* Tribune…

Almost three years later, buses sent by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott have stopped arriving from the more closely surveilled southern border. The city has closed down most of the facilities it scrambled to stand up to meet waves of asylum-seekers, mostly from Venezuela. Thousands have transitioned to permanent housing. Police stations, once overflowing with newly arrived people, are empty.

What remains is a new, merged shelter network officials have dubbed the One System Initiative, which houses anyone, from anywhere, who doesn’t have a place to go. The city and state were running 28 migrant-exclusive facilities at the peak of arrivals in January of last year, according to city census data. They have collaborated with nonprofits to run 51 total sites across the system, city officials said. […]

Challenges remain. The number of people who need a short-term place to sleep still exceeds the 7,400 beds available in the merged systems. Some facilities are still dealing with bilingual staff shortages. Even if Chicago’s emergency shelters were perfectly equipped to meet demand, advocates say that issues with homelessness will persist unless the city addresses its inadequate supply of affordable housing. And in Kenwood, some residents are pushing back and may take legal action to try to prevent a shelter that once opened for migrants from becoming a permanent fixture in their area.

Inside the shelters, residents and workers say there is empathy among the people staying there.

“Some come because their house burned down, others because they just arrived in the U.S. and have nowhere else to go, some are fleeing violence from places like Mexico, Venezuela, or Haiti,” said Marcos Sanchez, a Venezuelan migrant who now works at a state-funded shelter near Midway Airport. “People support each other emotionally.”

*** Statehouse News ***

* Capitol News Illinois | Plan to overhaul higher education funding meets U of I opposition: Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford, D-Westchester, the lead sponsor of Senate Bill 13, said it is designed to bring equity and stability to the state’s higher education system. “This bill does not just aim to increase funding,” she told a Senate committee Wednesday. “It tells us for the first time in our state’s history what students and universities need to succeed and how to adequately fund universities over time to actually meet that need. It defines what universities require to educate, support and graduate students successfully, and then it directs resources to do just that.”

*** Statewide ***

* Press Release | IDPH Issues Updated Sport Fish Consumption Advisories: IDPH maintains an interactive Fish Advisory Map that includes consumption advisories for more than 100 publicly accessible bodies of water across the state. The advisories detail how frequently certain types of fish from various waterways can be eaten without posing a health risk. While there is no known immediate health hazard from eating contaminated fish from any Illinois water body, there are concerns about effects of long-term exposure to polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), and methylmercury in fish.

* NPR Illinois | Loving Lincoln author sheds light on the Great Emancipator’s work, relationships with women:” And I remembered an acquisition editor at SIU press had told me years ago to call her first when I was ready to write my book about Lincoln. And I did. I called her and the book that was written, it kind of just magically happened. Maureen, honestly, I sat down to write a collective biography of all these women, these stories of women’s mothers and sisters and friends of Mary Lincoln, of the women who Lincoln helped in his law practice … and the women who came to see Lincoln when he was president, asking him to help them with their sorrows, to get a loved one back from a battlefield, or to help them find a job in the government.”

*** Chicago ***

* Tribune | Group opposing Mayor Brandon Johnson and allies raises $10 million, progressives decry ‘sucker politics’: The Common Ground Collective has raised $10 million, according to its executive director, Chuck Swirsky. It’s a sum that’s sure to grow but that is already similar to the combined amount Johnson received in his 2023 campaign from his top funders, the Chicago Teachers Union, Service Employees International Union and related unions. The group, a nonprofit, is not required to publicly disclose its donor list, and Swirsky declined to do so. But he said the money came from around 90 donors, none of whom have contributed more than 5% of its total. And Swirsky said among the contributors is GCM Grosvenor CEO Michael Sacks, a Democratic donor and close friend of former Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Sacks declined to comment when contacted by the Tribune.

* Crain’s | Microsoft drops law firm that cut Trump deal — and turns to Chicago’s Jenner & Block: The move, first reported by The New York Times, gives Jenner a notable vote of confidence from one of the world’s largest companies at a time when the legal world is navigating intense political crosscurrents. The case involves Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of video game maker Activision Blizzard. According to court filings, Simpson Thacher lawyers told the Delaware Court of Chancery on April 22 it would no longer represent Microsoft. That same day, Jenner attorneys filed their appearance in the case, taking over legal duties in a shareholder lawsuit challenging the merger, the Times reports.

* Crain’s | Amid Trump attacks on higher ed, UChicago faculty want to see more from leadership: UChicago faculty have circulated a petition, which has now been signed by more than 260 members, that calls on Alivisatos to join other school leaders in publicly defending academic freedoms and opposing any effort by the government to undermine them. They implore Alivisatos to sign on to the American Association of Colleges & Universities’ letter, signed by almost 600 university leaders, including those at Northwestern and seven Ivy League universities, which opposes “undue government intrusion” by the Trump administration and its “coercive use of public research funding,” which has been used as a cudgel to force colleges to comply with its demands.

* Chalkbeat Chicago | Chicago Public Schools’ second-in-command leaving in June: Bogdana Chkoumbova, the Chicago Public Schools chief education officer and outgoing CEO Pedro Martinez’s second-in-command, is leaving the district at the end of the school year. Chkoumbova’s departure could herald more high-profile defections from the district as Martinez prepares to leave CPS in June. In late December 2024, the school board fired him without cause, which gave him another six months on the job under his contract.

