* ICYMI: Proposed city budget includes $286M for CPS, but district’s financial outlook remains shaky. Tribune…

- Mayor Brandon Johnson’s proposed city budget includes $286 million for Chicago Public Schools — in line with what the school board budgeted in late July, but only half of what the cash-strapped district received last year.
- A district spokesperson said CPS is “pleased” by the mayor’s proposed TIF sweep, but added “without any additional state funding being authorized … by December 2026, the district will have to revisit expenditure reduction measures.”
- As part of CPS’ revised $10.11 billion budget, school board members aligned with the Chicago Teachers Union included an amendment for $150 million in unconfirmed state funding, reversing hundreds of layoffs and other department cuts.

* Gov. JB Pritzker will be in Joliet at 9:30 am for a business announcement. ​Click here to watch.

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* Rep. Mary Beth Canty, Sen. Graciela Guzmán | Cornell shows why Illinois needs to hold colleges accountable: When a survivor of sexual violence finds the courage to come forward, two things should happen: Their school should protect them, and, if it doesn’t, the law should hold that school accountable. In Illinois today, neither is guaranteed. That’s why we are sponsoring HB4990, which passed the Illinois Senate on a bipartisan vote and is currently pending in the Illinois House, to help change that. Illinois first passed the Preventing Sexual Violence in Higher Education Act a decade ago, and it was a real step forward. But the law currently lags behind our knowledge of how sexual violence occurs, and it lacks meaningful accountability and enforcement measures to ensure our colleges and universities are following the law and protecting student survivors.

* ABC Chicago | More suspicious letters sent to Illinois congressional offices as federal investigation continues: According to Schneider, the latest letter his office received appeared different from the suspicious mailing that arrived last week. “This one had different handwriting. The return address was Quincy, Illinois, and the postmark was Springfield, Illinois,” Schneider said. […] “We had heard from other another office that they received a similar letter and it was the same return address on both letters that they had received a letter, that it rattled,” he said.

*** Chicago ***

* Sun-Times | Business groups vow to block Mayor Johnson’s latest try at a head tax and a 20% cloud tax: Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce President Jack Lavin said the business community will join the Civic Committee in mounting a full-court press to block the head tax and Johnson’s proposed cloud tax increase he called “direct taxes on small businesses — not the tax on Big Tech” that Johnson is trying to sell. “The cloud tax is essentially a sales tax — and I don’t think there’s anywhere in the nation where there’s a 20% sales tax,” Lavin said.

* Block Club | CTA Gathering Public Input On Bus Service Through New Survey, Events: Changes under consideration include more frequent service, longer hours, route adjustments, improved transfers and connections, infrastructure that could increase bus speeds and coordination with Metra, Pace and the Northern Illinois Transit Authority, according to a CTA press release.

* Tribune | Illinois 4th District race: Chuy García’s handpicked successor Patty García defends path to Congress: García is unrepentant about the way Rep. García all but handed her the Democratic nomination in the deep-blue district, and she rejects criticism of her ties to the ballot challenges. She says she is qualified, the best candidate to take on President Donald Trump and Republicans, and that it’s time to move on from the controversy. “I’m not running for office to be in the media spotlight, or because it’s a nice resume booster for me,” she said. “I can’t stand on the sidelines while all this s−−− is happening against my community, and I know that we deserve someone there who is going to fight just as hard as other progressives and Democrats have across the country.”

* Crain’s | Foundry Park developers break ground on North Side megaproject: The project is slated to be a mostly residential, 6 million-square-foot district on the northern slice of the Lincoln Yards campus, which never materialized after the City Council approved the sprawling vision from developer Sterling Bay in 2019. The groundbreaking is a milestone for a site that became a symbol of Chicago’s megadevelopment ambitions and the difficulty it has had bringing them to life. The start of the project’s $800 million initial phase is a sign of progress for a broader commercial real estate industry that has gone cold on the city over the past few years.

* Crain’s | Owner of former Rainforest Cafe building ordered to pay $10 million over loan default: Cook County Circuit Judge Jerry Esrig today ordered investor Sean Conlon to pay more than $10 million to resolve litigation from lender Alecko Capital, which sued Conlon for defaulting on a loan secured by the vacant 22,000-square-foot building at 605 N. Clark St. Attorneys for Chicago-based Alecko had asked for the judgment in a breach of contract lawsuit filed in October 2025, which alleges Conlon, who personally guaranteed the $8.3 million loan, violated the terms of the guaranty agreement by not paying it back. A separate lawsuit from Alecko filed last year, which is still ongoing, sought to foreclose on the property over the loan default.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Tribune | Cook County commissioner seeks more data protection from ICE: ‘Our duty to protect it’: The Cook County Legislation and Intergovernmental Relations Committee passed an amendment Wednesday that would prohibit private companies with county contracts from selling and sharing information with third parties such as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Cook County Board of Commissioners is expected to vote on the proposed amendment Thursday.

