Good morning, Chicago. ✶
🔎 Below: Billionaire-backed groups aligned against the Chicago Teachers Union are aiming their dollars at attacking the CTU’s pick for school board president.
🗞️ Plus: A Chicago cop is stripped of his powers after reportedly firing two guns and wounding a man, delivery robot companies are sued and more news you need to know.
📝 Keeping score: The Bears beat the Falcons, 31-23; the Stars fell to the Reign, 3-1.
☀️ Today’s weather: Sunny with a high near 67.
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⏱️: An 8-minute read
TODAY’S TOP STORY 🔎
Cash from big money groups floods School Board races
Reporting by Lauren FitzPatrick and Sarah Karp
Big money races: For the first time on Nov. 3, the city will elect all 20 members of Chicago Public Schools’ board of education and a citywide president. Cash is flooding the election, the bulk so far coming from wealthy, often suburban donors, whose political groups have outraised the Chicago Teachers Union 5:1 and outspent CTU nearly 3:1, our analysis of campaign finance filings shows.
CTU pushback: Charter school backers and a few prominent billionaires aligned in a shared antipathy for the teachers union have aimed their millions at attacking Hilario Dominguez, the CTU’s board president pick, rather than at bolstering any particular candidate, our analysis shows. More than a quarter of the $8.1 million total spent on all races so far by these political action committees and the independent expenditure committees has targeted Dominguez. The spending to oppose Dominguez is more than four times the amount spent on the top supported candidate, Jessica Biggs.
Proxy battle?: The billionaire-funded political groups see the school board races as an opportunity to take down the CTU before the mayoral race in February, one expert said. Mayor Brandon Johnson remains closely allied with the union, which helped catapult its former organizer to office.
More on elections:
- CPS’ watchdog determined there was insufficient evidence that Dominguez engaged in sexual misconduct with a CPS student nearly a decade ago, in part because there were no eyewitnesses to the alleged behavior and her allegations did not point to a “sustained pattern of behavior.”
- In the gubernatorial election, billionaire Gov. JB Pritzker is outspending Republican challenger Darren Bailey 25-1.
- Looking toward February, Mayor Johnson’s reelection campaign war chest has dipped below $380,000, while his top opponent, Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, has $19 million.
HOUSING AND DEVELOPMENT 🏠
Now is the time to buy a home, report says
Reporting by Abby Miller
‘Seasonal sweet spot’: The housing market slows down in the fall, as children return to school and families prep for upcoming holidays. That means buyers who’ve struggled for months to find a home within their budget could score a discount, as sellers are eager to part with homes they’ve not yet sold. “The seasonal sweet spot represents the time when discounts off a home’s original asking price … are typically near their highest,” according to a recent Redfin report.
Key context: This seasonal moment comes amid an inventory crunch and rising mortgage rates, factors that sideline many buyers. “October is the best time to negotiate because those sellers that haven’t sold yet are going to be willing to lower their price. But the high mortgage rates have just priced out a lot of people who just can’t work it under these higher mortgage rates,” a Redfin rep said.
CHICAGO HISTORY ✶
Civil rights leader Al Raby honored with street dedication
Reporting by Nicole Jeanine Johnson
History-changing figure: The late Al Raby, a civil rights changemaker and Chicagoan, was honored Friday in Woodlawn with a street dedication ceremony and proclamation of February 19, 2027, as Al Raby Day. The block-long stretch of Cottage Grove Avenue between 63rd and 64th streets is now Al Raby Lane.
His legacy: Raby, a former school teacher who died in 1988, is known for orchestrating a school boycott of nearly 300,000 students to protest segregation in 1963, bringing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to Chicago in 1966 to protest poor housing conditions for Black Chicagoans, and serving as the campaign manager for Mayor Harold Washington’s 1983 election as the city’s first Black mayor.
MORE NEWS YOU NEED 🗞️
- Crosses honor slain man: A traveling installation of crosses bearing the names of those killed by federal immigration agents stopped by the lawn of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Melrose Park on Sunday, where parishioners saw the name of one of their own: Silverio Villegas González.
- Stripped of powers: Edgar Delgado-Arroyo, a Chicago police officer, was stripped of his police powers after oversight officials said he fired two guns during an off-duty shooting in Little Village that left a man wounded this month.
- ‘No Kings’ rally: Rather than descend on downtown again, as protesters did in 2025, left-leaning activists held smaller rallies in the suburbs and on the city’s North Side on Saturday, emphasizing early voting in the midterms. The rallies were again part of a day of actions nationwide.
- Delivery robot companies sued: Food delivery robots rolling along Chicago sidewalks are at the center of two lawsuits alleging the companies behind them are collecting customers’ biometric data without their consent.
- Gas rate hike OK’d: The Illinois Commerce Commission last week approved an $81.6 million rate hike for Nicor Gas customers.
- Mayor signs Senior Bill of Rights: Mayor Johnson’s new executive order spells out the rights the city’s more than half a million seniors have regarding housing, healthcare and other services.
CHICAGO MINI CROSSWORD 🌭
Today’s clue: ___ Kare, Apple employee who designed the “Chicago” font
FROM THE PRESS BOX 🏈🏒🏀⚽
- Schools investigating: New Trier and Evanston school districts are investigating after reports of homophobic and racist slurs at Friday night’s football game between the two schools at Northwestern University’s Ryan Field.
- Lincoln-Way East on probation: The Illinois High School Association’s decision follows an investigation into two incidents of racial harassment at sporting events. Probation doesn’t deny Lincoln-Way East any privileges.
- Grading the Bears: Nearly everything about the Bears’ 31-23 win in Atlanta was good. No, very good, writes Steve Greenberg.
- Blackhawks analysis: Here’s how the NHL’s proliferation of no-trade clauses affects the Blackhawks.
- Bulls’ beginnings: Ready or not — the Bulls will begin the 2026-27 regular season on Wednesday.
- Sky perspective: Six months after the Sky traded her away, Angel Reese is in the WNBA Finals.
- Fire clinch playoff berth: Despite losing to New England on Saturday, the Fire have clinched their second straight playoff berth in two seasons. They face Atlanta United on Saturday.
BRIGHT ONE 🔆
New brewery makes Korea’s oldest alcoholic drink
Reporting by Minju Park
Makgeolli, Korea’s oldest alcoholic drink, is now being brewed in Chicago.
Yido, located on the Near West Side, specializes in brewing makgeolli, an unfiltered rice wine that’s naturally fermented with a starter culture — similar to kombucha. The drink is often described as being creamy, tart and sweet with fruity notes.
“(Chicago) really cares about local craft and artisan creators, and so it just seemed like a big unfilled gap,” said Yido Brews founder Peter Quinn Woo Chung of starting his brewery.
Chung was born and grew up in the Chicago area, but he spent a year in Seoul, South Korea, from 2018 to 2019 for a postgraduate fellowship. There, he said, he discovered and fell in love with the taste of makgeolli.
Without any locally brewed options, Chung resorted to buying makgeolli at chain supermarkets. But he said he was disappointed with the artificially sweetened options he was finding in stores. So, he set out to make his own.
YOUR DAILY QUESTION ☕️
Do you have delivery robots in your neighborhood? How do you feel about them?
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Editor: Michael Lansu
Copy edited by: Satchel Price