* Background is here if you need it. Illinois Commerce Commission…

Today, the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) approved Commonwealth Edison’s refiled multi-year grid plan (2024-2027) with modifications. The Commission approved $3.3 billion in investments and system improvements needed to strengthen power grid reliability and support the ongoing electrification of the state’s power system. The decision cut the utility’s proposed $4.5 billion in spending by approximately 25 percent.

The Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA) required the state’s largest investor-owned electric utilities to file grid plans designed to accelerate progress toward Illinois’ clean energy goals and hold electric companies accountable for their performance.

“After extensive review, the Commission is confident that both ComEd and Ameren have the tools necessary to make needed investments to drive the clean energy transition and continue modernizing Illinois’ electric grid. These plans are a key component to meeting the goals of CEJA and represent significant improvement in meeting its requirements,” said ICC Chairman Doug Scott. “The investments approved today will deliver significant benefits to the utilities’ customers in an affordable, cost-effective manner.”

ComEd was required to refile its grid plan earlier this year after the ICC rejected the utility’s initial proposal in 2023, finding the original plan failed to comply with several consumer affordability and environmental justice components of CEJA.

* Attorney General Kwame Raoul…

Attorney General Kwame Raoul is warning Illinois residents seeking to purchase GLP-1 medications – including Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound – to be aware that many sellers advertising these name brand medications are instead offering unapproved versions of these products that may put people’s health at risk. Raoul is strongly urging people to obtain prescriptions for GLP-1 medications from a trusted health care provider and to fill those prescriptions at an appropriately-licensed pharmacy.

Attorney General Raoul is warning consumers about misleading advertising by med spas, wellness centers, online retailers and social media sellers that states or implies they are offering name brand GLP-1 medications or generic versions of name brand medications, when in reality they are offering compounded drugs. Compounded drugs are not the same as generic drugs. They are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as they are often produced on site and by prescription for individual patients who are unable to take a drug in its FDA-approved form. However, when a drug is in short supply, the FDA allows certain larger pharmacies to use the active ingredient in that drug to produce compounded versions of the drug in order to meet public demand. The FDA does not review compounded drugs for safety, quality or effectiveness, however, and these drugs may pose health risks.

“Millions of Americans are looking for help losing weight, and for reasons ranging from the costs to the availability of prescription drugs, they are looking for alternate means of buying what can be lifesaving medications,” Raoul said. “This month, my office issued cease and desist letters calling on five med spas to stop using language that misleads consumers about the products they are purchasing. With scammers and bad actors marketing untested products using brand names, it is critical that consumers obtain prescriptions for GLP-1 medications from their health care providers and fill them at a licensed pharmacy.”

According to Raoul, unscrupulous sellers are also making misleading health claims and promoting GLP-1 products in formulations that have not been evaluated by regulatory agencies or tested in humans at all, such as drops, skin patches and nasal sprays. The FDA has issued warnings to try to stop the distribution of illegal versions of GLP-1 products. Some GLP-1 medications are being sold directly to consumers without prescriptions or are research-only products that should never be used by humans.

* Bloomberg…

In recent months, the United Auto Workers reached an agreement with Rivian Automotive Inc. that would make it easier to unionize the company’s workforce — contingent on the electric-vehicle maker ever reaching profitability.

Under Rivian and the UAW’s confidential pact, the automaker would adopt a neutral stance toward efforts to organize workers at its Illinois factory where its vehicles are made, according to people familiar with the matter. The neutrality commitment will only take effect once the company reaches certain criteria including profitability metrics, said the people, who didn’t elaborate on what those metrics were and spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the private terms.

The previously unreported neutrality commitment could help pave the way for the UAW to organize workers at Rivian, a longtime target in the union’s uphill struggle to unionize the EV industry. But that opening could still be far off: Rivian has never posted a quarterly adjusted profit. That goal has been elusive as the company struggled with supply-chain snags and a broader slowdown in EV demand.

