* MediaIte today…

Stephen A. Smith was shocked to hear Illinois Governor JB Pritzker (D) suggest President Donald Trump is going to try and “steal” the 2026 elections.

Pritzker joined Smith on Thursday for his Straight Shooter SiriusXM show where Pritzker predicted Trump would “seize” ballot boxes as he and Smith discussed federal agents, including ICE, being deployed to major cities. […]

“Why does he wanna send troops in? I will tell you what my theory is about this. And I believe I’m right, which is because he’s talked about this for some time. Let’s go back to 2020 when he said that the election was stolen from him. It wasn’t. And it was Michael Flynn that told the president, and he repeated it, that maybe they should just seize the ballot boxes with the military. Maybe they should go to where there ballot boxes and then they should count the votes themselves. Here we are in 2025, he is becoming more unpopular. He is likely to lose the 2026 elections. He’s sending troops into American cities and particularly in blue states, in blue cities, to put them on the ground, get us used to the idea of having military on the ground. I believe because he then will say, well, I’m going to go protect our polling places in Illinois. And then if he is losing the elections, meaning the Congress, he will, frankly, just seize the ballot boxes.”

* New York Times yesterday…

Election officials from nearly all 50 states gathered on a call last month with the Homeland Security Department’s point person on “election integrity,” eager to hear how the woman filling a newly created Trump administration position might help safeguard the vote ahead of next year’s midterms.

But many of them left alarmed.

Rather than offering assurances that the federal government’s election protection programs would continue uninterrupted, the new official, Heather Honey, instead used portions of the meeting to echo rhetoric that has infused the right-wing election activist movement that emerged since President Trump falsely claimed that his 2020 defeat was the result of widespread fraud, according to five people with knowledge of the call. […]

On a call with right-wing activists in March, before her appointment to the Homeland Security Department, Ms. Honey suggested that the new administration could declare a “national emergency” and justify dictating new rules to state and local governments. She said this could be based on an “actual investigation” of the 2020 election if it showed there had been a “manipulation” of the vote. “And therefore, we have some additional powers that don’t exist right now,” she said in March, according to a recording reviewed by The New York Times from someone who joined the call, “and therefore, we can take these other steps without Congress and we can mandate that states do things and so on.”

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* Crain’s | Banks push for end to Illinois law reducing credit card processing fees: “Interchange is compensation because they are taking on the risk of fraud, they are monitoring for fraud, they are managing card accounts,” Charlotte Taylor, a lawyer with Jones Day representing the bankers, said in court. “Those are dollars where you are taking an equal risk of fraud, but you are not going to get compensated for that.” But lawyers for the state argued those risks were covered by other parts of the bill.

* Center Square | Illinois treasurer promises to pass nonprofit legislation vetoed by Pritzker: Pritzker vetoed the bill during the summer, saying it could allow extremist groups to exploit state services and resources. […] In Chicago Tuesday, at the state treasurer’s award ceremony to celebrate LGBTQ+ History Month, Frerichs told The Center Square that his office would not give up. “We’re working with legislative leaders and with the governor to see what’s the best way to move this forward, either with an override or working together next spring to address some of the governor’s concerns and pass something,” Frerichs said.

* WTTW | Johnson’s 2026 Budget Sets Aside Just $82.5M to Resolve Police Misconduct Lawsuits, Even Though Chicago Has Already Spent $90M: Chicago taxpayers have spent at least $267 million to resolve lawsuits alleging Chicago police officers committed a wide range of misconduct — including wrongful convictions and improper pursuits — so far this year, according to an analysis of city data by WTTW News. That tally does not include the $90 million the City Council agreed to pay to 180 people who spent a combined nearly 200 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted based on what they allege was fabricated evidence gathered by Watts, who was convicted in 2013 of taking bribes, and other officers.

