* ICYMI: CTA, Metra, Pace face ‘draconian’ service cuts in new worst-case scenario laid out by agencies. Sun-Times…

- The three agencies, and the Regional Transportation Authority which oversees them, on Friday initiated the latest in a pressure campaign on state lawmakers to appropriate more state money.
- The CTA would be the first agency to run out of federal grants and reduce service in 2026, according to a report released by the RTA on Friday.
- Moody’s Ratings this week downgraded CTA’s credit outlook from stable to negative. The report cited the uncertainty of future funding.

* Related stories…

∙ Click here for the RTA report.
∙ Bloomberg: Chicago Transit Faces ‘Doomsday Scenario,’ Regional Agency Says
∙ Daily Herald: ‘A spiral effect’: 40% service cuts estimated if Metra, Pace, CTA veer over the fiscal cliff

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

* At 11 am the governor will be in Rockford to celebrate public transportation expansion, at 2:30 the governor will join advocates and patients in Peoria to discuss the threat of cuts to Medicaid. Click here to watch.

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* Subscribers have been aware of this for weeks. Tribune | Gov. JB Pritzker’s Illinois Democratic Party targets Richard Irvin as he seeks third term as Aurora mayor: After making history in 2017 as Aurora’s first Black mayor and cruising to reelection four years ago, Richard Irvin now faces a political challenge partly of his own making as he seeks a third term leading Illinois’ second-largest city. The ostensibly nonpartisan April 1 election is a rematch against John Laesch, an Aurora alderman at-large who was one of two candidates Irvin bested by more than 30 points in 2021. But this time Laesch is getting a boost from the Illinois Democratic Party, which entered the fray after Irvin repeatedly slammed Gov. JB Pritzker during the mayor’s well-funded but ill-fated bid for the Republican nomination for governor in 2022.

* Transit union leaders | A new bill offers a path forward for Illinois transit funding : There will be cuts to services, station shutdowns and increased fares, affecting low-income communities and people of color the hardest. This will widen existing inequalities, hurt businesses, slow down our economy and put our region at a disadvantage. Thankfully, there is a path forward. The United We Move Illinois legislation, led by state Sen. Ram Villivalam and House Assistant Majority Leader Marcus C. Evans Jr., offers a bold vision for our transit future. Rather than slapping together a temporary fix, this plan addresses the deeper issues causing our transit struggles and builds a stronger and fairer system.

* Crain’s | Illinois sues EPA, Citibank for release of $20 billion for clean energy projects: Citibank was named in a lawsuit filed by Illinois and three other states looking to collect $20 billion for clean energy projects over claims that the funding is stalled by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under President Donald Trump’s administration. The states say Citibank, which is holding the funds designated for the environmental projects, has declined to release the money as required by previously passed legislation.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Sun-Times | A flood of emails, ‘intimidation’ allegations as homeschooling advocates fight regulation: The issue is so contentious that state Rep. Terra Costa Howard, D-Lombard, the bill’s sponsor, is accusing some advocates of “bullying.” “Threats and intimidation. Constituents calling my office, demanding meetings and telling my staff that they would be protesting outside my home if I did not meet their demands,” Costa Howard said. “In this political climate, it seems to be something that is encouraged.”

* The ILGA’s current tenure chart. H/t to John Amdor…

* WCIA | Illinois police advocate for and against bills at State Capitol on Lobby Day: Chief Dwayne Wheeler represented Taylorville in Springfield this year. Taylorville Lieutenant Michael Toberman told WCIA that Wheeler advocated for several bills which he hopes will make the Taylorville community safer. […] Senate Bill 2192 would create the Preventing Targeted Violence Act. It would create a community support team, made up of law enforcement, mental health experts, threat assessors, and various community organizations, to prevent targeted violence.

* Sun-Times | Illinois backs veterans claiming they were denied GI Bill benefits despite Supreme Court ruling: Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and attorneys general in 49 states and the District of Columbia are backing two veterans who say the government wrongly denied their college-age children educational benefits, despite a Supreme Court ruling last year that boosted such benefits. The friend-of-the-court brief, filed Wednesday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims in Washington, argues that the ruling in the landmark Rudisill v. McDonough case should apply to all veterans who earned GI Bill benefits under both the Montgomery GI Bill and the Post-9/11 GI Bill, regardless of whether they had one period of service or more.

