* Tribune…

A WGN-TV video editor and producer was roughly detained by two Border Patrol agents on Friday morning during a highly visible rush hour enforcement action in Lincoln Square.

Debbie Brockman, who has worked as a producer for WGN since 2011, according to her LinkedIn profile, was taken to the ground face down on Foster Avenue and handcuffed while stopped cars honked and onlookers shouted epithets such as “fascists” at the two federal agents detaining her.

The woman identified herself as working at WGN and asked an onlooker taking a video to “let them know” before she was hauled off by the agents in an unmarked silver van with New Jersey plates.

“WGN is aware of this situation, and we are actively gathering the facts related to it,” the station said in a statement.

*** UPDATE *** Gregory Bovino, commander-at-large of the U.S. Border Patrol, claimed Ms. Brockman would be charged with “assault on a Federal officer ( 18 USC 111), a serious felony.”

Instead, as is way too often the case these days, the initial federal claims turned out to have no substance and she was released without charge.

[ *** End Of Update *** ]
* Tribune…

Metra riders should expect to pay an average of 13% more per ride next year as the commuter rail service proposes fare increases in response to a looming fiscal crisis.

The fare increases are outlined in Metra’s proposed 2026 budget, which agency board members voted to release Friday. The budget is subject to approval by the agency’s board next month. […]

Starting Feb. 1, the cost of a one-way ride between Zone 1 and Zone 2 would increase from $3.75 to $4.25 under the agency’s proposed plan. That pricing typically applies to trips between downtown Chicago and elsewhere in the city or near suburbs, like Cicero, Evanston or Park Ridge.

One-way trips between downtown Chicago and Zone 3 and Zone 4 destinations would increase to $6.25 and $7.75, respectively.

Riders who use daily or monthly passes would also see hefty price increases. Monthly Zone 1-2 passes would increase from $75 to $85. Zone 1-3 passes would jump from $110 to $125, and Zone 1-4 passes would go from $135 to $155.

*** Statewide ***

* WAND | State’s top growers to compete in Illinois’ first-ever pumpkin weigh-off: The first-ever Illinois Grown Pumpkin Weigh-Off is happening Saturday, October 11 at the Illinois State Fairgrounds, as part of the Illinois Product Fall Market. Local pumpkin growers from across the state will compete for bragging rights — and possibly state records — in this new celebration of Illinois’ top-ranked pumpkin production.

* WCIA | From the Farm: Illinois FFA celebrates dozens of accomplishments in 2025: 2025 is a special year for the state FFA chapter. Its president, Thad Bergschneider, was elevated to National FFA President, three members are finalists for the prestigious American Star Awards and the chapter is approaching its 100th birthday in a few years. Mindy Bunselmeyer, Executive Director of Illinois FFA, spoke on the exciting times in Illinois FFA with WCIA’s Stu Ellis.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Daily Herald | Illinois establishes Governor’s Blue Ribbon Schools program: Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and the state education board joined school leaders, teachers, and students Friday to launch the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Schools program and celebrate the 2025 recipients of the discontinued National Blue Ribbon School Award. Twenty-eight schools from across Illinois — including several suburban public and private schools — received the 2025 designation for demonstrating exemplary academic performance. Among the public schools are: William Fremd High School in Palatine; Kennedy Junior High School in Lisle; Liberty Intermediate School in Libertyville; and Sarah Adams Elementary School in Lake Zurich.

* KWQC | Quad City leaders to head to Springfield to advocate for passenger rail funding: “We have reached out to leaders on the other end of this service in the Chicago Region because we know there is benefit for those communities as well and they have been receptive,” said Rock Island County Passenger Rail Committee Chairman Richard “Quijas” Brunk. “When this committee was formed, we said we were prepared to strike while the iron is hot and so we will. The time is right to make a big push for the Chicago-to-Moline line.”

* ABC | Vice President JD Vance & Gov. JB Pritzker, Sunday on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos”

*** Chicago ***

* Sun-Times | Neighbor shielded 7-year-old during South Shore federal raid: ‘I didn’t want them to take her’: “I didn’t want them to take her,” said the man, who didn’t want to be named because he fears he’ll be targeted by federal authorities for his actions. “I gave her my bedroom, and I just told her, ‘Just stay there. Don’t open, don’t, shh, just stay quiet,’” he recalled telling the mom and daughter as he choked back tears. At one point, he went outside to check on things. He said ICE shouted at him to “shut my door, get the f–k inside, and don’t open my door again.”

