* ICYMI: Advocates ask Illinois lawmakers to increase funding for the unhoused in new budget. WGLT…

-With budget negotiations around the corner, advocates from across Illinois have written a letter asking Gov. JB Pritzker to include an additional $100 million in the budget for homeless shelter services.

- That would mark more than a 30% increase over what the state currently spends on the unhoused.

- The Illinois Shelter Alliance said 4,000 beds are needed to address the increase in homelessness in the state.

* Related stories…

∙ CNI: Pritzker’s budget office projects $3.2B deficit in early look at upcoming fiscal year
∙ Daily Herald: Illinois can overcome its challenging budget realities
∙ Chalkbeat: While the state faces a tighter budget, Illinois’ schools chief asks for a boost in education funding

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* Sun-Times | What to do if you encounter a bird or animal with suspected avian flu: Don’t be a hero if you spot birds or animals showing signs of avian flu (dead or distressed birds, multiple signs of sickness). Our instinct is to help, but trying to help a bird with avian flu likely spreads it more.

* Tribune | Madigan jurors end fifth day of deliberations with no verdict: The jury began its discussion Wednesday afternoon, kicking off the final phase of a landmark four-month trial. Altogether the jurors have deliberated for roughly 29 hours — longer than in two other recent high-profile corruption cases. The jury in the “ComEd Four” bribery case, which featured evidence that overlapped significantly with some of the evidence in the Madigan trial, reached a verdict after about 27 hours. Jurors in the racketeering trial of former Ald. Ed Burke found him guilty in about 23 hours.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Tribune | Gov. JB Pritzker stresses importance of federal education funding amid latest threats from Trump: “The Department of Education funds important programs like special education. We have in the state of Illinois many, many parents and their children who need special education and that funding is vital,” Pritzker told reporters at the Illinois state Capitol. “If they take that away, that’s going to be highly detrimental to the people of our state. So, I’m going to do everything I can to preserve that funding. I hope that that doesn’t end up being a target of their attacks. They should know better. It would be shameful to take it away.”

* WAND | Illinois House Republicans demand Pritzker cut migrant services: When it comes to the budget, Cabello said that he wants to bring the new Department of Government Efficiency to Illinois, saying the state should follow Elon Musk’s DOGE and the federal budget cuts. “Let’s find out exactly how much money is going to help people and how much money is going to overhead,” Cabello said. “Because there’s probably way too much money going to the overhead.”

*** Statewide ***

* WAND | New study finds Illinois retail generates $112 billion in economic investment annually: The Illinois Retail Merchants Association told reporters Tuesday that retail is the state’s largest private sector employer, with 1.3 million people working in the industry. IRMA President and CEO Rob Karr said retail also brings in over $7 billion of income and sales taxes for Illinois. The state’s retail sector generates a combined direct and indirect total sales impact of $441 billion and supports 2.4 million jobs.

*** Chicago ***

* Crain’s | Johnson team pitches new hemp business license to a skeptical City Council: The city has yet to unveil a comprehensive regulatory framework to address concerns about where intoxicating hemp products are manufactured and how they are sold — despite resisting efforts at the state level that some argued would create a de facto ban on hemp gummies, vapes and other products with delta-8 and delta-9. These products have grown in popularity because of their relative availability and lower price compared to legal marijuana.

* Tribune | Mayor Brandon Johnson’s campaign pledge to ban no-knock warrants uncertain amid renewed talks on Anjanette Young ordinance: Johnson confirmed in a City Hall news conference that his administration was working on an updated draft of the so-called Anjanette Young ordinance, named after the Black woman who took on the city following a wrongful police raid that made national headlines in 2020 after video showed Chicago cops leaving Young, a social worker, handcuffed and naked in her home during the search. But the mayor repeatedly dodged questions about whether his latest effort would include a major tenet from the original draft — a ban on no-knock warrants — that was the animating force behind Young’s demands for reform.

* Crain’s | United Airlines looks to add gates at O’Hare as it revs up more growth: United currently has 88 gates to park arriving and departing aircraft at terminals. If the airline is awarded the additional six gates, it opens the door for more growth by O’Hare’s largest carrier at a time when the airport has been lagging behind some of its peers.

