What F'nHappened This Week? September 25, 2026

What F'nHappened This Week? September 25, 2026

Chicago's Baseball Teams Clinched, the NuEra Paper Trail Got Stranger, and Mike Found More Things to Eat at El Grito

This week Chicago watched the Bears turn a rainy home game into a 9–3 field-goal exchange, then watched Caleb Williams leave with a hamstring injury. The team’s stadium story kept moving too, with public records showing Illinois officials and Bears ownership still talking even as the team has described Indiana as its focus.

F'nAround spent the week doing what we do: following the paperwork, writing about cannabis policy, and turning food and festival conversations into reviews. We published our Michigan cannabis comparison, tasted CTA-themed burgers and festival cocktails, met a bakery that can turn cake into almost anything, and interviewed a couple of El Grito attendees who were briefly convinced the corn had disappeared while the camera was pointed at the money shot.

The academic side moved forward as well. Joe submitted Reconciliation Testing: A Public-Records Methodology for Auditing Institutional Policy Coherence to a preprint server. The submission is currently under moderation. The work takes the records requests, agency answers, filings and institutional timelines we have been collecting and organizes them into a research protocol that other people can inspect and use.

And around the internet: both Chicago baseball teams clinched playoff spots on the same afternoon; a judge ordered White House press access restored after Trump tried to bar several outlets; Kid Rock’s Kentucky festival was canceled after only six VIP tickets sold; and the Blues Brothers really did use Chicago streets as a stunt course. The week also brought Hegseth’s Pentagon visit with Jake and Logan Paul, Trump’s call for countries to leave the ICC, Halliburton’s Venezuela memorandums, and a Florida home dispute whose coverage gives one woman two very different job titles.

Let’s F'nAround and find out what happened.

The Bears’ Rainy Home Opener Was a 9–3 Argument About Field Goals

The Chicago Bears lost 9–3 to the Minnesota Vikings at Soldier Field on Sunday, September 20. The weather was miserable, the offenses were limited, and the Vikings won without scoring a touchdown. That is not the kind of game anyone puts on a season highlight reel unless the reel is titled Chicago Football in September.

The larger concern came in the fourth quarter. Caleb Williams hurt his right hamstring on a non-contact play while scrambling near the goal line and left the game. Backup Tyson Bagent got the Bears into position for a final chance, but Minnesota’s Dallas Turner sacked him on the last play. The Bears had outgained the Vikings 297–246 and still managed only one field goal.

So the Bears are 1–1, their quarterback’s status is the question hanging over the week, and the offensive line has been asked to protect a quarterback who may or may not be available. The defense held Minnesota to three field goals. The offense looked like it had misplaced the end zone somewhere between the lakefront and the locker room.

The stadium question is equally unresolved. Chicago has been told the Bears are focused on Hammond, Indiana, while Arlington Heights remains the Illinois alternative. But reporting based on public records showed continued contact between the team’s ownership and Illinois officials, including a meeting involving Bears minority owner Pat Ryan and Deputy Gov. Andy Manar. Gov. J.B. Pritzker has also said the state is still working to keep the team in Illinois.

That does not mean a deal is done, or that a new stadium is coming to Chicago. It does mean the public version “Indiana is the only conversation” has more footnotes than the slogan suggests. Illinois is still trying to make its case, the Bears are still weighing their options, and fans are left watching both the quarterback injury report and the stadium map.

The Bears’ official game recap | Capitol News Illinois reporting on the August meetings

Chicago Baseball Had a Very Good Thursday

The Cubs and White Sox both clinched playoff spots on September 24, within minutes of each other. The Cubs edged Miami 2–1 for a second straight postseason berth; the Sox beat Kansas City 9–1, becoming the first team to reach the playoffs after three straight 100-loss seasons. Pete Crow-Armstrong added his 40th stolen base alongside 45 home runs. Chicago gets October baseball on both sides of town a rare full-season double celebration.

