* ICYMI: Lawmakers name acting legislative inspector general after McCuskey resignation. Sun-Times…

- A former federal prosecutor who investigated crimes against humanity committed by Saddam Hussein will be tasked with probing allegations of misconduct by Illinois lawmakers beginning next month.
- The bipartisan Legislative Ethics Commission named David Risley acting legislative inspector general effective Oct. 1, taking the place of Michael McCuskey, who last week announced his resignation at the end of the month in the wake of complaints about his handling of sexual harassment allegations that have roiled Springfield.
- Risley, who previously worked as an investigator under former Legislative Inspector General Carol Pope, was an assistant U.S. attorney for Illinois’ central district, and he served in the U.S. Regime Crimes Liaison Office investigating crimes against humanity in Iraq.

* Related stories…

• Tribune: Former federal prosecutor to take over as Illinois’ acting legislative ethics watchdog Oct. 1
• WAND: Legislative Ethics Commission appoints acting Legislative Inspector General

* At 11 am, Gov. JB Pritzker will host a press conference on the impact of the Trump Administration’s Operation Midway Blitz. Click here to watch.

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* Capitol News Illinois | ‘Huge step forward’: Illinois inches closer on battery storage, solar goals: State regulators took the first major step last month toward bringing new energy storage online, a key component of legislation that took effect in June. The results of the first battery power procurement auction mean another 600 megawatts of new utility-scale energy storage projects will come online in Illinois by 2030 — roughly enough to power half a million homes, or the equivalent of what a single coal or natural gas plant generates. That’s over four times the 141 megawatts of utility-scale battery storage currently installed in the state, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.

* Crain’s | ComEd’s crackdown thins the data-center pipeline — a break for the strained power grid: Altogether, ComEd says six customers have put up $1 billion in letters of credit to cover a portion of the electricity they’re seeking for the first 10 years as part of Transmission Security Agreements. “TSAs are an important safeguard for our existing customers,” ComEd CEO Gil Quiniones said in a statement. “By ensuring that large new power users are making meaningful financial commitments before their projects advance, ComEd can help achieve state goals for responsible growth and do our part to minimize the risk of costs being shifted onto existing customers.”

* Illinois Answers Project | Two years after Illinois Answers exposed restraint-chair abuse, jails are doing better: At least ten Illinois county jails that weren’t reporting their use of restraint chairs to a state monitoring unit began doing so after an Illinois Answers Project investigation revealed jails were dramatically underreporting incidents. Three other jails that were restraining people for long periods have since reported declines in restraint-chair use.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Center Square | Illinois sued over digital tax, fee: Illinois is facing new lawsuits over the state’s digital ad tax and social media platform fee. Internet freedom advocate NetChoice – a trade organization that includes social media giants Meta, Google, X, TikTok and Snap – filed two complaints in Cook County court on Friday. NetChoice Litigation Center Director Paul Taske said the Supreme Court has been clear that taxes applied to the press must be applied generally.

* Tribune | Trump backs Darren Bailey for Illinois governor as GOP candidate has sought to distance himself from president: In making his second bid for governor, Bailey has sought to sideline Trump as an issue and focus on state issues to build support in the voter-rich suburbs, which have moved increasingly Democratic in part because of the president’s unpopularity there. “Donald Trump has nothing to do with me running for governor,” Bailey told one reporter who asked about the Republican’s active cultivation of the president’s backing, including frequent visits to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, during the 2022 governor race.

* ABC Chicago | President Trump’s surprise endorsement of GOP candidate Bailey reshapes Illinois governor’s race: Bailey said the late-night endorsement caught him unaware. “I was woken last night by my phone ringing many times, letting me know that,” he said. Bailey welcomed the support but argued the race hinges on state issues. “Who wouldn’t from the president of the United States? But Craig, here’s what we got to understand: This race for governor is not about this endorsement. This race for governor is about fixing what JB Pritzker has broken for eight years,” Bailey said.

* WGN | Governor JB Pritzker reflects on Operation Midway Blitz: ‘communities are not back to normal’: And as Brandon Johnson kicks off his bid for a second term, Pritzker said he won’t endorse anyone in next year’s race for Chicago Mayor. “It’s important for the governor of the state to be able to work with whoever the mayor is going to be and not have a bad relationship. If you’re endorsing another candidate, against, you know, somebody that ends up winning, you know, that’s not a good way to start a relationship,” Pritzker said.

