* Subscribers were aware about this issue in March. Capitol News Illinois…

Insurance companies are reducing the scope of coverage for some community foster agencies in Illinois, leading to higher costs, diminished coverage and fewer options for agencies who say a continuance of the trend could lead to closures.

If the situation worsens, some foster agencies warn they will have to shut down, sending children in their facilities back under the care of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, an agency advocates say doesn’t have the capacity to handle an influx of foster children. […]

In an interview with Capitol News Illinois, Pamela Davis, the founder, president and CEO of Nonprofits Insurance Alliance, or NIA, said the organization had never previously done a mass nonrenewal like the one in California. She said insurance companies are struggling to distinguish low-risk foster agencies from high-risk ones, since agencies who are doing a “good job” and those who are doing a “bad job” are getting sued the same.

In Illinois, NIA scaled back its coverage by placing $1 million limits on the coverage that protects agencies against claims for physical or sexual abuse, known as Improper Sexual Conduct and Physical Abuse, or ISCPA, coverage. This means that if a foster agency is sued for sexual or physical abuse, NIA will only cover up to $1 million of the settlement – even as many lawsuits are being settled for much more.

Usually, insurance companies offer umbrella coverage beyond the company’s limit. But NIA is also no longer providing umbrella coverage for ISCPA coverage or social services professionals coverage, which protects the agencies’ social workers if they’re sued for misconduct.

* WGN…

The Illinois Gaming Board announced Friday that they are moving to prohibit using credit cards for online sports betting.

They are doing it to “further support responsible gaming,” according to the organization.

The board administrator for the IGB said that gambling addicts can use credit cards to fund their accounts when they do not have the means.

“As part of our review, we determined that prohibiting the use of credit cards to fund sports wagering accounts is a justified and impactful advancement in Illinois sports wagering,” said Illinois Gaming Board Administrator Marcus Fruchter. “There is a growing body of recent research showing that restrictions on credit usage to fund wagering accounts encourages responsible gambling and mitigates the harms of compulsive gambling. Problem gamblers are particularly at risk and studies have shown an often-problematic willingness for compulsive gamblers to use credit cards to place bets.” […]

The IGB’s adopted rules now go to the General Assembly’s Joint Committee on Administrative Rules (JCAR) for the public comment and approval process.

* Tribune…

Gov. JB Pritzker on Thursday tapped a Cook County official to run the Illinois Emergency Management Agency and Office of Homeland Security.

Theodore “Ted” D. Berger most recently worked under Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle as the county’s executive director of emergency management and regional security.

If approved by the state Senate, Berger would be the permanent replacement for Alicia Tate-Nadeau, who started as director of IEMA and OHS in 2019, Pritzker’s first year in office, after more than three decades with the Illinois National Guard. […]

“With decades of emergency management experience and a wealth of knowledge about our State’s many regions, Ted Berger is an exceptionally qualified candidate to lead Illinois’ critical support efforts,” Pritzker said in the news release.

* WAND…

Illinois State Treasurer Michael Frerichs announced the new Funding U Illinois No Cosigner Loan, a part of the Student Empowerment Fund.

Frerichs and his team worked together with lawmakers to invest in loan providers that serve Illinois residents. These lenders will offer private loans at affordable rates and will make interest payments to the state. The state will then reinvest these funds to create additional loans for residents of Illinois.

The Student Empowerment Fund was created to provide private college loans for Illinois residents at lower rates than private competitors, helping to bridge the gap with federal financial aid. […]

The No Cosign Loan allows students who have low credit scores or are unable to get an eligible co-signer on their loan application, to get access to financial aid.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Illinois State Bar Association | Quick Takes on Illinois Supreme Court Opinions Issued Thursday, April 24, 2025: Piasa Armory, LLC v. Kwame Raoul, in His Official Capacity as Attorney General of the State of Illinois: The setting of this case could not be more efficiently described than Justice Rochford did at the outset of her opinion for the court. “Section 2-101.5 of the Code of Civil Procedure sets venue in Sangamon and Cook Counties for actions seeking declaratory or injunctive relief from a constitutional challenge to a state statute, rule, or executive order. The circuit court of Madison County ruled that the statute was unconstitutional as applied to individuals residing or injured outside of those two counties.” On this direct appeal to the Supreme Court pursuant to Rule 302(a), enabled by a finding under Rule 304(a), the Supreme Court reversed the circuit court, holding that this venue statute was not unconstitutional on this as-applied challenge.