WTTW/AP: both Chicago teams clinch

Chicago Politics: Meters, Contractors and a 2027 Money Race

In late August, Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order requiring firms seeking city contracts to disclose government and law-enforcement contracts worth more than $500,000 over the past five years, along with any civil-rights proceedings, integrity issues, discrimination findings, or wage-theft violations. It is a disclosure rule, not a ban on those firms. Meanwhile, a proposed $2.53 billion sale of Chicago’s parking-meter concession advanced out of committee; the full Council vote is scheduled for today, so that outcome was still pending as this roundup was prepared. Separately, Alexi Giannoulias has raised $22.2 million since the 2023 mayoral runoff more than the other 14 potential 2027 candidates combined, according to Axios. That figure spans the period since the last runoff, not just the current campaign season.

WTTW on the immigration-contractor disclosure order | WTTW on the parking-meter proposal | Axios on mayoral fundraising

Illinois also established a state AI Cabinet by executive order on September 22, tasked with assessing AI safety and risks to critical infrastructure.

Illinois Executive Order 2026-07

The Michigan Cannabis Money Slip-and-Slide

Our new article, “Four Licenses In, One License Out: Michigan’s Cannabis Slippery Slope” looks at two Michigan towns at different points on the same cannabis-policy ride.

Menominee is considering whether to raise its cap from nine dispensaries to thirteen. Voters are expected to decide the proposal on November 3. New Buffalo Township, meanwhile, is trying to rein in a market it previously allowed to grow, with at least one permit being pushed toward the exit.

One community is being told more stores could mean competition, jobs, investment and tax revenue. The other is finding that once a town invites the entire industry to the party, asking everyone to leave is not a simple matter of turning on the porch light.

That is the slippery slope: the promise of easy local revenue is persuasive before the storefronts arrive. The costs and political fights tend to become clearer afterward. One town is still looking up the hill. The other is trying to find the brake.

FOIA Work: The Record Is Becoming the Research Design

The Illinois records work kept producing the question behind our reporting: when an agency, a governor’s office, a litigating office and a public-records unit describe the same policy or event, can their accounts be reconciled against the documents?

This week Joe submitted Reconciliation Testing: A Public-Records Methodology for Auditing Institutional Policy Coherence to s preprint server. The submission is currently under moderation. The paper sets out a seven-step protocol: identify an authoritative commitment; map the offices and officials allowed to interpret it; state in advance what evidence should exist; collect the records and statements; compare them; classify any gaps; and make a serious attempt to reconcile those gaps before treating them as findings.

That last step matters. A missing document or a narrow FOIA response does not automatically prove misconduct. The method asks whether confidentiality, statutory differences, agency roles, timing or resource limits explain what looks like a mismatch. It also asks what remains unexplained after those alternatives are checked.

The paper demonstrates the method with two Illinois cannabis-governance examples: youth-protection claims and the records surrounding enforcement; and the stated social-equity purpose of legalization alongside the State’s litigation posture. The point is to make the work reproducible and restrained: show the commitment, show the records, show the gap, show the attempted explanation, then state only what the record supports.

That is a natural extension of the FOIA timeline we have been building. Our log tracks requests, extensions, partial releases and denials across agencies. The Attorney General’s production log, as we have tracked it, has moved through roughly 180 records out of a pool of more than 3,000 after months of requests and extensions. The Illinois Department of Agriculture separately answered our request about records tied to the IESO transfer and related ownership questions with “no responsive records.” Those answers are part of the documentary record; they are not, by themselves, proof of what an agency did or did not know.

The timeline now adds the September 18–24 entries below (the log’s numbering repeats 425, so dates and times are clearer here):

• September 18: The Office of the Executive Inspector General (OEIG) responded that it was again referring the complaint alleging criminal conduct back to IDFPR to address allegations concerning conduct within the department.

• September 19: A notice to the Illinois Attorney General said that preparation of a potential Section 1983 action was underway. As described in the notice, the contemplated claim concerns allegations that state actors concealed or covered up state and federal crimes by NuEra, its owners and executives, and sought to pressure the plaintiffs to drop the case. Those are allegations in the notice, not findings in a court judgment.

