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Jake Butcher, the chief of staff to Senate President Don Harmon, is stepping down to practice law. Moving up is Ashley Jenkins-Jordan, who’s been deputy chief of staff. She’ll be the first African American woman chief to hold the position in Illinois.

* The truth comes out!…

* A feel-good story for your Friday via Block Club…

Monique Cauley knows the life stories of more than 500 Logan Square neighbors, down to their dogs and children’s names.

As a beloved postal carrier who serves homes between Talman and Artesian avenues starting at Logan Boulevard, Cauley receives high praise from her customers — including the four-legged ones who have grown up seeing her every day. […]

The Bronzeville resident, who has worked in Logan Square with the United States Postal Service for 16 years, isn’t just popular for her kind attitude, big smile and impeccable memory. She’s also known for sharing mail tips, changes to deliveries and other important information for 60647 residents.

Cauley is active on the community Facebook page, which she started using during the pandemic as a way to keep in touch with her customers and share information, she said. She shares periodic mail advice, including a detailed annual Christmas post with useful tips to make sure everyone gets their holiday cards and gifts as postal workers prepare for a stressful season.

* Tribune…

Signaling a paradigm shift in a school system largely shaped by choice, the Chicago Board of Education passed a resolution Thursday to prioritize neighborhood schools in Chicago Public Schools’ forthcoming five-year strategic plan — a document that will guide investments in the district through 2029 and is slated to be released in June.

Among a range of goals aimed at “disrupting cycles of inequity,” the resolution commits to “transition away from privatization and admissions/enrollment policies and approaches that further stratification and inequity in CPS and drive student enrollment away from neighborhood schools.” […]

The eventual impact could be seismic, with more than 75% of high school students and about 44% of elementary students attending schools outside of their neighborhood boundaries as of last school year. White and Asian students disproportionately attend CPS’ selective enrollment schools. Meanwhile, Black students face persistent opportunity gaps, disproportionately attending neighborhood schools long starved of investments, officials and community organizers said.

* Here’s the rest of your morning roundup…

* Chalkbeat | Chicago Public Schools leaders want to move away from school choice: However, Todd-Breland did signal that the board might move to close charter schools. “If you are a privately-managed school, taking public dollars from our taxpayers that would otherwise go to the other schools that we know need to be invested in because they haven’t [been] for years, and you are not performing at a level that we find to be a high quality educational experience for young people, then why do you continue to exist in this system?” she said.

* Sun-Times | Activists praise Board of Ed’s push toward neighborhood schools, away from school choice: Todd-Breland said the board recognizes that charter schools are part of CPS’ fabric and is “not proposing blanket non-renewals of all charter schools.” But the board wants to hold charter operators accountable. And she pointed out that magnet and selective enrollment schools, initially meant to desegregate schools, have more recently become more segregated. “[This] is not about closing selective enrollment schools,” she said. “It is about a shift towards emphasizing supporting neighborhood schools, particularly in those communities that have been historically disinvested in and where young people are furthest from opportunity.”

* Rep. Edgar Gonzalez | Running for Office As a Young Person Means Dealing With Ageism. I Did It Anyway: As a young legislator, the motives that drive your decision to run for office consistently get put under a microscope, especially when compared to those who have spent decades in their political careers. On one hand, critics often view career politicians with cynicism, assuming their motives revolve around money and power. Meanwhile, inexperienced candidates face doubts about their ability to perform the job. This contrast underscores the challenges faced by young individuals entering politics, as their motivations and capabilities are frequently questioned.

* Bond Buyer | Munis rally, new-issues from Illinois, NY see strong demand: Municipals rallied hard Thursday, playing catch up to the moves in U.S. Treasuries, which extended their gains for a second session following the Federal Open Market Committee’s clear communication of future rate cuts in 2024. Equities continued their rally.