* CBS News | Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Rep. Lauren Underwood hold Romeoville event about protecting Social Security: The event, called “Standing Up for Seniors,” is the second stop on Pritzker’s “Stand Up for Illinois” tour. He was in Champaign and Urbana Wednesday with Rep. Nikki Budzinski (D-IL 13th District) where he held a roundtable with farmers and environmental leaders working on smart agriculture who had their funding cut, and met with laid-off workers at the University of Illinois Soybean Innovation Lab, which is set to close in April after the Trump administration cut off funding to USAID.

*** Chicago ***

* Sun-Times | CPS school board votes to require next leader be an educator, not a CEO: The change will have an immediate effect as the district is currently searching for a new leader. CPS CEO Pedro Martinez was fired in December and is set to leave his post at the end of June. His contract allowed him to stay on for an additional six months. While the school board can set certain qualifications for the district’s top leader, the state legislature would have to change the title and cement the higher standard for employment. The legislature handed over control of the school district to former Mayor Richard M. Daley 30 years ago, including the power to appoint the school board and CEO. The only qualification for a CEO in state law is that it “shall be a person of recognized administrative ability and management experience.”

* Tribune | Chicago Board of Education postpones vote on controversial budget amendment: The Chicago Board of Education on Thursday postponed a controversial budget amendment pushed by Mayor Brandon Johnson, prolonging doubt about who will pay for a new teachers contract and a $175 million pension payment to the city. That means the latter’s cost remains on the city’s side. The city has until the end of this month to either resolve the budget gap or end the 2024 fiscal year with a deficit. Just minutes before its monthly meeting, the school board called off the votes that would pave the way for Chicago Public Schools to issue or repurpose $242 million in debt and ink an agreement making the district responsible for its pension obligation. School board President Sean Harden cited contract negotiations as the reason for the delay.

* Sun-Times | Johnson likens himself to second coming of Harold Washington: “There’s value in having a Black mayor for a long period of time to see the vision happen. Right now, we have a second bite at this apple and we’ve got to get it right. … Like Harold Washington, you are trying to set this table for long-term progress and changing Black Chicago.” When McGill asked Johnson if he was “mischaracterizing your vision here,” the mayor replied: “Not at all.”

* Reuters | Chicago corn prices set to challenge decades-long streaks: If the recent tariff-fueled selloff in Chicago corn futures felt extreme, that’s because it was, especially given the season. Huge swings in new-crop corn prices are not typically seen in the beginning months of the year due to upcoming harvest uncertainties across the Americas.

* Crain’s | Developer pitches 26-story hotel near Obama Presidential Center: The proposal is meant to capitalize on the 700,000 visitors that city officials project will come to the Obama Center each year. Adding to the nearby Griffin Museum of Science & Industry, the presidential complex stands to fortify the lakefront portion of the Woodlawn and Hyde Park neighborhoods as a tourist destination. Davis, an attorney who co-founded a law firm at which Obama worked prior to his run in politics, is betting visitors will want to stay in the area, too.

* Sun-Times | Dispensary 33’s weed shops are first in Illinois to be fully employee-owned: The dispensary’s two stores in Uptown and West Loop, along with its four partnered Spark’d dispensaries in the city and suburbs, were rolled into one holding company that was sold to a trust owned by the company’s roughly 200 employees. The state approved the sale Thursday, but the terms of the deal haven’t been disclosed.

* Tribune | Amid discontent at classical station, WFMT employees announce intent to unionize: Union committee sources tell the Tribune that plans to unionize had been under way for a year prior to the announcement. But discontent at WFMT spilled into the public eye last fall when Dennis Moore, a veteran host, accused the station of firing him rather than accommodating a doctor-approved disability. He also accused parent company Window to the World Communications Inc. of “fail(ing) to act in the best interests of the radio station” and “clearly prioritiz(ing)” WTTW, the PBS affiliate also owned by the company.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Sun-Times | Retired Orland Park police sergeant arrested over parody Facebook page sues department: Kenneth Kovac alleges his First and Fourth amendment rights were violated when he was arrested last year and charged with crimes after he created a page parodying the former deputy police chief.

