* Subscribers have read a lot about American Future, the DraftKings-backed committee that’s poured more than $2.6 million into statehouse races. They recently hired FM3 Research to poll the US Senate race…

NEW IL Senate poll. Close!
Taken March 10-12, 678 surveyed,
+/-4.0%
⁦ pic.twitter.com/HUGZ3bAqKG

— Mary Ann Ahern (@MaryAnnAhernNBC) March 13, 2026

Methodology…

From March 10-12, 2026, Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates (FM3) conducted a survey among 648 Illinois Democrats who are likely to vote in the March 17th statewide primary election. The survey was conducted using a dual-mode methodology where voters were contacted by telephone (cellular and landlines) by live interviewers or text message to take the survey online. The margin of error for the full sample is +/-4.0% at the 95% confidence level. Not all results will sum to 100% due to rounding.

*** Statehouse News ***

* GOP candidate Ted Dabrowski put together some clips of his NBC Chicago interview…

* Capitol News Illinois | Business coalition warns against phasing out use of natural gas in Illinois: In their petition to the Illinois Commerce Commission filed Feb. 24, the coalition called continued efforts to phase out natural gas in Illinois “unreasonable and ill-advised.” The petition cited the report’s finding that Illinois still relies on natural gas, even as the state moves toward renewable energy sources and decarbonization goals. Conducted by the ICC in partnership with the Illinois Power Agency and Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, the report assessed progress toward the state’s energy and emissions goals and measured the current and projected status of electric reliability.

*** Chicago ***

* WTTW | Interim CPS CEO Macquline King Among 3 Finalists to Become School District’s Next Permanent Leader: King is joined on the list of finalists by former New York City Public Schools Chancellor Meisha Porter and Sito Narcisse, who previously led the East Baton Rouge Parish school district in Louisiana and served as the District of Columbia’s chief of secondary schools. “The process moving forward will entail an interview with Mayor Brandon Johnson and a Candidate Community Engagement session,” the board said in a statement. “A special meeting will be scheduled for discussion leading to a vote.”

* Sun-Times | Chicago police, other agencies take in millions by seizing cars, cash even without an arrest or conviction: Under Illinois law, though, the police can seize property based on suspicion alone — even if the owner is never arrested, never charged with any crime, never convicted. A 2023 report from the Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts, an advocacy group, called for Illinois to scrap civil asset forfeitures, arguing that the system is fundamentally unfair. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch has questioned the constitutionality of civil asset forfeiture, saying, “Even innocent owners can wait for months or years for forfeiture proceedings to play out.”

* WGN | Southwest Airlines to discontinue service to O’Hare Airport: Southwest announced Friday that it would be discontinuing service to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on June 4. A spokesperson for the airline said that the decision was made as part of its ongoing efforts to refine its network.

* WBEZ | Matisse ‘Jazz’ exhibition at Art Institute shows a creative hitting his stride in his 70s: “Matisse’s Jazz: Rhythms in Color” is not an expansive retrospective or major survey. There is no catalog, no high-profile loans nor any big historical points being made. That said, this compact, thoughtfully installed show has its own appeal. It offers the museum’s first-ever display of all 20 color plates from “Jazz” as well as a focused, digestible look at the artist’s trajectory to that point.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Tribune | Illinois EPA rejects coal ash cleanup plan in Joliet, a ‘heartening’ win for environmentalists: The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency denied Midwest Generation’s application to clean up more than 3 million tons of toxic coal ash in Joliet earlier this week, saying the company’s proposal was “insufficient.” The decision marks the first time the agency has rejected a coal ash cleanup permit since Illinois finalized its coal ash regulations in 2021, said Jenny Cassel, a senior attorney with Earthjustice. “This is a place that has been fighting for so long and dealing with so many burdens,” Cassel said. “It is absolutely heartening to see the agency telling Midwest Generation, ‘Go back to the drawing board.’”

* Pat Hynes: Why Bally’s got the break — and the Bears didn’t: In his response, Kaegi acknowledged that the 2024 assessment for the Bally’s property appeared low compared with the sale price. He suggested this was only temporary and that the value would change once the final project is assessed in 2025. This is misleading at best. The assessor has already completed the 2025 assessment book. The values assigned to the Bally’s parcels are not higher. They are substantially lower. In fact, the 2025 assessed values for the parcels included in the original Bally’s purchase are roughly half of the already discounted 2024 assessment levels. That is a critical detail missing from the assessor’s explanation. Equally troubling is how differently the assessor treated another major development site in the Chicago area that sold three months later.

