Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Monday, Dec 8, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller

* We’ve only raised $115 so far today, and we can’t afford to lose momentum. Every little bit keeps us moving toward getting a Christmas gift into the hands of every child in LSSI’s care.

If you haven’t given yet, or can chip in a little more, it truly makes a difference. Thank you.

* Belleville News-Democrat…

U.S. Steel is eyeing an April 1 restart of the second of its two blast furnaces at Granite City Works, but it could come sooner, the local steelworkers union president said.

“It’s definitely going to be a lot of hard work — but, at the end of the road, it’s going to pay off because Nippon has not got to see what we can do with primary operations,” said Craig McKey, who leads United Steelworkers Local 1899. […]

McKey said his phone has already been inundated with calls from workers laid off in 2023, when U.S. Steel first idled the blast furnace, asking about jobs. The company will prioritize anyone who had quit, retired or been let go.

“There’s going to be a lot of them that come back,” he said.

Restarting the second blast furnace is likely to cost U.S. Steel between $25 million and $30 million. Management said that cash will not come out of the $11 billion that the Japanese have promised to invest in other existing U.S. Steel facilities, McKey said.

* Click here for some background. 4th Congressional Dstrct candidate Mayra Macías…

In case you missed it, Back of the Yards native Mayra Macías raised over $100,000 in 72 hours for her campaign to succeed Congressman Chuy García — a clear sign that her message is resonating. She’s running a grassroots-powered campaign and is not accepting corporate PAC dollars.

“I’m overwhelmed by the response we’ve received in fewer than three days,” said Macías. “I’ve talked to so many people who are contributing to a political campaign for the very first time. They and everyone I’m meeting throughout the district want a choice, and they want someone who understands them — who’s never had anything handed to them. They want a fighter who will protect our immigrant community, make life more affordable, and have the credibility to protect our democracy from Trump. That’s exactly what I’ll do in Congress.”

*** Statewide ***

* Crain’s | State pension shortfall improves, thanks to strong market: The gap between the assets available to pay retirees and how much they’ll be owed fell to $143.5 billion from $143.7 billion a year earlier, just the fourth time in 15 years that the overhang has declined. Pensions for schoolteachers, university employees, state workers, legislators and judges were 47.8% funded as of June 30, the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability said today.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Chronicle Media | Planning leader won’t stop push for better mass transit: Erin Aleman has pushed for better mass transit in Illinois for years and was ever-so-hopeful for a solution to aid financially strapped Chicago area transit agencies. Then came the end of the fall veto session and what had looked like a light at the end of the tunnel suddenly turned into a freight train. “If you had asked me the week that the legislation passed, I would have told you, ‘Forget it, it’s not happening,” Aleman said.

*** Chicago ***

* Crain’s | Johnson floats head tax overhaul amid budget stalemate: Mayor Brandon Johnson is offering a revamped version of his corporate head tax — targeting only the city’s largest employers and raising the rate to $33 per worker — in a last-minute effort to salvage his $16.6 billion budget and head off a potential government shutdown. Johnson’s aides began testing support for the tweak with aldermen this afternoon — even while the mayor publicly downplayed a counter-proposal from 26 council members who want to scrap the head tax altogether.

* WTTW | Johnson Warns Chicago is Headed for Shutdown Amid Budget Deadlock: In a letter to the 26 members of the Chicago City Council who have signed on to a plan to bridge Chicago’s $1.19 billion budget gap without hiking taxes on large firms, Johnson said he was open to new ideas and continuing negotiations but said he would not allow the city’s budget to be balanced “on the backs of working people.” “These proposals by some members of the Council are not ‘shared sacrifice’; it is only the poor who are sharing the sacrifice,” Johnson wrote. “Doubling garbage fees, cutting youth employment, and selling Chicagoans’ debt to the highest bidder puts significant additional financial strain on those with the least ability to afford it.”

* CBS Chicago | Youth organizations call for Chicago to keep corporate head tax in budget plan: A group of organizations that offer summer jobs to young people is encouraging city leaders to keep the proposed corporate head tax in next year’s city budget, as proposed by Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson. The organization representatives spoke at a news conference Monday morning, saying that without the tax, they would be forced to cut thousands of jobs. The tax is being called a “community safety surcharge.” It amounts to a $21 per month per employee tax on businesses with more than 100 employees, also known as a head tax.

* Block Club | Affordable Apartments At Logan Square Church Break Ground After 6 Years In The Making: The project will preserve the 1928 church’s façade while creating 10 affordable apartments — a mix of studios and one-, two- and three-bedrooms — in Logan Square for Black and Brown families earning 15-50 percent of the area median income. LUCHA, the development company behind the project, plans to renovate the church’s 12 existing apartments and convert the church’s sanctuary and fellowship space into 10 more apartments for a total of 22 units.

* Block Club | Delivery Robots Take Over Chicago Sidewalks, Sparking Debate And A Petition To Hit ‘Pause’: “This is a vehicle in the pedestrian path space that’s meant for people, and yet we ended up stepping aside, and something about that felt a little off,” Robertson said. “I began to wonder, what are our sidewalks going to be like if these programs are successful from the company’s point of view, and they continue to scale, and there are dozens and dozens of them on our sidewalks, even on quiet residential sidewalks?”

* Crain’s | U.S. cuts fine against Southwest over 2022 travel meltdown at Midway: The Trump administration has waived part of a $140 million settlement against Southwest Airlines over a 2022 holiday travel meltdown that was largely centered at Midway Airport. The U.S. Department of Transportation announced Dec. 6 the airline would not need to pay the final $11 million of a $35 million fine issued as part of the settlement after investing more than $1 billion in its operations, Reuters reports.

