* Capitol News Illinois…

Illinois lawmakers are poised to make a second attempt at passing a bill that would give state regulators more authority to control the rising cost of homeowners insurance.

Gov. JB Pritzker called for the legislation last summer after Bloomington-based State Farm Insurance announced it was raising premiums in Illinois an average 27.2%, citing years of losses in its property casualty line of coverage due to weather-related disasters in the state.

A bill to give the Illinois Department of Insurance authority to approve or reject insurance rate increases passed the Senate during last fall’s veto session. But when it returned to the House for a vote to concur with changes the Senate had made, the amended bill fell four votes short of the 60 needed for passage. That left many to believe the bill had died.

The following day, however, the bill’s chief House sponsor, Rep. Robyn Gabel, D-Evanston, refiled a motion to concur, which is allowed under House rules. And Pritzker has said since the end of the veto session that he still wants the legislation to pass.

“They get a second bite at the apple,” Kevin Martin, executive director of the Illinois Insurance Association, said in an interview.

Gabel told Capitol News Illinois through a spokesperson this week that no decision had been made about calling the bill for a second vote. But Martin said people in the industry have heard the bill could be called as early as Tuesday, when the House and Senate return to the Statehouse to begin the 2026 legislative session in earnest.

* The Illinois Federation of Teachers…

IFT Members Call on Gov. Pritzker and Legislators to Fulfill Illinois’ Promised $6 Billion to Students from pre-K to PhD, Fix the State’s Tax Code and Defend Against Trump Cuts by Making the Ultra-Rich Pay Their Fair Share

What: IFT Press Conference during statewide Lobby Day
When: 11 a.m. CT, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026
Where: Blue Room, Room #010, Capitol Building, 401 S. 2nd St., Springfield, IL 62701, livestream will be available at facebook.com/iftaft
Who: IFT officers with hundreds of members from across the state

Hundreds of educators and state workers from the 105,000-member Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT) will rally in Springfield on Tuesday, Feb. 17, calling on Gov. JB Pritzker and lawmakers to prioritize delivering funds that have been promised but not provided to Illinois’ students and counter devastating Trump administration cuts by making the ultra-rich pay their fair share.

As part of Lobby Day, educators and state workers will deliver a letter to Gov. Pritzker calling on him to “Trump‑proof Illinois” and pointing to states like Massachusetts, where a millionaire tax has generated at least $5.7 billion in revenue to pay for schools, public transit, and infrastructure.

*** Statehouse News ***

* The New Republic | How the Democrats Can Play Offense on Immigration: And it’s working. In Chicago, the citizen documentation of ICE atrocities has been positively staggering. Indeed, Pritzker’s team consciously has sought to make ordinary people find empowerment amid dark times through participation. As Caprara describes it, the governor and his advisers realized that this had the makings of a cultural moment during early ICE raids, when they started “seeing suburban ladies out in their Lululemon pants with their whistles.” The result, Caprara said, is that for every one propaganda video Trumpworld puts out, “there are 50 videos in everybody’s timeline of actual incidents where people can see what’s happening.”

* Tribune | Will County Forest Preserve applications signal potential harm to state endangered animals: Only seven of the 318 permit applications received by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources since 2000 have been submitted by county forest preserve districts, according to records available online. Of those, only the Will County Forest Preserve District has submitted more than one. The Forest Preserve District said in a statement the Illinois Department of Natural Resources is responsible for determining when an incidental take authorization is required.

* Crain’s | Indiana legislative leaders say Bears deal must be done by Feb. 27: Indiana legislative leaders said yesterday that time is running short to make a deal with the Chicago Bears to move their games to northwest Indiana but that conversations between the team and state officials have been positive. House and Senate leaders say they plan to adjourn their 2026 session no later than Feb. 27 (although state law would allow them to go about two weeks longer) and want a stadium agreement in place before then.

*** Chicago ***

* South Side Weekly | Archer Ave Bike Lanes Tension Fuels Political Ambitions: For many residents, this push is rooted in long-standing safety concerns. Alfredo Valladares Jr., a lifelong Gage Park resident and local cycling advocate, said the dangers along Archer are not new. Valladares Jr., a member of Gage Park Cyclists, said he has been riding in the area since high school and began organizing group rides in 2021 to build community and advocate for safer infrastructure. He recounted multiple fatal crashes and serious injuries involving neighbors over the past two decades.

* Sun-Times | Voters cast ballots at Loop Supersite as early voting kicks off:
“Everything’s at stake at this point,” she said. “We’ve seen how everything has been going downhill, how people are being harassed by different political groups and law enforcement agents.” Banks-Word wasn’t the only one encouraged to vote because of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement campaign, which has sent hundreds of federal agents into cities across the country — including Chicago.

* WTTW | Deadline to Vote in Chicago’s Snowplow Naming Contest is Saturday; Will ‘Abolish ICE’ Win After Leading Nominations?: “Chicagoans have once again displayed their unmatched creativity and civic pride in submitting names for this year’s contest,” Department of Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Cole Stallard said in a statement. “We are grateful to the community for engaging with us, and we encourage all residents to submit votes for the top six names.”

