* Capitol News Illinois…

State legislators resumed a series of hearings this week to scrutinize pharmacy benefit managers – a highly concentrated industry that critics say drives up the cost and limits availability of prescription drugs. […]

In Illinois, Rep. Natalie Manley, D-Joliet, who chairs the House Health Care Availability and Access Committee, said she hoped the hearings presented a chance for the legislature to learn more from PBM executives – though only lobbyists from the trade association representing major PBMs have spoken before the committee.

Two weeks before the state committee met for its most recent hearing, the Federal Trade Commission released an interim report detailing the agency’s findings in an ongoing antitrust probe of PBMs. […]

The report indicated PBMs have engaged in “delay tactics” over the past two years in failing to give the FTC the records it ordered them to provide. CNBC and the Wall Street Journal have reported that the Federal Trade Commission is preparing to sue PBMs to obtain the documents the agency requested over two years ago as part of the. […]

Chad Worz, executive director of the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists, said PBMs have used their position as middlemen to exploit pricing while selling the same drug to various buyers.

* C-Strategies…

Becky Carroll, Founder, President and CEO of C-Strategies, Inc., a strategic communications and public affairs firm, has been named the winner of Silver 2024 Bulldog PR Professional of the Year Award. The annual Bulldog PR Awards are exclusively judged by award winning journalists, celebrating public relations and communications excellence throughout the U.S. Nominees this year ranged from internal agencies to private firms, granting all public relations and corporate communication talent an opportunity to compete.

As part of the selection process, the panel of journalists evaluated applicants based on their vision, strategies, and distinctive approaches that enabled them to achieve their ultimate objective.

*** Statewide ***

* WBEZ | The hope, the worry and the surreal that Illinois Black female Democratic delegates see in Kamala Harris’ moment: Ald. Emma Mitts, 37th Ward and currently the most-tenured woman on Chicago’s City Council, said it’s a milestone she’s excited to witness. “Wow, wow. My inside quivers, chills to just the thought of it. Chills go over your body,” Mitts said. “It has always been difficult for a woman, and particularly a Black woman. To have one in the White House — know that there’s still hope for women in the world. We can still be that leader. We can be the top leader, as it should be. We’ve been leaders all our life.”

* Tribune | Ascension selling 9 Illinois hospitals to California-based Prime Healthcare : Ascension plans to sell the hospitals, along with four of its post-acute and senior living facilities, to Prime Healthcare. Neither Prime nor Ascension disclosed the sale price Thursday. The hospitals slated to be sold to Prime include: Ascension Holy Family in Des Plaines, Ascension Mercy in Aurora, Ascension Resurrection in Chicago, Ascension St. Francis in Evanston, Ascension St. Joseph in Joliet, Ascension St. Joseph in Elgin, Ascension St. Mary in Kankakee, Ascension St. Mary in Chicago and Ascension St. Elizabeth in Chicago. Other facilities involved in the sale include Fox Knoll Village in Aurora, Villa Franciscan Place in Joliet, Heritage Village and Heritage Lodge in Kankakee, and Resurrection Place in Park Ridge, all now operated by Ascension Living.

*** Chicago ***

* WTTW | How Will the Democratic National Convention Impact Downtown Chicago? Here Are the Security Zones: The security perimeter was drawn to allow the convention to take place from Aug. 19-22 without disruption and without impacting the daily lives of Chicagoans more than necessary while allowing protestors to exercise their First Amendment right to demonstrate, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said.

* Sun-Times | With Chicago casino on the horizon, Bally’s accepts $4.6 billion buyout, merger: Bally’s announced Thursday it accepted the $18.25-per-share buyout from Standard General, the New York hedge fund led by Bally’s chairman Soo Kim. That’s a premium over the $15-per-share offered up in March by Kim, whose fund currently owns about a quarter of Bally’s stock.

* Crain’s | Gas prices around Chicago surge after tornado shuts refinery: Exxon’s Joliet power outage “has driven up prices across the board in the Great Lakes region,” Patrick DeHaan of GasBuddy said in an email. “Jet, diesel and gasoline are all higher.” Retail gasoline prices this week are up 26 cents in Michigan, 22 cents in Illinois, 14 cents in Wisconsin, 13 cents in Indiana and 10 cents in Ohio, he said.

* Chalkbeat | Union members assail Chicago Public Schools budget plan ahead of board vote: At Tuesday’s hearing, more than a dozen union members addressed the board to demand that the district back union proposals for smaller class sizes, a librarian in every school, more special education support staff, updated curriculums, substitute-teacher pay increases, and other investments.

* Sun-Times | CPS developing ‘transportation hub’ bus system for general education students: District officials are looking into creating a so-called transportation hub program, where general education students could go to a school near their home to catch a bus to their assigned school and be dropped back off there, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez said at Thursday’s monthly Board of Education meeting. But the details are still being sorted out. “This option will not be available for our general ed students on the first day of school,” Martinez said. “We hope to open our first hub stops during the first quarter and continue to expand them throughout the school year.”

* Chalkbeat | Summer child care can be a puzzle. For parents of children with disabilities, it’s even more complex: Chicago Public Schools currently serves over 52,000 students with Individualized Education Programs, but only 9,019 students are eligible as of July 12 for the district’s summer program for these students, also known as Extended School Year. For students who aren’t eligible for the Extended School Year program, families look to Chicago Park District’s summer day camps for kids between 6-12 years old and special recreational programs for children and teens between 8 and 17 years old. These programs run for about six weeks and can cost $160 or more, but financial aid is available for families. Many of these programs have limited spots and parents say they fill up quickly in the spring.

