* Crain’s…

The Illinois Treasurer is looking at investing $10 million this year in construction projects that have an affordable or workforce housing element, following the governor’s signature on a new law that makes it possible.

“This new investment tool will help build homes, create good-paying jobs for Illinois workers and earn a solid rate of return for Illinois taxpayers,” the treasurer, Michael Frerichs, said in a prepared statement.

Frerichs has scheduled a press conference for Sept. 3, ahead of the Labor Day weekend, where labor leaders will join him to announce the state’s investment in the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust. A six-decades-old investment vehicle, the trust backs multifamily development that, according to its website, “create(s) and preserve(s) rental housing, particularly affordable and workforce housing.”

Frerichs’ office said the amount to be invested is not yet certain, but that it is “evaluating an initial investment of $10 million by the end of the year,” and further investment in subsequent years.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Press release | ISBE awards Fiscal Year 2027 Teacher Vacancy Grants to 100 high-need school districts: In Fiscal Year 2027, ISBE is allocating $15 million to support this program. […] These investments have coincided with measurable improvements. Among participating districts, teacher vacancies declined from 2,858 in FY23 to 2,060 in FY26, a 28% reduction, while the teacher vacancy rate fell from 4.6% to 3.2%. This data affirms the preliminary findings of the independent evaluation of the program conducted by the Illinois Workforce and Education Research Collaborative.

* AgriNews | Illinois Stewardship Alliance honors outstanding farmer, conservation leader: Illinois Stewardship Alliance presented two awards recognizing outstanding farmer leaders for their contribution to sustainable and local agriculture in Illinois. Monte Bottens of Bottens Family Farm, Cambridge, received the fourth annual Woody Woodruff Conservation Award. The award is named in memory of Robert “Woody” Woodruff, a beloved conservation leader, Macoupin County farmer and Illinois Stewardship Alliance staff member who passed away after a battle with cancer in 2020, and recognizes a farmer who exemplifies his passion for soil, water and community.

*** Chicago ***

* WGN | New poll gauges public employee support ahead of 2027 Election: In the poll, public employees favored Johnson first with 20 percent of the vote, followed by Alexi Giannoulias, Susana Mendoza, and Willie Wilson. But as we get closer to the polls, Mayor Johnson could struggle to maintain his image among public workers. In the M3 poll, just 28.7 percent of respondents had a favorable view of the mayor, compared with 64 percent viewing him unfavorably. Both Alexi Giannoulias and Susana Mendoza had higher favorable ratings.

* Chalkbeat Chicago | Chicago school board candidates sign pledge to ban AI use in schools: Roughly half of the 45 candidates running for the Chicago school board have signed a pledge to adopt a three-year ban on artificial intelligence use by CPS students and educators. […] “I think an outright ban is unproductive, and it really negates our responsibility, which is to come up with better solutions so our kids can both access this stuff, but also so that we don’t do irreparable harm to them,” said Janice Jackson, a former CPS CEO who is now leads the Education and Society Program at the nonpartisan think tank the Aspen Institute.

* WTTW | Share of Chicago Property Tax Revenues Claimed by TIF Funds Grew 16.6% in 2024: Report: The share of property taxes collected by Cook County and then claimed by Chicago’s tax increment finance districts soared by 16.6% in 2024, fueled in part by the reassessment of the value of every property in Chicago, according to a report by Cook County Clerk Monica Gordon. In all, $1.59 billion poured into the city’s 108 TIF funds in 2024, according to the annual report from the clerk’s office posted online Wednesday.

* Sun-Times | Failed inspections, bodies parked on a suburban street — the troubled history behind South Chicago Chapel: City inspection records show that after 15 years of failing nearly every annual building department inspection from 2006 to 2021, annual inspections abruptly stopped in 2022. That’s the year South Chicago Chapel was created, a year before its owners bought the building. When asked why annual inspections stopped in 2022, a Buildings Department spokesperson pointed to a fact sheet outlining the department’s apparent shift from annual inspections to a priority-based inspection process. The spokesperson added that the building department is only responsible for inspecting areas used for public assembly, such as funerals or wakes, not private embalming areas where the bodies were found.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Daily Herald | Prime Healthcare plans to suspend obstetrical services at 3 Illinois hospitals, consolidate care: Prime Healthcare plans to suspend obstetrical care at three of its Illinois hospitals — saying it will centralize the services at two of its other hospitals and invest in maternal health in the community. Prime is suspending OB services at Saint Joseph Medical Center in Joliet, Mercy Medical Center in Aurora and Resurrection Medical Center in Chicago, effective Oct. 1, Prime said in a news release and statement Tuesday.

* Fox Chicago | West Chicago officer placed on leave amid investigation into possible Flock camera misuse: The city said the possible misuse occurred between late 2024 and early 2025 and was discovered during an internal review of the West Chicago Police Department’s use of the Flock automated license plate recognition, or ALPR, system. After learning of the issue, the city said it immediately preserved relevant records, placed the officer on administrative leave and contacted the DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office to ask it to independently investigate whether any criminal conduct occurred.

