* Tribune…

On Thursday, attorneys for imprisoned former House Speaker Michael Madigan are expected to ask the appeals court for a reversal of his February 2025 conviction and 7 1/2-year sentence, arguing the prosecution flouted Supreme Court rulings reining in the use of the bribery and fraud statutes and instead stretched the laws “past their breaking points.”

Then, next week, separate legal teams representing Madigan’s former confidant, Michael McClain, and and ex-ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore are expected to make a similar argument to the same court in their consolidated appeal of their 2023 convictions for an alleged conspiracy to bribe Madigan.

They say the convictions stemming from the “ComEd Four” case should be “doomed” by high court decisions saying “gratuities” given to politicians without a direct connection to official action cannot be considered a bribe.

The arguments in Madigan’s case are set for 2 p.m. Thursday at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse. Arguments in the consolidated appeal for McClain and Pramaggiore will take place Tuesday. The immediate stakes are high, as Madigan, McClain, and Pramaggiore are all currently in federal prison. But the long-term impact on Illinois politics could be even greater.

Click here for live updates. And click here to listen to the arguments.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Capitol News Illinois | Illinois lawmakers begin days of deep dives on data centers: Illinois lawmakers are digging deep on data centers, with a House committee hearing from mayors, labor groups, and agriculture representatives about the facilities’ local impacts in the first of three planned meetings. Rep. Ann Williams, D-Chicago, the chair of the House Executive Committee, said she wanted to hear about the benefits and challenges of data centers as the General Assembly considers regulations like the POWER Act. “Whatever we do here, we have to put people first,” she said. “We have to put communities first. Data’s important, business is important, revenues are important, but people must come first.”

*** Chicago ***

* WGN | Pressure builds to cancel CPS classes for ‘day of protest’: The president of the Chicago Board of Education is pressuring the new Chicago Public Schools CEO to cave to union demands to cancel classes on May 1 for a day of protests, according to a memo reviewed by WGN “This message affirms the Board’s support of you executing on next steps necessary to operationalize a day of civic action on May 1, 2026;” the memo from Board president Sean Harden to CEO Macquline King reads. “Your continued efforts… to make this civic day of action successful for CPS students, staff and families are appreciated and encouraged.”

* Tribune | Aldermen bristle over Mayor Brandon Johnson move on pension costs for aides: Hadden’s alarm stemmed from an aldermanic briefing from the Office of Budget Management and other city departments at the end of March that noted that for part-time City Council aides’ who work at least 700 hours in a calendar year, “employer contribution costs will be encumbered in Ward Expense Accounts,” according to the slide deck. About 28 ward offices and one City Council committee contain at least one employee who is impacted, per her analysis of budget data. Johnson’s spokesperson retorted Wednesday that aldermen were crying foul over a practice that’s been required for over two years.

* Tribune | After years of declines, Chicago shootings tick up in 2026: The city recorded 105 murders through the first week of April, up slightly from the 98 killings seen in the same time period in 2025, according to city violence data. Another 266 people have suffered nonfatal gunshot injuries since the start of the year. The first three months of the year saw disparate trends in violence within CPD’s five patrol areas, records show, with a mixed bag of increases and further drops. The citywide uptick is largely due to an increase in both murders and nonfatal shootings in CPD’s Area 1, which covers the city’s South Side north of 79th Street. The area saw 114 shootings and 32 murders through April 5 — 25% and 52% increases, respectively — according to police data.

* Tribune | Two cops stripped of police powers in domestic violence cases: Rivera’s notification of duty restrictions sheet, also obtained in a Freedom of Information request, shows that he was relieved of his police powers the day he was arrested, listing the reason for the strip as a domestic incident involving physical abuse. Public records show that Rivera was most recently assigned to the Deering (9th) District and had been with CPD for about eight years. Rivera is not on active duty, the police department said. Internal police department investigations into both officers are in progress.

* Sun-Times | Rainbow PUSH names new leader after death of founder Rev. Jesse Jackson: The organization’s board of directors unanimously approved Yusef Jackson to take the reins, fulfilling his father’s wishes to designate his successor before his death. For the last two years, Yusef Jackson has served as the organization’s chief operating officer. “I am deeply grateful to my father for his trust, his guidance, and the example he set for all of us,” Yusef Jackson said in a statement.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Daily Southtown | Homer Glen OKs agreement to put some limits on license plate reader use: Homer Glen will store data obtained from its license plate reader cameras for seven days in an effort to balance public safety with some residents’ concerns over an intrusion of privacy. The village will also only limit information collected from the cameras to be shared within Illinois, according to a memo of understanding between the Village Board and the Will County sheriff’s office. The board voted 5-1 Wednesday to approve the policy with the sheriff’s office, which provides the village’s police services.

