* Sen. Laura Fine’s congressional campaign site is live. Just don’t ask Placeholder McStockphoto who she’s endorsing…

* Tribune…

When activist Jean Kaczmarek was elected DuPage County clerk seven years ago, she became the first Democrat elected to countywide office in 84 years and her subsequent work as clerk to make voting easier and more available was lauded by the party faithful.

But the appointment of Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office as special prosecutor to investigate Kaczmarek’s office over allegations of official misconduct has prompted concern among Democrats that the gains they have made in wresting significant control of the once strongly Republican suburban county could be at risk.

Kaczmarek, hailed in 2022 by the Democratic Women of DuPage County with its leadership award, is already facing a primary challenge as she seeks a third term next year. And her previous budgetary actions helped lead to a change in state purchasing law for most Illinois counties — a law that is now at the center of the Raoul investigation.

DuPage County Circuit Judge Bonnie Wheaton’s order on Monday appointing Raoul’s office as special prosecutor is rooted in more than two years of internecine battles between the Democratic clerk and the Democratic-led DuPage County Board involving the often labyrinthine world of budgetary control and power in county governance.

* Illinois State Police…

The Illinois State Police (ISP) today graduated the largest cadet class in the last 25 years. ​ ISP welcomed 95 new troopers today from Cadet Class 150 at a graduation ceremony at the Westside Christian Church in Springfield. ​ The new troopers will report to all ten ISP Troop locations throughout the state on Sunday, July 13, 2025. ​ Cadet Class 150 marks the 22nd cadet class graduation under Governor JB Pritzker and ISP Director Brendan F. Kelly. ​ Since 2019, 692 troopers have joined ISP. […]

Cadet Class 150 was a combination of a traditional class and a lateral entry class. ​ The traditional class included 43 cadets who completed a demanding 29-week program. ​ The lateral class consisted of 52 cadets who completed the 12-week program designed for certified police officers who previously graduated from an accredited law enforcement academy and had at least two years of experience while employed as a full-time officer. ​ ​ Both programs consist of physical and classroom instruction, which included training in cultural diversity, procedural justice, domestic violence, critical incident response, de-escalation tactics, firearms, first responder certification, control and arrest tactics, Illinois vehicle code, criminal law, motor carrier safety, juvenile law, and more.

In addition to either the 29-week or 12-week academy training, cadets are required to participate in one-on-one mentoring with Field Training Officers as part of a 14-week field training program, expanding their total training to either 42 or 25 weeks. ​ Troopers who successfully complete the field training program advance to solo-patrol status. ​ ​

*** Chicago ***

* Tribune | Chicago Public Schools lays off 1,458 employees in latest move to close deficit: Chicago Public Schools announced a second round of summer layoffs Friday, firing 1,458 employees in the latest effort to help close the district’s $734 million budget deficit. The layoffs include 432 teachers – representing 1.8% of the teaching staff – including 132 special education teachers. Also impacted were 311 paraprofessionals — or classroom assistants — and school-related personnel, 33 security officers and 677 special education classroom assistants.

* Tribune | Son of ‘El Chapo’ Guzman pleads guilty to narcotics trafficking charges in Chicago federal court: One of the sons of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman could spend the rest of his life in prison after pleading guilty Friday in federal court in Chicago to helping his father and brothers run the notoriously violent Sinaloa cartel, importing thousands of tons of narcotics into the U.S., bribing public officials and using murder and kidnapping to amass and maintain power. By pleading guilty, however, Ovidio Guzman Lopez, 35, has agreed to cooperate with U.S. authorities in any ongoing investigations and testify against his associates in the hopes that prosecutors will recommend a sentence of less than life in prison.

* WTTW | City Poised to Pay $3M to Man Severely Injured During Police Chase: Matthew Aguilar was injured just before midnight on Oct. 9, 2018, when he was struck by an unmarked Chicago police vehicle, which ran over his face, according to an investigation by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability. The two officers in the unmarked vehicle were attempting to stop Aguilar and another man they saw walking through a Brighton Park alley and suspected were armed, according to the investigation by the agency known as COPA. When the men did not stop, one of the officers left the vehicle to chase the men on foot while the other officer drove after the men, according to the probe.

* Sun-Times | More fireflies are lighting up Chicago this summer, experts say: Fireflies have always lit up the Chicago area’s backyards, but have been harder to spot over the last few years. That’s changing. The small bugs seem to be thriving this season, thanks to a mild winter and wet spring. […] The firefly population usually peaks in late June or early July. But the firefly has been struggling over the last few years for several reasons, Lawrance says. He blames everything from loss of habitat, increasing light pollution, climate change and pesticide use.

