* Courier Journal…

The state of Illinois blocked the Louisville Metro Police Department’s access to its license plate surveillance system after an LMPD detective allegedly aided a federal agency in conducting immigration-related searches, records from an internal affairs investigation show.

Those searches ran afoul of an Illinois law that bars automated license plate reader information from being shared with law enforcement for investigations related to immigration status or reproductive health care. […]

“I received a call from Flock this morning. Our access to Illinois data is currently removed. After an audit was completed by an Illinois agency, there was suspicion that someone in our agency used Illinois data to enforce immigration,” wrote Jennifer Corum, the director of LMPD’s Real Time Crime Center’s Strategic Criminal Intelligence Unit, in a June 2 email.

Illinois’ decision to bar LMPD access, a move that was eventually reversed, is among the new details The Courier Journal uncovered in the department’s internal affairs investigation of potential misuse of the powerful Flock system by LMPD detective Wesley Troutman. That probe ultimately concluded Troutman — whose Flock account was identified as being responsible for the Illinois searches — improperly shared his Flock login credentials with a U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency officer who conducted a number of immigration-related searches.

Troutman and two higher-ranking officers were disciplined as a result of the investigation.

* ABC Chicago…

Illinois officials announced the first influenza death in a child this season. The influenza activity in the state has moved to “very high.”

The Illinois Department of Public Health urged residents to take precautions against the spread of the flu as rates continue to climb.

Flu activity in the state has climbed to “Very High,” which is the most severe of five categories of respiratory illness activity, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

COVID-19 rates have climbed to “moderate” levels in Illinois, the CDC said.

*** Statewide ***

* Investigate Midwest | Increased pesticide use in Illinois is killing native oaks: That’s because after only five years of commercial use, dozens of weeds had evolved widespread resistance to glyphosate, becoming what some call superweeds. In response, farmers used more of the herbicide or switched to other products, such as 2,4-D and dicamba. However, a 2024 study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign indicates that the increase in pesticide use is causing significant damage to prairie grasses and trees across the state, particularly native oaks, hickory and box elders. Researchers found a direct correlation between surrounding agriculture and damaged native vegetation. Field workers collected hundreds of leaf and soil samples at nearly 200 non-agricultural sites, like nature preserves, forests and wetlands, all within 10 kilometers of corn or soybean operations. They found at least one agricultural chemical at 97% of the locations, and observed visual signs of damage at every site. Chemicals from row crop fields, which can drift and harm unintended targets nearby, were the culprit.

* Press Release | IDPH Urges Flu Shots, Other Preventive Measures as Influenza Rates Climb Statewide: The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) is urging residents to take precautions against the spread of influenza (flu) and other seasonal respiratory illnesses, as rates continue to climb across the state. Flu activity in the state has climbed to “Very High” in recent days, the most severe of five categories of respiratory illness activity, as defined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In addition, COVID-19 rates have climbed to “Moderate” levels in Illinois. These trends are similar to what is being seen across the nation. Illinois is also reporting its first influenza death in a child this season. Nationally, there have been nine pediatric deaths due to influenza this season. During the 2024/2025 season, Illinois reported 12 pediatric deaths from influenza, 6 from RSV and 3 from COVID.

*** Statehouse News ***

* STLPR | Illinois hopes to lure major developments by expanding a bond program statewide: Hoffman said he’s unaware if specific developers have definitive plans for the Southwest Region, but there have been some looking at “several parts of the state,” he said. “I think we’ll hear more as people start filing and communities begin to develop the STAR bonds projects,” Hoffman said. The legislation would also create a “super” STAR bonds district called a New Opportunities for Vacation and Adventure District. These would have even higher requirements — like a capital investment of $500 million, annual gross sales of $300 million and 1,500 new jobs created.

*** Chicago ***

* WTTW | The Number of Times CPD Officers Used Force Against People Increased 10% During 1st Half of 2025: Data: Chicago police officers used force against members of the public 1,645 times during the first six months of 2025, an increase of nearly 10% as compared with the first half of 2024, according to Chicago Police Department data published Tuesday. In addition, CPD officers pointed their guns at individuals 2,229 times between Jan. 1, 2025, and June 30, an increase of approximately 9% as compared with the same period during the previous year, according to CPD’s mid-year report documenting officers’ use of force.

* Crain’s | Sterling Bay unloads more property near Lincoln Yards: The sale further reduces Sterling Bay’s interest in the area between Lincoln Park and Bucktown, where it tried in recent years to kickstart the sprawling 53-acre, 14.5 million-square-foot Lincoln Yards development. Foiled largely by problems financing and finding anchor tenants for the project, the developer ultimately surrendered much of the land for the campus to its lender early last year and is finalizing a deal to sell most of the remaining Lincoln Yards property to Chicago contractor Novak Construction.

