* ICYMI: Judge approves request to remove fencing outside Broadview ICE facility. CBS Chicago…

- Broadview officials had sued, saying the fence, put up on Sept. 23 outside the ICE facility, blocked a public road and could impact first responders at the scene.
- U.S. District Judge LaShonda Hunt issued a Temporary Restraining Order late Thursday requiring ICE to remove the fence by Friday. The order follows a motion filed by the Village of Broadview, which argued that ICE’s installation of the fence on a public street violated local ordinances and created safety hazards.
- Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson called the ruling “a validation of local law and, most importantly, a decisive win for public safety.”

* Related stories…

• Fox Chicago: Judge orders ICE to remove fence outside Broadview processing center
• ABC Chicago: Decision on lawsuit over Broadview ICE detention center fencing will be made by Thursday: judge
• Tribune: Judge to rule this week whether ICE security fence in Broadview must come down

The summer of 2025 has been a tough one for residents and businesses in the Ameren Illinois service territory. Supply constraints, extreme hot and humid conditions, and increased energy usage have led to a significant spike in electricity prices and higher-than-normal monthly bills for residential, commercial and industrial energy users. We appreciate and thank legislators, regulators and stakeholders who are working hard to address the energy challenge in Illinois. Energy policy is complex, and we’re encouraged that there are some creative ideas being proposed and a willingness to work together to find answers.   

While Ameren Illinois cannot control the price or availability of energy, we can ensure that the system that delivers energy to homes and businesses — electric poles, wires, and technology; and natural gas distribution pipelines and storage fields — is equipped to operate at peak performance to withstand severe weather events, facilitate business expansions that grow local communities, and enable the transition to renewable generation.

We have an opportunity to build an energy system that is smarter, cleaner, reliable, resilient, and affordable for Illinois families and businesses. As discussions on short- and long-term legislative solutions occur this fall, we will continue to advocate for our 1.2 million customers.   

If you know of someone who is struggling to pay their energy bill, please encourage them to visit www.AmerenIllinois.com/PathToSavings for information on available financial assistance and energy saving programs. 

* WTTW | Planned Parenthood of Illinois CEO on the Future of Reproductive Care Amid Federal Threats: Local organizations like Planned Parenthood of Illinois have said they anticipate an uptick in out-of-state patients and are preparing to meet the increased demand. “This week alone, we’ve seen a doubling of the abortion cases that we usually receive from Wisconsin,” Planned Parenthood of Illinois CEO Adrienne White-Faines said.

* Chalkbeat Chicago | When will Chicago schools have a noncitizen advisory board?: Illinois state lawmakers required the creation of a Chicago Board of Education Non-Citizen Advisory Board when it established an elected school board for the city under legislation passed in 2021. Lawmakers sought to provide the school board with an advisory panel focused, in part, on improving the outcomes and experiences of noncitizen students and sharing the perspectives of noncitizen parents, who cannot vote in school board elections. The law does not prevent U.S. citizens from serving on the advisory board. But nearly nine months after the new school board was sworn in, the mayor has not yet established the noncitizen advisory board. State law does not specify a deadline for creating the board or how many people the mayor should choose.

* WGLT | ISU students in National Guard are activated for duty: As the Trump administration sends National Guard soldiers to Chicago, a half dozen Illinois State University students have been called to active duty this week. ISU currently has about 160 students enrolled in fall courses who are serving in the National Guard or Reserves, according to Patrick McGuire, coordinator of Veterans and Military Personnel Services. Associate Dean of Students Donald Reed said to have six students notify his office in two days raised his eyebrows. “Now, can I tie that to the recent deployment in Chicago? I don’t know that for sure,” Reed said.

* Civic leaders | State lawmakers should reject massive pension benefit sweetener: The bill, SB1937, isn’t just expensive; it’s also fiscally catastrophic. To fund existing state and local pension promises, Illinoisans will need to pay more than $500 billion in contributions over the next three decades. That’s roughly $100,000 per household. The bill would add tens of billions more to that tab. According to estimates from the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability (CGFA) and back-of-the-envelope estimates of local impact, it will require an additional $80 billion to fund.

* Fox News | ‘Pritzker is a joke’: Texas Gov. Abbott mocks sanctuary governor for opposing National Guard troops: In an interview with Fox News Digital, Abbott said, “Gov. Pritzker is a joke” and is in “violation of his oath of office” by attempting to interfere with federal law enforcement efforts to improve safety in Chicago and other Illinois communities.

