* ICYMI: Illinois, Texas National Guard troop mobilization to Chicago to begin ‘immediately,’ last 60 days: Pentagon. Sun-Times…

- Hundreds of National Guard troops, including 300 from Illinois and 400 from Texas, are being called into service effective “immediately” for an initial period of two months, according to state and national officials and court filings.
- Gov. JB Pritzker received word Saturday that 300 troops from Illinois were being mobilized. A White House spokesman confirmed the deployments but did not respond to a question about how many troops from each state would come here.
- Details of the deployments were revealed in memos sent Saturday from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to leaders of the National Guard in Illinois and Texas. The order to Texas was included in a court filing in Oregon, in a case in which a judge temporarily halted Trump’s plan to send troops there late Sunday.

* Related stories…

• Tribune: Gov. JB Pritzker says Texas National Guard expected to join troops from Illinois as deportations escalate
• AP: Federal judge temporarily blocks Trump administration from sending National Guard troops to Oregon
• WGN: Pritzker gears up for legal battle with Trump over federal troops, responds to personal insults
• Daily Herald: Trump plans to federalize 300 troops in Illinois, as judge blocks a similar mobilization in Oregon

*** UPDATE *** Illinois has sued the Trump administration in federal court to block the deployment of National Guard troops over Gov. JB Pritzker’s objection. Click here for the complaint.

***************** Advertisement *****************

Sponsored by Ameren Illinois

The summer of 2025 has been a tough one for residents and businesses in the Ameren Illinois service territory. Supply constraints, extreme hot and humid conditions, and increased energy usage have led to a significant spike in electricity prices and higher-than-normal monthly bills for residential, commercial and industrial energy users. We appreciate and thank legislators, regulators and stakeholders who are working hard to address the energy challenge in Illinois. Energy policy is complex, and we’re encouraged that there are some creative ideas being proposed and a willingness to work together to find answers.   

While Ameren Illinois cannot control the price or availability of energy, we can ensure that the system that delivers energy to homes and businesses — electric poles, wires, and technology; and natural gas distribution pipelines and storage fields — is equipped to operate at peak performance to withstand severe weather events, facilitate business expansions that grow local communities, and enable the transition to renewable generation.

We have an opportunity to build an energy system that is smarter, cleaner, reliable, resilient, and affordable for Illinois families and businesses. As discussions on short- and long-term legislative solutions occur this fall, we will continue to advocate for our 1.2 million customers.   

If you know of someone who is struggling to pay their energy bill, please encourage them to visit www.AmerenIllinois.com/PathToSavings for information on available financial assistance and energy saving programs. 

*************************************************

* At 2 pm, Governor JB Pritzker will address federal deployments to Illinois. Click here to watch.

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* Tribune | Transit fiscal cliff much smaller than projected, but severe CTA cuts still expected next year: Asked about the timing of the revised projections after the meeting, Dillard said he was “surprised” by the pushback. “They ask us for revised fiscal cliff numbers, and we’re just providing what the legislature themself asked us to do,” he said. […] “The service cuts we may be forced to make beginning in 2026 will be the single-largest transit service cut in the modern history of the Chicago Transit Authority,” Leerhsen told the RTA board.

* Crain’s | Chicago biz groups push back on Trump’s National Guard plan: The Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago and the Civic Federation highlighted the progress that the city has made in fighting crime and argued that the Trump administration’s posture toward the city is undercutting public safety — and hurting business. “Chicago has assembled a broad coalition of public, private, and civic stakeholders who have been working collaboratively in a ‘one table’ approach to try to make our city safer over the last several years. We are making meaningful progress through these collective efforts,” the organizations wrote in a Saturday press release.

* Tribune | Illinois Democratic lawmakers take on activist role amid President Trump’s immigration crackdown: State Rep. Lilian Jiménez, who represents parts of Chicago including Humboldt Park, used Facebook on Friday to alert constituents that ICE was nearby a local grocery store close to her district and had “armed agents stopping people in the streets, Walmart, Home Depot, all the places people congregate.” “It gets tiring at times to talk to people and not have the solutions that they’re looking for, which is to have a humane immigration policy that allows families to stay together. It’s exhausting to have to explain how unfair our system is,” Jiménez said in an interview prior to the Friday escalation. “Action and engagement really does get me through the day.”

