* WTVO…

Mayor Tom McNamara, Rockford’s elected mayor since 2017, is stepping down to become chief executive officer of the Illinois Municipal League, ending his tenure before the completion of his third term.

“Serving as the mayor of the City of Rockford has been the sincerest honor of my life,” McNamara said at a Monday press conference. “Our greatest accomplishment over the last nine years…is that Rockford believes in itself again.” […]

McNamara’s tenure will be defined by major economic development projects, infrastructure investments and efforts to reshape Rockford’s image after decades of population decline and economic challenges. They point to the arrival of Hard Rock Casino Rockford, continued growth at Chicago Rockford International Airport, reductions in property tax levies and large-scale road and infrastructure improvements as signature accomplishments. […]

McNamara has long been involved with the organization, serving on its board of directors and executive committee. As CEO, he will oversee the league’s advocacy, educational programming and support services for communities across Illinois.

*** Statewide ***

* Crain’s | What about nuclear options? Those take a long time to ramp up: Small modular reactors hold the promise of being cheaper and faster to deploy because of new, more efficient technology and smaller capacity. The goal is that reactors can be built in factories and deployed in clusters to bring power to the grid or onsite for a large user, such as a data center, more quickly and at a much lower cost than a traditional nuclear reactor. A traditional large-scale reactor produces about 1 gigawatt, or enough to power 750,000 to 1 million homes, and the size required by some of the giant “hyperscale” data center campuses, which are used to train models for artificial intelligence. A large manufacturing plant typically uses about 100 megawatts. The modular nuclear technology hasn’t yet been commercialized.

* Daily Herald | Illinois allows residents to claim roadkill bucks and does — and thousands do: The agency operates a surprisingly popular program that processes about 2,500 roadkill deer claims annually statewide, according to IDNR’s latest figures. Cook and the collar counties combined average about 180 claims annually. The agency’s dedicated website is where they get started. “If you get to them right away it’s a shame to let the meat go to waste,” said John Schalz, a butcher who specializes in processing wild game and operates John’s Elgin Market in South Elgin. “We do mostly steak cuts, but also we can make sausage and sometimes jerky.”

*** Statehouse News ***

* Capitol News Illinois | Pritzker signs bills designating Emmett Till Day, requiring boater’s liability insurance: Teachers now have greater ability to challenge written warnings about alleged misconduct. Under Senate Bill 2914, before a school board can vote to issue a written warning to a teacher for alleged misconduct, the teacher has a right to challenge the findings in the proposed warning, either in person or in writing. And if the board votes to issue the warning anyway, it allows the teacher to take the issue to binding arbitration.

* Capitol City Now | SNAP discussion: It’s difficult to find opportunities to fulfill work requirements: Audience member Jill Steiner, who is chief human resources officer at the YMCA of Springfield, touched on work requirements to get social services. “You can have people really willing to do it and ready to do it, but this community lacks the opportunity to do it,” she said. “You can say people need to work those hours, but if there is no outlet to get to the opportunities, they’re just stuck.”

* Press release | Community leaders, lawmakers push Pritzker to reopen Weiss, West Suburban: North and West Side advocates are pushing Gov. J.B. Pritzker to use his official powers to quickly reopen two important Chicago-area hospitals that have closed in the past 11 months: Weiss Memorial Hospital in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago and West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park. An alliance of community groups called the Coalitions to Save Weiss and West Suburban is demanding: An immediate meeting with Gov. Pritzker and the state health agencies with the Coalitions to Save Weiss and West Suburban and the affected communities and ensure that the community has a formal role in decisions about the hospitals’ future. Move to reopen both hospitals under new, responsible ownership, using the leverage the state holds as a major creditor and through its oversight of hospital ownership. Require community input into processes for reviewing extensions and decision-making, and require a credible, funded reopening plan as a condition for any further state support.

