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Voting rights groups probed

Feds double down on

unproven claims of

noncitizens at polls

By Madeleine Ngo,

Richard Fausset

and Alexandra Berzon

THE NEW YORK TIMES

As the Trump administration promotes doubts about the integrity of the voting system ahead of the midterm elections, Homeland Security officials have investigated more than 150 organizations as part of its effort to scrutinize nonprofits that they say may be helping noncitizens illegally register to vote, according to internal government documents reviewed by The New York Times.

The documents also reveal that the department has considered deploying undercover agents to investigate the organizations. If the groups were found to be recruiting noncitizens for voter registration, the agents could gather evidence and “disrupt activities,” the documents said. The findings could then be used to initiate prosecutions and “dismantle illicit facilitation networks,” according to the documents, which were shared with the Times by Democracy Forward, a legal advocacy organization that received them through a public records request.

The details were included in a June memo providing status updates on the Department of Homeland Security's “election integrity investigations,” an effort by the Trump administration to find and root out noncitizens who illegally voted or registered to vote.

The problem of noncitizens voting in the United States is a rare one, and there is no credible evidence that it has swayed

See VOTING on Page A11

■ Republicans are increasingly anxious that the \$1 billion at their disposal may not be enough to fend off sweeping losses in the coming midterms. Nation & World, Page B4

AL DIVISION SERIES GAME 3 GUARDIANS 9, WHITE SOX 3

ARMANDO L. SANCHEZ/CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Joy, then Jo

Gareth Mullins reacts after Guardians shortstop Brayan Rocchio scored off a pop-fly during the ninth inning of Game 3 of the AL Division Series against the White Sox at Rate Field on Wednesday in Chicago. Legions of White Sox faithful made the pilgrimage to 35th and Shields for a chance to see a rare series-clincher at home, but Jo Adell's three-run triple in Cleveland's four-run third inning spoiled the party for more than 40,000 fans and helped the Guardians fight off elimination. Coverage in Sports

For Sox fans, what's waiting one more day?

By Sam Charles

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

It was the kind of weekday afternoon party that Sox fans dream of.

The domestic light beer flowed freely while Italian sausage and hot dogs sizzled on grills under a perfect sunny sky. Fans filled the ballpark dressed mostly in black, drinking in a magical season.

They had arrived hours early. Stereos set up at tailgates cranked dance music, periodically interrupted by a thud on a beanbag board. Scores of fans wore the now-famous “pope hat” given away by the team in August. Several more wore homemade papal robes.

It was 21 years ago this month when a Catholic priest from the south suburbs attended a White Sox playoff game at U.S. Cellular Field. Much has changed since then. The priest got a bit of a job promotion and the ballpark was renamed, more than once.

Has it all been divine intervention? Maybe. Wednesday morning, video surfaced on social media showing the priest — now Pope Leo XIV — giving a thumbs-up to people wearing White Sox gear while visiting Rome.

"As a Catholic, it's fun to say that," said Dan Kozlowski of Crown Point, Indiana, who sported a homemade pope hat at the game. But he also gave credit to the team's young core on the field.

"I don't want to take anything

See SOX on Page A7

ELECTION 2026

GOVERNOR

Corbett's journey to the center

Former GOP strategist hopes to attract those abandoned by party

By Dan Petrella

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

After Illinois Democrats trounced Republicans in the last midterm election, political consultant Collin Corbett had a message for fellow members of the GOP.

Pointing to exit polling commissioned by his firm, Cor Strategies, Corbett argued his party's latest drubbing wasn't because Illinois had become an uber-liberal bastion. It was largely because Republicans had ceded the political center, home to almost 40% of Illinois voters who identified as “moderate,” a share similar to what Associated Press polling also found in 2022.

"The Republican strategy of screaming ‘the sky is falling’ and ‘all is lost’ is clearly not working,"

Collin Corbett, center, stands next to his wife, Abbey, and speaks with supporters Michael Berthold, left, and Marilynn and Bruce Plaxton during a fundraising event at the Long Story Short Pub on Sept. 30 in Barrington. Corbett is running for governor as an Independent.

STACEY WESCOTT/CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Corbett wrote in a blog post that year. “The voters in this state aren’t hyper-partisans or (ideologues). They just want things to get done — they’re not interested in the drama and hyperbole.”

Four years later, Corbett has stopped trying to convince Republicans to tack to the center and instead is testing his theory himself with a long-shot independent bid for governor. The 40-year-old Palatine resident is the first independent candidate in 16 years to qualify for the general election ballot for governor, and only the third in the past century, according to state election records.

Despite his campaign slogan, "Hope for Illinois," Corbett acknowledges he has little realistic hope of upsetting Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker, a billionaire Hyatt Hotels heir who restocked his campaign fund with \$65 million in August, or Republican nominee Darren Bailey, the conservative former lawmaker from southern Illinois who lost to Pritzker by almost 13 percentage points in

See CORBETT on Page A2

ELECTION 2026 SCHOOL BOARD PRESIDENT

Mayor reaffirms support for embattled Dominguez

Progressive candidate faces new investigation into alleged sexual misconduct with teen girl

By Alice Yin and Kate Armanini

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Mayor Brandon Johnson reiterated his support Wednesday for a candidate for Chicago Board of Education president accused of sexually harassing a minor in 2017, saying Hilario Dominguez's progressive values are “separate” from a reopened misconduct investigation into the allegations.

Speaking at a City Hall news conference, Johnson made clear he still backs the former deputy political director for the Chicago Teachers Union. Dominguez has denied any misconduct.

“Look, I do support Hilario Dominguez,” the mayor said.

"The stakes are incredibly high. I think it's important that we have people in office who understand that our values have to be front and center, particularly our values as it relates to how we invest in our public education."

Asked multiple times whether he knew about these allegations before news broke of the Chicago Public Schools Office of the Inspector General reopening the investigation into the case, Johnson said “the information that’s available has always been available.”

And pressed on whether the red line he and Dominguez share against school closures is more

See CPS on Page A5

"I think it's important that we have people in office who understand that our values have to be front and center, particularly our values as it relates to how we invest in our public education."

MAYOR BRANDON JOHNSON

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CORBETT

from Page A1

2022.

Reaching the high single digits would be an improvement over recent independent and third-party candidates, Corbett said in a recent Tribune interview. But calling himself “an over-achiever,” Corbett said he’s “shooting for 15%.”

"I understand how unlikely that is, but what people need to realize is, if we're going to change things in politics, we don't need 50% to do so," he said. "If we can get 10% to 15% of the vote, we are the middle. We are the swing vote in most of these battleground districts, and so with that 10% to 15%, we can have an outsized influence on politics moving forward."

The last independent candidate for governor, Scott Lee Cohen, ran in 2010 after being pressured to step aside as the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor over a past domestic battery charge. Cohen garnered less than 4%. In 2006, Green Party candidate Rich Whitney received more than 10%, an outcome widely viewed as a backlash against then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich, the divisive Democratic incumbent.

With less than a month until Election Day, Corbett is battling not only Pritzker's resources and eight-year record but also Bailey's statewide name recognition that began when he opposed Pritzker's pandemic-era mandates. Beyond the \$500,000 he lent his own campaign, Corbett has reported raising less than \$88,000.

He's also fending off attacks from the right and left while trying to position himself as a centrist and distinguish his current positions from those of the mostly Republican candidates who campaign finance records show have paid his business more than \$7.1 million since 2010, as well as previous comments he made on his podcast supporting some of President Donald Trump's policies. At the same time, he faces a recently revived defamation lawsuit over campaign mailers sent on his firm's advice in a 2019 suburban mayoral race.

The Pritzker camp has publicly ignored Corbett's candidacy, sparing him from having to explain or defend the stances of candidates whose checks he cashed or the political takes he and his guests have shared during hundreds of hours on his "Smoke-Filled Room" podcast.

But it also has denied him the free publicity the governor's attention would almost certainly generate.

Bailey, for his part, acknowledged early on that Corbett could siphon votes away from him.

"I may not be a mathematician, but something isn't adding up," Bailey wrote in a May 26 fundraising email sent the day Corbett filed his nominating petitions. "A so-called 'independent' candidate has just entered the Illinois Governor's race. No party infrastructure. No real grassroots. But most importantly, no path to victory with a very clear ability to split our vote in half."

Bailey's team initially tried knocking Corbett out of the race, with Bailey's running mate, Aaron Del Mar, co-filing an objection contending his onetime political ally hadn't collected the 25,000 valid voter signatures to qualify for the ballot. But the Bailey campaign dropped the challenge in June and has tried to ignore Corbett since.

In a WGN-Ch. 9 interview last month, though, Bailey contended Corbett would take votes from him and Pritzker.

“It’s a real shame that a so-called Republican strategist would turn his back on the party and create ... this divisiveness, to take away any vote from ... the opportunity that we have to turn Illinois around,” Bailey said.

---

MIDDLE OF THE ROAD

Corbett's core campaign strategy is to present himself and running mate Carolyn Schofield, a fellow former Republican who ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in the 2022 GOP primary, as the “common-sense” alternatives to candidates coming from increasingly polarized major parties.

"I'm center-right fiscally, center-left socially, and that means I don't have a home," Corbett said.

Two prime examples of Corbett's personal views breaking with the prevailing positions of his former party are his support for abortion rights and same-sex marriage.

“Government shouldn't be involved in people's private decisions,” he said, calling abortion “a healthcare decision that should be between a woman and her doctor.”

A generation ago, prominent Illinois Republicans, including then-Gov. Jim Edgar and House Republican leader Tom Cross, supported abortion rights.

Now, few, if any, Illinois Republican office-holders take that position, even though more than two-thirds of Illinois adults think abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to a Pew Research Center survey last year.

As a result, Corbett has worked to elect Republicans whose views on abortion conflict with his own.

One of his last clients before leaving the party was the successful U.S. Senate primary campaign of Springfield Republican Don Tracy, who now faces Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, the Democratic nominee.

In the general election campaign, Tracy has said he doesn't “support nationalizing abortion law.” But he applauded the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned the federal constitutional right to the procedure.

“Today, millions of prayers have been answered,” Tracy said in a statement the day of the ruling, when he was chairman of the Illinois Republican Party. Tracy’s statement also reiterated his support for the state party platform “that values the dignity of all life, from conception to natural death.”

Collin Corbett heads to the front of the room to speak with supporters at his fundraising event at the Long Story Short Pub on Sept. 30 in Barrington. Corbett is running for governor as an Independent. STACEY WESCOTT/CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Tracy's Senate campaign paid Corbett's firm almost \$112,000, federal campaign records show, including \$10,000 for “strategic consulting” the day after Corbett filed his nominating petitions to run for governor and another \$10,000 the following month.

Corbett took an unpaid leave of absence from the firm starting April 27, campaign spokesman Lane Davis, who also is the company's communications manager, wrote in an email responding to questions about the payments. "Cor Strategies still provides services to campaigns and organizations, but Collin is not involved," Davis wrote.

Separately, state and federal records show the Illinois GOP paid Cor Strategies more than \$382,000 while Tracy was chairman.

Another top client has been former Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau, who said during his unsuccessful 2022 race in Illinois' 6th Congressional District that he opposed abortion “with exceptions for the mother's life, rape and incest.”

Pekau's congressional campaign paid Cor Strategies more than \$468,000 in the losing effort against Democratic Rep. Sean Casten of Downers Grove, while Pekau's local party, People Over Politics, paid the firm more than \$268,000 for work in Orland Park village races from 2019 to 2025.

Corbett defended his past work for candidates who oppose abortion rights.

What mattered to him was whether a client was sincere in their positions and “genuinely wanted to serve the public,” he said.

"I've worked with people all across the spectrum on every issue, so I never really imposed my personal beliefs on those candidates," he said. "Now I have a chance to actually impose my own beliefs on my race and on my candidacy."

---

CREDIBILITY QUESTION

Corbett's own sincerity, however, has been called into question in a defamation lawsuit regarding claims made against a client's opponent in Burr Ridge's 2019 mayoral race.

That year, attorney Gary Grasso was running to return as mayor of the western suburb after a seven-year hiatus. Grasso's opponent was Zachary Mottl, who had been elected a village trustee two years earlier.

During the campaign, Mottl's campaign, working with Cor Strategies, sent out mailers accusing Grasso of defrauding the government of \$36,000. The series of three mailers read Grasso had claimed homestead exemptions – a property tax break reserved for a person's primary residence — on both his Burr Ridge home and a Chicago condo, according to court records.

After winning the election, Grasso filed a defamation lawsuit against Mottl, to which Corbett and Cor Strategies were later added as defendants.

A research report from a firm Cor Strategies hired showed Grasso received annual \$6,000 homestead exemptions on his DuPage County property tax bill for six years starting in 2013. In 2016 and 2017, he also received the exemption on his condo, reducing his Cook County tax bills by a little more than \$1,200.

"When asked (during a deposition) why the mailer did not reflect that (Grasso) owed approximately \$1,200 to Cook County based on exemption overlap as indicated in the research report, rather than \$36,000 in fraud, Corbett responded 'I can't speak to our thinking at that time,'” an answer he repeated throughout the sworn testimony, according to court records.

Grasso and Mottl settled out of court in 2023. The next year, a DuPage County judge granted summary judgment to Corbett and Cor Strategies, finding that “even in a light most favorable to (Grasso), there is simply no clear and convincing evidence that the defendant entertained serious doubts and published anyway.”

But in July, a three-judge panel of the state Appellate Court reversed the ruling and sent the case back for trial, with the judges unanimously finding they “could reach no other conclusion than a genuine issue of material fact is presented concerning whether defendants recklessly disregarded the truth in accusing plaintiff of \$36,000 in tax fraud.”

"We cannot allow a litigant to stroll into a deposition, pull a Jon Lovitz and announce, 'Yeah, I had no idea it was false. Yeah, that's right. Yeah,' then demand summary judgment because no one possesses contrary evidence from inside his head," Appellate Judge John Anderson wrote in a concurring opinion, referencing the actor's pathological liar character on "Saturday Night Live."

While Corbett told the Tribune he is confident the trial court ultimately will rule in his favor, Grasso said in an interview Corbett's credibility is at the heart of the matter.

"I believe he did defame me, and I'm glad that the Appellate Court believed there was enough evidence for there to be a trial," said Grasso, now the Republican nominee for DuPage County chair. “And that goes to his credibility and, of course, my credibility. But beyond that, I’ll — let’s just let the voters decide.”

---

FISCAL FOCUS

While Corbett's support for abortion rights likely would have doomed him in a Republican primary, his work for local school districts on bond referendums also has drawn the ire of the political right.

In 2024, for instance, Cor Strategies and an affiliated firm were paid almost \$19,000 for consulting and advertising by a political committee backing a \$151.5 million bond referendum to upgrade three middle schools in Wheaton-based Community Unit School District 200.

The measure passed and drew criticism from former GOP state Rep. Jeanne Ives, a conservative firebrand active in local politics there.

“No Republican should sign Corbett’s petition,” Ives wrote in a social media post last spring. “He worked with CUSD200 to pass the \$151 million referendum for performing arts centers in middle schools.”

Ives claimed Corbett and Ed Sullivan, a former Republican state legislator turned lobbyist whose firm works with school districts on bond referendums, swayed voters with “BS numbers sent out in targeted ads.”

Corbett said such arguments ignore Illinois' long history of underfunding public schools, with the state providing only about a quarter of school districts' revenue, according to the State Board of Education's most recent Illinois Report Card.

"When those school districts aren't receiving the funding that they need from Pritzker and the state, their only choice is to go toward property taxes," Corbett said. "I don't blame them for that. I blame Pritzker and the state for not fulfilling their obligations."

As governor, Corbett said he would increase state school funding beyond the \$350 million annual increases approved under Pritzker. He would pay for that, in part, by going after so-called unfunded mandates, a familiar Republican target, and by freezing “discretionary spending.” Both would be political challenges in a legislature almost certain to remain under Democratic control.

His platform also calls for expanding the state sales tax to cover more services, particularly unspecified “high-end and nonessential services,” while eliminating it on items such as over-the-counter medicines, diapers and school supplies. Policy experts have advocated similar changes, but they have gained no traction in Springfield.

Though his platform departs from typical Republican proposals, some views Corbett has shared on his podcast hew closely to party orthodoxy.

In summer 2025, for instance, Corbett bemoaned the Republicans' failure to promote Trump's tax and spending package, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

"I've seen a little bit from Republicans on pushing our side of this, but nowhere near enough," Corbett said on the podcast. "Where's the TV ads? Where's the blitz? Where's the social media ads? Where's the digital ads to let voters know? Because the media ain't gonna do it for us. They're obviously working against us here."

In particular, he criticized news coverage of provisions that could shift some of the cost of federal food assistance to states, such as Illinois, which have higher payment error rates.

“A lot of what you’ve seen in the coverage of this bill talks about how that this bill and Republicans and Trump have kicked working families, low-income families off of getting their food assistance,” Corbett said at the time. “But that is absolutely … a lie.”

From July 2025, when Trump signed the measure into law, to this August, SNAP participation in Illinois dropped by 24%, from roughly 1.9 million people to a little more than 1.4 million, according to state data compiled by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The left-leaning think tank attributed the drop, part of a nationwide trend, to the law's expansion of "harsh and ineffective" work requirements, among other factors.

---

LONG HAUL

Final fundraising numbers won't be available until after the election, but Corbett's totals so far suggest there's no groundswell of outside support for his candidacy. For his backers, though, the campaign offers an alternative to a Democratic Party that controls all the levers of power and a Republican Party struggling to regain relevance in the state.

"The reason I'm supporting Colin is because I really believe that Illinois needs more leaders who are willing to put, really, governing ahead of politics," said Lou Sandoval, the former head of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce and chairman of Corbett's campaign.

Like Corbett, Sandoval said he feels somewhat politically homeless. He supports the pro-business policies once central to Republicanism, but also comprehensive immigration reform that would give people brought to the U.S. as children, in particular, a path to citizenship.

But Sandoval also acknowledges that a Nov. 3 victory is unlikely.

"It's a structure that's built against anybody running that doesn't go inside the two-party system," he said.

Corbett, meanwhile, hopes his candidacy will draw those not engaged with politics off the sidelines.

“Pritzker is tolerated, not well-liked, and the Republican nominee isn’t even tolerated; he’s disliked,” Corbett said. “And I really saw an opening here for somebody who could give voters something to vote for, someone to vote for.”

He readily admits, though, that activating the politically disengaged center will take more than one candidate or one election.

Chicago Tribune's Rick Pearson contributed.

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■ A review of a performance by the tap dance company M.A.D.D. Rhythms at Harold Washington Cultural Center that appeared in Monday's Arts & Living section made mention of sound issues during the show without naming the technical crew. The sound engineer was not employed by the Harold Washington Cultural Center. The Tribune regrets the error.

Obama Foundation workers move to unionize

Workers prepare the main stage ahead of the Obama Presidential Center dedication ceremony on June 18. BRIAN CASSELLA/CHICAGO TRIBUNE

By A.D. Quig and Talia Soglin

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Months after former President Barack Obama's museum's opening this summer, employees at the museum foundation announced Wednesday they are organizing a union.

"Every day we come together across departments and across the country to bring President and Mrs. Obama's vision to life," the Obama Workers United open letter to colleagues reads. "We have faced many challenges while doing the unprecedented work of realizing that vision and, despite those difficulties, have worked hard to ensure success for our world-class institution."

Those workers said they face increasing workloads, rolled back benefits and high turnover, according to the letter. “Due to this unsustainable work environment, many of our skilled, passionate colleagues continue to leave, taking with them their institutional knowledge and expertise.”

Some 68 museum visitor services employees, collections and exhibitions workers, custodians, receptionists and people working on the foundation's global programming signed the letter urging senior leadership of the foundation to voluntarily recognize the union and “not waste resources on anti-union messaging, anti-union lawyers, or anti-union meetings,” citing Obama’s own historic support for organized labor.

In an emailed statement, Obama Foundation spokeswoman Emily Bittner said, "We are deeply committed to the fundamental right of workers to organize and make their voices heard. As members of our staff explore union representation, we approach this process with immense gratitude for their contributions, deep respect for unions, and a sincere commitment to working collaboratively with our partners in labor."

"We respect employees' right to organize and will evaluate any recognition request in accordance with applicable laws and procedures," the statement continued. "We are proud of the compensation packages we offer, which include wages, health care coverage and time off benefits that are competitive with or exceed peer institutions.”

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31, the union with which the workers are organizing, said more than 250 staffers would be eligible to join the prospective bargaining unit.

The workers could seek voluntary recognition of their union if a majority of their number sign union authorization cards. With the support of at least 30% of the prospective unit, they could file for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board.

Around 200 of those in the group's number are based in Chicago, with just over a dozen at foundation offices in Washington, D.C., AFSCME said. The rest are scattered around the country.

MJ Ulrich, a foundation employee based in Portland, Oregon, said she wanted to unionize to make the center “not just a great place to visit,” but also “a great place

to work."

AFSCME has steadily organized museum employees across the city, including at the Art Institute, the Museum of Science and Industry, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago History Museum and Field Museum.

"These employees are the heart of the Obama Foundation. Every day they do the work that makes the new Presidential Center such a remarkable addition to our city," AFSCME Council 31 Executive Director Roberta

Lynch said in a release. "Together in our union, they can ensure that the Foundation and Presidential Center are every bit as good a place to work as the Center is to visit."

Years before its opening, salaries for top foundation staff outpaced other local cultural institutions and presidential centers around the country. The foundation raised \$150 million last year and ended with net assets totaling \$1.1 billion, according to its annual financial disclosures.

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Cryptocurrency founder charged with scamming investors

By Jason Meisner

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

A founder of the cryptocurrency Kishu Inu has been indicted in Chicago on federal charges alleging he and his associates bilked investors of approximately \$10 million through a “rug pull” scheme that used public statements and ads to drive up market prices while selling off coins they had secretly distributed to themselves.

Alexander Sisemore, 28, of Fayetteville, Arkansas, was charged in a 13-page indictment made public in U.S. District Court on Wednesday with three counts of wire fraud. Sisemore was expected to self-surrender to authorities and appear for an arraignment at a later date, according to the U.S. attorney's office.

His lawyer, Nishay Sanan, said Wednesday he did not believe the government would be able to prove what was charged in the indictment, and that Sisemore looked forward to “fighting the case in court.”

According to the charges, Sisemore, also known as "Kishu Man," and several unnamed associates founded the cryptocurrency in April 2021 and it quickly reached a market capitalization of more than \$1.6 billion. Shortly after its launch, Kishu Inu — which used a Japanese Kishu breed dog as its mascot and was modeled after the popular cryptocurrency dogecoin — had about 283,000 holders, the indictment stated.

The founders aggressively marketed Kishu Inu by seeking investors on its website, billboards in New York's Times Square and other locations, on social media and in messaging apps such as Telegram, according to court records and a statement earlier this year from the FBI.

In May 2021, a month after the launch, Kishu Inu's website “encouraged investors to ‘Join the moon mission,’ suggesting that Kishu Inu's price would continue to appreciate to the ‘moon,’” the indictment stated.

Meanwhile, the founders repeatedly vouched for Kishu Inu's stability in public statements. In the online community Reddit, a white paper from kishu.

com was widely circulated that stated “Kishu Inu was fair-launched, and the dev team has no ‘team tokens’. In other words, our creators had to purchase \$KISHU on the open-market,” the indictment stated. Other versions of the white paper allegedly stated Kishu Inu was “a community-owned project with no tokens reserved for the team.”

“Therefore, it runs primarily on volunteers and donations from the community,” the white paper stated, according to the indictment.

In reality, Sisemore, an associate identified as Individual A, and others had secretly transferred 6% of the total Kishu Inu tokens to blockchain wallets under their control before being offered for sale to the public, the indictment stated. They then secretly sold off those coins, generating personal profits of at least \$9.8 million, according to the charges.

While the price of Kishu Inu coins has continued to drop, it is still traded in online markets. In fact, the cryptocurrency's promoters recently celebrated its five-year anniversary, publishing a statement on its X account on April 17 reflecting on the "beautiful journey that has brought us all together."

"As we reflect on the past five years, let's not just celebrate what we've achieved, let's look forward to the incredible possibilities that lie ahead," the message said. "Together, we can continue to break barriers, inspire change, and create a brighter future for ourselves and for generations to come."

Three days after that post, the FBI Chicago posted a statement on its website seeking to identify investors in Kishu Inu who “may be victims of a scheme where investors’ assets may have been stolen.”

"The stolen cryptocurrency was gradually sold, taking advantage of the robust market for Kishu Inu throughout 2021," the FBI said, asking anyone with information to fill out a form online.

As part of the indictment, federal prosecutors are seeking to seize any proceeds from the sale as well as two cryptocurrency wallets tied to Sisemore, records show.

jmeisner@chicagotribune.com

CPS

from Page A1

important than the story of the woman who said Dominguez sexually harassed her when she was 17, Johnson responded, "First of all, let's just separate the two."

Chicago Board of Education president candidate Hilario Dominguez speaks about why he is running, and refutes any wrongdoing, at a press conference on Tuesday outside Maggiano's Little Italy in the city's River North neighborhood. EILEEN T. MESLAR/CHICAGO TRIBUNE

“Those are two separate matters, and I want to be emphatically clear that the OIG’s responsibility in this moment, to answer questions with expediency, is an imperative.” Johnson said. “And on a separate note, having a school district that invests in working people, it’s important to me, and that’s important to Chicagoans across this city.”

His remarks came the morning after Dominguez's first public appearance since the Tribune reported last week on the watchdog reopening the probe. Dominguez held a news conference Tuesday during which he sought to discredit his accuser and blame a former political foe for his predicament less than a month out from Chicago's first-ever school board president election.

The woman, whom the Tribune is not naming because she was a minor at the time of her interactions with Dominguez, said he asked what men she was into and picked her up to twirl her around when they were alone during a summer program at Pilsen non-profit The Resurrection Project.

Asked Wednesday to respond to Johnson's and Dominguez's remarks, the woman declined to address them directly, but said she hopes young people following her story continue to "trust that your body is telling you the truth and that something is wrong" during uncomfortable interactions.

"To the educators, to organizers, to social justice practitioners, we have to remind ourselves why we are in this work," she said over the phone. "We are dedicating and committing our time and purpose into protecting Black and brown youth and vulnerable communities. When we have any victim speaking up on that and you are deliberately silencing them, that is promoting the misogyny and rape culture plaguing our movements right now.”

Meanwhile, Dominguez on Tuesday told reporters outside a City Club of Chicago candidates forum that he was “ready to be accountable.”

Then he brought up a text exchange with the woman years after that summer in an attempt to push back on her testimony.

And he pointed the finger at a past political opponent who's a relative of the accuser, arguing the allegations were politically motivated.

Dominguez said the woman had sought to meet with him one-on-one years after that summer, to which he had responded “I do not feel safe meeting with you alone.”

But that woman has told the Tribune she remembers it was Dominguez who requested the in-person conversation, which never happened, via an intermediary whose name is referenced twice in text message screenshots Dominguez shared with WGN-Channel 9.

In the November 2022 exchange, Dominguez said he wanted to bring his significant other, to which the woman responded that she wanted to bring her mom and had only sought a meeting alone because the intermediary, a local political strategist, “informed me that you felt this (was) very personal.”

Dominguez has not responded to questions from the Tribune about the interaction.

Dominguez's wife, an assistant principal at Whitney Young High School, was present during his Tuesday appearance and was the significant other he sought to bring to the proposed meeting with the woman. She is also the daughter of a past director at The Resurrection Project who Dominguez claimed had told the

Tribune “that I was never reprimanded, disciplined, or talked to about my behavior while I was working” there.

Dominguez's father-in-

BREAST CANCER RESEARCH FOUNDATION law, Salvador Cerna, had written in an email statement last month: “Hilario was a terrific organizer for The Resurrection Project and we were sad to see him leave. Any statement that I had to discipline Hilario or had to discuss as a result of his interactions with youth is false.” But the statement did not address if others had spoken with Dominguez about his behavior.

Cerna, who did not respond to follow-up inquiries Tuesday, was named in the 2018 internal statement from Paloma Rodriguez, a housing counselor with the nonprofit. She wrote in her report that Cerna said he had spoken with Dominguez about his conduct.

"He wanted me to know that he ‘took care of it,’ ” Rodriguez wrote. “He even stated this wasn’t the first time he had to have a talk with Hilario about his behavior around young women.”

In addition to Rodriguez, the Tribune spoke to two other former staffers who recalled discussing the allegations in 2017. None of those staffers or Dominguez's accuser said they were interviewed or approached about an investigation by The Resurrection Project.

Christina,

Diagnosed in 2018

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Kane County launches toolkit for severe weather, other emergencies

By Aurora Beacon-News

AURORA BEACON-NEWS

Kane County recently launched a new online resource meant to help residents prepare for severe weather, climate-related hazards and other emergencies.

The idea of the Emergency Preparedness Toolkit, the Kane County Health Department said in a news release, is to give residents practical and easy-to-use information to help prepare them for such situations.

“Emergencies can happen quickly, and being prepared ahead of time can make a real difference,” Michael Isaacson, the health department’s executive director, said in the news release.

“This toolkit gives residents practical steps they can take now to protect themselves, their families and their neighbors when an emergency occurs.”

The toolkit is available at the department's website, www.kanehealth.com.

It was developed through an interdepartmental Kane County effort, combining public health, emergency preparedness, environ-“Emergencies can happen quickly, and being prepared ahead of time can make a real difference. This toolkit gives residents practical steps they can take now to protect themselves.”

MICHAEL ISAACSON, Kane County Health Department's executive director

mental and climate resilience expertise to create one central resource, the news release from the health department said.

Kane County can experience a range of hazards, including severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, flooding, extreme heat, winter weather, poor air quality and power outages, the news release said. The toolkit also addresses how changing climate conditions may affect some of these hazards.

In the toolkit, emergency preparedness is organized into four steps.

The first step, per the toolkit, is to identify possible hazards that may affect Kane County.

The next suggested step, the news release about the toolkit indicated, is to take action through steps like creating a household emergency plan, building a “Go Bag,” protecting important documents, planning for medical needs and considering the needs of children, older adults, people with disabilities and pets.

Subsequent steps suggest residents stay informed by signing up for local emergency alerts and share what they have learned about emergency preparedness with family, friends and neighbors.

The toolkit also emphasizes that emergency preparedness does not need to happen all at once, and that actions like signing up for emergency alerts or identifying family meeting locations can make “a meaningful difference,” the news release said.

The online resource also includes links to additional local, state and federal resources, the news release indicated.

Man held after errant bullet paralyzes teen in West Ridge

By Shun Graves

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

A 14-year-old boy shot on a West Ridge street last week was an innocent bystander who was left paralyzed from the chest down in the shooting, according to prosecutors.

Now, the man accused of shooting him, Muhammad Sayadul Boshar, 19, of West Ridge, faces an attempted murder charge, among other felonies. A judge ordered him detained on Monday, the Cook County state's attorney's office said.

The shooting occurred after a drawn-out, unprovoked argument between Sayadul Boshar and someone he knew from his childhood soccer team, prosecutors said.

Sayadul Boshar accosted and showed a gun to that person, who had just finished praying at a mosque, according to court documents. The person got picked up by others, but Sayadul Boshar started sending “threatening” calls and texts to him.

Eventually, their car passed by Sayadul Boshar's house — Sayadul Boshar was standing just outside — and Sayadul Boshar shot at the car, prosecutors said. One bullet hit a parked car and another hit the boy, who was a "block and a half away," according to the account.

At the time, the boy was trying to unlock an electric scooter on the 6300 block of North Rockwell Street. The bullet hit his spine, paralyzing him. He was taken to

Chicago police officers look for evidence near the scene where a 14-year-old boy was shot on Friday in the city's West Ridge neighborhood. ARTHUR MAIORELLA/CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Lurie Children's Hospital and is in stable but serious condition.

Police suspected at first that a person inside the car had fired gunshots, and they detained the driver, but eventually determined that it was Sayadul Boshar who fired the shots, authorities said.

In addition to attempted murder, Sayadul Boshar was charged with aggravated battery and four counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm.

The car's occupants also identified Sayadul Boshar as the shooter, authorities said. A gun wasn't recovered. His case will move to the Skokie Courthouse for a hearing on Friday.

Mold at Waukegan Police Station prompts testing

By Steve Sadin

FOR THE LAKE COUNTY

NEWS-SUN

Sitting at his desk in the Waukegan Police Station, Chief Elias “Louie” Agalianos can see mold on the flags of the U.S. and State of Illinois hanging nearby, as well as on the walls and in other parts of the building.

"It's disheartening because of what the flag symbolizes and the sacrifices made for us," Agalianos said. "It's alarming because it should not be there and because of the health concerns of our employees."

With the approval of the City Council, Agalianos said a professional environmental analysis begins Thursday, which will show him precisely what remediation is necessary to make the air safe to breathe and the water okay to drink.

On Monday at City Hall, the council unanimously approved the police department's request to conduct an environmental assessment of the police station and do necessary testing to determine the necessary work to rid the building of contaminants.

“We’re trying to take this as seriously as we can and as fast as we can,” Agalianos said.

“We have another organization walking through explaining what the problem may be. They gave us an initial estimate of what they think if we replace certain things.”

Along with approving the environmental assessment leading to remediation, the council postponed a decision to purchase one of two parcels of real estate on Green Bay Road until they meet at 7 p.m. on Oct. 19 at City Hall.

Agalianos said he began getting reports from the maintenance workers who keep the station clean, making rounds daily.

He was learning about a variety of potential contaminants and began talking to environmental experts.

"The cleaning crew there told us there is mold on our desks and on our walls," Agalianos said. "Two to four five-gallon buckets of dirty water are drained every day. We are getting the assessment so remediation can take place."

When the assessment begins, Agalianos said after the meeting, there will be air quality testing for chemicals such as cleaners, particulates like dust, and biologicals, which can include items naturally growing like mold. When the testing is complete, there will be a better idea of necessary work.

"The scope of which work needs to be done is under discussion," he said.

Given a \$25,000 budget to do the testing, Agalianos said the cost will be slightly less than \$5,000.

He does not want to speculate on the cost of remediation until the testing is complete and he learns the precise needs.

Ald. Jose A. Guzman, 2nd Ward, originally suggested the environmental testing and wanted to allocate \$1 million rather than \$25,000. He wants to reduce any possible delays in getting the work done.

"If they have to do the ductwork, it's still held up because they have to come back to the committee and go through the process again," Guzman said.

"This is why I said give them \$1 million. Let them hold on to it; whatever they use, they use. Whatever they don't, they bring back. When that assessment gets done, he can say, ‘Go ahead, I have it in the budget.’”

Explaining the process is more complex; Agalianos said significant work like replacing the duct system requires allowing potential contractors to compete for the work. It is done in writing.

"We still have a process we have to follow," he said. "Because of the amount to fix the problem, we have to go through the bidding process. I can't circumvent that no matter how fast I want to get it done."

After completing all but the final item on the agenda, the council moved into a closed executive session to discuss the sale and purchase of real estate as permitted under the Illinois Open Meetings Act.

As soon as the regular meeting resumed, Mayor Sam Cunningham put the question of buying property before the council members to “approve the purchase of real estate and execution of a purchase and sale agreement.”

Before council members had the opportunity to vote on the contract, Ald. Victor Felix, 4th Ward, asked for a delay of two weeks. Cunningham said the "holdover" is a courtesy given to all aldermen until the next meeting.

“I would like to put a hold-over because I want to bring both properties out for a vote,” Felix said. “I want the public to hear both properties and the details since we’ve already been to final negotiations.”

Ald. Keith Turner, 6th Ward, did not want to wait and asked for a vote to override the two-week delay. The immediate vote on the real estate transaction was prevented, 5-4.

Council members are prohibited from disclosing the precise location of the property or any potential terms of a deal, according to Illinois law.

The draft contract included in documents available to the public did not include an address on Green Bay Road.

Joining Turner for an immediate vote on one of the Green Bay Road properties were Ald. Michael Donnenwirth, 6th Ward, Ald. Sylvia Sims Bolton, 1st Ward, and Ald. Edith Newsome, 5th Ward.

Ald. Lynn Florian, 8th Ward, Ald. Thomas Hayes, 9th Ward, Ald. Juan Martinez, 3rd Ward, Felix and Guzman voted for the delay.

Orland Park holds off on speed cameras, allows fines for parents in teen gatherings

ize that there are some issues that we need to address."

somewhere like the mall or some shopping area."

By Olivia Stevens

DAILY SOUTHTOWN

Orland Park Village Board members held off Monday on plans to bring speed cameras to the village but will crack down on teen takeovers by fining parents and guardians.

After proposing multiple public safety policy changes Sept. 21, the board agreed Monday to take more time before purchasing speed cameras.

As state law prohibits municipalities outside Chicago from issuing traffic citations based on speed camera data, Orland Park attorneys plan to look closer at officials' plan to issue fines under the village's nuisance ordinance.

"There were a lot of people that were in favor of the speed enforcement cameras," board member John Lawler said. "So it's not gone, we're just tabling it for now until we do more research."

The village planned to purchase and install two cameras from Itasca-based company DacraTech near Carl Sandburg High School and another two near Orland District 135 schools on West 151st Street.

Board members said a public survey sent out Oct. 1 showed strong community support for the cameras and other proposed safety measures.

"It seems like almost everybody answered ‘in favor’ for all of these," member Michael Milani said. "These all sound like something that the public want — they real-

TEEN AND STREET

TAKEOVERS

The board moved forward with other changes to the village code, including measures to prevent street and teen takeovers. The village will now hold parents responsible if they fail “to make all reasonable, necessary and effective efforts” to prevent their children from engaging in either activity, following in the footsteps of other municipalities.

Parents and guardians can be fined jointly or separately from children who engage in large disturbances that threaten the safety of residents, damage public or private property, disrupt governmental services and place extraordinary demands on law enforcement and emergency personnel, according to the ordinance.

In response to such disturbances of 20 or more people, riots or illegal assemblies of three or more people, or any natural disasters, the mayor and police chief can now declare a civil emergency and establish a curfew. A change to the previously proposed ordinance requires the civil emergency be extended, if needed, during the following Village Board meeting.

Village Manager George Koczwara said in the case of a teen takeover, a set curfew wouldn't necessarily apply to the entire village.

"It's a surgical tool for the police," he said. "In all likelihood, if there's a teen takeover, it's happening

Another new ordinance gives police authority to tow or impound any vehicles involved in “nuisance parties” or street takeovers and fine drivers between \$75 and \$1,000. It also establishes a permitting process for classic car shows.

The village defines nuisance parties as gatherings on public or private property where one of 12 conditions is met, such as illegal parking, obstruction of public rights of way, property destruction, unreasonably loud noise and littering.

BOLEY FARM ROOF REPLACEMENT

Board members held off on a proposed \$365,000 contract to replace roofs and cupolas for the historic Boley Farm on 151st Street, after several board members expressed concerns about the cost.

Koczwara said the village identified the need for roof repairs through a 2021 study. The nearly 6-acre property includes a barn, historic outbuildings and a seasonal farm stand ran by Dean's Greens.

Board members Lawler and William Healy pointed out the village only received one bid to complete the project and asked staff to take more time to scrutinize the contract.

“I think we definitely need to look at some other bids and push back on some of these folks,” Lawler said.

ostevens@chicagotribune.com

Fans gather at Cork & Kerry at The Park before Game 3 of the AL Division Series at Rate Field on Wednesday in Chicago. ARMANDO L. SANCHEZ/CHICAGO TRIBUNE PHOTOS

Bob Stange carries a broom while tailgating before the White Sox attempted to sweep the Guardians in three games.

Herman Mendez grills while tailgating before the White Sox play the Guardians.

Fans walk past the Red Line 35th Street/Sox station before the Game 3 of the AL Division Series.

Wearing a homemade pope hat, Dan Kozlowski, left, high-fives George Jimenez while tailgating before the game.

SOX

from Page A1

away from the players, they're doing a phenomenal job," Kozlowski said, "but I think we're getting a little help."

But clever pope signs aside, these White Sox fans were there to witness something rarely seen in Chicago: a series-clinching playoff win on the South Side. That would have to wait, as the team ultimately fell to the Cleveland Guardians by a 9-3 score.

The teams will now face off again Thursday, giving Sox fans one more chance to see the team clinch a playoff series at their home ballpark, something they have not done since besting the Cubs in the 1906 World Series.

Despite the outcome, the game continued a season that's surpassed all fan and analyst expectations. Legions of White Sox faithful had made the pilgrimage to 35th and Shields on Wednesday for an opportunity to see the team punch its ticket to the American League Championship Series after three consecutive seasons with at least 100 losses.

The atmosphere was jubilant around Rate Field as the proceedings got going.

During the fourth inning, Sox fan Jim Horan of Streeterville stood at the top of the stairs at Section 140 — the section where the future Pope Leo sat during the 2005 World Series. The section is now adorned with a portrait of the pontiff.

Soon after Horan arrived there, Sox second baseman Chase Meidroth hit a double.

Asked how he'd remember the 2026 season, Horan echoed scores of other fans in praising the team's unified approach.

“Overachieving, young, energetic,” Horan said of the team.

"The way things are in sports now, they're a role model for any team, coach or player," he said. "They're role models for the rest of the city."

Douglas Outlaw took the CTA from Oak Park and was one of the first fans to arrive at the park Wednesday morning, two hours before the park opened and four hours before first pitch.

Outlaw praised the team's unity throughout the unexpectedly successful season. He bought another ticket for Thursday's game while hoping it wouldn't be necessary.

