* ICYMI: Cook County considers appeal in case over unconstitutional tax sales. Crain’s…

-Faced with a ruling that Cook County may be liable for the equity homeowners lose when their properties are sold to pay past-due property taxes, Treasurer Maria Pappas is asking to pause the high-profile lawsuit while her office considers an appeal.
- On Friday, Pappas disclosed in a status report that she is “evaluating” whether to appeal U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly’s ruling issued four days earlier.
- In ruling Cook County’s system violates homeowners’ constitutionally protected property rights, Kennelly also dismissed the county’s claim that it’s immune from liability because it is merely acting upon instruction from Illinois state law.

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* At 10:30, Governor Pritzker will sign the Northern Illinois Transit Authority Act. Click here to watch.

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* WGN | Local ‘Worst of the Worst’ list includes serious crimes, also traffic and weed offenses: Five people on the list of Illinois arrestees had convictions for homicide, according to Homeland Security. Others had convictions for sexual assault, rape, driving under the influence and lewd acts with a minor. DHS did not disclose whether those crimes took place locally or out of the country. […] Two people included on the Illinois “worst of the worst” list only have convictions listed for traffic offenses. One man’s only listed conviction is for shoplifting. DHS listed another man’s only conviction as being for marijuana possession.

* Daily Herald | Kane County officials: Police can’t enforce new law banning civil immigration arrests at courthouses: State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser and Sheriff Ron Hain put out a news release Monday about House Bill 1312, which Gov. JB Pritzker signed Dec. 9. They did so after the county board’s judicial and public safety committee suggested last week that the public needed to be educated about the law. Mosser told the committee that the new law allows punishing violators through lawsuits filed by people who believe their arrest violated state laws or the state or federal constitutions. She also said police cannot intervene to stop civil arrests. “So if 911 is called by an individual because of this, there is no crime that is being broken. So the sheriff’s office should not be responding to that situation because there is literally nothing they can do,” Mosser told the committee.

* Illinois fails to collect wages owed to workers in Cook County: No one knows exactly how much money they are collectively owed — not the state, which doesn’t keep data in a way it can be calculated, and not the workers, many of whom tried to forget the amount so the anger doesn’t eat away at them. Across the country, only a fraction of the estimated billions of dollars in wages stolen every year are recovered. Illinois has made efforts to improve collections for workers, but Injustice Watch found the state’s laws are stripped of their power by a slow-moving process, first with the Department of Labor and later with the Attorney General’s Office, which takes the employers to court but fails to use every tool at its disposal to recover wages.

*** Statewide ***

* Tribune | Nearly 23% of Illinois high school students say they drink, according to report: Nearly 23% of Illinois high school students said they drank alcohol within the last 30 days when surveyed in 2021, according to a report released Monday by the Illinois Department of Public Health. Nearly 12% of the teens acknowledged binge drinking — consuming four to five drinks within a couple of hours’ time. The findings are part of a new, first-time report released Monday by the Illinois Department of Public Health that reveals a comprehensive view of alcohol use across the state.

* WGLT | New Illinois Farm Bureau president wants to restore communication and credibility for the venerable organization: The controversy is over the Illinois Farm Bureau’s decision to end a requirement that Country Financial insurance policy holders be members of the Farm Bureau. The AFBF objected to the loss of revenue in shared dues and threatened to expel the Illinois Farm Bureau from the federation. About a year ago, the Illinois Farm Bureau filed a lawsuit to stop that action. Nelson, who farms near Seneca, said resolving those issues is a priority. “I think I need to hear their side of it first. I think the first step is sitting down across the table and talking and seeing where we’re at and then we’ll go from there,” said Nelson.

*** Statehouse News ***

* NBC Chicago | New Illinois law makes cocktails-to-go permanent among other changes: “We thank Gov. Pritzker and applaud the General Assembly for passing Senate Bill 618, which guarantees that alcohol delivery and cocktails-to-go can continue through 2028 and beyond, preserving a vital source of revenue for restaurants across the state,” said Sam Toia, CEO and President of the Illinois Restaurant Association in a statement. According to State Sen. Cristina Castro, the bill will also allow more Illinois distilleries to self-distribute their products, creating a class 3 craft distiller’s license in the state.