*** Chicago ***

* WTTW | Election 2027 Begins: Candidates for Chicago Mayor, City Council Are Gathering Signatures Earlier Than Ever: A bill signed by Gov. JB Pritzker in 2024 moved up the deadline for candidates to qualify for elections by a month in most cases, giving elections officials more time to review petitions and decide challenges. This upcoming municipal election is the first to have to meet those new rules, forcing candidates to end their summer vacations early to ensure they make it on the ballot.

* WTTW | Interim Top Cop Collecting $142K Annual City Pension While Earning $211K Salary, Records Show: Newly installed interim Chicago Police Supt. Fred Waller is collecting an annual city taxpayer-funded pension of $141,608 while he has been earning more than $210,648 per year as a deputy director, bringing his total annual compensation to $352,256, according to records obtained by WTTW News. Waller, 64, has now twice served as CPD’s interim leader, first leading the department from May 2023 to September 2023 before Mayor Brandon Johnson picked Larry Snelling as the city’s top cop. After Snelling took office, Waller stayed on to advise Snelling, serving as deputy director in the superintendent’s office, records show.

* Tribune | Chicago launches resource center for rideshare, taxi drivers: As of May, Campos said, around 87,000 workers were registered to drive for rideshare app companies such as Uber and Lyft in Chicago. Drivers licensed as “public chauffeurs,” a group that includes drivers of taxis, limos, pedicabs and sightseeing vehicles like tour buses, numbered 13,000.

* Crain’s | Chicago restaurants forced to rethink menus and suppliers amid cyclosporiasis scare: For example, a North Carolina outbreak was tied to cilantro, parsley and lettuce. Some Chicago restaurants have switched lettuce suppliers and added menu items that do not use lettuce. Roanoke quickly reduced its leafy greens orders from suppliers after customers began steering clear of the salads, Alaoui said. And some of what it does order usually ends up getting wasted.

* Block Club | This City Mushroom Farm Grows Fungi For Chicago’s Top Chefs — And ‘The Bear’: The television appearances are one sign of how far Four Star Mushrooms has come since the company began in 2019 inside a roughly 400-square-foot shared warehouse in Logan Square, where Weber and his business partner determined how to reliably and sustainably grow specialty mushrooms — and whether people would buy them. In 2022, Four Star moved into its current home at 320 N. Oakley Blvd. The indoor farm now occupies about 14,000 square feet and produces seven types of mushrooms year-round, including lion’s mane, chestnut, blue oyster, black oyster, king trumpet, maitake and golden enoki mushrooms.

* WIRED | Inside the Wild Rescue Mission That Took 4 Beluga Whales to Chicago: All female adults in their 20s, the quartet swam through the enclosure displaying the species’s signature slow and graceful dives and twirls. They gave no indication that just about 72 hours beforehand they’d each been hoisted up in a custom stretcher, placed on a truck bed in individual transport boxes filled with cold saltwater, driven to an airport, boarded on a jet, and flown to a city in a new country hundreds of miles from the ocean. To achieve the first leg of this mission, the consortium inventoried “every stretcher, every pole, every resource we had,” Tang says. “It is a logistical marvel.”

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Crain’s | Court approves $90M Hawthorne Race Course sale, ending Chicago-area racing: Hawthorne Race Course is a key step closer to redevelopment after a federal bankruptcy court approved the sale of the 108-acre horse track property just west of Chicago to a venture planning to turn it into a different use. Judge Timothy Barnes signed off on the $90 million sale to a Delaware-based entity that submitted the sole qualified bid in a recent auction, according to federal court records. The pending sale of the property at 3501 S. Laramie Ave. in Stickney is part of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding for Hawthorne, whose ownership turned to the court system earlier this year to reorganize and try to revive its struggling business.