"They're doing it with — I don't want to say no-names

— not big name (players),” Outlaw said of the team’s core of players. “They’re developing a team camaraderie that is undeniable. Doing what they have to do, checking their egos.”

"They were underestimated, underdogs," Outlaw added.

Early on, the speakers blared Thin Lizzy's "The

Boys Are Back In Town" and "Abracadabra" by the Steve Miller Band — an apparent nod to reliever Mike Vasil's magic wand that's become a symbol of the team's success.

Sox fan Shane Trager of Joliet walked the outfield concourse near the batter's eye camera. Suddenly, a loud chorus of cheers carried over from the left field bleachers during pregame introductions.

"Why are we cheering?" Trager asked himself. "I guess that's a silly question."

"This should be fabulous for Sox fans," Trager said of the Game 3 crowd. "Let's face it, we've had some down years these few years. The one thing about Sox fans, true Sox fans are loyal fans."

"Watching what manager Will Venable's been able to do to put this together, it's been very impressive," Trager added. "When you get a cast of characters to buy in to what they're doing, that starts with him. You don't have any egos. There's not a guy on this team that is about themselves or is bigger than the team, and they sacrifice a lot for each other."

The crowd was anxious for something to cheer about right from the start. Fifteen minutes before first pitch, deafening chants of “Let’s Go White Sox” filled the park. AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck,” for years a staple of White Sox games, signaled it was time to play ball.

Sox fans didn't have to wait long. In the bottom of the first inning, the Sox scored on an RBI single by catcher Kyle Teel, one of the team's highly touted young players. That lead quickly evaporated, though, as Cleveland scored four runs in the third.

Even with the loss, fans were largely upbeat as they filed out. Among them was Don Ruderman, a White Sox season ticket holder of more than 20 years.

"The team has a lot of potential, and while I would have been very excited if they won today, I don't look at this as a one-year situation," he added as he left Rate Field. "I may not live to see the entire extent of their success, but I'm happy for the team. I think it's going in the right direction."

Trajan Castro and his father, Amador, wearing Sox pope hats, had arrived at Rate Field Wednesday morning after a 90-minute drive from Round Lake Park.

At 28 years old, Trajan Amador was a little young to fully appreciate the team's 2005 World Series.

“I’ve been waiting my whole life for this,” he said before the game began. “This will probably be the best day of my life.”

"The thing that's special about this team, you can really tell how much they love Chicago and how much they want to do it for the fans, not just the team, but for the city of Chicago as a whole," Amador Castro said.

The team's out-of-no-where success in 2026 has been a joyful surprise, and Amador is already looking ahead to the White Sox's 2027 season.

“Next year, I think we’re going to be (expletive) legit,” he said.

In the parking lot near Gate 5, Kozlowski enjoyed a pregame celebration. Kozlowski was not extending an olive branch to Cubs fans, though. Next to his car, Kozlowski erected a flagpole featuring a White Sox flag on top, with a Cubs "L" flag beneath it.

"It's a culmination of one of the greatest turnaround stories in MLB history," Kozlowski, who's been to seven other home games this year, told the Tribune. "Hopefully, it continues."

Kozlowski said “no Sox fan with a straight face” could claim they expected the 2026 playoff run.

"I thought we were on the right track, I thought we were a year or two away, but this is special," Kozlowski said. "We're on house money right now."

Founded June 10, 1847

Chris Jones, Editorial Page Editor

EDITORIALS

Endorsements for Illinois Senate districts 8, 9, 14, 17, 18, 21, 23

Today the Tribune Editorial Board turns its attention to contested races for the Illinois Senate. This is our first batch of endorsements there; we are endorsing state-wide.

---

8TH DISTRICT

Ram Villivalam, 39, has represented this district, covering parts of Chicago's North Side including West Ridge as well as such northern suburbs as Skokie, Park Ridge, Morton Grove, Lincolnwood and Niles, since 2019. As majority caucus whip, he's part of Senate President Don Harmon's leadership team and led the upper chamber's negotiations for the mass transit rescue package enacted late last year.

Giving Villivalam his first general election challenge since winning office is Vince Romano, 53, a Skokie real estate agent who's run unsuccessfully for the state legislature several times. This is Romano's first Senate run.

Romano is a harsh critic of Democratic Party leadership in Illinois, saying of Villivalam that his rise within the state Senate is “the exact problem. He’s a leader, and he’s leading us in the wrong direction.”

Of the transit package, which resulted in a record increase in road tolls throughout Illinois, he says bluntly, "It sucks. ... One more thing (my opponent) did to make constituents' lives unaffordable."

Our view of Villivalam is more nuanced. We don't love the spike in tolls either, but we believed the transit funding increase was unavoidable (if excessive). The money had to come from somewhere, and Villivalam helped put the kibosh on some truly unacceptable proposals that surfaced in the House — particularly a tax on the unrealized gains of Illinois billionaires.

Romano's critiques of Democratic Party hegemony in Illinois are well taken, but we consider Villivalam to be an experienced problem solver even if he is philosophically liberal.

We endorse Ram Villivalam.

---

9TH DISTRICT

This is a seat left open after the failed congressional candidacy of Democrat Laura Fine, who's represented this north suburban district since 2019. The Democratic candidate to succeed her is Winnetka small business owner Patrick Hanley, 36, who edged out Evanston lawyer Rachel Ruttenberg in a hotly contested primary.

Hanley, whom we endorsed over Ruttenberg in the primary, faces Glenview resident Thomas Lally, 74, now retired after a career in the insurance and defense industries. Lally is from a very old North Shore family; the family business is West End Florist in the far western part of Evanston, a business established by Lally's grandfather in 1908.

Hanley's views are similar to those of Fine and her predecessor Daniel Biss, the Evanston mayor now running to succeed Jan Schakowsky in the U.S. House of Representatives. Hanley told us he opposes the so-called millionaire's tax, a surcharge on incomes over \$1 million that House Speaker Emanuel "Chris" Welch endorses. But he believes Illinois should adopt a progressive income tax in the future, something Illinois voters rejected in 2020.

At the same time, we are heartened to see that he would consider Cook County State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke's suggestions for state legislation reforming the county's broken electronic monitoring system. He also has some solid ideas on getting more housing built in Illinois, which we have identified as an urgent need.

Lally hasn't waged any kind of serious campaign that we can discern; for example, the League of Women Voters said his campaign didn't respond to a request to debate Hanley, who'd agreed to attend. A lengthy statement on Lally's campaign website as to why he's running includes a hearty defense of President Donald Trump and a description of Democratic voters as “lemmings.”

In a district where Democrats far outnumber Republicans, that struck us as an odd form of outreach to potential swing voters.

---

14TH DISTRICT

State Sen. Emil Jones III has represented this district in Cook County's south suburbs since 2010 when he succeeded his father, Emil Jones Jr., Senate president from 2003 to 2009 and famously Barack Obama's mentor when Obama was a state senator.

The younger Jones entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago late last year after his 2025 trial on bribery and wire fraud charges ended in a hung jury. If he complies with the terms of the agreement, which included an admission that he lied to the FBI, the charges will be dismissed.

Perhaps it's not surprising then that Jones, 48, was challenged in the Democratic primary for the first time since he took office. He defeated the two candidates, including Ahmed Karrar, whom we endorsed, winning about $60\%$ of the vote.

He's also getting his first general election challenge since winning the office. Republican Brian Skala, a Crestwood village trustee, is running.

Skala, 53, a union plumber and Crestwood native, says Jones essentially has been an absentee senator. Skala is striking a moderate tone in his bid for the office and pledging to work with Democrats but believes, as we do, that taxes are too high in Illinois. He also tells us he would support a constitutional amendment that would allow for pension reform.

We're glad voters in this heavily Democratic district will have a choice, even if Skala faces an uphill battle given his opponent's familial advantages. But that is not what should matter here.

Skala is a very reasonable alternative for independents and moderate Democrats who want more curbs on Democratic excesses in Springfield and a change from their scandal-tarred incumbent.

Brian Skala is endorsed.

---

17TH DISTRICT

Sen. Elgie Sims Jr., 56, has represented this district, stretching from South Side neighborhoods like Chatham through south suburban parts of Cook, Will and Kankakee counties, since 2018. He faces a general election challenge (other than write-ins) for the first time since taking office from Republican Frederick Walls, 55, a carpenter who's run unsuccessfully in the past for the Illinois House.

State Sen. Ram Villivalam speaks during an event on Feb. 12 in Chicago's Loop. BRIAN CASSELLA/CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Brian Skala is a Republican running to represent the 14th state Senate District. BRIAN SKALA

Patrick Hanley is running for the Democratic nomination for state Senate in the 9th District. PATRICK HANLEY

State Sen. Elgie Sims, majority caucus appropriations leader, speaks to the press before Gov. JB Pritzker signs the state budget package on June 16. E. JASON WAMBSGANS/CHICAGO TRIBUNE

State Rep. Fran Hurley, D-Chicago, speaks in the riding arena of the Chicago School for Agricultural Sciences on Sept. 2, 2022. MICHAEL GARD/FOR THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Laura Ellman, then-candidate for state Senate, speaks during the Women's March to the Polls Early Vote Rally at Fishel Park on Oct. 22, 2018, in Downers Grove.

STACEY WESCOTT/CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Sims is a leader in the Senate, chairing the Appropriations Committee and serving as the chamber's lead budgeteer, including for the current-year budget. He also was the driving force in the Senate for the SAFE-T Act, which eliminated cash bail and has been controversial since its adoption in 2021.

Sims is well to our left on many issues, and while we have argued the elimination of cash bail was justified on the grounds of economic fairness, we urge the senator to be more open to amending the landmark law than he has been to date in order to enhance public safety.

That said, while we appreciate that Walls is giving voters a choice, Sims is a force in Springfield who has received our endorsement in the past. Voters in this district have good reasons to support him.

---

18TH DISTRICT

The Illinois Senate is losing one of its best in Democrat Bill Cunningham, who is retiring. The open seat, covering parts of Chicago's Southwest Side and nearby suburbs including Alsip, Palos Heights and Palos Park, is being contested by former state Rep. Fran Hurley, 66, a Democrat, and Republican Christine McGovern, 56, a real estate broker who lost to Cunningham in 2022 and ran unsuccessfully for Hurley's old House seat in 2024 after Hurley retired.

Voters in this region know Hurley well. She served in the Illinois House for a decade before leaving in 2023 to join the Illinois Labor Relations Board.

This board endorsed her in her last House race as a strong voice for moderates in Springfield. She voted against the SAFE-T Act initially due to the objections from the law enforcement community, which she has consistently supported; and indeed the law was substantially amended later to address some of those concerns.

Hurley tells us now that she supports Cook County State's Attorney O'Neill Burke's call to bar judges from allowing those accused of the worst violent crimes to be confined at home with their whereabouts tracked using electronic monitors. Flagging affordability and public safety as the two issues of most importance to this district, she says, "What matters most is making sure people can afford to live in the communities they call home and can feel safe while doing so."

Fair enough.

McGovern is staunchly conservative and tells us, for example, that she would support rescinding the recent toll-road fee increases as part of last year's transit rescue package. We don't like how steep those toll increases are, either, but we don't think it practical to repeal them without another viable plan.

Hurley will be a welcome moderating voice in the Senate and a worthy successor to Cunningham, who endorsed her.

We endorse Fran Hurley.

---

21ST DISTRICT

Naperville Democrat Laura Ellman is seeking a third term representing this district centered in Naperville and including DuPage County communities like Lisle, Glen Ellyn and Lombard. She's challenged by fellow Naperville resident Julie Berkowicz, a Will County Board member for eight years.

Berkowicz, 65, opposes Illinois' sanctuary-state law and believes the state imposes too many mandates on localities. She is an advocate of school choice and says the state should opt into the new federal program providing scholarships, funded by donors who get a federal tax credit for their contributions. We agree with her on school choice and many of her other departures from her party's more extreme positions.

Berkowicz strikes us as a savvy Republican who understands that she must appeal to Democrats in a once-Republican suburban area that now trends blue.

But Ellman, 60, is a very reasonable and moderate Democrat who has received our support in the past and done nothing in our eyes to merit ousting this time around. We appreciate, too, that she's been a consistent co-sponsor of lifting Illinois' longstanding moratorium on new nuclear plants — a policy change that finally was enacted last year.

We also applaud Ellman's stated view that "our (legislative) maps should be compact and contiguous and recognize those natural (community) boundaries." We hope when the time comes that she insists her party leaders follow that same principle, which they've refused thus far to do.

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23RD DISTRICT

This west suburban district has been represented by Democrat Suzanne Glowiak Hilton since 2019. She faces a challenge as she seeks a third term from Republican Linda Polacek, a former Marine who serves as a York Center Park District commissioner and who says that she believes “Illinois families are being ignored by career politicians while struggling under rising costs and high taxes.” They certainly are struggling.

A mechanical engineer from Western Springs, Glowiak Hilton, 68, has been a moderate in the state Senate, reflecting a district that was represented by a Republican before her. She defeated her GOP opponent, Dennis Reboletti, by nine points in 2022.

We endorsed the moderate Reboletti in that race but we also recognized Glowiak Hilton's centrist, bipartisan approach, reflected in votes against the state budget in each of the past three years. She has sponsored legislation, co-sponsored by Republican state Sen. Chris Balkema, to cap state spending growth at no more than growth in the state's economy. She tells us in no uncertain terms that she opposes the proposed 3% surcharge on incomes over \$1 million, backed by House Speaker Welch. We could not agree more.

Polacek's campaign has, to our minds, been less than vigorous.

Failed Tennessee execution shows lethal injection is breaking down

By Maya Foa

SPECIAL TO THE TRIBUNE

Kathleen Walter prays in an area reserved for people opposed to the death penalty outside Riverbend Maximum Security Institution before the planned execution of Christa Pike on Sept. 30 in Nashville, Tennessee. GEORGE WALKER IV/AP

Christa Pike's execution in Tennessee was a disaster waiting to happen. The warnings did not only come from her lawyers or opponents of the death penalty: Doctors in Tennessee and Republican state senators called for the state to pause executions, because the chances of one going catastrophically wrong were so high.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee did not heed those warnings. Now, the defining image of the death penalty in 2026 is a woman strapped to a gurney, in unbearable agony, being tortured by prison officials tasked with killing her but unable to do so.

In May, Tennessee officials stabbed Tony Carruthers with needles and a scalpel for more than an hour while blood streamed down his chest. In August 2025, Byron Black groaned and cried out in obvious distress as he died. But this is not the story of a handful of botched executions. We are witnessing the complete breakdown of the dominant method of execution in the United States.

My organization, Reprieve, studied botched lethal injections that were carried out from 1977 to 2023. Over a third of them lasted more than 45 minutes, and over a quarter lasted longer than an hour. Secrecy was among the risk factors we identified, increasing the chances an execution would go wrong. Haste was another. Taken together, they define the approach being taken by execution-seeking states during President Donald Trump's second administration.

The death penalty in the U.S. relies entirely on secrecy. Indeed, the whole point of lethal injection is to obscure the violence of the state taking a human life. Tennessee's secrecy law is extremely broad, but no more so than many other death penalty states. The curtain that officials brought down to prevent witnesses seeing Pike's suffering is merely the visible manifestation of a process that is hidden from voters by design.

Tennessee refuses to say where it gets its execution drugs. It will not disclose how many vials it has on hand, how they are stored, when they expire or even whether it uses compounded or manufactured pentobarbital in executions. It was recently revealed that the state spent \$650,000 on a supply of execution drugs.

If a state purchases manufactured drugs on the black market, which comes at a huge markup, that breaks pharmaceutical company distribution controls.

From the executive order "Restoring the Death Penalty," issued on his first day back in office, Trump made clear that he wants to see more executions. Some executing states have been following his cue. Nationally, there were 47 executions last year, but three-quarters of these were in just four states and $40\%$

in Florida alone.

In April, the Department of Justice published a death penalty report that bizarrely asserted that all methods of execution available to states are constitutional and humane, from lethal gas to the electric chair, the firing squad and lethal injection.

Alabama has been busily demonstrating that the reverse is true, following a string of hideous botched lethal injection executions with a series of no less gruesome executions with nitrogen suffocation. After a federal court prohibited further nitrogen executions, the state switched back to the old, broken method.

In the aftermath of the failed execution of Pike, Tennessee officials issued a statement observing that they had “followed

every step of the State's lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General's Office." We have become accustomed to states breezily dismissing witness reports of a man violently thrashing for 22 minutes as he dies as "nothing out of the ordinary," but this was staggering, even by those debased standards.

In the 2015 landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Glossip v. Gross, which held that condemned prisoners may only challenge their method of execution after providing a known and available alternative method, Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the majority that “our decisions in this area have been animated in part by the recognition that because it is settled that capital punish-

ment is constitutional, ‘it necessarily follows that there must be a (constitutional) means of carrying it out.’”

The cruel and unusual punishment of Pike, following a horrific run of botched executions, must be a turning point. Facing the reality of capital punishment as it is carried out in 2026, we should turn Alito's logic on its head. If there is no constitutional means of carrying out the death penalty, it follows that the capital punishment itself is unconstitutional.

Maya Foa is CEO of Reprieve and Reprieve US, leading a team of lawyers and investigators fighting against human rights abuses, including the death penalty, torture and indefinite detention without trial.

CPS can lead on universal mental health screening. Will it?

now.

People walk past Chicago Public Schools headquarters at 42 W. Madison St. on July 30. JOHN J. KIM/TRIBUNE

By Vanessa Andersen,

Chime Asonye,

Andrew Cockroft

and Brian Peckrill

SPECIAL TO THE TRIBUNE

Illinois educators are less than a year away from undertaking one of the most consequential mental health initiatives in the world. This week, as we mark World Mental Health Day, Chicago should seize the opportunity to lead that effort.

We know when mental health conditions begin: Nearly half of all cases appear before age 18, while a child is still sitting in one of our classrooms. Right now, we find these children late. Schools are where we could find them first.

Signed into law on July 31, 2025, Illinois Senate Bill 1560 made the state the first in the nation to require universal mental health screenings, or UMHS, for students. Starting with the 2027-28 academic year, every public and charter school in Illinois must offer these screenings for all students in grades three through 12, for which the state will provide a free screening tool.

Chicago Public Schools, the nation's third-largest district, enrolls more than 300,000 children — 1 in 6 Illinois public school students — and could play a defining role in the success of this groundbreaking initiative.

The past decade has brought on varied traumas for Chicago's youths. Gun violence, COVID-19 and fear of immigration raids, to name a few, have accelerated the structural, socioeconomic causes of psychosocial challenges.

Beyond increased self-harm and suicide, youths are reporting rising unhappiness and a shrinking sense of belonging.

And despite the city's growing mental health resources, the most in-need residents are left wanting. In Chicago, suicide rates rose among Black, Latino and Asian residents between 2015 and 2021 while falling among white residents, researchers at the University of Chicago found. About 1 in 10 Black suicide deaths was a child or teenager.

Addressing this vulnerable population of youths in Chicago begins with understanding and prevention. We must identify youths in crisis before it is too late and provide them with the resources they need.

Mayor Brandon Johnson made mental health a cornerstone of the Healthy Chicago 2025 Strategic Plan, which aims to close the 8.8-year life expectancy gap between Black and white Chicagoans in one generation. Together We Rise, CPS' five-year strategic plan, highlights student connectedness and well-being, emphasizing collaborative approaches to assess student needs, monitor intervention progress and leverage community partners for support.

Universal screening is one way those plans become reality. Done well, universal mental health screenings will provide the first population-level map of where youth mental health needs actually sit, letting the state and municipalities direct resources based on evidence rather than assumption.

Early detection is also instrumental to addressing chronic absenteeism, classroom misconduct and student disconnectedness detrimental to any learning environment.

Done badly, UMHS will fail to fulfill their promise and become a sorting mechanism — identifying distress in schools ill equipped to treat it — without connecting adolescents to care.

While many Chicago schools choose to screen students, they are far from a majority. Schools already routinely check physical health, such as exams for children's vision and hearing. Universal screening extends that same practice to the whole child.

As a key pillar of Gov. JB Pritzker's Children's Behavioral Health Transformation Initiative, the state has spent significant resources laying the groundwork for UMHS. The Illinois State Board of Education gathered data on current practices and readiness of school districts across the state for the past several years, published guidance and FAQs in August, and announced plans to provide a free screening tool for districts.

CPS is far from leading on UMHS. It did not formally participate in ISBE's multiple inquiries to assess school district capacity for UMHS, and it has not yet announced any public plans to act on the new ISBE guidance.

These delays may be a natural consequence of a district stretched too thin. Barring additional funds from Springfield, CPS faces continued budget deficits and staffing shortages into the next school year. Administrators may see UMHS as nothing more than an unfunded mandate that merely adds to the myriad crises Chicago schools face.

UMHS, however, is not a matter of “if” but “when.” Universal screening will be the law of the land beginning with the 2027 school year. And it is not another problem for Chicago leaders to solve. It is a solution.

Chicago cannot waste this opportunity to take advantage of a cost-free tool provided by the state that will equip teachers and administrators and save the lives of students. Despite the reduction in budget and staff, Chicago's emphasis on student well-being and existing infrastructure positions CPS to lead on UMHS and provide critical support to the city's youths — but only if it acts

As advised in ISBE's published guidance, CPS must begin engagement efforts now to ensure that each of its schools are aligned with staff to appropriately administer screenings, that parents' concerns are heard and discussed, that proper consent mechanisms are installed and that key stakeholders are engaged.

By leading, CPS could use UMHS to jump-start programs to further ease everyday burdens on administrators and staff. UMHS provides an opportunity to pilot additional mental health programs across schools, map school-level studies, and work with local providers to prepare evaluation protocols and referral pathways.

Chicagoans — parents and youths alike — must demand a plan from CPS. The school board should require regular updates on it. For candidates running to join Chicago's first fully elected board this November, committing to those updates should be a top priority.

Almost no government in the world has a systematic way of finding where its young people are psychologically struggling. Illinois is about to, and Chicago can serve as a model for other municipalities, states and countries.

What gets built here is what the rest will copy. We should be a beacon for a revolution in mental health treatment and understanding.

Vanessa Andersen is a sustainability commissioner for the city of Park Ridge. Chime Asonye founded Nigerian Mental Health, a network advancing mental health policy and disability inclusion in Nigeria and across its diaspora. Andrew Cockroft is an attorney at King & Spalding, where he advises employers on government investigations and workforce compliance. Brian Peckrill is executive director of the Chicago-based William G. McGowan Charitable Fund. The authors are 2026 emerging leaders at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

OPINION

Federal labor bill could force social agendas into private school contracts

By Mailee Smith

SPECIAL TO THE TRIBUNE

A sign for an all-gender restroom is posted at LaSalle Elementary Language Academy on Dec. 14, 2021, in Chicago. ERIN HOOLEY/CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Illinois could soon be ground zero for government-mandated arbitrators dictating provisions in private school union contracts.

That could include provisions governing locker rooms, keeping secrets from parents and other social issues that have little to do with traditional bargaining.

The Faster Labor Contracts Act (FLCA) would make that possible. The bill is supposed to speed up the negotiating process with newly unionized private employers. But if the employer and union don't bargain and agree fast enough, an arbitration panel could write the contract and make them binding on the parties — even if the workers themselves don't want those provisions in the contract.

That's bad news for private schools, which could be forced into provisions antithetical to their purposes. If the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) organizes a private school, and contract talks stall, a federal arbitrator would write the first contract.

Nothing stops that arbitra-

tor from drawing on the union's

own stated priorities or union

contracts elsewhere, including

provisions related to an array of

social issues.

Illinois offers a preview of how that could look. The AFT's Chicago affiliate, the Chicago Teachers Union, already uses collective bargaining to pursue an agenda that extends well beyond traditional questions of wages, hours and benefits.

The union's current contract with Chicago Public Schools includes multiple provisions affecting parental rights and student gender identity that are unrelated to traditional subjects of bargaining.

For example, the contract mandates that “all students and staff are permitted to use the bathroom or locker room that corresponds to their gender identity.” There are no caveats or limits.

The contract also allows the district to hide students' preferred gender identity from parents.

It states the district must “respect students’ privacy, especially if parents or family members do not know how students identify or express their identity." Teachers "will not be required to reveal a student's sexual orientation or gender identity" to guardians or parents "without the student's permission."

The CTU isn't secretive about demanding these subjects, either. After its 2012 strike ended, "union leaders planned town halls in other cities across the country, in New York and Cleveland, San Francisco and Tampa, to spread the new gospel" of putting "things on the table that hadn't been on the table before," as reported in a Vox article CTU displays on its website.

Whatever one thinks of these provisions, the problem raised by the FLCA is more fundamental.

Who should decide whether they belong in a private school's labor contract — the union and employer through negotiations, or arbitrators that are accountable to no one?

And private schools are not merely hypothetical targets. CTU already has organized charter schools, which are treated as private-sector entities under federal labor law.

In 2018, then-CTU President Jesse Sharkey explicitly admitted his motivation to “undermine further charter expansion,” including through the unionizing and merging of charter schools into the CTU. Later that year, the CTU employed its go-to tactic by leading a charter network’s teachers out on strike, marking the first charter school strike in the nation and forcing the cancellation of classes for the 7,000 students in the network’s 15 schools.

By 2024, that network's administrators announced plans to close seven of its 15 schools,

citing declining enrollment and significant operating costs. The CTU's ultimate goal came to fruition: Organize charters, drive up costs to force closure and then absorb them back into the public school system as traditional public schools.

A union that organizes employees with the intent of ultimately closing their schools also is capable of organizing a private school with the intent of introducing drastic contract provisions, especially when those provisions already have been demanded in its other contracts.

The FLCA would give teachers unions an additional tool in their arsenal against anything that isn't a traditional public school. The question no longer would be simply what provisions a union can persuade a school to accept, but what provisions an outside arbitration panel could compel it to accept. If school officials at a newly organized private school don't agree to the social or “climate justice” provisions demanded by the union, the union would have carte blanche to demand mediation that ultimately could lead to third-party arbitrators creating a binding contract that could include those very provisions.

The FLCA cleared the U.S. House of Representatives in June and is now pending in the Senate. Lawmakers may see the bill as a way to deliver faster labor contracts. But for private and charter schools, it could instead mean faster exploitation by teachers unions seeking to impose their broader agenda at the bargaining table.

Mailee Smith is vice president of policy and litigation for the Illinois Policy Institute.

Voice of the people

Strengthen crisis response

Chicago's Crisis Assistance Response & Engagement Program (CARE), once a promising model for coordinating public health and safety in response to mental health crises, has been reduced to a siloed and opaque existence. Around the country, other cities are deploying coordinated responses to mental health emergencies with collaboration and transparency.

People tour the Crisis Assistance Response & Engagement van outside the Roseland East 115th Street Health Hub on Jan. 8, 2025, in Chicago.

STACEY WESCOTT/CHICAGO TRIBUNE

In Durham, North Carolina, crisis teams have responded to over 25,000 calls since 2022. In a jarring contrast, Chicago's CARE teams have responded to fewer than 3,000 calls in about as much time. Yet recent rhetoric from City Hall characterizes CARE as a success.

It's not. But it can be.

First, the city must build capacity at 911 to better assess and identify behavioral health calls. Chicago's 911 identifies fewer than $2\%$ of calls as involving a mental health or substance use crisis, significantly below what national studies suggest. If we cannot identify the callers who are experiencing behavioral health emergencies, we cannot deliver an alternate response such as CARE.

Second, the public needs transparent and accessible safety data, including CARE's response statistics, to understand whether the program is operating as intended. At one point, CARE had a public dashboard, but it was removed.

Third, building capacity that adds behavioral health responders to our traditional emergency response options is essential to reimagining crisis response so we reduce harm and save lives. Our Fire and Police Departments remain the primary responders to crisis calls in Chicago, in part because of the responsibilities placed upon them by law and regulation. Given this, increased collaboration and support of those personnel is necessary. The goal should be not to replace those responders, but to make sure they have the necessary capacity and training and that CARE is available alongside them.

Lastly, CARE should not be treated as a stand-alone program, but as a critical component of Chicago's broader mental health and crisis response system. Any investment in CARE is amplified when it is braided into the larger crisis continuum and alongside 988 and federally and state funded mobile crisis teams.

CARE is a sorely needed service and a worthwhile endeavor. But our city's approach to mental health crises remains anemic and insufficient, and thousands of people remain without the right response. More vans and increased hours are not going to solve the fundamental gaps.

All of the needed improvements are within reach, and if integrated, Chicago can truly reimagine how we respond to people experiencing crisis.

— Matt Davison, CEO, NAMI

Chicago

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Permanent leader for NITA

Interim Northern Illinois Transit Authority Executive Director Jamie Rhee will receive an annual pension of more than \$213,000 while earning \$350,000 to run NITA, it was reported.

They say history doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes. It's hard not to think of former CTA President

Dorval Carter Jr. (NITA now oversees the CTA, Metra and Pace.)

Five and a half years before he took over the CTA, Carter retired from city employment. During that time, he received over \$750,000 in pension payouts while earning six figures working full time in then-President Barack Obama's Transportation Department.

Carter returned to the CTA in 2015, and his final retirement came in January 2025. He left as the city's highest paid employee. With Carter off the payroll, Rhee became the city's highest paid employee. Three months later, she retired.

Carter became notably embattled in his final years at the CTA. Two particularly salient lines of attack were that Carter didn't use the CTA and spent more time on international tours than in CTA stations while service suffered.

It's unfair to judge Rhee because she's retired. She served the city of Chicago for over three decades, has an impressive resume and seems like a very strong fit for the interim role. However, it does seem fair for northern Illinois transit users and taxpayers to ask for a permanent leader who isn't already

retired.

As the NITA board kicks off a wide-reaching search for a permanent executive director, I recommend someone who isn't already receiving a six-figure pension at the end of a multide-cade career.

This critical leadership position, like Carter's position at the CTA before the creation of NITA, shouldn't be a cushy seat for a celebrated civil servant to have their ring kissed in the twilight of their civic life.

The permanent leader of this newly created agency should be someone with enough experience, yes, but with the hunger and career runway to build a legacy: a world-class agency serving the people of northern Illinois, a model for other large metros.

— Chris Curme, Chicago

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Demand for luxury rentals?

Regarding the story “Demand high for downtown luxury rentals” (Oct. 5), something is wrong here. Very wrong! Our farmers cannot afford gas to fill their tractors so they can grow the food for all of us. The ill cannot afford insurance that may save their lives. The schools for our beloved children are disintegrating and failing their bright futures, which each and every one of them deserves. Meanwhile, demand for luxury rentals is high?

Something is very wrong here, folks. I implore you to take a stand to change this by voting. Will you stand by our farmers, our sick and our precious children? Vote. Vote. Vote.

Only then will change come and those now invisible be recognized. — Bonnie Smith, Big Rock

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Grateful for the broadcast

Wow! Thank you to UniMas-Ch. 60 for broadcasting the first game in the American League Division Series between the White Sox and the Cleveland Guardians. Nice that somebody cares about Chicagoans who do not have — or cannot afford — cable or streaming services.

— Arlene F. Gottardo, Chicago

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Let us enjoy the Sox

On Oct. 5, 1921, the World Series went out live on the radio for the first time, featuring the New York Giants versus the New York Yankees at the Polo Grounds. Fans without a ticket could follow the game as it happened. Did team owners or the Polo Grounds lose any money because of this gesture to the national pastime? Doubtful. Rather, interest in baseball burgeoned.

Today, with the White Sox doing so well, fans are casting about for ways to follow the game without busting the budget as access is proprietary. You need the right equipment and the right streaming subscription to watch or hear the action on the field. Aren't those owners wealthy enough to throw a bone to the future fanbase they may need in years to come?

Even offering it on public radio would leave rural people out, since many small public radio stations have had to fold. If the game is the national pastime, there has to be a way to let the nation enjoy it.

Margaret Sents, Glenview

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Note to readers

With Halloween coming, we'd like you to share your most memorable experience related to the holiday, either as a child or as an adult. A costume that you've never forgotten? A trip to a haunted house that scared you silly? Neighbors who went above and beyond to make things fun for the kids? Send a letter, of no more than 400 words, by Friday, Oct. 23 to letters@chicagotribune.com. Be sure to include your full name and your city/town.

For online-exclusive letters, go to www.chicagotribune.com/letters. Email your letter submissions, 400 words or less, to letters@chicago tribune.com. Include your full name, address and phone number.

Voters fill out primary ballots June 2 at the Butte Civic Center in Montana. WILL WARASILA/THE NEW YORK TIMES

VOTING

from Page A1

an election.

But the administration and its allies have been aggressively seeking data to back up assertions that Democrats could benefit from the support of noncitizens in the Nov. 3 midterm elections, in which Republicans are at risk of losing control of one or both chambers of Congress.

With control of Congress and the future of President Donald Trump's agenda at stake, Democrats are concerned that false claims about rampant illegal voting could be used by Republicans to challenge the results.

Officials have made it clear that they will target for prosecution and removal any noncitizen discovered to have voted or even registered to vote in violation of federal laws. But the investigations into nonprofits underscore how far-reaching the administration's pursuit of noncitizens on the voter rolls has become. The investigations have stretched beyond individuals to include organizations that help and encourage people to register to vote, a tactic that critics have denounced as an attempt to intimidate voting rights groups.

The Homeland Security Department declined to comment on ongoing investigations but said it was “ensuring that American citizens and only American citizens are electing American leaders.”

"Our message to aliens who vote in American elec-"

tions is clear: We will find you, arrest you, and you will face the consequences — including criminal charges and deportation," the department said in a statement.

According to the memo, the investigations into nonprofits have heavily focused on Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The Homeland Security Department reviewed 82 organizations in Pennsylvania, including the Pennsylvania chapter of CAIR, one of the largest Muslim civil rights groups in the country.

Ahmet Tekelioglu, executive director of the Philadelphia chapter, said its “voter registration program follows all applicable voter registration rules and requirements.”

Federal officials also investigated about 44 groups in New Jersey, but no “derogatory information” had been found based on a review using internal tools, the memo said.

About 26 more groups were under review after they were flagged through a tip line, the documents said.

The documents also reveal that Heather Honey, a prominent 2020 election denier who now is the department's point person on “election integrity,” provided 48.4 million records of unknown provenance to federal investigators who are trying to find noncitizens on the voter rolls.

The revelation raises new questions about the quality of records that the Trump administration is relying on as it seeks to scrub noncitizens from the voter rolls before the midterm elections.

Honey is known to come up with and promote false information about American elections, including claims that there were more votes cast in Pennsylvania than there were voters on the state rolls in 2020.

The documents do not indicate where the records from Honey originated, other than to note that she obtained them “through independent sources of information.”

The documents do not offer any further description of Honey's records.

But the documents note that these and other records, including more than 50 million that the Homeland Security Department obtained from the Justice Department, were sent to "iLab," which appears to refer to the Innovation Lab within Homeland Security Investigations, an arm of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Honey did not respond to attempts to reach her by phone or email.

Before the 2020 election, Honey was a private investigator working on counterfeit-goods investigations with no experience in researching complex election systems. In the wake of that election, she connected with close allies of Trump and provided them with theories that sowed doubt in the election results.

On Jan. 6, 2021, in a speech at the Ellipse in Washington just before a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol, Trump repeated Honey's false notion that more votes had been cast in Pennsylvania than there were voters on the state rolls.

Chicago Daily Tribune

ON OCT. 8 ...

In 1869, the nation's 14th president, Franklin Pierce, died in Concord, N.H.

In 1871 the Chicago Fire began, eventually razing much of the city.

In 1890 American aviation hero Eddie Rickenbacker was born in Columbus, Ohio.

In 1892, in Moscow, Sergei Rachmaninoff performed his piano “Prelude in c-sharp minor” for the first time publicly.

In 1908 the Cubs won the NL pennant when Mordecai Brown beat Christy Mathewson 4-2 in the playoff of the disputed game Sept. 23 when Fred Merkle failed to touch second base.

In 1918 Army Sgt. Alvin C. York killed 25 German soldiers and captured 132 almost single-handedly in the Argonne Forest of France. (He would become World War I's most decorated soldier.)

In 1934 Bruno Hauptmann was indicted for murder in the death of the son of Charles Lindbergh.

In1941 The Rev. Jesse Jackson was born in Greenville, S.C.

In 1944 “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” made its debut on CBS Radio.

In 1945 President Harry Truman announced that the secret of the atomic bomb would be shared only with Britain and Canada.

In 1956 Don Larsen pitched the only perfect game in a World Series to date as the New York Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers, 2-0.

In 1970 Soviet author Alexander Solzhenitsyn was named winner of the Nobel Prize for literature.

In 1982 all labor organizations in Poland, including Solidarity, were banned.

In 1987 U.S. helicopter gunships in the Persian Gulf sank three Iranian patrol boats after an American observation helicopter was fired on. (Two of six Iranian crewmen taken from the water later died.)

In 1990 Israeli police opened fire on rioting Palestinians on the Temple Mount, called Haram ash-Sharif by Muslims, in Jerusalem, killing 17.

In 1991 the U.S. Senate postponed its vote on Clarence Thomas' Supreme Court nomination to investigate allegations that he had sexually harassed a former aide, Anita Hill.

In 1992 West Indian poet Derek Walcott was named winner of the Nobel Prize in literature. Also in 1992 former West German Chancellor Willy Brandt died in Unkel, Germany; he was 78.

In 1993 the government issued a report absolving the FBI of wrongdoing in its final assault in Texas on the Branch Davidian compound, which went up in flames, killing as many as 85 people.

In 1995, on the final day of his fourth U.S. pilgrimage, Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass at Camden Yards in Baltimore.

In 1996 Pope John Paul II underwent a successful operation to remove his inflamed appendix. Also in 1996 American economist William Vickrey and British professor James Mirrlees were named co-winners of the Nobel Memorial Prize in economics. (The 82-yearold Vickrey died three days later.)

In 1997 scientists reported the Mars Pathfinder had yielded what could be the strongest evidence yet that Mars might once have been hospitable to life.

In 1998 the House triggered an open-ended impeachment inquiry against President Bill Clinton in a 258-176 vote; 31 Democrats joined majority Republicans in opening the way for nationally televised impeachment hearings. Also in 1998 Portuguese novelist Jose Saramago won the Nobel Prize in literature.

In 2002 a federal judge approved President George W. Bush's request to reopen West Coast ports, ending a caustic 10-day labor lock-out that was costing the U.S. economy an estimated \$1 billion to \$2 billion a day. Also in 2002 two Kuwaiti gunmen attacked U.S. forces during war games on a Gulf island, killing one Marine and wounding another before they were shot to death.

In 2003 Jarome Iginla of the Calgary Flames was tabbed to become the first Black captain in NHL history.

In 2004 Martha Stewart reported to the Alderson Federal Prison Camp in West Virginia to begin serving her sentence for lying about a stock sale.

In 2013 scientists Francois Englert of Belgium and Peter Higgs of Britain won the Nobel Prize in physics for their conceptual research into the Higgs boson particle, known as the “God particle.”

In 2014 Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed with the Ebola virus in the United States, died at a Dallas hospital; he was 42.

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Chicago Tribune Death Notices

Chicago Tribune extends our condolences to the families and loved ones of those who have passed.

chicagotribune.com/deathnotice

Death Notices

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De Matteo, Frank J.

Frank J. De Matteo, passed away October 4, 2026. Survived by his beloved daughter, Debra Voss; his girlfriend, Linda; his grandchildren, James Voss II and Julia Voss (Sean); his nephew, Donald Jr. DeMatteo (Jenni); his nieces, Denise DeMatteo and Tina DeMatteo; and many loving great-nieces and a great-nephew. Preceded in death by his parents, Frank and Louise DeMatteo; his brother, Donald DeMatteo; and his son-in-law, James Voss. Visitation will be Friday, October 9, from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at Cumberland Chapels, 8300 W Lawrence Ave, Norridge. Visitation will also be held on Saturday from 10:30 a.m. until time of Funeral Service at 11:30 a.m. at the funeral home. Interment will follow at Elmwood Cemetery. Info: 708-456-8300

CUMBERLAND

HAPELS

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Kelly, John II

John Joseph Kelly II, formerly of Lincolnwood Illinois, peacefully passed away in the early hours of October 6th, 2026. He was born in Chicago to John and Helen (Weber) Kelly January 25th, 1938. John, also called Jack by family and close friends, graduated from Loyola Academy and Loyola University, and ultimately received a DDS from the same. He was assigned the rank of Captain in the United States Army for 2 years. Then he went on to practice dentistry on the northside of Chicago for 35 years. In February 1966, John married his beloved wife, Mary Patricia (Therriault). An affable friend, a jovial uncle, dedicated dentist, devoted husband, and supportive father and grandfather, John is preceded in death by his parents and two brothers, James and Christopher. He is survived by his wife Mary Pat, children John (Maribeth), Andrew, and Kevin (Paige), and grandchildren "Jack", Will, Paige, Stevie, Quinn and Marcus. Visitation Saturday, October 10, 2026 from 10:30am until time of service at 12:30pm at Smith-Corcoran Funeral Home 6150 N Cicero Ave, Chicago, IL 60646. For information www.smithcorcoran.com of 773.736.3833.

Smith-Corcoran

Funeral Homes · Crematory · Funeral Planning

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Mitchell, Nancy B.

