* ICYMI: Tim Mapes sentenced to 30 months in prison. Hannah Meisel…

- Tim Mapes was sentenced to 2 1/2 years for lying to a federal grand jury.
- Mapes stood stoically receiving the news of his sentence, which was preceded by more than 30 minutes of near-monologue from the judge.
- Judge Kness wondered aloud if Mapes was operating under the old mafia logic of “omertà,” an Italian term for the mob honor code wherein members of organized crime outfits were pressured to solve disputes among themselves and to never cooperate with law enforcement.

* Related stories…

∙ Tribune: Tim Mapes, former aide to Speaker Michael Madigan, sentenced to 2 1/2 years for lying to federal grand jury
∙ Sun-Times: Ex-lawmaker convicted of cheating on taxes, in a case tied to corruption probe that led to Madigan indictment
∙ Tribune: Split verdict on tax charges for ex-state legislator Annazette Collins
∙ Jim Dey: Ex-legislator just landed himself a harder time avoiding trial

* Isabel’s top picks…

* Capitol News Illinois | Gun rights groups ask SCOTUS to review Illinois’ assault weapons ban: In separate petitions filed Monday, the Colorado-based National Association for Gun Rights and the Nevada-based Firearms Policy Coalition asked the nation’s high court to reverse a decision of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. That court ruled 2-1 in November not to issue a temporary injunction against the law, finding that rights guaranteed under the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution are not absolute.

* Tribune | A migrant family in peril: He’s paralyzed. She just had a C-section and is caring for her husband and children. And their immigration papers just got tossed: The city had resettled the family Jan. 28 into a second-floor apartment in Chatham. Isolated inside with all her responsibilities, Chacon learned Tuesday that city officials at the Inn of Chicago in Streeterville — where they’d been staying before being resettled — had thrown away the family’s immigration papers and their newborn daughter’s birth certificate, along with the rest of their belongings. The staff knew of the family’s dire circumstances. “As per protocol staff gathered the rest of their belongings, labeled and stored them. Case management made them aware they will hold them for 48 hours,” said Cassio Mendoza, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s deputy press secretary, in a statement to the Tribune. “An extension was granted for a period of 72 more hours at which point the belongings were disposed of.”

Governor Pritzker continues highlighting Smart Start investments across the state. Starting at the Youth Services Network in Rockford at 9:30 am and then at Aldridge Early Learning Center in East Moline at 12:45 pm. Click here to watch.

* Here’s the rest of your morning roundup…

* Sun-Times | Justice Joy Cunningham runs to keep seat on Illinois Supreme Court, facing primary challenge from Judge Jesse Reyes: Cunningham was appointed to the position in 2022, becoming just the second Black woman to serve on the state’s highest court. But she bristles at how the issue of race has been “injected” into the primary, arguing that voters should be more focused on experience. […] Reyes argues it isn’t about race — it’s about ensuring everyone has a voice on the bench — noting Latinos now make up over a quarter of Cook County’s population.

* Fox Chicago | Former Dolton police chief exposes Mayor Tiffany Henyard’s alleged misuse of police detail: [Former Dolton Police Chief Robert Collins] said Henyard’s security detail was warranted when it started in 2021 after a police-involved shooting in Dolton sparked protests and threats. “And at some point, the protests stopped,” Collins remembered. “The things going on and around the protests eventually stopped. But the detail continued.”

* Sun-Times | Proposal in Springfield seeks to stop evictions spurred by police calls: A bill filed Friday known as the Community Safety Through Stable Homes Act calls for the repeal of local laws that penalize tenants for having contact with police and often require landlords to initiate eviction procedures. The measure comes months after the mom, Diamond Jones, filed a federal lawsuit against Richton Park, alleging she was forced out of the home she rented because of the village’s crime-free ordinance.

* WCIA | Illinois American Water, Citizen’s Utility Board at odds over rate hike: The company filed a request with the Illinois Commerce Commission to raise its rates on Thursday, Feb. 8. They said the average residential wastewater bill would go up by about $5 per month, with the average customer seeing a $24 increase in residential monthly water service bills.

