* ICYMI: Thanks to your generosity, we’ve already raised over $26,000—a huge step toward making this holiday season brighter for those in need.

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Donate now. Let’s make this season unforgettable for everyone. Thank you for being part of this mission!

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* Daily Herald | Metra stays mum on pricey probe of police misconduct allegations: Facing troubling allegations including misconduct, racism, promiscuity and cronyism at the Metra Police Department, leaders authorized an investigation that ended up costing about $1.57 million. But the agency has stayed silent about what a small army of attorneys uncovered after spending months scrutinizing the department, which underwent major reforms a decade ago.

* Tribune | In Downers Grove, whether to elect library board exposes old political rifts: Two years after the Downers Grove library was forced to cancel a planned drag queen bingo over right-wing threats, leaders of the western suburb are considering a controversial proposal to replace the appointed members of the library board with an elected one. “This will tear our community apart for no reason,” warned resident Debbie Anderson Phillips at a recent emotionally charged library board meeting. “It will be an ugly, ugly, ugly fight.”

*** Statehouse News ***

* Capitol City Now | Helping women in prison: “When you incarcerate a woman, you incarcerate the whole family.” Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton says that’s what an inmate told her during a recent series of women’s prison tours. Stratton, along with Illinois First Lady MK Pritzker, want to improve conditions for women in prison, expand opportunities for them when they are released, and even try to keep them from becoming entangled in the system in the first place.

* Tribune | Gov. JB Pritzker calls for lawmakers to crack down on intoxicating hemp sales: The governor came out Friday in support of legislation that would set a minimum age of 21 to buy such products. It would require hemp companies to obtain licenses and test and label their products, similar to the requirements for legal marijuana. And it would ban copycat packaging that looks like common candy or snack brands.

*** Statewide ***

* WBBM | Illinois state insect heading towards threatened species status: Curator of entomology at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum Allen Lawrance says this was a bad year for monarch butterflies but points out they see big population swings from year to year. “It was another bad year for monarchs. So we’ve had a couple bad years in a row,” Notebaert said.

* Tribune | Intentionally weak government oversight gives Illinois public officials cover for corruption: Carol Pope lasted only about two years as the Illinois General Assembly’s inspector general before quitting in frustration. When Pope, whose job was to investigate allegations of wrongdoing by legislators and their staffers, asked for more autonomy amid a burgeoning corruption scandal in the legislature, lawmakers instead passed a law limiting her powers. The legislative inspector general “has no real power to effect change or shine a light on ethics violations,” Pope, a former state prosecutor and judge, wrote in a scathing resignation letter in 2021. “The position is essentially a paper tiger.”

*** Chicago ***

* CBS Chicago | Mayor Brandon Johnson abandoning $68.5 million property tax hike in latest bid for budget deal: The move comes as the mayor and aldermen have been spending the weekend working to negotiate a possible deal to end the budget impasse in time for a vote on Monday afternoon. The mayor’s team was holding briefings with alders on Sunday to discuss his latest plan. Sources said one new element of the effort to pass a budget deal on Monday includes the city cracking down on major sports teams and other venues in Chicago to reimburse the city for police overtime costs for special events. That would bring in an estimated $10 million for the city.

* Tribune | Plans to overhaul Chicago Union Station could take a step forward in 2025, but more money is needed: Long-running plans to revamp Chicago’s Union Station are poised to take a step forward in 2025, as Amtrak prepares to begin modernizing and boosting capacity at the commuter and intercity rail hub. But the construction marks only one step of Amtrak’s plans to overhaul parts of the station. The railroad, which owns Union Station, still needs to line up more funding for the rest of the work, a prospect that could face questions with a new presidential administration set to take office.

* AP | As Chicago Public School cut back on bus service, parents are turning to rideshare apps: Chicago Public Schools, the nation’s fourth-largest district, has significantly curbed bus service in recent years. It still offers rides for disabled and homeless students, in line with a federal mandate, but most families are on their own. Only 17,000 of the district’s 325,000 students are eligible for school bus rides.

* Block Club | The Good Wolf, From Little Bad Wolf Team, Offers ‘Refined’ Dining In Andersonville: The Good Wolf, 1547 W. Bryn Mawr Ave., brings “a more refined atmosphere, featuring high-end cocktails [and] an elevated shared plate menu” to the bustling Clark Street corridor, according to a statement from the restaurant. The menu includes small plates like cheese curds ($12), oysters ($4 each), carbonara ($17), Shrimp De Jonghe ($20) and Beef Wellington ($40).