*** Downstate ***

* Center Square | Data center debate rocks Decatur: When people in the audience began protesting loudly, CVAC chairman Jerry Stocks said those who were shouting did not understand enough to engage in intelligent debate.

* WQAD | Federal funding extended again for Chicago-Quad Cities passenger rail project: In 2010, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, secured $177 million in federal funds for the project that would connect Moline and Chicago by train. The deadline to use the funding has been extended several times, most recently after it was set to expire in December 2024. That extension expired on July 31 of this year. Durbin, along with Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Illinois, and Rep. Eric Sorensen, D-Illinois, said that the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) approved another grant extension for the passenger rail project.

* QC Times | Illinois state senators hold town hall in Port Byron, talk Tyson closure: “Whatever the issue, something changed,” Arellano said, saying he found out the plant was closing the same day employees did. He was told employees were paid for 60 days of work and benefits would be paid out, but encouraged anyone with knowledge of the situation to come forward. The last he heard, Tyson is open to retooling the site or selling the plant. But it’s not as easy as it sounds. “The problem for that facility is it’s so specific to what they do,” Arellano said.

* WGLT | Path to resolution of shared sales tax dispute remains unclear: More than a year-and-a-half after a dispute over shared sales tax money began, the City of Bloomington, Town of Normal and McLean County have no resolution and no talks scheduled. Bloomington City Manager Jeff Jurgens said even after a recent audit of the county fund that receives the money, the city and town still think the underlying issue is the county is getting too much sales tax money — more than the city and town thought they would ever pay.

* BND | Head of struggling Granite City hospital says workers are now being paid on time: The head of a struggling metro east hospital said employees are being paid on schedule after its out-of-state owners put up millions of their own money. Earlier this summer, Gateway Regional Medical Center in Granite City had to issue paper checks to staff and delayed health savings account contributions to employees. For a few hours in late July, the hospital also diverted ambulances due to inadequate staffing in its emergency room.

* WCIA | Springfield business owner thankful for community support after large water main break: “We’re still evaluating the insurance claim part of it and see if there is a claim there,” Jeff Black, co-owner of Dumb Records, said. “As far as people coming out and helping us with stuff, people have been offering their help. Mostly the main thing we need right now is like manpower and just time, just to get stuff sorted and stuff, but moved out to the dumpster where needed.”

* Journal Courier | Lincoln letter shares relatable sentiment about school-age child: A letter written by Mary Lincoln and recently acquired by Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum includes an apology to her son’s teacher for sending her child to school unprepared, according to the library. […] “This letter humanizes Abraham Lincoln’s widow and son in a way that few other documents can match,” said Ian Patrick Hunt, the library’s head of acquisitions. “It captures a perfectly ordinary moment that prompts us to think about Mary and Tad’s life after the assassination. Was Mary too ill to help with the homework because she was having another of her migraines? Was she incapacitated by grief? How was Tad adapting to a new school after the trauma of his father’s death?”

*** National ***

* NBC | Unsealed court documents reveal State Farm saved $1.4 billion as weather, roof claims worsened: Lawyers representing the Oklahoma homeowners say the documents show how the company changed its handling of roof claims and the fallout that came after that change was implemented. While corporate leadership tracked a reduction in roof replacement coverage and more than a billion dollars in savings, customers and State Farm agents voiced frustrations with the new ways claims were being handled, with one agent telling a company sales leader that trying to get claims information out of the insurer’s representatives was like trying to deal with a “secret society.”

* CNN | DHS plans to launch voter fraud investigation surge Tuesday: Offices in nine states are expected to take investigative action from early September to mid-October, according to the guidance. Those states include Washington, Wisconsin, Missouri, Georgia, California, Pennsylvania, Nevada, New York and Connecticut. The guidance’s reference to investigative steps is notable given the push comes as midterm elections get underway. Such “overt” investigatory actions while elections were approaching have historically been discouraged, under long-standing Justice Department policy limiting investigative actions could influence elections.

* AP | Postal Service work to comply with Trump’s executive order is rushed and sloppy, a whistleblower contends: The disclosure from the unidentified whistleblower contends that the Postal Service has been scrambling to try to build a complex system that would normally take a year or more in only three months, sometimes in defiance of the judge’s orders halting work. The goal is to have it ready for use in the midterm elections. The disclosure contends that, due to the new procedures, a single scanning error in a batch of tens of thousands of ballot envelopes could prevent any from reaching voters. It details a system that election officials have already warned could not be implemented before the first mail ballots begin going out Friday in North Carolina.

* NPR | Trump officials cut political interference ban after unusual Census Bureau report: This month, the bureau’s parent agency, the Commerce Department, quietly cut language banning political interference from the department’s scientific integrity policy, NPR has learned. The removal was part of an unannounced policy revision dated Aug. 19 — the day after the bureau issued a highly unusual report with claims about non-U.S. citizen voting from a team that, as NPR previously reported, has ties to a think tank founded by officials from President Trump’s first administration.