* Subscribers know more. ICYMI: Advocates urge CTA board to conduct nationwide search for new president.Sun-Times…

- Advocates urged patience, noting the makeup of the CTA is uncertain as state lawmakers consider legislation that could either merge the agency with Metra, Pace and the Regional Transportation Authority or empower the RTA.
- Following the public comments, board members met in a closed session for about an hour, then adjourned the meeting without discussing any business.
- “The Board takes very seriously its responsibility in appointing the next leader of the CTA and will fairly and consistently assess any candidate that is formally presented before the Board for consideration,” the transit board said in a statement.

* Related stories…

∙ WTTW: Transit Advocates Call for a Transparent CTA Leader Search as Board Takes No Action at Quickly Scheduled Meeting
∙ Crain’s: Johnson faces pushback over CTA pick as advocates push for broader search

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Illinois business leaders overwhelmingly agree: Early childhood services are a fundamental economic priority, to be preserved and strengthened. Our FY26 state budget should reflect that, investing further in affordable, high-quality child care for working parents. We desperately need to improve early childhood teachers’ compensation and shore-up Early Intervention therapies for young children with developmental challenges, whose families face lengthy service delays. At the federal level, it’s crucial that we protect Head Start’s vital, comprehensive services for kids from birth to age 5, and for their families — an important piece of our early learning system.

In a recent poll of 400 Illinois employers and managers, two-thirds of respondents reported that child care insufficiencies have hurt their employees and business productivity. Four out of five noted their struggles to recruit skilled workers. And to tackle these challenges, 91.5% of business leaders said they support “greater public investments in high-quality child care and early childhood education” for their proven power to stabilize today’s workforce as well as help prepare a better-skilled workforce for tomorrow.

There’s a reason 93% of surveyed business leaders believe our state’s multiyear approach to improve birth-to-5 services — based on the recommendations of a bipartisan commission — will “positively impact the workforce in Illinois.” Let’s stick with that plan; it’s good for business.

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* BlueRoomStream.com’s coverage of today’s press conferences and committee hearings can be found here.

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* Capitol City Now | Legislative leaders eye budget: “This is going to be an incredibly difficult year, just as a baseline, before our budget negotiations are completely upended by a tweet,” said Senate President Don Harmon (D-Oak Park). “We’ve conditioned our members to understand how tight this budget year is going to be. This is a different year than last year or the year before.”

* WTTW | Former Death Row Inmates on the Complicated Legacy of Late Illinois Gov. George Ryan: One of those men was Illinois Prison Project Director of Education Renaldo Hudson, who attended Ryan’s memorial Thursday in Kankakee. “I had these mixed kind of feelings about Gov. Ryan, and, I’ll be honest with you, today, it’s like it landed with me the weight of the decision that he made, if that makes sense?” Hudson said. “When I was in the midst of my own stuff, like you can have what’s called tunnel vision. And so I have to admit that I was wallowing in that, and when I sat there and listened to his heart being shared through the people that was the closest to him, I really melted. You know the yesterday began to melt away.”

*** Statewide ***

* Capitol News Illinois | Illinois state parks draw highest number of visitors in more than a decade: Illinois state parks saw more visitors in 2024 than any point in the past 15 years, according to new data from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Illinois’ 290 state parks and 56 historic sites recorded more than 41 million visitors last year, which was the most in 15 years, following several significant capital projects to upgrade and improve many of the parks.

* Sun-Times | The rush in Illinois to become a U.S. citizen amid immigration crackdown: Advocates say these changes are pushing more green card holders to move quickly. “People want to protect themselves in case anything happens,” said Idalia Flores Guzmán, director of programs administration with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrants and Refugee Rights. Flores Guzmán says their citizenship applications are higher in 2025 after ticking up slightly in the three prior years. Other organizations are also seeing more applicants: Once a month on Saturdays, the lunchroom at Instituto del Progreso Latino on the Southwest Side is packed with green-card holders hoping to start the naturalization process. Since January, that number has grown.

* Sun-Times | Chicago and Illinois politicians praise ‘Da Pope’: Chicago politics isn’t dominated by Irish Catholic officials like it used to be, but local leaders of all faiths hailed the selection of the South Side’s own Robert Prevost as the next pope. “Everything dope, including the Pope, comes from Chicago!” Mayor Brandon Johnson said in a post on the social media platform X. “Congratulations to the first American Pope Leo XIV! We hope to welcome you back home soon.”