Nancy B. Mitchell, Nee Fox, 94; beloved wife of the late Raymond H. Mitchell; devoted mother of Bridget Mitchell (Daniel Crowe), Nancy L. Mitchell, Mary Kate (Paul) Witry, and Raymond W. Mitchell; proud Nana of Anne Crowe (Satchel Londino-Green), Paul Witry and William Witry; cherished daughter of the late William and Anna (nee Coristin) Fox; loving sister of the late William Fox, Laurence Fox, and Mary Therese Novak. The family expresses its gratitude to Nancy's many dedicated caregivers with special appreciation extended to Alicia, Martha, Marilu and Bella for their recent care and devotion. Visitation Friday 10:00 a.m. until time of Funeral Mass, 11:00 a.m. at St. Thomas the Apostle Church, 5472 S. Kimbark Ave., Chicago, IL 60615. Interment Private at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorials to a charity of your choice will be appreciated. For Funeral Info: (708) 422-2700 or www.curleyfuneralhome.com.

CURLEY FUNERAL HOME

Family Owned and Operated Since 1897

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Olenak, Thomas Richard

Thomas Richard "Tom" Olenak, age 77, of Evergreen Park, passed away on September 17, 2026. He was born on October 13, 1948, in Chicago, to Raymond and Anna Olenak, on their third wedding anniversary. He grew up in Chicago before the family moved to Evergreen Park, and he graduated from Most Holy

Redeemer School and Evergreen Park High School.

Tom met the love of his life, Patricia (DeMario), on a ski trip with the Nomad Ski Club. They were married in 1979 and shared a devoted marriage until her passing in 2021.

Tom spent more than 40 years in inside sales, working with Portable Tool, Will Rent, and Patten Caterpillar.

Tom's passion was cars and motorcycles, and he was happiest with a wrench in his hand. Over the years he owned countless classics, including a Dodge Charger, a 1940 Ford, a Buick Skylark convertible, and several Chevys: a Chevelle, a Corvette, and an Impala SS. His motorcycles included a Triumph and Harleys, though his favorites were his BMWs. He made the ride to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally on several occasions.

Tom was a devoted fan of the Chicago White Sox and the Bulls, through good seasons and bad. Going to Bulls games every year to watch Michael Jordan was a tradition he treasured with his wife and sons.

Family was at the center of Tom's life. His favorite part of summer was the annual family road trip, when he would load everyone into the station wagon and explore a new part of the country. Mount Rushmore, Yosemite, and the Grand Canyon were family favorites. He was a hands-on grandfather who could always be found playing kitchen with his grandkids.

Tom met life's challenges with strength and determination, recovering from a stroke in 2013 and bravely fighting cancer.

Tom is survived by his sons, Matthew (Kristin) and Scott (Sue); his grandchildren, Charlotte, Nora, Thomas, and Rafael; his sister, Diana (Thomas) Kledzik; his brother, Steve; and his nephews, Eric, David, Christopher, and Joshua. He was preceded in death by his wife, Patricia; his parents, Raymond and Anna; and his in-laws, Antonio and Gloria DeMario.

A funeral Mass will be celebrated on Friday, October 9, 2026, at 11:00 a.m. at Most Holy Redeemer Church in Evergreen Park. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the American Stroke Foundation or the Shirely Ryan Ability Lab

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Death Notices

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Rigney, Thomas Anthony

Thomas Anthony Rigney, 84, of Apex, North Carolina passed away peacefully on Tuesday, September 29th.

Born on October 2nd, 1941 in Chicago, IL, Tom grew up in the nearby River Forest area where he attended St. Luke's grade school and Fenwick High School. After a few "false starts," Tom eventually graduated Xavier University in Cincinnati, OH and began what would be a lifelong career in sales. His career moved him from Chicago, back to Cincinnati, and then to Hilton Head island where he spent the bulk of his retirement until moving to North Carolina to be closer to family.

Blessed with a quick Irish wit, a mischievous grin, and the happiest of demeanors, Tom never met a stranger. He had an innate curiosity, a love of people, and impeccable social timing making him an expert conversationalist who was absolutely unrivaled in his ability to befriend even the most reluctant of acquaintances. His love of history, music, and learning led to an ever-growing wealth of random knowledge he loved to share with all who'd listen. From beginning to end, the fun followed him. If there was a good time to be had, you could be sure Tom Rigney was there – most likely at the very center. He was the life of any party, a truly cherished friend, and his loving presence will be deeply missed by all.

Son of the late Robert and Helen Rigney and dear husband of Bonnie (Wurthman) Rigney. Tom is survived by his children, Michael Rigney (Deirdre Connolly), Terrence Rigney, Jennifer Rigney, Molly O'Keefe (Michael), Kristin Wachholder (Kurt), and Kathleen Helmedag (Ian Bowers) – along with 15 grandchildren and many beloved nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his siblings: Rita McNamara, Robert Rigney, and Margaret "Margo" Graham.

A Celebration of Life in Tom's honor will take place at a later date for close family members and friends.

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It's a final farewell; a sign of love and respect; an homage to a loved one's life. Placing a Death Notice shows you care.

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Every life story deserves to be told.

Share your loved one's story at placeanad.tribunesuburbs.com

Chicago Tribune

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Farms and Ranches For Sale

Mazon \$899,900 60444-6257

4700 E Grand Ridge Rd Farm

10 acre horse property in Grundy County.

Full listing in For Sale By Owner. 815-592-

1067

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Announcements

Passed CISSP Exam Thank you St. Joseph of Cupertino for your intercession in helping pass the CISSP exam.

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Assumed Name

Notice is hereby given, Pursuant to "An Act in relation To the use of an Assumed Business Name in the conduct or transaction of Business in The State" as amended, that a Certification was filed by the Undersigned with the County Clerk of Cook County. File No. 1980330 on the Date: 09/16/2026 Under the Assumed Name of: Chicago Bound Vintage with the business located at: 2620 W Fletcher St Chicago, IL, 64018 The true name and residence address of the owner is: BOUND VINTAGE LLC 680 N Lake Shore Dr, Suite 110.

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Suite 110, Chicago, IL, 60611

Notice is hereby given, Pursuant to "An Act in relation To the use of an Assumed Business Name in the conduct or transaction of Business in The State" as amended, that a Certification was filed by the Undersigned with the County Clerk of Cook County.

File No. M26002047 on the Date: 09/28/2026

Under the Assumed Name of: NAILS SPA EXPRESS

with the business located at: 2556 1/2 N CLARK ST CHICAGO IL 60614

The true name and residence Address of the owner is: TUYET TRAN 5636 N BROADWAY ST 1B CHICAGO IL 60660

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Juvenile Protection

IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF COOK COUNTY,

ILLINOIS JUVENILE JUSTICE AND CHILD

PROTECTION DEPARTMENT CHILD

PROTECTION DIVISION

IN THE INTEREST OF Gabriella Garcia

MINOR(S) CHILD(REN) OF Jacqueline Benoit (Mother)

JUVENILE NO. 26JA00471

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NOTICE OF PUBLICATION

NOTICE IS GIVEN YOU, Justin Benoit (Father), Unknown Father's respondents, and to All Whom It May Concern, that on 7/22/2026 a petition was filed under the Juvenile Court Act by EILEEN M. O'NEILLBURKE in this court and that in the courtroom of Judge Lucy Vazquez-Gonzalez in the Cook County Juvenile Court Building, 1100 So. Hamilton Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, ON November 3, 2026, at 9:30 AM in CALENDAR 13 COURTROOM A or as soon thereafter as this case may be heard, an adjudicatory hearing will be held upon the petition to have the minor declared to be a ward of the court and for other relief under the Act.

THE COURT HAS AUTHORITY IN THIS CASE TO TAKE FROM YOU THE CUSTODY AND GUARDIANSHIP OF THE MINOR, TO TERMINATE YOUR PARENTAL RIGHTS AND TO APPOINT A GUARDIAN WITH POWER TO CONSENT TO ADOPTION. YOU MAY LOSE ALL PARENTAL RIGHTS TO YOUR CHILD. IF THE PETITION REQUESTS THE TERMINATION OF YOUR PARENTAL RIGHTS AND APPOINTMENT OF A GUARDIAN WITH POWER TO CONSENT TO ADOPTION, YOU MAY LOSE ALL PARENTAL RIGHTS TO THE CHILD.

UNLESS YOU appear, you will not be entitled to further written notices or publication notices of the proceedings in this case, including the filing of an amended petition or a motion to terminate parental rights.

UNLESS YOU appear at the hearing and show cause against the petition, the allegations of the petition may stand admitted as against you and each of you, and an order or judgment entered.

Mariyana T. Spyropoulos, CLERK OF THE CIRCUIT COURT OF COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS 10/8/2026 158904

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Legal Notice

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Board of Commissioners of Cook County Finance Committee

EXECUTIVE BUDGET RECOMMENDATION for Fiscal Year 2027

for Fiscal Year 2027

ANNOUNCEMENT OF PUBLIC INSPECTION

LOCATIONS FOR FY 2027 BUDGET

On October 8, 2026, the online version of the Executive Budget Recommendation will be available at https://www.cookcountyil.gov/Budget. There will be no budget books available for in person inspection.

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ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE SCHEDULE OF PUBLIC HEARINGS FOR FY 2027 BUDGET

The Finance Committee of the Board of Commissioners of Cook County has scheduled the meetings listed below for the purpose of conducting public hearings on the Executive Budget Recommendation.

Thursday, October 15, 2026, 12:00 P.M.

Thursday, October 15, 2026, 5:00 P.M.

Members of the public have three options to address the committee:

1. Attend in-person in either the morning or evening session. Cook County Building, Board Room, 118 North Clark Street, Chicago, Illinois

2. Attend as a virtual speaker in either the morning or evening session. This can be via webcam or over the phone; or

3. Submit written comments ONLY which would be posted as part of the electronic record.

Go to https://bit.ly/ccbudget27 to participate.

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ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE SCHEDULE OF DEPARTMENTAL REVIEW FOR FY 2027 BUDGET

The Finance Committee of the Board of Commissioners of Cook County has scheduled the following meetings for the purpose of conducting departmental reviews on the proposed Executive Budget Recommendation. Changes and updates to this schedule will be posted on https://www.cookcountyil.gov/Budget

Date Time

Tuesday, October 27, 2026 9:30 A.M. (all day)

Wednesday, October 28, 2026 11:00 A.M. (all day)

Thursday, October 29, 2026 9:30 A.M. (all day)

Friday, October 30, 2026 9:30 A.M. (all day)

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Legal Notice

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LEGAL ADVERTISEMENT – THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2026 CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS

OCTOBER 8, 2026

CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS

REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS

FOR SPORTS ATHLETIC TRAINING COVERAGE

AND RELATED SERVICES

DUE: NOVEMBER 5, 2026 AT 5:00 P.M. CDT

See: www.cps.edu/procurement

10/8/2026 159655

DESCRIPTION: Grade Separated Roadway A3/A4 at Chicago O'Hare International Airport

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LEGAL ADVERTISEMENT October 8, 2026 CITY OF CHICAGO

DEPARTMENT: Chicago Department of Aviation

DEPARTMENT OF PROCUREMENT SERVICES

The Bidder must complete and submit an Electronic Bid prior to the proposal due date. An electronic bid must be submitted through the City of Chicago's website at www.cityofc.chicago.org/eprocurement, on or before the due date and time stated below. The City's system will not accept electronic bids after the due date and time. Respondents must register for a log-in account to submit an electronic bid. Please allow up to three business days for creation of your log-in account. Paper bids will not be accepted. All Bids will be opened and publicly read aloud for the following:

ELECTRONIC BID DOCUMENTS CAN BE DOWNLOADED AND RESPONDED TO FROM THIS URL ADDRESS: www.cityofchicago.org/eprocurement

TYPE: Aviation Construction

NOTICE OF ADDENDUM: Addendum 1 will be e-mailed/sent to all bidders on the Proposal Opportunity Take-Out List

Lynne M. Turner

jectany and all bids.

CHICAGO TRANSIT AUTHORITY

By: Ellen G. McCormack

Vice President

Purchasing & Supply Chain

October 8, 2026

10/8/2026 158398

SPECIFICATION NO: 1343562

RFQ NO: 77313,1

ORIGINAL BID/PROPOSAL OPENING

DATE: October 14, 2026

REVISED BID/PROPOSAL OPENING DATE: October 27, 2026, per addendum 1

TIME: 11:00 a.m., Central Time

www.cityofchicago.org/eprocurement

CONTACT: Tom Magno,

Senior Procurement Specialist

Email: thomas.magno@cityofchicago.org

Chicago Transit Authority hereby notifies all bidders that it will affirmatively ensure that in regard to any contract entered into pursuant to this advertisement, Disadvantaged Business Enterprise will be afforded full opportunity to submit bids in response to this invitation and will not be discriminated against on the grounds of race, color, or national origin in consideration for an award. PLEASE NOTE: The right is reserved to accept any bid or any part or parts thereof or to re-

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Bid Bond:

Questions regarding this Bid must be submitted via Bonfire no later than 4:30 p.m. (CST) Monday, October 19, 2026. Questions will not be accepted after this date and time. For additional information, please contact Jerome Kurth, Procurement Administrator, jkurth@transitchicago.com

Bids requiring a bid deposit must be accompanied by a Bid Bond, provided by a surety company authorized to do business in the United States, and made payable to the City of Chicago. A scanned copy of the bid bond must be attached to the online bid submission, with the original bond to be received by DPS within 3 business days of the bid opening. This is required of all bidders, not just the apparent low bidder.

Any late Bids received after announced date and time, for the opening of Bids, will not be accepted.

10/8/2026 158528

Any contract resulting from this advertisement will be awarded to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder.

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LEGAL ADVERTISEMENT OCTOBER 8, 2026 CITY OF CHICAGO

The Bidder must complete and submit an Electronic Bid prior to the bid due date. An electronic bid must be submitted through the City of Chicago's website at www.cityofc.chicago.org/eprocurement, on or before the due date and time stated below. The City's system will not accept electronic bids after the due date and time. Bidders must register for a log-in account to submit an electronic bid. Please allow up to three business days for creation of your log-in account. Paper bids will not be accepted. All Bids will be opened and publicly read aloud for the following:

CORRIDOR IMPROVEMENTS

Section 1: 79th Street, Sangamon Street to Fielding Avenue and Halsted Street, 78th Street to 80th Street (SBI - I)

DEPARTMENT: Chicago Department of Trans-

The contractor will be required to furnish certified copies of any and all Insurance Policies required in relation to this contract prior to CTA's execution.

DEPARTMENT: Chicago Department of Transportation

TYPE: Construction

DEPARTMENT OF PROCUREMENT SERVICES

TYPE: Construction

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DESCRIPTION: AUBURN GRESHAM

ELECTRONIC BID DOCUMENTS CAN BE DOWNLOADED AND RESPONDED TO FROM THIS URL ADDRESS: www.cityofchicago.org/onprocurement

www.cityofchicago.org/eprocurement

NOTICE OF ADDENDUM: Addendum # 1 will be e-mailed to all bidders on the Bid Opportunity Take-Out List

SPECIFICATION NO: 1269498A

RFQ NO: 77412, 1

BID OPENING DATE: October 20, 2026

BID OPENING DATE: October 20, 2026 per Addendum 1 (remains the same)

TIME: 11:00 a.m., Central Time

CONTACT: Sadi Sandoval,

Senior Procurement Specialist

Email: sadi.sandoval@cityofchicago.org

Bid Bond: Bids requiring a bid deposit must be accompanied by a Bid Bond, provided by a surety company authorized to do business in the United States, and made payable to the City of Chicago. A scanned copy of the bid bond must be attached to the online bid submission, with the original bond to be received by DPS within 3 business days of the bid opening. This is required of all bidders, not just the apparent low bidder.

Any late Bids received after announced date and time, for the opening of Bids, will not be accepted.

10/8/2026.158917

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LEGAL NOTICE

Invitation for Bids (IFB) to Furnish and install various types of glass for a period of 36 months with two one year options. PROPOSAL GUARANTEE: NONE

Toni Preckwinkle, President of the Board of Commissioners of Cook County, has directed me to call a Special Meeting of the Board of Commissioners of Cook County on Thursday, October 8, 2026, at the hour of 10:00 a.m. the Special Meeting will be an in-person meeting for the County Board and will be able to be viewed by the public at cookcountyil.gov/service/watch-live-board-proceedings.

At said meeting the following items will be considered.

\- Item 26-2321, President's recommended Cook County Budget Resolution and Annual Appropriation Bill for Fiscal Year 2027

Instructions for how to attend this meeting and participate in public comment will be provided on the Cook County webpage at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/6665LKZ. The proceedings will be able to be viewed at cookcountyil.gov/service/watch-live-board-proceedings on Thursday, October 8, 2026, starting at 10:00 a.m. Written public comment or live (virtual) testimony on any of the items listed on the Agenda will be accepted at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/6665LKZ. Written testimony will also be accepted at cookcounty board/cookcounyil.gov. Written permission to the list of the Special Board meeting will be posted at https://cookcounty.legistar.com/ Calendar.aspx and may be read aloud or summarized at the meeting. Three minutes per comment will be allowed.

If additional time is required beyond the scheduled reserve days, a supplemental schedule will be distributed.

Sealed bids will be received for the following by Chicago Transit Authority through Electronic Submission to the Bid Office's E-Procurement Platform no later than 2:00 P.M. on Thursday, October 29, 2026 to the link below: https://transitchicago.bonfirehub.com/

Very truly yours,

Identified also as Area(s) 07, under the Permanent Real Estate Index Numbering System of Cook County.

In the matter of the revision of the assessment of Real Property for 2026:

On or around 8:45 a.m. Central Time on the morning of the meeting, a Microsoft Teams link and phone number to join the meeting will be sent to all live (virtual) speakers. You may not log into the meeting until the schedule meeting time. You may not forward the link to anyone. To reduce the chance of meeting disruption, MEETING PARTICIPANTS WHO FORWARD LINKS WILL BE REMOVED FROM THE MEETING, AS WILL THOSE WHO RECEIVED THE FORWARDED LINK. Speaking order is to be determined by the Chair. You will have three (3) minutes to make your statement. Once your statement is coming to be written in the meeting. Once removed, you will still be able to follow the proceedings for that day at: https://www.cookcountyil.gov/service/watch-live-board-proceedings

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, pursuant to the provisions of Section 14-35 of the Illinois Property Tax Code (35 ILCS 200/14-35) that the Assessor of Cook County will sit for the purpose of reviewing the proposed 2026 assessment of Real Property located in the following township(s) or taxing district(s) in Cook County.

TO PLACE YOUR AD, VISIT CHICAGOTRIBUNE.COM/ADVERTISER OR CALL 312 222 2222

The last date within which applications for revisions of assessment (Real Estate Assessed Valuation Appeals) may be filed for consideration at such sitting is November 19, 2026.

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Legal Notice LEGAL NOTICE

Copies of the Agenda for the October 8, 2026, Special Board Meeting of the Cook County Board of Commissioners and items to be considered at this meeting will be made available electronically on the Cook County website at https://cook-county.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx

STATE OF ILLINOIS

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SCHAUMBURG

Such sitting will be held at the office of the Assessor of Cook County, Room 301, in the County Building, 118 North Clark Street, Chicago, Illinois 60602, and will continue thereafter from day to day as necessary until all such revisions in said township(s) or taxing district(s) have been completed.

COUNTY OF COOK

Done by the Assessor of Cook County this 8th day of October, 2026.

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FRITZ KAEG ASSESSORO

MONICA GORDON, Cook County Clerk and Clerk of the Board of the Commissioners of Cook County, Illinois

10/5, 10/6, 10/7, & 10/8/26 153761

October 8, 2020 - 197622

The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago will be accepting applications for the following classification(s):

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Treatment Plant Operator III (Promotional)

Application Filing Period: September 25, 2026 through October 9, 2026. Examination Date: October 24, 2026. Location: To Be Announced. Scope of Examination: Knowledge of Associate Structural Engineer practices. Nature of Position and Duties: Under general supervision, performs ordinary structural engineering work in connection with the design of steel, wood and reinforced concrete structures. May supervise subordinate engineers and sub-professional personnel.

Application Filing Period: September 25, 2026 through October 9, 2026. Examination Date: October 22 & 23, 2026. Location: MWRD Main Office Building Annex, 111 East Erie Street, Chicago, IL. Scope of Examination: Knowledge of Treatment Plant Operator III practices. Nature of Position and Duties: Under general supervision, has responsibility for the control of the routine wastewater treatment process and the coordination of sewage pumping and disposal operations associated with this process at a wastewater treatment plant. Salary: \$106,637.96 per year

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Secretary to the Board 10/5, 10/6, 10/7, & 10/8/26 154321 CHICAGO TRANSIT AUTHORITY Advertisement for Bids

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Accounting Manager (Original & Promotional)

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Associate Structural Engineer (Original & Promotional)

Application Filing Period: September 25, 2026 through October 9, 2026. Examination Date: November 6 & 7, 2026. Location: MWRD Main Office Building Annex, 111 East Erie Street, Chicago, IL. Scope of Examination: Knowledge of Accounting Manager practices Nature of Position and Duties: Under general supervision, directs and coordinates professional and administrative staff in the performance of a variety of accounting and/or treasury activities which may include fund accounting, managerial accounting, auditing, report preparation, contract management, budget preparation, general ledger maintenance, payroll functions, accounts receivable functions, accounts payable functions, cash management and forecasting, bond sale execution and reporting requirements, interpretation and implementation of policies and legal requirements, and information systems management. Salary: \$133,602.82 per year

Applications can be submitted online only at www.districtjobs.org.

Additional information may be found at www.districtjobs.org or call 312-751-5100.

Salary: \$96,088.20 per year

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Mailed, Emailed, Hand delivered or Faxed Applications Will Not Be Accepted. Resumes Will Not Be Accepted In Place of Application Forms. An Equal Opportunity Employer - M/F/D 9/25-10/9/2026 146037

LEGAL ADVERTISEMENT

October 8, 2026

CITY OF CHICAGO

DEPARTMENT OF PROCUREMENT SERVICES

The Bidder must complete and submit an Electronic Bid prior to the bid due date. An electronic bid must be submitted through the City of Chicago's website at www.cityofcicago.org/eprocurement, on or before the due date and time stated below. The City's system will not accept electronic bids after the due date and time. Bidders must register for a log-in account to submit an electronic bid. Please allow up to three business days for creation of your log-in account. Paper bids will not be accepted. All Bids will be opened and publicly read aloud for the following:

DESCRIPTION: Residential Sound Insulation Program Odor Mitigation Phase 2 – Chicago Midway and O'Hare International Airports DEPARTMENT: Chicago Department of Aviation

TYPE: Aviation Construction

Plus, enjoy advanced job matching and ad targeting technology, access print and digital advertising opportunities, career fairs and more.

www.cityofchicago.org/eprocurement

ELECTRONIC BID DOCUMENTS CAN BE DOWNLOADED AND RESPONDED TO FROM THIS URL ADDRESS: www.cityofchicago.org/eprocurement

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NOTICE OF ADDENDUM: Addendum #2 will be sent to all bidders on the Bid Opportunity Take-OutList

RFQ NO: 77298,2

ORIGINAL BID OPENING DATE: October 2, 2026

REVISED BID OPENING DATE: October 21, 2026, Per Addendum #1

REVISED BID OPENING DATE: October 28, 2026, Per Addendum #2

TIME: 11:00 a.m., Central Time

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CONTACT: Thomas Magno,

Senior Procurement Specialist

Email: thomas.magno@cityofchicago.org

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Legal Notice

Stop wasting time searching for talent.

Find the right talent with tribune publishing recruitment services.

chicagotribune.com/jobs

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Bid Bond:

EXHIBIT "A" – NOTICE OF SALE OF TIMESHARE ESTATES UNDER SECTION 10 OF THE TIMESHARE LIEN AND SECURITY INTEREST ACT FILE NO.: 72151.0039 BLANKS, SR. OWNER TS Us Divut Int ICN Year Season Use Basis Ste Type TS Phase Total Sum Due MTG DOC # RONALD RAY BLANKS, & SHAROLYN ELEAS BLANKS, 0.17490548037171800%, 90-2502-42-7, YEAR, PLATINUM, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME, ONE BEDROOM PREMIER, n/a, \$57,403.01, 2335522020; MELLISSA LAGSTON MILLER, 0.18845034922205300%, 90-2310-41-7, YEAR, PLATINUM, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME, ONE BEDROOM PLUS, 5, \$40,560.86, 2403222028; ERIC MICHAEL BECK & ALEXANDRA DARA BECK, 0.094225174611102670%, 90-2410-2-7-E, EVEN NUMBERED YEAR, SILVER, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME, ONE BEDROOM PLUS, 4, \$11,023.00, 2411509040; CRAIG PHILIP TRIPP & GRETCHEN ANN TRIPP 0.18845034922205300%, 90-2403-43-7, YEAR, PLATINUM, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME, ONE BEDROOM PLUS, 4, \$50,394.56, 2412311005; FENTON KOMBA GOBILE & HAFSATU GOBILE, 0.08745274018585920%, 90-2411-4-7-E, EVEN NUMBERED YEAR, SILVER, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME, ONE BEDROOM PREMIER, 4, \$14,161.05, 2424908039 EXHIBIT "A" – NOTICE OF SALE OF TIMESHARE ESTATES UNDER SECTION 10 OF THE TIMESHARE LIEN AND SECURITY INTEREST ACT FILE NO.: 72151.0040 PADGETT Owner(s) TS Undiv Int ICN Year Season Use Basis Ste Type TS Phase Total Sum Due MTG DOC # CHRISTOPHER MICHAEL PADGETT & LINDA A. PADGETT, 0.0998197943355640%, 90-2601-17-7, YEAR, PLATINUM, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME, STUDIO PLUS, 1, \$14,219.07, 2335557013; ROSS REYES & CORDELIA VILLAHERMOSA-REYES, 0.17490548037171800% & 0.17490548037171800%, 90-2502-48-7 & 90-2502-46-7, YEAR & GOLD, GOLD, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME & FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME, ONE BEDROOM PREMIER & ONE BEDROOM PREMIER, 3 & 3, \$47,313.91, 240414531; ETERTORI & ETERTORI & ETERTORI & ETERTORI & ETERTORI & ETERTORI & ETERTORI & ETERTORI & ETERTORI & OTD NUMBERED EAR SLVER, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME; STUDIO PREMIER, 1, \$13,896.12, 2410808034; FRANCISCO MANUEL ROMERO & ANGELICA LOPEZ, 0.06109913666183760%, 90-2309-5-7-0, ODD NUMBERED YEAR, SILVER, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME, STUDIO PREMIER, 5, \$14,978.56, 2408009017; TERILI WILLIAMS, 0.06109913666183760%, 90-2309-8-7-0, ODD NUMBERED YEAR, SILVER, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME, STUDIO PREMIER, 5, \$12,364.93, 2403210013; MELIG EL-CARTE FRANCIS & DIONNE ELIZABETH SPENCE-FRANCIS, 0.04990989717677820%, 90-2601-11-7-E, EVEN NUMBERED YEAR, GOLD, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME, STUDIO PLUS, \$14,401.28, 2410230055; JAMES WEATHERED & MICHELLE WEATHERED, 0.1221982733236750%, 90-2509-45-7, YEAR, GOLD, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME, STUDIO PREMIER, 3, \$31,603.29; 2412208053; LUTHERN LYNCH & BRENDAWADE-LYNCH, 0.1221982733236750%, 90-2509-47-7, YEAR, GOLD, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME, STUDIO PREMIER, 3, \$29,578.87, 2412309001; LANETTA RENE PHILIPS & ROOSEVELT PHILLIPS JR., 0.1884503492220530%, 90-2316-16-7, YEAR, GOLD, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME; ONE BEDROOM PLUS, 5, \$26,052.33, 2414408021; LAWREN SWANSON & REBECCA SWANSON, 0.1884503492220530%, 90-2510-47-7, YEAR, GOLD, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME; ONE BEDROOM PLUS, 5, \$24,545.00, 242009033; BRUCE MICHAEL POOLE, 0.17490548037171800%, 90-2302-47-7, YEAR, GOLD, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME, ONE BEDROOM PREMIER, 5, \$14,713.61, 2413114308; CHIDERA JERRYMARTINS ONOH, SR., 0.0610991366618376O%, 90-2409-6-7-E, EVEN NUMBERED YEAR, SILVER, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME; STUDIO PREMIER, 4, \$14,767.06, 241441026K; KATHALEEN MOORE & RICKEY MOORE, 0.0610991366618376O%, 90-2505-5-7-E, EVEN NUMBERED YEAR, SILVER, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME; STUDIO PREMIER, 3, \$14,282.63, 2421324387; TAWANDA RACHELLE ROSE, 0.0610991366618376O%, 90-2305-7-7; TWENTAGE LEAVY MARCEL PIERELO SELLER (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/FLOATING TIME; STUDIO PREMIER (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/FLOATING TIME; EPPHALA APPIANA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/FLOATING TIME; EPPHALA APPIANA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/FLOATING TIME; EPPHALA APPIANA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/FLOATING TIME; EPPHALA APPIANA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/FLOATING TIME; EPPHALA APPIANA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/FLOATING TIME; EPPHALA APPIENA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/FLOATING TIME; EPPHALA APPIENA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/FLOATING TIME; EPPHALA APPIENA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/FLOATING TIME; EPPHALA APPIENA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/FLOATING TIME; EPPHALA APPIENA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/FLOATING TIME; EPPHALA APPIEN (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/FLOATING TIME; EPPHALA APPIENA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/FLOATING TIME; EPPHALA APPIENA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/FLOATING TIME; EPPHALA APPIENA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/FLOATING TIME; EPPHALA APPIENA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/FLOATING TIME; EPPHALA APPIINA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/FLOATING TIME; EPPHALA APPIINA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/FLOATING TIME; EPPHALA APPIINA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/FLOATING TIME; EPPHALA APPIINA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/FLOATING TIME; EPPHALA APPIINA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/FLOATING TIME; EPPHALA APPIIN (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/FLOATING TIME; EPPHALA APPIINA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/Floating Time; EPPHALA APPIINA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/Floating Time; EPPHALA APPIINA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/Floating Time; EPPHALA APPIINA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/Floating Time; EPPHALA APPIINA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/Floating Time; EPPHALA APPIINA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/Floating time; EPPHALA APPIINA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/Floating time; EPPHALA APPIINA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/Floating time; EPPHALA APPIINA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/Floating time; EPPHALA APPIINA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/Floating time; EPPHALA APPIINA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/Floating Time; EPPHALA APPIINA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/Floating Time; EPPHALA APPIINA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/Floating Time; EPPHALA APPIINA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/Floating Time; EPPHALA APPIINA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/FloatingTime; EPPHALA APPIINA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/Floating Time; EPPHALA APPIINA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/Floating Time; EPPHALA APPIINA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/Floating Time; EPPHALA APPIINA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/Floating Time; EPPHALA APPIINA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/Floating-Time; EPPHALA APPIINA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/Floating Time; EPPHALA APPIINA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/Floating Time; EPPHALA APPIINA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/Floating Time; EPPHALA APPIINA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/Floating Time; EPPHALA APPIINA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/Floating Times; EPPHALA APPIINA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/Floating Time; EPPHALA APPIINA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/Floating Time; EPPHALA APPIINA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/Floating Time; EPPHALA APPIINA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/Floating Time; EPPHALA APPIINA (FLOT), RESOURING UNIT/Floating

YOUR PERFECT HIRE IS WAITING

Bids requiring a bid deposit must be accompanied by a Bid Bond, provided by a surety company authorized to do business in the United States, and made payable to the City of Chicago. A scanned copy of the bid bond must be attached to the online bid submission, with the original bond to be received by DPS within 3 business days of the bid opening. This is required of all bidders, not just the apparent low bidder.

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NOTICE OF SALE OF TIMESHARE ESTATES UNDER SECTION 10 OF THE TIMESHARE LIEN AND SECURITY INTEREST ACT MM VACATION SUITES (75159.0003, .0005-.0007)

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NOTICE OF SALE OF TIMESHARE ESTATES UNDER SECTION 10 OF THE TIMESHARE LIEN AND SECURITY INTEREST ACT MM VACATION SUITES (72151.0039 - .0047)

By virtue of the timeshare instrument of MM Owners Association, Inc., (the "Association"), whose address is 6355 Metro West Blvd., Suite 180, Orlando, FL 32835, Section 5 of the Timeshare Lien and Security Interest Act establishing a managing entity lien for failure to pay assessments and other costs on the timeshare estate (See Exhibit "A") held by the owner of the timeshare estate (See Exhibit "A"), and the Notice of Delinquent Assessment Lien (the "Lien") filed by the Association recorded at (See Exhibit "A"), Cook County Recorder of the Deeds office, the timeshare estates (See Exhibit "A") and for the purpose of foreclosing, will be sold at public auction starting at 10:00 a.m on October 23, 2026, in the lobby of the first floor at 227 W. Monroe Street, Suite 3950, Chicago, IL 60606. The Property to be sold is described as: A Vacation ownership Interest in MM Vacation Suites (the "Project") consisting of the following: An undivided (See Exhibit "A") fee simple interest in and to Phase (See Exhibit "A") in perpetuity as tenant(s) in common with the Owners of other Vacation Ownership Interests in and to said Phase, that is part of Lots 1 to 8 inclusive, in Sub-Block 2 in Subdivision of Block 31 in Kinzie's Addition to Chicago in Section 10, Township 39 North, Range 14 East of the Third Principal Meridian in Cook County Illinois, as established by and subject to that certain Declaration of Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions and Vacation Ownership Instrument for MM Vacation Suites, recorded August 8, 2019, in the Cook County Recorder of Deeds Office as Document No. 1922017000, as amended from time to time (the "Timeshare Declaration"), together with the following: (a) The recurring right to reserve, use and occupy a (See Exhibit "A") Suite Configuration on a (See Exhibit "A") basis for a full week every (See Exhibit "A") during the (See Exhibit "A") Season in accordance with and subject to the Timeshare Declaration, together with the right in common with all other Owners to use and enjoy the Common Areas of the Project during the Occupancy Period reserved to the aforesaid Vacation Ownership Interest; and (b) Membership in the Hilton Grand Vacations Club program. Interval Control Number: (See Exhibit "A"). TERMS OF SALE: Each of the timeshare estates to be sold shall be sold separately to satisfy the managing entity lien (See Exhibit "A"), including interest, advances, if any, and any costs created by the foreclosure, "AS-IS, WHERE-IS" without representation and/or warranty of any kind with respect to condition, title, possession, or encumbrances. The highest third party bidder at the auction must make payment in full of their winning bid amount by cash or certified funds only payable to the Association and delivered c/o Greenspoon Marder LLP, 227 W. Monroe Street, Suite 3950, Chicago, IL 60606 no later than 5:00 p.m. the day of the auction. Failure to make payment by this deadline will result in the automatic cancellation and rejection of the bid and the interest being offered for sale to the next highest bidder. The auction is subject to cancellation and/or postponement for any reason, or no reason, before or after commencement or bidding. Other terms may be announced at the public auction. This is a non-judicial foreclosure proceeding to permit the Association to pursue its in rem remedies under Illinois law.

EXHIBIT "A" – NOTICE OF SALE OF TIMESHARE ESTATES UNDER SECTION 10 OF THE TIMESHARE LIEN AND SECURITY INTEREST ACT FILE NO.: 75159.0003 D'ACONTI, SR Owner(s) TS Undiv Int ICN Year Season Use Basis Ste Type TS Phase Amount Owed Association COL DOC# KENNETH HAYES & LEAH HAYES, 0.04990989717677820%, 90-2601-5-7-0, ODD NUMBERED YEAR, SILVER, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME, STUDIO PLUS, 1, \$7.043.13, 2523423250 EXHIBIT "A" – NOTICE OF SALE OF TIMESHARE ESTATES UNDER SECTION 10 OF THE TIMESHARE LIEN AND SECURITY INTEREST ACT FILE NO.: 79159.0005 WRIGHT OWNER(s) TS Undiv Int ICN Year Season Use Basis Ste Type TS Phase Amount Owed Association COL DOC# SHALI WRIGHT & RECARDO WRIGHT, 0.09422517461102670%, 90-2603-1-7-0, ODD NUMBERED YEAR, SILVER, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME, ONE BEDROOM PLUS, 1, \$6.889.47, 2523423251 EXHIBIT "A" – NOTICE OF SALE OF TIMESHARE ESTATES UNDER SECTION 10 OF THE TIMESHARE LIEN AND SECURITY INTEREST ACT FILE NO.: 75159.0006 D'ACONTI, SR Owner(s) TS Undiv Int ICN Year Season Use Basis Ste Type TS Phase Amount Owed Association COL DOC# JOHN S. D'ACONTI & DIANE C. D'ACONTI & DANIELLE M. D'ACONTI, 0.17490548037171800% & 0.1221982733267500%, 90-2614-17-7 & 90-2604-45-7, YEAR & YEAR, PLATINUM & GOLD, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME & FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME, ONE BEDROOM PREMIER & STUDIO PREMIER, 1 & 1, \$10.398.68, 2523423252; DALE JEROME HAAKENSON & DIANE JUDY HAAKENSON, 0.12219827332367500%, 90-2608-7-7, YEAR, SILVER, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME, STUDIO PREMIER, 1, \$4.893.44, 2523423252; VICTOR ADRINEDA PAULO JR., 0.06109913666183760%, 90-2509-4-7-0, ODD NUMBERED YEAR, SILVER, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME, STUDIO PREMIER, 3, \$5.793.02, 2523423252 EXHIBIT "A" – NOTICE OF SALE OF TIMESHARE ESTATES UNDER SECTION 10 OF THE TIMESHARE LIEN AND SECURITY INTEREST ACT FILE NO.: 75159.0007 MICONI OWNER(s) TS Undiv Int ICN Year Season Use Basis Ste Type TS Phase Amount Owed Association COL DOC# MARGARET GAUTIER, 0.04990989717677820%, 90-2601-3-7-0, ODD NUMBERED YEAR, SILVER, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME, STUDIO PLUS, 1, \$2.612.00, 2606219078; JOSE P TAMONTE & MELINDA TAMONTE, 0.1221982733267500%, 90-2608-26-7, YEAR, PLATINUM, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME, STUDIO PREMIER, 1, \$2.929.44, 2606219078; BORIS KOCHANOFF & KIMBERLY ANN KOCHANOFF, 0.1884503492205300%, 90-2510-2-7, YEAR, SILVER, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME, ONE BEDROOM PLUS, 3, \$7.42.749, 2606219078; BRENDIA J DAMIANO, 0.06109913666183760%, 90-2507-1-7-0, ODD NUMBERED YEAR, SILVER, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME, STUDIO PREMIER, 3, \$3.050.84, 2606219078; JESSICA MARY VIRAY & JOSHUA-CALEB BARCAS VIRAY, 0.06109913666183760%, 90-2509-6-7-0, ODD NUMBERED YEAR, SILVER, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME, STUDIO PREMIER, 3, \$2.995.37, 2606219078; COURTNEY GEORGE CAMERON, 0.1884503492205300% & 0.18845034922205300%, 90-2512-21-7 & 90-2512-22-7, YEAR & YEAR, PLATINUM & PLATINUM, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME & FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME, ONE BEDROOM PLUS & ONE BEDROOM PLUS, 3 & 3, \$5.979.46, 2606219078; TIAJUANA NIXON WALKER & KELVIN DEVANCE WALKER, 0.06109913666183760%, 90-2504-3-7-0, ODD NUMBERED YEAR, SILVER, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME, STUDIO PREMIER, 3, \$2.883.53, 2606219078; GLENDA SMITH KARRIKER & RONALD TODD KARRIKER, 0.09422517461102670%, 90-2403-8-7-0, ODD NUMBERED YEAR, SILVER, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME ONE BEDROOM PLUS, 4, \$7.607.68, 2606219078; JOE HOLCOMB & SANAZ HOLCOMB, 0.04990989717677820%, 90-2401-46-7-E, EVEN NUMBERED YEAR, GOLD, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME, STUDIO PLUS, 4, \$4.195.66, 2606219078; PAUL A GREENWOOD & NANCY ELLIOTT-GREENWOOD, 0.0610991366618376O%, 90-2309-33-7-0, ODD NUMBERED YEAR, PLATINUM, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME, STUDIO PREMIER, \$5.2995.37, 2606219078; DAVID LYNN CAMMICAHL & MARY LOUISE CARMICHAEL, 0.1749054803717180O%, 90-2211-46-7, YEAR, GOLD, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME, ONE BEDROOM PREMIER, \$6, €5.488.53, 2606219078

By virtue of Section 10 of the Timeshare Lien and Security Interest Act, and in execution of certain Mortgages (See Exhibit "A") on the timeshare estates (the "Property") at MM VACATI'S SUITES, 198 E. Delaware Place, Chicago, IL 60611 General Office of the Property & Trustee, Inc., 227 W. Monroe Street, Suite 3950, Chicago, IL 60606, being all and singular the Property described in said Mortgages. The Property to be sold is described as: A Vacation ownership Interest in MM Vacation Suites (the "Project") consisting of the following: An undivided (See Exhibit "A") fee simple interest in and to Phase (See Exhibit "A") in perpetuity as tenant(s) in common with the Owners of other Vacation Ownership Interests in and to said Phase, that is part of Lots 1 to 8 inclusive, in Sub-Block 2 in Subdivision of Block 31 in Kinzie's Addition to Chicago Section 10, Township 39 North, Range 14 East of the Third Principal Meridian in Cook County Illinois, as established by and subject to that certain Declaration of Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions and Vacation Ownership Instrument for MM Vacation Suites, recorded August 8, 2019, in the Cook County Recorder of Deeds Office as Document No. 1922017000, as amended from time to time (the "Timeshare Declaration"), together with the following: (a) The recurring right to reserve, use and occupy a (See Exhibit "A") Suite Configuration on a (See Exhibit "A") basis for a full week every (See Exhibit "A") during the (See Exhibit "A") Season in accordance with and subject to the Timeshare Declaration, together with the right in common with all Other Owners to use and enjoy the Common Areas of the Project during the Occupancy Period reserved to the aforesaid Vacation Ownership Interest; and (b) Membership in the Hilton Grand Vacations Club program. Interval Control Number: (See Exhibit "A"). TERMS OF SALE: Said sale will be made (without covenants, or warranty, express or implied, regarding the title, possession or encumbrances) to pay the total sum due in the amount of (See Exhibit "A"), including interest, advances, if any, and any costs created by the foreclosure. The highest third party bidder at the public sale must make payment in full of their winning bid amount by cash or certified funds only and paid to HILTON RESORTS CORPORATION c/o Greenspoon Marder LLP, 227 W. Monroe Street, Suite 3950, Chicago, IL 60606 no later than 5:00 p.m. the day of the sale. Failure to make payment by this deadline will result in the automatic cancelation and rejection of the bid and its interest being offered for sale. In the next highest bidder is not a reasonable one for sale or for payment for sale or for reason, before or after commencement or bidding. Other terms may be announced at the public auction. This is a non-judicial foreclosure proceeding to permit HILTON RESORTS CORPORATION to pursue its in rem remedies under Illinois law.

