|
Isabel’s afternoon roundup
Tuesday, Jan 20, 2026 - Posted by Isabel Miller * Crain’s…
* Sun-Times…
* Crain’s…
* Sun-Times | Sen. Duckworth travels to Portugal, Poland to strengthen Illinois National Guard ties: “I am always proud of what the Illinois National Guard is doing. And the 200 who were activated were not activated in a way that our governor, or that we, agreed with. But they conducted themselves well, and I’m always going to support the Illinois Guard,” Duckworth said. “And frankly, I think this is an opportunity to highlight what the Guard should be doing. They shouldn’t be out terrorizing, being told that you’re supposed to help ICE terrorize the citizens of Chicago. They should be doing what they have been doing for 35 years, which is strengthening the bond between the United States and our NATO allies.” * Sun-Times | Subzero temperatures expected by end of week — ‘Don’t spend time outdoors unless you have to’: “Don’t spend time outdoors unless you have to,” said Gino Izzi, senior meteorologist at the weather service. “If you have to spend time outdoors, you’re going to want to wear a lot of layers, multiple layers of loose-fitting clothing. The more layers you put on between yourself and the outside is better.” Meanwhile, before the colder temperatures roll in at the end of the week, Izzi said a system that could blanket the Chicago area with 1 to 2 inches of snow will move through Tuesday night but end before rush hour Wednesday. * ABC Chicago | Illinois has filed more than 50 lawsuits against Trump administration, AG Raoul says: Over the past 365 days, Illinois has filed more than 50 lawsuits. The attorney general said the state is locked in a series of legal battles with the Trump administration challenging everything from federal funding freezes to “aggressive and unconstitutional” immigration enforcement tactics. Raoul said his office has been trying to combat what they deem unlawful actions in Trump’s first year of his second term. * Sun-Times | Slightly smaller share of Chicago families choosing CPS for their children, report finds: Though overall enrollment at CPS has declined for years, the district steadily served roughly 75% of the city’s school-age population between 2008 and 2018. That’s despite major disruptions including mass school closures and multiple budget crises that could have caused more families to look elsewhere. Since then, the district’s share of the population has dipped, falling to 71% in 2023, the report found. * Block Club | Despite Fears, Chicago’s Rapid Responders Vow To Continue Facing Down Federal Immigration Officers: “They’ve gotten much more brutal,” said Diego Morales, a rapid response organizer with Pilsen Unidos por Ñuestro Orgullo (PUÑO), “They’ve abandoned any pretense of respecting the law, and the risks for everybody involved have gotten higher and higher.” “The federal government is not doing this behind a curtain. They are doing it plain, at the public eye, and with no remorse,” said Marièn Casillas Pabellón, executive director of the West Suburban Action Project, or PASO. “People can see the harm that it causes and the trauma that it causes long-term … even if they are not directly impacted.” * Lori Lightfoot: The former mayor, 61, on her enemies, lessons from COVID, and why she’s finished with politics: Someone once asked me, “What would you have done differently?” Ridiculous question. What I would say is that if you have the time to build authentic relationships, that’s always best. But sometimes you don’t have the time. Sometimes you’ve got to say, “I need you to be a grownup and work with me here.” So much of what I saw in politics was just transactional: “What will it take for me to get you to give me X?” That’s really not how I operate. You should do things because it’s the right thing to do. And I often found myself being the only one who felt that way. That was difficult for me to navigate, for sure, because I was often appalled by what I saw. So I don’t want to do anything like that again. * Block Club | Award-Winning Alarmist Brewing Closing After Almost A Decade On Northwest Side: He said the business struggled to recover after the COVID-19 pandemic. Gulley said people “just aren’t drinking as much” post-pandemic, a trend that has hit breweries and wineries across the country. “We got into November and I was looking at the numbers and when I was having trouble buying ingredients, I knew we were in trouble,” Gulley said. * Tribune | Burst pipe in air traffic tower causes delays at O’Hare: The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed that a water pipe burst in the tower shortly after 1 a.m. Tuesday morning. Air traffic controllers were evacuated and were able to continue operations at the airport’s other air traffic facilities, according to the FAA. Still, a ground delay program was in place at O’Hare Tuesday and the main air traffic tower remained closed, according to an FAA alert. Delays were expected to average around an hour and twenty minutes. * Daily Herald | No longer a bridesmaid, O’Hare clinches busiest U.S. airport award: After seven years of second best, O’Hare International Airport once again holds the title of the nation’s busiest airport. Preliminary federal data posted Tuesday shows 857,392 flights at O’Hare in 2025 compared with arch-rival Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport’s 807,625 operations. That represents a nearly 10.5% climb from 2024, when 776,036 flights landed and departed at O’Hare. * Aurora Beacon-News | Districts 2 and 9 still without board members in Kane County: Kane County’s District 2 board seat has been vacant since early October, when board member Dale Berman died at the age of 91. Berman was a longtime resident of North Aurora and a four-term village president, and had been serving on the Kane County Board since 2021. The board sought applications for Berman’s seat and made several attempts to appoint someone to fill the position until it’s up for election in the fall of 2026, but ultimately failed to vote in a candidate in November. The situation prompted some concern from board members about the transparency of the selection process and the board’s procedure for appointing candidates. * Daily Southtown | Orland Park board approves Amazon retail development at 159th and LaGrange Road: The