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* ICYMI: CPS board moves to oust schools CEO Pedro Martinez. WBEZ…

- The board placed two voting items on its agenda and could choose to pursue either: Martinez’s termination or a buyout agreement.
- Martinez has already fought off two attempts to remove him from what he has called his “dream job” at the helm of the nation’s fourth-largest school system.
- Sources have said Martinez wanted to stay until at least the end of the school year.

* Related stories…

∙ Chalkbeat Chicago: Chicago school board set to consider firing schools CEO Friday

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* Crain’s | How would Pritzker’s crackdown on delta-8 affect sales? These states’ track records offer clues.: More than a dozen states have passed laws to regulate or ban delta-8 products made from hemp, a cousin of cannabis that ordinarily contains low levels of THC, the chemical associated with marijuana’s high. In delta-8 products, the levels are concentrated to have increased potency.

* Capitol News Illinois | Budget pressures could impact K-12 funding: With budget forecasters predicting flat revenue growth over the next year and continued demands for increased spending in other areas of the budget such as pension costs and health care, members of the Illinois State Board of Education were told Wednesday that they are now in a different fiscal environment. “I do not envy anybody involved in that process because it won’t be a fun time,” Eric Noggle, revenue manager of the legislature’s Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, or COGFA, told the board.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Center Square | Starting Jan. 1, IL media companies must report 120 days before out-of-state sale: Senate Bill 3592 passed the Senate in April. Sponsor of the bill state Sen. Steve Stadelman, D-Rockford, said it requires local media outlets looking to sell to an out-of-state buyer to provide a 120-day notice to the state and their staff. “Private equity firms are coming and buying newspapers, consolidating them until they provide very little local news content with no local journalist and sometimes those newsrooms are shut down as what happened in southern Illinois not that long ago,” Stadelman said in April.

* WAND | Illinois Democratic lawmakers, advocates argue housing is a human right: Gov. JB Pritzker signed an executive order last week to tackle the lack of affordable housing across the state. However, some Democratic lawmakers believe the state should treat housing as a human right. Nearly one-third of Illinois households spend more than 30% of their income on housing and the state has a shortage of roughly 290,000 homes affordable for low-income families.

*** Statewide ***

* SJ-R | Illinois sees most significant wage drop in the country since 1935, data shows: Illinois nearly 100 years ago could boast the highest national average for an entry level hourly wage, but it is currently ranks close to last amongst other states. Coming from the top spot in 1935, Illinois now ranks 39th. Average entry level workers earn $14.06 hourly in Illinois, but in 1935 they would have earned $15.43 hourly with inflation adjustments.

*** Chicago ***

* Bloomberg | Chicago Faces More Fiscal Pain Even After Budget Narrowly Passes: Higher wages, pension bills and inflation are still weighing on the city as Covid-era funds used to help plug the 2025 deficit are ending. That means less cushion for future shortfalls, and the outlook for more state and federal aid is uncertain. Johnson said that he’ll keep pushing for progressive revenue like higher levies on the rich, a campaign vow that hasn’t panned out yet.

* Sun-Times | Wall collapses at future Bally’s casino site sending debris into the Chicago River: Looking out her window early Saturday afternoon, Michele Berman noticed something that looked like black-mesh netting across the river, partially blocking demolition of the former Chicago Tribune’s Freedom Center printing plant. Within a couple of hours, she said, a wall collapsed, sinking the netting into the Chicago River while debris and a sizable amount of white substance dumped into the water.

* ABC Chicago | Advocate investing $1B on Chicago’s South Side in new hospital at IL Quantum, Microelectronics Park: One billion dollars is going toward healthcare on the South Side of Chicago. It’s a monumental investment by Advocate Health Care, changing the lives of some of those who need it most.

* Block Club | After School Matters Opening Huge Teen Center Near Cabrini-Green: After School Matters, a nonprofit that provides after-school and summer programs for CPS high school students, is overhauling a 36,000-square-foot building near the site of the former Cabrini-Green public housing projects. The renovated space, located inside a former Catholic school at 1065 N. Orleans St., will mark a significant expansion for After School Matters, allowing the organization to offer opportunities there for up to 1,500 teens annually. The facility will host classes in STEM subjects, the arts and culinary arts, as well as expanded sports programming.

