* Here you go…

* Press release | Giannoulias to Host Press Conference Highlighting Legislation to End the Stigma for Immigrant Drivers; Make Illinois Roads Safer: ​Secretary Giannoulias will hold a press conference to raise awareness on HB 3882, a measure that aims to expand identification options for immigrants while improving road safety. Where: ​National Museum of Mexican Art ​​When: ​Wednesday, June 21, at 11 A.M.

* WGN | 52,000 more Illinois residents died during the pandemic than is typical: The Illinois Department of Public Health reports there were 52,108 “excess deaths” as they’re known. Epidemiologists track the number because simply put: The ultimate indicator of health is death. The number of people who died in Illinois (from all causes) varied by only 1,000 people in each of the three years before COVID-19 arrived. Then it soared.

* David Kraft | Two energy vetoes to consider, not one: While Crain’s and others have given deserved attention to the dreadful “right of first refusal” energy bill that Gov. J.B. Pritzker has vowed to veto, a second energy bill — repeal of the 1987 Illinois nuclear construction moratorium (SB76) — has all but vanished from the radar. Yet this bill’s implications for Illinois’ energy future may be far greater and just as detrimental. SB76 passed both chambers during legislative session, and Pritzker has given a cautious indication he is inclined to sign it. He should not.

* Media Matters | Local news outlets subscribing to The Center Square’s wire service are pushing right-wing talking points on their readers: The Center Square provides struggling and underfunded local outlets their stories for free with attribution, unlike larger, more established wire services like the AP which charge licensing fees. This model preys on vulnerable news organizations with vanishing staff and shrinking budgets that need wire articles, like those offered by The Center Square, to fill space. Outlets that use The Center Square do not typically acknowledge the explicitly conservative lean of their work.

* Illinois News Bureau | Cannabis use lower among Illinois teens living in ZIP codes with medical dispensaries: In a statewide survey, about 18.3% of the youths living in Illinois ZIP codes with medical dispensaries reported they used cannabis during the prior year compared with 22.4% of those who lived in ZIP codes without these businesses, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign found. They reported the findings in the journal Cannabis.

* Sun-Times | History over histrionics? Bally’s nods to Medinah’s past in Chicago casino plan: ‘It’s not going to be your bright, flashy casino’: The Sun-Times got an early look inside the River North casino that is expected to open by the end of summer. “Anyone can build a temporary casino, but not everyone gets a chance to build a temporary casino in a beautiful, historic building such as this,” said Mark Wong of Bally’s Chicago Casino.

* News-Sun | Waukegan casino hopes to open sportsbook by start of NFL season: ‘It will bring added excitement, especially on game days’: Both American Place owner Full House Resorts and Circa received the necessary approvals from the Illinois Gaming Board Thursday in Chicago to open the sportsbook at the Waukegan casino, adding a new feature to the four-month old gaming facility.

* NBC Chicago | End of grocery tax suspension, changes to school holidays among measures taking effect at start of July: Chicago’s hourly minimum wage is set to increase from $15.40 to $15.80 for employers with 21 or more employees, with an increase from $14.50 to $15 for employers with four to 20 employees. Additionally, the hourly minimum wage for tipped employees will increase from $9.24 to $9.48 for employees of large businesses, while tipped employees of smaller businesses will see their minimum wage increase from $8.70 to $9.

* Tribune | Tara Stamps, ‘mentor’ to Mayor Brandon Johnson, chosen to replace him on the Cook County Board: Local Democrats met Wednesday night in Oak Park to serve as the commissioner of the county’s 1st District, unanimously selecting Johnson ally and Chicago Teachers Union leader Tara Stamps for the role. She was chosen from an initial field of 19 applicants that was later narrowed down to six. At the end of the roughly three-hour meeting, Stamps supporters erupted in cheers at the announcement.

* Block Club | West Side Lawmaker Wants Riot Fest, Big Concerts In Parks To Pay 2% Fee To Communities Hosting Them: Park District officials said profits from private events benefit the entire parks system. Ford said his proposal would ensure some of those profits go directly to the parks hosting the festivals.

* WBEZ | A last-ditch effort is underway to prevent CPS takeover of all-boys Chicago charter school: “If the empirical evidence shows the leading issue here in the city of Chicago is crime, and education is the way forward to reduce crime, then why is it that they’re going to close a school like Urban Prep as opposed to duplicate Urban Prep?” said attorney Victor Henderson, at a press conference on behalf of the Coalition of African American Leaders or COAL. “We don’t need to see fewer Urban Preps. We need to see more of that.”

* Tribune | Four pedestrians struck, two critically hurt near Guaranteed Rate Field before a White Sox game: A silver sedan with four occupants struck two men and two women just outside the park in the 300 block of West 35th Street around 6:20 p.m., Chicago police said during an evening news conference near 35th Street and Shields Avenue. All four victims were fans heading to the Sox game against the Texas Rangers, officials said.

* Chalkbeat | Latest national test results show striking drop in 13-year-olds’ math and reading scores: That adds up to a striking collapse in achievement scores since 2012, after decades of progress in math and modest gains in reading. In reading, 13-year-olds scored about the same as those who took the test in 1971, when it was first administered. Math scores were now comparable to those in 1992.

* NYT | Is the Inflation Battle Won? Not Yet.: The Fed has spent the past 15 months locked in an aggressive war against inflation, raising interest rates above 5 percent in an attempt to get price increases back down to a more normal pace. Last week its officials announced that they were skipping a rate increase in June, giving themselves more time to see how the already enacted changes are playing out across the economy.

* USA Today | Underwater noises detected: Underwater noises were detected in the North Atlantic Ocean while U.S. and Canadian crews searched for the small vessel carrying five people that vanished two days earlier in a dive to the Titanic wreckage site, the U.S. Coast Guard announced early Wednesday. A Canadian aircraft heard “underwater noises in the search area,” the Coast Guard said on Twitter shortly before 12:30 a.m. ET. The noises prompted remotely operated vehicle operations to search for the origin of the noises.