* ICYMI: Who knew about Amtrak’s Bridgeport plans, and when did they know? Tribune…

- Bridgeport Democrats trying to stave off Amtrak’s attempt to move maintenance operations into the neighborhood find themselves in a rare bind — fighting both longtime union allies who support the project’s promised trade jobs and the rail company they are convinced advanced its plans for years without their full knowledge.
- Gov. JB Pritzker entered the fray Friday, saying via a spokesman Amtrak pulled a “bait and switch” on government officials and neighbors in its rollout. And the governor’s office suggested a state-owned easement in the Bridgeport property could complicate Amtrak’s efforts to move ahead without state support.
- Public records reviewed by the Tribune reveal some early awareness of Amtrak’s Bridgeport plans by local officials, though questions remain about how much they knew about its scope.

* Gov. JB Pritzker and GOP nominee Darren Bailey will take questions tonight during WTTW News’ live gubernatorial forum from 8-9 pm. Click here for more information.

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* Tribune | Illinois Democrats on defense over scandals in races for state legislature: Republicans have seized on House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch’s handling of sexual harassment allegations against former Democratic state Rep. Harry Benton of Plainfield, who resigned this summer. A Tribune investigation in July revealed Welch, a Hillside Democrat, knew of Benton’s reported misbehavior toward a former staffer three years ago but did not discipline him at the time. Also in July, another House Democrat, six-term Rep. Carol Ammons of Urbana, was indicted on federal charges alleging she orchestrated a scheme to enrich herself using taxpayer and campaign funds. Ammons has pleaded not guilty and is running unopposed for a seventh term.

* Sun-Times | Gubernatorial grudge match pits Gov. JB Pritzker against Darren Bailey: This time around, Pritzker’s team is blanketing airwaves and the internet with ads reminding voters of Bailey’s strong support for Trump, his staunch opposition to abortion rights and his rejection of science that shows dinosaurs never coexisted with humans, as taught in curriculum at a Bailey-founded school.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Click here to watch the committee hearing at 10 am…

* Center Square | Pritzker backs candidates in predominantly red state congressional races: Pritzker’s political action committee, the Ready for the Fight PAC, is targeting districts that either lean Republican or are competitive to expand the Democratic Party’s map – especially in the House of Representatives. Pritzker, who also serves as chair of the PAC, seeded the committee with at least $20 million for the 2026 midterm election. The billionaire governor, who is running for a third term, denied questions of him launching the PAC to raise his national profile ahead of a long-rumored 2028 presidential run.

* Daily Southtown | Republican Adam Beaty challenges Rep. Anthony DeLuca for 80th state House: DeLuca was appointed to represent District 80 in 2009, after six years as mayor of Chicago Heights. Beaty ran against DeLuca in 2024, garnering just 40.8% of the vote. He said he wanted to run in part because the seat has sometimes been unopposed. “I thought it was very important for people to have a choice in a race,” Beaty said. “If not me, then who else?”

* Daily Southtown | Attorney and former Robbins police chief compete to represent 36th District in Illinois House: Ryan, of Evergreen Park, was elected two years ago, after gaining the endorsement of longtime Rep. Kelly Burke, who is also mayor of Evergreen Park. Ryan says he’s worked with other moderate Democrats to block tax hikes. “There’s about four or five tax proposals that looked like they were going to go through,” Ryan said about the most recent budget. “We banded together to say that we’re just not going to vote for it, and they then reshaped the budget to (prevent) those from coming down to the consumers.”

* Sun-Times | Barack Obama endorses Juliana Stratton for Senate in slew of midterm picks: Obama has taped at least two dozen ads for Democratic candidates for governor and Senate; those ads are expected to be released in the coming days and weeks. Obama also plans to make campaign stops in battleground states.