* SJ-R | Pritzker ’saddened’ by Australian shooting, in lighting state menorah: Gov. JB Pritzker said he was “saddened beyond belief” by the mass shooting at a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, which left 15 people dead and that he was “angry at those who stoke the embers of a fire that seems to continue to burn in the hearts of bigots everywhere.” Pritzker, along with members of the Jewish community and others, lit the official state menorah on the grounds of the Governor’s Mansion on Dec. 15, the second night of the eight-day festival.

* ABC Chicago | Governor JB Pritzker to sign public transit funding bill: The Northern Illinois Transit Authority will combine CTA, Metra and Pace and allows for the ability to establish a universal fare system and coordinate scheduling between the three agencies. The state says this plan will optimize service, reliability, cleanliness, safety, and coordination among CTA, Metra and Pace.

*** Chicago ***

* Sun-Times | Budget talks stall after offer to drop plan to raise garbage collection fees fails to sway Mayor Johnson: A top mayoral aide said after each participant gave opening remarks, the moderate and conservative alderpersons left the mayor’s office to caucus among themselves and never returned to talk specific numbers. Nor would they identify replacements for the $35 million in anticipated garbage fee revenue and say where they would find the $6.2 million needed to restore youth funding to the levels that Johnson proposed. “They literally witheld that information from me and my team. Never in my life have I ever seen the level and the degree of obstinance coming from a legislative branch,” Johnson said. “What reasonable conclusion we can come to without having a chance to review their proposal [is] that they’re prepared to cut services and personnel. This is short-sighted and, quite frankly, a disappointment because I came to the table with an open mind.”

* Crain’s | Council’s breakaway bloc pushes rival budget while keeping details from the mayor: Earlier in the day, Budget Director Annette Guzman said the administration has not “received anything from this group that backs up why they believe their forecasts are accurate.” “At the end of the day if we don’t get these numbers correct, there are severe consequences. There are contracts that we enter into, there are payroll that we enter into. There are pension obligations that we have obligations to pay, when we are required to pay, and those letters don’t stop coming to us,” she said.

* NBC Chicago | Alders, mayor at a standoff over budget as government shutdown threat nears: Mayor Brandon Johnson said he will “do everything in [his] power” to avoid a government shutdown in the city of Chicago, despite the fact that he and members of City Council still have not reached a 2026 budget deal. “I am not going to allow for our government to be shut down. It is reckless, and, quite frankly, it only hurts working people,” Johnson told reporters late Monday afternoon.

* Sun-Times | Beat Kitchen owner sues city of Chicago over Riverwalk restaurant, cites racial bias: The complaint said city leadership has directed departments to increase opportunities for Black-owned businesses. This led the committee to award a new vendor for the Riverwalk space based on race, violating federal and state law, instead of following the city’s request for proposal process.

* CBS Chicago | Chicago police arresting Black legal gun owners for personal gain, source says: An inside source says some Chicago Police officers are arresting Black, legal gun owners for personal gain, despite them having valid FOID cards and concealed carry licenses. This comes nearly two months after CBS News Chicago uncovered multiple cases in which CPD officers stopped Black gun owners for minor traffic violations and then charged them with felonies, including unlawful gun possession, even though they had legal firearm licenses.

* Sun-Times | DePaul University lays off 114 staff : DePaul was hit hard by the Trump administration’s move to cut down on the number of foreign students studying on American campuses. About 750 fewer international students attended class there over the fall, the Sun-Times has reported. The school also reported a 62% drop in new graduate students from other countries compared to last year. International students typically pay a higher tuition, and their dropping enrollment has squeezed school budgets.

* WTTW | 40% of Jobs Charged with Implementing Chicago’s Court-Ordered Police Reforms Are Vacant, Records Show: Of 439 positions in the Chicago Police Department specifically charged with implementing the court order known as the consent decree, 179 positions, or 40%, were empty at the beginning of December, according to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by WTTW News. Between August and December, Chicago officials filled approximately 30 positions charged with implementing the consent decree, records show.

* Block Club | Tenants Of Crumbling Uptown SRO Building Forced To Leave: ‘People Have Nowhere To Go’: The social workers knocked on doors, with some tenants answering and saying they were unaware of the deadline to leave the building. Others carried their possessions out of the building in shopping carts, milk crates and trash bags. Police showed up around the 10 a.m. deadline to confront a few tenants who refused to leave, unlocking and sometimes breaking doors open.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Chicago Reader | Droning on: Chicagoland law enforcement agencies fly surveillance drones outside the public eye: The Cook County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) missed a state-mandated deadline to report that it owned and operated ten surveillance drones between April 2024 and March 2025, the agency confirms to the Reader. It’s the second time in as many years a Chicago-area law enforcement agency has violated the state’s drone surveillance law, which requires police report to the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority (ICJIA) the time, date, location, and reason for every drone flight. ICJIA then compiles and publishes that information annually in a public report.

