* Crain’s…

Rivian is expanding again in Illinois, adding a supplier park to its factory in Normal where it makes electric vehicles.

The company plans to invest $120 million in the project and add nearly 100 jobs, on top of its payroll of more than 8,000.

The planned 1.2 million-square-foot supplier park would further strengthen the California-based startup automaker’s ties here. A year ago, Rivian said it would create 500 jobs with the addition of a new production line to manufacture the R2 small SUV, a project that originally was supposed to happen in Georgia.

“Rivian’s investment will attract suppliers from across the globe to invest in Illinois and continue to create good-paying jobs, providing Illinois with the competitive edge to thrive in the clean energy economy,” Gov. JB Pritzker said in a statement.

*** Statewide ***

* Tribune | Gov. JB Pritzker appoints brother-in-law to U. of I. board: Gov. JB Pritzker on Friday appointed Bryan Traubert, a philanthropist and former eye doctor who is married to Penny Pritzker, the governor’s sister, to the University of Illinois board of trustees. State employees are not allowed to appoint relatives — including in-laws — to state positions, according to the nepotism section of the Illinois state employee code of personal conduct. But the governor’s office in a statement said the code “does not legally apply to a separate entity like the University of Illinois.”

* PJ Star | ‘Not a simple equation’: Illinois ID laws are a challenge, homeless advocates say: “The longer people stay on the outlying parts of society, the harder it is to come back in,” [Pathway Ministries staff member Derek Gordon] said. “Everything that had you tracing you into the system as who you are is starting to expire or you’ve lost it, so you keep moving further and further and it gets harder and harder to get the things you need to get back into the system and get the care that you need.”

*** Chicago ***

* Crain’s | Hotel group warns of travel hit as Trump policies chill tourism: National travel and tourism analysts are lowering projections amid the uncertainty. Tourism Economics is now forecasting a 9.45% decline in international arrivals this year after previously projecting 8.8% growth, while the National Travel & Tourism Office cites an 11.6% year-over-year drop in international visitors through March.

* CBS Chicago | Cinco de Mayo Parade is canceled, but other celebrations are happening in Chicago: According to organizers, the Little Village parade was canceled due to deportation concerns. While the primary concern is safety, the move will cost businesses and the community money. Organizers say canceling this year’s parade will cost the Chamber of Commerce about $1.5 million.

* WTTW | CTA Bus and Train Operator Overtime Dropped in 2024 as Agency Increased Staffing Levels: Data obtained by WTTW News shows the overall number of bus and train operators who worked for the CTA last year neared its pre-pandemic peak of employees. According to an analysis of operator data since 2015, the largest group of employees in each year worked an average of 30 to 40 hours per week. But that group is still significantly smaller than 2015, when 51.6% of operators fell into that category. Only 36% of operators did last year. Overall, about 17% of operators worked an average of 40 or more hours a week in 2024, down from 19.3% in 2023.

* Crain’s | $900 million Bronzeville tower and AI lab project nears key land deal: GVG unveiled plans for Metropolis Pointe earlier this year. The proposal includes a 50-story tower with more than 600 residential units that would include a mix of workforce, market-rate and luxury condominium housing, as well as an “AI Preparedness Institute,” an education and workforce training center focused on artificial intelligence and emerging technologies. The development, which has an estimated total cost of $900 million, would also include retail space and wellness-focused community amenities, according to an announcement from GVG.

* Crain’s | Johnson tapping PR guru and political insider to chair Choose Chicago board: The mayor is tapping Guy Chipparoni, CEO of Res Publica, to lead the board of the city’s tourism organization, according to people familiar with the appointment. Johnson is also appointing Sterling Bay executive Keiana Barrett, who was also recently named CEO of the Business Leadership Council. The change-up on the board comes after a drawn-out process to find a new chief executive for the agency. Kristen Reynolds, former CEO at Discover Long Island, was eventually installed to run the agency.

* Crain’s | Mayor names former city insider to steer O’Hare through expansion, airline tensions: Mayor Brandon Johnson has picked Mike McMurray, a veteran infrastructure and transportation executive with City Hall experience, to lead the Chicago Department of Aviation. McMurray is president for transportation and engineering at Wight and a former deputy commissioner for real estate at the Department of Aviation under former Mayor Richard M. Daley. The 62-year-old replaces Jamie Rhee, a popular aviation commissioner who retired last month after a three-decade career in city government.

* Tribune | Teen curfew vote delayed, alderman praises Mayor Brandon Johnson’s listening efforts: The City Council’s Public Safety Committee had been expected to vote on the measure at its afternoon meeting, but Ald. Brian Hopkins said early in the day it would not go forward. Too many aldermen planned to attend Rep. Jan Schakowsky’s afternoon announcement, where she said she would not seek re-election, he said. But Hopkins touted listening sessions that he attended with teens and another where Mayor Brandon Johnson listened to Streeterville residents as the downtown alderman promised to push the measure forward before late May.

