* Daily Herald…

Republican state Sen. Dan McConchie of Hawthorn Woods will resign effective Sunday, Feb. 2, after nearly nine years of service. […]

Lake County Republican Party Chair Keith Brin was surprised by McConchie’s announcement. Brin praised McConchie’s “unwavering dedication to public service” and his willingness to listen to and work with people on both sides of the political aisle for the betterment of Illinoisans. […]

Lauren Beth Gash, chair of the Lake County Democratic Party, said she’s aware of several Democrats interested in running for the seat in 2026.

“We feel very good about our prospects there,” Gash said Monday.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Frank Manzo | Illinois can overcome its challenging budget realities: Indeed, the nonpartisan Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability is expecting only a $618 million shortfall. Regardless, whether the gap is $618 million or $3.2 billion, Illinois must find a way to overcome it yet again — all while dealing with mounting pressures in other areas.

* CNN | ‘Ridiculous’: Illinois attorney general reacts to Dr. Phil questioning detained migrant: CNN’s Jim Acosta discusses the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Chicago with Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul.

* 21st Show | Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul on immigration enforcement, birthright citizenship: Illinois law prohibits local authorities from cooperating with federal immigration officials on civil enforcement, but the arrests that have taken place so far are reportedly of individuals who have been convicted or accused of criminal activity. Meanwhile, Illinois was one of a number of states that sued and temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order re-interpreting the constitutional provision that says if you’re born in America, you’re an American citizen. All these issues and more have been top of mind for Illinois’ attorney general, Kwame Raoul. He joins the program today to discuss immigration enforcement and how the state is handling the new policies as well as his personal perspective on birthright citizenship.

*** Statewide ***

* Prism | Trans people in Illinois prepare for the Trump years: Newly elected President Donald Trump and his Republican Congress have threatened to ramp up discrimination and repression directed at trans people. Trump, during his campaign, promised to end all gender-affirming care for minors. An emboldened, Republican, transphobic House of Representatives has already passed a ban on trans girls and women participating in women’s sports; schools that defy the restriction face a loss of federal funding. On his first day, Trump passed a flurry of transphobic executive orders, including one that requires that “government-issued identification documents” deny trans people’s gender identity.

* WICS | Illinois Department of Revenue Announces Opening of 2025 Tax Season: Illinois will participate in the free IRS Direct File program this year. Eligible Illinois taxpayers can use the program to file their 2024 federal returns directly with the IRS. They will also be able to easily transfer their information into IDOR’s free online account management program, MyTax Illinois, to file their Illinois taxes.

* WTVO | Yuengling beers now available on draft in Illinois: Yuengling says its Traditional LAGER, Light Lager, Golden Pilsner, Black and Tan, and FLIGHT by Yuengling, will be available on draft in Illinois bars across the state. […] Following the draft launch, the brewery plans to make its beers available in cans and bottles at stores, restaurants, and bars starting in early March.

*** Chicago ***

* Bloomberg | Arrest warrants, luck: Inside a Chicago deportation raid at dawn: [Matthew Putra, acting field director for ICE in St. Paul, Minnesota,] said ICE expects the number of criminal warrants to increase as federal prosecutors begin accepting more cases. The bulk of those warrants will probably involve illegal re-entry, he said. On Sunday agents had seven criminal warrants in hand.

* WTTW | Under Fire, Ald. Jim Gardiner Used $122K in Campaign Funds to Pay Legal Fees: State Records: Gardiner said the decision by the city’s Law Department under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot not to use city resources to fight the lawsuits “left him no alternative but to turn to permissible resources to defend my actions as an elected official.” Gardiner spent nearly three times as much on legal fees during 2023 and 2024 than any other member of the Chicago City Council, according to a WTTW News analysis of records filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections.

* Chalkbeat Chicago | Spending during Chicago’s first school board campaign season exceeded $13 million: In addition to candidates’ direct spending, the union’s two political action committees spent $4.3 million — including a $1.5 million spending spree the week of the election — during that same time period. In some cases that spending could have also given a boost to other candidates in other races, but most went to nine candidates in contested school board races, three of whom won seats on the board. Two pro-school choice super PACs — those for the Illinois Network of Charter Schools and Urban Center — jointly spent roughly $3.5 million during the same period. These groups also backed three candidates who prevailed at the polls.