* Illinois Answers Project | Calls For ‘Belt-Tightening’ in Chicago Budget Face Hurdles Amid Few Options for Pain-Free Cuts: “The message to the mayor and his team has been very simple: if you want us to consider new revenue streams … you need to show some good faith to the taxpayer that you’re going to tighten the belt,” Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) said in an interview Tuesday. “And this argument that you can’t tighten your belt anymore when the city budget has ballooned during this administration and the previous doesn’t pass the smell test.” Specifically, Reilly said, Johnson needs to “let go of program expansion and hiring that was done with federal bailout ARPA money that’s no longer available.”

* Tribune | Mayor Brandon Johnson’s political fund returns $120K from PACs connected to city vendors: Mayor Brandon Johnson’s campaign last quarter returned $120,000 from two political action committees both led by developers with active city contracts, the latest instances of his political fund giving back money amid ethical and accounting issues. At the end of August, Johnson’s campaign fund gave back $71,000 to Leaders for Tomorrow and $48,500 to ZPACT, according to the latest round of state elections filings that were due last week. That’s almost a full refund of what both groups gave, but came about 10 months after their latest contributions to the mayor’s campaign committee were reported, meaning Johnson’s campaign had access to that cash for that duration.

* WTTW’s Heather Cherone…

* Sun-Times | Federal agents detain Little Village high school student, deploy tear gas in faceoff with protesters: Baltazar Enriquez, president of the Little Village Community Council, said federal immigration agents seemed to have arrived in the neighborhood with “no plan,” trying to enter the discount mall before turning around when they realized it was closed. That’s when they were confronted by residents who quickly mobilized, he said. Agents detained at least two teenage boys, two women and a man before putting them into vans and driving off. A woman told a Chicago Sun-Times reporter that she was a U.S. citizen before she was put into a van.

* South Side Weekly | Migrant Shelter Residents Were Disproportionately Arrested for Domestic Violence: Residents of Chicago’s migrant shelters were arrested more often than average when police responded to domestic violence calls there, despite having a lower rate of incidents than the citywide average. Records reviewed by the Weekly show that in 2023 and 2024, police arrested residents in 33 percent of domestic violence responses at migrant shelters, nearly double the 18 percent arrest rate citywide during the same period. The city has since closed migrant-only shelters, but questions remain about how domestic violence is handled in its new unified shelter system.

* Chicago Mag | “We Won’t Survive if You Don’t Support Us”: Sunday brunch at La Catedral in Little Village often requires a two-hour (or longer) wait. These days, though, guests can arrive and be seated immediately. Since President Trump announced “Operation Midway Blitz,” business has plummeted. “It’s very unusual to see empty tables here,” says Ulises, a restaurant employee who did not provide his last name. “This started at the beginning of September.”

* Fox Chicago | Former Mayor Lightfoot announces project to ‘unmask’ federal immigration agents: Former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she and other attorneys are creating a nonprofit called “The ICE Accountability Project.” Lightfoot said the organization will serve as a website and “central repository” for any alleged illegal actions taken by federal immigration officials during the execution of Operation Midway Blitz. “We want to create a centralized archive of all the purported criminal actions of ICE and CBP agents,” Lightfoot said. “We want to create a portal where what’s happening real time can be centralized and put out for the public to view.”

* Block Club | Chicago-Area Companies Raked In Millions From Feds As Operation Midway Blitz Intensified: Chicago-based real estate company Reliance Relocation Services was awarded $7.3 million to relocate U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees over a four-month period. Those contracts ended the same day the Department of Homeland Security announced its operation in Chicago. Lake Forest weapons manufacturer United Tactical Systems was paid nearly $1.5 million over a two week period in September to supply federal agents with pepper balls and air-powered guns. More than $1 million of that money was contracted just two days before agents escalated its use of the weapons, shooting protesters and journalists with pepper balls.

* Crain’s | Expect more flight delays like O’Hare disruption if U.S. shutdown continues, Duffy warns: More than 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 Transportation Security Administration agents are being forced to work during the shutdown without pay. During past shutdowns, that’s often led in an increase in employees calling out sick — a trend that appears to be continuing with the latest funding lapse. Duffy has said that normally flight delays caused by air traffic controller staffing shortages are about 5% but that figure has grown to more than 50% since the shutdown began. Disruptions due to staffing have been reported at airports across the US, including Chicago, Dallas, Nashville and outside Washington, DC.

