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The proposed $900 million budget projects $146.4 million from fares, $458.8 million in sales tax revenues and $202 million in previously allocated federal relief funds. Metra is requesting an additional $92.8 million from President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan from the Regional Transportation Authority, which is distributing the funds, Ochab said.

But as envisioned, it would include service in at least a dozen new cities including Columbus, Ohio; Fort Wayne, Indiana and Madison, Wisconsin. It calls for a new route from Chicago to the Quad Cities, extending on to Des Moines, Iowa and Omaha, Nebraska. Another new route could connect a train line out of Dallas to Wichita, Kansas, and on to Chicago, said Laura Kliewer, director of the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission.

Simon Properties, which owns Woodfield Mall, Chicago Premium Outlets, Gurnee Mills and Orland Square, made a similar announcement last week, and major retailers such as Target, Walmart, Kohl’s and Bed Bath and Beyond have also said they will close on the holiday.

Passengers wait for luggage in the arrival area of Delta Air Lines, Monday, July 12, 2021, at Logan International Airport in Boston. Delta Air Lines is reporting a $1.2 billion profit for the third quarter, thanks in large part to federal aid to help the industry get through the pandemic. Delta said Wednesday, Oct. 13, that travel demand is improving after flattening out in late summer, when coronavirus cases spiked in the U.S. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer) (Michael Dwyer/AP)

In Illinois, like the rest of the nation, health care workers have fled their jobs as pandemic-related burnout has set in. Illinois will release job numbers for September later this month. But as the Tribune reported in recent days, there is some data that offer a snapshot of that: As of September, there were 258,225 active nursing and advanced practice registered nurse licenses compared with 263,513 the year before, state records show.

The project would come with a restructuring of a nearby track crossing, and early estimates put the total cost for both projects between $1.4 billion and $1.7 billion. Most of the money, which would likely include federal funding, would go toward the track restructuring, according to the presentation.

In an Oct. 4 filing with the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board, which needs to sign off on Loyola’s Tinley Park project, Loyola said it is leasing a bit more than 21,000 square feet at the Orland Park site, and that lease will end as of April 1, 2022.

“I don’t know why it should be a big deal,” he said. “If we’re talking the talk about going green, lowering our carbon footprint, then we should be doing what we can to get people out of vehicles that burn fossil fuels, and this makes sense, especially for people taking short trips where they can take a scooter rather than an Uber where the drivers are burning gas cruising around downtown waiting for a fare.”

Portillo’s also said it expects sales at restaurants open at least two years to be up about 6.8% during the three months that ended Sept. 26 compared with the same period last year, according to the filing. Though there was a “slight decline” in traffic, the average customer spent more per visit, the company said.

The government said Friday that job gains were weak for a second straight month in September, with only 194,000 jobs added, though the unemployment rate fell to 4.8% from 5.2%. Friday’s hiring figure is a net total, after job gains and quits, retirements and layoffs are taken into account. Tuesday’s report, known as the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS, includes raw figures, and showed that total hiring in August fell sharply, to 6.3 million from 6.8 million in July.