What F'nHappened This Week November 6, 2026

Nov 6

Written by Joe P

F'nAround

This was the week the country voted, and the week the results rewrote the map. Election Day fell on Tuesday, November 3, and by Wednesday morning the shape of the next Congress was clear even while the counting was not finished. In Illinois the statewide races went the way the polls said they would, and in Chicago the first fully elected school board took shape. Around that, F'nAround published a piece on the DOJ letter, sent a FOIA to the Civil Rights Division, received a partial answer from the OEIG, and secured press passes for Chicago TARDIS.

F'nAround This Week

The Government Just Outsourced Justice to Us, in short.

The piece of the week went live on Wednesday, November 4. It starts with the letter the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice sent in answer to Report No. 860797-LXR, the report filed November 2. The letter says team members reviewed the report, says the Division does not serve as a reviewing authority for other federal agencies' discrimination investigations, says it will not take further action, and says that is not a determination the report lacks merit. Then it refers the filer to attorneys. The piece reads that letter back in plain English: a federal agency told a regular person to go find a lawyer and sue the state of Illinois. It also notes the mismatch at the center of the letter. The report alleged a state coverup. Illinois is a state, not a federal agency. Whether the report was sorted into the wrong pile is a question, not a finding, and the piece leaves it as one. The letter is an intake closure for this report only. It is not a merits finding on Illinois, not a closure of the earlier Criminal Section report, and not a bar to a private civil rights suit. The full piece is linked below.

On the same day, November 4, F'nAround sent a federal FOIA to the Civil Rights Division FOIA/PA Branch, asking for the policies, procedures, and rules behind the not-a-reviewing-authority statement, the state-actor jurisdiction limits, the referral versus legal-aid closure criteria, and trend retention, plus the review records for Report No. 860797-LXR, including reviewers and routing. An acknowledgment and a tracking number are now awaited.

The OEIG answered, in part.

Also on November 4, the Illinois Office of Executive Inspector General answered the October 27 FOIA seeking disposition and referral records for three IDFPR complaints, from December 18, 2025, May 4, 2026, and September 9, 2026. General Counsel and FOIA Officer Neil P. Olson denied Parts 1 through 4: the intake, assignment, and disposition records, all referral correspondence to IDFPR and to the Attorney General, who authorized a referral back to IDFPR, and its basis or reason, under FOIA exemptions 7(1)(a) and 7.5(h) and Ethics Act sections 20-95(b) and (d). Part 5 was granted in part, with the July 30, 2024 Investigation Policy and Procedures Manual, 50 pages, plus direction to the July 2026 version online. That is a disclosure denial, not a merits finding and not an approval of anything. A follow-up FOIA does not extend it.

Chicago TARDIS press passes, confirmed.

F'nAround has press passes to Chicago TARDIS, November 27 to 29 at the Westin Chicago Lombard.

Chicago and Illinois

Illinois votes, and the statewide races go blue across the board.

Election Day was Tuesday, November 3. Polls were open 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Central. By Wednesday morning the Associated Press had called the big Illinois races, and the numbers below are from AP and NBC reporting with about 90 percent of the expected vote counted. They are projections and unofficial counts, not certified results. Certification follows the canvass.

Governor J.B. Pritzker won a third term, defeating Republican Darren Bailey about 59.8 percent to 36.8 percent, with independent Collin Corbett taking about 3.3 percent. Pritzker is the first Democrat in Illinois history elected governor three times, and the first Illinois governor of either party to win a third term since Republican Jim Thompson in 1982. His running mate, Christian Mitchell, becomes lieutenant governor.

For the U.S. Senate, Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton defeated Republican Don Tracy about 61 percent to 37.5 percent, winning the seat retiring Senator Dick Durbin has held since 1997. When Stratton joins Senator Tammy Duckworth in January, Illinois becomes the first state in American history represented simultaneously by two women of color in the Senate. Stratton is only the second Black woman elected to the Senate from Illinois, after Carol Moseley Braun in 1992.

The rest of the statewide ticket went the same way. Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias won reelection with about 64.4 percent of the vote. Attorney General Kwame Raoul won reelection. Croke won the race for comptroller, and Frerichs was reelected as treasurer. All 17 Illinois House seats were on the ballot, and the delegation stayed 14 to 3 Democratic, as reported.

Chicago elects its whole school board, and picks Biggs to lead it.

For the first time in city history, Chicago voters elected all 21 members of the Chicago Board of Education on Tuesday, 20 district representatives plus a citywide president, ending 30 years of mayoral control of the city's schools. Former CPS principal and current board member Jessica Biggs won the race for board president, with about 48 percent of the vote in a three-way race against Chicago Teachers Union organizer Hilario Dominguez, at about 30 percent, and attorney Victor Henderson, at about 17 percent. Dominguez conceded shortly after 9 p.m. on Tuesday. Henderson has said he will not concede until the Board of Elections certifies the results.

Biggs will be the first elected school board president, serving a four-year term. In January she becomes a full voting member, after two years in which the president could cast only tie-breaking votes. Preliminary results point to a board split roughly down the middle between members backed by the Chicago Teachers Union and members who were not, with a handful of district races still too close to call. The new board takes office January 15, 2027, and walks into a roughly $10 billion budget that assumes $150 million in state funding that has not been approved, as reported. That is the first fight, and it starts before the new board is even sworn in.

Cook County goes all blue.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle won a fifth term. Pat Hynes was elected assessor. And in the southwest suburbs, Democrat Elyse Hoffenberg defeated Republican Elizabeth 'Liz' Doody Gorman for the 17th District County Board seat, 57.22 percent to 42.78 percent, with all precincts reporting. It is the first time since the County Board established individual districts in 1994 that a Democrat has won the 17th District seat. Hoffenberg takes over from retiring Commissioner Sean Morrison, who served since 2015 and was the only Republican on the board. With that seat flipped, the board has no Republican members left.

The mayoral field goes to the challengers.

The petition challenge period for the February 23, 2027 Chicago mayoral election closed at 5 p.m. on Monday, November 2. The challenges landed the way challenges always land in this city: as a second election, fought on paper.

