We’ve raised $4,000 so far today. Thank you! But that’s not enough.

Lutheran Social Services of Illinois needs a lot more to make sure every foster child in its care receives a Christmas gift this year. All the money goes directly to gifts, and the average gift costs about $25.

So this is the moment to step up. If you can give, please click here and help us close that big gap. Every dollar truly counts. Thanks!!!

* AP…

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said this week that the federal government would start withholding money to help run the SNAP food aid program from states that don’t provide data on participants, including their immigration status.

The department said the government needs the data to spot fraud in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which helps 42 million Americans, or about 1 in 8, buy groceries.

The plan to withhold the administrative funds is an escalation of a legal battle that’s been going on since shortly after President Donald Trump took office. It’s decidedly partisan. Only states led by Democrats have failed to provide the information the administration seeks. […]

USDA plans to notify states that have not provided the requested information that they’re not in compliance as soon as next week. The states would have more time to comply.

And after that, they could appeal.

Governor JB Pritzker was asked about the threat to withhold SNAP benefits at an unrelated news conference today…

Pritzker: As you know, they’ve been gathering databases that are— people should deserve privacy, whether they’re a SNAP recipient or not. It should not be information that gets gathered by and then disseminated by the federal government. But we’re obviously following all the rules around SNAP. We always have nothing that they’re requesting would reveal anything that’s untoward about the program. And again, this is all about effectuating a policy that’s bad for the United States, bad for the state of Illinois. All we’re trying to do is feed people. And everybody in the United States deserves to have a decent three squares a day, and SNAP is really not very much money to provide to people. I don’t know why they’re going after this problem. You want to go after want to go after fraud. I mean real fraud. There are lots of people who are Medicaid providers, Medicare providers out there that the federal government should be looking into to ask what kind of fraud that they’re perpetrating. And indeed, that kind of fraud gets exposed every once in a while, but it seems to me, they’ve taken people off of that job, out of the FBI and then other jobs like the DEA and ATF all, to move them over into immigration work that is ineffectual, inappropriate. We need comprehensive immigration reform, not hunting people down based upon the color of their skin. So I reject the idea that the federal government is doing something that’s good for the country by gathering these databases, because we know that’s not what it’s all about.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Volts | How Illinois passed its third big clean-energy bill in a decade: David Roberts, Kady McFadden and John Delurey talk about the state’s decision to empower its utility commission to directly procure clean energy. We discuss why capacity markets are too slow for the current environment and their strategy of aggressively framing renewables and storage not just as green, but as the only “fast and cheap” way to protect ratepayers from price spikes.

* Sen. Robert Peters | Our IVF experience heightened awareness of threats to access: Somehow, the Republicans didn’t anticipate the tidal wave of national outrage that their attacks on IVF would create. The dream of starting or expanding a family isn’t a partisan issue, and access to IVF is extremely popular across both parties. In 2023, nearly 96,000 babies were born from IVF, up from the year before, accounting for almost 3% of all births in the U.S. Yet Republicans continue blocking a bill sponsored by Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., that would protect IVF nationwide.

* Chicago Reader | Righting systemic wrongs of Illinois prisons: Even though Illinois abolished the death penalty in 2011, we allow for “death by incarceration.” Most incarcerated people over 20 in Illinois have no opportunity to earn parole or early release, since the state abolished discretionary parole in 1978. In 1998, the state passed the so-called “truth-in-sentencing” laws, which have restricted most people from earning time off their sentences. This means those with life sentences without parole or de facto life sentences will likely never see life outside of prison again.

*** Chicago ***

* Tribune | SEIU looks to beef up CPS ranks amid dispute with teachers union: The Service Employees International Union is looking to beef up its ranks within Chicago Public Schools, a development with significant implications for the workers it is looking to organize — and for city politics. SEIU Local 73 filed a petition to add about 1,600 school-based CPS workers to its ranks with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board on Nov. 10. But the union’s one-time ally, the Chicago Teachers Union, contends that some of those workers rightfully belong to CTU. The dispute is the latest development in a feud between the two progressive labor unions that has its roots in a turf war over other jobs within the school district.

* Legal Newsline | CTU can’t sue group for campaigning in union elections: At issue is the federal Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act, a 1959 law that bars a union or an employer from spending money promoting candidates for union office. CTU and member Moselean Parker accused a rival group, Educators 4 Excellence, of violating that law by recruiting and promoting candidates during a May 2022 CTU election cycle. After U.S. District Judge Edmond Chang dismissed the complaint, CTU took the issue to the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Judge Michael Brennan wrote the panel’s opinion, filed Nov. 19; Judges Joshua Kolar and Nancy Maldonado concurred, with Maldonado writing a brief special concurrence.

