* Subscribers know more. ICYMI: Federal shutdown nears end as Durbin joins Senate deal. Bloomberg…

- Under the agreement, Congress would pass full-year funding for the departments of Agriculture, Veterans Affairs and Congress itself, while funding other agencies through Jan. 30. The bill would provide pay for furloughed government workers, resume withheld federal payments to states and localities and recall agency employees who were laid off during the shutdown.
- “This bill is not perfect, but it takes important steps to reduce their shutdown’s hurt,” Durbin said in a written statement. “Now that Democrats secured these wins, it’s time for Leader Thune to keep his promise to schedule a vote on the ACA tax credits in December.”
- House passage is not guaranteed. Democratic leaders have spoken out against any deal that doesn’t include extending expiring Obamacare subsidies, which this bill does not do.

* Related stories…

• NBC Chicago: Illinois’ US senators split over tentative deal to end government shutdown
• Muddy River News: Illinois Senator Dick Durbin explains his support for deal to end shutdown
• First Listen | Senator Dick Durbin says a deal to end the government shutdown isn’t perfect

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* Crain’s | Illinois awaits word on $1 billion in Big Beautiful Bill cash for rural hospitals: Illinois joined the rest of the U.S. today in applying for a piece of the $50 billion the federal government will allocate to rural health over the next five years, with a plan that seeks $1 billion. The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services instructed each state to apply for that exact amount, $200 million per year, the Illinois Department of Healthcare & Family Services said in a statement.

* Block Club | Feds clarify prayer ban at Broadview: Restrictions only apply on federal property: A federal official on Saturday clarified that a directive that religious leaders and law enforcement interpreted as banning religious gatherings outside of Broadview’s immigration processing facility only applies to federal property. An anonymous representative from the Broadview facility, 1930 Beach St., told a group of faith leaders and activists in a phone call Friday that “There is no more prayer in front of [the] building or inside the building because this is the state and it’s not [of a] religious background.”

* ABC Chicago | Chicago business, civic and faith leaders join together to call for end to immigration raids: “We know the president listens to business leaders,” said Rebecca Shi, CEO of the American Business Immigration Coalition. “He’s extremely motivated by what the business community has to say. And so this is just to start, and businesses are making their voices heard.” Shi calls Operation Midway Blitz economically reckless. She says revenues for some businesses have gone down by 50%.

*** Statewide ***

* WGEM | Illinois State Fire Marshal’s office announces statewide transition to new National Emergency Reporting System: ByHeart baby formula has been recalled by the Illinois Department of Public Health after two Illinois babies show symptoms of suspected botulism. They said babies and children in ten other states have also shown symptoms. Botulism is an illness caused by a bacterial toxin, which can produce life-threatening symptoms including muscle weakness, fatigue, and gastrointestinal distress. Botulism can be in foods that look and taste normally, which means consumers cannot inspect food on their own for botulism safety.

*** Statehouse News ***

* State Rep. Suzanne Ness endorses Daniel Biss for Congress in Illinois’ 9th District…

“I am endorsing Daniel Biss for the 9th Congressional District race because the stakes are high in this upcoming election and Daniel has the experience and the character to bring courageous leadership that we desperately need at the federal level. As a State Rep, Senator, and now Mayor, he has demonstrated an ability to bring people together around bold ideas and vision and put them into action. I look forward to having a partner in DC who is committed to making our government work for the good of all and restoring trust in our leaders at a time when we desperately need it.”

* Daily Herald | CEO: Trucking industry will suffer ‘a miserable blow’ with toll hike; spikes also loom for all every 2 years: State lawmakers’ passage of Senate Bill 2111 on Oct. 31 saves Metra, Pace and the CTA from a massive shortfall leading to service cuts and layoffs. But tucked into the bailout is a toll hike that will devastate the trucking industry, raise the cost of goods and reduce safety, executive Mike Moran contends. “When I woke up on Friday (Oct. 31) they handed me a $360,000 cost increase,” said Moran, president of Elk Grove Village-based Moran Transportation Corp. “No notice, no word, no nothing. It’s the largest single cost increase I’ve seen from any vendor in 46 years of business.”

