* ICYMI: Illinois comptroller race: Margaret Croke, Bryan Drew vie for open seat as Democrats seek statewide sweep. Tribune…

- Two candidates from opposite ends of the state are vying to replace Susana Mendoza: Democratic state Rep. Margaret Croke of Chicago and Republican Bryan Drew, a lawyer from southern Illinois.
- Croke has had a financial advantage over her Republican opponent. She spent close to $2 million in the first three months of the year, when she had to outspend her primary rivals to win the nomination, and reported about $149,780 in her campaign fund at the end of March, Illinois State Board of Elections records show. At the end of June, she had a little more than $108,500 on hand, while Drew reported just over $54,000.
- Drew, who ran unopposed in the Republican primary, acknowledged earlier this year that the office under Mendoza has paid the state’s bills on time. But he said someone with differing viewpoints on public finance should hold the job for purposes of “checks and balances,” since Democrats control every constitutional office.

* At 10 am, Gov. JB Pritzker will make an announcement about medical debt relief for Illinoisans. Click here to watch.

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* Press release | Get Covered Illinois Offers Special Enrollment Period for 9,300 Illinoisans Who Were Kicked Off Medicaid: Due to President Trump’s Budget Bill (H.R. 1), thousands of lawfully present immigrants in Illinois lost Medicaid coverage, effective October 1, 2026. Get Covered Illinois is offering an immediate path to health insurance through a special enrollment period running through December 31, 2026, with premium tax credits available to eligible customers. This impacted group will no longer be eligible to receive premium tax credits on January 1, 2027, as a result of H.R. 1.

* Sun-Times | Judge halts South Side plant operations over city, state’s foul odor lawsuit: In a statement Wednesday, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said the plant shouldn’t reopen until it “addresses the odors and air pollution and comes into compliance with Illinois’ environmental laws.” The legal order bars the plant from operating until at least January 14, when a hearing is scheduled for Raoul and the city’s motion for a preliminary injunction. Operations would be halted until a final order is issued.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Center Square | Rep: Bears ‘can pick what they want’ in stadium bill: Buckner said after an Illinois House Executive Committee hearing in Chicago on Tuesday that it’s not really important who would own a new stadium, but the Bears need control over things like naming rights and concessions. “It’s up to them. They can pick what they want, but we want to make sure we give them the options here in this state,” Buckner said.

*** Chicago ***

* Sun-Times | Johnson’s veto of bid to curtail his borrowing power survives override try — by one vote: Retiring Ald. Marty Quinn (13th), who championed the reform, fell one vote short of the 34 votes he needed to thwart the mayor’s veto. The final vote was 33 to 17, allowing Johnson to avoid what would have been a humiliating defeat by the slimmest of margins. “There’s no secret that there are a number of members of City Council still adjusting to a progressive agenda,” the mayor said at his post-Council meeting news conference.

* Tribune | CPS watchdog says ‘no actionable finding’ of misconduct by candidate for school board president: The inspector general has not released a full summary of the findings yet. Wagenknecht declined comment Wednesday. […] The woman responded to the end of the CPS probe by calling for an independent investigation. “I was really disappointed,” she told the Tribune in a phone interview. “I just felt really disempowered. … Nothing was acknowledged, no matter what the documentation was, no matter my own experience.”

* Sun-Times | 4 takeaways from CPS School Board president forum: Jessica Biggs, Hilario Dominguez and Victor Henderson took questions on potential midyear budget cuts, school closings, school ratings and controversies that each candidate face. The forum was hosted by WBEZ, the Sun-Times and Chalkbeat and featured questions from CPS students.

* Crain’s | City Council deals Johnson another blow in battle for control of CHA:
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s months-long struggle to regain control of the Chicago Housing Authority suffered another setback today as the City Council rejected two of his board nominees, further weakening his grip on an agency Chicago mayors have traditionally controlled. The 30-15 vote marked the latest chapter in an extraordinary power struggle over the CHA that began in March, when a board then led by Matthew Brewer defied Johnson by appointing Keith Pettigrew as CEO over the mayor’s objections.

* Block Club | City OKs Largest Settlement In History To Men Who Say They Were Framed By Disgraced Cop: The men have collectively served more than 380 years in prison, the city said. All of their sentences have been vacated and the charges dropped, with all but two of the plaintiffs having received formal certificates of innocence, according to Jessica Felker, deputy corporation counsel for the city, in remarks to alderpeople earlier this month. With the City Council approval this week, Chicago taxpayers will pay out $260,814,000 to the men — and their law firm, Loevy & Loevy — over two years and in four installments beginning in April. The settlement is the largest in city history, officials have said.

* Crain’s | Google’s big Loop bet comes with a warning: It can’t revive downtown alone: Google will eventually move its entire Chicago workforce of more than 2,500 out of Fulton Market and into the Thompson Center to help revive the Loop. But the tech giant is stressing it will need help creating a ripple effect downtown. Speaking for the first time in a public forum about the company’s ongoing revamp of the 17-story building into its new Chicago home, top local Google execs today said the project can help draw workers and visitors back to the central business district — if the Chicago Transit Authority, other businesses and civic leaders do their part to make the area more inviting and accessible.

