* ICYMI: Partial SNAP benefits expected to reach Illinois residents starting Friday. Sun-Times…

- Partial benefits for those who were supposed to receive them Nov. 1 through 6 will be sent out starting Friday, the Illinois Department of Human Services said.
- However, it warned some customers’ benefits will be reduced to nothing by President Donald Trump’s administration even with the updated payment schedule.
- At most, recipients are expected to receive 65% of what they typically receive for the month, but some households will receive less or nothing at all, according to IDHS.

* Related stories…

• ABC Chicago: Illinois SNAP recipients to begin receiving partial benefits
• NYT: Judge Orders Trump Administration to Fully Fund Food Stamps This Month
• WaPo: In a week without SNAP, Americans missed meals and skipped bills

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* Crain’s | O’Hare, Midway impacted by FAA flight reductions: The FAA plans to reduce the volume of flights at these airports by 4% beginning Nov. 7, gradually increasing to 10% by next week. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has been warning of potential staffing and fatigue problems since the beginning of the federal government shutdown on Oct. 1. Air traffic controllers are considered essential staff who are working but not getting paid.

* Crain’s | Trump’s HHS orders state Medicaid programs to help find undocumented immigrants: Advocates say the push burdens states with duplicative verification checks and could lead people to lose coverage just for missing paperwork deadlines. But the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Mehmet Oz, said in a post on the social platform X on Oct. 31 that more than $1 billion “of federal taxpayer dollars were being spent on funding Medicaid for illegal immigrants” in five states and Washington, D.C. […] Illinois Medicaid officials blasted Oz’s comments. “Once again, the Trump administration is spreading misinformation about standard uses of Medicaid dollars,” said Illinois Medicaid spokesperson Melissa Kula. “This is not a reality show, and there is no conspiracy to circumvent federal law and provide ineligible individuals with Medicaid coverage. Dr. Oz should stop pushing conspiracy theories and focus on improving health care for the American people.”

*** Statehouse News ***

* Tribune | Rejecting corporate PAC money earns Juliana Stratton endorsement in Senate race from End Citizens United: End Citizens United, a decade-old group taking its name from the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that opened the floodgates to unlimited campaign spending from corporations, labor unions and other outside groups, announced its support for Stratton on Thursday in her bid to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin. Running with the backing of Gov. JB Pritzker, a billionaire Hyatt Hotels heir and her two-time running mate, Stratton vowed in July that her campaign would not accept money from corporate PACs, the conduit through which corporate interests can contribute directly to candidates’ political funds.

* WGLT | State Rep. Sharon Chung wants Gov. JB Pritzker to back off State Farm: Chung noted the community’s long history with two of the area’s top employers, State Farm and Country Financial, in opposing price controls. “We have a really rich history here with State Farm, and I wanted to make sure that whatever we did wasn’t going to regulate it in a way that would make it not friendly for State Farm to be viable here in Illinois,” Chung said in an interview on WGLT’s Sound Ideas.

* Muddy River News | Former lobbyist Michael McClain is still waiting for facility assignment to serve sentence: “The Bureau of Prisons has not provided information about what facility he is to report to,” McClain’s attorney, Patrick Cotter, told Muddy River News Thursday. “Over a week ago, we informed the court, and the court agreed to extend his report date until next Thursday, which is November 13th.” Cotter said the bureau did not give a reason as to why it had not provided a location yet.

* Press release | Make America Affordable Now PAC Endorses Nick Uniejewski for Illinois State Senate: he Make America Affordable Now PAC today announced its endorsement of Nick Uniejewski, Democratic candidate for Illinois State Senate in the 6th District. The PAC—aligned with the mission of One Fair Wage to address the affordability crisis facing working families—has named Uniejewski its first endorsement in Illinois. “Nick Uniejewski isn’t running to manage the system as it is—he’s running to change it,” said Richard Rodriguez, Treasurer of Make America Affordable Now PAC. “Working people in Illinois are tired of politicians who talk about affordability while wages stagnate, sub-minimum wages persist, and costs skyrocket. Nick has lived the struggle, and he has the spine to fight for real solutions. He knows true economic dignity comes from raising wages, eliminating the sub-minimum wage, expanding affordable housing, and respecting labor. That is the leadership Illinois needs right now.”

*** Chicago ***

* Sun-Times | Chicago police withhold Border Patrol shooting videos, citing probe of chief accused of calling off cops: Police officials are citing that one complaint to block the public release of videos tied to the shooting, which drew international headlines and stoked the political divide surrounding the Trump administration’s immigration blitz of the Chicago area. The police department says releasing the body camera and drone footage would hinder the ongoing investigation of the complaint against Hein. A spokesperson won’t comment.