* Daily Herald | Illinois Supreme Court sides with Rolling Meadows in Cooper’s Hawk tax dispute with Arlington Heights: The Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday ruled in favor of Rolling Meadows in its three-year legal dispute with Arlington Heights over misallocated sales tax revenue from Cooper’s Hawk Winery & Restaurant on the towns’ border. The decision prompted sharp words from Arlington Heights Mayor Thomas Hayes, who said Rolling Meadows, “should be ashamed of this unjust result.” The restaurant, which opened in June 2011, at 798 W. Algonquin Road in Arlington Heights, mistakenly was coded as a Rolling Meadows business by the Illinois Department of Revenue. Upon discovering the error in March 2020, Arlington Heights recovered $109,000 — the maximum allowed by law — which covered the last six months of 2019.

* Daily Herald | ‘We can put this behind us’: Judge sides with Winfield in TIF dispute with schools: A DuPage County judge has sided with the village and found that its enactment of a tax increment financing district — the property in the TIF district lies entirely within Winfield’s Town Center — was “not clearly and convincingly wrong” and cannot be held invalid. The judge’s decision comes more than three years after Winfield Elementary District 34 filed a lawsuit — West Chicago High School District 94 joined as a plaintiff in the case — against the village challenging the legality of the TIF district, which consists of some 50 tax parcels.

*** Downstate ***

* BND | Illinois State Police agent pleads guilty, loses job over hit-and-run involving teen: An Illinois State Police special agent has pleaded guilty to two traffic tickets after being accused of running a red light, crashing his unmarked SUV into a car driven by a teenage boy and leaving the scene of an accident while off duty in Shiloh in December. As part of a plea agreement filed Tuesday in St. Clair County Circuit Court, Julian Feix, 30, of Fairview Heights, agreed to resign from his job, surrender his Illinois law-enforcement certification, serve two years probation and perform 100 hours of community service.

* WCIA | Neoga FFA students asking for help in tornado relief efforts: The City of Neoga is still recovering following a tornado last Friday. As the community continues to clean up, students are asking for help rebuilding one of the largest school programs. “Seeing the Ag room destroyed in that, and it just wasn’t a good sight to see,” said junior student Dane McKinney.

* WMBD | Insurance firm sues WTVP’s former CEO’s estate and finance director for losses: The suit, filed last week in Peoria County Circuit Court, by the Cincinnati Insurance Company, seeks $250,000 from the estate of Lesley Matuszak and from Linda McLaughlin as well as costs and fees. That’s the amount Cincinnati Insurance paid to Illinois Valley Public Telecommunications Corporation, the parent company of WTVP-TV, last summer to cover alleged embezzlement by Matuszak and McLaughlin.

* WREX | LWVGF Candidate Meet and Greet for Rockford Consolidated Elections April 1st: “There are four democrats running against four republicans. We do hope that everyone will go out and vote. Municipal elections matter a lot, a lot of people don’t vote in the municipal elections, we would hope people go out and vote.” said Kylee Miller, Democratic Candidate for Rockford Township Trustee. Rockford Township Trustees are just some of the candidates voters were able to hear from Thursday night.

* WTVO | Rockford’s Miracle Mile celebrates 20 years of business success: “The Miracle Mile started in 2005 when a lot of businesses were empty. A lot of blight was happening in our town along State Street, especially,” said Miracle Mile executive director Amy Hoening. Business owners and community leaders came together to form the Miracle Mile Rockford Business Association. Two years later, the corridor was designated as a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district, helping to support existing businesses and attract new ones.

* WCIA | Springfield robotics team heading to Central Illinois Regional First Robotics Competition: The Springfield Robotics team, the Abe Robotics, which has been supported by the Urban League and District 186, is made up of students from District 186 schools, including Southeast, Lanphier, and Springfield High. They will be competing against more than 30 other teams at Bradley University to put their craft to work.