• September 21: IDOA responded that it had no records of a referral to the Attorney General concerning the findings or the updated verdict.

• September 21: A new FOIA to IDOA seeks the names of employees who responded to, handled, oversaw or authorized the agency’s FOIA responses, including decisions about whether to refer the verdict to the Attorney General.

• September 21: A parallel FOIA to IDFPR seeks the names of employees who handled its FOIA responses and decisions about referrals concerning the verdict or alleged federal crimes.

• September 22: A FOIA to the Governor’s Office seeks records identifying staff who handled the FOIA submissions and related media and social-channel communications, including how the issues raised to the Governor’s Office were received and routed.

• September 24, 1:28 p.m.: The Attorney General’s Office issued an extension on the narrowed request for files 181–220 from a production list exceeding 3,000 items. The log describes this as part of a production we have been trying to move since February.

The three new personnel-records requests are a way to identify who handled the agency responses and referral decisions. The records they produce may clarify how those decisions were made; the requests themselves do not establish that any particular employee ignored or mishandled information.

We Asked Who Was Handling the FOIAs. The FOIA Started Answering Itself.

On September 24, the IDFPR paperwork acquired a little bureaucratic slapstick. The timeline records two incorrect extension letters arriving within a minute of one another: at 4:25 p.m. on the request about whether the five newly announced nuEra locations had been licensed before or after the verdict, and at 4:26 p.m. on the separate request for the names of employees handling FOIA responses. At 4:30 p.m., a corrected extension for the employee-records request arrived from an account identifying IDFPR counsel.

Seven minutes later, at 4:37 p.m., IDFPR sent a separate response to the licensing-record request. The records response’s PDF was created about a minute before it was transmitted. Its file metadata was associated with a different state department. That is an unusual provenance detail worth asking about, but metadata alone does not establish who created the document or why. The correction and the seven-minute-later response also concerned separate FOIA requests, not one letter being corrected and then answered.

Beneath the paperwork shuffle was the consequential part: IDFPR’s own lookup listed two NuEra credentials as active and in good standing, with August 31 issue dates 41 days after the July 21 unanimous jury verdict. The agency withheld the underlying applications, approval dates and approval notices under statutory exemptions, so the response did not disclose the records that would show how those decisions were made. And the generic lookup did not clearly account for all five locations in NuEra’s announcement.

That is the story we can support from the response: two listed credentials with post-verdict issue dates; underlying approval materials withheld; and an incomplete-looking match between the lookup and the five announced locations. It does not, by itself, establish that the credentials were unlawful or that an employee acted with improper intent. It does sharpen the records question: when were the locations approved, what records supported the approvals, and who reviewed the matter after the verdict and after the agency had been alerted to sworn testimony concerning money laundering?

At 5:49 p.m., Joe filed another IDFPR FOIA seeking records identifying who gave final good-standing approval for the licenses and how that decision was handled. The request points to the case record and sworn testimony about payments to a witness, described in that testimony as money laundering, as well as testimony about threats made to pressure the plaintiffs to drop the lawsuit. Those are the request’s framing and the underlying allegations; the FOIA itself does not establish who approved the credentials or what they knew.

The next step is exactly what the paper says: compare the responses with the other institutional records, preserve the alternative explanations and keep the conclusions calibrated to the evidence. FOIA is still the way we get the documents. Reconciliation testing is a way to show readers what we did with them.

Court today, and what comes next

Our lawyer released a press statement Thursday recapping the July 21 verdicts. It says all twelve jurors found for Joseph Phelan on Count V, the breach-of-contract claim, against Robert Fitzsimmons II, NuMed Partners, NuMed Managers and IESO, jointly and severally. It also summarizes the jury’s verdicts for Phelan and Juan Finch Jr. on the defamation, false-light and tortious-interference counterclaims. The release emphasizes that the jury decided only the claims submitted to it and that the litigation is not fully concluded: a separate Michigan-ownership issue involving another party remains for the court.