* The Tax Foundation…

Thirty-nine states will ring in 2025 with notable tax changes, including nine states cutting individual income taxes, three states cutting corporate income taxes, and two states adopting new first-year expensing provisions.

The Tax Foundation just released an all-in-one guide highlighting all the changes set to take effect, including in Illinois. CLICK HERE to see the full breakdown. Key points below.

State Tax Changes Effective in 2025

- Illinois will increase its franchise (capital stock) tax exemption from $5,000 to $10,000, effective January 1, 2025. Notably, however, Illinois had once been on track to eliminate this tax altogether, a policy that has since been paused.

- Illinois will also broaden its sales tax base to include retail leases of tangible personal property except motor vehicles, watercraft, aircraft, and semitrailers. Additionally, sales tax assessed on acquisitions by retailers who lease tangible personal property will be paid over the lease term by the final lessee of the TPP, rather than by the business at the time of acquisition of the TPP. This moves Illinois’ state sales tax into conformity with the majority of other states’ sales tax structures as it applies to leases of TPP. This change will also ensure that sales tax is paid by the final consumer of the eligible products, moving Illinois’ sales tax closer to that of a well-structured consumption tax.

- Additional changes to Illinois’ sales tax include changes made under SB 3362, enacted August 9, 2024. Under this new law, Illinois will transition to destination-based sourcing for retailers that are responsible for remitting sales taxes on retail sales of tangible personal property that occur outside of Illinois but that are made by a business with a physical presence in Illinois.

- Further, to partially offset the costs to retailers of complying with sales tax collection and remittance laws, Illinois allows retailers to retain 1.75 percent of sales taxes collected. However, beginning January 1, Illinois will cap the retailers’ discount on sales due at $1,000 per month.

- Finally, effective January 1, 2025, the General Assembly is commissioning a study of the state’s property tax system, with recommendations for improvement due July 1, 2026.

* Congrats Mona!…

Congratulations to my dear friend (and former boss) Mona Martin on being elected as Speaker of the Illinois Third House! The new Speaker serves as the voice of 2,500+ lobbyists for a year. One person has been selected annually since 1944 - only 80 people in history. I was honored… pic.twitter.com/4KtS66ECBk

— Mark Denzler (@IllinoisMfgAssc) December 19, 2024

*** Madigan Trial***

* Tribune | After prosecutors rest, defense in Madigan corruption trial calls ex-AT&T exec about deal to hire Eddie Acevedo: Defense attorneys are likely to call far fewer witnesses, but with a break next week for the Christmas holiday, it appears the defense phase of the trial will stretch into the new year. Prosecutors have indicated they will call at least one witness in rebuttal. The alleged scheme by AT&T to bribe Madigan makes up just one of the 23 counts of the indictment, but it has taken up a good portion of the last two weeks of testimony.

*** Statewide ***

* Chalkbeat Chicago | Illinois scholarship program aimed at getting more teachers of color faces court challenge: Now, even as advocates say more needs to be done to increase the number of teachers of color in classrooms, the Minority Teachers of Illinois Scholarship program has become the target of a lawsuit claiming it discriminates against white students by limiting awards to Black, Latino, Asian American, and Native American students. Despite the lawsuit claims, numbers show that the majority of the teacher workforce in the state remains white and initiatives such as the scholarship program have made only a small dent in diversifying the ranks. In 2024, 80% of Illinois teachers were white, compared to 85% in 2010. Currently, about 6.4% of the teacher workforce is Black, 8.9% is Latino, and 2.2% is Asian American, according to the Illinois State Board of Education’s 2024 report card data.

*** Chicago ***

* Block Club | The Never-Ending Line: Migrants Wait For Benefits That Never Come: The families line up outside the state government office at North and California avenues as early as 4 every morning, several hours before it opens, to secure their spots. […] The families know the wait can be long, sometimes up to 10 hours. And they know it can be fruitless. In many cases, they leave with merely a piece of paper reminding them when they’ll have to come back. When they return, they start the process all over again.

