* ICYMI: Why the Sun-Times traveled to Toronto to learn about immigration…

Nearly half of Toronto’s 2.7 million population identifies as immigrants.

The city’s diversity is visible on its streets. A stretch of a neighborhood includes Asian, Caribbean and Latino retail shops and restaurants. Pedestrians of Canadian, Sudanese or Indian backgrounds mingle while eating Mexican sushi or jerk poutine.

As the United States has doubled down on restrictive immigration policies, particularly around asylum, Canada is viewed as the friendlier neighbor where politicians see immigrants as a possible solution to labor shortages.

“One should see them as nation builders,” Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow told the Chicago Sun-Times about immigrants. “They’ve helped build Canada, they helped build Toronto.”

* Related stories…

∙ In Toronto, immigrants find a modern, fast employment system
∙ Churches, nonprofits house refugees amid shelter crunch in Toronto

* Governor Pritzker will join the 2024 SelectUSA Investment Summit “Innovation Ecosystems: Shaping the Future of Tech” panel at 8:10 am. Click here to watch.

 The Sun-Times has live updates of Ed Burke’s sentencing, which will begin at 10 am.

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* Capitol News Illinois | State highway shootings decline as critics sue over ‘dragnet surveillance’: Illinois State Police say an automated license plate reader program has helped the agency identify witnesses or suspects in 82 percent of highway shooting cases this year, including all eight that resulted in a death. But as the state looks to further expand its network of more than 400 cameras this year, it faces a lawsuit accusing ISP of operating “a system of dragnet surveillance” by using the cameras to monitor all traffic that passes them.

* Tribune | ComEd’s computer billing fiasco shuts down community solar program for four months: For nearly four months, subscribers to community solar farms dotting the landscape across northern Illinois have been unable to get credit for the power generated to offset their regular ComEd bills. Meanwhile, the companies that operate the solar installations are not getting paid, essentially shutting down one of the state’s signature clean energy programs. “Our program serves as a model for how community solar could work in other states,” said Sarah Moskowitz, executive director of Citizens Utility Board. “It’s very disappointing to see one of our utilities single-handedly halt the program for several months.”

* SJ-R | How hot will it be in Illinois this summer? Here’s what the Climate Prediction Center says: AccuWeather’s long-range forecast team projected last month that June through August temperatures will be two to three degrees above the historical average in the state. It’s much the same per the National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center who also foresees a hotter summer.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Tribune | Illinois may soon return land the US stole from a Prairie Band Potawatomi chief 175 years ago: Rep. Will Guzzardi, who sponsored the legislation to transfer the state park, said it is a significant concession on the part of the Potawatomi. With various private and public concerns now owning more than half of the original reservation land, reclaiming it for the Potawatomi would set up a serpentine legal wrangle. […] Guzzardi hopes the Potawatomi don’t have to wait much longer to see that grow exponentially with the park transfer. “It keeps this beautiful public asset available to everyone,” Guzzardi said. “It resolves disputed title for landholders in the area and most importantly, it fixes a promise that we broke.”

*** Statewide ***

* Crain’s | Two years post-Dobbs, Illinois abortion providers feel the crunch: At a recent event before the City Club of Chicago, Chelsea Souder, co-owner of Hope Clinic for Women in downstate Illinois, laid out what her abortion practice is seeing since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, the landmark legislation that protected the right to end a pregnancy. At the Granite City clinic — near the border of Missouri, where abortion is banned with limited exceptions — patient volumes have doubled within the last year, Souder said, with people visiting from about 20 states that have tightly restricted or outright banned abortions.

* Tribune | Dobbs, 2 years later: Out-of-state medical providers flock to Illinois for abortion training as opportunities dwindle: Since the end of Roe, Planned Parenthood of Illinois has seen a roughly 60% increase in trainees at its clinics, with many traveling here from other states. “There’s a big-time increase in demand for training,” said Dr. Virgil Reid, associate medical director with Planned Parenthood of Illinois. “We have recently reached a point where we had to put a pause on saying yes to new training requests from universities and other organizations around the country that frankly are desperate to get their doctors — their residents — training in this work.”

