* Scenes from Governors Day…

.@ChrisWelch_JD says Illinois has "proven that a better future is always possible" after years of trouble.
He ties that into Harris' candidacy saying Democrats choose to lead with love while others pick hate #twill https://t.co/kZyzWNBzGk

— Ben Szalinski (@BenSzalinski) August 14, 2024

Today’s featured speaker, Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval, shouts out @capitolfax who allegedly said “I've never heard of him, but I guess we'll see,” noting the 2018 @ILDCCA brunch’s keynote was supposed to be Joe Biden but he got sick so an unknown “Mayor Pete” filled the role. pic.twitter.com/oRYR0jDKbS

— Hannah Meisel (@hannahmeisel) August 14, 2024

Governor’s Day at the Illinois State Fair.
“Next week we’re gonna show America what Illinois Democrats are all about,” @JBPritzker says, building excitement for the DNC inc Chicago starting Monday #twill pic.twitter.com/h5RX8TSE8x

— Ben Szalinski (@BenSzalinski) August 14, 2024

Just under 200 people from 49 countries became naturalized U.S. Citizens at a ceremony today at the Orr Building. #twill pic.twitter.com/ldWwD3UJpZ

— Patrick M. Keck (@pkeckreporter) August 14, 2024

* Invisible Institute…

Today the Invisible Institute, a journalism non-profit based on the South Side of Chicago, launched the third major update to their online data project of misconduct complaint records, CPDP.co. The database, the first and largest of its kind in the country, holds more than a quarter million allegations of misconduct by Chicago Police from 1988-2023. Of the 259,865 allegations made against Chicago Police, only 8% were disciplined.

Now included on the site are more than 1,500 settlements and successful lawsuits filed against the Chicago Police, dating from 2011 through 2019. Shared through a partnership with The Chicago Reporter, which originally published settlement data on their “Settling for Misconduct” project, reporters at The Chicago Reporter and the Invisible Institute cleaned the updated data together. Altogether, these cases total nearly $500 million in police settlements.

“Access to this kind of information about police in Chicago matters,” said Andrew Fan, executive director at the Invisible Institute. “Thousands of people use CPDP every year, including organizers, lawyers, and journalists, and everyday Chicagoans who have encounters with the police. We’re excited to be able to expand access to essential public records for everyone in the city.”

Designed to serve as a national model of transparency and accountability in law enforcement, the Civic Police Data Project is the product of a decades-long collaboration with the University of Chicago Law School’s Mandel Legal Aid Clinic. The Invisible Institute released the first iteration of the site in 2015, as a result of successful litigation in Kalven v. City of Chicago (2014), which established that police misconduct records are public in Illinois. The last major data update to the site was in 2018, and its revamped desktop and mobile officer lookup tool proved especially useful during protests in the summer of 2020, as activists on the ground searched officers’ names.

Initial findings, based on data added from 2018 - 2023, include:

- More than 12,000 new allegations have been published to the site.Additionally, complete underlying documents containing complaint narratives have been added to the site for complaints made between 2011 - 2015.

- Since 2018, only 5% of CPD officers have six or more complaints. These officers are responsible for more than 30% of all CPD complaints. This includes Officer Enrique Delgado Fernandez who, at 43 complaints filed since 2018, leads in misconduct allegations. In 2023, footage was published by activist Will Calloway of Delgado Fernandez beating a detainee inside a police station.

- Chicago Police filed more than 28,000 use of force reports between 2017 and mid-2023. CPD’s own data shows that while reports fell sharply between 2020 and 2022, in 2023 they rose to close to 5,000 – nearly level with the number of use of force reports officers were filing before the consent decree.

- Officers with seven or more use of force reports make up just 5% of CPD officers but account for more than 36% of all Tactical Response Reports (TRRs) since 2018. Use of force is self-reported by Chicago Police and there are indications that officers do not file reports with the same consistency. For example, our data contains more than 300 officers who, since 2018, have at least one more complaint for excessive use of force than they have reported using force.

