* Crain’s…

With time running short in Springfield, lawmakers are considering dramatically scaling back a sweeping megaproject incentive bill to focus almost exclusively on keeping the Chicago Bears in Illinois.

The change in strategy reflects growing concern in the Senate that the sprawling House bill approved in April may be too unwieldy to pass before adjournment, though a Bears-specific approach carries its own political risks and could quickly collapse. […]

Legislators are now discussing options that would limit the use of the PILOT payment program for the Bears in Arlington Heights, or all of Cook County, while punting negotiations on a statewide program until later, according to sources familiar with the negotiations.

State Sen. Bill Cunningham, the lead Senate negotiator on the legislation, did not directly address that possibility in a text response to Crain’s.

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* Rep. Kelly Cassidy says she’s been flooded with generic pro-Waymo emails…

*** Statehouse News ***

* Tribune | Appeals court upholds corruption conviction of ex-Speaker Michael Madigan, calls evidence ‘overwhelming’: The opinion, written by Judge Michael Scudder and joined by Judges Frank Easterbrook and Nancy Maldonado, concluded by saying: “Madigan insists that this was run-of-the-mill politics. But a jury of twelve Illinois residents saw the evidence differently. So do we.” The quick decision, which comes just 16 days after the court heard arguments in the case, means Madigan will have to serve out his 7½-year prison sentence barring a successful petition to the U.S. Supreme Court or a pardon or commutation from the White House.

* Illinois Times | Proposed bill would stop eminent domain for carbon dioxide pipelines in Illinois: Campbell reached out to her own representative, Republican state senator Steve McClure, to get him on the case, too. He agreed to co-sponsor SB2842. “Landowner rights and public safety should override monetary profit,” McClure said. “I’m going to always err on the side of landowner rights and public safety.” McClure said there’s a chance that the bill will be rolled into an omnibus package before the state legislative session ends on May 31, 2026. If that doesn’t happen, McClure said, the bill could get taken up again in the fall. The bill is a bipartisan effort with 23 cosponsors and endorsements from across industries. “We’ve got the Sierra Club, Illinois Environmental Council, Farm Bureau, and the Soybean [Association]. How many bills do you know that have that combination?” Campbell said.

* Crain’s | Illinois gets $82.5M settlement from Epipen manufacturer: Illinois will receive a $82.5 million settlement from EpiPen maker Mylan, resolving concerns about the company’s alleged anticompetitive conduct related to its epinephrine injection product. Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said in a press release that Mylan’s actions resulted in the state paying too much for EpiPens purchased through its Medicaid and employee health benefits programs.

*** Chicago ***

* WTTW | CPD Officers Responded Faster to 911 Calls on South, West Sides After ShotSpotter Was Removed: UChicago Analysis: But response times dropped faster in police beats where the gunshot detection system had been operational, according to the analysis, which examined CPD response times to 911 calls given the highest priority that did not involve reports of gunshots, according to the analysis. CPD data did not always distinguish between ShotSpotter-initiated alerts to the Office of Emergency Management and Communications and those reported to 911 making it impossible to compare gunshot response times, Vargas said.

* Sun-Times | Under fire over tainted ‘Broadview 6’ case, Chicago’s top federal prosecutor outlines ‘sweeping’ reforms: Boutros’ office said in a press release Wednesday that the new process “will be more transparent, effective, and impactful while greatly reducing the likelihood of mistakes and errors.” It also said “many” of the reforms “are being implemented for the first time anywhere in the country.” Still, the most specific reform identified by Boutros was “extensive, deep-dive training from national experts outside the office.” That’s perhaps because of the secrecy that traditionally surrounds the grand jury process.

* Chicago Reader | Hyde Park Academy students sound alarm on removal of Peace Room from high school: The Peace Room was created as part of a school safety plan in 2021, following a vote by the school’s safety committee to remove one student resource officer and redirect funds to holistic and restorative justice practices. Offerings inside the Peace Room included restorative justice circles and conflict-resolution exercises. The removal of the Peace Room and other student resources comes as Mayor Brandon Johnson signed the Peacebook Executive Order on April 27, which established a year-round Youth Peacekeeping Program. The executive order allocates up to $900,000 to facilitate programming and hire 50 part-time youth peacekeepers to connect residents with helpful resources and train them in conflict resolution, de-escalation, and other violence-intervention tactics. The Mayor’s Office declined to comment on the closure inside Hyde Park Academy.

* Axios | Midwest cannabis industry converges on Chicago for major summit: “The forum is a part of an ongoing conversation about cannabis, commerce, culture and Chicago,” co-founder Brad Spirrison tells Axios. “As cannabis goes global, what unique role does Chicago and the Midwest play in its ascent?” Midwest cannabis companies have struggled to match the scale, branding power and investment flowing into markets like California.

* Crain’s | University of Chicago spinout bets $55M on city as Midwest biotech hub​: VectorBuilder, the gene delivery company born out of a University of Chicago lab, is betting $55 million on Chicago — expanding its headquarters by building a new biomanufacturing and R&D center on the South Side and positioning itself as an anchor for what it hopes will become the Midwest’s next biotech hub. The company produces gene delivery solutions to biotech and pharma companies and has spent recent years building out a global network of manufacturing facilities. Reinvesting in the South Side of the city brings its focus back to where it all began and capitalizes on Chicago’s biotech potential, said Chief Operating Officer Kristofer Mussar.

