* ICYMI: Suspicious letters sent to congressional offices in Illinois, FBI investigates nationwide incidents. ABC Chicago…

- Among the Illinois offices receiving suspicious mail was the Chicago district office of U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill. Quigley said staff members recognized warning signs outlined in law enforcement guidance. Quigley said the letter received by his office contained political threats.
- The district offices of U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Ill., and U.S. Reps. Robin Kelly and Jan Schakowsky also confirmed receiving suspicious envelopes.
- The incidents in congressional offices came a day after emergency responses at two Cook County buildings in downtown Chicago. One letter was delivered to Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas, who told ABC 7 that the substance inside the envelope was baking powder.

* At 11 am, Gov. JB Pritzker and running mate Christian Mitchell will attend an event with faith leaders and encourage voters to head to the polls on the first day early voting is available in all 50 wards across Chicago.

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* Capitol News Illinois | Documents show state’s disaster request met FEMA’s threshold: Gov. JB Pritzker’s presidential disaster request that was denied by the Federal Emergency Management Agency met the threshold for statewide disaster assistance, according to state documents. However, some counties, including Cook, did not meet FEMA’s standards by themselves, though federal rules allow states to add smaller damage totals from other counties to disaster requests. A spokesperson for FEMA did not explain why Illinois’ request was denied and did not say if the agency conducted additional in-person damage assessments.

* Sun-Times | Illinois is the Land of Lincoln, the Prairie State and… America’s Pumpkin Capital: More than soil or climate, the presence of the Libby’s canning operation in Morton is responsible for Illinois’ pumpkin preeminence. About 90% of the canned pumpkin produced in the United States is grown within a 60-mile radius of Morton. And most of that goes to Libby’s, though there also is another cannery, Seneca Foods, in Princeville, about 33 miles away.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Canary Media | Illinois needs batteries. Will a new incentive program help?: Last fall, Illinois passed an ambitious law requiring 3 gigawatts of batteries on the state’s grid by the end of 2030. In August, the Illinois Power Agency, which procures electricity on behalf of the state’s large utilities, ran an auction-type proceeding to hand out incentives for companies promising to develop these batteries. The results were mixed. Statewide, deals were made for 600 megawatts of storage — less than two-thirds of the target that the law set for the initial procurement. The state sought to get 588 MW of storage in the utility ComEd’s territory in northern Illinois, but the procurement ended with just one company planning to build an 80-MW battery project there. In utility Ameren Illinois’ territory, which stretches over much of the state, three developers’ bids were chosen to supply 520 MW.

* Sun-Times | Gov. JB Pritzker signals more optimism on Bears stadium deal — maybe even in Chicago — as election nears: And it could even happen in Chicago, Pritzker says, which had been all but eliminated from the Bears’ conversation for the past year in favor of Arlington Heights. “I believe that in November, we’re going to be able to get something done to keep the Bears in the state of Illinois,” Pritzker said. “But I’m not going to do it at the expense of the taxpayers.”

* Daily Southtown | After deferred prosecution agreement and contested primary, Sen. Emil Jones III faces Republican challenger: After decisively fending off two challengers in the Democratic primary, Sen. Emil Jones III will face Crestwood Trustee Brian Skala in the general election to represent the 14th District in the state Senate. Jones faced the first contested primary of his 17-year senate career in March, when both attorney Ahmed Karrar and business owner Kenny Williams ran to unseat him. Jones won the primary with 60.6% of the vote. Karrar received 22.7% of the vote and Williams received 16.7%.

* CNN | How JB Pritzker’s midterm investments could pay off in a 2028 White House bid: He’s boosting Democratic campaigns in the first states on the party’s revamped 2028 primary calendar. He’s working to patch up bruised relationships inside the party that he would need for a presidential bid, particularly with the Congressional Black Caucus. And he’s become a unique force in Texas, including by giving more than $1 million to the Democratic nominee for governor, Gina Hinojosa, as her Latino allies plead for more national investment.

*** Chicago ***

* Chicago Tribune | Chicago mayor poll: Brandon Johnson’s approval at 22% and early excitement for Alexi Giannoulias: The survey of 1,108 adult Chicago residents, including 935 who identified themselves as likely voters, found 53% of Chicagoans overall disapproved of Johnson’s job performance while only 22% approved. Another 25% had no opinion. […] The poll was commissioned by the Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation and was conducted Sept. 13-23 by NORC, an independent, nonpartisan research organization at the University of Chicago. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 4.11%; for likely voters it is 4.47%.

* NBC Chicago’s Mary Ann Ahern…

Monday am is first deadline for petitions for #ChiMayor27 and other city offices. Mayor candidates need 12,500 signatures from registered voters.
Look for @Giannoulias to have nearly 60K signatures. Some may need more time and have one more week to get those signatures.

