* ICYMI: ‘We will win’: Six Broadview protesters plead not guilty to conspiracy, decry attack on First Amendment. Sun-Times…

- Federal prosecutors forced six protesters, including four Democratic politicians, into a magistrate’s courtroom Wednesday, where each denied guilt in an alleged conspiracy to slow a federal agent’s drive toward a west suburban holding facility earlier this fall.
- Charged with Kat Abughazaleh, Brian Straw and Cat Sharp — who is chief of staff to Ald. Andre Vasquez — are Michael Rabbitt, a 45th Ward Democratic committeeperson, Andre Martin and Joselyn Walsh, a musician.
- Each defendant faces a maximum of seven years in prison.

* Related stories…

• WTTW: Kat Abughazaleh, Other Democratic Candidates Plead Not Guilty to Charges Stemming From Confrontation at Broadview ICE Facility
• Tribune: Attorneys plan logistics for tour of ICE facility in Broadview; temporary restraining order to be extended
• Block Club: Protesters Keep Getting Arrested At Broadview By State Police Despite Promise To Protect Free Speech

* Gov. Pritzker will attend the ribbon cutting for the newly renovated International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 2 training facility at 10 am. Click here to watch.

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* Sun-Times | Hemp product ban, tacked onto law to reopen government, stuns Illinois businesses: ‘Unnecessary and cruel’: ”In the absence of action in Springfield, Governor Pritzker supports policies to protect people, including children, from being misinformed or harmed by these products,” a spokesperson said. West Side state Rep. La Shawn Ford — who has pushed for less stringent regulations including age limits, testing standards and packaging requirements for hemp products — said the ban starts “a whole new war on drugs.” “You can’t ban it. It’s still here. It’s just being driven underground,” he said.

* E&E News | Grain Belt Express faces Illinois high court review: Lawyers for the developers of the Grain Belt Express power line and Illinois utility regulators said a state appellate court erred last month when it overturned approval of a permit for the $7 billion project, throwing its future into limbo. They made their case during oral arguments before the Illinois Supreme Court, the latest plot twist in a decadelong effort to build the 780-mile Grain Belt Express line to deliver renewable energy from windy, sunny southwest Kansas to the nation’s largest electricity market, PJM Interconnection.

* Tribune | Illinois sees record EV sales as Trump administration ends federal tax credits, but state goals still far off: The third quarter of this year saw EV sales grow to 8.4% of overall vehicle sales in Illinois, a record, according to data from Experian Automotive published in Illinois Auto Outlook, a local publication of Foltz’s group. That was up a percentage point from the same period last year and from 7.1% the previous quarter, the data showed.

*** Statewide ***

* Tribune | Illinois climbs in national hospital safety ranking, but four hospitals get F grades: Illinois now ranks 17th in the country — up from 23rd a year ago and 30th before that — for its percentage of hospitals earning A grades for safety, according to Leapfrog, which releases hospital safety grades twice a year. Illinois moved up in the rankings because its percentage of A-graded hospitals increased slightly, while other states have seen their percentages drop, said Alexandra Campione, program manager of the safety grade for the Leapfrog Group.

* NPR Illinois | Looming court decision on conversion therapy could impact Illinois law: Mike Ziri is Director of Public Policy for Equality Illinois, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group. He said the laws protect patients. “Impacted communities know that this law exists and that they have recourse under the law to file a complaint if a therapist unethically engages in conversion therapy practices, coerces someone into conversion therapy practices,” he said.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Governing | How Illinois Made a ‘Transformational’ Investment in Transit: Supporters of the legislation hope it makes the transit network easier to use, with more intuitive wayfinding for riders, simpler fare policies, a stronger sense of safety and cleanliness and more frequent service. The ultimate goal is to increase ridership and make transit a viable alternative to driving for more people. “What’s super exciting about this is that it is taking the fiscal cliff and turning it on its head,” says Yonah Freemark, a researcher at the Urban Institute. “It’s saying, not only do we need to solve the funding crisis, but we need to make transit better.”

* WMBD | Pekin Republican said Downstate bailed out Chicago transit: State Rep. Travis Weaver is still sore that some of Central Illinois’ tax dollars were used to fix Chicago’s transit problems. The Pekin Republican had blunt words when it came to helping Chicago and Cook County dig out of their $200 million budget hole. “You and I don’t pay our gas tax to bail out Chicago Transit,” he said. “You and I pay our gas tax so that we can have good roads here in Peoria. So, I was really, really disappointed to see how that came together.”

* The Read Deal | A look at newest GOP gubernatorial candidate Rick Heidner’s real estate business: Heidner and his wife, Alisa Heidner, run commercial real estate firm Heidner Properties, along with their four children. The company owns and manages 280 commercial properties across the U.S., making him the most experienced real estate professional in the GOP primary. Over the past three years, the company has led the turnaround of a struggling suburban Chicago shopping mall, the Arboretum of South Barrington.

