* Senate Minority Leader John Curran…

Illinois Senate Republican Leader John Curran (R-Downers Grove) released the following statement in response to the latest federal charges brought against State Representative Carol Ammons:

“Once again, the federal government has had to come to Illinois to charge a sitting state legislator with criminal conduct involving taxpayer-funded grants and official state business.

“The people of Illinois do not deserve this continued embarrassment of having to wait for the feds to come in to investigate public corruption by their own state elected officials because the Democratic Majority continues to sideline the Illinois Attorney General and local prosecutors from policing public corruption in our state.

“I am calling for a hearing on my legislation, Senate Bills 2378 and 3862, which expand Illinois’ Racketeering Law to allow local prosecutors to utilize wiretapping authority to investigate and prosecute local and state officials for corruption, and to expand the Illinois Attorney General’s authority to investigate and prosecute public corruption.”

* NOTUS…

After [US Rep. Chuy García] announced his retirement plans the same day as the candidate filing deadline, effectively clearing out the primary field for his chief of staff, Patty Garcia (no relation), several Democrats gathered signatures to appear on the ballot as independent candidates.

But now, people who circulated signatures for Patty Garcia are challenging the signatures gathered by two independent candidates — Mayra Macías and Byron Sigcho-Lopez — to remove them from the ballot in November. Manuel Díaz, a senior adviser for the Illinois congressman, is also helping in the effort to invalidate the signatures.

Macías, a former Democratic political operative, is urging the House Ethics Committee and the Office of Congressional Conduct to investigate García and his staff for using official House time for political activity. Specifically, she alleges his staff used congressional resources, including staff time, to coordinate Patty Garcia’s candidacy and to challenge the independents running in the race, according to letters sent to each entity first shared with NOTUS. […]

“Not only is it unethical, but it is a disservice to the constituents of the 4th Congressional District, because there is a lot of need here that is not being met, and if a staffer is being used for political purposes instead of actually doing that casework that is so necessary in our community, voters need to know that,” Macías told NOTUS.

The House ethics manual prohibits the use of official House resources, including official congressional staff time, for campaign or political purposes. The manual allows House employees to engage in campaign activity on their own time when they “have completed their official duties.”

In her letters, Macías accuses Díaz, Patty Garcia and Chuy García’s district director, Adrian Calderon, of using official time to coordinate Patty Garcia’s candidacy before she resigned as García’s chief of staff on Oct. 31, just three days before she filed to run. Macías also alleges that Díaz used official time to challenge the independent candidates. Sigcho-Lopez, the other independent candidate, told NOTUS he supports Macías’ ethics investigation efforts.

*** Statehouse News ***

* GOP Gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey calls Flock cameras a mass surveillance network…

* Capitol News Illinois | Pritzker signs legislation for energy bill transparency, utility discount program: The first of the two bills, House Bill 4456, expands a discount program for low-income electric and natural gas customers established under the state’s landmark energy legislation passed in 2021, the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, or CEJA. Under CEJA, the Illinois Commerce Commission, the regulatory body that oversees the state’s public utilities, was instructed to assess whether low-income discount programs would be appropriate for residential electric and natural gas customers.

*** Chicago ***

* WGN | ‘Failure is the only option’: Alders say Mayor Johnson isn’t doing his job with city budget: “Our goal was to build something stronger, more stable, and more honest for the long-term. But corporate-aligned members of the City Council chose a different direction when they adopted their so-called alternative budget. Throughout that process, we raised concerns about the assumptions in that plan,” Johnson said on Tuesday. The coalition of alders argues that Johnson is the reason the budget is not balanced. They accuse him of failing to implement their revenue proposals. “He accepted that budget,” Ald. Scott Waguespack told WGN Political Editor Tahman Bradley on Wednesday.

* Tribune | Chicago Tribune seeks ‘serious sanctions’ against OpenAI as deception alleged in copyright lawsuit: Chicago Tribune, The New York Daily News, The New York Times and other media outlets are asking for “serious sanctions” against OpenAI, saying the company destroyed evidence and intentionally hid its ability to locate stolen news stories in training data and responses to ChatGPT users, according to a new motion filed Thursday. The motion, filed in Manhattan Federal Court as part of an ongoing copyright infringement suit, said Open AI expert John Vincent “Vinnie” Monaco “finally revealed” in an April deposition that the company had engaged in a campaign of deception throughout the lawsuit, including by severely misrepresenting technological capabilities and destroying millions of chat histories.

* Sun-Times | Judge finds Chicago’s embattled U.S. attorney violated secrecy order in Tren de Aragua case: U.S. Magistrate Judge Laura McNally admonished U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros after ordering him to a highly unusual hearing Thursday. McNally didn’t impose any sanctions, but said Boutros’ decision to detail the case during a press conference alongside top Justice Department officials amounted to a “clear violation of the sealing order.”

* Chalkbeat Chicago | Chicago’s Black Student Success Director Eugene Robinson Jr. talks about the initiative’s first year: Eugene Robinson Jr., Chicago Public Schools’ first director of Black student success, has faced a tricky balancing act over the past year. Community advocates called for decisive, visible progress on the district’s Black Student Success Plan, the five-year initiative they had championed for years and helped enshrine in state law. Meanwhile, the Trump administration argued the plan discriminates against non-Black students and withheld federal funding over it — a standoff that’s now playing out in the courts.