— Mary Ann Ahern (@MaryAnnAhernNBC) October 19, 2026

* Illinois Answers Project | Special Taxing Districts’ Uncertain Future Looms Over Historic School Board Races: The stakes have been raised on the district’s annual TIF guessing game as CPS and city leaders argue over who’s responsible for a $175 million annual pension payment. Last year, Johnson was able to resolve the issue by declaring a much larger surplus than the school district budgeted for, floating CPS a cash infusion big enough to cover the cost. […] This year, the school board — for now split between elected members and mayoral appointees — passed a controversial plan to assume $285 million in TIF surplus plus an additional $150 million in money from the state, aiming to prevent painful cuts.

* Block Club | UChicago Community Shaken By Sexual Assault Report: ‘What Are We Going To Do About It?’: A video the woman recorded of the man she said assaulted her friend was later widely shared on social media. Since then, she told the Tribune, she has received some messages of support but many more of hate. […] While the person may not be affiliated with the university or Alpha Epsilon Pi, students told Block Club this week that their concerns remain about the partying and gender roles often associated with Greek life. Both the UChicago and Cornell assaults “happened due to [fraternity] culture, at least in part,” first-year doctoral student Katherine Ren said.

* Sun-Times | City Colleges of Chicago reach late-night tentative contract agreement to avoid strike: The Cook County College Teachers Union, Local 1600, and the City Colleges of Chicago reached an overnight tentative contract agreement just hours before a strike was set to kick off Monday. The contract is for four years and includes salaries that keep pace with inflation, protected health insurance, safeguards toward AI and a path toward free developmental education, according to a press release from the union.

* Block Club | City To Meet With Police Watchdog Group Over Reports Of ICE Presence In CPD Parking Lots: Erin Vogel, of the Deering (9th) police district council, said the Mayor’s Office agreed to meet next week after the group sent a letter seeking answers over reports of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents using police-run parking lots during their operations. The Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability is also looking into these reports, Vogel said Thursday during a hearing hosted by the City Council’s immigration committee.

* Block Club | Reinsdorf Will Make Final Call On White Sox Move, Not Me, Team’s Minority Owner Says: “I don’t decide where the White Sox go, to be clear,” said Ishbia, who could take full ownership of the Sox as early as 2029 if Reinsdorf decides to sell then. “This is fully Jerry’s show. … It’s his decision exactly where the White Sox go.”

* Chicago Defender | Chicago Faith Leaders to March to the Polls as Early Voting Expands Across the City: The gathering comes as in-person early voting expands across Chicago’s 50 wards. The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, at 4314 S. Cottage Grove Ave., has previously served as the 4th Ward early voting location, according to the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners. Organizers say the event is intended to encourage voter participation while also drawing attention to issues affecting Black and brown communities, including healthcare, housing, education and economic pressures on working families.

* Crain’s | A Chicago bungalow is now asking over $2 million — a first for the style: The Chicago bungalow, a beloved style native to the city and numbering something like 80,000 today, crossed a new horizon when an extensively rehabbed red brick bungalow hit the market priced at over $2 million yesterday. The highest sale on record for a Chicago-style bungalow is an Evanston property that sold in March for $1.71 million, according to Crain’s research in real estate records, and in the city the highest is $1.65 million, the price that two different bungalows reeled in. One is on West Carmen Avenue in Lincoln Square, sold in March, and the other is on West Castlewood Terrace in Uptown, sold in 2024.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Aurora Beacon-News | In the age of AI and social media, one west suburban school district goes analog: Hinckley-Big-Rock was among the Illinois school districts that banned or restricted cellphone use well before the passage of state legislation that will prohibit students in Illinois public schools from using cellphones throughout the day starting next school year. But Hinckley-Big Rock decided to take it a step further this year, shifting away from all students having their own personal computers and instead housing district computers at school for them to be shared. In tandem with that change, administrators and teachers describe a general reduction in computer use in the classroom district-wide.

* Evanston RoundTable | ‘In my heart, I’m a legislator’: Daniel Biss reflects on time as mayor, city’s future in exit interview: Biss officially resigned at 11:59 p.m. Sunday, leaving the door open for councilmembers to pick an acting mayor next week before voters elect a new successor in a special election this coming spring. His resignation came a little more than two weeks before he faces Republican John Elleson in the congressional election on Nov. 3, a race Biss is widely expected to win. The now-former mayor sat with the RoundTable for an exit interview last week, in between his final City Council meeting and a few days out from his full exit. He talked about how he approached the job as a legislator, the learning curve he faced, the policies and votes that defined his tenure and what lies ahead for the city as he leaves.

