* ICYMI: Illinois moving forward with closing Logan women’s prison, rebuilding it at Stateville prison site near Joliet. Tribune…

- The Illinois Department of Corrections said Friday it’s moving forward with a plan to shut down a women’s prison in central Illinois and rebuild it south of Chicago, near the site of another prison being shuttered.
- The announcement follows through on a 2024 plan from Gov. JB Pritzker to replace two aging, deteriorating prisons — Stateville Correctional Center, a maximum-security facility near Joliet and Logan Correctional Center, the women’s prison located 130 miles south near Lincoln. Under the plan, both institutions would be rebuilt on or near Stateville’s current site.
- Shutting down Logan would be another blow to the Lincoln area after the closures of Lincoln College and Lincoln Christian University, and other businesses and facilities over the years. The state, however, is now reusing a portion of what was the Lincoln Developmental Center, a compound for developmentally disabled adults that was closed years ago, as a juvenile justice facility.

* Related stories…

• WGLT: Lincoln and Logan County officials slam state plans to close Logan Correctional Center
• WAND: IL plans new Crest Hill prisons to replace Logan Correctional Center
• Capitol City Now: IL plans new Crest Hill prisons to replace Logan Correctional Center

* Gov. JB Pritzker has no public events scheduled today.

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* WGLT | Trump administration blocks wind farm development in Illinois and across the nation: Billions of dollars in wind farm projects all over Illinois are on hold, including two projects in McLean County, two in Peoria County, and one in Tazewell County. […] “In total, we’re seeing a delay of $2 billion in private development, 2,849 megawatts, 800 turbines, which would generate enough energy for 400,000-plus houses, 2,000 construction jobs, an estimate of $160 million to landowners,” said Simpson.

* Daily Herald | Video gambling revenue collections continue to grow for local governments: Municipalities and counties that allow video gambling saw their collective share of revenue generated by the devices grow by more than $7.6 million in 2025. The combined $160 million distributed to the nearly 1,100 local governments last year represents a 5% increase in collections from the previous year, according to Illinois Gaming Board records.

* Capitol News Illinois | Now-cleared ‘Broadview 6’ immigration protesters seek evidence of White House pressure to indict: In a filing late Thursday afternoon, defense attorneys asked U.S. District Judge April Perry for permission to conduct discovery to reveal communications and any other evidence that would explain how the group went from six protesters among a crowd of hundreds and to those defendants facing a rare felony conspiracy charge. They also indicated their intention to seek evidence of what they called a “cover-up” of the alleged prosecutorial misconduct from the former lead assistant U.S. attorney on the case, which was only discovered in the eleventh hour before trial when Perry read unredacted transcripts from prosecutors’ multi-day efforts to secure an indictment from grand jurors.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Injustice Watch | Illinois tax sales get an overhaul, but how much will homeowners benefit?: In an email, Kileen Lindgren, senior state policy manager at Pacific Legal Foundation — the public interest law firm that successfully argued the case leading to the 2023 high court ruling — said the bill included the most essential reform elements. The “processes are still more complicated in Illinois than other states, but [the bill creates] a clear path for owners to obtain” equity, she wrote. Still, lawmakers didn’t adopt reforms implemented in other states that better protect homeowners that were outlined in a March article by the Investigative Project and Injustice Watch. An analysis of the reform bill also shows that it fails to guarantee former homeowners will receive any equity back and also dumps additional fees and potentially higher interest rates on Cook County residents digging themselves out of tax delinquency.

* Capitol News Illinois | Welch not on speaking terms with ousted Rep. Fred Crespo: “Fred Crespo hasn’t taken any initiative to come see me as the speaker of the House,” Welch said. “Fred Crespo has seen me on elevators, in the hall. He doesn’t even speak to me as a member of this body. He has every right to come talk to me and apologize to me, apologize to our caucus, apologize to his district. He hasn’t done any of that.” […] Crespo told us he doesn’t know what he did wrong and didn’t know Welch wanted him to apologize. He said his budget project and plan to file it as a bill is part of the process. Lawmakers routinely file bills for the House Rules Committee to consider — most of them go nowhere.

* Daily Herald | What’s next for Pritzker’s stalled housing plan?: In a news conference after the General Assembly adjourned, Pritzker said he’ll continue to fight for BUILD. He noted the new state budget includes hundreds of millions of dollars for housing initiatives. “We need more housing in the state,” he told reporters. “And it isn’t just low-income housing, it’s also middle housing … housing for working families and middle-class families they cannot get today because of policies in individual communities (and) higher interest rates and higher costs of everything.”

* ABC Chicago | Independent Illinois governor candidate faces ballot challenge from Darren Bailey campaign: Independent candidates for governor face stricter ballot access requirements than candidates from established parties, needing five times as many signatures on their nominating petitions. Corbett submitted more than 37,000 signatures last month and must have at least 25,000 deemed valid to qualify.