As we put this together Friday, we are in court on the remaining plaintiff’s Michigan-related issues in the NuEra matter. We will report the outcome when we can. Joe’s public post this week says the next chapter is federal civil-rights claims against state actors and institutions, with filings underway. The central question he raises is what state offices did after receiving reports not simply what private actors allegedly did. That is a new federal-court chapter; it should not be confused with saying the existing Illinois case has been transferred to federal court.

Our public-records index | F'nAround’s academic work

Bust Outs Put Chicago’s Train Lines on the Menu

Mike, Sandra and Joe stopped at Bust Outs during El Grito, and the restaurant brought a very Chicago menu to Grant Park. The theme runs through CTA names, but the food does not rely on the names alone.

We tried elote, Brown Line cheese curds, sweet potato fries and Gouda mac-and-cheese bites, along with the Brown Line burger. The burger was loaded, the elote fit the festival perfectly, the curds and fries did their jobs, and the Gouda bites came with enough cheese to make the word “restraint” feel like it had missed its train.

Bust Outs is at Elston and Foster in a triangular building that has housed an eatery since the 1950s. The menu stretches well beyond burgers, with Italian beef, hot dogs, wings, a cod sandwich, calamari fries and more. The CTA-inspired names make the menu memorable; the portions and variety give you a reason to come back and ride another line.

Everything we tried was delicious. We would gladly ride the menu again just maybe not every line in one sitting.

Read our full Bust Outs review on F'nAround.

ClawTails Passed the “Would Mike Drink This Again?” Test

At El Grito, Mike and Alexis sampled all four White Claw ClawTails: Mango Margarita, Blackberry Mojito, Strawberry Cosmo and Tropical Mai Tai. Every sample came with a cheers, because apparently a beverage review needs a small ceremony.

The drinks are 7% ABV and land between a standard hard seltzer and a heavier premixed cocktail: more fruit and flavor than a plain seltzer, without feeling syrupy. Mango Margarita was the easy crowd-pleaser; Blackberry Mojito had the darker fruit-and-lime profile; Strawberry Cosmo balanced strawberry with cranberry tartness; and Tropical Mai Tai tasted like it was already trying to book a vacation.

The useful review question is whether Mike would want one after leaving the sponsored tent. He said yes. They were refreshing, flavorful and easy to imagine at a barbecue or a summer gathering. At 7%, they also deserve more respect than the bright fruit flavors might suggest.

Read the full ClawTails review on F'nAround.

Fabled Frostings Brought the Real-Life Is It Cake? to El Grito

Mike met Denee and Chris from Fabled Frostings at El Grito and got samples of their desserts. The blondie was the immediate favorite. Joe was trying to film while Denee was passing him samples, which accounts for the camera shake. That was not an equipment failure. That was a bakery-related workplace hazard.

Fabled Frostings is a woman-owned, minority-owned Illinois cottage bakery that builds custom cakes and desserts around the person or occasion. Its sculpted cakes are the “Is it cake?” part: realistic, edible versions of objects and ideas. The bakery also makes tiered and wedding cakes, mini desserts and a wide range of flavors. The visual trick is impressive, but the flavor still has to carry its share and the blondie did.

The conversation quickly moved from samples to Mike’s plans: a custom Ferrari cake, with an Acura as the backup, andbecause no idea is safe around him a South Park sweet sixteen concept. We will see whether Fabled Frostings eventually regrets being so encouraging.

The review also explains the Netflix competition show’s premise and how the social-media cake-reveal trend became a television franchise. The basic game is simple: put realistic cake beside real objects and ask judges to identify the dessert before somebody dramatically cuts into the wrong handbag.

Read our Fabled Frostings feature on F'nAround.

El Grito: The Corn Was There, the Camera Was Ready, and Then It Was Gone

Mike also talked with Mario from Fernando’s Blue Agave and Nicole, who was visiting Chicago for the first time. They discussed the festival returning after a year away, food, pop culture and Nicole’s first impressions of the city. Mike even picked up a few Spanish lessons along the way.