* Payments Dive | Illinois AG, Durbin defend state card fee law: Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul filed motions Wednesday opposing the banks’ bid for summary judgment and requesting that U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall instead grant the AG summary judgment.

* WBEZ | Pritzker remains quiet on future plans, despite growing national appearances: He’s not done yet: On Sunday, Pritzker is headlining the 2025 McIntyre-Shaheen 100 Club dinner. It’s the largest Democratic fundraiser for New Hampshire, a state that’s held one of the nation’s first primary contests for more than 100 years. All of the appearances are helping Pritzker introduce himself to a wider Democratic audience, even though the two-term governor has not confirmed what his future plans are or if he’ll seek another term in any office at all. Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, said Pritzker is doing what candidates often do if they’re exploring a presidential run: getting name recognition by latching onto an issue partisans care about.

*** Chicago ***

* Crain’s | Bears confront their Soldier Field landlord as they scope out Arlington Park move: Bears President Kevin Warren sent a letter to new Park District Superintendent Carlos Ramirez-Rosa detailing the team’s concern over the condition of Soldier Field and requesting documents to provide an overview of maintenance and capital spending. Also requested in the letter: monthly meetings to address the team’s concerns. […] Warren sent the letter, dated April 16 and addressed to Ramirez-Rosa, claiming the team has not had a seat at the table in deciding how capital dollars are spent improving the nearly century-old stadium.

* WBEZ | Offices in the Loop and beyond are being converted to apartments. Can the city do more?: Converting offices to apartments is just one solution for bringing outmoded buildings back to life. The number of projects is higher when factoring in all office conversions: Primo’s Capri Investment Group is working with the Prime Group to redevelop the former Cboe Global Markets headquarters. The partners plan to turn the building into a data center after buying it last summer for $12 million. A report last year by the commercial real estate data company CommercialCafe said that of the 30 biggest cities in the United States, Chicago has the second-highest amount of office space that could be converted to residential use.

* Block Club | Lincoln Square Car-Free Zone Extended To May As Neighbors Make The Most Of Street Closure: An unforeseen, emergency repair of ComEd infrastructure means the 4700 block of North Lincoln Avenue will remain car-free longer than expected, officials said. […] The construction delay means this Sunday’s Ravenswood Run 5K will be rerouted to avoid Lincoln Square. The planned April 28 closure of the 2200 block of West Leland Avenue will also be delayed, Mark said.

* Sun-Times | Long-awaited DuSable Park takes a big step forward: At just 3.4 acres, the long-awaited $15 million Jean-Baptiste Point DuSable Park won’t be the city’s largest public green space, but it has the potential to be one of the best. As it should be. The park is planned for an absolutely prime spot east of DuSable Lake Shore Drive that is bounded by the Chicago River, the Ogden Slip and the lake. Chicagoans have waited 38 years for this park honoring DuSable, watching previous plans come and go.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Daily Herald | An immersive, panoramic view coming soon to a theater near you in Addison: SCREENX debuts in Addison on April 29 with an invitation-only preview of Marvel Studio’s “Thunderbolts,” and public screenings of the film beginning May 1. It offers panoramic views by extending some scenes onto the left and right walls of the auditorium at 1555 W. Lake St. Marcus Theatres President Mark Gramz said SCREENX uses three laser projectors, one pointed at the main center screen and two side projectors directed to opposite walls, which are treated with a reflective screen material.

* WTTW | The Cubs and Bulls Have Nothing on These Champs. Check Out Cook County’s MVP Trees: From a towering 120-foot-tall black oak to a 20-foot redbud, the Forest Preserve District of Cook County has mapped the largest specimen of each tree species identified in the preserves and has made it easier for people to find these “champions.” The district’s Champion Tree Register has been updated with an interactive web tool that not only shows the location of each champion, but also includes a photo and stats like the tree’s height, circumference and the spread of its crown.

