* Crain’s…

Brandon Johnson has plenty of declared opponents in his campaign for a second term as Chicago mayor. But at his re-election kickoff yesterday, he reserved some of his sharpest attacks for someone who isn’t running: billionaire private equity executive Michael Sacks.

“If I wasn’t that powerful, why do they have to get money from Michael Sacks and corporate interests and billionaires and millionaires?” Johnson told supporters at a rally held at the DuSable Black History Museum in Washington Park.

“We will not be satisfied until we build an economy that works for everyone,” Johnson added. “We will not be satisfied until the ultra-rich finally pay their fair share in taxes, and we will not be satisfied until you send me back to the Fifth Floor for four more years.” […]

“The measure of our progress is not simply how many people we help survive the system,” Johnson said in his re-election speech. “It’s whether we are building a system in which working people have the power to thrive.

*** Statehouse News ***

* NBC Chicago | President Trump endorses Darren Bailey, calls him ‘very good candidate’: “I’ve already endorsed him. I’m all for Bailey,” he said. “I think JB Pritzker is a disaster as governor. You look at what’s happening with crime. If JB Pritzker can lose, but for some reason Democrats win there, I don’t know why. But Bailey is a very good candidate.” The Bailey campaign has not yet responded to the endorsement.

*** Chicago ***

* Chalkbeat Chicago | After delay, Chicago mayor’s office opens applications for the school board’s noncitizen advisory panel: Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office is seeking people interested in serving on a state-required noncitizen advisory panel meant to advise Chicago’s school board members — 20 months after the city’s current partially elected school board was seated. The applications, which opened Aug. 31 and close Sept. 25, also come two months before voters will choose a new, fully elected Chicago Board of Education. They are the first concrete step toward picking people to serve on a panel that advocates pushed for when the Illinois state legislature created Chicago’s elected school board.

* Crain’s | Justin Ishbia’s Railyards plan forces a question: What happens to Rate Field?: “It is critical that we start thinking and planning and imagining now and not wait until it’s empty,” said Capri Investment Group Founder Quintin Primo, a Chicago-based real estate investor who has advocated for new development around Rate Field to spur South Side economic activity. Timing of the public discussion about the future of Rate Field is complicated. For one, Ishbia doesn’t own the team today. He defers to longtime Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, who has an option to sell his controlling interest to Ishbia beginning in 2029 under a deal the two struck last year.

* Crain’s | GoHealth to lay off nearly all its Chicago HQ staff: It’s the latest setback for GoHealth and likely marks the final chapter for what was one of Chicago’s most successful tech startups. The company, which rode the waves of Obamacare and Medicare Advantage, sold to a private equity firm for $1.3 billion in 2019, then completed a public offering a year later that valued it at $6.7 billion. But things quickly declined amid challenges in GoHealth’s core business of selling Medicare Advantage plans, or insurance that supplements Medicare coverage, to consumers.

* Block Club | How A Downstate Businessman Rescued A Crumbling Jewish Cemetery On The South Side: That’s when Libman — formerly the owner of The Libman Company, a national broom and cleaning materials factory based in Downstate Arcola — stepped in. He began paying landscaping crews to quietly maintain the section and became a frequent visitor, coming up from his home in Champaign. The work has included fixing up some of the 175 or so damaged graves, and he now has plans to add a gate and a Star of David to an archway at the entrance.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* NPR | This city led the way on reparations for Black people. Trump is trying to stop it: But now the Trump administration, which has vowed to eliminate government programs that promote racial equity, is trying to kill Evanston’s program before similar ones take hold in other cities. In June, the Justice Department announced it would join a conservative group’s lawsuit alleging that the city’s plan is racially discriminatory because only Black people qualify. It’s a stark illustration of how the Trump administration is trying to radically reshape the role that government plays in fighting discrimination and addressing long-standing racial inequities.

* CBS Chicago | Exxon Mobil refinery in southwest suburban Channahon, Illinois investigating Sunday power outage: Officials with the refinery experienced a power outage at around 3:30 p.m. Sunday, resulting in a shutdown. Power was subsequently restored at about 7 p.m. Monday, workers are the refinery are now conducting a site status assessment to determine the cause of the power outage. The spokesperson said they are in touch with the appropriate agencies. The refinery said it is also conducting air monitoring.

