* ICYMI: Judge extends restraining order barring National Guard deployment in Illinois as Supreme Court decision looms. Tribune…
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 http://www.AmerenIllinois.com/PathToSavings for information on available financial assistance and energy saving programs.
* NBC Chicago | Illinois soybean farmers in limbo amid tariff-fueled trade dispute with China: “That’s a big deal,” said Chris Gould, a third-generation Illinois soybean farmer. “What we really need to do is let the free market sort this out, and the free market includes exports.” Illinois is the top soybean producing state in the country. Illinois farmers export more than $957 million in soybeans to China, according to the Illinois Dept. of Agriculture. “This trade disruption has some real impacts for rural America, so we’re hoping things get settled soon,” said Brian Duncan, president of the Illinois Farm Bureau.
* Capitol News Illinois | Jeffries’ Illinois redistricting push meets cool reception in Springfield: U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ push for Illinois Democrats to redraw the state’s congressional map as a counter to President Donald Trump’s mid-decade redistricting project in GOP-led states has met a cool reception with state lawmakers. “I think there is next to zero appetite to do it,” one House Democratic lawmaker told Capitol News Illinois. Another lawmaker said “there is no world where I see this happening.”
* IPM News | Illinois teachers believe parents support teaching inclusive history, despite national divides: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers surveyed 1,550 social studies teachers and administrators over four years. “We were shocked to receive notice that approximately 87% of educators agree that parents were supportive of their approaches,” said report co-author Asif Wilson. Wilson, a curriculum and instruction professor in the U of I College of Education, said the findings push back against the idea that parents in the state’s more conservative areas do not want their kids to learn about race or gender.
* CBS Chicago | Former IL Sen. Darren Bailey’s family members killed in Montana helicopter accident: In a statement, Bailey’s campaign said his son, daughter-in-law, and two of his grandchildren died in a helicopter accident in Montana. Bailey’s two grandchildren were 12 and 7 years old. The couple’s third child was not aboard the helicopter and is safe. His campaign said Bailey and his wife, Cindy, “are heartbroken by this unimaginable loss” and are “finding comfort in their faith, their family, and the prayers of so many who love and care for them.”
* Tribune | Gov. JB Pritzker and GOP House leader bickered in texts after conservative influencer filmed Pritzker’s home: Instead, he and McCombie, who are typically cordial in texts to each other, exchanged heated messages as McCombie rebuffed the governor’s request and called out Pritzker for some of his previous comments about Republicans, with the governor shooting back, sometimes in all capital letters, that her response was “absurd” and that she was playing politics. “So you won’t condemn this guy coming to MY HOME (where my wife and children live) and calling me evil while encouraging people to ‘take action?’ GOT IT,” Pritzker wrote to McCombie.
* WTTW | Illinois Lawmakers Head Back to Springfield With Transit Funding, Energy and Hemp Regulation on the Agenda: Rep. Kam Buckner (D-Chicago) proposed revenue streams to help fund transit, which have gotten pushback. Notably, imposing a delivery fee for online orders. “I’m super confident in the next few days that we’ll be able to find the right mix of revenue,” said Buckner. “Whether that is some delivery fee, whether that is a large ticket surcharge — to make sure we’re not being regressive and putting this on the backs of people who need this system the most.”
* Press Release | Newly Elected IFT Officers, Educators, State Workers from Across IL to Head to Springfield in Veto Session Push for Promised but Undelivered Funds for Public Education and State Services: Hundreds of educators and state workers from the 103,000-member, Illinois Federation of Teachers will be joined by their newly elected Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT) officers, President Stacy Davis Gates, Executive Vice President Cyndi Oberle-Dahm, Secretary-Treasurer Pankaj Sharma, and Membership Secretary John Miller to rally in Springfield during the fall veto session on Wednesday, Oct. 29. They will be calling on Governor JB Pritzker and lawmakers to counter Trump’s devastating cuts by closing the state’s own tax breaks for tech companies and the ultra-rich and investing in state services that finally deliver promised but not provided funds to public education and pull the state’s higher education system away from the fiscal cliff it is teetering on.