* WAND | Collin Corbett makes pitch as independent candidate for governor: Corbett is also committed to keeping the Chicago Bears in Illinois. “Give the Bears what they’re asking for. No tax breaks, no tax giveaways,” Corbett added. “It’s going to be all about making sure they can negotiate with local taxing bodies. Estimates are they’re going to pay $14-$15 million per year in property taxes. That site [in Arlington Heights] never generated more than $3 million.”

*** Chicago ***

* Sun-Times | City Council committee backs raising threshold for taking on debt: Over strenuous objections from Mayor Brandon Johnson’s most powerful ally, a City Council committee backed a measure Monday that would make it more difficult for Chicago to borrow money and increase the mountain of debt imposed on future generations of taxpayers. Retiring 13th Ward Ald. Marty Quinn initially wanted to raise the threshold for approving city borrowing from a simple majority, or 26 votes, to a two-thirds majority, or 34 votes. That would have allowed 17 Council members to block future borrowing.

* Block Club | Chicago Joins New York City In Suing Trump Administration Over New Green Card Restrictions: Chicago joined a coalition led by New York City in suing the Department of Homeland Security and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services over the change to the public charge rule that are set to take effect Friday. The public charge rule allows the government to deny a person’s immigration application if they are deemed to be likely “public charges” that would overly rely on public assistance.

* The Real Deal | Chicago Mayor Johnson’s re-election bid sets up real estate showdown: Perhaps the largest way in which Johnson has butted heads with the real estate industry is his proposed renter’s ordinance, which he’s been tweaking in hopes of getting past City Council. Elements of the ordinance, which include a just cause evictions clause and language requiring landlords to foot the bill for tenant relocation costs in certain situations, have been widely condemned across the real estate industry.

* Sun-Times | This group is building benches at bus stops that don’t have one. Will the city let them?:
The Chicago Transit Authority has nearly 11,000 bus stops in Chicago. Many of them don’t have benches. Over last decade, the city has removed benches from bus stops to deter loitering, according to news reports. It’s unclear whether the city will allow the new benches, which aren’t bolted down, to stay. The CTA and city Transportation Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the benches. “We’re waiting to see what happens,” said Kovnar, who works in software. “Obviously if the city sends us an angry letter, we will stop. … But I think it’s hard to argue that the benches are not wanted.”

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Shaw Local | Illinois towns scramble for road salt after state bid goes unfilled: McHenry was one of those towns that did not get a bid, public works director Russ Adams told the McHenry City Council at its first August meeting. “We were notified last week through CMS that we did not receive any bids for rock salt for the [2026-27 winter] season,” Adams said. “I have been working on alternatives to procure salt,” Adams said, adding that it’s a problem statewide.

* Press release | Clerk Monica Gordon Marks National Voter Registration Day with Push To Register, Engage Next Generation of Voters — and a New Rap Video: Cook County Clerk Monica Gordon is marking National Voter Registration Day today by encouraging eligible residents across Cook County to register to vote, with a special focus on engaging the next generation of voters in the democratic process. As part of that effort, Gordon is also unveiling a new voter engagement video, “One Vote,” created in collaboration with Grammy Award-winning Chicago rap artist Che “Rhymefest” Smith. The video uses music and storytelling to deliver a simple message: every vote matters, and every voter has a voice.

* Tribune | Army Corps resumes work at Brandon Road Project as invasive carp encroach on Illinois River: More than a month after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers halted work on the Brandon Road Lock and Dam near Joliet, part of a $1.15 billion project to keep invasive carp out of the Great Lakes, the agency announced last week it would resume construction. The Army Corps’ Rock Island District — the main federal sponsor — issued a stop-work order on July 24 “without explanation or warning,” advocates say, except to say the project was “under administrative review.” Just three weeks later, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources said several hundred small silver carp had been discovered only 80 miles from Lake Michigan in the Illinois River, further upstream than routine monitoring had found the invasive fish since 2010.

