* New York Times…

The torrential wave of data center construction for artificial intelligence has seemed unstoppable. Unconstrained by interest rates or labor costs, the biggest tech companies in the world are pouring trillions of dollars into land, electronics and new power plants. A.I. spending is now a meaningful share of American economic growth and the wind at the stock market’s back.

But lately, zoning commissions and county councils across the country have been resisting. Unnerved by the data centers’ voracious electricity demands and sprawling footprints, they are denying permits and withdrawing tax breaks at a rate that is forcing companies like Google, Microsoft and Meta to take a different tack. […]

In some cases, opposition has resulted in county or statewide moratoriums or pauses on tax incentives, which can kill projects overnight. A case in point: Andy Cvengros, a co-lead of JLL’s data center practice, said Illinois’s new biometric privacy law and a recent pause on data center tax incentives had torpedoed four of his projects in the state.

“The people who are trying to block or protest these things are much more well educated than they were before,” Mr. Cvengros said. “We’ve had a number of projects get canceled that were by very reputable groups that were coming to the table with $50, $60, $100 million contributions to local communities, and still getting shut down.”

* The Tribune…

The parents of slain teenager Sheridan Gorman criticized Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker for their remarks about her death, saying in a statement that they want to “ensure that what happened to her does not happen again.”

“We will not allow Sheridan’s name to be used in political arguments — but we will insist that her loss leads to real answers and real change,” the family said in a statement. […]

In a statement, the Gorman family said they are “not interested in political arguments or in watching responsibility shift from one place to another. If there were failures as the Governor himself has acknowledged — then every one of them must be identified, examined, and addressed directly. The location of those failures matters less than the willingness to confront them honestly.” […]

During a public event at the White House on Thursday, President Donald Trump joined the family in criticizing City Hall and reiterating his desire to send the National Guard into Chicago. […]

“It would be great if people like the mayor of Chicago and the governor of Illinois would say, ‘Please come in and stop the crime.’ A beautiful young lady was killed the other day. His father was a very good friend of Dan Scavino,” Trump said, referring to a top advisor. “He took it very hard. Dan took it very hard. Lifelong friends, they grew up together. It’s a young lady whose life would be saved if we did what we did as an example in Washington D.C., which is now a safe city.”

* Gov. JB Pritzker…

Today, Governor JB Pritzker denounced President Trump’s threat on Truth Social to deploy the National Guard to America’s airports instead of paying hardworking Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees. After refusing no-strings-attached funding for TSA workers, President Trump is instead again threatening to federalize National Guard troops against the wishes of Governors and make taxpayers bear the brunt of the costs.

“Pulling National Guard members from their families, jobs, and communities to make a political statement is wrong, and doing so while refusing to pay TSA workers is indefensible,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “Federalizing the National Guard will cause confusion for travelers, intimidate and deter tourists, and waste taxpayer dollars. Illinois will continue to stand against any illegal federal overarch and authoritarian efforts to militarize airports and public spaces.”

*** Statehouse News ***

* A City That Works | Transit reform now hinges on who sits on the board: Asian boards are loaded with transit experts and heavy-hitting complementary skills. Hong Kong’s MTR, for example, includes eight engineers, multiple former partners at big major audit firms, along with legal and finance experts. More than half of the board of the Tokyo Metro has direct expertise working in transit; other board members include the former CEO of Mizuho Financial Group, one of the country’s largest banks, and a former executive vice president at Sony. Both European and Asian boards have far more engineers than the U.S. ones. The eight engineers on Hong Kong MTR’ board have a mix of transit and non-transit backgrounds. Berlin’s 16-member board includes three engineers, plus a professor at the German Aerospace Center. I count just two board members with an engineering background across the entire set of American transit agencies.

*** Chicago ***

* Tribune | Chicago school board to vote on interim CPS CEO Macquline King as permanent leader: The Chicago Board of Education will vote Monday on whether to hire interim CEO Macquline King permanently, concluding a monthslong national search for the school district’s next leader. If approved, her contract will be effective July 1 through June 30, 2029, according to an agenda posted on the board’s website Thursday. Her salary will start at $380,000. King, a Chicago native, has risen through the ranks of Chicago Public Schools, beginning her career as a teacher and later as a principal. She has helmed the district since June, following the December 2024 firing without cause of former CEO Pedro Martinez.

* Sun-Times | Work starts on the $1.2 million restoration of landmark Pullman church’s troubled but iconic bell tower: The project is the first substantial exterior repair the building has seen since its 1882 construction. “I’m just so thrilled to have it kicking off,” Greenstone’s pastor, the Rev. Luther Mason, said. “It’s been a long time.” Oddly enough, the bell tower doesn’t actually have a bell inside. “We think there was one in there at one time,” Mason said. “I was told a long time ago that there was somebody who supposedly had the original bell or had a bell that they were willing to donate. But it would be lovely to get a bell in there.”