* Daily Southtown | La Grange eyes former pub owner Glenn Thompson for Village Board post: Steve Palmer, former owner of Palmer Place, the family pub that served patrons at 56 S. La Grange Road for more than four decades, was nominated by village President Mark Kuchler to fill the open seat. “He’s been very involved in really almost every aspect of the village,” Kuchler said, adding he’s “served on various commissions and boards, both as a professional and a volunteer.” Kuchler said there wasn’t any one issue that made him choose Palmer, saying “it was his past really. He had more (experience) than anyone else.”

* Aurora Beacon-News | Kane County seeing fewer fatal opioid overdoses, as county prevention efforts continue: The number of fatal opioid overdoses among Kane County residents declined again in 2025, according to data from the Illinois Department of Public Health. The county saw 32 fatal opioid overdoses in 2025, the state data shows, which is down one from 33 in 2024 and considerably lower than years prior — in which annual death counts were as high as 78.

* Daily Herald | ‘People are in danger’: Wheaton residents urge action to install traffic light at risky crossing: Marian Park residents and members of the DuPage United coalition, which is supporting the effort, said they’re frustrated with the glacial pace of progress on the traffic signal. “Over the past 28 years, lives have continued to be lost crossing Roosevelt Road, resulting in three fatalities, 11 reported pedestrian injuries and dozens of car accidents every year,” said the Rev. Kevin Caruso, rector at Wheaton’s Trinity Episcopal Church.

*** Downstate ***

* BND | Teachers union in Cahokia school district authorizes strike if deal isn’t reached: Eighty-three percent of the members who voted said they were in favor of the authorization, said Ray Roskos, the field service director at the Illinois Federation of Teachers, who has been assisting with the negotiations. He said negotiations have stalled, and the union last week filed an unfair labor charge with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board accusing the district of bad-faith bargaining. Union leaders would have to give a 10-day notice before teachers could walk off the job. They have not given notice as of Saturday.

* Rockford News First | Illinois’ oldest known living resident holds 113th birthday party in Rockford: In a 2024 interview, Doris shared what she felt has led to her long life. “When I was growing up, we didn’t have any preservatives in the vegetables, we had good vegetables, and I never drank or smoked and lived a good life,” Doris told WIFR after turning 111 years old. Doris will join Rockford News First’s Aaron Wilson live at 11 a.m. on WREX-TV and noon on WIFR-TV, Tuesday, Sept. 15, as she steps into her 113th year.

* NPR Illinois | Springfield and Central Illinois African American History Museum to host presentation on race riots: The film features the East St. Louis and Chicago Race Riots and has been selected by the Saint Louis Public Library Film Festival, St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase, and 81Shorts Film Showcase. After the screening, participants will engage with first-person scenarios drawn from primary sources to deepen understanding of the impact of race riots. The event is free and open to the public.

*** National ***

* The Drive | Costco Is Now Rationing Motor Oil Because the Global Shortage Is Getting Real: Here in 2026, everything is getting more expensive. So it probably won’t come as any great surprise that even Costco, the wholesale retailer renowned for low prices and letting you return practically anything, in any state of use, at any time, for any reason, has tightened its purse strings with regard to its own motor oil. Not only does 10 quarts of Kirkland Signature full-synthetic now cost $58 when it used to go for as low as $30, but stores are now imposing a two-per-customer, per-week limit.

* The Atlantic | The Property-Tax Revolution: States can’t afford these cuts: But municipalities aren’t expected to make up all of the lost revenue. They’re expected to cut. Amendment 3 explicitly protects tax financing streams for schools, meaning that cities and counties are contemplating draconian budget reductions for public-safety offices, libraries, after-school programs, summer camp, day care, flood prevention, public transit, roads, parks, senior services, homeless shelters, legal-aid clinics, domestic-violence shelters, and many other things. Austerity will be regressive too, harming the poor more than the wealthy. Rich Floridians aren’t relying on the bus to get to work. They’re not picking up free meals, taking adult-literacy classes at the library, or seeing a dentist at a pop-up clinic in a middle-school gymnasium either.

* AP | Trump calls AI risks a ‘hoax,’ says there is a ‘SICK conspiracy’ against AI and data centers: The prospect of slower AI buildout led stocks to slip in Monday morning trading, as demand for advanced computer chips and construction materials for data centers could fall. But Trump’s frustration comes as AI has also emerged as a political liability ahead of November’s midterm elections, with many voters opposing the construction of additional data centers and expressing worries that AI could lead to job losses and undermine the education of children.

* WaPo | EPA plans to scrap Biden-era rules that limit power-plant climate emissions: Agency chief Lee Zeldin had planned the repeal as part a slew of proposals he called “the largest deregulatory announcement in U.S. history.”