* Tribune | Martinez remains mum as alderman, advocates, call for special Board of Ed meeting to be rescheduled: Chicago Public Schools Chief Pedro Martinez didn’t address the controversy surrounding a special board of education meeting called to oust him, instead focusing on congratulating the Luther Bank Elementary School community for earning a rare designation, in being inclusive of students with disabilities as a Special Olympics Unified Champion School. Speaking in English and Spanish to a packed auditorium Thursday morning, Martinez thanked staff for their hard work and encouraged students to continue cultivating a culture of respect. “We need to be treating each other with kindness, with empathy,” he said. “Our children need our support. Our parents and family members need that support.”

* Sun-Times | CTA locks down Red Line extension funding before Trump takes office: The Federal Transit Administration intends to sign an agreement that will contractually obligate the $1.9 billion in federal grants to the project, according to an announcement from Illinois’ congressional delegation. U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin called the funding commitment a “significant milestone.”

* Unraveled | Abusive cop named in whistleblower suit convicted of assault: A Chicago cop recently found guilty of assault is also the subject of a whistleblower lawsuit against the City of Chicago that alleges the police department failed to address his “history of violence and misconduct directed toward female colleagues.” According to an October 2023 complaint filed by an anonymous Jane Doe, first reported by the Chicago Sun-Times last year, Chicago police officer Marco Torres became intimately involved with the complainant, a fellow CPD detective, in 2022. His behavior quickly escalated to multiple instances of “aggravated assault, aggravated battery, stalking, intimidation, and criminal sexual assault,” according to attorneys representing Doe. Torres was arrested March 14 of this year on domestic battery and assault charges.

* Block Club | Bally’s Casino Apologizes After Demolition Debris Spills Into Chicago River: The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, which oversees stormwater and wastewater treatment across the Chicago area, confirmed that Bally’s Chicago and the Chicago Community Builders Collective — the general contractor building the new casino — accepted responsibility for the demolition debris. “A multi-phase clean-up has been initiated by the construction company,” Fore said in an email to Block Club on Monday. “An oil boom was installed below the Chicago Avenue Bridge to collect any flowing debris, and a barge is now positioned at the site to stop additional debris from entering the river.”

* Sun-Times | Sammy Sosa and Cubs begin reconciliation: A rift between the two, rooted in Sosa’s ties to the steroid era and refusal to admit that he used performance enhancing drugs, has kept Sosa out of Cubs events and away from Wrigley Field. But on Thursday, Sosa sent out a revealing statement. “There were times I did whatever I could to recover from injuries in an effort to keep my strength up to perform over 162 games,” he said in part. “I never broke any laws, but in hindsight, I made mistakes and I apologize.”

* Tribune | Are the Chicago Bulls and Boston Celtics ruining basketball? ‘We just have to play our generation of basketball.’: The main source of this panic is simple. Ratings are down. Fewer fans are tuning into games on television. And never mind that gate revenue and attendance remain steady — this loss of national viewership has thrown up panic flags for fans and executives alike across the league. The underlying fear behind this panic is more intense, more intimate: a sense that basketball itself is devolving into something lesser and unwanted.

* Daily Herald | Does Bears GM Ryan Poles deserve to be next scapegoat? Here’s a look at his record: The first Poles draft was 2022 and he actually got off to a great start, choosing Kyler Gordon and Jaquon Brisker with his first two picks, both in the second round. Reminder: The worst Bears mistake this season was letting Brisker stay in the game after a brutal helmet-to-helmet hit against Carolina. The safety has been sidelined ever since. The rest of that draft isn’t looking great. Velus Jones is gone, Braxton Jones made an impressive rise from fifth-round pick to starting left tackle, but still doesn’t look cut out for that job. The rest of that class has one pleasant surprise in DB Elijah Hicks.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Tribune | Amazon delivery drivers in Skokie, six other facilities go on strike: ‘We’re the ones who move the packages every day’: Driver Luke Cianciotto called Amazon’s refusal to recognize the drivers as employees a “ruse.” “Everybody can see through it,” Cianciotto said. “If anybody is an Amazon worker, it’s us. We’re the ones who move the packages every day.” “I wear Amazon clothing. I deliver Amazon packages in Amazon vans to Amazon customers who order on an Amazon website,” said Ash’shura Brooks, another driver. “I just feel like it’s not right.”

