* Indiana Capital Chronicle…

Indiana’s effort to lure the Chicago Bears across the state line is encountering its first significant political resistance, as officials in Porter County balk at tax increases that would help finance the state’s proposed stadium package in Hammond.

Indiana’s stadium offer — approved by lawmakers and signed by Gov. Mike Braun in late February — would direct more than $1 billion in taxpayer money toward stadium-area infrastructure that officials say would also support the team’s plans for surrounding retail, restaurants and residential development. […]

Porter County Commissioner Jim Biggs said he’s seen no reason to change his opposition to imposing a 1% restaurant tax in his county and then having that money go toward the stadium project in Lake County.

Aversion to that tax was a campaign issue as the Porter County Council president lost in last month’s Republican primary after supporting the state’s stadium financing plan.

* Sun-Times…

Disability rights and patient advocacy groups in Illinois have filed a federal lawsuit challenging a new law that allows terminally ill patients to seek medication to end their own lives. […]

The lawsuits, filed in Illinois and New York on Thursday, contend the legislation “discriminates against people with disabilities by singling them out for lethal prescriptions rather than providing equal access to the care, support, and suicide prevention services offered to those perceived as non- or less disabled,” according to the End Assisted Suicide coalition. […]

Under the law, people 18 or older will be able to request a fatal medication if they’ve been diagnosed by two physicians with an illness that will result in death within six months.

Patients will have to make a series of oral and written requests themselves — not through a guardian, surrogate, advance legal document or other proxy — with witnesses attesting.

Physicians will have to confirm the patient is “of sound mind,” and inform them of other end-of-life options such as hospice and palliative care.

*** Statewide ***

* Press release | IDCCA President March Guethle unanimously re-elected to lead statewide Democratic County Chairs: Under Guethle’s leadership, IDCCA has expanded its support for county parties across Illinois by providing training, resources, and strategic assistance to local Democratic organizations working year-round to elect Democrats and engage voters in their communities. “It means a lot. More than I can say,” President Mark Guethle said following his re-election. “Our Chairs do such incredible work for very little recognition every day, and I’ve tried my best to highlight those efforts and support them however I can. Being elected again feels like our Chairs saying they’ve felt the support I’ve tried to give, and that’s what really matters to me.”

*** Statehouse News ***

* Tribune | Gov. JB Pritzker continues Illinois Prisoner Review Board restructuring following controversial rulings: The new members of the 15-member board, now occupied with only 13 members, bring backgrounds in anti-domestic violence advocacy, probation, law enforcement and the clergy. Their appointments by Pritzker, confirmed by the Democratic-controlled Illinois Senate earlier this month, come as the governor seeks a rare third term and as he has faced scrutiny over the board and its decisions. The panel’s recent history is difficult to separate from its present. In March 2024, the board granted early release to Crosetti Brand, a man with a documented history of violence against women. Authorities say he later attacked a pregnant former girlfriend and killed her 11-year-old son, Jayden Perkins, when the boy tried to come to his mother’s aid. Brand, now 40, was sentenced to life in prison. Jayden’s family has filed a lawsuit against the board alleging negligence.

* Tech Radar | Illinois smart glasses driving ban is yet another blow for the technology: Once Governor JB Pritzker approves the bill, people caught flouting the rules could face fines of $75 (or $150 for repeat offenses) and the possibility of misdemeanor or felony charges if involved in a serious crash while wearing smart glasses. Other states, such as New York, have proposed bills limiting smart glasses use while driving, but so far none have progressed as far as Illinois’ has — though that could soon change if states decide to take Illinois’ lead.

* Capitol News Illinois | Pritzker vetoes spending items accidentally included in Illinois budget, including $500B typo: Things get missed in the middle of the night, especially when it is in a 3,700-page document. The Senate approved the spending plan shortly after 3 a.m. on June 1, with the House following about an hour later. Despite three amendments to House Bill 111, the spending plan, quite a few errors made it to the governor’s desk. The biggest error can be found on page 430 of the bill, where $500,250,000,000 was allocated to the Chicago Westside Branch NAACP for operating expenses in a grant from the Department of Human Services. But that typo didn’t appear until the third and final amendment was filed some time after midnight on June 1.

*** Chicago ***

* Sun-Times | Local leaders, advocates call for creation of Department of Gun Violence Reduction: The proposed Department of Gun Violence Reduction would replace the mayor’s Office of Community Safety and coordinate city efforts to respond to gun violence. Proponents say its $100 million budget would be made up of existing city public safety money.

* Tribune | Dates set for the start of Chicago Bears training camp and joint practices with 2 teams:
The Bears are expected to announce information soon regarding practices that are open to the public. The team has held training camp at Halas Hall in Lake Forest since 2020. Tickets to camp practices are free but limited. The league also announced all joint practice schedules. The Cincinnati Bengals will host the Bears for a joint practice Aug. 20 in Cincinnati before their preseason game Aug. 22. A week later, the Tennessee Titans will host the Bears for a joint practice Aug. 27 in Nashville before the Aug. 29 preseason finale.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Sun-Times | West Suburban Medical Center could lose power next month because of unpaid electric bill: West Suburban Medical Center might have its power shut off next month because the owner is behind on electric bill payments. ComEd posted a notice on the Oak Park hospital’s doors earlier this month, warning that the power will be turned off on July 8 if the owner doesn’t catch up on payments. The issue came up Monday during a hearing in Cook County court in the ongoing legal battle between its two owners.

* Daily Herald | Drought over, but homeowners should still keep an eye on water needs for vulnerable plants, trees: According to National Weather Service meteorologist Kevin Doom, Wednesday’s rainfall ranged from a bit more than a half-inch in the northern suburbs to 1.5 to 2 inches south of I-80. Johnson was surprised to hear the federal government thought the suburbs were in a drought, instead describing things as “more of a bit dry.”