* Crain’s | AI firms’ office demand seen spreading to Chicago: While those places remain key markets for the artificial intelligence industry, office demand is expected to spread to other parts of the country, VTS said. Seattle, Chicago and Washington are cities that are already showing signs of AI growth. “We will 100% see spillover,” said Ryan Masiello, chief strategy officer of VTS. AI tenants have helped drive a recovery in the US office market, easing the pain for landlords who’d been saddled with large vacancies after the pandemic cratered demand for space. San Francisco was especially hard-hit.

* Tribune | Chicken coup? Family flap over control of famous Harold’s Chicken Shack brand lands in court: Six months after the death of Harold’s Chicken Shack CEO Kristen Pierce-Sherrod, the question remains: Who owns the iconic Chicago restaurant brand? Pierce-Sherrod’s five adult children claim it’s their birthright, pointing to a mysterious, still-contested “will” that, they say, makes clear their mother’s final wishes. “This is our brand, our everything — our mom worked for many, many years to make sure that her father’s legacy thrives,” Pierce-Sherrod’s daughter Kasee Gill recently told the Tribune.

* Block Club | Warehouse Planned For Avondale’s Western Avenue Approved Despite Neighbor Pushback: Although neighbors and the 35th Ward office continue to press for traffic-safety improvements at the nearby intersection of Western Avenue and George Street, the development was permitted to move forward because the site is already zoned for industrial use and did not require a zoning change or City Council approval. City records show the Department of Planning and Development released a zoning hold on June 25, after approving the project’s zoning and landscape reviews. The release cleared a remaining administrative step before the Department of Buildings issued the permit July 1.

* Sun-Times | UChicago Press workers vote to unionize: University of Chicago Press Workers Guild members have voted overwhelmingly to unionize, making it the latest in a wave of Chicago cultural institutions to organize. UCP Workers Guild announced Wednesday that 89% of participating voters favored union representation. The guild has 134 members, making it the largest unit in the Chicago News Guild.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Daily Southtown | Will County panel rejects hydro-excavation plan by single vote; County Board to vote next week: Homer Glen Mayor Christina Neitzke-Troike said another piece of property along 159th Street would be better suited for the truck company’s use because it was away from homes and closer to the village’s future wastewater treatment plant, a more industrial use. Badger’s attorney Cass Wennlund said the asking price for the property the mayor suggested was too high and the land wasn’t suitable for the company’s purposes.

* Lake County News-Sun | Deerfield solar array promises big savings: ‘A major accomplishment’: Construction for the array first broke ground in October. A village news release celebrated the 574.6-kilowatt, ground-mounted array as a “monumental step” in the village’s sustainability goals, which will also provide long-term tax savings. According to Mayor Daniel Shapiro, about 70% of the roughly $2 million project, built by Veregy, was covered by state, federal and utility incentives, leaving Deerfield to cover about $640,000.

* Pioneer Press | Winnetka advances plans to ban short-term rentals for less than 60 days: Month-to-month extensions of rentals would still be allowed, however, so long as it satisfies the minimum 60-day rental period requirement. Community Development Director Scott Mangum told Pioneer Press short-term rentals have always been prohibited in the village by virtue of their lack of inclusion in Winnetka’s zoning code. “The code’s sort of silent on it, so it’s not allowed because it’s silent, but with that we don’t have any definitions for how long the short-term rental [can be],” Mangum said.

*** Downstate ***

* PJ Star | Amid scrutiny in Illinois, Powerton discusses remedies for groundwater contaminants: Midwest Generation LLC held public presentations to discuss concerns about unsafe groundwater at the Powerton Generating Station. “Safety is paramount, and it’s the first thing we concentrate on every day at Powerton,” plant manager Todd Mundorf said Tuesday during a presentation at the Avanti’s Dome in Pekin. “We have a very good safety culture that we improve each and every day.” Joyce Blumenshine, conservation co-chair with the Heart of Illinois Sierra Club, said past groundwater monitoring at Powerton has shown unsafe levels of heavy metals from unlined coal ash ponds at the site that threaten nearby drinking water and waterways. And there are still concerns about toxins from coal plants going into the air and water.

* WSIL | Cairo bridge shutdown turns 20-minute trips into 90-minute detours: he U.S. 51 Bridge crossing the Ohio River between Illinois and Kentucky is closed, forcing drivers into lengthy detours. The U.S. 51 bridge closure has turned a normally busy intersection into an unusually quiet spot, except for the occasional vehicle arriving only to turn around. Truck drivers have been caught off guard by the unexpected closures. Larry Kirby, a truck driver from Missouri, said the closure has transformed his routine 30-minute commute into an hour-and-a-half journey just to start his workday. Kirby’s first stop to pickup inventory from a business is located on the other side of the bridge in Wickliffe, Kentucky, before he heads to his destination in South Carolina.

*** National ***

* Downballot | The Downballot releases presidential results for every new House district, sponsored by Grassroots Analytics: In all, 10 states—which include the three largest—cover 181 districts, though 36 were left unaltered. The 145 districts that did change amount to exactly one-third of the seats in the entire U.S. House of Representatives. […] In all, Republicans have targeted 16 seats by making them redder, while Democrats have done the same for just five seats, and the court ruling in Utah adds a sixth. The presidential results for these districts, along with their predecessors, are shown below, demonstrating just how much each of these districts has changed politically.