* ICYMI: Federal DOJ launches probe into Illinois’ treatment of people with disabilities. Capitol News Illinois…

The U.S. Department of Justice has opened a wide-ranging investigation into Illinois’ treatment of people with developmental disabilities, examining whether the state provides adequate resources for community living and protects residents from harm in public institutions.

Tonya Piephoff, director of the Illinois Department of Human Services’ Division of Developmental Disabilities, informed employees of the investigation in a letter last week that was obtained by Capitol News Illinois.

“The investigation will examine whether the state unnecessarily institutionalizes, or puts at serious risk of institutionalization, adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities,” the letter stated.

The letter said the investigation also will probe abuse and neglect allegations of patients at the Choate, Jack Mabley and Samuel Shapiro developmental centers, three of the seven state-operated residential institutions operated by IDHS.

* BlueRoomStream.com’s coverage of today’s press conferences and committee hearings can be found here.

* Governor Pritzker will be at the Ovation Center in Romeoville at 2 pm with Congresswoman Lauren Underwood to call attention to potential cuts to Social Security. Click here to watch.

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* Tribune | Bracing for budget crisis, Metra agreed to pay lobbyist as much as $4.65M for work on transit fiscal cliff: The five-year lobbying contract is in effect as the the region’s four transit agencies, including Metra, stare down a $771 million budget gap when federal COVID-19 relief funding runs out next year. Agency heads and advocates have warned that steep service cuts and fare hikes are at stake unless transit gets additional state money. Yet last year alone, Metra spent more than $602,000 on lobbyists for help with the budget cliff, along with work on Metra’s transition to a less commuter-focused service and advancing other Metra interests at the federal, state and regional level, according to public expense data and a copy of the lobbying contract, which took effect about a year ago.

* Bloomberg | Fed holds rates, sees slower growth and higher inflation: Chair Jerome Powell acknowledged the high degree of uncertainty from President Donald Trump’s significant policy changes, but repeated the central bank is not in a hurry to adjust borrowing costs. He said officials can wait for greater clarity on the impact of those policies on the economy before acting.

* Tribune | Sentencing for ex-Speaker Michael Madigan on bribery conviction set for June 13: A federal judge Wednesday set sentencing for former House Speaker Michael Madigan on bribery and other charges for June 13. The order by U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey comes more than a month after Madigan, once the most powerful politician in the state, was convicted by a jury on bribery conspiracy and other corruption charges alleging he used his public office to increase his power, line his own pockets and enrich a small circle of his most loyal associates.

*** Statehouse News ***

* WAND | Commission to find if auto insurance discriminates on credit score and race: A commission could be created by the Illinois House Democrats that would look to see if the auto insurance companies have discriminated customers based on credit score, zip code, race and age. The commission would take one year to write up a report and release that report out to the public. From there lawmakers can use the data to plan future bills.

* Chalkbeat Chicago | Illinois advocates call on state to release $50 million for after-school programs: Since funding has been delayed to after-school programs throughout the state this year, over 27,000 students have missed programming and more than 2,000 staff members have lost their jobs, according to the coalition. Susan Stanton, executive director for ACT Now, told Chalkbeat that the coalition is seeing a “ripple effect” from after-school programs shutting down, with parents losing child care. A spokesperson for the Illinois State Board of Education said the agency is waiting on “further guidance” from the General Assembly regarding how to distribute the $50 million appropriation since it was “not tied to an existing statutory program.” The funding was not part of the Nita M. Lowey 21st Century Community Learning grants, the spokesperson said.

* Sen. Seth Lewis | Just trust Chicago? Not when it comes to public transit: Chicago’s leaders are asking suburban taxpayers to take a “leap of faith” — to trust them with the future of public transit. But after years of financial mismanagement, runaway debt and bailout demands, that trust has long been broken. A financial crisis is looming — one that could reshape public transit and strip suburban communities of their voice. Northeast Illinois’ transit systems — Metra, Pace and the CTA — are facing a $770 million fiscal cliff next year, and major decisions that will affect riders across the region.

* Transit union leaders | A new bill offers a path forward for Illinois transit funding: This issue is not just numbers; it’s about real people. Consider the essential worker who must catch a bus for their early shift, the student who needs the train to get to college or the retiree who uses public transportation to reach their doctor. On the business side, companies also depend on a solid transit system to connect with customers and employees. A safe and reliable system also provides benefits to those who enjoy the best of what Chicagoland offers, such as its iconic museums, dining, sporting events, shopping and festivals. If we do nothing, the effects will be severe.

* Crain’s | Civic groups step up calls for expanding Illinois sales tax to services: Illinois is facing a $3.2 billion shortfall in the fiscal year that starts July 1, in part because pandemic-era federal funds that paid for an expansion of Medicaid have run out. The outlook could be even more precarious because of recent actions by the Trump administration to cut funding to the state.

*** Chicago ***

* Crain’s | Johnson’s 11th-hour bid to broker an end to the CPS pension standoff falls short: Mayor Brandon Johnson sat down with Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez and Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates this afternoon ahead of an uncertain vote to amend the district’s budget. The City Hall meeting comes one day before the Chicago Board of Education is set to vote to alter its budget to accept an extra $139 million transfer from Chicago and on a separate agreement to reimburse the city for a $175 million pension payment City Hall made on behalf of non-teacher employees at CPS into the Municipal Employees’ Annuity & Benefit Fund. The parties all agreed negotiations on a new teachers contract had been narrowed to a small number of disagreements, but nothing was resolved.

