* Here you go…

* AP | Misleading clients on abortion could cost Illinois pregnancy centers: The pregnancy centers wasted little time challenging the law’s constitutionality. The National Institute of Family and Life Advocates, a national network of pregnancy help centers; and several centers in Illinois filed a federal lawsuit in Rockford seeking a restraining order and injunction against the state’s enforcement.

* Illinois Times | Transgender turmoil: The two transgender women at the center of a nationwide controversy involving the Springfield YMCA say they would never act inappropriately in locker rooms. And they don’t want to be forced to use changing areas separate from other women – a practice that YMCA officials said would violate state law.

* BND | Illinois lawmakers, ACLU weigh in on metro-east school’s transgender bathroom policy: Three Republican politicians attended the most recent board meeting July 17: former state Sen. Darren Bailey, state Rep. David Friess and state Sen. Terri Bryant. A representative of U.S. Rep. Mike Bost also was in attendance. Bailey and Bost are facing off in the 2024 Republican primary for Illinois’ 12th Congressional District.

* Tribune | Federal judge rejects GOP lawsuit seeking to block mail-in ballots received after Election Day: U.S. District Judge John Kness ruled that five-term U.S. Rep. Mike Bost of Murphysboro and two prospective 2024 GOP presidential electors lacked standing to sue the State Board of Elections over an Illinois law allowing mail-in ballots to be counted in the 14 days after Election Day as long as they were postmarked or certified on or before that day.

* Capitol News Illinois | State announces 3rd manufacturing expansion spurred by new tax credit: Prysmian, which Pritzker described as “the largest cable manufacturer in the world,” produces cables and other products used in energy storage and distribution, renewable energy and electric vehicle charging stations. At the Du Quoin plant in southern Illinois, the company makes insulated power distribution cables that transmit energy underground and inside factories. Some of those cables feed power to companies that generate wind and solar energy, said plant manager Erik Perks.

* Tribune | Illinois gets one bidder in second try to award three $20 million online-only sports betting licenses: The Illinois Gaming Board announced Thursday that DGC IL, a subsidiary of Las Vegas-based Digital Gaming Corp., is the only qualified applicant for the online sportsbook license, which unlike other operators in the state would not be tethered to any casino, racetrack or sports venue.

* WIFR | Hard Rock Casino Rockford granted sports betting license: “We are excited to add sports betting as the latest amenity to Hard Rock Casino Rockford - The Opening Act,” Geno Iafrate, president of Hard Rock Casino Rockford said Thursday in a statement. “We are very appreciative of the IGB’s hard work and diligence to get us to this point.”

* Naperville Sun | Naperville police mid-year crime data shows big spike in overdoses, sextortion cases over 2022: Fourteen cases of extortion or blackmail were reported in the first half of 2023, a significant jump over the two cases reported in the first half of 2022.

* WBEZ | 25 Chicago Park District employees could face firing in COVID relief fraud probe: In a new report, interim Inspector General Alison Perona said an ongoing investigation by her office has grown from 26 cases involving employees who got the loans to help business owners struggling during the coronavirus pandemic to “sustained findings” against 114 workers as of June 30.

* Sun-Times | Watchdog investigating migrant spending and PPP loan fraud by city employees: ‘This is a large-scale undertaking’: Inspector General Deborah Witzburg said Thursday she is investigating “a lot” of allegations of payroll protection fraud by city employees and has launched a companion probe into $163 million in city spending on the migrant crisis.

* Sun-Times | Mayor’s allies lay groundwork for referendum on ‘mansion tax’ to aid city’s unhoused people: As originally proposed, the long-stalled ordinance known as “Bring Chicago Home” would more than triple the transfer tax on Chicago homes sold for more than $1 million to raise roughly $160 million in annual revenue to combat homelessness. The tax would go from 0.75% to 2.65%.

* Tribune | Backers of Chicago real estate transfer tax hike aim to take measure to voters; money would fight homelessness: The council’s housing committee met for a three-hour hearing Thursday on the yearslong drive to raise the tax on the sale of properties worth at least $1 million and use that money to address the city’s homeless crisis. The panel did not vote on the proposal, but one of its chief supporters vowed to pass City Council legislation this fall to place the question on next March’s presidential primary ballot.

* WTTW | Edgewater Residents Protest as City Announces Plan to Shelter Migrants at Broadway Armory: About 50 people gathered in Edgewater [pop. 57,022] on Thursday to protest the city’s process for deciding to use a Chicago Park District facility to shelter asylum seekers.

* Tribune | Cook County landlords face legal challenges alleging eviction screening policies discriminate against Black tenants: Legal Aid Chicago filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Hunter Properties Inc. over the company’s “No-Evictions Policy” — which states in its application portal that “prior evictions filings will result in denial” of housing applications. The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, alleges the policy violates the federal 1968 Fair Housing Act by discriminating against Black renters, particularly Black women, since they are disproportionately affected by eviction.

* Scott Holland | Property tax help for veterans requires diligence from public servants: There are no major alarm bells, but discussion will include a rather obvious outcome: in counties dense with development and population, the effect of exempting a few people from paying property tax is fairly easily subsidized across everyone else. In counties with fewer taxpayers, the impact is more noticeable. In this specific situation, some rural counties have an outsized veteran population compared to the statewide average.

* Block Club | Chicago Will Partner With Local Nonprofits To Run Migrant Shelters: The change in city strategy comes after volunteers have begged the city to copy their community-run shelters. Alderpeople also sounded off about crime happening near shelters.

* Tribune | She saw a local news void in Harvey. So she started a publication to help ‘those with a voice but without a platform: When she saw a need in her community, Amethyst Davis, 26, didn’t turn away. As traditional newspapers around the country are facing decline, the Harvey native realized there was a local news void in the south suburb and decided to fill it. She started the Harvey World Herald, joining the ranks of alternative hyperlocal, independently owned outlets that are changing the media landscape in Chicagoland.

* NBC | Facebook opened its doors to researchers. What they found paints a complicated picture of social media and echo chambers.: A landmark study of how Facebook shaped the news users saw in the run-up to the 2020 election has found the platform resulted in “significant ideological segregation” in regard to political news exposure — specifically with conservative users who researchers found were more walled off and encountered far more misinformation than their liberal counterparts.

* Tribune | Chicago’s top Malört bars spill how they sell so much of the ‘taste from home’: Mainard is known as the “Queen of Malört” at Reggies. It’s not just because she decided to exclusively drink Malört six years ago, but also because she’s persuaded numerous customers and Reggies employees to appreciate what she describes as Aqua Net hair spray mixed with grapefruit.