* Tribune | Energy bill gives Illinois regulators new power over rates, how electricity is generated: Under the state’s new energy legislation, the Illinois Commerce Commission can not only delay the planned closures of fossil fuel sources, but also raise electricity rates to build both renewable and fossil fuel sources that the legislature hasn’t even considered. These expanded powers are controversial because the ICC hasn’t had them since Illinois deregulated its electrical generation market in 1997. At the last minute, lawmakers inserted a provision that allows them to suspend ICC rate hikes and then negotiate with the agency about modifying them.

*** Chicago ***

* WTTW | Federal Agents Say They Were Shot at in Little Village; Chemical Agents Used to Disperse Crowd: No one was injured in the shooting reported by federal agents, according to a spokesperson for the Chicago Police Department. Masked U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents, clad in camouflage uniforms and armed with military-style weapons, fired chemical agents at the crowd that flocked to the scene to protest agents’ attempts to detain at least three people, Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th Ward) told WTTW News.

* Fox Chicago | Father says feds sprayed his family, 1-year-old, with a chemical agent in Cicero: Rafael Veraza said he was going to get groceries with his family that morning and noticed a helicopter in the air and whistles being blown in the area. He said he realized that meant immigration agents were in the area and wanted to leave the Sam’s Club parking lot. Veraza said as the family was driving near the parking lot, a dark-colored pick-up truck driving in the opposite direction passed by them and someone in the truck sprayed them and other cars with a chemical irritant “for no reason.”

* Block Club | Feds Pepper Spray 1-Year-Old, Use Tear Gas In Clash With Southwest Side Neighbors: ‘It Was A Reign Of Terror’: The family was in a Sam’s Club parking lot in Cicero when agents in a pickup sprayed pepper spray, which got into the family’s car, Veraza said. He was hospitalized, but his concern was for his daughter, 1-year-old Evelin. “Me, I’m a grown man, I can handle this. But my 1-year-old? We don’t know what [pepper spray] could do to her,” he said at a press conference Sunday. […] Chicago police responded to the area near 25th Street and Kedzie Avenue to help with crowd control following the report of shots fired at immigration agents, the department said in a statement.

* Tribune | Inside Chicago’s growing resistance movement against Operation Midway Blitz: ‘Small acts have huge consequences’: In the beginning, the sight of it around Enriquez’s neck prompted questions and confusion in Little Village, one of Chicago’s proudest Latino neighborhoods. He remembers people asking him, perplexed: “What is a whistle gonna do?” “And we said, ‘Well, the whistle is in case immigration is around, and you start blowing. The whistle is for people who are undocumented to go away, to lock their doors, lock their gates and not open the door.’ “And it grew like wildfire. Now everybody’s using it.”

* Ald. William Hall | Chicago loses with illegal ’sweepstakes’ machines: As chair of the Chicago City Council’s Subcommittee on Revenue, I convened a hearing on gaming a few months ago, and my fellow alderpersons have expressed the desire to end the presence of these deceptive doomsday sweepstakes machines. Unregulated and untaxed sweepstakes machines are a swindle, meant to mimic the legal and regulated video gaming terminals that you see everywhere else in Illinois and around our city’s borders — but not in Chicago.

* Sun-Times | School leader from New York City is finalist for CPS top job after Denver chief says he’ll stay there: Alex Marrero, who has led the Denver Public Schools for four years, was one of two candidates left in the running, according to two sources with knowledge of the search process. But hours after the Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ reported he was on the shortlist, Marrero said in a statement that he is dedicated to his job in Denver “where I am proud to continue serving as superintendent.” Sources said the other finalist is Meisha Ross Porter, who led public schools in New York City in 2021. She is scheduled to interview with the board next week.

