* AP…

A 73-year-old Illinois man was sentenced Monday to five years in prison for driving a car into a planned abortion clinic and trying to set the building on fire last year.

Philip J. Buyno of Prophetstown also was ordered to serve three years of supervised release and to pay $327,547 in restitution, prosecutors said in a news release. U.S. District Judge Colin S. Bruce handed down the sentence. […]

Buyno admitted that on May 20 he used his car to breach the front entrance to a commercial building in Danville. He brought several containers filled with gasoline to burn the structure down before it could be used as a reproductive health clinic, prosecutors have said.

* Planned Parenthood Illinois Action…

Today, legislators, advocates and reproductive health care leaders in Illinois gathered for a roundtable discussion about the increase in harassment and violence against patients and providers since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Senator Adriane Johnson and Representative Mary Beth Canty spoke with Jennifer Welch, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Illinois Action (PPIA) Yamelsie Rodriguez, President and CEO of Advocates of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri (Advocates), Michele Landeau, Chief Operating Officer with Hope Clinic and clinic escorts.

“As Illinois is now a beacon for abortion access in the Midwest and beyond, we have also become a target for violent extremists and harassment,” the Planned Parenthood organizations said in a joint statement. “The attacks on clinics across the state are intensifying. We will never stop fighting to ensure everyone can access the health care they need — free from harassment, intimidation, or threats.”

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, dismantling federal protections for abortion access, violence against abortion providers and patients has seen a sharp increase across the nation. According to a National Abortion Federation study there has been a:

100% increase in arson
20% increase in death threats
25% increase in health center invasions
229% increase in stalking related to abortion

A coalition of abortion providers and advocates, which include Access Health Ltd., Alamo Women’s Clinic of Illinois, Choices Center for Reproductive Health, Equity Clinic, Hope Clinic, and Rockford Family Planning Clinic, are united in their call for action to help address the increased harassment and aggressive tactics patients and providers are experiencing across the state.

* Politico…

— Sonia Anne Khalil has been endorsed by the Illinois Nurses’ Association in her bid for state representative in the 36th District Democratic primary. She faces Rick Ryan.

— Arad Boxenbaum has been endorsed by Run for Something. He faces state Rep. Matt Hanson in the Democratic primary for the 83rd House seat.

* Crain’s…

A national advocacy group pushing to raise the minimum wage for tipped workers sees smooth sailing ahead for legislation in Springfield following a victory in Chicago’s City Council last year.

The group, One Fair Wage, and state Rep. Elisabeth Hernandez, D-Cicero, unveiled a bill on Feb. 6 that would phase out the sub-minimum wage in Illinois over a two-year period. The legislation follows the passage of a similar law in Chicago that gradually raises the base wages for tipped workers in the city by 8% a year until 2028, when the sub-minimum wage will equal the standard minimum wage. […]

Illinois’ minimum wage stands at $14 an hour while its tipped minimum wage guarantees $8.40 an hour. Those wages will rise to $15 an hour and $9 an hour by 2025. Tipped workers are expected to make up the difference between the tipped wage and standard minimum wage with their tips, but employers must compensate them if they can’t bridge that gap.

Advocates for eliminating the tipped wage argue too many scofflaw employers cheat workers out of their full pay. The state bill proposes enforcement tools, including fining employers up to $1,500 per day per violation for violating the bill’s provisions, which would go toward a wage theft enforcement fund. Those penalties mirror fines proposed by the Illinois Restaurant Association during negotiations at the city level. At the time, the association had suggested raising fines for employers who failed to compensate workers in a bid to avoid increasing the minimum wage.

* Illinois Restaurant Association…

We wholeheartedly disagree with any decision to eliminate the tip credit. The removal of the tip credit will hurt tipped workers, restaurants, and customers across the entire state of Illinois when we should be doing what we can to help them. This legislation will do more harm than good as it will fundamentally change the way all restaurants operate, hurting our smaller, family-run and minority-owned businesses the most. The notion that tipped employees make less than minimum wage is simply not true. In fact, the median wage for full-service tipped restaurant workers is over $28 per hour. These changes will lead to job cuts, an increase in labor costs, and ultimately force restaurant owners to make difficult decisions that will negatively impact their workers and result in higher prices for customers. We are opposed to this legislation.

* Here’s a musical interlude from Senate President Don Harmon…

Congratulations on topping the charts, Tracy Chapman! It was great seeing you on stage at the Grammys this weekend. I'm so glad a new generation is enjoying your terrific music. @tchapmanonline pic.twitter.com/Bitf0RT75e

— Senate President Don Harmon (@DonHarmonIL) February 6, 2024

* Here’s the rest…

* SJ-R | Jordan Davis announced as latest Illinois State Fair Grandstand performer: Davis, a Shreveport, La., native, is coming off his sixth career No. 1 two-time platinum hit, “Next Thing You Know” — his third consecutive No. 1 cut from his album, Bluebird Days. He also received Best New Country Artist honors at the 2019 iHeartRadio Music Awards and Billboard’s Top New Country Artist in 2018.

* Crain’s | Former pilot Duckworth gave Boeing’s CEO an earful — and he listened: She’s been chair of the Senate’s aviation subcommittee for only a year, but Tammy Duckworth is making her presence felt. When the Illinois senator and former Army helicopter pilot told Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun he should drop his request for a safety waiver on a new, smaller version of the 737 that’s still awaiting FAA certification, Calhoun took her advice.