Any late Bids received after announced date and time, for the opening of Bids, will not be accepted.

10/8/2026 159096

488.827,07; 2420708005 EXHIBIT "A" - NOTICE OF SALE OF TIMESHARE ESTATES UNDER SECTION 10 OF THE TIMESHARE LIEN AND SECURITY INTEREST ACT FILE NO.: 72151.0042 SEIFERHELD OWNER(s) TS Undiv Int ICN Year Season Use Basis Ste Type TS Phase Total Sum Due MTG DOC # MARY P SEIFERHELD, 0.17490548037171800% - 0,2402-3-7, YEAR, SILVER, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME, ONE BEDROOM PREMIER, \$ 41,773.55, 2403245028; MICHELLE LYNN MARSHALL, 0.0942517461102670%, 90-2310-3-7-E, EVEN NUMBERED YEAR, SILVER, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME, ONE BEDROOM PLUS, \$ 510,915.91, 2409507011; HENRIETTA BINORTSOR & JOSEPH HORLA TAY, 0.06109913666183760%, 90-2309-1-7-E, EVEN NUMBERED YEAR, SILVER, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME, STUDIO PREMIER, \$ 514,008.43, 2410214147; TERESA EVELYN QUINTERO & MAURICIO ONTIVEROS QUINTERO, JR., 0.06109913666183760%, 90-2304-2-7-E, EVEN NUMBERED YEAR, SILVER, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME, STUDIO PREMIER, \$ 514,046.59, 2411607016; PERCIVAL C. GILCHREST & JADE A. GILCHREST, 0.06109913666183760%, 90-2406-1-7-O, ODD NUMBERED YEAR, SILVER, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME, STUDIO PREMIER, \$ 4,174.754, 2421323163; DEAN LASTER, 0.06109913666183760%, 90-2408-34-7-O, ODD NUMBERED YEAR, PLATINUM, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME, STUDIO PREMIER, \$ 434,362.86, 2420709027; VALENCIA MARIE FORTENBERRY, 0.12219827332367500%, 90-2205-1-7, YEAR, SILVER, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME, STUDIO PREMIER, \$ 622,901.65, 2421309305; NAOMIE DEL MAR CORRO & BENJAMIN FRANCISCO CORRO, JR., 0.06109913666183760%, 90-2206-1-7-O, ODD NUMBERED YEAR, SILVER, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME, STUDIO PREMIER, \$ 614,361.69, 2425507031; DONNA M. CHARLES, 0.09981979435355640%, 90-2101-25-7-Y, YEAR, PLATINUM, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME, STUDIO PLUS, \$ 72,335.253, 2429008031; CHARLES QUAY HUMPHREY & BARBARA CARRIE HUMPHREY, \$ 0.18845034922205300%, 90-2103-27-7-Y, YEAR, PLATINUM, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME, ONE BEDROOM PLUS, \$ 753,972.46, 2501527028 EXHIBIT "A" - NOTICE OF SALE OF TIMESHARE ESTATES UNDER SECTION 10 OF THE TIMESHARE LIEN AND SECURITY INTEREST ACT FILE NO.: 72151.0044 WEIS Owner(s) TS Undiv Int ICN Year Season Use Basis Ste Type TS Phase Total Sum Due MTG DOC # ROSSANO CARGID GARDNER & TRACEY LYNNETTE GARDNER, 0.18845034922205300%, 90-2610-7-Y, YEAR, SILVER, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME, ONE BEDROOM PLUS, \$ 515.996.95, 2333457020; TREMAYNE DEXTER CAMPBELL & JILL CALLOWAY CAMPBELL, 0.06109913666183760%, 90-2606-5-7-E, EVEN NUMBERED YEAR, SILVER, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME, STUDIO PREMIER, \$ 11,552.34, 2404522041; ROBERT J. HUNEKE, 0.09981979435355640%, 90-2601-51-7-Y, YEAR, GOLD (ORDER BY: ROLLAGE).\$ 33.169.74, 2403222014 EXHIBIT "A" - NOTICE OF SALE OF TIMESHARE ESTATES UNDER SECTION 10 OF THE TIMESHARE LIEN AND SECURITY INTEREST ACT FILE NO.: 72151.0044 GARDNER Owner(s) TS Undiv Int ICN Year Season Use Basis Ste Type TS Phase Total Sum Due MTG DOC # ROSSANO CARGID GARDNER & TRACEY LYNNETTE GARDNER, 0.18845034922205300%, 90-2610-7-Y, YEAR, SILVER, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME, ONE BEDROOM PLUS, \$ 515.996.95, ZMIRANDE TIXON LYNNETTE WELLSWELL (ORDER BY: ROLLAGE).\$ 33.169.74, ZMIRANDE TIXON LYNNETTE WELLSWELL (ORDER BY: ROLLAGE).\$ 33.169.74, ZMIRANDE TIXON LYNNETTE WELLSWELL (ORDER BY: ROLLAGE).\$ 33.169.74, ZMIRANDE TIXON LYNNETTE WELLSWELL (ORDER BY: ROLLAGE).

EXHIBIT "A" - NOTICE OF SALE OF TIMESHARE ESTATES UNDER SECTION 10 OF THE TIMESHARE LIEN AND SECURITY INTEREST ACT FILE NO.: 72151.0045 RENTERIA Owner(s) TS Undiv Int ICN Year Season Use Basis Ste Type TS Phase Total Sum Due MTG DOC # HELEN RENTERIA, 0.18845034922205300%, 90-2612-40-Y, YEAR, PLATINUM, FLOATING UNIT/FLOATING TIME, ONE BEDROOM PLUS (\$ 515.996.95), ZMIRANDE TIXON LYNNETTE WELLSWELL (ORDER BY: ROLLAGE).\$ 33.169.74, ZMIRANDE TIXON LYNNETTE WELLSWELL (ORDER BY: ROLLAGE).\$ 33.169.74, ZMIRANDE TIXON LYNNETTE WELLSWELL (ORDER BY: ROLLAGE).\$.

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LEGAL NOTICE

NOTICE OF THE BOARD OF REVIEW OF COOK COUNTY OF THE TIME AND PLACE FOR FILING VALUATION COMPLAINTS (ASSESSMENT APPEALS) RELATING TO

2026 REAL ESTATE ASSESSMENTS

Notice is hereby given that during the period October 8, 2026, THROUGH November 6, 2026, the Board of Review of Cook County will accept the filing of valuation complaints (assessment appeals) for

All complaints will be considered by the Board in Room 601 of the County Building, 118 North Clark Street, Chicago Illinois, in accordance with the laws of Illinois, under the provisions of the Illinois Property Tax Code (formerly the Revenue Act of 1939), as amended.

Call (312) 603-5542 for a complaint form and further information.

for the revisions and corrections of the 2026 Real Estate Assessments.

Approved by the Board of Review of Cook County, Illinois in said County, this 6th day of October 2026.

LARRY R. ROGERS, JR.

COMMISSIONER

GEORGE CARDENAS

CHAIRMAN

SAMANTHA STEELE

COMMISSIONER

Oct. 8, 2026 159872

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Chicago forecast

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Thursday Conditions | Thursday | Day: | | | | Night51° | Partly sunny and nice | Winds: WNW 6-12 mphPOP: 0% | ---

Thursday Activities

8 a.m. 10 a.m. Noon 2 p.m. 4 p.m. 6 p.m. 8 p.m.

AccuWeather.com UV Index™

ACCUWEATHER | 1 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 8 a.m. 10 a.m. Noon 2 p.m. 4 p.m. 6 p.m. 8 p.m. | 55° | 64° | 69° | 71° | 69° | 65° | 65° | Golfing Index | 7 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 9 | 8 | Fishing Index | 3 | 3 | 9 | 8 | 4 | 3 | 4 | The higher the AccuWeather.com UV Index number, the greater the need for eye and skin protection. 0-2 Low, 3-5 Moderate, 6-7 High, 8-10 Very High, 11+ Extreme. The patented AccuWeather.com RealFeel Temperature is an exclusive index of effective temperature based on eight weather factors. Golf and Fishing Indexes: 0-2: Poor; 3-4: Fair; 5-6: Good; 7-8: Very Good; 9-10: Excellent.

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Chicago almanac

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Wednesday temperatures | Average | Record | Wednesday high: 79° | 67° | 87° (2007) | Wednesday low: 57° | 49° | 29° (2001) | Local temperatures | Monday | Day | | | | | Warm with clouds and sun; a p.m. shower | Winds: WSW 4-8 mphPOP: 55% | through 6 p.m. Wednesday | Average | Location | High | Low | High | Low | Aurora | 80° | 48° | 68° | 44° | Gary | 81° | 57° | 68° | 48° | Kankakee | 82° | 54° | 69° | 46° | Lansing | 79° | 52° | 68° | 47° | Midway | 79° | 58° | 68° | 50° | Romeoville | 81° | 54° | 68° | 47° | Valparaiso | 78° | 53° | 69° | 47° | Waukegan | 77° | 57° | 65° | 46° | 2026 | 2025 | Normal | Wednesday* | 0.00" | 0.95" | 0.11" | Month to date | 1.41" | 1.35" | 0.78" | Year to date | 36.08" | 24.26" | 30.68" | \*24-hour period ending 4 p.m. Wednesday

Wednesday Precipitation | Tuesday | Day | | | | | Partly sunny and cooler | Winds: NNW 8-16 mphPOP: 25% | Source: Loyola Medicine via NAB

Pollen as of 9/30

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Air Quality Index

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Cosmos

Sun and moon | Trees Absent | Grass Absent | Weeds Low | Mold High | Wednesday's reading | Moderate | Thursday's forecast | Good | Primary pollutant | ParticulatesSource: AirNow.gov | Thu. | Fri. | Sunrise | 6:55 a.m. | 6:56 a.m. | Sunset | 6:21 p.m. | 6:19 p.m. | Moonrise | 4:41 a.m. | 5:50 a.m. | Moonset | 5:16 p.m. | 5:37 p.m. |

Oct 18 | New | First | Full | Last | | | | | Oct 10 | Oct 18 | Oct 25 | Nov 1 | Oct 10 | Friday | Day | | | — | | | Nov 1

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National cities

Thursday's Planet Watch | Saturday | Dav | | | | | Partly sunny and very warm | Winds: S 8-16 mphPOP: 10% | Best viewing times today: Venus: not visible Mars: 6:25 a.m. Jupiter: 6:25 a.m. Saturn: 6:45 p.m. Mercury: 6:45 p.m. | Rise | Set | Mercury | 9:11 a.m. | 7:07 p.m. | Venus | 9:11 a.m. | 6:34 p.m. | Mars | 12:57 a.m. | 3:36 p.m. | Jupiter | 2:16 a.m. | 4:15 p.m. | Saturn | 6:18 p.m. | 6:37 a.m. |

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AccuWeather

Get the AccuWeather app

Shown is Thursday's weather. Temperatures are Thursday's highs and Thursday night's lows with high and low RealFeel Temperatures shown below.

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Lake Michigan

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Thursday

Wind from the west-northwest at 6-12 knots. Seas 2 feet or less. Visibility generally clear. Water temperature: 59.

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Boating Index

Shown are areas of precipitation and high temperatures for the day. | 8 a.m. | 10 a.m. | Noon | 2 p.m. | 4 p.m. | 6 p.m. | 8 p.m. | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 6 | ---

Friday

Boating Index: 0-2: Poor; 3-4: Fair; 5-6: Good; 7-8: Very Good; 9-10: Excellent.

Wind from the southeast at 6-12 knots. Seas 2 feet or less. Visibility less than 3 miles in a shower. Water temperature: 64.

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National forecast

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Weather history

Lead, S.D., had 36 inches of snow on Oct. 8, 1982, but just 20 miles away in Rapid City, which is at a lower elevation, there was only a trace.

Tropical Rainstorm

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Weather Trivia™

Q: What machine is sometimes used to disperse fog at airports?

airports?

World cities | Thu. | Fri. | City | Hi/Lo/W | Hi/Lo/W | Abilene | 90/62/s | 89/63/pc | Albany, NY | 68/46/pc | 64/39/pc | Albuquerque | 80/55/s | 78/55/s | Amarillo | 83/55/pc | 83/55/s | Anchorage | 48/36/pc | 49/41/pc | Asheville | 81/52/s | 73/52/s | Aspen | 72/40/c | 72/41/s | Atlanta | 85/66/pc | 80/62/pc | Atlantic City | 77/52/s | 73/55/s | Austin | 91/64/pc | 91/62/pc | Baltimore | 79/48/s | 75/52/s | Billings | 80/53/pc | 85/48/s | Birmingham | 89/63/pc | 85/65/s | Bismarck | 69/43/pc | 79/50/pc | Boise | 85/55/s | 83/47/s | Boston | 73/53/pc | 69/50/s | Brownsville | 91/73/t | 90/72/t | Buffalo | 65/48/sh | 64/46/pc | Burlington, VT | 66/46/sh | 59/40/sh | Charleston, SC | 83/67/pc | 77/70/pc | Charleston, WV | 76/47/s | 74/50/s | Charlotte | 85/61/s | 77/59/pc | Chattanooga | 89/59/s | 84/59/s | Cheyenne | 81/50/s | 81/53/pc | Cincinnati | 77/51/s | 80/56/s | Cleveland | 69/45/s | 69/53/pc | Colorado Spgs | 81/52/s | 81/51/s | Columbia, MO | 84/58/s | 87/59/s | Columbia, SC | 85/61/s | 79/62/pc | Columbus, OH | 73/45/s | 74/52/s | Concord | 71/43/pc | 66/36/s | Corpus Christi | 93/70/t | 93/67/t | Dallas | 88/66/s | 90/65/s | Daytona Beach | 82/74/t | 86/76/t | Denver | 84/56/s | 85/55/s | Duluth | 61/41/s | 63/52/c | El Paso | 86/62/pc | 85/63/s | A helicopter | Thu. | Fri. | City | Hi/Lo/W | Hi/Lo/W | Fairbanks | 37/21/pc | 40/27/pc | Fargo | 66/45/pc | 75/59/pc | Flagstaff | 74/42/s | 71/41/s | Fort Myers | 87/75/t | 89/76/t | Fort Smith | 92/63/s | 92/63/s | Fresno | 99/67/s | 96/62/s | Grand Junction | 83/56/s | 80/58/s | Great Falls | 78/54/pc | 79/37/pc | Harrisburg | 75/46/s | 72/47/s | Hartford | 74/46/pc | 69/43/s | Helena, MT | 77/47/s | 79/40/pc | Honolulu | 84/76/sh | 86/77/sh | Houston | 93/67/s | 91/67/t | Int'l Falls | 60/34/s | 63/50/c | Jackson, MS | 91/62/pc | 89/66/s | Jacksonville | 82/72/t | 78/72/t | Juneau | 52/35/pc | 54/32/s | Kansas City | 81/62/s | 85/62/s | Las Vegas | 98/75/s | 97/74/s | Lexington | 80/50/s | 81/57/s | Lincoln | 79/60/s | 86/63/s | Little Rock | 91/62/s | 92/64/s | Los Angeles | 93/68/s | 86/68/s | Louisville | 82/53/s | 84/58/s | Macon | 85/61/pc | 75/64/pc | Memphis | 91/67/s | 91/66/s | Miami | 89/79/t | 91/78/t | Minneapolis | 67/51/pc | 75/64/pc | Mobile | 84/68/pc | 76/65/r | Montgomery | 87/63/pc | 81/64/pc | Nashville | 88/54/s | 88/63/s | New Orleans | 86/75/pc | 80/70/r | New York City | 74/54/s | 70/54/s | Norfolk | 83/65/s | 75/64/pc | Oklahoma City | 89/60/s | 88/61/s | Omaha | 78/60/pc | 85/64/pc | Orlando | 82/73/t | 87/74/t | Weather(W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain, sf-snow flurries, sn-snow, i-ice. POP: Probability of Precipitation.

A

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Regional cities | Thu. | Fri. | City | Hi/Lo/W | Hi/Lo/W | Palm Beach | 88/78/t | 89/80/t | Palm Springs | 107/81/s | 105/78/s | Philadelphia | 78/54/s | 74/53/s | Phoenix | 103/81/s | 104/79/s | Pittsburgh | 70/45/pc | 70/49/s | Portland, ME | 70/47/sh | 66/39/s | Portland, OR | 79/56/s | 64/48/r | Providence | 74/49/pc | 69/45/s | Raleigh | 86/59/s | 78/58/pc | Rapid City | 76/48/pc | 90/57/pc | Reno | 88/52/s | 86/55/s | Richmond | 85/55/s | 78/55/s | Rochester | 65/45/sh | 63/43/pc | Sacramento | 99/60/s | 92/57/pc | St. Louis | 83/59/s | 89/63/s | Salem, OR | 80/49/s | 65/43/r | Salt Lake City | 83/60/s | 85/64/s | San Antonio | 89/68/pc | 90/64/pc | San Diego | 83/69/pc | 79/70/s | San Francisco | 77/57/pc | 71/59/pc | San Juan | 90/79/t | 91/79/sh | Santa Fe | 76/47/s | 74/47/s | Savannah | 82/68/pc | 76/69/sh | Seattle | 70/55/pc | 63/47/sh | Shreveport | 93/62/pc | 95/67/s | Sioux Falls | 73/55/pc | 83/63/pc | Spokane | 75/50/pc | 65/39/pc | Syracuse | 66/46/sh | 62/39/sh | Tallahassee | 84/71/pc | 76/71/t | Tampa | 83/74/t | 87/76/t | Topeka | 83/59/s | 87/60/s | Tucson | 96/75/s | 95/74/s | Tulsa | 90/61/s | 89/62/s | Washington, DC | 81/54/s | 76/56/s | Wichita | 88/60/s | 87/60/s | Wilkes-Barre | 72/42/s | 68/42/s | Yuma | 106/79/s | 106/80/s | Thu. | Fri. | City | Hi/Lo/W | Hi/Lo/W | Illinois | Carbondale | 84/49/s | 86/55/s | Champaign | 79/49/s | 83/55/s | Decatur | 80/50/s | 82/55/s | Moline | 74/51/pc | 78/59/pc | Peoria | 76/53/pc | 80/59/pc | Quincy | 79/56/pc | 84/61/s | Rockford | 71/46/pc | 71/57/sh | Springfield | 80/52/s | 85/58/s | Sterling | 74/48/pc | 75/56/pc | Indiana | Bloomington | 78/47/s | 79/55/s | Evansville | 83/50/s | 84/56/s | Fort Wayne | 71/42/pc | 72/49/pc | Indianapolis | 78/52/s | 78/56/s | Lafayette | 76/47/s | 77/54/s | South Bend | 69/44/s | 72/55/pc | Wisconsin | Green Bay | 67/41/s | 68/54/c | Kenosha | 69/47/pc | 68/54/sh | La Crosse | 69/50/pc | 72/63/t | Madison | 68/45/pc | 69/58/pc | Milwaukee | 68/47/pc | 68/59/c | Wausau | 65/42/pc | 67/56/pc | Michigan | Detroit | 69/44/s | 68/53/pc | Grand Rapids | 65/45/s | 68/54/pc | Marquette | 57/40/sh | 62/49/c | Sault Ste. Marie | 57/45/sh | 62/50/pc | Traverse City | 64/43/s | 68/53/pc | Iowa | Ames | 75/53/pc | 81/59/t | Cedar Rapids | 73/54/pc | 76/59/t | Des Moines | 75/58/pc | 82/62/t | Dubuque | 70/50/pc | 71/58/t | Thu. | Fri. | City | Hi/Lo/W | Hi/Lo/W | Acapulco | 83/74/r | 82/74/t | Algiers | 82/66/sh | 77/57/sh | Amsterdam | 60/51/r | 63/52/r | Ankara | 72/43/t | 73/42/s | Athens | 78/60/s | 79/60/s | Auckland | 68/51/s | 70/54/pc | Baghdad | 96/79/pc | 97/78/pc | Bangkok | 92/79/r | 94/79/t | Barbados | 87/80/t | 87/79/r | Barcelona | 72/55/sh | 70/55/s | Beijing | 80/49/pc | 80/55/s | Beirut | 84/74/s | 84/73/s | Berlin | 64/47/r | 57/50/r | Bermuda | 83/77/t | 84/76/pc | Bogota | 69/51/r | 67/52/r | Brussels | 60/47/sh | 60/49/c | Bucharest | 79/48/pc | 82/55/pc | Budapest | 77/53/t | 66/44/s | Buenos Aires | 66/56/r | 62/56/r | Cairo | 86/67/pc | 85/68/pc | Cancun | 88/77/r | 90/76/r | Caracas | 92/79/r | 92/76/r | Casablanca | 78/60/sh | 78/60/sh | Copenhagen | 59/48/r | 56/51/r | Dublin | 59/53/r | 60/47/pc | Edmonton | 55/43/r | 48/30/r | Frankfurt | 61/42/r | 56/51/c | Geneva | 59/45/sh | 60/50/r | Guadalajara | 79/62/t | 73/62/r | Havana | 90/73/r | 90/75/r | Helsinki | 54/52/c | 56/41/r | Hong Kong | 87/78/pc | 88/78/s | Istanbul | 68/60/c | 74/61/s | Jerusalem | 78/63/s | 79/62/s | Johannesburg | 78/57/s | 84/59/c | Kabul | 79/55/pc | 78/55/pc | Kingston | 91/80/sh | 89/80/t | Forecasts and graphics, except for the WLS-TV/ABC7 Chicago content, provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2026 | Thu. | Fri. | City | Hi/Lo/W | Hi/Lo/W | Kyiv | 74/52/pc | 67/44/c | Lima | 79/72/pc | 81/71/s | Lisbon | 81/60/s | 79/57/s | London | 60/52/s | 66/47/sh | Madrid | 71/41/s | 70/45/s | Manila | 90/79/t | 93/79/t | Mexico City | 72/57/r | 69/55/t | Monterrey | 82/65/sh | 82/63/s | Montreal | 63/46/sh | 57/37/sh | Moscow | 59/45/c | 62/44/c | Munich | 66/41/sh | 60/47/pc | Nairobi | 81/62/t | 82/63/t | Nassau | 90/79/t | 89/79/t | New Delhi | 92/75/s | 91/72/pc | Oslo | 48/37/r | 51/37/r | Ottawa | 62/45/sh | 56/35/sh | Panama City | 89/75/t | 90/75/t | Paris | 60/44/s | 60/53/r | Prague | 70/42/sh | 58/48/pc | Rio de Janeiro | 80/72/pc | 84/75/t | Riyadh | 105/79/pc | 104/78/pc | Rome | 77/64/sh | 73/56/pc | Santiago | 65/47/r | 67/44/pc | Seoul | 77/51/pc | 78/51/c | Singapore | 94/80/t | 93/79/t | Sofia | 78/46/s | 79/51/c | Stockholm | 56/44/r | 46/35/c | Sydney | 68/53/pc | 74/62/s | Taipei | 84/72/pc | 85/74/pc | Tehran | 85/68/pc | 85/65/c | Tokyo | 77/63/s | 77/63/s | Toronto | 65/46/sh | 65/47/sh | Trinidad | 89/78/t | 88/78/t | Vancouver | 62/53/pc | 59/48/sh | Vienna | 76/52/c | 63/45/pc | Warsaw | 74/49/c | 58/49/pc | Winnipeg | 63/43/pc | 66/54/c |

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Business

PAGE 1 | SECTION B | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2026 | CHICAGOTRIBUNE.COM

Judges target Peoples Gas hike

ICC urged to slash rate increase plan by more than half

By Robert Channick

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Two Illinois Commerce Commission administrative law judges issued a proposed order Tuesday to slash an already downwardly revised Peoples Gas rate increase request by more than half.

The order recommends the ICC approve a \$66 million rate increase for Peoples, down from the \$144 million request the utility made in July.

Consumer groups applauded the proposed reduction, but are seeking an even bigger cut when the ICC issues a final ruling in November.

“This is a step in the right direction, but we urge the ICC to go even further than the proposed order, at a time when it has never been more crucial for regulators to combat unwarranted utility costs,” Eric DeBellis, general counsel for the Citizens Utility Board, said in a news release Wednesday.

Peoples Gas initially filed for a \$202 million rate increase in January, looking to recover projected costs for its ongoing multi-billion-dollar pipeline replacement program. The ICC had ordered the utility to complete replacement of 1,020 miles of remaining aging iron pipes under Chicago by 2035.

In July, Peoples voluntarily cut its proposed rate increase request to \$144 million. Consumer groups sought a more dramatic reduction, citing “wasteful spending” in the accelerated pipeline replacement program, and, to some extent, the ICC administrative law judges agreed with that assessment in the proposed order Tuesday.

Peoples Gas issued a statement Wednesday that the utility still is assessing the 390-page proposed order recommending reduction of the rate increase to \$66 million.

"We are reviewing the administrative law judges' recommendation," Peoples Gas said. "As their proposed order states, our work to retire 1,000 miles of old pipe is "a binding safety mandate — not ... a discretionary program whose costs can be reduced without serious consequences."

See GAS on Page B3

People walk through Block 37, the retail and entertainment complex, on Wednesday in Chicago's Loop. BRIAN CASSELLA/CHICAGO TRIBUNE

A BLOCK-BUSTER

Loop's Block 37 changes hands, and its new owner promises a big makeover

By Brian J. Rogal

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

A company known for renovating suburban retail has purchased Chicago's Block 37 shopping mall for a bargain-basement price.

Edwards Realty Co. announced Wednesday that it paid \$30 million for Block 37, which occupies a full city block bounded by North State, West Washington, North Dearborn and West Randolph streets. That's a fraction of the \$84 million CIM Group spent in 2012 to buy the five-story mall out of foreclosure.

Ramzi Hassan, president of the Orland Park-based Edwards, promised to transform Block 37 into an experiential retail center that hosts year-round events, and attracts new entertainment options and restaurants. The property, located at 108 N. State St., will also get a new name.

“Block 37 sits on one of the best corners in downtown Chicago — and it’s never acted like it,” Hassan said. “It’s always been a place people cut through. We’re creating a place they come back to.”

The block has been a hard-luck property for decades, said John Vance, principal at Stone Real Estate. But with a new owner and signs of life flickering in the Loop, it finally has a chance to reach its potential, he said.

"State Street has caught some momentum, it's like the Magnificent Mile was about two years ago," Vance said, pointing to Barnes & Noble opening in August a multilevel bookstore at 150 N. State St. "And even though Edwards has been focused on suburban retail, they know and understand how to lease retail centers, and they also know the Chicago region, which is vital."

The low purchase price likely means the new owner will be able to lease Block 37 space at prices many retailers can afford, he added.

“(CIM Group) decided to take the loss and move on,” Vance said. “It’s unfortunate for them, but it’s really positive for the city and the Loop.”

Edwards Realty Co. and its partner Core Acquisitions bought Burr Ridge Village Center, an open-air shopping mall in west suburban Burr Ridge, in 2019 when it was 60% occupied.

They launched a renovation, attracted a new collection of restaurants and entertainment outlets, and brought the 200,000-square-foot mall's occupancy up to $95\%$ by 2025, Hassan said.

“We don’t acquire properties to maintain the status quo, and the building soon-to-be formerly known as Block 37 is no different,” he said. “We acquired it because we believe it can be one of downtown Chicago's defining destinations."

Empty storefronts are still common in downtown Chicago, but conditions are improving.

The retail vacancy rate stood at 29.76% two years ago, and ticked down to 28.53% in 2025, Vance said, while Block 37 is about two-thirds occupied.

Current Block 37 tenants include Banana Republic Factory Store, AMC Theatres, Five Iron Golf, Sephora and State Street Souvenirs. The mall's lower-level is a well-used pedway connecting the CTA's Red Line and Blue Line.

CIM Group added a 38-story, 690-unit residential tower to the site in 2016. It was not included in this week's sale.

Block 37 once held a hodge-podge of aging office buildings, a movie theater, stores and the landmark McCarthy Building. Most were demolished in 1989 to make way for a new development. That proposal fell apart, and although other development ideas were put forward, they also failed, leaving the block vacant for nearly two decades.

Its misfortunes continued after Block 37 developer Joseph Freed and Associates launched construction in 2006. The retail portion opened in 2009 in the midst of the Great Recession, after some potential tenants, including Apple, had already backed out. Freed defaulted on its loan, and lender Bank of America foreclosed on the property.

Other well-known downtown malls are also getting makeovers.

The owner of The Shops at North Bridge said in August it will pour \$40 million into a dramatic renovation of the complex. The four-level shopping center at 520 N. Michigan Ave. will get a new glass facade, an upgraded entrance on Rush Street and a reconstructed central atrium.

MetLife Investment Management, the owner of Water Tower Place, said earlier this year it planned to spend \$170 million transforming the eight-story vertical indoor mall at 830 N. Michigan Ave. into a three-story retail center of small shops and new restaurants, with offices on the other floors.

Vance said he's optimistic about Hassan's latest renovation project. Google plans to open in the nearby James R. Thompson Center by 2028, and several thousand new residents will soon move into the neighborhood's half-dozen office-to-residential conversion projects, giving a renovated Block 37 several new customer bases, he said.

“It would be great if they chose to make Block 37 their new local retail,” he said.

Investment in Chicago nets return for Chase

By Robert Channick

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

JPMorgan Chase issued a report this week seeking to determine the return on \$214 million in philanthropic investments it made over the past decade into developing underserved Chicago communities.

While perhaps a little harder to measure than more traditional financial investments, the answer is: a lot, or more precisely, hundreds of them.

Since 2020, the bank has supported the city's Reclaiming Chicago initiative to build affordable housing on vacant lots across the South and West sides. The Resurrection Project is developing 125 single-family homes in the Back of the Yards neighborhood through the program and more than \$10 million in philanthropic funding from JPMorgan Chase.

Guacolda Reyes, chief real estate development officer at The Resurrection Project, said the bank's largesse has been “transformational” in turning vacant lots donated by the city into affordable new homes on the Southwest Side.

Single-family homes on a stretch of formerly vacant lots at 5013 S. Aberdeen on Wednesday in Chicago's Back of the Yards neighborhood, whose development was funded in part by JPMorgan Chase through its support of the Reclaiming Chicago initiative. E. JASON WAMBSGANS/CHICAGO TRIBUNE

“We were going to build single-family homes, new construction, responding to community needs in a neighborhood that has been completely disinvested,” Reyes said. “This funding gave us the opportunity to try it out with our own lots, and it worked ... to make this dream become a reality.”

Reyes was among several community leaders who participated in a roundtable discussion Monday at the recently renovated 57th floor of Chase Tower to reflect on the progress of various projects funded by JPMorgan Chase.

The bank's investments into community development have catalyzed everything from affordable housing and small business growth to a burgeoning workforce pipeline that all show early signs of reinvigorating disinvested neighborhoods on the South and West sides.

The Local Initiative Support Corporation, for example, received \$4.75 million in philanthropic support from JPMorgan Chase, which turned into \$16.5 million in lending capital for 23 loans to small businesses.

"The investment from Chase made it possible for us to test out something that we thought: Small businesses are businesses, and if

See INVEST on Page B3

Walgreens Boots owner to sell UK chain for \$8.9B

By Lisa Schencker

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

The owner of Deerfield-based Walgreens Boots Alliance has reached an agreement to sell its U.K. retail pharmacy chain Boots for \$8.9 billion including debt.

Wittington Investments, the holding company of the Weston family based in Canada, announced Wednesday that it had entered into a definitive agreement to buy Boots from Sycamore Partners, which owns the retail pharmacy in partnership with Stefano Pessina and his family. Pessina is an Italian-born billionaire who was the CEO and then executive chairman of Walgreens Boots Alliance.

Boots and Walgreens were previously part of the same business. In 2025, private equity firm Sycamore Partners bought Walgreens Boots Alliance and split Boots and Walgreens into two standalone companies. Before Sycamore took the companies private, Walgreens Boots had struggled financially for years.

Sycamore bought Walgreens Boots for about \$10 billion, excluding debt, and about \$23.7 billion including debt. Pessina and his holding company kept significant equity in the businesses.

At the time of the deal, experts said they expected that Sycamore might sell off different arms of the business.

Boots' sale to Wittington is expected to close in the first quarter of next year, pending regulatory approvals.

In a news release, Pessina called Boots “an iconic brand and a British institution.” Boots is headquartered in London.

"It has been one of the privileges of my and Ornella's life to have been so closely associated with Boots over the last 20 years," Pessina said. "We are delighted to be passing on a thriving Boots to strong and reliable owners who understand the value of its great heritage."

Wittington Chairman Galen Weston said in the news release that Wittington sees “a meaningful opportunity to make a great business even better through stable long-term ownership, further capital investment, and the renewed operating focus required to serve customers with excellence for generations to come.”

Wittington is the controlling shareholder of George Weston Limited, and though it, Loblaw Companies Limited and Choice Properties. Loblaw runs Canadian grocery stores and owns

See BOOTS on Page B3

FCC considering cellphone rules for political robocalls

Conservative group petitions

regulator ahead of midterms

By Ali Swenson

ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — The Federal Communications Commission is considering a request by a conservative group to loosen rules on political robocalls, including those with artificial intelligence-generated voices, before November's midterm elections.

Federal law currently bans most robo-calls to cellphones unless the caller gets consent beforehand. The petition calls for a waiver that would allow political groups to use artificial or prerecorded voices in unsolicited wireless calls.

The Republican-led FCC advanced the request for public comment and could rule on it as soon as late October.

Consumer advocacy groups warn the proposed change could trigger a surge of unwanted, partisan and potentially misleading automated calls in the final days of the election, which will determine which party controls Congress for the final two years of President Donald Trump's term.

The potential perils became evident two years ago during the presidential primary season when thousands of voters in New Hampshire received a robocall with an AI-generated voice of then-President Joe Biden. The call suggested voters should forgo casting a ballot in the primary and “save” their votes for the general election.

Under the waiver request before the FCC, some state and federal laws protecting against deception and voter intimidation would continue to prohibit certain misleading election-related messages. But granting it could weaken a major deterrent for bad actors, said Tim Harper, who leads the elections team at the Washington-based Center for Democracy and Technology.

Such a ruling close to Election Day would open “a huge opportunity for abuse during a period where harm has outsized impact,” he said. “Campaigns will use this technology to target voters in deceptive ways.”

The Club for Growth, a right-leaning economic policy group seeking the change, said it could help political organizations better communicate with potential voters, including in more languages, and improve polling accuracy by helping groups reach more voters. It calls current federal rules outdated and argues they dampen freedom of speech.

The nation's communications regulatory body would have to act within a compressed schedule to grant the waiver in time to affect the midterm elections.

The FCC didn't respond to a request for comment on the petition.

Anna Gomez, the sole Democrat among the FCC's three active commissioners, said she opposes the move.

“We’ve already seen dark money groups use AI to put candidates’ likeness behind inflammatory comments ahead of this election,” Gomez said. “Exempting political calls from the need for consumer consent would supercharge that strategy, and misleading messages could land directly on the handheld phone of nearly every voter in our country.”

In past elections, deceptive political robocalls have resulted in fines associated with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the law at the center of the petition.

In this image from video, Jacob Hutzler flies his paramotor to work as an air traffic controller Aug. 13 in Pueblo, Colo. JACOB HUTZLER

High-flying work commute

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Colorado air traffic controller enjoys ‘total freedom’ while riding paramotor to airport

By Hallie Golden and Thomas Peipert

ASSOCIATED PRESS

PUEBLO, Colo. — Jake Hutzler spends his workdays directing planes from an airport tower. Once a week, he gets there by strapping a propeller to his back and also taking to the skies of Colorado.

Before his commute, the air traffic controller, 28, lays out a large wing on the road outside his apartment complex, fires up the motor and starts running. Within seconds, his feet leave the ground.

For the next 20 minutes, Hutzler flies at a leisurely 35 mph above the expansive fields around Pueblo, a city near the Front Range mountains. He soars over a highway, a water tower and finally the airport while listening to his favorite music.

Before taking off, Hutzler calls the tower where he works and lets his colleagues know he's coming. Once airborne, he keeps them updated on where he's at and how high he's flying.

"I'm very small, and I don't show up on radar,” Hutzler said, “so they’ll want to kind of keep track of my location and get updates on my progress.”

As the airport comes into view, he waits for the OK to land on the airport's ramp. Pulling down on toggles to slow down the paramotor, he lets his feet dangle and meets the ground with a brief jog. He packs up the wing, strips off his jacket to reveal his collared work shirt and begins his shift telling planes when it's safe to land and take off.

For someone who has been fascinated with flying since childhood, it's a particularly satisfying commute. Hutzler says it's as close as you can get to flying like a bird.

"In a paramotor, you have a view that almost nobody gets to experience," he said. "You have no cockpit, nothing in front of you. You're just sitting there in the air and total freedom to go wherever you want."

His grandfather used to take him up in a small four-seat aircraft. In college, Hutzler put in about 20 hours toward getting a pilot's license, but the costs were too high for him to continue.

Everything changed when he came across a viral video of a man flying a paramotor to McDonald's and eating his hamburger on the flight home.

"After I saw that, I was like, 'I'm sold,'"

he said. "I gotta do that."

Hutzler started training to fly this way — also known as powered paragliding — in 2021 in Florida and later became an instructor.

Part of the appeal is just how accessible paramotors are. There's no license required and the price tag is a fraction of the cost of many other forms of flying. However, they're still subject to federal rules on ultralight vehicles, including that they can only be operated during the day and fliers must avoid congested cities and towns.

The sport became a part of Hutzler's life story. He trained the woman he would go on to marry, and when he was ready to propose, he used fake engine trouble on his paramotor to lure her to the contraption, where he had left a ring. But after Hutzler started working in air traffic control earlier this year, his job left him less time to fly.

The solution: Start flying to work.

He approached his manager about commuting by paramotor, and they went through the rule book and made sure he'd have two-way communication with the tower when he entered their airspace.

He made his first flight to work in June and has been doing it ever since, weather permitting.

IMF chief urges nations to take action against debt

By Elaine Kurtenbach

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Countries rich and poor must take faster action to cut debt and counter growing inequality as their economies weather a triple whammy from the artificial intelligence boom, heavy borrowing and shocks from wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, the head of the IMF said Wednesday.

"Some very tough political choices stare us in the face," IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said in a speech in Singapore ahead of autumn IMF-World Bank meetings next week in Bangkok.

"My message to the world's economic policymakers next week will be this: We cannot keep delaying necessary policy action — you have the tools, now have the wisdom to use them," she said.

At the meetings in Bangkok, finance ministers and central bank governors of 191 IMF-World Bank member countries will assess the state of the world economy and discuss strategies to support financial stability and sustained growth.

The hardest recent hits to global well-being have come from conflicts, like in the Middle East and Ukraine, Georgieva noted.

But excessive debt is a growing burden for wealthy countries like the U.S., Japan and Germany, as well as low-income countries that must choose between spending on public welfare or repaying onerous loans at a time of high interest rates, she noted.

Georgieva pointed to risks associated with the rapid buildup of data center capacity to deliver AI, which has helped push stock prices in many places to record highs, supporting strong economic growth despite high energy costs from the Iran war.

Investments in AI are likely to exceed the relative scale of spending on building railroads, power grids and telecom networks. "Love it, hate it or fear it, AI is here, rapidly becoming a key driver of countries' relative fortunes in the world economy," she said.

She also said there's a lag between the heavy investments and the arrival of AI's benefits. "Should earnings fall short," she said, "hyperscaler leverage and large and growing global holdings of U.S. equities could turn a disappointment into a far-reaching shock."

\$70,000 fee for foreign US pupils to work floated

By Annie Ma and Heather Hollingsworth

ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday proposed a \$70,000 fee for international students seeking to work in the United States, the latest effort from the Trump administration to crack down on foreign enrollment.

A proposed rule would require schools to pay the fee for every student who participates in the optional practice training program, known as OPT, which allows students to work in jobs related to their major during or after their time in school. Students are generally eligible for one year of work post-graduation, though certain science, technology, engineering and math majors are eligible for an additional two years.