* Sun-Times | Solution for Chicago’s empty office buildings could be microapartments, study says: Converting vacant office buildings into residential co-living units — akin to dorm-style housing — would help solve a trio of real estate problems bogging down Chicago, as the city tries to revitalize its downtown corridor. That’s according to a study by architecture firm Gensler and the Pew Charitable Trusts. The report, released Monday, looks at the feasibility of flexible co-living spaces in Chicago’s Central Business District.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Daily Herald | Man sentenced to 53 years in prison in hate-crime attack on Palestinian-American boy, mother: A former Plainfield Township landlord who murdered a 6-year-old Muslim boy and severely injured the boy’s mother in a vicious hate-crime attack days after the war in Gaza began was sentenced Friday to 53 years in prison. Joseph Czuba, 73, was found guilty in February of murder, attempted murder and hate-crime charges in the death of Wadee Alfayoumi and the wounding of his mother, Hanan Shaheen.

* Daily Herald | ‘You have to get through Rolling Meadows’: Mayor stresses city’s place in Arlington Park redevelopment: The 326-acre Arlington Park property that could one day host a Chicago Bears stadium is within the village of Arlington Heights, but Rolling Meadows Mayor Lara Sanoica is quick to remind people her town will be a key player in redevelopment discussions, too. “Anything that comes here is going to require cooperation with us, because no matter what happens, you have to get through Rolling Meadows to get there,” Sanoica said Thursday during the annual state of the city address.

* Tribune | 20 years of conversations beat money, big names in historic Skokie mayor race: In the historic election for mayor of Skokie, candidate David “Azi” Lifsics spent big dollar amounts and garnered big-name endorsements. When Election Night was over, though, he had lost to candidate Ann Tennes, who spent only a fraction of what he had shelled out. Her winning formula in the April 1 race? Twenty years’ worth of community involvement, volunteer service and face-to-face connections in the suburb of about 67,000. She worked as Skokie’s director of marketing and communications for two decades, had been elected to Oakton (Community) College’s Board, and had volunteered for Skokie civic and arts organizations.

* Evergreen Park | Evergreen Park teen turns trash into heat for homeless as nonprofit effort grows: Billy Duffner was just trying to warm up his family’s fireplace with some handmade paper bricks when the idea struck. What if these could help someone who didn’t have a home? That moment became the foundation for Heat4Homeless, a grassroots nonprofit that repurposes recycled paper and sawdust into fire bricks. Each one is a portable source of warmth for people living on the streets during Chicago’s coldest months.

* Daily Herald | ‘Groundhog Day’ inn gets another role, this time in upcoming Christmas movie shot in Woodstock: The film is “about an ambitious hotel manager who returns to her family’s B&B for Christmas to find all three of her high school exes staying there,” producer Chris Charles said. The movie has parallels with the three ghosts of Christmas past, present and future, said Eliza Toser, who co-wrote the film with her husband, Jake Jarvi.

*** Downstate ***

* WGLT | Heartland Head Start ’shocked’ by proposed funding elimination but still hopeful: Heartland Head Start interim executive director Chuck Hartseil said it’s not clear what options they would have to sustain programming if Congress were to approve wiping out funding. “We are almost solely funded through the federal government,” Hartseil said in an interview on WGLT’s Sound Ideas. […] The early childhood program that serves more than 200 low-income families in McLean and Livingston counties gets about $4.4 million annually from the federal government.

* KSDK | Hubbell-Wiegmann plant announces closure by 2026; 110 workers to be laid off: — More than 100 people in one Metro East community will soon be out of a job after their employer announced plans to close next year. Since 1958, the Hubbell-Wiegmann plant has been a staple in Freeburg. “They manufacture electrical boxes like disconnects for your air conditioner,” Freeburg Mayor Seth Speiser said. […] According to the WARN notice, those jobs will be split up between Hubbell’s Aurora, Illinois factory and a location in Juarez, Mexico. “If they can go to Mexico for $3 an hour versus Freeburg at $20 an hour it’s just business,” Speiser said.

* Edgar County Watchdogs | Nason, IL. Board Meeting Descends into Chaos: Resignations, Applause, and an Arrest –: The turmoil did not end with the adjournment. As citizens exited the building, a physical altercation reportedly broke out between incoming Alderman Alan Colle and current Alderman David Page. Sources indicate that Mr. Page allegedly assaulted Mr. Colle for filming the public meeting after it had concluded – an act constitutionally protected under the First Amendment. Sheriff’s deputies were called to the scene by Mr. Colle. According to witnesses, Mr. Page initially found the situation amusing until law enforcement arrived with a transport vehicle. Alderman David Page was subsequently arrested and taken into custody on unknown charges.

* WGLT | Brady sworn in as Bloomington mayor, with housing and infrastructure top of mind: Brady said housing and infrastructure are his day one priorities. He plans to pick up where the previous mayor — Mboka Mwilambwe — left off, advancing plans for a tiny home village for unhoused community members and the downtown streetscape project. “And then I think the next area you talk about, and you look at, is what we’re doing with the quality of life within Bloomington,” Brady told WGLT. “Meaning our water, our potholes, infrastructure — those type of things.”

* WCIA | ‘Significantly crossed the boundaries’: report details misconduct of former GCMS teacher: Through a FOIA request, WCIA received a redacted version of the statement detailing the charges against former Gibson City Middle School math teacher Robbie Dinkins Thursday evening. The report explains how Dinkins would send emotional text messages to confide in students about stressors in his personal life, including the deaths of people close to him. He also admitted to investigators he would sometimes be intoxicated when texting students.

*** National ***

* Crain’s | Rivian begins its first big marketing push — here’s a look behind the campaign: Rivian is tapping into this passion as part of its first full-fledged marketing campaign, called “Real Rivian Adventures,” which turns stories from real owners into ads. The Irvine, California-based automaker has a community engagement and content team dedicated to connecting with the owner groups. The team played an instrumental role in sourcing user stories for the campaign, which was handled by Mojo Supermarket. The agency won the assignment last year after a competitive review.