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Isabel’s morning briefing
Thursday, Jun 5, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller * ICYMI: While Gov. JB Pritzker scored wins during legislative session, cellphone ban, other initiatives fell short. Tribune…
- More than once, Black caucus members balked at Pritzker’s plans as they didn’t see their wants and needs fully addressed during a legislative session that focused heavily on fiscal issues and a tight budget. - Rep. Curtis Tarver, a Chicago Democrat and a member of the Black caucus, told the Tribune in February he worried about the “unintended consequences” of a phone ban in schools, including inequitable enforcement. Sponsored by Community Action for Responsible Hospitals * Gov. Pritzker is scheduled to be in West Chicago at 10 a.m. for a ribbon-cutting celebrating Joel Sert Company’s expansion. Click here to watch. * Sun-Times | Local public media sounds alarm as Trump directs drastic cuts to public broadcasting: President Donald Trump’s request to claw back $1.1 billion in funding for public broadcasting has public media bracing for one of the most serious threats it has ever faced. Trump on Tuesday formally asked Congress to cut money that had been set aside for public broadcasting for the next two years. The “rescission request” jumpstarted a 45-day clock for lawmakers to approve such a request — and with a simple majority needed to approve the slash, there is little room for Republicans to dissent. * WIRED | ICE Quietly Scales Back Rules for Courthouse Raids: A requirement that ICE agents ensure courthouse arrests don’t clash with state and local laws has been rescinded by the agency. ICE declined to explain what that means for future enforcement. * Tribune | Local officials, protesters clash with ICE outside office over detentions in growing escalation over Trump’s immigration tactics: By Wednesday afternoon, elected officials, including Aldermen Anthony Quezada, 35th, Byron Sigcho-Lopez, 25th, and Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez, 33rd, joined the growing number of people. Quezada and Rodriguez-Sanchez sat down in front of a white van as it attempted to enter the office parking lot. The vans drove away, and then federal immigration officers wearing sunglasses and face coverings suddenly arrived in a large group and began to jostle and push the approximately 30 people who were there. * WICS | Illinois reaffirms abortion rights in emergency rooms amid federal rollback: Governor JB Pritzker emphasized the state’s commitment to reproductive rights, stating, “I have made protecting and expanding reproductive rights a top priority and in Illinois, providing the full range of reproductive care for anyone facing life-threatening emergencies is enshrined in state law.” * WGN | New Illinois laws, tax changes to kick in July 1, 2025: Effective on July 1st, 2025, House Bill 4951 changes how sales tax is handled on leased or rented property. In the past, lessors paid sales tax on the purchase of property — other than motor vehicles, watercraft, aircraft, and semi-trailer — and did not collect tax on lease payments. Under the new law, lessors can purchase property tax-free using a resale exemption and charge sales tax on lease or rental payments. The new law also impacts lessors of certain computer software licenses. * WTVO | New Illinois laws and tax changes set to kick in on July 1, 2025: Most of the newest laws in the state went into effect on January 1st, 2025, such as a minimum wage increase, but a few are still on the books to go into effect in the second half of the year. * WCIS | Marianne Akers’ attorney speaks on medical condition, over one month after Chatham crash: 44-year-old Marianne Akers’ lawyer said she suffered a seizure, which caused her to drive through an after-school program at the YNOT building. Criminal Defense Attorney, Scott Hanken, told me Marianne Akers has undergone an extensive amount of testing to see what caused this seizure. Hanken said Akers signed a release form to give the Illinois State Police permission to view all of her medical records. * Illinois Times | Armory renovation plans detailed: The 250,000-square-foot Armory building is being transformed from a civic center into an executive office building, with plans to move support staff from the governor’s office and other state agencies into it upon completion. The first phase was completed in January for $26.25 million and focused on removing lead paint, asbestos and mold; repairing masonry; and stabilizing the roof. The initial phase also included removing deteriorated windows and steel panels, many of which were restored or replaced with replicas created with the help of experts specializing in historically accurate renovations. Extensive work on the east exterior wall, which sustained water damage and stone loss, involved meticulous repairs using matched Indiana limestone. * WCIS | Springfield Homeless organizations set to receive $1.1 million; Aldermen vote against it: Aldermen voted in favor, seven versus two. But Aldermen Shawn Gregory and Roy Williams voted against it. Gregory proposed a motion to take some of the money from helping hands and give it to other organizations who provide the same outreach services. Gregory asked city council members to take $350,000 dollars from Helping Hands’ Home ARP funds to give to other outreach programs. * Telegraph | Alton considers replacing Illinois 1% grocery tax as state law ends: At the next Alton Committee of the Whole meeting on Monday, committee members are scheduled to vote on whether or not to replace or get rid of a 1% grocery tax in the city. If it passes, the motion will then go through the Alton City Council on Wednesday, June 11. * Telegraph | Granite