* Chicago Bar Foundation | Making Sense of Our Nonsensical Immigration System and the Role Our Legal Community Should Play: While there are clear and loud exceptions among vocal minorities on both fringes, most Americans recognize we are a nation of immigrants and support this balanced approach. The majority of the public is not anti-immigrant, but they do want to see an orderly system based on laws, which is hardly an unreasonable request.

* Block Club | Can The Google Effect Revive The Loop? Experts Say Yes: “I think a small boom is fair … people didn’t expect what happened to Fulton [Market] until Google came there, and then it took off like the Wild West,” said Andy DeMoss, senior managing director at Bradford Allen, a Chicago-based commercial real estate and investment firm. […] The LaSalle Street initiative was delayed during the transition from Lightfoot to Mayor Brandon Johnson but officially moved forward in the spring with five adaptive reuse projects making their way through the city’s development and TIF approval process. If approved by City Council, the projects would collectively use $150 million in TIF funding and add at least 1,000 apartments to the area. The target completion date for the five projects is the end of 2026.

* Block Club | Non-Alcoholic Malört? Avondale Restaurant Serving ‘No-Lört’ By The Shot Or Bottle: Dubbed No-Lört, it’s being served at Void, 2937 N. Milwaukee Ave., which cheekily describes itself as having “successfully removed Malört’s only redeeming feature.” And people are loving it, its creators said.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* ABC Chicago | Lori Lightfoot to release report Monday on Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard: Former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is set to release Monday night the findings of her investigation in Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard. Lightfoot was hired last year to look into questionable financial mismanagement of village funds. […] Lightfoot will present her findings at a 6 p.m. meeting of the Dolton Park District. This release will serve as a follow-up to the preliminary findings already issued by Lightfoot last August and provide additional insights into the village’s financial condition, governance issues and other matters.

* Daily Herald | Judge denies request to delay ballot in Glendale Heights case: A DuPage County judge has denied Glendale Heights Village President Chodri Khokhar’s request to have the county clerk stop preparing the April 1 consolidated election ballot while the court considers whether his name should appear on the ballot. Judge Bryan Chapman handed down the decision on Friday. Court records do not indicate why the judge denied the request.

*** Downstate ***

* Capitol News Illinois | Dave Joens grew up reading about Illinois history. Now, he retires after 20 years preserving it as state archivist: For two decades, Dave Joens has led the Illinois State Archives, the government agency tasked with preserving official government documents with historic value. The job of caring for historic records has been a natural fit for Joens, he said, who has been interested in history since reading Abraham Lincoln biographies as a child in Springfield. […] Now, though, Joens is retiring from the post to pursue another passion: writing history books. Joens has been a janitor, journalist, a biographer, a press secretary for the Democratic caucus in the Illinois Senate and the Illinois state archivist. He served in the Army stationed in Germany, wrote speeches for Illinois state senators and digitized the state archives. Though Joens explored many professions over the course of his career, his love for Illinois history has been at the heart of his work.

* WRSP | The Abraham Presidential Library and Museum Presents “Little Lincoln’s Fireside Tales”:…

*** National ***

* NPR | Elon Musk faces criticism for encouraging Germans to move beyond ‘past guilt’: On Saturday, Musk spoke repeatedly about the importance of Germans taking pride in their heritage. “It’s good to be proud of German culture and German values, and not to lose that in some sort of multiculturalism that dilutes everything,” Musk said. Then, in an apparent reference to the Nazi era, Musk added that there is “frankly too much of a focus on past guilt and we need to move beyond that.”

* The Atlantic | RFK Jr. Is an Excellent Conspiracy Theorist: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services, is a longtime conspiracy theorist and anti-vaccine activist. He thinks Anthony Fauci and Bill Gates are leaders of a “vaccine cartel” that intentionally prolonged or even started the coronavirus pandemic in order to promote “mischievous inoculations.” Kennedy also blames immunizations for autism and obesity (among other chronic diseases) in children. In the meantime, he isn’t really sure whether HIV causes AIDS, or whether vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles are actually dangerous.

* Nieman Lab | Inside a network of AI-generated newsletters targeting “small town America”: It turns out Good Day Fort Collins is just one in a network of AI-generated newsletters operating in 355 cities and towns across the U.S. Not only do these hundreds of newsletters share the same exact seven testimonials, they also share the same branding, the same copy on their about pages, and the same stated mission: “to make local news more accessible and highlight extraordinary people in our community.” […] The newsletters do all name the same founder and editor: Matthew Henderson.