* CNN…

A federal judge in Boston indicated Thursday that she will intervene in a high-stakes fight over the Trump administration’s decision to not tap into billions of dollars in emergency funds to help cover food stamp benefits for tens of millions of Americans in November.

“Right now, Congress has put money in an emergency fund for an emergency, and it’s hard for me to understand how this isn’t an emergency when there’s no money and a lot of people are needing their SNAP benefits,” US District Judge Indira Talwani said near the end of a hearing, referring to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, the formal name for food stamps.

Though the judge’s options vary, one possibility is that she issues an emergency order that essentially compels the administration to tap into the emergency funds. While she indicated from the bench that she was likely to issue a ruling favorable to a group of Democratic attorneys general and governors who sued the administration earlier this week, she acknowledged that benefits, which should start being sent to recipients on November 1, will be delayed.

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*** Statewide ***

* Chalkbeat Chicago | More Illinois students are proficient, new test scores show. But the cut scores changed.: State officials unveiled the new cut scores in August after gathering input from teachers, school leaders, and advocates. They then applied the new benchmarks to tests students took this past spring. But in releasing a trove of data known as the state report card, the Illinois State Board of Education did not provide data allowing the public to compare proficiency rates from previous years when the cut scores were different.

* Capitol News Illinois | Illinois school report card continues to show wide achievement gaps: The 2025 report card shows more than half of all students (52.4%) scored proficient or better on English language arts exams, but only 38% met grade-level proficiency standards for math. Those numbers are based on standardized tests that students from third grade through high school took in the spring 2025 semester. They reflect a new scoring system the Illinois State Board of Education approved in August that established new benchmarks for proficiency.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Press release | Illinois State Treasurer Michael Frerichs Announces $50 Million Loan Program to Help Federal Workers During Shutdown: The loans will be issued through participating banks and credit unions across Illinois with money made available through the Treasurer’s linked-deposit program. An estimated 153,000 federal employees live and work in Illinois. It is uncertain how many are not receiving their salaries since Oct. 1, when the shutdown began.

* Press Release | Peters measure to create state-run labor mediation program: Peters’ measure would create the Labor Mediation Services Pilot Program to be used in place of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service when the federal program is not available. The FMCS is a small, independent federal agency that provides mediation, training and facilitation to resolve labor-management disputes – disagreements between unions and employers. These efforts help avoid costly disruptions in production, services and supply chains, ensuring economic stability and growth.

* Crain’s | Pritzker signals transit bailout hasn’t gone off the rails — yet: “The transit bill is not dead,” the governor said this morning. “There’s a whole lot of conversation that’s still going on. The work continues.” Pritzker said he met with leaders of the House and Senate yesterday to talk about ways to shore up funding for mass transit, including rail and bus services operated by Metra, the Chicago Transit Authority and Pace.

*** Chicago ***

* Crain’s | Aldermen balk at Johnson’s head tax but stop short of outright revolt: The letter signed by 27 aldermen sounds the alarm about the head tax as well as a plan to borrow to pay for operational efficiencies and calls on representatives from Ernst & Young to testify on the firm’s audit of city spending. […] “We are gravely concerned that reinstating the ‘head tax’ would discourage hiring, push employers outside city limits and make Chicago less competitive. We ask your administration to model alternative budget scenarios that exclude the jobs tax,” the letter says.

* Block Club | Judge Orders Release Of Cancer Patient’s Father Arrested By ICE, Citing No Criminal Record: During a bond hearing Thursday morning, Immigration Judge Eva S. Saltzman set a $2,000 bond for Torres Maldonado, saying she saw “nothing in the record” indicating he posed a danger to the community. Saltzman cited Torres Maldonado’s strong family and community ties, lack of criminal history and eligibility to apply for cancellation of removal based on hardship to his U.S. citizen family members.

* Sun-Times | Bovino’s Fox News interview leaves judge ’surprised’ at feds’ opposition to daily check-ins: “I did see Mr. Bovino’s interview on Fox News today, where he did state that he was excited to come to court and that this would not impede his activities or his ability to manage the operation at all,” Ellis said. “So I was a little surprised just to see that the government’s position … was directly contradicted by Mr. Bovino.”

* Chicago Reader | The gravediggers of Rosehill Cemetery: Reyes tells me he recently bought the grounds team new shovels, but Sanchez turned down the offer, opting instead for his old, all-steel shovel. He prefers it; it’s more precise. “It’s important,” Sanchez says, “because we’re trying to do it perfect and not make mistakes. We have to do right for the family.”