* Crain’s | Now we know what United’s doing with those new O’Hare gates: United Airlines says it will add 10 new domestic routes, including six destinations not served by other carriers at O’Hare, as it takes advantage of new gates awarded earlier this month. The new routes from Chicago are to smaller markets, such as Eugene, Ore., and Rochester, Minn. With the addition of the new cities, by next summer United will serve 212 destinations from O’Hare, surpassing the pre-pandemic total of 208 in 2019.

* Crain’s | Levy tapped to run restaurants, bars at Bally’s Chicago casino: Levy, based in Chicago, runs food and beverage at major stadiums and cultural institutions, including the United Center, The Art Institute of Chicago and the Chicago Botanic Garden. It has also handled dining at music events such as Coachella, as well as at ski resorts, horse tracks and more.

* Block Club | Chicago’s 1st City-Backed Public Restroom Will Open In 2026, Alderman Say: Ald. Daniel La Spata (1st) confirmed this week that his years-long quest to provide publicly available toilet facilities in the city is finally moving forward — and it could be the first of more to come. The public restroom will come from JCDecaux, the company that provides street furniture like bus shelters as well as other services to the city. The restroom itself is free under the city’s existing contract with the company, La Spata said.

* Block Club | Lollapalooza Raked In $480 Million For Chicago In 2025 — Biggest Impact Ever For Fest: The annual four-day music festival in Grant Park generated $480 million in overall economic activity in the city this year, the founders of C3 Presents, Lollapalooza’s parent company, wrote in a letter to City Council members Wednesday. That’s about $40 million more than 2024, and it comes alongside more than $10 million paid by organizers to the Chicago Park District in rent, $7.2 million in city amusement taxes and $1 million in park restoration fees this year, plus overtime costs for city workers.

* Tribune | ‘Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind’ at the MCA upends assumptions: But on Dec. 1, on the opening date of her “show,” Ono had a man wearing a sandwich board parade in front of the museum, explaining: Ono released thousands of flies in MOMA, each one scented with a perfume worn by the artist; a photographer has also been tasked with documenting the path of the flies. This was not a prank. Ono had indeed released a jug of flies at MOMA, albeit outside, in the sculpture garden out back.

* WBEZ | Clergy say religious rights are under attack inside and outside the Broadview ICE facility: The NDS require detention centers to provide detainees with the opportunity to practice their faith, the ability to observe important religious holy days, a chaplain, adequate space for religious activities and resources for community groups and volunteers that provide religious services not provided by the chaplain or facility. According to several sources familiar with the Broadview facility, there is no chaplain in the building. Between 2010 and 2020 at the start of the pandemic, Sisters Persch and Murphy and other volunteers had an arrangement with ICE to go inside the facility each week to talk and pray with immigrants and their families. Even as recently as February, Persch said she was able to work with ICE officers to advocate for the removal of an ankle monitor for an immigrant.

* Daily Southtown | Cook County District 130 custodial workers call for superintendent’s removal: Custodians and maintenance workers for Elementary District 130 serving Alsip, Blue Island, Crestwood and Robbins are calling for the removal of the district’s superintendent and assistant superintendent of human resources as they work to negotiate their union contract. SEIU Local 73 said the district has canceled two contract bargaining sessions since negotiations started in the summer, but union conflict with Superintendent Colleen McKay and Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Carrie Tisch dates back to 2022.

* Crain’s | Nurses union sues over pandemic bonus pay at St. Joseph in Joliet: However, the complaint said, requests in January and February 2022 by INA resulted in Ascension’s director of labor relations, Kathy Bouma, in February 2022 sending a “proposed Letter of Agreement for an incentive significantly less than what was promised through the CEO’s November Incentive Pay communication.” The complaint went on to state the hospital was giving non-union employees the November incentive pay but not giving it to union employees.

