* Illinois Fuel and Retail Association…

Local State Senator Dave Koehler is leading the push in Springfield for legislation that will increase prices at the gas pump in our area and across Illinois.

Sen. Koehler is the chief sponsor for Senate Bill 1556, which mandates two state regulators – the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) and the Illinois Pollution Control Board – to establish a “clean transportation standard” and reduce the use of carbon-based fuels by Illinois drivers on our roads.

The two agencies would assign state-mandated “deficits” to fossil fuels like gasoline and diesel, which for consumers means they will pay more every time they put those products in their vehicles.

The Illinois Fuel and Retail Association (IFRA), on behalf of more than 4,000 gas stations, convenience stores, and truck stops across Illinois who serve millions of customers, is standing up to strongly oppose the proposal.

“Our member stores in Illinois have had enough, and our customers have had enough,” said Josh Sharp, IFRA’s CEO. “Illinois doubled the gas tax in 2019 and consistently raised it every year since then, with two increases in 2022. Federal data shows Illinois topped California for the highest taxes on gas in the country last year. And even worse, this legislation would do nothing to fix our roads and bridges. It simply will punish drivers and put more costs on consumers at the pump that they cannot afford.”

The proposed legislation gives the state regulators authority to decide how the fossil fuel “deficits” work, how much they will cost, and how any phase-out processes might be developed. Similar clean transportation standards, or low-carbon fuel standards, have been a disaster for fuel consumers in other states.

* Greg Pratt…

* WAND TV…

While deadlines for traditional forms of voter registration have passed for the 2024 primary in Illinois, those wanting to cast ballots can still do so under the state’s “grace period registration” laws.

The grace period began after March 3, which was the final day for residents to register to vote online. Traditional voter registration closes 28 days prior to an election, with late February serving as the deadline for this month’s primary.

Residents who still haven’t registered to vote still have an opportunity to cast a ballot if they choose to do so, but there are additional steps that must be taken. […]

In order to register to vote less than 28 days prior to an election, a voter must do so in-person at a designated grace period registration site.

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* BND | IL’s Mike Bost, Darren Bailey trade attacks on immigration issues. How did they vote?: Like other issues, they agree on some things related to immigration. In BND interviews and in response to the BND’s 2024 candidate questionnaire, both identified border security as the most important issue facing the U.S. Both believe finishing former President Donald Trump’s border wall is part of the solution to fixing the nation’s immigration system. And both oppose the bipartisan immigration reform deal with new border laws that federal lawmakers proposed earlier this year.

* Daily Herald | Cook County circuit court clerk race heating up: In her Daily Herald candidate questionnaire, Martinez, a former state senator, cited as her accomplishments the digitization of 70 million court records; the establishment of a domestic violence survivor center that provides a safe place for individuals seeking protective orders; and processing thousands of backlogged expungement requests. […] Spyropoulos said in her Daily Herald candidate questionnaire bail bonds have not been refunded in a timely manner during Martinez’s tenure. To that end, she cited an August 2023 ABC 7 report about a man who waited more than a year for a refund of the $100 bail he posted for his son after his son’s case was dismissed. That same man, according to ABC 7, waited months for the refund of a separate $500 bail he posted for his son in 2023 after his son agreed to serve probation. According to ABC 7, bail bond refunds were due four to six weeks after the case closed.

* BND | Two Republicans look to challenge U.S. Rep. Budzinski in Illinois’ 13th district: Republicans have an uphill battle in the Democratic-leaning district. Democrats in the Illinois General Assembly redrew the congressional districts in 2021 to gain a U.S. House seat. In 2022, Cook Political Report projected Democrats would have a 3-point advantage in the 13th district. However, Budzinski cruised to victory, beating now state Rep. Regan Deering, R-Decatur, 56.6% to 43.4%.

