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Isabel’s morning briefing
Wednesday, Sep 2, 2026 - Posted by Isabel Miller * ICYMI: S&P upgrades Illinois’ credit rating. Crain’s…
- It’s the ratings agency’s first upgrade of Illinois’ debt in three years. S&P joins Moody’s, which upgraded the state’s debt last week and issued its second upgrade in a year. - S&P cited the state’s rainy day fund of about $2.5 billion and better-than-expected budget performance for the year ended June 30, despite negative impacts from federal tax law changes. * Related stories… * Gov. JB Pritzker has no public events scheduled today. * Cook County Record | IL prescription drug ‘affordability’ law conflicts with fed law, judge says: A federal judge has shelved Illinois’ new so-called Prescription Drug Affordability Act, finding the state law almost certainly conflicts with federal law by burdening organizations that help insurers manage prescription drug benefits with extensive additional reporting mandates that the judge said would unconstitutionally compete with federal rules. On Aug. 31, U.S. District Judge Colleen Lawless entered an injunction, blocking Illinois state officials from enforcing the PDAA law, saying its reporting requirements are preempted by the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA.) * Capitol News Illinois | Judge orders federal logging project halted in Shawnee National Forest: A federal judge this week ordered the U.S. Forest Service to suspend a commercial logging project in southern Illinois’ Shawnee National Forest, finding the 2024 approval of the project under President Joe Biden violated the Endangered Species Act. The agency improperly approved the project in October 2024 without waiting for a final “biological opinion” from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, an East St. Louis judge ruled Monday. That opinion, which was completed six weeks after the Forest Service approved the logging project, identified the roughly 70-acre project area as home to the federally protected Indiana bat. * CBS Chicago | NITA replaces RTA as Chicago area’s mass transit oversight agency: “A lot of the reforms and the deadlines have been included in the NITA Act,” Vaishnav said. “They have already put in a lot of requirements to keep us on track.” Safety on transit it one of the biggest concerns for riders, but one highly anticipated safety program is not starting on Tuesday as originally planned. The $9.6 million Safe Ride Specialist pilot program is now expected to launch in the coming weeks. * Sun-Times | Did Trump detain the ‘worst of the worst’ in Chicago last fall?: During Operation Midway Blitz, 85% of the immigrants who were held had no prior criminal conviction, a Chicago Sun-Times / WBEZ analysis finds. Federal immigration agents often were more successful at detaining serious criminals in the months before and after the high-profile deportation campaign than during it. * Sun-Times | Mayoral candidates decry Chicago violence ‘crisis,’ even as summer murders hit 61-year low: Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, the best-financed mayoral candidate, pointed to shootings last weekend in an X posting: “Gun violence is more than a statistic, it’s a public health crisis that is cutting too many lives short.” U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley, talking up his mayoral qualifications on WBEZ two weeks ago, said Chicago faced a “public safety crisis” and claimed falsely that homicides were on the rise: “They’re dipping back up, obviously.” * NBC Chicago | Better connections, more frequent service coming to Chicago-area transit, leaders say: “We really want to make that connection seamless. And to be able to do that, we are focusing on inter-agency hubs, whether that’s Midway, Jefferson Park, Crystal Lake. These are places where we know a lot of riders transfer between services,” he said. Over the next couple years, NITA will put one service plan in place for the whole region. Another focus will be on how often the buses and trains come. * ABC Chicago | Community advocates call for environmental health assessment for South Chicago Chapel: The community organizers said they want to know more about that infestation. They’re calling for a comprehensive investigation making 15 demands, including full testing of the HVAC system and then a written report explaining whether the building is safe to enter. South Chicago Chapel is shut down, but the organizers call this request an urgent public health concern. They’re asking for written confirmation from leaders here at City Hall. * The Real Deal | Illinois Comptroller Mendoza keeps fiscal turnaround at center of Chicago mayoral pitch: Mendoza’s platform focuses on affordability and fiscal discipline, aiming to “fix the math at City Hall”— a major talking point in the election that plays to her strengths as the state’s CFO. The city’s property taxes will also be a closely followed topic; Mendoza proposed fixing them with a graduated tax system in her 2019 campaign before later dropping the plan. She cited rising construction costs, bureaucratic delays, rigid space mandates and excessive fees as issues holding back development in Chicago. TRD asked Mendoza about housing policy, the office market and business revival. * CBS Chicago | Illinois law cracking down on idling drivers near O’Hare back in motion: “The other night there were 30-some odd cars parked on just what we could see within eyesight,” said Rep. Brad Stephens (R-Norridge). It’s a problem Stephens has been trying to stop for years. He passed the O’Hare Driver Safety Act, but a key part was missing. The cameras were supposed to be installed last year, but lawmakers accidentally left the Illinois Department of Transportation out of the legislation. So, they had to go back to Springfield and fix it, pushing the rollout back another year. * Block Club | Aquarium Smokers Are A Chicago Barbecue Mystery: For the last 23 years, Adams has cooked on aquarium smokers like the one at Honey 1 BBQ, 746 E. 43rd St. in Bronzeville. While traditional smokers have metal sides, aquarium smokers have doors made from tempered glass that let chefs peer in at the meat as it bathes in fragrant smoke. The contraptions are unique to Chicago’s barbecue tradition, populating nearly every classic barbecue restaurant across the South and West sides. * Sun-Times | Illinois suburbs halt Flock use, suspend officers and review policy amid alleged improper use: Homer Glen announced Monday that it was suspending the use of Flock cameras within its borders pending an investigation after a Will County sheriff’s deputy was placed on administrative leave amid allegations he misused the database of license plate-tracking data. * ABC Chicago | Naperville City Council votes to ban kratom sales: The Naperville City Council voted 8-0 to ban the sale of natural and synthetic kratom, despite objections from some who said natural versions of the substance provide health benefits. The ordinance removes kratom products from store shelves in Naperville. However, it allows people age 18 and older to possess and consume the substance. * Daily Herald | No guarantee: DuPage clerk won’t commit to using $665,000 for election printing and postage: ohnson said the clerk’s office needs at least an additional $1.2 million, including the $665,000 the board approved Tuesday, to run a successful general election. “You want $1.2 million and a blank check,” Conroy shot back when Johnson referred to the shortfall. “That will never happen.” Board member Mary FitzGerald Ozog characterized the clerk’s actions as “retribution.” * Muddy River News | Quincy City Council grapples with solar farms: Adlerman Eric Entrup (R-Ward 1) announced a plan to avoid the neighborhood squabbles that have bubbled up recently over solar projects being shoehorned into properties with a special use permit. It’s actually amending the existing city code, Chapter 162.030, to establish a special use permit with conditions for commercial solar energy properties in a RU-1 or rural zoning district. He made a motion to send the amendment to the city’s plan commission, which was seconded and approved by the full council during Monday night’s weekly meeting. * WCIA | Officials discuss Bank of Springfield Center expansion, 3% hotel tax: The Springfield Metropolitan Exposition and Auditorium Authority held a special board meeting at the Bank of Springfield Center Monday to discuss a possible expansion project for the center. State Representative Mike Coffey, who also serves as chairman of the SMEAA, said that the board is 100% behind the expansion, and Springfield officials are actively re-thinking how they will pay for planned renovations. This comes after a plan to pay for the project fell short in the state legislature. * WGLT | State and federal emergency managers tour storm damage as county officials seek aid: “We’re really at that beginning step and these damage assessments are a necessary step in that process,” said Kim Keblish, a spokesperson for the Federal Emergency Management Agency [FEMA]. Representatives from FEMA, the Illinois Emergency Management Agency [IEMA], the U.S. Small Business Administration [SBA] and the McLean County Emergency Management Agency were going door-to-door in Bloomington-Normal on Tuesday to compile new claims and verify existing ones. * WCBU | Pekin grade school district gives bus company an ultimatum to fix student transportation problems: One consequence for failing to meet that deadline would be termination of the district’s five-year contract with the Alltown, which includes a $4.8 million payment in the first year. Parent Matthew Johnson, one of four public speakers at the board’s emergency meeting in the Washington Intermediate School cafeteria, supported the board’s action. “This company has a five-year contract with the district and they didn’t make it to Day 1,” he said. “The board needs to hold their feet to the fire. What’s happened is a catastrophic failure of the education process.” * WGLT | Amid investigation and lawsuit, Bloomington Police officer files for retirement: The announcement comes amid an internal investigation and federal lawsuit into Williams’ alleged conduct. The lawsuit alleges Williams violated the rights of two Bloomington DoorDash drivers during a June traffic stop. The City of Bloomington is a co-defendant. The plaintiffs’ attorney, Jared Kosoglad of Chicago, said Williams’ retirement does not absolve him from the lawsuit, on which he is named as an individual.
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- factory worker - Wednesday, Sep 2, 26 @ 8:17 am:
this Amy briel stuff is crazy. what else is going on that we don’t know about?
- Irreverent - Wednesday, Sep 2, 26 @ 8:29 am:
Paul Williams belongs in prison. Grayson’s cell is open now. Tired of taxpayers having to cover malfeasance from cops who never have to see a single meaningful consequence in their lives.
- lake county democrat - Wednesday, Sep 2, 26 @ 9:03 am:
The flock article shows the kind of bias in journalism that is common but irritating as heck. Take this passage “Law enforcement officials say Flock’s system helps crack cases by allowing them to easily pinpoint crime suspects. But for Illinois State Police’s nearly 600 license plate readers — which are made and managed by Chicago-based Motorola Solutions — less than 3% of the more than 3 billion vehicles they scanned over the last year were flagged for investigations.” This statistic doesn’t undermine the argument that the cameras “help pinpoint crime suspects” in the least, and the writer knows it. Of course out of the legions of vehicles that drive every day down a busy road only a tiny percentage are suspects fleeing a crime. The remaining points about police departments violating state laws restricting their use are valid and that’s a debate we should have, but don’t try to make a fly-by point that the cameras aren’t effective with an irrelevant statistic.
- Excitable Boy - Wednesday, Sep 2, 26 @ 9:25 am:
- but don’t try to make a fly-by point that the cameras aren’t effective with an irrelevant statistic. -
I think the point is questioning whether collecting data on millions of drivers is really worth it given the potential for abuse and mistakes. I haven’t seen any hard data that Flock actually lowers crime rates.
- Grandson of Man - Wednesday, Sep 2, 26 @ 9:46 am:
Illinois is rolling with the fiscal improvement. Surely praise from the eternal Illinois critics is forthcoming. It’ll come right after their criticism of tariffs, trade wars, weak national job growth, federal debt and self-inflicted inflation. Surely it will. /s
- Ricochet - Wednesday, Sep 2, 26 @ 9:58 am:
3% of 3 billion is 90 million vehicles. Some is flagging 90 million vehicles per year for investigation?? That number is so large that it seems useless for the ISP. Does anyone know how these investigations work?
- Mason County - Wednesday, Sep 2, 26 @ 10:28 am:
=Fox Chicago: Illinois earns highest credit rating in 15 years: what Moody’s upgrade means for taxpayers=
Pritzker deserves the credit for this.
- Occasionally Moderated - Wednesday, Sep 2, 26 @ 10:40 am:
Ricochet- 90 million seems high to me too.
ISP is not flagging that many vehicles. This number may include vehicles flagged for investigation by other agencies. Stolen cars, warrants, vehicles that agencies want held for investigations, even vehicles with suspended license plates or drivers who are suspended or revoked. Since nearly every crime has a travel phase where evidence of the crime is transported, nearly every offense you can imagine could possibly have a license plate flagged for investigation. This license plate data can be entered by any agency and alert the owner of the alpr camera that the system believes it has detected a suspicious vehicle. It is then up to the officer to determine if the vehicle is in fact the correct vehicle as license plates, after all, “ABC123” likely exists in many states. It is not a unique identifier. It then must be determined if probable cause exists to stop the vehicle. Depending on a wide range of circumstances some times an officer may have a justifiable reason to stop the vehicle, other times the officer will not. It is up to they officer to investigate whether the information is correct. After all, the first step of any investigation is to determine if a crime has been committed. This is a report of a crime in a way and must be investigated just the same.
Since Motorola came up here, I’d like to make the point that Motorola and Flock’s operating systems and the way they handle and safeguard data are as different as night and day. Motorola records every inquiry an officer makes and that info never goes away. Motorola requires auditing of officers use age not only by the agency that he works for but also any data that the officer uses that came from another agency can be audited by the agency whose data the officer accessed. The Motorola system is much more robust in terms of determining abuse. It requires training. It requires over site. It is a shame that Flock is putting so much negative light on a tool that is capable of widespread use in a manner that is both legal and ethical if properly executed.
Just like everything else in law enforcement this all depends on proper training, proper supervision and proper discipline for officers breaking the rules. I believe that it is well established in Illinois that improper use of police data bases by officers is grounds for the criminal charge of official misconduct which of course leads to firing.
- Dirty Red - Wednesday, Sep 2, 26 @ 10:42 am:
= Illinois Scores 12th Credit Upgrade Under Gov. Pritzker’s Leadership =
The state budget director is not in the PR, but Alexis deserves credit for championing among the past 20 years of Illinois legislators and Constitutional officers reforming the Rainy Day Fund, the flow of vouchers to Comptroller, retiring medical and UI debt, and making pension system payments. Her OMB Directorship is concurrent with Pritzker’s administration, but she is also someone rating agency analysts have relied on since at least her first IOC tenure.
Illinois got these upgrades before this debt sale in this bond market. That doesn’t just happen. Well done!
- lake county democrat - Wednesday, Sep 2, 26 @ 10:50 am:
EB - the article goes into potential for abuse right after the part I quoted, but the writer isn’t raising cost/benefit, they’re challenging the police’s claim the camera’s *are* helpful with the statistic. As another commenter implies, they might have a logical argument that the cameras provide so much info it can’t be processed effectively (though my understanding is that there are “levels” to this - e.g., imagine a situation where the Fourth of July Highland Park shooter was on the run vs. a colder case). I just think the article reeks of the writer looking for something to undermine the effectiveness claim itself and using a ridiculous stats about how *few* cars are flagged to make it.