*** Statehouse News ***

* High Speed Rail Alliance…

On the last business day before the Illinois General Assembly convenes for its Veto Session, elected officials and transportation advocates will assemble to marshal support for passenger rail. This luncheon gathering, organized by the High Speed Rail Alliance, will spark vital conversations shaping the future of transportation, locally and nationally. […]

Date: Friday, Oct. 10, 2025

Time: 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

Place: The Collective, 120 S. Riverside Plaza, Chicago, IL 60606 (in-person only)

Speakers:

- State Sen. Ram Villivalam
- State Rep. Kam Buckner
- Amy Rynell, executive director, Active Transportation Alliance
- David Kralik, director of planning and programming, Metra
- Peter Williams, senior project manager, Quandel Consultants

* Capitol News Illinois | 7th Circuit denies Madigan’s bid to stay out of prison while he appeals corruption conviction: The former speaker was convicted in February on 10 federal corruption charges — including bribery — after a lengthy trial in which he was accused of trading legislative action for jobs and contracts for his allies along with introductions to potential clients for his property tax appeal law firm. The Chicago-based appellate judges did not sign their order or explain their ruling Friday, but it affirms the decision from Madigan’s trial judge in August, who wrote that the ex-speaker’s “entire motion rides on routine, and meritless” objections and had “not come close” to meeting the “high burden” he’d need to argue to stay out of prison.

* Chronicle | 97th State House district will see a rematch: It appears State Rep. Harry Benton and GOP challenger Gabby Shanahan will reprise their 2024 race for the 97th House in 2026. […] Benton won the seat in 2022 by just 1,163 votes, 51.7 to 48.3 percent against Republican Michelle Smith. The Democratic pick-up became possible when Batnick, of Plainfield, declined to run for reelection after four terms. The 2024 race saw a marked increase in voter turnout of more than 50 percent, from 35,027 in 2022 to 52,745 in 2024. Benton improved on those totals against Shanahan in 2024, doubling his winning margin with 2,335 votes, 52.2 percent to Shanahan’s 47.8 percent.

* Daily Herald | After spending millions on Bailey in 2022, GOP megadonor Uihlein backs Dabrowski for governor: Late last month, Uihlein donated $250,000 to Wilmette Republican Ted Dabrowski’s campaign, Illinois State Board of Elections records show. Uihlein hasn’t contributed to Bailey’s campaign or any other candidate in the race. “We’re excited that our campaign is coalescing common-sense, conservative support with Dick Uihlein as a donor,” Dabrowski said in an email. When asked about Uihlein’s shift in allegiance, Bailey campaign adviser Jose Durbin expressed gratitude for the billionaire’s past generosity.

*** Chicago ***

* NBC Chicago | Kennedy Expressway express lanes back to normal for Monday morning rush : The announcement by the Illinois Department of Transportation follows the reopening of all outbound Kennedy lanes on Sunday as construction crews wrap up the final days of the three-year expressway overhaul. But construction work will continue through late October on several outbound ramps.

* Tribune | After a rough first year, Chicago Sports Network has Comcast, a new CEO and hope that fans will watch : “The content is fully available, the teams are in the hopeful preseason mode and the fans are excited,” said Mike McCarthy, the new president and CEO of CHSN. “We have nowhere to go but up with this.” The price is certainly going to go up for Comcast subscribers who want to tune in. The cable giant put CHSN on its more expensive Ultimate tier, which costs an additional $20 per month — on top of a $20.25 regional sports fee.

* Block Club | City Will Not Be Plowing Sidewalks Anytime Soon As Measure Fails In Council: The movement gained traction in 2023, when City Council passed an ordinance to create a Plow The Sidewalks working group to determine how and where the pilot could be implemented. That group released a report in May 2024 recommending four pilot zones be created for the city-run sidewalk clearing operation. But despite the City Council allocating $500,000 to the program in the 2025 budget, it had yet to be fully approved.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* WBEZ | Are Illinois State Police helping ICE in Broadview?: “The agencies involved in this operation will neither assist nor obstruct enforcement of federal immigration statutes in compliance with state and federal law,” said Illinois State Police spokeswoman Melaney Arnold. But State Police officers were seen on video controlling the crowd – standing alongside federal officers in camouflage gear as multiple agencies, local and federal, attempted to control the protest.