* Tribune | Mayor Brandon Johnson’s budget includes money for ShotSpotter replacement: Officials identified a $5 million line item in the mayor’s 2026 spending plan as money for a “gunshot detection system” when pressed by aldermen during budget hearings. The item’s written description only said the money was for “software maintenance and licensing.” But despite the revelation, the plan to spend on a replacement for the controversial acoustic gunshot detection technology that sparked a long, heated clash between Johnson and the City Council is likely no surprise for aldermen. Johnson announced his administration was seeking proposals for “gun violence detection technology” in February.

* ABC Chicago | Chicago Mayor Johnson stands firm on proposed city budget, corporate head tax plan: Despite the opposition from at least half of the council, Governor JB Pritzker, civic and business groups, Mayor Brandon Johnson refuses to budge. “It is deeply disturbing right now that we have leaders in this state that are prepared to defend millionaires and billionaires and not the people in Austin and not the people in Roseland, what is wrong with us?” Johnson said.

* Sun-Times | Former Ald. Walter Burnett unlikely to lead CHA, as agency considers 5 other CEO candidates: The candidates include Gregg Fortner, of the Anniston Housing Authority in Alabama; Jillian Baldwin, of the Housing Authority of the city of Bridgeport in Connecticut; Keith Pettigrew, of the District of Columbia Housing Authority; and Eugene Jones Jr., currently at the Virgin Islands Housing Finance Authority and who was the CHA’s CEO until 2019. Jones was first reported as a candidate by the Chicago Tribune in June.

* Crain’s | World Business Chicago reboots economic development strategy: World Business Chicago has refreshed its economic-development strategy with a mix of new and old ideas. The top-line goal of Chicago 2050 is to grow the region’s economy to $1.4 trillion in annual output and 5.05 million jobs by 2034 from $924 billion and 4.8 million today, primarily through attracting more outside capital for both developments and companies.

* Block Club | Chicago Laundromats Targeted By Immigration Agents Struggle With Low Sales, Fearful Employees: At least four laundromats in the city have been targeted by federal immigration agents in recent weeks. Some laundromat owners and workers said they’ve seen fewer customers, while others have had employees call out due to concerns about federal agents. “Local businesses are now suffering — [agents] are messing with people’s livelihoods,” said a worker at Su Primera Lavanderia at 3100 S. Pulaski Road, a laundromat that was targeted by federal agents last month. “People depend on those incomes. People have families.”

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Daily Southtown | Lemont residents allege Citgo facility is harming air quality: Lemont officials said they have reached out to representatives of Citgo following resident complaints alleging the company released high amounts of harmful chemicals in the air without notifying the public, and hope to get more answers at a Nov. 20 meeting. The complaints are a part of an decades-long dispute between the Environmental Protection Agency and Citgo facility near Lemont over alleged violations to the Clean Air Act, including an almost $2 million civil penalty in 2016, and a more than $700,000 fine for alleged Clean Air Act violations in 2013 following a failed compressor incident and dating back to an EPA citation in 2001.

* Daily Herald | Elgin resolution bans federal immigration agents from staging, gathering on city-owned property: Council member Tish Powell said the move was necessary because of “unprecedented” circumstances with numerous documented instances of masked immigration agents operating in the city. “We wouldn’t tolerate our local officers behaving the way federal officers are behaving in this town,” Powell said. “The abuse, the disrespect, the aggression, the violence, the total disregard for people’s civil rights, we would not tolerate that. And it floors me that our federal government thinks that this is OK. It’s not OK.”

* Evanston Now | Housing plan won’t make December deadline: Community Development Director Sarah Flax told the Housing and Community Development Committee Thursday that the city won’t make its December deadline for finishing Evanston’s strategic housing plan, which is already nearly a year behind schedule. Flax said staff had an “aggressive goal” of getting it done by the end of the year, but after the past several weeks of engagement with various community boards and stakeholders, the HCDC agreed there was a bit more work to do before it’s ready for the City Council.

* Daily Southtown | Forest Preserve District of Will County’s 500-acre purchase is second largest land buy in its history: The Forest Preserve District of Will County has acquired nearly 500 acres in eastern Will County that expands the Goodenow Grove Nature Preserve to 1,386 acres, making it the district’s second largest preserve. The district recently bought 495.27 acres of land north of Illinois 394 and adjacent to the Goodenow Grove preserve in Crete Township for $4.3 million. “It’s not too frequently a forest preserve or conservation foundation has the opportunity to acquire that much acreage,” said Dave Robson, the district’s natural resource management supervisor. “That’s a pretty unusual occurrence. We make acquisitions all the time, but not at this scale. This is a huge win.”