Former state Senator Rickey Hendon filed a challenge on behalf of businessman Willie Wilson against Mayor Brandon Johnson's nominating petitions, alleging that most of the mayor's roughly 30,000 to 33,000 submitted signatures are invalid and that Johnson may fall below the 12,500 valid signatures needed to appear on the ballot. Hendon cited photocopied petition pages, petition pages mixed in from other candidates, circulator errors, and signatures from people who do not live in Chicago, including petitions for Melissa Conyers-Ervin's treasurer campaign mixed in with Johnson's. The Johnson campaign says it has more than enough signatures. Those are allegations in a challenge filing, not findings, and the Board of Elections will hear and decide them. It is the first challenge to an incumbent Chicago mayor's petitions since 2007, when former Mayor Richard M. Daley's petitions faced an unsuccessful objection.

Michael Dorf also filed challenges, against William Quinlan, Jessica 'Jesse' Maronto, and John Kitover, calling Quinlan's signatures 'not registered, not genuine, many duplicates.' The Board of Elections was due to post the full list of objections on its website on Wednesday, after the general election. Adjudication continues until December 17, when the final mayoral ballot is certified. Filed is not certified. Keep those two stages separate and the rest of this makes sense.

Budget: the 2027 fight waits for the Council.

Mayor Brandon Johnson's $17.6 billion fiscal 2027 proposal, the Fair Share Budget, is before the City Council, which has until the end of the year to act. The proposal is built to close a projected $882.4 million deficit without layoffs or cuts to core neighborhood safety net operations, as the administration describes it, and it includes a corporate contribution on large employers that a bloc of aldermen has already lined up against. No vote happened this week. The budget fight is the local story underneath the election story, and it comes back the moment the counting ends.

UIC: an alleged attack on campus, and no one hurt.

On Wednesday, November 4, at about 12:39 p.m., UIC sent an emergency alert urging people to avoid Student Center East, at 750 S. Halsted St. in Chicago. A UIC student allegedly attempted to use an incendiary device in a second-floor hallway of the building, then attempted to stab another student on the second floor. A second student was also targeted, according to ABC7 reporting on November 5 and 6. The targeted student was not injured. No one was physically injured, according to UIC and ABC7. That is the fact that matters most here, and it is worth saying plainly before anything else.

Bystanders and campus safety personnel detained the suspect immediately, according to reporting. The suspect, a UIC student, was taken into custody with help from UIC Police and Chicago Police. Student Center East was evacuated and remained closed that night, and it reopened Thursday, November 5. The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were involved, providing investigative support. UIC said there was no ongoing threat to the campus community.

Charges were pending as of November 5 and 6, and the suspect's identity and motive had not been released. No suspect is named here, no motive is stated, and no charges are stated, because none of those had been released. It is an alleged attempted attack, not a completed stabbing, and not a finding. The intended victim who spoke publicly to ABC7 was freshman Zein Cox. The campus story here is also the response story: an alert went out, people got out, bystanders and campus safety moved fast, and the building reopened the next day.

Getting around: the Blue Line to O'Hare gets a bus leg.

The CTA announced major track work on the Blue Line O'Hare branch for this week, and anyone flying out of O'Hare should have built in extra time. Trains ran on a single track between Montrose and Harlem on the night of Monday, November 2, and between Jefferson Park and Harlem on the nights of Tuesday, November 3, and Wednesday, November 4, with minor delays and boarding changes, according to CTA alerts reported by Secret Chicago on November 2. Then, from 10 p.m. Friday, November 6, through 4 a.m. Monday, November 9, shuttle buses replace trains between Jefferson Park and Harlem, with the same shutdown planned again the weekend of November 13 to 16. The Blue Line normally runs 24 hours a day between O'Hare and Forest Park, so a bus leg in the middle of that run is the kind of thing that turns a routine airport trip into a missed flight if you do not plan for it. The CTA also lists the Addison Blue Line elevator as temporarily out of service, with the outage beginning Sunday, November 1.

The CTA and the State's Attorney put up 7,000 signs.

Cook County State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke and CTA Acting President Nora Leerhsen announced a new public awareness campaign this week, putting more than 7,000 signs on CTA buses and trains that highlight the office's policy of seeking pretrial detention for violent felonies committed on public transit, according to the CTA. The signs go on every vehicle in the fleet, more than 1,500 railcars and nearly 2,000 buses, and they carry the message the State's Attorney announced on her first day in office: there is no place for violent crime on public transit. The campaign follows the launch of her Regional Transit Task Force in May 2026, a joint effort of local, county, federal, and transit agencies. The office says it has approved felony charges in 483 transit-related cases since she took office on December 1, 2024, and obtained pretrial detention 83 percent of the time, and that overall crime on public transit is down 30 percent from 2025 to 2026, with violent crime on the Red Line down 76 percent. Those are the office's figures, and this roundup reports them as such.

Sunday, November 1, the Loop belonged to runners.

The Hot Chocolate 5K, 10K, and 15K races started at 7:30 a.m. on Sunday, November 1, with a two-mile walk at about 9:15, closing key Loop and Grant Park corridors including Columbus, Balbo, Jackson, Ida B. Wells, and parts of Michigan, according to a November 1 situational briefing. The weather cooperated, cloudy with a high near 64 and showers possible in the morning. The same night, Rod Wave played the United Center at 8 p.m., with the usual staging and egress congestion around 1901 W. Madison. Metra also announced its 2026 holiday train schedule this week, with a behind-the-scenes look reported by WTTW. The holiday season on the rails starts now, and the trains get crowded fast.

National

Midterms: a blue wave, by the numbers.

The national result is the story of the week, and the numbers are still moving as the last races are called. What is settled is the direction. Democrats won control of both the House and the Senate on Tuesday, November 3. The Associated Press called Senate control at 11:39 p.m. Tuesday, on the Iowa result.