* Crain’s | Baxter’s new CEO paid $29.8 million for less than five months of work in 2025: Baxter International CEO Andrew Hider was compensated $29.8 million in his first five months running the Deerfield medical device maker despite the company’s continued struggles with production problems and missed financial targets. The hefty pay package, disclosed in a proxy statement filed this morning, underscores the premium Baxter paid to lure Hider from Canadian automation solutions firm ATS. While much of the pay package was “make-whole” compensation tied to his ATS earnings, the nearly $30 million in overall compensation puts the new CEO among the highest-paid executives in the Chicago area.

*** Downstate ***

* BND | Metro-east city considering stricter rules for data centers during moratorium: Troy officials on Thursday night offered a preview of stricter rules they are considering for data centers. The city originally passed an ordinance on data centers in November. Now, its planning commission has voted to recommend the City Council pass a six-month moratorium on data center proposals while leaders rewrite regulations for those developments based on research of other towns’ rules and concerns residents have raised. For months, Houston-based development company Cloverleaf Infrastructure has been exploring potential locations for a data center in Troy and assessing public opinion at community meetings.

* WGLT | McLean County pauses contentious intergovernmental sales tax agreement: McLean County took the first step to pause an intergovernmental agreement with Bloomington and Normal, voting Thursday to stop collecting money from the municipalities for a three-month period. The amendment to the agreement — that also must be approved by Bloomington and Normal — will forgo the money that would come in during April, May and June, said McLean County Board Chair Elizabeth Johnston.

* Crain’s | West Coast cannabis firm expands to Illinois after taking over shuttered PharmaCann grow site: The West Coast firm announced its entry into the state this week, which was made possible with the $1 million lease of a cultivation facility in the town of Dwight, roughly 80 miles southwest from downtown Chicago. Grown Rogue, which trades publicly on the Canadian Securities Exchange as well as on over-the-counter markets in the U.S., leased the grow site from Innovative Industrial Properties, a real estate investment trust that owns cannabis facilities all over the U.S. The facility had previously been run by Illinois-based multistate cannabis company PharmaCann, but it notified the state of its pending exit from the plant in November, and laid off all its employees in January.

* WCIA | IDOT releases new map of Route 66 to celebrate highway’s 100th year: The new map is a collaboration between the Illinois Department of Transportation and the Illinois Route 66 Scenic Byway. They said the map is still the perfect tool for road trippers, taking a nostalgic look at America’s most famous highway. The map not only shows pit stops and sightseeing, but also the historic road’s evolution.

* BND | Pope Leo appoints 10th bishop of the Diocese of Belleville: The Very Rev. Godfrey Mullen, the Benedictine monk who has been serving as the “diocesan administrator” for the Belleville Diocese and as rector of the Cathedral of St. Peter in Belleville, will be installed as the new bishop for the diocese on May 1, according to an appointment by Pope Leo XIV announced Friday by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. It was Mullen who conducted a news conference in his home parish Friday morning to announce locally his new job as the 10th bishop in the history of the Belleville Diocese.

*** National ***

* Where’s Your Ed At? | Premium: The Hater’s Guide To The SaaSpocalypse: Before 2018, Software As A Service (SaaS) companies had had an incredible run of growth, and it appeared basically any industry could have a massive hypergrowth SaaS company, at least in theory. As a result, venture capital and private equity has spent years piling into SaaS companies, because they all had very straightforward growth stories and replicable, reliable, and recurring revenue streams. Between 2018 and 2022, 30% to 40% of private equity deals (as I’ll talk about later) were in software companies, with firms taking on debt to buy them and then lending them money in the hopes that they’d all become the next Salesforce, even if none of them will. Even VC remains SaaS-obsessed — for example, about 33% of venture funding went into SaaS in Q3 2025, per Carta.

* AP | Cracks emerged in a resilient US economy before war in Iran sent oil prices rocketing: The economy barely grew in the final three months of last year, the Commerce Department said, as it cut its estimate of fourth-quarter growth in half. Consumer spending, after adjusting for inflation, was anemic in January, as inflation remained sticky-high. Hiring has also ground largely to a standstill. And Americans’ outlook for the economy tumbled after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran, according to a survey of consumer sentiment also released Friday.