* Crain’s | Chicago Botanic Garden names new CEO: Illinois native Gretchen Baker is returning to her roots as the incoming president and CEO of the nonprofit Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe. Baker, who will begin her post on March 16, was hired by the Botanic Garden board of directors after current CEO Jean Franczyk, who has led the garden since 2016, informed the board she plans to retire this coming spring.

* Sun-Times | Bally’s Chicago casino renderings preview poker room, gaming floor: Besides the 3,400-slot casino and 500-room hotel, the $1.7 billion Chicago complex is slated to include a rooftop pool and bar and restaurants, plus a 3,000-seat theater and a public park with a riverwalk extension. Bally’s had previously shared its proposed images of a 36-story hotel tower and adjacent casino. The latest images preview its expansive floor of slot machines and table games, plus dedicated poker and baccarat rooms.

* Tribune | John Corkery, a Chicago attorney and ‘performer at heart,’ dies at 82: John Corkery was an attorney and a distinguished one, a frequent radio and TV legal expert, a powerful courtroom presence, and an admired teacher and administrator. He was much more. “John was a performer at heart,” said his wife, Denise Corkery, an advertising executive. “He always referred to teaching his law classes as giving ‘five performances a week.’” Corkery died at home in Chicago on Nov. 27, on Thanksgiving morning. He had been on home hospice care for a lengthy battle with brain cancer, with which he had been diagnosed in 2019. He was 82.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Tribune | Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss questions how Trump-Northwestern deal impacts protests and campus oversight: He also expressed skepticism about the agreement’s provisions that aimed to limit Northwestern’s consideration of students’ racial backgrounds in admissions. In the letter, Biss demanded “unambiguous guidance on what you believe Northwestern is now prohibited from doing, required to do, or required to dismantle — especially if these requirements touch community-based scholarship programs, DEI partnerships, or joint initiatives involving our schools and nonprofits.” And Biss — who has said he has “two children who are thriving because of gender-affirming care,”— also questioned the federal government’s authority to use the agreement to compel Northwestern and its medical affiliates to change their transgender health care practices.

* Daily Southtown | Calumet region celebrates progress in flood mitigation efforts funded by relief funds: The project the Calumet City steering committee chose was to create stormwater bumpouts at Sibley Boulevard and Wentworth Avenue, creating a safer crossing for a nearby day care. The Center for Neighborhood Technology developed the RainReady plan for the region about 10 years ago, Savad said, but there was no funding at the time to put the project into practice. It wasn’t until rescue plan was signed into law in 2021, dispensing billions in funds for pandemic relief and infrastructure improvement, that the project was able to get moving. Cook County committed $6 million of funds it was allotted to making the center’s plan a reality.

* Daily Southtown | Longtime Monee Democrat William ‘Billy’ Morgan tapped to lead Will County party: Morgan said one of his main focus will be on county offices next year, including reelecting countywide Democrats and flipping the county clerk and regional office of education seats from Republican to Democrat. “I’m focused like a laser on our county,” Morgan said.

* Daily Herald | ‘They always provide’: JOURNEYS offers a lifeline and a path out of homelessness: Last year, JOURNEYS served 1,051 people experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity. It was the fifth consecutive year of growth for the nonprofit organization. Its services range from overnight stays, meals, showers and laundry, to mental health counseling, job training and transportation. Its shelter in Palatine hosts 50 to 70 people daily, and JOURNEYS also partners with PADS shelters operated by 12 faith communities.

* Daily Herald | ‘A real balm’: Catholics headed to Des Plaines this week in annual pilgrimage: The event typically draws as many as 300,000 people from across the U.S. Most make the pilgrimage “because there’s a great need in their life,” Sanchez said. “An experience such as this is a real balm, a real healing, for them,” he said.

*** Downstate ***

* News-Gazette | Piatt County Circuit Clerk earns top honors for modernizing court information: Let’s face it, most people have their eyes buried in phones — Seth Floyd, the Piatt County circuit clerk, knew that, so he modernized the decades-old court system and implemented an accessible and online record database. “The idea (was born from) a better way to reach jurors, because when I came into the office, we were using a recently thrown-away 1990s answering machine as a call-in line,” he said. The app, released in 2023, featured accessible records, information, links to make payments and acted as a hub for various websites.

* WMBD | Peoria City Council to decide on $11M riverfront amphitheater donation: The vote and its likely approval Tuesday night given the Horseshoe’s endorsement of the idea at an earlier meeting, will formally accept the donation from the Hengst Foundation and give them “authority over the design of the Amphitheater,” according to a memo in the council’s packet. At their meeting in Setpember, the council voted to accept a “letter of intent” by the foundation to build the 5,000-seat facility on Peoria’s riverfront.

* WMBD | More than 90 cadets graduate from Lincoln’s ChalleNGe Academy at Peoria Civic Center: The program is run by the Illinois National Guard and serves youth ages 15 1/2 to 18 through a 22-week, quasi-military academy focused on structure, discipline and life-skill development. Leaders said the goal is to help young people build consistency, confidence and a clearer path forward. […] The program is voluntary and offers students the opportunity to earn academic credentials, develop vocational skills and learn essential tools such as time management, teamwork and anger-management strategies.

*** National ***

* WaPo | Supreme Court poised to expand Trump’s power over independent agencies: The Supreme Court on Monday appeared poised to allow President Donald Trump to fire a leader of the Federal Trade Commission, a ruling that could limit or overturn a 90-year-old precedent that curbs executive power to dismiss the heads of agencies Congress set up to be independent.