* Daily Herald | Bartlett allowing contract to expire for nearly half its Flock cameras: Gunsteen said the Bartlett Police Department’s use of the devices didn’t cause the board’s change of heart about the Flock cameras. He said it was a feeling that the Flock company has internal issues to resolve regarding safeguards. “Our board has 110% faith in the Bartlett Police Department and how they operate,” he said. “We’ve been doing this auditing since the beginning. Shame on other communities that haven’t.”

* Daily Herald | ‘Better than it was’: Creek, DuPage River removed from Superfund cleanup list after decades of work: There’s no sign today that this stretch of the river was once part of a nearly $150 million effort to remove radioactive thorium from it and one of its tributaries — Kress Creek in West Chicago. The contamination originated from the former Kerr-McGee factory site in West Chicago. The cleanup and restoration, which took years to complete, was a massive undertaking “to give our residents the future of clean water and the rebirth of this area that is truly remarkable,” said DuPage County Board member Jim Zay, who chairs the county’s stormwater committee.

*** Downstate ***

* WMBD | Four Creeks Wind Project hearings begin in Peoria County: The first day of hearings on the proposed Four Creeks Wind project brought strong opinions from both supporters and opponents. The Peoria County Zoning Board of Appeals began hearing testimony on the project, which would bring wind turbines to northwest Peoria County. Residents and community activists crowded the room wearing hats and pins to express their opinion on the project.

* WMBD | Peoria Public Schools taps former Calumet superintendent to take district’s finances: Marcus Alexander, a former superintendent at Calumet Public School District 132, will fill the office after former CFO Michael Curry resigned late this August after only a few months on the job. But it is not a permanent solution. PPS Superintendent Jerry Bell said the retired man will only be allowed to work 75 days for $800 a day. Bell said that with his expertise, he will come twice a week to Peoria from Chicago to get their finances in shape.

* Capitol News Illinois | ‘Looking at the forest as a crop’: Trump admin’s logging rule would expose Shawnee Forest: The largest swaths of land that could become vulnerable to logging and drilling if rules are relaxed are 6,200 acres in Burke Branch, which lies roughly a half mile from the new logging project and straddles Pope and Massac counties. The second largest are 3,800 acres at Ripple Hollow near the communities of McClure and Jonesboro in the far western portion of the Shawnee. Overall, the inventoried roadless area still comprises less than 4% of the forest’s vast 280,000 acres, according to the Forest Service.

* WGLT | Mike Matejka honored with 2026 Public Humanities Award: The labor leader, former Bloomington City Council member and board member of the McLean County Museum of History will be celebrated with a 2026 Public Humanities Award at the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago this month. Matejka is among other honorees from Illinois Humanities, a statewide nonprofit, for their work strengthening the humanities of communities through storytelling and their leadership. He is the only one outside of Chicago to receive the honor this year.

* WGLT | McLean County had $42M in damage from August storm, says deputy Bloomington city manager: At Monday’s city council meeting, Deputy City Manager Sue McLaughlin reported crews have hauled off 2,373 loads of brush, more than six times the total of debris collected after tornadoes swept through the community in April. The city also provided an update on its storm cleanup efforts, one month after intense wind and heavy rain slammed the Twin City area on Aug. 13. There also have been 500 tons of bulk waste hauled away.

*** National ***

* Where’s Your Ed At | AI Is Already In Dangerous Hands: And I also want to be clear about something: The Hugging Face attack was dangerous, reckless and somebody should go to prison for it. If a regular person used massive amounts of compute capacity to hack something, they’d be arrested. While I’m not a lawyer, the numerous cybersecurity experts I’ve discussed this with are stunned by the complete lack of any legal action against OpenAI, which appears to have committed a crime that gets you anywhere from a year to a decade in the slammer. The fact that LLMs from both Anthropic and Meta have been involved in similar incidents is a sign that we need to arrest more people.

* AP | Global customers crave texture, challenging companies to make crispier, gooier, chewier foods: “Texture drives consumer behavior. It plays a key emotional role in the eating experience, shaping satisfaction, perception and repeat interest,” Ingredion, an Illinois-based ingredient provider, said in a recent report. The company, which has 35 food labs around the world, said the trend is a global one. Stretchy yogurt is a fast-growing seller in China, while Swedish confectioner Cloetta just released Sprinkled Foamies, which have a crunchy coating and a marshmallow center. Parisian bakers are experimenting with new pastries like the crookie, a crispy croissant with a melty chocolate chip cookie inside.