* Here you go…

* Sun-Times | Illinois assault weapons ban withstands appeal in federal court: The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied a request for an injunction by Robert Bevis, a firearms store owner in Naperville, while he appeals a ruling by U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall that found the ban “constitutionally sound.”

* Sun-Times | CPS looking to move away from student-based budgeting, CEO Martinez says: Martinez shared these plans during a virtual briefing Tuesday outlining CPS’ school budget for the 2023-24 school year. The school-level budgets represent the money the district gives principals to use for their schools. The budgets, which are set to be finalized and approved over the summer, represent around one-third of the district’s total $9.4 billion budget. They include an infusion of cash from federal COVID-19 relief funding.

* Tribune | Big spending didn’t always lead to wins in school and library board races fueled by partisan rancor: The Illinois Democratic Party spent nearly $260,000 on local school and library board races across the state leading up to the April 4 election, but in some high-profile contests was outspent by slates of conservative candidates pushing for a rightward turn that nonetheless failed to win seats, according to first quarter campaign disclosures.

* Sun-Times | Year of the Incumbent? Only one sitting City Council member unseated this year — first time in a century: The sole incumbent voted out, Southwest Side Ald. Anabel Abarca (12th), was only on the job about two months before she was beaten by Julia Ramirez in the first round of municipal voting Feb. 28. Abarca had been appointed by outgoing Mayor Lori Lightfoot last fall to replace former Ald. George Cardenas following Cardenas’ election to the Cook County Board of Review.

* SJ-R | ‘Every vote counts’: Two candidates eke out one-vote wins in county election finale: Gordon Gates called his 19-vote win over Melissa Hahn Moseley for a trustee’s seat on the Lincoln Land Community College board “an odd, but ultimately gratifying result.” Gates’ slim margin of victory wasn’t the only oddity that played out in the Sangamon County Election office where officials tabulated late arriving vote-by-mail and provisional ballots Tuesday.

* Patch | Racist Remarks Directed At DuPage Township Trustee During Meeting: Townsend, who is Muslim, was breaking her fast while observing Ramadan. Ramadan is a holy month for Muslims, marked by a period of fasting, which is broken after sunset. This year, Ramadan runs from March 20 to April 20. Townsend said she began eating during the meeting, after the sun had set. She was speaking to a resident during the meeting when they mocked her and said, “go back to eating your lunch.”

* Capitol News Illinois | Governors State, Chicago State and EIU faculty have all ended their strikes: Bargaining is also ongoing between administrators and faculty at Northeastern Illinois University. The faculty union there voted to authorize a strike last week and has also requested mediation.

* Sun-Times | Lightfoot says she’s handing Johnson a city with rosy financial future: In a “midyear” budget forecast released Tuesday, the lame-duck mayor argues that she is handing off a budget shortfall to Johnson of just $85 million. That’s more than a historic low for Chicago mayoral transitions. It’s a $390 million improvement from the yawning $473.8 million gap Lightfoot had been expecting, according to her previous midyear budget forecast, released last August.

* Tribune | Teamsters plan to strike at three Rise cannabis stores on the eve of 4/20 pot festivities: The strike is to protest what union spokesman Matthew McQuaid said was an unfair labor practice, when management told workers to take off Teamsters buttons during bargaining.

* Kimberly Lightford and Carol Ammons | It’s time for Illinois to systematically support student well-being: Adverse childhood experiences — or ACEs — include traumas such as parental separation, domestic violence, mental illness, abuse and neglect, and substance abuse and incarceration. Exposure to traumatic experiences impacts a child’s social-emotional development, their mental and physical health, and their learning and academic outcomes.

* WAND | Pritzker, Stratton join advocates for early childhood lobby day: Pritzker hopes Democrats and Republicans will support his Smart Start Illinois plan with investments in preschool, child care, early intervention, and early childhood facilities. The governor is calling for $250 million in the Fiscal Year 2024 budget to launch the program.

* Aurora Beacon-News | Assessed value of property in Aurora has increased $1.2 billion since 2011, officials say: That increase in assessed value has created a steady decline in the city’s property tax rate since 2014, from a high of more than $2 for each $100 in assessed value, to around $1.77 this year, the report said.

* Tribune | Rails to trails: How converted railroad paths became great escapes for cyclists, from the Great American to The 606: Chicago is also home to a stretch of the Great American Rail Trail, a 3,700-mile bike path from coast to coast that passes through northwest Indiana and the south suburbs. Though supported by the national Rails to Trails Conservancy, it is really a network of more than 125 locally backed trails that is still filling out some gaps in the run from Washington, D.C., to the Pacific Ocean west of Seattle. I did a relatively short stretch in Indiana, and it left me wanting to ride more.

* Daily Southtown | Viral video of Dolton soul food restaurant generates more business: Ladonna Jones posted the video on TikTok with the caption that stated, in part, “it breaks my heart everyday to see my daddy sit at this same window waiting on customers to come in.”

* Daily Herald | Bears to blame? Developer cites stadium proposal for delay in Arlington Heights project: Developer Bruce Adreani already was having difficulty obtaining financing for his mixed-use redevelopment plan for the long-vacant Block 425 in downtown Arlington Heights, but this week he added a new wrinkle: the Bears. Adreani cited the NFL franchise’s possible move to Arlington Park — and how that redevelopment could affect the village’s downtown — among reasons his Arlington 425 project has been slow to progress since it was first approved by the village board in May 2019.