* Crain’s | Midway slips as O’Hare soars, but Southwest plans a rebound: While O’Hare International Airport has soared into record territory, Midway has been losing altitude. From January through September 2025, the number of passengers using Midway dropped 11% from the same period the previous year, according to Chicago Department of Aviation data. O’Hare, meanwhile, recorded a 6% increase in passengers, topping its pre-pandemic total of 63.6 million.

* Chicago Mag | A Chicago rabbi has made it his mission to care for the indigent, in life and in death: Behind two of those gates there are plenty of graves, but few headstones. It is here that many Jews without the means to pay for a cemetery plot and burial are laid to rest, most of them by a man named Shlomo Tenenbaum, the former longtime rabbi at the Ark, a Jewish social services agency in West Rogers Park that helps individuals and families experiencing financial insecurity. Over four decades, Tenenbaum has organized and conducted more than 3,000 funerals for indigent individuals. After the gate 1 area filled up, Tenenbaum started burying the dead behind gate 59. Simcha Frank, a funeral director at Skokie-based Chicago Jewish Funerals, has a name for these special sections: Tenenbaum’s Garden.

* Sun-Times | Edith Renfrow Smith, a ‘memory keeper’ and living link to history, dies at 111: Mrs. Smith was one of perhaps a thousand supercentenarians — people who live to 110 — in the world, and a living link to history. She clearly remembered her grandparents, born in slavery. Her memory was so sharp, she was included in the SuperAging Research Initiative at the University of Chicago, a similar study at Northwestern University and a genetics study in Boston.

* Block Club | Flu Hospitalizations In Chicago Hit 3-Year High: The positivity rate of people testing for influenza is just over 24 percent, with emergency room visits spiking to “very high” levels, according to the latest data Saturday from the Chicago Department of Public Health. Those levels are the highest since 2022. All age groups have seen increases, but most notably among children 17 years and younger, according to the health department.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* WTTW | Cook County Chief Judge Charles Beach Highlights New Court Reforms From First Month in Office: On his second day in office, Beach announced a new committee tasked with reviewing and improving communication procedures related to violations within the court’s electronic monitoring program. Those plans came weeks after a man who was on electronic monitoring and had a lengthy criminal past allegedly lit a woman on fire onboard a CTA Blue Line train. The victim survived with critical injuries and the suspect now faces a federal terrorism charge.

* Tribune | Here’s what we learned from top Cook County candidates’ tax returns and ethics filings: Two-term incumbent Assessor Fritz Kaegi reported seven-figure investment gains, and he paid nearly $780,000 in combined state and federal taxes over four years. His challenger, Lyons Township Assessor Patrick Hynes, disclosed income from several suburban properties he owns. Four-term County Board President Toni Preckwinkle relied on her public salary, pension and Social Security income, while her challenger, Brendan Reilly, made do with his Chicago aldermanic salary and a recent reentry into media production work.

* Daily Herald | ‘More than houses’: Residents fight to save neighborhood near Addison: Caputo and other residents have been fighting to preserve their well-established suburban community for months. They say the area east of Route 53 and south of Army Trail Road has been targeted by Transwestern Development through a commercial real estate firm. Many have publicly made clear they have no intention of selling their homes. […] The scale of the potential development is unclear. A Transwestern spokesperson could not be reached for comment. Residents say there are more than 90 homes in the targeted area.

* Daily Southtown | Robbins Historical Society director aims to digitize and increase access to town’s Black history: Anderson said she launched a website for the historical society, which is still being built out, along with a Facebook account, where she has posted some of the society’s archival material and her own interviews with elders. She also started using social media to encourage residents to interview their own elders and share that with the museum. Anderson said the response to these new historical posts show the village seemed “hungry” for its history.

* Naperville Sun | North Central University of Naperville? NCC considers name change as it grapples with brand recognition, identity: Amid an uncertain and tumultuous landscape for institutions of higher education — from fast-changing federal policy to an expected decline in the total number of high school graduates across the country to growing skepticism over the value of higher education — name recognition and branding is key for sustaining the school’s future, North Central College President Abiódún Gòkè-Paríolá said. […] “Some people will tell us they thought we’re a community college. Others would say they thought we were a state school because it sounds like North Central Ohio, North Central Arkansas,” Gòkè-Paríolá said.

* Lake County News-Sun | Company plans $58M in upgrades to Waukegan plant: ‘(This) demonstrates confidence in our region’: AkzoNobel, a global Netherlands-based paint manufacturer with ties to Alfred Nobel, who endowed the peace prize bearing his name, plans to invest more than $58 million to upgrade its Waukegan aerospace coatings plant, one of the few factories remaining at the city’s lakefront. Already the company’s largest aerospace coatings facility making exterior and interior coatings for commercial, military and private airplanes, the two-phase project will increase capacity and add more automated processes, according to a news release from the company.