* Chris Ridgeway covered CTA Board of Directors meeting for Chicago Documenters…

*** Statewide ***

* SJ-R | Could problem gambling be a growing problem in Illinois? Calls to helpline skyrocket: Halfway through 2024, Illinois residents contacted the helpline 15,998 times and were on pace to contact the helpline 23% more times than last year. Illinois Council on Problem Gambling Executive Director David Wohl said it makes sense that we are seeing an uptick in problem gambling as the sports betting industry explodes , slot machines have become ubiquitous across the state and new casinos open.

* WAND | New law calls for independent study of Illinois property tax system: State and local leaders have previously created commissions and task forces to study property taxes, but those groups failed to appropriately study the issue. […] The law will allow the Illinois Department of Revenue and Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity to evaluate the fairness of property taxes across the levy, assessment, appeal and collection process.

* WMBD | Illinois cracks top 5 states for most Olympic medals: The Sports Geek compiled a list of medals by state, and Illinois ranked #4 in the country for most medals won with 17. […] Delving deeper, Illinois took home six medals in volleyball, three in swimming, two in football and basketball and one each in artistic gymnastics, rugby 7’s, rowing and wrestling.

*** DNC ***

* NYT | As Democrats Gather in Chicago, These Audiobooks Offer Context: Never one to tread lightly, Norman Mailer once declared Chicago “the great American city.” It did not strive, he argued, to New York’s global status, yet it managed to outshine “the dull diamonds in the smog of Eastern Megalopolis,” as Mailer derided Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C. The Brooklyn-bred literary pugilist made this pronouncement in 1968 as he blew into town for that summer’s Democratic National Convention. Mailer had just been in Miami, where the Republicans trotted out a baby elephant and nominated Richard M. Nixon without much drama.

* Crain’s | The DNC party invite is giving some Chicago C-suites heartburn: A close ally of Mayor Brandon Johnson has caused confusion among corporate donors by soliciting significant contributions to a political nonprofit that was planning to throw a week’s worth of celebrations during the Democratic National Convention. Insurance executive Charles Smith, whom Johnson tapped as co-chair of World Business Chicago, has been asking individuals and companies in recent weeks to contribute between $5,000 to $500,000 to GoChiLife, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, in an effort to host five events during the convention, kicking off with a welcome party at the Adler Planetarium featuring a performance by Common. The mayor’s potential presence was touted on invitations for some of the GoChiLife events.

* Crain’s | Ahead of DNC, Chicago’s trauma centers contend with dwindling blood supply: An emergency blood shortage is creating tense times at area hospitals, and with the Democratic National Convention looming, one transfusion department specialist hopes logistics don’t also get in the way.

*** Chicago ***

* Sun-Times | Johnson working to oust CPS chief executive, sources say: Martinez’s departure, which has not yet been finalized, would come after he clashed with the mayor’s office and Chicago Teachers Union leaders over how to address a massive budget deficit and historical underfunding of the school system. Those disagreements have led to increasingly tense contract negotiations with the teachers union, which has directed its ire squarely at Martinez in recent weeks.

* Tribune | ‘The same battle from the very beginning’: After almost 30 years of redevelopment, some Henry Horner Homes residents say they face inadequate housing: With construction underway on the final set of replacement units, CHA submitted a motion in October 2023 to officially end the consent decree after almost three decades of redevelopment. Yet lawyers for the Horner plaintiffs argue that CHA has not fulfilled a key obligation under the decree, due to their alleged neglect of the newly built or renovated units. Many in the Horner community claim to have spent years warding off severe maintenance issues such as flooding, mold, sewage leaks, rotting floors, malfunctioning heating and infestations.

* Sun-Times | 13-year-old boy killed in Edgewater remembered as a ‘great kid’ who ’smiled all day’: Shawn Childs, Ashawn’s uncle and founder of the anti-violence groups House of Hope Foundation and No Kids Die in the Chi, said his nephew was put in tough situations growing up around gangs and violence. “He was a regular kid. He was what you would call the average kid trying to find his way,” Childs said, adding that Ashawn had never been in trouble.

