* Here you go…

* Chalkbeat | Gov. J.B. Pritzker renews pre-K expansion push with 2024 budget proposing $250 million increase: “I would have done it in year one if the dollars had been available to do it,” Pritzker said Tuesday in a briefing with reporters. He said enhancing early childhood care and education is a “win-win” that will remobilize the workforce and boost the state’s economy “now and in the decades ahead.”

* Crain’s | Pritzker unveiling $500M plan to spur early childhood care, education: Past research has shown that money spent on youth development saves or generates $7 in the long run for every $1 spent now, Pritzker told reporters at an embargoed preview briefing yesterday.

* Sun-Times | Pritzker’s budget to provide preschool for 5,000 children ‘to cover all of those early childhood deserts’: Chicago already offers free preschool for four-year-olds in 64 of the city’s 77 community areas, but a WBEZ analysis last year showed Chicago Public Schools has struggled to fill all the classrooms it has invested in, in low-income areas with the greatest academic and social needs. The pandemic made it worse. With less than a week before classes began last fall, 4,200 seats for 4-year-olds were unfilled.

* Tribune | Gov. J.B. Pritzker pitches $75 million boost for preschool, a small step toward his goal of making early education available to all: The second-term Democrat is set to unveil the plan, dubbed “Smart Start Illinois,” as part of his $49.6 billion spending proposal for the next budget year. Pritzker will deliver a combined budget and State of the State speech at noon in the Illinois House chamber, marking the first time he has addressed a full joint session of the state House and Senate since before the coronavirus was declared a pandemic in 2020.

* WTTW | Pritzker to Outline Vision for Illinois in Budget, State of the State Address: Although Illinois doesn’t have the best fiscal reputation — with $140 billion owed to government pension systems, the state carries the baleful title of the most underfunded pensions in the nation — Comptroller Susana Mendoza said things are actually going pretty well. She said the state has received six credit upgrades that prove it and that Illinois is up to date paying its bills.

* SJ-R | Here’s how to watch and other details about Gov. Pritzker’s State of the State address: This year’s address is scheduled to start at noon and will return to the House chamber for the first time in two years — being held last year at the Old State Capitol and virtually in 2021 because of the pandemic. Watch the address live online at www.ilga.gov.

* Center Square | Some worry Illinois schools underperforming despite increased funding: Illinois’ evidence-based K-12 schools funding model aims to send more state resources to areas determined to be “under-resourced.” On Tuesday, the Illinois House Appropriations committee met with school and tax advocates to discuss the future of the model ahead of budget season.

* WSIU | Newly signed laws include creation of tourism districts, criminal justice reforms: The laws passed the General Assembly in their recently concluded lame duck legislative session in January, and Pritzker’s signature came less than a week before his budget address, scheduled for Wednesday at the Capitol.

* WTVO | Illinois House GOP unveils legislative priorities: “Republicans are here to work and these groups reflect not only that commitment but also our governing priorities,” McCombie said. “We are ready to be part of the solution on some of our state’s biggest challenges. These working groups are our first steps toward solving the problems impacting residents throughout Illinois.”

* Bloomberg | Survey Fatigue Threatens to Undermine US Economic Data: No harm will likely come from you declining to rate your dining experience or refusing to take part in an opinion poll. Where survey fatigue may pose a real threat is in government statistics that everyone from policymakers at the Federal Reserve to traders on Wall Street to C-suite executives rely on.

* Effingham Radio | State Representative David Friess Joins Illinois Freedom Caucus: Friess said he joined the Illinois Freedom Caucus because not only does the group stand in opposition to bad policy ideas but they also stand for concrete solutions to change Illinois for the better.

* WMBD | IL Senate Republicans want Pritzker to propose energy relief in budget address: “This is a significant crisis. It is a serious crisis,” said Sen. Chapin Rose (R-Mahomet), at a State Capitol news conference Tuesday. “Families cannot afford what is happening to them. If you saw the inflation report (Monday), far from inflation coming down, it is still over six percent.”

* Sun-Times | Ex-Bloomingdale Township highway commissioner gets prison for kickback scheme: Robert Czernek got more than three years in prison in bill-padding scam that bilked west suburban township out of more than $500,000.

* My Journal Courier | Task force pulls 13 tons of drugs off streets last year — 3 of them in this area: Almost a quarter of narcotics seized last year by multi-jurisdictional task forces in the state came from the area that includes Morgan, Cass, Sangamon and four neighboring counties.

* Pantagraph | New Illinois state energy project standards welcomed by some, resisted by others: Interest in new renewable projects in Illinois has been palpable since the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act was signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker in September 2021. The law aims to get the state to 100% carbon-free energy generation by 2050 by, among other things, upping annual state subsidies for wind and solar projects by $350 million. “I know there’s a lot of controversy over turbines right now,” Cox told Lee Enterprises. “But a lot of people don’t understand that this is our business and this is our livelihood. And that it’s gonna happen. The turbines are coming to Illinois because of (CEJA).”

* Shaw Local | State can’t close Choate before putting Plan B into effect: The Choate Mental Health and Developmental Center in downstate Anna falls under the brightest spotlight, and the details in a Friday report published on the Capitol News Illinois website are staggering. A salute to the reporters who filed Freedom of Information Act request to access eight Department of Human Services inspector general reports, but these terrible details were long known inside state government and yet we wait for appropriate response.

* Tribune | Emergency SNAP benefits are ending. Here’s what that means for Chicago families.: Since early in the pandemic, families in Illinois have received emergency SNAP allotments on top of their typical benefits. In March, benefits will return to their pre-pandemic levels, though grocery prices remain high, climbing 11.3% in January over the same period the year prior, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

* Lake County News-Sun | Millburn D24 school board blasted for ‘transphobic’ fuss over menstrual products in boys bathrooms; ‘Where is all this hate coming from?’: On Jan. 23, members of the board went into a 90-minute discussion over the installation of menstrual hygiene product dispensers in boys bathrooms in accordance with Illinois law, with a majority of the board taking issue with the move.

* Crain’s | Typical Chicago worker spends $2,387 less near office than before pandemic, study says: Compared to 2019, the average Chicago office worker is spending $2,387 less on meals, shopping and entertainment near their workplace, the researchers found. That dropoff is smaller than many other U.S. cities, including New York City ($4,661), Los Angeles ($4,200), Washington, D.C. ($4,051), and Atlanta ($3,938), among others.

* Sun-Times | City’s first Black-owned, independent weed shop opens in Logan Square: The Grasshopper Club is a family business run by Mount Carmel graduate Matthew Brewer, his brother, Chuck, and their mother, Dianne.

* The Root | Kanye West’s Antisemitic Comments Have Led to Real-World Consequences: Per the report, since October, there have been more than 10,000 Twitter mentions referencing the “Ye is Right” slogan, and they have reached at least six million users and have gotten more than 22,000 likes and 5,000 retweets.

* USA Today | Super Bowl 57 averages 113 million viewers, third most-watched television show in history: Super Bowl 49, which featured the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks, remains the most-viewed program in television history. That game, also played in Glendale, Arizona, was watched by 114.4 million viewers and was highlighted by Patriots cornerback Malcolm Butler intercepting Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson at the 1-yard line with 26 seconds remaining to preserve the 28-24 victory for New England.