* ICYMI: ‘Dramatic, quick, and devastating’: Prairie Research Institute losing millions in funding. WCIA…

- Nearly $8 billion in grants is being eliminated by the Trump administration because of the government shutdown, and it’s impacting groups in Central Illinois.
- Interim Director of the Illinois State Geological Survey at the Prairie Research Institute, Steven Brown, said that they are losing $30 million in grant money that funded many of their projects.
- “We were alerted on October 2nd, the letter that we received stated that the termination of the contract happened that day. So, there was no lead time, no lead time whatsover. So, as of October 2nd, the funding is just cancelled and stopped. This means we have a workforce that needs to be paid, we have all the other items related to the projects that we can no longer work on because the money was just stopped,” Brown shared.

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* Governor Pritzker will hold a press conference with former U.S. Major Generals, Admirals, and veterans to discuss the militarization of American cities. ​ Click here to watch at 11 am.

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* Sun-Times | Gov. JB Pritzker won $1.4 million via gambling, 2024 tax returns show: The latest windfall was boosted by $1,425,000 in gambling winnings, their federal filing shows, in addition to $4.2 million in capital gains, nearly $3.9 million in ordinary dividends and more than $800,000 in taxable interest. Pritzker doesn’t take a salary as governor.

…Adding… NBC Chicago’s Mary Ann Ahern…

Since reporters noticed ⁦@GovPritzker⁩ reported $1.4M in gambling winnings on his income tax filing - so many questions. Today his spokesman says the Las Vegas blackjack winnings will be donated. pic.twitter.com/pXcYHHntLp

— Mary Ann Ahern (@MaryAnnAhernNBC) October 16, 2025

* Capitol City Now | SNAP changes leave a bitter taste: Kate Maehr, executive director and CEO of the Greater Chicago Food Depository and co-chair of the Illinois Commission to End Hunger, said the federal government, which has been paying virtually 100 percent of the costs, will eventually offload up to $800 million per year to Illinois. Maehr said such requirements add unnecessary hoops to jump through and do not promote work or economic stability.

*** Statewide ***

* Abortion, Every Day | Illinois Woman Denied Treatment for Ectopic Pregnancy: The 28-year-old—who had to go to multiple healthcare centers and hospitals before getting the care she needed—tells me that she was sure she was going to die. “I was 100% convinced,” she says. That’s in no small part because Harmonie lost her right fallopian tube in another ectopic pregnancy a few years ago. So when she was diagnosed again last week, she knew how dangerous the situation was—and how important it was to get quick treatment. […] Here’s what Harmonie didn’t know: this particular OBGYN was affiliated with Ascension—a multi-billion dollar Catholic health system that’s been at the center of similar firestorms. A federal investigation actually found that an Ascension hospital in Texas violated EMTALA when they refused another woman care for her ectopic pregnancy in 2023.

*** Statehouse News ***

* NCSL | His Advice After Beating Cancer? ‘Maximize the Moments’: “I’ve always had an enthusiasm and positivity,” Evans says. “But when you have cancer, and you’re near death, and you make it through, you just value time more. It has changed me tremendously because I don’t want to miss an opportunity. I just try to maximize the moments.” He adds, “I’m going to live life until life is no more. You’ve got to keep moving through life’s challenges.”

* AP | Illinois Joins Other States in Forming a Public Health Alliance in Rebuke of Trump Administration: They’re framing it as a way to share data, messages about threats, emergency preparedness and public health policy — and as a rebuke to President Donald Trump’s administration, which they say isn’t doing its job in public health. “At a time when the federal government is telling the states, ‘you’re on your own,’ governors are banding together,” Maryland Governor Wes Moore said in a statement.

* Capitol News Illinois | Pritzker tax summaries show more than $10M in 2024 income — not including trusts: The 2024 summary prepared by Deloitte Tax LLP shows Pritzker and his wife, MK, made $10.7 million, including $4.2 million from capital gains. Pritzker received a $4.8 million standard deduction, meaning he paid taxes on $5.9 million in income. The trust benefiting the Pritzkers paid $4.5 million in state taxes and $30.2 million in federal taxes last year, according to his campaign. The first family also reported $3.3 million in charitable donations. […] Mitchell made $595,830 last year and claimed a $65,841 deduction.

