* ICYMI: Gov. Pritzker ‘evaluating’ whether to testify before House Committee on sanctuary status. Sun-Times…

Calling the request a “partisan dog and pony show,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker on Thursday said he is evaluating whether he’ll testify before the Republican-led House Oversight and Government Reform Committee next month over the state’s immigration policies.

The request comes after Mayor Brandon Johnson on March 5 participated in a six-hour congressional committee alongside Democratic mayors who represent sanctuary cities.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) has requested Pritzker, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul testify before the committee on their sanctuary state policies on May 15. In a letter to Pritzker, Comer asked Pritzker to confirm his testimony by April 17.

Comer has also requested documents and communications about the state’s sanctuary status.

* Related stories…

∙ Crain’s: Pritzker called to testify on Illinois’ immigrant policy in D.C.
∙ ABC Chicago: Pritzker called to testify in DC as Trump threatens to withhold funding from sanctuary cities
∙ WTTW: Pritzker ‘Evaluating’ Request to Testify Before Congress About Illinois Protections for Undocumented Immigrants

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

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* BGA | New Revenues for Chicago, Mentioned in Budget Hearings, Not On Mayor’s Springfield Agenda: The city isn’t short on ideas. A new subcommittee on revenue considered a list of possibilities in June 0f 2024 (thus far the subcommittee’s only meeting, apart from a joint hearing on hemp regulation with the health committee), and more were discussed during budget hearings, with proposals from both alderpersons and city staff aired in the back-and-forth between council members and the mayor’s budget team. Some of those proposals would require legislative changes at the state level. BGA Policy compiled a list of state-dependent revenue policies that were proposed at City Council in 2024, either during the 2025 budget hearings or in the revenue subcommittee. Some would make Chicago an outlier among the country’s five largest cities, while others would bring the city more in line with its peers.

* Herald-Review | State Rep. Sue Scherer recovering after car crash near Decatur: Scherer, a Democrat from Decatur, was driving on westbound Park Avenue when she entered the intersection and was struck by a vehicle traveling south on Wyckles Road, the sheriff’s office said. […] Scherer suffered a rib fracture and three small vertebrae fractures in her back. A doctor treating Scherer said the injuries “would heal with time and did not require surgery,” according to the crash report. The other driver suffered an ankle fracture and rib fractures that required a custom-fitted brace.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Mark Batinick | Illinois Republicans must embrace vote by mail or be left behind: Four years ago, the Illinois General Assembly passed Permanent Vote by Mail, or VBM. I cringed — not because of fears over fraud, ballot harvesting or cheating, but because I knew Republicans had been conditioned to reject voting by mail. That might not matter much in a presidential election, when most motivated voters show up, no matter what. But in lower-turnout contests — such as midterms and especially consolidated local elections — Democrats have a massive advantage because they’ve built a reliable VBM voter base.

*** Chicago ***

* Bloomberg | $15 Million Fund Bets Leadership Training Can Improve Chicago Policing: The academy, which would be the first in the nation for a major police department, would focus on giving targeted training to officers when they’re promoted into leadership roles within the department, making sure they know how to make data-informed decisions, collaborate with the local community and maintain officer morale and accountability.

* NBC Chicago | Vacant lot once eyed for migrants will cost taxpayers $1.8 million: The City of Chicago will pay the owners of a vacant lot in Brighton Park more than $816,000 to settle a lawsuit that alleged the city failed to make monthly lease payments for the use of the land – that was once eyed as a place to house up to 2,000 migrants in winterized tents. That failed plan was scrapped in December 2023, however, after the Illinois EPA stepped in amid the release of an 800-page environmental report that found levels of mercury and other toxic metals were present in the soil and air surrounding the lot.

* Sun-Times | Man guilty of threatening former Mayor Lori Lightfoot: ‘I have a bullet with your name on it’: Prosecutors argued that Kohles, “intended for that threat to be real” and that they did not have to prove whether he was capable of actually carrying it out. Lightfoot had testified that no other threat she received during her time in public office ever rose to that level, according to prosecutors.

* Tribune | ‘I’ve been nothing but transparent’: Former UIC student speaks out after his visa was revoked: It was a typical Thursday night for the financial analyst, who was watching “Lord of the Rings” when he got the email with the subject line “visa revoked.” At first, the University of Illinois Chicago grad from India thought it was a joke — just a scam email from some Indian website trying to mess with him. But then he received a second email after he tried logging into his Student and Exchange Visitor Program portal. “Your OPT authorization period has ended,” the email read.

* Crain’s | Your next DoorDash order may be delivered by a robot: Coco and DoorDash, through the delivery giant’s international arm, piloted the program in Finland. Chicago and Los Angeles are the first two U.S. cities to get a taste of the DoorDash-Coco program, which has now launched. DoorDash touts the robots as being emission-free. The robots also eliminate the expectation for customers to tip. On the other hand, the robots could reduce orders — and therefore earnings — for DoorDash’s human drivers. A DoorDash spokesperson argued it is not a zero-sum game and human drivers will continue to be central to the business.