* Sun-Times | Family pushes for rail safety after death of young journalist at Far South Side station: Bentkowski, 22, was only months into her career as a creative producer at NewsNation downtown and was days away from signing a lease for an apartment in Chicago when she was struck and killed by a train July 25 on her commute home to Dyer, Indiana. She had just stepped off a train at the Hegewisch South Shore station and was headed toward the parking lot when she was struck by another train leaving the platform. […] O’Neill said he and Bentkowski’s father were shown video of the incident and were shocked to find the train that struck her hadn’t sounded its whistle until after it had started moving.

* Tribune | 5 questions for the Chicago Sky after the Olympic break, who will fill Marina Mabrey’s shoes: The Chicago Sky return to action Thursday, hosting the Phoenix Mercury after nearly a month between games amid the WNBA’s Olympic break. Thursday’s game will feature a homecoming for Kahleah Copper, who won a gold medal with the United States on Sunday. It will also be the debut of a new-look roster for the Sky after a rare midseason trade during the break, which sent former shooting guard Marina Mabrey to the Connecticut Sun in exchange for Rachel Banham and Moriah Jefferson.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Daily Herald | Back to school: Why several suburban districts are getting an increase in state funding: As the new school year begins, the state is spreading $8.6 billion in education funding across districts statewide — a nearly $2 billion increase from the $6.8 billion it doled out when the law first was enacted for the 2018-19 school year. According to the Illinois State Board of Education, which announced funding allotments earlier this month, every school district in the state will see an increase in evidence-based funding this school year. The amounts vary district by district with under-resourced districts, or those in Tier 1, getting a larger slice of the funding pie than fully-funded Tier 3 and Tier 4 districts.

* Daily Herald | ‘This is horse abuse’: Palatine park board votes to rehouse Palatine Stables’ horses: Park commissioners voted 4-1 at Monday’s meeting to declare as surplus property and relocate the park district’s 12 horses and 15 ponies. The ordinance calls for the relocation to occur by donation or “the most humane course of action based on veterinarian recommendation.”

*** Downstate ***

* Press release | U of I-led project to assess whether financial help prevents repeated child maltreatment: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign social work professor Will Schneider is leading a team of national experts in exploring the efficacy of temporary economic support at preventing the recurrence of child maltreatment in Illinois families. The Empower Parenting with Resources project includes 800 families who were referred by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services to receive services for allegations of child maltreatment. All of those in the study are participants in the Brightpoint social services agency’s Intact Family Services program, which strives to keep families together whenever safe to do so while connecting them with needed resources such as behavioral and mental health care and parenting classes.

* WCIA | Union Pacific ‘Big Boy’ coming to Central Illinois: Union Pacific is sending its “Big Boy” engine — the world’s largest operational steam locomotive — on a tour across 10 states, including Illinois. The best chance to see the Big Boy up close will be in the Northern Illinois town of Rochelle on Sept. 8, but there will be “whistle stops” and other viewing opportunities in East-Central Illinois.

* SJ-R | New business will bring food from Illinois State Fair to your home: In a modern age where Netflix doesn’t need a DVD box, kitchens can operate under different names as ghost restaurants and COVID has irreparably changed the course of the decade – a group of business-savvy entrepreneurs are bringing the fair directly to your doorstep – DoorDash style. Meet Fair Dash, the online delivery and pickup service sending fair food to doors so you can skip the lines and the $20 admission and parking.

*** National ***

* AP | US inflation slowed again in July, clearing the way for the Fed to begin cutting rates: Wednesday’s report from the Labor Department showed that consumer prices rose just 0.2% from June to July after dropping slightly the previous month for the first time in four years. Measured from a year earlier, prices rose 2.9%, down from 3% in June. It is the mildest year-over-year inflation figure since March 2021.