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* ICYMI: Pritzker says DHS aims to deploy 100 military troops to guard ICE operations here. Crain’s…
* Related stories…
• CNI: Pritzker says feds seeking Chicago troop deployment. ‘What I have been warning of is now being realized’
• Block Club: Homeland Security Wants 100 Troops To Help Protect ICE Agents In Illinois, Pritzker Says
• AP: Illinois governor says troops could be deployed to Chicago as immigration agents patrol downtown
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.
* At 1:05 pm, Gov. Pritzker will be at the launch of Food Security for Life. At 3 pm, he’ll be at the groundbreaking for PsiQuantum’s new facilities at the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park. Click here to watch.
* WTTW | Illinois Prisons Will Now Scan Physical Mail Sent to Incarcerated People: Beginning immediately, non-privileged mail will be opened and inspected for contraband, scanned in color, then be uploaded to an individual’s tablet, the department announced Monday. Nearly all incarcerated people now have tablets, according to the department. That does not include privileged material, such as legal mail. The department is also discontinuing the practice of visitors dropping off publications at facilities.
* Tribune | Mother, children detained by ICE at Millennium Park Sunday held at O’Hare with other families: ‘We never imagined’: Despite the couple’s repeated demands to see a warrant, agents loaded the entire family into a U.S. Border Patrol vehicle parked along Michigan Avenue without much resistance — a scene captured on cellphones as tourists and residents strolled past the arrest in one of the city’s most popular destinations. […] Chavez and her two children are now confined to a room at O’Hare International Airport, awaiting transfer to a detention facility in Texas before deportation to Guatemala, she said.
* Raja Krishnamoorthi’s US Senate campaign…
Today, the Raja for Illinois campaign announced that it has raised $3 million and counting in the third quarter of 2025, marking a third consecutive quarter of raising more than $3 million. The campaign will end the quarter with over $17.5 million cash on hand.
* WCIA | Hunters Feeding Illinois could be entering final year amid funding cuts: Hunters Feeding Illinois is returning for its fourth season, but organizers said one of its major partners may need to end programming after the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. University of Illinois Extension SNAP-Education is the originator of Hunters Feeding Illinois. In a news release, the U of I Extension said that while federal funding for the SNAP-Ed program officially ends on Sept. 30, scaled back programming will continue through fall 2025 or January 2026.
* PJ Star | Government shutdown could impact thousands of federal employees in Illinois: The federal government employs roughly 2.3 million civilians across the country. There are 45,213 federal civilian employees in Illinois – not including uniformed military personnel or federal contractors, according to the Congressional Research Service.
* Center Square | Former state lawmakers endorse, donors support GOP candidate Dabrowski: Former state Reps. Jeanne Ives, R-Wheaton, and Tom Morrison, R-Palatine, announced their endorsements of former Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski on Monday. Ives supported former state Sen. Darren Bailey, R-Xenia, in 2022 but said there is a better option in 2026. “No one knows the issues better than Ted, and subsequently, nobody is better positioned to attract independent suburban voters on the merits of who can do better for Illinois families,” Ives said.
* Press Release | Attorney General Raoul Files Emergency Lawsuit To Protect Critical Homeland Security Funding From Politically Motivated Cuts: Attorney General Kwame Raoul led a coalition of 12 attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to stop the Trump administration from unlawfully reallocating federal homeland security funding away from states based on their compliance with the administration’s political agenda. On Saturday, without any notice or explanation, and four days before the end of the federal fiscal year, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) significantly cut funding to certain states that are unwilling to divert law enforcement resources away from core public safety services to assist in enforcing federal immigration law while reallocating those funds to other states. The move came days after Raoul secured a permanent injunction along with an opinion holding that the agencies violated the Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act by conditioning all federal funds from FEMA and DHS on states’ agreement to assist the federal government in enforcing federal immigration law.
* Block Club | Federal Agents Arrest Southwest Side Organizers As They Filmed ICE Activity, Officials Say : At approximately 9:30 a.m. Sunday, members of the Southwest Side Rapid Response Team responded to a tip of federal agents in Back of the Yards. While they were in the area, three members were “followed, harassed, physically kettled in their vehicles and intimidated by federal officers aiming a firearm at them,” according to the group’s statement. Federal agents were “aggressive” and started to intimidate organizers when they noticed they were being filmed, Ald. Julia Ramirez (12th) told Block Club. A few blocks down, agents in multiple vehicles surrounded organizers, detained them and moved them to an immigration processing center in Broadview, Ramirez said. They were later released, Ramirez said.
* Crain’s | South Works site sold as quantum campus beckons: Completing a long-running effort to sell the sprawling, vacant swath at 8080 S. DuSable Lake Shore Drive, a joint venture of the two Chicago firms partnered with New York-based Blue Owl Capital earlier this month to buy the land from Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel, Illinois property records show. Related and CRG won City Council approval last year to build the 128-acre Illinois Quantum & Microelectronics Park on the south end of the site, the centerpiece of a broader 59 million-square-foot megadevelopment dubbed Quantum Shore Chicago.