* Daily Southtown | Wauconda starts annexation process to block solar energy facility in residential area: The village’s zoning code does not permit solar utility systems in residential districts. However, they are allowed in limited industrial zoning districts with a conditional use. Annexing the property was discussed at a non-voting meeting March 31 after the village learned OneEnergy Renewables was considering building a 5-megawatt solar utility system on the site, according to village documents. “The village’s intervention in this case is to reduce the possibility that it will develop in a manner inconsistent with our comprehensive plan, should the use ever change from its current agricultural use,” Matson said.

* Aurora Beacon-News | Utility rate hikes coming to St. Charles starting in June: St. Charles residents are likely to see higher utility bills starting in June, after City Council members on Monday approved rate hikes they say are needed to pay for lead water service line replacements and infrastructure improvements. Residents can expect to see a roughly 17% increase in their overall utility charges beginning in June, with subsequent increases expected annually through 2029.

*** Downstate ***

* Rockford Register Star | How much money can a data center bring? Here’s what happened in DeKalb: As Rockford area officials contemplate the pros and cons of a potential data center, the property taxes it could pay to local taxing bodies might tip the scale. A Meta DeKalb Data Center is generating tens of millions a year in property taxes and is being credited with helping drive down property tax rates. San Diego-based Monarch Energy wants to bring a data center to about 1,100 acres south of the Chicago Rockford International Airport. DeKalb’s experience with Meta’s 900,000-square-foot data center could offer a glimpse of what the Rockford area could expect if one were built here. Rockford area residents have said they worry a data center would increase electricity costs and drain water resources. They also worry about the impact on agricultural land, water ways and the potential for pollution.

* PJ Star | ‘Deeply disappointed’: Residents remain opposed to Peoria land sale: Emily Cahill, the park district’s executive director, said that they are solely focused on trying to negotiate an updated easement to protect it after O’Brien purchases the property “While the Peoria Park District appreciates resident concerns related to the sale of portions of the Detweiller Marina, our primary function and the only thing that we have legal standing to do at the present is to work to negotiate the terms of an updated permanent easement to protect the portion of the Rock Island Greenway that goes through the marina,” Cahill said in a statement on Tuesday.

* WGLT | Central Illinois union painter shares the value of apprenticeships in a statewide professional development program: Now, Harms is telling her story through the Apprentice Ambassador Program, a workforce development initiative hosted by the Illinois Workforce Innovation Board’s Work-Based Learning and Apprenticeship Committee. The program trains a cohort of people to speak on the apprenticeship model as a college alternative and career development tool.

* WTVO | Historic Briggs Mansion in Rockford to be demolished: Alderman Mark Bonne is sad to see the mansion go; however, he explained he is not surprised. “I expected the demolition because they weren’t sure of the plans. At least not with individual aldermen or with the Historic Preservation Commission,” shared Bonne. UW Health Swedish American Hospital bought the building last month and has now received a demolition permit. Workers were already at the home removing architectural pieces and boarding the door.

*** National ***

* Futurism | Analysis Finds That Google’s AI Overviews Are Providing Misinformation at a Scale Possibly Unprecedented in the History of Human Civilization: Google’s AI Overviews are peddling misinformation on a scale that may be virtually unprecedented in human history. A recent analysis conducted by the AI startup Oumi at the behest of The New York Times found that the AI-generated summaries, which appear above Google search results, are accurate around 91 percent of the time. In a sense, that may sound like an impressive figure. But here’s an even more impressive one: five trillion. That’s roughly the number of search queries that Google processes every year, translating to tens of millions of wrong answers that the AI Overviews are providing every hour — and hundreds of thousands every minute, the analysis calculated.

* Pew | Austin’s Surge of New Housing Construction Drove Down Rents: The efforts worked. From 2015 to 2024, Austin added 120,000 units to its housing stock—an increase of 30%, more than three times the overall rate of growth in the United States (9%). Rents fell. In December 2021, Austin’s median rent was $1,546, near its highest level ever and 15% higher than the U.S. median ($1,346). By January 2026, Austin’s median rent had fallen to $1,296, 4% lower than that of the U.S. overall ($1,353). This decline occurred even though the city population grew by 18,000 residents from 2022 to 2024. In apartment buildings with 50 or more units, rents fell 7% from 2023 to 2024 alone—the steepest decline recorded in any large metropolitan area. Rents declined about 11% in older non-luxury buildings that cater to lower-income renters, known as Class C buildings.

* WaPo | Supreme Court remade by Trump ushers in historic defeats for civil rights: The analysis shows that in addition to civil rights, the court powered by Trump’s picks — Justices Neil M. Gorsuch, Brett M. Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — has pushed to the right of any modern court on religious rights and voting issues. The court has also entered a new era of extreme partisanship. None over the past seven decades has been as starkly polarized.