* Press Release | Ald. Rodriguez demands release of members of aldermanic staff, other residents detained by ICE/CBP: “Today in the Little Village community, ICE/CBP detained at least 7 residents of our community. Several of those detained are U.S. citizens. In addition, they detained two members of my aldermanic staff, Jacqueline Lopez and Elianne Bahena, my chief of staff who also serves as an elected 10th District Police Commissioner. Both Ms. Bahena and Ms. Lopez are also U.S. citizens. “All residents have the right to peacefully observe ICE/CBP activity. The federal government continues to claim that those who exercise their rights are breaking the law – these claims have been repeatedly proven as false.
* Sun-Times | Little Village residents urge Mayor Johnson to enforce order barring ICE agents from staging on city property: Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order earlier this month prohibiting federal immigration agents from using city property to stage for raids. But residents in Little Village spotted agents staging in city Water Department parking lot at 3148 S. Sacramento Avenue around 3 p.m. Sunday, said Baltazar Enriquez, president of the Little Village Community Council. In a letter sent to Johnson’s office, Enriquez said he witnessed agents “putting on uniforms, face masks, and preparing for deployment into the Little Village community.”
* Sun-Times | Drug kingpin Larry Hoover asks Gov. JB Pritzker for freedom: “To deny clemency now is not a neutral act,” attorney Justin Moore said in the petition. “It is a willful decision to let a 74-year-old man with significant health challenges die in a cage.” Among those supporting Hoover’s new clemency bid are Greg Mathis; Chance the Rapper; 16th Ward Ald. Stephanie Coleman; former U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, D-lll.; U.S. Rep. Jonathan Jackson, D-lll.; the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Rev. Al Sharpton; state Sen. Willie Preston, D-Chicago; and former Education Secretary Arne Duncan, according to the petition.
* Tribune | After gate reallocation at O’Hare, United to add new routes next year:
United will add flights to 10 new domestic destinations from O’Hare International Airport next year, routes the airline says were made possible by the additional gate space it won through the city’s airport gate reallocation process this fall. United’s new destinations next year will include Santa Barbara, California; Eugene, Oregon; Paducah, Kentucky; and Rochester, Minnesota, among others. Service on the new routes will start next spring and summer.
* Sun-Times | From Smithsonian to Chicago, new Adler CEO aims to usher in the future at nation’s oldest planetarium: Babcock worked at the Field Museum from 2002 to 2010 and most recently at the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum in Washington, D.C. Nearly three weeks into her new role, Babcock shared her vision for the next era of the planetarium — which includes attracting a wider audience, offering a “revitalized” experience for adults who haven’t visited in years, elevating the institution as a world-class research hub and reinforcing the Adler’s status as a global organization.
* Tribune | Blue Island renews controversial Flock Safety license plate cameras: City administrator Thomas Wogan said Thursday that a majority of the council agreed with the mayor, Police Department and city administration that the Flock Safety system continues to be a valuable tool in preventing, investigating and solving crimes within the community. But Ald. Joshua Roll said he is concerned that gathering and sharing data that can track residents’ whereabouts could be a risk to privacy, echoing the concerns of other suburban officials in Oak Park and Evanston. Those suburbs deactivated the cameras following a state audit that found Flock was sharing Illinois data with federal agencies.
* Tribune | Oak Park leaders debate official response to federal immigration enforcement activity: Oak Park is poised to follow in the footsteps of Chicago and Evanston in adopting an ordinance or executive order prohibiting federal agents from using village property to help conduct immigration related law enforcement activity. Village officials have already been monitoring the Village Hall parking lot to make sure federal agents are not using it to gather as they were reported to have done one morning last month. The Village Board also wants to work with other units of local government to inform Oak Park residents of what they can do to protect people who might be targeted by federal immigration officers.
* Daily Herald | ‘Less food for more people’: Thousands could lose SNAP benefits amid shutdown, advocates warn: Dawn uses the food pantry at Outreach House in Lombard to feed her four children and also depends on SNAP benefits, which pay for a week’s worth of groceries, to put meals on the table. “If she loses that one week, how could she cover the gap?” Outreach House Executive Director Catherine Lynott asked at a Wednesday roundtable organized by U.S. Rep. Sean Casten. Social service leaders from Cook and DuPage counties warned of “more people” and “less food” if Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) payments are halted in November as a result of the government shutdown.