In the Senate, Democrats flipped seven Republican-held seats and Republicans flipped none: Iowa, Kansas, Maine, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, and Texas. Alaska and Mississippi were still too close to call as of Thursday morning. With those two outstanding, Democrats hold at least 54 seats, counting two independents who caucus with them, to at least 44 for Republicans.

The names on the flips: James Talarico beat Ken Paxton in Texas, the first Democrat to win a Texas Senate race since Lloyd Bentsen in 1988, and the first Democratic statewide win in Texas since 1994. Roy Cooper won North Carolina. Troy Jackson beat Susan Collins in Maine, ending her run in a seat she has held since 1997. Sherrod Brown won Ohio. Adam Hamilton won Kansas, the first Democrat elected to the Senate from Kansas since 1932. Annie Andrews won South Carolina. Josh Turek won Iowa, and that call is the one that gave Democrats the majority.

In the House, Democrats passed the 218 seats needed for a majority. The Associated Press had called 222 Democratic seats as of November 5, with 75 races still uncalled, and NBC News projected Democrats would finish with at least 258 seats.

Governors flipped five, all from Republican to Democrat: Texas, where Gina Hinojosa beat Greg Abbott; Georgia, where Keisha Lance Bottoms won; Ohio, where Amy Acton beat Vivek Ramaswamy; Iowa, where Rob Sand won; and Nevada, where Aaron Ford beat incumbent Joe Lombardo. Alaska and Kansas had not been called. Democrats now hold at least 28 of the 50 governorships, a majority for the first time since 2010.

Down the ballot, at least nine state legislative chambers changed hands, every one of them to Democrats, including the Pennsylvania Senate and both chambers in Wisconsin. The new Congress convenes in January 2027. Until then, the lame duck session has to deal with the same calendar this roundup has been tracking: hemp on December 11, and a federal funding deadline the same day.

Voters told pollsters the same story in state after state: high prices first, then the Iran war, then concerns about government corruption, according to Associated Press analysis. Those are reported reasons, not a certified cause, but they are the reasons the campaigns will be arguing about for the next two years.

Congress comes back on Monday, November 9, for the lame duck session, with the same two dates on its plate that this roundup has been tracking: the rest of the federal hemp redefinition and the federal funding expiry, both December 11. The new Congress convenes in January 2027, and until then the lame duck has to deal with the calendar as it stands.

International and Global

Iran: strikes on Monday, a rejected reply on Wednesday.

The Iran war was on the ballot in the midterms, and it did not pause for the vote. U.S. forces struck Iranian targets near the Strait of Hormuz late Monday, November 2, hitting sites on Qeshm Island, which U.S. officials described as defensive after Iranian missile fire in the strait. The Wall Street Journal first reported the strikes. On Tuesday, Iran's Supreme National Security Council head rejected the U.S. reply to Tehran's seven-step reopening plan as insufficient, saying the Strait of Hormuz would reopen only if the U.S. ends its naval blockade, lifts sanctions, and meets the rest of the plan's conditions. The blockade continues. Indirect talks through Qatari mediators continue, and Iran says its plan could now be implemented within two days. President Trump has said he does not plan to attack Iran after the midterms and hopes for a deal, and has also said the war will end 'very soon one way or the other.' Accounts differ on whether any ceasefire is in force, and this roundup does not pick one. What is on the record this week is the strike, the rejection, and the talks continuing.

Iran: the strike, the talks, and the oil price.

The strike on Monday, November 2, hit Iranian targets near the Strait of Hormuz, on Qeshm Island, and U.S. media described it as limited and defensive, in response to Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps fire on a U.S. aircraft. That framing matters, because it is the difference between a limited response and the start of a wider campaign, and the reporting this week kept it on the limited side. Iran's parliament speaker said the ball is in the U.S. court, which is another way of saying Tehran is waiting for Washington to move first on the terms of a deal. Qatar-mediated talks continued through the week, and Iran said its seven-step reopening plan could be implemented within two days if the U.S. ends its naval blockade, lifts sanctions, and meets the rest of the plan's conditions.

Oil and markets reacted to the same news in opposite directions on different days, and the markets section below has the numbers. Brent crude fell 8.7 percent on Wednesday to 94.62 dollars a barrel, and West Texas Intermediate fell 8.3 percent to 88.12 dollars, on hopes of de-escalation after the midterm results. The point for this week is simple: the war did not widen, the talks did not close, and the price of oil moved on the hope that both of those would stay true.

Ukraine: a night of strikes on the power grid, a week before talks.

Russia struck Ukrainian energy infrastructure overnight November 2 to 3, in one of the largest air assaults of the war on the power grid. Ukrainian authorities, via Reuters, reported 289 drones, 17 ballistic missiles, and 59 cruise missiles, hitting power plants and substations from Odesa in the south to Rivne in the west. DTEK, Ukraine's largest private generating company, said three of its five thermal power plants had been knocked offline. Emergency outages followed, and power and water were cut in parts of the country, including Kyiv, where the mayor described the situation as extremely difficult.

The same night brought a separate, deadly strike on an aid distribution site in Komyshuvakha, in the Zaporizhzhia region, where residents had gathered at a school being used for aid distribution. The death toll rose in reporting as rescue work continued, from 29 to 33, and then to 37, with dozens missing, according to Reuters reporting on November 4. Those figures are provisional and changing, not final, and this roundup presents them that way. Moscow said its forces had targeted Ukrainian military units in the area. The attack came less than two days after the end of a brief humanitarian truce in Oleshky, agreed with the help of U.S. first lady Melania Trump, according to Reuters.

Abu Dhabi, November 10 and 11: talks resume, with winter coming.

The United States will bring together delegations from Ukraine and Russia in Abu Dhabi on November 10 and 11, to discuss ending the war, post-war security agreements, and de-escalation, U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff said on November 2, according to Reuters. Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the lead U.S. negotiators, are expected to represent the United States. The Kremlin confirmed on November 3 that Russia will take part, with presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky as chief negotiator. Ukraine says it wants an energy ceasefire, a Black Sea truce, prisoner exchanges, and security guarantees on the table. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on November 3 that he sees no sign yet that Russia is serious about a ceasefire. The last U.S.-mediated talks took place in February, before the United States and Israel launched a war against Iran. These are working-level talks, not a leaders' summit, and territory remains the divide the reporting keeps coming back to.