*** Chicago’s Mass Transit ***

* WTTW | CTA Officially Secures $1.9B in Federal Funding for Red Line Extension: The 5.6-mile extension will add new stations at 103rd Street, 111th Street, Michigan Avenue near 116th Street, and 130th Street. In August, the transit agency’s board of directors awarded a design-build contract for the project to a coalition of firms with extensive transit experience, including work on the CTA’s ongoing Red and Purple Modernization effort on the North Side.

* Sun-Times | CTA increasing bus service to pre-pandemic levels: The CTA’s winter schedule adds more weekday buses on 19 lines and additional weekend buses on six lines, the agency said Wednesday. The CTA has been increasing the frequency of its trains and buses since the COVID-19 pandemic sent ridership tumbling. The agency has struggled to hire and retain operators but has doubled its hiring efforts in the last year.

* Block Club | South Side Metra Stations Get Accessible Upgrades For First Time In 100 Years: The 79th St./Chatham Metra Electric Line station resumed service Monday, over a year after closing for construction in summer 2023. The station is now equipped with ADA-accessible street-level entrances, lobbies with elevators and new stairs, deck platforms, lighting and signage, according to a news release.

* Block Club | White Sox Change Stadium Name To ‘Rate Field,’ Fans Collectively Boo: “There’s apathy, more than anything,” one fan said about the anticlimactic name change. The White Sox’s naming rights deal with Chicago mortgage company Guaranteed Rate runs through 2029.

* Daily Herald | ‘It does affect me’: Williams trying to deal with Bears’ losing streak: The Bears fired offensive coordinator Shane Waldron, then fired head coach Matt Eberflus. Still, the team keeps losing. After Monday night’s 30-12 loss to the Vikings, Williams called this season “frustrating and encouraging.” He said he’s encouraged by the Bears’ fight. The frustrations come from, well, all the losing.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Daily Herald | ‘A big, bold undertaking’: Elgin plans to move ‘Tent City’ residents to hotel, tear down encampment: The city’s agreement with Litchfield Motel, Inc., the business operating the hotel at 1585 Dundee Ave., calls for a block of 50 rooms for four months at $65 per day for single occupancy. Provisions in the agreement will provide scaled rates for partnered individuals and those with pets.

* Daily Herald | Schaumburg’s 5-year, $412.7 million capital improvement plan envisions no tax hikes: Schaumburg’s ambitious five-year, $412.7 million capital improvement plan includes replacements of village hall and the police station, renovations to two fire stations and the Al Larson Prairie Center for the Arts as well as extensive road maintenance, all without raising taxes. In fact, no property taxes are included among the revenue sources at all apart from eligible allocations from tax increment financing (TIF) districts.

* Daily Southtown | Homer Glen Village Board race finalized with 9 candidates for 3 trustee positions: Objections were filed to nominating petitions for 15 of the 17 interested candidates who filed to run for three trustee positions. Pericles Abbasi, an attorney to Craig Carlson who objected to 14 of those petitions, withdrew the five outstanding objections to petitions from Ruben L. Pazmino, Kevin Koukol, John Hayes, Katie Surges and Kyle Surges. Because their objections were removed, they will appear on the April 1 ballot.

* ABC Chicago | Teamsters union strike against Amazon to impact Skokie facility amid holiday shipping season: Workers in Skokie will be joining other amazon employees across the country in California and New York to put pressure on the company to reach a labor agreement. All of this taking place just days before Christmas. The unions said it gave Amazon a December 15 deadline to come to the bargaining table and negotiate a contract with better pay and working conditions.

*** Downstate ***

* WCIA | WCIA holds blood drive in memory of two former employees: For 10 years WCIA has been encouraging viewers to donate blood during our gift of life drive. It’s in honor of Robert Reese and Dave Benton. Jennifer Roscoe talked to their families this week about their legacy that lives on. We lost Robert Reese 12 years ago, and Dave Benton nine years ago. Both to cancer, both too soon.

* WSIL | More than 82,000 deer harvested during Illinois firearm deer season: The Illinois Department of Natural Resources says hunters harvested a preliminary total of 82,496 deer during the seven-day 2024 Illinois firearm deer season that concluded December 8. That’s compared to 76,494 deer during the 2023 firearm season.