* We’ve only raised $115 so far today, and we can’t afford to lose momentum. Every little bit keeps us moving toward getting a Christmas gift into the hands of every child in LSSI’s care.

If you haven’t given yet, or can chip in a little more, it truly makes a difference. Thank you.

* Belleville News-Democrat…

U.S. Steel is eyeing an April 1 restart of the second of its two blast furnaces at Granite City Works, but it could come sooner, the local steelworkers union president said.

“It’s definitely going to be a lot of hard work — but, at the end of the road, it’s going to pay off because Nippon has not got to see what we can do with primary operations,” said Craig McKey, who leads United Steelworkers Local 1899. […]

McKey said his phone has already been inundated with calls from workers laid off in 2023, when U.S. Steel first idled the blast furnace, asking about jobs. The company will prioritize anyone who had quit, retired or been let go.

“There’s going to be a lot of them that come back,” he said.

Restarting the second blast furnace is likely to cost U.S. Steel between $25 million and $30 million. Management said that cash will not come out of the $11 billion that the Japanese have promised to invest in other existing U.S. Steel facilities, McKey said.

* Click here for some background. 4th Congressional Dstrct candidate Mayra Macías…

In case you missed it, Back of the Yards native Mayra Macías raised over $100,000 in 72 hours for her campaign to succeed Congressman Chuy García — a clear sign that her message is resonating. She’s running a grassroots-powered campaign and is not accepting corporate PAC dollars.

“I’m overwhelmed by the response we’ve received in fewer than three days,” said Macías. “I’ve talked to so many people who are contributing to a political campaign for the very first time. They and everyone I’m meeting throughout the district want a choice, and they want someone who understands them — who’s never had anything handed to them. They want a fighter who will protect our immigrant community, make life more affordable, and have the credibility to protect our democracy from Trump. That’s exactly what I’ll do in Congress.”

*** Statewide ***

* Crain’s | State pension shortfall improves, thanks to strong market: The gap between the assets available to pay retirees and how much they’ll be owed fell to $143.5 billion from $143.7 billion a year earlier, just the fourth time in 15 years that the overhang has declined. Pensions for schoolteachers, university employees, state workers, legislators and judges were 47.8% funded as of June 30, the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability said today.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Chronicle Media | Planning leader won’t stop push for better mass transit: Erin Aleman has pushed for better mass transit in Illinois for years and was ever-so-hopeful for a solution to aid financially strapped Chicago area transit agencies. Then came the end of the fall veto session and what had looked like a light at the end of the tunnel suddenly turned into a freight train. “If you had asked me the week that the legislation passed, I would have told you, ‘Forget it, it’s not happening,” Aleman said.

*** Chicago ***

* Crain’s | Johnson floats head tax overhaul amid budget stalemate: Mayor Brandon Johnson is offering a revamped version of his corporate head tax — targeting only the city’s largest employers and raising the rate to $33 per worker — in a last-minute effort to salvage his $16.6 billion budget and head off a potential government shutdown. Johnson’s aides began testing support for the tweak with aldermen this afternoon — even while the mayor publicly downplayed a counter-proposal from 26 council members who want to scrap the head tax altogether.

* WTTW | Johnson Warns Chicago is Headed for Shutdown Amid Budget Deadlock: In a letter to the 26 members of the Chicago City Council who have signed on to a plan to bridge Chicago’s $1.19 billion budget gap without hiking taxes on large firms, Johnson said he was open to new ideas and continuing negotiations but said he would not allow the city’s budget to be balanced “on the backs of working people.” “These proposals by some members of the Council are not ‘shared sacrifice’; it is only the poor who are sharing the sacrifice,” Johnson wrote. “Doubling garbage fees, cutting youth employment, and selling Chicagoans’ debt to the highest bidder puts significant additional financial strain on those with the least ability to afford it.”

* CBS Chicago | Youth organizations call for Chicago to keep corporate head tax in budget plan: A group of organizations that offer summer jobs to young people is encouraging city leaders to keep the proposed corporate head tax in next year’s city budget, as proposed by Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson. The organization representatives spoke at a news conference Monday morning, saying that without the tax, they would be forced to cut thousands of jobs. The tax is being called a “community safety surcharge.” It amounts to a $21 per month per employee tax on businesses with more than 100 employees, also known as a head tax.