* Daily Herald | Foster, Rashid square off in 11th District over health care votes: While proclaiming support for the landmark Affordable Care Act, Democratic U.S. Rep. Bill Foster of Naperville is defending his votes on three Republican-led bills his current political challenger says would’ve chipped away at the legislation commonly called Obamacare. Foster’s foe in the March 19 Democratic primary, Naperville attorney Qasim Rashid, has attacked Foster’s “yes” votes in interviews, advertisements and elsewhere. Then-President Barack Obama threatened vetoes if the proposals made it to his desk, and most House Democrats opposed them.

* BND | Using legal tool, Belleville group shifts into high gear renovating derelict homes:The Illinois Abandoned Housing Rehabilitation Act allows nonprofit organizations to file lawsuits and get circuit courts to force owners of “nuisance” properties to bring them into compliance with local codes. If they decline, there’s a path for the organizations to take ownership.

* Chicago Reader | Inside the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Brady lists: Despite a history of expanding obligations on prosecutors and police, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office (SAO) and Chicago Police Department (CPD) fail to comply with Brady in several ways, according to interviews with experts, successive outside reviews, and an investigation into the agencies’ practices by the Invisible Institute and the Reader.

* Tribune | Despite frozen police discipline, COPA closes 143 investigations, including some involving alleged repeat offenders: The findings and recommendations in each case were not yet known, but during February’s meeting of the Chicago Police Board, Superintendent Larry Snelling said COPA recommended 28 officers be fired from the Police Department in just the first two months of 2024.

* Tribune | Second child develops measles in Pilsen migrant shelter, officials say: The first case in the shelter was confirmed Friday. That child has recovered and is no longer infectious. An additional, unrelated case outside of the shelter was announced Thursday — the first in Chicago since 2019.

* ISBA | Quick Take on Illinois Supreme Court Opinion Issued Friday, March 8, 2024: In 2019, the plaintiff, M.U., was a freshman in high school and signed up to play hockey with a girls’ hockey team run by Team Illinois Hockey Club, Inc. According to the allegations contained in the complaint, M.U. had a history of treatment for anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts. M.U.’s parents informed the team’s coach of her mental health struggles and that M.U.’s participation in team activities was supported by her mental health professionals as an important and supportive aspect of her life. The day after this conversation, the teams’ coach as well as a member of the board of directors for the Amateur Hockey Association of Illinois, Inc., decided to ban M.U. from all Team Illinois activities until she was “able to participate 100%.”

* Sun-Times | Black Catholics at Joliet’s Sacred Heart Church worry what its closing will mean: Diocesan officials have blamed declining Sunday Mass attendance, financial troubles and costly building repairs and, though, the diocese faces potentially costly settlements over accusations of clergy sex abuse, won’t say how much of an impact those costs are having.

* Daily Herald | Round Lake Area Library seeks voter approval to borrow $36.4 million for new building: According to district figures, the owner of a home valued at $228,200 — the district median — would pay an additional $345.84 in annual property taxes if the measure passes. The current bill for that home is $382.90.

* IPM | University of Illinois’ first vice chancellor of Native affairs: “I feel very disrespected” : Rand is a citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. Before being appointed as a top administrator at UIUC in 2021, she worked at the National Museum of the American Indian and the University of Iowa. Her role was to mend relationships with Native tribes pushed out of central Illinois, but she said the university did very little to support her after the hire.

* PJ Star | Peoria’s city manager is the highest-paid city employee and may be getting a raise: Peoria City Manager Patrick Urich will be up for a raise at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting. The council will vote on whether to give Urich a 3% raise ($6,412), which would bring his base salary to $220,149.83. He is also eligible for a longevity bonus of $5,000.

* Chicago Mag | The former mayor, 61, on her enemies, lessons from COVID, and why she’s finished with politics: Being a big-city mayor is a really, really hard job. There are a lot of people shooting at you. You’ve got to know who your enemies are and know that they’re working every single day to undermine you. I don’t know that I totally appreciated that early on.