* AP | Redistricting in Indiana faces ultimate test in state Senate: Senators will take action on a bill designed to favor GOP candidates in the upcoming midterm elections. However, many Republicans, who control the chamber, have been hesitant or even outright opposed to the idea of mid-decade redistricting. Several have also been threatened over their opposition or unwillingness to immediately declare support. Their deciding votes could test Trump’s typically iron grip on the Republican Party. Monday’s expected committee hearing could give a first glimpse at how many senators plan to go on record against the bid to consolidate power in the staunchly conservative state.

* NYT | How Biden Ignored Warnings and Lost Americans’ Faith in Immigration: Some Biden aides believed that the less the president said about immigration, the better. In June, the White House planned for Mr. Biden to give a speech on the border. Officials circulated the president’s remarks, Ms. Flores said, only to change their minds at the last minute. Angela Kelley, who was then a senior immigration adviser at the Department of Homeland Security, described a collision between Mr. Biden’s campaign promises and “reality on the ground.” “We didn’t really have a grip on it,” Ms. Kelley said.

* WaPo | Trump pardons major drug traffickers despite his anti-drug rhetoric: On President Donald Trump’s first full day in office this year, he pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, who was convicted of creating the largest online black market for illegal drugs and other illicit goods of its time. In the months since, he has granted clemency to others, including Chicago gang leader Larry Hoover and Baltimore drug kingpin Garnett Gilbert Smith. And last week, he pardoned former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, who had been sentenced to 45 years in prison for running his country as a vast “narco-state” that helped to move at least 400 tons of cocaine into the United States.

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Some good advice for legislators and the news media

Monday, Dec 8, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Jennifer Pahlka, author of Recoding America: Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better, on the An Honorable Profession podcast…

Pahlka: The last piece that I think is the most abstract, but probably the most important, is closing the loop between policy and implementation.

So right now, it sort of works in sort of a waterfall method. You pass a law or policy and it gets handed off to successive layers of a bureaucracy. By the time it’s actually being implemented on the ground by folks that are so distant from the folks who passed the law, a game of telephone has occurred. They don’t quite know what the real intention was. It’s been burdened with lots of procedure. It’s now more about the process than it is about the outcome, and they’re not able to sort of loop back and say, ‘Is what we’re doing what you intended? Is this working? Are we getting the results that we were hoping to get?’

And we have to really fundamentally think differently about the relationship between the executive and legislative branches in order to build these tight feedback loops so that by the time you’re actually hitting the ground we have tested things. We know what works, and we’re confident that we’re going to get there, and that we keep having those feedback loops all the way along.

But right now, most legislators are like, ‘I passed the law. It’s someone else’s job now. I’m moving on to the next piece of legislation, the next bill that I want to introduce.’

That’s a really big mind shift, but I would absolutely encourage anybody here in the legislative branch to shift their thinking. I think your voters will actually reward you for it, for caring more about the outcome than the bill. And that doesn’t mean you spend your days and your staff spend their days on fundamentally different things, but it will pay off.

Host: And that’s an interesting thing, because I think for a lot of elected officials, there’s been a little bit of a using how many bills you introduced or passed as the measurement for success. And so I think that’s a really interesting point to be able to talk instead about what you’ve delivered, because that’s really to your point. That’s what people are looking for.

Pahlka: Almost all of my friends, just like regular voters, people nodding, do you vote for somebody on the basis of the number of bills they passed? They’re like, I have no idea. Like, they don’t even know. They don’t know. But the reason that we introduce those bills, or your audience here introduces those bills, is because they get attention.

And what we have to do is create the mechanisms and affordances that give you the same kind of attention from the press, from the community, from academics, from community groups, that you get the same attention for the follow-up that you do for introducing the bills. And I think that’s the work that the civil service groups will do, that either the good government groups will do that. Academia can do that. You can train the media to pay attention to these things. You have to challenge that conventional wisdom that the reason that you’re doing this is either for votes or attention, because it’s not getting you the votes. There’s a different way to get attention that will also get outcomes, and your people will reward you for that.

She’s right that legislators too often just pass bills and move on to the next thing. She’s also right that successful implementation of laws can lead to much better news coverage.

But writing stories about bill intros is a whole lot easier and completely ingrained into news coverage norms than stories about successful implementation. Often, implementation stories are written after failures, and quote angry legislators railing at the bureaucracy, even though many of them had no idea that their bills were being implemented so poorly.

6 Comments

Poll: Chicagoans want more city and state money for schools, favor taxing upper income, oppose service tax, confident in Pritzker but not in Johnson

Monday, Dec 8, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller

* A recent citywide poll conducted by the University of Chicago’s NORC for Kids First Chicago showed that two-thirds of Chicagoans were unaware that the city is moving to a fully elected school board in 2027.

From the executive summary…

○ Roughly six in ten Chicago adults say the City of Chicago should provide more money to CPS, forming the base for the City revenue questions.

■ There is a significant association between parent/non-parent status and belief that the City should provide more money to CPS; 67% of CPS parents believe the City should provide more money, compared to 58% of non-parents.

● Among those who believe the City should provide more funding, support is strongest for corporate and high-end real estate taxes:
○ 74% support increasing taxes on large corporations based in Chicago.
○ 56% support starting or increasing taxes on real estate transactions for homes priced above $500,000.
○ 53% support creating a new local income tax for individuals making above $100,000 per year.

● Support for tourism taxes and TIF reforms is more mixed or uncertain.

○ 48% support increasing certain tourism taxes (hotel, car rental); 32% oppose; 20% are unsure.
○ 45% support closing certain TIF districts early and moving the maximum legally allowable unused TIF funds to CPS, 11% oppose, and a large 43% are unsure.

