Good morning, Chicago. ✶
🔎 Below: Thousands of people in Chicago and nationwide need kidney transplants, and like Christine Hernandez, they have to launch extensive marketing and advocacy campaigns to find donors.
🗞️ Plus: Gov. JB Pritzker slams Mayor Brandon Johnson’s corporate head tax pitch, one neighborhood’s tavern-style pizza revival and more news you need to know.
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⏱️: A 9-minute read
TODAY’S WEATHER 🌤️
Mostly cloudy with a high near 52
TODAY’S TOP STORIES
Woman’s campaign to find new kidney spans social media, billboards, TV — and she’s still searching
By Elvia Malagón
Kidney campaign: Christine Hernandez hands out business cards with a QR code leading to information about how people can donate a kidney to her. She has also shared her story on billboards. Her family has worn T-shirts to get the word out and she has pleaded on social media. Her husband even emblazoned a graphic on his car. But she remains without a donor.
Thousands wait: More than 93,000 people nationwide are reportedly awaiting kidney donations, with an estimated 3,753 of them in Illinois. That can often mean dealing with the health effects of kidney disease while asking strangers to donate. The practice is so common, the National Kidney Foundation of Illinois coaches people on how to promote their cases. Getting a kidney transplant through a living donor raises the survival rate.
Donor’s story: Experts say there’s fear around donating organs. Alison Toback, who decided to donate her kidney to a stranger last December, says she hasn’t experienced any complications. “Compared to having a baby, it was nothing,” the mother of two said.
‘Fighting for my life’: Hernandez says she feels herself growing weaker and fatigued while dealing with swelling. “I’m fighting for my life,” she says. “But I need somebody to help me fight.”
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Record $1B TIF surplus emerges as key point of friction in mayor’s proposed budget
By Fran Spielman and Mitchell Armentrout
Johnson’s pitch: Mayor Brandon Johnson was accused Tuesday of proposing a $1 billion tax increment financing surplus to bail out Chicago Public Schools at the expense of neighborhood improvement projects, a move roundly condemned by City Council members. The record TIF surplus that would provide $552.4 million to help bankroll a new teachers contract emerged as the key point of contention during the first day of Council hearings on Johnson’s proposed $16.6 billion budget.
Governor’s POV: Gov. JB Pritzker on Tuesday slammed the mayor’s proposal to revive a corporate head tax, which would charge companies with more than 100 employees $21 per month per employee. “It penalizes the very thing that we want, which is, we want more employment in the city of Chicago,” Pritzker told members of the Economic Club of Chicago.
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Ald. Fuentes seeks $100K in damages after confrontation with ICE agents
By Fran Spielman
Laying groundwork: Ald. Jessie Fuentes (26th) on Tuesday laid the groundwork for filing a lawsuit accusing federal agents of shoving, handcuffing and nearly arresting her Oct. 3 after she went to a hospital emergency room to check on a constituent whose leg was severely injured during an immigration raid.
Action explained: The federal tort claim Fuentes filed seeks $100,000 in damages and is a prelude to a federal lawsuit. Fuentes said she couldn’t “care less about the money,” adding her motive is to hold federal agents accountable for “terrorizing and brutalizing” her constituents in the name of immigrant enforcement.
More headlines:
- ICE agents are accused of pointing gun at state Rep. Hoan Huynh in Albany Park
- Immigration agents arrest CPS vendor outside West Ridge school
- Ex-Homeland Security official slams ‘ragtag’ fed response to Chicago protests
MORE NEWS YOU NEED
- Sky high stakes?: Chicago is actively pursuing the possibility of installing slot machines at O’Hare and Midway Airports — and Bally’s has identified a site for them at Midway, a top mayoral aide disclosed Tuesday.
- Man charged in woman’s death: Demar King is charged in the fatal shooting of Odeal G. Curley, who attempted to de-escalate a fight between King and his girlfriend Saturday in Fuller Park.
- Harmon fine fight: The Illinois State Board of Elections deadlocked Tuesday on whether to slap a nearly $10 million fine on Illinois Senate President Don Harmon’s political committee for allegedly accepting donations beyond campaign finance limits.
- Grappling with tariffs: MHUB, a West Loop manufacturing incubator, supports about 1,200 entrepreneurs and 300 companies in the area — many struggling with increased costs, supplier delays and uncertainty as a result of tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.
- New affordable housing: The Avenue Apartments, a new affordable housing community in Austin, is expected to be move-in ready by Nov. 15, with rents ranging from $1,400 to $1,600.
- 2.5 stars for ‘Revolution(s)’: Boasting a score from the catalog of Tom Morello, this timely musical bursts with an authentically rebellious musical spirit and high-caliber cast — but it comes off as a work at war with itself, writes Steven Oxman in a review for the Sun-Times.
WATCH: FED FUNDING CUTS EXPLAINED ▶️
The Sun-Times’ Lynn Sweet explains how President Trump is slashing federal funds to Chicago, the state of Illinois, and other blue cities and states. | Sun-Times
CHICAGO STORIES 🗞️
‘George Wendt Way’ unveiled in Beverly on ‘Cheers’ actor’s childhood block
By Kaitlin Washburn
Hometown honors: The late George Wendt, a son of Beverly and a beloved actor, was celebrated Sunday afternoon with an honorary street sign in the far South Side neighborhood.
Key context: Wendt, who got his start on the Second City stage and was best known for playing Norm Peterson on the hit 1980s sitcom “Cheers,” died this year at 76 from a heart attack in his California home.
‘Couldn’t be prouder’: “George has become loved by the whole world,” Wendt’s niece Erin Muldoon Stetson told the crowd of family, friends and neighbors gathered for Sunday’s dedication. “And we couldn’t be prouder, most of all because he always stayed true to himself behind the scenes.”
FROM THE PRESS BOX ⚽🏀🏈🏒
- Fire fight: After eight years away, the Fire are finally set for a playoff return Wednesday night in Bridgeview.
- Bulls season starts: Ready or not, the Bulls are set to tip off the 2025-26 NBA season — while still in search of a superstar.
- Rookies on the record: Kyle Monangai aside, the Bears’ rookies have been quiet. Is that a good thing?
- Good Knight: Spencer Knight’s terrific October has been aided by the Blackhawks’ defensive system, which plays to his strengths.
GAMES AND CROSSWORDS 🧩
BRIGHT ONE 🔆
Where can you find the best tavern-style pizza in Chicago? Try Grand Avenue
By Maggie Hennessy
The buzzy, nearly year-old, modern tavern-style pizzeria Pizz’Amici sits on a mile-plus stretch of a near-west Grand Avenue corridor that’s home to several beloved pillars of Italian-American dining in Chicago.
Among those pillars: Coalfire Pizza, which debuted its bubbly, coal-forged, thin crust pies almost 19 years ago.
Recently, this slice of West Town has become something of a pizza row, bolstered by some of the city’s most-hyped pizzerias, like Professor Pizza Slice & Pie and the six-month-old Zarella Pizzeria & Taverna — all delivering their takes on tavern-style pizza, too.
But why is everyone settling on Grand? Beyond the historic Italian connection, Coalfire owner Dave Bonomi speculates that rent has something to do with it, as Grand Avenue remains cheaper than the saturated, downtown-proximate West Loop, which sits just south.
What’s happening on Grand Avenue isn’t just a lot of pizza, however. It’s next-level pie in a town that knows the difference.
YOUR DAILY QUESTION ☕️
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Written and curated by: Matt Moore
Editor: Eydie Cubarrubia
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