*** Chicago ***

* Crain’s | Head tax talks in flux as Johnson scrambles for budget votes: Johnson has held meetings with individual aldermen to gauge their support for the potential changes, but it’s far from certain the amendments will gain the 26 votes required for budget approval. Meanwhile, members of the Progressive Caucus say the mayor’s actual plan doesn’t line up with how he’s framed it.

* Illinois Answers Project | Feds Deployed Tear Gas on the Far South Side Even After Cops Told Them They Had No Gas Masks, Sources Say: Just after police officers arrived to take over and secure the area, the federal agents deployed tear gas, smoke and other riot-control chemicals against residents and officers, including Chicago Police Department Deputy Chief Dan O’Connor, who had asked the feds not to use the gas, the sources said. In addition to O’Connor, the South Chicago police district’s second-in-command, shift commander and much of the district’s tactical team were sickened by the gas, according to police sources.

* ProPublica | “I Lost Everything”: Venezuelans Were Rounded Up in a Dramatic Midnight Raid but Never Charged With a Crime: Stephen Miller, the White House homeland security adviser and architect of the nationwide immigration crackdown, declared that the building was “filled with TdA terrorists,” that the raid had “saved God knows how many lives” and that it was “one of the most successful law enforcement operations that we’ve seen in this country. A ProPublica investigation, however, has found little evidence to support the government’s claims. ProPublica has discovered the names of 21 of the detained Venezuelan men and women and interviewed 12 of them. We also spoke with dozens of their relatives, friends and neighbors. And we reviewed U.S. public records databases and court websites, examined court documents and social media accounts, obtained audio and video recordings made that night, and attended immigration court hearings.

* WIRED | DHS Kept Chicago Police Records for Months in Violation of Domestic Espionage Rules: For seven months, the data—records that had been requested on roughly 900 Chicagoland residents—sat on a federal server in violation of a deletion order issued by an intelligence oversight body. A later inquiry found that nearly 800 files had been kept, which a subsequent report said breached rules designed to prevent domestic intelligence operations from targeting legal US residents. The records originated in a private exchange between DHS analysts and Chicago police, a test of how local intelligence might feed federal government watchlists. The idea was to see whether street-level data could surface undocumented gang members in airport queues and at border crossings. The experiment collapsed amid what government reports describe as a chain of mismanagement and oversight failures.

* WGN | $172M and counting: What taxpayers spent on misconduct claims tied to one Chicago detective: The Chicago City Council is expected to approve a $17 million settlement in another wrongful conviction case involving a notorious former Chicago Police detective. Jose Maysonet spent 27 years in prison for a double murder conviction that was later overturned, amid allegations of misconduct by Reynaldo Guevara. Maysonet claimed in legal filings that Guevara beat him during a lengthy interrogation, forcing him to falsely confess to the 1990 killings of two brothers on the Northwest Side.

* Block Club Chicago | St. Sabina Food Pantry Sees ‘Record-Breaking Numbers’ As SNAP Benefits Falter: “We have made record-breaking numbers in the last two weeks,” Norwood said. Less than a week ago, lines formed outside the pantry an hour before it opened at 9 a.m., Norwood said. Staff couldn’t shrink the line until 2 p.m. — an hour before closing. One day, they had to cut the line off and ask people to return in the morning.

* ABC Chicago | Civil rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson hospitalized amid rare brain disorder diagnosis: Jackson is “under observation for Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP), a neurodegenerative disorder he has managed for more than a decade,” a statement from Rainbow PUSH read. The civil rights activist was initially diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. However, he was diagnosed with PSP in April 2025.

* The Times | Tales of Pope Leo, the Blues Brothers fan ‘on a mission from God’: Pope Leo XIV, 70, was a big fan of the anarchic 1980 Hollywood classic, a Vatican-produced documentary has revealed. He dressed up as one of the brothers while a seminarian, donning dark glasses and a fedora hat years before he switched to a mitre and papal robes. Leo from Chicago was released on Monday to mark six months since the pope’s election. It investigates the American pope’s younger years, interviewing his brothers, childhood friends and seminary colleagues.

* Chicago Eater | Alinea Has Lost a Michelin Star: “We were disappointed to learn of our @michelinguide demotion to two stars. For 20 years, Alinea has been devoted to pushing creativity, rigor, and the pursuit of perfection in our craft. That commitment remains as unwavering today as it was on day one, and will continue until the back door of 1723 locks for the last time,” the post reads.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* ABC Chicago | Judge to tour Broadview ICE facility amid ‘inhumane conditions’ allegations: The ICE facility in Broadview has been at the heart of “Operation Midway Blitz.” On Thursday, it will be in an even greater spotlight as U.S. Magistrate Judge Laura McNally will visit the facility. Attorneys who filed a class action lawsuit over alleged inhumane conditions will join Judge McNally.

* Daily Southtown | Dolton says former Mayor Tiffany Henyard should be responsible for attorneys fees in FOIA lawsuit: The village, during a court hearing Wednesday, called the amount sought by the Edgar County Watchdogs in attorney fees unreasonable. The nonprofit requested Cook County Judge Kate Moreland order the village pay $10,000 in civil penalties, $41,000 in attorney’s fees and $1,500 in other costs, which will be decided ahead of a hearing at 10:30 a.m. on Nov. 26.