* Aurora Beacon-News | Tree plantings in Aurora offer chance to celebrate the environment: “Each year, the city partners with the local school district and travels around the different places planting trees on school grounds as kind of a tribute to Arbor Day but also the seeds of growth – literally,” said Clayton Muhammad, chief communications and equity officer for the city of Aurora. “We like to focus on youth and the importance of trees and watch kids throw some dirt on some of them so they can literally watch the trees grow during their years at the elementary school.

*** Downstate ***

* WGLT | Congressman raises concerns about tariff ‘chaos and uncertainty’ during stop at farm south of Bloomington: Krishnamoorthi spoke Thursday at the Kindred family farm in Atlanta, just southwest of Bloomington-Normal. Owner Ron Kindred said he’s concerned about Trump’s tariffs and any retaliatory actions from China, which consumes more than half of all soybeans exported from the U.S. Illinois is the No. 1 soybean-producing state in the U.S. “With China, they’re our No. 1 customer. If you put all of our other export markets together, it doesn’t equal what China buys from the U.S. in soybeans,” Kindred said. “So, it’s a real concern when your No. 1 customer is the one who’s targeted with tariffs.

* WGLT | DCFS and ISU team up for new high-tech child welfare simulation space in Normal: Illinois State University and the state’s Department of Children and Family Services [DCFS] teamed up on the new Child Protection Training Academy. Located at The Baby Fold at 614 Oglesby Ave., it’s the third of its kind in the state. The ribbon-cutting was Friday. The new space includes mock apartments, a doctor’s office, and courtroom environments where front line workers can practice interviews, assessments and even testimony. Those in training can get practice followed by immediate feedback and coaching. There are cameras and microphones everywhere so trainees can be monitored.

* WCIA | ‘They’re trying to go after us,’ Candlewood Estates residents say they won’t be charged for electrical issues: “They’re trying to go after us,” said Candlewood Estates Tenant Association leader Marcia Green. And she wants the state to right the wrongs she says are happening at a mobile home park in Mahomet. Candlewood Estates’ latest issue is the more than 400 electrical violations the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) has given the property. […] They’re fighting it in court. They say the property is giving out violations to the tenants while electrical boxes are out of code, and people living there say it’s not their responsibility.

* BND | $300M entertainment, retail and residential project in O’Fallon gets OK: “We just have to be patient as it’s being developed,” said incoming Mayor Eric Van Hook, now a City Council member. “I wish it could be here a lot sooner than eight years, but I’m excited for what it’s going to provide to not only O’Fallon residents, but to the people that visit our community, and hopefully they’ll see what we see in it.” Park Place, located just across the street from the popular O’Fallon Family Sports Park in the northwest part of the city, will have single-family homes, duplexes, apartment buildings, townhomes, a hotel, retail facilities, restaurants, office space and entertainment venues. Those include a TopGolf-style driving range.

* SIU | SIU Carbondale student elected to national honors council: An aspiring forensic anthropologist at Southern Illinois University Carbondale has been chosen to serve on the National Collegiate Honors Council Board of Directors, a spot reserved for only five students in the country. Sophomore Natalie Eves of Bloomington, Illinois, is majoring in anthropology with a minor in forensic science and is a student in the University Honors Program. She became interested in joining the 17-member NCHC board after attending a conference a few months before, where she presented her research about mental health. Another student in the SIU System, Aman Pai, a sophomore at SIU Edwardsville, also is one of five student members. Eves and Pai will serve on the board through 2027.

* WICS | Illinois State University and Heartland Community College to sign transfer agreement: Leaders from Illinois State University and Heartland Community College are set to meet on Thursday, May 1, 2025, to sign an articulation agreement aimed at facilitating the transfer of students pursuing a bachelor’s degree in business administration. The signing will take place at the Gregg Chadwick Community Board Room in the Community Commons Building.

*** National ***

* WaPo | RFK Jr.’s absurd statistic on the spike in chronic diseases in the U.S.: In other words, this is another example of Kennedy taking a success story — longer lives and better detection of chronic diseases — to argue that something is rotten. He’s long been a purveyor of the fiction that vaccines cause autism, and one of his key points of evidence is that the percentage of people with autism has increased. But the percentage of people diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder has gone up mainly because of expanded definitions and better detection. There is no blood test for autism, so a diagnosis is based on observations of a person’s behavior. Indeed, while autism diagnoses have increased, those of intellectual disability have decreased, indicating that previously, children may have been misdiagnosed with other conditions.