* Block Club | Diehard Cubs, Sox Fans Won’t Be Able To Conquer A Red Line Doubleheader This Year: This year, the two teams will only play one three-game series on the same overlapping days in Chicago. The Cubs will host the Milwaukee Brewers and White Sox will host the St. Louis Cardinals June 17-19, but the games will start around the same time.

* ESPN | Inside the Bears hiring of coach Ben Johnson: “Having gone through the process, and having interviewed an extensive field of candidates when Ben was clearly No. 1, and [general manager] Ryan [Poles] said we need to go get him, you had to be ready to move,” Bears chairman George McCaskey said. But before they did, the Bears hosted Tennessee State coach Eddie George on Jan. 19. That put the Bears in compliance with the Rooney Rule, which requires at least two external in-person interviews with minority candidates — Ron Rivera was the other. George’s interview was scheduled at least a week before, two sources said. It was George’s only head coaching interview this cycle.

* WBEZ | His pizza wowed even Chicago’s best chefs. But there’s a gut punch.: Last July, doctors discovered cancer in Goldsmith’s stomach. It was a cosmic gut punch for a man who has spent two decades sending customers out the door with delightfully stuffed bellies. Three days after the Banchets, Goldsmith underwent surgery to remove the tumor in his abdomen, which had been successfully shrunk during rounds of chemotherapy.

* South Side Weekly | Brazilian Funk Gains a Foothold in Chicago: The show Brazilian Funk Night combines “all of this Brazilian music with a funk groove and a lot of improvisation,” said Marcel Bonfim, the ensemble’s musical director and bassist. Bonfim is from São Paulo, Brazil, and has performed on stages such as the Chicago Jazz Festival and Jazz Showcase in the South Loop. A year ago, Bonfim released his debut album, Farewell/Despedida, an ode to his immigration journey from Brazil to the United States. He created Brazilian Funk Night as a passion project, with the December show as the second iteration of the night. It all began with inspiration from one of Brazil’s most prolific bands from the ’70s, Banda Black Rio.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Tribune | As Cook County’s environmental justice policy takes shape, communities voice priorities and concerns: Several days after Tara Stamps was appointed as a Cook County board commissioner in the summer of 2023, heavy storms flooded homes in her district’s West Side neighborhoods — including her own. “So I wasn’t just a representative, I was a victim,” Stamps said at a Monday town hall focused on the county’s draft of its first-ever environmental justice policy. “My uncle who lives with me who’s a double amputee diabetic, was just on his bed, like a life raft, in the basement. And what’s so sad about that is, so many of the elders were like prisoners in their own homes during this time.”

* Daily Southtown | Harvey Mayor Christopher Clark drops out of race for Thornton Township supervisor: Christopher Clark announced Tuesday he withdrew his candidacy for Thornton Township supervisor to prioritize his work as mayor of Harvey. Clark said the challenges facing Harvey, including $165 million of debt, demand his full attention, leading him to drop out of the township race. “I want people in the city of Harvey to know and understand that even in this particular case, I am willing to make that sacrifice for them,” Clark said Tuesday.

* Lake County News-Sun | Lake County volunteers search deep into the night for the homeless; ‘They left their warm homes to : Cunningham was one of more than 100 volunteers and a small fleet of cars patrolling Lake County on the night of Jan. 29 as part of the 2025 Homeless Point-in-Time Count that she has taken part in for over two decades. The county was broken into smaller regions, and teams of volunteers were given a map of several common locations to check within their regions.

* Fox Chicago | Bus driver shortage in Homer Glen leaves students waiting, district scrambles for solutions: Just last week, 18 bus drivers were absent. Many of them were on medical leave, and others were on sick leave. There are also seven job vacancies right now. What that ultimately means, is that 10 workers from other areas had to get behind the wheel. That included retired drivers, mechanics, and dispatchers who had to step up.

