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* ICYMI: In rare caucus, Tiffany Henyard loses Thornton Township nomination. WGN…

- Tiffany Henyard lost the Democratic nomination for Thornton Township supervisor Tuesday night, paving a path toward losing one of her two political positions.
- Thornton Township’s Democratic Party held a caucus instead of a primary election for the first time in decades.
- As Democratic Party committeeman, Sen. Napoleon Harris alone holds the right to decide whether to have a primary election or a caucus.
- As of now, Sen. Harris will be among five supervisor candidates on the ballot April 1.

* Related stories…

∙ Tribune: State Sen. Napoleon Harris blocks Tiffany Henyard to claim Democratic nomination for Thornton Township supervisor
∙ ABC Chicago: Tiffany Henyard denied place on ballot to stay on as Thornton Township supervisor
∙ WGN: “A raucous caucus” seeks to determine if Tiffany Henyard can seek re-election in Thornton Township
∙ CBS Chicago: Tiffany Henyard denied place on ballot to stay on as Thornton Township, Illinois supervisor
∙ Lansing Journal: Dems oust Henyard at rare, thunderous caucus
∙ WGN: ‘They can’t beat me’: In rare caucus, Tiffany Henyard loses Thornton Township nomination
∙ Fox Chicago: ‘You can’t do stuff like this’: Tiffany Henyard, her supporters claim they were cheated in caucus

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* STL Today | Illinois among 9 states poised to immediately cut Medicaid rolls if federal funding drops: With Donald Trump’s return to the White House and Republicans taking full control of Congress in 2025, the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion is back on the chopping block. More than 3 million adults in nine states would be at immediate risk of losing their health coverage should the GOP reduce the extra federal Medicaid funding that’s enabled states to widen eligibility, according to KFF, a health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News, and the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. That’s because the states have trigger laws that would swiftly end their Medicaid expansions if federal funding falls.

* A City That Works | Chicago’s state capacity crisis: City government is being slowly strangled by layers of process that have accumulated over decades. Many of these constraints are well intentioned correctives to past misdeeds. Anti-corruption checks are important, affordable housing should be high-quality, and accountable policing is fundamental to long-term public safety. But without any effort to rationalize the constraints we continue to add, we have a crisis of state capacity: a government unable to get things done.

* WBEZ | Chicago is closing its biggest tent city, but comes up short on promised apartments: Homeless advocates are praising Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration and the local City Council member for coming up with the apartments; they’re also urging them to scrap the plan to remove any tent dwellers who remain. Meanwhile, the people who aren’t getting an apartment are wondering why. […] City officials say they found 63 units for people in Humboldt Park’s encampment. They say that’s the most ever for a Chicago tent city. […] Patricia Nix-Hodes, who heads the law project of the Chicago Coalition to End Homelessness, said there is an issue more basic than who gets offered an apartment.

*** Statehouse News ***

* WGEM | New Illinois law will require employers include salary range on job postings: Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) signed the legislation in 2023 amending the state’s Equal Pay Act of 2003. It will require employers with 15 or more employees to include the job’s pay scale and expected benefits in all postings. “This is kind of making it clear that there is transparency around those things. People are going to work to provide for their families. They have a right to know how they’re going to be making if they get chosen for that position,” said Frances Orenic with the Illinois AFL-CIO.

* STLPR | Illinois warehouses should be built with storm shelters, state task force recommends: The recommendation for storm shelters would require that they be built specifically for tornadoes based on the size and occupancy of a warehouse. It would amend a section of the state’s International Building Code requirements. “I don’t like the idea of encouraging safety. I like the idea of requiring safety,” said state Rep. Katie Stuart, D-Edwardsville, who made the storm shelter recommendation. “We’re talking about deaths that happened in my district, and I take that very seriously. So, I think to require safety is something that we should all want to do as a body.”

