* ICYMI: Bears want taxpayers to help pay for their new stadium, experts say city unlikely to get revenue. ABC Chicago…

According to the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, since 2020 taxpayers have paid about $750 million toward construction costs of eight new stadiums or arenas across the four major sports leagues.

“That is usually the selling point, we can have development we can have whatsoever. The evidence is overwhelming: these make very poor investments,” said Allen Sanderson, University of Chicago economics professor.

Sanderson said cities rarely get a return on their investments, especially with football stadiums because there are so few games a year and ticket holders tend to be local.

“The Chicago Marathon probably generates more revenue than most these facilities because two-thirds of the runners are not from Chicago,” he said.

* Related stories…

∙ Tribune: Taxpayers would pick up half the tab for Bears’ lakefront stadium, sources say
∙ Sun-Times: Bears to reveal how they want to pay for a domed lakefront stadium — and what it will look like
∙ Crain’s: Bears will unveil $3.2B domed stadium, with a potential final price of $4.7B

Subscribers know more.

Governor Pritzker will be at Silver Cross Hospital Conference Center in New Lenox at 10 am and Loyola University’s Stritch School of Medicine at 12:15 pm promoting the Healthcare Protection Act. Click here to watch.

Bear’s Lakeshore Redevelopment press conference at noon in Soldier Field. You can watch here. Mayor Brandon Johnson will attend the news conference.

* Press release…

On Tuesday, several labor unions representing workers in Cook County announced their endorsement of Monica Gordon for Cook County Clerk. The group supports the Cook County Democratic Central Committee to slate Gordon for both the vacancy in office and to the ballot for November, citing her sterling track record working for the Illinois Black Caucus, as a Trustee at Prairie State Community College and most recently as Cook County Commissioner. The unions supporting Gordon include SEIU Local 73, Operating Engineers Local 150, Operating Engineers Local 399 and LIUNA.

“We believe Monica will bring election integrity, protection of vital records, and safeguard property deeds for the people of Cook County,” said Dian Palmer, President of SEIU Local 73. “Cook County Clerk is a critical role in the functioning of our county government, and Monica Gordon is uniquely suited to that role. We look forward to working with her as County Clerk as we continue to improve the public services our members provide in the Clerk’s office.”

Monica Gordon has years of experience managing budgets and complex projects and programs similar to those seen at the County Clerk’s office. As Executive Director of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus, Monica oversaw the disbursement of over $100,000 in college scholarships to deserving African American students. She served as a Trustee at Prairie State Community College and worked for at Chicago State University improving the lives of hundreds of students. She is the Bloom Township Committeeman and has served on numerous boards for local not-for-profit organizations over the past two decades. As County Commissioner, she has focused her efforts on bringing services to local residents, including healthcare and social services.

“Monica has decades of experience improving the lives of local residents, whether that be students working towards a better life or the residents of her district in Cook County,” said Jim Sweeney, President of Operating Engineers Local 150. “The County Clerk’s office impacts hundreds of people’s lives each and every day. From helping students explore their college options one-on-one and managing multi-million dollar budgets to picking up the phone and personally helping constituents, Monica has the right experience to continue Karen Yarbrough’s legacy.”

The Cook County Democratic Central Committee is scheduled to meet on Friday, April 26, 2024 to fill the vacancy left by the passing of the late Karen Yarbrough.

* From Sean Tenner…

Hi Rich,

Sean here - am a longtime friend of Che “Rhymefest” Smith and helping out on the Chicago School Board campaign; just wanted to let you know we now have the endorsements of:

* Congresswoman Robin Kelly
* Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias
* State Representative Kam Buckner
* Cook County Commissioner Stanley Moore
* Cook County Commissioner Monica Gordon
* Alderman Andre Vasquez

*** Isabel’s top picks ***

* Illinois Answers | For Many Illinoisans in Flood-Prone Areas, Buyouts Are the Only Way Out: In Illinois, there are two buyout programs: one run by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and funded through state legislative allocation, and another run by the Illinois Emergency Management Agency and funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Buyouts offer people in distress significant help, but they often come with long wait times and bureaucratic complications. And they often don’t prevent people from moving into other flood-prone areas, experts who evaluate these programs told the Illinois Answers Project.