* Sun-Times | Congo Square ensemble members say in letter that the prominent Black theater was quietly dissolved: Congo Square Theatre Company, a prominent Black ensemble theater group that has produced work in Chicago for a quarter century, has quietly been dissolved by its board of directors, according to an open letter posted on Facebook Sunday by the ensemble. Ensemble members confirmed the authenticity of the letter to WBEZ/Sun-Times and said they were prompted to write it, in part, after learning through lawyers that $240,000 of company money allegedly had gone to another local theater company: Victory Gardens. That alleged donation is at the center of a breach of trust lawsuit filed in December by ensemble members against members of the board in Cook County Circuit Court.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Daily Herald | Affordable housing in St. Charles? Apartment developer cites ‘revenue gap’ if units set aside: A 29-acre site in St. Charles — one of the last remaining open properties in town for residential development — is becoming a flashpoint for housing affordability in the city. With a new proposal on the table, some city officials are requesting affordable units while the project’s developers argue it would hurt their private equity-backed bottom line.

* Aurora Beacon News | Aurora sets special liquor rules for new Hollywood Casino resort: The Aurora City Council has approved special rules around the sale of liquor and other alcohol at the new Hollywood Casino resort, which is still under construction. The Farnsworth Bilter Entertainment District, which only includes the casino and resort site, has its own unique liquor licenses that restaurants, bars and other locations within the casino can apply for. These licenses are different than others given by the city, for instance, by allowing patrons to take their drinks with them if they stroll to another part of the resort.

*** Downstate ***

* WGLT | A shelter village provides a bridge to permanent housing: Home Sweet Home Ministries was in an ideal position to provide an alternative, Burgess said, because it had been serving people living on the margins of society in Bloomington for more than one hundred years. Burgess came up with the idea for The Bridge after researching four communities, which had built shelter villages to combat homelessness– Burlington, Vermont; Denver, Colorado; Missoula, Montana and Austin, Texas.

* WCIA | Pre-enrollment one week away for cover crop program in Central Illinois: The program was paused last summer because of federal funding questions, but now a $7 million federal grant is bringing it back. “There are challenges to adopting cover crops and that’s why we have these programs,” said Abigail Peterson, Illinois Soybean Association agronomy director. “When these opportunities come around, farmers need to take advantage of them.”

* WGLT | Judge reverses pretrial release for former McLean County staffer accused of viewing child porn at work: A former McLean County staffer charged with viewing child pornography at work will now remain in jail awaiting trial. […] Chambers saw no possible conditions of pretrial release were likely to mitigate the threat Beyer poses to the community, noting that treatment takes time and the state Office of Pretrial Services’ ability to monitor his devices is limited. Chambers said Beyer is “not unsophisticated” with computers, having once pursued a computer science degree, and that avoiding contact with minors, another condition of his release, doesn’t preclude him from continuing the behavior.

* WCIA | U of I’s Snyder Hall relocation nearly complete: Nearly all of the 450 students living at U of I’s Snyder Hall have been relocated after the building’s main water line burst two Sundays ago and flooded the dormitory’s basement. It rendered the basement’s electric, water and data systems useless, according to University Housing Executive Director Alma Sealine. 11 students’ belongings remain in their dorm rooms at Snyder, according to Brooke Feeney, Associate Director of Marketing and Communications for University Housing. She said those students have not returned to campus from spring break.

*** National ***

* KFF | Inside Medicare Advantage ‘dark money’ group’s campaign to win bigger payments to insurers: Judging by more than 16,400 comments recently posted on a federal government website, you’d think there was a groundswell of older Americans demanding that federal officials hike payments to their Medicare Advantage health insurance plans. Yet about 82% of the comments are identical to a letter that appeared on the website of a secretive advocacy group called Medicare Advantage Majority, a data analysis by KFF Health News has found. The “dark money” group — which doesn’t make public who its funders are or much else — says it’s “dedicated to protecting and strengthening Medicare Advantage” and is “powered by hundreds of thousands of local advocates nationwide.”

* Good Morning America | Expert suggests book airfare now as United CEO warns prices will keep rising due to cost of jet fuel: Airlines have warned that airfare prices could continue to soar due to the war in Iran and rising oil prices, so travel experts suggest now is the best time to book summer flights and navigate any fare adjustments down the road. Amid the ongoing Middle East conflict, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby told ABC News that ticket prices will need to go up 20% to help cover the surging cost of jet fuel which is now up more than 70% since the start of the war. Kirby also said that travelers should lock in any planned trips at current airfare rates now.

* CBS | Justice Department tells judge it incorrectly used ICE memo to justify immigration court arrests: The government attorneys told U.S. District Court Judge Kevin Castel that they erroneously cited the memo in monthslong litigation challenging the courthouse arrests because of a “regrettable error” by an “agency attorney,” presumably at ICE. “We deeply regret that this error has come to light at this late stage, after the parties have expended significant resources and time to litigate this case and this Court has carefully considered Plaintiffs’ challenge to the 2025 ICE Guidance,” the Justice Department lawyers said in their letter.

* AP | Former umpires not keen on ABS system, fearing robots will embarrass umps: ‘Nobody likes to be humiliated’: “I think it’s embarrassing, embarrassing to the umpires that are calling the game. Nobody likes to be humiliated in front of 30,000, 40,000 people,” said Garcia, a major-league umpire from 1975-99. “What Major League Baseball is saying is: I don’t trust the umpire’s strike zone, so I’m going to use something that’s going to be operated by some computer geek that knows nothing about baseball, and he’s the one that’s going to measure this and measure that because he’s got a Ph.D. in physics or whatever the hell he’s got a degree in.”