Israel: a certified result, a hung Knesset, and no government yet.

Certified results for Israel's October 27 election were submitted to President Isaac Herzog on Wednesday, November 4. The count gives Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc 53 seats, the opposition bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot 48, and Arab-led parties 19, in the 120 seat Knesset. No bloc reaches the 61 needed for a majority. The new Knesset is to be sworn in November 10, and Herzog's consultations began, with Eisenkot in a strong position per Le Monde reporting on November 6, with 67 recommendations reported. Government formation is undecided.

The Central Elections Committee reviewed 9,069 polling stations and found no irregularities that compromised the integrity of the vote or changed its outcome, according to reporting on the certification. Netanyahu's allies had alleged that Arab-led parties stole the vote, without presenting evidence, according to that reporting. The committee certified the results anyway, and Herzog accepted them as legally binding. Whoever gets the mandate will have about 28 days to build a coalition of at least 61 seats. If every attempt fails, Israel would hold another election early next year, according to reporting on the process.

Gaza: a ceasefire that has not stopped the killing.

The ceasefire in Gaza that took effect in October 2025 has halted the heaviest fighting, but it has not stopped deadly incidents. Gaza's Health Ministry reported 1,439 Palestinians killed and 5,052 wounded since the ceasefire began, according to Al Jazeera reporting on November 6, with eight new deaths and 26 wounded in the previous 24 hours. The ministry said the overall toll since October 2023 was at least 74,040 Palestinians killed and 175,168 wounded. Those figures are the ministry's reported counts, and they change daily as bodies are recovered and new deaths are recorded. The ministry does not distinguish in its overall figures between civilians and combatants.

The U.S.-brokered ceasefire framework called for steps including the disarmament of Hamas, an Israeli withdrawal, a new Palestinian administration, and reconstruction, and those steps remain stalled, according to reporting this week. Israeli military operations and strikes have continued, and the Gaza Government Media Office reported thousands of ceasefire violations since the truce began. The week in Gaza, then, is the same story as the months before it: a ceasefire in name, a fragile and violent calm in practice, and a political settlement that has not arrived.

The climate summit opens in Antalya, and the U.S. shows up anyway.

The COP31 climate summit opened in Antalya, Turkey, on November 5, running through November 20 at the Antalya EXPO Center, with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng attending as President Xi Jinping's special representative, according to a November 5 diary of world events. The United States is not formally participating in the UN climate summits after withdrawing from the Paris Agreement and global climate cooperation, but a delegation of 19 U.S. lawmakers is traveling to Turkey to attend anyway, Democratic Representative Sean Casten said, according to Reuters reporting carried in a November 5 briefing. The split is the story: the federal government is out, and members of Congress are going on their own.

Ukraine took its case to Madrid.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appealed to the Ibero-American Summit in Madrid on Thursday, November 5, asking leaders to help his country rebuild and maintain its war-damaged energy infrastructure, according to Reuters. He called for urgent supplies of transformers, cables, generators, and other electrical equipment, saying Russia had damaged every power plant in the country through missile and drone attacks and that energy workers were carrying out constant repairs to prevent a nationwide blackout. He said Ukraine was interested in obtaining transformers from Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, and Colombia, cables from Chile, and electrical equipment and generators from Spain. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Ukraine deserved support because backing Kyiv was also in Europe's interest. Zelenskyy traveled to Spain unexpectedly for talks on boosting Kyiv's air defenses, and the Madrid appeal landed the same week as the grid strikes that made it necessary.

Elsewhere in brief.

Grenada held a general election on Thursday, November 5, called early by Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell, according to a geopolitics calendar of the week. In Asia, China's National Development and Reform Commission announced on November 3 that it would expedite a comprehensive Basic AI Law, according to an AI daily briefing on November 5, and Tencent unveiled Hy4, a 770-billion-parameter open-source AI model that understands images and directly operates computers, on November 4. The AI race is now a lawmaking race too, and Beijing is writing its rules in public.

Cannabis and Hemp

Massachusetts says no to repeal, by a landslide.

Massachusetts voters rejected Question 8 on Tuesday, the first statewide vote ever held on repealing legal adult-use cannabis. With about 91 percent of votes counted, No had 75.6 percent to Yes at 24.4 percent, a margin of about 51 points, and the Associated Press called it for No shortly before midnight Eastern. The measure would have ended licensed adult-use sales and recriminalized home growing, effective in 2028. It lost by one of the biggest margins for a citizen-initiated ballot measure in Massachusetts history, as reported. Adult-use cannabis stays legal in Massachusetts. The group behind the repeal, Smart Approaches to Marijuana, spent more than $3.7 million on the campaign, according to CommonWealth Beacon, and its president, Kevin Sabet, conceded defeat. The only statewide vote this year on taking legal cannabis away lost by 51 points. That is the result, not a mood.

Federal hemp: two dates, and Illinois keeps its own.

The hemp calendar splits in two next week, and the split is the story. On Thursday, November 12, the first part of the federal hemp redefinition takes effect: hemp products containing cannabinoids the cannabis plant cannot naturally produce lose federal hemp status. The rest of the redefinition waits until Friday, December 11, under Public Law 119-103, the September stopgap that moved most of the change by one month. That is when the total-THC test and the 0.4 milligram total THC per container cap take effect, and it is also the day current federal funding runs out. Congress has not passed a second delay, as of November 2, and the White House has told Senate Republicans there would be no further extensions if this delay was enacted, as Marijuana Moment reported. The FDA has not published the cannabinoid lists the 2025 law required it to issue, as the Congressional Research Service reported October 28.

Illinois does not wait for Washington. The new Illinois Hemp Act takes effect November 12, and after that date any product over 0.4 milligrams of total THC per container becomes cannabis under Illinois law, sellable only by licensed dispensaries. That is the same 0.4 milligram line the federal law reaches on December 11, but Illinois gets there a month earlier.

