* ICYMI: Trump order freezes funding for Illinois EV charging network, raises questions about other clean energy projects. Tribune…

- In its quest to get a million electric vehicles on the road by 2030, Illinois was counting on $148 million in federal funding to help build a statewide network of public EV chargers.
- Now that funding has been frozen — and targeted for possible reduction or elimination — under a wide-ranging executive order that President Donald Trump signed on his first day in office.
- “I’m very nervous right now that (the Trump executive order) is going to limit Illinois’ ability to achieve its EV future,” said Brian Urbaszewski, environmental health programs director at the Chicago-based Respiratory Health Association.

* At 10 am Governor JB Pritzker will be at the Lookingglass Theatre to celebrate its reopening. Click here to watch.

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* Sun-Times | New state transportation boss looking to cure Kennedy construction ‘headache,’ focus on speeding up projects: Gia Biagi has been at the wheel of the Illinois Department of Transportation for less than two weeks, but she already is planning to hit the accelerator on construction projects — including the slow-moving Kennedy Expressway headache. “When we get back out there, you’re going to see folks working all the time,” Biagi told the Sun-Times. “I’ve got my eye on this project, and we’re going to push as hard as we can to get it done as fast as we can.“

* Tribune | ‘Yo!’ Mayor Brandon Johnson’s texts reveal governing style and intrigue at City Hall: The mayor’s exchanges with aldermen, Gov. JB Pritzker, top business officials and labor leaders show he is more reluctant than predecessors Lori Lightfoot and Rahm Emanuel to put much in writing. While Lightfoot would often respond to text messages with voluminous essays that sometimes bordered on venomous, Johnson usually replies with a phone call or directs his staff to return the message.

*** Statehouse News ***

* QC Online | Illinois Quad-Cities lawmakers warn cuts are coming due to projected budget shortfall: “We’re going to lose programs,” Rep. Gregg Johnson, D-East Moline, said. “We lost a couple of programs last year…which really broke my heart. …I will find out how we get our fair piece of the pie, but no doubt it’s going to be a difficult year.” Rep. Dan Swanson, R-Alpha, said in a November letter from the Deputy Governor for Budget and Economy Andy Manar requested state agencies start looking at reducing grants, winding down programs and eliminating vacant positions, among other preparations for a the projected budget shortfall. He noted, though, that the budget process is controlled by the Democratic-majorities in both chambers.

* Sun-Times | State Sen. Napoleon Harris is out as chairman of legislative committee regulating the insurance industry: Asked about this, Harmon spokesman John Patterson said, “With the start of every new General Assembly there is a shuffling of responsibilities to best recognize senators’ interests, experience and expertise. The leadership and committee chair announcements for the 104th General Assembly reflect the great diversity of people and talent we have in the Illinois Senate Democratic Caucus.”

*** Statewide ***

* Sun-Times | Illinois’ new flag: What design experts say to consider as you vote among 10 finalists: Coco Chanel made a name for designing many things, though flags of any sort weren’t among them. Still, flag design expert Ted Kaye cites her famous dictum in his parameters for a good flag: “Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off.” “Only the simplest designs really function well,” says Kaye, who is the secretary of the North American Vexillological Association — “The World’s Largest Organization of Flag Enthusiasts and Scholars” — and compiler of the design guide “Good Flag, Bad Flag.”

* NPR | University of Illinois raises tuition at all campuses: The rate hike takes effect in the Fall 2025 semester. The University of Illinois Springfield will charge 2% more. Both the Urbana-Champaign and Chicago campuses will see tuition go up 2.2%. Rising costs driven by inflation are behind the decision.

* WCIA | Health insurers now required to cover pregnancy, postpartum care in Illinois: It is a two-phase process that will also expand access to prenatal doula services and coverage for professional midwives. In addition, insurers will cover postpartum care, lactation consultation, and a few other services with requirements that will take effect starting January 2026.

*** Chicago ***

* Crain’s | Johnson rakes in gambling contributions, including one that may violate ethics law: The $13,000 contribution came from the National Association of Promotional Retailers, a group affiliated with lobbyist Maze Jackson that advocates on behalf of opening up the state’s video gambling industry by creating a pathway for operators of so-called sweepstakes machines out of a gray market. The group shares an address with other companies tied to Jackson and he is listed as one of three directors of the entity, according to state records.

* Block Club | Chicago Conducts Annual Homeless Count As City Begins Combined Shelter System: The outreach on a night that dipped into the single-digit temperatures is part of the city’s annual Point-in-Time Count. It takes a snapshot of homelessness in the city and gathers numbers of both sheltered and unsheltered people living in the city on a single night. Last year’s survey found 18,836 Chicagoans experiencing homelessness. Of those,17,202 were living in shelters and 1,634 were unhoused. That number tripled 2023’s count of 6,139 people experiencing homelessness. […] The figures from this year’s survey will be compiled and released in the coming weeks.

* A City That Works | Construction costs for affordable housing are skyrocketing: It won’t be news to regular readers around here, but Chicago has a housing crisis. The DePaul Institute of Housing Studies estimates that the city is short 120,000 units of low-cost housing. Estimates of the number of homeless Chicagoans more than tripled last year, according to the 2024 HUD point-in-time count. […] At the same time, it’s getting much harder to produce new units. Costs for city-funded affordable housing projects have skyrocketed. In 2023, city supported affordable projects cost an average of $584,000 per unit.1 And that number includes rehabs of existing affordable units. Rehabs are great, and generally cheaper than new construction, but they also don’t add to the city’s overall housing stock.2 Costs for new construction in 2023 came in at $747,000 per unit. Those prices are growing fast; costs for both rehabs and new construction have almost doubled since 2020.

* Block Club | NASCAR Slashes Prices On Tickets To 2025 Chicago Street Race, Lets Kids In Free: NASCAR’s Chicago Street Race Weekend returns July 5-6 for the NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series along the same previous 12-turn, 2.2-mile street course. The racing company announced Thursday it dropped the price of its tickets for its third year in Grant Park in addition to expanding its free general admission tickets for kids 12 and under to both Saturday and Sunday.

* Crain’s | What’s up with Chicago snowfalls? WGN meteorologist Demetrius Ivory explains.: Meteorologically speaking, Chicago winters are changing. And who better than a meteorologist to explain what we’re experiencing. Crain’s spoke with Demetrius Ivory, chief meteorologist for WGN-TV/Channel 9, to talk about how weather patterns are affecting snowfall and temperatures in the Chicago area. This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* NBC Chicago | Judge finds Dolton mayor in ‘indirect criminal contempt’ in liquor license case: Business owner Tiffany Kamara took legal action when she said she was not able to obtain liquor licenses from Henyard, who also serves as liquor commissioner. […] On Wednesday, Judge Horan gave Henyard until 5 p.m. Thursday to sign the licenses. The deadline was not met. After the documents were signed Friday in court, Judge Horan found Henyard in indirect criminal contempt, but Henyard was not taken into custody.

* Daily Southtown | Former Ford Heights Mayor Charles Griffin sentenced to 4 years for embezzlement conviction: Griffin, 69, was convicted in September of embezzling between $10,000 and $100,000 of public funds for personal use both during and after his first term as mayor of the small, impoverished village of Ford Heights. The federal indictment came after Griffin’s successor, Annie Coulter, who served from 2017 until Griffin was elected to a second term in 2021, found secret bank accounts tied to Griffin holding $147,000 in public funds. Prosecutors said Griffin used those accounts to pay for goods and services that benefited himself and those close to him, spending thousands at such places as Walmart, Home Depot, Menards, L.A. Fitness and various restaurants.

*** Downstate ***

* SJ-R | Springfield-based hospital names new CEO, president: HSHS Central Illinois Market and HSHS St. John’s Hospital will have a new president and CEO come the spring. Dr. Leanne M. Yanni will take over the role at HSHS on March 17, 2025. Yanni will take over for Matthew Fry. Earlier in January, the SJ-R reported Fry will be leaving in early March to assume leadership duties at a Missouri-based health system.

* SJ-R | New task force looks to target gun violence in Springfield: The SPD is joining forces with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to form a Springfield Firearms Task Force that aims to more quickly and effectively identify and arrest people illegally purchasing, selling and using firearms. The task force has been working since this past fall and is made up of officers from the SPD, special agents from the ATF, and also Springfield police officers who have been sworn as federal task officers for the team’s purposes.

*** National ***

* AP | Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s famous name and controversial views collide in his bid for top health job: A Democratic group is running digital ads that accuse Kennedy of spreading misinformation in Samoa. The campaign is targeting senators in nine states, including Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Curtis of Utah, which boasts a significant Samoan population. Another they’re targeting is Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, chair of the Health, Education, Labor and Pension Senate committee, which holds a hearing Thursday. Cassidy, who is also a doctor, stopped short of endorsing Kennedy after they met and is seen as swayable.

* Law Dork | Trans woman in prison sues over Trump’s anti-trans “sex” definition order: A transgender woman in federal prison sued the Trump administration on Sunday, arguing that President Donald Trump’s executive order defining “sex” is intentionally discriminatory, violates her constitutional and statutory rights, and puts her in danger. Trump, the lawsuit alleges, “has been transparent about his hostility toward transgender people and openly stated his intentions to create legal obstacles to eliminate legal protections for transgender people and to deter them from obtaining medical care or being able to live in a sex other than their birth sex.”

* NPR | This economist survived a wildfire. Now she’s taking on California’s insurance crisis: Around five years ago, Wallace recounted her incredible story in the Oakland Hills fire to her former PhD student Carles Vergara-Alert, who was back in Berkeley on a sabbatical as a visiting professor, and two other Berkeley economists, Richard Stanton and Paulo Issler. And it inspired them to study how the rising risk of wildfires was affecting housing markets. A pretty weird thing seemed to be happening to properties destroyed by fires. Nancy noticed it in her own community. After the fire, people got insurance money and rebuilt their homes. Their homes seemed to get bigger and nicer. And, like elsewhere in the Bay Area, their home values went on a rocket ship to the moon in the decades after the fire. It was like everyone had forgotten that it was still a risky area.

* Forbes | Weight-Loss Drugs Like Ozempic Linked To Lower Risk Of 42 Conditions: Scientists probing the health records of nearly 216,000 people with diabetes who took the GLP-1 receptor antagonists found they had a lower risk of 42 conditions than people on other forms of treatment. They also had a higher risk of 19 health problems. Some results, like reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and increased chance of nausea and vomiting, were expected. But others, like a lower risk of bacterial infection and an increased chance of joint pain, took researchers by surprise.