* WMBD | Illinois lawmakers clash on how to condemn political violence: Democrats and Republicans went back and forth, criticizing the other party in its failure to reduce political violence. […] Two lawmakers on the House floor said they have received death threats over being a lawmaker. Democrat state Rep. Harry Benton said he’s been physically assaulted and had his cars taillights smashed in. State Rep. Nicole La Ha has recently received threats to her life for being a lawmaker. The Republican from Lemont said the House should do more to reduce political tensions.

* WAND | Insurance group calls for ‘fairness’ in response to IL SOS town halls: Illinois Insurance Association Executive Director Kevin Martin told WAND News that no one from the Secretary of State’s office has “engaged experts” from the insurance industry. “Political theater is not the best approach for public policy development and risks doing a disservice to the millions of Illinoisans who rely on a stable, competitive insurance marketplace,” Martin said in a statement to WAND.

*** Chicago ***

* WTTW | Same Name, New Legacy: Ald. Walter ‘Red’ Burnett on His New Role and Development in the West Loop: The 29-year-old Walter “Red” Burnett was confirmed Sept. 25, officially making him the youngest member of the City Council. Burnett says he is charting a new path for the 27th Ward, overseeing several development projects and addressing affordability for longtime residents.

* Sun-Times | What to know about PIT, the driving maneuver feds used in Southeast Side car chase: The maneuver, known as a precision immobilization technique, or PIT, is a driving tactic used by some law enforcement agencies to end a vehicle pursuit. However, some law enforcement professionals, legal experts and advocates say the move is ineffective and dangerous. Many police departments across the country, including the Chicago Police Department, bar or limit their officers from using the maneuver.

* Tribune | CPS tells JROTC students to only wear military-issued uniforms inside: The district is immediately revising its dress code policy to require students to travel to and from school in civilian clothes, wrote Tyese Sims, executive director of CPS’ JROTC department, in a Friday letter to families. “Unfortunately, when they are in uniform, there is no way for the general public to distinguish these CPS students from members of the military, including the National Guard,” Sims said.

* Sun-Times | Driven by arts and culture, pedestrian traffic in Downtown Chicago exceeds pre-pandemic levels, report finds: New data from the Chicago Loop Alliance show that Downtown pedestrian traffic now exceeds pre-pandemic levels from 2019, with more visitors drawn by arts and culture and dining. The new numbers validate efforts to make the Loop a social destination and combat high retail and office vacancy rates that have plagued the area since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to CLA President and CEO Michael Edwards. But even as the Loop evolves into a more complete urban district, there are concerns that threats from President Donald Trump to send the National Guard to Chicago — currently delayed due to a federal appeals court ruling — could impact progress.

* Chicago Reader | Chicago’s creatures of the night: Fidino studies how animals change their behavior according to their environment, especially when their environment contains humans. In Chicago, he and his colleagues at the zoo monitor one hundred or so motion-triggered trail cameras, or camera traps, that they’ve scattered in a 25-mile radius from the city’s center: in city parks, outside forest preserves, on golf courses, along the 606 trail, and in cemeteries. “We’ve got cameras next to the Bean!” he told me. Four times a year, for the last 15 years, those cameras are turned on for a month.

* Sun-Times | ‘Chicago Rat Hole’ was not made by a rat, say rodent researchers: The “Chicago Rat Hole” captured hearts in Chicago and on social media last year. Researchers analyzed the anatomical dimensions of the famous imprint and found the creature responsible was not a rat, but most likely a squirrel.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Press release…

U.S. Reps. Jesús “Chuy” García, D-Chicago, and Delia Ramirez, D-Chicago, join elected officials, community leaders, advocates and voters to launch Juanita Irizarry’s candidacy for District 1 commissioner on the Cook County Board of Review.

The Chicago Democrat will be supported by Illinois’ Latino and progressive communities, including state Rep. Theresa Mah, D-Chicago; former Cook County Clerk David Orr; Ald. Jessie Fuentes (26th); Ald. Daniel La Spata (1st); Ald. Michael Rodriguez (22nd); Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th); Ald. Julia Ramirez (12th); Ald. Jeylú B. Gutiérrez (14th); Josina Morita, County Board commissioner; and Ebony DeBerry, member of the Chicago Board of Education. They will stand with Irizarry as she draws sharp ethical contrasts between herself and her opponent who has long been supported by corporate interests.

