* Sun-Times…

In the wake of reports of federal immigration officers driving cars without proper license plates or modified plates, Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias has created a tipline to collect and investigate license plate violations, he said Wednesday. […]

In a video released on his secretary of state YouTube channel, Giannoulias pointed to the words of a federal officer telling a bystander recording him, “You can record all you want. We change the plates out every day.”

“I have zero tolerance for this type of illegal activity,” Giannoulias said in the video. “We are investigating these allegations as we speak. Flipping license plates or altering them in any way to avoid detection is strictly prohibited in Illinois. Penalties include fines and potential jail time. Our office also has the authority to suspend or revoke the vehicle’s license plates, and no one — no one, including a federal agent — is above the law.”

His office also spelled out in a news release that vehicles registered in Illinois must display two license plates, front and rear. […]

Earlier this month, Giannoulias spokeswoman Hannah Blatt told the Sun-Times that the enforcement of missing license plates was a “petty offense” that fell to local police to enforce with tickets up to $500.

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* Click here for some background. WTTW’s Heather Cherone…

NEW: Huynh said Border Patrol's statement was "false."

“To be clear: informing the public and documenting ICE presence is not ‘stalking law enforcement,’” Huynh said.

What happened to him should “terrify every American,” Huynh said. @wttw https://t.co/1dal7CuOEb

— Heather Cherone (@HeatherCherone) October 22, 2025

* Punchbowl News congressional reporter Ally Mutnick…

The Black Caucus met today with members of the IL congressional delegation + other Black leaders to discuss redistricting

Preston said no state lawmakers there have seen a proposed map. Candidate filing closes 11/3

More in @PunchbowlNews PM

— Ally Mutnick (@allymutnick) October 22, 2025

*** Chicago ***

* Block Club | Border Patrol Agents Descend On Little Village, Sparking Fury, Fear In Neighborhood: Federal agents, including Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino, were spotted at various locations in Little Village and Cicero throughout the morning, making stops at a local Home Depot and laundromat. They caused at least two car crashes, said Rep. Edgar Gonzalez, one of many who came to the area to document the agents’ actions. At one point, agents, including Bovino, stopped near 26th Street and Cicero Avenue, where they faced off with neighbors and local officials. Locals recorded the agents as they held long guns and pepper-sprayed at least one man.

* Sun-Times S| Immigration agents arrest CPS vendor outside North Side school: Decatur Classical School officials said no students witnessed the vendor being taken or interacted with federal agents, according to the email, which was sent at 1:39 p.m. Afternoon physical education classes were held indoors out of an “abundance of caution,” though after-school programming went ahead as planned. School officials emphasized CPS would not work with federal agents or let them inside school buildings unless they present a criminal judicial warrant.

* Block Club | Weeks After Being Detained By ICE, Chicago Father Elects To Leave Country Voluntarily: The woodworker was arrested Sept. 22 at an I-94 weigh station in Chesterton, Indiana, while on his way to Michigan to deliver furniture. After a brief detention at the ICE facility in Broadview, he was transferred to southeast Texas near the border. Despite Jose and his family having legal status and a pending asylum application, Jose was charged under a provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Under that law, people who entered the United States without official approval — or at the wrong place or manner — can be denied a visa or an admission, said Kalman Reznick, an attorney who initially consulted with the family in the days following Jose’s arrest.

* Crain’s | Trump can slow Red Line extension funding, but can he stop it? Maybe not: “They can delay it,” says Ray LaHood, former secretary of transportation in the Obama administration from 2019 to 2013. “Unless there’s a violation on the side of the CTA, some disagreement as to complying to what they agreed to, that money should be golden. They have a legal grant agreement with the CTA, and they’re obliged to comply with that, as is the CTA.”

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Daily Herald | Carpentersville prohibits immigration agents from using village-owned property: Carpentersville trustees Tuesday unanimously approved the measure just days after immigration agents were in the village for days of enforcement activities, including some carried out in front of village hall without notice to Carpentersville officials. “I’m not happy about seeing masked people with guns,” said Jeff Frost, referencing immigration agents who were in Carpentersville last week.

* Aurora Beacon-News | Batavia City Council approves 3.5% raises for some city employee positions: The city’s employee positions and their corresponding pay grades can be found in documents included in Monday’s agenda. They also outline the set wages for on-call members of the Batavia Fire Department and for Emergency Service Disaster Agency members of the department. On Monday, the council also approved removing the city’s Water and Wastewater Superintendent position, and changing the city job titled Software Deployment Analyst to Enterprise Application Specialist, per Bednarek’s memo.