* WGLT | Family advocates praise Illinois bill that gives parents more transparency in child abuse investigations: Novick said pediatricians don’t always indicate whether they are reporting findings to the Department of Children and Family Services [DCFS] that could lead to parents not seeing the reports, or knowing their legal rights until the day of the trial. Novick said the bill would change that “by causing the pediatrician to indicate what they’re really doing there” and tell the parents about their right to a second opinion.

* Truthout | Bleeding Behind Bars Is Extra Grim When Prisons Fail to Offer Menstrual Products: “Why are they doing women like this? Are we the weaker sex?” Mishunda Davis told Truthout in a call from Logan Correctional Center, Illinois’s largest women’s prison. In 2022, the state passed legislation making menstrual products free for anyone incarcerated in Illinois prisons. Despite the law, Davis and others run out each month. […] Now, a growing national movement for menstrual equity has included advocacy for people who menstruate behind bars. Miriam Vishniac, researcher and co-founder of The Prison Flow Project, told Truthout that, according to March 2025 data, there were 22 states with laws that “said they would give some amount [of menstrual products] for free to everyone.” Despite the progress, Vishniac said, there’s still a lack of information around how these laws are being implemented. “There are rules that say things should be happening, and then no monitoring or enforcement is ever talked about.”

* News Herald | The Bears didn’t know ‘how to count,’ Illinois senator says of failed stadium push: Speaking to the Illinois Press Association, state Sen. David Koehler (D-Peoria) explained why the Bears’ proposal failed using a simple rule of Springfield politics. “You’ve got to learn how to count,” he said. “You got to count to 30 in the Senate and 60 in the House. When you do that, you can probably pass a bill. Well, the Bears didn’t know how to count.” The Bears’ proposal passed the House but faced a fatal problem in the Senate: 28 Chicago-area legislators — House members and senators combined — said they wouldn’t vote to remove the team from the city.

*** Chicago ***

* Sun-Times | Mayor Johnson’s campaign fund to return donation from IT consultant hammered by City Hall’s inspector general: The $250 contribution to Friends of Brandon Johnson was given by Robert Blackwell Jr. in 2025 as the inspector general was investigating his technology company, EKI-Digital, and a questionable $9.6 million bill it wanted Chicago taxpayers to pay.

* Tribune | A shot to fix Chicago’s parking meter deal? Aldermen test chances amid sale.: Several council members are attempting to find ways to force Stonepeak Partners, a New York investment firm aiming to buy the much-loathed lease from Chicago Parking Meters LLC, to at least tweak the terms. Chicago drivers who are looking at decades of ever-increasing parking rates — with the money continuing to go into the pockets of a private company rather than the city’s coffers — would cheer any change in their favor.

* Sun-Times | Half of Chicago school board candidates are facing challenges, but powerful CTU says it didn’t file any: Jessica Biggs, who is running for president and currently represents parts of the South Side, is the only non-CTU affiliated incumbent facing a challenge. Biggs considers herself an independent. Meanwhile, Jennifer Custer is the only presidential candidate who has a secure place on the ballot. Custer, who represents the Far Northwest Side, was backed by the CTU in 2024 but has split from the union. Overall, more than half of the 51 candidates running to be on Chicago’s first fully elected school board are facing challenges, according to a list posted by the Chicago Board of Elections Thursday, two days after the deadline to submit them.

* NBC Chicago | Tributes pour in for city employee struck and killed while biking in Chicago: O’Niel was helping lead both the city’s school zone safety work and bus priority projects before he was killed, Powe said in a post on Reddit. He also led CDOT’s bike parking program for years and “completely transformed it,” Powe said. “He cared deeply about making biking, rolling, walking, and riding better for everyone,” Powe said.

* WBEZ | As Airbnbs explode near the Obama Center, housing advocates say affordable units are disappearing: WBEZ obtained data on housing units licensed for short-term rentals from the Chicago Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection via the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. Comparing licenses expiring in 2019, the first full year of available data, with licenses expiring this year, WBEZ found the city, overall, has seen a 38% decrease in shared housing licenses. But the 20th Ward has seen a 46% increase during the same span.

* Sun-Times | No idling by diesel trucks and buses? That’s the law in Chicago and statewide but with almost no enforcement: Yet, in the nearly 20 years the law has been in effect, it’s almost never been enforced, a WBEZ and Chicago Sun-Times review has found. Over that period, the Chicago Police Department and the Cook County sheriff’s office each has issued just one citation. […] Former state Rep. Elaine Nekritz, D-Northfield, cosponsored the measure at Urbaszewski’s urging. Told how seldom the law is enforced, she laughed. “That’s more in line with what I might have expected,” said Nekritz, who spent 14 years in the Illinois House. Nekritz said she has reported violations herself.