* Tribune | Jussie Smollett asks Illinois Supreme Court to hear case: The move marks the next step as Smollett works to exhaust all his appeal options after a jury in 2021 convicted him on five of six counts of disorderly conduct. He was sentenced to 150 days in jail, 30 months of probation and $130,160 in restitution. Smollett’s attorneys filed the petition to the high court on Monday, arguing that the questions raised by the case have the “potential for wide-reaching implications” across Illinois. The court has the discretion to decide whether to take the case, or leave the appellate court’s decision in effect.

* WGLT | Central Illinois nursing home company faces foreclosure on 17 properties: The company claimed Petersen’s lack of liquidity and use of money transfers to pay off other debts were putting resident health and safety at risk. U.S. District Court Judge Iain D. Johnson appointed Flanagan receiver two days later. Petersen Health Care says they still own those properties, and are working with the lender’s management company to minimize the impact to staff and residents.

* NCSL | 2023 Campaign Finance Enactments: All 50 states introduced 612 campaign finance bills in 2023, and 27 states enacted 62 measures. Highlighted below are the 2023 campaign finance enactments, with summaries of laws relating to contributions, disclosures, public financing, excess funds, crimes and penalties, and independent expenditures.

* WBEZ | Families and schools are rattled by end of state private school scholarship program: Critics of the 5-year-old program say it takes money that could go toward underfunded public schools and sends it to private schools that can discriminate. Advocates defend the program, saying it allows lower-income families to choose schools that are best for their children. They are aiming to try to revive the program in the spring legislative session, highlighting schools like St. Frances with large scholarship numbers to make their case for resuscitating Invest in Kids. Caught in the middle are people like Dela Mora. She is now questioning how she will afford to pay full tuition costs this fall for her son and younger daughter, who is at Trinity High School in River Forest.

* WCIA | Decatur City Council votes to revitalize Garfield Park, add funding to home improvement program: One big proposal is funding an additional $400,000 into the Small Home Improvement Program. The program helps owner-occupied homes to fund small repairs on their aging homes. It helped 17 grantees with ADA accessibility repairs and replacing roofs, doors and hot water tanks in 2023.

* NYT | Mother of Michigan Gunman Found Guilty of Manslaughter: The trial became a lightning rod for issues of parental responsibility at a time of frequent cases of gun violence carried out by teenagers and children. […] The prosecutors argued that Ms. Crumbley should have noticed her son’s distress and stopped him from committing an act of unspeakable violence. Marc Keast, one of the prosecutors, said that she and her husband “didn’t do any number of tragically small and easy things that would have prevented all of this from happening.”

* CNN | What the border bill would and wouldn’t do: Once illegal border crossings reach a certain threshold, the Department of Homeland Security would be required to exercise a new emergency authority that bars migrants, except unaccompanied minors, from crossing the border between ports of entry. The authority would automatically kick in if crossings rise above 5,000 on average per day on a given week, or 8,500 in a single day. The authority sunsets after three years and there are time limits on how many days it can be used.

* WTTW | The Oldest Restaurant in Illinois – Where Even the Furniture Was Once for Sale: When it was known as the Zimmer Tavern and Wagon Shop, The Village Tavern in present-day Long Grove, Illinois was a place where travelers and locals could stop to get their horses shod, their bridles repaired, and their stomachs filled with hearty meals, mugs of ale, and whiskey straight from the barrel. Today, it’s the oldest restaurant in the state, having continuously operated since 1847 – only fourteen years after nearby Chicago was incorporated as a town, and 29 after Illinois became a state.

* SJ-R | Playwright hopes original work about 1908 race riot can jumpstart conversations: A native of Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood who retired from the Illinois Education Association in 2017, Crawford said he knew little about the Springfield Race Riot until 2018 when he encountered a video of Peoria artist Preston Jackson telling the story of his mural depicting the Hospital Sisters of St. Francis caring for the victims. The mural was a centerpiece for an exhibit commemorating the centennial of the riot at the Women and Children´s Clinic at HSHS St. John´s Hospital.

* WBEZ | A world premiere on the West Side salutes three great jazz women, including Nina Simone: More than a tribute piece, Women Out of Time confronts a long-vexing inequity in jazz. Divas like Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, and Dinah Washington are highly visible — worshiped, even. But women in jazz are rarely showered with such praise for their compositional prowess, and it’s still woefully rare to see women on bandstands as instrumentalists. Even then, they might be pressured to pivot to singing instead, as Simone was.

* NBC Chicago | Chicago could threaten temperature record that’s stood for nearly 140 years: Those temperatures could even threaten longstanding records in the city. According to the National Weather Service, the record high temperature for Chicago for Feb. 8 is 62 degrees, set all the way back in 1925. Friday’s record could certainly be threatened, with the record of 56 degrees having been set in 1886, according to NWS officials.

* WGN | NFL commissioner in favor of new Bears stadium, believes dome feature could lead to hosting Super Bowl: With tax negotiations at a $100 million impasse, a new report said the Chicago Bears are shifting their stadium focus from Arlington Heights to the city’s lakefront. “I talked to the mayor of Chicago recently, he wants them in the city. I spoke with Arlington Heights, they want it out in Arlington Heights,” Goodell said.