* Here you go…

* State Week | Court upholds the elimination of cash bail: The Illinois Supreme Court’s landmark 5-2 decision means the end of cash bail in the state, beginning Sept. 18. Supporters have long called for bail reforms, saying it punishes poverty. But others have criticized the change as a slap in the face to crime victims and a threat to public safety. We talk about the arguments for and against cash bail and how the change will impact the justice system.

* Daily Herald | Cashless bail is coming. Here’s how two top suburban prosecutors will handle the change: We spoke this week with two of the suburbs’ top prosecutors — DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin and Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart — for a nuts-and-bolts look at how they plan to implement the change in Illinois’ second- and third-largest counties, respectively. Both say their offices have been gearing up for months and will be ready to go on Sept. 18. That preparation included beefing up their staffs of attorneys who work with police on new cases and decide what charges to file, a process often called felony review.

* WCIA | SAFE-T Act lays out guidelines for people currently behind bars pre-trial to transition to no cash bail system: “The people that were currently in custody are going to have to file a motion for a hearing, to have their case considered,” Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell said. “And so it’s gonna be a tiered system depending on what charge you’re in here for, depending on your criminal history, depending on if you’re a flight risk, there’s a lot of components that come into that issue.”

* Center Square | Legislators discuss staffing issues at Illinois schools: State Rep. Janet Yang Rohr, D-Naperville, was asked if the issue is at all exaggerated. “I was in the K-12 appropriations committee, so we are looking at money that is going to schools, and one of the reports we looked at, all it did was looked at open positions and unfilled positions,” Yang Rohr told The Center Square. “So based on that, clearly, there are a lot of unfilled positions.”

* Rockford Register Star | We stand together, celebrating the end of cash bail in Illinois: As faith leaders from the Rockford region, we are united in celebrating the Illinois Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Pretrial Fairness Act. Ending the injustice of the money bond system is a significant moral victory that makes our state a leader in the movement to end mass incarceration.

* STLPR | 10% of felonies in Madison County come from Missouri residents. Is that a problem?: Just how significant the portion of Missouri residents, presumably from the St. Louis area, committing crime in the Illinois suburbs is another question, said Richard Rosenfeld, a criminologist at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. “While that percentage has grown over time, it still remains quite small,” Rosenfeld said.

* Illinois Times | Board reverses solar vote: The Sangamon County Board’s July 11 reversal of a May vote gave the go-ahead to a proposed $10 million solar farm near the rural Westview Park Subdivision, despite ongoing resentment by board members toward state legislators. Several board members said they don’t like the fact that a new state law, effective in January, made project approval all but inevitable by removing most county-level zoning authority over commercial wind and solar projects.

* Politico | ‘This Is a Really Big Deal’: How College Towns Are Decimating the GOP: In state after state, fast-growing, traditionally liberal college counties like Dane are flexing their muscles, generating higher turnout and ever greater Democratic margins. They’ve already played a pivotal role in turning several red states blue — and they could play an equally decisive role in key swing states next year.

* AP | Former Northwestern AD Jim Phillips says he will ‘vigorously defend myself’ after being named in 2 lawsuits in hazing scandal: The John Doe plaintiffs who have named Phillips as a defendant were members of the football team from 2018-22, which overlaps the final years of Phillips’ tenure before replacing retiring John Swofford as ACC commissioner.

* Esther Yoon-Ji Kang | Illinois immigrants need more language help to thrive and partake in civic life: The state has more than 1 million residents — close to 8% of the population — who speak English “less than very well,” according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Their native tongues include Spanish, Chinese, Polish, Tagalog, Arabic and Hindi and dozens of other languages.

* WSIU | CapitolView: A conversation with Illinois State Senator Dale Fowler about legislation he co-sponsored and the conclusion of the session. Plus: analysis on a variety of stories, including the recent state Supreme Court decision that allows Illinois to become the first state to completely eliminate cash bail.

* WAND | Trustees approve closure of University of Illinois College of Medicine at Urbana-Champaign:
Operations that had been based in Urbana-Champaign have now been integrated into other College of Medicine campuses in Chicago, Peoria, and Rockford. This came following the decision in 2015 to establish the Carle Illinois College of Medicine.

* Daily Herald | Five arrests made, 10 women rescued from suburban sex trafficking ring: At a news conference at police headquarters, St. Charles Police Chief James Keegan and Kane County State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser described how a report in early spring of a brothel operating in a west side apartment in St. Charles led to a monthslong investigation of a human trafficking organized crime syndicate.

* Sun-Times | Chicago weed giant Cresco Labs claims in suit that competitor GTI poached a top-level employee: A GTI spokeswoman denied the allegations, saying the litigation is “aimed at preventing a former non-executive Cresco employee from finding a suitable career in the cannabis industry.” “Instead of investing to retain current employees or support former employees through their transition following a recent sizable layoff, Cresco is spending money on lawyers to monitor and sue its former employees for finding new jobs,” spokeswoman Rosie Mattio said in a statement. “This move is not only distasteful to their former employees looking to continue their careers in the cannabis industry, but also a total waste of Cresco’s capital and resources.”

* NBC Chicago | CTA Blue Line service impacted by construction beginning this weekend: A significant construction project will begin this weekend on the CTA Blue Line’s Forest Park branch, impacting service between LaSalle and the Illinois Medical District.

* The Prairie Profile | Rebecca Clark: Illinois State Fair Manager Rebecca Clark says that if her younger self could see where she is now, she’d be surprised. “I’ve wanted to be a journalist for as long as I can remember,” Clark says. “I would put on fake newscasts in my grandparents’ living room with Kermit the Frog as reporter and Miss Piggy as co-anchor.”

* Play Illinois | Early Revenue Numbers From Newest Illinois Casinos In Waukegan And Danville: The Temporary by American Place opened in Waukegan on Feb. 27 to become the 12th casino in Illinois. The Golden Nugget Casino Danville became the state’s 13th casino when it opened on May 27.

* WBEZ | A record number of Chicagoans reported flooded basements in July: On July 2, a record-setting rainstorm dumped 9 inches of rain on some parts of the Chicago area. Green was among more than 1,400 Chicagoans who filed reports of flooded basements to 311, the city’s non-emergency helpline.

* Crain’s | Richard Barancik, architect of midcentury Chicago and last surviving Monuments Man, dies at 98: Late in life, Barancik gained another distinction: He was the last-known surviving member among nearly 350 “Monuments Men” who recovered art looted in Europe during World War II and shot to prominence with a 2014 film directed by George Clooney and starring Matt Damon, Bill Murray and Cate Blanchett. Barancik hadn’t talked much about the assignment before the movie, his daughter said, but once it came out, he was inundated by letters from schoolchildren and by autograph seekers and “World War II nuts.”