Schools would be required to pay the \$70,000 for each new student's initial application and a \$30,000 fee for each renewal.

The change would be a blow to U.S. colleges that recruit students from overseas as a source of revenue, as well as tech companies and other industries that hire many international students for technical roles.

The OPT program allows international students to gain hands-on experience and fill labor shortages in high-demand STEM fields, said Fanta Aw, CEO of NAFSA, an association that represents international education.

“Driving away the talents, perspectives, and aspirations of international students will only hurt American innovation, economic growth, workforce development, and global leadership,” Aw said in a statement.

DHS described the fee as a response to fraud and abuse of the visa program, which it called a “pipeline for cheap foreign labor.”

The public has 60 days to comment on the proposal before DHS can put it into effect. The proposal also could face legal challenges that could delay it.

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Business briefs

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HACKERS STEAL PERSONAL DATA OF 1.3M FROM ARIZONA COURT

PHOENIX — A cyberattack on Arizona's court system stole personal information for more than 1 million people and is believed to have started when a court employee clicked a malicious link in an email.

The Arizona Supreme Court said the information was copied for 1.3 million people with unpaid court fees, fines and restitution payments for traffic and criminal violations dating back as far as 30 years. Those leading the attack also took records of nearly 30,000 active and inactive orders of protection and 150,000 reports dating back to 2010 from a foster care board that makes recommendations in cases where parents are alleged to be unfit or unable to care for a child.

The court's technology staff shut down the attack on a backup server after spotting it Sept. 24. The court has notified those affected by the breach. — Associated Press

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IRAQ DEVALUES CURRENCY AMID US-IRAN SHIPPING DISRUPTIONS

BAGHDAD – Iraq devalued its currency Wednesday, changing the official exchange rate from around 1,300 Iraqi dinars to the dollar to 1,500 dinars to the dollar.

The country's central bank said the new exchange rate had been decided at a meeting of Iraq's Cabinet the night before “to meet the relevant financial, economic and monetary requirements.”

The previous exchange rate was set in 2023. In practice, there has always been a gap between the official rate and the market rate used by exchange shops. That gap had widened in recent months as a result of the U.S. war with Iran – which has sometimes spilled over into Iraq – and disruptions to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iraq's economy relies heavily on oil exports, most of which were shipped via the strait before the war. — Associated Press

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UK COURT TOSSES CONVICTIONS OF 5 TRADERS IN RATE SCANDAL

LONDON — The British Court of Appeal on Wednesday quashed the fraud convictions of five former Barclays traders accused of manipulating benchmark interest rates in one of the biggest banking scandals to come out of the 2008 global financial crisis.

The five were sentenced for offenses connected to influencing the London Inter-Bank Offered Rate, or Libor, and its euro equivalent Euribor. The rates were used to set the interest rates on trillions of dollars of financial products around the world.

In July 2025, the U.K. Supreme Court quashed the convictions of two others. It ruled that the convictions were unfair because the judges in their separate cases gave inaccurate instructions to jurors.

Lawyers for the five others argued that juries in their cases received almost identical instructions. — Associated Press

BOOTS from Page B1

Shoppers Drug Mart. Choice Properties is a real estate investment trust.

Wittington plans to acquire Boots' retail operations in the U.K. and Ireland;

Boots Opticians; No7 Beauty Company; and its Thailand and franchised businesses, according to the news release. Sycamore, with Pessina and his family, will continue to own Boots' other interests in Farmacias Benavides and Alliance Healthcare Deutschland.

Toronto-based holding company Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited is partnering with Wittington on acquisition, with Wittington ultimately controlling operations.

The deal is typical of what “we’ve seen Sycamore use before,” said Matt Parr, a spokesperson for the Chicago-based Private Equity Stakeholder Project, which has previously expressed concerns about Sycamore's acquisition of Walgreens Boots Alliance.

"It buys a struggling retailer, sells off its most valuable piece and then cuts costs and tries to eke out whatever profits remain," Parr said.

It's a strategy that raises questions about the future of Walgreens, especially given that Sycamore put a lot of debt onto Walgreens when it purchased the Walgreens Boots Alliance, Parr said.

"The concern now is Sycamore has kind of sold off the profitable pieces and now it's left with a very indebted Walgreens," Parr said, noting that many communities depend on the retail pharmacy chain.

The Wall Street Journal reported discussions about the sale last week.

GAS

Demonstrators rally against a proposed rate hike by Peoples Gas at Daley Plaza on April 1 in Chicago. JOHN J. KIM/TRIBUNE

from Page B1

The utility has a subterranean network of some 4,600 miles of pipes under the city, including significant stretches of original cast and ductile iron — some dating back to the 1800s — which pose a risk of gas leaks that could lead to an explosion.

But the pipeline replacement work, launched in 2011 as the System Modernization Program, has taken years longer and cost billions more than originally projected.

In July, Peoples Gas cited downward revisions in the cost of completed pipeline replacement infrastructure, the deferral of construction to later years and other factors in reducing its proposed rate increase to \$144 million.

But consumer groups argue that as customers struggle with increasing energy bills, the utility is ignoring cost-saving alternatives such as inserting liners or decommissioning pipes to catalyze a transition

"The analysis by the administrative law judges to all-electric homes.

found that the pipe replacement program is not addressing the top safety risks to the

Peoples Gas system, that they can consider alternatives to replacement and they haven't justified the pipe replacement budget," Illinois PIRG Director Abe

Scarr told the Tribune.

If approved, the utility's \$144 million rate increase request would raise average residential customer delivery charges by \$7 to \$8 per month beginning in 2027. Peoples did not yet have a bill impact projection for the administrative judges' revised \$66 million increase.

The ICC is expected to complete its review and issue a ruling on the rate increase proposal next month. Any rate increase would take effect in late 2026 or early 2027, the utility said.

Peoples Gas was last awarded a \$303 million rate hike in November 2023. This year's proposal was the first since state regulators paused, reviewed and then ordered Peoples to speed up the long-running pipeline replacement program last year.

Owned by Milwaukee-based WEC Energy Group, Peoples Gas serves more than 898,000 customers in Chicago.

rchannick@chicagotribune.com

INVEST

from Page B1

we work with them and we provide the support that you provide us for capacity building and technical assistance, they're going to be successful," Meghan Harte, senior executive director of LISC Chicago, said Monday.

In 2017, JPMorgan Chase announced it would invest \$40 million in Chicago's historically underserved South and West sides over three years in an effort to improve neighborhoods through economic growth. Modeled after a pilot program in Detroit, most of the money was allocated through grants to community organizations.

The following year, JPMorgan Chase upped the stakes with the first of two \$10 million low-cost loans to the Chicago Community Loan Fund, which was also supplemented by \$5.4 million in philanthropic capital.

Bob Tucker, president of CCLF, a nonprofit community development financial institution, said JPMorgan Chase's funding has helped kickstart projects big and small.

“Those investments are huge and have real catalytic impact in our communities,” Tucker said. “But those investments also come at a rate which is very concessionary to my organization, which means at the end of the day, that's concessionary to our developers, the people doing the work in the communities, building these facilities."

In 2021, JPMorgan Chase announced plans to invest \$150 million in grants and low-cost loans in Chicago's South and West sides, which included the second \$10 million loan to CCLF and a long list of other organizations and projects.

After nine years and \$214 million in philanthropic funding, the bank hosted the roundtable seeking input from its beneficiaries. Key takeaways included the need for long-term private investment, the value of low-cost financing amid a higher interest rate environment and the importance of getting real estate in the hands of the communities themselves.

"People know what they want to see in their neighborhoods," Harte said. "They know what they want to buy in their neighborhoods, but if others are investing in the real estate and making those decisions, then there's no seat at the table, and that's why big investments from outsiders in communities typically fail."

Juan Salgado, chancellor of City Colleges of Chicago, was among the more effusive participants in praising the beneficial impacts of JPMorgan Chase's philanthropic investments, particularly in strengthening its workforce pipeline. The bank invested about \$51 million overall in career training programs, including more than \$2.5 million with City Colleges.

Among other initiatives, Salgado cited IBM's announced commitment in April to hire at least 180 City College apprentice alumni over the next five years for its planned innovation center at the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park.

"If we truly collaborate and we see this as an opportunity point, we're going to create the entry-level opportunities for Chicagoans," Salgado said. "We just have to make sure each company is looking for them in an intentional way."

Damion Heron, JPMorgan Chase's head of community engagement for Chicago, said the roundtable will inform the “next chapter” of philanthropic investing for the bank, whose own takeaway might best be described as doing good is good for business.

"If people are buying homes, starting businesses, living in vibrant communities, we are going to be better as a firm, and so it is part of our ethos," Heron said. "We're doing it for all the right reasons, but all those right reasons, at the end of the day, will make for a better business environment."

rchannick@chicagotribune.com

Market Roundup

DOW 51,179.87

-341.41 -0.66%

NASDAQ 27,538.69

-61.10 -0.22%

StocksRecap | NYSE | NASD | Vol. (in mil.) | 3849 | 3392 | Pvs. Volume | 4481 | 3895 | Advanced | 564 | 1077 | Declined | 2037 | 2263 | New Highs | 39 | 111 | New Lows | 134 | 284 |

LOCAL STOCKS

S&P 500 7,801.77

-17.16 -0.22% | HIGH | LOW | CLOSE | CHG | %CHG | WK | MO | QTR | YTD | DOW | 51,406.44 | 50,917.42 | 51,179.87 | -341.41 | -0.66% | ▲ | ▲ | ▲ | +6.48% | DOW Trans. | 19,664.19 | 19,493.89 | 19,529.30 | -172.46 | -0.88% | ▼ | ▲ | ▲ | +12.51% | DOW Util. | 1,053.89 | 1,041.60 | 1,049.64 | +2.45 | +0.23% | ▲ | ▲ | ▲ | -1.73% | NYSE Comp. | 23,921.67 | 23,659.89 | 23,701.92 | -219.75 | -0.92% | ▲ | ▲ | ▲ | +7.72% | NASDAQ | 27,547.20 | 27,341.91 | 27,538.69 | -61.10 | -0.22% | ▲ | ▲ | ▲ | +18.49% | S&P 500 | 7,807.02 | 7,763.34 | 7,801.77 | -17.16 | -0.22% | ▲ | ▲ | ▲ | +13.97% | S&P 400 | 3,672.81 | 3,622.47 | 3,637.40 | -60.08 | -1.63% | ▼ | ▲ | ▲ | +10.05% | DOW Total | 76,820.90 | 76,407.91 | 76,761.49 | -282.27 | -0.37% | ▲ | ▲ | ▲ | +13.72% | Russell 2000 | 2,816.40 | 2,788.46 | 2,793.20 | -37.09 | -1.31% | ▼ | ▼ | ▼ | +12.54% |

EURO 1.1188

-0.0070 -0.62%

CRUDE OIL 88.28

-1.16 -1.30%

GOLD 4,113.80

-45.40 -1.09%

Commodities

Platinum fell 3.52% to \$1633.20, leading declines. Coffee rose 3.75% to \$3.04, the largest gain. Natural gas increased 2.86% to \$3.20, while silver dropped 2.07% to \$59.90.

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Foreign Exchange

Israeli Shekel led gains with 0.91%, while Euro showed the largest decline at -0.62%. South African Rand rose 0.83%, and Swedish Krona increased 0.44%.

Interestrates

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 5.28%. Yields affect interest rates on mortgages and other consumer loans. | PRIME RATE | FED FUNDS | YEST | 7.00 | 3.88 | 6 MO AGO | 6.75 | 3.63 | 1 YR AGO | 6.75 | 3.63 |

6-MO T-BILLS 4.29

-0.01 -0.23%

30-YR T-BONDS 5.67

0.01 0.25% | FUELS | CLOSE | PVS. | CHG | %YTD | Crude Oil (bbl) | 88.28 | 89.44 | -1.16 | +53.7 | Heating Oil (gal) | 4.57 | 4.55 | +0.02 | +119.8 | Natural Gas (mm btu) | 3.20 | 3.11 | +0.09 | -13.1 | Unleaded Gas (gal) | 3.23 | 3.27 | -0.04 | +88.6 | METALS | CLOSE | PVS. | CHG | %YTD | Aluminum (ton) | 3,214.25 | 3,238.00 | -23.75 | +10.6 | Copper (lb) | 6.60 | 6.59 | +0.00 | +17.2 | Gold (oz) | 4,113.80 | 4,159.20 | -45.40 | -4.9 | Platinum (oz) | 1,633.20 | 1,692.70 | -59.50 | -19.7 | Silver (oz) | 59.90 | 61.17 | -1.27 | -14.6 | AGRICULTURE | CLOSE | PVS. | CHG | %YTD | Lumber (1,000 bd ft) | 517.50 | 525.00 | -7.50 | -18.8 | Cattle (lb) | 2.22 | 2.21 | +0.01 | -4.3 | Coffee (lb) | 3.04 | 2.93 | +0.11 | -15.7 | Corn (bu) | 5.02 | 5.08 | -0.06 | +14.0 | Cotton (lb) | 77.48 | 77.13 | +0.35 | +20.6 | Orange Juice (lb) | 1.50 | 1.44 | +0.06 | -28.2 | Soybeans (bu) | 12.98 | 13.03 | -0.05 | +25.9 | Wheat (bu) | 6.87 | 7.04 | -0.17 | +35.4 | MAJORS | CLOSE | CHG | %CHG | 6MO AGO | 1YR AGO | British Pound (GBP/USD) | 1.3210 | -.0058 | -.44% | 1.3295 | 1.3431 | Canadian Dollar | 1.4254 | +.0048 | +.34% | 1.3888 | 1.3944 | Euro (EUR/USD) | 1.1188 | -.0070 | -.62% | 1.1592 | 1.1658 | Japanese Yen | 158.065 | -.0080 | -.00% | 159.55 | 151.87 | Mexican Peso | 17.9620 | +.0128 | +.07% | 17.681 | 18.384 | EUROPE/AFRICA/MIDDLE EAST | Israeli Shekel | 3.0713 | +.0276 | +.91% | 3.1418 | 3.2782 | Norwegian Krone | 9.5727 | +.0331 | +.35% | 9.6082 | 9.9582 | South African Rand | 16.6425 | +.1372 | +.83% | 16.797 | 17.210 | Swedish Krona | 10.0051 | +.0436 | +.44% | 9.4430 | 9.3872 | Swiss Franc | .8326 | +.0012 | +.14% | .7972 | .7980 | ASIA/PACIFIC | Australian Dollar | 1.4362 | +.0041 | +.28% | 1.4319 | 1.5193 | Chinese Yuan | 6.7045 | +.0000 | +.00% | 6.8567 | 7.1190 | Hong Kong Dollar | 7.8483 | +.0023 | +.03% | 7.8353 | 7.7830 | Indian Rupee | 96.4970 | +.1279 | +.13% | 92.869 | 88.741 | Singapore Dollar | 1.2791 | +.0019 | +.15% | 1.2820 | 1.2926 | South Korean Won | 1338.72 | +2.550 | +.19% | 1499.3 | 1415.0 | Taiwan Dollar | 31.8441 | +.0632 | +.20% | 31.876 | 30.536 | TREASURIES | LAST | PVS | NET CHG | WK | MO | QTR | 1YR AGO | 3-month T-bill | 4.15 | 4.14 | +0.01 | ▲ | ▲ | ▲ | 3.68 | 6-month T-bill | 4.29 | 4.30 | -0.01 | ▼ | ▲ | ▲ | 3.71 | 1-year T-bill | 4.42 | 4.46 | -0.04 | ▼ | ▲ | ▲ | 3.70 | 2-year T-note | 4.77 | 4.79 | -0.02 | ▼ | ▲ | ▲ | 3.80 | 5-year T-note | 5.03 | 5.03 | 0.00 | ▼ | ▲ | ▲ | 3.94 | 10-year T-note | 5.28 | 5.28 | +0.01 | ▼ | ▲ | ▲ | 4.32 | 30-year T-bond | 5.67 | 5.65 | +0.01 | ▲ | ▲ | ▲ | 4.91 | CONSUMER RATES | NAT'L AVG | WK AGO | 6MO AGO | 1YR AGO | 72 month new car loan | 5.74 | 5.74 | 6.17 | 6.37 | Money Market Account | 0.45▲ | 0.44 | 0.42 | 0.43 | 1 year cd | 2.09▲ | 2.05 | 1.88 | 1.96 | $30K Home equity loan | 7.33▲ | 6.81 | 7.06 | 8.20 | 30 year fixed mortgage | 7.38▲ | 7.20 | 6.48 | 6.40 | 15 year fixed mortgage | 6.77▲ | 6.61 | 5.85 | 5.72 | NAME | CLOSE | CHG | %CHG | YTD CHG | LO | HI | DIV | ANI Pharmaceuticals Inc. | 71.93 | +.41 | +0.6% | -7.01 | 69.58 | 97.00 | ... | AbbVie Inc. | 273.25 | +6.56 | +2.5% | +44.76 | 190.75 | 274.22 | 6.92 | Abbott Laboratories | 98.21 | +.05 | +0.1% | -27.08 | 81.97 | 135.12 | 2.52 | Acco Brands Corp. | 4.38 | +.01 | +0.2% | +.65 | 2.81 | 4.56 | 0.30 | Allstate Corp., The | 225.25 | +.98 | +0.4% | +17.10 | 188.08 | 277.22 | 4.32 | AptarGroup Inc. | 120.48 | +.23 | +0.2% | -1.48 | 103.23 | 146.91 | 1.92 | Archer Daniels Midland Cc | 81.33 | -0.88 | -1.1% | +23.84 | 55.58 | 88.75 | 2.08 | Baxter International Inc. | 24.15 | -0.21 | -0.9% | +5.04 | 15.73 | 30.00 | 0.04 | Boeing Co. | 186.83 | -2.99 | -1.6% | -30.29 | 176.77 | 254.35 | 8.22 | Brunswick Corp. | 63.21 | -1.77 | -2.7% | -11.03 | 58.56 | 90.25 | 1.76 | CDW | 136.82 | +1.15 | +0.8% | +.62 | 97.12 | 161.10 | 2.52 | CF Industries Holdings Inc | 114.44 | -1.58 | -1.4% | +37.10 | 75.42 | 141.96 | 2.40 | CME Group Inc. | 270.27 | +.09 | +0.0% | -2.81 | 218.31 | 329.16 | 5.20 | CNA Financial Corp. | 45.86 | -0.35 | -0.8% | -1.88 | 41.53 | 55.71 | 1.92 | Century Aluminum | 36.03 | -1.15 | -3.1% | -3.15 | 25.40 | 70.43 | ... | Chicago Rivet & Machine ( | 10.85 | -0.21 | -1.9% | -3.06 | 8.50 | 15.00 | 0.12 | ConAgra Brands Inc. | 13.25 | -0.20 | -1.5% | -4.06 | 12.53 | 20.32 | 0.70 | Deere & Co. | 656.87 | -25.92 | -3.8% | +191.30 | 433.48 | 721.22 | 6.48 | Distribution Solutions Grp | 35.09 | +.02 | +0.1% | +7.70 | 19.02 | 35.10 | 0.48 | Dover Corp. | 188.29 | -3.59 | -1.9% | -6.95 | 158.97 | 237.54 | 2.10 | Enova International Inc. | 184.12 | +1.24 | +0.7% | +26.92 | 103.02 | 267.45 | ... | Equity Lifestyle Propert. In | 57.98 | -0.76 | -1.3% | -2.63 | 57.46 | 69.00 | 2.17 | Exelon Corp. | 41.49 | -0.19 | -0.5% | -2.10 | 39.73 | 50.65 | 1.68 | Federal Signal Corp. | 114.41 | -3.73 | -3.2% | +5.82 | 101.18 | 134.51 | 0.60 | First Indust.Realty Trust In | 58.18 | -1.08 | -1.8% | +.91 | 50.24 | 69.88 | 2.00 | First Mid Bancshares Inc. | 48.86 | -0.65 | -1.3% | +9.86 | 34.16 | 53.36 | 1.04 | Fortune Brands Innovator | 38.52 | -0.83 | -2.1% | -11.50 | 32.34 | 64.84 | 1.04 | FreightCar America Inc. | 6.29 | -0.31 | -4.7% | -4.78 | 6.24 | 14.90 | 0.36 | Fuel Technologies Inc. | 1.67 | .00 | 0.0% | +.11 | 1.17 | 3.45 | ... | GATX Corp. | 163.34 | -7.54 | -4.4% | -6.26 | 150.42 | 205.56 | 2.64 | Gallagher & Co., Arthur J. | 227.62 | -2.23 | -1.0% | -31.17 | 190.75 | 310.35 | 2.80 | Grainger Inc., W.W. | 1263.51 | -12.05 | -0.9% | +254.46 | 906.52 | 1419.91 | 9.96 | Groupon Inc. | 18.43 | -0.41 | -2.2% | +.82 | 9.17 | 29.90 | ... | Hub Group Inc. | 26.31 | -1.85 | -6.6% | -16.30 | 26.22 | 53.26 | 0.50 | Huron Consulting Group Ir | 156.61 | -0.65 | -0.4% | -16.30 | 84.88 | 186.78 | ... | Hyatt Hotels Corp. | 157.14 | -1.98 | -1.2% | -3.18 | 134.18 | 206.86 | 0.60 | IDEX Corp. | 232.91 | -3.37 | -1.4% | +54.97 | 159.27 | 243.80 | 2.92 | Illinois Tool Works Inc. | 261.15 | -5.99 | -2.2% | +14.85 | 238.82 | 303.16 | 6.88 | Ingredion Inc. | 94.25 | -2.50 | -2.6% | -16.01 | 93.97 | 123.49 | 3.32 | JBT Marel Corp. | 104.33 | -4.36 | -4.0% | -46.34 | 104.00 | 170.19 | 0.40 | JPMorgan Chase & Co. | 329.58 | -1.70 | -0.5% | +7.36 | 279.10 | 366.50 | 6.60 | John B. Sanfilippo & Son I | 67.95 | +.19 | +0.3% | -2.65 | 59.07 | 92.08 | 0.95 | Jones Lang Lasalle Inc. | 296.66 | -6.96 | -2.3% | -39.81 | 259.83 | 393.84 | 0.43 | Kemper Corp. | 26.25 | +.18 | +0.7% | -14.29 | 22.69 | 50.52 | 1.28 | Knowles Corp. | 38.07 | -1.12 | -2.9% | +16.64 | 20.57 | 42.93 | ... | Kraft Heinz | 21.98 | -0.05 | -0.2% | -2.27 | 21.04 | 28.09 | 1.60 | LKQ Corp. | 22.03 | -0.36 | -1.6% | -8.17 | 21.17 | 37.13 | 1.20 | Lifeway Foods Inc. | 21.30 | +.84 | +4.1% | -2.93 | 17.31 | 32.71 | 0.08 | Littelfuse Inc. | 434.74 | -19.54 | -4.3% | +181.82 | 233.36 | 500.57 | 3.20 | MYR Group Inc. (Del.) | 313.08 | -11.43 | -3.5% | +94.58 | 190.14 | 503.56 | ... | McDonald's Corp. | 230.88 | -1.57 | -0.7% | -74.75 | 229.20 | 341.75 | 7.72 | Methode Electronics Inc. | 15.11 | +.01 | +0.1% | +8.47 | 4.88 | 20.38 | 0.20 | Middleby Corp | 105.24 | -0.68 | -0.6% | -14.36 | 89.15 | 148.20 | ... | Mondelez International Inc | 59.38 | -0.24 | -0.4% | +5.55 | 51.20 | 66.65 | 2.08 | Morningstar Inc. | 200.65 | +4.96 | +2.5% | -16.66 | 141.49 | 228.95 | 2.00 | Motorola Solutions Inc. | 448.33 | -7.95 | -1.7% | +65.01 | 359.36 | 494.85 | 4.84 | NISOURCE Inc. | 40.54 | -0.13 | -0.3% | -1.22 | 38.42 | 49.21 | 1.20 | Northern Trust Corp. | 168.18 | -1.28 | -0.8% | +31.59 | 121.12 | 193.89 | 3.52 | Oil-Dri Corp. of America | 87.81 | -0.32 | -0.4% | +38.87 | 45.61 | 107.00 | 0.90 | Old Republic Intl Corp. | 37.71 | -0.30 | -0.8% | -7.93 | 36.65 | 46.76 | 1.26 | Old Second Bancorp Inc. | 24.66 | -0.39 | -1.6% | +5.16 | 16.65 | 26.06 | 0.28 | OneSpan Inc. | 17.70 | -0.68 | -3.7% | +4.86 | 10.07 | 18.82 | 0.52 | Packaging Corp. of Americ | 227.25 | -2.49 | -1.1% | +21.02 | 191.50 | 259.98 | 6.00 | Paylocity Holding Corp. | 148.02 | +1.86 | +1.3% | -4.48 | 93.27 | 160.73 | ... | Portillo's Inc. | 3.79 | +.01 | +0.3% | -0.75 | 3.29 | 6.69 | ... | Richardson Electronics Ltd | 20.00 | +.95 | +5.0% | +9.12 | 9.37 | 23.15 | 0.24 | Ryan Specialty Holdings Ir | 37.60 | -0.70 | -1.8% | -14.03 | 29.28 | 58.94 | 0.52 | Stepan Co. | 61.32 | -1.07 | -1.7% | +13.96 | 41.82 | 68.00 | 1.58 | Suncoke Energy Inc. | 9.83 | -0.21 | -2.1% | +2.63 | 5.52 | 10.68 | 0.48 | Telephone & Data Systems | 35.35 | +.20 | +0.6% | -5.65 | 31.51 | 49.12 | 0.16 | Titan International Inc. | 6.85 | -0.18 | -2.6% | -0.98 | 6.37 | 11.70 | 0.02 | Tootsie Roll Industries Inc. | 36.91 | -0.45 | -1.2% | +.28 | 34.44 | 45.06 | 0.36 | TransUnion | 62.82 | -0.60 | -0.9% | -22.93 | 60.96 | 89.12 | 0.50 | US Foods Holding Corp. | 96.05 | -0.48 | -0.5% | +20.73 | 69.88 | 111.42 | ... | Ulta Beauty Inc. | 545.48 | -1.81 | -0.3% | -59.53 | 443.60 | 714.97 | ... | United Airlines | 110.17 | -1.70 | -1.5% | -1.65 | 84.64 | 138.77 | ... | Ventas Inc. | 80.04 | -1.82 | -2.2% | +2.66 | 66.92 | 101.60 | 2.08 | Wintrust Financial Corp. | 142.49 | -2.45 | -1.7% | +2.67 | 119.61 | 167.22 | 2.20 | Yunhong Green CTI Ltd. | 2.65 | -0.15 | -5.4% | -0.98 | 2.38 | 10.29 | ... | Zebra Technologies Corp. | 386.05 | +.27 | +0.1% | +143.23 | 199.05 | 390.80 | ... | # Time shrinks GOP's cash advantage

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters Wednesday before departing the White House. ANNA MONEYMAKER/GETTY

Spending accelerates with higher ad rates near campaign's end

By Steven Sloan and Thomas Beaumont

ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON – Republicans are entering the final month of the midterm campaign increasingly anxious that the \$1 billion at their disposal may not be enough to fend off sweeping losses as the party reckons with President Donald Trump's unpopularity, persistent cost concerns and the fallout from the war in Iran.

The cash advantage, spread out across a half-dozen groups, is driven largely by the Trump-aligned MAGA Inc., which had nearly \$416 million in cash on hand at the end of August and began stepping up its spending on crucial races in September.

But that money may have come too late, forcing the president's group to pay much higher rates because of the shrinking availability of air time. Four Republican Senate campaign officials said groups that reserved advertising time last spring paid much lower rates than MAGA Inc. and its affiliated groups.

Instead, by waiting until September, Trump-connected organizations are sometimes paying more than five times what they would have spent if they acted earlier.

A representative of MAGA Inc. familiar with the group's strategy said its spending has allowed Republicans to keep races more competitive than they would have been otherwise. In some cases, the group has been the only one on the air criticizing Democratic candidates.

The MAGA Inc. representative and the Republican Senate campaign officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal strategy.

The challenge is acute in places like Texas, where Trump traveled on Wednesday for the second time in a week to stump for Republican Ken Paxton's Senate campaign. The state hasn't elected a Democratic senator since 1988, yet MAGA Inc. has spent more than \$22 million in the past month, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact.

Trump has stepped up his campaign rallies in recent weeks, traveling to deep red territory to galvanize the party faithful.

Another group, Texas PAC, which is aligned with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, has spent more than \$83 million on advertising in the past month, an extraordinary amount to protect what's normally a safe Republican seat.

One of those advertisements, which featured Paxton's estranged wife saying she's supporting the full Republican ticket, aired across the U.S. last weekend during a football game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Houston Texans.

Candidates are charged a lower advertising rate than outside groups, so the late infusion of super PAC cash has come at a steep price.

MAGA Inc., which is running ads primarily on streaming services, has been charged roughly \$894 per airing, according to AdImpact, while Texas PAC has been charged roughly \$809 for a mix of broadcast and streaming.

That compares with about \$290 for Democratic nominee James Talarico's campaign, also on broadcast and streaming.

Those averages mask some of the more glaring disparities. For example, during a football game last month, Texas PAC was charged \$450,000 to air a single spot in the Austin market. Talarico's campaign paid \$50,000 for a spot during the same game in the same market, according to AdImpact.

The 2026 campaign is shaping up as a referendum on the power of money in American politics.

Democrats freely acknowledge their disadvantage, relying instead on anti-Trump sentiment among voters and targeted messaging on issues like corruption. Some Republicans, meanwhile, are open about the challenge of trying to spend their way out of a tough campaign at this late stage.

Neil Newhouse, a longtime Republican pollster, echoed concerns that his party was deploying its cash too late.

"After the votes are counted, I think we're going to find the most effective advertising in terms of communicating message and moving voters and poll numbers, the most effective time was advertising that happened well before Labor Day, not after it," he said. "A million dollars of advertising in October is a drop in the bucket."

Thune's group began pulling back in North Carolina last week, a sign of the party's challenge in the Senate race there. The state's outgoing Sen. Thom Tillis has been increasingly vocal about his party's vulnerabilities and recently said that, even with a strong cash advantage, "in the last month, you pretty much have to place your bets."

"If we have endless resources, then we should spend endlessly in every state," he said. "Absent endless resources, you've got to make data-driven decisions about where you can win."

The midterms mark the first national election since the Supreme Court in June erased limits on how much political parties can spend in coordination with candidates for Congress and president, injecting even more money into a political system already awash in cash.

The \$1 billion that Republicans have amassed compares with roughly \$579 million held by a comparable collection of major Democratic groups.

In addition to Texas, Democrats have mounted competitive Senate campaigns in Ohio, Maine, Iowa, Alaska and Michigan. A similar dynamic has emerged in governors' races from Florida and Georgia to Wisconsin, Ohio and Nevada.

Israelis mourn lives lost in deadly attack in 2023

Palestinians mark another day of woe as Gaza lies in ruins

By Melanie Lidman

ASSOCIATED PRESS

REIM, Israel — On a field where music festival revelers were gunned down by Hamas-led militants three years ago, Israelis on Wednesday embraced and wept for those lost in an attack that plunged the Middle East into war.

Israelis mourned at the site of the Nova Music Festival, as well as at bomb shelters, intersections and in communities targeted on Oct. 7, 2023. Tens of thousands gathered in Tel Aviv for the main ceremony organized by bereaved families, separate from the official government ceremonies.

On that day — the deadliest in the country's history — militants killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostage. Israel's retaliatory offensive killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, destroyed much of Gaza and drove most of its 2 million residents from their homes.

This is the first anniversary since all hostages, living and dead, were returned. Signs calling for their return are mostly gone, but reminders of those who were killed are ubiquitous in a country still reckoning with the trauma of that day.

For Palestinians, the anniversary brings another day of fear and misery. Most Gaza residents live in squalid tent camps, with large parts of cities bombed to rubble. More than half the territory remains in the hands of the Israeli military. Despite a ceasefire deal reached nearly a year ago, Israeli strikes continue almost daily.

Israeli troops occupy a large chunk of southern Lebanon in their conflict with Hezbollah militants, who began firing on Israel in 2023 in support of Hamas. Iran, the United States and their allies are locked in a confrontation that has seen attacks across the region and has shaken the global economy — a conflict that Israel helped launch and that the war in Gaza paved the way for, even if the two conflicts weren't directly connected.

Hundreds of people paid their respects to the more than 350 people killed in and around the festival site.

Raz Zarfati, whose sister Ron Zarfati was killed in the attack Oct. 7, 2023, attends a ceremony Wednesday at the Nova Music Festival site in Israel. OHAD ZWIGENBERG/AP

Videos from that day showed militants gunning down fleeing revelers, shooting the wounded at point-blank range and ambushing those seeking refuge in bomb shelters.

On Wednesday, survivors' relatives hugged at 6:29 a.m. — the exact time the first rockets were launched three years ago — as explosions boomed in nearby Gaza.

Larger ceremonies took place in the evening at the Nova site and in Tel Aviv, which paid tribute to both the people who were killed as well as those who responded and were forever changed, including doctors who helped identify bodies at the main forensics facility and a bus driver who took his own life after the attack, overcome by the devastation he had seen.

“We will bear witness and tell the story of the day the sky fell upon us,” said Eli Sharabi, who was held captive in Gaza for 16 months and lost his wife, two daughters and brothers.

Elkana Bohbot, 37, is marking the anniversary in Israel for the first time since his release after 738 days of captivity. For most of that time, he said, he was held underground in a dark, damp tunnel.

Bohbot, who was abducted from the festival, was kept in a small cell with other hostages, given little food and allowed to bathe only every few weeks, he said. His captors forced him to take part in propaganda videos, including one where he acted out a fake call to his family.

In the year since his release, Bohbot has undergone physical and emotional rehabilitation. In August, his wife, Rivka, gave birth to a daughter, fulfilling his promise to himself in the tunnels to give his 5-year-old son, Reem, a sibling.

The newborn Michele is “not a symbol for my people, she is more of a symbol for the enemy,” Bohbot said. “This child is the message for you that we were here and we will always be here forever.”

No events were expected Wednesday in Gaza, but Hamas in a statement defended their deadly Oct. 7 attack, saying it had returned the Palestinian cause to the world's attention.

"The conflict with the enemy did not begin on that day, (and) its final chapters are not written yet," it said.

Palestinians in the territory said their suffering over the past three years had previously been

unimaginable.

“We witnessed death, destruction and bombardment that we had never known before,” said Walid Akram, a Gaza City resident who, like most in Gaza, has been displaced by the war.

More than 74,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to the territory's Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its figures but says around half were women and children. The numbers from the ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts.

Authorities: FBI foils ‘radicalized’ man’s plot to attack Mall of America

By Ellen Schmidt and Gene Johnson

ASSOCIATED PRESS

MINNEAPOLIS — The FBI thwarted an attack on the Mall of America by a man after agents supplied him with an assault rifle, authorities said Wednesday.

The suspect had been under investigation for nearly two years, trading messages with a confidential informant, before agents sold him the rifle and ammunition and arrested him on the spot, they

said.

"This was a radicalized young man who needed to be watched," U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen said as he praised the FBI investigation. Agents "were able to detect a threat, and disrupt it, before the defendant carried out his intention to kill, in his words, maybe 30 to 60 people."

Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud, 18, was arrested Tuesday in a public park in Richfield, several miles northwest of the Mall of America, after he paid \$600 to an undercover FBI employee posing as a member of the Islamic State for an AK-47 and 200 rounds of ammunition, according to the criminal complaint.

Mohamud appeared in a jail uniform for his initial hearing Wednesday in federal court in St. Paul.

In text messages with the informant, Mohamud repeatedly affirmed his intent to carry out an attack to kill non-Muslims at the mall Oct. 24, the date of a scheduled Hmong arts celebration, the complaint said.

It was not immediately known if the man had an attorney who might speak on his behalf.

Rosen said Mohamud is an American-born U.S. citizen of Somali descent. According to the complaint, in his text messages he expressed admiration for recent terror attacks as well as an interest in traveling to Somalia to join IS. Ultimately he decided he couldn't afford to travel there and would attack the mall instead, it said.

The teen first came to the FBI's attention in December 2024, the same month the source began exchanging messages with him, the complaint said. By May 2025, agents were concerned enough that they went to his home. His mother told them he wasn't home from school yet and called the boy's father, who declined to speak with them and said he would give their contact information to his lawyer, the complaint said.

"What I would say to parents all over Minnesota, and all over America: If you get any indication — especially if you hear from federal law enforcement — that your son or daughter is being radicalized, to the point where federal law enforcement wants to come and give you that warning, those are warnings that ought to be heeded," Rosen said.

Tens of thousands of people of Somali descent live in Minnesota, dating back to when refugees began arriving in the 1990s.

US-Russia talks on war spread to oil

Ramez Al-Khayyat, left, and brother Moutaz Al-Khayyat on Feb. 14 in Doha, Qatar. LAURA BOUSHNAK/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Deal tied to Trump

allies raises conflict

of interest questions

By Anton Troianovski and Eric Lipton

THE NEW YORK TIMES

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration's talks with Russia about ending the war in Ukraine have expanded to include a multibillion-dollar oil deal that would benefit Middle Eastern business executives with ties to the two main U.S. negotiators, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

The deal, which is contingent on approval from the U.S. government and the Kremlin, is for a sprawling set of oil fields, refineries and gas stations around the world owned by Lukoil, one of Russia's biggest energy companies.

The leading group seeking the deal includes an American investor, Todd Boehly, who has donated \$2 million to President Donald Trump's political causes; two Middle Eastern groups that have done business with Kushner or Witkoff's family; and an arm of the U.S. government.

The monthslong negotiations, which were described by eight people familiar with them, shed new light on Trump's latest approach to settling a 4 $\frac{1}{2}$ -year war that has killed hundreds of thousands. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.

There is no indication that Kushner or Witkoff stand to profit. But the pending deal represents a striking intermingling of personal business ties with geopolitics, even for an administration that has regularly dismissed concerns about potential conflicts of interest.

Russian President Vladimir Putin brought up the deal when he met with Witkoff and Kushner at the Kremlin on Sept. 5, according to three people familiar with the meeting. Putin proposed it get done as a way of showing Russians that they can do business with the United States, according to one of the people.

The Americans responded that they would work on it, the person said, seeing it as a way to build goodwill with the Kremlin while also lowering global energy prices.

But the deal is also a lucrative one for the buyers: U.S. approval for the sale would release the assets from U.S. sanctions, instantly increasing their value.

In Moscow, the decision on the deal is widely seen as Putin's to make, though Lukoil is technically a private company. The upshot is that the giant transaction, involving assets as varied as oil fields in Cameroon, refineries in Europe and gas stations in New Jersey, comes down to Putin and Trump.

Trump has been promoting the promise of business deals with Russia since early last year, describing the country as a “tremendous oppor-

tunity."

The deal again brings Trump's World Liberty Financial cryptocurrency company — co-founded by Witkoff — into focus. One of the investors in the Lukoil deal is a part owner of World Liberty.

Witkoff and Kushner, who have traveled repeatedly to Russia for meetings with Putin, have argued that the potential to rebuild economic ties with the West could persuade the Russian president to compromise in Ukraine. The administration has recently signaled it is open to deals with Russia even before the war ends, to show it is serious about resetting the U.S. relationship with Moscow. The Lukoil sale, people familiar with the matter say, is one of those deals.

In a statement, a senior administration official confirmed that Witkoff and Kushner played a direct role in helping negotiate the financial terms of the investment by the federal government in the deal to ensure that it included “a substantial upfront payment and profits interest for the United States.”

A spokesperson for Witkoff said he “takes no salary and travels the world on his own plane, at his own expense, working on behalf of President Trump to negotiate peace and bring hostages home to their families.” She added that Witkoff “has no conflict of interest and no financial stake in this matter.”

Numerous potential bidders expressed interest in at least part of Lukoil's international holdings when the assets went on the market last fall, including U.S. energy giants like Chevron.

The Washington private equity firm Carlyle reached a tentative agreement in January to buy a large share of the assets, after making the pitch that bringing Lukoil's international portfolio under U.S. ownership would further the Trump administration's goal of "energy dominance."

But in recent months, as U.S. approval for Carlyle's bid stalled, a different group emerged as the leading bidder: one led by Boehly, a billionaire supporter of Trump's, alongside well-connected figures in the Middle East and the U.S. government. Members of the partnership were reported last month by The Financial Times.

Boehly is a co-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers and donated \$1 million to MAGA Inc., the Trump-aligned political committee, in December 2025. He gave another \$1 million through his investment firm, Eldridge Industries, to Trump's inauguration.

The U.S. government is taking a stake in the deal through the U.S. International Development Finance Corp., an agency that invests in and lends to projects overseas. A DFC official said in a statement that the potential Lukoil deal “would advance the Trump administration’s commitment to strengthen U.S. economic security, advance U.S. foreign policy and lower energy prices for everyday Americans.”

But it would not be an all-American purchase.

A major equity holder would be the Qatar-based conglomerate controlled by Moutaz Al-Khayyat and his brother Ramez Al-Khayyat, both of whom attended Trump's inauguration in 2025 and have since formed a partnership with Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, one of Trump's daughters, to help finance a multibillion-dollar luxury hotel resort project in southern Albania.