* Gov. Pritzker on Thursday night’s “The Jimmy Kimmel Show”…

* Sun-Times | Chicago Housing Authority pays $22 million to companies tied to board member: A few months after her appointment to the CHA board, Parker resigned from the Parks and Bell board, and hasn’t voted on board measures related to the company. Still, Parks and Bell saw its business with the agency skyrocket in the coming years, from revenues of $30,000 in 2015 to more than $1.4 million from the CHA last year, a WBEZ investigation has found. And two other companies owned by Parker’s close family members also have had lucrative dealings with the CHA since she became a commissioner seven years ago.

* WGN | UIC students protest ICE detentions after viral video sparks outrage: A pair of United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detentions sparked a protest Thursday on the University of Illinois Chicago campus after a widely shared video outraged viewers. More than 100 students marched after a video captured on the edge of campus near the corner of Racine and Congress Parkway went viral. “It was definitely something that shook us, and we tried to mobilize as quickly as we could,” said UIC student Ari Mendoza.

* Fox Chicago | Teacher claims ICE agents used tear gas near Chicago elementary school: The teacher, a member of the Chicago Teachers Union, said the incident happened Friday as she stepped out for lunch at Funston Elementary School on Armitage Avenue in the Logan Square neighborhood. She said she noticed a white vehicle “full of ICE agents” and blew her whistle to alert others. Moments later, a person on a scooter approached the agents and nearby cars began honking. The teacher said one agent became frustrated and began throwing tear gas canisters toward the crowd.

* Sun-Times | Pope meets with Chicago union leaders, urges migrant welcome as crackdown underway in hometown: “While recognizing that appropriate policies are necessary to keep communities safe, I encourage you to continue to advocate for society to respect the human dignity of the most vulnerable,” Leo said. The audience was scheduled before the deployment of National Guard troops to protect federal property in the Chicago area, including a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building that has been the site of occasional clashes between protesters and federal agents.

* WGN | Sister Jean, beloved member of Loyola University Chicago community, dies at 106: “In many roles at Loyola over the course of more than 60 years, Sister Jean was an invaluable source of wisdom and grace for generations of students, faculty, and staff,” Loyola President Mark C. Reed said. “While we feel grief and a sense of loss, there is great joy in her legacy. Her presence was a profound blessing for our entire community and her spirit abides in thousands of lives. In her honor, we can aspire to share with others the love and compassion Sister Jean shared with us.”

* Tribune | Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle unveils $10.1B election year budget, tapping reserves: Sticking with a now yearslong trend, Preckwinkle’s proposal does not include any new taxes, fines or fees, and eliminates a projected $211 million shortfall thanks in large part to better-than-expected revenues. While she said the county is well-suited for now, federal cuts are sure to eventually hit Cook County Health, which runs a Medicaid managed care program and hospitals and clinics that treat patients regardless of their ability to pay. Expanded federal support for safety net hospitals and insurance coverage have brought the county’s hospital system into the black over the last decade, but the tides could be turning, Preckwinkle and CCH leadership warned.

* Sun-Times | Preckwinkle calls on chief judge to ban ICE arrests at Cook County courthouses: Preckwinkle has signed on with the Cook County Public Defender’s office and a coalition of legal aid groups in a petition asking Evans to prohibit federal law enforcement officers from making civil arrests at county courthouses without a judicial warrant. “Deterring people from participating in the justice system undermines the courts’ ability to administer justice and keep communities safe,” Preckwinkle said in a statement. “We must do everything in our power to ensure our courts stand as institutions of justice where all residents can expect fair and just treatment that respects their rights.”

* Tribune | Former suburban school chief and two CPS administrators indicted in kickback scheme: Former Evanston/Skokie School District 65 Superintendent Devon Horton and two Chicago Public Schools administrators were indicted Thursday on federal charges of embezzlement and wire fraud, court documents show. Additionally, Horton is charged with tax fraud, and a fourth person is also named in the indictment. The U.S. Attorney’s office of Northern Illinois is accusing Horton of receiving at least $81,000 in kickbacks from CPS employees Antonio Ross and Alfonzo Lewis, and a fourth man named Samuel Ross, after Horton approved contracts from 2020 to 2023 for work supposedly done in the district.

* Evanston Now | Details of the charges against Devon Horton: Counts 1 through 13 allege wire fraud and honest services fraud for emails, kickback payments and false invoices for services not provided to D65. The kickbacks total over $81,700, according to the indictment, broken down by the three companies: $41,900 through Connecting the Dots (Antonio Ross), $30,800 through Asset Protection (Samuel Ross), $9,000 through New Flight 35 (Alfonzo Lewis).

