* ICYMI: Judge temporarily blocks Illinois’ ‘medical aid in dying’ law from starting — for some. NBC Chicago…

- The TRO essentially gives Catholic health care workers a temporary exemption from the law. But the law will go into effect for others.
- The law “authorizes a qualified patient with a terminal disease to request that a physician prescribe aid-in-dying medication that will allow the patient to end the patient’s life in a peaceful manner,” according to Senate Bill 1950.
- A federal judge on Thursday declined to block the law.

* Related stories…

• Rockford News First | Illinois medical aid-in-dying law takes effect Saturday
• WGLT: New law makes medical aid in dying possible in McLean County — if you can find a provider
• ABC Chicago: Judge approves TRO in suit filed by Catholic leaders in Illinois ‘medical aid in dying’ law

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

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* Crain’s | Judge will name receiver to take over closed Resilience hospitals: The judge weighing the fate of the business interests of Resilience Healthcare’s owners has announced he will appoint an outside receiver to take control of shuttered West Suburban and Weiss Memorial hospitals, a move he had refused to make earlier this summer.

* Tribune | Tracking COVID cash: In an attempt to figure out how the money was being spent and whether it helped the city, county and state recover from the pandemic, the Tribune and the University of Chicago’s Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation launched a first-of-its-kind analysis of local data by scraping and collating thousands of pages of reports that the Democratic administrations of Pritzker, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, and Chicago mayors Lori Lightfoot and Brandon Johnson were required to submit to the federal government.

* Capitol News Illinois | Public defense reform advances as Illinois moves to hire statewide public defender: In an official job posting this week, the qualifications and duties of the statewide public defender are laid out, including the mandate to standardize county public defender practices, workloads and salary scales. Recruitment and retention for these jobs has been a difficult barrier, especially as rural areas have long faced attorney shortages more broadly. The initial statewide public defender will serve a two-year term and receive a salary of $218,400 — equal to that of Attorney General Kwame Raoul, an elected constitutional officer. The parity is required by the 2025 law creating the office, as is a raise for public defender employees across the state to compete with prosecutors employed by the state’s attorney’s office in the same county.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Block Club | New State ‘Grocery Rescue Program’ Will Fund Reopening Of Grocery Stores To Combat Food Deserts: The Grocery Rescue Program will provide grants up to $1.5 million to business owners who reopen grocery stores across the state that have closed in the last year, Gov. JB Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) announced Thursday. The state earmarked $4.5 million for the grant program.

* Patch | ‘It May Be Necessary’ To Raise Insanity Defense After Gunfire Hits Senator Meg Cappel’s House: Defense Lawyer: Joliet Patch has obtained the latest court filings in the criminal proceedings against Dana Thompson. Will County’s prosecutors were successful in last year’s SAFE-T Act detention hearing to keep Thompson, now 33 years old, in the Will County Jail. She has remained there since Sept. 17, 2025. […] Thompson’s father was not at either of the homes that were hit by gunfire, officials said. One of the homes belonged to Democratic State Sen. Meg Loughran Cappel.

* Capitol City Now | Springfield’s Amy Beadle has a new workplace: “Amy will make an excellent addition to our team because of her substantial background, strong event management skills, and most importantly, her passion and dedication for Illinois and everyone that calls our capital city home,” said Illinois First Lady MK Pritzker in a written statement provided to the Springfield Business Journal. “We look forward to seeing all she will accomplish in her new role and can’t wait to welcome her to the Executive Mansion.”

*** Chicago ***

* Tribune | Mayor Brandon Johnson declares reelection campaign: Behind the scenes, some critics mused Johnson would forgo a reelection bid given how coyly he’s played off mounting questions over his political future. His fundraising — $631,309 in his campaign account at the end of June — is also remarkably low for a sitting mayor who hopes to remain in office. But the former Chicago Teachers Union organizer has beaten the odds before. He was outspent by his 2023 runoff opponent Paul Vallas nearly 2-to-1 and started off that campaign polling at just 3% in December 2022. Mayor Lori Lightfoot even once famously scoffed, “Brandon Johnson isn’t going to be the mayor,” before she lost to him in the first round of voting.

* Block Club | Mayor Brandon Johnson Announces Reelection Bid, Faces Crowded Field In 2027 Mayor’s Race: In his remarks, Johnson listed off what he sees as his major wins while in office, including a decrease in homicides and other violent crime, reopening city-run mental health clinics and restarting a city Department of Environment. “We most certainly have more work to do,” Johnson said, but “it’s important to acknowledge that progress has been made, because this city is better, stronger, and safer than what I inherited.”

* Crain’s | Johnson needs a foil for his re-election fight. He picked Michael Sacks: Brandon Johnson has plenty of declared opponents in his campaign for a second term as Chicago mayor. But at his re-election kickoff Sunday, he reserved some of his sharpest attacks for someone who isn’t running: billionaire private-equity executive Michael Sacks.