* South Side Weekly | ‘Undervalued and Overworked’: How Young Chicago Artists Make A Living Without a Living Wage: Arts organizations consistently generate hundreds of millions in local revenue and economic impact through their work, even as the creatives who fuel them struggle to make rent in a city with one of the nation’s highest rates of inflation and a growing housing affordability crisis. Young South and West side artists who spoke to City Bureau said they split rent with multiple roommates, live at home with family, and work service industry jobs just to keep pursuing their dreams.

* Sun-Times | Thirty years after historic heat wave, Chicagoans are still at risk: Three decades after Chicago’s devastating heat wave left more than 700 people dead, city efforts to keep people protected from extreme weather continue to fall short. This weekend marks the 30th anniversary of that disaster. Many lessons were learned from the five-day stretch in July 1995, and the city was forced to make changes that included creation of an emergency management department. But City Hall still fails to take simple steps, including providing enough cool places for people to go to escape the oppressive heat, critics say.

* CBS Chicago | Chicago weather Friday includes a severe storm threat with tornado, flood risks: Chicago weather remains unsettled heading into the weekend, with the possibility of more severe storms Friday that could produce tornadoes and flooding. One to five inches of rain fell across the Chicago area Thursday night into Friday, with the heaviest rain falling west of the city. There was significant flooding in Rockford, Illinois. Downpours continued into Friday morning, but tapered off between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m.

* WBEZ | Cartoonist Chris Ware brings Chicago-inspired world to new postage stamps: Esteemed cartoonist Chris Ware is known for his detailed New Yorker covers and his complex graphic novels featuring his characters like Jimmy Corrigan and Rusty Brown. But now, Ware’s work — featuring architectural details familiar to most Chicago-area residents — is going micro. The 57-year-old Riverside resident has created a new sheet of 20 postage stamps, which will roll out on July 23 and help to mark the U.S. Postal Service’s 250th birthday. (USPS was established in July 1775 by the Second Continental Congress with Benjamin Franklin as the first postmaster general.)

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Daily Herald | Inmate death prompts changes at DuPage County jail: New policies, individualized treatment plans, and added mental health staff are among some of the changes at the DuPage County jail since a 50-year-old woman was found unresponsive in her cell in 2023. Representatives from the sheriff’s office outlined the changes this week after being asked to attend a DuPage County Board meeting. In March, the county agreed to pay $11 million to the family of Reneyda Aguilar-Hurtado of Addison to settle a lawsuit claiming that jail medical personnel and corrections officers did not provide adequate medical and mental health care.

* Tribune | Oak Park officials mull adding protections for gender affirming care: The proposal comes in the wake of a Supreme Court decision upholding the constitutionality of a Tennessee law that outlaws gender affirming care for minors in that state. After reviewing a draft ordinance during its first reading at the July 1 Oak Park Village Board meeting and hearing public comment from three Oak Park residents, the board will likely vote Aug. 5 on adding protections for gender affirming care, which is care that supports gender transitions or sex changes, to the village’s Human Rights Ordinance, though officials said they are gathering further input.

* Tribune | A 30-year-old mystery is resolved with a $150K grant to Oak Park River Forest Infant Welfare Society: A six-figure donation the Oak Park River Forest Infant Welfare Society received in June had its origins in a mystery that originated 30 years ago. “It’s incredible,” said John McIlwain, executive director of the society. “It was a little bit of a journey.” The donation, of $150,000, came from the estate of Bernice Feder Chadwick, who had been a longtime supporter of the children’s health clinic at 28 Madison. She died in 1995.

* Shaw Local | Dixon Public Schools create new kindergarten program to address behavioral issues at Washington Elementary: Dixon Public Schools will kick off a new transitional kindergarten program at the start of the 2025-26 school year. The program was developed in response to kindergarten students’ increasing behavioral issues at Washington Elementary School that parents and staff described as “violent.”

* Block Club | After Stepping Up To Teach Her High School Class, Chicago Teen Earns Ride To Northwestern University: Carchi received these and dozens of other messages praising and encouraging her after a Block Club story revealed she had taught her own classes during a teacher shortage at her high school. College admissions officials were equally impressed. Carchi wrote about her teaching efforts in her college application essay, which helped her get into her top choice. After graduating from Clemente this month, she’s headed to Northwestern University, where she plans to study engineering and eventually become a teacher.

