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Isabel’s morning briefing
Thursday, Oct 29, 2026 - Posted by Isabel Miller * ICYMI: As Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle is poised to win her fifth term, she eyes a successor. Tribune…
- “One of the priorities of the next term is to find a successor. I don’t want to be in Barack Obama’s position and be succeeded by Donald Trump. So I’m going to do everything in my power to be sure that the person who succeeds me shares my values and my commitment to our healthcare system and criminal justice reform,” Preckwinkle said. - Sources close to Preckwinkle have suggested members of that coaching tree are on her potential successor short list. That includes Sen. Robert Peters and Commissioner Bill Lowry. * At 8:20 pm, Gov. JB Pritzker will attend the CBOE Global Markets Opening Bell Ceremony. At 10, am the governor will announce investments through his Building Up Illinois Developments initiative. Click here to watch. * Daily Herald | State lawmakers introduce legislation to support independent grocers and pharmacies: Proposed state legislation that would create tax incentives for independently owned grocery stores and pharmacies aims to help small businesses invest in their operations, and retain and hire workers, officials say. Both the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and the Illinois Retail Merchants Association support House Bill 5828 (EDGE Essentials). In communities with limited access to grocery stores or pharmacies, these businesses are crucial to residents who might otherwise need to travel significant distances to meet basic needs, according to a DCEO news release. * Tribune | Chicago clergy meet with Pope Leo XIV to advocate for immigrants detained in Broadview ICE facility: Rattenbury was one of about 30 Chicago-area clergy, religious leaders and laypeople who met Leo briefly at the weekly general audience to further advocate for immigrants detained in the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center in Broadview. The Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership provides pastoral care to those in the west suburban facility, which grew in prominence during and after Operation Midway Blitz, the monthslong aggressive immigration enforcement campaign waged in Chicago last year. * Press release | Gov. Pritzker Names Raven DeVaughn Senior Advisor: Today, Governor JB Pritzker announced that Raven DeVaughn will serve as Senior Advisor, overseeing the legislative and policy portfolios within the Governor’s Office. DeVaughn currently serves as Director of the Illinois Department of Central Management Services (CMS). She will begin this role on November 16. “Raven DeVaughn is a dedicated public servant who brings decades of experience to the role,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “Under Raven’s steadfast leadership, CMS has successfully tackled some of the most complex problems facing State government. I look forward to working closely with her in this new role on critical policy and legislative priorities.” * Aurora Beacon-News | Affordability, safety among issues in race for Illinois House seat in 84th District: The race for state representative in the 84th District in the Nov. 3 election is between Democrat Saba Haider and Republican Brian Scopa. The current state representative for the district, Stephanie Kifowit, D-Oswego, did not run for reelection. Haider, 42, of Aurora, said voters in the district are concerned about affordability, funding public schools and ensuring safe communities. * Sun-Times | School board member was suspended from charter job after ‘unwanted touching’ of co-worker, records show: The letter, sent to Carlos Rivas Jr. by the Noble Network of Charter Schools in September 2018, says an internal investigation found that Rivas engaged in “unwanted touching of another employee without consent” in violation of Noble’s harassment policy during an event at The Robey Chicago hotel in August 2018. Rivas was intoxicated “to the extent that, by his own admission” he could not deny the allegations due to “an inability to remember” what happened that evening, according to the letter. Rivas was an alumni support and external affairs manager at UIC College Prep at the time. * Tribune | Susana Mendoza says Chicago businesses would ‘stop feeling like piggy banks’ if she’s mayor: “On day one of the Mayor Mendoza administration, at the end of a full day at our new City Hall, I’m going to head to the airport that night,” Mendoza, the Illinois comptroller, began. “I’m going to catch a flight to New York City, and in the morning I’m going to meet with every single credit rating agency, and I’m going to deliver one message: Chicago is back.” * Block Club | Amtrak Protesters Vow To ‘Stop Ishbia In His Tracks’ As Developer Appears At Charity Conference: A small group of protesters held signs reading “Stop Ishbia in his tracks” and “Sox fans for clean air,” and chanted, “Stop the railroad, save our kids,” as attendees lined up to enter the event. Some attendees stopped to read the signs or ask what the protest was about. One passerby, who wasn’t attending the conference, told protesters, “I’m so sorry, guys,” after they told her about Amtrak’s plan for a 24/7 maintenance facility through Bridgeport and Chinatown. * Chalkbeat Chicago | For Chicago School Board Candidates, School Closures Are No Longer Off-Limits: More than 140 of the district’s roughly 500 schools use less than half of their space, often in massive, aging buildings requiring millions in repairs. That includes 43 that are less than one-third full,according to Chicago Public Schools’ utilization measure, which critics have called imprecise, but the district continues to use. Most of these schools are concentrated in roughly a half dozen of the city’s 20 school board districts, making closures a more pressing issue for candidates in those areas. * Evanston Now | City: Lead-free water goal drives rate hikes: A federal rule requiring public water systems to replace lead service lines within the next 10 years could force Evanston to expedite its lead service line