* Sun-Times | CPS students issue the grades in cafeteria taste test: The tastings, held as often as four times a month, help CPS figure out which items to include on the next season’s menu, said Ariana Luster, school nutrition specialist at Chicago Public Schools. Luster also uses the feedback to improve dishes or determine which should be cut from the menu. “Notoriously, school food isn’t seen in the most positive light. So we try to do whatever we can to be responsive to the feedback, give them the things they like but also meet the standards that we must meet,” Luster said.

* Block Club | A Chicago Restaurant Was On The Brink Of Closure. Then, Keith Lee Showed Up: “Hey y’all, he got something,” Lee said after taking his first bite of the birria arancini. “It’s spicy, it’s flavorful. This is delicious — and I love the ingenuity of it.” After tasting the arancini, Lee went into the restaurant, met Sciacca, paid $3,000 for the tabs of future customers — and left a $1,000 tip.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Tribune | Chicago Sky announce plans for a $38 million training facility in Bedford Park: ‘It’s not shared. This is ours.’: The $38 million facility will be built in partnership with the Village of Bedford Park and located next to the Wintrust Sports Complex just south of Midway Airport. The Sky expect construction to be completed by December 2025 and the 40,000-square-foot facility to be fully available for the 2026 WNBA season. […] The new facility will have two regulation-sized courts, an improvement from the single court at the team’s current training facilities at Sachs Recreation Center in Deerfield. The new building also will include amenities such as individual lockers, strength and conditioning equipment, player lounges, recovery and film rooms and a private kitchen.

* Tribune | Portillo’s argues that NLRB is unconstitutional in labor board filings: Portillo’s filings come after labor board officials issued a complaint against the fast-expanding hot dog giant earlier this month, alleging it violated labor law before and after a union election at its Addison food preparation facility last year. Workers at that facility voted 28-20 to unionize in an April 2023 election that remains contested as the company has repeatedly challenged the results. Oak Brook-based Portillo’s is one of a number of companies that have recently raised challenges to the labor board’s constitutionality either in lawsuits, labor board filings or hearings. Other companies that have raised constitutional issues over the board’s structure include Amazon, Trader Joe’s, Starbucks and SpaceX, which has filed two lawsuits against the NLRB in federal courts in Texas.

* Daily Herald | Charges pending against Schaumburg shooting suspect as victim remains in serious condition: Charges were pending Thursday against a Schaumburg resident who surrendered to police late Wednesday after an hourslong armed standoff that followed the shooting of a tree trimmer. The victim was listed in serious but stable condition Thursday at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, Schaumburg police Cmdr. Christy Lindhurst said.

*** Downstate ***

* WCIA | ‘We don’t have any info and nobody will tell us’: Dispatch records detail confusion after Sonya Massey shooting: New records of scanner traffic the morning of Massey’s death show that it was more than just her family that was confused in the aftermath of the shooting. […] In another recording released by Sangamon County Dispatch, a dispatcher calls the Illinois State Police Dispatch line. “We don’t actually know what happened; he just screamed shots fired. Somebody heard — one of the dispatchers heard the gunshots and said female shot in the head, but we don’t know if she shot herself or if a deputy shot her,” the county dispatcher said.

* WSIL | Southern Illinois Family Devastated by Flooding, Memories Washed Away: One week ago, severe flooding turned Nashville, Illinois, into a temporary island. Since then, nearly 70 homeowners have reported flood damage. One of those residents, Jami Lane, says it’s a week later and her family is still trying to process what happened. “It was rushing through the house, and it was really traumatic for them, my 6-year-old, for several days after,” Lane said.

* WJBD | Discover Downstate Illinois begins bracket contest to find Best BBQ Joint: There are a number of local BBQ places in the competition including Smoked to the Bone in Iuka, Big Daddy’s in Centralia, Yellow Rose in Wayne City, Curly Tail in Flora and White House in Du Bois. The Facebook contest is set up the same way as past competitions to select the best burger, ice cream, and coffee shop in the region.

*** National ***

* NYT | Newsom Orders California Officials to Remove Homeless Encampments: Mr. Newsom, a Democrat, called on state and local leaders to “humanely remove encampments from public spaces” in an urgent manner, prioritizing those that most threaten health and safety. His executive order could divide Democratic local leaders in California, some of whom have already begun to clear encampments while others have denounced the decision from conservative justices as opening the door to inhumane measures to solve a complex crisis.

* AP | An Olympic-sized fight erupts among anti-doping officials, and it’s just getting started: The stream of threats, recriminations and anti-doping innuendo flowed freely again Thursday when tensions over a U.S. law designed to combat drugs in sports escalated on the eve of the Paris Olympics. […] After details emerged about 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive for a banned substance - Chinese authorities blamed it on contamination from a hotel kitchen - but none were suspended and some went on to win medals at the Tokyo Olympics, the U.S. launched an investigation. The latest round of backlash played out in a trio of news conferences in Paris, the highlight of which came when leaders at WADA suggested they might sanction one of their biggest critics, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, over the law.