* Daily Herald | Naperville could apply food and beverage tax to drive-through-only chains, food trucks: Under a draft ordinance, the city would be “correcting that situation,” Mayor Scott Wehrli said. It would amend the city’s definition of a retail food facility to “establish clear and consistent application of the tax across the food and beverage industry,” the memo noted. “It’s certainly not fair, I think, to have brick-and-mortars that are not paying it just because they’re drive-through-only,” Councilman Patrick Kelly said. “So I think this is a needed update in that regard.”
* WCIA | The Trial of Sean Grayson: Live Updates: The next witness to testify in the trial was Anthony Mayfield, the retired Sangamon County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy who conducted the internal investigation of the shooting for the Sheriff’s Office. Mayfield’s testimony was brief, as Milhiser did not have many questions and the defense had none. But Mayfield did provide some insight into what the internal investigation found, starting with the day he and two others in the Sheriff’s Office command staff saw the body camera footage for the first time. “It was so silent you could hear a pin drop,” Mayfield said. “Everyone was shocked.”
* AP | Sheriff’s deputy got mad and fatally shot Sonya Massey without justification, prosecutor says: Earlier, Sangamon County State’s Attorney John Milhiser told the jury that the video would show Massey posed no threat when Grayson and fellow Sangamon County Sheriff’s Deputy Dawson Farley entered her home. Massey, who had mental health problems, had called 911 about a suspected prowler. “She’s a little scattered, but she’s nice and kind and talking to him and you’ll see that interaction,” Milhiser said during opening statements. “You will see what happens when the defendant gets mad at a woman who is in her kitchen and has called for help. He gets mad and shoots and kills her without lawful justification.”
* WGLT | Lexington mayor calls on energy providers to settle dispute over planned subdivision: The mayor of Lexington is publicly calling for two utility providers in McLean County, Ameren Illinois and Corn Belt Energy, to resolve a dispute over their territories in a planned subdivision in the city. In an op-ed piece coauthored by Gov. JB Pritzker, Mayor Spencer Johansen said Ameren is standing in the way of one of Lexington’s most important projects. While Corn Belt has finished its portion, Ameren is requiring the subdivision developer to pay $530,000 to repair transmission lines in its portion of the subdivision.
* WCIA | Danville’s former HR administrator files lawsuit against city, mayor: A former Danville employee who worked for the city for about 35 years has filed a lawsuit against the city and its mayor, alleging that she was wrongfully terminated and discriminated against. Before she was fired in February, Sandra Finch was Danville’s Human Relations Administrator. She handled employee relations, addressed complaints of discrimination, and investigated discrimination and housing-related complaints.
* WCIA | Champaign Co. Board to discuss supporting reparations coalition: The coalition is asking for $25,000 from the county to put together a committee made up of community leaders whose job would be figuring out appropriate reparations for people in the Champaign-Urbana area. The City of Urbana has already allocated $25,000 to the cause, and the coalition is in active conversations with the City of Champaign and University of Illinois about funding as well, according to founder Jeffrey Trask.
* WGLT | Rivian spinoff company Also unveils first e-bike and quad vehicles: The company also announced two four-wheel electric vehicles, or quads, that will be pedal-assisted and designed for bike lanes, while being able to carry significant loads. There will be both a commercial and consumer version of the quad, called TM-Q. No price was available. The TM-B bikes will be the first to hit the market, with first deliveries expected in spring 2026. Preorders for the TM-Bs are open now.
* Chalkbeat | How free out-of-school therapy for Memphis teens strengthens MSCS mental health services: Youth Connect has provided free therapy outside of school to 345 young people in the Memphis area since it launched in May 2024. That is far fewer than Memphis-Shelby County Schools’ own mental health services, which serve over 6,000 students in group or individual therapy each year. But those who work in schools and with young people say Youth Connect is filling an important need, especially since a 2024 state law restricted certain kinds of mental health help schools can provide.
