Hey there! It’s Friday, and I keep looking at this photo of my nephews from Halloween. Here’s what you need to know today.

1. Biden plans to speak to the nation tonight

Nearing the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency, Democratic nominee Joe Biden plans to deliver a prime-time address tonight. WBEZ will air special election coverage beginning at 8 p.m. CT, and you can listen online or on a smart speaker device.

It’s not clear what Biden will say. The former vice president yesterday urged the public to remain patient as ballots continue to be counted in key swing states.

You can find more live updates and election analysis from NPR in this link. [NPR]

Biden today continued to gain ground in Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania, and he has so far been able to maintain his lead in Arizona. Here’s a look at where the Electoral College map currently stands. [NPR]

Meanwhile, some Republicans are criticizing President Donald Trump’s unsupported claims that Democrats are trying to “steal” the election. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., tweeted that the president’s claims of fraud are “getting insane.” [NPR]

The president has increasingly pushed conspiracy theories and misinformation as his path to victory narrows and his campaign’s legal challenges are denied. For example, Trump said election officials don’t want any election observers in Pennsylvania.

As NPR points out: “In reality, his campaign and lawyers representing Philadelphia sparred over how many election observers should be watching at one time, and how far away they needed to stay from officials who were counting ballots. Observers from political parties are a normal part of the counting process, and officials never tried to argue that Republicans should not be allowed to watch.” [NPR]

2. More than 10,000 coronavirus cases reported in Illinois, a new record

For the second day in a row, Illinois has seen a record number of new coronavirus cases reported in a single day.

State officials today reported 10,376 new cases and 49 deaths. The positivity rate also jumped to 9.6%. The state is seeing a rolling, seven-day average of 7,701 cases per day, up 86% from the average two weeks ago. [WBEZ]

And the situation could get worse.

“I hope that the public understands what it means when we see 10,000 new cases a day,” said Dr. Zaher Sahloul, a pulmonologist at Saint Anthony Hospital on Chicago’s Southwest Side. “That means, unfortunately, some of these patients will be admitted to the hospital — 20% [or] one out of five — and 5% [of those admitted] will die. And that’s what we have seen before. And that has not changed.” [WBEZ]

Meanwhile, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention knew in February that the agency’s coronavirus test had serious flaws, but the test was released anyway. [NPR]

And an NPR analysis found that many areas hit hardest by the pandemic leaned more toward Trump in this year’s election than in 2016. [AP]

3. Unemployment rate falls to 6.9%

The U.S. economy gained 638,000 jobs last month, signaling that the labor market is recovering slowly as a surge in new coronavirus infections threatens future growth. The unemployment rate dropped from September’s 7.9% to 6.9% in October, the Labor Department reported today.

Looking at the big picture, the economy has recovered 54% of the 22 million jobs lost during the spring, when many businesses were shut down to slow the spread of the virus.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned this week that businesses could face a brutal winter if the pandemic is not under control. And the longer Americans are out of work, the more difficult it will be to find new jobs.

“The record is, if you don’t get back in fairly quickly, it can be harder to get back in,” Powell said. “That holds down the whole economy. And by the way, it also places enormous burdens on individuals.” [NPR]

4. Madigan faces growing calls to step aside as party leader

U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth joined Sen. Dick Durbin and Gov. JB Pritzker in calling for Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan to step down as head of the state’s Democratic Party.

“The ongoing investigation surrounding Speaker Madigan is an unnecessary distraction and makes it harder to carry out the work of helping the people of Illinois,” Duckworth said in a statement.

As WBEZ’s Dave McKinney and Tony Arnold report, “the criticism from Pritzker, Durbin and Duckworth represents the most focused challenge yet to Madigan’s hold on power and is rooted in an ongoing federal bribery probe into Commonwealth Edison’s efforts to curry favor with the speaker.”

Madigan’s political operation said the speaker has no plans to step aside as party chairman. [WBEZ]

As WBEZ has previously reported, the ComEd bribery scheme came at a cost for millions of Illinois customers. Madigan has not been charged and has denied any wrongdoing. [WBEZ]

5. Chicago charter school network agrees to pay $4.5 million to end federal probe

Concept Schools Inc., which faced allegations that it engaged in a bid-rigging scheme to steer federally funded technology contracts to insiders, will pay a $4.5 million fine to end a long-running federal investigation, reports WBEZ’s Dan Mihalopoulos and Sarah Karp.

The Schaumburg-based charter school chain operates four publicly-financed campuses in Chicago and dozens of other charter schools in the Midwest.

The costly, civil settlement with the government comes more than six years after federal agents raided the charter operator’s northwest suburban offices and other sites connected to Concept in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, Mihalopoulos and Karp report. [WBEZ]

Here’s what else is happening

• Most voters outside of Chicago rejected Gov. Pritzker’s proposed graduated income tax. [WBEZ]
• There will be no ice skating at Chicago’s Millennium Park this year. [Block Club Chicago]
• And this year’s Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Chicago will be virtual. [Chicago Sun-Times]
• Looking for something to take your mind off the election? Nerdette talks to comedian Negin Farsad and Iowa Public Radio reporter Clay Masters about election distractions. [WBEZ]

Oh, and one more thing …

CNN’s John King, who has delivered seemingly nonstop coverage and analysis of election results, has only gotten 6.5 hours of sleep since Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times reported yesterday.

“This is an amazing and consequential story. More so because of the pandemic and its impact on everything,” King told the newspaper in a statement. [LA Times]

That story makes me think of all the people at WBEZ who have tirelessly worked this week. So I’d like to thank all of the people at the station who pulled in some long hours this week to keep me and you informed.

They are: Susie An, Tony Arnold, Libby Berry, Tracy Brown, Steve Bynum, Adriana Cardona-Maguigad, Monica Eng, Lauren Frost, Mary Hall, Sarah Karp, Justin Kaufmann, Al Keefe, Mike Lansu, Linda Lutton, Jason Marck, Manuel Martinez, Dave McKinney, Dan Mihalopoulos, Dave Miska, Chip Mitchell, Claudia Morell, Nereida Moreno, Katherine Nagasawa, Angela Rozas O’Toole, Michael Puente, Kristen Schorsch, Carrie Shepherd, Patrick Smith, Jennifer Tanaka, Becky Vevea, Rob Wildeboer and Mariah Woelfel.

Tell me something good …

What’s your favorite comfort food?

Janis writes:

“This could disgust you, but when I’m anxious or blue I make a batch of oatmeal raisin cookies — eating about a quarter of the raw dough before I bake them.”

And Mary writes:

“My comfort food right now is an apple cider milkshake. You mix vanilla bean ice cream, apple cider and some dashes of cinnamon. Whip that up and pour it in a glass. It just sings to my soul as it’s going down.”

Thanks for all the responses this week! I’m sorry I couldn’t share all of them, but it was great hearing from you!

Thanks for reading and have a nice night! We’ll see you next week.