replacement program, with hundreds more needing to be replaced each year. Darrel King, Evanston’s water distribution bureau chief, said the federal Environmental Protection Agency Lead and Copper Rule Improvements rules cut the state-mandated 20-year timeframe to replace the remaining nearly 9,200 lead service lines to just 10 years starting next November. * Daily Herald | Security to be boosted at Mundelein board meetings after disruption by protesters: Village Administrator Eric Guenther declined to disclose the planned measures, which could change before Mayor Robin Meier gavels the meeting into session at 1 p.m. — much earlier than the usual 7 p.m. start time. People can expect “some small adjustments” Thursday and more significant changes at future meetings, Guenther said. Chanting demonstrators protesting the fatal shooting of a Mundelein woman by police occupied the boardroom at village hall, 300 Plaza Circle, for nearly two hours Monday. When they refused to yield, village officials canceled the planned meeting. The session subsequently was rescheduled for Thursday afternoon. * Daily Herald | Cook Memorial Library continues old tradition in new package: Shorter than previous models and with new features, the Cook Memorial Public Library District’s fifth bookmobile debuted last weekend at a trunk-or-treat event in Libertyville and has assumed a regular schedule since. Replacing the outreach vehicle, as it is known, has been on the library board’s radar since 2021, when it began allocating funds to retire the 32-foot bus now parked at Aspen Drive Library in Vernon Hills while awaiting a buyer. * Illinois Times | Sangamon Mental Health Board prepares for busy winter: The board expects to review draft short and long-term plans for types of programs it seeks to fund during next month’s meeting. Earlier this month, the board received its first tax revenue payment of just more than $1.4 million, executive director Tatyana Gardner said. “Over the next 30 to 60 days, our priorities remain focused on finalizing our strategic planning drafts, advancing our operational infrastructure, providing a proposed budget and continue to develop our grantmaking process,” she said. * Journal Courier | Demolition of shuttered Jacksonville Developmental Center inches closer: “I talked to somebody from (Illinois Department of Central Management Services) last week, and they’re moving forward,” community development director Brian Nyberg said during Monday’s City Council meeting. “There’s going to be announcements coming up in the next few weeks or month. They’ve chosen their contractors.” * WGLT | LaHood optimistic for successful appeal after McLean County denied FEMA storm recovery aid: LaHood was in Bloomington on Wednesday as part of a visit to the new Petrick Idea Center at Illinois Wesleyan University. Joined by Kelly Loeffler, administrator of the Small Business Administration [SBA], LaHood said he worked with the Twin Cities’ mayors in asking for a federal disaster declaration. “We did a delegation letter for a federal disaster declaration. That was everybody — Republicans and Democrats — that asked for that,” said LaHood, a Peoria Republican, speaking to media attending the tour. * STLPR | An Illinois disability nonprofit uses hydroponic farming to teach workforce skills: It’s always busy inside Challenge Unlimited in Alton. People are arriving on buses while others are watching the news, reading or socializing with friends as they wait for their community activity or skills training classes to start for the day. But one group of people has already started one of the classes — harvesting vegetables and herbs from an on-site hydroponic farm. Participants in Challenge Unlimited’s community day services have significant intellectual or developmental disabilities. * WCIA | Champaign Park District opens first-ever archery range to public: “I think there’s an interest among youth and adults alike in having a space, an outdoor space, to practice archery,” said Chelsea Norton, director of marketing and development at the Champaign Park District. “And so, I know our local school district has archery programs, and so I think they were looking for opportunities to work on their skills outside of the school year, and for the public too just to have a recreational space to do that.” * Heartland News | A century of infamy: How Charlie Birger became southern Illinois’ most notorious gangster: His name was Charlie Birger. And 100 years ago this week, two newspaper reporters from Marion helped turn him into a celebrity. On October 27, 1926, the reporters traveled to Shady Rest, Birger’s headquarters east of Crab Orchard, for what Musgrave describes as the gangster’s first sit-down interview. * NYT | DoorDash to Buy Instacart for $17 Billion, Uniting 2 Delivery Giants: DoorDash said on Thursday that it had agreed to buy Instacart for $17 billion, in a deal that would fold the nation’s dominant grocery delivery app into the company that already controls most of America’s restaurant takeout orders. Together, the companies would dominate the business of bringing dinner and groceries to Americans’ doors. Under the terms of the agreement, Instacart shareholders would receive $65 per share, mostly in cash, 11 percent over the company’s closing price on Wednesday. The deal has been approved by both companies’ boards. * Salt Lake Tribune | Federal government sues Utah, seeks stop to the state’s lawsuit against Kalshi: The state’s lawsuit against Kalshi, filed last week, argued that the prediction market had undertaken a “brazen pattern of unlawful conduct” when allowing Utahns to trade event contracts on its platform. Those contracts allow users to speculate on future events, including the outcome of political races, sporting events, and even the weather. […] The CFTC, though, says it is the congressionally assigned regulator of prediction markets, and that Utah can’t intervene in its operations. The CTFC’s “comprehensive federal regulatory scheme expressly and impliedly preempts state gambling law as applied to event contracts,” the lawsuit argues.
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