* Tribune | Chicago White Sox shake up their staff, including letting Ethan Katz (pitching) and Marcus Thames (hitting) go: Katz had been the team’s pitching coach since 2021. Thames, Bourgeois and Butera were in their respective roles with the club each of the last two seasons. “Decisions about the coaching staff are incredibly difficult because these are friends and teammates who have been through all the moments and trials alongside you,” said Venable, who just completed his first season as the team’s manager, in a statement. “I cannot thank each of them enough for the hard work and professionalism they brought to the ballpark daily.
* Sun-Times | Crooked Bridgeport bank worker gets home confinement after helping hide embezzlement scheme: Alicia Mandujano — one of 16 people people who had been indicted on criminal charges following the bank’s collapse in December 2017 — was sentenced Monday to two years supervised release, including 12 months of home detention. “Real people who were saving for retirements or a vacation are still working because they lost money, U.S. District Chief Judge Virginia Kendall told Mandujano.
* WGN | ‘All for the Love of Chicago’ campaign aims to boost city’s image: “Chicago, we’ve had a challenging national narrative for a while,” [Kristen Reynolds is the president and CEO of Choose Chicago,] said. “In the last couple of months, it really has escalated with narratives coming out about federal deployment, what’s happening here, ICE obviously, and it became amplified across not only the nation, but really the globe.” […] The “All for the Love of Chicago” social media campaign encourages people to make their own videos – in their own words – why they love the city.
* Sun-Times | Look out, Coco! The food delivery robots introduced in late 2024 now have competition: Beginning Sept. 30, the flamingo-pink food delivery robots you may have seen rolling along city sidewalks are set to get some competition. Los Angeles-based Serve Robotics plans to roll out “dozens” of its own robots, less than a year after Coco Robotics began a pilot program here in the 27th and 34th wards.
* ABC Chicago | Broadview leaders to address what they call ‘unprovoked’ use of chemical agents outside ICE facility: The briefing starts at 11 a.m. Officials expected at the briefing include Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson, Broadview Police Chief Thomas Mills, Broadview Police Department, acting Broadview Fire Chief Matt Martin, Broadview Fire Department, Oak Park Mayor Vicki Scaman and Forest Park Mayor Rory Hoskins
* Sun-Times | Neighbors near Broadview ICE facility say they’re caught in the middle of clashes between protesters, feds: Employees of cabinetmaker Reveal Interiors complain that tear gas has seeped into its plant and employees have been hit by pepper balls. A fence erected by Immigration and Customs Enforcement across Beach Street has pushed protesters into its property, disrupting work.
* WBEZ | Standing up to ICE in suburban Chicago, the People’s Patrol puts its faith in resistance: Cavazos leads the People’s Patrol, one of many volunteer rapid-response networks countering a Trump administration deportation blitz in the Chicago area. The idea is to locate immigration enforcement activity, record it, document abuses and, right on the spot, voice community opposition. Cavazos’ network focuses on Chicago’s western suburbs. It’s housed at the Casa DuPage Workers Center, a small nonprofit devoted to immigrant rights. “We saw ICE go into a factory about a month and a half ago, looking for someone,” Cavazos tells me on the way to Bensenville. “They freaked out the whole factory and they took some people from there. It’s just really sad, the way the United States crucifies [its immigrant] workers, particularly in this case. They’re essential workers that are in these factories giving us food.”
* Daily Herald | Wheeling Township Mental Health board about to set $1.4 million budget: Wheeling Township’s community mental health board is expected to approve a $1.4 million tentative budget next week as it prepares for its first tax levy nearly three years after the board was created by referendum. Last week, the mental health board reached tentative agreement on the budget. It meets again Oct. 8. Although some of the funding would go toward administration and projects such as transportation, more than $1.1 million is earmarked for grants.
* Daily Herald | District 214 eyeing solar panels at Rolling Meadows, five other schools as incentives set to expire: The Arlington Heights-based district’s energy consultant has spent the last few months exploring the feasibility of putting solar arrays on the roofs of Rolling Meadows and five other schools, as well as the Forest View Educational Center headquarters. But the timeline to get a competitive RFP for solar vendors out on the street tightened with congressional approval of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in July. Solar installations would need to begin by July 2026, or be done by the end of 2027, to capture federal incentives due to expire, officials said.
* Daily Herald | Why the Daily Herald is ending commenting on online stories:
The comment section was intended to be a tool to spur dialogue among our readers. Sometimes it succeeded in doing that. Over time, however, it has become increasingly negative, with comments crossing the line into hate speech, bullying and name-calling. Too much time was being devoted to moderating the comments so that readers with thoughtful and relevant commentary could still have their views heard. For those well-meaning readers, there are other ways to weigh in on content and issues of the day.
