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* Tribune…

[Illinois] is in better shape to withstand a downturn than it was during either the 2007 Great Recession or the 2020 COVID recession, according to the joint study published Monday by the Illinois Economic Policy Institute and the Project for Middle Class Renewal at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

“No state in the nation is recession proof,” said report co-author Frank Manzo, an economist at the Illinois Economic Policy Institute, a La Grange-based nonpartisan research organization. “But Illinois is better positioned to overcome the challenges and withstand the forces that trigger recessions than at any point in recent history.”

The elimination of the general fund deficit and replenishing the state’s “rainy day” fund with $2 billion lead the list of post-pandemic improvements that should help Illinois weather a possible recession with a little less pain than the previous two, the study found.

Other improvements include a work-share program implemented in 2021 that allows employers to avoid layoffs by temporarily reducing workers’ hours while enabling them to receive pro-rated unemployment benefits.

*** Statehouse News ***

* WTVO | These new Illinois laws are going into effect on Jan. 1, 2025: So, starting January 1st, 2025, the Illinois minimum wage will be $15 an hour, according to the Illinois Department of Labor. Tipped workers will also see a minimum wage increase, from $8.40 an hour to $9 an hour. That’s thanks to a state law that says tipped workers must earn at least 60% of the state’s minimum wage.

* WBEZ | More Muslim girls are playing youth sports and celebrating their religion while doing it: In 2021, an Illinois law went into effect allowing students to freely wear hijabs, leggings and long sleeves without having to request a waiver from their school district. Muslim Civic Coalition president Dilara Sayeed, whose group helped draft the bill, said the change gives boys and girls in Illinois the chance “to play in uniforms that meet their faith traditions and not have to constantly be seeking approval to do it.” It was also around that time that a number of basketball leagues in the Chicago suburbs aimed at Muslim girls sprang up. Chaudhary, the coach who prayed with her players, started iDrive Faith + Athletics in suburban Woodridge in 2021 to teach young Muslim girls basketball. […] When she coached girls basketball at a suburban Islamic high school a decade ago, she said referees occasionally inspected the hijabs some of her players wore.

*** Statewide ***

* River Bender | Raoul Issues Statement On Appellate Court Opinion To Stay Injunction On Protect Illinois Communities Act: Attorney General Kwame Raoul today issued the following statement after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit stayed an injunction a district court entered regarding the Protect Illinois Communities Act. The stay will remain in place while the appeal is pending. “I am pleased the 7th Circuit has stayed the district court’s injunction. My office will continue to prosecute the appeal, and the Protect Illinois Communities Act remains the law of the land as the litigation is pending in the lower courts. The Protect Illinois Communities Act is an important tool to prevent weapons of war from being used in our schools and on our streets, and I am committed to defending its constitutionality.”

* WAND | IL Farm Bureau President Addresses Rift: At a Saturday afternoon news conference, IFB President Brian Duncan characterized AFBF’s move as demonstrating a preference for quantity of members over quality of member engagement. “By making this choice, AFBF is abandoning 70,000+ farmers over a decision that will ultimately benefit Illinois Farm Bureau, county farm bureaus and Illinois farmers,” Duncan said. “We believe we are taking steps to effectively grow our organization. Our plans are not only in numbers but both in value and influence of our farmer members.”

*** Chicago ***

* Chicago | Game of Zones: So why is it so hard to build multifamily housing here? There isn’t a single culprit, but a big one is the city’s zoning laws. As of 2023, 41 percent of Chicago’s land was zoned for single-family residential, according to the Metropolitan Planning Council, a nonprofit policy group. A change to allow more units requires rezoning approval, a multistep process that includes a review by the Department of Planning and Development, a public meeting, and zoning committee approval before a full City Council vote. Then there’s aldermanic prerogative, the unwritten but prevalent practice of granting alderpersons final say over decisions in theirs wards, including zoning changes.

* Bloomberg | Lyft Urges Chicago Riders to Ask City Hall to Reject New Tax: “The Chicago City Council is considering another tax on rideshare,” according to an email Lyft sent to Chicago riders on Thursday. “If passed, riders like you may face price increases. On top of high costs of living and inflation, this is the last thing riders in Chicago need.” A spokeswoman for the city’s budget department, LaKesha Gage-Woodard, declined to comment on the proposed ordinance or Lyft’s stance, given the city is in the midst of budget negotiations.