* Press Release | Illinois Drivers Alliance statement on ICE raid targeting rideshare drivers at O’Hare: Earlier today, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents conducted a raid in an O’Hare Airport parking lot where rideshare drivers wait between trips to pick up travelers. These drivers are essential workers who keep our city accessible, ensuring travelers can get from point A to point B safely every single day. […] We are working diligently to gather more information and ensure that every person’s constitutional rights were respected and protected throughout this disturbing incident.

* CNN | DHS leans into propaganda with militaristic action videos: When helicopters descended on a Chicago apartment building last week with federal agents kitted out in military gear, locals saw a terrifying escalation in the federal government’s incursion into Chicago. Department of Homeland Security officials saw a cinematic opportunity for a “Call of Duty”-style recruiting video with images from helmet cameras and dramatic music. Flush with money from Republicans in Congress and on a hiring spree, Immigration and Customs Enforcement needs to recruit a lot of people.

* WTTW | “Someone is Deliberately Killing Your Hometown Paper”: New Documentary Examines the Decline of Local Newspapers, Including the Chicago Tribune: For the past couple of decades, local newspapers have been fighting to survive in a changing media landscape. There is, of course, the rise of the internet and social media, which have drained ad revenue and diverted the attention of audiences everywhere. But as a new documentary highlights, there is another force at work: powerful hedge funds that profit by purchasing struggling papers, selling off their assets, and gutting their newsrooms.

* Crain’s | Cash-strapped CPS taps $200 million from credit line: The Chicago Board of Education tapped $200 million from its short-term revolving credit agreement with PNC Bank. The amount is part of a $450 million deal with the bank dated Oct. 9, according to a bond filing on Friday. The draw from the credit line is secured by proceeds from tax-anticipation notes that the district sells each year to maintain revenue while it waits for property tax payments, its largest source of revenue.

* WTTW | City Lawyers Recommend Paying $950K to CPD Lieutenant Who Blew Whistle on ‘Illegal’ Traffic Stops: Taxpayers should pay $950,000 to a former Chicago Police Department lieutenant who said his supervisors retaliated against him after he resisted orders to make “illegal” traffic stops, city lawyers recommended. Lt. Franklin Paz accused CPD officials of violating the state’s Whistleblower Act by reassigning him to the overnight shift in a South Side police district after he objected when former Commander Michael Barz demanded that Paz order the members of the citywide Community Safety Team he supervised to stop at least 10 Chicago drivers every day.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* WGN | Video: ICE agents clash with cemetery workers attempting to help man in Des Plaines River: “I couldn’t breathe,” the 30-year-old Eichler said. “I couldn’t see.” The Chicago native told WGN-TV that it would be hours before he and other workers involved received medical treatment, according to Eichler. “Zip ties behind our backs, shackles on our ankles. We were just in custody until they came with the transport,” he said. “If this happened to me, a US citizen, who’s to say what they’ll do to somebody else?”

* Block Club | Broadview Protesters Face State Police, Not National Guard, After Court Hands Trump Admin A Loss: About 8:15 a.m., a masked protester jumped over the concrete barriers and into Harvard Street in an attempt to obstruct the path of a federal vehicle driving into the facility. He was quickly pushed back into the protest section by state troopers. “If you come over here again, you’re going to jail for disobeying a police officer,” a state police officer said. Protesters chanted, “Who do you protect? Who do you serve?” back at the officers.

* Des Plaines Valley News | ICE arrests tree workers in Bridgeview: In Bridgeview, two men employed by John’s Pro Tree Service were detained Thursday by ICE agents while working at a house in the 7500 block of Sholer Avenue. One of the men was arrested at the scene and the second man was chased down by an ICE agent after a foot chase. A village official said there was no advance warning from ICE that its agents would be operating in the village.

* Oak Park Journal | Feds drop case against ‘beloved’ Oak Parker with intellectual disability: Ivery, described by those who know him as having a deep appreciation for local law enforcement and military service members, told federal investigators he was at the protest to express “his disappointment that ICE agents were disrespectful towards the Broadview Police Department and veterans,” according to the criminal complaint filed against him. Judge Gabriel A. Fuentes thanked the prosecution for dropping the case. He’d previously called prosecutor’s treatment of Ivery as “ableist at worst.”

