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Isabel’s afternoon roundup: CPS faces 280 layoffs after banking on $150M in unapproved state funding
Friday, Nov 13, 2026 - Posted by Isabel Miller * The Chicago Tribune…
* CBS Chicago | Illinois gets over $188K from Family Dollar lawsuit settlement over deceptive price allegations: Illinois had joined 17 other states and the FTC in suing the chain, alleging they regularly charged customers more at the register than the prices displayed on the shelves. The settlement requires Family Dollar to establish a $40 million redress fund for eligible consumers, and a $20 million discount program for customers, Raoul said. A total of $3 million will be paid to the states that sued. Illinois is set to get $188,548, according to Raoul’s announcement. * Block Club | Is CPD’s Domestic Violence Program Working? Alders Finally Hold Hearing As Need Skyrockets: Like the original meeting, Thursday’s hearing was a direct response to a Block Club investigation published in June. The report revealed that the city responded to Chicago’s domestic violence crisis by investing $3.9 million into a police program that has so far produced few documented results and failed to accomplish one of its top goals of connecting survivors with community service providers. Block Club found that very few providers received referrals from the program last year. * Chalkbeat Chicago | CTU-backed candidates win three Chicago school board races that were too close to call: The updated results reaffirm the new power balance that emerged from the Nov. 3 election. Candidates backed by pro-school choice groups will make up a narrow majority, loosening the teachers union’s current stronghold. The official proclamation of results in the historic election is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 24, according to the Chicago Board of Elections. […] In District 6a, which extends from downtown to Wicker Park, Isaiah White is holding onto a narrow lead, just 145 votes ahead of incumbent Anusha Thotakura. A third candidate, Brenda Lee Anderson, trails Thotakura by about 1,000 votes. * WGN | New 24/7 mental health center launches on Chicago’s South Side: When you walk in, you feel like you’re entering a cozy, comfy loft. There’s, of course, a living room space, along with a kitchen and sleeping areas. Thresholds has other locations, but this is a first for the South Side facility. The nonclinical environment is designed to serve as a refuge for anyone experiencing a mental health crisis. * Tribune | Snow removal contractor gets probation in McCormick Place kickback scheme: In sentencing Sansone to two years of probation, U.S. District Judge Elaine Bucklo said the crime “doesn’t make sense” given his lack of criminal history, strong family support and a well-paying career as a contractor. “You were taking money for not doing work, and it’s from the taxpayers,” Bucklo said. “And I’m afraid there is every reason to think that it was going to continue, except that the government found out about it.” * Crain’s | A U of I quantum startup that didn’t get away: Photon Queue has moved into The Terminal, an office and industrial project in Humboldt Park that was developed by Morningstar founder Joe Mansueto and IBT Group. The two-year-old company joins another quantum startup, EeroQ, at The Terminal, a collection of buildings that once were home to a locomotive headlight factory. * Chicago Mag | How to Give Away a Museum Painting: Since joining the Art Institute in 2024, Schuhmacher has committed to getting a complete record of ownership for every single one of the nearly 300,000 objects in the museum’s collection — a sign of the growing importance of provenance in the art world. In the past year alone, his department, among the largest in the country, has analyzed nearly 18,000 of these works. “You want answers, but you don’t want quick answers,” he says. “You want answers that live up to the scrutiny.” * Daily Southtown | Tinley Park police Chief Thomas Tilton, who was voted no confidence, replaced after resignation: Tilton’s resignation was effective Oct. 23, Village Manager Pat Carr confirmed in an email. The village would not comment more on the resignation, Carr said. Brian McDermott, who joined the Tinley Park Police Department in September 2025 as deputy police chief of operations, will replace Tilton. “Brian has made a considerable impact over the last year, overseeing patrol division operations, and has demonstrated his leadership, management skills and ability to drive strategic initiatives,” Mayor Michael Glotz said at the meeting. * Sun-Times | Lurie Children’s gets state approval for $480 million hospital in Downers Grove: The Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board approved the hospital’s certificate of need application on Nov. 5, a key step toward expanding pediatric emergency and specialty care in the western suburbs. The proposed 298,000-square-foot facility will include 48 inpatient beds, an emergency department, operating rooms, diagnostic imaging and outpatient services. It is also expected to offer specialty care in oncology, cardiology, gastroenterology and orthopedics. * Daily Southtown | Dixmoor Library District fails to reach agreement to build a library: Evans said the village told her a year ago “it was personal,” as to why they cannot build a library and said she wants the village to not hold a grudge. “It’s time for some type of forgiveness or something. Do something for the residents. We need something,” Evans said. Dixmoor Mayor Fitzgerald Roberts responded to Evans’s plea by saying the village and its residents cannot afford to have a physical library district, denying her claim it is personal. * Daily Herald | A community in mourning day after fatal train collision in Western Springs: Mark Wolz, owner of Elite Fitness, a business across Burlington Avenue from the tracks near where the collision occurred, said a gym member saw the vehicle go around the warning gates before it was struck. “Either Lagrange, Western Springs, Downers Grove, Hinsdale, Clarendon Hills — every year, there’s a train crash, and they don’t have to happen,” he said. * Rockford News First | Microsoft