* CDC Gaming | Illinois casino revenue up 18.7% year-over-year in April: Illinois’ 17 casinos reported $162.6 million in adjusted gross receipts last month, a year-over-year increase of 18.7% compared to the previous year’s $136.9 million. The Illinois Gaming Board reported in its casino summary report that of the AGR, electronic gaming devices made up $122 million, rising from $104 million, a 17.3% year-over-year increase. Table games produced $40.5 million in AGR, an increase of 22.8%, rising from $32.9 million recorded last year.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Subscribers were told about this yesterday. Evanston Now | Ruttenberg running for state senate: She says he has endorsements from Illinois House Majority Leader Robyn Gabel, State Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz, State Rep. Tracy Katz Muhl, State Rep. Bob Morgan, State Rep. Daniel Didech as well as Northfield Township Trustee Daniel Schack, Skokie Trustee Lissa Levy, Committeeperson Emeritus Mike Kreloff, and former Evanston Democratic Committeeperson Eamon Kelly. “Rachel has the experience and determination to stand up for residents of the 9th district and make sure Illinois remains strong in the face of our upcoming challenges,” Gabel said in a statement. “I’m looking forward to the opportunity to work together in the General Assembly.”

* Sun-Times | Former Gov. Ryan remembered at Kankakee service: ‘Nobody is the worst thing they ever did in their life.’: Among family members and loved ones in the front row of Asbury United Methodist Church was Andrea Lyon, nicknamed the “Angel of Death Row” for having represented many facing the death penalty. Lyon, who represented Ryan in his legal case, still contends he was targeted for political reasons. She said the loss of the Willis children broke his heart even if there were others who Lyon felt deserved more of the blame. She described Ryan, on his tougher days, as “imperfect and loyal to a fault,” unfortunately trusting those he shouldn’t have and leading to a period of disgrace for him.

*** Chicago ***

* Sun-Times | Two years in, Mayor Brandon Johnson admits he’s made some missteps, gaffes: In spite of those successes, Johnson’s public approval rating is languishing in the single digits in some polls and in the best surveys, in the low 20% range. “I don’t give much attention to polling,” Johnson said. The mayor appears to be betting that his road to recovery lies in revving up the Black base that carried him to a general election victory over Paul Vallas in 2023. He won 29 of 50 wards, including a clean sweep of all majority Black wards.

* WBEZ | CPS Board president rips into outgoing CEO and budget-cutting proposals: The president of the Chicago Board of Education is tearing into the school district’s embattled CEO, saying that the budget proposals he produced for next school year are “unsatisfactory and incomplete,” and that Pedro Martinez’s planned June exit from the school district should be accelerated. “The current CPS CEO’s recent focus has been on his professional future and not on the long-term stability and success of our school district,” Sean Harden said in a statement. “His actions have undermined our Board’s ability to make the best decisions on behalf of CPS students.”

* Sun-Times | Contractor who made $14M in Bridgeport bank scheme, testified against brother-in-law, gets 5½ years: A Chicago contractor who made $14.3 million in an embezzlement scheme that tanked a politically connected Bridgeport bank was sentenced Thursday 5½ years in prison. Boguslaw Kasprowicz could have faced twice as much time for his role in the Washington Federal Bank for Savings fraud, but he “provided substantial assistance” to federal prosecutors by testifying against major players in the case — including his brother-in-law.

* Block Club | DePaul Student’s ‘Grant Slam’ Music Fest To Draw 500 Attendees — And It All Began In His Dad’s Basement: “I was in a band, a couple of friends were in bands,” Lendvay said. “In the heat of it, running around and moving stuff, planning what people were going to do and when, it was the most gratifying feeling I’ve ever had.” That party has grown into an annual music festival with city permits, four porta-potties and small paychecks for the talent. The crowd has gone from 30 people in his father’s basement to more than 300 on the Little League baseball outfield grass of Jonquil Park, 1001 W. Wrightwood Ave., in Lincoln Park.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Daily Herald | West Chicago mayor faces pushback after appointing new city administrator, attorney: Bovey’s actions prompted most of the 14-member city council to question the legality of the changes. Both sides spent much of the three-and-a-half-hour meeting debating whether Bovey had exceeded his authority as mayor. Council members eventually decided to pause the meeting and reconvene on May 19.

