* ICYMI: Proposed SNAP changes could impact more than 200K Illinois residents. SJ-R…

- Around 225,000 Illinoisans would be at risk of losing eligibility, or 15.7% of people receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in the state under the Nov. 10 proposed rule from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
- Around 1.4 million Illinoisans receive SNAP benefits, according to August data from the Illinois Department of Human Services.
- According to the proposal, it would end “broad-based categorical eligibility” for SNAP, which allowed for families to qualify for the program if they qualified for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) without needing to show proof they met federal income thresholds.

* Gov. JB Pritzker has no public events scheduled today.

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* WTTW | Transit Officials Outline ‘Significant Investment’ of $5B for 2027, Laying Groundwork for Major Changes: On the safety front, next year’s proposed budget includes more than $56 million for a Ride Safe incident reporting app (which is set to enter the pilot phase next week); creating an Office of Transit Safety and Experience; launching the transit ambassador program; and better coordination between law enforcement and social service providers.

* Sun-Times | Chicago police aren’t going after domestic abusers’ guns despite state law: Since the law took effect, Chicago police have gotten at least 91 Karina’s Law search warrants, according to documents obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times. Only three have been served. […] [Legal Aid Chicago lawyers ] say there also was another impediment to enforcing that part of the law — the Chicago police. Since May, a handful of Legal Aid Chicago clients have sought warrants that were directed to suburban law enforcement agencies. All of them have been served, Crawford says, “and guns have been recovered” during each search.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Center Square | Proposed change in farm estate tax has broad support: Illinois Farm Bureau Associate Director of State Legislation Mark Raney said farmers currently pay the estate tax on everything more than $4 million in value, which is easily exceeded by the average Illinois grain farm with 1,500 acres. “And that doesn’t include the value of any of your equipment, your trucks, the value of any livestock you may have harvested, corn or soy, doesn’t include barns, doesn’t include your house,” Raney told The Center Square.

* WAND | Illinois Senate could pass Home for Good plan during veto session: Roughly 15,000 people leave Illinois prisons each year, but the vast majority of those people are unable to find stable housing. The Home for Good plan calls for rental subsidies and wraparound services for returning residents. “Every time one person returns to prison, it costs taxpayers and society $200,000,” said Illinois Justice Project Director Ahmadou Dramé. “We spend $2.6 billion running our state’s prison system, and we have a ton of people there who are there because we didn’t set them up to succeed when they were released the first time, or the second time, or the third time, or however many times.”

* NBC Chicago | Christian Mitchell says he’s ready to be Illinois’ new lieutenant governor: “First of all, it’s to help the governor implement his agenda. I want to be a great governing partner for Gov. Pritzker. I want to make sure that I’m working every single day to make your life better. I think that when you look at what happened in the last couple weeks, the message that voters sent to people all across the country was: we need people who are focused on cost, chaos, and corruption? We want to make sure we’re raising your wages, lowering your costs. That our government is actually working for us,” Mitchell explained.

*** Chicago ***

* Sun-Times | Finalists for Chicago’s next top cop are all CPD insiders: First Deputy Supt. Antoinette Ursitti, Chief of Community Policing Angel Novalez and Counterterrorism Chief Christopher Papaioannou were chosen as the finalists Thursday following a nationwide search. If selected, Ursitti would be the first woman to lead the police department.

* Sun-Times | Chicago mayoral candidates make their pitches — and take aim at Brandon Johnson: Notably absent was incumbent Mayor Brandon Johnson, who was at a community budget town hall in Uptown at the time. So was Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, who has been a fundraising powerhouse as his focus shifted to a run for mayor. Chicago Public Schools was an early point of contention, with former state counsel Bill Quinlan taking the first shot at Johnson while suggesting closing under-enrolled schools and renovating or building new ones to operate more like “rec centers.”

* Sun-Times | Why is Chicago alderman the job few want? In February, 11 ward races will be uncontested: Chicago is closer than ever to the strong Council, weak mayor form of government the city code intended. And yet, only 140 candidates filed to run for City Council seats. That’s down from 210 candidates filing nominating petitions to run for alderperson in 2023, 174 of whom ultimately survived petition challenges.

* Tribune | Plastic waste in the Great Lakes could be coming from as far as 120 miles away, study shows: Looking to follow the movement of water bottles and other floating throwaways, they tossed dozens of plastic smoothie shakers into rivers across the United States and Canada, including stretches of the Chicago River. The researchers equipped each of the shakers with a small GPS device to track where they ended up. Computer modeling of the results suggests half of the plastic bottles washing into the Great Lakes and oceans every year come from at least 10 miles and up to 120 miles away, the scientists reported.