eyes Rockford property for data center, city says: This comes as a public hearing approaches to give residents an opportunity to make comments on future data center developments within the city. The meeting will take place 6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 17 at City Hall, 425 E. State Street. Microsoft is looking into the Monarch-controlled property on Rockford’s south side for the development. While the city says Microsoft is still evaluating the site, plans remain unclear at this time. The global technology company has shared a frequently asked questions packet for city officials and residents to review. * Rockford News First | Fire department union members express concerns over operation changes and contract negotiations: Rockford Fire Department union members say without Medic 4 and Engine 5, community members could be at risk with slower response times. “I mean, unfortunately, it’s not anticipation; it’s a ‘We know what happens.’ We know, with this call volume, it’s not a matter of if; it’s just a matter of when. Someone’s not going to have the response that they need,” President of the firefighters’ union Matthew Renfro said. * WCIA | Parkland College revives CDL truck driving course, accepting applications: The CDL program has been around for years, but the college put it on pause as it looked for a new partner to host the training school. Now that they’ve partnered with Road Runner Truck Driving School, Parkland will be teaching the courses once again. Students will learn all of the procedures over the course of 160 hours — 40 hours in classroom training and 120 hours behind the wheel. * WCBU | Peoria city leaders set sights on redevelopment of Northwoods Mall area: The city intends to establish an Illinois STAR Bond District, which stands for sales tax and revenue, with the hope of attracting destination-based retail, entertainment and tourism opportunities. “This is a huge opportunity for Peoria for economic development, for tourism, for entertainment,” said Mayor Rita Ali. * Forbes | Microsoft 365 Outage Continues: Tech Giant Has No Timeline For Recovery, Says It’s ‘Deeply Sorry’: Microsoft said in a 3:05 p.m. EST update it did not have a timeline for full recovery yet. Microsoft’s service health status still noted service degradation as of 10 a.m. EST, with the company noting, “Some users may still experience intermittent access issues or delayed email delivery as recovery continues.”
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Today’s numbers
Friday, Nov 13, 2026 - Posted by Rich Miller * Bill Dwyer…
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GOMB projects $927 million surplus this year, $2.4 billion FY28 budget hole
Friday, Nov 13, 2026 - Posted by Isabel Miller * Press release…
* Before anyone gets too attached to that surplus, a warning from the report…
* Back to the press release…
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Pritzker’s PAC goes 12–2
Friday, Nov 13, 2026 - Posted by Isabel Miller * The Sun-Times late last month…
* Democrats won 12 of the 14 races where Pritzker’s PAC got involved, according to a spokesperson. That includes three US Senate races in states Trump won by double digits two years ago. The latest win came Wednesday. AP…
* CNN…
Pritzker’s PAC spent $1,386,000 total in Mississippi, including $1,186,000 for the two TV ads and $200,000 for get-out-the-vote calls and texts targeting Black voters. Click here for that second tv ad. In Kansas, which Trump won by 16 points two years ago, the PAC spent $508,500 on digital ads against Republican US Sen. Roger Marshall. Democrat Adam Hamilton won. The PAC put another $244,000 into calls and texts targeting Black voters in South Carolina, where Democrat Annie Andrews defeated Republican Darlene Graham. Trump won that state by nearly 18 points. The PAC also helped Democrats win Nevada’s governor’s race and eight US House contests: SC-01, TX-23, OH-07, AL-02, NH-01, MI-10, VA-01 and NM-02. The two losses were close. Democrats fell short by 1.8 points in Arkansas’ 2nd District and 1.1 points in Tennessee’s 9th.
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Chicago CFO quits, says staying would ‘compromise my integrity’ (Updated)
Friday, Nov 13, 2026 - Posted by Isabel Miller * Sun-Times…
* Gabrysch’s full statement…
* The response from Johnson’s office. Crain’s…
* Some background from the Tribune…
* CBS Chicago…
* Gabrysch’s response to the mayor’s statement…
Gabrysch: “This effort by the administration to deflect from the serious issues at stake and attack those who attempt to hold them accountable is disappointing but not surprising. I stand by my statement and will continue to operate in accordance with my values and integrity.”
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Speaker Welch’s office hires outside law firm for $450K workplace culture review
Friday, Nov 13, 2026 - Posted by Isabel Miller * The Chicago Tribune…
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Isabel’s morning briefing: Proposed federal rule could cost 225K Illinoisans SNAP benefits; Transit officials propose $5B budget; CPD rarely serves warrants to seize domestic abusers’ guns
Friday, Nov 13, 2026 - Posted by Isabel Miller * ICYMI: Proposed SNAP changes could impact more than 200K Illinois residents. SJ-R…
- 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. * 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. * 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. * 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. * 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. * 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. * 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.
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Good morning!
Friday, Nov 13, 2026 - Posted by Isabel Miller
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Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Today’s edition of Capitol Fax (use all CAPS in password)
Friday, Nov 13, 2026 - Posted by Rich Miller
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Selected press releases (live updates)
Friday, Nov 13, 2026 - Posted by Isabel Miller
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