* ICYMI: Federal government to pull back $125 million in COVID money from Illinois health departments. Tribune…

The federal government is pulling back $125 million in funding from the Illinois Department of Public Health and 97 local health departments for activities related to COVID-19 and other infectious diseases, the state health department said Wednesday.

In all, the federal government is slashing $11.4 billion in federal funding across the country for state and local health departments and other health organizations for COVID-19-related activities. The move is the latest by the administration of President Donald Trump to cut costs across the federal government.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago,” the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement. […]

The Illinois Department of Public Health had allocated the money for technology to track the spread of diseases, invest in labs that test samples for infectious diseases, to conduct surveillance of wastewater, to build the public health workforce and strengthen local health departments.

* Related stories…

∙ Sun-Times: Trump administration cuts $153 million in Illinois public health, substance abuse programs
∙ Politico: Trump admin considers killing big energy projects in Dem states
∙ Tribune: Illinois Democrats vow to defend state elections law against Trump’s executive order

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* ABC Chicago | CTA workers, members of ATU Local 308, canvassing stations to raise awareness of fiscal cliff: Members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 308 are canvassing Blue and Red Line stations Wednesday, handing out pamphlets to riders on the impending fiscal cliff facing Chicago public transit. “It is feeling like we’re fighting. We’re trying to get the safety issues taken care of. We’re trying to get the morale of the ridership; we’re trying to get that back up,” CTA switch operator Brandy Leach said.

* Tribune | Illinois affordable housing projects on pause as Trump administration evaluates funds: The more than $1 billion national program, known as the Green and Resilient Retrofit Program, is funded through the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act and provides developers with one piece of the complex and expensive capital stack required to complete affordable housing projects. The Associated Press first reported the threat to the national HUD program. About 270 projects were awarded funds, with at least 15 of these projects in Illinois — in various stages of development. The Illinois developments are slated to receive over $52.5 million, with some still forging ahead.

* Capitol News Illinois | A university, a rural town and their fight to survive Trump’s war on higher education: Supporters of Trump’s proposed research funding cuts say schools should dip into their endowment funds to offset the recent cuts. But SIU’s $210 million endowment, almost all of it earmarked for specific purposes, is pocket change compared with Ivy League schools like Yale, which has a similar student population size but a roughly $41 billion endowment. At present, SIU faces a $9.4 million deficit, the result of declining enrollments and years of state budget cuts; there is no cushion for it to fall back on.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Investigate Midwest | Illinois governor moves to slash cover crop funds despite rising demand: Illinois’ only cover crop incentive program could lose nearly a third of its funding under Gov. JB Pritzker’s proposed state budget. A bill to increase funding missed Friday’s committee deadline. Farmers and environmental advocates warn conservation efforts could stall without it.

* WBEZ | New poll shows most Illinois residents want more funding for public schools: A new poll out Wednesday shows that most Illinois residents want more funding for public schools, a finding released just as educators are warning that efforts by the Trump administration to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education could reduce school spending and hurt students, particularly the most vulnerable. The poll from the Illinois Education Association found that 71% of Illinois residents believe funding for public schools should increase and more than 9 in 10 residents believe students have a right to a public education. The IEA is the state’s largest teachers union.

* Capitol News Illinois | Democrats argue Republicans waited too long to file latest redistricting lawsuit: A case brought to the Illinois Supreme Court by House Republican Leader Tony McCombie, R-Savanna, asked the court to reject the current legislative map for its partisan bias and have a special master redraw the districts. But it is not yet known whether the court will take the case. […] While the court hasn’t yet said whether it will hear the case, it did ask both parties to explain whether McCombie and the other plaintiffs filed the lawsuit in a timely manner, a factor to be considered in deciding whether to take the case.

* Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton | Women in office aren’t an exception but a necessity: As a country, we seem to be forgetting a fundamental and time-tested lesson — representation matters. Not just representation for representation’s sake, but true representation that makes a real impact on our country’s governance. Women all across America deserve leaders who respect them, understand the issues they face, and are brave enough to advocate for them at every level of office. It’s what drove Loretta Durbin and a group of trailblazing women to create the Illinois Women’s Institute for Leadership Training Academy 25 years ago at the 2000 Democratic National Convention.

*** Statewide ***

* Crain’s | Illinois EV sales surged, fueled by incentives: Sales of electric vehicles in Illinois have perked up in recent months, well above the uptick nationally, as consumer and corporate purchasers took advantage of incentives. The number of new EVs registered across the state totaled 9,821 January through March, compared with 6,535 during the same period a year ago. Even discarding March, which was unusually weak a year ago, total registrations in January and February were up 37%.

* BGA | State Courts Lag on Electronic Monitoring Data Required by SAFE-T Act: As BGA Policy has consistently highlighted, Illinois’ judicial branch is not subject to FOIA, leaving entities like juvenile detention centers, policies and procedures of judicial agencies, training manuals and budget documents to all be kept outside of the public’s view. Even when mandated to publish information, BGA Policy has reported on how the judicial branch has been slow to comply. Now, with an unprecedented expansion of electronic monitoring, the public continues to wait on mandated information from the judicial branch that they have yet to make available.