* The public wants the state to step in, and opposes borrowing and, mostly, layoffs…

When asked how CPS should prioritize closing a $569 million budget deficit, respondents rated five options as high, medium, or low priority.

● High-priority actions

○ Advocate for more money from the State:
■ 43% high
■ 27% medium
■ 18% low

○ Advocate for the State to take on the full cost of Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund and combine it with the statewide Teachers’ Retirement System:
■ 34% high
■ 27% medium
■ 16% low

○ Advocate for more money from the City:
■ 33% high
■ 30% medium
■ 23% low

● Low-priority actions

○ Staff layoffs:
■ 19% high
■ 18% medium
■ 50% low

○ Borrow money:
■ 8% high
■ 19% medium
■ 53% low

Respondents were not asked about closing under-utilized schools.

* However, Chicagoans oppose a sales tax on non-essential services, according to the poll…

Only 28% support expanding the sales tax to certain services (excluding essentials), while 52% oppose it; 18% are unsure.

* Confidence levels that the following will act in the best interests of CPS students…

● Governor J.B. Pritzker

○ 63% have a great deal or some confidence.
○ 27% have not much or no confidence.
○ Net: +36.

● Chicago Teachers Union (CTU)

○ 46% have a great deal or some confidence.
○ 39% have not much or no confidence.
○ Net: +7.
○ CPS parents are more likely to report a great deal/some confidence (54%) compared to non-parents (44%).

● Members of the Chicago Board of Education

○ 43% have a great deal or some confidence.
○ 37% have not much or no confidence.
○ 19% are unsure.
○ CPS parents have more confidence (54% great deal/some) in the Board than do non-parents (39% great deal/some)
○ CPS parents have less uncertainty (12%) than non-parents (21%)

● Mayor Brandon Johnson

○ 35% have a great deal or some confidence.
○ 55% have not much or no confidence.
○ Net: –20.

● Interim CPS CEO / Superintendent Macquline King

○ 30% have a great deal or some confidence.
○ 33% have not much or no confidence.
○ 36% are unsure.
○ 40% of non-parents report uncertainty, compared to 22% of CPS parents.
○ Most parents (57%) report not much / some confidence, compared to non-parents (40%)

* Methodology…

● Study target population: Adults age 18+ living in the City of Chicago.
● Completed interviews: 1,361
● Sample units: 2,887
● Eligibility: Expected 100%; observed 100%.
● Field period: September 16–29, 2025
● Median survey duration: 15 minutes
● Margin of error: ±3.73 percentage points, with a design effect of 1.97.

The survey was conducted using a probability-based sample and weighted to be representative of Chicago’s adult population by age, race/ethnicity, gender, and geography. Percentages may not sum to 100% due to rounding. […]

“CPS parents” are defined as respondents who reported “Yes” to the question, “Are you a parent or guardian of a student currently enrolled in Chicago Public Schools (CPS)?” “Non-parents” are defined as those who responded “No” to this question.

12 Comments

Question of the day: 2025 Golden Horseshoe Awards

Monday, Dec 8, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller

* The 2025 Golden Horseshoe Award for Best Republican State House Staff Member goes to Jayme Siemer…

Jayme Siemer is one of those people you’re grateful is in the building. She’s sharp, dependable, and brings real institutional knowledge to every conversation. She makes herself accessible to stakeholders and does a great job helping people understand what her members are trying to accomplish. Jayme is responsive, measured, and consistently on top of tough issues, all while keeping her focus on getting the work done.

Jayme was not the top vote-getter by any means, but she’s very good at what she does and I thought she deserved it.

* The 2025 Golden Horseshoe Award for Best Democratic State House Staff Member goes to Madeline McCune…

It felt like when Madeline came back to staff there was a collective exhale. She’s known to be generous with her time, thoughtful in her decision making, and always focused on doing right by the caucus.

Congratulations to our winners!

* On to today’s categories…

Best State Government Spokesperson/Comms

Bridget Shanahan and Becky Carroll won for best PR people last year, so they’re not eligible this year. Jordan Abudayyeh won for best 2024 government spox, and she’s now in the private sector.

The government spokesperson/comms award applies to all branches of state government. As always, please make sure to explain your nominations or they won’t count and do your best to nominate in both categories. Thanks!

* After you’ve submitted your nominations, please click here and contribute to our annual fundraising drive to buy Christmas presents for foster kids.

Donations during the second week are always lower, but you can change that by stepping up. If you’ve already contributed, please reach out to your friends to encourage them to help spread some Christmas cheer. Remember, those children are in this predicament through no fault of their own. You have the power to help them enjoy the holiday season in a small, but real way. So, again, please click here. Thanks!

18 Comments

When RETAIL Succeeds, Illinois Succeeds

Monday, Dec 8, 2025 - Posted by Advertising Department

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Findings of a recent economic study were clear — the retail sector is a cornerstone of the state’s economy and crucial to our everyday lives. Retail in Illinois directly contributes more than $112 billion in economic investment annually – more than 10 percent of the state’s total Gross Domestic Product.

Retailers like Becca in LaSalle enrich our economy and strengthen our communities. We Are Retail and IRMA showcase the retailers who make Illinois work.

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The news media’s favorite bogeyman

Monday, Dec 8, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller

* My weekly syndicated newspaper column…

In the days after the horrific burning of a woman on a CTA train, allegedly by a clearly deranged habitual criminal suspect last month, some in the news media immediately focused on their go-to issue: The Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today, or SAFE-T Act.