* Block Club | Chicago Air Quality Expected To Be ‘Unhealthy’ Through Thursday Morning: While the general public likely won’t be impacted, sensitive groups, such as people with respiratory issues like asthma, may experience irritation, meteorologist Zachary Yack told Block Club. The alert lasts through 6 a.m. Thursday and covers nearly all of northeast Illinois, including Chicago and northwest Indiana.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Daily Herald | Prosecutors: Waukegan alderperson cast dead mother’s primary ballot: Sylvia Sims Bolton is charged with one count of mutilation of election material, a Class 4 felony, alleging she knowingly falsified election material, the Lake County state’s attorney’s office announced Wednesday. She also faces a misdemeanor charge of disregarding election code, authorities said. Bolton, 67, serves as an elected alderperson for Waukegan’s First Ward, which encompasses the southeast side of the city. An investigation did not uncover any facts linking the allegations to her city duties, and she is not charged with official misconduct, county prosecutors said.

* Daily Herald | McHenry County Board chairman breaks ties to approve 2 solar farms: The McHenry County Board has narrowly approved a pair of solar farms after County Board Chair Mike Buehler cast the tiebreaking vote. Buehler only votes in the case of a tie. But a recent county board decision was not his first time having to cast the deciding vote on a solar farm when the board was evenly split. He did so for a solar farm near Union when it was up for a vote in August 2025.

* Daily Southtown | Potential Lockport data center development draws heavy public opposition: Mayor Steven Streit presented the rise of data centers and the AI industry as inevitable, and said that the city had a chance to benefit by meeting the new industry on its terms and imposing restrictions rather than refusing it completely. “How can we leverage this to make it work?” Streit said. “You can demand full mitigation. We can demand that they use effluent from our wastewater treatment and not our potable water. We can demand that they make reusable, adaptable buildings if the industry dries up and moves on. We can make a lot of demands that we can’t normally make, because it’s our property.” […] However, many in the audience seemed entirely opposed to any data center development, regardless of what restrictions were imposed.

* Daily Herald | District 116 staff pay to be restored earlier than anticipated after year of financial adjustments: Committed but deferred pay for members of the Education Association of Round Lake will begin being restored in the 2026-2027 school year, according to the district. Union members this coming school year will receive a contracted 5.5% pay increase as originally scheduled. Last summer, the 923-member union overwhelming voted to take 2.5% rather than the 5.5% increase due this past school year to help resolve the budget issue.

* Aurora Beacon-News | Aurora City Council OKs expansion of affordable senior housing development: The first phase of the housing development opened last year with 70 units, spread across 25 duplexes and 20 single-family residences. Now, a second phase of the development with an additional 54 units is set to be built. Bernie Weiler, an attorney for the Aurora Housing Authority, told the Aurora City Council on Tuesday that the first phase of the development has been “enormously successful,” with 3,000 resident applications received for just those first 70 units.

* Lake County News-Sun | Waukegan’s first official No Mow May gets off to slow start: ‘This is part of the learning curve’: While the city of Waukegan does not officially encourage or discourage residents from cutting their lawns in May, Building Commissioner Steve Lenzi said anyone in the city who displays a sign indicating they are taking part will not be cited for letting their grass grow taller than eight inches. Lenzi, who oversees code enforcement for the city, has inspectors assigned to each of the nine wards to look for building code violations. If they see grass taller than six inches, they can write a citation like a parking ticket. If there is a sign in the yard, no citation is issued.

* Daily Herald | Befriend a senior in Kane and DuPage with Little Brothers—Friends of the Elderly: “We have opportunities for many older adults in this area to be paired with a volunteer,” said Raquel Lightbourne-Coley, Expansion Program Planner. “We have more older adults who have reached out to become part of our program. These are people who are aging alone and are really in need of companionship, but we can’t accept them in our program without more volunteers.”

*** Downstate ***

* Illinois Times | LifeStar Ambulance fights suspension: Campbell said Springfield Memorial unfairly “targeted” LifeStar but wouldn’t provide details. He said the company has hired a private investigator and received several responses to its recent post on Facebook offering a $10,000 reward “for information leading to evidence regarding the unjust suspension and removal efforts” by Springfield Memorial.

* Capitol City Now | Alderman: Whose side are the police on when it comes to prostitution?: It’s harder than you think to evict a prostitute from your motel. That’s one takeaway from a Springfield city council discussion Tuesday. Ald. Roy Williams complained to police chief Joe Behl that when motels call police for help in evicting non-paying escorts, the police instead counsel the escorts on what to say in the situation, rather than helping the innkeepers. […] Williams said he fears motels will no longer participate in the city’s homeless program as a result.

* WCIA | City of Champaign highlights housing needs in Homeless Prevention Blueprint: “It’s not affordable. Rents have not come down,” said Champaign Health Care Consumer’s Executive Director Claudia Lennhoff. National research says from 2001 to 2023, the median rent has gone up by 23%, while the median income has gone up by just five. “There isn’t housing for everybody who needs it, especially on the lower ends of the income,” Lennhoff said.

* Daily Egyptian | Litter, forever chemicals and algae blooms are changing southern Illinois watersheds: The Illinois Department of Natural Resources conducted sampling at Tab-Simco in Carbondale, a drainage area located on top of an old coal mine, to see the effects on the water quality. In 2007, a bioreactor was built at Tab-Simco to reduce sulfate levels in the water because the pH levels were very low. The bioreactor was successful to a point, until it began to oxidize. The rust contaminated the water, turning it an orange color and making it unsafe for human consumption.

* WCIA | Mural honoring Tuskegee Airman going up in Rantoul: Helping Our Youth Change Everyday — also known as HOYCE — is a non-profit focusing on giving children and teens life skills. Now, they’re helping lead the Tuskegee Airmen mural project. The painting will be the first installment depicting the World War II pilots who got their start at the Chanute Air Force base. They’re hoping to get it done in time for the Fourth of July — coinciding with America’s 250th birthday.