* ICYMI: Here’s how the Citizens Utility Board has saved Illinois consumers billions. Sun-Times…

- The nonpartisan Citizens Utility Board of Illinois has helped save consumers an estimated $20 billion in blocked rate hikes and refunds over the past 40 years.
-Created by the state Legislature to be a voice for consumers in utility matters, CUB weighs in on proposed rate hikes by electric, gas and water utilities statewide. It also helps educate consumers, from warning people about shady alternative energy sellers to giving tips for lowering cellphone costs, getting heating discounts and obtaining solar power.
- CUB started in 1984, and within a year, it had won state reforms requiring audits of utility plant construction costs and other spending.
- Two years later, it notched its first win against a proposed ComEd rate increase that saved consumers $1.9 billion.

* At noon Governor Pritzker will announce a new DCEO grant award. Click here to watch.

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* Sun-Times | LGBTQ+ families brace for Trump’s second term: ‘The stakes are a lot higher now’: The emails began trickling into Carol Jones’ inbox around 4:30 a.m. Nov. 6, shortly after the presidential election was called for Donald Trump. Later that day, the Chicago-based LGBTQ-focused family lawyer said she was inundated with calls and emails from people with questions about what same-sex parents could do to maintain their parental rights.

* Center Square | IL nursing home operators could be fined if they don’t comply with staffing ratios: A law signed in 2023 by Gov. J.B. Pritzker gives nursing homes until Jan. 1, 2025, to comply with the staffing requirements or they will face fines. Those requirements are based on the hours of care residents in those facilities need per day. Wearing a SEIU brooch and chanting “SEIU” and “put the nursing home industry on notice,” state Sen. Javier Cervantes, D-Chicago, said during his time as an SEIU representative, he heard many grievances about staffing shortages.

*** Statehouse News ***

* WAND | Senate committee unanimously approves bill prioritizing kin-first foster care placement: More than 10,000 youth in care currently live with relatives. Yet, over 60% of those caregivers are denied foster care benefits necessary to care for young people. House Bill 4781 requires DCFS to pursue federal funding to establish a kinship navigator program to help relatives who have youth in care.

* WCIA | Illinois State Capitol Complex security fortified with new rules: “We understand that these changes might present some challenges and – for some – may appear too extreme,” part of the memo reads. “However, in light of the growing number of threats and acts of violence across the nation, we must do everything we can to provide additional layers of security and prevent future tragedies from occurring here.”

*** Chicago ***

* WBEZ | Johnson accuses critics of ‘tantrums,’ says it’s time they ‘grow up’: Mayor Brandon Johnson on Tuesday accused City Council members who engineered the 50-0 vote shooting down his proposed $300 million property tax increase of “having tantrums” and said it’s time for his critics to “grow up.” Johnson said the unanimous vote was an “additional step” created by a “small group of individuals” that blew a giant hole in his $17.3 billion spending plan and only managed to drag an already delayed budget process well into December.

* ABC Chicago | Chicago City Council considers Mayor Brandon Johnson’s new $150M property tax hike proposal: We want to go down to $100 million. In a perfect world, it’ll be none; that’s where we want to be. But, we also don’t want to go to fines and fees because all you’re doing is kicking it back to the taxpayers. So, we’re looking at efficiencies and enforcement,” 20th Ward Ald. Jeanette Taylor said. There appears to be agreement to tax cloud storage services. That would raise $128 million.

NEW:
Sources are telling me prominent members in Chicago labor, business and civic community are actively trying to recruit IL Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias to run for Mayor of Chicago - February ‘27 @Giannoulias pic.twitter.com/lYQVWh2hYJ

— Mary Ann Ahern (@MaryAnnAhernNBC) November 20, 2024

FYI, here's the full transcript of that call in which Andrew Madigan talks about Anne Pramaggiore's support of Susana Mendoza's mayoral run: https://t.co/0fbPz54j79 pic.twitter.com/Bc4qfyBvrN

— Jon Seidel (@SeidelContent) November 20, 2024

* WBEZ | Behind Chicago’s buzziest art destination: a mysterious Democratic megadonor: “The founder really wanted to create a — we don’t really know what to call ourselves,” says Jan Kallish,Wrightwood 659’s executive director. “Some people say ‘gallery’; some people say ‘museum.’ People, when they hear ‘gallery,’ they think we’re selling things. We’re not. When they hear ‘museum,’ they think we have a collection, and we’re not collecting. We used ‘exhibition space’ for a while.” There’s still no consensus inside the building on what word to use.