* CBS Chicago | Alexi Giannoulias makes his case for why he should be Chicago’s next mayor: Giannoulias supported the closure of schools with under-enrollment, like Austin’s Frederick Douglass Academy High School in Austin, which currently has 27 students in a building built for 1,000. “We have to do what’s best, especially if they’re draining resources from a city and school system that is already broke,” he said. He argued that students have to “be in an environment where they can get a full education and quality resources.”

* Press release | Alexi For Chicago Campaign Launches New Ad Highlighting City Hall Dysfunction: The new ad directly targets Johnson’s record and the growing gap between what he promised and what he’s failed to deliver. From rising taxes and budget chaos to a revolving door of top advisors and persistent vacancies for vital city agencies, Chicagoans have been forced to accept too little from their government for too long. After years of incompetence at City Hall, Chicago doesn’t need more promises about what government might someday accomplish.

The spot…

* Tribune | A year after Silverio Villegas González’s killing, neighbors say fear remains: “We find it very hard today to have to gather in these spaces,” said the Rev. Brendan Curran, a Catholic priest and immigrant rights advocate. “We feel like we have been victims of terror.” Betty Alzamora led protesters down Mannheim Road Saturday afternoon, her neon green vest bright against a procession of handmade signs and banners. She remembers the day Villegas González was killed and said fears of such violence still keep some of her family members from going out in public.

* Tribune | Chicagoans have broad demands as search for next CPD superintendent hits halfway mark: With a Nov. 12 deadline to submit three finalists to Mayor Brandon Johnson, the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability has now completed five listening sessions, held across the city, to solicit feedback from residents about what qualities should be held by the next superintendent.

* Tribune | Mexican Independence Day Parade brings out a vibrant Little Village: This Sunday marked the 55th anniversary of the parade, which stepped off at the Little Village Arch on Albany Avenue and continued down 26th Street to Kostner Avenue. Streets for over a mile were packed with waving Mexican flags, DJs and children blowing kazoos. According to the Little Village Chamber of Commerce, an estimated 400,000 people were expected to attend the parade, led by singer-songwriter Adriel Favela as the Grand Marshal.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Daily Herald | Even as Bears eye Indiana move, Arlington Heights extends lobbyist contract to lure team to suburbs: The village’s new $5,000-a-month agreement with Mac Strategies Group is for consulting and lobbying services related to legislation affecting redevelopment of the former Arlington Park racetrack property owned by the NFL club. Lobbyist Matt Murphy — a former Republican state senator from Palatine — and firm principal Ryan McLaughlin were in the hallways of the Illinois state Capitol on Arlington Heights’ behalf in the waning days and hours of the spring legislative session.

* Daily Herald | ‘Right thing to do’ or ‘feel-good’ PR? Suburbs split on whether ICE bans on municipal property actually work:
Art Janura Jr., who serves as a corporation counsel for Hoffman Estates, likened it to believing a local government could tell the FBI and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to go away. “The (ICE-free zone) signs are nothing but a feel-good issue,” Janura said. “One hundred percent PR. That sign doesn’t mean anything to the feds.” At one time, Hanover Park Mayor Rod Craig held a similar view. But he and others were persuaded by several factors, including the day ICE came for one of Hanover Park’s foreign-born police officers. “I was concerned that we can’t stop ICE,” Craig said. “But you have to take the values of your community into account.

* Tribune | Police say Flock is invaluable. But as misuse mounts, many wonder how to rein in the surveillance system: Suburban police chiefs told the Tribune safeguards are necessary, but that the cameras remain invaluable tools in solving — or even stopping — crime. Meanwhile, Illinois state lawmakers are proposing new restrictions and towns are adjusting or canceling contracts. Passionate neighbors, in a rare moment of bipartisanship, are pushing to do away with the technology entirely. “Every time you give a bunch of workers access to a database like this, there is going to be the temptation for them to search it for personal ends,” said Matthew Kugler, a law professor at Northwestern University.

* ABC Chicago | Meeting in Aurora to focus on proposal to regulate data centers in Illinois: Data centers in Illinois will be the topic for a meeting in west suburban Aurora. Monday’s event will focus on the Power Act. It is a data center regulation bill that did not move forward during the spring legislative session in Springfield.

* Daily Herald | ‘Safe, stigma-free alternative’: DuPage County Crisis Recovery Center marks anniversary: In its first year of operations, DuPage County’s Crisis Recovery Center has completed more than 2,200 on-site assessments, providing mental health and addiction recovery services to thousands of residents and easing the strain on area emergency rooms. The center, which opened in Wheaton on Sept. 2, 2025, is designed to stabilize those in crisis and, in most cases, provide an ongoing care plan within 24 hours.

* Crain’s | Restoration plan for Evanston’s vacant Harley Clarke mansion blessed by preservation board: In Evanston, a developer’s $20 million restoration plan for a publicly owned lakefront mansion got the nod from the city’s preservation board. It paves the way for long-awaited revitalization of a landmark that has sat vacant since 2015 and faced a demolition threat in 2018.

*** Downstate ***

* WCBU | Creve Coeur police in ’state of chaos’ as former chief investigated for misconduct: Creve Coeur Police [CCPD] Chief Dale King has been back on the job for three weeks after the resignations of Chief Justin Egan, Deputy Chief Dan Nelson and Officer Dustin Ward. “It’s one thing to lose half your department; it’s another when that half is all your upper management,” King said in a phone call with WCBU. […] The Peoria Journal Star first reported Egan is alleged to have used the village’s Flock license plate cameras to keep tabs on his ex-wife, who is seeking the orders of protection, while he was police chief. Egan is also accused of ordering other officers to track her. The couple filed for divorce in 2025, according to court documents.

* WCIA | Edgar County’s ‘Living Room Program’ closing its doors: The Human Resources Center of Edgar and Clark Counties announced the end of the program on Wednesday, Sept. 9. Officials said the program is ending because funding was not renewed — and they were not able to find another source to takes its place. The program’s last day will be Sept. 30. Officials said the program offers a safe and supportive environment for adults experiencing a mental health crisis. It also connects people in need with support services.

* WAND | The Living Room Program in Edgar County closes its doors, staff works to keep showers available: “What we’ve been able to do is get the ability to keep it open 2 days a week,” Qualified Mental Health Professional Mandy Waggoner said. “That’s profound, okay?” Waggoner intends to single-handedly keep the shower service running. She’s pivoting from a paid position with the program to a purely volunteer position. […] The Living Room is the only resource available for many people experiencing homelessness in the county, Waggoner said. “The economy is hurting, programs are hurting, but again, Paris has no shelters,” Waggoner said. “And if they don’t have a shelter, they don’t even have a place where they can consistently go to the bathroom.”

* WAND | University of Illinois Students Complete Solar-Powered BEACON Home in Rantoul: “I think it’s very crucial at this stage in the world that we start investing in a more sustainable future,” Agarwal said. “That’s what we’re working toward with single family homes, they often lack the investment required for energy efficiency because it isn’t seen as a profitable investment.” The home will soon be donated to a local family through Habitat for Humanity.

* WGLT | ISU educator, advocate and activist Bob Sutherland dies at age 88: He was “a civil rights warrior in the ’60s and ’70s championing minority rights (we got death threats in the mail); an active proponent of LGBTQ rights; a founding member of the AIDS Task Force in the ’80s; president of the local ACLU chapter. And so so so much more,” Dave said. “He seemed to be an expert on everything — art, music, history, literature (he taught me to read The Canterbury Tales in Middle English), and widely traveled. And he had an absurdist sense of humor.”

* WGLT | McLean County launches alert system for sharing weather, traffic and public health information: Residents can register for McLean County CodeRED notifications online. Alerts can be delivered to U.S. and international phone numbers and in English, French or Spanish. The county is using the same system as Bloomington, a platform called CodeRED that is capable of sending notifications through phone calls, text messages or emails. Currently, the county health and highway departments will be among the countywide departments using the system to provide information to residents.

*** National ***
* AP | DOJ went after protesters for felony assault, but juries, judges were unconvinced, AP analysis finds: Most of the arrests — 102 — were for felony assault on a federal officer, which can carry a sentence of up to 20 years in prison. Of those cases, 41% were dismissed and 34% were pleaded down to misdemeanors. Ten people pleaded guilty to felony assault. Nine people got prison time.

* New Republic | A New Report Reveals Why Robots Aren’t Taking Your Job Anytime Soon: The St. Louis Fed’s research surveyed workers in a range of occupations about their work lives, and found that the use of AI programs—ChatGPT is the most common—is surprisingly widespread for such a new technology. The survey found that in 75 percent of occupations, at least one-fifth of the workforce used AI. “That’s kind of just a wider distribution than we were expecting,” Adam Blandin, a St. Louis Fed research fellow and an assistant professor of economics at Vanderbilt University, told me. “Everybody expects computer programmers or executives or something like that to use it, but it’s just more widely spread across occupations than we realized.”

* The New Republic | The Accelerating Project to Extend Abortion Bans to All 50 States: In the case before the Fifth Circuit on Wednesday, Louisiana blamed the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for abortions had by Louisianans, and asked the court to stop the agency from allowing them to continue. Representing the FDA, the Department of Justice argued that Louisiana’s case was flawed, not because it was baseless, but because it was going after the wrong culprit. According to the DOJ, Louisiana should sue the other states from which abortion providers serve Louisiana patients. The Justice Department did not defend the FDA, which it ostensibly represents. It also didn’t object to Louisiana’s dangerous claim that its state law enforcement powers had been impeded by those outside its borders.

* NYT | Some in Silicon Valley Are Questioning the Calls for an A.I. Slowdown: Satya Nadella, the chief executive of Microsoft, said his company supported proposals like independent auditors and “broader efforts to develop the mechanisms to make this more than just talk” in a social media post on Sunday. “We also need to accelerate and spread the benefits of A.I., such that they are diffused broadly across countries, communities, and companies,” Mr. Nadella said. “The key is that this cannot be controlled by a handful of entities, but must have broad representation,” he added.