Another major stakeholder would be an Abu Dhabi-based investment fund controlled by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the United Arab Emirates' top national security adviser, who controls another fund that purchased a large stake in the Trump family's cryptocurrency company, World Liberty, run in part by Witkoff's son.

Hui Chen, a former Justice Department prosecutor and a white-collar crime and ethics adviser who served until the start of Trump's first term, said the connections between Witkoff and Kushner to players in the Lukoil deal illustrated why friends and family members of Trump's should not be top foreign policy advisers.

"This is an alarming and very concerning set of entanglements," said Chen, who has also worked as a corporate compliance lawyer. "And it means you have to question how the Trump administration is evaluating the different bidders involved here. Are the personal interests involved going to wrongly influence the outcome?"

The deal is not yet final and would need to be approved by the U.S. Treasury Department, which oversees sanctions enforcement.

But in the case of Lukoil, people involved said, the key decisions are being made at the White House.

Rescue workers in Ukraine respond after a Russian attack on a building Wednesday in Pryluky, Chernihiv region. UKRAINIAN EMERGENCY SERVICE

On Putin's birthday, Russian strikes kill at least 25 in Ukrainian regions

By Samya Kullab and Hanna Arhirova

ASSOCIATED PRESS

KYIV, Ukraine — Russian missile and drone attacks on Kyiv and a dozen other Ukrainian regions overnight killed at least 25 civilians, including five children, and wounded around 100, Ukrainian officials said.

The five children were killed Wednesday when a Russian missile struck an apartment building, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. Three were a year old and another was 8. Zelenskyy had warned the previous day that intelligence services had concluded that Russia was building up for a “massive” strike.

Although Ukraine knew about the looming attack, which coincided with Russian President Vladimir Putin's 74th birthday, it couldn't repel it completely.

“This is the ‘gift’ that Putin gave himself for his birthday: the killing of children, the killing of people,” Zelenskyy said in an evening address Wednesday.

The deaths and damage illustrated the difficulty Ukraine has in countering Russia's ballistic missiles and the new jet-powered drones used in Moscow's escalating bombardments. Without ammunition for its U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems, Ukraine can't stop Russian ballistic weapons. It is racing to develop a new generation of interceptors fast enough to catch Moscow's high-flying jet-propelled drones.

Russia and Ukraine are engaged in a long-range aerial war as their armies remain largely deadlocked on the battlefield, more than 4 $\frac{1}{2}$ years after Moscow's all-out invasion of its neighbor. The unrelenting aerial attacks are hurting Russia but could be ruinous for smaller Ukraine.

U.S.-led peace efforts appear unlikely to bring any short-term relief, with the possibility of holding low-level technical talks still under discussion. Putin, meanwhile, is pressing ahead with the invasion in the belief that Ukrainians will buckle under the pressure and Kyiv's Western supporters won't stay the course, Western analysts say.

“Russia is pursuing a deliberate strategy of terror,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on X. “Trying to make daily life impossible for Ukrainians who want to live in peace.”

A Russian strike destroyed an apartment block in Pryluky, in Ukraine's northern Chernihiv region, killing 19 people, including five children, Zelenskyy said. Authorities said around 50 were wounded.

Deaths were also reported in three other Ukrainian cities, including the capital, Kyiv, according to Zelenskyy.

"The Russians wanted to strike painfully and demonstratively," the Ukrainian leader said on social media.

Ukraine is looking worldwide for Patriot missiles, which are in short supply due to the Iran war. “Russian ballistic missiles remain the greatest challenge. And air defense packages for us right now are a vital necessity,” Zelenskyy said.

In Kremenchuk, in Ukraine's Poltava region, two people were killed and seven injured, said Vitalii Diakivnych, head of the regional military administration, and a rescue operation was continuing.

Ukraine has hit back at Russia by launching long-range drones and missiles at oil refineries and storage depots. Zelenskyy said Wednesday that Ukraine targeted two oil facilities and a training ground in the Perm, Samara and Astrakhan regions of Russia.

Duo wins chemistry Nobel for unraveling mirrored molecules

Images of Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai are displayed Wednesday as they are awarded the Nobel in chemistry in Stockholm. FREDRIK SANDBERG/TT NEWS AGENCY

By Adithi Ramakrishnan, Kostya Manenkov and Stefanie Dazio

ASSOCIATED PRESS

STOCKHOLM — Scientists Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai won the Nobel Prize in chemistry Wednesday for untangling mirror images in molecules, a discovery that has been used to develop countless drugs and transformed modern medicine.

Many molecules come in versions that look alike but are not identical, like right and left hands. Kagan, who is from France, and Soai, from Japan, found ways to make chemistry pick a side, describing and designing reactions to produce the desired mirror image.

"The medicines we have today would not be possible without this chemistry," said Rigoberto Hernandez, president of the American Chemical Society.

Soai was shopping at a neighborhood supermarket when he heard he had won. "I'm very excited to receive the very nice news," Soai told the Nobel committee and journalists by phone. "Of course, this is one of the most exciting days in my life."

Mirror images of the same molecule can have different properties. For example, one version of the chemical carvone smells like mint, while the other has a whiff of caraway, a spice often used in rye bread.

The alternate versions can also behave differently when interacting with other chemicals. When designing drugs to treat diseases, scientists are choosy about which mirror image they use. They want the version of a molecule to treat a cold, not one that will make the sniffles worse.

In the 1980s, Kagan's work showed there might be a way to design reactions to produce one form of a molecule over the other. Years later, Soai perfected the process. He created the first chemical reaction to efficiently produce only one of a molecule's mirror images, in what's now known as the Soai reaction.

"This is probably the coolest experiment in organic chemistry," said Peter Somfai, a member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry.

Kagan, 95, is affiliated with the Université Paris-Sud in Orsay, France. Soai, 76, is affiliated with the Tokyo University of Science. The Nobel committee described their work as a feat never previously achieved by anyone “other than life itself.”

The French Academy of Sciences, where Kagan is a member, congratulated him, as did French President Emmanuel Macron, who called the prize “an immense source of pride for the country” and “a recognition befitting a lifetime of research.”

“It might be difficult to say that this drug, or that drug, was developed using this,” Somfai said. “I would say all of them, because we use this as a tool, we use this as an understanding, how to develop catalysts, how they function.”

Life, too, prefers one mirror image over the other. DNA twists to the right, and the proteins in human bodies are made of mostly left-handed building blocks.

In addition to developing better medicines or perfumes, deciphering the mirror images of molecules can help scientists understand the chemical architecture of life, said chemist Holden Thorp, editor-in-chief of the journal Science.

"There are still fascinating aspects that remain unknown and surely more yet to be discovered," Soai said at a news conference hosted by his university in Tokyo.

Japan's largest newspaper, Yomiuri, distributed an extra edition with a headline proclaiming “Nobel Prize Mr. Soai,” with a photo of the scientist. Office workers snatched up the papers on their way home.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the winner in Stockholm.

Last year, three scientists won the chemistry Nobel for their development of new molecular structures that can trap vast quantities of gas inside, laying the groundwork to potentially suck greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere or harvest moisture from desert environments.

This year's prizes began with the Nobel for medicine, awarded Monday to three scientists whose work led to a tool that uses light to help unravel how the brain works. The physics award announced Tuesday recognized a scientist's efforts to demystify a rare group of neutrinos.

NEWS BRIEFING

Isaias forecast to slam ashore in Gulf region as 1st hurricane of season

cal Storm Simon also formed Wednesday off Mexico.

FROM NEWS SERVICES

Tropical Storm Isaias formed Wednesday in the warm waters off eastern Mexico and forecasters predicted it will quickly strengthen into the first hurricane of the Atlantic season before striking the U.S. Gulf Coast later in the week.

Communities in Isaias' potential path moved quickly to prepare with landfall forecast as soon as Friday evening. Some Gulf oil wells paused production and an Alabama beach city canceled a weekend festival known to draw thousands of tourists. Florida's governor declared a state of emergency for more than one-third of the state's counties.

As it moves inland, Isaias might also disrupt Saturday's college football showdown between Georgia and Alabama — a game President Donald Trump has planned to attend — in Tuscaloosa.

Isaias could become a major Category 3 hurricane, with winds of 111 mph or stronger, before it strikes land, said Michael Brennan, director of the U.S. National Hurricane Center.

“We’re expecting multiple dangerous, life-threatening impacts along portions of the northern Gulf Coast beginning Friday and continuing into the weekend,” Brennan said in a video briefing Wednesday.

The storm was on track to tie or break a 121-year-old record as the latest-arriving initial hurricane of the Atlantic season. According to the National Weather Service, the record dates to 1905, when the year's first Atlantic hurricane formed Oct. 8.

The Atlantic hurricane season has been unusually quiet this year because of a strong El Nino, which disrupts storm formation over that ocean. Storm activity has been above average in the Pacific, where Tropi-

The Miami-based hurricane center issued a hurricane watch Wednesday for the northern Gulf Coast from Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, to Indian Pass on the Florida Panhandle. The watch means hurricane conditions are possible within 48 hours.

USS Abraham Lincoln: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has given the crew of the USS Abraham Lincoln a high-level award during a visit to the aircraft carrier Wednesday, a day before the ship returns home to San Diego after a record-long deployment in support of the Iran war.

Texan honored: Opal Lee, a driving force in making Juneteenth a federal holiday, celebrates Wednesday as confetti flutters at an event honoring her 100th birthday in Fort Worth, Texas. The state resident was on hand as crews broke ground on a museum that will tell the history of Juneteenth, which commemorates the end of slavery in the country. JULIO CORTEZ/AP

The Presidential Unit Citation, the highest honor a unit can receive that is typically reserved for significant achievement in combat, was bestowed upon the Lincoln and accompanying ships for "40 days of combat operations and an ironclad maritime blockade against Iran in support of Operation Epic Fury," Hegseth said, referring to the Trump administration's code name for the Iran war.

The carrier endured a record 265 uninterrupted days at sea, and its extended deployment drew national attention following reports of crew stress and poor mental health, as well as supply shortages. After over 10 months deployed, the Lincoln's crew got a stop in Thailand last month on the way back from the Mideast.

Sept. 11 lawsuit: Family members of victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks packed a federal appeals courtroom in New York City on Wednesday as three judges heard arguments over whether legal claims against Saudi Arabia can proceed.

The judges revealed through their questions that there are still many legal issues to be decided in the lawsuit even though it has dragged on for almost a quarter-century.

They didn't say when they might rule on whether claims can proceed to trial alleging that Saudi Arabia provided aid to at least two of the 19 men who hijacked planes and crashed them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field.

Lawyers for Saudi Arabia say the nation and the U.S. were partners in the 1990s against terrorism, al-Qaida and its founder, Osama bin Laden.

Although 15 of the 19 attackers on 9/11 were Saudis, the Saudi government has long denied any involvement in the attacks.

Lawyers for victims' relatives claim that a group of extremist religious leaders in Saudi Arabia aided the hijackers.

The appeal by Saudi Arabia stemmed from a 2025 ruling by U.S. District Judge George B. Daniels, who decided that the case could proceed in federal court.

Saudi airport attacks: Two attacks on airports in Saudi Arabia claimed by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in neighboring Yemen killed three people Wednesday, Saudi officials said, as the kingdom was pulled deeper into the latest front in the Iran war.

The Saudi General Authority for Civil Aviation did not blame any party for the attacks at Abha and Riyadh's King Khalid international airports, but Houthi rebels took credit earlier for the airport strikes.

The attack on Abha airport killed Moroccan and Algerian residents and wounded 28 other people, while the attack on King Khalid airport killed a Sudanese national and wounded eight other people, officials said.

Russian lab death: A top official with the World Health Organization said Wednesday that it doesn't know how a lab worker in Siberia died, and she urged Russia to provide more information about a case that prompted global concerns about suspected pneumonic plague.

Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO director of Epidemic and Pandemic Management, said the U.N. health agency doesn't know what the "causative agent" was behind the woman's Oct. 2 death, which unconfirmed reports in Russia blamed on pneumonic plague — a less common but severe form of plague that can spread from person to person.

“We don’t understand how she was infected,” Van Kerkhove said. “We need information in a timely way. We need regular information. We need answers to the follow-up of the questions that we have asked.”

The comments suggested the U.N. health agency has more questions than answers about the situation at the lab, which focuses on plague and was founded about a century ago to study the disease in Siberia, where it occurs naturally in wild animals.

Russian authorities have kept a tight lid on information about the case.

Assisted dying in Canada: Canada's Liberal government said Wednesday it will indefinitely bar people whose sole medical condition is mental illness from receiving medical assistance in dying, abandoning an expansion that had been scheduled to take effect in March 2027.

Justice Minister Sean Fraser said there is no consensus in the medical community on when mental illness can be considered irremediable and cited concerns about inadequate access to mental health treatment.

A parliamentary committee recommended in June that people whose sole underlying condition is mental illness be indefinitely excluded from assisted dying.

Canada legalized medical assistance in dying in 2016 and broadened eligibility in 2021 to include people with serious and incurable conditions even when their deaths were not reasonably foreseeable.

Canada has one of the world's most permissive assisted-dying laws.

EVA MARIE SAINT 1924-2026

Lauded veteran actor won Oscar for debut film ‘On the Waterfront’

Eva Marie Saint also won an Emmy for the 1990 miniseries "People Like Us." RICHARD SHOTWELL/INVISION 2016

By Bob Thomas and Jake Coyle

ASSOCIATED PRESS

LOS ANGELES — Eva Marie Saint, the actor who won an Academy Award for her first movie, “On the Waterfront,” and starred opposite Cary Grant in the Alfred Hitchcock thriller “North by Northwest,” died Tuesday in Los Angeles. She was 102.

Saint, whose acting work lasted well into her 90s, died at her home, family representative Jeff Sanderson said.

Saint had one of the most spectacular debuts in Hollywood history, as the love interest of Marlon Brando's tormented Terry Malloy in "On the Waterfront," and her first trip to the Academy Awards was memorable, too. Pregnant with her first child, Saint accepted her Oscar from Frank Sinatra and smilingly murmured a unique winner's speech: "I think I may have the baby right here." (Her son, Darrell, was born two days later.)

The award for the 1954 classic made her an instant star, but she soon astonished Hollywood with a firm independence that would mark her career. She refused offers of studio contracts and declined chances to follow up on her great success, explaining that she was taking time off to become acquainted with her new son. (A daughter, Laurette, was born in 1958.)

In her first decade in Hollywood, Saint appeared in seven films.

She declined such top-level productions as "The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit" with Gregory Peck, "Summer and Smoke" with Laurence Harvey and "The Rainmaker" with Burt Lancaster. She credited her husband, TV and stage director Jeffrey Hayden, with persuading her to star in Hitchcock's "North by Northwest," the classic 1959 thriller in which Saint plays a spy who seduces Grant, but ends up falling for him.

"I vividly remember him saying, 'Honey, I think you should find a quiet spot. I'll take care of the children and I want you to really think about this and reread this script,'" she told Vanity Fair in 2014. "He was so right. And that's what husbands are for."

Instead of being put off by her selectivity, studios continued offering her starring roles in such films as "Exodus" (with Newman), "Raintree County" (Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift) and "All Fall Down," with Warren Beatty.

She turned more to television in the 1970s and enjoyed renewed popularity in the 1980s as the mother of Cybill Shepherd in the hit sitcom “Moonlighting” and as Tom Hanks’ mother in the film comedy “Nothing in Common.” She won an Emmy for the 1990 miniseries “People Like Us,” and had roles in such 21st-century movies as “Because of Winn-Dixie,” “Superman Returns” and “Winter’s Tale,” adapted from Mark Helprin’s novel of the same name.

In 2021, she played Marisa Tomei's aunt in the brief audio play "The Bus Ride," part of "The Pack Podcast."

Saint was married to Hayden for 65 years, until his death in 2016.

When Saint emerged in the public consciousness, many believed her theatrical-sounding name must have been invented. She was born with it July 4, 1924, in Newark, New Jersey. The family moved to Delmar, a small town near Albany, New York, where her father was a Goodrich Rubber Co. manager. Eva's goal was to become a third grade teacher like her mother, but at Bowling Green State University in Ohio she tried out for a play and won the leading role.

After graduation, she lived with her parents in Flushing, Long Island, and began hunting for acting jobs in Manhattan. After a fruitless year, she landed a two-line role as a telephone operator on a radio drama and soon was working steadily on soap operas and nighttime dramas, appearing for two years as Claudia on “One Man’s Family.”

Network television was booming in the early 1950s, and her looks and dramatic sense made her a favorite with casting people and producers.

A critical turn in Saint's career came when she auditioned before Elia Kazan and was accepted into the Actors Studio, which shaped a generation of method-actor stars. She credited acting coach Lee Strasberg with helping her overcome her shyness.

Saint is survived by her children, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Lawyer: Inmate angry, confused after surviving execution attempt

Luke Ihnen, an attorney for Tennessee inmate Christa Pike who survived an execution attempt, speaks at a news conference Wednesday in Nashville. GEORGE WALKER IV/AP

By Kim Chandler and Kristin M. Hall

ASSOCIATED PRESS

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Christa Pike was “angry and confused” in the hours after regaining consciousness following Tennessee’s failed execution attempt, first asking, “Where am I?” her lawyer said Wednesday.

Pike, believed to be the first person to survive after receiving lethal injection drugs during an execution, stunningly woke up as plans were being made to remove her from life support, just six days after she was strapped to a gurney in the death chamber, said attorney Randy Spivey.

“But on Tuesday, to the shock of everyone ... Christa woke up and began talking,” Spivey said.

Pike, who was sentenced to death for the 1995 beating and stabbing death of classmate Colleen Slemmer, is aware of what happened to her, at least up to a point, Spivey said.

Many questions remain, though, about her prognosis for recovery and whether Tennessee will make another attempt to execute Pike, 50.

Her lawyers said Wednesday that she has suffered enough and want the governor to commute her sentence. A judge in Nashville told the state Wednesday to save evidence from the execution attempt.

The failed execution Sept. 30 has renewed scrutiny of how states carry out the death penalty, in particular the use of lethal injection. Texas on Wednesday was set to do the first U.S. execution since Tennessee attempted to put Pike to death.

Pike's legal team said she still can't move her arms or swallow and has some confusion. She also has pneumonia and a blood clot in her arm, Spivey said. Her hands were very swollen when they saw her Tuesday in the hospital, shackled to a bed, he added.

“She is angry and confused about everything right now,”

Spivey said during a news conference following a court hearing about preserving evidence.

Spivey, who was not with Pike when she woke up, was told her first words were, "Where am I?" and "Who are you?"

The Death Penalty Information Center says Pike is the first person to survive after receiving lethal injection drugs during an execution.

Chancery Court Judge I'Ashea Myles said during the hearing Wednesday that she plans to issue a sweeping order that will direct the state to maintain recordings, witness accounts, emails, drugs, syringes, IV lines and other medical items.

The Tennessee Attorney General's Office had argued a court order was unnecessary.

John Ayers, assistant attorney general, said some evidence from the death chamber already had been collected and logged. He declined to comment after the hearing.

Pike's attorneys accused the state of carrying out the attempted execution in secrecy, saying more transparency is needed. They also repeated their calls for clemency for Pike. Republican Gov. Bill Lee has not yet indicated how he'll respond.

Outside the courthouse, Michelle Nowell yelled “Justice for Colleen” as Pike’s attorneys talked with supporters.

"The victim is Colleen. The victim is not Christa Pike," said Nowell, who was among a group outside the prison last week where the failed execution took place.

The governor postponed the state's only other execution for this year and ordered a review of what went wrong. The state's prison chief resigned.

Medical and lethal injection experts have focused on the possibility that a problem with the IV line caused the drug to pool in her tissue rather than entering her bloodstream.

Pike's attorneys wrote in a court filing that “apparently at no point did any member of the execution team realize that the IV lines were not correctly placed or that the veins had blown.”

State officials have not yet offered an explanation.

The attempted execution got underway when Pike was given a chance to make a final statement. About five minutes later, she raised her head and said her arm was hurting. At some point she appeared to lose consciousness, but she could be heard breathing heavily until media were escorted from the witness room nearly 90 minutes into the execution. An ambulance took Pike to a hospital.

Arts & Living

PAGE 7 | SECTION B | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2026 | CHICAGOTRIBUNE.COM

PART USEFUL, PART BEAUTIFUL

Daughter of filmmaker Meyers showcases design vision that's all her own in Calif. renovation project

By Dorie Chevlen

THE NEW YORK TIMES

The story of Annie Meyers-Shyer's home renovation will not be entirely relatable.

First, she is the daughter of not one but two renowned filmmakers — Nancy Meyers and Charles Shyer — who share credits for beloved movies like “The Parent Trap,” “Father of the Bride” and “Baby Boom.”

Then, there is the house itself. A four-bedroom, six-bathroom Pennsylvania Dutch with a pool, designed by architect Gerard Colcord, in Beverly Hills, California. Home values in the area average about \$3.6 million. This one? It was a gift from Meyers-Shyer's mother-in-law. (Meyers-Shyer's husband, Robby Koch, is himself a member of Hollywood royalty, with both his father, Hawk Koch, and grandfather, Howard Koch, well-known producers.)

Meyers-Shyer started her house renovation in 2021 with the help of home architects, an interior designer and landscape architects. But she didn't think the experience was particularly captivating when she started posting about it on Instagram in 2023. “I thought maybe my old friends in New York would just want to follow along,” she said. “I had no plan, none.”

Today, she has just over 200,000 followers on the app and a book — “This Oak House” — out now.

All of this comes as a surprise for Meyers-Shyer, who refers to herself as “an accidental influencer.”

Claire Gilhuly, an editor for Chronicle Books, approached Meyers-Shyer in summer 2024, while doing her own, smaller home renovation. She thought Meyers-Shyer's tips were useful and found her home inspiring. "I figured, if I felt that way, other people probably would too," Gilhuly said.

See BOOK on Page B10

Top: Annie Meyers-Shyer stands in her snug room Sept. 4 at her home in Beverly Hills, California. Above: Meyers-Shyer holds her book, "This Oak House." Meyers-Shyer, the daughter of filmmakers Nancy Meyers and Charles Shyer, grew up on her mother's homey movie sets. PHILIP CHEUNG/THE NEW YORK TIMES PHOTOS

Take color plunge without making commitment

By Cathy Hobbs

TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

Love color but afraid of commitment? There are many ways to infuse color into your home in subtle as opposed to bold ways.

Painting an entire room or investing in a brightly colored sofa can feel like a big leap. The good news is that color does not have to be permanent, or expensive, to be effective. Some of the most impactful color moments come from pieces that can be swapped out or moved from room to room.

Here are some top tips for taking the color plunge without a commitment.

Start with pillows and throws: A few pillows in a new shade can change the personality of a neutral sofa in minutes.

Let artwork lead: A single colorful piece of art can set the palette for an entire room. Pull one or two of its colors into accessories and the space will feel instantly pulled together.

Paint one wall or one door: If a full room feels like too much, try a single accent wall, the inside of a bookcase or even the front door.

Add a colorful area rug: A patterned or richly colored rug can anchor a room and add several colors at once, while being something you can move or replace.

Use fresh flowers and greenery: A bowl of lemons, a vase of branches or a leafy plant can brighten a room without any long-term decision.

Pillows in sapphire, magenta and green transform a neutral sofa with textiles that can be swapped in or out. COURTESY

Try colorful throws: Throws in a saturated hue frame the view and add a generous sweep of color that is still easy to change.

Choose one bold accent piece: A single upholstered chair, an ottoman or a painted side table in a confident color can be enough.

Look for interesting lamp shades: Swapping a white lampshade for one in a soft color or pattern adds warmth and a subtle glow, especially in the evening.

Test before you commit: Live with a color for a week or two. If you still love it, you can always take the next step, whether that is a larger piece or a full coat of paint.

Author Edwidge Danticat, seen March 31, is among the finalists. EVAN AGOSTINI/INVISION

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CELEBRITIES

National Book Awards names finalists

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FROM NEWS SERVICES

Works of fiction by

Edwidge Danticat, Valeria Luiselli and Karl Ove

Knausgaard are among

this year's finalists for the

National Book Awards,

with many taking on such

contentious issues as

gender identity, criminal

justice and the Middle East.

Tuesday's announcement by the National Book Foundation of five nominees in each of the five competitive categories has at least one notable omission: Marlon James' “The Disappearers,” a Booker Prize finalist praised as among the century's best releases.

Winners, each receiving \$10,000, will be revealed during a Nov. 18 ceremony in New York. Honorary medals will be presented to author Salman Rushdie and pediatrician Perri Klass.

Danticat's “Dèy” and Luiselli's “Beginning Middle End” are fiction finalists in a category of wide-ranging characters, subjects and locations. The other fiction finalists are Hannah Lillith Assadi’s “Paradiso 17,” Julián Delgado Lopera’s “Pretend You’re Dead and I Carry You” and Morgan Thomas’ “Mad Eden.”

Knausgaard is a finalist in the translation category for “The School

of Night," translated by Martin Aitken. Other nominees include Vicente Luis Mora's "Centroeuropa," translated by Rahul Bery; Intan Paramaditha's "Night of a Thousand Hells," translated by Stephen J. Epstein and Tiffany Tsao; Mohamed Mbougar Sarr's "Pure Men," translated by Lara Vergnaud; and Samar Yazbek's "Your Presence Is a Danger to Your Life: Voices of Survival and Witness in Gaza," translated by Leri Price.

In nonfiction, Colin Asher is a finalist for “The Midnight Special,” Abdelrahman ElGendy for “Huna,” Camonghne Felix for “Let the Poets Govern,” Sara Nović for “Mother Tongue” and Joseph Osmundson for “Spawning Season.”

The young people's literature finalists are David Levithan and Gabriel Duckels' "The Fight of Our Lives: AIDS in America," Elana K. Arnold's "Holloway," Tae Keller's "When Tomorrow Burns," Keala Kendall's "That Which Feeds Us: A Hawaiian Gothic" and Julian Randall's "Shook."

In poetry, the nominees are Victoria Chang's "Tree of Knowledge," Carolina Ebeid's "Hide," Brenda Hillman's "Still House in the Desert," Fady Joudah's "Exhibit G" and Susan

Stewart's "Bramble."

Singer Jackson dies: Grammy-nominated R&B singer Freddie Jackson, known for his smooth 1980s hits “Rock Me Tonight (For Old Times Sake)” and “You Are My Lady,” has died.

A statement shared by his family on his official Instagram account confirmed Jackson died Monday, three days after his 70th birthday. No cause of death was provided.

Jackson released his debut album, “Rock Me Tonight,” in 1985. His distinctive voice proved to be his superpower: The album, which was quickly certified platinum, also led to his two career Grammy nominations for best new artist and best male R&B vocal performance for the single “You Are My Lady.”

His 1987 album, "Just Like the First Time," was also certified platinum.

Oct. 8 birthdays: Actor Chevy Chase is 83. Actor Sigourney Weaver is 77. Singer Robert “Kool” Bell is 76. Comedian Darrell Hammond is 71. Singer CeCe Winans is 62. Bassist C.J. Ramone is 61. Actor Emily Procter is 58. Actor Matt Damon is 56. Actor Nick Cannon is 46. Singer Bruno Mars is 41. Actor Bella Thorne is 29.

Spouse ready to leave husband over unbearable heat in Florida

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R. Eric Thomas ASKING ERIC

Dear Eric: I have been in central Florida for more than 26 years, and it has become unbearable to me.

There's the brutal heat; the skin destroying UV-rays of that miserable, scorching, eye-blinding sun; the constant allergy and sinusitis issues that never let up; the smothering humidity. The sun is here all year.

If you dare to venture out for a walk during the day, you have to wear long sleeves, long pants, a big, brimmed sunhat, a face full of sunscreen and carry a sun umbrella. This is paradise?

It's impossible to talk about it to my husband of 51 years; he is always cold, puts the air conditioning at 80 degrees in the house, and walks around with a sweatshirt or flannel shirt on.

I have a 12-year-old rescue dog, a big black German Shepherd. I have limited income and want to move much further north, but I don't want to jeopardize the stable home I can give her here.

I am at the point that I dread waking up every morning only to see that intense Florida sun that keeps me in the house most of the day. I could leave my husband, but I cannot leave this vulnerable, loyal, loving creature that is by my side 24/7.

Because of my limited income, it would be rough finding a place that is safe and secure for me and my dog.

I'm basically a very friendly, outgoing person, and living here is like being under house arrest.

What should I do to preserve my health and sanity until such time that I can get a car and drive out of this place?

— Too Hot

Dear Hot: While you technically can't outrun the sun — it does have a way of finding us — and the impacts of climate change are being felt the world over, it may help to attack this issue in pieces.

First, some immediate relief: Is there a friend or relative who lives in a cooler place and would let you and your dog visit for a week or more?

As fall progresses, this might be the perfect time to get away for a bit to clear your head. This wouldn't require you to leave your home or your marriage but could turn the heat down on the problem for a moment.

Consider talking to your husband about whether he actually likes Florida or just likes warm weather. If it's the latter, there might be other places that suit you both better.

Lastly, if you do decide you need to make a permanent move, look seriously at your finances and perhaps enlist friends or relatives to help you find a suitable place to live in a cooler climate.

Without knowing what your income is or what your living situation is in Florida, I can't say for sure that there are similar places in other parts of the country for you and your dog, but it's true that people of all income levels afford lives with pets in every state.

So, it may take some creative thinking, but it is possible to find a new home, if you need to.

Dear Eric: I am writing in reference to the letter by "Mourning Mom," whose son said he wouldn't honor her burial wishes.

A possible solution to her problem could be a prepaid funeral. If she has a trusted funeral service provider,

she can set up a contract and prepay for her funeral. These contracts allow you to stipulate your preferences as to cremation or another type of service.

As to the cremation, you can decide if you want a “direct to cremation.” This means your remains are collected from the hospital and taken directly to the crematorium. There is no embalming or casket.

Or, you can also choose to have an open casket for visitation and viewing with cremation following the service. In this instance, you can rent a casket for the viewing.

The contract also allows you to choose your urn for cremation, location of the service, location of the burial, the songs you wish sung, the person you wish to perform the service and any other items you wish to state. You can even write your own obituary for the mortuary to keep on file.

You pay up front, and the money is invested by the mortuary. Depending on the length of time between when you sign the contract and pay and the time it is used, your money collects interest. If there is any money left over, it is turned over to the estate.

This could avoid problems with the location of a will in time so that your wishes would be carried out.

I'm All Set

Dear All Set: This is very comprehensive and quite helpful. A great option for the letter writer and, I'm sure, other readers as well.

Send questions to eric@askingeric.com or P.O. Box 22474, Philadelphia, PA 19110. Follow him on Instagram and sign up for his weekly newsletter at rericthomas.com.

Copyright 2026.

Distributed by Tribune

Content Agency

‘Hypothesis’ about biologists with chemistry

Lili Reinhart, seen Sept. 20 in New York, is in "The Love Hypothesis." SAM HELLMANN/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Reinhart has love on mind in real life, also in latest role

By Alexis Soloski

THE NEW YORK TIMES

"This is so exciting," actor Lili Reinhart said. "I'll actually smell like something for once."

Reinhart, who broke out on the teen soap “Riverdale,” was sitting at the counter of New York City’s Fragrance Shop, an East Village institution that allows customers to custom-blend their own scent. She has never worn fragrance. “There’s something about me wanting to smell like me and not like something someone else smells like,” she said. But she felt ready to try.

With the help of a perfumer, she chose from among dozens of jars, selecting base notes: Sugared Pistachio, Pink Sugar Kiss and Sweetheart Vanilla. "So we've got a sweet tooth," the perfumer said.

Reinhart agreed. “I just had two doughnuts on the way over.” Her outfit, a bright blue tank worn with jeans, and her swingy blond hair also signaled sweetheart.

Yet Reinhart, 30, who has graduated to grown-up roles with “The Love Hypothesis” (streaming on Prime Video), doesn’t think of herself as exclusively sweet. For a celebrity, she is unusually open about her experience of physical and mental illness and frank in her self-assessment. “If someone were to describe me in a handful of words, sweet would not be one,” she said. “I’m a romantic, I’m hard on myself, I am earnest, I’m blunt, I’m overwhelmed. And I’m still figuring it out.”

She lent many of those qualities to Olive, the hero of “The Love Hypothesis,” which is based on the bestselling book by Ali Hazelwood. Olive, a graduate student and cancer researcher who once memorized the periodic table just for fun, pretends to date (and then, in the way of romances, actually dates) a professor (Tom Bateman) in her department. These are biologists with chemistry.

Reinhart's final perfume recipe allowed for complication, mixing those base notes with Wildflower and just a hint of White Tea. "For a whisper of something romantic," she said. Reinhart, who formerly dated one of her "Riverdale" co-stars, is now in a relationship with actor Jack Martin. "I'm in the most romantic relationship I've ever been in, because I'm with a man who is so unafraid to be in love," she

said.

She sniffed the finished mixture. "It smells sweet, it smells innocent," she said. She decided to name it "inner child."

This interview with Rein-hart has been edited for clarity and length.

Q: Why did you want to perform from a young age?

A: I'm not the type of person who likes being the center of attention. As a kid I did theater and that felt very exposing. But it did feel validating. I got to express something inside of me that wasn't being expressed anywhere else.

Q: You started on "Riverdale" as a teenager. What was that like?

A: I'm waiting for the day

I get sent a project where I am doing something I haven't done on "Riverdale." I have genuinely, within "Riverdale," done horror, action, fantasy, time travel, superpowers, high school, musicals.

Q: You were romantically involved with a co-star, which was excessively documented. What was it like to be in the public eye?

A: I was so young. I have a much better relationship to it now. I tread the line of sharing what I want to share and being private when I want to be private and trying to not bring up the past so much. I honestly don't remember that much of that time. When a lot of trauma is coming at you, and I do look at my early

20s as being quite traumatic, you don't remember a lot. At this point, I feel so much steadier.

Q: How did "The Love Hypothesis" come to you?

A: I was in an indie frame of mind, trying to set myself apart as a serious actor. I didn't want to do horror, I didn't want to do a rom-com, because then you're pigeonholed into a scream queen or a romantic lead. But I read the book, and I loved it.

Q: We live in a culture that often denigrates romance as girl stuff, as frivolous. Why do love stories matter?

A: Every person experiences love. Woman, man, any gender. These movies keep the hope alive that you can still meet and connect with people.

Q: What's the lesson of "The Love Hypothesis"? A: The movie is about seeing two people who view the world in completely different ways falling in love with each other and beginning to see the world through the other person's eyes and how important that is in a world where no one wants to see through anyone else's eyes. And these two people are able to fall in love purely because they're under a ruse. The ruse allows them to be fully themselves because the pressure has been taken off. I don't know if they would have fallen in love otherwise, because it's scary.

Q: What was it like going brunette? Are there not blonde scientists?

A: That was a wig. I love wigs. I have very tricky hair. I knew we were going to shoot in the summer. It was going to be hot and humid. So I said, I want to wear a wig. The only reason she's brunette is because it says in the book that she's a brunette. In another world, she could have totally been blonde. I never would have said, Oh, because she's a scientist, she needs to be brunette. In fact, we talked about various shades of brunettes, and I was like, no, not too dark. There has to be a lightness to it.

---

Q: What would you like to do next?

A: I'm trying to manifest a period piece, because it's been my dream my whole life to be in one and I grew up watching "Moulin Rouge!" "The Phantom of the Opera," every Keira Knightley movie. A giant, beautiful period piece, that's what I would love. And I would like to do more romance. It's been really nice doing a press tour talking about love. Talking about love while being in love is a really nice thing.

Retiree grows floral oasis on Butterfly Lane

The Garden House on Butterfly Lane is open for an event Sept. 7 in Doney Park, Arizona. CHEYANNE MUMPHREY/AP PHOTOS

Children hold baskets after picking flowers with their family.

Cindy Wilson stops to smell her favorite rose in the garden.

People come to pick

bouquets for free at

Ariz. woman's garden

By Cheyanne Mumphrey

ASSOCIATED PRESS

For nearly two decades, Cindy Wilson's home on Butterfly Lane in Doney Park, Arizona, was simply where she lived. Then she started planting flowers, and it became a haven for her neighborhood.

What began as a hobby after retirement has grown into a garden oasis in northern Arizona, where people from near and far can wander the sprawling flower beds, fill a basket with blooms and take home a handpicked bouquet, for free.

The original plan five years ago was to sell the flowers. But when her neighborhood was hit by wildfires and flooding before the summer bloom, Wilson discovered that the flowers' real value was in giving them away.

She invited neighbors affected by the disasters to come pick, “hoping that I could just bring a bit of kindness and maybe a little joy,” she said.

Now, she aims to host weekly “you pick” events between late June and early September, opening the garden to the public, with the first pick of the year for neighbors only in honor of how she got started.

IT STARTED WITH

CREATING A GARDEN

A beige house with red trim sits at the center of Wilson's fenced property, beneath the rugged San Francisco Peaks.

Around the house is a deck and some wooden playground equipment, and a grassy open area where visitors park. Then there's the cottage-style garden with rows of blooms marked by hand-painted wooden signs.

Wilson, 69, spoke as she walked through her nearly

3-acre property, pulling weeds, adjusting signs and tending to the plants.

When she retired in 2021, Wilson was looking for something to pass the time. Her six children had moved out, her husband had died, and she spent many slow mornings with her dog, Remi, dreaming of planting her own garden.

When she volunteered for a florist on Valentine's Day, she decided she wanted to share the happiness that flowers could bring by starting her own

business.

She learned how to garden by reading florists' and gardeners' tips on social media. She grew seedlings in her garage and some flowers in her yard, and even had a local florist interested in buying from her.

But then the natural disasters hit, forcing her to evacuate and destroying homes in neighboring areas. Her home was spared.

Her first “you pick” event was an invitation to people in Doney Park and Timberline, two communities northeast of Flag-

staff, Arizona, that had been

affected.

BELL TELLS NEIGHBORS

IT'S 'PICK-IT TIME'

One of Wilson's neighbors, Mary Walton, 70, has lived next door for 15 years, so she has seen the garden comfort residents and bring visitors smiles over the years.

"I've watched her grow every single one of these flowers from a little seed," Walton said, adding that her neighbor transformed her

home into a “secret garden,” even though it’s not so secret anymore.

Now, Walton says she hears the garden bell from her home across the street, usually pulled by excited children visiting the garden with their family members, which signals “it’s pick-it time!”

GARDEN BLOSSOMS

INTO SOMETHING MORE

Wilson's property is aptly called the Garden House on Butterfly Lane, a name stamped on the kraft paper used to wrap the bouquets.

Her neighbors help her run the events, which she promotes on social media. She says dozens of people come, including families with small children, students at nearby Northern Arizona University and travelers passing through the Grand Canyon state.

"When the flowers are ready, I invite people over," says Wilson.

"I've opened six times this year to have people come out," she adds. "That's a lot for me."

But watching visitors' reactions — a woman debating whether the yellow of some petals matches her living room, a young boy pointing out a bright orange flower to his mother — Wilson smiles and says, "How could I not do it?"

She and her friends and neighbors greet visitors with shears and wicker baskets, many collected from Goodwill, and send them into the garden with simple instructions: Cut low and take 15 stems.

The flowers are free, though visitors sometimes leave donations to help with the cost of keeping the garden growing.

APPRECIATING NATURE WHAT IT'S ABOUT

With fall's arrival, Wilson is getting ready to prune what's left of the plants, fertilize the soil, lay down some straw and netting, and wait out the wintry weather. She has bought cool-season seeds to plant in the spring so they are ready to be picked next summer.

Now, she says, she looks out her kitchen window each morning at a rose growing nearly 5 feet tall. She doesn't need to pick it, and will enjoy its presence until someone takes it home.

"Take the time to go outside. I just think that is so important. Put your hands in the dirt, pick a flower, look at the flower," she said. "It's a wonderful place to be."

Wait until plants are dormant to prune

Wait to prune deciduous shrubs such as this dogwood until the plants are entirely dormant, with all their leaves fallen. Dormant pruning time may come later in autumn than you are used to. BETH BOTTS/THE MORTON ARBORETUM

By Beth Botts

FOR THE CHICAGO

TRIBUNE

Are you planning to get some pruning done on an early October weekend? Put down those pruners. It's too soon.

“Shrubs and trees shouldn’t be pruned in fall until they are fully dormant,” said Sharon Yiesla, plant knowledge specialist in the Plant Clinic at The Morton Arboretum in Lisle. “That may not be for several weeks, in November or even December.”

Pruning before plants enter dormancy may stimulate them to sprout new growth. Those tender new green shoots, which will not have time to develop sturdy protective bark, may be damaged when the first really cold weather hits.

Avoiding that kind of harm is the reason our deciduous trees and shrubs — those that lose their leaves in fall — enter the sleep-like state of dormancy each autumn to wait out the harsh weather of winter. “Pruning at the wrong time defeats their self-protection,” Yiesla said.

How can you tell whether a plant is dormant? A tree or shrub that has lost all its leaves is usually in dormancy. To be safe, wait until most of the shrubs and trees in your neighborhood lose their leaves. "You'll know they've felt enough cold weather to reach a consensus that it's time to shut down," she said.

There's no safe date when you can assume trees and shrubs will be dormant. As our climate has changed, autumn has tended to be warmer and last longer. But it's also more volatile and less predictable, with wider swings in temperature and late warm spells. That may cause plants to delay

dormancy. "The calendar is less relevant now than the weather forecast," Yiesla said.

Watch the weather and pay attention to your plants to judge when you will safely be able to prune. In the meantime, the most useful thing you can do in the garden is water.