* Daily Herald | As diesel costs soar, school district transportation budgets are paying the price: Suburban school districts — especially those that operate their own bus fleets — have been among those hardest hit by record-high diesel prices this fall. Global supply concerns caused by the wars in Iran and Ukraine and a Sept. 13 power outage at the ExxonMobil refinery in Joliet saw diesel prices in Illinois skyrocket to a record average of $6.83 per gallon on Sept. 23, according to AAA. The per-gallon price of diesel is down to $6.58 as of Thursday. Naperville Unit District 203, which operates a fleet that includes more than 120 diesel-fueled school buses to serve its roughly 16,000 students, is feeling the strain.

* Daily Herald | ‘A really big step’: District 15 reaches agreement with transportation union: Palatine Township Elementary District 15 has reached a contract extension with the union representing its bus drivers and transportation aides. Superintendent Dana Smith said the deal will give the district the ability to effectively recruit new drivers. Finding drivers has been a challenge for District 15, which has led the hiring of contract drivers. Director of Transportation Judith Gritter told the school board the district would like to hire 10 to 15 more drivers.

*** Downstate ***

* Tribune | In Paris, Illinois, Trump’s ICE raids came home ‘when it happened to Jose’: But Jose, 32, is not in Paris anymore. Instead of living the American Dream, he wakes up to a nightmare in ICE custody. He was picked up earlier this summer after Indiana State Police stopped him outside a government building in Indianapolis where he had parked in the wrong spot. The officers turned him over to federal immigration agents, and he is being detained at the Oldham County Jail in La Grange, Kentucky, where he faces deportation. […] Illinois state Rep. Adam Niemerg, a Republican who represents Paris, did not return a message seeking comment. State Sen. Chapin Rose, also a Republican, said he “has nothing to do with ICE” and doesn’t know enough about the situation.

* WGLT | Crowd calls for stricter limits, ban on data centers at Bloomington planning commission hearing: At least 42 people spoke at Friday’s special hearing of the City of Bloomington planning commission that sought public input on potential data center regulations, with cheers and applause backing commenters’ demands for outright bans. Over 110 people gathered that afternoon at the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts for the meeting. Following a presentation of the city’s draft of data center regulations, testimony extended into Friday evening with no time limits enforced on individual speakers. Instead of concluding the meeting, the commission moved to continue the public hearing at the second of two sessions Nov. 16 at the BCPA.

* WGLT | Lincoln’s Monarch Center setting the example for trauma-informed juvenile corrections: For many of the youth who live there, though, Monarch is different. “Micah” said one of the biggest distinctions between Monarch Youth Center and other juvenile prisons is how much time he spends outside. “Other facilities, like, really, you mad — you really ain’t got no choice but to go in your room, to be honest. That’s the main coping option,” he said. “It’s like, this is a better coping option here.”

* Tribune | The first performance by a Beatle in America was in Illinois: Benton keeps its historical footnote alive: But while in Illinois, the best Louise could do for publicity was a Saturday interview on a low-watt AM station, and a couple of meetings with high school newspapers. Marilyn Lewis, then a senior at Benton High and editor of its Echo newspaper, wrote: “He likes smallish blondes, driving, television, sleeping, Chet Atkins, eggs and chips, Eartha Kitt and Alfred Hitchcock movies.” Her article, published five months before the release of “Meet the Beatles!,” their debut US album, was titled, presciently, “Meet the Beatles!”

*** National ***

* AP | Consumer apprehension grows as US retailers adopt AI-assisted pricing tools: But companies aren’t always transparent about the customer data they collect and how it’s used, which has made consumers suspicious and led to speculation. For example, social media posts falsely imply that electronic shelf labels Walmart plans to put in all its U.S. stores scan shoppers’ faces or cellphones to set individualized prices, Thomas said. Lawmakers and regulators are taking action. Legislators in at least 30 states have considered pricing bills this year, including measures addressing algorithmic and personalized pricing, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

* Salt Lake Tribune | Kevin O’Leary argues no ‘reasonable viewer’ took his Chinese influence claims as fact in Utah data center fight: The plaintiffs sued in July, alleging that O’Leary’s repeated claims that China or Chinese interests were behind opposition to his proposed data center campus near the north arm of the Great Salt Lake caused “devastating reputational harm, significant economic losses, severe emotional distress, and ongoing threats to their physical safety.” O’Leary repeated the accusations in numerous media appearances. After he received their demand to retract them, he said he had no evidence to back up the accusations, according to the lawsuit. Anchors on two Fox News channels also apologized. But O’Leary’s attorneys say his admission and those apologies don’t show that he knew his claims were false when he made them.