* Attorney General Kwame Raoul…

Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced that the lawsuits his office has filed challenging unlawful overreach by the federal government have protected approximately $8.6 billion for Illinois and critical programs and services that support individuals, families and organizations across the state. Since January 2025, the Attorney General’s office has filed 63 lawsuits challenging illegal actions by the Trump administration. Of all of the cases that have received a decision from a court, 93% have received a decision in the state’s favor.

Many of these lawsuits have developed through collaboration with other state attorneys general. Raoul will join Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield today for a town hall about their work to defend critical services, maintain the benefits people rely on and hold the Trump administration accountable for its violations of the law. […]

Raoul’s office has protected approximately:

· $1,047,000,000 in disaster recovery and emergency services, including funding that enables Illinois to remain prepared for terrorist attacks, natural disasters and other life-threatening emergencies, and funding for local emergency-management agencies across the state.
· $70,000,000 in scientific and medical research, including programs at Illinois’ public universities dedicated to conducting life-saving medical research for illnesses such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease and cancer.
· $2,196,500,000 in public health funding, including training for medical personnel, life-saving mental health and infectious disease prevention, youth pregnancy and STI prevention, HIV outbreak monitoring and youth dating violence prevention.
· $2,117,215,000 in transportation and infrastructure funding used to maintain Illinois roads, bridges, airports and other important public infrastructure.
· $1,612,400,000 in education and library funding, including academic services and programming for nearly 1.8 million schoolchildren across the state, extracurricular and afterschool programs, adult education and workforce development, and statewide library services.
· $1,511,800,000 in public benefits, which includes food assistance for nearly 2 million Illinois residents, including seniors and individuals with disabilities, and childcare assistance and programming for over 150,000 children in Illinois that allows parents and caregivers to go to work and school.
· $54,000,000 in crime victims’ services funding under the Victims of Crime Act that supports victim and witness advocacy services, emergency shelter, medical, funeral and burial expenses, crime scene cleanup, sexual assault forensic exams, and other critical resources and services to victims and survivors of crime.
· $29,000,000 for the AmeriCorps that impacted 28 programs and 632 workers or volunteers at schools, health systems, food banks and other critical community agencies that served students, veterans and individuals experiencing homelessness.

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* Capitol News Illinois…

A new report from the National Institute for Early Education Research found Illinois’ rate of growth in enrollment and funding for universal preschool is slowing, despite state efforts to expand preschool programming.

While the report noted Gov. JB Pritzker’s Smart Start initiative increased access in recent years, flat funding for the current year has stalled progress in the state.

Pritzker introduced Smart Start Illinois in 2023, a program that aims to expand high-quality, publicly funded preschool programs to low-income children. In January 2025, Pritzker announced the addition of over 5,000 seats to the program, for a total of 11,000 since it began.

Per the report, the state ranked fourth in 3-year-old enrollment in the 2024-25 school year. However, it ranked 22nd in state funding and 20th for 4-year-old enrollment out of all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Over the past five years, 3-year-old enrollment in Illinois slowly increased to 26%, although it remains lower than enrollment for 4-year-olds, which plateaued at 35%. Most state-funded preschool programs primarily serve 4-year-olds, with nationwide enrollment reaching 37% for 4-year-olds but only 9% for 3-year-olds.

*** Statehouse News ***

* CNI | Transportation providers, schools, state officials ease school bus driver shortage: Illinois school districts and transportation providers partnered with the secretary of state’s office to increase hiring and retention in the school bus driver workforce. First Student, the largest nationwide school transportation provider, initiated the connection with Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias. The shortage, the worst in decades, began in 2020 as a significant part of the bus driver workforce — elderly retirees — were among the most-affected by the virus, according to Leslie Norgren, vice president of consulting at First Student. In a nationwide survey conducted in 2025 by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, a nonpartisan research organization, and HopSkipDrive, a school rideshare company, 80% of school administrators said school bus driver shortages were a problem in their district.

* Deadline | Illinois Boosts State Film Tax Credit For Environmentally Sustainable Productions: In celebration of Earth Day, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has added an additional incentive to promote environmentally sustainable film and television production. Under the expanded program, projects recognized as a “certified green production” through the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity’s Illinois Film Office will be eligible for an additional 5% tax credit – making Illinois one of the few states to incentivize film and television productions for meeting certain sustainability standards.

*** Chicago ***

* Block Club | Midway Blitz Is Over, But ICE Is Still Quietly Targeting Chicago Immigrants — Especially At Court: While reports of federal immigration enforcement seemed to slow at the start of the year, recent weeks have seen more reports of people being arrested and federal agents being spotted in the city and suburbs, including near courthouses, organizers said. Evelyn Vargas, leadership and development organizer for Organized Communities Against Deportations, said some areas — like suburban Cicero — are now back to seeing daily reports of immigrants being arrested.