* Daily Herald | Cook County unveils plans for Quentin Road revamp at public hearing in Palatine: Cook County officials unveiled planned improvements to Quentin Road between Dundee Road and Lake-Cook Road Thursday night at the Cotillion Banquets in Palatine. The centerpiece of the public hearing was the unveiling of what officials called the preferred alternative. It calls for Quentin Road to have one 11-foot-wide travel lane in each direction with the addition of a 10-foot center turn lane that will safeguard left turns and provide a dedicated lane for emergency vehicles.

*** Downstate ***

* WGLT | Trade and regulatory impacts mixed and volatile for Rivian: In the third quarter, Rivian produced 10,720 vehicles and delivered 13,201 from the plant in Normal. That’s likely to be the highest quarter for the year even with a plant shutdown for retooling for R2. The company full-year projection remains at a maximum of 43,500 units. Automotive gross profit was negative $130 million, also affected by the plant shutdown. “Despite this headwind, we saw strong progress in our unit economics with one of the best quarters even in automotive cost of goods sold per unit delivered driven by improved material costs,” said McDonough.

* WCIA | U of I reorganizes leadership, says it will lead to ‘stronger foundation’: The Chancellor of the University of Illinois announced plans to make several changes to the university’s leadership structure, including blending departments, restructuring and renaming the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and more. Chancellor Charles Lee Isbell Jr. made the announcement via Massmail on Nov. 6. He said that as higher education changes, there’s a need to position the U of I in a way to “seize opportunities” and “strategically address challenges.”

* BND | New $1.2 million MetroBikeLink trail opens in Fairview Heights: The trail spans three-quarters of a mile and cost $1.2 million. Construction was managed by Stutz Excavating after an impact and feasibility survey from TWM Inc. A major consideration in expanding the trail, said Ken Sharkey, managing director of the St. Clair County Transit District, is safety. The trail is fully paved for accessibility, with five cameras installed along its length and multiple wayfinding stations to help travelers orient themselves if they get lost. “We’re committed to improving our multi-modal forms of transportation in St. Clair County,” Sharkey said at the opening on Thursday. “We look forward to moving forward with this project in the future and working with other agencies to improve access in our communities.”

* WSIL | Veterans Day memorial unveiling at Southern Illinois airport: Next Tuesday, the airport will unveil a veterans memorial sculpture on the flagpole island in front of the airline terminal. The event will start at 11 a.m. in the terminal lobby with coffee, donuts, and a short presentation. Following the presentation, attendees will move outside for the unveiling of the sculpture.

*** National ***

* WIRED | Google, Microsoft, and Meta Have Stopped Publishing Workforce Diversity Data: The broad loss in transparency, which has not been previously reported, could obscure the impact of President Donald Trump’s anti-DEI policies on the tech workforce. It could also raise barriers for workers and civil rights groups seeking to reshape tech companies to better reflect the makeup of the countries in which they operate. The decision of these three companies, which collectively employ hundreds of thousands of people globally, also stands in contrast to industry peers. Apple, Amazon, and Nvidia all released new diversity data this year.

* AP | Supreme Court weighs longshot appeal to overturn decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide: The justices could say as early as Monday what they’ll do. In urging the court to take up her case, Davis’ lawyers repeatedly invoked the words of Justice Clarence Thomas, who alone among the nine justices has called for erasing the same-sex marriage ruling.

* NYT | Hundreds of U.S. Flights Are Canceled as Shutdown Hits Air Travel: A wave of flight cancellations hit the United States on Friday, bringing home the effects of the government shutdown to many more Americans, though major airports appeared to be working largely as normal in the morning. The cuts were announced by Federal Aviation Administration this week to limit air traffic as the shutdown, now the longest in U.S. history, leaves air traffic controllers working without pay. Major airlines said that most customers would not be affected and that travelers who wanted to change or cancel a flight for a refund could do so. International flights were unlikely to be affected.

* NPR | 50 years ago, the Edmund Fitzgerald, a ‘rock star’ ship, sank in Lake Superior: No one was more surprised than Gordon Lightfoot when his ballad “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” became one of the biggest hits of 1976, less than a year after the disaster it commemorates. The Canadian musician had agonized over writing the song in the first place. “He feared being inaccurate, corny or worse, appearing to exploit a tragedy for profit,” writes John U. Bacon in his new bestseller, The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald. “But more than that, as a fellow sailor and a child of the Great Lakes … this song — whatever it was — was deeply personal.”