* Bloomberg | Magic mushrooms are risky new tool touted by executive coaches: “Adderall, caffeine and stimulants helped with getting things done, but with the advent of AI, productivity is becoming less valuable. Psychedelics can help with the kind of divergent, creative thinking that’s more required now,” says Paul Austin, a lanky, bearded 33-year-old “microdosing coach” and founder of Third Wave, which offers courses costing as much as $14,000 to certify psychedelic guides.

* Crain’s | Gold Coast home of Jay Doherty, convicted as one of ‘ComEd Four,’ sold: The four-bedroom condo, a combination of two adjacent units, sold for $575,000. That’s about two-thirds of what Doherty paid for the pair. According to the Cook County clerk, he bought one in 2002 for $490,000 and the other two years later for $378,500, for a combined $868,500.

* Daily Herald | Déjà vu all over again? Some of the suburbs the Bears have checked out through the decades: ​In the first of many plays to land a stadium deal in Arlington Heights, Chicago Bears founder George Halas speaks at a luncheon hosted by the village’s Chamber of Commerce and says, “I hope and pray that 1977 will find the Bears contending for a title in a new stadium in Arlington Heights.”

* PJ Star | Downtown Peoria restaurant receives ‘prestigious recognition’: Less than 850 restaurants throughout the United States have received the award, according to the organization’s website. The Distinguished Restaurants of North America, known as DiRōNA, also recognizes restaurants in the Caribbean, central America, Canada and Mexico. Saffron Social, which is part of Travis Mohlenbrink’s Spice Hospitality Group – opened on Sept. 13, 2023. The restaurant’s dinner menu features a roasted bone marrow appetizer, filet, cherry glazed salmon, breaded pork piccata and more.

* The Atlantic | The People Rooting for the End of IVF: Those in the wider anti-abortion movement who oppose IVF are feeling hopeful. Whatever the outcome in Alabama, the situation has yanked the issue “into the public consciousness” nationwide, Aaron Kheriaty, a fellow at the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center, told me. He and his allies object to IVF for the same reason that they object to abortion: Both procedures result, they believe, in the destruction of innocent life. And in an America without federal abortion protections, in which states will continue to redefine and recategorize what qualifies as life, more citizens will soon encounter what Kheriaty considers the moral hazards of IVF.

* Nieman Lab | Five of this year’s Pulitzer finalists are AI-powered: Last July — the same month OpenAI struck a deal with the Associated Press and a $5 million partnership with the American Journalism Project — a Columbia Journalism School professor was giving the Pulitzer Board a crash course in AI with the help of a few other industry experts.

* Jewish Telegraphic Agency | White supremacists, seizing on Israel-Hamas war, have accelerated their antisemitism since Oct. 7: At a recent city council meeting in Evanston, Illinois, a man in dark sunglasses stepped up to the podium during the public comment period to accuse the Anti-Defamation League of stifling free speech. Wearing a hat with the logo of the neo-Nazi group Goyim Defense League, the man — who claimed to be a local resident — held up what he said was an “ADL toolkit that was sent to city councils across this nation.”

* Block Club | Your Guide To St. Patrick’s Day In Chicago: Parades, Bar Crawls, Concerts And More: The Chicago River is going green for the 69th year this weekend, dyed by the Plumber’s Local 130. A longtime tradition, Chicagoans can catch some of the best views of the newly colored river from Upper Wacker Drive between Columbus and Fairbanks. The annual Chicago parade kicks off shortly after at 12:15 p.m., starting at Columbus Drive and Balbo Avenue then continuing north. Entry to the parade route opens at 11 a.m. at Jackson Avenue and Ida B. Wells Drive.

* WGN | How are body clocks impacted by the time change?: Northwestern Immediate Care Specialist Dr. Tom Moran joins Bob Sirott to talk about how the time change can impact our body clocks. He also discusses who should get the measles vaccine and whether or not magnesium is effective when treating tinnitus.