* Daily Southtown | Residents cope with food deserts in Harvey, Chicago Heights, Richton Park and Park Forest: Alicia Goings, a Chicago Heights resident, said she depends on the Country Squire grocery store when she doesn’t have time to drive to cheaper stores out of town. But Country Squire, which has served the community under several names for 67 years as others like Ultra Foods have closed, is one of the few options left for her aunt, who lives on a fixed income and has no transportation. To reach stores such as Walmart, her aunt must either find a ride or pay for an Uber, Goings said.

* Shaw Local | Sycamore schools remove low-deductible health insurance option for employees: “I just want to say thanks to the people who thought about it,” Regnery said. “We’re saving almost a million dollars if we approve this. … And then the membership, who was on the plan, they were, the ones who switch, also are going to realize savings.” DeVito said he estimates that the employees who switch from the low-deductible plan will save about $640,000 a year.

* The Daily Northwestern | Meals on Wheels Northeastern Illinois names Justin Block new executive director: Block has previously worked at multiple organizations that address food insecurity in the Chicago area, including Feeding America and The Friendship Center, a food pantry in northwest Chicago. He leads a team of eight full-time employees and more than 500 volunteers — that team delivered about 100,000 meals in 2024, according to the organization’s website.

*** Downstate ***

* IPM Newsroom | Farmers caught in Trump’s trade war wait for bailout. But many call it a temporary fix: And another bailout wouldn’t do anything to help farmers regain ground in the Chinese market or grow other international markets, said Jonathan Coppess, a professor of agricultural policy at the University of Illinois. “It’s not going to fix the lost market problems that we’re talking about,” he said. “It could harm farmers in the long run if, for example, costs stay high or we plant soybeans for a market that doesn’t exist.”

* WJBD | Several acres of soybeans burn in fire blamed on combine: Iuka Firemen say two to three acres of both cut and standing soybeans burned in a fire Thursday afternoon on the Brad Blackburn property on the Iuka Road South of Iuka blamed on a hot bearing on the combine header. Fire Chief Kenny Eagan said they were able to cool the header and prevent the combine from catching fire.

* WCIA | Former Mattoon board member sues school district over alleged retaliation: In a lawsuit filed on Oct. 2 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois, Urbana Division, Dr. Heidi Larson is accusing Mattoon Community Unit School District #2, Superintendent Tim Condron and Board President Dale Righter of taking part in a retaliatory campaign against her. Larson and her lawyers said they believe the defendants did this in an effort to punish her for publicly criticizing and questioning decisions the district was making and some of the practices of the administration. She said she felt like her free speech was silenced by these parties for her comments about spending, curriculum and transparency among other things.

* WGLT | Normal West high school students ‘feel part of the process’ as election judges: Bierbaum said that across McLean County, about 50 of the nearly 400 judges are high school students. Still, some expressed surprise, though Natalia Schmeiser, a senior at Normal West, told WGLT it was good natured. “I got a lot of jokes about it — usually just like ‘Can you even vote?’ ‘Are you even old enough to drive?,’ etc. Not a lot of hatred.”

*** National ***

* NYT | The E.P.A. Followed Up on an Unusual Request About Abortion Pills: Senior officials at the Environmental Protection Agency directed a team of scientists over the summer to assess whether the government could develop methods for detecting traces of abortion pills in wastewater — a practice sought by some anti-abortion activists seeking to restrict the medication now used in over 50 percent of abortions. The highly unusual request appears to have originated from a letter sent from 25 Republican members of Congress to Lee Zeldin, the E.P.A. administrator, asking the agency to investigate how the abortion drug mifepristone might be contaminating the water supply.

* Heat Map | Esmeralda 7 Solar Project Has Been Canceled, BLM Says: Esmeralda 7 was supposed to produce a gargantuan 6.2 gigawatts of power – equal to nearly all the power supplied to southern Nevada by the state’s primary public utility. […] Flash forward to today, when BLM quietly updated its website for Esmeralda 7 permitting to explicitly say the project’s status is “cancelled.” Normally when the agency says this, it means developers pulled the plug.