* Tribune | Immigration crackdown leads to numerous reports of ICE agents near Chicago Public Schools, emails show: A look at emails from district officials in the weeks since the mistaken ICE report demonstrates that both panic and misinformation around ICE in schools has continued since the Hamline incident. The emails were mostly sent by officials at the CPS’ Student Safety Center, the district’s 24/7 command center for safety communications, and were obtained by the Tribune through a Freedom of Information Act request.

* Crain’s | Richard Roeper leaving the Chicago Sun-Times after 37 years: Roeper announced this morning he is stepping away March 21 after 37 years at the publication, a tenure that included serving as the late Gene Siskel’s successor alongside Roger Ebert on their TV show and later Ebert’s successor as the newspaper’s main movie critic after Ebert’s death. Roeper will continue reviewing films and TV shows on ABC7’s “Windy City Weekend,” hosting “The Richard Roeper Show” podcast and writing reviews regularly, according to a news release.

* Block Club | Neighbors, Activists Disrupt South Works Quantum Campus Meeting: ‘Don’t Poison Us’: A tense community meeting on the planned South Chicago megadevelopment — with a quantum research campus and a new hospital — highlighted neighbors’ mistrust over the project, driven by decades of divestment and “broken promises.”

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Daily Herald | After no-confidence vote from officers, Wheeling police chief to step down: Wheeling Police Chief Jamie Dunne will retire this summer after nine years leading the department, the village announced Wednesday. Dunne’s decision comes nearly a month after most of the department’s unionized patrol officers signed a letter formally declaring they’d lost confidence in his leadership. The letter accused Dunne of undermining department readiness by cutting training, improperly changing the department’s field training program, misusing funds, discouraging officers from taking overtime pay and other unfavorable actions.

* Lake County News-Sun | Transgender-related locker room complaint puts Lake County middle school in national spotlight: In a statement, the school district said students are not required to change into gym clothes in front of others in locker rooms, and have “multiple options to change in a private location if they wish.” The district said its policies and procedures, including student use of locker rooms, are in line with state laws, the Illinois School Code and guidance from the Illinois State Board of Education.

* Evanston RoundTable | Gov. Pritzker backs Mayor Biss for reelection: In an announcement email sent by the Biss campaign Wednesday afternoon, Pritzker is quoted as calling Biss a friend, colleague and “a partner to me in fighting for working families.” Similar to the mayor’s earlier endorsement from Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, Pritzker cited the need for local leadership to “stand up and fight back” against threats from the federal government under President Donald Trump.

* CNN | Police end Democratic lawmaker’s town hall after fiery confrontations: A heated confrontation broke out at Democratic Congressman Sean Casten’s town hall on Wednesday in Downers Grove, Illinois forcing police to escort constituents out of the building.

*** Downstate ***

* News-Gazette | Budzinski, Pritzker discuss impacts of federal cuts at Urbana roundtable: “We don’t have the votes to change this,” replied Gov. J.B. Pritzker. “What we do have is our voices in local communities and the stories that we can tell about the devastation that has occurred.” It was with this aim in mind that Pritzker, U.S. Rep. Nikki Budzinski, D-Springfield, and Illinois Department of Agriculture Director Jerry Costello II held a roundtable Wednesday afternoon on how federal cuts and freezes have impacted farming and conservation efforts.

* NPR Illinois | Funding announced for Lincoln’s New Salem repairs: The Illinois Department of Natural Resources and the Illinois Capital Development Board announced $8 million for improvements to the popular recreated log village where young Abraham Lincoln lived for six formative years from 1831 to 1837. According to an announcement, the funding is made possible through the Rebuild Illinois program. The funds will be used to repair up to 23 log village buildings and update the outdoor theater.

* Rockford Register Star | Golden principal: Golden Apple winner makes sure all ’students are heard’: Megan Forsythe is the kind of principal who greets all 500 students at Whitman Post Elementary School by name each morning. She has an infectious energy, and she reminds her students that they matter and belong at her school. During a surprise ceremony on Wednesday, Forsythe was named the 2025 Golden Apple Outstanding Principal.

*** National ***

* Reuters | Trump signs order to shift disaster preparations from FEMA to states, local governments: U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order that seeks to shift responsibility for disaster preparations to state and local governments, deepening his drive to overhaul the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The order, first previewed by the White House on March 10, calls for a review of all infrastructure, continuity, and preparedness and response policies to update and simplify federal approaches.

* The New Yorker | What Made the Irish Famine So Deadly: The novelist Colm Tóibín suggested, in 1998, that the problem “may lie in the relationship between catastrophe and analytic narrative. How do you write about the Famine? What tone do you use?” He speculated, moreover, that the Great Hunger had created a great divide even in Irish consciousness. If, he said, he were to write a novel about his home town, Enniscorthy, that took place after the famine years, “I would not have to do much research”—because the place would resemble the one he grew up in. But he would find the years before and during the event itself “difficult to imagine.”