There was one brief culinary misunderstanding: they thought the corn on the grill was gone. It was not. We got the shot before they finished it, so viewers can hear the reaction while seeing the corn that everyone thought had disappeared. A rare case where the missing item was present in the video the entire time.

And, thankfully, there were no stormtroopers scaring people away. El Grito gave us interviews, food, music, crowd energy and another reminder that the best festival moments are often the ones nobody planned.

The Blues Brothers Were Doing Their Own Driving

A resurfaced look at The Blues Brothers stunt work is a reminder that the 1980 movie did not rely on digital effects to make Chicago look chaotic. The car chases used stunt drivers and real locations, including Lower Wacker Drive, the elevated tracks, the 95th Street bridge and the Dixie Square Mall in Harvey.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported that the major chase involved 40 stunt drivers and 13 Bluesmobiles. Other accounts describe more than 100 cars wrecked during the production. The movie’s final stretch is basically a citywide insurance claim with a soundtrack.

The real-life stunts are one reason the film still feels so physical. The Bluesmobile is not gliding through a computer-generated Chicago; it is being driven through a city that apparently said, “Sure, you can do that,” and then watched the cameras roll.

Chicago Sun-Times: the stunt driving was real

Trump Tried to Bar Outlets; a Judge Ordered Access Restored

On September 18, Trump said CNN, MS NOW and Politico would be barred from White House grounds, with more outlets potentially to follow. On September 24, a federal judge found the ban likely unconstitutional and ordered press access restored for 14 days. The White House reinstated access after reporters were initially turned away despite the order. A fast-moving press-freedom fight, and a reminder that court orders sometimes need enforcing in real time.

Reuters on the ban announcement | Reuters on the judge’s order and access restoration

Kid Rock’s Festival Sold Six VIP Tickets, Then Got Canceled

The Patriots Day Freedom Fest in Kentucky, scheduled for September 26, was canceled five days before it was due to happen. Reports said only six VIP tickets had sold; that is not a count of all tickets or all expected attendees. The organizer cited financial constraints. So yes, six VIP tickets is the headline number—but it needs that qualifier.

People’s report on the cancellation

Hegseth’s Pentagon Put the Paul Brothers in Front of Troops

Jake and Logan Paul visited the Pentagon and addressed service members during a visit arranged by Pete Hegseth’s Defense Department. The brothers also met Hegseth. The department described them as visiting to meet with service members, while the public footage showed them praising troops and thanking them for their service.

The reaction was predictable: people asked why two influencers known for YouTube stunts and boxing were being given a platform inside the Pentagon. The sharper question is what the Defense Department thought this appearance accomplished. A military workplace has plenty of people with experience, expertise and actual service to talk about. Bringing in two celebrities who make internet content may be harmless, but it also looks like a government institution trying to borrow influencer reach and hoping nobody asks who approved the guest list.

It is the sort of story that makes you wish the headline were satire. Unfortunately, the footage is real.

Al Jazeera’s report on the visit | Task & Purpose on the Pentagon appearance

Trump Told ICC Members to Resign. What Does He Want in Its Place?

At the United Nations General Assembly, President Trump urged countries that belong to the International Criminal Court to resign, calling the court “out of control” and rejecting its jurisdiction over American service members.

The International Criminal Court is a treaty-based court established to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and aggression when national systems do not do so. The United States is not a member. Trump’s demand is therefore directed at the countries that are parties to the Rome Statute, not at an organization the United States currently belongs to.

The obvious follow-up is the one in the headline: if countries withdraw, what replaces the shared system for investigating and prosecuting the gravest international crimes? A national court can act in some cases; international cooperation and domestic prosecutions are also essential. But telling governments to leave a common court without offering a credible replacement risks reducing accountability to whichever country has the power to impose it.