* Crain’s | Daily Herald sale to Tribune Publishing is complete: In the memo, Paddock Publications CEO Doug Ray said participants in the company’s employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP, voted “by a substantial margin” in favor of the sale. Ray said the transaction closed today after the ESOP trustee determined the deal was in participants’ best financial interest following a due diligence review. […] Ray did not disclose financial terms of the deal, but Crain’s reported in May that Alden had offered $24 million, based on a notice sent to shareholders.

* Naperville Sun | Naperville commission says no to building 25 townhomes on 2.3 acres: A hearing Wednesday night for the conditional use requested by Naperville-based Kramer Homes to allow single-family attached homes to be built in an R2 zoning district lasted more than three hours. Nearby residents decried the Ostara plan as too large for the site and brought up worries about traffic congestion, safety for walk-to-school routes and increased crowding at Naper Elementary, among many other points of contention. Commissioners took the concerns to heart — especially those about traffic and pedestrian safety in an already car-crowded area — as they unanimously recommended the project be denied by the Naperville City Council.

* Daily Southtown | Will County Board mulls creation of land bank to spur development: Speaker Joe VanDuyne, of Wilmington, said the land bank could serve as a useful tool for municipalities to address blighted properties and an incentive for those properties to be redeveloped and put back on the tax rolls. “I absolutely think it’s a great program,” VanDuyne said. He said he plans to set a committee of the whole meeting next month to discuss the proposal. Land banks have been successfully used by several counties throughout the state to help acquire distressed properties and turn them back into a productive use, said Doug Pryor, president and CEO of the Will County Center for Economic Development.

* WGN | World’s first Dairy Queen to be revived as Route 66 landmark in Joliet: The building has been home to a church, an insurance agency, a lawn mower shop and even a motorcycle dealership over the past 86 years. “Joliet’s distinction as the home of the world’s first Dairy Queen location, one of the most beloved brands in the world, is one of its greatest hidden historic gems,” said CEO of JAHM Greg Peerbolt. “It seems appropriate that International Dairy Queen (IDQ) also shares its story with another American icon—the original alignment of Route 66, one of the most recognizable roads in the world.”

*** Downstate ***

* Illinois Times | Muni president addresses controversy: It may not have been the full-throated apology critics wanted, but a top official from Springfield Municipal Opera says mistakes were made in the handling of sexual harassment complaints against a man ultimately banned from participation in the organization. Kevin Burke III, president of the Muni Board of Managers, told Illinois Times that the 76-year-old nonprofit is surveying cast members about their experiences, potentially revising the code of conduct and improving internal communication.

* WMBD | Minonk flips switch on solar farm, powers thousands of homes: Built on a former coal mine, the 16,000-panel farm will generate more than 9.8 megawatts of renewable energy. That’s enough to power more than 7,000 homes a year. According to a fact sheet from Nexamp, there is no enrollment or cancelation fee for subscribers and people only pay for what they get from the solar farm. “Anyone can subscribe, regardless of the status of your roof or if you own or rent,” said Jessica Collingsworth, Nexamp’s central policy director. “So, this is a great opportunity to bring clean energy to community members by being subscribers of this project, as well as big companies like Rush Medical or the College of DuPage.

* WCIA | First-of-its-kind lab at U of I aims to treat chronic diseases, develop new cellular therapies: The lab’s first focus will be on endocrine disorders. Already, the research team has developed a “first-in-the-world” process that could eliminate lifelong dependence on thyroid medication. The lab is home to “clean-room facility” which will serve as the university’s first Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) facility. Having this room ensures that regulations — like making sure the drugs has minimum requirements for the methods, facilities, and controls used in manufacturing, processing, and packing of a drug product — are followed.

*** National ***

* 404 Media | ICE Appears to Be Buying Immigrants’ Tax Identifiers from a Data Broker: A $10 million procurement reviewed by 404 Media indicates ICE is buying records related to immigrants’ tax identifiers. “It looks for all the world like Trump is trying to skirt the law and a court order to fuel his mass-deportation campaign,” Senator Ron Wyden said.

* NPR | The Justice Department is linking public safety money to immigration enforcement: “They are trying to take dollars that local agencies have been depending on for years and saying, ‘Oh, well, if you want these dollars, then you need to help us out with our immigration enforcement work,” says Tahir Duckett, executive director of the Center for Innovations in Community Safety at Georgetown Law.

* Politico | ‘Blatantly unlawful’: Judge blocks DOJ subpoenas aimed at Tim Walz: “Initiating a criminal investigation in order to harass political opponents or to coerce them into taking official action — particularly official action that the federal government cannot directly require those political opponents to take — is a blatantly unlawful and unethical use the grand-jury process,” Schiltz wrote in a 29-page ruling dated June 17 but unsealed Monday. The George W. Bush-appointed chief judge said Trump’s repeated attacks and promises of “retribution” against Walz, a Democrat, and other Minnesota officials “establishes beyond reasonable dispute” that the grand jury subpoenas — issued at the height of ICE’s Operation Metro Surge — “were a part of a broader campaign to coerce state and local officials in Minnesota to assist the Trump administration in its enforcement of immigration laws.”

* Democracy Docket | In blow to Trump, federal judge blocks DHS from using citizenship database to purge voters: The League of Women Voters led a coalition of voting and privacy advocates in challenging the changes to SAVE last year, suing DHS, the Social Security Administration (SSA) and other federal actors. While Sooknanan declined to issue a stay last November, she granted a summary judgment Monday, saying that the modification of the SAVE system violated the Social Security Act’s prohibition on disclosing social security numbers, various provisions of the 1974 Privacy Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).