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Isabel’s morning briefing
Tuesday, Oct 6, 2026 - Posted by Isabel Miller * ICYMI: Federal judge sides with Kalshi, blocks new Illinois rules on prediction markets. Sun-Times…
- But the injunction handed down Friday in Chicago’s federal district court by Judge Martha Pacold doesn’t shut the door on potential state taxes on the profits raked in by the booming prediction market industry. Pacold withheld a decision on that front pending further arguments. - Pacold still signaled she’s open to upholding the state tax on transaction fees, which were originally scheduled to take effect in July. State lawmakers, anticipating the legal battle, didn’t count on revenue from the prediction market tax in their budget projections. * Related stories… * Gov. JB Pritzker has no public events scheduled today. * Tribune | State Farm raising Illinois homeowners insurance rates by 8%: It may not cause the sticker shock of last year’s whopping increase, but State Farm is set to raise homeowners insurance rates in Illinois by another nearly 8% this fall, according to a recent filing with the state. […] While State Farm has been increasing rates in Illinois, the study found it offers the least expensive average home insurance rates nationwide among the major companies surveyed. * Tribune | Constellation and Google announce plan to increase nuclear capacity in Illinois, two other states: Constellation Energy, the largest U.S. nuclear provider, agreed Tuesday to invest $4.3 billion to increase output at 11 nuclear plants in Illinois, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and then sell this additional power to Google over a 20-year period. About half of Constellation’s investment, or $2 billion, will be spent at the Byron, Braidwood, LaSalle and Quad Cities plants In Illinois, according to Paul Adams, a Constellation spokesman. * Subscribers know much more. Crain’s | Bears’ Illinois stadium talks shift toward public ownership model: The Chicago Bears’ potential path to building a new stadium in Arlington Heights is veering toward a model that would leave ownership of the venue to a new public authority rather than the team itself. The approach — which cleared the Illinois Senate in May but never reached the House — has emerged as a focus of recent discussions among the Bears and state officials, sources familiar with the talks tell Crain’s. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Chicago Bears minority owner Pat Ryan met yesterday with Gov. JB Pritzker and senior legislative leaders, signaling that Illinois remains firmly in the game as the team weighs whether to build a new home in the northwest suburb or take up Indiana’s offer to finance a stadium in Hammond. * Tribune | Illinois’ acting legislative ethics watchdog warns lawmakers on sexual harassment: ‘Someone always knows’: “First, someone always knows about your behavior and someone will always talk about it to someone else, and sooner or later word will get to our office,” he said in a 10½-minute video posted Thursday on his office’s website. “Second, when we do hear about it, no matter who you are, given our investigative backgrounds in the (legislative inspector general’s) office, we’ve successfully investigated a lot bigger fish than you. So think about that and act like a decent human being.” * WGN’s Tahman Bradley…
* Ben McClellan is running against Rep. Kevin Schmidt…
* WSIU | Candidates for 118th State Representative district share their priorities: With 4 weeks until Election Day, the League of Women Voters of Jackson County hosted an online forum for the candidates of the 118th State Representative district with Republican Scott Doody and Democrat Chip Markel. * Tribune | CPS watchdog reopens case into allegations school board president candidate had ‘inappropriate interactions’ with minor: The top watchdog’s statement this Friday reopening the investigation did not elaborate on why, but the woman told the Tribune she was surprised to learn about the earlier finding when she had never sat down for an interview. She has since reached out to the inspector general’s office, she said. * Illinois Answers Project | A ‘backdoor loophole’ is pushing up property taxes with little accountability: Through tax-increment financing, or TIF, local governments in Illinois create geographic districts that divert property tax growth into special funds that can be tapped to help pay for construction. While TIF’s fiscal impact has been limited through most of its 40-year history, the tool has become an increasingly major contributor to the region’s runaway growth in property taxes in recent years, according to a joint analysis by Illinois Answers Project and the Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation. * Crain’s | Chicago’s maternal care gap deepens with four closures this month alone: Four Chicago-area hospitals have closed or announced plans to close labor and delivery units this month alone, the latest in a years-long retreat from maternal care around the region that is leaving families farther from the nearest place to give birth. The latest announced closure came last week as South Side safety-net hospital Roseland Community Hospital said it would suspend labor and delivery at the end of the month. * Tribune | Lawyers for Chicago woman shot by Border Patrol agent call for criminal charges: “This in our opinion is not a political issue,” attorney Christopher Parente said at a news conference to announce the filing of a federal lawsuit. “We are asking the Department of Justice to do something. It’s the Department of Justice. It’s not the Department of Republicans. It’s not the Department of Democrats. They have a civil rights division specifically there to investigate things like this.” Parente said if federal authorities refused to act, he’s hopeful that an ongoing Chicago police investigation will lead to charges being filed by Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen Burke, who has promised to have a specialized unit of prosecutors look at the evidence that’s been gathered. * Crain’s | Jumbo $5.8B freight brokerage deal will ripple through Chicago: C.H. Robinson Worldwide’s blockbuster $5.8 billion acquisition of rival RXO will reshape the logistics industry and have a big impact in Chicago. Each of the giant freight brokers has a large presence here. C.H. Robinson is based in suburban Minneapolis but has hundreds of workers in Lincoln Park near the former Lincoln Yards development. RXO, headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., bought Chicago-based Coyote Logistics for $1 billion two years ago. * Crain’s | Amazon pays $195 million for vertical warehouse next to Goose Island: Amazon paid $195 million last week for a high-profile warehouse between Goose Island and the Kennedy Expressway that it plans to turn into a hub for making same-day deliveries in the heart of the city. The Seattle-based e-commerce giant acquired the vacant, multistory industrial building at 1237 W. Division St., according to Illinois property records. The 571,423-square-foot vertical warehouse has sat empty since it was completed in 2024 by Chicago-based developer Logistics Property, which hired brokers to sell it last fall. * Tribune | Former Evanston D65 Superintendent Devon Horton changes plea to guilty in federal kickback case: Horton, who was indicted last year on 17 counts of embezzlement, wire fraud and tax evasion over his involvement in what prosecutors describe as an effort to misappropriate District 65 funds and award himself over $81,000 in kickbacks from approving the work contracts of three of his friends’ companies, pleaded guilty to three of those counts in federal court in Chicago Oct. 5. * Daily Herald | Two former suburban police officers charged with misusing Flock license plate cameras: A grand jury indicted former Itasca police officer Marisa Ciccola, 30, on 13 felony counts of official misconduct, and eight misdemeanor counts of computer tampering, the DuPage County state’s attorney’s office announced late Monday. The grand jury also indicted former West Chicago officer Gerardo Solis, 39, on one felony count of official misconduct and one count of computer tampering, prosecutors said. * WTTW | CPD Sergeant Who Led Botched Raid at Home of Anjanette Young Now Working as a Suburban Police Detective: Illinois’ First District Appellate Court ruled Sept. 8 that a Cook County judge properly upheld the Chicago Police Board’s June 2023 decision to terminate former Sgt. Alex Wolinski for his conduct in 2019, when he led a team of 12 officers into Young’s apartment looking for a man who did not live there. Wolinski can still appeal that ruling to the Illinois Supreme Court. Wolinski was hired by Niles about six months after the decision by the Chicago Police Board, which detailed multiple departmental rule violations. The city also settled a multimillion-dollar lawsuit over the raid. * Sun-Times | Video gambling saturates Chicago area — nearly 80% of region allows video slots: Wealthy suburbs generally outlaw video gambling — with the North Shore communities of Evanston, Glencoe, Highland Park, Highwood, Kenilworth, Lake Bluff, Lake Forest, Wilmette and Winnetka all with prohibitions — while lower-income south suburbs generally allow it, including Dixmoor and Ford Heights. Some communities are rethinking their policies. North Chicago is tightening restrictions to “reduce the amount of gaming in town,” an official says. Bolingbrook recently scrapped a ban, legalizing video slots following a