* Tribune | Fugitive Chicago medical exec returns from Dubai to face Loretto Hospital fraud charges: A former Chicago medical supply company owner who fled to Dubai shortly before being indicted in a massive scheme to defraud Loretto Hospital has returned to the U.S. to face the charges. Sameer Suhail, 48, is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in the Loop, records show. He is scheduled to appear in court at 2 p.m. Wednesday, when a magistrate judge will decide whether he should be released on bond. Suhail was indicted in 2024 on charges he served as a front for millions of dollars in bogus payments by Loretto for invoices that were never fulfilled. Also charged were former Loretto Hospital CEO George Miller, Chief Financial Officer Anosh Ahmed, and Heather Bergdahl, another onetime executive with the small, safety-net facility on Chicago’s West Side.

* Crain’s | United CEO warns the FAA’s O’Hare flight cap will shift growth away from Chicago: “It does look like the FAA is not going to let us grow as much as we and our customers would have liked,” Kirby said during quarterly earnings call with analysts this morning. “And I wish we could grow more, but we can’t. “We’ve got other places we can grow and look forward to someday being able to grow more here. But nothing changes about the sort of structure here in Chicago and the decade that we spent winning brands and all customers by creating a great airline for them.”

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Aurora Beacon-News | First bison calf of the season born to herd at Fermilab in Batavia: The arrival of the first newborn American bison calf to the herd at Fermilab each spring is a beloved tradition for the Batavia-based laboratory. The bison herd dates back to the lab’s first director, Robert Wilson, who elected in 1969 to turn part of Fermilab’s property into a sanctuary farm. The establishing of the herd was meant to connect the laboratory with the Illinois prairie that once dominated the area, a news release from Fermilab on Tuesday said.

* Daily Herald | Previously criticized housing plan near St. Charles is back with less density, bigger lots: The chief complaint of the original plan was the density of the homes and the small sizes of the properties. City officials and residents requested developers add more green spaces and landscape buffers, save as many mature trees as possible, and better fit the designs with the property density of surrounding homes. The new concept proposal reduces the total number of homes from 83 to 76. This helps increase the average lot size from 11,750 square feet to 12,942 square feet, or about 0.297 acres.

* Aurora Beacon News | Volunteers sought for Citywide Clean-Up Day event in Aurora on Saturday: The day of service will start at 8:30 a.m. Saturday on Water Street Mall, located in front of Aurora City Hall in downtown Aurora, as volunteers will be greeted with coffee and doughnuts and pick up materials to begin the clean-up effort, according to a press release from the city. “This event is an exciting opportunity for residents and staff to come together, celebrate neighborhood pride, and make a lasting, meaningful impact across Aurora while helping build a cleaner, stronger and more connected community,” Aurora Community Engagement Manager Iliana Rivera-Nunez said in the release.

*** Downstate ***

* WAND | Lawsuit alleges safety violations in YNOT crash that killed 5: Chicago-based personal injury law firm Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard confirmed the lawsuit on behalf of the victims of the crash Wednesday. The firm said the lawsuit alleges the building housing the camp was built in violation of safety codes in place at the time of construction. The crash on April 28, 2025 killed five people, including four children and a camp counselor. Several other children were also hurt.

* Capitol City Now | Williams’ BOS resolution falls short: The next morning, Ald. Erin Conley, who voted No on the resolution, told the WTAX Morning Newswatch, “I understand aldermen wanting to have engagement and be involved in projects that are happening in their wards. I think there may just be some kind of miscommunication, maybe a little misunderstanding, about what this act does. People keep talking about how the legislation creates a new authority with municipal powers. It doesn’t. What the act would do is create a body that is able to enter into grants and agreements and take out loans and own property. It can sue and be sued. But the act very specifically states that if this district is established within a municipal authority, all of the city’s ordinances and regulations still apply. The legislation does not establish a new taxing authority. They do not have the power to levy new taxes.

*** National ***

* The Wrap | ‘More Stories, More Inventory’: Inside the Backlash to McClatchy’s AI News Tool: Kathy Vetter, McClatchy’s chief of staff for local news, said during the March 17 meeting that the company’s general policy was that reporters who cannot revoke the use of their bylines must keep them attached to CSA-produced stories. For those who can revoke their byline, she said, McClatchy will still use their work anyway.

* CNN | Kalshi prediction site suspends three political candidates for betting on their own races: The prediction market Kalshi suspended three political candidates from its platform on Wednesday for “political insider trading” after an internal probe found that they bet on their own campaigns. These suspensions and fines, reported first by CNN, are the most aggressive enforcement actions taken to date by a prediction site against political candidates, with primaries for the 2026 midterms already underway.

* Crain’s | Rivian CEO sees new electric SUV as key milestone for AI tech: Rivian Automotive Inc. is betting its next-generation R2 SUV will do more than boost sales. The higher-volume vehicle is key to unlocking the EV maker’s autonomous driving future, Chief Executive Officer RJ Scaringe said, by scaling the real-world data needed for its artificial-intelligence technology. “Think of the R2 fleet — it’s a high volume product — as being part of training our large driving model,” Scaringe said Wednesday in a Bloomberg Television interview. Adding laser-based sensors and improved chips “just allows us to do a better job of capturing lots and lots of driving miles to train our model.”