“Illinois leaders blast SAFE-T Act after repeat offender charged with lighting woman on fire on CTA Blue Line,” reported WGN, as just one example. Former Cook County and federal prosecutor Bob Milan told the station: “The SAFE-T Act forces state attorneys to file petitions instead of just giving judges the discretion [to detain arrested suspects]”

Kankakee County Sheriff Mike Downey demanded that judges be given “100 percent discretion” to detain anyone they viewed as a danger to society. Several other sheriffs have since weighed in with the same demand, although some also want to increase the number of what are known as “detainable offenses,” which are the alleged crimes that allow judges to keep suspects locked up before trial.

The state law was mentioned repeatedly because the prime suspect Lawrence Reed was not held in custody in August after he attacked a social worker at a psychiatric center, knocking her unconscious, giving her a concussion and damaging her eye.

However, Reed was charged in August with aggravated battery resulting in great bodily harm, which is a detainable offense under the SAFE-T Act. Considering his long criminal history and lots of other factors, he was a prime candidate for pretrial detention.

Cook County Judge Teresa Molina-Gonzalez instead sided against prosecutors, who argued for detention, and with the public defender in the case, who said that Reed was back on his medication and doing better. During the hearing, Molina-Gonzalez publicly acknowledged Reed’s long list of 70-plus arrests and convictions, and, according to CWBChicago.com, took a report from a court officer claiming that Reed’s chances of committing another crime was “four out of six” if released, with a likelihood of violence. After saying she couldn’t lock up everyone that prosecutors wanted detained, the judge ended up placing Reed on monitored home confinement, then another judge subsequently loosened that restriction.

So much for the idea of giving judges complete discretion without prosecutor involvement.

It’s worth noting that pretty much all of Reed’s previous offenses and releases happened under the cash bail system, before the SAFE-T Act’s Pre-Trial Fairness provisions took effect in September of 2023 — a fact ignored by the detractors.

Also, the Cook County Jail has experienced a 16 percentage point increase in inmates between the end of last year through the end of this year’s third quarter, according to a Loyola tracking dashboard. The county jail’s population was about 8% higher at the end of the third quarter than it was just before the SAFE-T Act was fully enacted.

And a chart recently posted by CWBChicago.com, which focuses exclusively on crime and is not exactly known as a liberal site, shows that a wide array of violent offenses committed by people awaiting trial in Cook County dropped from 116 victims in 2021 (before the SAFE-T Act) to 52 last year and 37 so far this year. Attempted murder victims dropped from 50 victims in 2022 to eight so far this year.

Point being, too many reporters, pundits and others are far too quick to bring up everybody’s favorite bogeyman before any facts are known or even acknowledged.

Is the SAFE-T Act perfect? Of course not. No law designed by human beings can ever be perfect. Could it be improved? Again, humans should always try to improve on their work. But the people at the table should not be the ones who are angrily and ignorantly preening for the TV cameras.

Also, one of those downstate sheriffs advocating for changes in the SAFE-T Act kinda let the cat out of the bag last week.

In addition to granting judges more discretion and increasing the number of detainable offense, Jefferson County Sheriff Jeff Bullard talked about the loss of local revenue with the abolition of cash bail.

The old bail system helped fund an array of things like jail staffing, victim services and law enforcement, Bullard said.

“The elimination of cash bail has created financial gaps for counties statewide,” the sheriff claimed.

Oddly, though, Bullard also griped that “some arrestees are now being held longer while awaiting a judge, where previously they could bond out quickly.”

So, the sheriff is upset that people deemed dangerous by judges are being held too long behind bars?

That kinda makes me think this is a lot about the money.

People really need to read the actual law before publicly dragging in their cherished bogeyman. It’s not that complicated. Also, here’s a handy chart.

27 Comments

Catching up with the federal candidates

Monday, Dec 8, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller

* The Sun-Times…

U.S. Senate candidate Raja Krishnamoorthi is running a TV ad about his plans to “stop” President Donald Trump, but he has also accepted more than $90,000 in contributions from key Trump and MAGA donors.

The fundraising leader in the Senate Democratic primary race to replace outgoing Sen. Dick Durbin has also taken in more than $120,000 in corporate PAC contributions from the same companies that are helping to fund Trump’s new $300 million White House ballroom construction, including Google, Amazon, Booz Allen Hamilton, Microsoft, T-Mobile, NextEra Energy, Union Pacific and Lockheed Martin.

Krishnamoorthi’s donors include Marc Andreessen, a Trump adviser and venture capitalist, Michael Pillsbury, Project 2025 contributor and Heritage Foundation senior adviser and Shyam Sankar, a Trump adviser who donated at least $260,000 to Republican causes this year alone.

Asked for comment, Krishnamoorthi’s campaign told the Sun-Times the donations from Trump allies represent just .2% of the more than $24 million he has raised. And a campaign spokesperson said Krishnamoorthi, a U.S. representative and a Democrat from Schaumburg, “welcomes anyone who supports” his mission.

* Capitol News Illinois…

[T]he three top Democrats vying to become the party’s nominee for U.S. senator in Illinois have released proposals detailing how they plan to make life more affordable for Americans. […]

Each candidate announced substantial proposals to address housing affordability.

[Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton’s] plan calls for creating tax incentives to encourage construction companies to build homes below the median price point, creating a tax penalty for hedge funds that buy single family homes in hopes of keeping them affordable, and restricting the ability of artificial intelligence to set rents and screen applicants.

Krishnamoorthi said he wants to reestablish an Obama-era refundable tax credit for qualified first-time home buyers in their first five years of ownership. He also called for opening more land for residential development by rezoning vacant commercial buildings.

[U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly] supports capping annual rent increases. She and Krishnamoorthi also generally support policies that limit a corporation’s ability to buy single family homes.