* WBEZ | Trump administration sued for South Shore raid footage that fed propaganda videos: Democracy Forward, a Washington D.C.-based legal organization that has challenged the Trump administration, state and local governments and right-wing movements over the past decade, filed a public records request for all original footage from the raid in the South Shore neighborhood. That request has gone unfulfilled, the group said, so it filed a seven-page federal complaint in the U.S. District court in D.C. late last month. The suit seeks to compel the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to search for and release any available footage.

* Block Club | Little Village Chamber Leader Thanked Border Patrol As Agents Arrested Neighbors, Video Shows: The staffer, Olman Chaheine, was the chamber’s director of outreach and community development, tasked with connecting and supporting Little Village businesses and the Latino-majority community. Little Village — a famed enclave for Mexican Americans and Latino immigrants — has been hit hard in recent months as federal agents targeted the area during Operation Midway Blitz, taking employees as they worked inside local restaurants and snatching people off the streets. Businesses have struggled as workers and would-be customers stayed home out of fear. … In an emailed statement Tuesday night, the Little Village Chamber of Commerce leaders said they strongly condemn the statements made “by a former staff member.”

* Block Club | South Side’s 1st Youth Crisis Center Opens At Renovated Englewood Community Service Facility: The $3 million overhaul includes a new mental wellness clinic, a family resource hub and a “Golden Years Program” for seniors with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The mental wellness clinic hosts the first Youth Crisis Stabilization Center on the South Side, McKinley Community Services CEO Jamal Malone said. The Sophia Cafe, an addition to the Englewood center named in honor of the nonprofit’s founder, will provide healthy food options to the community while employing people with disabilities when it opens to the public in the spring, Malone said. Food served at the cafe will be sourced from the nonprofit’s outdoor urban farm on 18th Street and Wabash Avenue, Malone said.

* Sun-Times | Chicago torture victim imprisoned 33 years for double murder now in line for $15 million settlement: Smith was released from prison in 2020 after spending 33 years behind bars, and has since been granted a certificate of innocence. The settlement amount being weighed by the Council pales in comparison to the $66 million that he sought in his lawsuit filed in 2021 in federal court in Chicago. Smith was 39 when he was arrested in September 1987 for the murder of his wife’s mother and her grandmother. According to his lawsuit, officers placed Smith “in a small windowless interrogation room and handcuffed him to a ring on a wall” before they “beat him in the chest, threatened and choked him.”

* Sun-Times | Illinois Medical District getting its first park in 80 years: The park would occupy a triangle of land bounded by Ogden Avenue, Polk Street and Damen Avenue. The project’s officials and architects said the park would act as a place of activity and rest, despite its busy locale. And it will be the site of the previously announced permanent memorial to COVID-19 victims and workers — one of the nation’s first.

* Tribune | Bruce Dold, former Chicago Tribune editor and ‘consummate newspaperman,’ dies at 70: Bruce Dold, who rose from suburban reporter to editor and publisher during his prodigious four-decade career at the Chicago Tribune, had only a handful of bylines after his name took its place on the masthead. But the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist left an indelible mark on the newspaper and the city, tackling the issues of the day, promoting civil discourse and influencing public policy. From clearheaded editorials that found common ground to the groundbreaking endorsement of Chicago’s own Barack Obama for president, Dold led the Tribune into the new millennium with a reverence for the newspaper’s storied history, and an open mind for the future.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Daily Southtown | Federation of Labor backs Pat Hynes over Fritz Kaegi for Cook County assessor: The umbrella organization for Chicago unions is backing Pat Hynes for Cook County assessor against incumbent Fritz Kaegi in the March Democratic primary and taking sides in various contested county board races. The Chicago Federation of Labor announced its endorsement of Hynes and other Cook County candidates in a Wednesday morning release, saying the Lyons Township Assessor and a former employee of the assessor’s office “knows how to get the job done.”

* Progressive Railroading | New panel to study passenger rail along Wisconsin-Illinois lakeshore: The meeting will focus on establishing the commission’s organizational structure and beginning the early coordination necessary to explore the feasibility of future passenger-rail service in southeastern Wisconsin, connecting the downtowns of Kenosha, Racine and Milwaukee to Chicago and communities along the northern shore of Lake Michigan, according to a press release issued by Racine city officials.