* Block Club | Will The City Extend Its Divvy Contract? Council To Consider Future Of Bike Rentals In Chicago: In a letter to the council’s Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Committee, the groups called for making Divvy more affordable, expanding its bike fleet and station network, improving street safety, sustaining local and union jobs and maintaining city oversight through the Department of Transportation. The contract extension is expected to go before the committee Friday. Alderpeople deferred voting on the measure last month after pushback from Divvy competitor Lime.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Daily Southtown | Will County assigns data center moratorium, Flock camera ban for discussion: Ortiz asked for a resolution on license plate reader cameras that would prohibit automated license plate reader systems, such as Flock cameras, on property owned or controlled by Will County and within county highway rights of way. Municipalities could still use the cameras on their own properties. Ortiz also asked for a temporary moratorium on data centers so their environmental effects can be studied if a project were to come before the County Board. According to the board’s rules, Ortiz’s requests were given to the Executive Committee to assign them for discussion. A vote to ban Flock cameras or data centers was not taken.

* Tribune | Illinois Holocaust Museum reopens with a reimagined footprint and a new reflection room: After an 18-month renovation, the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie reopened to the public Wednesday with a new reflection room and renewed relevance. The $10 million renovation, which began in July 2025, has enlarged the lobby and added the reflection room to allow visitors a respite from the Zev & Shifra Karkomi Holocaust Exhibition, its permanent exhibition.

* Evanston Roundtable | Endeavor nurses to hold union votes in December, with two unions on the ballot: Registered nurses at four suburban hospitals run by Endeavor Health, including Evanston Hospital at 2650 Ridge Ave., are tentatively scheduled to vote on unionizing in mid-December, with conflict building between two competing unions over who could represent more than 2,400 employees across the facilities.

* Daily Herald | No sidewalks yet, but Barrington addressing safety concerns near school: The residents approached the village board recently, saying a stretch of Bryant Avenue has become dangerous for students walking to and from nearby Roslyn Road Elementary School. Bryant has no sidewalks between Northwest Highway and Roslyn Road. Deputy Village Manager Marie Hansen said sidewalk installation there is included in the village’s long-range improvement plan and will be reviewed as the village moves forward with capital work.

*** Downstate ***

* WGLT | McLean County Board approves $150 million budget, lowers tax rate: The budget will lower the county’s property tax rate to its lowest level in 20 years, largely due to a 6.72% increase in the county’s equalized assessed valuation. The tax rate will drop from $0.83 to $0.81 per $100 assessed valuation, amounting to a decrease of $15.86 for the owner of a $255,000 home. However, because of the increases in valuation, some homeowners may not see a decrease in their actual county tax bill.

* WCBU | Peoria City Council votes to allow drive-through, curbside cannabis sales: The Peoria City Council on Tuesday voted to allow both options for medical and recreational dispensaries, following Illinois’ updated state law governing marijuana sales. “We have to navigate this new social norm that is recreational marijuana, and I know that there still is a stigma to that and I’m not naive to it,” said council member Andre Allen. “But I think when you offer the drive-through and the curbside pickup offering of it, you give a level of discretion for consumers.”

* STLPR | Illinois health officials prep to transfer patients from metro-east hospital: Illinois regulators are preparing to potentially transfer patients out of Gateway Regional Medical Center in Granite City and ambulances are being sent to other hospitals. The hospital is still open, but the Illinois Department of Public Health confirmed Gateway and another medical center owned by the same company are on bypass status due to “staffing instability.”

* WAND | Decatur City Council to consider agreement for underground natural gas pipeline: The City of Decatur said in a Facebook post Thursday that Tallgrass is developing an underground pipeline that, if approved, would run 16 miles through Macon County. This would connect the company’s existing Rockies Express Pipeline to industrial facilities in Decatur. According to the City, a small section of the pipeline would be installed 120 feet below Lake Decatur, with drilling sites located away from the shoreline.

*** National ***

* AP | Microsoft reports progress as it works to recover email and other services in a global outage: The outage, which affected a wide range of Microsoft 365 services including Outlook, Teams and AI assistant Copilot, left many complaining they couldn’t access their emails. Microsoft indicated that it was making some headway as it tried to restore services, in fresh updates posted Friday on social media.

* NYT | A New Opera About Lincoln Pulls the Met Into the YouTube Era: A solution was found. The final performance of “Lincoln,” on Saturday, will be livestreamed on the Met’s YouTube channel, which has 336,000 subscribers and is typically used for promotion. (It will be available through Nov. 18.) This is the first time the Met has streamed an entire opera on YouTube, a move that could potentially transform the way its productions are made available to a wider audience, particularly new operagoers and those who do not live in New York.