* ICYMI: Pritzker downplays VP talk, denies call with Harris campaign. Sun-Times…

- The Sun-Times first reported the Harris campaign called Pritzker Wednesday about the possibility of serving as her running mate, but the Illinois governor told reporters that Harris’ campaign “did not call me yesterday.”
- The Sun-Times stands by its story.
- Asked directly about the call, Pritzker responded, “I don’t want to talk about any private conversations that I’ve had, but I will say that I have said directly to the vice president that I’m going to do everything and anything that is necessary to make sure that we beat Donald Trump and JD Vance.”

* Lincoln Presidential Library…

A new “Picturing Lincoln” initiative by the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum means more than 1,000 high-resolution photos – many of which have never been online before – are now available to people around the world. Thousands more pictures, posters and paintings related to President Lincoln will be added in coming months.

The first batch of images includes:

- 129 pictures of Lincoln
- 178 of Lincoln’s Tomb, including some of Lincoln’s coffin when it was unearthed during a construction project
- Rare pictures of Lincoln’s grandchildren and great-grandchildren
- Photos of Robert Lincoln, his hobbies and his homes
- Dozens of photos related to Lincoln’s assassination, funeral and the execution of the conspirators who plotted his death. […]

The images, with a resolution of 600 dpi, can be found at www.PresidentLincoln.Illinois.gov/PicturingLincoln. They are hosted by the Illinois Digital Archives, which is operated by the Illinois Secretary of State. “Picturing Lincoln” was made possible by a $100,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, funded through the Illinois State Library.

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* WBEZ | As the DNC returns to Chicago, Illinois’ dean of the delegation, Dick Durbin, basks in the moment.: There is no shortage of Democrats parsing Durbin’s every move, trying to suss out if this term might be it for the No. 2-ranking Democrat in the U.S. Senate. He has this advice for those already quietly jockeying for his job in 2026: Cool your heels. “I’ll make up my mind and decide whether I’m going forward or not after the first of the year, and people on the bench then have to make decisions accordingly,” Durbin told WBEZ from his Chicago office overlooking the Loop and Lake Michigan.

* AP | Chicago police chief says out-of-town police won’t be posted in city neighborhoods during DNC: As many as 500 officers, mostly from Illinois agencies, will travel to Chicago to boost DNC security. They’ll be directing traffic and working at the numerous checkpoints around the convention sites of the United Center and McCormick Place. “This will free up our officers, our Chicago police officers, to be in more volatile areas,” Snelling said at a news conference with the U.S. Secret Service, FBI, Gov. J.B. Pritzker and city leaders. “We can’t have a successful Democratic National Convention, if we’re not protecting the entire city as a whole.”

*** Statehouse News ***

* Crain’s | Pritzker touts Illinois’ cannabis social equity program: Poised to be ‘national standard’: Pritzker said that the study, which was authored by the Illinois Cannabis Regulation Oversight Office, reported that Maryland had the second most diverse cannabis industry, with 37% of business permits held by minority or women owners, followed by New Jersey with 36%, Colorado with 34%, Michigan with 25%, and Massachusetts with 24%.

* Play USA | FanDuel Pleads With Legislators To Keep Online Gaming Tax Rates Reasonable: This year, Illinois lawmakers increased a 15% online sports betting tax rate to as high as 40% at a graduated rate. Brandt Iden, vice president of government affairs at Fanatics, said despite threats made to leave the Illinois market if the tax rate increased, operators are going to stick it out. “Illinois wasn’t quite as bad as New York, but Illinois has been bad from a sports betting perspective,” Iden said. “I mean, they raised the tax rates overnight, a very difficult progressive tax rate structure, and it doesn’t make sense.

*** Chicago ***

* Tribune | Chicago Board of Education passes $9.9B budget, withstanding pressure from Mayor Brandon Johnson and teachers union: While the vote may have settled the debate over addressing CPS’ $505 million deficit, the plan doesn’t account for future collective bargaining costs resulting from ongoing negotiations, with the approximately 30,000-member Chicago Teachers Union and the Chicago Principal Administrators Association of over 1,200 members.

* CBS Chicago | Businesses concerned about effect of Chicago DNC security restrictions: Brent Bashier owns Doc’s Smokehouse in Milwaukee and said he did not expect to be surrounded by fencing during the Republican National Convention there earlier this month. The feds’ map for the RNC showed Doc’s right by the hard perimeter but technically in the pedestrians-allowed zone. “We didn’t know that our side street would also be fully restricted. What was not depicted in any of the maps was that there was only one way to get to us,” Bashier said.

* Sun-Times | Judge rejects motion to dismiss weapons, misconduct charges against former 45th Ward superintendent: A Cook County judge on Thursday rejected a motion to dismiss weapons and misconduct charges against a former 45th Ward superintendent who allegedly tried to sell a World War II- era machine gun to an undercover federal agent while working a city job. […] Defense attorney Jim McKay, his voice rising to an impassioned shout, told Judge Kenneth Wadas that if the court allowed the case against Charles Sikanich to continue, authorities might as well start charging veterans at VFW halls too. “What about all of the cannons out in front of every VFW hall in the United States?” McKay asked. “If that’s the case, then everyone at that VFW hall should be charged too. This is insane.”