* Sun-Times | Artists highlight lasting impact of Chicago’s 1919 race riot with glass markers in the Loop: More than 100 years ago, [Paul Hardwick] was on his way to work at the Palmer House hotel when he was chased by a mob of about 30 white aggressors. He was shot in the chest, beaten and robbed. He was long forgotten as one of 38 killed in the Chicago Race Riot of 1919, which historians say is not often taught or discussed. Of the 19 markers installed so far, Hardwick’s plaque is one of the most recent. It was featured on a public walking tour Saturday following a panel discussion about the project at the Harold Washington Library Center. The remaining 19 will be installed over the next several months, said Peter Cole, a history professor at Western Illinois University and co-founder of the project.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Tribune | Jeffrey Tobolski, ex-McCook mayor convicted in corruption case, dies months before prison term was to begin: Jeffrey Tobolski, whose roughly decade in power as both mayor of McCook and as a member of the Cook County Board ended amid a massive federal corruption case, died Sunday, two months before he was scheduled to report to prison. He was 61. Tobolski’s lawyer, James Vanzant, said his client died Sunday morning after a short illness. He did not have any additional details, he said. Tobolski was scheduled to report to prison after being sentenced earlier this year to four years. Tobolski was hospitalized twice in October with heart and lung issues and pneumonia, with doctors later noting a suspicious spot on his pancreas, a court filing last week stated. He previously had been scheduled to report to prison on Nov. 3, but the judge in his case recently extended that to Jan. 16, records show.

* Daily Herald | Can suburbs, counties enforce ICE bans on government property? Some say no: “Just to be clear. These signs have no legal binding,” DuPage County Sheriff James Mendrick, a Republican candidate for governor, posted on his social media page. “Please don’t let DuPage County theatrics create the expectation that any law enforcement agency will have any legal authority to enforce the message displayed on this sign.” DuPage County Board Chair Deb Conroy authorized the signs after the county board approved a resolution, largely along party lines, decrying recent operations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and urging Congress to enact immigration reform. The resolution also recognizes the county’s right to declare certain county property private or for employee use only. […] A spokesman for the DuPage County state’s attorney’s office said Friday that the county can declare certain areas private or limited to employee-use only. However, there are no legal consequences the county can impose for disregarding the signs.

* Sun-Times | Masked ICE agents put damper on Oak Park Girl Scout food drive: ‘It’s heartbreaking as a mom’: The scouts initially decided to continue with their food drive after Groulx explained to the girls that “just like a lifeguard blows a whistle to help somebody, these are neighbors that are blowing whistles to help somebody.” But after seeing more vehicles, presumably driven by federal agents, speeding past, she said the group decided it was not safe to continue with the food drive.

* Daily Herald | District 211 fires two Hoffman Estates High teachers for inappropriate contact with students: The Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 board of education Thursday unanimously fired two tenured male Hoffman Estates High School teachers over allegations of inappropriate contact with female students over a number of years. The Daily Herald is not naming either teacher because they have not been charged, though the allegations involve potentially criminal acts. One of the men was suspended in January of 2024 for two days without pay for similar behavior. Hoffman Estates police officials said Thursday there have been no criminal charges filed against any current or recent employees of the high school. It’s unclear if they are investigating the allegations, and no one from the department was immediately available Friday afternoon.

* Crain’s | Laura Ricketts’ $13M list of complaints about Wilmette mansion withers in arbitration: A six-year legal effort by Laura Ricketts to get $13 million back from the builders of her lakefront Wilmette mansion over what she considered construction defects concluded with an arbitration panel determining she was due something more like $600,000. With the decision, delivered earlier this autumn, “we feel like we’ve been validated,” Brian Goldberg, principal of LG Construction Group, which built the house, told Crain’s. “Our construction quality and our reputation have been validated” after being pitted against a high-profile client who, after she moved into the house 10 years ago, compiled a list of more than 1,500 complaints.