* Sun-Times | Illinois paper straw business craters after Trump’s push for plastic: Boss Straw touts its product as the “best, earth-friendly paper straw in the world.” But since February, sales have plummeted 85% at the paper straw maker in Woodstock. Nearly 14 million paper straws are sitting in limbo at Boss’ warehouse, about 1½ hours from Chicago. President Donald Trump issued an executive order “to end the use of paper straws” on Feb. 10 and barred federal agencies from procuring them. Following Trump’s mandate, many U.S. distributors have stopped ordering paper straws even for the private sector and reverted to plastic, said Guy Spinelli, founder of Boss Straw. “If it keeps up the way it is, [Trump] will drive me out of business by the end of this year,” said Spinelli. “It would be the end of the story.”

* Daily Herald | ‘I didn’t resign’: Carpentersville board replacing village manager: John O’Sullivan, who was hired as village manager in 2023, was let go more than a week ago. Tuesday’s agenda includes a formal vote by trustees removing O’Sullivan as village manager. O’Sullivan, who served as a village trustee before becoming village manager, confirmed he was fired after the board met behind closed doors on April 29. He said he cleared out his office the following day. […] In a written statement, Village President John Skillman said it was time for the village to move in a different direction.

* Fast Company | You can buy the new pope’s childhood home for $199,000: Listed on Redfin for $199,000 at the time of publishing, the home matches an address and tax records first reported by South Cook News. It also aligns with Prevost’s personal history. Born and raised in the south suburbs of Chicago, he spent most of his life in the region. The home, constructed in 1949, is typical of this neighborhood, which is filled with single-family homes built in the mid-century as families were attracted to lawn life and nearby train lines that could bring them into the city. Dolton is an area that HBO’s show Southside once perfectly dubbed, the “south side of the Southside.”

* Daily Herald | Mount Prospect trustees approve Lions Club events, address conflict complaints: Four of six village trustees are Lions Club members, including club President William Grossi and past president Vince Dante. Both Grossi and Dante abstained from Tuesday’s vote, noting they’ve done so for all Lions-related matters. “Some of us wear three hats in the village,” Dante said. “None of us had any financial gain by any organization we’re part of. We’re all just volunteers.”

*** Downstate ***

* Illinois Times | Urban farming in Jacksonville: The 21-year-old Caballero is a student at the Illinois School for the Visually Impaired in Jacksonville. In April he began working for the Jacksonville Mainstreet Farms Initiative as part of a year-long partnership funded by AmeriCorps VISTA. A typical day may find Caballero planting seeds, moving plants, weeding one of the city’s community gardens or operating a lawn mower. The work is challenging but rewarding for Caballero, who has retinitis pigmentosa. This condition affects primarily his central and distance vision, and the way that light hits his eyes can make things better or worse, depending on the situation.[…] However, the Trump administration notified AmeriCorps April 25 that approximately 85% of the agency’s staff were being placed on leave and ended nearly $400 million in grants. According to America’s Service Commission: “This sudden termination will shutter more than 1,000 programs and prematurely end the service of over 32,000 AmeriCorps members and AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers.” AmeriCorps has now filed a lawsuit alleging the administration does not have the power to unilaterally cut or end AmeriCorps grant or service programs.

* WCIA | U of I study finds alcohol use by Illinois teens double the national average: The study is conducted every other year and collects data on health and social issues like substance use, bullying and other issues in Illinois students in 8th, 10th and 12th grades. In 2024, data showed that alcohol use by teens in Illinois was nearly double the national average. 13.7% of Illinois students said they had consumed alcohol during the last 30 days, compared to 6.9% of students nationwide.

* BND | Judge temporarily blocks Trump from slashing relief funds from metro-east school: A federal judge issued a preliminary order this week blocking the Trump administration from cutting off states’ access to hundreds of millions of dollars in pandemic relief funds for public schools — including $19 million for the East St. Louis school district. U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos, of the Southern District of New York, on Tuesday issued a preliminary injunction preventing the enforcement of an order issued in late March by U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon.