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Isabel’s afternoon roundup
Monday, Aug 31, 2026 - Posted by Isabel Miller * CBS Chicago…
Sponsored by Chronic Care Policy Alliance It’s a fact: obesity is a chronic disease. Access to FDA-approved obesity treatments shouldn’t depend on a patient’s financial situation. A recent study of Illinois voters found:
- 81% believe access to obesity treatment is especially important for communities facing higher rates of chronic disease. - 78% agree that when programs like Medicaid cover obesity medicines, they help improve lives and lead to better health outcomes down the road. Expanding access to obesity medicines through Medicaid can help eligible patients receive the care they need to manage a chronic disease and prevent long-term complications. Learn why Illinois policymakers should provide Medicaid coverage for obesity medicines and help ensure every eligible patient has access to treatment. * GOP Gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey…
* Illinois Times | Illinois Innocence Project at UIS celebrates 25 years with new legislation, expanded work: The Illinois Innocence Project at University of Illinois Springfield has freed 34 innocent people who were convicted and imprisoned in Illinois for crimes they did not commit. Collectively, they lost 797 years of freedom. There are innocence organizations in 10 other countries and more than 60 in the U.S., but IIP is the only one based at an undergraduate institution. Most are located in large metropolitan areas and associated with law schools. IIP is also the only one that conducts statewide wrongful conviction training for police training academies. * WTTW | Illinois Prisons Move to Restrict Access to Electronic Tablets for Those in Solitary Confinement:Due to an “error,” as Illinois Department of Corrections Naomi Puzzello said in a statement, when the department provided tablets, men in the unit at Menard Correctional Center were provided the devices. As of last week, men admitted to the prison’s restrictive housing unit do not have access to tablets. * Press release | Pace Chairman Rick Kwasneski to Retire After 24 Years of Service: Pace Chairman Richard A. Kwasneski will retire after 24 years of service on the Pace Board of Directors. Today marks his final day as chairman, closing a distinguished chapter as Pace’s longest-serving Board chairman and coinciding with the agency’s transition to a new era of regional transit governance under the Northern Illinois Transit Authority (NITA) Act. * NBC Chicago’s Mary Ann Ahern…
* More form WGN’s Tahman Bradley…
* Crain’s | Bally’s downplays financial woes, says video gaming bigger threat to Chicago casino: In a letter sent yesterday to city legislators, Bally’s executive Chris Jewett stressed the “technical” nature of the company’s regulatory filing earlier this month raising doubt about its ability to stay in business. The filing has caused “no change” to the hotel and casino complex under construction at 777 W. Chicago Ave., the letter said. Jewett also rejected an aldermanic claim that Bally’s has violated its contract with the city by pausing work on non-casino elements like a 500-room hotel and entertainment and dining space outside the gambling venue itself. The Rhode Island-based gambling giant announced the delay earlier this month in a bid to convince aldermen to overturn their decision to allow video gambling terminals, or VGTs. * NYT | Chicago Program That Set Aside Billions for Development Left Poor Areas Behind, Study Says: “Chicago has utilized this program far more than any other major American city,” said Juan González, a senior research fellow with the Great Cities Institute, an economic research hub at the University of Illinois Chicago that published the study. “Over the decades, the program morphed into a runaway development tool with little accountability to the public.” The researchers spent more than a year analyzing Chicago’s use of TIF since the program was first implemented in the city’s downtown in 1984, reviewing contracts and creating a data set that included property assessments and tax rates. The analysis relied on publicly available data, which spanned different time periods and contained errors and gaps. * Tribune | Residents protest proposed lakefront development in Edgewater: Near the intersection of North Sheridan Road and Thorndale Avenue where the development of around 600 units is planned, people opposed to the project gathered at the entrance to George Lane Beach. Beachgoers walked by as the protesters — led by Edgewater Residents for Responsible Development and the Association of Sheridan Road Condo and Cooperative Owners — said the city should acquire private property up for redevelopment along the lake to complete the lakefront park system. […] Supporters say it’s important that the 20% of units will be reserved for affordable housing, and also argue that the development would preserve accessibility to the beach and beautify the area. * Sun-Times | Temperatures could feel hotter than 100 degrees this week, forecasters say: Chicago itself will likely be spared the hottest heat index — or how the temperature feels — of nearly 105 degrees, which is expected to hit the south suburbs on Tuesday and Wednesday. Instead, Chicago could see temperatures climb into the 80s on Tuesday and into the lower 90s on Wednesday, according to Zachary Yack, meteorologist at the National Weather Service Romeoville office. * Daily Southtown | Orland Park launches AI chatbot ‘Humphrey’ to provide village information: The bot, named after the village’s first mayor, John Humphrey, will make it easier for residents to get basic questions answered and for staff to keep track of service requests, Dodge said Friday. “I’m a pretty big believer that we can use technology in ways to improve public service and do it cost-effectively,” Dodge said. “And since I became mayor, it was pretty clear to me that more than a few times, people would call the village or email the village or contact the village, and it would somehow get lost.” * Patch | FLOCK Camera Misbehavior By Will County Sheriff’s Office Employee? Deputy Placed On Administrative Leave: Joliet Patch has produced news stories about the ongoing efforts by Joliet City Hall to terminate Joliet Police Lt. Jeremy Harrison and then came last week’s announcement from Channahon police indicating that an undisclosed Channahon police officer also faces allegations of misusing the village’s FLOCK camera license plate reader system. On Monday morning, Joliet Patch confirmed that another personnel issue with FLOCK cameras has just arisen at the Will County Sheriff’s Office. * Tribune | A Pike County farm is patient zero for a ‘rapid kill’ soybean disease. Solutions prove elusive: The fungus causing red crown rot has infected soybeans and peanuts in parts of the South since the 1970s. One could assume it traveled north after decades. But according to genetic research published this month by the American Phytopathological Society, Illinois’ samples of red crown rot were “most likely not” due to the spread of fungi from the southeastern U.S. Experts don’t yet agree on how the disease travels. Some suspect it might be transferred by air, others by contaminated soil. But research is still in the early stages. * WCBU | Tazewell County dispatchers will need to make their pitch for pay increase ‘behind closed doors’: “We’ll do this through collective bargaining in good faith behind closed doors,” said Kahl, who is also East Peoria’s mayor. “And we need to do this sooner than later.” The TC3 dispatchers say they’re overworked and underpaid in their stressed-filled jobs. They say the low pay and long hours have caused dispatchers to leave and made it more difficult to recruit new ones. * Illinois Times | Downtown water main break update: City officials said Friday afternoon a faulty pipe may have been the cause of the main water line break that shut down water and electricity for numerous businesses in downtown Springfield on Thursday evening. The city’s water division manager, Todd LaFountain, said he was alerted by the water purification plant around 5:30 p.m. of “some suppressive pressure in the downtown area.” * Illinois Times | Springfield City Council to consider ShotSpotter renewal: In 2023, the council signed on for another three years for a total of $870,188. However, some research has found the technology doesn’t help to reduce crime. A 2021 MacArthur Justice Center study of ShotSpotter’s use in Chicago found the “vast majority of alerts generated by the system turn up no evidence of gunfire or any gun-related crime.” * NPR | NPR spent 2 years tracking deaths from heat: From 2004 to 2018, the national number of heat-related deaths compiled by the CDC was low: on average, around 700 a year. The number has crept up in recent years, averaging around 1,700 but sometimes topping 2,000, as heat risks grow and counting strategies evolve. But even that number is an underestimate, according to NPR and BU’s analysis. On average between 2018 and 2025, we estimate that some 9,000 deaths each year in the country are impacted by heat — a factor of five higher than the official average over that same period. * WIRED | Inside Meta’s Push to Put Robots to Work in Data Centers: META IS TESTING robots that can plug in cables, reset servers, and handle other tasks inside its data centers, according to several current and former workers familiar with the projects. The ongoing effort, which has not been previously reported, may eventually allow Meta to operate its rapidly expanding data center footprint with fewer humans, keeping labor costs in check as its spending on AI infrastructure soars. * Bloomberg | AI Billionaire-Backed Group Launches Pro-Data Center Ad Blitz: The ad campaign will initially focus on Kansas, Ohio and Wisconsin, where public concerns about data centers have consumed statewide elections, according to a statement Monday from Build American AI, an advocacy group backed by pro-AI super political action committee Leading the Future.
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