Aurora is the big cannabis business story of the week.

On Tuesday, November 3 to 4, Organigram agreed to buy Aurora Cannabis for C$7.80 per share, topping Curaleaf's hostile bid. The deal values Aurora at C$561 million, about $402 million, a 93 percent premium to Aurora's August 10 unaffected share price, and a 21 percent premium to the implied value of Curaleaf's offer. Aurora shareholders would own about 35 percent of the combined company. Aurora's board unanimously recommended the deal, shareholder meetings are expected in December 2026, and closing is expected in January 2027, according to Business of Cannabis reporting on November 3 and 4, based on Organigram's November 3 filing.

Curaleaf first launched its hostile bid in August at $5 per share and later upsized it to $6. Curaleaf said it is evaluating the alternative transaction and its options. Aurora stock closed up nearly 23 percent on the news, and Organigram fell about 4.7 percent, according to Cultivated reporting on November 4. Curaleaf chief executive Boris Jordan said the company's strategy is not dependent on closing the Aurora deal. This is business reporting, not investment advice. The December 4 bid deadline from the old Curaleaf offer is no longer the live date, and this roundup does not present it as one.

Curaleaf: record revenue, still a loss, bid still open.

Curaleaf Holdings reported third quarter 2026 results after the market closed on Tuesday, November 3. Net revenue was $352.7 million, a record for the company and up 10.9 percent from a year earlier. Domestic revenue rose 8 percent to $294 million, and international revenue climbed 28 percent to $58.7 million. Adjusted gross profit margin was 49 percent, and adjusted EBITDA was $77.6 million, a 22 percent margin. The company still reported a net loss of $37.4 million, improved from a $54.3 million loss a year earlier. It ended the quarter with $105 million in cash. Management guided fourth quarter revenue up 1 to 2 percent sequentially, and continues to target about $150 million in operating cash flow for the full year. This is business reporting, not investment advice.

Legislation: the dates that matter, and the bills to watch.

The Illinois Hemp Act takes effect November 12, and after that date products over 0.4 milligrams of total THC per container become cannabis under Illinois law, sellable only through licensed dispensaries, per Illinois Department of Revenue FY 2027-04 and Public Act 104-0463. The federal hemp redefinition splits: cannabinoids the plant cannot produce lose federal hemp status on November 12, and the rest, including the total-THC test and the 0.4 milligram per container cap, follows on December 11. Illinois cannabis labels must show Total THC by November 1. Congress returns Monday, November 9, with the federal hemp cap date and the continuing resolution expiry both on December 11.

Missouri voters approved Amendment 6 with 59.97 percent of the vote, 1,251,555 for and 835,585 against, with all 3,214 precincts counted, according to the Marijuana Herald. The amendment requires at least 80 percent approval in both chambers of the legislature before lawmakers can propose changes to citizen-initiative laws, and then voter approval. It is a shield for citizen-led marijuana legalization, written into the state constitution by the voters themselves.

In Washington, Representative Beth Van Duyne of Texas and Representative Greg Landsman of Ohio introduced the Beverage Regulatory Parity Act, which would allow qualifying hemp-derived THC drinks with up to 5 milligrams of THC per serving under Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau oversight, in consultation with the Food and Drug Administration, with a federal excise tax of 8 cents per milligram and sales limited to adults 21 and over, according to the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America, which endorsed the bill. The Illinois social equity infuser license comments item runs through roughly the end of November, and it stays on the watch list in Coming Up.

Movies, Music, and Pop Culture

At the movies, in front of the television, and watching the charts.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

The F'nAround review of Spider-Man: Brand New Day is live, and it has been live since July 31, 2026. The film, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and starring Tom Holland, picks up after No Way Home with Peter Parker back to basics, and it is still playing in theaters three months later. On Sunday, November 1, it took in $39,688 from 190 theaters, with a domestic total of $958,886,996, according to The Numbers daily box office chart. A superhero film still drawing crowds in November, on its 94th day in release, is a film with legs, and the review is linked below.

Patrick Stewart, a tribute, not a eulogy.

The F'nAround piece on Patrick Stewart is live, under the title How a Vent Cover Led Back to Picard's Star Trek. Stewart died October 28, 2026, at age 86. He is survived by his wife Sunny Ozell and his children Daniel and Sophie, and he was knighted in 2010. The piece is not a lovey-dovey RIP post. It starts with a vent cover, follows the thread back to Picard, and treats Stewart the way he deserves to be treated: as an actor whose work outlived the shows it came from. The full piece is linked below.

FROM and Oz, back to back.

The F'nAround FROM seasons 1 to 3 review and the Oz review are both live, and they belong together. FROM arrived on U.S. Netflix on October 19, 2026, and reached No. 2 on the U.S. chart on October 21, per FlixPatrol via secondary coverage, while Season 4 stays on MGM+ only. The review, The Town You Cannot Leave, and Why It Belongs Next to Dark, makes the case that FROM earns its place next to Dark. The Oz review, The HBO Prison Show That Built a Generation of Actors, and Ruined How You See Them, covers the HBO prison drama that ran from 1997 to 2003. The link between the two pieces is Harold Perrineau, who played Augustus Hill in Oz and appears in FROM. Watch FROM first, then go back and see where half its cast learned their trade.

The box office: a quiet Halloween weekend.

Halloween weekend at the box office was one of the quietest of 2026. A24's You Can See Everything, the Elizabeth Holmes documentary, took No. 1 with about $10.6 million in its third weekend, just ahead of Clayface at $10.4 million, according to Box Office Mojo figures reported November 1 and 2. Wildwood, the Laika stop-motion film, took third with about $7.49 million, and Street Fighter took about $3.2 million in its third weekend, with a domestic total of about $53 million. Resident Evil passed $400 million worldwide in its seventh weekend. All films combined grossed an estimated $62.2 million, the third-lowest weekend of the year, according to Deadline. The studios held back on new releases over Halloween, and the box office showed it.

The charts: Ella Langley keeps making history.