* Aurora Beacon-News | Amy Johnson, Rob Russell vie in Nov. 3 election to serve as Kane County sheriff:
The Nov. 3 general election is set to occur just days after the planned retirement of current sheriff Ron Hain, who recently announced his intention to retire to “focus on his health and to ensure continuity of leadership.” Last year, Hain indicated that he would not be running in 2026, casting his support behind Johnson. But Hain had been missing from the public eye for about six months prior, prompting questions about the office’s operations and who was in charge. Johnson will be stepping into the role of acting sheriff as of Nov. 1 until another sheriff is elected or appointed.

* Daily Herald | Bartlett bans sale of kratom, synthetic drugs and nitrous oxide for recreational use: Now Village President Dan Gunsteen is turning his attention to setting an example in the region, first by reaching out to the DuPage Mayors and Managers Conference. “I’d encourage them to start having the conversation,” Gunsteen said. Other suburbs that have banned sales of kratom-related products in recent years include Antioch, Batavia, Des Plaines, Elk Grove Village, Lake Zurich, Mount Prospect, Naperville and Wheaton.

* Daily Southtown | Union, custodians protest layoffs at District 130 meeting; board declares one seat vacant: SEIU 73 has filed a grievance with the Illinois Education Labor Relations Board for poor conditions within District 130 schools, alleging filthy bathrooms and floors, rodent and insect infestations, and mold. Cavazos, who himself is a District 130 alum, said the labor relations board plans to meet with the union next month. “We were going to meet yesterday, but they wanted to take time to thoroughly investigate some more, which is a good sign they’re taking it very serious,” he said.

*** Downstate ***

* WCBU | Peoria budget proposal slightly lowers property tax rate, but residents still may pay more: In Tuesday’s first special meeting as part of the annual budget process, the Peoria City Council unanimously approved an estimated property tax levy totaling around $41 million, with a tax rate decrease of about one cent per $100 of equalized assessed value. “It does increase the overall amount collected by the city equal to about $1.9 million more when you take all the aggregate levies into play,” said Finance Director Kyle Cratty, noting that bonds for the Peoria Public Library and Peoria Civic Center are not factored into the city portion of the levy for truth-in-taxation purposes.

* WGLT | For the first time, McLean County Democrats seek to defend majority control: “There’s been a growing power about the Democrat Party here in McLean County and I think people [need to] wake up and realize they fell asleep at the switch,” said McLean County Republican Party Chair Connie Beard. She maintains the party’s losses come down to money. “I think you can chart the advancement of the Democratic Party in our county correlates directly with the amount of money that has been poured into the county form various sources, whether you look at what Gov. Pritzker has funneled in, what the major trade unions have funneled in,” Beard said.

* WCIA | Effingham County bans possession, sale of kratom products with new ordinance: The ordinance was unanimously sent to the full County Board by the Administrative Committee, and on Monday, it was one of several resolutions the County Board approved unanimously. It goes into effect immediately but provides a 30-day grace period for businesses to become compliant.

* WAND | Tiny homes offer community to those experiencing homelessness in Champaign: The Hope Village project began six years ago, with a main goal to provide permanent housing for homeless people. Executive Director Drew Martin said this is more than just a “place to stay.” “We have shelters here, and we have other permanent housing for this population,” Martin said. “It’s not just housing — it’s the supportive services wrapped in there to get them stabilized, to get them well on their way to being healthier and having better well-being.” Hope Village held its ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday, celebrating six years of putting this project together. Martin said he is proud of how the site has come together.

* KFVS | Southern Illinois program trains high schoolers to be future aviation mechanics: Valentino-Barry founded the program to help set high schoolers up for success — within the three years this program has been available in southern Ill., students have gone on to study aviation in college and even receive internships through connections made with the program.

*** National ***

* WIRED | https://www.wired.com/story/hackers-exploited-the-php-vulnerabilities-days-before-they-were-patched/: The internet’s mad scramble on Wednesday to patch a pair of critical vulnerabilities in PHP, a widely used web scripting language, was already too late to stop every attack, newly released details reveal. Wednesday’s release of fixes for two critical vulnerabilities in PHP caused administrators and security staff to race to identify and patch vulnerable websites and apps, while attackers inevitably reverse engineered the fixes to learn how to exploit the flaws. Some governments and other groups even proactively took key websites down in anticipation of the release, so they wouldn’t be targeted before they could apply the patches.

* NYT | To Make Way for Data Centers, Google Will Pay Others to Use Less Power: On Thursday, Google announced a deal with a company called Voltus to set up what’s known as a “virtual power plant” in the large Mid-Atlantic grid known as PJM. Voltus will provide Google with up to 1,070 megawatts of electric capacity when needed — roughly as much as the output from a large nuclear reactor. That electricity won’t come from new power plants. Instead, Voltus will sign up homes and businesses and give them financial incentives to curb their usage when local power demand is high or the grid is strained. Many of these reductions could occur automatically, such as through smart thermostats that dial back air-conditioning during peak summer hours or batteries that can provide temporary on-site power.