The Spin: More on the mute button at tonight’s Trump-Biden debate | Does Cubs co-owner Todd Ricketts share some of Trump’s sensibilities? | Lightfoot’s COVID-19 restrictions

Even with a mute button in play at tonight’s second and final presidential debate, count on fireworks, experts say.

After last month’s showdown between President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden devolved into chaos, debate organizers announced each would have his microphone cut off tonight so his rival could deliver a two-minute answer to each of the debate topics.

The 90-minute debate is divided into six 15-minute segments, with each candidate delivering the uninterrupted remarks at the outset followed by an open discussion. Given what happened at September’s Trump vs. Biden meeting, Southern Illinois University debate coach Todd Graham said he doesn’t like that the mute button will be in use for just four minutes total during each segment. That amounts to an 11-minute free-for-all where the loudest voice rules, he said.

Chicagoan Newton Minow, who sits on the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, told The Spin that the debate structures “aren’t perfect,” but the aim is to give candidates equal time for the sake of the viewers.

Todd Ricketts, the finance chairman of the Republican National Committee and a Cubs co-owner, “appears to share some of Trump’s rough-edged sensibilities," Chicago author Alex Kotlowitz writes in a new piece for The New Yorker. Ricketts, who calls suburban Wilmette home, is apparently known for going on “long rants with friends about Barack Obama," turned up maskless at a Trump rally and in a Facebook post referred to COVID-19 as a racist slur for the disease.

We got the warning signal from her earlier this week but as COVID-19 cases spike in the city, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced today she’s reinstituting restrictions, which includes a curfew for non-essential businesses and, once again, lights off at some bars and taverns.

Statewide, Gov. J.B. Pritzker has announced some regional restrictions as Illinois' case continue to climb. Illinois has been averaging 4,000 COVID-19 cases daily in the past week, but reached a record high of nearly 5,000 cases today. During a news conference today, Pritzker pleaded with residents to wear masks and practice social distancing while acknowledging the public fatigue over that refrain. “It works,” he told reporters. “You keep hearing us say it — I’ll try to do an interpretative dance for you some time if that will help.”

Meantime, a Chicago Tribune-ProPublica Illinois investigation digs into the $1.6 billion-plus spent on COVID-19 response. The tab is for body bags, hotel rooms – and grenades, among other things, according to the report.

Welcome to The Spin.

More on tonight’s presidential debate — including that hotly contested mute button

Tonight’s debate gets underway at 8 p.m. Chicago time: More here.

The debate commission decided that a mute button should be in play tonight “to enforce — underlined enforce — the rules we have,” Newton Minow, who sits on the panel, tells The Spin. Put simply, it’s intended to lend some order after the last debate turned into an interruption fest. Slate reported that Trump interrupted Biden and the moderator 128 times, while Biden interrupted “dozens” of times, the magazine reported.

“There were times when you were not able to hear what was being said,” Minow said when I asked him about Trump in particular talking over his rival. “And the whole purpose of the debate is to serve the viewer, the voter, and that’s what we’re interested in doing.”

Todd Graham, the SIU-based debate coach, reminds that the mute button will be in use during what’s supposed to be two minutes apiece of uninterrupted comments at the start of each 15-minute segment in the debate.

“The main problem at this debate is not the first four minutes. It’s the 11 minutes of open discussion, because that means with a moderator who’s been instructed to not fact-check and to not add follow-up (questions) ... there’s going to be 11 minutes of whoever is the most aggressive wins. Whoever interrupts the most or asks the other person questions and demands the answer becomes the winner. That’s not at all what it’s supposed to be.”

Then there is the issue of someone interrupting off-mic, he says.

Trump has called the use of a mute button “unfair,” but the debate commission says both campaigns agreed to it, according to multiple news outlets.

What the candidates need to do in tonight’s final showdown before the Nov. 3 election: Graham said both candidates took a hit in the polls for going after each other in the last debate. For Trump to be successful, Graham suggests, he needs to pull back on attacking Biden and talk about his accomplishments, including steps he’s taken toward peace in the Middle East. Biden, too, needs to stick to policy and steer clear of responding to Trump’s attacks and “stay above it.”

“And both candidates need to answer the question in the first 20 seconds of being asked, and then they can pivot to whatever they want to. People did not like the last debate because people didn’t answer the question directly.”

Trump to tap northern Indiana US attorney to Amy Coney Barrett in Chicago: My Tribune colleague Jason Meisner has the story here.

Trump grants clemency to former Gary boxer Charles “Duke” Tanner who was imprisoned for drug crimes: The Post-Tribune’s Meredith Colias-Pete has the story here.

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Road to Nov. 3: Obama hits the campaign trail for Biden in Philly — with Chicago in mind

Former President Barack Obama came out swinging in the battleground state of Pennsylvania yesterday, blasting Trump as an ineffective, disconnected leader. Before a big speech in Philadelphia, the former president stopped at a community center and talked with local Black Democratic elected officials about politics, race and Chicago, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

“It is always great to be in Philadelphia, in part because this reminds me of home back in Chicago,” Obama said at the forum. “When I see what’s going on here, it’s no different than on the South Side or the West Side of Chicago. We’re confronting the same challenges.”