* WTTW | Fermilab Announces New Director of National Accelerator Laboratory: Norbert Holtkamp, a veteran of international research organizations, has been named director of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. Holtkamp will take over leadership of the particle accelerator laboratory in suburban Batavia Jan. 12. The decision was announced by the Fermi Forward Discovery Group, the lab’s new management and operations contractor, in a statement to staff members obtained by WTTW News. Staff was expected to be informed at an all-hands meeting Monday.

* Aurora Beacon-News | Aurora’s proposed campaign ethics reform measures moving forward with changes: Under the current proposal, Aurora would cap at $1,500 per year donations made to candidates running for city office from those doing business with the city. It would also expand economic interest disclosures required of candidates and elected officials. Recent changes to the proposal upped the donation limit from the originally-proposed $500 cap, removed further limits on cash donations and removed guidelines on how city property could be used for political purposes.

* Aurora Beacon-News | Kane County considers solar field pitch for vacant former jail site in Geneva: While the proposal is still in its early stages, some county staff and officials are looking at whether a county-owned property off of Fabyan Parkway could be turned into a solar field, sold for development purposes or a combination of both. “This opportunity came to our attention that the land that’s lying fallow at the old jail, like a ghost town, could possibly be producing clean, green energy and revenue and tax revenue for the county,” Kane County Board member Mavis Bates said at a Committee of the Whole meeting on Wednesday, at which the board considered the site’s past and future.

* Daily Southtown | Tinley Park police commander resigns, charged with domestic battery: Tinley Park police Cmdr. Patrick St. John, 54, was charged with domestic battery and violating an order of protection Friday, according to the Cook County sheriff’s office. St. John turned himself in at about 6:15 a.m. Friday and resigned later that day. His retirement will be effective Dec. 19. St. John has been on leave for the past several weeks, said Tinley Park Village Manager Pat Carr. Sheriff detectives said St. John violated an order of protection by trying to contact the victim through a third party. Detectives also said St. John had previously assaulted the victim, according to a sheriff’s office statement.

* Daily Herald | ‘We finally got the ramp open’: Access from tollway to North Avenue a game changer: “For years, congestion on the I-290 interchange limited access from I-294. It created bottlenecks that affected commuters. It affected freight movement, and local businesses.” The ramp, estimated to handle about 5,700 vehicles daily, is expected to open Saturday and could reduce travel times on local roads by up to 65%.

* Tribune | Nativity smashed, Mary figure ‘beaten’ at Evanston church: ‘God’s on the side of the vulnerable’: Friday’s vandalism of the Christmas scene was the second time the Nativity figures have been attacked. At the beginning of December, someone removed Mary and Joseph’s gas masks and the zip ties from baby Jesus’ hands. The heavy post-Thanksgiving snowfall also damaged the Joseph statue, Rev. Michael Woolf, pastor, said at the time, and the church removed it and replaced it with a memorial to victims of unjust immigration enforcement. They also put up a sign saying, “Joseph didn’t make it.”

* Daily Herald | District 214 to spend $25 million on upgrades ahead of potential referendum: The upcoming March 17, 2026, election would have been the soonest the district could have put a question on the ballot, but Rowe and school board members said they want more time to survey the public. In what will be phase three of a community engagement process led by district-hired consultant EO Sullivan, officials plan to do another round of surveys early next year to sample voter appetite on specific projects tied to specific dollar amounts at each school.

*** Downstate ***

* WCIA | Home Illinois awards $2 million to support Springfield homeless system: Haley says that plan has already paid dividends. In Sangamon County, homelessness dropped 4% from 2024 to 2025. But a re-work of federal funds is looking to pay for other solutions. Home Illinois announced it was awarding Sangamon County $2 million in grant money, which more than doubles their total funding. That funding will help improve services and access to permanent housing solutions.

