* Tribune…

Illinois first lady MK Pritzker, who typically shies away from the political spotlight, announced Wednesday that she is contributing $500,000 to support Ohio Democratic governor candidate Amy Acton after the campaign of Acton’s Republican opponent, Vivek Ramaswamy, released a controversial video featuring her estranged mother.

The contributions, which have yet to appear on Ohio campaign finance disclosures, will include the maximum contribution of $16,615.67 to Acton’s campaign fund, with the remainder going to the Ohio Democratic Party, said Jordan Abudayyeh, a spokeswoman for MK Pritzker. The midterm election is Nov. 3.

Ramaswamy’s campaign confirmed to The Associated Press late Tuesday that it produced an ad featuring Acton’s estranged mother calling her a liar, and that the Republican campaign planned to spend $4 million to promote it. Acton and her brother were removed from their mother’s custody in 1978 after their stepfather was indicted on charges that he sexually assaulted Acton, the AP reported.

“Bad men gain power when we refuse to stand up and fight,” MK Pritzker said in a statement. “Vivek Ramaswamy represents everything that is wrong with our politics today: arrogance, cruelty, dishonesty, and the belief that it’s acceptable to say and do anything for power. I refuse to sit quietly while men like Vivek Ramaswamy exploit a highly qualified woman’s pain for political gain. There comes a time when simply condemning someone’s actions isn’t enough — we have to put it all on the line to defeat these MAGA men.”

…Adding… CTU President Stacy Davis Gates…

“This is what it looks like when Chicago elects a mayor who believes in public education. Mayor Johnson promised to put our students first, and he has delivered by providing over a billion dollars to our school communities over the last four years. Today he helped protect students from the impact of state underfunding with over $285 million for Chicago Public Schools.

Our students see what that money means every day. It means a teacher in front of every classroom, a counselor in every building and the support our students need to learn. Chicago educators fought for this, and our mayor answered.

The School Board passed its budget counting on TIF money from the city, and Mayor Johnson delivered beyond prior estimates. Now the Governor and General Assembly have to follow suit. Mayor Johnson has plugged holes in school budgets created by our Governor and General Assembly failing to prioritize school funding. Our lawmakers in Springfield can prevent the chaos and harm of mid-year cuts by investing in schools across the state during the veto session.

There is no excuse for lawmakers denying what is owed to school districts across the state while sitting on a stockpile of cash. Illinois has received more than a billion dollars of unplanned revenue in just the first four months of this year. Lawmakers have a $768 million windfall from the META settlement. And the General Assembly left more than $4 billion in revenue proposals on the table this spring. With those numbers, what legislator is willing to stand in front of our students and tell them the lie that programs must be cut or their teacher laid off because the money just isn’t there?

Governor Pritzker and the General Assembly have until the end of veto session on December 3 to close the gap for Chicago and for every district across Illinois. Our students, our educators and our families are watching. Chicago did its part. Now it’s time for state lawmakers to do theirs.”

*** Statehouse News ***

* Politico | Pritzker sends $1 million to Georgia governor’s race: Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is sending $1 million to Georgia Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms’ gubernatorial campaign, two people familiar with the decision granted anonymity to discuss details told POLITICO. The donation is the latest effort by the billionaire governor and potential 2028 presidential candidate to boost Democrats’ chances in competitive races, with a particular emphasis on Black and Hispanic candidates. It’s being sent to Project Battleground, a leadership committee partnering on fundraising with Bottoms’ campaign that can legally accept donations without limits.

* CNI | Stratton, Tracy clash over Trump, affordability in lone U.S. Senate forum:
The candidates debated cost of living and affordability, tariffs and trade policy, immigration, health care costs, energy and climate, and how to balance representing the varying needs of the regionally diverse state. But nearly every issue came back to Trump, the two-term Republican president who Illinois voters have rejected by double-digit margins in three consecutive elections.

* Gov Tech | Illinois’ New Chief AI Officer Has Federal, State Experience: “As CAIO, Tammy will help guide Illinois’ statewide strategy for the safe, responsible, and innovative use of AI,” DoIT said in a LinkedIn post. Roust brings more than 25 years of AI, data and cybersecurity leadership from both the state and federal government and the private sector. She served as DoIT’s chief data officer during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, beginning in November 2019 shortly after the agency was established.