* ABC Chicago | Spirit of Progress statue removed from fmr. Montogomery Ward building for repairs: The Spirit of Progress has been atop the former Montgomery Ward Administration Building since 1929 near the North Branch of the Chicago River. The building is now a condominium and the homeowner’s association is paying for the work to preserve the statue. They hope to have the Spirit of Progress, also known as Diana, to reinstalled next spring or summer.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Crain’s | East Coast investor spends $104M on two suburban shopping centers: Connecticut-based Hutensky Capital Partners paid $63.3 million for Bloomingdale Plaza, a 486,000-square-foot property in the DuPage County suburb, and $40.5 million for Lake View Plaza, a 359,000-square-foot retail center in Orland Park, according to property records and an announcement from real estate brokerage CBRE.

* WBEZ | Here are more than a dozen ways Cook County’s property tax system could be more fair: A common theme theme in the study is that communication between county Assessor Fritz Kaegi and the county Board of Review needs to improve. These two key county agencies help determine the fate of how much commercial property owners pay in taxes and how that burden shifts to struggling homeowners. Researchers found there’s a big gap in how much data these two agencies share to figure out how much a property is worth, leading to wild fluctuations in how much everyone in Cook County pays in taxes.

* Daily Herald | Donations pour in to ‘save lives,’ fund winter shelter for DuPage County’s homeless: DuPagePads has a street outreach team to check on people experiencing homelessness and help get them into a safe place to stay. Usually, there are around 20 to 25 people in that program. But in October, with cold weather approaching, the number “went way up,” reaching 103 at one point, DuPagePads President and CEO April Redzic said.

* Daily Herald | ‘A resilient nation’: Leaders stress importance of community at MLK Dinner: Organized by the Arlington Heights-based Illinois Commission on Diversity & Human Relations, the event in Palatine featured Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch as keynote speaker. “To me, a community is really about creating a sense of belonging,” he said. “That we’re a part of something larger than ourselves. The need for community is deeply rooted in our biology.”

* Sun-Times | Cook County official tried to ‘escape’ after alleged DUI crash in Andersonville, 911 caller said: The 911 caller and his partner told the Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ that Samantha Steele, a Democratic member of the Cook County Board of Review, tried to flee the scene of the Nov. 11 crash before police arrived — but her car was too damaged to drive.

*** Downstate ***

* WSIL | Senator Duckworth meets with transportation leaders in southern Illinois, secures funding for SI Airport: Duckworth met with Southern Illinois Airport Director Gary Shafer and secured $500,000 in federal funding recently for the Glenn Poshard Transportation Education Center. Duckworth toured the facility with SIU Chancellor Dr. Austin Lane and former U.S. Representative Glenn Poshard.

* Shawlocal | Oglesby voters to decide on change in city government on April ballot: A proposed change to Oglesby’s city government was given the go-ahead Thursday to be on the April ballot after a referendum petition was determined to have met requirements. During a hearing at the La Salle County Courthouse in Ottawa, Circuit Judge Jason A. Helland approved a petition that many Oglesby residents signed to seek a structural change in city government, opening the opportunity for the Oglesby City Council to hire a city manager to oversee its departments.

*** National ***

* NYT | Exxon Plans to Sell Electricity to Data Centers: The country’s largest oil company is designing a natural gas power plant outfitted with carbon capture technology to meet the voracious power demand of technology companies.

* EEF | New Email Scam Includes Pictures of Your House. Don’t Fall For It: Contrary to the claims in your email, you probably haven’t been hacked (or at least, that’s not what prompted that email). This is merely a new variation on an old scam —actually, a whole category of scams called “sextortion.” This is a type of online phishing that is targeting people around the world and preying on digital-age fears. It generally uses publicly available information or information from data breaches, not information obtained from hacking the recipients of the emails specifically, and therefore it is very unlikely the sender has any “incriminating” photos or has actually hacked your accounts or devices.

* The Atlantic | The Ozempic Flip-Flop: West Virginia gave obesity drugs to teachers and state employees—then took them away: In March, the state’s Public Employee Insurance Agency (PEIA) decided it could no longer bear the crushing costs of Wegovy and Zepbound. (These obesity drugs are sometimes better known by the brand names Ozempic and Mounjaro, respectively, which is how they are sold for diabetes.) In the months after, PEIA patients began running out of medication. They rationed their remaining supplies, stretching the weekly injections to 10 days, two weeks, even three weeks. They considered copycat compounded versions. One woman began sharing her diabetic mother’s Ozempic.