* Tribune | Gov. J.B. Pritzker says his office to meet with developers proposing new White Sox stadium: “I set out what I think are the parameters that the taxpayers expect, which is why we need to be careful about how we use public dollars,” Pritzker said. “And a private business like a professional team, even if they’re beloved by so many people, are nevertheless similar to lots of other businesses in the state.”

* KHQA | Illinois rallies for budget appropriation to enable healthy school meals for all: Last year in the spring 2023 session, Illinois passed the ‘Healthy School Meals for All’ bill which provides free breakfast and lunches to all students who want it, but the bill did not receive the appropriation it needed and that has now left lawmakers in Springfield asking for the proper funding to finally kick-start this movement.

* WCIA | Rep. Buckner: “We have to use our advantage” when pushing for federal immigration reform: House Democrat Kam Buckner is saying it’s time for the state use all the tools it has to try and make that change happen, including pressuring Democrat leadership in Washington D.C. by threatening to pass on the Democratic National Convention, which is scheduled for August.

* Daily Herald | ‘Stood up for our taxpayers’: District 214 superintendent defends approach in property tax battle with Bears: Northwest Suburban High School District 214 Superintendent Scott Rowe denied his and two other Arlington Heights-area school districts are being “greedy” in their ongoing property tax battle with the Chicago Bears. And though he said the two sides were “very, very close” to an agreement on a property valuation and tax payments for the Arlington Park site, the schools aren’t willing to go as far as the NFL franchise’s tax attorneys want them to go. That’s because of the long-term implications of a short-term deal.

* WHBF | Thomson employees speak out about abuse concerns: More than 1,000 reports of abuse have been reported since 2020 from Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Thomson, more than 100 employees left the prison last year, citing their resignations as a direct result of the misconduct they endured. The abuse at the prison has the attention of Iowa Senator Joni Ernst, who feels the workers need federal protections and says the Federal Bureau of Prisons covered up the incidents. As Our Quad Cities News reporter Jackson Rozinsky found out, workers have a lot to say about the abuse they’ve faced and what they think needs to be done.

* Tribune | Illinois Arts Council reorganizes in effort to expand reach across state: “We heard our application was very cumbersome,” said Illinois Arts Council board Chair Nora Daley, who was appointed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker in 2022. “A lot of our small and mid-sized organizations don’t have development teams. And so our application — we really streamlined where we are asking for information that is going to inform our decisions.”

* South Side Weekly | Activists Spar with ShotSpotter CEO at CCPSA Meeting: Jose Manuel Almanza Jr., director of advocacy and movement building for Equiticity, called on Clark to release more information about ShotSpotter’s technology functions before continuing to invest in the technology. “If you’re saying it works, prove it,” he said. “Let the OIG [Office of the Inspector General] inspect the algorithm.”

* Sun-Times | After mayoral letter, state Senate president files ‘Mayor Johnson’s plan’ to elect 10 school board members this year: The new bill includes ethics provisions Senate President Don Harmon requested last year. Last week, Mayor Brandon Johnson sent Harmon a letter supporting the Chicago Teachers Union-backed plan to elect 10 members in November, while the mayor appoints the other 11.

* WBEZ | Household income and education levels are on the rise in most parts of the Chicago area: Between the five-year periods ending in 2012 and 2022, the median household income in Chicago grew from $59,000 to more than $71,000 (in inflation-adjusted 2022 dollars). For all of Cook County, median household income improved from about $68,000 to more than $78,000.

* WTTW | Just 29% of Federal COVID-19 Relief Funds Meant to Transform Chicago Have Been Spent: Data: In all, Chicago spent less than $160 million on a host of programs including affordable housing, mental health, violence prevention, youth job programs and help for unhoused Chicagoans through Dec. 31, according to the most recent reports filed with the U.S. Department of the Treasury as required by federal law. Chicago’s entire budget for the federally funded programs is approximately $550 million, records show.

* Chalkbeat | Chicago Public Schools plans to end Aramark cleaning contract: The school board’s latest agreement with the Philadelphia-based company is set to end June 30, 2024. According to a school board committee agenda posted Monday, the district is asking board members to increase the current contract, which started Aug. 2021, from $369 million to $391 million “due to unforeseen expenditures associated with overtime, custodial supplies and custodial equipment.”