*** Chicago ***

* Sun-Times | Wrongful convictions unit failed to look into possible police misconduct in murder case, confidential report concludes: A confidential report by special prosecutors assigned to review a decades-old murder slams an initial assessment of the case by the Cook County state’s attorney’s wrongful convictions unit, saying it failed to look into “the integrity of the police investigation.” “This case presents a microcosm of the many ways in which a police investigation into a serious violent crime can fail,” the special prosecutors wrote.

* Chalkbeat | Chicago to change how it flags disruptive behaviors for its youngest students: Under student code of conduct changes the school board is slated to approve this week, schools would only flag behaviors that represent a serious safety issue, such as bringing a weapon to school. And letters alerting parents about these behaviors will no longer refer to “misconduct” and code of conduct “violations” — language district officials said stigmatized young children and failed to reflect their social-emotional development.

* Block Club | 2 CPS Students, Both 16, Fatally Shot Within 24 Hours In Separate Weekend Incidents: The Amundsen High School community is mourning the death of a 16-year-old student killed Friday evening in a shooting in Budlong Woods on the North Side that wounded two other teen boys. About 6:57 p.m. Friday, the three teens were getting into a car in the 5600 block of North Rockwell Street when they were hit by gunfire, police said. A witness said the three were shot at by a person in a black SUV, which fled the scene, police said.

* Sun-Times | Time for reflection: The Bean reopens after months of construction: The project included a rebuild of the plaza podium, adding new stairs, accessible ramps and a waterproofing system, according to the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. Construction was initially set to end in the spring.[…] The plaza is still undergoing some landscaping improvements, but that work will not impact access to “Cloud Gate,” city officials said.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Tribune | Thornton Township Board denies vendor payments sought by Supervisor Tiffany Henyard: Concerns over spending transparency by Supervisor Tiffany Henyard led the Thornton Township Board Thursday to deny payments to certain vendors who completed work for the township. Among the payments debated during the special board meeting, called after a last-minute cancellation of Tuesday’s scheduled meeting, were for lawn mowing services for seniors and media content creation for township events.

* ABC Chicago | Cook Co. Commissioner Dennis Deer dies, family announces: In a statement, the family said, “Dr. Deer’s passionate lifelong dedication made him a tireless servant to the community I areas of healthcare, education, economic development, employment and training, re-entry and affordable housing. “Dr. Deer’s greatest joy and pride were his family, He cherished his roles as husband to his high school sweetheart Barbara Deer and father to his twin sons Kaleb and Kanaan and daughter Trinity.”

* Daily Herald | With money to plan greenway, what’s next for defunct Route 53 extension — and should IDOT get paid?: IDOT began buying land for the expansion in the 1970s to solve traffic congestion. But sky-high costs and fears it would destroy natural areas eroded support, and the Illinois tollway, the project’s last sponsor, pulled the plug in 2019. Come 2022, a state advisory panel recommended transferring the property to IDNR to create a 12-mile green corridor between Long Grove and Grayslake. Looking ahead, the plan will engage local stakeholders, develop a consensus vision for the corridor and approach how to fund it, explained Democratic state Rep. Dan Didech of Buffalo Grove.

*** Downstate ***

* KFVS | Williamson Co. Circuit Clerk speaks out about resignation: Maze had announced on June 18 that he would be resigning from the elected position, citing an upcoming deployment overseas as the reason, which would last more than a year. However, on June 20, the Department of Justice released information about a fraud trial involving Maze. As a condition of the pretrial diversion, Maze was required to resign from his position as Williamson Co. Circuit Clerk and agreed not to seek re-election to any public office.

* WSIL | Authorities Investigate Threats Toward Southern Illinois Schools: Authorities said these reported threats were made via Facebook posts toward several area schools and originated outside of the country. Multiple law enforcement officials investigated and found the threat to be not credible, according to law enforcement and school officials.

* Concord Monitor | In Rockford Illinois – a blueprint for reducing homelessness, 1,050 miles from Concord: But in front of Concord’s city committee to end homelessness, Morrissey shared a different story last week. Rockford has achieved “functional zero” – where episodes of homelessness are rare and brief – for both veterans and those chronically homeless. The two keys to their success were putting together and maintaining clear data on who was experiencing homelessness in the community at a given time and an organized governance structure among city leaders, nonprofits and service providers to address it with people one-on-one.