WHO: Speakers at the news conference will include:

U.S. Rep. Jesús G.
“Chuy” García, D-Chicago
U.S. Rep Delia Ramirez, D-Chicago
State Rep. Theresa Mah, D-Chicago
Ald. Jessie Fuentes (26th)
Ald. Michael Rodriguez (22nd)

WHEN & WHERE: 9:30 a.m. Monday, Oct. 20, 2025

Northwest Corner of Wabash Street and Wacker Drive on the Chicago River across from Trump International Hotel & Tower

* Shaw Local | McHenry County Board to consider raising property tax levy to pre-referendum level: Under the state lookback law, a taxing body is permitted to reset its property tax levy to the highest level in the past three years. In the county’s case, doing that would bump the levy up to the $73.8 million it approved in 2023. The levy was lowered to about $65 million last year after voters approved switching the Mental Health Board funding mechanism to a sales tax.

* Tribune | Hollywood Casino Joliet posts higher revenue at new land-based facility in September: The new Joliet casino, which opened in August, generated more than $11.2 million in adjusted gross receipts last month, ranking fourth in revenue among the state’s 17 casinos, according to Illinois Gaming Board data. That’s up 48% year-over-year, when Hollywood Casino Joliet was an aging vessel docked on the Des Plaines River. Admissions to Hollywood Casino Joliet topped 96,000 for September, ranking fifth in the state and up nearly 75% over last year, according to Gaming Board data.

* Daily Herald | Metra reviewing cause of glitch that delayed thousands: About 80 trains and thousands of passengers on the Metra Electric Milwaukee District, Rock Island, Southwest Service and Union Pacific lines were delayed. The glitch started around 5 p.m. and involved the Positive Train Control (PTC) system, technology designed to stop a train if a crash is imminent. “What happened was a telecom network time-source failure,” Metra spokesperson Meg Thomas-Reile explained Wednesday. “Basically, the times weren’t syncing in the system, and when it did that … some of the devices went back to 2006.

* Daily Herald | Barrington borrowing $6.8 million to replace iron filtration plant: The village board this week agreed to issue general obligation bonds to be paid off over a 20-year period. It will pay off the bonds by charging water users a fixed monthly fee. Deputy Village Manager Marie Hansen said the village is still deciding out how much users will pay. That will be determined when the village passes next year’s budget.

* Crain’s | Maplewood Brewery expands to Glen Ellyn, defying industry headwinds: Maplewood plans to take over the home of Two Hound Red, a brewpub that closed Oct. 12. Co-founder and CEO Adam Cieslak said he expects the new location, which will be Maplewood’s second, to open by early spring. “For some time, we had been looking at just growth and expansion opportunities,” said Cieslak, who grew up in the western suburbs along with co-founders Paul Megalis and Ari Megalis. “We’ve looked at a lot of different buildings, a lot of different areas. . . .We went and saw (this one) and really, really liked the spot, and thought it’d be a nice growth opportunity out into the suburbs.”

*** Downstate ***

* WCIA | Officials share more information about Martinton grain bin collapse: Terry Winger, General Manager of the Donovan Farmers Cooperative location in Martinton, said employees noticed one of the cement silos showing “signs of distress.” Employees evacuated the site and contacted first responders. Several hours later, the silo collapsed.

* BND | Metro-east IDOT supervisor back at work, despite scathing report on bad behavior: Yet the yard supervisor, Joe Hamm, a non-management union member whose formal title is “lead worker,” returned to the job last fall after being on administrative leave for 10 months with full pay during the investigations, according to employees. “It was a paid vacation,” said Highway Maintainer Mike Turner, 32, of Godfrey, one of seven employees who complained about Hamm’s behavior in 2023, prompting the investigations. Investigators interviewed more than 25 other employees, past and present, before concluding that “sufficient evidence” existed to back up most of the allegations and that Hamm’s superiors had failed to intervene or take corrective action.

* Rockford Register Star | Rockford area judge suffers ‘threats and harassment’ after releasing homicide suspect: Winnebago County Chief Judge John Lowry is blaming a Facebook post by Rockford Mayor Tom McNamara for a spate of “threats and harassment.” They come after McNamara posted comments critical of Associate Judge Heidi E. Ruckman-Agustsson’s decision to grant pretrial release to a suspect charged with first-degree murder. The release came over the objections of the Winnebago County State’s Attorney’s office which has filed a motion asking the courts to reconsider.