referendum. In Winfield, an advisory referendum is planned in the spring to gauge public support for keeping or lifting a ban. * Daily Herald | Bartlett may ban sale of kratom, synthetic drugs and nitrous oxide for recreational use: Other suburbs that have imposed similar bans in recent years include Antioch, Batavia, Des Plaines, Elk Grove Village, Lake Zurich, Mount Prospect, Naperville and Wheaton. [Bartlett Police Chief Ryan Conway] is asking Bartlett trustees to discuss a ban Tuesday on the advertisement and sale of kratom and related synthetic drugs as well as recreational-use nitrous oxide. * WCIA | Mahomet residents rally against potential data center: John Bambenek discovered several officials with the Village of Mahomet were in talks with Clean Cloud Energy about potentially building a data center. He began a petition for a referendum on the April ballot to give the community a chance to decide if they want the project in their backyard. “The referendum is simple. The cure of having these secret conversations that will have a profound impact is to simply have an election,” said Bambenek. “The impacts of a data center like this, for good or for ill, are going to be felt at least countywide.” * WCIA | Mahomet ends talks with data center developer: In a news release, Mayor Jason S. Tompkins said this decision came after “careful consideration of public feedback,” and added the questions and concerns residents raised “played a significant role.” * WAND | Vendor error affects ballots in 9 Champaign County precincts: According to the Clerk’s office, impacted precincts included City of Champaign 6, 29, 37, Hensley, Pesotum, Philo, Sidney, St. Joe 1, and Urbana 3. An investigation found 28 voters had already cast incorrect ballots. The office stated that it will send replacement ballots to 607 vote-by-mail voters. * WAND | Boys and Girls Club of Decatur holds community meeting to discuss next steps: * SJ-R | Perfect Harmony: Former Springfield TV anchor joins White House: A former WICS-TV show producer and anchor confirmed she is joining the White House team after a year as a correspondent for a conservative network. Beni Rae Harmony of Pleasant Plains was named assistant White House press secretary, even as President Donald Trump searches for a replacement for press secretary Karoline Leavitt. * NYT | Dennis Hastert, Powerful Politician Disgraced by Child Sexual Abuse, Dies: J. Dennis Hastert, a once-obscure Illinois congressman who rose to become the longest-serving Republican speaker of the House before falling from grace in a sex abuse scandal that came to light after he left government, has died. He was 84. […] Mr. Hastert, a former teacher and wrestling coach, was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison in April 2016 for violating federal banking laws, having made millions of dollars in secret payments to cover up sexual misconduct with a male student. He was released in July 2017 and from then on lived out of the public eye despite his earlier prominence in Washington. * CBS | The Alito Court: A rare interview with the influential Supreme Court justice: After two decades as a justice, Alito said he considered retirement earlier this year. Now 76, he said, “it’s something I think that somebody at my age has to think about every term.” Some conservatives had urged him to step down while Republicans have control of the Senate, so that President Trump could nominate his replacement. But Alito said that wasn’t a factor in the decision. * Bloomberg | Google, Constellation Near Billion-Dollar Deal for Nuclear Power: Google parent Alphabet Inc. is close to an agreement to buy nuclear energy from Constellation Energy Corp., as technology companies race to line up power for the data-center boom. The tech giant is nearing a deal to pay Constellation $1 billion or more over the course of a multi-year agreement that’s expected to be announced as soon as this week, according to people familiar with the discussions, who asked not to be named because the information is private. * AP | Michael Jordan makes $10 million commitment to UNC School of Social Work in honor of his mother: Six-time NBA champion and former North Carolina Tar Heels star Michael Jordan has made a $10 million commitment to the UNC School of Social Work in honor of his mother, Deloris P. Jordan. It’s the largest single gift in the School of Social Work’s history and will expand the reach and impact of the Global Social Development Innovations Center, according to a release Monday. The center will be renamed the Deloris P. Jordan Global Social Development Innovations Center and the Jordan Institute for Families. It will provide financial scholarships for Master of Social Work students.
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