* Naperville Sun | Why Naperville is ending city-affiliated task forces: Naperville will no longer have city-affiliated task forces due to concerns over perceived endorsements of groups that operate independently from city standards. Task forces were established by the city about 12 years ago as a way to provide support to informal, private groups in Naperville without subjecting them to typical state and city code regulations, but the city has received questions over its relationship with the organizations, prompting staff to look into the matter. “Staff reviewed the practice and determined that there’s no ordinance or policy framework for (a task force) designation, and that providing public resources or putting them on a website for private groups raises questions, legitimate questions about equity and endorsement and appropriate use of city resources,” Naperville City Attorney Michael DiSanto said at the July 21 Naperville City Council meeting.

* Daily Herald | Naperville reigns as ‘retail mecca,’ producing $5.7B in sales last year: Illinois’ third-largest city has retained its spot as the top suburban retail sales generator in the Chicago metropolitan area for another year, according to a recently released report from Chicago-based consultant firm Melaniphy & Associates. Naperville has held the title since 2017, thanks in part to its shopping centers, restaurant scene, automobile dealerships, gas purchases and grocery stores.

* CBS Chicago | Flooding in Summit, Illinois, after severe storms: In southwest suburban Summit, Illinois, near the border of Bedford Park, the downpour was so sudden and intense, entire roads and sidewalks flooded.

*** Downstate ***

* Press release | University of Illinois Board of Trustees launches national search for the system’s 21st president: The system’s next president will succeed Tim Killeen, who announced he will step down June 30 after more than a decade of transformative leadership. “Few leadership roles in American higher education carry the opportunity and responsibility embodied in the presidency of the University of Illinois System,” said Jesse Ruiz, chair of the board of trustees. “This role is one of stewardship and possibility. Our next president will assume leadership of a system with extraordinary strength and momentum, and will have the opportunity to build on that legacy while helping define what comes next for public higher education.”

* IPM Newsroom | Champaign County Board tables resolution on Clerk Aaron Ammons, appoints new member for District 6: The board also appointed Chyna Figueroa-Dixon to represent District 6, filling a vacancy after a previous member announced her resignation. Figueroa-Dixon will represent a region that includes the northern part of Champaign. Her predecessor, Samantha Carter, accused the board of having “lost focus” during a meeting in June. “In order for me to be here and be 100% involved, I have to trust your leadership, and I don’t,” Carter said. “We’re vocal on certain subjects, but then we’re silent on others, and that makes this board ineffective.”

* WJBC | ISU Trustee’s approve National Pan-Hellenic Council plaza: The plaza will feature nine pillars and a donor wall recognizing historically black fraternities and sororities and their impact on the university. “The Divine Nine, historically black fraternities and sororities, have been an integral part of Illinois State University for more than 50 years. To recognize their legacy, contributions, and lasting impact, the university proposes the construction of a National Panhellenic Council Plaza,” said Aondover Tarhule, president of the university.

* WSIL | Community reacts to layoffs, patient relocations at Choate Mental Health and Developmental Center: Others worry the changes could have a ripple effect throughout Union County, making it harder to find a job. “It concerns us, it always concerns us. Everybody needs jobs down here. We’re in a really depressed area,” Kent Young said. Residents also expressed concerns whether enough mental health services will remain available locally as Choate scales back operations.

*** National ***

* WGLT | Rivian files lawsuit to get back refund from Trump administration’s illegal tariffs: It’s unclear how much money Rivian is hoping to get back. Rivian’s complaint, filed Thursday in the U.S. Court of International Trade, does not give an exact dollar amount. It’s seeking the refund, plus interest and attorneys’ fees. TechCrunch, which first reported the lawsuit, reported that Rivian’s chief financial officer previously said it would be in the “tens of millions of dollars.” Rivian has not responded to WGLT’s request for comment on the amount sought.

* WIRED | Measles Is Becoming So Common That Treatments May Soon Be Needed: Fueled by large outbreaks in South Carolina and Utah, the US had already surpassed last year’s 2,289 measles cases, and it’s only July. For comparison, there were just 285 cases in all of 2024. […] “What we’re seeing now as we get a resurgence of measles in communities is a horrible lack of options when somebody gets exposed,” says Michael Mina, an epidemiologist and chief medical officer of Invivyd, a Connecticut-based biotech company.