* The Block..

Kalshi is taking the state of Illinois to court over its new law putting in place a regulatory regime for prediction markets, which the platform says puts it at odds with the federal government.

The company filed a complaint this week in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois against Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, Governor JB Pritzker, and other state officials. The platform says it will be “irreparably harmed” when the new law takes effect on July 1.

Last week, Pritzker signed into law broad budget and revenue legislation, SB3019, that does a number of things, including, controversially, enacting a 0.2% charge on the value of digital asset transactions or services provided to Illinois customers as well as requiring prediction market platforms to get a state license. In its complaint, Kalshi says those requirements are preempted by federal law because its event contracts are regulated at the federal level. […]

Kalshi asked the court to grant it a temporary restraining order, a preliminary injunction, and a permanent injunction to prevent Illinois from enforcing the law.

“Prediction companies are seeking to use the courts to avoid complying with the same rules and consumer protections that apply to other wagering operators in Illinois,” a spokesperson from the Office of Gov. Pritzker said in a statement. “The state of Illinois will continue defending Illinois’ authority to regulate these activities and protect consumers.”

* Press release…

Admitting defeat, the Darren Bailey campaign conceded their fight to remove Independent candidate for Governor Collin Corbett from the ballot by withdrawing their objection, securing Collin’s and Carolyn Schofield’s spot on the ballot.

Collin’s campaign ended last week’s records exam with 27,323 valid signatures, well over the 25,000 requirement. This officially makes history, with Collin being just the third Independent candidate for Illinois Governor in the last 86 years, and the first serious third party or Independent candidate since 1912.

* IPM Newsroom has two stories worth reading on school discipline. One examines Springfield’s Lanphier High School, which suspends Black students at one of the highest rates in Illinois…

Lanphier High School in Springfield disciplines Black students at a higher rate than any other school in the state, except for Kennedy Middle School in Rockford.

At Lanphier, there were fewer than 500 Black students in the most recent year of data, yet they received almost four times that number of in-school and out-of-school suspensions. […]

The Illinois Report Card data for the 2024-2025 school year at Lanphier lists no incidents of violence with injury and no incidents of alcohol or tobacco. There were 118 incidents of violence without physical injury, 25 drug offenses and 2,280 incidents categorized under “other reason.”

The other looks at Chicago’s Kenwood Academy, where suspensions are rare…

Kenwood is big, with more than 2,000 students, most of whom are Black. And the school rarely uses suspensions.

“With Kenwood, they see us as actual humans,” [junior Jabari Carson] said. […]

Principal Karen Calloway said the school’s one word mission is college, for every student. Kenwood sends students to Ivy Leagues, historically Black universities, state schools, and liberal art schools.

“We are a national leader in scholarship applications. That’s our big tag line. It’s our claim to fame and we do a pretty good job in making sure that we achieve that,” Calloway said.

*** Statewide ***

* Injustice Watch | Immigrants in Illinois are finding success challenging their detention in federal court: Before 2025, such habeas cases were rarely filed by people held in immigration detention. During the four years under the Biden administration, only 10 immigrants filed habeas cases in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, which covers Chicago and the surrounding suburbs. But in the first 15 months of President Donald Trump’s second term, 274 immigration habeas cases were filed in the Northern District of Illinois. The vast majority were filed after the launch of Operation Midway Blitz, the federal immigration enforcement campaign that began in September and led to the detention of nearly 3,800 immigrants across the Chicagoland area.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Click here for Citizen Action/Illinois’ 2026 State Legislative Scorecard.

* WGLT | Illinois looks to fast track schools to install rooftop solar panels: Illinois lawmakers want to make it quicker for schools to connect solar energy to the grid. One Central Illinois grade school has been waiting two years to connect rooftop solar panels. The bill requires energy companies to give priority to schools and companies have 30 days to give an evaluation on a project. They will also have to disclose upgrade costs to the grid and construction timelines to the school. The bill now goes to the governor’s desk to be signed.

* Shaw Local | Joliet-area legislators blast Bears on stadium deal, one calls team ‘a liar’: State Sen. Rachel Ventura, D-Joliet, labeled the Bears “a liar” in her comments during a panel discussion in Joliet hosted by the Joliet Region Chamber of Commerce. “Having to call their bluff, that is not good negotiation,” Ventura said. “If you come to the table in Springfield and you are a liar, it doesn’t bode well for you.”

*** Chicago ***

* Crain’s | Mike Quigley to make mayoral bid official with Saturday kickoff: U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley is making his long-anticipated run for Chicago mayor official this weekend, with a campaign kickoff event scheduled for Saturday afternoon at the historic Uptown Theatre. […] Quigley, who has represented the 5th Congressional District since 2009, previously served on the Cook County Board of Commissioners. He’s entering an already crowded field of candidates seeking to unseat Johnson or succeed him should the mayor decide not to seek a second term.

* Block Club | Why Is Mayor Johnson Keeping Secrets About The Parking Meter Deal?: Johnson and his aides have refused to disclose records showing what analysis or calculations they made while putting their bid together out of the public eye. Even members of the City Council have been left in the dark. Still, the council is now under pressure to approve a new meter sale, to different private investors, that alderpeople and the public know almost nothing about.

* Tribune | Chicago Media Report: Rising TV pundit Adam Mockler, ABC 7 enlists viewers in FCC battle and CNBC to hit Cboe: During an April 30 appearance on “CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip,” Mockler so rattled Scott Jennings during a discussion about the war in Iran that the network’s seemingly unflappable resident conservative commentator blew up and unleashed on-air profanity at his young foil. The incident went viral, boosting Mockler’s social media following and his progressive pundit street cred, helping the 23-year-old to launch his own weekly debate series on YouTube.