* ABC Chicago | Recycle plastic bags? New information about where they really end up: ABC News and the I-Team first glued trackers to plastic bags in May 2023 and dropped them off at Target and Walmart stores with plastic bag recycling. Out of the 46 trackers deployed by ABC News and ABC stations, a majority of the bags ended up at landfills or incinerators.

* Sun-Times Editorial Board | Time for a leadership change at CTA: Show Dorval Carter the exit door: Everyone agrees, it seems, except Mayor Brandon Johnson, who so far has resisted the idea of replacing Carter despite the overwhelming hue and cry from aldermen, CTA riders, transit advocates and now the governor to do so. But with the CTA, Metra and Pace together facing a $730 million shortfall once federal COVID-19 funding runs out in 2026, a Carter-run CTA is a potential liability to the city’s efforts to seek state funding to shore up the agency’s finances.

*** Statewide ***
* SJ-R | Top general for Illinois National Guard retiring after joining military nearly 40 years ago: On May 4, Neely, the adjutant general for Illinois and commander of the Illinois National Guard, will be giving the flag back, marking his retirement from the military after nearly 40 years of service. “It’s the symbology of one leader giving the flag up and one leader taking the flag,” Neely said, referring to his successor, Maj. Gen. Rodney Boyd, the assistant adjutant general. “One…of my priorities was to ensure the continuity of leadership.

* WTVO | Pritzker touts Healthcare Protection Act as ‘lifesaving’ bill in Rockford visit: Pritzker was at OSF St. Anthony Medical Center on Tuesday to explain what the bill, which has been passed in the House, could mean for patients, doctors, and insurance companies. “With this bill, we’re putting power back in the hands of doctors and patients,” Pritzer said.

* Illinois Farmer today | Farmland values increase at slower rate with tighter profits: While farmland remains a stable long-term investment with a long track record of growing in value, tight profit margins could mean a few years of stepping back in land values, Purdue University ag economist Michael Langemeier says. “Farmers are just more cautious for obvious reasons when they start seeing signs the margins are tighter,” he says.

*** Chicago ***
* WBEZ | Most of Chicago’s mass shootings involve young victims: More than half – 53% – of mass shootings in Chicago involved at least one victim younger than 20. Mass shootings have occurred in 56 of the city’s 77 community areas, but nearly three-fourths of them have happened in just 16 communities on the city’s South and West sides.

* Tribune | Police Department rules Officer Luis Huesca died in line of duty: The designation was announced Tuesday, on what would have been Huesca’s 31st birthday, and it entitles his family to survivor’s death benefits. In a message to all CPD members, Superintendent Larry Snelling said he’s recently spent time with those closest to Huesca.

* WBEZ | CPS’s selective and magnet schools appear to take a hit under new equity funding formula: So with no clear sources of new revenue, it appears CPS is redistributing existing funding from some schools to others, based on a WBEZ/Sun-Times analysis and interviews with school leaders. The district has so far refused to publicly release the budgets for broader analysis. Jen Johnson, the deputy mayor for education, told WBEZ that the mayor’s office instructed the district to protect programming at all schools, even as it looks to prioritize high-poverty schools.

* Tribune | Chicago-based Dutch Farms makes bid to buy bankrupt Oberweis Dairy: Brian Boomsma, owner of Chicago-based Dutch Farms, made a stalking horse bid for nearly all of the operating assets of the company, with plans to “operate and grow the business” when it emerges from bankruptcy, Adam Kraber, president of Oberweis, said in a news release.