*** Downstate ***

* Crain’s | Transit bill includes $3.8M for Springfield-Chicago air service: The subsidy was contained in a single paragraph tucked inside the 1,036-page transit legislation that passed during the early hours of Halloween and is awaiting Gov. JB Pritzker’s signature. American Airlines currently operates twice-daily service between the Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport and O’Hare International Airport, but demand has been soft. “We are grateful to our partners at Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport for working closely with us to ensure it remains financially viable for us to maintain important air service between Chicago and Illinois’ state capital in Springfield,” American said in a statement.

* WCIA | Budzinski meets with Champaign food assistance nonprofit about latest SNAP effects: On Thursday, WCIA reported a Rhode Island judge ruled the SNAP program needs to be fully funded for November. The USDA said it’s working toward fully complying with the order. As that news dropped, Congresswoman Nikki Budzinski met with the Champaign nonprofit The Land Connection to discuss how this effects more than just consumers.

* WSIU | Lieutenant Governor Stratton hosts rural healthcare roundtable: Hearing these concerns Stratton worries current economic conditions of the hospitals will be exacerbated reaching beyond healthcare, “The fact of the matter is, that means a hit to the local economy. It means people not being as healthy. It means some of our most vulnerable Illinoisans who won’t have access to the care that they need. And that is unacceptable.” She says tackling these challenges cannot be solved only by legislation from Springfield - local communities should have a voice in possible solutions, “And that’s what I heard today. They have ideas. They have real thoughts on the impact. And I think that we have to take those stories to the halls of the Illinois State Capitol and make sure that they are shared far and wide.”

* WSIU | Illinois Report Card shows Carbondale High School grows graduation rate: The Illinois State Board of Education released school report cards at the end of October. Area school districts are looking at the data to understand where students have grown and need to improve. WSIU’s Brian Sapp talked with Carbondale Community High School to find out what the report card is showing them.

* WREX | New apartment complex coming to downtown Rockford: On Friday, a ribbon was cut on Nu-State Apartments, a new development at 119 N. Church St. in downtown Rockford. It is said the building will have 35 units when it opens, ranging from studios to two bedrooms. The building will also include a fitness center, resident lounge, and City Center Market on the ground floor. There will also be parking in a lot north of the building.

* Press Release | SIU’s Simon Institute to host former CNN chief White House reporter: Jessica Yellin, a former CNN chief White House correspondent with nearly three decades of journalism experience, will join Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s Paul Simon Public Policy Institute for a virtual conversation on Thursday, Nov. 13. Yellin, the founder of the News Not Noise media platform, will discuss with John Shaw, institute director, the need for greater rigor, credibility and content in news reporting. She will also discuss her journalism career and Washington politics and national campaigns.

*** National ***

* The Atlantic | Hundreds of Thousands of Anonymous Deportees: Judge Donoso Stevens yelled at a man to “stop talking!” while his own case was being heard and became frustrated with another who got confused when she referred to him as “the man in the green jacket.” (He wasn’t wearing a green jacket.) When a father said he was scared to leave the country without his 5-year-old, she ignored the comment and asked if he had enough money to pay for his ticket home. I was in court that day hoping to see how Trump’s new deportation mandate was playing out, but the hearings were moving so quickly that I was having trouble keeping up.

* The Hill | DHS sees biggest jump in public approval among federal agencies: Gallup poll : Twenty-three percent in the Gallup poll said the job being done by the DHS was “only fair,” while 33 percent called the DHS’s job “poor.”

* The Atlantic | The Best Postseason in Baseball History?: The early rounds of the postseason were enlivened by extraordinary feats from the game’s two biggest stars, but that was just baseball clearing its throat for the World Series, which earned its title—in English, Spanish, and Japanese; in the United States and Canada—as a genuine Fall Classic. Major League Baseball is 149 years old. The National League was founded a month before Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone. And the game somehow still delivers the unexpected and the unforeseeable.