* Patch | Will County State’s Attorney Employee, Daughter Charged With 5 Crimes: Special Prosecutor: Special prosecutor Dave Neal has filed criminal charges of computer tampering, aggravated computer tampering and official misconduct against a woman who worked for several years at the Will County State’s Attorney’s Office as a legal secretary. Amy Burgett-Masse, 45, and her daughter Ryanne Burgett-Masse, 20, were both charged this week at the Will County Courthouse. […] The computer tampering charge accuses the mother and her daughter of knowingly and without authorization of the Will County State’s Attorney, having “accessed or caused to be accessed a computer … a computer network, or a program or data from said computer network” against the peace and dignity of the state of Illinois.

* Rockford Register Star | Winnebago County Board delays do-over on controversial zoning vote: Winnebago County Board members have delayed a vote over a zoning variance that previously sparked accusations that some officials are playing political games with a resident’s property rights. A resident in the 3800 block of Brookview Road is seeking a zoning variance for an additional driveway access point. Because it came to County Board with a negative recommendation from the Zoning Board of Appeals, it requires a supermajority — 15 of the 20 board members — to agree for approval.

* The Southern | As grocery tax deadline passes, some towns stand pat: Benton mayor Lee Messersmith said the revenue generated from the tax did not move the needle enough to continue the tax, making Benton the largest city in our area to not do so. “From our perspective, it wasn’t worth putting back on our citizens,” Messersmith said. An estimate provided by the City of Benton to the Illinois Municipal League estimated the revenue generated from the grocery tax to be around $30,000.

* WREX | Jo Daviess County train derailment causes evacuation: First responders confirmed that 17 cars out of an 82-car Canadian National (CN) train carrying ethanol had derailed. There were no injuries or deaths reported. Following guidance from the Emergency Response Guide, the Warren FD and Jo Daviess County Sheriff’s Office evacuated about 100 residents out of safety concerns.

* The Southern | Treasurer Gott explains Williamson County tax bill delay: Treasurer Ashley Gott said the county has historically mailed tax bills much earlier, typically in late May or early June, with due dates in July and September. That timeline began to slip after COVID-19. “In pre-COVID times, the bills were usually mailed out in late May or early June and had due dates in July and September,” Gott said. “When COVID hit, there were delays through the state, with low staffing and alternate schedules, and that delayed that year.”

* 25News Now | Town of Normal considers new TIF district for uptown residential development: The project would target residential development north of Uptown Circle and the Constitution Trail, along Mulberry Street in Normal. The Town Council approved holding a public hearing on the proposed TIF district during Monday’s meeting, with the hearing scheduled for sometime in November. If approved, property taxes generated from the new district would benefit the town, Unit 5 Schools, and other local entities.

* WGLT | Rare McLean County items exhumed for ‘Mourning in McLean’ at the history museum: A variety of artifacts and documents are carefully positioned on each floor of the museum, including funeral clothes, jewelry incorporating loved ones’ hair or teeth, and a cooling table, used by funeral home directors before embalming became a common practice. “I discovered we have so much more in our collection than we can even display about this topic,” Summers said. A suit on display was owned by Kenneth Curtis, who lived in the eastern McLean County village of Bellflower.

* WREX | Thousands flock to Rock River for Rockford’s rowing spectacle: This annual rowing competition will feature approximately 2,000 athletes from 15 states, highlighting Rockford’s appeal and providing an economic boost with an estimated impact of $925,000. The event, running from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., will take place along the Rock River Recreation Path.

* NYT | Texas’ Blue-State Deployments Shred Relations Between Governors: The Illinois governor, JB Pritzker, along with Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, both Democrats, have threatened to leave the once-chummy National Governors Association, a group formed more than 100 years ago and dedicated to finding areas of bipartisan agreement even in fractious political times. Instead, Democratic governors are accusing Republicans, especially Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, of a betrayal, even an “invasion” of their states. […] Republican governors have been mostly silent. But on Thursday, Gov. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma, the current chairman of the National Governors Association, said in an interview that the deployment of Texas National Guard troops to Illinois violated his beliefs in federalism and “states’ rights.”

* La Times | Billionaire Tom Steyer drops $12 million to support November redistricting ballot measure: As California voters receive mail ballots for the November special election, which could upend the state’s congressional boundaries and determine control of the House, billionaire hedge-fund founder Tom Steyer said Thursday he will spend $12 million to back Democrats’ efforts to redraw districts to boost their party’s ranks in the legislative body. The ballot measure was proposed by Gov. Gavin Newsom and other California Democrats after President Trump urged Texas leaders to redraw their congressional districts before next year’s midterm election. Buttressing GOP numbers in Congress could help Trump continue enacting his agenda during his final two years in office.

* WaPo | The U.S. just bailed out Argentina, treasury secretary confirms: The Trump administration finalized plans for a financial rescue of Argentina on Thursday, as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he had taken the rare step of directly buying Argentine pesos in global currency markets in a bid to relieve pressure on the nation’s embattled President Javier Milei, an enthusiastic supporter of President Donald Trump.