* Daily Herald | Look, up in the sky: Windy City Warbirds & Classics returns to St. Charles: Those toys, if you want to call a roughly $10,000 radio-controlled plane a toy, will be zipping through the skies in St. Charles at speeds of up to 200 mph this weekend during the Fox Valley Aero Club’s Windy City Warbirds & Classics. The show features radio-controlled military aircraft and civilian classics that have a wingspan of over 80 inches. The full-scale replica planes are roughly 20% the size of the real ones, right down to the miniature pilots inside many of the cockpits. But they provided 100% joy to the folks who flew them Thursday during the show’s first day of action.

*** Downstate ***

* WAND | ‘No timeline’ for when water issue will be resolved in Mattoon after dangerous toxin detected: he Coles County Health Department says there is no timeline yet for when the “Do Not Drink” advisory will be lifted for the City of Mattoon after tests run on the city’s water supply revealed the presence of microcystin, a harmful algae toxin. The health department told WAND News Friday morning that the bare minimum time frame to know whether the water is safe again would be 24 hours, but they do not anticipate it being resolved that soon. “We’re doing what we can and working with the City of Mattoon to get resources to the community,” Gloria Spear, Environmental Health Director for the Coles County Health Department, said.

* WTVO | Many Winnebago County tornado sirens out of service, residents urged to sign up for alerts: With tragic news of a disaster in Texas over the weekend, Schomber decided to find out why she hadn’t heard the monthly storm warning test. “So that’s when I just called and I just asked, you know, what’s going on? He says, yes, a whole western part of Winnebago County. They’re not working at all,” she recalled. Tornado sirens across all of Winnebago County were out of service.

* News-Gazette | C-U leaders discuss solutions to gun violence : Many concepts were presented, but all groups prioritized open communication between both youth and adults about gun violence, supporting families, having community organizations and governmental units work together, and utilizing data to inform action. “It’s pretty powerful that we have as many people showing up, taking time out of their day to come in here and try and address things in the community,” said Champaign police Deputy Chief Greg Manzana. “It’s going to take everyone in the community to solve community problems.”

* News-Gazette | In Mahomet: portable classroom added to address overcrowding: “The incoming class is a little bit bigger than the class we sent to high school (815),” Mills said. “The other piece is with the move-ins. That number will keep going up.” Superintendent Kenny Lee said the portable classroom building will be the third at the school. Like the other two, it will hold two classrooms and will be located south of the other portables. Overcrowding in the district has been well documented. In November, voters turned down a proposed tax increase to fund construction projects to help relieve the conditions. It marked the third defeat for such a measure.

* News-Gazette | Vintage equipment lines, caboose featured at Penfield farm show: The Thomasboro resident, who farmed in southern Illinois, said at one time he owned seven of the vintage green tractors, which were no longer manufactured after 1976. His ownership total is now down to three. “I’m getting up there (in age) where it’s time to get rid of them,” Kocher said. “They were good, dependable tractors. They were quiet, too. They ran smooth” — unlike the John Deere “Johnny poppers” of the day.

* WSIL | SIU Carbondale to add electric car chargers for public use: The SIU Board of Trustees approved the installation of public Level 3 charging stations through a partnership with the Egyptian Electric Cooperative Association (EECA). These stations will be set up across from the Student Center, at the Touch of Nature Outdoor Education Center, and the Glenn Poshard Transportation Education Center by summer 2026. “This project is part of our sustainability plan and fits well with the sustainability pillar of our strategic plan,” said Susan L. Simmers, vice chancellor for administration and finance. “We are grateful for this opportunity with EECA.”

*** National ***

* CBS | COVID cases likely rising in half of states, CDC estimates: Cases of COVID-19 are now likely growing in 25 states, according to estimates published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday, as this year’s summer wave of the virus appears to be getting underway. The agency’s modeling suggests that the uptick is in “many” Southeast, Southern and West Coast states, the CDC said in its weekly update. COVID-19 activity nationwide, however, is still considered “low,” based on data from wastewater samples, although that is up from “very low” the week before.

* NPR | This TikTok video is fake, but every word was taken from a real creator: Millions of TikTokkers have watched some version of a video in the past week falsely stating that “they’re installing incinerators at Alligator Alcatraz,” referring to an internet conspiracy theory that furnaces were being set up at a state-run immigration detention facility in the Florida Everglades, which spread widely despite having no evidence. […] But there is one account whose tactics stand out in this familiar cacophony of messy online virality: a realistic-looking TikTokker giving a direct-to-camera description of the incinerator conspiracy theory. The speaker’s image and voice appear to have been created with artificial intelligence tools, according to two forensic media experts NPR consulted. The twist: The words spoken in the video are the exact same as those in another video posted by a different TikTok account days before. The copied version attracted more than 200,000 views on TikTok.