Plants need water all through the fall. Even after their leaves drop, their roots are still growing. Roots continue to grow as long as the soil is above about 45 degrees, and the soil takes much longer to cool down than the air does. “Even after you need a warm coat, roots may still be growing,” she said.

Fall rains are undependable and may not provide enough water to support root growth. Continue to check regularly to see if the top 2 inches of the soil feels moist. If it's dry, water deeply enough so that the water soaks down 4 or 5 inches.

Autumn watering does more than help roots. Evergreen trees and shrubs need to store plenty of water in their leaves and stems as well as their roots to resist drying out in the cold winter winds. Water them as necessary until the ground freezes.

“Making sure your trees and shrubs go into winter with enough moisture will set them up for good growth in spring,” Yiesla said.

For tree and plant advice, contact the Plant Clinic at The Morton Arboretum (630-719-2424, mortonarb.org/plant-clinic, or plantclinic@mortonarb.org). Beth Botts is a staff writer at the Arboretum.

A bed of lily-of-the-valley that recently died back. TIM JOHNSON/CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN

---

GARDEN Q&A

Anthracnose is not a fatal plant disease

By Tim Johnson

FOR THE CHICAGO

TRIBUNE

Q: My lily-of-the-valley ground cover appears to have died. I'm wondering what I did wrong. There are just a few leaves left and they have brown sections. Is there something that I should have done sooner or anything I can do now?

— Carrie Nichols, Grays-lake

lake

A: From your description, it sounds like your ground cover is showing anthracnose, which is a common disease caused by a fungus on lily-of-the-valley. It causes lesions that are often circular to oval-shaped and dark brown in color with purplish red margins. These spots can be $\frac{1}{2}$ -inch in diameter or larger and may fall out, exposing the veins in the leaves. Infected leaves can die prematurely. The bed of lily-of-the-valley in my garden recently died back with just a couple of diseased leaves left (like yours). My plants usually get anthracnose in late

summer and look tattered from the disease, but this is the first time the plants have completely died. I am not worried about the plants nor am I doing anything special to help them. This disease is not usually fatal, but it does weaken the plant. The number of flowers is often reduced the year after infection with anthracnose

Anthracnose will attack other plants in the garden too. It can cause brown spots that merge to form irregular dead areas on hostas that are in wet or overwatered areas. Coral bells may develop small brown spots on the leaves. Peonies get both anthracnose and botrytis. To make a precise identification, a lab would have to examine a culture from the affected plants. The diseases cause buds, flowers, leaves, and stems to die in spring and summer. Symptoms vary from plant to plant or even on the same plant depending on pathogen, host, time of infection, weather and so on. You may see large, irregular blotches on peony leaves at this time of year if a disease is present.

Anthracnose overwin-

ters on dead plant material,

so it is important to remove

and destroy diseased foli-

age in the fall when you

are doing clean-up. Badly

infected foliage should

be pruned out now and

discarded. Anthracnose

spores can blow for many

miles. Wet conditions in

the garden help promote

infection and the spread of

this disease, so site modifi-

cation to improve air circu-

lation and being careful

not to overwater will help

reduce the occurrence.

Protective fungicide appli-

cations made in spring as

the foliage emerges can be

beneficial in some situ-

tions.

For more plant advice, contact the Plant Information Service at the Chicago Botanic Garden at plantinfo@chicagobotanic.org. Tim Johnson is senior director of horticulture at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

Home listings tout views of gravestone rows

Leah Guadagnoli and Tim Sengenberger stand Aug. 9 among the headstones near their home in Hillsdale, New York. The gabled 19th-century former church adjoins the graves of about 170 people. TONY CENICOLA/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Cemetery residents

find advantages other

than quiet neighbors

By Eve M. Kahn

THE NEW YORK TIMES

Housing for living among the dead is a growing commodity, as inhabitable buildings within burial grounds are coming on the market. New residents report that the environs are surprisingly uplifting.

Waking up to views of gravestone rows can be a reminder to “live this day fully,” said Leah Guadagnoli, a culinary artist, farmer and florist in Hillsdale, New York. She and her fiancé, Tim Sengenberger, and a tabby cat named Señor Tuna share a gabled 19th-century former church, adjoining the final resting places of about 170 people. Guadagnoli has been told, “All the spirits here are peaceful.”

Lichens and mosses have sculpted the gray obelisks and slabs. "The stones become a part of nature," Guadagnoli said.

She has hosted banquets on the grounds, which are maintained by descendants of the deceased, and is planning the couple's wedding there. She has harvested local flora for her recipes, she explained. "Who doesn't love a graveyard violet cocktail?"

Sarah Gundle, a psychologist in New York City, said she found a sense of “calm and peacefulness” at her former church in western New Jersey on an acre of burial grounds. The eroded headstones bear inscriptions as poignant as “Infant Son.” As she wrote in an essay for Salon, living among grave sites can inspire compassion for “all things broken,” including oneself.

Gundle said she hesitated to approach mourners on the property — perhaps they preferred to grieve in silence? — but she has found that “mostly, they want to chat.” She and her family

have added pine groves, flower beds and handmade fairy cottages to the landscape. One visitor, who had buried many relatives there, dropped off a note thanking the new occupants for “respectful and neat caretaking.”

When the property was for sale a few years ago, it made headlines as a “house to die for;” with a “heavenly makeover” and some “grave surprises.” Such press and public attention, complete with puns, has become a trope for cemetery dwellers.

“We’re in an actually famous house,” said Kat Momenzadeh, a high school teacher in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania.

In 2025, she and her husband, Ed Choma, bought a 19th-century building, trimmed in gingerbread and arched over a driveway, that formerly served as a cemetery gatehouse. It is widely known, Momenzadeh said, as “the one with the hole in the middle.”

The building had also been used as a haunted house attraction, with a simulated guillotine in a bathroom.

The interior had deteriorated to the point that, Momenzadeh said, “The stairs were a little like taking your life in your hands.” HGTV ranked it as “the scariest house in America” and gave it a \$150,000 makeover.

When the couple and their two children explore the forested burial grounds, their usual routes pass a stone angel, marking the grave of a newborn named Gladys Dietz. "We always stop and say hi to Gladys," Momenzadeh said.

At night, scattered lights illuminate some headstones. "It looks like stars," she said.

Cemetery living has even begun sparking entre-

preneurship. Tombstone

Honey is a new small-batch

foodstuff harvested at

Paddington Old Cemetery in London, from a half-dozen beehives tended by Nicholas Horowitz, a co-founder of Founders Makers, a brand-building consultancy. He and his wife, Sophia Tran-Thomson, a journalist, and their son live at the cemetery's entryway in a Gothic former vicarage, renovated and expanded by the London architecture firm Studio Hallett Ike.

In a neighborhood dense with row houses, the couple's home has "a monastic-y style of calm," as if "the city dropped away," Horowitz said.

One past occupant was a rock band guitarist, suited to a spot where, Tran-Thomson noted, “you don’t have any neighbors to complain about the noise.”

Owls and foxes thrive among the graves for celebrities including Michael Bond, the creator of Paddington Bear (“Please look after this bear” is the epitaph). The house has

pointed arch windows, raw timber beams and textured plaster walls.

“We like that imperfect wobbly feel,” Tran-Thomson said. The couple installed a bathroom mirror, with sinuously eroded edges, that was found entombed in the yard.

Establishing temporary quarters in cemeteries has a long history, as Allison C. Meier, a writer whose specialties include grave sites and burial rituals, pointed out. Gilded Age mausoleums were furnished with tables, chairs, rugs and chandeliers.

"They were extensions of people's houses," Meier said. In one extreme example from around 1900, a widower in the Brooklyn borough of New York City spent his days inside his wife's tomb, stocked with her favorite housewares down to the cutlery.

The supply of graveside residences is increasing not only because religious and secular entities are selling off cemetery facilities, but also because homeowners are rediscovering the venerable practice of burying loved ones on their own properties. Within a generation those sites can be engulfed in weeds, and the tombstones may come as surprises to subsequent purchasers.

“History has shown us that these places just get lost,” said Ryan M. Seidemann, the executive director of the North American Death Care Regulators Association and the author of “Cemetery Protections in Urban Environments.”

Marion Duckworth Smith — who since the 1980s has tended the Lent-Riker-Smith Homestead in the Queens borough of New York City built in the 1650s

— combats vines creeping up the backyard tombstones for early Dutch settlers.

She has memorized the inscriptions, along the lines of “weep not for me my friends all dear, I am not dead but sleeping here.” Her own relatives sleep there, under 21st-century markers carved with bouquets.

She first saw the property in 1979, when her future husband, Michael Smith (who is now interred on-site), asked her during a date, “How would you like to see my cemetery?” She immediately felt as if the site “had been waiting for me,” she said.

Among her companions these days is a litter of kittens, rescued from under a mourners' bench carved with angels. Her team of volunteer maintainers includes an undertaker — he has assured her that “he would consider it an honor if he did my cremation,” Duckworth Smith said.

She added that she planned to safeguard the homestead posthumously from the position of a grave marked by a weeping angel. "I'm going to haunt anybody that comes along and undoes my good deeds."

BOOK

from Page B7

Annie Meyers-Shyer says she struggled to choose a fabric palette for the formal living room furniture. PHILIP CHEUNG/THE NEW YORK TIMES PHOTOS

A renovation project at her California home gave Meyers-Shyer the chance to showcase her own style — as seen in the dining room here — and share it with a growing audience.

Meyers-Shyer described her Instagram account and book, which pairs the story of her renovation with more actionable design tips, as “part useful, part beautiful.” She said her design sensibility had been somewhat shaped by a career in the fashion industry, where she worked as a public relations executive before becoming a stay-at-home mother to her two sons.

The years she spent with her parents on set also influenced her vision. Meyers' movie interiors — always lived-in and warm, yet seemingly specific to each character — are the subject of fevered fandom.

Meyers-Shyer offers more actionable inspiration than her mother's film sets, often answering follower questions directly, but she draws from her mother's philosophy in her approach to home. And there are real similarities between the cozy, beige-leaning aesthetics of both mother and daughter.

“I got to see and have a real firsthand look at what these sets were that they were creating and how they represented the people in the movies,” Meyers-Shyer said. “I remember understanding how a home really reflects the person who lives in it and how you can really illustrate that through your choices in the house.”

Although Meyers-Shyer said she set out to “preserve the charm and character of the original architecture,” in her own home renovation, she also wanted it to meet her family’s needs.

Her team completely updated the HVAC, plumbing and electric; broke down several walls to open up the layout; and also raised the ceiling in some parts. They transformed one bedroom into a laundry room, and removed a pantry and powder room to expand the kitchen. Much of her house's design is new — new couches, new paint, new bamboo window shades

— but it also incorporates Meyers-Shyer's family

history, including ample art inherited from her parents.

"If you came to my house, and I wasn't here, you would walk by and be like, 'I can tell you a lot about her,'

she said.

Meyers-Shyer has said she obsessed over every detail and small decision. In her book, she describes how she struggled to choose between three different fabric palettes for the living room furniture. She jokes about keeping it off limits to her sons after finally getting it “perfect.”

Meyers-Shyer avoids the “gatekeeping” she said she experienced when she first started dipping her toes into the interior design world.

"I would DM a designer and say, 'I really love that lamp,' she said. "It would be crickets. I wouldn't hear from anybody."

Unlike many designers and influencers, she is not financially dependent on being hired out to employ those heavily guarded trade secrets. Meyers-Shyer said she had received many offers since her account blew up – for TV shows, for designing other homes — but had turned most of them down. (However she recently announced product collaborations with Target and a window treatment company, Everhem.)

In “This Oak House,” Meyers-Shyer shares the floor plans of her home, pictures of the living room painting she inherited from her father and even a family recipe for fudge. She also offers advice on things like which paint sheen to select for a ceiling and how to style a bookshelf to appeal to readers just looking for small upgrades.

Like many influencers, Meyers-Shyer is incredibly skilled at withholding the intimate details of her real life. She never posts photos of her sons. She never gets political. She never reveals who is coming over for one of the summer parties she gives tips on throwing.

But as her following has grown, she has expanded from sharing only her home's interiors to other lifestyle recommendations: favorite podcasts, do-it-yourself centerpieces, recipes. She is private, but what makes it onto her Instagram is genuine, Meyers-Shyer said.

The average follower may not be able to replicate her home, but at least they can see it on their screens.

What to watch THURSDAY

October 8, 2026

All times Central. Start times can vary based on cable/satellite provider. Confirm times on your on-screen guide.

---

Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage

CBS, 7 p.m. ■ Season Premiere

The Young Sheldon spinoff is back for Season 3 with “Feminine Wiles and Some Tire Thing in Lubbock.” Tensions rise when Mandy (Emily Osment) and the family side against Georgie (Montana Jordan) in his fight with Mary (returning guest star Zoe Perry).

---

Scrabble

The CW, 7 p.m.

Contestants hope their strong wordplay can help navigate them toward the final round and the \$10,000 prize in the new episode “X Marks the Bonus Square.” Craig Ferguson hosts.

---

Hell's Kitchen

FOX, 7 p.m.

After an intense dinner final, the teams get a break with a day full of waterslides and burger sliders. The fun soon turns into a fierce slider stakeout competition judged by Paul Wahlberg, cofounder of Wahlburgers.

CBS

---

Eternally Yours

The creators of Ghosts sink their teeth into another comedy winner, hilariously sharing modern-day family life for a coven of vampires. After meeting her passionate vampire lover Charles (Ed Weeks) in 1526 Austria, mortal Liz (Allegra Edwards) begged him to turn her into a vampire so they could spend eternity together. Well, be careful of what you wish for, because living with someone for 20 years – let alone 500 – certainly takes some patience, and Liz has had just about enough. Thankfully, their extended coven that includes their daughter Emma (Helen J Shen) and trusted fitness-guru friend Jesse (Parker Young), along with his twin sons and elderly, non-vampire wife Phyllis (Rose Ab-doo), provides plenty of distractions in their present-day Seattle habitat.

---

Elsbeth CBS, 8 p.m. ■ Season Premiere

Elsbeth (Carrie Preston) crosses paths with renowned marriage counselor Serena Collyer (guest star Nicole Scherzinger), whose cool demeanor hides a murderous and messy passion. Gloria Reuben also reprises her guest role as Claudia Payne in the Season 4 premiere “Crazy in Love.”

The CW, 8 p.m.

---

Trivial Pursuit

A world traveler explores the six iconic Trivial Pursuit categories in hopes of winning \$20,000 in the new episode “On the Road Again.” LeVar Burton hosts.

---

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit NBC, 8 p.m. ■ Season Premiere

Mariska Hargitay returns as Capt. Olivia Benson for a heart-pounding 28th season of the longest-running scripted primetime drama series in television history. J. Smith-Cameron (Succession) has a recurring role this season as jury consultant Gwen Sharpe.

---

Cupertino

This new legal drama comes from the power producers of The Good Wife and Elsbeth. Set in the heart of Silicon Valley, the drama follows a lawyer (Mike Colter, Evil) who is being cheated out of his stock options by his former employer, a tech startup. Refusing to back down, he joins forces with another recently fired attorney (Rachel Keller) to represent those taken advantage of by the tech elite and help them fight back in a high-stakes battle against the Goliaths controlling Silicon Valley. Also stars Busy Philipps.

---

CATCH A CLASSIC Creepy Cinema: Desperate Survival TCM, beginning at 7 p.m.

20TH CENTURY FOX

Two very different groups fight to make it through impossible circumstances tonight. First, Jane Fonda and Michael Sarrazin enter a grueling Depression-era dance marathon in They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969). Next, Alfred Hitchcock showcases the action almost entirely at sea in 1944's Lifeboat (pictured), where survivors of a torpedoed ship pull a German sailor aboard their small boat. Both films trap strangers together and show just how quickly fear and desperation can change people as they struggle to survive.

---

Law & Order

NBC, 9 p.m. ■ Season Premiere

The venerable crime drama starring Hugh Dancy, Tony Goldwyn, Maura Tierney and David Ajala is back for a 26th season. James Badge Dale (Hightown) is joining the main cast, while Reid Scott, who starred as Senior Detective Vincent Riley, appears in a few episodes this season to wrap his character's story.

From the editors of TV Weekly and tvinsider.com

---

MOVIES YOU'LL LOVE

'The Watch'

MELINDA SUE GORDON

Thor: Ragnarok (2017, Action)

Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston

FX, 5 p.m.

The Watch (2012, Comedy)

Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn FXM,

5:05 p.m.

Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015, Children) Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg NICK, 6 p.m.

The Devil's Rejects (2005, Horror)

Sid Haig, Bill Moseley IFC, 6 p.m.

The Rock (1996, Action) Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage SYFY, 6 p.m.

Oppenheimer (2023, Biography)

Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt USA,

7 p.m.

The Copycat Killer (2026, Suspense) Melissa O'Neil, Greyston Holt LMN, 7 p.m.

First Sunday (2008, Comedy) Ice Cube, Katt Williams BET, 8 p.m.

The Mummy Returns (2001, Adventure) Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz Paramount, 8 p.m.

3 From Hell (2019, Horror) Bill Moseley, Sid Haig IFC, 8:30 p.m.

Aliens (1986, Science fiction)

Sigourney Weaver, Carrie Henn FX,

9 p.m.

Night Swim (2024, Horror) Wyatt Russell, Kerry Condon SYFY, 9 p.m.

Black and Blue (2019, Suspense)

Naomie Harris, Tyrese Gibson VH1,

9:30 p.m.

Carrie (2013, Horror) Chloë Grace Moretz, Julianne Moore AMC, 10 p.m.

StayTuned | 500+MOVIES What2Watch All Month Long!

IN EVERY ISSUE!

\$3.99/Month

CALL: 888-899-9992

Mention code: tune1

Hartnett hard to pin down with range of satisfying film, TV roles

Josh Hartnett, who stars as Jeremy Crawford, attends a Sept. 24 event for “Verity” in London. JEFF SPICER/GETTY

By Neal Justin

MINNESOTA STAR TRIBUNE

For years, Josh Hartnett's most prominent role was Hollywood hunk, melting hearts in “The Virgin Suicides” and “Pearl Harbor,” making People magazine’s “World’s Most Beautiful” list, dating Scarlett Johansson and Amanda Seyfried.

In his youth, fans talked more about his smoldering looks than his abilities as an actor.

Getting older has paid off.

In the past couple years, Hartnett, 48, has been getting rave reviews for small but pivotal roles in FX's "The Bear" and the Oscar-winning film "Oppenheimer." In "Verity," now in theaters, he plays a Hitchcockian innocent torn between Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson. In "Below," a Netflix series now streaming, he's a Newfoundland fisherman more comfortable battling a sea creature than carrying on a conversation.

They're not the sexiest roles of his career, but they may be among his most satisfying.

This interview with Hartnett has been edited for clarity and length.

Q: Is it a coincidence that these projects are being released at the same time? A: I planned it this way. I said, "Can I please have two things come out at the same time?" No, obviously not. In the past, I would have been weirded out by this kind of thing. But I think it's cool. They're such different projects. I'm shooting really great stuff that I'm really happy with.

Q: It shows off versatility. How important is that to you right now?

A: I've always been trying to show off my range, but I wasn't given the opportunity as much when I was younger. But as you get older, people trust you more with stranger, more diverse characters. Or they have with me, anyways.

Q: I get the sense you were never entirely comfortable filling the part of Hollywood heartthrob. Was it a burden?

A: It's a double-edged sword. It can be very, very helpful in getting things made. But it can also pigeonhole you. I'm super lucky that right now I'm being offered all different kinds of roles. It's hard to pin me down right now, so it's a good time.

Q: You have been taking non-leading man roles in things like "The Bear" and "Oppenheimer." That must drive your agents crazy. A: No, no, no. I think the people I work with now understand what I want to do with my career and are supportive. I don't live in LA, so I can't be taking all the meetings. I have a family to raise.

Q: Do you think living in

Minnesota and England has influenced how you've mapped out your career? A: You can't quantify how important it is that I grew up where I grew up. Being from the Twin Cities and having no relationship with Hollywood allowed me to see it for what it was and not get too caught up in it. Now, my family is the reason I do anything. If a film or TV show isn't good enough to merit time away, I never take it. It's made things clearer in a lot of ways. And when I am working, I have time to focus on more than getting the kids to school on time.

Q: When the hits weren't coming, did you ever think about doing something other than acting?

A: I've always looked at other things to do. I still do. I have lots of good hobbies. Did I ever think about giving up acting? Not really. I took some time off to raise the kids. The other times people thought I took off, I was still making films. They just didn't see them.

Crossword

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73

By Stella Zawistowski. © 2026 Tribune Content Agency, LLC. All rights reserved.

ACROSS

1 Low-heeled shoe

5 Most corrupt

10 Find-the-exit puzzle

14 "That hurts!"

15 French goodbye

16 Very eager

17 Walk through water

18 L.A.'s region, for short

19 Karaoke tune

20 Fully intelligible

22 Where you live

24 "Wait one \_!"

26 Miles \_ gallon

27 Incentive to act

32 Cattle catcher

36 Coffee dispenser

37 Redeemed for money

40 Better \_ nothing

41 Yellow-green apple: 2 wds.

44 Positively state

45 Spit

46 SSW's opposite: Abbr.

47 Make another knot in

49 Low-fat protein: 2 wds.

51 Manhattan school: Abbr.

53 Train depot: Abbr.

54 Elton John biopic

60 Soda utensil

64 Competent

65 "Roof of the World" region

67 Ripped

68 Rain really hard

69 Include, as a link

70 National Mall trees

71 Notices

72 Peruses

73 "The \_\_\_\_ is history"

DOWN

1 Rooster or hen

2 Hawaiian feast

3 "Thunderstruck" band

4 Belief in God

5 Used to be

6 Funky smell

7 Sushi ingredient

8 Sail the seven \_

9 Dutch flower

10 Luxury Italian auto brand

11 Mary Kay competitor

12 \_oxide (type of sunscreen)

13 Sharp part of a blade

21 Tie in tennis

23 Marina\_\_ Rey

25 Large families

27 Tea sweetener

28 Cache of treasure

29 Arm of the sea

30 MyPlate agency: Abbr.

31 Snail's protection

33 Gleamed

34 Steam bath

35 Beginning

38 Designer Tahari

39 Opera stars

42 Tipplers

43 Leans to one side

10/8/26

Solutions

48 Look over

50 Make a

difference

52 Say aloud

54 Hip-hop songs

55 Bassoon relative

56 Hint

57 Silent

performer

58 Band from

Sweden

59 Require

61 Part to play

62 Upper limbs

63 Sunset's

direction

66 NFL scores:

Abbr.

www.500p.com (2005) M. Mill. Debided by Jardini UMAI Sondation

---

Horoscopes

If October 8 is your birthday: Saying 'good-bye' to what's gone before in 2026 will probably be a relief, more good is likely to come along for the remainder of the year. Your clarity and insights could be top tier now, note down anything and everything. If asked

to join anything belief-based, consider carefully beforehand. Aries (March 21-April 19): Today could be a powerful day for a relationship but only with this caveat: Don't begin anything new that you want to last.

Taurus (April 20-May 20): Since tomorrow's day score slides below zero, today's the last decent day of this business week. Do it today or wait until mid-next week for better odds. Gemini (May 21-June 20): Creativity could remain enhanced for several more days but the quality of the inspiration might not continue the whole time.

Cancer (June 21-July 22): Home and roots can provide the foundation from which you can soar. If you didn't get a solid childhood, you can still build a strong base for yourself, it's never too late. Foundation is the first step to freedom.

self-work to shift frequency enough to trust and be magnetic. Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): When you finally land on your truest presentation of self, anxieties fall away. Alignment is like that — when you're truly there, doubts can't continue.

Libra (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Fears chase you if you run but can dissolve under the clear light of inner attention and scrutiny. When you see the truth of who you are, you can begin to live in accordance with your authenticity.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): A brief concern about a friend or about a friendship could be fading, which could be a relief. When you unearth a new understanding, take time to see how its full effect ripples outward.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): When you bring your best self to something, inner gratification can be the reward even if others don't see your contribution.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): If an online organization or social channel stirs your fears, it's not helping you and it could be manipulating you. Fearful people are easy to control.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Financial decisions made today could be overly influenced by assumptions or anxiety, and with stars sinking tomorrow also, a money move is not recommended now. Stage for later this month.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20): Clarity is the first step. Waiting for right timing is the next step. While you may see the solution, wait a few weeks to roll it out.

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— Magi Helena, Tribune Content Agency

The Argyle Sweater By Scott Hilburn

Bliss By Harry Bliss

"You're the reason I never know if I'm a good cook."

---

Bridge

Both vulnerable, South deals

Grand Avenue By Mike Thompson

We were not given the auction in today's deal, only that the final contract was four spades by South. The auction above is a possibility. West in today's deal, from an important tournament in Sweden, was Swedish expert Peter

The bidding: | South | West | North | East | 1♣* | Pass | 1♦** | Pass | 1NT | Pass | 2♥ | Pass | 2♠ | Pass | 3NT | Pass | 4♠ | All pass | \*Artificial, at least 16 points

\*\*Artificial, 0-7 points

Opening lead: Ace of ♥

Bertheau. The defense started with two high hearts and Bertheau paused to consider the rest of the deal. The most likely road to success for the defense would be for Bertheau to get two trump tricks. Bertheau decided that was not likely. Should Bertheau continue safely with another

heart, he would expect the expert South player to ruff, cash the ace of spades, and then lead a spade to dummy's 10 for a routine safety play to avoid two trump losers if Bertheau had a trump stack. Nothing realistic could be done if East had four trumps to the queen-jack.

At trick three, Bertheau shifted brilliantly to the king of clubs! Declarer was convinced that this was a singleton and he lost interest in any safety plays. South wanted to draw the trumps right away without risking a club ruff. He took dummy's ace of clubs and banged down the ace and king of trumps. Bertheau took two trump tricks to defeat the contract. Beautiful play!

Baby Blues By Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott

Zits By Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman

Mr. Boffo By Joe Martin

Frazz By Jef Mallett

Classic Peanuts By Charles Schulz

Pickles By Brian Crane

©2006 Brian Cross, dirt. by Andrew McNeil Syndication

Dick Tracy By Charles Ettinger and Mike Curtis

Animal Crackers By Mike Osbun

Prickly City By Marshall Ramsey

2010 MARSHALL, TEMBER DISTR. BY ANKINS ACMEIL FOR ETR

10/8 PRICE:\$CITY@EMAIL.COM

(10-8) ©2005 Steve Kolen & Jell Parker, Dist. by King Features Syndicate, Inc.

Dustin By Steve Kelley and Jeff Parker

For Better or for Worse By Lynn Johnston

I HAD A LOT OF TIME TO THINK WHILE I WAS HOME THIS SUMMER, WEED.

Blondie By Dean Young and John Marshall

10-08 www.fborfw.com

© 2025 by King Features Sencorix, Inc. World Rights reserved

www.Brande.com

0.2025 (m)omster Pollutors Inc. (the following Entity Code

Hägar the Horrible By Chris Browne

©2026 by King Features Syndicate, Inc. World rights reserved.

Mutts By Patrick McDonnell

WuMo By Mikael Wulff and Anders Morgenthaler

Max had accidentally stuck the lapel pin through his nipple

Sherman's Lagoon By Jim Toomey

Brewster Rockit: Space Guy! By Tim Rickard

©2005 Thune-Context Agency, LLC. All rights reserved 10/08 www.cscnics.com/broadenfield.bawarck@bwpco.com

Broom-Hilda By Russell Myers

Unscramble the four Jumbles, one letter per square, to form four words. Then arrange the circled letters to form the surprise answer, as suggested by this cartoon.

---

Sudoku 1234

10/8 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 9 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 7 | 4 | 8 | 7 | 9 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 9 | 6 | 9 | 3 | 8 | 2 | 6 | 9 | 1 | 8 | The image contains a graphical symbol: a black triangle above it and a horizontal line above it. There is no text, mathematical formulas, tables, or figures present in the image. | 1 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 9 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 5 | 9 | 3 | 6 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 9 | 8 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 8 | 5 | 4 | 9 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 9 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 8 | 7 | 9 | 1 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 8 | 7 | 3 | 9 | 8 | 9 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 7 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 9 | 4 | 1 | 8 | 5 | Complete the grid so each row, column and 3-by-3 box in bold borders contains every digit 1 to 9.

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Wednesday's

By The Mepham Group © 2026. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. All rights reserved.

---

Jumble

---

Answer here

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Wednesday's answers

Jumbles: TRACT CHOMP VACUUM JACKAL

Answer: After getting into an accident, his new sedan

By David L. Hoyt and Jeff Knurek. © 2026 Tribune Content Agency, LLC. All rights reserved. PlayJumble.com

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Crossword

10/8

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Across

1 Hydrocortisone target

5 Glissade garb

9 "Wanna hear a secret?"

13 Animated blue tang of film

14 Heavy burden

15 Behind schedule

16 Christ the Redeemer veneer material

18 Gets lawyers involved

19 Sound heard around a crib

20 Places that are all fun and games

22 Verbal finger wag

24 Hoppy brew with a low ABV

27 Cut with an axe

28 Tree in the name of a Bay Area city

29 Palindromic family member

30 Line of symmetry

Wednesday's solution

By Rebecca Goldstein. Edited by Patti Varol. © 2026 Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

32 Palindromic family member

34 Part of a routine

37 "Why must you overcomplicate everything?," or what can be said about 16-, 24-, 49-, and 58-Across

41 Perceived

42 Instrument in a "Baker Street" riff

43 Body image?

44 Brain scan letters

46 Spider's spinning

48 5G predecessor

49 Contents of a cheese pull, often

53 "You know it!"

54 Surf shop?

55 "Well, whaddaya know!"

57 \_ Whip: frozen pineapple treat

58 Genre originally known as the West Coast sound

63 College town in Iowa

64 Figs. that may be delayed by weather

65 Territory "where America's day begins"

66 Lean to one side

67 Glum

68 Blows it

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Down

1 Cards at a casino?

2 Also

3 Act the class clown

4 Prefix with -dermic or -thermic

5 Little one

6 Spanish one

7 Bluefin, yellowfin, and blackfin

8 Password preceder

9 Texting etiquette?

10 Riyadh resident

11 Pricey

12 Thompson of "Hedda"

17 Not great, not terrible

21 Take the path of least resistance, say

22 Pad see ew cuisine

23 Suggestive messages

25 Only cardinal direction not in a state name

26 Funny sketches

31 Most susceptible to collecting dust?

33 Prayer \_\_

35 Four or five, maybe

36 Ramble on

38 Lakers legend Shaquille

39 Rink leap

40 Lends color

45 Lost colour

47 22-Down currency

49 Wearable prize

50 Some indigenous Mexicans

51 Diamond chain

52 Muse of poetry

56 Spur to action

59 Murder-ous cry

60 Sales channel

61 Vehicle that may be self-driving

62 Tour de France distances, informally

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Trivia Bits

Early in their careers, Demi Moore and John Stamos were regulars on which daytime soap?

A) "All My Children"

B) "General Hospital"

C) "One Life to Live"

D) "The Young and the Restless"

Wednesday's answer: University of Georgia.

© 2026 Leslie Elman. Dist. by Creators.com

---

Jumble Crossword

ACROSS

DOWN

CLUE | 1. Bodily harm | RYUNIJ | 5. Handmade work | FCTRA | 6. One in possession | NWEOR | 7. Break free | CPSAEE | 1. Earnings | NCIOEM | 2. Envious | LSOEUAJ | 3. Domed chamber | DTNUROA | 4. Very intense | CFREIE | How to play - Complete the crossword puzzle by looking at the clues and unscrambling the answers. When the puzzle is complete, unscramble the circled letters to solve

CLUE: He was 15 when his first stand-up comedy performance bombed at a Toronto club.

©2026 Tribune Content Agency, LLC & Hoyt Designs. All Rights Reserved.

ANSWERKS: IA-Injury 5A-Craft 6A-Owner 7A-Escape 1D-Income 2D-Jelaloue 3D-Rotunada 4D-Fierce BJ-lim Carrey

By David L. Hoyt.

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SUDOKU | 1 | 6 | 7 | 4 | 7 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 9 | 7 | 2 | 6 | 9 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 2 | 8 | 4 | 7 | 3 | © 2022 The Mepham Group. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency. All rights reserved.

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BOGGLE

---

Level 1 2 3 4

Complete the grid so each row, column and 3-by-3 box (in bold borders) contains every digit from 1 to 9. For strategies on solving Sudoku, visit sudoku.org.uk. | 5 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 2 | 9 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 9 | 7 | 8 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 8 | 9 | 7 | 6 | 8 | 9 | 7 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 9 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 7 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 8 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 9 | 3 | 8 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 2 | 9 | 5 | 4 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 12/22/22

INSTRUCTIONS: Find as many words as you can by linking letters up, down, side-to-side and diagonally, writing words on a blank sheet of paper. You may only use each letter box once within a single word. Play with a friend and compare word finds, crossing out common words.

ABYSS ROYAL LOYAL LAYER DRIVER | BOGGLE' POINT SCALE | YOUR BOGGLE' RATING | 3 letters = 1 point | 151+ = Champ | 4 letters = 2 points | 101-150 = Expert | 5 letters = 3 points | 61-100 = Pro | 6 letters = 4 points | 31 - 60 = Gamer | 7 letters = 6 points | 21 - 30 = Rookie | 8 letters = 10 points | 11 - 20 = Amateur | 9+ letters = 15 points | 0 - 10 = Try again | BOGGLE is a trademark of Hasbro, Inc. 6-2-25 © 2025 Hasbro, Inc. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved www.bogglebrainbusters.com

Boggle' BrainBusters Bonus

We put special brain-busting words into the grid of letters. Can you find them?

Find AT LEAST FIVE FIVE-LETTER WORDS WITH "Y" IN THE MIDDLE in the grid of letters.

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WordWheel

Insert the missing letter to complete an eight-letter word reading clockwise or counterclockwise.

MAXIMZE

©2024 Knight Features. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency. 6/24

---

WORD SEARCH

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Wordsearch: E words

1375

Can you find all the words hidden in the grid? Read backwards or forwards, up or down, or diagonally. The words will always be in a straight line. Cross them off the list as you find them. | E | D | U | I | A | V | X | W | U | S | Y | U | E | E | P | C | G | K | L | M | C | R | M | L | I | A | S | L | Y | E | V | N | Q | O | F | Q | E | E | L | E | V | A | T | O | R | E | Q | J | X | O | H | Y | E | J | M | M | U | D | M | C | Z | N | Q | B | A | Y | Z | U | H | J | P | Y | E | I | E | L | E | C | T | R | I | C | J | R | E | G | O | F | I | E | N | F | H | O | J | W | B | Z | D | O | O | Z | L | H | H | J | S | F | T | R | M | J | N | L | K | M | T | R | W | A | D | Y | L | F | O | F | A | E | V | Y | A | Q | E | M | E | R | G | E | N | C | Y | H | D | O | S | S | J | E | I | G | H | T | E | Q | E | W | H | E | A | G | E | R | E | Q | U | Y | C | J | N | P | N | M | Z | H | Q | D | Z | P | J | T | M | L | Z | E | E | E | A | B | T | E | M | P | L | O | Y | T | T | H | O | P | E | M | X | C | M | T | I | L | B | K | E | N | E | R | G | Y | T | S | X | V | S | D | H | T | R | B | K | G | L | F | E | D | U | B | I | I | E | E | E | I | P | O | E | R | G | I | Y | H | H | D | P | Y | O | J | L | E | L | N | C | R | A | L | A | T | T | T | A | W | I | F | N | P | B | F | D | H | X | B | E | M | P | I | R | E | E | L | T | T | C | N | O | Y | E | G | M | G | E | M | E | A | E | N | J | O | Y | I | P | Q | W | L | R | E | E | E | E | U | E | S | E | N | G | I | N | E | EAGER

EARLY

EARTH

ECHO

EDGE

EDIT

EFFORT

EIGHT

EITHER

ELBOW

ELDER

ELECTRIC

ELEMENT

ELEVATOR

ELEVEN

EMAIL

EMBARK

EMERGENCY

EMOTION

EMPIRE

EMPLOY

EMPTY

ENERGY

ENGINE

ENJOY

ENOUGH

ENTER

ENTIRE

EPISODE

ESCAPE

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TV CROSSWORD

---

by Jacqueline E. Mathews

Created by Jacqueline E. Mathews

5/15/22

ACROSS

1 \_\_ Lauria of “CSI: Vegas”

5 Actress Leoni

8 Sitcom about a deacon

9 “\_\_ Days”

12 Dad on “7 Little Johnstons”

13 Extreme

14 Haughtiness

15 “Chicago \_\_”

16 Cereal grain

18 \_\_ tai; rum cocktail

19 “Ticket to \_\_”; Beatles song

20 Actor Katz

21 “\_\_ Hand Luke”; Paul Newman movie

23 “\_\_ Family Robinson”; Disney film

24 Meara or Murray

25 Notices

26 Wyman & Pauley

28 Lois \_; “Smallville” role

29 Perón & Gabor

30 “An American \_”; film about Fievel

32 Crime lab evidence

©2022 Tribune Content Agency, LLC 5/15/22 All Rights Reserved.

35 Fraternity letter

36 "Ulee's \_\_"; Peter Fonda movie

37 Wallach & Marienthal

38 "As Good as \_\_"; Nicholson film

40 O'Neil of "The Wonder Years"

41 Greene of "Bonanza"

42 Center of the alphabet

43 \_\_ up; disgusted

44 Boys

---

DOWN

1 Actress Bello

2 Sitcom for Ana Gasteyer

3 Certain bills

4 Explosive letters

5 "Are You \_\_, Chelsea?"

6 Wasp nest site

7 King Kong, for one

10 2022 John Ortiz series

11 "The Wonder \_"

12 Bagpiper's cap

13 Caesar, for one

15 Manicurist's need

17 "... the season to be jolly..."

19 Reagan & Howard

20 Dr. \_ Hunt; "Grey's Anatomy" role

22 White Monopoly bills

23 " Team"

25 Went down a fire pole

26 " \_ Pilot"; John Wayne film

27 To no\_; fruitlessly

30 Carried

31 Pacino & Roker

33 De\_; actor Robert's kin

34 "Just \_ suspected!"

36 Kelly or Autry

37 Actress Samms

39 ...DDE, JFK, LBJ, RMN, ...

40 " Rise"

JUMBLE

ARROW WORDS

©2022 Tribune Content Agency, LLC All Rights Reserved.

Answer here:

---

THAT SCRAMBLED WORD GAME By David L. Hoyt and Jeff Knurek

Now arrange the circled letters to form the surprise answer, as suggested by the above cartoon.

The image contains a sequence of five identical circles arranged in a row, each circle is enclosed within a rectangle. There is no text or mathematical content to process.

Jumbles: AVOID EAGLE GOVERN MOTIVE Answer: People thought Mary Shelley's new Frankenstein character was a — NOVEL IDEA

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6/22/24

KIDNEWS FUN & GAMES

PUZZLE TIME Spot 5 differences

Sports

PAGE 1 | SECTION C | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2026 | CHICAGOTRIBUNE.COM

ALDS GAME 3 GUARDIANS 9. WHITE SOX 3

White Sox first baseman Munetaka Murakami strikes out in the seventh inning against the Guardians in Game 3 of their AL Division Series on Wednesday at Rate Field in Chicago. CHRIS SWEDA/CHICAGO TRIBUNE PHOTOS

Party put on hold

Rate Field was ready for a clincher, but got a clunker

Sox lose for 1st time this postseason, fail to sweep

---

Paul Sullivan IN THE WAKE OF THE NEWS

Whether it was called new Comiskey Park, the Cell, the Rate or just Sox Park, the ballpark at the corner of 35th Street and Shields Avenue has been unloved over most of its 35-year existence.

Derided as the “Ball Mall” after opening in 1991, it eventually underwent a series of changes to improve the game-day atmosphere for Chicago White Sox

games, including lopping off the top rows of the upper deck, turning the seats from light blue to green and allowing tailgating in the parking lots.

It still wasn't as beloved as old Comiskey, but it was home.

And now, with owner-in-waiting Justin Ishbia planning to build a new ballpark in the South Loop, the end days of Rate Field are probably at hand. Eventually we'll have a new park with water taxi service and all the modern amenities, perhaps turning the Rate into a ghost town unless it gets a new tenant.

But on days like Wednesday,

See SULLIVAN on Page C3

White Sox third baseman Miguel Vargas reacts after grounding out with the bases loaded to end the sixth inning Wednesday.

AL DIVISION SERIES

By LaMond Pope

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

The White Sox were aiming to party on Wednesday in front of their home fans.

But the Cleveland Guardians had other ideas.

The Guardians scored four runs in the third inning on the way to defeating the Sox 9-3 in Game 3 of the American League Division Series in front of a sellout crowd of 40,590 at Rate Field.

Jo Adell had the big hit in the inning, driving in three runs with a triple to help the Guardians fight off elimination. Game 4 is scheduled for Thursday at Rate Field with the Sox leading the best-of-five series 2-1.

tru TV and HBO Max

Game 1: White Sox 3, Guardians 0

Game 2: White Sox 4, Guardians 3

Game 3: Guardians 9, White Sox 3

Game 4: Thursday at Rate Field

\*Game 5: Saturday in Cleveland

\*if necessary

Sox pitchers issued 10 walks while Sox hitters struck out 19 times on Wednesday.

