: A judge Wednesday read a letter of support from the mayor of Oak Park and from a student at Oak Park and River Forest High School, where Paul Ivery works in the cafeteria. The judge later decided to release Ivery from custody, pending trial.

* Daily Herald | ‘Mini-forests’ are rare in the US. The Algonquin Garden Club is planting one in Kane County: The future mini-forest land has been vacant since invasive buckthorn trees were cut down about six years ago, Weinhammer said. Now the land will be transformed into a home for only native plants, creating a vital habitat for local pollinators and wildlife. “Everything we are going to plant will provide either a berry or a flower for native birds and pollinators,” she said. “It’s almost like a food forest” for birds and mammals.

*** Downstate ***

* WGLT | Bloomington elections chief explains how ’safeguards’ caught a rare case of alleged voter fraud: Bloomington Election Commission [BEC] Executive Director Luke Stremlau said state election officials send them a list of people who may have voted in another state. That triggers a BEC inquiry. “In this case, it was brought to me in that manner. It’s something that was flagged in both Bloomington and out-of-state [Wisconsin] as well,” Stremlau said. Of the 37,786 votes cast in Bloomington in the November election, the 55-year-old woman now facing felony charges was the only problematic ballot, Stremlau said. She’s accused of voting twice in the November election – once by mail-in ballot in Wisconsin and then again in person in Bloomington. Stremlau said it’s actually the first case of alleged voter fraud in the three years he’s led the BEC.

* WGLT | ISU leaders ask campus to bear with them on federal shutdown issues: Provost Ani Yazedjian and Vice President for Finance and Planning Glen Nelson said in an email to the campus community the institution remains committed to continuing business as usual. “We will cover expenses for federally funded operations for the next 30 days while we continue to monitor developments closely. As the situation evolves, we will reassess and make any necessary adjustments to ensure continuity and responsible stewardship of resources,” said the message.

* WCIA | Savoy Local 149 workers pushing for more women in trades: Women only make up about 5% of skilled trades workers in the United States, but two women out of Savoy Local 149 are trying to change that. They want to see more women in the field and feel that seeing thousands of likeminded people at a conference two hours north inspires confidence that number will increa “When you’re in the trades, you can do stuff like construction or you can go into education, leadership roles, financial roles,” said Local 149 member Laura Abbott. “There’s so many things you can do that aren’t just working with tools.” se in their shop.

* WGIL | 2026 Galesburg draft budget $76.3M: Tax rate drops, pensions and infrastructure take center stage: The city relies heavily on taxes, which make up 52% of all revenues, split into state-collected, locally collected, and property taxes, according to the presentation’s tax revenue breakdown. The property tax rate is set to decrease—the lowest since 2008—potentially saving homeowners money, though rising property values might offset some benefits. Of the property taxes, School District 205 receives nearly 50%, the largest share, to fund local schools, followed by Knox County at 13.34% and the City at 10.99%. Starting January 2026, the state’s 1% local sales tax on groceries will be eliminated, a move affecting 591 Illinois municipalities that have adopted local ordinances to replace it. Galesburg elected not to adopt a local grocery tax, which will save each individual $20.60 per year and each household $47.95 per year, but reduce city revenue by about $600,000 annually.

*** National ***

* NYT | Jane Goodall, Eminent Primatologist Who Chronicled the Lives of Chimps, Dies at 91: On the scientific merits alone, Dr. Goodall’s discoveries about how wild chimpanzees raised their young, established leadership, socialized and communicated broke new ground and attracted immense attention and respect among researchers. Stephen Jay Gould, the evolutionary biologist and science historian, said her work with chimpanzees “represents one of the Western world’s great scientific achievements.”

* AP | Supreme Court lets Lisa Cook remain as a Federal Reserve governor for now: In a brief unsigned order, the high court said it would hear arguments in January over Republican President Donald Trump’s effort to force Cook off the Fed board. The court will consider whether to block a lower-court ruling in Cook’s favor while her challenge to her firing by Trump continues.