* Block Club | Affordable Apartments At Logan Square Church Break Ground After 6 Years In The Making: The project will preserve the 1928 church’s façade while creating 10 affordable apartments — a mix of studios and one-, two- and three-bedrooms — in Logan Square for Black and Brown families earning 15-50 percent of the area median income. LUCHA, the development company behind the project, plans to renovate the church’s 12 existing apartments and convert the church’s sanctuary and fellowship space into 10 more apartments for a total of 22 units.

* Block Club | Delivery Robots Take Over Chicago Sidewalks, Sparking Debate And A Petition To Hit ‘Pause’: “This is a vehicle in the pedestrian path space that’s meant for people, and yet we ended up stepping aside, and something about that felt a little off,” Robertson said. “I began to wonder, what are our sidewalks going to be like if these programs are successful from the company’s point of view, and they continue to scale, and there are dozens and dozens of them on our sidewalks, even on quiet residential sidewalks?”

* Crain’s | U.S. cuts fine against Southwest over 2022 travel meltdown at Midway: The Trump administration has waived part of a $140 million settlement against Southwest Airlines over a 2022 holiday travel meltdown that was largely centered at Midway Airport. The U.S. Department of Transportation announced Dec. 6 the airline would not need to pay the final $11 million of a $35 million fine issued as part of the settlement after investing more than $1 billion in its operations, Reuters reports.

* Crain’s | Chicago Botanic Garden names new CEO: Illinois native Gretchen Baker is returning to her roots as the incoming president and CEO of the nonprofit Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe. Baker, who will begin her post on March 16, was hired by the Botanic Garden board of directors after current CEO Jean Franczyk, who has led the garden since 2016, informed the board she plans to retire this coming spring.

* Sun-Times | Bally’s Chicago casino renderings preview poker room, gaming floor: Besides the 3,400-slot casino and 500-room hotel, the $1.7 billion Chicago complex is slated to include a rooftop pool and bar and restaurants, plus a 3,000-seat theater and a public park with a riverwalk extension. Bally’s had previously shared its proposed images of a 36-story hotel tower and adjacent casino. The latest images preview its expansive floor of slot machines and table games, plus dedicated poker and baccarat rooms.

* Tribune | John Corkery, a Chicago attorney and ‘performer at heart,’ dies at 82: John Corkery was an attorney and a distinguished one, a frequent radio and TV legal expert, a powerful courtroom presence, and an admired teacher and administrator. He was much more. “John was a performer at heart,” said his wife, Denise Corkery, an advertising executive. “He always referred to teaching his law classes as giving ‘five performances a week.’” Corkery died at home in Chicago on Nov. 27, on Thanksgiving morning. He had been on home hospice care for a lengthy battle with brain cancer, with which he had been diagnosed in 2019. He was 82.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Tribune | Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss questions how Trump-Northwestern deal impacts protests and campus oversight: He also expressed skepticism about the agreement’s provisions that aimed to limit Northwestern’s consideration of students’ racial backgrounds in admissions. In the letter, Biss demanded “unambiguous guidance on what you believe Northwestern is now prohibited from doing, required to do, or required to dismantle — especially if these requirements touch community-based scholarship programs, DEI partnerships, or joint initiatives involving our schools and nonprofits.” And Biss — who has said he has “two children who are thriving because of gender-affirming care,”— also questioned the federal government’s authority to use the agreement to compel Northwestern and its medical affiliates to change their transgender health care practices.

* Daily Southtown | Calumet region celebrates progress in flood mitigation efforts funded by relief funds: The project the Calumet City steering committee chose was to create stormwater bumpouts at Sibley Boulevard and Wentworth Avenue, creating a safer crossing for a nearby day care. The Center for Neighborhood Technology developed the RainReady plan for the region about 10 years ago, Savad said, but there was no funding at the time to put the project into practice. It wasn’t until rescue plan was signed into law in 2021, dispensing billions in funds for pandemic relief and infrastructure improvement, that the project was able to get moving. Cook County committed $6 million of funds it was allotted to making the center’s plan a reality.

* Daily Southtown | Longtime Monee Democrat William ‘Billy’ Morgan tapped to lead Will County party: Morgan said one of his main focus will be on county offices next year, including reelecting countywide Democrats and flipping the county clerk and regional office of education seats from Republican to Democrat. “I’m focused like a laser on our county,” Morgan said.

