* WSIU…

The Illinois Municipal League has elected a southern Illinois mayor as its leader during its Annual Business Meeting, held Saturday as part of the organization’s 113th Annual Conference in Chicago.

Members unanimously chose Mt. Vernon Mayor John Lewis to serve a one‑year term as President of the statewide association. Lewis has been an I-M-L vice president since 2019 and becomes the first president whose father also held the role. […]

Lewis was elected mayor of Mt. Vernon in 2017. He previously spent 25 years with the Illinois State Police, working in patrol, drug enforcement, and criminal investigations before retiring as a Master Sergeant. He’s also founded several businesses and has been active in community service for more than five decades.

Peoria Mayor Rita Ali was elected First Vice President, and Cary Mayor Mark Kownick will serve as Second Vice President.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Sun-Times | Gov. Pritzker discusses his 80-pound weight loss, use of GLP-1 — ‘I think it’s what I need to succeed’: He said he’s been on “every diet you could imagine” with no long-term success. But it wasn’t until a doctor diagnosed him with prediabetes, and later Type 2 diabetes, at age 58, that he began taking insulin — and ultimately a GLP-1 medication to help regulate his blood sugar. […] But more than two years into his new weight loss journey, the governor said he wants to talk about it openly, largely in part because he knows millions of Americans are suffering from obesity-related health conditions. He said he didn’t talk about it sooner because he wanted to make sure the weight loss stuck. The disclosure also comes just months before Democrats are expected to announce their intentions to run for president.

*** Chicago ***

* Crain’s | As Medicaid cuts near, one free Chicago clinic pushes expansion: As hospitals, clinics and physician offices stare down huge Medicaid losses, with hundreds of thousands of patients set to lose coverage, many providers are considering the need to cut services and survive on less. Chicago-based Community Health is instead running toward the trouble by expanding.

* Injustice Watch | Discredited UIC lab manager Jennifer Bash is back on the witness stand: Winnebago County prosecutors called former UIC lab manager Jennifer Bash to testify in a pair of fatal driving-while-high cases earlier this year despite being informed in 2024 that her now-shuttered forensic toxicology lab had produced unreliable test results. In response to recent Injustice Watch inquiries about Bash’s testimony, Winnebago County State’s Attorney J. Hanley said his office had dropped some charges in one of the cases and would launch a review of all convictions based on the University of Illinois Chicago Analytical Forensic Testing Laboratory’s controversial and discredited urine testing. But Hanley said his office is continuing to pursue charges based on the lab’s blood testing, despite known flaws.

* CBS Chicago | Thousands of downtown Chicago hotel workers vote to authorize strike: UNITE HERE Local 1 said, after negotiations on new contracts failed to reach an agreement, 85% of workers at more than 40 hotels voted to authorize strikes. Most of those contracts expired on Aug. 31, according to the union. Collectively, the hotels employ more than 7,000 room attendants, cooks, dishwashers, front desk agents, servers, and food service workers at more than 40 hotels downtown and near McCormick Place. The union said, if all those workers go on strike, it would be the largest hotel workers strike in Chicago history.

* Tribune | Bears QB Caleb Williams avoided a major injury to his hamstring, report says: Per the report, the Bears are not ruling out Williams’ possible return for the Week 3 game against the Philadelphia Eagles on “Monday Night Football” at Soldier Field. Speaking with Bears radio play-by-play voice Jeff Joniak on Monday on WMVP-AM 1000, coach Ben Johnson said he still needed to talk to the training staff, but “it sounds like it’s going to be a week-to-week deal for him.”

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Daily Southtown | Park Forest mayor’s altercation with business owners expected to be election issue: In what has now become a man-bites-dog controversy, Woods is now suing the village because Park Forest says it will not pay Woods’ defense or cover his expenses because his actions were committed outside the scope of his office. Woods claims that under the village’s Municipal Code, Park Forest is obligated to pay all his legal expenses. Meanwhile, in his statement announcing his decision to run for mayor, White touched all the bases: high property taxes, the cost of living, decent housing availability and that the village faces “an infrastructure issue that needs to be addressed.”

* Aurora Beacon-News | League of Women Voters of Central Kane County hosting candidate forums on Sept. 22, 23 before Nov. 3 election: The two candidate forums will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 22 and 23 at Batavia’s City Hall, at 100 N. Island Ave. in Batavia. The forums will also be recorded and streamed to BATV’s YouTube channel, a news release from the League of Women Voters of Central Kane County said. “Voters in our community deserve the opportunity to learn about their candidates for public office,” Kelly Rotella, the League of Women Voters of Central Kane County’s co-president, said in the news release, “so they can be best prepared to make informed decisions at the polls.”

* Daily Herald | Midterm elections bring wave of referendums to suburban voters: Voters in St. Charles Unit District 303 will decide whether the district should borrow $282.5 million for a host of building projects, in the first such referendum in 17 years. Proposed projects include adding a $61 million field house to St. Charles North High School; enlarging three elementary schools; and razing and replacing wings at two elementary schools.

*** Downstate ***

* Crain’s | How other Midwestern cities are building the supply of new homes: On Rockford’s west side, “if you look south of State Street, you see a lot of vacant lots,” Capovilla said. “That’s where we need development, but people have come to us and said they want to build a house but the bank won’t give (them) a loan. If they can build a two-flat and rent out the first floor, the bank looks at that differently” because of the income produced. Importantly, in this era when the notion of allowing multiple units on single-family lots sparks opposition from a range of people, including YouTubers and municipal leaders, Rockford is only relaxing single-family zoning on already-vacant lots in areas targeted for redevelopment.

* WCIA | Air Evac closes Decatur base, cites limited resources: “While this decision was not made lightly, it reflects our responsibility to ensure limited aircraft. Clinical teams and aviation personnel are positioned where they can have the greatest impact on patient care across our service area,” the spokesperson said. “We want to extend our sincere gratitude to the Decatur Park District and Decatur Airport for their partnership, support and hospitality over the years. Their collaboration has been instrumental in helping us serve the community, and we value the strong relationships we have built together.”

* WGLT | High numbers of fire alarms discourage ISU students from evacuating: Assistant Director of Fire Safety and Compliance for ISU Environmental Health and Safety Adam Streenz said the fire alarms went off in ISU housing and connected dining centers a total of 54 times in 2025. That’s more than once each week. According to students, repeated alarms, especially at inconvenient times, quickly led to alarm fatigue.

*** National ***

* AP | States settle lawsuit over Paramount-Warner merger, clearing key hurdle for $81 billion deal: But among terms of Monday’s agreement announced by California Attorney General Rob Bonta — who led the states’ case — Paramount pledged to increase film production in the U.S., commit millions of dollars to a fund aimed at supporting workers who are displaced by the merger and establish monitoring of editorial independence of the company’s news operations. The settlement still needs a final sign-off by a judge. Bonta said Monday’s agreement was about “protecting people’s careers, the lives they’ve built here in California, the livelihoods their families rely on” — but he maintained it was not a vote in support of the merger.