Both Stratton and Kelly say they support the concept of “Medicare for All,” which would establish a single-payer, government-run health insurance program that all Americans would have access to. Stratton’s plan also calls for Medicare to cover long-term care home services, hearing and vision, while Kelly only said it should cover dental and vision. […]

Krishnamoorthi’s plan does not indicate he supports the Medicare for All plan popular among many progressive Democrats. Instead, he calls for allowing Medicare to negotiate prices for more drugs each year and for passing legislation to regulate pharmacy benefit managers in hopes of reducing drug prices.

* Politico…

— In IL-09: State Sen. Laura Fine has raised more than $800,000 so far in the fourth quarter in her bid for the 9th Congressional District, her campaign told supporters in an email. […]

— In IL-07: State Rep. La Shawn Ford has been endorsed by fellow state Reps. Natalie Manley, Suzanne Ness, Lisa Davis and Anthony DeLuca in his bid to succeed Congressman Danny Davis, who has also endorsed him.

— In IL-07: Anthony Driver Jr. has been endorsed by Maywood Mayor Nathaniel George Booker, and Maywood Trustees Asia Ousley, Ray Williams, Steven Smiley and Antonio Sanchez, and Clerk Tori Love-Garron.

* Chicago Fire Fighters Union Local 2 have endorsed Mellissa Bean for the 8th Congressional District. Press release…

Today, Chicago Fire Fighters Union Local 2 endorsed Melissa Bean in the race for Illinois’ 8th Congressional District seat.

Statement from Pat Cleary, President of Chicago Fire Fighters Union Local 2:
“Labor needs allies in Washington now more than ever. Melissa Bean showed up for the men and women of organized labor in Congress, and she’s ready to show up for us once again. Just like fire fighters do every single day, Melissa has demonstrated what it looks like to deliver for her district, her community, and our entire state – and we are proud to endorse her campaign for Congress.”

Statement from Melissa Bean:
“Chicago fire fighters put their lives on the line for their neighbors each and every day, but their work doesn’t stop at the frontlines. The men and women of organized labor fight day and night because they care about the wellbeing of their communities. That’s what our movement is about, and I’m honored to stand shoulder to shoulder with Chicago Fire Fighters Union Local 2 in the fight to improve the quality of life for families all across our communities.”

* More…

Tribune | Illinois’ US Senate primary race shows candidates still must court shrinking downstate Democratic base:

* 8th CD candidate Dan Tully | Pete Hegseth’s contempt for military rules of engagement on display in the Caribbean: I served as a judge advocate, or military lawyer, for eight years in the Army Reserve, including 3 1/2 years on active duty. As a national security law attorney in Iraq, I advised commanders on the application of the rules of engagement and the law of armed conflict to the full spectrum of operations against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. I’ve also been involved with shaping rules of engagement requests during the planning of operations in other theaters. Even a freshly minted judge advocate out of the basic course might identify Operation Southern Spear’s strikes as violations of U.S. obligations under international law, not to mention Department of Defense policy. Hegseth’s argument that the boats are manned by drug traffickers doesn’t change the legal analysis.

* Evanston Now | Who’s endorsed whom so far in IL-09: This story has been updated to reflect Lake County Commissioner Esiah Campos having been inaccurately listed as endorsing Bushra Amiwala’s campaign. In an Oct. 6 post on social media, Amiwala shared that Campos had endorsed her. Campos told Evanston Now on Thursday that he is not endorsing Amiwala and is instead endorsing Daniel Biss.

* Daily Herald | Ninth District congressional candidate was convicted of sex crime against a juvenile, records show: A Republican running to succeed longtime U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky in the largely suburban 9th District was convicted of a sex crime against a juvenile decades ago. Paul S. Friedman, 55, of Chicago, was charged with misdemeanor fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct while living in Michigan in 1998, public records show. The crime occurred in Washtenaw County that year when Friedman was 27 and the victim was 13, records indicate.

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Isabel’s morning briefing

Monday, Dec 8, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller

* ICYMI: Waymo wants to bring self-driving taxis to Illinois. Does the Land of Lincoln want them?. Tribune…

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* Sun-Times | ICE agents use tear gas in Elgin as hourslong standoff ends in man’s arrest: Elgin-born state Sen. Cristina Castro was among those present Saturday afternoon as agents detained the man. “Some folks were throwing him blankets and food, and ICE had all this region surrounded [and] eventually broke in, grabbed him, and yanked him out,” Castro said. Several dozen protesters were in the neighborhood providing supplies to the man as he stayed on the balcony, witnesses said.

* Tribune | Illinois researchers say versatile grass could be used for sustainable fuel, building materials and more: The versatile grass has a multitude of end products and uses, including compostable packaging, livestock bedding and erosion control. It can also be used as a solid fuel for electricity and heating, like coal, wood and municipal waste. Scientists are hoping it will open doors to new markets, such as renewable natural gas, sustainable aviation fuel, building materials, and chemicals for household and industrial products. One variety in particular, Miscanthus x giganteus, has demonstrated “unsurpassed productivity” in the Midwest, according to researchers.

* Crain’s | CME data center outage caused by human error, Cyrus One says: Onsite staff and contractors at the facility in Aurora, Illinois, failed to follow standard procedures for draining cooling towers ahead of freezing temperatures, a spokesperson for CyrusOne, a company owned by KKR & Co. and Global Infrastructure Partners, said in a statement to Bloomberg News on Saturday. That resulted in the cooling system being overloaded and rising temperatures.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Daily Herald | State Rep. Marty Moylan to resign from Illinois House Dec. 16: Democratic state Rep. Marty Moylan of Des Plaines has followed up his decision not to seek an eighth term by submitting his resignation this week to take effect Dec. 16. His resignation letter is dated Dec. 1 and marked as received by the clerk of the Illinois House of Representatives on Dec. 4. “It has been my greatest honor and privilege to serve my district and my state as a member of the Illinois House of Representatives and the Illinois General Assembly,” Moylan wrote. “I extend my deepest regards and gratitude to you and your staff for their diligence and hard work as we served together to improve the lives and futures of the people of the state of Illinois.”