* Daily Herald | ‘They always provide’: JOURNEYS offers a lifeline and a path out of homelessness: Last year, JOURNEYS served 1,051 people experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity. It was the fifth consecutive year of growth for the nonprofit organization. Its services range from overnight stays, meals, showers and laundry, to mental health counseling, job training and transportation. Its shelter in Palatine hosts 50 to 70 people daily, and JOURNEYS also partners with PADS shelters operated by 12 faith communities.

* Daily Herald | ‘A real balm’: Catholics headed to Des Plaines this week in annual pilgrimage: The event typically draws as many as 300,000 people from across the U.S. Most make the pilgrimage “because there’s a great need in their life,” Sanchez said. “An experience such as this is a real balm, a real healing, for them,” he said.

*** Downstate ***

* News-Gazette | Piatt County Circuit Clerk earns top honors for modernizing court information: Let’s face it, most people have their eyes buried in phones — Seth Floyd, the Piatt County circuit clerk, knew that, so he modernized the decades-old court system and implemented an accessible and online record database. “The idea (was born from) a better way to reach jurors, because when I came into the office, we were using a recently thrown-away 1990s answering machine as a call-in line,” he said. The app, released in 2023, featured accessible records, information, links to make payments and acted as a hub for various websites.

* WMBD | Peoria City Council to decide on $11M riverfront amphitheater donation: The vote and its likely approval Tuesday night given the Horseshoe’s endorsement of the idea at an earlier meeting, will formally accept the donation from the Hengst Foundation and give them “authority over the design of the Amphitheater,” according to a memo in the council’s packet. At their meeting in Setpember, the council voted to accept a “letter of intent” by the foundation to build the 5,000-seat facility on Peoria’s riverfront.

* WMBD | More than 90 cadets graduate from Lincoln’s ChalleNGe Academy at Peoria Civic Center: The program is run by the Illinois National Guard and serves youth ages 15 1/2 to 18 through a 22-week, quasi-military academy focused on structure, discipline and life-skill development. Leaders said the goal is to help young people build consistency, confidence and a clearer path forward. […] The program is voluntary and offers students the opportunity to earn academic credentials, develop vocational skills and learn essential tools such as time management, teamwork and anger-management strategies.

*** National ***

* WaPo | Supreme Court poised to expand Trump’s power over independent agencies: The Supreme Court on Monday appeared poised to allow President Donald Trump to fire a leader of the Federal Trade Commission, a ruling that could limit or overturn a 90-year-old precedent that curbs executive power to dismiss the heads of agencies Congress set up to be independent.

* AP | Redistricting in Indiana faces ultimate test in state Senate: Senators will take action on a bill designed to favor GOP candidates in the upcoming midterm elections. However, many Republicans, who control the chamber, have been hesitant or even outright opposed to the idea of mid-decade redistricting. Several have also been threatened over their opposition or unwillingness to immediately declare support. Their deciding votes could test Trump’s typically iron grip on the Republican Party. Monday’s expected committee hearing could give a first glimpse at how many senators plan to go on record against the bid to consolidate power in the staunchly conservative state.

* NYT | How Biden Ignored Warnings and Lost Americans’ Faith in Immigration: Some Biden aides believed that the less the president said about immigration, the better. In June, the White House planned for Mr. Biden to give a speech on the border. Officials circulated the president’s remarks, Ms. Flores said, only to change their minds at the last minute. Angela Kelley, who was then a senior immigration adviser at the Department of Homeland Security, described a collision between Mr. Biden’s campaign promises and “reality on the ground.” “We didn’t really have a grip on it,” Ms. Kelley said.

* WaPo | Trump pardons major drug traffickers despite his anti-drug rhetoric: On President Donald Trump’s first full day in office this year, he pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, who was convicted of creating the largest online black market for illegal drugs and other illicit goods of its time. In the months since, he has granted clemency to others, including Chicago gang leader Larry Hoover and Baltimore drug kingpin Garnett Gilbert Smith. And last week, he pardoned former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, who had been sentenced to 45 years in prison for running his country as a vast “narco-state” that helped to move at least 400 tons of cocaine into the United States.