* WBEZ | Field Museum curator downplays ‘dire wolf’ breakthrough claim: ‘It’s a little overhyped’: But, as scientists at the Field Museum explain, don’t believe the hype. “I hate to be overly critical but I think it’s a little overhyped,” admits Ken Angielczyk, fossil mammals curator for the museum. “They’ve said they have done some modifications to I think about 14 genes in the grey wolf genome to bring back some features that we think were similar to dire wolves … but there’s probably about 20,000 to 25,000 actual genes in the wolf genome. … So what they’ve done is a very trivial tweaking in a way.”

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Tribune | Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle acknowledges troubled tech overhaul: “When I took this job in 2010, county operations were on a mainframe system, which put us maybe in the bottom quarter of counties in the country in terms of our technology,” Preckwinkle said after a county board meeting. “And we have been working very hard over the last 15 years to upgrade our technology, and have made some substantial improvements in those upgrades,” she said. “We’re about at the point where we’re going to get off the mainframe, which was my goal when I walked in the door.”

* Sun-Times | Deerfield school board meeting draws hundreds voicing support for trans student: A small group with Moms for Liberty Lake County — a local chapter of the national organization that has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center — voiced opposition. A line stretched outside and wrapped around one side of the building more than half an hour after the meeting began. The crowd inside and outside held signs in support of trans rights and pride flags, with cheers from outside audible in the quieter moments after speakers finished.

* Daily Herald | Wheeling police officers call for chief, deputy chief to be removed: 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. Wheeling officials investigated every allegation and found them baseless, Village Manager Jon Sfondilis has said. He reiterated that conclusion in an email Thursday.

* CBS Chicago | Fox Lake, Illinois agrees to settlement for wife of disgraced police officer Joe Gliniewicz: But authorities later learned Lt. Gliniewicz’s death was a carefully staged suicide, as investigators were closing in on him for embezzling from the village and the Police Explorers youth group. In January 2016, Melodie Gliniewicz was charged with embezzling between $10,000 and $100,000 from the Explorers program from 2008 to 2014. […] Following extensive negotiations that go back to spring 2023, the Fox Lake Village Board and village attorney — in coordination with the Fox Lake Police Pension Board — agreed to settle Melodie Gliniewicz’s fight over her husband’s pension.

* Daily Herald | With elections behind and budgets ahead, suburbs start enacting grocery taxes: Elk Grove Village and Wheaton officials approved ordinances this week, while Des Plaines aldermen took a preliminary first reading vote. Lombard trustees are set to vote later this month, along with scheduled discussions of boards in Buffalo Grove and Rolling Meadows. Palatine, Bannockburn and Burlington were among the early adopters late last year.

*** Downstate ***

* WGLT | With voters approving $38M facility upgrades in Prairie Central, Chenoa’s last school will close: Earlier this month, voters in Prairie Central approved a referendum allowing the school district to borrow $38 million for necessary facility upgrades, including the new elementary school. In Chenoa’s two precincts, 85% of voters voted against the measure. But they were outnumbered by those in favor elsewhere in the district, primarily in Livingston County. It passed with 57.7% of the overall vote, or around 559 votes. The same measure failed in November when residents in Chenoa — about 20 miles northeast of Bloomington-Normal, in McLean County — also voted heavily against it. Both times, sentiment in Chenoa was that passing the tax would mean closing the school that currently enrolls pre-K through first graders.

* PJ Star | Return of federal funding lifts ‘huge weight’ at WTVP-TV after financial scandal: A “big wind in the sails” for WTVP-TV has returned as the once-embattled public station learned this week its full funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has been restored. WTVP CEO Jenn Gordon told the Journal Star a “huge weight” has been lifted now that the CPB has restored all of its funding for fiscal years 2024 and 2025 following an audit in the wake of an embezzlement scandal that rocked the station.

* Rockford Register Star | Retired deputy wants to be the next Winnebago County sheriff. Here’s what you should know.: Saying he would bring decades of professional law enforcement experience to the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Department, a retired deputy chief on Thursday announced his plan to challenge Sheriff Gary Caruana. Dominick Barcellona, 51, formally announced he is running for sheriff as an independent candidate during an event at Top Dog Pizza and Pub in Machesney Park. “Gary and his supporters believe he has built an efficient law enforcement agency,” Barcellona said. “However, the reality is that his lack of law enforcement experience has had a detrimental impact on the community.”

* WSIL | JALC receives new truck to help with auto program courses: John A. Logan has introduced their new 2025 F-150 Lightning truck to help with training in their auto programs. The new truck was purchased through a Rev Up EV grant which will help students in the JALC Automotive Services and Auto Collision Technology programs. Students will be able to use the truck to prepare for careers in the automotive field.

*** National ***

* WIRED | Labor Leaders Fear Elon Musk and DOGE Could Gain Access to Whistleblower Files: In a memo shared exclusively with WIRED, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), which is currently suing the Trump administration over DOGE’s access to records at the Department of Labor, says they believe that the news reports and OSHA cases in its memo allegedly illustrate “gross mistreatment and even abuse of workers” at Musk companies in five different states. In the memo, the union federation alleges that as Musk attempts to exert “unilateral control” over the federal government through DOGE, “his record as a boss should be of concern to every worker in America.”