* Tribune | Water quality has improved dramatically in the Chicago River. But how safe is swimming?: “A lot of people think about the Chicago River as being super gross, super polluted,” Elsa Anderson, an assistant professor of environmental science at Northwestern University, said. “And at one point in time, that was true. But with the Clean Water Act in the early 1970s, it’s not.” Anderson said scientists have been able to measure the river’s improvement by looking at the vast increase in fish and plant species. The river has become a thriving wetland, according to Anderson.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Shaw Local | McHenry County State’s Attorney Patrick Kenneally calls his surprise decision to step down ‘agonizing’: He also said that there is someone who is going to take his place, although he declined to identify whom. Who would replace him on the November ballot will also be a decision involving the county’s Republican Party. :

* Daily Southtown | Will County Board Republicans sue county executive over 143rd Street project veto: Bertino-Tarrant inadvertently signed the resolution that stopped the widening Feb. 16, realized her mistake and then vetoed it the next day. The County Board did not have enough votes to override the veto. The lawsuit, filed April 18 by attorneys Steven Laduzinsky, John Partelow and Jeff Tomczak, said there is no authority in Illinois law that allows a county executive to sign and approve a resolution and then subsequently veto it. The lawsuit cites the Illinois Counties Code that says when the executive approved the resolution on Feb. 16 it became law.

* AP | College students, inmates and a nun: Unique book club meets at Cook County Jail: For college senior Nana Ampofo, an unconventional book club inside one of the nation’s largest jails has transformed her career ambitions. Each week, the 22-year-old drives a van of her DePaul University peers to Cook County Jail to discuss books with inmates and recently, the well-known activist Sister Helen Prejean. Ampofo comes prepared with thought-provoking questions to launch the conversations at the Chicago jail about the most recent books they’ve been reading together.

*** Downstate ***

* WCIA | State senator weighs in on Champaign School Board ‘chaos’: It’s not very often a state senator gets involved with a school board’s inner workings, but Rose had been reading about frustrations within the district. He decided to reach out to the State Board of Education’s Superintendent Tony Sanders about a month ago. “You maybe just pick up the phone and suggest mediation for this board, maybe organize some facilitators to come down and have a sit-down, and try to put Humpty-Dumpty back together again,” Rose said.

*** Sports ***
* Sun-Times | Ken ‘Hawk’ Harrelson on White Sox: ‘It’s been ugly, and I feel bad for our fans’: No one lived and breathed the White Sox more than Ken Harrelson, the retired Hall of Fame broadcaster. There is no bigger fan. Maybe it’s a good thing he and his wife, Aris, had been at their Florida home until they returned to Granger, Indiana, two days ago. Until watching the 7-0 loss to the Twins on Monday, Harrelson had followed his beloved online, reading box scores and reports and communicating via other channels as his South Side nine crumbled to an embarrassing 3-19 start.

* Daily Herald | Illinois PGA tournament season to feature team play: Team play will make its debut on May 13 at the first stroke play event at Schaumburg Golf Club. This is real team play, not best ball or foursome competitions. With nine six-player teams and a seven-tournament schedule, it more closely resembles what the LIV Golf League started doing three years ago at its tournaments.

*** National ***

* WaPo | Bird flu virus found in grocery milk as officials say supply still safe: Viral fragments of bird flu have been identified in samples of milk taken from grocery store shelves in the United States, a finding that does not necessarily suggest a threat to human health but indicates the avian flu virus is more widespread among dairy herds than previously thought, according to two public health officials and a public health expert who was briefed on the issue.

* WaPo Op Ed | You don’t want immigrants? Then tell grandma she can never retire: To put a finer point on it, there’s so much demand for workers now that even the most marginal American workers, such as teenagers and people with disabilities, are doing unusually well in the labor market. Ironically, some parts of the country complaining loudest about immigration today are the same places trying to loosen limits on child labor because their worker shortages are so acute.

* AP | Cicadas are so noisy in a South Carolina county that residents are calling the police: Some people have even flagged down deputies to ask what the noise is all about, Newberry County Sheriff Lee Foster said. The nosiest cicadas were moving around the county of about 38,000 people, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) northwest of Columbia, prompting calls from different locations as Tuesday wore on, Foster said.