* Daily Herald | Unique home for trafficked teen girls opening soon in Palatine: The first DCFS-approved home for younger survivors of trafficking in Illinois, the 12-bedroom facility in a wooded area on the village’s north side will hold its grand opening Dec. 17. It will provide home for trafficking survivors aged 12-18 for six to 24 months. The project is the product of a partnership among Shelter Youth & Family Services, Housing Opportunity Development Corp., S.I. Container Builds Inc. and V3 Companies Ltd.

* Daily Herald | New pedestrian bridge in Streamwood will link paths divided by Route 59: Total cost was $12 million, with 80% of it funded by grants and other sources from outside the village, Caddigan said. The rest was gradually saved for in anticipation of the construction without the need for additional resources. “It’s a really cool engineering project,” she said. “What you see driving on Route 59 is the bridge structure. We’ve had some great engineers. It’s a wonderful community amenity.”

* Daily Herald | East Dundee continuing interest in multifamily housing for former factory site: Some of the units would be restricted to households making no more than 60% of the Chicago area’s median income. Others would be set aside for households making no more than 30% of the area’s median income. Some would rent at market rate. The state standard of “affordability” calls, in general, for spending no more than 30% of household gross income on housing. In the case of rentals, that includes utility payments.

* Illinois Times | Mental health center to open: Chicago-based nonprofit Envision Unlimited will be hosting a grand opening for its Springfield community mental health center, at 1306 S. Sixth St., Oct. 30. Services offered are geared toward people with mental health challenges and disabilities. The center will accept both Medicaid and Blue Cross patients. Envision Unlimited already owns and operates the Hope Springs apartment complex at 1135 N. Ninth St. that provides supportive services to residents with developmental disabilities but this will be the first time the nonprofit has offered outpatient services in the state capital.

* WCIA | Ford Co. village working to reduce arsenic levels in water: After a Ford County village found higher levels of arsenic in one of its wells than what was allowed by the EPA, one village official said more tests are coming — but also added that there is no danger to public health. Tyler Martin is the Water Super for the Village of Elliott. He said that routine testing in one of their wells found slightly higher arsenic levels than what was allowed on Sept. 30.

* Illinois Times | Blind mother seeks right to care for her son: As part of the legal battle for custody, Richardson took a Zoom parenting class and completed CPR training to prove her competency to care for her son. “But it was just never enough, it seemed, to have Elijah in my care unsupervised,” Richardson said. In January, a Sangamon County Circuit Court judge awarded Richardson increased weekly parenting time, giving her the right to supervised time with her son two nights a week. An hour and a half of that time could be spent unsupervised.

* NYT | Amazon Plans to Replace More Than Half a Million Jobs With Robots: Amazon’s U.S. work force has more than tripled since 2018 to almost 1.2 million. But Amazon’s automation team expects the company can avoid hiring more than 160,000 people in the United States it would otherwise need by 2027. That would save about 30 cents on each item that Amazon picks, packs and delivers to customers.

* AP | NBA head coach and player charged in sprawling sports betting and Mafia-backed poker schemes: Portland coach Chauncey Billups was charged with participating in a conspiracy to fix high-stakes card games in Las Vegas, Miami, Manhattan and the Hamptons that were backed by La Cosa Nostra Crime families. Heat guard Terry Rozier was accused in a second scheme to concoct fraudulent bets by exploiting confidential information about NBA athletes and teams. The indictments unsealed in New York create a massive cloud for the NBA — which opened its season this week — and show how certain types of wagers are vulnerable to massive fraud in the growing, multi-billion-dollar legal sports-betting industry.

* Politico | Kristi Noem pledged to boost the nation’s cybersecurity. She gutted it instead.: But over the last nine months, a key cybersecurity agency under Noem’s command has had its staffing slashed by more than a third, axed funding for election security programs and scaled back its support to state and local governments to protect against cyber threats. “There’s a real disconnect between the public messaging about cybersecurity and the reality on the ground,” said an employee of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which is housed under DHS. This person, like others interviewed for this article, was granted anonymity for fear of retribution.