* Daily Herald | Illinois association survey shows unease over dismantling of U.S. Department of Education: The bipartisan poll of 1,000 people randomly surveyed in late January shows their views on public education. A majority of those surveyed believe: all students have a right to public education (91%); funding for public schools should increase (71%); teachers and support staff should be paid more (53% and 69%, respectively); and that local school board elections should be free from the influence of national political groups (72%).

*** Downstate ***

* WICS | Sangamon County Sheriff’s staff face disciplinary action after burglary leads to car chase: A motorcycle shop is still missing thousands of dollars in merchandise, and a sheriff’s deputy and sergeant are facing disciplinary action months after a burglary investigation led to a suspect’s death. […] Crouch told me her office believes the sergeant and deputy violated some of the office policies. In the Sangamon County sheriff’s policy manual, it says deputies should not pursue a vehicle solely involved in a property crime.

* WCIA | ‘We’re strong’; Neoga students back in school after tornado: “It means a lot to me that we’re strong and can go through this together,” third-grader Afia Simtim-Aboagye said. Students were supposed to head back to school from spring break on March 17, but the storm damage pushed that start date to March 26.

* WIFR | Winnebago Co. inmates graduate with metalworking certifications: The Winnebago County Sheriff’s Department and Rock Valley College partnered in late 2020 to offer inmates a chance to get an education and curb recidivism rates in the Rockford region. Their studies are hands-on thanks to the TechWork Training Initiative. Each inmate learns CNC machinery in the class and leaves with the certification necessary to enter the machining industry.

*** Chicago ***

* WBEZ | DePaul class inside Cook County jail brings together incarcerated and traditional students: It’s a typical class session in the Inside-Out program, which brings together campus-based students with incarcerated students for quarter-long courses. Founded in 1997 at Temple University, the program is now taught in hundreds of correctional facilities across the country. DePaul offers at least one of these classes at Cook County jail every quarter.

* Sun-Times | Durbin under fire from progressives over vote for GOP spending plan: A statement by influential Chicago advocacy groups against Sen. Dick Durbin’s vote, coupled with a climate group protest targeting him, are uncommon public rebukes of the 80-year-old lawmaker deciding whether to run for another term.

* WBEZ | Sanctuary and restriction: A look at Chicago mayors’ wildly different approaches to immigrants: One of the city’s most famous anti-immigrant incidents happened because of a one-term mayor, Levi Boone. The 17th mayor of Chicago ran on a pro-temperance and anti-immigrant platform in 1855, two issues that were linked in Boone’s mind. “He was affiliated with a political party called the Native American party. Now, this isn’t referring to indigenous people. Instead, what it meant was people who had been born in the United States,” said Paul Durica, director of exhibitions at the Chicago History Museum.

* Block Club | The City Is Waiving Sticker Penalties For Chicago Drivers For All Of April: “We are pushing so hard on this Amnesty Month message because we want people to take this opportunity, regardless of the last time they purchased a City Sticker, to get on track,” Martinez said.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Fox Chicago | Democratic push to unseat Aurora Mayor Irvin grows amid development and debt concerns: Meanwhile, Democratic challenger John Lash has been knocking on doors, arguing city government has gone off track. He accused Irvin of steering tens of millions in city subsidies to political allies and campaign donors.

* Journal-Topics | Possibly Historic Election Sees Full Slate Of Dems Challenge GOP Trustees In Elk Grove Township: The four Democratic candidates challenging the four incumbent Republicans are Robert Lugiai of Mount Prospect, Monika Stajniak of Elk Grove Village, Jason Wynkoop of Mount Prospect, and Phillip Dukes of Arlington Heights. The incumbent Republicans running for reelection are Richard Keenley, Dale Niewiardowski, David Perns and Brian Maye.

* Aurora Beacon-News | SAFE-T Act increasing expenses in Kane County, state’s attorney says: With a sales tax referendum question being put to voters in less than a week, Kane County State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser and other public safety officials in the county described increasing staffing and operational costs they’re facing after Illinois ended cash bail. At the Kane County Board Committee of the Whole meeting on Tuesday, Mosser and others outlined staffing and operating changes they’ve had to make – from hiring additional attorneys to paying for more overtime hours for staff at hearings that stretch through the day – since the SAFE-T Act took effect in Illinois on Sept. 18, 2023.

* Tribune | Park Ridge council hears from business owner on Delta-8 ban, holds off on vote: The meeting agenda that Monday night called for a vote on passage of the first reading of the draft ordinance, which anticipates banning “the sale of Delta-8 and Delta-9 THC products protects the health, safety and welfare of the residents of the City,” according to the draft. “This is the wild, wild west of controlled substances,” said council member John Moran, 1st Ward, who was not present for the discussion two weeks before. “I had a resident bring it to my attention; a lot of the manufacturers of these products are not reputable.”