Ella Langley's Choosin' Texas spent its 26th nonconsecutive week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, on the chart dated November 7, 2026, extending the longest-running No. 1 in the history of the chart, according to Billboard reporting on November 4. The song first reached No. 1 in February 2026, and it has now topped the Hot 100 during nine different calendar months. It previously passed Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas Is You, which held the record with 22 weeks at No. 1. Langley's song also leads the Hot Country Songs chart, extending its run there to 47 weeks. In the latest chart week it drew 19.2 million official streams and 57.8 million radio airplays. Twenty-six weeks at the top, in a chart that dates back to 1958, is a record that will stand for a while.

Sports

Bears: a statement win in Seattle.

The Chicago Bears beat the Seattle Seahawks 34-17 on Monday Night Football, November 2, at Lumen Field, and it was not close by the end. Caleb Williams went 24 for 34 for 247 yards and a touchdown. D'Andre Swift ran in three short touchdowns. New defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons made his presence felt in his Chicago debut, less than a week after joining the team. The win moved the Bears to 6-2, their best start since 2012, and second in the NFC North. It also ended Seattle's streak of 30 straight games without losing by more than four points, and it was the most points the Seahawks have allowed all season. The Bears are home Sunday, November 8, against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday Night Football, the last of three straight prime-time games before their Week 10 bye.

Bulls and Blackhawks: a rough week at home and on the road.

The Bulls lost twice, 126 to 107 to the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday, November 2, and 135 to 105 to the New York Knicks on Wednesday, November 4, falling to 1 and 6 on the season, according to scoreboard reporting. The Blackhawks lost three straight, 5 to 2 to Colorado on November 2, 5 to 3 to Florida on November 4, and 4 to 1 to Tampa Bay on November 5. The Bears were the Chicago bright spot this week. The Bulls and Blackhawks were not.

Around the league, Week 8 was a statement weekend.

The Buffalo Bills beat the Baltimore Ravens 36 to 10 on Sunday, November 1, with Josh Allen passing for two touchdowns and running for one, after Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson injured his thumb on his first snap. The Detroit Lions beat the previously unbeaten Minnesota Vikings 19 to 15, snapping the Vikings' 11-game regular-season winning streak. The Denver Broncos came back from an 11-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat the Kansas City Chiefs 28 to 24. The Washington Commanders beat the Philadelphia Eagles 27 to 10, the Cincinnati Bengals beat the Tennessee Titans 43 to 36 in overtime behind Joe Burrow's five passing touchdowns and a game-winning 9-yard run, the Los Angeles Rams beat the Los Angeles Chargers 24 to 9, the Las Vegas Raiders outlasted the New York Jets 38 to 33, and the New England Patriots beat the Miami Dolphins 24 to 19, according to the New York Post's Week 9 power rankings on November 3. The Bears, at 6 and 2, sit fifth in those rankings, behind the Bills, the 49ers, the Vikings, and the Broncos.

Thursday night, Week 9 opened with the Jaguars rolling.

The Jacksonville Jaguars beat the Baltimore Ravens 33 to 10 on Thursday Night Football, November 5, in a rain-soaked game at M&T Bank Stadium in front of 70,007 fans, according to the Jaguars' game report. Trevor Lawrence threw for 242 yards, Parker Washington and Lawrence combined for a key touchdown, and Bhayshul Tuten ran for an early one, as the Jaguars won their first Thursday night game in three seasons and extended their division lead. The AFC South-leading Jaguars moved to 6 and 2, winning for a fourth time in five games. The Ravens fell to 4 and 5, losing a fourth consecutive game.

Technology and Markets

Markets: up Wednesday, down hard Thursday.

Wednesday, November 4, was a rally. The Dow rose 1,569.40 points, 3.03 percent, to 53,356.12. The S&P 500 rose 1.58 percent to 7,688.62. The Nasdaq rose 1.44 percent to 25,736.51. Brent crude fell 8.7 percent to 94.62 dollars a barrel, and West Texas Intermediate fell 8.3 percent to 88.12 dollars, on hopes of Iran de-escalation after the Democratic midterm sweep. The market read the election as a decisive outcome, and it bought it.

Thursday, November 5, the rally reversed, and then some. The Nasdaq fell 5.52 percent to 24,315.00, entering correction territory, down more than 10 percent from its record close on October 6. The S&P 500 fell 4.36 percent to 7,353.73. The Dow fell 3.44 percent, shedding about 1,830 points to 51,523.06, more than wiping out Wednesday's gain. It was the worst day for the U.S. market since April 2025, according to reporting on the close.

Chip stocks led the fall. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell 12.25 percent. Nvidia fell 9.26 percent, Advanced Micro Devices fell 17.26 percent, and Intel fell about 10 percent, according to market reporting on November 5. The selling was tied to a second look at the midterm sweep, and to fears that Democratic control of Congress could slow the data center buildout, through regulation or through state moratoriums, and to a wider reassessment of whether the billions going into AI data centers will earn their keep. No new federal AI rule or state data center moratorium had taken effect as of November 5. This is business reporting, not investment advice. The week ended with the market having given back its post-election gains in a single day, and with the October jobs report due Friday morning, November 6.

OpenAI buys into code, and ships moving pictures.

OpenAI announced on November 4 that it will acquire Pierre Computer Company, to expand the capabilities of its Codex coding tools, according to a November 5 tech digest. Pierre built the Trees and Diffs libraries already used in Codex for file navigation and code review, as well as products such as Code Storage, according to a November 6 tech briefing. Closing is subject to customary conditions including regulatory approval, so the acquisition is not yet complete. The same day, OpenAI released Images 2.6, which supports GIF animation and improves consistency of characters, products, and visual details across editing rounds, and said people now make over 4 billion images a week with its image tools. The company also said its search-like queries now equal roughly 20 percent of Google's search volume, with 1.2 billion weekly users, according to a November 4 AI digest.

Apple warns about agents, and opens Siri to developers.