* Borderless | ‘We Feel Like We Hit A Brick Wall’: Migrant Soup Kitchen Faces Eviction: Eviction court records show that a Windy City Process Serving agent successfully gave the 30-day notice to “Jeremy Hammond” (sic) on June 27, 2024. Additional documents submitted to the court by Mui’s attorney show a “Co-working Space Agreement” between Jason Hammond of Midwest Books to Prisoners and Thomas Gaulke of First Lutheran Church of the Trinity for the nonprofit organization to use the former church space. However, Gaulke denied signing the agreement in a conversation with a church representative, according to a notarized certification from the representative in court filings. Gaulke did not respond to Borderless’ requests for comment, and Hammond declined to go on record for this story.

* WTTW | Top Cop Agrees That CPD Officers Who Stopped, Shot Dexter Reed Should Be Suspended for Violating Rights of 2 Other Drivers: Snelling made his disciplinary decisions in both probes on March 5, records show. It is unclear whether the officers have served those suspensions, since they can appeal Snelling’s determination. In all, Snelling and COPA agreed that five officers collectively committed 47 violations of departmental rules designed to protect the rights of Chicagoans during two traffic stops and should be suspended for a total of 91 days, records show.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Tribune | Appeals system raised property tax bills for Cook County homeowners, report says: Homeowners’ bills grew by a total of about 7% over that span as a result of the shift, according to the latest report from the Cook County treasurer’s office, the first to calculate how much shifting burdens have cost on property tax bills. Those increases fell more on lower-income Black and Latino taxpayers, the report found. The report does not draw conclusions about whether those appeals were correct, but does show “that the county’s assessment appeal system works far more to the advantage of business property owners than homeowners, and at the same time favors wealthier white homeowners over lower-income minority homeowners.”

* Tribune | Democrats pick new Cook County Board member for NW Side seat: Rounding out a series of promotions for 35th Ward progressives, Democrats from Chicago’s Northwest Side appointed Jessica Vásquez to fill a vacancy on the Cook County Board for the next 18 months. The shuffle started when Mayor Brandon Johnson elevated Carlos Ramirez-Rosa from the Chicago City Council to become CEO of the Chicago Park District. Johnson then tapped Cook County Commissioner Anthony Quezada to replace Ramirez-Rosa on the City Council last month. Vásquez will replace Quezada representing the 8th District on the county board. Ramirez-Rosa’s former chief of staff at City Hall, Vásquez was a frontrunner for the county post from the moment Ramirez-Rosa kicked off the musical chairs by taking the Park District job.

* Daily Southtown | Landmarks: Chicago Tomato Man shares love of ‘real’ produce thousands of plants at a time: Bob Zeni had a plant problem. A few years after deciding to spend late winters learning how to start his own tomato seedlings, the sprouts had taken over his home in La Grange Park. It was, as he called it, a turning point. “That was about four years ago, when I had 2,000 plants started,” he recalled. “When they were really small they weren’t a problem. But when I had to up-plant them into 4-inch pots, we had them in every room in the house, next to every window I could find.

*** Downstate ***

* The Daily Egyptian | Conservative watchdog group recruits SIU students to investigate ‘liberal bias’ on campus: Campus Reform, a conservative national media organization focusing on higher education, sent recruitment emails to several SIU students. Their attempts to contact students have been sporadic, with some students receiving recruitment messages as early as February. According to the recruitment email that a recipient provided to the Daily Egyptian, they are looking for students who have experienced or heard about “liberal bias” on college campuses.

* BND | Union says ‘pure corporate greed’ forcing some metro-east jobs to Mexico: The layoffs include 98 members of the International Association of Sheet Metal Air Rail Transportation Workers, or SMART, Union, according to a letter Hubbell Inc. sent to state officials on April 24. Richard Harris, a regional official with the union, said in a statement Friday that Hubbell notified the union last summer that the company was considering moving operations to Juarez. Harris said the change is being made “due to pure corporate greed.”

* WSIL | Marion to light up for mental health awareness at Tower Square event Marion to light up for mental health awareness at Tower Square event: The 2nd Annual Lighting of Tower Square in honor of Mental Health Awareness Month event will be held on May 7, at 6:30 p.m. on Tower Square Plaza. Community leaders will also be in attendance to spread awareness and hope.

* WGN | Original Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth announced as headline performer for state fair in downstate Illinois this summer: Original Van Halen lead singer David Lee Roth returned to the concert stage for the first time in five years Saturday night. The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer is now scheduled to be on stage this summer downstate. The Du Quoin State Fair announced Monday morning that Roth will headline the fair at the Grandstand stage on Saturday, Aug. 23. Du Quoin, a town of just over 5,500, is located in Perry County in southern Illinois, due north of Carbondale up U.S. Highway 51.

*** National ***

* WIRED | Rejoice! Carmakers Are Embracing Physical Buttons Again: A smattering of automakers are slowly admitting that some smart screens are dumb. Last month, Volkswagen design chief Andreas Mindt said that next-gen models from the German automaker would get physical buttons for volume, seat heating, fan controls, and hazard lights. This shift will apply “in every car that we make from now on,” Mindt told British car magazine Autocar.

* NYT | A.I. Is Getting More Powerful, but Its Hallucinations Are Getting Worse: These systems use mathematical probabilities to guess the best response, not a strict set of rules defined by human engineers. So they make a certain number of mistakes. “Despite our best efforts, they will always hallucinate,” said Amr Awadallah, the chief executive of Vectara, a start-up that builds A.I. tools for businesses, and a former Google executive. “That will never go away.”