As to the main debate, my thinking is their should be guardrails and severe penalties for using the cameras, but I don’t see the privacy concerns outweighing the potential, especially in crisis situations.
- Occasionally Moderated - Wednesday, Sep 2, 26 @ 10:56 am:
==I think the point is questioning whether collecting data on millions of drivers is really worth it given the potential for abuse and mistakes.==
No alpr collects data on drivers. It creates a searchable database of license plates which were displayed on vehicles traveling past a map dot on a public road.
==I haven’t seen any hard data that Flock actually lowers crime rates.==
There are truck loads of examples of using alpr data to solve crimes. One of the best is right here in Illinois where ISP used interstate cameras to cool the spate of gang related expressway shootings. I was part of an incident where I saw that WGN published the license plates of an adult from California that groomed a minor in the Chicago region and the vehicle had not been located. I called a law enforcement friend in Nebraska and the offender was in custody and the victim recovered in less than an hour. At that time alprs were not being used on Illinois interstates. They were in Nebraska. Many Illinois officers were unfamiliar with alpr tech at that time and alpr tech was solely responsible for the recovery of that victim.
There are many more. One of interest is a subject in Florida accused of a plot to assassinate the president. He was in custody in a very short amount of time due to alpr tech that Florida just discontinued.
- Jocko - Wednesday, Sep 2, 26 @ 11:07 am:
==but I don’t see the privacy concerns outweighing the potential==
Tell that to the ex-wives being stalked or cars being flagged by the system as stolen. I don’t want guns drawn on me because of a typo.
- @misterjayem - Wednesday, Sep 2, 26 @ 11:38 am:
Universal warrantless searches might also help cops “crack cases,” but many of us value our actual liberty more than theoretical security.
– MrJM
- Accaisionally Modded - Wednesday, Sep 2, 26 @ 11:40 am:
I commented some of the questions above but comments stuck in moderation. Not sure why this keeps happening, will see if a different user name helps.
- Demoralized - Wednesday, Sep 2, 26 @ 1:05 pm:
==Universal warrantless searches==
You don’t have a right to privacy while you’re out in public.
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Sep 2, 26 @ 1:13 pm:
===You don’t have a right to privacy while you’re out in public. ===
Unless the state says otherwise.
- H-W - Wednesday, Sep 2, 26 @ 1:19 pm:
=== The Naperville City Council voted 8-0 to ban the sale of natural and synthetic kratom, despite objections from some who said natural versions of the substance provide health benefits. ===
Well done, Naperville. The synthetic form almost killed a family member. They got hooked first on the natural form. It is time for more communities (or the state legislature) to step up and save lives.
There are other ways to beat opioid and other addictions (detox, rehab, recovery). Self-prescribing unregulated and impure gas station and tobacco shop drugs is irrational, addictive in its own right, and has already proven deadly. Seeking professional help is the answer. Cashiers are not professionals, and the owners of these shops are profiteers, not counselors or pharmacists.
- Leslie K - Wednesday, Sep 2, 26 @ 1:58 pm:
==I haven’t seen any hard data that Flock actually lowers crime rates.==
This type of technology is about solving crime. There is a difference.
I think Occasionally makes a particularly good point about the difference between Flock specifically, and ALPR technology in general. Flock has been sloppy about controls, access, use. ALPR is a very useful tool, but there needs to be oversight and consequences for misuse.
- Suburban Mom - Wednesday, Sep 2, 26 @ 3:28 pm:
Flock and Motorola, being private companies and not government entities, sell your license plate data.
Motorola does provide more protections against police abuse of the system, but they’re still selling your license plate data to any buyer who wants it. Like say Target wants to know how often different people visit Target so they can more effectively advertise to them. These companies also suck up data from private parking lot cameras at your local supermarket or apartment complex and that’s all compiled as well.
There is no privacy in these systems unless and until they agree to delete all data that is not part of a criminal investigation within 3 days, and to not resell any of the data. Because the way they’re making money is really not on the contracts with the cops, it’s on selling your data to anyone who wants it.
- Leslie K - Wednesday, Sep 2, 26 @ 4:37 pm:
==Like say Target wants to know how often different people visit Target==
Interesting that you would choose Target as an example, since they have been leaders in tracking people. (Yes, they have a picture of you every time you have checked out, and more.)
And three days is an arbitrary and absurdly short timeframe for deletion of data. But I agree there needs to be a legislated standard that is adhered to.