* Background is here if you need it. Decertified Riverside cop’s career is back on track after state committee backs appeal. Tribune…

The former Cicero officer’s career had been derailed in April when her certification was blocked by the Illinois Law Enforcement Standards and Training Board while applying to the Riverside Police Department. The board had cited the $14.99 theft of a T-shirt in 2008 and another theft in 2003, when [Zenna] Ramos was 17 years old.

But Ramos, now 37, won an appeal Thursday when the board’s waiver review committee voted to rescind its previous decision to block Ramos’ certification. The reversal paves the way for Ramos to again patrol suburban streets. […]

Riverside’s attorney, Yvette Heintzelman, argued Ramos’ expunged convictions from 2003 and 2008 didn’t disqualify her from becoming a police officer in Illinois under the state’s new public safety law, the SAFE-T Act.

Ramos’ offenses weren’t listed in the SAFE-T’s lengthened list of disqualifying misdemeanors and didn’t count as convictions because of the expungements, Heintzelman said. The new law shouldn’t be retroactively applied, she added.

* Chalkbeat…

In early August, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a law creating the “Healthy School Meals for All Program” to help local school districts pay for the cost of school meals to all students. State lawmakers and school officials say getting the bill signed into law was a step in the right direction, but the state did not allocate any additional money to make the program a reality for districts like McHenry.

[McHenry School District 15 director of food services Kevin Harris], a supporter of the bill, had hoped the law would help his school district receive more state funding for school meals, so it could feed more students.

But, Harris said, “without funding, it’s a worthless law.” […]

[State Rep. Maurice West II] says when it came time to increase the budget to do just that, lawmakers didn’t add any money. In fact, the reimbursement funding level has been flat since the 2008 recession, he said.

With just $9 million going towards school meals, West said, “we need more for this to be school meals for all.”

* A year since the first buses of migrants arrived from Texas, Tribune reporters reflect on Chicago and Illinois’ response…

One year since Texas Gov. Greg Abbott bused the first group of asylum-seekers to Chicago — arguing that liberal northern cities that profess to be sanctuaries should welcome them — what began as political gamesmanship is now a full-blown humanitarian crisis: As of Friday, more than 6,600 migrants were lodging at city-run shelters, with another 1,576 sleeping in police stations and more than 400 camped at O’Hare. More than 13,500 asylum-seekers have arrived in the past year, often with no money and few belongings. […]

A Tribune investigation of the city’s response in the past year revealed a costly and at times disorganized approach, often characterized by poor planning, lack of leadership and troubling conditions in shelters.

The Tribune’s review of hundreds of pages of previously unreported internal documents, emails and text messages found decisions made at City Hall under Johnson and former Mayor Lori Lightfoot contributed to the crisis. Lightfoot failed for months to appoint someone to lead the mission, directed migrants to police stations and entered into costly contracts without a clear plan to transition new arrivals out of shelters. The city’s sluggishness to craft definitive and longer-term plans has continued under Johnson. […]

[T]he city’s and state’s response has been marked by infighting over funding, resources and mutual responsibility. Last September, for instance, city Family and Support Services Commissioner Brandie Knazze texted Chief Operating Officer Paul Goodrich to express frustration during a meeting with Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration: “I’m on the state call and they are pushing us to open more shelters.” She punctuated her message with five face-palm emojis.

* More…

* Daily Herald | At last, a move to lure teachers for disabled : Over the past 14 years as a parent advocate for my adult son with autism, I have passed from start to finish, over seven state developmental disability pieces of legislation. None have been more important than the last two that passed through the General Assembly, SB 3972 and just recently SB1558. This legislation will allow interested students from junior and senior year in Illinois high schools through the first two years of college to set up training programs through the Illinois Department of Human Services for credit courses and apprenticeship programs that will provide a career path to be a direct support professional, to work with adults with developmental disabilities in adult day programs and group homes.

* Tribune | State Rep. Mayfield behind drafting of Illinois Literacy Plan; ‘I knew we needed to do something’: When passage of the legislation became certain in the spring, the ISBE began to write a first draft of its Illinois Literacy Plan. It began a four-city listening tour the same day the law was signed, ending with virtual sessions July 31 and Aug. 4. Educators, organizations and other individuals who want to give their ideas about the Illinois Literacy Plan and teaching literacy in the state’s schools must submit them online to the ISBE by Sept. 1 to have it considered for the next draft of the plan.

* Labor Tribune | Union member, Labor ally seek to unseat Elik for Illinois’ 111th House District: At least two Democrats are planning to challenge Republican state Rep. Amy Elik for the 111th House District next year. Labor ally Don McDonough and union member Nick Raftopoulos have both launched their efforts to win the Democratic nomination for the 111th District.

* Jim Dey | Changing of the guard for Vermilion County Democrats: Vermilion County Democrats have a new leader. Mickensy Ellis-White, who unsuccessfully sought the appointment to fill the late state Sen. Scott Bennett’s legislative seat, has replaced former party chairwoman Sandra Lawlyes.

* WTVO | Illinois opens new center to train students for the trades: Governor JB Pritzker cut the ribbon on the South Central Illinois Training & Innovation Center on Monday, which is located about 40 miles south of Springfield in Litchfield. It will give high school students an opportunity to train for certain jobs. The idea is for these students to get a boost so they are able to enter the work force more quickly when they graduate.

* WAND | Illinois bill calls for age verification to access porn websites, protect vulnerable kids: Under this plan, porn companies could face a $5,000 fine for each day they fail to have reasonable age verification methods. The Attorney General would also have the power to investigate violations of the law after companies receive 30 days to comply. Courts may impose an additional civil penalty of up to $10,000 for each company “knowingly failing to perform reasonable age verification methods.”