* Windy City Times | Ridge Knapp campaigns for 13th District seat in one of Illinois’ most queer-represented races: Knapp later worked full-time on Congresswoman Lauren Underwood’s 2020 reelection campaign, served as a data analyst in the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office under Kim Foxx, and most recently joined President Biden—and later Vice President Harris’s—reelection campaign on its national analytics team. He said work inside government shaped how he thinks about policy impacts on marginalized people. “At the State’s Attorney’s Office, I got a chance to work with data and policy and look at making sure our criminal justice system was actually just—no longer overly criminalizing marginalized communities,” Knapp said. “My sense of justice is informed by that work, but also by my father’s experience with homelessness.”

* WAND | Behavioral healthcare parity law awaiting Pritzker’s approval: A bill awaiting Gov. JB Pritzker’s signature could increase access to behavioral healthcare and substance use treatment by improving insurance adequacy. This comes after state lawmakers spent three years working on the mental health parity plan. The proposal calls on the Illinois Department of Insurance to utilize a new formula to calculate minimum reimbursement rates for providers and publish them in a bulletin for insurance companies. Sponsors said proper compensation could encourage more behavioral healthcare specialists to join insurance networks.

*** Chicago ***

* Block Club | Homeland Security Boss Kristi Noem Met By Protesters While Attending Navy Pier Christmas Charity Event: Protestors, many of whom sang Christmas carols and held signs, had been gradually pushed back from Navy Pier by Chicago police after the beginning of the event. But as Noem gave her address, they could still be heard. Noem has been a public face of Trump’s immigration raids in Chicago, even joining federal agents on a sweep of a Home Depot parking lot in Austin. She also gave media briefings on the operation, falsely saying no U.S. citizens have been detained during the immigration enforcement operation.

* Tribune | Chicago Bears drop from No. 1 seed to No. 7 after loss to Green Bay Packers: “We had a lot of options there,” Johnson said. “Don’t know exactly who is going to pop necessarily but between the options that we have and then Caleb using his legs, was hopeful we could find a way to get a yard there.” Williams sort of waited, allowing Nixon time to close, and then put air under the throw as if to give the 6-foot-6 Kmet a chance to outplay the 5-10 Nixon for the ball. The throw never made it that far. It was an easy interception for Nixon. “I think he can take (the first down running) but I don’t know what he saw,” Kmet said. “I’m just running my route. It’s unfortunate. It sucks.”

* WBEZ | Here comes Krampus: How the half-goat, half-demon became a cultural phenomenon: “Krampus became more than a fad in America. It became a cultural phenomenon … and it all started here in Chicago,” [graphic designer/illustrator Monte Beauchamp] recently told the Chicago Sun-Times. […] Beauchamp introduced America to Krampus in its pages in a feature about century-old postcards in 2000. The issue became so popular, it led to a partnership with comics publisher Fantagraphics to produce the first book in America about the character, 2004’s “The Devil in Design: The Krampus Postcards.”

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Tribune | Federal immigration agents use tear gas on Elgin crowd on day of Kristi Noem’s visit to Chicago: The standoff began around 10 a.m. Saturday when about 15 agents showed up to arrest an unidentified man at an apartment building on the 1600 block of Maple Lane in Elgin. Elgin police said there had been a traffic crash that morning involving a federal agent and the man, who then fled to the building. The crowd, blowing whistles and shouting at agents to leave, grew throughout the morning, eventually swelling to at least 200 people by the afternoon. By 2:30 p.m., the man the agents were attempting to arrest was still on the second-floor balcony. About 30 agents tried to negotiate with him, while protesters told the man not to talk to them.

* CBS Chicago | Federal agent involved in crash, chemical agents dispersed in Elgin, Illinois, police say: Mari Elena and Eddy are part of a rapid response group in Elgin and were among dozens who arrived at the scene on Saturday, monitoring the agents’ activity. The confrontation led to agents tackling a person to detain them and using chemical irritants to try to disperse the crowd. “They tear-gassed at us, and then more people, more people started showing up protesting, and then more agents,” Mari Elena said.

* WaPo | The US citizens getting caught in Trump’s immigration crackdown: If you rolled past Bedrosian Park after the final bell rang at Waukegan High School on any given weekday this fall, you were likely to find Diego Rosales and his mop of unruly black hair, basketball in hand, permanently grinning and playing down to the level of local middle-schoolers. Until Oct. 6, when Rosales watched two dark SUVs come to an abrupt stop while he waited for the bus to school. Rosales brought his eyeglasses to his nose just in time to see three White men in green fatigues, cloth masks and body armor emerging from the vehicles with pistols on their hips. They stared and then rushed toward him. […] Surveillance footage from a nearby school captured Rosales in full sprint, curving around a building and through a parking lot, backpack in hand, the agents trailing by a stride. After a three-block race, they tackled the teenager to the pavement and shouted a question: “Where were you born?”

* Sun-Times | Stealing from one of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen gets ex-Cook County judge 4 years of probation: Patricia Martin, former presiding judge of the juvenile court’s child protection division, bilked a decorated WWII vet out of more than $380,000. She pleaded guilty to theft and also was ordered to pay $122,763.73 in restitution.

