Good morning, Chicago. It’s hard to find a definite count of how many people practice witchcraft in Chicago. One minister whose congregation serves northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin estimates that the Chicago area is home to between 20,000 and 27,000 pagans whose religions are anchored in the Earth’s rhythms and may employ witchcraft as part of their spiritual practice. Some people who practice witchcraft, like the Andersonville-based author Christopher Allaun, get a kick out of secular Halloween celebrations and pop-culture representations of themselves as old women with green skin and black hats. While Allaun does have pagan friends who find the holiday offensive, he appreciates a good costume and a harmless practical joke. “I think (Halloween) is one of the few times of the year that grownups allow themselves to just be expressive and free and silly and have fun,” he said. But Allaun — a co-founder and ordained minister of a queer, pagan church with branches in Chicago and Seattle who has been practicing magic since 1992 — also sees traditions of witchcraft and pagan practice as important spiritual tools for people who face discrimination or injustice. Tonight is the eve of the pagan holiday Samhain, which marks the end of the harvest season and the coming of winter. For pagans, the holiday is an opportunity for the living to confront their mortality and to try to connect with their dead loved ones. Read the full story from the Tribune’s Caroline Kubzansky. Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day. Subscribe to more newsletters | Puzzles & Games | Today’s eNewspaper edition Mayor Brandon Johnson gives his budget address during the city council meeting at City Hall on Oct. 30, 2024. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune) Mayor Brandon Johnson’s property tax hike met with opposition, caution from aldermen When lukewarm applause followed Mayor Brandon Johnson’s budget address Wednesday, it was clear what had sucked the enthusiasm from City Council chambers. The foundation of Johnson’s $17.3 billion spending plan: a $300 million property tax increase. That tax hike instantly led a large group of aldermen to outright oppose the mayor’s budget proposal and say their constituents cannot bear the cost. Others expressed less final, but still serious concerns about the recommendation. Mayor Brandon Johnson seeks $300 million property tax hike in 2025 budget Jeffrey Howard, SEIU Local 73 vice president, speaks at the union’s headquarters in Chicago on Oct. 15, 2019. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune) Contract for more than 1,000 city workers in the balance as unions spar, point fingers at city Two unions representing two sets of Chicago city workers, forced to bargain their contracts jointly, are in the midst of an extraordinary spat, accusing each other and the city of playing politics and failing to hold up their ends of the deal. Gov. JB Pritzker announces a new “Help Stop Hate” initiative during a news conference on Oct. 30, 2024. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune) Pritzker questions vetting, aldermen ask for resignation of newly appointed Chicago school board president Gov. JB Pritzker and more than two dozen aldermen criticized Mayor Brandon Johnson for not fully vetting his choice for school board president — citing the hand-picked candidate’s history of posting repeatedly about Israel’s yearlong offensive in Gaza. The Rev. Mitchell “Ikenna” Johnson was appointed by the mayor to the school board’s top leadership role after all seven previous members resigned earlier this month. But some state legislators and City Council members questioned that decision and called for his resignation because of dozens of anti-Israel posts he’d made, first reported by Jewish Insider. Chicago Public Schools headquarters on Oct. 4, 2024. (Tess Crowley/Chicago Tribune) Mailers for Chicago school board race go negative — from Project 2025 to attacks on the mayor With 31 candidates and money pouring in from the Chicago Teachers Union and charter-aligned groups for 10 hotly contested seats, these ads look a little different, with cut-out portraits of unsmiling contenders and menacing messages. Like the kinds of mailers seen in legislative and aldermanic races, they are sometimes darkly political and stick to straight politics, even though some of the country’s most polarizing education issues — officers in schools, book-banning and critical race theory — aren’t discussed. What is being discussed: Donald Trump’s agenda should he be elected on Nov. 5. A McDonald’s Quarter Pounder hamburger is shown in this photograph, in New York’s Times Square, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) McDonald’s E. coli case count rises as federal officials inspect an onion grower Federal officials yesterday reported more cases of E. coli poisoning among people who ate at McDonald’s, as government investigators seeking the outbreak’s source identified an “onion grower of interest” in Washington state. A car crashed into Madame ZuZu’s, a popular Highland Park tea shop owned by Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan, on Oct. 30, 2024. Corgan’s mother-in-law was injured after the vehicle crashed through the window. (Scott Lasker/Network Video Productions) Billy Corgan’s mother-in-law injured when car crashes into his Highland Park tea shop A car drove through a front window of a Highland Park restaurant owned by musician Billy Corgan, reportedly injuring Corgan’s mother-in-law who was inside having lunch with his son. Will Venable, center, is introduced in a coaching staff Q&A session during the Cubs Convention on Jan. 13, 2018, at the Sheraton Grand Chicago. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune) Column: Will Venable’s hiring makes sense for a Chicago White Sox team looking to change its image Wins were few and far between for the Chicago White Sox this season, so the news of the hiring of Will Venable as manager likely will be viewed with skepticism by a sizable segment of fans, writes Paul Sullivan. Their trust in the Sox organization is at an all-time low after the blatant cronyism surrounding the Tony La Russa hiring in 2020, the stench of the Pedro Grifol era, the general manager search that ended before it began and, of course, the record-breaking 121-loss 2024 season. Bears coach Matt Eberflus walks off after the loss to the Commanders on Oct. 27, 2024, at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Md. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune) After Chicago Bears players publicly question game decisions, Matt Eberflus says he welcomes those discussions — in-house When Matt Eberflus held his weekly meeting with the Chicago Bears’ leadership council Wednesday, the coach and players had a lot to address as they picked up the pieces from the 18-15, last-second loss to the Washington Commanders. The Caleb Williams File: Assessing a slow start and a flash-filled finish in Sunday’s loss for the Bears Grammy Awards are displayed at the Grammy Museum Experience at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. on Oct. 10, 2017. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez) The Grammys telecast moves to Disney from CBS under new 10-year deal The Grammys, a five-decade fixture at CBS (and more recently Paramount+), will be broadcast simultaneously across ABC, Hulu and Disney+ under the new 10-year arrangement. A robe à la française from 1740-1775 is displayed in the “Dressed in History” exhibition at the Chicago History Museum on Oct. 16, 2024. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune) ‘Dressed in History: A Costume Collection Retrospective’ at the Chicago History Museum weaves a wearable story The Chicago History Museum, which has been collecting garments for nearly a century, has amassed a huge clothing and textiles collection — so huge that, at 50,000 pieces, it’s likely among the largest of any museum in the world. Forgive “Dressed in History: A Costume Collection Retrospective” — which opened earlier this month — for being able to cover just a sliver of it. Martha Stewart as seen in the documentary “Martha.” (Netflix) ‘Martha’ review: A Martha Stewart documentary is most compelling when the queen of composure is at her most uncomfortable Whether it’s performative or genuine, Martha Stewart seems unable to bluff her way through discomfort. In “Martha,” R.J. Cutler’s documentary for Netflix about the lifestyle entrepreneur, media personality and queen of composure, all kinds of small but interesting things are happening when the filmmaker asks about certain biographical details she’d rather pretend didn’t exist. Those can be quietly riveting moments. But otherwise the documentary — particularly as it pertains to her life in the last 20 years, post-prison — comes across as a high-end marketing reel, writes Tribune TV and film critic Nina Metz.