* Crain’s | Batavia’s fast-growing meal brand Factor is cooking up a retail move: This year, the Batavia-based company rolled out a rotating menu of 100 weekly meals, up from its previous 40 options, along with other customization additions such as smoothies, juices and health supplements. The expanded menu comes as it prepares to enter retail stores next year and boost the slumping sales of parent company HelloFresh.

*** Downstate ***

* WCIA | The Trial of Sean Grayson: Live Updates: he first witness to testify was called to the stand: Lieutenant Eric Weston of the Illinois State Police. A member of the Division of Criminal Investigations, Weston supervises criminal investigations in 23 Central Illinois counties, with specializations in narcotics, violent crime and officer-involved shootings. Weston told Milhiser that he’s investigated between 12 and 20 officer-involved shootings that he was either directly or indirectly involved with, and he explained how they are typically investigated. Agents obtain reports, search the scene for evidence and get body camera footage.

* SJ-R | Jurors hear Sonya Massey’s 911 calls during Sean Grayson murder trial: Cathryn Barton, a Sangamon County dispatcher, gave a short testimony about 911 calls under examination by Sangamon County First Assistant State’s Attorney Mary Beth Rodgers. Sonya Massey’s 911 calls, which originated at 12:49 a.m. on July 6, 2024, was played. Barton, who has been with the agency now 7 1/2 years, verified that call was marked as “a prowler” outside of Massey’s house. Massey said on the call that it sounded like someone “was banging” on the side of her house. Barton, on the 911 call, asked if Massey had seen the person.

* BND | Belleville alderman wants to bring back vacant property program that city ended: The Ward 4 alderman had initiated the pilot program in 2018. His goal was to reduce the number of vacant homes and other buildings by establishing a timeline for owners to register them, get them inspected and renovate or demolish them to avoid fines. Ovian argued that greater control over vacant buildings would also help alleviate problems with rental housing that was deteriorating under the ownership of what he called “slum landlords.”

* Tri States Public Radio | A year after statewide picket, Galesburg prison still plagued by drugs, violence, understaffing: Illinois prisons are now scanning most physical mail and delivering it to incarcerated people electronically to prevent drug-soaked paper from entering the facilities. That’s after AFSCME reps and prison employees picketed across the state a year ago, demanding safer working conditions. But drugs and violence remain a serious concern inside Hill Correctional Center in Galesburg, with a series of major events inside the prison in a matter of days.

* Capitol City Now | Another attempt to rein in landlords: Ald. Roy Williams is renewing an attempt to pass a landlord registration ordinance in the city of Springfield. He’s tried it before but said Tuesday he is upset it never got anywhere. “I call it a stall game,” he said, “and it makes them mad, but I’ll just say we haven’t produced as a council, and back then, people were here, saying they had a problem with their housing. So I would like for you to know that I’m submitting an ordinance, and you will be hearing from folks from here until we go through the process.”

* WCIA | Champaign greenhouse ready for students to learn growing, harvesting, teaching skills: A Champaign teaching kitchen working with hundreds of students says that after two long years, they have a structure that will help them take their skills to the next level. Ann Swanson is a teacher with the READY program and partners with Prosperity Gardens to teach children how to grow, harvest and cook their own produce. But, they were limited in what they could do because they didn’t have a greenhouse. Now, Swanson says this building allows them to teach year-round with a 20° difference from outside temperature to inside the greenhouse.

*** National ***

* Nature | People with some cancers live longer after a COVID vaccine: A vaccine that helps to fight cancer might already exist. People being treated for certain deadly cancers lived longer if they had received an mRNA-based vaccine against COVID-19 than if they hadn’t, finds an analysis of medical records. Follow-up experiments in mice show that the vaccines have this apparent life-extending effect not because they protect against COVID-19 but because they rev up the body’s immune system. That response increases the effectiveness of therapies called checkpoint inhibitors, the animal data suggest.

* DW | AI chatbots fail at accurate news, major study reveals: DW found that 53% of the answers provided by the AI assistants to its questions had significant issues, with 29% experiencing specific issues with accuracy. Among the factual errors made in response to DW questions was Olaf Scholz being named as German Chancellor, even though Friedrich Merz had been made Chancellor one month earlier. Another saw Jens Stoltenberg named as NATO secretary general after Mark Rutte had already taken over the role.

* Bloomberg | Rivian mobility spinoff readies $4,500 e-bike as first product: Called TM-B, the class 3 e-bike, which don’t require a driver’s license, will launch in spring 2026, offering riders pedal assistance up to 28 miles per hour and, where allowed, a throttle reaching 20 mph. The $4,500 Launch and Performance editions share features, while a cheaper standard model, priced below $4,000, will follow later next year.