* Daily Herald | Back to the beginning: Project aims to return Libertyville-area site to its natural state: Given the amount of equipment and activity in the highly visible area north and east of Route 45 and Casey Road in Libertyville Township, it may appear the site is being readied for new homes or a big box store. Quite the opposite is taking place. Instead, the work is part of a $2.17 million project to restore nearly 178 acres to its natural state.

* WBEZ | State’s attorney hopefuls back effort to require lawyers for kids in police interrogations: The pledge comes in response to video footage showing a detective in suburban Lake County steering a 15-year-old to falsely confess to a shooting. The video, obtained by WBEZ through an open-records lawsuit against the city of Waukegan, prompted a state senator to draft a bill that would raise the age at which a child must have an attorney present to be questioned in police custody. Now Clayton Harris III and Eileen O’Neill Burke, facing off in a March primary for Cook County state’s attorney, are vowing to help push the legislation into law.

* Sun-Times | These are the voices of five survivors of Chicago’s violence: Each of their essays offers a peek into the ways violence rearranges a life. There are stories of loss and grief but also redemption, love, regret and shifting notions of justice.

* Crain’s | After court order, CPS extends contract with Urban Prep charter schools: The extension comes more than a year after the board voted not to renew the contracts, with plans to take over those schools. The board’s decision was based on allegations that Urban Prep mismanaged finances and failed to comply with special education laws, as well as allegations that the school’s founder, Tim King, sexually abused a now-former student. King has denied those allegations.

* Crain’s | Chicago Tribune union members taking contract fight to Tribune Tower: The “rally to save the Tribune” is planned to take place from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday to protest “detrimental labor practices and profiteering-driven bargaining efforts” by Alden Global Capital, the investment firm that owns Tribune Publishing, according to the Chicago Tribune Guild. The rally will also include members of the DPS Guild, representing workers at Tribune Publishing’s Design & Production Studio, as well as the Suburban Chicago Tribune Guild and the Tribune Content Guild.

* WBEZ | Little Village residents install air sensors to monitor neighborhood pollution: Residents say public officials aren’t doing enough to protect them so they are taking matters into their own hands — monitoring air quality themselves with nearly $200 sensors. Five are currently in operation with a goal of installing 10 in the neighborhood. Data collected could be used to understand the severity of pollution and inform environmental policy.

* WaPo | She miscarried in her bathroom. Now she’s charged with abuse of a corpse: “Moving this over to the individual after a miscarriage just heightens the question, ‘What are they supposed to do?’ ” said Dov Fox, a national health law and bioethics expert at the University of San Diego School of Law. “If it’s already difficult for hospitals, for individuals facing difficult circumstances and navigating pregnancy loss to undertake the medical system is not just a tall order but a prohibitive one.” Watts later learned through her lawyer that the nurse who had reassured her had reported her to the police.

* NYT | Behind the Scenes at the Dismantling of Roe v. Wade: The Supreme Court deliberates in secret, and those who speak can be cast out of the fold. To piece together the hidden narrative of how the court, guided by Justice Alito, engineered a titanic shift in the law, The New York Times drew on internal documents, contemporaneous notes and interviews with more than a dozen people from the court — both conservative and liberal — who had real-time knowledge of the proceedings. Because of the institution’s insistence on confidentiality, they spoke on the condition of anonymity.

* AP | US homelessness up 12% to highest reported level as rents soar and coronavirus pandemic aid lapses: About 653,000 people were experiencing homelessness during the January snapshot. That’s the highest number since the country began using the yearly point-in-time survey in 2007 to count the homeless population. The total represents an increase of about 70,650 homeless people compared to January 2022.

* Business Insider | I showed up to a GOP congressman’s 16-minute Christmas party. Here’s what it was like to watch Democrats and Republicans rub shoulders in his cramped Capitol Hill office: I also watched as staffers for progressive House Democrats rubbed shoulders with Republican Rep. Mary Miller of Illinois, who was there along with her husband Chris, an Illinois state representative who was censured by the state legislature for attending Trump’s rally on the Ellipse on January 6.