* WBEZ | Axing a guaranteed income program to fill the city’s budget hole will cost Chicago long-term, advocates say: As the mayor’s administration works toward a budget deal, about $30 million in COVID-19 relief funds set aside for the Chicago Empowerment Fund is on the chopping block. A coalition of formerly incarcerated residents, immigrants and advocates urged the mayor and City Council members to keep the guaranteed income program in the budget at a City Hall news conference. “Shame, shame, shame on the City Council; shame on our mayor,” said Richard Wallace, executive director of Equity and Transformation (EAT), a group focused on helping returning citizens on the West Side. “We got commitment from the city that this pilot was going to be in the budget in 2025 and for us to find out that this program is slowly but surely getting pushed out, it was something that we could not sleep with.”

* Sun-Times | David Perry, urban planner with a passion for strengthening Chicago neighborhoods, dies at 82: David Perry, a longtime urban planner and Chicago professor who focused on strengthening cities and making urban spaces serve residents, has died at age 82. He died Dec. 2 at home following a long illness, his family said. Mr. Perry was the director of the Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois Chicago for nearly 12 years. He was also an urban planning and policy professor at UIC and served as associate chancellor for the Great Cities Commitment. He retired from the university in 2018.

* Block Club | North Side Businesses Struggle Amid Burglary Surge: ‘How Is This Sustainable?’: The Oct. 17 break-in at 2D was the third in 10 months, the couple said. The employee who alerted them — a 19-year-old recent transplant to Chicago, already traumatized from previous break-ins — later quit. That experience, and those early-morning phone calls, have become common for restaurant owners across the city, especially in commercially dense North Side neighborhoods where popular restaurants and bars abound — and burglaries have spiked this year. The stream of news reports and stories from business owners about repeated break-ins has yet to slow down, leaving many frustrated, tired and, in the words of one veteran restaurateur, “numb.”

* Block Club | How Former Bull Joakim Noah Is Building Community — And Preventing Violence — Through Basketball: Basketball has allowed former Chicago Bulls star Joakim Noah to travel the world and compete at the highest level while giving back. But it is his time in Chicago — and the connections he made in the city — that have most informed his charitable work in violence prevention. Noah’s One City Basketball League hosted its third championship tournament Saturday at Wendell Phillips Academy High School, 244 E. Pershing Road. The league, composed of boys and young men ages 16-25, promotes violence prevention and conflict resolution. It also includes programs to develop life skills such as financial literacy and career readiness. Players are paid $50 per game.

* Block Club | Shedd Aquarium’s Wonder Of Water Replaces 53-Year-Old Exhibit — And Gives Lake Life Some Love: Shedd Aquarium’s newest exhibit, “Wonder of Water,” opens to the public Tuesday, replacing the long-running Caribbean Reef exhibit in the museum’s historic rotunda. When the aquarium opened in 1930, the rotunda featured a swamp ecosystem exhibit. In 1971, it was updated to the Caribbean Reef, showcasing tropical fish, stingrays and sharks. Wonder of Water, the latest iteration, includes two massive, 28,110-gallon tanks featuring saltwater and freshwater ecosystems, uniting the parallel worlds for side-by-side discovery.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Daily Southtown | Jim Dodge to stay on ballot as challenger to Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau after objection pulled: Jim Dodge will remain on the ballot as candidate for Orland Park village president against incumbent Keith Pekau after an objection to his nominating papers was withdrawn Monday. Dodge said he plans a lawsuit to recoup legal expenses he incurred defending the challenge. John Hartmann filed a challenge to Dodge’s nominating petitions to challenge Pekau, claiming paperwork by Dodge, a former village trustee, is confusing as to whether he’s running for mayor or village president, although the terms are often using interchangeably.

* Daily Herald | ‘A completely different look’: $4 million streetscape improvement planned for downtown Lake Zurich: Over the last two years, the village has been replacing old water mains, sanitary sewers and other structures in the area and will be moving above ground as the next focus in the Main Street corridor. As planned, Main Street from Lake to Church streets will be rebuilt as part of a streetscape project to include new landscaping, parking, sidewalks, crosswalks, seating and enhanced signage.

* Shaw Local | Fluoride in the water: Some on McHenry City Council question its presence in city system: “It seems like a hindrance to everybody involved,” Koch added. “I don’t know exactly the reasons … drinking this fluoridated water, breaking down of your immune system. I want to get rid of it,” [Alderman Michael Koch] said. Koch may to be referring to another study from the journal Frontiers in Immunology and found on the National Institute of Health’s National Library of Medicine Website. That study states: “Excessive fluoride intake in water may induce immunosuppression, decreasing the number of immune cells and damaging the immune function of the thymus.” That study refers to levels in excess of 2.4 mg for children 8 to 16 years that it said “may lead to … adverse health effects. Those levels are notably higher than what’s in the local water systems.