Reuters on Trump’s call at the UN

Halliburton’s Venezuela Announcements Are Memorandums, Not Oil Wells Turning On Tomorrow

Halliburton signed memorandums of understanding with Brazilian energy company Eneva and WESCA to pursue oil and gas development opportunities in Venezuela. The headlines make it sound like an oil boom can be switched on with a pen. The actual announcement is a starting point for exploring projects, not a guarantee that production is about to surge.

Venezuela’s oil sector has been held back by years of underinvestment, damaged infrastructure, sanctions and political instability. Any expanded production would require capital, equipment, legal clarity and time. The news is still notable: U.S. energy-service companies are positioning themselves for new work in a country whose oil resources have long drawn international interest.

Halliburton is also one of those corporate names that carries its own political history. The company’s return to the conversation inevitably brings back the Iraq War era and the long-running questions about energy contractors, government policy and who benefits when foreign policy opens a market.

Reuters: Halliburton signs Venezuela energy pacts

A Greek Beach Fight Over Six Sun Loungers Ended in a Death

A report from Greece described an 82-year-old man dying after an argument and fight over beach sun loungers. The dispute reportedly involved a 76-year-old man and a set of six loungers. The younger man was arrested and charged in connection with the death, according to local reporting cited by international outlets.

People can be territorial about beach chairs, but six sunbeds is an ambitious claim on a public beach. The grim part is that a fight over something meant for relaxing turned into a fatal incident. The headline sounds like a Grumpy Old Men plot until you remember that a real family is dealing with a death and a criminal investigation.

Report on the Greece sunbed incident

The Lemon Juice Bank Robbers Are Back, and Ignorance Is Still Not a Defense

The “lemon juice made me invisible” bank-robbery story is not new. In 1995, McArthur Wheeler and another man robbed Pittsburgh-area banks after Wheeler believed lemon juice on his face would make him invisible to security cameras—the logic being that lemon juice could be used as invisible ink.

It did not work. The security footage did. The case later became associated with the Dunning–Kruger effect, the idea that people with limited knowledge can overestimate their competence. There is no sign the robbers were relying on a sophisticated legal defense. They were apparently relying on citrus.

So, no: being stupid is not a defense. It is, however, one way to become a story people are still passing around 30 years later.

AriZona Iced Tea, a $820,000 House and Two Different Headlines for One Former Employee

Two articles about the same Florida home dispute describe Fayssanya “Fay” Pratt as John Ferolito’s personal assistant in one headline and his former masseuse in another. The reporting says she worked for the AriZona Iced Tea co-founder for about 23 years, in roles that included massage therapist and assistant.

Pratt alleges that Ferolito promised her a Coral Springs home and later tried to remove her and her family from it. The home is reportedly worth about $820,000, and the dispute is now in court. The coverage also describes other gifts and financial help over the years, including a vehicle. The parties dispute what was promised and what the arrangement meant.

We do not know that this was a “hush home,” and the available reporting does not establish that. What we do know is that the two headlines use different job titles for the same person, while the legal fight centers on an alleged promise about a home. That is enough to make the AriZona iced tea bargain look like the least complicated contract in the story.

Inc. on the former assistant’s lawsuit | The separate $820,000 home dispute report

Mike Found a Car That Had a Worse Night Than Everybody Else

Mike spotted a burned-out car on a Chicago street after the rain and got video. We do not know what caused the fire, so we are not going to invent a story for it. We can say that waking up to your car looking like it lost an argument with a bonfire is a brutal way to start a rainy morning.

The caption question was simple: having a bad day? Imagine being the person who has to call Oak Lawn and ask whether the shop can repair “most of a car.” Chicago weather provides the rain; Chicago streets apparently provide the plot twists.

What’s Next

Tomorrow we’re heading to Tacos & Tequila with press access, so expect festival coverage. We are also continuing the reporting and records work behind the Illinois cannabis story while the new research method awaits its first public life as a SocArXiv preprint.

This week had football, baseball, food, film stunts, public records, court, a high-stakes home dispute, international courts and lemon juice. We will see what next week brings. At this point, a reasonable guess would be another agency extension, a new menu item and Mike asking somebody what else is edible.

That’s what F'nHappened this week.