* WGLT | Mental health training continues ramp up in McLean County: Johnston said there’s approval for a $100,000 housing support grant to the Center for Human Services to prevent evictions for 46 families and $190,000 for the Boys and Girls Club for youth programming. The Behavioral Health Coordinating Council, which deals with mental health efforts, also has a new website for the public to engage with. Johnston said the county continues to ramp up training programs for mental health professionals in the community. More than 100 people recently learned how to do what’s called Dialectical Behavioral Therapy [DBT] for people who have extreme difficulties in day-to-day living.

* WCIA | Danville’s Hyster-Yale facility to remain open through 2026, company says: A spokesperson confirmed with WCIA that 220 employees currently work at the Danville Packing and Redistribution Center (PDC), which they said will remain open until the end of 2026. The company did say there will be no “immediate” impact on employees, but they were not yet able to share how many employees will be transferring to the new location in Avon, Ind. They said they gave many of those employees the option to move to that facility.

* Muddy River News | Quincy Mayor says she’s reached out to the White House over mail delivery: Human Rights Commission Chair Mark Philpot said he’s hearing from a growing number of citizens and business owners about concerns over timely mail delivery. He said he’s hearing from elderly neighbors who are concerned about getting medications, and one story in particular raised serious questions in his mind. “I had one member of our community reach out to me and share one of the mail carriers that was delivering mail in the area as late as five, six, or seven in the evening came all the way from Hamilton,” Philpot said. “That person delivered their route in Hamilton and then drove down to Quincy on overtime to help the carriers in Quincy who are currently running short. That is not sustainable.”

* NPR Illinois | New ornament featuring Lincoln at New Salem now available: The nonprofit Illinois Conservation Foundation is featuring Abraham Lincoln at New Salem for this year’s state park holiday ornament. The ornament shows the bronze statue of Lincoln reading on horseback at the site in Menard County. This is the third year for the ornament series that celebrates the natural and cultural history of Illinois.

*** National ***

* Semafor | Why The Washington Post launched an error-ridden AI product: Four Washington Post staff also described mistakes in personalized podcasts ranging from minor pronunciation issues to misattributed or fabricated quotes, as Semafor reported Thursday. The tool also sometimes inserts commentary, they said — for instance, by interpreting a source’s quotes as the paper’s position on an issue. The podcast tool’s prognosis was poor, the review concluded: “Further small prompt changes are unlikely to meaningfully improve outcomes without introducing more risk.” Still, the company’s product review team recommended moving forward with the release, saying it would continue to “iterate through the remaining issues” with the newsroom and would label the tool as a work-in-progress that could generate errors.

* Kut News | The state is making a list of transgender Texans. It’s using driver’s licenses to help.: According to internal documents The Texas Newsroom obtained through records requests, the Texas Department of Public Safety has amassed a list of 110 people who tried to update their gender between August 2024 and August 2025. Employees with driver’s license offices across the state, from El Paso to Paris to Plano, reported the names and license numbers of these people to a special agency email account. Identifying information was redacted from the records released to The Texas Newsroom. The data was collected after Texas stopped allowing drivers to update the gender on their licenses unless it was to fix a clerical error. It is unclear what the state is doing with this information.

* Popular Information | The AI industry’s $100 million play to influence the 2026 elections: The effort, at least at the outset, was nominally bipartisan. LTF indicated it would “back candidates of both parties who support a national framework for artificial intelligence regulations.” In addition to Zac Moffatt, a prominent Republican operative, LTF hired Josh Vlasto, a Democratic operative who has worked for Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. This did not go over well with the Trump White House. “AI has no better ally than President Trump, so it’s inexplicable why any company would put money into the midterms behind a Schumer-operative who is working against President Trump to elect Democrats,” a person “familiar with Trump’s thinking” told NBC News in October. “It’s a slap in the face, and the White House has definitely taken notice.” This shot across the bow appears to be working.

* Reuters | Ford takes $19.5bn hit amid electric vehicle retreat as Trump policies bite: Ford said on Monday it will take a $19.5bn writedown and is killing several electric-vehicle models, in the most dramatic example yet of the auto industry’s retreat from battery-powered models in response to the Trump administration’s policies and weakening EV demand. […] Instead, Ford said it will pivot hard into gas and hybrid models, and eventually hire thousands of workers, even though there will be some layoffs at a jointly owned Tennessee battery plant in the near term. The company expects its global mix of hybrids, extended-range EVs and pure EVs to reach 50% by 2030, from 17% today.