* Tribune | Michelin retired its Green Stars to the dismay of sustainable chefs in Chicago: Last month, Michelin quietly announced that it was phasing out the Green Star distinction and chefs would no longer be able to advertise that they have it. Besides Daisies, Feld is the only other restaurant in Chicago to be given a Green Star. “Is it a let-down? Of course,” Frillman said. Chefs like Frillman have widely expressed disappointment in Michelin’s decision, saying that the abrupt removal of the designation undoes years of high-caliber sustainability recognition.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Lake County News-Sun | D128 appoints new member as grooming allegations prompt shakeup: ‘There’s a culture problem within 128’: Former board President Jim Baston retired suddenly earlier this year, despite winning a four-year term in 2023. Although no official reason was given for why Batson left with just months of the school year left, his departure came shortly after controversy rocked the district. A lawsuit filed in March accused Parker Rohde, a teacher at Libertyville High School, of grooming an unidentified 15-year-old girl with Down syndrome, starting during the fall 2024 semester.

* Aurora Beacon-News | Aurora City Council OKs Mayor John Laesch’s slate of new board members for Paramount, other venues: The appointments are said to represent Laesch’s vision for the future of the Aurora Civic Center Authority — namely, that it will offer more diverse programming and be more financially stable. The organization owns the Paramount Theatre, the Copley Theatre, Paramount School of the Arts and North Island Center, and manages the city-owned RiverEdge Park and Stolp Island Theatre.

* Daily Herald | ‘I want to feel the freedom’: Elgin honors 30 new American citizens: The event is coordinated by a group of community volunteers representing Centro de Información, the city of Elgin, Chinese Mutual Aid Association, Elgin Community College, Elgin Area Historical Society, Gail Borden Public Library, The Literacy Connection and YWCA of Elgin. The Elgin Master Chorale performed patriotic selections during the ceremony. Afterward, the League of Women Voters hosted a voter registration table, and the Kane County Clerk’s office demonstrated how to use the county’s voting machines.

*** Downstate ***

* WGLT | Bloomington-Normal’s homeless count drops. Advocates worry federal policy changes could erase gains: The Bridge has largely been at capacity ever since. It made a big dent in the community’s homeless population. One week later, volunteers canvassed McLean County to track the homeless population. It’s called the Point-In-Time [PIT] count, an annual, national effort to see who is unhoused and try to connect them with services. The count is one of several factors that determines federal funding for homeless services. On Jan. 29, a night when temperatures fell below zero, volunteers found three people outside in Bloomington-Normal. The year before, on a night not quite as cold, they found close to 40.

* Muddy River News | Plan Commission votes to deny special use permit for proposed solar farm at 36th and Payson Road: Brink, the city’s director of operations, cited an ordinance that the city council passed in 2024 that recommended solar facilities only be constructed in the 1 ½-mile buffer outside the city limits if that area is zoned industrial. “This was not one of those,” Brink said. The parcel of land proposed for this solar facility is located just outside Ward 5 and zoned RU1 (rural and agricultural).

* WTVO | Rockford committee deadlocks on spending taxpayer dollars on mobile grocery store: The committee considered an agreement with Angelic Organics Learning Center, operating as Farmers Rising, in partnership with City Center Market, to launch the program. The plan called for up to $822,000 in casino tax funds to support startup costs and three years of operations. After discussion, the committee voted 2–2 on the funding agreement, meaning the motion failed to advance due to the tie.

* WSIL | Shawnee National Forest Urges Visitors to Help Stop the Spread of Invasive Zebra Mussels: Even small amounts of leftover water can carry zebra mussel larvae, allowing them to spread to previously unaffected waters forest service officials stated. “Do your part—clean, drain, and dry,” the agency advises, encouraging visitors to help safeguard the region’s “big backyard” for future generations.

*** National ***

* 404 Media | The Tokenpocalypse Is Here: Companies Are Scrambling To Stop Spending So Much on AI: “What we’re seeing right now is just rapid escalation in AI token spend,” he says “As companies start to scale AI, moving from like simple chatbots into use cases that feature agentic workflows and automation and then enterprise-wide deployment of some of these tools like Copilot, Claude Code, and Codex, we’re hitting this inflection point where AI is becoming material to the cost structure; spend is becoming very unpredictable; and leadership, especially at the CFO, COO, and CIO level, are still asking the question of whether they’re getting value from what we’re spending on in the context of AI.”

* Cal Matters | Uber passed an insurance law in California. It did not disclose key info, a lawmaker says: As the ride-hailing giant pushed to lower the required insurance coverage it must carry for uninsured and underinsured motorists, Uber told lawmakers that passing Senate Bill 371 would be good for consumers because insurance costs were rising. It passed, reducing Uber’s liability for uninsured and underinsured motorists from $1 million to $60,000 per person and $300,000 per incident. But a May report from Consumer Watchdog found that the company mostly self-insures, meaning it was paying its own subsidiary insurer and amassing a stockpile of tax-free reserves.

* Guardian | ‘Extremely overwhelmed’: apartment renters face rising tide of fees: Long lists of fees are common at buildings operated by Greystar, a private equity-backed conglomerate that owns or manages more than 1m apartments across the US. According to tenants, housing attorneys, public officials and court claims, this tangle of extra charges fattens the company’s bottom line, increases renters’ risks of eviction and undermines fair competition in the apartment market by muddying the real price they pay for shelter.