* CNN Politics | Dana Bash asks Pritzker about abortion limits: Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker tells CNN’s Dana Bash that women from nearby states are coming to Illinois because his state protects abortion rights.

* Center Square | Pritzker ‘not informed’ if AG will appeal injunction against pregnancy center law: “Well, I am not the one who takes that on,” Pritzker told The Center Square. “That is the job of the Attorney General, and I do not know. He has not informed me of what his plans are for that.” […] “I think Kwame Raoul will let it die. I do not think he has the guts to appeal it,” Glennon said. “I wish he would because then the [Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals] would then further affirm what is going on here. They may try to amend the law, they may have to gut it to make it constitutional, or they may just let it die.”

* Crain’s | Towns could opt out of Illinois rent control ban under proposed law: Now state Rep. Hoan Huynh, whose 13th District includes north lakefront neighborhoods heavily populated by renters, is pushing to let municipalities to lift the ban within their own boundaries. HB 4104, also known as the Let the People Lift the Ban Act, is Huynh’s proposal, introduced June 6 in the Illinois House. It would allow local governments to adopt rent-control provisions if a majority of voters in the locality support a pro-rent control referendum.

* WLPO | A Sit-Down with Rep. Lance Yednock: The day after State Rep. Lance Yednock announced he’d decided not to run for another term in the Illinois House of Representatives, he sat down with Tom Henson to discuss the good and bad of serving in the General Assembly, and his reasons behind his decision to leave the dome.

* AG News | Legislation supports Healthy Soils Initiative: The legislation calls for IDOA to administer and support the Healthy Soils Initiative, a locally led effort to pinpoint and guide voluntary strategies to improve the ability of Illinois farms to grow vigorous crops and maintain resilience to extreme weather events.

* Daily Herald | State leaders announce mental health grant program for farm groups: Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Tuesday that chapters of FFA — the group once known as National FFA Organization — will be eligible for $1,000 grants to fund mental health awareness programs in schools and rural communities. Up to 20 such grants will be available through the Illinois FFA Foundation starting this fall.

* WTTW | As Close Aides Face Prison Time, Madigan Preps for Trial Against Undefeated Prosecutors: U.S. District Court Judge Robert Blakey told Madigan’s attorneys during a brief hearing Tuesday that he was determined to start the former speaker’s racketeering trial April 1, as scheduled, putting an end to delays that will see more than two years elapse between his indictment and his trial.

* South Side Weekly | Chicago Cops Accused of Domestic Violence are Rarely Disciplined: Records the Weekly obtained from the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office and CPD show that at least thirty-eight officers — most from CPD but also including the Cook County Sheriffs and suburban municipalities in Cook County — were charged with domestic battery between 2011 and 2023. At least thirty-one of them had their cases dropped or dismissed, three were found not guilty, and two are active. Only two officers were convicted. That’s not altogether unusual: a 2018 study by the US Department of Justice found that prosecutors in state courts secure convictions for misdemeanor domestic violence offenses, like domestic battery, in less than one-quarter of cases.

* Tribune | Oversight commission sharply criticizes arbitration award for police union that would keep discipline from public: Earlier this summer, as the city continues to negotiate a new contract with the Fraternal Order of Police, an arbitrator ruled that state law mandates that police officers accused of serious misconduct should have the option to have their cases heard in private. The arbitration award is not yet binding as the City Council hasn’t voted on the contract.

* South Side Weekly | Larry Snelling Was Implicated in ’97 Corruption Scheme: In formal statements to investigators, all four denied that they had threatened the man with prison time or that they had ever told him to get them a gun. Haile claimed that after removing the gun from the bag, he’d balled up the bag and thrown it away without ever seeing the zip-lock baggies with fake crack cocaine.

* ABC Chicago | Vacant Tinley Park mental health center sold to park district; 90 acres set to be sports complex: The Village of Tinley Park spent years vying for the land. It was willing to pay close to $20 million for the site and for environmental cleanup. While a casino was once floated as a possibility, the plan was to use the land for mixed-use development.

* WBEZ | Chicago State president gets hefty bonus despite school citing financial strain during faculty strike: During a faculty strike this year, Chicago State University’s administration said “significant financial strain” prevented leaders from meeting professors’ salary demands. But last month the Far South Side university’s president, Zaldwaynaka Scott, was awarded a $50,000 bonus, bringing her total compensation for the year to more than $500,000.

* Crain’s | Big biz challenges ComEd surcharge that costs them more than $100M: The Aug. 31 filing by the Chemical Industry Council of Illinois, along with several other individual companies and other institutional power consumers, takes aim at ComEd’s monthly charge gradually clawing back credits the utility provided customers last year and early this year under the Climate & Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA).

* Block Club Chicago | Why Chicago Is Losing The War On Rats: Last year, Chicagoans made more than 50,000 rat complaints, a slight decline from the prior two years but still significantly more complaints than in recent years, according to data from the city’s 311 call center.

* Block Club Chicago | One Real Estate Empire, $15 Million In Unpaid Rat-Related Tickets: The tickets were issued for such municipal infractions as uncut weeds, dumping and “providing rat harborage” by accumulating materials and junk. All of these companies are registered to a single post office box in Glenview and managed by Suzie B. Wilson, of Northbrook, state incorporation records show. Those companies rank as one of the most egregious examples of how the city of Chicago routinely fails to collect after it tickets properties for rat-related issues.