* Tribune | Set to open in the fall, Northwestern’s $862M Ryan Field touted as ‘best place to watch football in America’: Unlike older stadiums, including its predecessor, newer construction technology allows seating levels that are steeper and closer to the field — a more intimate experience similar to a modern basketball arena. The primary benefactor of the new stadium is insurance billionaire Patrick Ryan, founder and retired CEO of Aon Corp. and a Northwestern alumnus. The Ryan family donated $480 million in 2021 — the largest gift in Northwestern history — in large part to help build the stadium, and has since committed additional funding as the cost of the project has risen.

*** Downstate ***

* WIFR | Stephenson County discovery: Asian copperleaf, a nonnative weed, confirmed in Illinois: Corn and soybean growers in northern Illinois should be on the lookout for a nonnative weed after the first confirmed Illinois population of Asian copperleaf (Acalypha australis) was found in a Stephenson County field following this year’s corn harvest. The discovery marks the third U.S. state with confirmed populations of the species. The first U.S. records came from New York in 1990 and the next confirmed U.S. sighting was in an Iowa seed corn field in 2016; since then Asian copperleaf has been confirmed in 10 Iowa counties.

* Shaw Local | Richmond’s new skating rink – funded by cannabis tax revenue – now open: Richmond Village President Toni Wardanian doesn’t know if the community has ever offered an ice rink for its residents, either on a frozen pond or in a park. But it does now. The Village Board agreed to use some of the local tax revenue from the Spark’d marijuana dispensary to buy and install an outdoor rink at McConnell Park.

* Rockford Register Star | Illinois 2 bridges open in Rockton after major replacement project: Illinois drivers can now cruise over brand-new Illinois 2 bridges in Rockton, with the state finishing work on a $25.3 million bridge replacement funded under Rebuild Illinois. The Illinois Department of Transportation announced the project is now complete, allowing heavier vehicles to utilize the bridge in a corridor connecting the communities of Rockford, Rockton, South Beloit and Beloit, Wis.

* Daily Egyptian | Salukis star quarterback DJ Williams to return for one more year: The announcement came nine days after Williams himself announced that his waiver request to play one more year of college football was accepted due to him missing almost all of the 2024 season after a finger injury. Williams was an All-Missouri Valley Football Conference Honorable Mention and finished third in the MVFC Offensive Player of the Year race behind eventual Walter Payton Award winner Youngstown State QB Beau Brungard and North Dakota State QB Cole Payton this past season.

*** National ***

* NYT | Kennedy Scales Back the Number of Vaccines Recommended for Children: Federal health officials on Monday announced dramatic revisions to the slate of vaccines recommended for American children, reducing the number of diseases prevented by routine shots to 11 from 17. […] The states, not the federal government, have the authority to mandate vaccinations. But recommendations from the C.D.C. greatly influence state regulations. Mr. Kennedy and his appointees have made other changes to the childhood vaccination schedule, but those have had smaller impact.

* 404 Media | Researchers Are Hunting America for Hidden Datacenters: Information about the datacenters is incomplete. It’s impossible to know exactly how much everything costs and how it will run. State and local laws are variable so not all construction information is public and satellite imagery can only tell a person so much about what’s happening on the ground. Epoch AI’s map is likely only watching a fraction of the world’s datacenters. “As of November 2025, this subset is an estimated 15% of AI compute that has been delivered by chip manufacturers globally,” Epoch AI explained on its website. “We are expanding our search to find the largest data centers worldwide, using satellite imagery and other data sources.”

* AP | EPA says it will propose drinking water limit for perchlorate, but only because court ordered it: Perchlorate is used to make rockets, fireworks and other explosives, although it can also occur naturally. At some defense, aerospace and manufacturing sites, it seeped into nearby groundwater where it could spread, a problem that has been concentrated in the Southwest and along sections of the East Coast. […] Based on estimates that perchlorate could be in the drinking water of roughly 16 million people, the EPA determined in 2011 that it was a sufficient threat to public health that it needed to be regulated. Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, this determination required the EPA to propose and then finalize regulations by strict deadlines, with a proposal due in two years.

* WSJ | Nonprofit That Funded NPR and PBS to Dissolve After 58 Years: The Corporation for Public Broadcasting said it is dissolving the 58 year-old nonprofit umbrella organization that oversaw government funding for the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio. The decision was expected after federal funding for public media was eliminated last year. President Trump had made eliminating the funding a priority. He issued an executive order in April, saying neither PBS nor NPR “presents a fair, accurate or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens.”