* WAND | Indigenous Peoples’ Day: Illinois laws lifting up Native Americans: Thousands of Native American remains and artifacts sit in museums across the country after the Department of Transportation dug them up to build highways years ago. However, a 2023 law called on the Illinois State Museum and federally recognized tribes to return the Native remains and artifacts for proper burial. The law also created a cemetery for unidentifiable remains. […] Illinois public schools have also been required to allow students to celebrate their cultural, ethnic, or religious identity during graduation ceremonies. Sponsors and advocates said Native American students are often given eagle feathers and other tribal regalia to show pride and gratitude for their academic achievement.

*** Chicago ***

* Sun-Times | Mayor Johnson uses 4th veto to kill debt threshold measure, setting stage for override vote [this] week: The veto has been expected ever since the 32 to 15 vote on Sept. 29 that Johnson has insinuated had racial motives — by branding the reform championed by retiring Ald. Marty Quinn (13th) a “three-fifths compromise.” The same term is used to describe language in the Constitution that originally counted Black slaves as three-fifths of a person. Several Black Council members, including Finance Committee Chair Pat Dowell, voted for Quinn’s measure.

* Sun-Times | Reopened probe into CPS Board president candidate’s alleged inappropriate contact with teen could end soon: The Chicago Public Schools’ inspector general could soon issue findings in its recently reopened investigation into whether Hilario Dominguez, a candidate for Chicago School Board president, acted inappropriately with a 17-year-old in 2017. Investigators interviewed the woman, who is now 26, in late September and reinterviewed Dominguez on Tuesday.

* Bloomberg | Old Downtown Chicago Trading Hub Is Reborn as an AI Data Center: Real estate developer Legacy Investing and GI Partners is turning the former trading complex at 400 S. LaSalle St. into a data center with 33 megawatts of capacity, roughly equivalent to the average electricity needs of 28,000 homes in the US. The retrofit is expected to cost $300 million to $400 million, and Legacy anticipates it will command rents as much as four times higher than the average downtown Chicago office. While projects like the Cboe building can’t rival the gigawatt megaplexes popping up in the suburbs and beyond, the artificial intelligence boom has tech firms looking for computing power and space wherever it’s available. Smaller data centers may turn out to be more expedient — and politically palatable — than big rural developments.

* Bloomberg | Jewel-Osco parent seeks more than $9 billion over busted Kroger deal: Albertsons Cos. is demanding that Kroger Co. pay more than $9 billion for the collapse of what would have been the largest US grocery chain merger in history that would have joined the parent companies of Chicago’s Jewel-Osco and Mariano’s. Lawyers for Albertsons made the demand Monday in Delaware Chancery Court, where a two-week trial is slated later this month in a legal fight over who is to blame for the failure of the $24.6 billion deal. The plan to combine the two largest US grocery chains was blocked by a federal court in December 2024.

* Sun-Times | Block 37 owner is new, but is the curse still the same?: In the long history of urban development failure, there is really only one city block in the country that can be described as truly infamous: the block immediately east of Daley Plaza. Otherwise prime downtown property that has been known since before the city’s founding as Block 37, it has also been called not only “cursed” but a “fiasco” and “a boondoggle.” In 1996, a book was published chronicling earlier doomed efforts to make something take hold there. Ross Miller’s “Here’s the Deal,” cataloging years of lawsuits and protests over what he called a “gold-plated hole in the ground.” Since then, a chain of false starts, bankruptcies, failures and foreclosures. Along with, to be fair, several modest successes: the studios of a once-respected television network, CBS on the southern half of the block. A popular restaurant, The Dearborn, on its northwest corner. Some offices and apartments.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Daily Herald | Kane County company plans to build largest battery energy storage system on ComEd’s grid: The facility, which will have containers with battery energy storage systems, or BESSes, will be built at the rear of Richardson’s headquarters in La Fox. It is intended to serve as a model for potential customers. The facility would be capable of storing up to 5 megawatt-hours of power. “We have learned that standing still is not an option,” said Edward Richardson, chief executive officer and president of Richardson Electronics. His father founded the company in 1947, selling military-surplus electronic supplies such as walkie-talkie batteries.