"We've been in tough spots where we haven't played our best

See SOX on Page C2

BEARS

Bagent says calling Lambeau trip just another game ‘just wouldn’t be true’

UP NEXT

By Phil Thompson

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

As a backup with 14 NFL games under his belt, Bears quarterback Tyson Bagent has faced the Minnesota Vikings four times and the Detroit Lions once.

But he never had been called to duty against the Bears' chief rival in the NFC North, the Green Bay Packers — until now.

And Sunday's game is at Lambeau Field, which has been a house of

Bears at Packers

Noon Sunday,

Fox-32

horrors for the Bears most of this century, including 15 losses in the last 18 trips.

“You go into each week the exact same as Wednesday, Thursday, Friday getting the exact plan down, being locked in, taking it extremely (seriously),” Bagent said. “But to say this is just like any game just wouldn't be true. This is one of the greatest rivalries in all of sports.

"It's easy for the fans to get up for, easy for us to get up for, so it will certainly be a different feel out there."

Bagent has started two road games, both in 2023 and neither against a division opponent (Los Angeles Chargers and New Orleans Saints) or in a stadium where the weather can be

See BEARS on Page C2

Bears quarterback Tyson Bagent runs the offense against the Jets in the fourth quarter Sunday at Soldier Field. BRIAN CASSELLA/CHICAGO TRIBUNE | Team | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday | Monday | | BEARS | @GB|noon|Fox-32 | WHITE SOX | CLE | 4 or 7 p.m. | TBS | @CLE (if nec.) | 4 or 7 p.m. | TBS | BULLS | MEM (exh.) | 7 p.m. | CHSN | @DEN (exh.)8 p.m. | CHSN, ESPN | BLACKHAWKS | @NYI | 6:30 p.m. | CHSN | CAR | 6 p.m. | CHSN | FIRE | NYC | 1:30 p.m. | Apple TV | STARS | Next game | Oct. 18 vs. SEA | BEARS BY THE NUMBERS

Why Keenum got QB ‘win’ instead of Bagent

Bears quarterback Case Keenum tosses to running back D'Andre Swift on the first play from scrimmage against the Jets in the first quarter Sunday at Soldier Field. BRIAN CASSELLA/CHICAGO TRIBUNE

By Sean Hammond

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Case Keenum is 2-0 this season. At least according to the stat keepers.

Bears coach Ben Johnson elected to have the 38-year-old veteran take the first snap of the game Sunday against the New York Jets. Tyson Bagent also was on the field, lined up at wide receiver, so both quarterbacks technically started.

But with Keenum taking the first snap and pitching the football to running back D'Andre Swift, he technically was the starting quarterback - and that gave Keenum the quarterback "win."

Bagent played the remainder of the game at quarterback and threw for 268 yards in the 23-12 victory over the Jets. Keenum didn't play another snap.

Johnson seemed to take exception to the fact that multiple reports over the weekend had said Bagent would start at quarterback, even though the coach hadn't publicly announced a starter.

"I got all these memos saying that Tyson was starting before I ever made an announcement, so I wanted to get Case out there first time," Johnson said after the game. "It was like his ceremonial first pitch out there, handing off the torch."

It's a quaint sentiment, but there's not usually a hitter standing in the batter's box for the ceremonial first pitch.

It also cost Bagent a win next to his name. To be sure, a quarterback's win-loss record is not a perfect stat. This is a sport with 22 moving parts on every play, and the quarterback never plays on defense. A QB win isn't even an official stat. You won't find it anywhere on NFL.com when digging through quarterback statistics.

Johnson, when alerted to the fact that Keenum would get the win, said: "Good for him. I think the team gets credited for a win." Fair enough.

WHAT'S IN A WIN. ANYWAY?

Elias Sports Bureau has been the NFL's official statistician since 1961. Elias gave the win to Keenum, despite the fact he never played another snap.

Reached via email, Elias said this about its decision: “Wins/losses isn’t any kind of an official QB stat like it is in baseball. The football version is pretty simple. The QB lined up behind center for the first offensive play of the game is considered the starter and would get credited with the decision.”

Pitching wins and losses were among baseball's most prominent stats for decades, although they have fallen out of favor in today's analytics-driven sports world and as teams have turned to their bullpens earlier in games.

In football, QB wins and losses might not be official stats, but they fuel the discourse when talking about the position.

Elias further clarified that if a player other than the quarterback took the first snap with the quarterback lined up elsewhere on the field — picture a wildcat formation — it would not give the QB start to the non-quarterback.

"The situation the other day was different because there were multiple QBs on the field at the same time," Elias said.

Pro Football Reference, the popular stat website that is a part of Sports Reference, initially credited Bagent with the win when the site updated Monday morning but since

BEARS

from Page C1

intimidating. He was active for two previous trips to Lambeau Field but watched from the sideline.

"My experience has been cold when we have been there," he said. "We have played late in the season since I've been here. It will be pretty warm on Sunday, so I'm sure the weather will feel a lot different."

Coach Ben Johnson downplayed the notion that he has to do anything special to get Bagent ready to face the Packers on the road.

“He’s just got to figure out what he did well (in Week 4 against the New York Jets), keep doing that and then the things that we need to improve on, we’ll improve on,” Johnson said. “It doesn’t matter home or away or who we’re playing. That’s really the name of the game.”

At least there's no mystery over Bagent being named the starter this time.

Bagent threw for 268 yards with one interception and a career-high 73.5% completion rate during a 23-12 win over the Jets at Soldier Field.

“Super impressive,” wide receiver Rome Odunze said. “Tyson’s a guy that comes in with his hard hat on every single day, ready to work, and is extremely talented. So when he goes out has changed the win to Keenum.

According to Sports Reference, the site credits the win to the player who is listed as the starting quarterback and takes the first snap. In this case, the starting lineup in the official stat book had two QBs listed. Bagent initially received credit for the win on Pro Football Reference because his name came first alphabetically.

But by Wednesday the site had changed the win to Keenum.

“Keenum technically took the first snap, so we decided to give the QB win to Keenum,” a Sports Reference representative told the Tribune via email.

Bagent remains 2-2 for his career as the “starting” quarterback. Keenum is now 32-36.

"I'm not going to go back and forth with who we think should get the victory or who started or anything like that," Bagent said Wednesday. "I'm just glad we were able to go out there and execute and come away with the victory."

Here are other stats, numbers and figures that stood out this week.

STILL TOP DOGS

With a 232-yard rushing effort Sunday, the Bears bolstered their place as the NFL's No.1 running game. They're averaging 196.3 rushing yards per game, 15.3 more than the No.2 Atlanta Falcons. The Bears rank fourth in the league at 4.94 yards per attempt.

Likewise, they are No. 1 in total yards at 429 per game. The passing game ranks 15th with an average of 232.8 yards.

After a franchise-record 34 first downs against the Jets, the Bears lead the NFL at 25.3 first downs per game.

Running back Kyle Monangai is the most efficient running back in the league, per NFL Next Gen Stats. His 3.01 efficiency rating is just ahead of the Buffalo Bills' James Cook (3.02), the Kansas City Chiefs' Kenneth Walker III (3.11) and the Falcons' Bijan Robinson (3.14). A lower number in this metric indicates a more north-south runner.

Monangai is third in the NFL in rushing yards after contact, according to NFL Pro,

there and rips it, maybe it's not a surprise to us. "So we're looking to build on that and do our thing out there. We're happy with Tyson doing his thing."

---

INJURY REPORT

Running backs D'Andre Swift (hip/knee) and Kyle Monangai (thumb/toe) missed practice Wednesday.

“(Monangai’s) thumb’s not an issue,” Johnson said before practice, “but he did have 30 carries (against the Jets) and he feels like he had 30 carries.”

As for Swift, who fumbled only twice all of last season, he already has lost two fumbles through four games — one against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 2 and the other against the Jets.

"It's very uncharacteristic," Johnson said. "I give Minnesota a lot of credit. That's what they do. ... The one last week was egregious, though. That's one that we can't have. There's too many times where the ball is getting away from our body, and he knows that. ... So we've just got to tighten that up and he'll be just fine moving forward."

Also on the injury front, more than half of the starting offensive line was listed as nonparticipants in practice: right tackle Darnell Wright (ankle), right guard Jonah Jackson (ankle) and left guard Joe Thuney (pectoral).

Quarterback Caleb Williams (hamstring) and with 269. He's behind only Robinson (448) and Walker (395).

HOW BAD IS PACKERS RUNNING GAME?

The Green Bay Packers, the Bears' Week 5 opponent, are off to a rough start offensively, and a lot of the frustration has been pointed toward the offensive line. The running game has been almost nonexistent. Starting running back Josh Jacobs has been on the commissioner's exempt list to begin the season and has yet to play.

Through Week 4, the Packers have the lowest run rate at $31.1\%$ of their offensive plays. They rank last with 58 rushing yards per game, and they're tied for last with just six explosive runs (10 yards or more).

Their expected points added per rush also ranks last at minus-0.4 — nearly twice as bad as the 31st-ranked team, the Los Angeles Chargers at minus-0.21. They're one of two teams, along with the Pittsburgh Steelers, without a rushing touchdown.

All of that is to say: It's bad.

Last week the Packers were without both starting guards. They recently signed veteran Kevin Zeitler as a reinforcement.

The Packers don't have a player with 100 rushing yards for the season. MarShawn Lloyd leads the team with 81 yards on 30 carries, and Kaleb Johnson has 80 yards on 20 carries. Both have fumbled twice this season, and coach Matt LaFleur seemed fed up with the fumbles after Sunday's win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

"A great teacher is the bench, so if guys don't start holding on to the ball, they're going to be sitting on the bench," LaFleur said.

Interestingly, ESPN Analytics doesn't hate the Packers offensive line in the running game. ESPN tracks run blocking and pass blocking "win rate" for offensive linemen and has the Packers winning their run-blocking opportunities $74\%$ of the time, which ranks ninth.

Certainly that metric doesn't tell the whole story, but it would suggest that opportunities are there for the running backs, and they're just not taking advantage of them.

defensive tackle Grady Jarrett (rest) also sat out. Linebacker Keyshaun Elliott (quadriceps) was limited, while defensive back Cam Lewis (hip) was a full participant.

ROSTER SHUFFLE

Wednesday marked the 15th day of the 21-day practice windows for defensive end Shemar Turner (knee) and linebacker Noah Sewell (Achilles) to return from the reserve/ physically unable to perform list. Both were limited in practice. Nickel cornerback Kyler Gordon (calf) is eight days into his window and practiced in full.

With 52 active players, the Bears have an open roster spot.

“We’ll make a decision at the end of the week if one of those three are ready to go,” Johnson said.

Meanwhile, Johnson said defensive end Marcus Davenport's request to be released from the practice squad Monday was “a little bit out of left field.”

Davenport, 30, played 12 defensive snaps and one on special teams against the Jets and assisted on a tackle. Bears coaches thought he was rounding into football shape and looked good.

"If you're not full steam ahead, then you can't cheat your teammates or cheat the game," Johnson said. "He just felt like it was time to hang it up. Grateful he was honest."

SOX

from Page C1

games, we've played good games — whatever the result, these guys came back the next day," manager Will Venable said. "It's really kind of been the story of our group and being able to bounce back no matter what happens."

Seven Guardian pitchers combined for the 19 strikeouts, the most punchouts in a nine-inning postseason game in major-league history.

Wednesday began well for the Sox in their attempt to advance to the AL Championship Series.

Sam Antonacci drew a leadoff walk in the first inning and moved to second on a single by Miguel Vargas. With one out, Kyle Teel drove in Antonacci with a double to right field, sending the crowd into a frenzy.

"I've never seen that before, especially all black out, it was unbelievable," Vargas said of the crowd. "This is what we expected coming back home, and hopefully the same way (Thursday)."

Teel's hit gave the Sox runners on second and third with one out. Guardians starter Daniel Espino struck out Chase Meidroth. Cleveland then called on Foster Griffin out of the bullpen and he struck out Tristan Peters as the Sox were limited to one run.

Griffin had seven strikeouts in 2 $\frac{2}{3}$ innings.

Sean Newcomb had two scoreless innings as the opener for the Sox.

The game flipped in the third inning.

The Sox turned to Bryan Hudson, who walked Travis Bazzana to begin the inning. Bazzana moved to second on a one-out single by Brayan Rocchio. Steven Kwan followed with an RBI single to left field, tying the score at 1-1.

Hagen Smith replaced Hudson and walked José Ramírez to load the bases. Chase DeLauter hit a grounder to first baseman Munetaka Murakami, who threw to the plate for a force out.

The bases were still loaded for Adell. Smith got ahead in the count 1-2 when Adell poked the ball down the first-base line for the bases-clearing triple, giving the Guardians a 4-1 lead.

"He made a good swing on it," Smith said.

Venable said of the inning as a whole: "The walks and some contact there just made it tough. And then that at-bat with Adell, you get him two strikes, he does a nice job fighting off a fastball and hitting the ball hard. So just got to be able to execute a little bit better, get outs.

“And, again, talked about this the whole series, that these guys are going to make you pay for walks. First couple games, they didn’t. But today, they did.”

The Sox cut into the deficit in the fourth. Meidroth led off with a double and scored on a double by Peters, making it 4-2.

"I was just trying to move him over to third, trying to battle and put something in play, especially when I got to two strikes," Peters said of the nine-pitch at-bat.

But again, the Sox were held to just one run in the inning. Braden Montgomery struck out against Griffin. Randal Grichuk lined out to left field against Shawn Armstrong, and Colson Montgomery struck out.

The Guardians added a run in the fifth when Ramírez got a great break from third base and scored ahead of Meidroth's throw on a grounder DeLauter hit to the drawn-in second baseman.

Trailing 5-2, the Sox let an opportunity go to waste in the bottom of the fifth. Antonacci singled and Vargas walked, bringing up Murakami with two on and no outs. He grounded out to second, moving both runners into scoring position. Teel hit a liner that the second baseman Bazzana caught. His throw to second beat Vargas back to the bag for an inning-ending double play.

The Sox loaded the bases with two outs in the sixth. Antonacci got hit by a pitch for the second time in the game, bringing in Braden Montgomery to bring the Sox within 5-3. Ramírez made a tremendous diving attempt at third on a Vargas liner, smothering the ball and throwing him out at first to end the inning.

The Sox finished 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position.

"A couple times we were one hit away, but it's a baseball game," Vargas said. "That's how baseball goes. We did a really good job the previous two games and we're going to be just fine for (Thursday)."

Ramírez added a two-run triple in the eighth and the Guardians scored two more in the ninth.

Cleveland closer Cade Smith struck out five of the six batters he faced over the final two innings as the Sox suffered their first loss of this postseason.

The Sox get another chance at closing out the series Thursday. If they win, it would be their first clinch of a postseason series at home since 1906.

"This is what we do all year, we're really good (bouncing) back the next day," Vargas said. "We have a short memory and I think we're going to be ready for (Thursday)."

Sox were ‘1 hit away,’ but can’t rally

time they chipped away, the Guardians hit back.

By Andy Martinez

Fans react after White Sox third baseman Miguel Vargas grounded out to end the sixth inning of Game 3 in the AL Division Series against the Guardians at Rate Field on Wednesday. ARMANDO L. SANCHEZ/CHICAGO TRIBUNE

FOR THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Cleveland Guardians third baseman José Ramírez dove to his left and stuck his glove out, trying to snare a line drive off the bat of White Sox third baseman Miguel Vargas.

The ball popped out of his glove and fell in front of him, creating a bit of a mad scramble for Ramírez. The White Sox were trailing by a pair of runs in the sixth inning, but had the bases loaded with two outs and the heart of their lineup ready to pounce.

Ramírez smothered the ball under him, picked it up, spun and rifled a strike to Nathaniel Lowe at first base for the final out of the inning, silencing the 40,590 fans at Rate Field. It was the closest the White Sox came to completing a rally and securing their first postseason-series-clinching win at home since the 1906 World Series.

Instead, the Guardians built on their lead in the final two innings, beating the White Sox 9-3 and forcing a Game 4 in the American League Division Series on Thursday at Rate Field.

“That out was tremendous,” Ramírez said in Spanish after the game. “As the saying goes, the game spoke there. After that play, I understood that things were going our way and we needed to keep competing and try to find a way to keep scoring.”

It was a dagger to the crowd that carried a buzz into the stadium before the first pitch. Nearly every person inside Rate Field donned dark clothing for the “Black Out” theme, booed as the Guardians staff and players were introduced, and roared as the White Sox were presented.

A pump-up video that finished with their playoff slogan, “Feel the momentum,” brought the stadium to a roar. The excitement carried through the first inning, when the White Sox took a 1-0 lead on a Kyle Teel RBI double.

"I've never seen that before, especially all black out, it was unbelievable," Vargas said of the crowd. "This is what we expected coming back home, and hopefully the same way (Thursday)."

That first frame looked like it would be the perfect start for the White Sox, who had taken a first-inning lead in both games of the AL wild-card series against the Houston Astros. Sam Antonacci and Vargas reached to start the game, and Teel's hit gave the White Sox a pair of runners in scoring position

with one out.

But opener Daniel Espino struck out Chase Meidroth, and Cleveland Guardians manager Stephen Vogt turned to left-hander Foster Griffin to face lefty Tristan Peters. Griffin struck out Peters looking, stymying the threat.

“Huge,” Griffin said. “All I wanted to do in the first was get the boys back to the dugout, limit the damage there. Felt pretty good about the match-up.

“Get us back to the dugout, I think, kind of shut the momentum down from their side for a little bit.”

It was the sentiment Vogt wanted from his team. Dropping two games at home meant the Guardians would have to find a way to win in a “great atmosphere” on the road. So Vogt wanted them to use that energy to

their advantage.

"I always ask the players, what do you like better: Do you like to make 50,000 people go crazy, or do you like to shut 50,000 people up?" he said before the game. "They're both very different feelings, but they're equally as fun. So it's going to be a great environment. I'm looking forward to it."

Griffin's escape work might not have shut the crowd up, but it sure shushed it.

The real silencing of the crowd came two innings later, when Jo Adell delivered a two-out, bases-loaded triple to give the Guardians a 4-1 lead.

“Once we got the momentum going on our side, it was tough to stop it,” Griffin said.

The White Sox tried, but each

Meidroth and Peters hit back-to-back doubles to open the fourth inning, cutting the deficit to two runs, but Peters was stranded at second and the Guardians made it a three-run lead the next half inning when Ramírez scored on a fielder's choice.

Vargas' inning-ending ground-out with the bases loaded in the sixth was followed by two runs in each of the eighth and ninth innings by the Guardians. Cleveland's pitching retired the final 10 White Sox hitters, beginning with Vargas' groundout. The White Sox finished 2-for-11 (.182) with runners in scoring position and stranded eight base runners. They were 11-for-32 (.344) with runners in scoring position in their first four games of the playoffs.

“Really good play there to knock the ball down,” White Sox manager Will Venable said of Ramírez’s play. “Didn’t trickle far enough for us to be able to get (Vargas) safe at first base. But, yeah, kind of had him on the ropes there. It was a really big opportunity, nice swing by (Vargas), and a great play by Ramírez.”

The White Sox will try and close out the series on Thursday but face another tough task with Guardians ace Parker Messick toeing the rubber. They'll hope they can use the crowd as a neutralizer and not squander as many opportunities to close the door.

"I think we did a really good job, put a lot of men in scoring position," Vargas said. "I think we were one hit away from turning it our way. We weren't able to, but we got to do the same job tomorrow."

SULLIVAN

from Page C1

when 40,590 black-clad fans packed the place for Game 3 of the American League Division Series against the Cleveland Guardians, you're reminded that home is what you make of it.

Sox fans brought the smoke, refusing to take a single pitch off as their team played from behind most of the afternoon and the shade washed over the sun-drenched seats on a gorgeous, 75-degree afternoon.

White Sox second baseman Chase Meidroth strikes out to end the seventh inning against the Guardians in Game 3 of their AL Division Series on Wednesday at Rate Field. CHRIS SWEDA/CHICAGO TRIBUNE PHOTOS

In the end, it wasn't enough. The Guardians staved off elimination with a 9-3 win, forcing a Game 4 on Thursday.

White Sox third baseman Miguel Vargas is out at second base after a double play as Guardians shortstop Brayan Rocchio celebrates in the fifth inning Wednesday.

Sox fans were thirsting for a clincher, but it turned out to be nothing but a thirst trap. Sox hitters struck out 19 times — including three apiece by Munetaka Murakami, Colson Montgomery and Tristan Peters — and went 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position.

It started out like a Picasso and ended like a kindergarten finger painting.

So Sox fans will have to do it all over again, bringing the same vibe to Game 4. And though the disappointment of Game 3 will linger for a while, there's little doubt they'll bring their "A" game again.

The buildup before this game was unlike any postseason game on the South Side since the 2005 World Series, and it seemed like everyone felt a win was a fait accompli, even though sweeping back-to-back series seemed ridiculous going into the postseason.

A win would've been the Sox's fifth straight in the postseason and sixth straight overall, including the regular-season finale. Their longest winning streak all year was five games, which they accomplished three times but not since May.

I asked a Sox executive before the first pitch if he felt good about the game.

“No,” he bluntly replied.

Sometimes the DNA of a Sox fan can override any other senses.

Missed opportunities were the story for the Sox, including stranding runners on second and third in the one-run first when Chase Meidroth and Peters fanned to end what could've been a big inning.

Miguel Vargas was doubled off second on Kyle Teel's sharp liner to end the fifth. Vargas lined out with the bases loaded in the sixth after the Sox had pulled within two runs at 5-3, ending their last best chance at a comeback.

The game devolved from there, with sloppy fielding and poor relief pitching sending fans to the exits in the eighth and ninth.

Manager Will Venable used seven pitchers and no bulk pitcher, making it a bullpen game. They issued 10 walks among them, and Bryan Hudson's ineffectiveness in the Guardians' four-run second put the Sox in a hole from which they couldn't recover.

Sox fans anxiously awaited the big hit that never came. Sam Antonacci getting hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the sixth was the biggest offensive contribution after the fourth.

Guardians closer Cade Smith struck out five Sox hitters in the last two innings, turning it into a nightmare.

It all started so well, when the pregame vibes were perfect, a cool breeze was wafting through the bleachers and the feeling of omnipotence was overwhelming. Strolling around the park before the game, you could feel the Sox community coming together, wearing its ceremonial black for a Guardians funeral.

"One and done" was the mantra of Sox fans hoping to get it over with and move on to the AL Championship Series.

It's hard to imagine the Rate looking any better than it did Wednesday, a nice comeback for the yard that was one of baseball's most criticized ballparks in the 1990s and early 2000s.

“Look, I thought people wanted unobstructed views and wide aisles,” Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf told the Tribune in 1999. “I guessed wrong. People wanted a more homey feeling. But I really believe that if we had built Camden Yards instead, I would have been massacred. People wanted a modern park.”

Actually Sox fans weren't asking for a new ballpark in the final days of old Comiskey, a park they grew up with and loved despite its own unique issues. They just wanted a winner, and when they got one in 2005, they came out to the new park in droves.

Now they have a winner again, and it has made the Rate the place to be. From the parking lot tailgate affairs to the bleacher concourse, it was one, supersized party.

The Sox will have to suck it up and come back Thursday with a better performance. The fans were ready to rock, but the Guard-

BULLS

Centers Claxton, Collins sidelined to start preseason

Bulls center Nic Claxton poses for photos during media day at the United Center on Sept. 28. STACEY WESCOTT/CHICAGO TRIBUNE

By Julia Poe

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

The Bulls are losing size — fast.

Starting center Nic Claxton tweaked his hamstring over the weekend, an injury that coach Tiago Splitter said will sideline the Bulls' newest frontcourt addition for at least two weeks.

That means Claxton will miss the entire preseason, putting the Bulls at a further disadvantage as backup center Zach Collins deals with a quadriceps injury that limited him for the majority of training camp.

Collins has struggled with injuries throughout his short tenure in Chicago, missing all but 10 games last season because of first a broken left wrist and then a sprained right big toe, both of which required surgery.

For the sake of the preseason — which began Wednesday night at the United Center against the Phoenix Suns — losing the two big men isn't too much of a loss for the Bulls. Splitter could use some extra time to study potential backups in the frontcourt, most notably two-way forward Tobe Awaka.

Although Awaka is slightly undersized at 6-foot-8, the Bulls brought him in as an undrafted rookie out of Arizona to provide power and physicality in the low post. Splitter is open to a wide range of experimentation in the preseason.

“Especially the first game of the preseason, you try things,” Splitter said. “I will try to give minutes to everyone, see different rotations, different bigs, go small, maybe go double big. Who knows?"

But if Claxton or Collins — or both — remain unavailable when the season starts Oct. 21, the Bulls will have to get creative with a cavalry of players who mostly fit into the four position.

The Bulls are awash in fours.

Besides rookie focal point Caleb Wilson, the roster features similarly stretchy forwards Matas Buzelis, Jalen Smith, Leonard Miller and Noa Essengue. There's no 7-footer on the roster, but all of those forwards range from 6-8 to 6-11.

“Although we don’t have a 7-footer or a 7-foot-2 (player), we’re all pretty tall,” Wilson said. “Our point guard (Josh Giddey) is like 6-foot-6. Me and Matas are around 6-foot-10, and our biggest guy is probably going to be the same height as us.

“So having that ability to switch up and down the lineup and also be long and create opportunities at the basket, it’s good.”

Smith has played center in the past, although he prefers the four to maximize his off-ball rim protection and mobility as an inside-out big man. Essengue has shot up 3 inches from the 6-8 the Bulls listed him at as a rookie, but he struggled to earn summer league minutes as Splitter grapples with the forward's lack of aggressiveness — particularly on the boards.

On paper, the Bulls don't mind swapping out size for versatility and speed. Splitter considers his offensive scheme to be positionless, which is encouraging for a roster built around a wealth of jumbo-sized wings. The preseason will offer opportunities for Splitter to tinker with lineups and rotations that cater to going smaller. But a size disparity can become painful on defense.

Claxton could return by the opener, but if either he or Collins is unavailable for the early games, the Bulls will be hard-pressed to match size with size on defense. Wilson, 20, views himself closer to a three than a five. Still, between his two young forwards, Splitter feels Wilson is already more physically prepared, both in size and strength, to guard NBA big men than Buzelis, who turns 22 next week.

If the projected starting lineup isn't fully available to open the season, some of those early big-man matchups could provide an early test for Wilson, who wants to make an impression with his defense as a rookie.

"I'm good with it," Wilson said. "I've just got to be physical and hold my ground and make sure I box out. Luckily I'm really tall too. That helps a lot."

BIG TEN WOMEN'S BASKETBALL MEDIA DAY TAKEAWAYS

Illinois' major retention; NU's vision

By Colleen Kane

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Illinois women's basketball head coach Shauna Green answers questions from media during Big Ten Women's Basketball Media Day on Wednesday in Rosemont. DOMINIC DI PALERMO/CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Northwestern women's basketball coach Carla Berube speaks during a news conference at Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston on March 31. TALIA SPRAGUE/FOR THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE

The Big Ten opened its basketball media days Wednesday in Rosemont with coaches and players from all of the conference's women's teams.

Illinois coach Shauna Green, Northwestern coach Carla Berube and many others offered insights into their upcoming seasons.

Here are five things we learned.

1. AFTER MAJOR OFFSEASON RETENTION, THE ILLINI WANT THEIR NEXT STEP TO BE GETTING OUT OF THE NCAA TOURNAMENT'S FIRST WEEKEND.

Green has been intentional about reminding her players of the long game. As the youngest team in the NCAA Tournament a year ago, the Illini advanced to the second round for the second straight season.

Now, Illinois enters Green's fifth season at the helm with every major piece of that team returning, including first-team all-Big Ten forward Berry Wallace, all-freshman team forward Cearah Parchment and point guard Destiny Jackson.

The group, which went 22-12 last season, has talked often about what could be possible if they continue to grow together.

"They understand the pieces we have, they understood the talent that we have, and what we could do if they all remained together, and they wanted to do that," Green said. "That's the most unique thing. They wanted to be here to do something that has not been done ever or has not been done in a long, long time. And they felt great loyalty to that and great love for the school and for each other."

Senior guard Jasmine Brown-Hagger said the Illini are operating with the idea that advancing farther in the NCAA Tournament is the next step — and they can help themselves do that by hosting the first two rounds of the tournament, a right that goes to the top 16 seeds. That makes every game important as they try to climb in the rankings.

The Illini have benefited from the continuity as they prepare for the season. Green and her staff have been able to install things more quickly because of the previous knowledge. The chemistry and culture have already been established.

And the core goals are there too. "We bought into this program because we believe in what coach stands for, and we believe in ourselves," Brown-Hagger said. "We talk about it all the time in the locker room. We chose to stay because of each other and because of Coach.

“So it’s like, what are we going to do with that? What are our goals? How are we going to push each other every single day?”

2. COACH CARLA

BERUBE'S GOAL IS TO

MAKE NORTHWESTERN 'A

DESTINATION' FOR WOMEN'S

BASKETBALL.

Northwestern hired Berube in March to replace longtime coach Joe McKeown, who retired. She joined the Wildcats after going 147-29 with five NCAA Tournament appearances over six seasons at Princeton.

At her first Big Ten media days, Berube said part of her vision for Northwestern is to return to the tournament for the first time since 2021.

"To be back into the NCAA tournament, to be at the top of the Big Ten Conference," Berube said. "To get Welsh-Ryan packed again with fans that really enjoy watching us play, that there's a buzz around town about Northwestern women's basketball.

“That this is a destination, right? This isn’t a place where players are coming in and out. We want players to stay at Northwestern and really care about what’s written across their chest.”

Berube has spent the last six months installing not just her offense and defense but also her culture. She said the most challenging part has been figuring out what makes her players tick and who complements each other well on the court.

Berube said she expects her team, which lost leading scorer Grace Sullivan (21.4 points per game average) to graduation, to out-tough and outwork opponents. And she wants the Wildcats to hang their hats on their defense.

"We're going to be very gritty," guard Kamiya Walton said. "We're going to do whatever it takes to win. Very defense-focused and having a lot of energy. We know each other well on and off the court, so I think that chemistry is going to be reflected in our style of play."

3. USC GUARD JUJU WATKINS' LAST 18 MONTHS HAVE BEEN A TEST OF PATIENCE.

JuJu Watkins, the Big Ten preseason player of the year, is gearing up to return to a game for the first time since she tore her ACL in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in March 2025.

Watkins called her recovery “a big test” but said it was also fulfilling because she put in the work required. She was helped by her teammates and family, and also said WNBA star Paige Bueckers checked in on her often.

Watkins said it's “going to be a learning curve” as she gets back into the swing with a USC team that is expected to be at the top of the Big Ten behind Watkins and preseason all-Big Ten sophomore guard Jazzy Davidson. But Watkins’ goal is to peak at the right time.

"The biggest thing is getting over that mental hurdle of, 'OK, I haven't played in a long time,'" Watkins said. "Just getting all the kinks out. It's definitely been a process. I'm a very hard critic, so I'm definitely not at my peak yet. So I'll continue to improve throughout the season."

Watkins said she used her time off the court to study the game more, and she thinks that will be beneficial.

“I’m definitely a smarter player coming back,” Watkins said. “I know more about the different reads and just was able to study a lot and insert myself in different situations while I wasn’t playing. So I expect to come back a smarter player and making better decisions.”

4. THE ILLINI ARE AGAIN EXPECTING BIG THINGS FROM BERRY WALLACE AFTER A STRONG OFFSEASON.

Wallace was named to both the coaches' and media's 10-player all-Big Ten preseason team after averaging 18.4 points and 6.2 rebounds per game last season.

Green said there's “no drama with Berry.” Wallace returned to Champaign this offseason after her breakout sophomore year in great shape and with a mindset to attack the next challenge.

The Illini came up with a detailed plan for how to improve her game since she is now at the top of opposing teams' scouting reports. They looked at how she can get her shot off more quickly, how they can make her handle tighter, how they can make her a better defender.

The 6-foot-1 Wallace said she has examined how she can better defend against players larger and smaller than her.

"Just continuing to grow my defensive game, learning from my teammates and just taking things from my coaches," Wallace said. "And then just continuing to score at all three levels, taking what the defense is giving me, learning from last year, (when) people were kind of crowding me, being able to make better reads. When people are just crowding up the lane and helping off some of my teammates, hitting those passes to them."

5. PLAYERS FROM DEFENDING NATIONAL CHAMPION UCLA SAY THEY'RE WRITING A NEW STORY.

In the spring, six players from national champion UCLA were selected in the WNBA draft — five in the first round. That included 2026 Big Ten player of the year Lauren Betts and Chicago Sky guard Gabriela Jaquez.

That means a new-look Bruins group with five transfers, including former Notre Dame guard KK Bransford, must try to carry on the standard set last season. Forward Timea Gardiner said the Bruins are trying to repeat the process rather than just the outcome.

"We're very talented, and we're a little bit overlooked," Gardiner said. "So in that way, obviously having a great situation last year, we're rewriting our story this year. It's our story for this particular team."

Sophomore forward Sienna Betts, Lauren's younger sister, is the top returnee after averaging six points and four rebounds per game. She drew confidence from playing alongside the veterans last season.

“I learned a lot about how poised they were, how neutral they were and how they were able to bring the group together in hard situations in any game and practice,” Sienna Betts said. “I really hope I can take that over and bring that to my game and who I am.”

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SCOREBOARD

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NHL

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EASTERN CONFERENCE

ATLANTIC DIVISION | GP | W | L | OT | Pts | GF | GA | Florida | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 8 | Ottawa | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 10 | 8 | Tampa Bay | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 7 | Buffalo | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 10 | 11 | Toronto | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 11 | 11 | Boston | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 9 | 11 | Montreal | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 12 | 14 | Detroit | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 8 | METROPOLITAN DIVISION | GP | W | L | OT | Pts | GF | GA | N.Y. Rangers | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 16 | 8 | Carolina | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 11 | 12 | Pittsburgh | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 15 | 8 | Washington | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 11 | 8 | Columbus | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 7 | N.Y. Islanders | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 7 | New Jersey | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 13 | Philadelphia | 5 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 22 | ---

WESTERN CONFERENCE

CENTRAL DIVISION | GP | W | L | OT | Pts | GF | GA | Utah | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 17 | 8 | Minnesota | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 9 | 5 | Winnipeg | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 9 | 8 | Colorado | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 14 | 5 | Nashville | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 9 | Dallas | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 6 | St. Louis | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 10 | Chicago | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 17 | PACIFIC DIVISION | GP | W | L | OT | Pts | GF | GA | Vegas | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 17 | 10 | Edmonton | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 17 | 14 | Anaheim | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 7 | 5 | San Jose | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 9 | 12 | Seattle | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 15 | 11 | Vancouver | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 19 | 18 | Los Angeles | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 15 | Calgary | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 16 | Note: Two points for a win, one point for overtime loss. Top three teams in each division and two wild cards per conference advance to playoffs.

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Wednesday's results

Washington 5, Pittsburgh 3

Colorado at Winnipeg, late

Edmonton at Anaheim, late

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Thursday's games

Dallas at Buffalo, 6 p.m.

Minnesota at Tampa Bay, 6 p.m.

Nashville at Montreal, 6 p.m.

Philadelphia at Ottawa, 6 p.m.

Utah at Boston, 6 p.m.

Vancouver at Carolina, 6 p.m.

Chicago at N.Y. Islanders, 6:30 p.m.

San Jose at St. Louis, 7 p.m.

Colorado at Calgary, 8 p.m.

Toronto at Vegas, 8 p.m.

Tuesday's results

Detroit 5, Ottawa 3

Buffalo 3, Minnesota 2, OT

Toronto 5, Nashville 4, OT

Utah 5, New Jersey 3

Carolina 6, Montreal 4

N.Y. Rangers 5, N.Y. Islanders 2

Chicago 4, St. Louis 2

Vegas 6, Seattle 2

Florida 2, Los Angeles 1

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Soccer

MLS | Eastern | W | L | T | Pts | GF | GA | Nashville | 18 | 3 | 6 | 60 | 55 | 21 | New England | 14 | 9 | 4 | 46 | 45 | 36 | Miami | 12 | 5 | 10 | 46 | 64 | 50 | Chicago | 13 | 8 | 6 | 45 | 49 | 39 | Charlotte | 12 | 8 | 7 | 43 | 47 | 38 | Philadelphia | 11 | 10 | 6 | 39 | 54 | 44 | Orlando | 10 | 13 | 4 | 34 | 48 | 64 | NY Red Bulls | 9 | 12 | 6 | 33 | 34 | 51 | NYCFC | 8 | 10 | 9 | 33 | 41 | 36 | Cincinnati | 8 | 9 | 9 | 33 | 55 | 64 | D.C. United | 6 | 8 | 12 | 30 | 34 | 42 | Columbus | 8 | 14 | 5 | 29 | 39 | 43 | Toronto | 6 | 10 | 11 | 29 | 39 | 51 | Atlanta | 7 | 14 | 6 | 27 | 32 | 45 | Montréal | 6 | 15 | 6 | 24 | 34 | 54 | Western | W | L | T | Pts | GF | GA | Vancouver | 15 | 7 | 5 | 50 | 60 | 29 | St Louis City | 13 | 6 | 8 | 47 | 48 | 36 | Dallas | 13 | 6 | 8 | 47 | 50 | 42 | San Jose | 13 | 8 | 6 | 45 | 49 | 39 | Houston | 13 | 9 | 5 | 44 | 34 | 32 | LAFC | 11 | 9 | 8 | 41 | 43 | 30 | Seattle | 10 | 9 | 8 | 38 | 35 | 35 | Colorado | 11 | 13 | 3 | 36 | 38 | 38 | LA Galaxy | 9 | 10 | 9 | 36 | 37 | 44 | Portland | 9 | 13 | 5 | 32 | 48 | 51 | Salt Lake | 9 | 13 | 5 | 32 | 40 | 44 | San Diego | 8 | 11 | 8 | 32 | 47 | 47 | Austin | 7 | 10 | 10 | 31 | 35 | 47 | Minnesota | 7 | 12 | 8 | 29 | 40 | 49 | Kansas City | 6 | 18 | 3 | 21 | 32 | 65 | ---

Three points for win, one point for tie. SATURDAY'S MATCHES

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SATURDAY'S MATCHES

CF Montréal at Toronto FC, noon

New York City FC at Chicago, 1:30 p.m.

Cincinnati at Atlanta, 6:30 p.m.

FC Dallas at Charlotte FC, 6:30 p.m.

D.C. United at Miami, 6:30 p.m.

Seattle at New England, 6:30 p.m.

San Diego FC at N.Y. Red Bulls, 6:30 p.m.

Columbus at Orlando City, 6:30 p.m.

Real Salt Lake at Philadelphia, 6:30 p.m.

Nashville at Austin FC, 7:30 p.m.

Portland at Sporting KC, 7:30 p.m.

Houston at Minnesota, 7:30 p.m.

San Jose at Colorado, 8:30 p.m.

Vancouver at Los Angeles FC, 9:30 p.m.

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SUNDAY'S MATCH

LA Galaxy at St Louis City, 6 p.m.

TUESDAY'S RESULT

Chicago 3, Vancouver 1

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NWSL | Club | W | L | T | Pt | GF | GA | Gotham FC | 16 | 4 | 7 | 55 | 35 | 21 | San Diego | 16 | 8 | 3 | 51 | 40 | 28 | Washington | 15 | 8 | 4 | 49 | 39 | 26 | Utah | 14 | 9 | 4 | 46 | 44 | 35 | Kansas City | 13 | 9 | 5 | 44 | 48 | 38 | Angel City | 12 | 8 | 7 | 43 | 45 | 29 | Portland | 12 | 8 | 7 | 43 | 45 | 39 | N. Carolina | 13 | 11 | 3 | 42 | 50 | 39 | Seattle | 12 | 11 | 4 | 40 | 33 | 32 | Denver | 10 | 9 | 8 | 38 | 45 | 37 | Orlando | 10 | 14 | 3 | 33 | 36 | 43 | Houston | 8 | 13 | 6 | 30 | 34 | 39 | Boston | 8 | 14 | 5 | 29 | 36 | 46 | Bay FC | 7 | 15 | 5 | 26 | 28 | 42 | Louisville | 7 | 17 | 3 | 24 | 36 | 52 | Chicago | 5 | 20 | 2 | 17 | 15 | 63 | #6 Elina Svitolina d. #21 Ann Li, 6-2, 6-3.

#8 Iga Swiatek d. #10 Iva Jovic, 6-1, 6-3.

Zheng Qinwen d. Alina Charaeva,

6-1, 2-6, 6-4.

Wednesday at Qizhong Forest Sports City Arena; Shanghai, China, outdoors, hardcourt

Three points for win, one point for tie. FRIDAY'S MATCH

Louisville at Boston Legacy FC, 7 p.m..

SATURDAY'S MATCHES

Gotham FC at Washington, 11:30 a.m.

Kansas City at Utah Royals FC, 5:30 p.m.

San Diego at North Carolina, 6 p.m.

Angel City at Denver Summit, 7:45 p.m.

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U.S. MEN'S SCHEDULE

Tuesday, Oct. 6: U.S. 1, Canada 0

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U.S. WOMEN'S SCHEDULE

Saturday: vs. Spain, 1:30 p.m. Tuesday: vs. Spain, 6 p.m.

College football

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WEEK 6 RESULTS, SCHEDULE

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WEDNESDAY"S RESULTS

Jacksonville St (3-2) at Kennesaw (1-3), late New Mexico St. (2-3) at FIU (2-2), late

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TUESDAY'S RESULT

Troy 55, Southern Mississippi 34

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