* ICYMI: State high court weighs whether a nonviolent felony bars gun ownership. Sun-Times…

- The case between the state of Illinois and James Benson centers on whether a nonviolent felon should be allowed to own a firearm. The state argued that Benson could have petitioned to have his firearm rights restored through legal avenues.
- The seven supreme court justices spent considerably more time questioning Benson’s case, citing concerns about how the 2nd Amendment applies to “law-abiding citizens,” and whether he could be considered a “non-violent” felon given the violent convictions associated with the new case.
- Benson’s attorney concluded by saying “The 2nd Amendment protects a core constitutional right: the right to bear arms.

* Related stories…

• Center Square: Illinois Supreme Court hears FOID, double jeopardy cases
• CNI: Illinois Supreme Court weighs challenge to state gun restriction

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*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* IPM News | Large hail and tornadoes cause major damage in Illinois on Tuesday: Several tornadoes formed across northeastern Illinois and northwestern Indiana, but the exact number won’t be available until officials conduct damage surveys, said Andrew Lyons, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center.

* Daily Herald | Getting a head start: Illinois students 5th in nation for scoring high on AP exams: In 2025, 31.4% of Illinois public high school graduates earned a 3 or higher on at least one AP exam, ranking the state fifth in the nation, according to Illinois State Board of Education. On a 5-point scale, 3 is the minimum score to qualify for college credit. Over the past decade, the percentage of Illinois students scoring a 3 or higher on an AP test has increased 8.4 percentage points. In total, 59,773 public high school students sat for an AP exam in 2025, according to the state.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Sun-Times | Chicago arts organizations seek funding increase at state hearing: On Tuesday, Rep. Kimberly Du Buclet (D-Chicago), convened a hearing in Chicago on the outlook for llinois’ cultural sector. As arts leaders advocated for more funding, officials asked for diversity, equity and inclusion reports and more widespread free admission at museums.

* WMBD | Holly Kim touts tech skills in bid for Illinois comptroller: Kim spent time in the tech industry. That experience, she said, would give her the tools to beef up cybersecurity in the comptroller’s office. “Right now, check scams are the number one financial scam that’s happening and this office still sends out millions of checks,” she said. Kim, like her primary opponents, said it’s necessary to continue modernizing the office.

* Austin Weekly | Four vie in state’s 8th District to replace Rep. La Shawn Ford : Harrell is a pastor of New Hope Baptist Church in Austin. He also leads Proviso Baptist Church in Maywood and serves on boards of Loretto Hospital and Hire 360 Workforce Development. Harrell was the first candidate to jump into the race, filing the paperwork on July 10. His campaign website stated that, if elected, his priorities will be to advocate for what his constituents want and make sure they “receive the maximum services they are entitled to receive from the State of Illinois.”

*** Chicago ***

* Sun-Times | CTA’s new security plan includes sheriff’s deputies on trains, high-barrier gates and farecard inspections: The CTA will test high-barrier entry gates to prevent fare evasion. Such gates, which don’t comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, will be installed at rail stations that typically are staffed but still have high rates of fare evasion, the CTA said. The agency will also begin “farecard inspection missions” this year. The goal, according to the CTA, is to “uncover the use of free, reduced, or other entitlement fare media by someone other than the authorized holder and revoke the entitlement …”

* Sun-Times | Mayor Johnson defends push for ‘democracy zones’ at polling places as a lasting legacy of Jesse Jackson: Johnson’s proposed ordinance would establish what he calls “democracy zones” extending 100 feet beyond the perimeter that already prohibits electioneering around polling places. Federal immigration agents would be barred from entering those zones. It is patterned after the so-called “ICE-free zones” that Johnson created last fall prohibiting Chicago public schools, libraries, parks and city buildings from being used as staging grounds for raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. His proposal also would make it illegal to “intentionally publish personally identifiable information when done to cause harm or facilitate violence or stalking.”

* Block Club | Half Acre, Maplewood Breweries Merging Amid A ‘Rapidly Changing’ Beverage Market: Half Acre Owner Gabriel Magliaro and Maplewood Co-Owner Adam Cieslak told Block Club Tuesday that they expected the merger to yield a stronger market position for bulk orders of ingredients and trucking costs, among other advantages. “We come at this from a position of health and stability and market power. Our trends look pretty good relative to most,” Magliaro told Block Club. “This is harnessing the existing momentum for both of our breweries moving forward. We’re pumped.”

* Crain’s | A hidden Chicago industrial giant is testing the IPO market: Billionaire Larry Gies quietly built Madison Industries into a privately held industrial giant. Now he’s going to let everyone else in on a piece of the action. Madison Air, a spinout of his Chicago-based buyout firm, has filed to go public. The company makes commercial and residential filtration and air-handling products, doing more than $3 billion in annual sales, employing about 8,650 people across 37 manufacturing facilities.