*** Chicago ***

* Tribune | Mayor Brandon Johnson pitches ‘Fair Share’ budget as investment in Chicago’s children: He did not acknowledge how City Council voted down his head tax a year ago in a historic revolt. Meanwhile, he cast his sure-to-be-controversial plan to borrow $480 million to pay for police-related settlements as equally imperative to his social justice mantra of righting the city’s past wrongs while also “increasing savings.” His press team said the bond would save between $300 to $400 million compared to litigating the misconduct lawsuits.

* Crain’s | Johnson’s budget faces a $75M hole as aldermen push back over parking meter windfall: Johnson wants to use the $75 million the city received for approving the sale of its parking meter concession to help cover a $363 million supplemental pension payment already included in his budget. But aldermen who negotiated the deal insist the money should go toward an additional pension payment. The plan blindsided Ald. Pat Dowell, 3rd, the influential Finance Committee chair who helped negotiate the parking meter deal. She told Crain’s she intends to force the city to use the $75 million for an additional pension payment, leaving Johnson to find the money elsewhere to cover his existing commitment.

* Mayor Brandon Johnson | Loving Chicago means fighting for what Chicagoans deserve: Following decades of mismanagement by leaders who all too often fell in line with corporate interests, we again find ourselves facing difficult financial challenges as a city. I am committed to working with the City Council, Springfield, community leaders and each of you to find real solutions to Chicago’s fiscal challenges while protecting the critical programs and services we all rely upon. No specific proposal is a dealbreaker for my administration.

* Chalkbeat Chicago | Spending in Chicago school board election tops $9 million as election nears: Overall, special interest groups have spent more than $2.6 million on advertising since the start of October alone. That brings the total for independent expenditures on school board races to more than $6.7 million, according to an Illinois Answers and Chalkbeat analysis conducted after last week’s quarterly campaign finance reporting deadline. The spending includes millions of dollars on attack advertising to blast opponents. Campaigns reported spending $1.6 million themselves through Sept. 30, with groups and businesses spending another $589,000 on “in-kind” donations through Oct. 15.

* Crain’s | State Street shows signs of life as retailers circle back: After a global pandemic and a wave of retailer departures, the Loop’s premier shopping corridor has lost the vibrancy that Chicagoans who grew up going downtown to look at the Marshall Field’s window displays remember. But signs of recovery are emerging. The street’s retail vacancy rate dropped by more than six percentage points in 2025, after climbing since 2020, and new and returning retailers are bringing some much-needed energy to the strip.

* Block Club | ‘Chaos Continues’ At Closed Ford City Mall As Owners Face Fines, Losing Control Of Property: The owners of Ford City Mall once again failed to meet a court-ordered deadline to present a security plan for the shuttered mall, leading a Cook County Judge to threaten to have a receiver take control of the property that has become a public safety concern. Judge Diann Marsalek gave Namdar Realty Group an Oct. 28 deadline to provide a formal safety plan for Ford City Mall after the ownership group did not provide one at a Monday hearing.

* Cook County Record | SCOTUS curbs appeal of Chicago car seizures; Warns challenges aren’t scrapped: At least two justices of the U.S. Supreme Court believe Chicago’s city policy of towing and disposing of vehicles for pennies on the dollar to satisfy unpaid parking tickets could amount to an unconstitutional taking of private property. But the high court said a challenge to the city’s program lacks the legal horsepower to persuade justices to step in, at least for now. On Oct. 19, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the petition filed by a group of car owners seeking to overturn a decision from a federal appeals court in Chicago in favor of the city.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Daily Herald | Pace unveils ambitious plan to boost suburban bus service by 50%: “Travel patterns have changed, and fewer people commute downtown every day. Public input and ridership trends show growing demand for nontraditional transit trips — and when we increase frequency and make our service faster, ridership grows.” The aim is to increase ridership with more frequent buses and reduction of transit deserts in far-flung communities from rural McHenry to south suburban Cook counties. Every county in Pace’s service area would receive at least a 45% increase in service, officials said. Another priority is 50% growth on fixed routes, Pace Pulse lines on corridors like the Dempster Street Line and Cermak/22nd Street Line, as well as On-Demand service.