* Lake County News-Sun | Lake County has almost 10K lead water pipes; ‘It’s a known toxin’: While Lake County Public Works’ water system is almost entirely lead-free, there are more than 9,800 reported lead service lines in the county, according to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. Catherine Game is executive director of the Brushwood Center, an environmental justice and health equity nonprofit. Last year, Game said the group released a report on Lake County looking at the intersection of environmental health and social determinants of health. Communities have been impacted by a “kind of legacy of pollution and lead pipes,” she said.

*** Downstate ***

* Press Release | Illinois researchers to kick off new phase of program to explore space-based manufacturing: What is being billed as the most exciting phase of a space manufacturing project called Mission Illinois is set to kick off this month. The project is currently gearing up to send a specialized construction apparatus to the International Space Station to demonstrate space-based or on-orbit manufacturing during the summer of 2026. The mission is backed by four and a half years of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency-funded research in space materials, manufacturing and structural design at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

* SJ-R | ‘A heart of gold’: Clyde Bunch, who served on the county board for 46 years, dead at 88: Clyde Bunch, who was first elected to the Sangamon County Board in 1978 and was recognized as the longest-serving county board member in Illinois, died at Bridge Care Suites in Springfield on Dec. 3. He was 88. Bunch was one of eight Democrats to serve on the 29-member board. He represented District 21, which encompasses the south-central part of Springfield.

* WGIL | Meet Kristi Mindrup, the new and first female president of Western Illinois University: Mindrup has served as WIU’s interim president since April 2024. Prior to that, she served as the Vice President for Quad Cities Campus Operations. Mindrup brings 27 years of experience in higher education, focused on organizational leadership, strategic planning, academic affairs, student services program and partnership development, inclusive campus environments and campus operations. Mindrup also provided leadership for the planning and establishment of the WIU Quad Cities Riverfront Campus in Moline.

* BND | Beyond mayoral challenge, three other Belleville city races will be competitive: Four races for Belleville city offices will be competitive in the consolidated election on April 1, 2025. Mayor Patty Gregory is being challenged by City Clerk Jenny Meyer, who announced her candidacy in late August. In early September, Gregory confirmed her intention to seek a second term. Teacher and Ward 5 Alderwoman Shelly Schaefer will compete for the vacated city clerk’s position against newly elected St. Clair County Board of Review member Irma Golliday.

* PJ Star | Small-town bond between an Illinois football player and injured boy near Peoria: Wettstein was 14 when he suffered an all-terrain vehicle accident on on Aug. 25, 2024, leaving him hospitalized with head injuries. He has endured multiple surgeries and traveled to Chicago for therapy in what has been an ongoing long road to recovery. […] The 6-foot-1, 215-pound Duley arrived at Hank Wettstein’s house and presented him with another No. 31 jersey and a card signed by the Illini team. And he gave him the gift of time together.

*** National ***

* NYT | Most Rural Hospitals Have Closed Their Maternity Wards, Study Finds: Over 500 hospitals have closed their labor and delivery departments since 2010, according to a large new study, leaving most rural hospitals and more than a third of urban hospitals without obstetric care. Those closures, the study found, were slightly offset by the opening of new units in about 130 hospitals. Even so, the share of hospitals without maternity wards increased every year, according to the study, published on Wednesday in JAMA, a prominent medical journal. Maternal deaths remained persistently high over that period, spiking during the pandemic.

* OPB | AI slop is already invading Oregon’s local journalism: The Ashland Daily Tidings — established as a newspaper in 1876 — ceased operations in 2023, but if you were a local reader, you may not have known. Almost as soon as it closed, a website for the Tidings reemerged, boasting a team of eight reporters, Minihane included, who cranked out densely reported stories every few days. And those reporters were covering a lot more than local news. They dove into Oregon’s fentanyl crisis (“Measure 110 might be in for a repeal”), homelessness in Eugene (“All In Lane County homeless program delivers impressive results”), and the food scene in Portland (“The fourth best burger in the U.S. is in Portland”) — essentially any issue that might draw attention from Oregonians. The reality was that none of the people allegedly working for the Ashland Daily Tidings existed, or at least were who they claimed to be. The bylines listed on Daily Tidings articles were put there by scammers using artificial intelligence, and in some cases stolen identities, to dupe local readers.

* Semafor | Dem governors keep their powder dry on Trump at Governors Association meeting: Most of them gathered in Beverly Hills for the Democratic Governors Association’s post-election meeting; none were ready to join Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Colorado’s Jared Polis’ promised coalition against the threat of “autocracy.” New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy told Semafor he congratulated Donald Trump after the election and “invited him to cut the ribbon” on a project he approved that got built in the Biden administration.