* Block Club | Broadview Sues Feds Over ‘Illegal’ Fence Near Suburban ICE Facility: The suit, filed Friday by the Berwyn-based Del Gado Law Group, accuses ICE and Homeland Security officials of illegally blocking the public way outside ICE’s processing facility, creating issues for emergency services trying to get to the facility or to nearby businesses. After days of protests outside the facility at 1930 Beach St. in Broadview, ICE on Sept. 23 erected an 8-foot-tall fence north of its building. The fence bisects Broad Street and cuts off commute routes for several private businesses located on the southern end of the street. Prior to the fence going up, demonstrators sought to gather on Beach Street to prevent federal vehicles from entering the gated parking lot of the facility.

* CBS Chicago | Broadview police chief accuses ICE agents of making false 911 calls: According to an incident report, an ICE agent called police for help. Mills believes it was a bogus call. An ICE agent claimed someone was trying to force their way into a door, but it was just a CBS News Chicago photographer filming the exterior of the building. “It’s disturbing. It’s ridiculous,” Mills said.

* Evanston RoundTable | The view from the ground in the Broadview ‘free arrest zone’: At 9:09 a.m. (according to my camera clock), a phalanx of federal police officers marched toward the crowd. At 9:10, I saw and photographed Gregory Bovino, commander at large for the Department of Homeland Security, tell the crowd: “You have one more warning.” Eighty seconds later, agents headed into the crowd, pushing people back and onto the grass. A few, including the woman standing next to me wearing a red top that read “Make racists afraid again,” was tackled around the neck from behind. It could as well have been me.

* Tribune | After her husband was deported, Skokie woman and 3-year-old are leaving US to keep family intact: The family doesn’t plan on coming back, though Ann Salas and the couple’s 3-year-old son are U.S. citizens, and Antony Salas has lived in the U.S. for decades. After Antony Salas spent a grueling month, from his seizure on Aug. 13 to his deportation Sept. 13, in three different ICE facilities in three states, Ann Salas was troubled. “Racism has always run deep and it’s getting worse against more people… I don’t want to put my son back into a situation like that again,” Ann Salas said.

* Aurora Beacon-News | Kane County resident files lawsuit against Sugar Grove over TIF district for controversial Crown project: While the mainly residential portion of the development is facing Sugar Grove, where the village already has neighborhoods, the business park portion is proposed for the other side of I-88, further away from the village boundary, according to past reporting. Mixed-use areas that would allow for retail, office, civic or residential development are set to be across the street from a single-family neighborhood in Blackberry Township, according to proposed site plans. That’s led to some criticism from Blackberry Township residents, including Dale Essling, the plaintiff in the most recent lawsuit. The suit against Sugar Grove was filed on Sept. 9 with the 16th Judicial Circuit Court by Essling, who says in the suit he lives less than 250 feet from the site of the proposed development. Essling is representing himself in the lawsuit.

* Aurora Beacon-News | New Oktoberfest celebration draws crowd to Riverfront Park in North Aurora: ‘I hope this becomes a tradition’: North Aurora Community Relations Coordinator Natalie Stevens said the new Oktoberfest celebration was something that was planned in an effort to offer more community events and “bridge a gap between other events we hold in the village.” “One of the Village Board goals from our strategic plan guiding us this year was to increase community events whether they are big or small, and we have a little bit of a gap between North Aurora Days in early August and our next Christmas event,” she said. “We have some smaller things like our ‘trunk-or-treat’ but we threw out the idea of doing an Oktoberfest in the fall as an option as it was something different.”

*** Downstate ***

* BND | ‘Deeply concerning.’ PFAS cleanup delayed at Scott Air Force Base : Cleanup of “forever chemicals” known as PFAS at Scott Air Force Base will be delayed by five years, according to new timetables released recently without explanation by the U.S. Department of Defense. PFAS is shorthand for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances. The synthetic chemicals have been used for decades to make products that repel oil and water such as nonstick cookware, waterproof clothing, stain resistant furniture, food packaging and cosmetics, as well as firefighting foams used by the military.