Apple warned investors in its annual filing that autonomous AI agents could exceed their permissions or resist instructions, describing risks involving unauthorized transactions, security circumvention, and concealed actions, according to a November 4 AI digest. The disclosure came as Apple opened Siri AI to developers, expanding Siri's ability to perform actions across third-party applications. Apple also opened the first Apple Intelligence features for China in an iOS developer beta, working with Alibaba to use Qwen in selected writing tools, visual intelligence, and Siri-related experiences, with a broader release expected in December with iOS 27.3, according to a November 6 tech briefing. Google, meanwhile, said it plans to spend $15 billion in Malaysia in 2027 and 2028 on data centres, cloud operations, water, power, and training, according to a November 4 briefing. The AI buildout is now a capital spending story, a regulation story, and a geopolitics story, all at once.

More F'nNews

A $200,000 Chevelle, Painted With House Paint

Ron Crume of Arkansas, co-founder of the 7 Brew coffee chain, hand-painted a wood-grain finish on the dash and headliner of his 2026 Chevelle 70/SS using water-based house-paint toner in burnt sienna, raw umber and black over an automotive base coat. He also sprayed the car himself in PPG Envy Green and Madysen Gold. The carbon-fiber restomod, built on the sixth-generation Camaro platform, starts near $200,000, and a fully loaded version with a 454 LS6X engine can top $400,000. Only 25 are being built.

Stargate SG-1 Is Back, In Building Blocks

The new Stargate SG-1 release is not a show. It is two BlueBrixx collectible building sets, a 400-piece Goa'uld Symbiont for 19.95 euros and a 250-piece Jaffa Battlepack for 29.95 euros, both listed as coming soon with no confirmed release date. Amazon MGM scrapped a planned revival earlier in 2026, and a new series was reported in development in October with WandaVision creator Jac Schaeffer attached. SG-1 ran from 1997 to 2007.

GTA 6 Pre-Load Moves Up To November 10

Rockstar moved the Grand Theft Auto VI digital pre-load up from November 12 to Tuesday, November 10. PlayStation 5 pre-load starts at midnight local time, and Xbox Series X and S pre-load starts globally at midnight GMT, 7 p.m. Eastern on Monday, November 9. The download needs up to 212 GB. The launch date is unchanged, November 19, 2026, on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S only, with no PC date announced.

GTA 6 Fans Plan Their Last Ride

Players are planning launch-day rituals for Grand Theft Auto VI, including a fan-made Last Ride through Los Santos in GTA Online on the night of Wednesday, November 18, the night before launch, with a total ceasefire rule. The event started with a viral TikTok from CraftizyTV and is not an official Rockstar event. Fans are also talking about the midnight local-time unlock on November 19 and the New Zealand trick, switching regions to play early, though Rockstar has not endorsed it and there is no guarantee it will work.

'I'm About To Go Kill This Kid'

Kaylub Giamanco, 36, a carpenter and father of a student at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, called 911 on October 15 after seeing the shooter. On the call, just over a minute long and released November 3 through a public-records request, he said, 'I have a gun and I will shoot them right now' and 'I'm about to go kill this kid.' The shooter, 16-year-old Griffin J. John II, shot through locked doors into a special-needs classroom, killing three children, ages 5, 8 and 11, and a 25-year-old teacher, Cassidy Schutz. Giamanco entered through an open window and fatally shot him.

Billionaire Loses The Ohio Governor's Race

Democrat Amy Acton beat Republican Vivek Ramaswamy in the Ohio governor's race on November 3, about 51 percent to 46 percent, the first Democrat and the first woman to win the office in 20 years. She succeeds term-limited Governor Mike DeWine. Ramaswamy, 41, a biotech billionaire, spent more than $79 million, about half of it his own money, and was backed by Trump, Vance and Musk. Analysts pointed to a late-October attack ad featuring Acton's estranged mother calling her a liar, which backfired.

George Clooney Passed On Nick Fury Over A Comic

Before Samuel L. Jackson was cast, George Clooney was in talks to play Nick Fury and turned it down after researching the character and finding the ultra-gory 2001 to 2002 six-issue Fury miniseries by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, the creators behind The Boys. The Marvel MAX series included a scene where Fury strangles an enemy with his own entrails. Jackson's Fury was instead modeled on The Ultimates from 2002.

Katie Miller Blames MAGA Moms For The Midterms

Katie Miller, wife of White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and a former DOGE adviser, said on CBS News election coverage on November 3 that Republican turnout problems came from moms, saying, 'You see that moms are too busy raising their children and taking care of them to go to the polls.' When anchor Norah O'Donnell asked if she voted, Miller said she did not vote in Virginia, citing privacy and safety. She had also posted on Election Day that it 'makes me want to have more kids to cancel out the votes of the America hating leftists.'

Musk Reacts As Hinojosa Beats Abbott In Texas

Gina Hinojosa beat Republican Governor Greg Abbott in the Texas governor's race on November 3. She is set to become the first Latina governor of Texas and the first Democrat in the office since Ann Richards in 1990, taking office January 19, 2027. Elon Musk posted on X early on November 4, 'Data centers in space looking pretty appealing right now,' without mentioning Hinojosa or Texas in the post. Hinojosa campaigned for a moratorium on new data-center approvals until protections for water, power bills and local communities are in place.

Houthi Fighters Launch Ground Incursions Into Saudi Arabia

Houthi fighters launched multiple small-scale cross-border raids on Saudi border posts in the mountainous southwest in recent months, at least one as recently as the end of October, according to a Western and an Arab official cited by Middle East Eye. The raids reportedly involved direct contact and the seizure of small arms used by Saudi border security forces. Houthi drone and missile attacks on Saudi Arabia have run near-daily since September, and the Houthi-Saudi war resumed in July.

'You Can Just Call Me Senator'

Abdul El-Sayed, 42, beat Republican Mike Rogers in Michigan's U.S. Senate race on November 3, about 52 to 53 percent to 45 to 46 percent, becoming the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Senate. In his victory speech in Detroit in the early hours of November 4, he said, 'Donald, look, I know you struggled with my name. So after JD swears me in in January, you can just go ahead and call me senator.' He also told Vice President JD Vance, 'JD, habibi, there is this delicious irony in the fact that you're constitutionally obligated to swear me in in January.' Trump had mocked his name at an October rally.