* Daily Herald | ‘We have to move forward’: Krishnamoorthi on Senate loss, Beltway drama, insurrection and next steps: “I’m not sure yet what I’m going to do,” Krishnamoorthi said of leaving The Beltway. “The prospect of winding up my time here is really consuming the majority of my brain share.” There’s no shortage of advice from extended family and friends with suggestions like “’you should really look into video gaming,’” and from others such as an Uber driver who encouraged him to consider a rideshare career. As for running for public office again, “I don’t know. I’m not making any announcements right now,” said Krishnamoorthi, laughing.

* Daily Southtown | Will County sheriff candidates discuss Flock cameras, SAFE-T Act: Jones said he wants to expand mental health resources for police officers and training for officers to help people who are going through mental health issues. One of his priorities includes reducing recidivism by increasing training programs in the jail where inmates could learn a trade such as welding or small engine repair, Jones said. DuPage and Cook counties have similar programs, he said. […] Reilly said he wants to improve relationships between the sheriff’s and state’s attorney’s offices so they get the information they need to charge and prosecute offenders. Reilly agreed offering mental health programs to its officers as well as training officers to deal with individuals experiencing a mental health emergency is important.

* Daily Southtown | Will County District 5 candidates talk solar farms, Des Plaines River bridge: Williams, 69, a County Board member since 2022, has been the Democratic leader for the last two years. She is retired from the Will County sheriff’s office where she was a dispatcher and a classification specialist at the Will County Jail. With a background in psychology and a former union president, Williams said she understands how to communicate with her fellow board members and was instrumental in getting the board to pass a strategic plan to outline ways it can function with more purpose and direction. “I’m not afraid to reach across the aisle,” Williams said. “I’m not afraid to do things differently than my caucus. I have to support my constituents.”

*** Downstate ***

* Illinois Times | Former Norb Andy’s under contract: The mansion built by Virgil Hickox in 1839 at 518 E. Capitol Ave. has been vacant since Anchors Away, the most recent restaurant to occupy the space, closed in 2023, but it is now under contract to a buyer who wants to renovate the historic building. It once housed the Sangamo Club, as well as the famous legislators’ hangout, Norb Andy’s Tabarin, known for its horseshoes, and later Anchors Away restaurant.

* WCBU | Tazewell County data center moratorium approval nears the finish line: The county’s Zoning Board of Appeals [ZBA], with no discussion, voted last week to approve the moratorium and return it to the committee. While the moratorium is in place, county officials plan to continue their work on a data center ordinance. So far, the only regulation in a draft of the ordinance is a requirement for a data center to be built only in an area zoned industrial.

* BND | Belleville developers unveil plans for second half of sports, business complex: Developers have unveiled plans for the second half of a 62-acre sports and business complex along Frank Scott Parkway West, across from Belleville West High School. Last spring, they announced they had bought about 30 acres of farmland to build an indoor sports facility and “flex buildings” with flexible tenant space for office, retail, warehouse or light industry. Now they’re buying about 32 more acres to the north for outdoor soccer and baseball and softball fields, more flex buildings and other businesses, developer Matt Froese said.

*** National ***

* AP | AI data centers are coming for federal land. They’re roiling the Nevada governor’s race: Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo, one of his party’s most vulnerable incumbents, doesn’t outright oppose building data centers on public lands, as long as they have community support. He recently signed an agreement with Trump’s Republican administration to streamline infrastructure projects, which could include data centers on federal lands.

* Reuters | Musk has spent $276 million on midterms to help Republicans retain control of Congress: Elon Musk has spent roughly $366 million in the 2026 US midterm election cycle so far, $276 million of it since July to help Republicans retain control ‌of Congress, even as Democrats’ chances of retaking the US House and Senate have improved. Musk’s largess, ‌which was reported earlier by the New York Times, makes the world’s richest person likely the single-biggest political donor in this year’s races, ​according to campaign finance records.

* Economist Jay Parsons…

Isn’t it frustrating when the data gets in the way of a good narrative?

— Jay Parsons (@jayparsons) October 9, 2026