* Tribune | In rural southern Illinois, an NPR affiliate tries to fight on amid federal cuts: WSIU’s NPR affiliate already operated at the margins, out of a basement studio — unrenovated and unchanged for decades — that staffers affectionately referred to as “the dungeon.” Upstairs, resources for the PBS affiliate, part of a joint public media operation subsidized in large part due to its ties to Southern Illinois University, weren’t any more robust. Upon the news of the funding cuts, anxiety rippled throughout WSIU, as it did at public media affiliates everywhere. Hunter often found himself crunching numbers. Trying to comfort nervous employees amid uncertainty. Even if they were secure, for now, how would they continue their mission of serving a part of the state that is more and more underserved by local newspapers and commercial broadcasters long mired in their own cycle of consolidation and cuts and offering less and less? Hunter calculated the loss of $1.4 million to be about a quarter of WSIU’s budget.

* WGLT | Fewer Bridgestone workers than expected are losing jobs: Beckett said 60-64 workers accepted buyout offers of a lump sum $35,000 severance. That’s about a couple dozen people less than the company first targeted for a workforce reduction that could have involved involuntary separations. The workers will depart on various dates through the end of the year

* Herald-Whig | Illinois plant ecologists fight to restore Midwest biodiversity: Assistant professor in natural resources and environmental sciences Jeffrey Matthews and Jack Zinnen of the Illinois Natural History Survey recently published a database of thousands of plant species found in historic prairies — and that’s just one part of their comprehensive investigation of Midwest plant biodiversity. To build the database, called RELIX, the team gathered and centralized existing data from studies of prairie remnants. In addition to uncovering the biodiversity of a bygone era, the project is helping ecologists understand whether restored ecosystems fill the same roles as remnants, especially whether they provide sufficient habitat and food for key species.

* Herald-Whig | Newly released IDOT plan shows major work in region over next five years: On Wednesday, the Illinois Department of Transportation released their proposed list of projects for the next five years, including work that will cover all of Adams County and beyond. The largest and most notable project on the list remains the replacement of the Quincy Memorial Bridge, which IDOT Public Information Officer Paul Wappel said remains on track.

* WGLT | Pantagraph plans to stop Monday print edition in November : In a statement from Central Illinois Executive Editor Allison Petty, the change allows Pantagraph staff to focus on the products that readers use most. “Our commitment to delivering the news hasn’t changed,” Petty said. “We work hard to bring you news, sports and features content when and where you want it, and we’re constantly evaluating the best ways to do that. We know that as reader habits change, we must adapt to meet their needs.”

*** National ***

* Bloomberg | Gas Turbine Shortage Is Forcing Companies Back to Coal: Rising power demand from data centers for artificial intelligence has led to a shortage of the gas turbines needed to generate electricity. This shortage might not seem the most obvious climate story, but it’s having impacts across the entire energy sector. This week on Zero, Bloomberg’s Stephen Stapczynski joins Akshat Rathi to look at what’s causing the bottleneck in gas turbines, if the shortage will make companies look to renewables or coal, and whether natural gas is really a “bridge” fuel.

* Semafor | Jim Farley’s ‘essential economy’ drive at Ford : “If you listen to technology companies, the answer is, just buy more AI products from them and we’ll be fine,” he says. But as he learned more about the difficulties facing Ford’s commercial customers, “I just realized, oh my God, we are in deep trouble here.”

* AP | Legal setbacks mount for President Trump’s birthright order before likely Supreme Court review: The U.S. Supreme Court is almost certain to have the final word on birthright citizenship. The Trump administration has already asked the high court to take up the issue. Federal judges have made clear how much his order conflicts with Supreme Court precedent, to say nothing of the Constitution. The Supreme Court is not bound by what those lower court judges have said or even its own past rulings. Nonetheless, those losses could mean an uphill fight for his administration even in front of the justices, who have so far sided with the president on many legal challenges to his effort to remake the government.