* CBS Chicago | Belvidere, Illinois goes from loser to winner with idled Stellantis plant reopening: The news in Belvidere, the City of Murals, was like a bucket of paint tossed upon Vincent van Gogh’s “Starry Night.” It was a gut punch for plant veteran Deanna “This is my survival for me and my three boys,” Viel said. “It’s a lot of emotion. First, you had your whole world crash down. Then, we had the big, ‘OK, we’re going to make it.”

* Tribune | Jon Margolis, Tribune political columnist who wrote with wry wit, dies: “He was one of the best political reporters the Tribune has ever had,” said former Tribune publisher and editor in chief R. Bruce Dold. “He loved following (campaigns), talking to voters during the day, talking with the (politicians) late into the night. He did the hard work to really understand what was going on in the country, and his writing for the Tribune reflected that.” Margolis, 83, died of natural causes Jan. 29 at the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington, Vermont, said his daughter, Katey. He moved to Vermont after retiring from the Tribune in 1995.

* SJ-R | New UIS Sangamon Experience exhibit highlights often-overlooked central Illinois history: The exhibit takes us back to 1973, when Sangamon State University (SSU), now UIS, Professor David Hilligoss spoke with David Schurr, SSU’s dean of humanities, who emphasized that “as a public affairs university, SSU should prioritize its commitment to the community more than any other state school.” When Hilligoss was hired by SSU in 1973 as a key member of the university’s innovative Individual Option curriculum, he actively advocated for American Indian causes nationwide. He worked alongside notable activists in campaigns related to the rights of incarcerated Native Americans, preserving indigenous cultural heritage, and fulfilling treaty rights, among other causes.

* Chicago Reader | Making Black queer spaces: Party Noire (PN) is a Chicago-based and events-focused organization. On the group’s website, PN describes its community as “an inclusive cultural hub” created to celebrate and hold space for “Black femmes, queer women of color [QWOC], and Black womanhood along the gender spectrum.” Party Noire threw its first party in 2015 with no expectations of what might follow. The group didn’t imagine that, eight years later, they would be able to curate 300- to 500-person parties regularly on their own, plus partner with media giants like Red Bull, Canvas Studios, and Pitchfork Music Festival at venues across the city.

* Tribune | Chicago Black Restaurant Week 2024: 6 specials we’re excited to try, from Haitian cuisine to a nonalcoholic wine shop: The event, in its ninth year, is a celebration of Black-owned food, beverage and dessert businesses, said founder Lauran A. Smith. […] Asked if she had to pick one place among 52 participants, Smith replied without hesitation. “I’m going to try what Batter & Berries in Olympia Fields has going on, because they have partnered with Shawn Michelle’s Homemade Ice Cream,” she said.

* Tribune | Family dreams and hopes ‘shattered’ after Chicago Marathon winner’s death in Kenya: Kelvin Kiptum’s family said Monday their dreams and future hopes have been shattered after the death of the marathon world record holder in a car crash Sunday night. Kiptum and his Rwandan coach, Gervais Hakizimana, were killed in the crash near the town of Kaptagat in western Kenya, in the heart of the high-altitude region that’s renowned as a training base for the best distance runners from Kenya and across the world.

* Tribune | Chicago White Sox, coming off a 101-loss season, enter spring training with ‘a lot to prove to themselves’: [General manager Chris Getz] wants the Sox “to play cleaner, winning-type baseball.” After finishing tied for 10th in the AL with 95 errors, the Sox emphasized defense with a number of their offseason moves. They signed catcher Martín Maldonado and shortstop Paul DeJong and traded for catcher Max Stassi and infielders Nicky Lopez and Braden Shewmake.

* Chicago Mag | Lincoln Owes His Presidency to Illinois: Lincoln was the perfect leader to guide the nation through the Civil War, and toward the abolition of slavery. He was not, however, an indispensable man, nor was his presidency inevitable. In the spring of 1860, Lincoln was simply the right man from the right place. He won the Republican nomination both because of who he wasn’t — William Seward, the New York abolitionist considered too radical by Midwestern Republicans — and where he was from: Central Illinois, the swing region of a swing state. Illinois had voted for Democrat James Buchanan in 1856. The Republicans needed to flip the “Sucker State” to win in 1860, along with New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Indiana.