* Sun-Times | Chicago cop faces firing after passing test to join horseback unit while sidelined with ‘unbearable’ injury: Officer David Ross was on medical leave, purportedly recovering from a knee injury sustained during an on-duty crash, when he took the exam in 2023 — successfully climbing onto a horse, lifting five bales of hay and moving a 1,200 pound dumpster, records show.

* Tribune | In unusual move, Chicago school board reinstates teacher accused of pushing student: The teacher pushed Denym out of the office, slammed the door behind her and berated the assistant principal, district documents show. Denym was shoved so hard that she nearly fell, and she was later diagnosed with a chronic back strain, her mother told the Tribune. The following day, the teacher was put on leave pending an investigation. After a monthslong investigation and hearing process, Chicago Public Schools leaders recommended in August 2024 that the school board approve her firing. But board members rejected administrators’ guidance, voting in February to reinstate the teacher. It was only the second time in at least a decade that the Chicago Board of Education had overruled a termination in a public vote.

* WGN | Mayoral candidate Susana Mendoza talks teen takeovers, Bears stadium, SAFE-T Act, more: Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza joins John Williams to talk about why she wants to be the next mayor of Chicago. Comptroller Mendoza tells John why she decided to get into this race, the major issues that she thinks that need to be addressed including the importance of growing the economic base of the city, how she plans to handle teen takeovers, what she would do to keep the Bears in Chicago, if she believes Chicago should be a sanctuary city, and why she wants to amend the SAFE-T Act.

* Tribune | Chicago — with no World Cup games — gives the US team a final send-off in a loss to Germany at Soldier Field: The city passed on the opportunity to host World Cup games at Soldier Field when the U.S. was bidding to host the event in 2018. At the time, a spokesperson for then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel criticized FIFA’s “inflexibility and unwillingness to negotiate” and stated that further pursuing a bid was not in Chicago’s best interest. So Chicago — which hosted the opening ceremony when the U.S. last staged the World Cup in 1994 — was left with no World Cup games. Instead, Kansas City is the only Midwestern city hosting. Of the 104 total games in the tournament, 78 will be played in the U.S., including the final match July 19 at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Daily Southtown | Robbins Mayor Darren Bryant seeks to attract data center at dormant trash incinerator site: Bryant said plans could include a 16.5 acre data center built vertically, but discussions are still in the discovery stage, and the project requires the village to approve a zoning change. The biggest barrier, he said, will be figuring out how to power the site. Duggan, the property owner, said Commonwealth Edison officials told him it would be five to seven years before the utility could possibly deliver power to the site. ComEd also required Duggan to pay a $5 million downpayment as part of new requirements by the Illinois Commerce Commission.

* Daily Southtown | Video, texting and noises among south suburban concerns on school cellphone ban: For Bremen High School District 228, the state legislation does not require much change, as the district passed a policy requiring phones to be away in classrooms more than two years ago. Ryan Blackwell, assistant principal for teaching and learning, said that in those two years, Bremen High School found a successful solution: phone lockers. The school purchased the lockers for $15,000 through Amazon using Title I funds, which are federal grants given to schools with high numbers or high percentages of children from low-income families, Blackwell said.

* Aurora Beacon-News | Aurora City Council will vote on ethics proposal June 9, Mayor John Laesch says: Under the proposed regulations, those who are doing business with the city or looking to would be prevented from donating more than $1,500 per year to city elected officials or those running for city office. It would also expand economic interest disclosures required of candidates, elected officials and certain city employees.

* Daily Herald | ‘In a growth mode’: Film studio opens in Hanover Park amid statewide production boom: The high-tech studio at 1555 Hunter Road opened earlier this year for test shoots and smaller productions. It hosted its full grand-opening celebration Friday. “Virtual production is very up-and-coming in the film industry,” said Connor Rowan, who co-founded Forge with Drew English. “We’re sort of at the tip of the iceberg, and it opens up so many different opportunities.”

*** Downstate ***

* WCIA | Champaign Co. Chief Deputy Circuit Clerk indicted for federal wire fraud: Prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of Illinois announced that Titianna Ammons was indicted on three counts for allegedly defrauding the U.S. Department of Labor and Illinois Department of Employment Security. Ammons, the daughter of Champaign County Clerk Aaron Ammons and State Representative Carol Ammons, previously served as the representative for District 11 on the Champaign County Board. The indictment explains that the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District temporarily employed Ammons from July to September of 2020. Once her time there ended, Ammons applied for unemployment benefits that, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, had been expanded under a presidential disaster proclamation.