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Crain’s | Cook County tax bill delays cause headaches for homebuyers: The roughly 17,000 people in Cook County who’ve bought homes since July 1 may all be feeling the same minor headache, sparked by a months-long delay in property tax bills that could stretch into the new year. The buyers are waiting for reimbursements that, although typically small, usually come three weeks or less after the date the sale closes. Because Cook County officials have yet to announce when the latest tax bills — which were to be mailed July 1, with an Aug. 1 payment deadline — will finally be mailed, there’s no telling when the reimbursements will come.

* CBS Chicago | Scuffle between federal agents, adults spills into Warren Township High School in Gurnee, officials say: Woestman said that he believes the incident happened with an off-campus encounter between federal agents and adults who are not related to the school district. He said the adults then came onto WTHS’s O’Plaine campus, with federal agents following. The agents followed one of the adults through a door into an O’Plaine campus building. The door was open as it was being “used appropriately” by students and staff coming as part of a normal school day, Woestman said.

* ABC Chicago | Rich Township employee stranded in Jamaica without life-saving medication after Hurricane Melissa: Trinette Britt-Johnson is chief of staff to Rich Township Supervisor Calvin Jordan. In 2024, Britt-Johnson was the recipient of a successful kidney transplant after being diagnosed with a rare kidney disease years earlier. Officials say Britt-Johnson’s trip to Jamaica a week ago for vacation was the first time she was allowed to really travel due to doctor’s orders. Britt-Johnson is currently stuck in Montego Bay after Hurricane Melissa hit, and is without critical medicine that supports kidney function

*** Downstate ***

* Illinois Times | “It doesn’t look like justice”: “Sean Grayson should be able to get out of jail when my daughter can get out of that burial vault,” Massey’s father, James Wilburn of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, said at a news conference after the verdict. The law would allow the presiding judge, Sangamon County Circuit Court Judge Ryan Cadagin, to release Grayson and only sentence him to probation, though one of the lawyers representing the Massey family, Antonio Romanucci, said that is unlikely.

* STL PR | Cost of marketplace health plans to soar in 2026, will hit some in southern Illinois especially hard: “Southern rural communities will see much higher increases,” said state Department of Insurance Director Ann Gillespie. “Some [consumers] are going to lose their coverage entirely,” she said. “But everybody is going to be hit by this.” According to data from the nonprofit health organization KFF, a 60-year-old couple making $85,000 annually in southern or western Illinois could see monthly premiums for a benchmark plan increase anywhere from 300% to 535%.

* WJBD | Two more candidates file for Marion County Board seats: Two candidates have filed to run in the Republican primary for Marion County Board seats. Harvey Evans V has filed to run in District One and Jack Riley is running for re-election in District Two. Candidate filing continues through four Monday afternoon at the Marion County Clerk’s office.

* WCIA | State Police squad car struck in ‘Scott’s Law’ accident on I-57 in Arcola: At around 5:50 a.m., a State Police trooper was parked across the northbound lanes of I-57 conducting traffic control for a different crash that involved a commercial motor vehicle, according to a news release from ISP. The trooper had turned on the squad car’s emergency lights and was directing traffic to exit at milepost 203 onto IL 133. The driver of a Chevrolet Trailblazer failed to move over and exit, and it struck the front passenger side of the trooper’s squad car. The trooper was outside of the squad car at the time of the crash, but no one was hurt.

*** National ***

* Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson | The burial of Black genius (A.K.A. D’Angelo lives!): Then came Voodoo. Then came everything. That album remade Black music. There’s a before and an after. Its tour was the greatest soul revue since prime Prince — we spent four years studying him; naturally, we wrote our love letter back. […] I have to say, the last weeks with him were probably the best for our friendship. Music was always the template for our communication. Now here we were in the hospital — no soundproof separation booths, no drums, no keys, no instruments, no musicians. Nothing but just the two of us talking.

* ProPublica | Details of DHS Agreement Reveal Risks of Trump Administration’s Use of Social Security Data for Voter Citizenship Checks: Instead, experts say, the sweeping data-sharing agreement authorizing DHS to merge Social Security data into SAVE could threaten Americans’ privacy and lead to errors that disenfranchise legitimate voters The details of the agreement, which haven’t previously been reported, show it contains alarmingly few guardrails to ensure accuracy and scant specifics on how the data will be kept secure, election and privacy lawyers who have reviewed it say. Further, it explicitly does not bar DHS from deploying the SSA data for other purposes, including immigration enforcement.

* NYT | Candy Companies Are Quietly Cutting Down on Cocoa to Save Money: Almost no one noticed when, sometime over the last few years, the packaging on Almond Joy, Mr. Goodbar and Rolo was updated to remove the words “milk chocolate.” The edits were easy to miss: The description on the front of the Mr. Goodbar wrapper changed from “milk chocolate with peanuts” to “chocolate candy with peanuts.” Almond Joy is now marketed as a “coconut and almond chocolate candy bar.” Rolos are now wrapped in “rich chocolate candy” instead of “milk chocolate.”