* Tribune | Cook County judge unlawfully banned exoneree turned law clerk from courthouse over a phone, lawyers allege: a motion alleges, Judge Peggy Chiampas “began screaming loudly from the bench ‘bring him in, bring him in, bring him in.’” After questioning him in chambers, Chiampas wrote an order that banned Robert Almodovar, who was issued a certificate of innocence in 2018, from the Leighton Criminal Court Building, an unusual move in a public building with a mandate for transparent court proceedings. Now, Almodovar, through his attorney, is contesting the ban and asking that a judge other than Chiampas hear the matter, which has spurred a bizarre, monthslong process in which the matter has been tossed around to multiple judges who seem reluctant to touch the issue and roped in assistant state’s attorneys, even though there are no criminal or contempt of court charges.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Capitol News Illinois | In the suburbs, proposed water rates spark outrage from residents, advocates: At Monday’s hearing, area residents lodged often passionate complaints, with all but one speaker opposing the request. Pat Smith, a nearby resident, said her family installed new insulation and upgraded windows to reduce energy costs, but struggled to reduce its water bill. […] Cindy Zacharias, a registered nurse from Bolingbrook, noted the number of people, particularly older people on fixed incomes, who spoke before her and described struggling to pay their water bills.

* Tribune | Longtime OPRFHS history teacher departs the school citing ‘the continued toll of antisemitism’ there: In the letter, a copy of which Pioneer Press obtained through a public records request, Soffer, also a 2003 graduate of the school, said the last few years at OPRFHS have been “incredibly trying”. He said that antisemitism at the school – which enrolls students from the neighboring towns of Oak Park and River Forest – and the district’s lack of response to it, created “an untenable climate” for him.

* Daily Herald | The DuPage County Fair is back with a full-scale carnival, sheepherding dogs and loads of ice cream: Along with the county fair staples, the Mama Coco Mobile Cuisine food truck has al pastor and steak tacos with fresh chopped cilantro and onion. Nearby, The Roasted Cob stand serves whole corn cobs with the charred husks still attached. Gyro meals spill over the plate. And on the sweeter side of things, a pie-eating contest is set for Friday afternoon on the west lawn.

* Daily Herald | Going for Gold: Here are the suburban athletes on Team USA competing in Paris: Twelve athletes who attended suburban high schools will compete for Team USA at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, which kicks off Friday, July 26 and runs through Aug. 11. […] Korbin Albert, Grayslake, Classical Consortium Academy, women’s soccer A midfielder for Paris Saint-Germain in 2023, Albert is making her Olympic debut. The U.S. women began group play Thursday with a 3-0 win over Zambia.

*** Downstate ***

* Herald-Review | Former Decatur council candidate sues mayor, city: In a Monday court filing, Marty Watkins, a U.S. Army veteran and a chaplain at the Macon County Sheriff’s Department, alleged that both former City Manager Scot Wrighton and Public Works Director Matt Newall “gave the directive” for the removal of his campaign signs in March 2021 while other candidates’ signs, also allegedly in unauthorized areas, were untouched. Watkins also alleges that Mayor Julie Moore Wolfe was “informed” about the signs being removed. […] Watkins is seeking $400,000 in damages to compensate for emotional harm, pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life. Reached by Herald & Review Thursday afternoon, Watkins said his “claim basically speaks for itself.”

* SJ-R | Accusations of sexual abuse of a minor leveled against former Springfield Catholic bishop: A former Springfield Roman Catholic bishop has been accused of sexually abusing a minor according to one of several lawsuits brought against the St. Louis archdiocese and current Archbishop Mitchell T. Rozanski this week. Archbishop George Lucas, who served in Springfield from 1999 to 2009, was a priest and the dean of education at the St. Louis Preparatory Seminary School in the late 1980s when the alleged abuse occurred.

* WCIA | Deja vu? Canadian wildfire affects being felt in Central Illinois: Canadian wildfires are burning thousands of miles away, but the affects are starting to be felt here in Central Illinois. Air quality is getting worse from the smoke, and some people may want to be careful over the next few days.

*** National ***

* The Telegraph | The secret deal that plunged Rupert Murdoch into a family war: Although Succession has ended, the real-life battle for the Murdoch empire rages on: a decades-long tale of power, money, and internecine family rivalry that would make the Ancient Greeks blush. This week it has been revealed that Rupert Murdoch is embroiled in a secret legal battle with three of his children over the future of the business. At 93, it seems the old tycoon has lost none of his appetite for a fight, nor his willingness to line up with one of his children against the others.

* BOLTS | For Thousands of Georgians, Freely Traveling Across State Lines for an Abortion Is Not an Option: The near-total ban will severely constrict the reproductive choices of Georgians on probation and parole. Residents in this category who need an abortion will be faced with an impossible choice: giving birth and caring for a baby they do not want and likely cannot afford to raise, or traveling out of state for an abortion and risking a violation of their parole or probation conditions, which could land them back in prison.