The Wildest Stories About Hunter S. Thompson

Hunter S. Thompson, 1937 to 2005, founded gonzo journalism and wrote Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Hell's Angels. The stories told about him include spreading a 1972 rumor that Senator Ed Muskie was addicted to ibogaine, being beaten by Hells Angels after intervening when a member beat his wife and dog, firing shots at a neighbor's ranch in Woody Creek, Colorado in 1985, duct-taping Bill Murray to a chair and pushing him into a pool, and running for sheriff of Aspen in 1970. Several are Thompson's own tall tales and friends' recollections, not all independently verified.

Don Jr. Ridiculed Over Ohio, And Over The Midterms

Donald Trump Jr. drew a wave of online ridicule after warning Ohio voters at a rally in Swanton on November 2 that Democrats 'want to make Ohio a state.' Ohio has been a state since 1803. Critics piled on within minutes, including 'Don't do drugs, kids' from MeidasTouch editor Ron Filipkowski. In the same news cycle, Don Jr. was criticized for endorsing a post blaming his father's Iran war for Republican midterm losses, with a critic calling it the latest MAGA scam. The 'put down the coke spoon' line is a critic's taunt, not evidence of drug use.

Italian Chef Loses Job Over Pineapple On Pizza

Italian chef Davide Tamburella, head chef at La Costa restaurant in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, was sacked on May 20 after refusing to make ham and pineapple pizzas for a function worth more than A$15,000, saying pineapple on pizza is 'an insult to his culture' as an Italian. It was his third such refusal in four years. Australia's Fair Work Commission dismissed his unfair-dismissal application in a ruling published November 3 because it was filed 28 days late, with no exceptional circumstances. The ruling did not decide whether the firing was justified. His employer-sponsored permanent-residency visa process was jeopardized.

Florida Man Says An Etsy Witch Got Him Too Many Job Interviews

William Rath, 26, of Orlando, Florida, a recent law-school graduate and former safari driver, bought a tarot reading from creator MysticTarotGuide after TikTok followers jokingly suggested an Etsy witch, following hundreds of job applications. He says he got 9 interviews in 5 days after the reading, and joked on TikTok, 'Guys, the Etsy witch needs to chill.' He told BroBible he had about 5 interviews in the whole year before that. He credits greater confidence, not proven causation.

Trump's DJT Stock Falls To Happy Meal Prices

Shares of Trump Media and Technology Group, the parent of Truth Social, fell to a record low of $5.05 on Election Day, November 4, after the Republican midterm losses, down from a peak of about $175 a share. Washington Post contributor Drew Harwell noted a share costs 'about as much as a Happy Meal.' Writer Amanda Knox added, 'With a Happy Meal, you get a toy that you can keep.' Truth Social reported net losses of $712 million in 2025.

13 Traumatic Things Kids Can't Handle Today

A list making the rounds asks what kids today could not handle that Gen X just dealt with. The genre covers busy signals, missing a TV episode because there was no recording it, sitting through commercials, 24-photo film rolls, no undo button, lawn darts, no helmets, babysitting at 12, and cars without seatbelts. The exact 13 items in the MSN slideshow could not be verified from outside sources, so the list is presented here as a list, not as a verified count of each item.

Teachers Share The Dumbest Things Students Have Done And Said

Teachers are sharing their dumbest student stories, sourced from r/Teachers. One student who stole an answer key wrote 'Answers May Vary' as an exam answer, along with two classmates, and the whole class had to retake the exam. A student watching the 1990s Romeo and Juliet film asked how Leonardo DiCaprio could be in a play written in the 1500s. Another student refused to believe the Titanic was a real ship, arguing it was just a film.

Burger King Announces An Avengers Menu, With A Catch

Burger King launched its Avengers: Doomsday Collection on November 3, in India only, with no confirmed U.S. release. The headliner is the Doomsday Whopper, a black glazed bun with bright-green spicy garlic sauce. The rest of the menu includes the Loki Molten Cheese Burger, Magneto Crunchy Chicken Burger, Thor Thunder Nuggets, Shuri Vibranium Fries, Falcon Fearless Chicken Wings, and a Fantastic Fizz drink. Prices start at 199 rupees, about $2.10. Avengers: Doomsday opens December 18, with Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom.

'I'm For Shawarma Law'

Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan senator-elect, joked at a Macomb County campaign stop, 'Do not believe the people who say I'm for Sharia law, I'm for shawarma law.' The video was posted October 31. His tenet of shawarma law: if a shawarma has lettuce in it, 'it's not shawarma, it's just a sandwich. Someone has lied to you.' His favorite shop is Amo Samis in the Detroit area, started as a food truck, known for crispy shawarma with extra toum and pickles on the end.

Coming Up

· Sunday, November 8: Bears vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Sunday Night Football, 8:20 p.m. Eastern.

· Monday, November 9: Congress returns for the lame duck session.

· Tuesday, November 10: Israel's new Knesset is sworn in, and Ukraine and Russia talks open in Abu Dhabi, running November 10 and 11.

· Thursday, November 12: hemp. The federal first step, cannabinoids the plant cannot produce, and the Illinois Hemp Act 0.4 milligram per container line takes effect.

· Friday, November 13, about: Kansas Attorney General investigator contact expected, with a case number for the October 30 charity fraud submission. No finding is expected at that step, just a number and an investigator.

· Friday, December 11: the rest of the federal hemp redefinition, the total THC cap, and the federal funding expiry.

· Thursday, December 17: Chicago mayoral ballot certification.

· Friday, January 15, 2027: the new Chicago school board takes office.

· January 2027: the new Congress convenes.

· November 27 to 29: Chicago TARDIS, Westin Chicago Lombard. F'nAround press passes confirmed.

· Friday, December 18: Avengers: Doomsday, with Patrick Stewart's final on-screen appearance.

· Illinois social equity infuser license comments, through roughly the end of November.

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