Plan Commission ultimately approved the proposal 6-1, with Daniel Sanchez voting no due to lingering concerns raised by residents. “Overall, I think it’s great, I think it’s pretty exciting,” Sanchez said. “Some of the other comments about traffic and overall scale and fit in that location do concern me a little bit.” Dodge told the Daily Southtown developer interest for the 35-acre parcel has been high, with the village previously considering to zone it for mixed use including residential. * Naperville Sun | Naperville student’s nonprofit delivers food to shelters, offers English classes: Empower Futurewave Foundation started by providing English as a second language courses to students from around the world who did not have access to such programs. The organization now provides English and STEM courses to students in eight countries, including Mexico, Guatemala and Vietnam. In addition to the global classes, it also has a local initiative called EmpowerEats, which helps restaurants in the Naperville area donate meals they do not sell to local shelters. Shah said that through the EmpowerEats initiative, about 150 meals are donated every week to Hesed House, a homeless shelter in Aurora and the largest second largest shelter in Illinois. * Tribune | Elmhurst museum explores history of healthcare in DuPage County in new exhibit: One surprising thing she discovered was that, even though the county was affected by such diseases as influenza and the Spanish flu, the second-biggest killer was train accidents. “They didn’t have alarms, bells and whistles, and arms going down to stop you from crossing train tracks,” she explained. Artifacts in the exhibit include doctors’ instruments and tools, medications, original documentation from the establishment of Elmhurst Hospital, and nurses’ uniforms from different eras, among other items. * WGN | Prohibition-era gun discovered in walls of Thornton distillery: The gun was found tucked inside a wall in an underground catacomb beneath the distillery. Howell says he immediately contacted police. “The police ran the number on it, and they said it’s not in their database. He said it’s technically an antique,” Howell said. “What’s really scary is that it’s a loaded clip. He said the bullets look like they’re from the 1920s. When we had the model number, we pulled it and it looked like it was manufactured between 1903 and 1923.” […] The building is the oldest standing brewery in Illinois. It was built in 1857 and continued operating through Prohibition as an illicit bootlegging operation. * WGLT | Unit 5 and Baby Fold pivot after Department of Education cancels grant money: The grant, at $1 million annually over five years, was used to support and expand programming at both schools. In December, the U.S. Department of Education announced the rest of the grant money will not be awarded. The cuts were another step in a series of Trump administration actions meant to defund “diversity, equity and inclusion” initiatives. * WIFR | The Issues: Winnebago County Sales Tax Referendum: A referendum question on Winnebago County’s upcoming primary ballot asks voters if they want to impose a 1% sales tax, with revenue going toward area school districts. WIFR’s Jake Pearson sits down with a pair of Winnebago County Board members, learning where they will cast their vote this March and the concerns they have around the tax. * Illinois Times | Roundabout slated for West White Oaks: If all goes according to the city’s plans, such traffic chaos will soon have a solution in the form of a new roundabout involving Hedley Avenue, Cascade Drive and West White Oaks Drive. The Springfield City Council will consider ordinances at its Jan. 20 meeting that would set the wheels in motion for the purchase of three parcels of land near the intersection. The total cost to the city for the three parcels would be close to $130,000, with five other smaller parcels of adjacent property needed to finish construction currently in the negotiation stage. * NYT | Swan Seeks Mate: Must Like Cold Lake and Small Flock: The swan, who had recently lost his mate, would not move away from a vending machine at Tri-Township Park in Troy, Ill. The swan stared at his reflection below the Dr Pepper dispensers, thinking it showed his mate, park officials said. […] On Thursday, the department posted a flyer on social media that asked the public to donate money to help the swans “find companionship again.” * 404 Media | ICE’s Facial Recognition App Misidentified a Woman. Twice: In testimony from a CBP official obtained by 404 Media, the official described how Mobile Fortify returned two different names after scanning a woman’s face during an immigration raid. ICE has said the app’s results are a “definitive” determination of someone’s immigration status. * Popular Information | ICE has stopped paying for detainee medical treatment: ICE, however, has not paid any third-party providers for medical care for detainees since October 3, 2025. Last week, ICE posted a notice on an obscure government website announcing it will not begin processing such claims until at least April 30, 2026. Until then, medical providers are instructed “to hold all claims submissions.” ICE’s failure to pay its bills for months has caused some medical providers to deny services to ICE detainees, an administration source, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press, told Popular Information. In other cases, detainees have allegedly been denied essential medical care by ICE. * AP | The US is on the verge of losing its measles elimination status: The reevaluation is largely symbolic and hinges on whether a single measles chain has spread uninterrupted within the U.S. for at least 12 months. Public health scientists around the country are investigating whether the now-ended Texas outbreak is linked to active ones in Utah, Arizona and South Carolina. But doctors and scientists say the U.S. — and North America overall — has a measles problem, regardless of the decision. “It is really a question of semantics,” said Dr. Jonathan Temte, a Wisconsin family physician who helped certify the U.S. was measles-free in 2000. “The bottom line is the conditions are sufficient to allow this many cases to occur. And that gets back to de-emphasizing a safe and effective vaccine.”
|
 |
|
|
|
|