* Aurora Beacon-News | Aurora’s proposed 2026 budget, with controversial cuts, heads to final approval: The city is proposing a $680.8 million budget for 2026, which is $78.8 million less than this year’s. While most of the year-to-year change could be attributed to a one-time increase in revenue from bonds the city took out this year for big construction projects, the general operating fund proposed for 2026 also saw cuts, including to roughly 140 positions.

* Tribune | Political veteran George Cardenas fighting to stay on March primary ballot: George Cardenas has been a fixture in Southwest Side politics for decades, a consummate insider who followed five Chicago City Council election wins with another victory that took him to the obscure but powerful Cook County Board of Review. But now he finds himself in a fight befitting a novice, after a challenge to the petition signatures his campaign collected left him 273 short of what he needs to run for reelection in March’s Democratic primary. On Friday, seated across from a foot-tall stack of evidence, his legal team began the painstaking, line-by-line rebuttal to try to claw Cardenas’ way back onto the ballot.

* Crain’s | Rivian planning sales and service center in Northbrook: The electric vehicle maker has leased the site at 1818 Skokie Blvd. for a 39,000-square-foot facility to be built by Mount Prospect-based Wingspan Development Group, a spokesperson for the company confirmed today. “It’s a great partnership with the village of Northbrook and Wingspan and in support of our continued growth in that market,” said Peebles Squire, senior manager of corporate communications at Rivian.

* Tribune | White Eagle in Niles closes after decades as a hub for Polish community and political powerhouses: The phone at the White Eagle in Niles keeps ringing, with longtime customers asking for one last pierogi or a final bowl of its famed mushroom barley soup. An older woman cried when she learned it wouldn’t be possible, recalled office manager Diane Palazzo of Victoria Venues, the current owner. The banquet hall had quietly closed its doors several weeks ago.

*** Downstate ***

* NYT | A Small Illinois City at the Center of a Seismic Shift in Abortion Access: Two of Carbondale’s three clinics offer a range of health services, but Alamo Women’s Clinic only does abortions, both procedural and medication, all on-site. It does not dispense abortion pills through the mail, a practice targeted by anti-abortion groups and conservative states. Fewer than five percent of Alamo patients are from Illinois. Some women come by train, but most drive, traveling with partners, family or friends. Like women who seek abortions nationwide, many of them already have children and need to return home on the same day.

* WGLT | Bloomington and Normal join McLean County in suggestion they back away from legal cliff and restart talks in sales tax dispute: The most recent county letter offered one such change to the agreement — an 18-month pause in collection of shared sales tax revenue while other issues are worked out, coupled with an extension of the agreement identical in duration to the pause. That differs from a previous city and town proposal that would have paused sharing, but not extended the agreement. The county had called that idea a cut, not a pause.

* WCIA | Community unites as Piatt Co. village enters second day without running water: The Village of Bement has been under a boil order since early Saturday morning, but as of Sunday afternoon, there was no water to boil. The problem started after a water main broke Saturday around 1 a.m., affecting the pressure from the village’s water tower. Neighbors said that the lack of tap water was impacting everything from flushing toilets to taking showers. Community members, Piatt County Emergency Management Agency and the police and fire departments were handing out water on Sunday at the Lion’s Club Community Center.

*** National ***
* AP | Unseen photos of Rosa Parks return to Montgomery, Alabama, seven decades later: The photos were taken by the late Civil Rights photographer Matt Herron, and they depict Parks at the march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965 — a five-day-long, 54-mile (87-kilometer) trek that is often credited with galvanizing political momentum for the U.S. Voting Rights Act of 1965. History lessons tend to define Parks by her act of civil disobedience a decade earlier, on Dec. 1, 1955, which launched the Montgomery Bus Boycott. On Friday, some boycott participants and many of the boycott organizers’ descendants gathered to mark 70 years since the 381-day struggle in Alabama’s capital caught national attention, overthrowing racial segregation on public transportation.

* The Wichita Eagle | Kansas may get mile-deep nuclear reactor, and the groundbreaking is Tuesday: Deep Fission will hold a ceremonial groundbreaking on Tuesday at Great Plains Industrial Park. Company leaders hope to receive U.S. Department of Energy authorization and get its nuclear reactor up and running by next Fourth of July. The company is part of a presidential pilot program that aims to demonstrate new reactors by then. After that, Deep Fission hopes to pursue commercial operations. “The industrial park is looking to bring in, to attract industry and possibly data centers or other large uses of electricity,” Deep Fission CEO Liz Muller said in an interview with the Kansas News Service. “But in order to attract them, it needs to have a source of electricity.”

* The Hill | ACA approval hits new high: Gallup: More Americans approve of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) than at any point since it took effect more than a decade ago, according to a new Gallup survey. In the survey, released Monday, 57 percent of respondents approve, and 35 percent of respondents disapprove of the landmark legislation, which, the survey notes, was “signed into law by President Obama” and “restructured the U.S. healthcare system.”

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Good morning!

Monday, Dec 8, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller

* The Jerry Granelli Trio…

It’s Monday morning and I want to start the week with an update on our LSSI Christmas drive. You’ve helped raise $39,783, enough to buy Christmas gifts for 1,591 foster kids, which means we’re now over halfway there.

It’s an incredible start, but many more kids in LSSI’s care still need our help to have a brighter Christmas. Every dollar gets us closer to reaching all of them.

So as we kick off a new week, please take a moment to give what you can. You’re making a real difference for these kids. Thank you.

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Selected press releases (Live updates)

Monday, Dec 8, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller

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Live coverage

Monday, Dec 8, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller

* Click here and/or here to follow breaking news on the website formally known as Twitter. Our Bluesky feed…

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