* Sun-Times | Public gets first peek at Metra’s future battery-powered trains, a North American first: “It just feels like you’re stepping into the future,” says Josh Dohrmann, 30, a Metra user who took the 1-hour-45-minute ride down from Kenosha on the UP-North line. He was one of the first members of the public to examine the train after it was unveiled last week at a transit expo at McCormick Place.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Daily Herald | 8th Congressional rivals Bean and Davis disagree on best path forward for health care: Melissa Bean, a Barrington Democrat who served three terms in the U.S. House from 2005 to 2011, is running against Jennifer Davis, a Republican business owner from Huntley, in the Nov. 3 election. The winner will succeed U.S. Raja Krishnamoorthi, who chose not to run for reelection and instead made an unsuccessful bid for a U.S. Senate seat this year. The 8th District includes portions of Cook, DuPage and Kane counties.

* Daily Herald | Elk Grove Village using data center windfall to give residents $200 gift cards: On Tuesday night, the mayor of Elk Grove Village — home to 20 of the computer storage sites — rattled off his latest boosterism: He led state legislators — who are mulling over regulations on the industry — on a data center tour; hosted a delegation from Osceola County, Florida considering a sprawling redevelopment; penned an Op-Ed in the Chicago Tribune; and gave an interview on WGN radio.

* Daily Herald | Palatine man accused of planning attack on Hindu house of worship: Investigators recovered a rifle, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, a body armor vest and a patch displaying white supremacist imagery from Paporakis’ home, police said. Police believe Paporakis may have been intending to carry out the attack Sunday.

*** Downstate ***

* WBCU | Tazewell County Board is next stop for proposed data center moratorium: proposed nine-month moratorium on data center applications in Tazewell County is headed to the county board. The county’s land use committee on Tuesday unanimously recommended approval of the moratorium and sent the matter to the Tazewell County Board for a final vote at its Oct. 28 meeting. Last week, the county’s Zoning Board of Appeals also unanimously recommended approving the moratorium.

* WAND | Massey Community Action Network hosts first community meeting in Springfield: Founding member Joann Johnson explained what this organization is all about. “We are passionate individuals who want to see those 26 calls to action that were developed through the work of the Massey Commission actually come to fruition,” Johnson said. “We want to see those things implemented.” This first meeting had one purpose: show the community that the organization still cares. Johnson said she wants people in the community to look to them as a resource.

* WCIA | Springfield Fire Department holds live fire training in former UIS apartment buildings: Three former apartment buildings on the UIS campus will serve one last purpose before they are gone for good: training firefighters for emergencies. The Springfield Fire Department will perform three controlled burns at the apartment buildings at the Sunflower Court family housing complex. The training is something officials described as extra valuable, given how rare live fire training is.

* Heartland NEws | Crab Orchard Golf Club announces plans to close golf course in March: Crab Orchard Golf Club announced it will close its golf course on March 1, 2027. In a social media post, they said they are closing due to health challenges in their family and the rising costs of chemicals, equipment, fuel, labor, insurance premiums and property taxes. They said they did not want to increase fees for guests.

* CBS Chicago | Snake Road in Illinois’ Shawnee National Forest is only known road in U.S. to close for reptile migration: “This road is going in between their summer foraging areas in the swamp, and their fall hibernation areas in the bluffs,” Ballard explained. “And they have to cross this road to get from one to the other.” So every spring and every fall, Snake Road closes to cars.

* WCIA | Mahjong madness takes over Central Illinois: They say what’s old is new again, and that’s especially true for one activity with roots dating back to the 1800s. Mahjong — a tile-based strategy game — is resurging all across the country. In Central Illinois, area businesses and passionate teachers are introducing it to a new generation. […] “I started teaching in July after putting a post on my Facebook feed that said, ‘Hey guys, I’ve just learned how to play this amazing game. If anyone wants to learn, I’m happy to teach you.’ That just exploded,” she added. In the last three months, she has taught more than 400 people how to play.

*** National ***

* Huffpost | Inflation Worsened Last Month To 3.7% In Sign That Prices Remain High As Midterms Near: The figures underscore the lingering impact of the Iran war on gas prices and the stubborn persistence of inflation, which fell sharply from a 9.1% peak in 2022 but this year has ticked higher since the war began in late February. The rise isn’t all linked to gas prices, as surging investment in data centers and AI has also pushed up prices for computer chips and the consumer electronics that also use them. Elevated inflation has posed political problems for Republicans in Congress and is a challenge for the Federal Reserve, which is required by Congress to seek stable prices. Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core prices rose 2.6% in September from a year ago, up from 2.4% the previous month. And they climbed 0.3% from August to September, an elevated pace that, if it continued for a year, would run well above the Fed’s 2% target.

* WSJ | Justice Department Threatens Probe of American Bar Association on Law School Rules: The Justice Department has warned the American Bar Association it may face an antitrust investigation if it fails to change rules that limit the role part-time professors play in teaching law students. The department delivered the message in a new letter to the ABA’s accreditation council, whose quality standards cover most law schools. The Oct. 7 letter—signed by Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal—said adjunct professors are cheaper and often have more real-world experience. Limiting how much they can teach hurts education and puts upward pressure on tuition costs, Woodward said.