* Press Release | Former Head of Suburban Chicago Public Library Sentenced to Two Years in Prison for Embezzling More Than $770,000: From 2009 to 2019, XAVIER MENZIES misappropriated approximately $770,715 from the library. Much of the money was initially received by the Markham library from the public library district in nearby Posen, Ill., which paid Markham for allowing Posen residents to access the library and use its services. Menzies opened bank accounts in the name of Markham Public Library and deposited checks made out to the library. He later withdrew the funds and used the money for personal expenses, including mortgage payments, ticket purchases, and auto repairs. Menzies concealed the scheme by routinely misrepresenting the library’s financial condition to the Markham Public Library’s Board of Trustees.

* Sun-Times | Far-right provocateur Nicholas Fuentes appears for first hearing on battery charge: Simple battery, a Class A misdemeanor is punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine. Battery offenses are eligible for pretrial detention in Illinois if prosecutors ask for it and a judge makes certain findings in the case, but defendants in Illinois have the presumption of release. Fuentes, his attorney and Rose each appeared for the brief hearing via the live-streaming service Zoom before Judge Shawnte Raines-Welch at the Fourth District courthouse in Maywood.

* WGN | Judge rules against Tiffany Henyard’s power grab: Judge Thaddeus Wilson said Henyard’s lawyer chose not file an answer to trustees’ complaint that she was acting beyond her authority to appoint people for key village positions without their advice and consent. The permanent injunction entered this week specifically says Ronnie Burge, Sr is restrained from “holding himself out at the Village Police Chief or conducting any duties.”

* Aurora Beacon-News | Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin focuses on innovation, technology during fourth State of the City address of year: The mayor decided to break his State of the City address this year into quarterly speeches, each focusing on a different theme. During the speech on Wednesday, which was held at the Aurora factory and headquarters of Gripple Inc., Irvin said that Aurora has a history of innovation, such as its early adoption of electric street lights, and the city is continuing to embrace that spirit as it heads into the future. “Aurora is no longer simply the City of Lights. We are becoming a city of bytes, bandwidth and breakthroughs. We’re becoming the City of Light Speed,” he said.

*** Downstate ***

* WMBD | Peoria’s airport to have daily flights to Denver: United Airlines will have daily roundtrip flights to Denver that will leave at about 8:50 a.m. each day and then return 12 hours later. This will allow passengers to connect to various places out west as well as some international locations.

* WCIA | ‘I think I’ve done pretty good’; Mattoon man donates 25th gallon of blood: David Myers has donated 25 gallons of blood over the last five decades. “I was trying to get my five, and then I was trying to get my ten, and 20 was my goal,” Myers said. A pint of blood can save about three lives. ImpactLife blood center in Mattoon says Myers’ 25 gallons can save about 600.

*** National ***

* AP | California declared an emergency. How serious is bird flu?: Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stressed again this week that the virus poses low risk to the general public. Importantly, there are no reports of person-to-person transmission and no signs that the virus has changed to spread more easily among humans. In general, flu experts agreed with that assessment, saying it’s too soon to tell what trajectory the outbreak could take.

* Popular Information | Lies, damn lies, and shoplifting statistics: But this year, the [National Retail Federation] announced it would not release its annual survey. What happened? Mary McGinty, NRF vice president of communications and public affairs, claims that “a broad study about retail shrink is no longer sufficient for capturing the key challenges and needs of the industry.” In other words, the survey did not reinforce the industry’s preferred narrative that shoplifting is a growing problem that demands an aggressive state and federal response.