* US Rep. Jan Schakowsky’s office is the latest to receive a suspicious envelope…

Less than a week later, there is a hazmat incident going on at Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky’s office at 4500 Oakton St in Skokie. It is unknown what the nature of the hazmat call is, but it’s possible it is another suspicious package.

Oakton is shut down between Kolmar and Kostner while crews investigate. #ChicagoScanner

— Eric Tendian (@EricTendian) October 21, 2026

* Injustice Watch | ‘Vote “yes” for all of us’: Why Cook County judges run as a ‘class’: Statistically speaking, none of the 61 judges on the November ballot are likely to fall short of the 60% “yes” votes needed to stay on the bench. Since 2018, just three of the 256 sitting judges who’ve been up for retention have lost. Before 2018, no Cook County judge had lost retention in 28 years.

* Daily Herald | Schaumburg man charged in $66 million COVID test fraud: Rajesh “Raj” Patel, 52, is charged with five counts of wire fraud, federal prosecutors announced Tuesday. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison on each count, they said. “This defendant allegedly exploited a global crisis for personal gain, fabricating hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 tests — then billing the taxpayer for it,” Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the justice department’s Fraud Division said in Tuesday’s announcement.

* Daily Herald | ‘Focal point’ for downtown Arlington Heights: Ice rink set to open in November: Arlington Heights village and park district officials are working “very quickly” on preparations for the 40-by-80-foot mechanically-chilled rink so that it can be in place for the Nov. 27 tree-lighting ceremony, said Village Manager Randy Recklaus.

*** Downstate ***

* WGLT | Bloomington mayor says new shared sales tax agreement is best path forward in dispute: Speaking on WGLT’s Sound Ideas, Bloomington Mayor Dan Brady said the agreement that created the Mental Health Public Safety Fund [MHPSF] should be remade. The fund was established in 2016 through a 20-year intergovernmental agreement with the Town of Normal, the City of Bloomington and McLean County. Under the agreement, Bloomington and Normal share a portion of their sales tax with the county for the fund.

* Heartland News | New project to replace rundown lot and expand affordable rentals in Herrin, Ill: “It was an abandoned property behind our current properties, and so we were constantly having issues with squatters and vandalism and people hanging out at this property,” said Real Estate Development Director Jason Powell. The company tore down the old home and plans to replace it with a $1 million complex. Powell said the goal is to bring more affordable housing to the area, with plans to extend development to the rest of the block.

* SJ-R | Springfield City Council opts to keep $1.1M ShotSpotter: After some heated debate, Springfield City Council members moved to spend $1.1 million on police technology on Oct. 21. ShotSpotter detects gunshots and alerts police, using microphones that detect loud, percussive noises and triangulates them to find a location. The department has been using it since 2020, and the council voted to renew an agreement for three more years.

* Heartland News | New kiosk in ISP headquarters helps individuals get FOID, concealed carry licenses: A new kiosk in the Illinois State Police(ISP) Troop 10 headquarters can help Illinois gun owners with their Firearm Owners Identification(FOID) cards and Concealed Carry Licenses (CCL). The kiosks were created to help individuals who experience difficulties with the FOID and CCL websites or people who don’t have access to the internet. The kiosk can help with renewals, applications, name/address changes, photos, correcting rejected applications, submitting Firearm Disposition Records, and surrendering old cards.

* Southern Illinois Now | Sandoval hires new public works director; approves contract to get bees out of library walls: The board hired Vector Construction to get the bees out of a wall at the library building. The bees have a large and growing nest that produced a loud buzzing sound in the library at times. The concern is the bees will find their way into the library building causing issues especially to those allergic to bees.

*** National ***

* MediaIte | National Polling Company Admits It’s Totally Fake — Crows it Was ‘Far Too Easy’ to Get Major Media Outlets to Bite: Wedgewood is remarkably the second polling company of late to admit its findings are made up. In August, Median Polling Strategies reported that democratic socialist Francesca Hong held a commanding lead over incumbent Mayor Karen Bass in the LA mayor’s race.

* AP | Meta ordered to pay New Mexico $25 billion for deceiving users about privacy on Facebook: Jurors in September found Meta liable for over 43 million violations of New Mexico consumer protection laws when a political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica, harvested Facebook user data to generate targeted political ads for the 2016 election. Attorneys for New Mexico had sought $35 billion to $40 billion, arguing that the company would only change its ways with a sum that affected its stock price.