* Daily Southtown | ‘Extremely dangerous for the citizens’: Harvey Fire Department staffing down to 40% after new layoffs: Before the city announced a financial emergency and began mass layoffs, the Fire Department had 37 staff, said Keith Freeman, secretary of Harvey Firemen’s Association Local 471. Now, they’re down to just 15, and have gone from three active fire stations to just one. “This is very potentially going to cost injury or the lives of the citizens,” Freeman said. “The manpower that we have in the city, we agreed upon because it’s the required manpower to do the best we can for the citizens, to keep the citizens safe. That’s our top priority.”

* Daily Herald | Wheeling special census postponed due to government shutdown: The historic federal government shutdown that cost millions of Americans paychecks and financial aid before ending in mid-November had another casualty — Wheeling’s long-planned special census. The census was supposed to begin in October. It was commissioned by the village board to prove Wheeling has grown since the 2020 federal census put the town at 39,137 people.

* Daily Herald | Des Plaines, Buffalo Grove set restrictions for e-bikes and e-scooters: In Des Plaines, e-bikes, e-scooters and similar vehicles that are capable of exceeding 28 mph are forbidden on public streets, public sidewalks and in public parking lots. Riding through a city parking lot to reach a destination is OK, however, officials clarified before Monday’s unanimous vote. Among other rules, anyone under 16 years old is prohibited from operating less-powerful e-bikes or similar vehicles on public streets or public sidewalks and in public parking lots. Motorized vehicles that are considered toys for young children and can’t go more than 10 mph may only be operated on sidewalks, within crosswalks or on private property.

* Daily Herald | Neighbors helping neighbors: Des Plaines area volunteers cook, deliver 700 Thanksgiving dinners: The Des Plaines Community Foundation, Sysco Chicago and Sunrise Grill all worked together to provide and deliver Thanksgiving Day dinners. As a result, more than 700 recipients, including homebound seniors and people with disabilities, had a very happy Thanksgiving. “This is our 15th year making the meals and delivering the turkey dinners, and 700 is the highest number of meals to date,” said Dina Argus, executive director of the DPCF. “It’s a group effort. Turkey dinners were delivered to those in wheelchairs, on oxygen and the blind — all those who have difficulty leaving their homes.

* Shaw Local | Joliet renews prison lease amid questions from residents: The City Council approved a lease extension on the Joliet Correctional Center property on Tuesday but not without facing questions from the public. City officials said they are willing to work with the Forest Preserve District of Will County, which is interested in buying 135 acres of open land on the site.

* Crain’s | Lakefront homes lose millions in value from Winnetka bluff protections, lawsuit claims: Of the four examples, the steepest drop in value, 64%, is for Barbara Irwin’s blufftop home on Taylorsport Lane. The pre-ordinance value was $7.54 million, but under the ordinance it dropped to $2.69 million, according to Cohn Reznick’s analysis. It’s because the ordinance renders about 17,700 square feet of her 44,600-square-foot lot unbuildable.

*** Downstate ***

* WAND | EMS workers accused of killing Earl Moore Jr. will be tried separately: Attorneys for Cadigan and Finley said there are too many differences between the actions of the two EMS workers, and a jury would have a hard time convicting one defendant for the other’s actions. The judge ultimately agreed to separate the cases. The state now has to decide which case to bring to trial first. The first trial will start in May, and the judge wants the second to follow soon after.

* WICS | Illinois State Police highlight Scott’s Law after snowplow crash on US Highway 36: Monday afternoon on U.S. Highway 36, near the Moultrie and Piatt County line, a driver hit an IDOT snowplow from behind. The driver of the car was rushed to a local hospital with injuries. […] ISP says the crash is being investigated as a Scott’s Law violation.

* Sun-Times | Fenwick shocks East St. Louis to win the 6A state title: Tuesday in the Class 6A state championship game, Fenwick junior Jake Thies put his name into Fenwick history right next to the former Notre Dame great. Thies’ two big plays, a 74-yard TD run in the third quarter and an interception in the final minutes of the fourth quarter, were the key moments in the Friars’ 38-28 win against heavily favored East St. Louis at ISU’s Hancock Stadium.

*** National ***

* NYT | Private Employers Cut Jobs in November, the Latest Sign of a Slowdown: Private employment fell by 32,000 jobs last month, the payroll processing company ADP said on Wednesday. It was the third decline in four months and, taken at face value, would be a clear sign that the labor market, after months of cooling, had entered a new, more worrying phase.

* NPR | The use and misuse of the word ‘ideology’: Today, “ideology has essentially become a form of name-calling,” said Jason Blakely, a political scientist at Pepperdine University and author of Lost in Ideology. He argues conservatives often deploy the term to describe what they view as faddish beliefs that threaten traditional moral orders, while liberals use it to criticize inherited hierarchies they see as limiting human flourishing.