* Crain’s | Musicians claim Google stole songs, identities for AI song generator in lawsuit: A group of various independent musicians, including some from the Chicago area, filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Google, alleging the tech giant stole their music, lyrics and voiceprints to bolster its own song-generating artificial intelligence programs. The lawsuit seeking class-action status, filed last week in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Illinois, has the potential to cost Google a hefty sum if it goes to trial, given that the complaint contends there are “thousands of independent artists nationwide” that have been affected by Google’s musical theft.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Landmark | Family ties, bruising politics in race for county board: Cook County Commissioner Frank Aguilar began his career in elected office in 2002 by defeating Elizabeth “Lisa” Hernandez in a race for a seat in the Illinois General Assembly. In that race Aguilar was a Republican. Now a Democrat Aguilar, 65, will have to fend off a strong challenge from Lisa Hernandez’s daughter, Miranda Hernandez, to keep his seat on the Cook County board.

* Tribune | Cook County Board president race hinges on whether voters want steady hand or new course: But Reilly has used Preckwinkle’s lengthy history against her. He’s hammered her management of a decade-long property tax upgrade that resulted in late bills last year, sideswiped her early political support of Mayor Brandon Johnson and former State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, and rehashed her moves to raise sales and pop taxes years ago. He dismisses the Trump flak as a deflection from those criticisms. Preckwinkle argues she successfully steered the county’s finances into the black without new taxes or fees in recent years, championed equitable criminal justice reforms while seeing drops in crime and that she is the tougher fighter against Trump’s attacks on blue jurisdictions.

* Aurora Beacon-News | Aurora ends child savings account program first launched with fanfare: It was the first city-sponsored child savings program in Illinois, following other cities from across the country like San Francisco, New York City, Boston and Los Angeles, officials previously said. The state of Illinois has a similar program called Bright Start, but unlike others, children are not automatically enrolled. Less than a year after the program launched, Aurora Mayor John Laesch has confirmed to The Beacon-News that it is no longer running, citing budget constraints and issues with the program itself. It was not included in the 2026 budget, he said, and the city recently ended its contract with the nonprofit that managed the program.

*** Downstate ***

* WGLT | McLean County Board members interrogate Clerk Kathy Michael over extra spending: McLean County Board members grilled County Clerk Kathy Michael for more than 40 minutes Monday afternoon concerning more than $400,000 in budget overages in her office that Michael has asked the county to pay. […] Michael said the overage on her office’s overtime and part-time pay line came because of staff shortages caused by an unusual number of resignations. “You said the other day, it was amazing that we could even get someone hired for a particular position. You described walking around the office asking, does anybody want to be tax administrator? Obviously, this is not an ideal situation. I’m curious about the retention in the county clerk’s office. I feel like a picture has been painted that it’s increasingly difficult to keep staff and to hire new staff,” said board member Corey Beirne.

* WCIA | Champaign school board approves settlement for former assistant principal: According to the agreement, the Champaign School District will pay three checks to Ramey totaling $99,970. The district said that money is for alleged lost wages, damages, compensation and her attorney’s fees. The district also said they strongly dispute and deny all claims made by Ramey.

* WCIA | Vermilion Co. Farm Bureau will host information session on hemp growing: They said high fertilizer and equipment costs, along with tariffs, are making corn and soybean more expensive to grow. Since hemp products beyond a certain THC percentage will become illegal in November, the bureau said showing farmers how to grow for industrial uses — like grain and fiber — will be beneficial.

* WLDS | Legendary local journalist Buford Green passes: Green passed away March 9 at The Grove Health and Rehab, bringing to a close a journalism career that spanned more than five decades in West Central Illinois. […] Green would graduate from Illinois College in Jacksonville in 1964, where he continued his baseball career through college. Also in college, Green began working for the Jacksonville Journal-Courier. Shortly after graduation, he became the paper’s sports editor— a role he would hold for 20 years, the longest tenure of any sports editor in the paper’s history.

*** National ***

* WIRED | DHS Ousts CBP Privacy Officers Who Questioned ‘Illegal’ Orders: Labeling the document a “draft” would ostensibly bolster the agency’s ability to bury such revelations using an exception in FOIA that protects “advisory opinions” and “recommendations.” Sources say the privacy officials removed from their posts saw the tactic as legally incoherent, arguing that a completed compliance form could not be simultaneously signed and considered a draft. “This policy change is illegal,” says Ginger Quintero-McCall, an attorney at the public interest law firm Free Information Group, and former supervisory information law attorney at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a DHS component. “There is nothing in the FOIA statute—or any other statute—that allows the agency to categorically withhold Privacy Threshold Analyses.”

* Bloomberg | War In Iran Is Creating a Fertilizer Crisis Like Never Before: We all know that the war with Iran has sent oil prices spiking. But it’s also pushing up the cost of all sorts of chemicals, including fertilizers like urea, ammonia and other nitrogen products that are essential for food production. This is all happening at the worst possible time — just before the spring planting season, when fertilizer is most needed.