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* WBEZ | Longtime incumbent Preckwinkle faces challenge from Ald. Reilly in Cook County Board president primary: Reilly said that if needed, he would terminate the county’s contract with Tyler Technologies, which has been working to upgrade the technology behind the property tax system for years. Preckwinkle countered that she’s one of several separately elected officials who oversees a complicated tax system. Other elected officials, such as the county assessor and treasurer, determine property values and mail tax bills. “My view has been to try to get people to work together to solve the problems,” Preckwinkle said. “You can’t do that if you point fingers and throw people under the bus.”

* Injustice Watch | No contest: Cook County judicial primary elections draw dwindling field of candidates: ? Candidates in 16 of the 28 circuit court races are virtually assured to breeze onto the bench, where they could decide who goes to prison, holds a driver’s license, or keeps their kids. Some candidates on a glide path have liabilities that might hurt them in a contested race, including one with an arrest record, one with a history of failing to pay taxes, and one who only recently moved to Cook County.

* Tribune | District 5 Dem candidates for DuPage County Board discuss affordable housing: In advance of the March 17 primary, the Naperville Sun asked the Democratic candidates running for the four-year seat representing Naperville’s District 5 on the DuPage County Board to answer a series of questions on the issues. This is the second article in a series. The first one, which covers biographical information and what each candidate views as the biggest county issue, is available online.

* Daily Herald | Schaumburg preparing to close the barn door on backyard chickens: But trustees made it clear they see Schaumburg’s agricultural history as something best honored by the park district’s Volkening Heritage Farm at Spring Valley Nature Center. “I do have to concur with the mayor that Schaumburg is more of an urban residential type of community and not agriculture anymore,” Trustee Mark Madej said.

* Daily Southtown | Dixmoor water line breaks highlight continued infrastructure needs: The water line break Feb. 1 at 139th Street between Dixie Highway and Thornton Road affected nearly 1,000 residents, according to village spokesperson Travis Akin. He said some residents had no water pressure that day, and it took 15 hours to repair the break. The following weekend, Feb. 7 and 8, two more water main breaks were discovered at 143rd Street and Page Avenue and at 143rd and Marshfield Avenue, leaving nearly 50 homes without water, Akin said. These breaks were fixed by 3 p.m. Sunday, and there was no boil water order, he said. Four major water main breaks were discovered in Dixmoor in the past two weekends, with a break also discovered Jan. 29 near 146th Street and Seeley Avenue.

*** Downstate ***

* WCIA | Sullivan declares water emergency amid Central Illinois drought: In a notice posted to Facebook around 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Sullivan announced that water use should be restricted to preserve it for drinking, cooking, firefighting and other essential purposes. Specifically, city water should not be used for turf irrigation, filling swimming pools or personal car washing, city officials said.

* STLPR | Cahokia teachers union demands investigation of district amid contract dispute: The union outlined some of its claims during Monday’s school board meeting and levied additional allegations at a press conference Thursday. They include multiple employees being paid for years despite no evidence that they were working and the assistant superintendent being paid $406,000 above his contracted salary for fiscal 2024. “The public deserves to know where their taxpayer funds are going,” said Ray Roskos, the Illinois Federation of Teachers field services director who assists Local 1272, at Thursday’s news conference in Fairview Heights. “The students and the community of Cahokia deserve better than what they’re receiving.”

* BND | Gambling mogul with metro-east ties reaches ‘settlement’ to keep state license: The judge, John White, concluded that Lucky Lincoln violated state law by failing to timely notify the Gaming Board that it had hired a sales agent, but stated that “a preponderance of credible evidence does not show that (the company) committed any of the other violations.” “The Board has stipulated that the usual discipline it has imposed for a terminal violation of the notification duties is a fine in the range of $2,500 to $10,000 per instance,” White wrote in his 169-page report.

*** National ***

* The Hill | US business, consumers bore 90 percent of Trump tariff costs: NY Fed: In the first eight months of the year, consumers and businesses were shouldering 94 percent of the economic burden associated with tariffs. The New York Fed noted that tariffs’ pass-through into import prices declined in the latter half of the year, meaning that foreign exporters were taking on a larger share of the tariff incidence. The average tariff rate throughout 2025 increased from 2.6 percent to 13 percent with few dips and spikes midway through the year, according to the report.

* NYT | Trump Administration Erases the Government’s Power to Fight Climate Change: Mr. Zeldin called it “the single largest deregulatory action in the history of the United States.” He accused Democrats of having launched an “ideological crusade” on climate change that “strangled entire sectors of the United States economy,” particularly the auto industry. The administration claimed it would save auto manufacturers and other businesses an estimated $1 trillion, although it has declined to explain how it arrived at that estimate.

* ProPublica | “Not Ready for Prime Time.” A Federal Tool to Check Voter Citizenship Keeps Making Mistakes: In Missouri, state officials acted on SAVE’s findings before attempting to confirm them, directing county election administrators to make voters flagged as potential noncitizens temporarily unable to vote. But in hundreds of cases, the tool’s determinations were wrong, our review found. Lennon was among dozens of clerks statewide who raised alarms about the system’s errors.