* IPM News | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign unlikely to join federal higher education compact: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign leaders said Monday the school would likely decline to join the kind of compact the Trump administration has proposed for higher education institutions. Illinois’ flagship university was not one of the nine universities invited to join the compact. During a student and faculty senate meeting, Provost John Coleman recognized a similar request could come from the White House in the future.

* WGLT | Bloomington mayor says sales tax vote is consistent with earlier decisions: Last month, the council created the local tax to begin when a similar state tax expires at the end of the year. It was supposed to help narrow a structural budget deficit and be used for infrastructure. Brady broke a tie vote Monday night that now dedicates all the $3 million in estimated annual grocery tax money to infrastructure. “We tangibly show the electorate, the taxpayers, what are we going to do with the money. It’s not just going back to the city general fund,” said Brady.

* SJ-R | With the Sean Grayson trial on the brink, a timeline of the Sonya Massey shooting: With the trial of former Sangamon County Sheriff’s deputy Sean Grayson, accused of murdering Sonya Massey, set to begin in Peoria on Oct. 20, The State Journal-Register has compiled a timeline of events, beginning with the fatal shooting on July 6, 2024.

* WCIA | Central Illinois National Guard units under federal command in Chicago: WCIA confirmed with U.S. Northern Command, which is in command of National Guard troops in Chicago, that the troops will be mobilized for 60 days and will be under the command and control of the Commander of U.S. Northern Command for that time. This means the troops are under federal command, not state command. While the Northern Command was unable to break down the specific number of troops from each Central Illinois armory, staff could confirm troops from the armories in the region were among those in Chicago.

* WCIA | SNAP benefit cuts impacting food banks in Central Illinois: Volunteers with the Daily Bread Soup Kitchen in Champaign said with more SNAP benefit cuts on the horizon… the soup kitchen will be serving more people and handing out more meals. The president, Bob Goss, said they went from serving around 600 meals a day to nearly 1,000 in just the past six months. He said they serve a five-course-meal every day at noon… and then send their guests home with a sack lunch.

* WBEZ | Students for profit? University of Illinois campuses pay company per online student: The University of Illinois Chicago and the University of Illinois Springfield are paying a for-profit company for each student it recruits to online programs — a practice that would be illegal if done by the universities’ admissions offices and one that’s been banned by another state, a WBEZ investigation has found. Critics, including U.S. senators and consumer protection advocates, say this kind of arrangement incentivizes the company, Risepoint, to recruit as many students as possible, whether the online programs are a good fit or will help the students get better jobs or make more money.

*** National ***

* NYT | Trump Considers Overhaul of Refugee System That Would Favor White People: The proposals also advise Mr. Trump to prioritize Europeans who have been “targeted for peaceful expression of views online such as opposition to mass migration or support for ‘populist’ political parties.” That appeared to be a reference to the European far-right political party Alternative for Germany, whose leaders have trivialized the Holocaust, revived Nazi slogans and denigrated foreigners. Vice President JD Vance has criticized Germany for trying to suppress the views of the group, which is known as the AfD.

* The Atlantic | The Lincoln Way: How he used America’s past to rescue its future: Cautions aside, Lincoln’s claim that the Declaration carried across generations set him squarely against those who sought to narrow its promise. In its Dred Scott decision, the Supreme Court declared that Black Americans “had no rights which the white man was bound to respect” and sought to anchor that exclusion in the very history of the founding. To Lincoln, that teaching did not merely misread the past—it rewrote it, extinguishing the Revolution’s promise in the present. He claimed that whoever “teaches that the negro has no share, humble though it may be, in the Declaration of Independence” was “muzzling the cannon that thunders” the Revolution’s “annual joyous return.”

* SCOTUS blog | Court appears ready to curtail major provision of the Voting Rights Act: The Supreme Court on Wednesday appeared ready to strike down a 2024 congressional map that a group of voters has challenged as the product of unconstitutional racial gerrymandering – that is, according to them, it sorts voters based on race in violation of the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause. During nearly two-and-a-half hours of oral arguments, the court’s conservative justices signaled that they are likely to undermine a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, even if they may not ultimately strike it down altogether.