* Illinois Times | National parks crisis hits home: “The rangers and their supervisors at Lincoln Home are now extremely limited in the conversations and activities they can take part in,” says Mitchell. “I’ve been at meetings with them and they’ve said, ‘We can’t participate in that upcoming meeting,’ in public discussions they think will dabble into the discussions of race and violence.” Hunter says he’s observed the same thing. The Lincoln Home’s website has also been affected. While national parks used to control their own websites, the federal government now controls them and makes sure they meet the president’s standards, according to a May 1, 2026, article by Politico’s E&E News. According to missingparkhistory.org, the Lincoln Home website used to have information about “efforts to conserve the natural world, preserve wilderness and control pollution,” but that was removed after January 2025.

* 25News Now | Normal eyes rules for battery energy storage systems: Rivian is hooking up with Normal on energy storage, but the town government is studying the issue on a much larger scale. Last week, the Normal Planning Commission recommended zoning regulations for Battery Energy Storage Systems, also known as BESS. The proposed ordinance comes as Rivian expressed interest in building a battery energy storage system near its manufacturing plant in Normal. “Rivian asked us about doing some battery storage out of their plant, because they have batteries for one thing, and they also have a lot of energy needs,” said Mercy Davison, Normal’s planning and zoning director.

* WSIL | Murphysboro Prepares for Annual Big Muddy Monster Festival Celebrating Local Legend: The festival, inspired by the reported 1973 Big Muddy Monster sightings, will transform the city’s historic downtown into a hub for visitors interested in local legends and unexplained phenomena. From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., the intersection of 13th and Walnut streets will host an open-air cryptid market featuring vendors and limited-edition festival merchandise. Attendees can also participate in a downtown shop hop, enjoy themed food and drink specials, compete in an ice cream eating contest at Small Town Scoop, and take part in a special craft activity at Miranda’s Loom.

* Illinois Times | ISP foundation acquires former bank building: A new public space in downtown Springfield for people to learn about history will be located in a former bank building. It will tell stories of the 74 Illinois State Police officers who have died in the line of duty and display unique ISP artifacts such as uniforms, old equipment and a fleet of eight vintage squad cars.

*** National ***

* AP | Judge halts Trump administration efforts to impose conditions on SNAP: A federal judge on Friday sided with 20 Democratic states and halted an effort by the Trump administration to force states to comply with a range of conditions to get billions of dollars from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. U.S. District Judge Myong Joun granted a preliminary injunction in the lawsuit challenging the conditions for getting SNAP funding. Among them are restrictions related to “gender ideology,” “immigration,” and “fair athletic opportunities” for women and girls. The judge said he would issue a memorandum later explaining his decision.

* Heat Map | Americans Now Overwhelmingly Oppose New Data Centers Near Them: At least seven in 10 Americans would now oppose a data center being built near their home, according to a new Heatmap Pro poll, a record low that reveals a staggering shift in public opinion against the facilities powering the artificial intelligence boom. The survey, conducted by Embold Research, finds that an outright majority of Americans are now strongly opposed to data center construction in their area. Young people, Democrats, and rural voters are more hostile to the projects, but they are broadly unpopular with Americans across geographic and political categories.

* Inquirer | You hate data centers. They think you could be a terrorist or Chinese dupe.: Last Thursday, the Republicans on Capitol Hill who lead the House Energy and Commerce Committee sent a letter to Trump regime officials urging an investigation into whether China — as part of a 21st century nuclear arms race to become the planet’s dominant AI force — is secretly funding all these farmers and suburban moms fighting data centers. […] Also last week, The Intercept reported on a document — later confirmed by The Inquirer — from the Delaware Valley Intelligence Center, which is hosted by the Philadelphia Police Department, that revealed that cops are sifting through social-media posts by anti-data center activists, convinced they pose a newfangled terror threat.

* The Root | Why Democrats’ New Strategy to Win the House Could Leave Black Voters Behind: Some Democratic strategists argue that concentrating Black voters in a small number of districts has the potential to make surrounding districts more favorable to Republicans. Others say weakening majority-Black districts risks diluting Black political power and reducing the number of Black elected officials in Congress, The Root also reported. The tension reflects a broader debate over whether maximizing Democratic seats and maximizing minority representation always align.

* WaPo | House bill rolls back food aid for pregnant women, children: By a vote of 213-210, the House passed an appropriations measure to fund the Agriculture Department among other agencies. The bill, which the Senate has yet to consider, aims to cut about 1.5 percent from overall federal agriculture spending in fiscal 2027, according to Republicans. Four House Democrats voted with Republicans to pass the measure, while five Republicans voted against it. Under the legislation, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children — more commonly known as WIC — would lose $141 million in funding for fruit and vegetable benefits for the nearly 5.4 million children and pregnant and postpartum women enrolled, according to an estimate from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.