At one point they discussed how to engage young people in politics, the Inquirer reports.

“The truth is I’m very proud of my presidency, but it didn’t immediately solve systemic racism. … What I always tell young people is we did make things better,” Obama said. “One of the biggest tricks that’s perpetrated on the America people is this idea that government is separated from you. The government is us — of, by and for the people. It wasn’t always for all of us. But the way it’s designed, it works for who is at the table. And if you do not vote, you’re not at the table.”

New Durbin ad is pitch from Obama: That Obama is endorsing four-term Democratic U.S. Sen Dick Durbin is no surprise. Still, it doesn’t hurt to have him record an ad that hits the airwaves little more than a week before the election. Watch the ad here.

Durbin’s challengers on the Nov. 3 ballot include businessman Willie Wilson, a third-party candidate; Republican Mark Curran, former Lake County sheriff; Green Party candidate Danny Black; and Libertarian Danny Malouf.

On the virtual campaign trail for Biden: Democratic U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia and his pal Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an Independent, will participate in a “Progressives for Biden Unity Town Hall” tomorrow night. Garcia backed Sanders, who had vied for the Democratic presidential nomination before dropping out. Since then, Sanders in particular has been working to turn out the liberal vote for Biden, a moderate. Topics to be discussed at the Friday night event include health care, racial justice and voting rights. Details here.

Speaker Madigan’s shadow hangs over a big-dollar, high-stakes Illinois Supreme Court contest

From the Tribune’s Ray Long: “Democratic Illinois Supreme Court Justice Tom Kilbride’s bid to retain his seat this fall has emerged as a high-stakes, expensive campaign that Republicans are trying to make a referendum on embattled House Speaker Michael Madigan.”

Billionaire conservatives, state GOP leaders and a dark money group are blanketing voters' mailboxes with full-color attack ads that portray the justice as a Madigan puppet, citing the speaker’s large campaign contributions to Kilbride’s election efforts dating back to 2000.

Kilbride, a 67-year-old onetime labor lawyer from Rock Island, said the millions of dollars in campaign funds he received from the Madigan-controlled Illinois Democratic Party have played no role in his past judicial rulings. “Just a bunch of crap,” said Kilbride, who dismissed the Republican-backed hit pieces as out-of-order “mudslinging.” Read the full story here.

Getting to know Todd Ricketts

He’s one of the sibling co-owners of the Chicago Cubs, and while Todd Ricketts is a player in Republican national politics and in the world of President Trump in particular, the 51-year-old keeps a relatively low profile.

But we get a partial introduction with this from Alex Kotlowitz’s New Yorker piece: "Ricketts appears to share some of Trump’s rough-edged sensibilities.

"He’s gone on long rants with friends about Barack Obama being a socialist. He recently appeared maskless at Trump’s indoor rally in Henderson, Nevada. And, earlier this month, the Associated Press reported that Ricketts, along with Vice-President Mike Pence, had been scheduled to attend a fund-raiser in Montana at the home of two QAnon-conspiracy supporters.

“'Todd was not scheduled to attend that event,” (Danny) Diaz, Ricketts’s spokesperson, told me. “The finance chairman’s name has been listed on every single invite issued by the R.N.C. or Trump Victory since he was named to those positions, regardless of whether he plans to attend.'” Read the full piece here.

Reminder: My colleague Hal Dardick has written about how county officials are investigating his property tax appeal after finding an issue with the assessment.

Mayor Lightfoot reimposes restrictions as COVID-19 cases spike

“Days after threatening to roll back restrictions on Chicago businesses if COVID-19 cases continue to spike, Mayor Lori Lightfoot followed through Thursday by imposing a 10 p.m. curfew on all nonessential city businesses,” the Tribune’s John Byrne, Gregory Pratt and Dan Petrella report.

More details here on the rollback, but Lightfoot said the city is on a path for much tougher restrictions heading into the holiday season if the virus doesn’t get under control, including a potential second stay-at-home order."

RELATED: Some Chicago-area restaurants in Illinois are defying closure orders: My Tribune colleague Robert McCoppin has the story here.

New York hospital executive who oversaw grimmest months of COVID-19 pandemic takes reins as Cook County Health leader: Alice Yin has the story here.

Chicago City Hall: Lightfoot finance officials defend proposed taxes and refinancing in Chicago mayor’s budget plan — My Tribune colleague John Byrne has the story here.

Lobbyist resigns from elected position in south suburban Flossmoor, following controversy over stricter lobbying rules and emails with Mayor Lori Lightfoot — The Tribune’s John Byrne and Gregory Pratt have the details here.

Cook County: Advocacy group sues Kim Foxx' office over alleged transparency failures: The Tribune’s Megan Crepeau has the story here.

Suburbs: $18.3M payout in Crestwood well water lawsuits jeopardized following court ruling: Mike Nolan has the story in the Daily Southtown here.

Thanks for reading The Spin, the Tribune’s politics newsletter. Sign up here to have it delivered to your inbox weekday afternoons. Have a tip? Email host Lisa Donovan at ldonovan@chicagotribune.com.

Twitter @byldonovan

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