* Crain’s | Union League Club’s Monet auctioned for $9 million: The most-prized piece in the Union League Club of Chicago’s art collection sold at auction tonight for just over $9 million, topping the median of the predicted range of $7 million to $10 million. “Pommiers en Fleurs,” or “Apple Trees in Bloom,” by Claude Monet was put up for sale to raise cash for the club to pay down debt, fund upgrades and buy other art.

* ABC Chicago | Inside FBI file of Chicago Outfit boss Joey ‘the Clown’ Lombardo: An early mugshot of Joseph Patrick Lombardo set the bar for his public personality. Even though “the Clown” nickname stuck, in Chicago Outfit circles, Lombardo preferred the nickname “Lumpy,” as a reminder of what he liked to leave behind on the skulls of those he beat up.

* Sun-Times | Jesse White Tumblers keep rolling forward after 65 years of local, global shows: Anthony Cavin has been with the organization for 33 years. He’s 54, 5-foot-6 (“and a half”) and muscular with gray in his beard. He’s a coach, but he still tumbles, even though he’s previously torn both Achilles tendons, had reconstructive surgery on his right wrist and, as a kid, was hit by a ricocheting bullet. Oh yes — he also had a kidney transplant in 2002.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Tribune | After 40 years, Skokie mayor Van Dusen not running for re-election: Mayor Daniel Biss of neighboring Evanston told Pioneer Press that Van Dusen is a “thoughtful, extremely pragmatic guy. Skokie is like his universe; he loves that town; he knows it like the back of his hand.” Per the village’s website, Van Dusen has been a resident of Skokie since 1974, though he originally hails from Detroit, Michigan, he said in an interview with Pioneer Press. Van Dusen is also a former Niles Township assistant supervisor, per previous reporting.

* Daily Herald | Geneva council member’s critics, supporters speak out over Facebook post: Geneva Mayor Kevin Burns read aloud a review from the city’s appointed ethics adviser, attorney Charles Radovich, about Naperville attorney Lynda Segneri’s ethics complaint against Paschke. Radovich determined Segneri’s letter was not an ethics complaint because it did not allege a violation of either a prohibited political activity or gift ban activity.

* Daily Herald | Critical habitat’: DuPage forest preserve wants to buy oak-studded land: The roughly 43-acre tract features old-growth oaks. By the district’s count, there are some 240 trees on the site, on the north side of North Avenue, a bit west of Route 59. “It is critical habitat that’s already intact, would not need, necessarily, heavy restoration, and obviously, once those trees are gone, they’re gone forever,” Forest Preserve President Daniel Hebreard said.

*** Downstate ***

* WCIA | ‘I understand why people may have concerns’; Proposed Champaign homeless shelter: “We have a long waiting list that people have been on, and been sitting on for some time,” C-U at Home Executive Director Melissa Courtwright said. “So, it’s really important to us to try to meet the community need and expand our program.” C-U at Home operates seven shelters across Champaign-Urbana but said that isn’t enough. Courtwright said while they’re aware people in the area are concerned, there are regulations for who can be housed.

* WGEM | Students learn about future in trades at Central Illinois career fair Tuesday: Andrae Richardson was one of the union members answering students’ questions. A member of the United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers, and Allied Workers, he believes events like Tuesday’s fair are key to showing the next generation they have options. “I think these are very big for the community, for us as a whole as the nation, advising children and some parents and people who are not education to this degree. Knowing that with the trades, you can build a better life. You don’t have to go to college to be successful and you can learn right here in your own backyard and get a great wage at the end of the day,” Richardson said.

* WSIL | Jackson County State’s Attorney race decided: What was a tie at the end of the election night on November 5th, both receiving 10,805 votes a piece, has now been decided after county election officials counted provisional ballots. Cascio-Hale will soon take over as the new Jackson County State’s Attorney, after tallying 39 votes more than Cervantez.

* SJ-R | Illinois Innocence Project based in Springfield helps free man after 32 years behind bars: A southern Illinois man who spent over three decades behind bars for a murder evidence proves he did not commit was freed last week thanks in part to the Springfield-based Illinois Innocence Project (IIP). The court vacated the sentence of Danny Davis, 52, of Cairo, and ordered him freed from the Department of Corrections. The state is appealing the ruling of Circuit Court Associate Judge Tyler Edmonds’ made last week in Alexander County.

* WCIA | Time capsule shows off 100 years of U of I history: The actual time capsule contents were damaged after years of being improperly stored. But thanks to the university archives, staff and students can still take a look at what is inside. The display shows off copies of books, pictures and other items that were in the original capsule.