* Daily Southtown | New Lenox gun shop owner, business partner argue wrongful asset seizure and forfeiture abuse in federal lawsuit: New Lenox business owners Jeffery Regnier and Greta Keranen said their lives were turned upside down after officials raided their home and businesses in 2023 while investigating them for money laundering. Regnier said the investigation began due to a $750,000 cash deposit made to his bank, which he says came from a large spike in gun sales at his store, Kee Firearms and Training in New Lenox, during the COVID-19 pandemic. , who ran unsuccessfully in the 2022 Republican primary for the 1st Congressional District, and Keranen, of Kees Construction, face 29 felony charges for fraud and theft of COVID-19 relief funds as well as other offenses, according to two indictments filed in 2023.

*** Downstate ***

* WGLT | McLean County advisory group recommends spending around $1M to help unhoused: McLean County’s Mental Health and Public Safety Fund Advisory Council [FAC] is recommending around $1 million from the $1.5 million 2025 budget for the taxpayer fund go toward a non-congregate project for the unhoused population. “Between people living unsheltered and people providing services to those unsheltered consistently, we know that we have this gap for people that are chronically unhoused, and we need to shift,” Marita Landreth, the county’s behavioral health director, said in an interview with WGLT.

* WCIS | Under new ISBE requirement, District 186 works to improve student literacy: District 186 has five schools placed on the intensive school list. Meaning, they went through one round, which is four years of an improvement year cycle. But, they have yet to reach the commendable list. Assistant Superintendent, Nicole Moody, said the new requirement will provide benefits for the district. “I think it’s a positive thing that our state board is partnering with districts about what’s happening with the schools,” Moody said. “Particularly the schools that need the most support.”

* BND | Metro-east attorney steps up to help immigrants who fear deportation: Marleen Menendez Suarez’s law firm has been busy over the past few days, and it is all because of a Facebook post she published on Jan. 20 saying that she would prepare legal guardianship and power of attorney documents for free for anyone who fears deportation. “People are very afraid, and they’re very afraid for their children because many of them are U.S. citizens,” Suarez said. “What they’re facing is, if both mom and dad get deported, what happens to their kids, and this is what occurred to me, too. This is why I started doing what I was doing.”

* Herald-Review | On ‘World Nutella Day,’ Gov. Pritzker ‘proud’ of Ferrero’s investment in Bloomington plant: Gov. JB Pritzker marks “World Nutella Day” in the Illinois Capitol. Officials with Ferraro were in Springfield to mark the occasion.

* WAND | Icy conditions across central Illinois: Temperatures will be slow to climb above freezing today, especially north. Ice accumulations will range from a glaze across the south to one-tenth of an inch across our northern hometowns. The freezing rain will change over to all rain south by afternoon and across the north early tonight before ending late tonight.

* PJ Star | Folk music icon Bob Dylan announces Peoria show. Here’s what you need to know: The city was one of 16 additional dates added Monday to Dylan’s Rough and Rowdy Ways World Wide Tour. The Prairie Home Alliance Theater at the Peoria Civic Center will host the musician at 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 9. Tickets go on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. Friday, Feb. 7. As of now, this is Dylan’s lone show in Illinois.

*** National ***

* WGN | NFL replacing ‘End Racism’ message in end zones for Super Bowl LIX: According to the NFL, the end zones at Caesars Superdome for Super Bowl LIX will say “Choose Love” this year. The message aims to counter the catastrophes that have plagued the country since the start of 2025, including the New Orleans terror attack, the Los Angeles wildfires, and the most recent plane crashes in Washington D.C. and Philadelphia.

* AP | Trump and Musk demand termination of federal office leases through General Services Administration: The order seems to contradict Trump’s own return-to-office mandate for federal employees, adding confusion to what was already a scramble by the GSA to find workspace, internet connections and office building security credentials for employees who had been working remotely for years. But it may reflect the Trump administration’s belief that it won’t need as many offices due to its efforts to fire employees or encourage them to resign.

* Politico | Mass deportations haven’t arrived but Trump’s PR blitz has: And yet, the number of daily Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests, trumpeted each day on X, are still about where they were at times under President Barack Obama. Many of those detained have no violent criminal history and thousands have been quietly released for lack of detention capacity. Drugs and illegal immigrants are still slipping across the border each day.