*** Statewide ***

* Tribune | EPA watchdog: Undeserving Florida getting millions for lead pipe replacement while Illinois, other states have bigger needs: During the past two years the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency gave Florida the largest share of funding set aside by Congress to replace lead service lines. The Sunshine State got $483 million, compared with $471 million sent to Illinois, even though several of Florida’s big water utilities told the agency’s inspector general the toxic pipes don’t exist in their service areas. Florida will double its take during the next two years if the EPA fails to fix the problem, the inspector general concluded.

*** Chicago ***

Before Ronnie Reese was fired, Mayor Brandon Johnson texted CTU’s Stacy Davis Gates: "Ronnie! Call me. Message from the Elders." CTU says she didn’t respond. City Hall won’t explain text. Mayor says he didn’t learn of misconduct until later https://t.co/eI50xVtvM5 pic.twitter.com/6WdVeGK8zf

— Gregory Royal Pratt (@royalpratt) December 4, 2024

* Crain’s | City Council puts do-not-hire policy under a microscope in wake of mayor’s press office shakeup: Standing before four former employees of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s communications team who were placed on the do-not-hire list after being fired by their former boss, Ronnie Reese, Ald. Scott Waguespack, 32nd, and Ald. Gilbert Villegas, 36th, said during a news conference outside City Hall today that they plan to push for an easier appeal process for those who believe they were unfairly placed on the list.

* Crain’s | CPS needs to plug a huge financial hole — but where will it find the funds?: Chicago Public Schools invested its federal dollars largely in hiring. But while students’ test scores rose, those federal funds are running out. Here’s how the school district got into a financial hole, what its options are and how this impacts an already messy budget.

🚨 UPDATE ON BARGAINING 🚨

CTU has presented a roadmap to settlement with CPS! This pathway focuses on the transformation our schools need and includes:

✅ Fair pay for all educators.
✅ Expanded staffing to meet student needs.
✅ More arts, music, and sports access for… pic.twitter.com/0xWhNUDOqW

— Chicago Teachers Union (@CTULocal1) December 4, 2024

* Tribune | Mayor Brandon Johnson tells City Club he wants Chicago under 500 homicides in 2025: Johnson floated the benchmark — which has not been achieved since 2015 — during a City Club of Chicago speech, after noting this year’s drop in homicides and shootings. The mayor’s remarks to the lunch crowd of business types and politicos also leaned heavily on his racial identity and faith as he sought to recast the narrative on his rocky year-and-a-half leading the nation’s third-largest city.

* WBEZ | Chicago election officials want more voting sites, as alderpersons float agency consolidation: During the board’s annual budget hearing Tuesday, several alderpersons raised the need to consolidate the Chicago Board of Elections with the Cook County Clerk’s Office. The budget watchdog The Civic Federation and a collaborative of county and city officials had previously recommended the move more than a decade ago, with officials estimating annual savings between $5 million and $10 million.

* Tribune | Pennsylvania-based Yuengling, the oldest brewery in America, is bringing its beer to Chicago: Beginning late next month, beer drinkers can be on the lookout for Yuengling at Chicago-area bars, as the historic family-owned East Coast brewery continues its slow expansion westward into the land of Old Style. Yuengling beers will also make their way onto store shelves in the weeks that follow, ending years of waiting for Illinois fans, some of whom take regular interstate journeys to fill their trunks with cases of the stuff.

* Crain’s | Here’s how one of Chicago’s restaurant meat suppliers is using AI: The orders would come in from dining spots throughout the city: Lonesome Rose in Logan Square and The Bellevue in the Gold Coast, as well as catering companies, pizza joints and taverns. An employee at one of those restaurants would place an order with Northwest Meat for their chicken breast or sirloin steak for the next day. Then someone — usually co-owner Andrew Neva, his father or one of their office employees — would plug those orders into their own system, one by one, to be filled by their West Loop warehouse workers. It was tedious. It took hours. It required intimate knowledge of the meat company’s 1,300 different products. And it usually happened in the evening — a time when few employees are keen to sit back down at their computer.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* WBEZ | Cook County is launching a free doula program for pregnant patients: Nearly 1,000 mostly Black or Latina patients at Cook County Health are currently pregnant, and they will be offered a choice to have a doula support and advocate for them before, during and after labor. “This program is a direct response to the stark and unacceptable disparities in maternal health that have plagued Black women for far too long,” said County Commissioner Donna Miller, who spearheaded the initiative.

