Hey there! I can’t stop laughing about this kid’s brutal honesty. Here’s what you need to know today.

1. Darren Bailey’s tax returns show major ups and downs, including two years of losses

State Sen. Darren Bailey, the GOP nominee seeking to unseat Gov. JB Pritzker, released tax returns for the past five years. And they show the downstate farmer reported net losses and no taxable income in 2020 and 2021.

In 2017 — before Bailey was elected to the state legislature — he and his wife reported $1,776 in adjusted gross income and no taxable income.

“Everything Darren Bailey owns is tied up in the land,” campaign spokesman Joe DeBose said of his candidate’s tax filings. “There’s a big difference between a man who built a family farm with his bare hands and a billionaire who inherited a trust fund.”

The tax returns also show the Baileys received more than $3.5 million in federal farm subsidies from 1995 to 2020. [WBEZ]

2. Amtrak and Metra quickly move to restore service after a national rail strike was averted

The White House today announced a tentative agreement has been reached between rail carriers and union leaders to avoid an economically disastrous strike.

Union members, who have been seeking better work conditions, will vote on the agreement in the coming weeks.

In the Chicago area, Metra faced the possibility of canceling service on some of its busiest lines tonight as a strike loomed. But today’s agreement means trains will run as normal.

Over at Amtrak, officials are in the process of restoring canceled long-distance trains out of Chicago.

Metra and Amtrak were not part of negotiations with union leaders, but many of the tracks they use are either owned or operated by freight railroad companies. [Chicago Sun-Times]

3. R. Kelly now faces the possibility of spending much of his remaining life in prison

A jury in Chicago found the disgraced R&B singer guilty of child pornography and other sex crimes yesterday.

It is the second conviction against the 55-year-old, who has already received a 30-year sentence for racketeering in New York.

This week’s verdict means Kelly now faces a sentence of 10 to 90 years. But, as my colleagues at the Chicago Sun-Times report, it’s “unclear whether the judge will add any time to the end of Kelly’s current sentence or have him serve the terms concurrently.” [Chicago Sun-Times]

Meanwhile, WBEZ’s Natalie Moore asks, “Should R. Kelly be erased from the R&B canon?” [WBEZ]

4. Vaccination rates at Chicago schools fell with the arrival of new students

Many city residents are lining up for updated COVID-19 vaccines that health officials tout as a major tool in avoiding a big fall-winter surge.

But what’s the situation like inside the city’s schools?

Apparently not great, according to an analysis from Chalkbeat Chicago. Across the city’s public schools, vaccination rates dropped from an average of 44.7% in May to 39.6%.

“Even though city agencies spent the summer promoting vaccines, the updated numbers reveal the ongoing difficulty Chicago Public Schools faces in getting students vaccinated, even as COVID cases increased during the first weeks back to class,” reports Chalkbeat.

Vaccination rates were the lowest at predominantly Black schools on the South and West sides. According to Chalkbeat’s analysis, majority-Black elementary and high schools had an average vaccination rate of 23%. [Chalkbeat]

5. Sending migrants to Chicago and other ‘sanctuary cities’ was pushed by Trump in the White House. But it was deemed illegal.

More Republican governors are beginning to move migrants into Democrat-led cities, an idea that was first pushed by former President Donald Trump.

Back in 2019, The Washington Post reported the Trump White House was putting pressure on federal immigration authorities to release migrants in Chicago and other “sanctuary cities” as political retaliation.

But U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement lawyers reviewed the idea and concluded it “was inappropriate and lacked a legal basis,” the Post reported.

That’s partly because federal immigration agents are only authorized by Congress to deport immigrants, not move them around. And a high-ranking ICE official at the time also raised liability concerns if an accident took place while moving the migrants. [WaPo]

Here’s what else is happening

• President Joe Biden’s approval rating improved from a low of 36% in July to 45%. [AP]
• Mortgage rates surpassed 6% for the first time since 2008. [CNN]
• Big festivals like Lollapalooza and Riot Fest would have to go through another layer of approval under a proposal before the Chicago Park District. [Block Club Chicago]
• The “mistake on the lake” may be getting a makeover. [Chicago Sun-Times]

Oh, and one more thing …

Today is International Day of Democracy. And many readers expressed deep concerns over the fate of our nation.

My colleagues at the Chicago Sun-Times published several letters from readers about what democracy means to them and what can be done about the rising threats of political violence and disinformation campaigns.

“I am a first-generation American, born to immigrant parents who are Holocaust survivors,” wrote reader Stephen Melamed. “They instilled in me from an early age the wondrous anomaly of a representative democracy. Democracy is always in a fragile state of flux, striving to become the ideal it ascribes to in the preamble to the Constitution.” [Chicago Sun-Times]

Meanwhile, the editorial board for the Sun-Times lays out some ways Americans can counter the threats against our democracy beyond just voting. [Sun-Times]

Tell me something good …

What books are you reading these days? I’m almost done with East of Eden by John Steinbeck and need something new.

Claire Meier writes:

“I just finished How Lucky by Will Leitch and can’t recommend it enough! It was thrilling at the end! Similar to Rear Window and with some ties to Illinois. Just terrific!”

And Eva writes:

“I’m reading The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy, which my Mom gave me in hard copy many years ago. Mom wasn’t happy when I picked out library books for her that she considered too long. She gave me this book to illustrate how she felt, as it is just over 1,000 pages!

“I’ve been laid up with a broken leg recently, so I decided it was about time that I honored Mom by reading this book. It is a quite good character study and it is easy to follow if you create a family tree.

“But this is a ‘sitting up’ book because it is too big and heavy to read lounging back on the sofa or in bed, unless, of course, you get it as an ebook. I hope you enjoy it if you give it a go.”

Feel free to email or tweet me, and your response might be shared in the newsletter this week.