City steelworkers face uncertainty amid Nippon Steel’s deal: On Friday, President Donald Trump announced his support of a $14 billion “investment” by Japan-based Nippon Steel in U.S. Steel, but how that might impact the Metro East, the home of U.S. Steel/Granite City Works, is largely unknown and both political leaders and union officials have serious concerns. While there has been talk about billions of dollars in investments in U.S. Steel facilities, Granite City Works has not been mentioned. * WGLT | McLean County school leaders disappointed new state budget doesn’t help more with busing and other mandated costs: Educators saw other priorities missing. The state requires schools to provide services such as transportation, school breakfast and lunch and textbooks to students who need them. The state then reimburses the school district for some of the costs associated with these “mandated categoricals.” Not all of the costs are reimbursed, however, and the new state budget added no money in this area. “So when you don’t add new money and expenses go up, we’re actually going to receive less money, like a greater proration of those funds towards the upcoming school year’s budget,” said Kristen Weikle, Unit 5 superintendent. * The Southern | LGBTQ-owned spice farm is Southern Illinois made: “We have people come to market that never realized they could get this here before,” Elias said. “A lot of people think of jams, jellies, pickles, preserves, things like that. They don’t think of heirloom paprika, or fresh ginger, or turmeric.” Recently, Pink Tiger Farm was inducted into the Illinois Made Program, an initiative by the state to highlight locally owned businesses with unique authentic products. * WICS | Hollywood excitement sweeps Monticello as former restaurant transforms into movie set: The building was formally a Hardee’s restaurant that closed several months ago, but now it’s being used to make a movie. On the set, you could see a picture of John Goodman, heavy construction equipment and trailers parked down the street from the restaurant. * WTTW | Chicago Sees Fewest Homicides in Any May Since 2011: Police: According to Chicago Police Department data, there were 36 homicides recorded throughout May 2025, a total that’s down 38% compared to the same month last year and down nearly 50% compared to May 2023. Those 36 homicides were also the fewest for Chicago in any May since 2011, according to CPD data. * Tribune | Former aldermanic candidate wins $1.4M in defamation suit over campaign mailers : South Side Ald. Lamont Robinson’s campaign and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s 4th Ward Democratic Organization are on the hook for $1.475 million in punitive damages over what a Cook County jury found were defamatory mailers and text messages during the 2023 aldermanic campaign. Ebony Lucas, a real estate attorney who lost in the first round of the aldermanic elections in the ward that includes Hyde Park, filed suit in December 2023 over what she described as a “coordinated smear campaign” alleging she had a series of unpaid liens and fines related to her business and violations of the city’s landlord tenant ordinance. * WTTW | Federal Prosecutors Expanding Violence Prevention Initiative to Downtown Chicago, All CTA Train Lines: The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois on Wednesday announced the expansion of its Project Safe Neighborhoods program, which combines the efforts of federal, state and local authorities to help stem violent crime. The nationwide program, first launched in 2001, had only operated in seven Chicago neighborhoods — South Chicago, Gresham, Englewood, Deering, Ogden, Harrison and Austin. * Crain’s | Developer, bike parts maker near deal for West Loop office building: R2 is negotiating to pay close to $14 million for the vintage seven-story building at 550 W. Randolph St. and an adjacent surface parking lot, according to people familiar with the discussions. The talks come several months after the 168,750-square-foot property’s current owner, New York-based real estate investment trust W.P. Carey, put it up for sale. * A good omen?…
* Sun-Times | Cook County erases nearly $665 million in medical debt for more than a half million residents: * Daily Herald | Suburbs welcoming data centers say they’ll benefit their communities: When it comes to the use of electricity and other resources like water, data centers are expected to pay their way and keep residents and fellow businesses free of negative side effects of their presence, Hoffman Estates Village Manager Eric Palm said Wednesday. Hoffman Estates is home to two data center campuses in development, and a third could be on the way. The financial responsibility for the resources and the infrastructure they need to operate lies with the operators, Palm said. However, according to a report this week from market monitor Morning Analytics, the rapid development of data centers connected to the largest U.S. electric grid has raised costs by $9.4 billion for customers across the Midwest and East Cost, including Illinois. * WGN | Non-profit fears for future of blindness research if Donald Trump’s budget passes: The Foundation Fighting Blindness, a Maryland-based non-profit organization who organizes the Chicago Vision Walk, fears clinical trials and promising new treatments for blindness and retinal disease will be frozen or canceled if President Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” passes into law. […] “We are driving research for therapies. They’re called gene therapies that can replace or fix that code,” said Ben Shaberman, Vice President of Communications for the Foundation Fighting Blindness (FFB). “So, the cells in the retina work correctly, and vision can be saved or