* PJ Star | Illinois is home to the most expensive home in all of Christmas movies: Cinch Home Services used home value data from Zillow to explore the average home prices in neighborhoods that star in some of the top Christmas movies. The McCallister house, located on Lincoln Avenue in Winnetka, Illinois, and featured in the “Home Alone” franchise, is in a neighborhood where the average home price is $1,565,804. The McCallister house is a spacious residence that often sparks curiosity due to its impressive size. At approximately 4,250 square feet, it is a large Georgian-style home with three floors, a spacious attic, five bedrooms, and four bathrooms. Earlier in 2024, the home actually went on the market for $5.25 million — well above the amount of the average home in the neighborhood.

* Daily Herald | Gould resigns as Rolling Meadows football coach: Gould, who was the Bears’ kicker from 2005 through 2015 while becoming the team’s all-time leading scorer, was named the ninth head football coach in Rolling Meadows history when he was hired in February. Gould inherited a program that failed to reach the playoffs the previous two seasons after going 2-7 in 2023 and 4-5 the year before. The Mustangs had qualified in 17 of the 18 previous seasons.

*** Downstate ***

* PJ Star | More than 500 workers furloughed at Liberty Steel in Peoria, union says: Liberty Steel is temporarily shuttering its Peoria wire mill as the company continues to struggle financially, facing deep debts around the globe amid a challenging steel market. The company has furloughed over 500 employees at its Peoria facility, according to the union representing workers.

* SJ-R | Springfield alderman: Clerk ‘hindering’ city business by not resigning: Gregory, who went through his own close election with Gail Simpson to gain his seat in 2019, told Lesko “the people, county and city, they need 100% of you. They don’t need 50% (on the city side) and 50% on the county side. This is about the city of Springfield continuing on our business and you having to do two jobs at one time.” Frank Lesko is sworn in as Sangamon County Recorder by Circuit Court Presiding Judge Ryan Cadagin at a ceremony at the county complex on Dec. 2, 2024. “We’re about to come up on budget season. We have to do interviews (for your vacancy), figure out that process and you’re hindering us, bro.”

*** National ***

* Nieman Lab | There’s now a way for journalists to verify their Bluesky accounts through their employers (while still keeping control of them): On Bluesky, an account gets verified by connecting it to a web domain under the user’s control. For example, my account there is @joshuabenton.com, because I put a little piece of code on that domain name, which I own. Bluesky checked that little snippet of code and determined that I am me. For news organizations — or any other online publisher or brand — this means it’s easy to skip past the spoofable @mynewsorgname.bsky.social and become @nytimes.com, @cnn.com, @propublica.org, @time.com, or @npr.org. And if you’re a reporter who owns your own domain name — something I’d highly recommend! — the process is fiddly but doable in minutes.

* Fox Chicago | Indiana residents could see sharp increase in electric bills: Residents in Indiana may soon see a sharp increase in their electric bills, with monthly costs expected to rise by an estimated $32 to $45. NIPSCO is seeking approval for a 22% electric rate hike, which would further increase the already highest power costs in the state.

* Sun-Times | Rahm Emanuel ‘not interested’ in DNC chair, but far from done with politics: The former mayor, now U.S. ambassador to Japan, would not rule out another run for elective office — governor, U.S. senator or mayor of Chicago — even though he fully expects Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker to seek a third term. Emanuel plans to support Pritzker “100%” if he runs again.