* BND | Opponent of solar farm at Belleville cemetery sues city, developers: The leader of a group that opposes a plan to clear-cut 19 acres of woods to make way for a solar farm at Mount Hope Cemetery in Belleville has filed a civil lawsuit to try and stop it. Berger, 39, of Belleville, filed a 10-count complaint last week in St. Clair County Circuit Court. He named as defendants the city of Belleville, which owns the cemetery, and three solar companies. Berger declined to comment Monday on pending litigation beyond explaining why he filed the lawsuit.
* Muddy River News | Hope House wins Quincy City Council approval; Mayor Moore defends Alderman Reed’s appointment to library board: The home located at 1603 Center Avenue received a special use permit with one condition that the requirement for two stalls per dwelling unit be reduced to one per dwelling unit. The council did not fast-track the ordinance through a consent agenda, but instead required three separate readings of the ordinance to give the operators of the home a chance to talk personally with neighbors who had concerns about the impact the home might have on their neighborhood. Pastor Todd Hastings, who is the head of the Hope House Board, said there were strict codes of conduct for the young mothers to follow while they stayed at the location.
* WSIL | Sleep in Heavenly Peace expands in Herrin: Sleep in Heavenly Peace (SHP), a nonprofit focused on providing beds to children in need, has acquired Sterling Mattress Factory in Herrin, Illinois. This marks the first acquisition in the organization’s history, aiming to bolster its mission of ensuring no child sleeps on the floor. The acquisition will allow SHP to produce more than 10,000 mattresses annually, supporting up to 184 chapters within a 500-mile radius.
* WaPo | National Weather Service at ‘breaking point’ as storm approaches: Some National Weather Service staffers are working double shifts to keep forecasting offices open. Others are operating under a “buddy system,” in which adjacent offices help monitor severe weather in understaffed regions. Still others are jettisoning services deemed not absolutely necessary, such as making presentations to schoolchildren.
* NPR | As sports betting explodes, should states set more limits to stop gambling addiction?: At first, the state regulators tried various strategies to educate customers about the addictive nature of gambling, as well as the financial risks. “It was much more about making sure that there are brochures that are available that explained the odds of whatever game it was,” he says. Since then, Massachusetts has put in place additional regulations on a booming industry that now includes widespread sports betting. For example, there’s no betting on Massachusetts college teams, and no gambling by credit card. All gambling companies have to allow customers to set voluntary limits and sign up for a “voluntary self-exclusion list” that bans them from casinos or sports betting over various time intervals.
posted by Isabel Miller
Tuesday, Sep 30, 25 @ 7:43 am
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I hope you’ll cover Senator Durbin’s distressing comments yesterday to Semafor, where he suggested Democrats would keep the government open in exchange for a “pinky promise” from Senator Thune that the Senate would have follow-up legislation about health care. Apparently, House Democrats are furious at Schumer and Durbin.
Illinois has ICE and other agents attacking press and civilians, and troops coming. The President broke the March deal with his impoundments, and is continuing to break businesses, universities, law firms, and the legal systems to his will.
Senator Durbin is not facing reality and meeting the moment. He seems to be living in a past era of comity that is now long gone.
Comment by Keyrock Tuesday, Sep 30, 25 @ 8:16 am
White Sox fire coaches. More smoke and mirrors. Sell the team, Jerry.
Comment by low level Tuesday, Sep 30, 25 @ 8:46 am
Re: Daily Herald story on comments
=== Too much time was being devoted to moderating the comments ===
I do not disagree with the premise. I have seen blatant hatred on news website stories. I also know CapitolFax spends a great deal of time moderating comments. I just wonder how much moderating is done on other sites I frequent (local NPR, etc.). I sense none is the rule of thumb.
Comment by H-W Tuesday, Sep 30, 25 @ 8:54 am
Has anyone asked Mary Miller why she approved of the Bill that means that more people in her district go hungry, with less access to SNAP and the SNAP extension help like the Hunters Feeding Illinois?
Comment by BE Tuesday, Sep 30, 25 @ 9:14 am
Pretextual emergency, executive overreach, ignoring the people’s elected representatives, covering for a rogue workforce, chilling important speech rights
The president and Chicago or the governor and prison mail?
Comment by Stephanie Kollmann Tuesday, Sep 30, 25 @ 9:23 am
Thinking about the potential military deployment while Secretary Hegseth said this morning that the goal of the military is to “kill people and break stuff.” Trying hard not to feel like things are going to get very, very bad soon.
Comment by TreeFiddy Tuesday, Sep 30, 25 @ 9:34 am
@TreeFiddy ===Thinking about the potential military deployment while Secretary Hegseth said this morning that the goal of the military is to “kill people and break stuff.” Trying hard not to feel like things are going to get very, very bad soon.===
The time to speak out is NOW. If you have been waiting for a sign to step out and throw sand in the gears in any way you can, this is it. Join the protest at Broadview ICE (1930 Beach St). Don’t let this moment pass with inaction.
Comment by WorseBeforeBetter Tuesday, Sep 30, 25 @ 9:44 am