restored.” * WTTW | Battery Case Dismissed Against Aurora Resident in Dispute With Former Mayor’s Campaign Team: Maurice said there’s no way for that to have happened and denies using any profanity. He said that he remembers spitting in the yard next to his driveway — more than 25 feet away from where the campaign workers were parked. According to the report, the alleged victim said that “Maurice’s spit landed on his legs. … I observed (the person) to be wearing snow pants, and they were dry where he stated that the spit landed.” At Wednesday’s hearing, Maurice’s attorney told the judge that a fellow campaign worker who was attending court said the alleged victim was not interested in pursuing the charge. * WGN | Cannabis-friendly music festival returning to Chicago’s northwest suburbs: A two-day immersive outdoor festival that merges the worlds of cannabis and music will again return to Chicagoland for its third consecutive year this September. The Miracle in Mundelein, Illinois’ first music festival that legally permits attendees to bring and consume cannabis on-site, will return the weekend of Sept. 6-7. The festival will occur across the street from RISE Cannabis Mundelein Recreational Dispensary at 1325 Armour Blvd., in north suburban Mundelein. * Tribune | ‘Wearing a tree kind of broke down a barrier’: Monee nursery workers promote the importance and beauty of native plants: Five years later, Possibility Place Nursery began growing exclusively native trees and shrubs from seeds collected within a 150-mile radius in northern Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa. It has since expanded to over 55 acres, where nearly 60,000 trees thrive and over 18,000 are planted each year. “There’s not too many of us out there that grow strictly native, locally collected (plants),” said Kelsay Shaw, Tristan’s brother. “We rely on ourselves. That’s really what sets us apart.” * AP | Measles vaccination rates drop after COVID-19 pandemic in counties across the US: A Johns Hopkins University study, published in JAMA this week, illustrates where more vulnerable communities are located. The results mirror trends established at state and national levels: Routine childhood vaccination rates are dropping. “When you look at the state level or national level … you really don’t see those drastic drops. Those are there. They’re real and they’re really problematic,” said Lauren Gardner, an expert in infectious disease modeling at Johns Hopkins University who is the paper’s senior author. Gardner also built the university’s COVID-19 database. * Cultivated | VCs and private equity investors are fueling the potentially $20 billion low dose THC beverage boom: Cultivated has uncovered tens of millions of dollars actively chasing hemp-derived THC and traditional cannabis beverage plays, through interviews with key investors. The fizz has bubbled up despite escalating restrictions on hemp-derived products and outright bans in some key markets, including California, Texas and Tennessee. * WSJ | Economists Raise Questions About Quality of U.S. Inflation Data: The Bureau of Labor Statistics, the office that publishes the inflation rate, told outside economists this week that a hiring freeze at the agency was forcing the survey to cut back on the number of businesses where it checks prices. In last month’s inflation report, which examined prices in April, government statisticians had to use a less precise method for guessing price changes more extensively than they did in the past. * WAND | NOAA weather radios will be offline longer than expected for updates: The agency originally said that the radios would be offline from Tuesday to Thursday, but now expect the outage to continue well into Friday. The NWS said it cannot reschedule this upgrade even if severe weather occurs, and advise users to have alternative ways to receive severe weather information during this period
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- Leatherneck - Thursday, Jun 5, 25 @ 8:45 am:
=The agency originally said that the radios would be offline from Tuesday to Thursday, but now expect the outage to continue well into Friday. The NWS said it cannot reschedule this upgrade even if severe weather occurs, and advise users to have alternative ways to receive severe weather information during this period=
I feel bad for Knox and Stark counties. Being stuck in NWS Lincoln’s territory when they are both much closer to and their counties’ territories nearly is covered entirely by NWS Quad Cities’ radar. Even though the county assignments by NWS region have been in effect now exactly 30 years (since the old Peoria and Springfield NWS stations merged into Lincoln in 1995).
If I still lived in that area and had influence I would be pushing to get at least Knox and Stark counties moved to Quad Cities NWS from Lincoln.
- Garfield Ridge Guy - Thursday, Jun 5, 25 @ 10:24 am:
==Rep. Curtis Tarver, a Chicago Democrat and a member of the Black caucus, told the Tribune in February he worried about the “unintended consequences” of a phone ban in schools, including inequitable enforcement.==
Need to nip this in the bud somehow. Phones in schools is almost certainly a top-three civil-rights issue of our day. It is deeply alarming that any person (other than the actual students who want to use their phones) would defend phone use in school. It would, legitimately, be a good use of the National Guard to prevent phone use in classrooms.
- Tim - Thursday, Jun 5, 25 @ 2:03 pm:
Certainly a solution I imagine but many type-1 diabetics use their phone to control their insulin pumps.
- Proud Papa Bear - Thursday, Jun 5, 25 @ 5:24 pm:
“ It would, legitimately, be a good use of the National Guard to prevent phone use in classrooms.”
Good thing you’re not in charge.