* Tribune | Riverdale Mayor Lawrence Jackson convicted of perjury, obstruction of justice: A federal jury on Wednesday found Riverdale Mayor Lawrence Jackson guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice, a verdict that may force the four-term mayor from office. The verdict came just hours after prosecutors and defense attorneys presented conflicting portrayals of Jackson’s conduct in a 2021 deposition. The charges stemmed from Jackson’s deposition in a civil lawsuit brought by Tri-State Disposal, a waste company that had trash disposal contracts in Riverdale for years.

* Aurora Beacon-News | Aurora to host town halls on proposed 2026 city budget next two Saturdays: The city’s proposed budget for next year was made available last month, and since then Aurora aldermen have been reviewing the document during special meetings of the City Council’s Finance Committee. As proposed, the $569 million budget for 2026 is $163.6 million less than this year’s, mostly because of bonds the city took out this year for big construction projects, city officials have said.

*** Downstate ***

* WCIA | Sangamon Co. Mental Health Commission urges formation of countywide mental health board: The commission also approved videos pushing for the creation of a Sangamon County 708 Mental Health Board in an effort to coordinate and expand mental health and substance use services across the county. If the county board agrees with this recommendation, the question of whether to establish and fund a mental health board will be placed before Sangamon County voters in March 2026.

* WCIA | Mahomet School Board member facing felony charge in I-57 crash that hurt State Trooper: Illinois State Police said around 1:50 p.m. on March 1, a trooper responded to a report of debris in the road on I-57 near Chebanse. The trooper was parked in the right lane with their emergency lights on. Later, the trooper returned to the car, and the squad car was hit by a Lincoln SUV that failed to move over. Both the trooper and the other driver, who was later identified as 66-year-old Harold (Max) McComb, were brought to the hospital with injuries. […] Now, however, McComb is facing a charge of passing an emergency vehicle and causing an injury, which is a Class 4 felony. He is also facing charges of reckless driving and failure to reduce speed — a Class A Misdemeanor and a Petty Offense, respectively.

* WGLT | Bloomington homeless shelter village delays opening due to electrical component: The Bridge was originally anticipated to be open in December. But HSHM CEO Matt Burgess said it will not likely open until January because there has been a delay in shipping a switchgear that is a crucial part of electrical grids. “We won’t be able to open without power running to the cabins,” Burgess said. “And that [switchgear] is not due to arrive until the very end of December.”

* WMBD | Panel discussion at Illinois Central College addresses education landscape in Illinois: The Student Center CEFCU Commons at Illinois Central College‘s Peoria campus was occupied by around 50 educators, administrators and local officials, all to discuss what Illinois schools are succeeding in, and what they need to improve. The discussion, hosted by Advance Illinois, is entitled “The State We’re In”, and is a state-wide initiative to be transparent about the educational landscape of the individual communities within Illinois.

* WSPY | Kendall County budget draws criticism from State’s Attorney’s Office: Kendall County State’s Attorney Eric Weis says his office is having trouble keeping good prosecutors due to competition with other counties. Weis says the Kendall County Board’s recently approved budget lacks the pay increases for prosecutors needed to make the county competitive. “Even when they give us funding for new employees, if they don’t give us enough money, it’s really kind of a moot point. If I can’t fill the position with a prosecutor that is willing to take that money that we’re offering them when they could go work somewhere else, we’re not going to fill the spot. So it’s sort of a hollow gesture to say here’s the position, but we’re not going to give you enough money to actually fill it. It’s really not going to make a difference overall.”

*** National ***

* Politico | Fellow Democrat takes aim at Chuy García’s ‘undemocratic’ retirement gambit: A fellow Democrat moved to sanction Illinois Rep. Chuy García Wednesday for a gambit in which he retired and functionally guaranteed that his chief of staff would be the only Democrat on the ballot to succeed him. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington went to the House floor as lawmakers prepared to debate legislation reopening the government to introduce a resolution accusing García of “undermining the process of a free and fair election” and calling on the House to disapprove of his behavior.

* NYT | Trump Administration Expected to Drastically Cut Housing Grants: The Trump administration has developed plans for a wholesale shift in homelessness policy that would slash support for long-term housing programs, according to a confidential grant-making plan, and critics say it could quickly place as many as 170,000 formerly homeless people at risk of returning to the streets. Pivoting from housing aid, the administration’s approach would shift billions to short-term programs that impose work rules, help the police dismantle encampments, and require the homeless to accept treatment for mental health or addiction.

* Financial Times | How high are OpenAI’s compute costs? Possibly a lot higher than we thought: A Microsoft spokeswoman told us: “We won’t get into specifics, but I can say the numbers aren’t quite right.” Asked what exactly that meant, the spokeswoman said Microsoft would not comment and did not respond to our subsequent requests. An OpenAI spokesman did not respond to our emails other than to say we should ask Microsoft.