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Isabel’s afternoon roundup
Tuesday, Dec 2, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller * Sun-Times…
* WIFR | Fee added to paint purchases with start of new paint recycling program in Illinois: Those buying paint in Illinois will now pay a little more as part of a state program. The program, provided by nonprofit organization PaintCare, is designed to help households and businesses recycle leftover paint. It went into effect December 1, 2025. […] Under the law, paint manufacturers are required to develop and implement a cost-effective paint stewardship program that reduces the generation of leftover paint, promotes paint reuse and recycling and manages paint waste in an environmentally friendly way. * NBC Chicago | Illinois temporarily suspends road tests at DMV’s due to wintry weather: The Illinois Secretary of State’s Office has temporarily suspended road tests at DMV facilities due to dangerous road conditions. According to the SOS’ office, that suspension was announced on Tuesday morning, citing “unsafe road conditions” after several days of wintry weather that have hammered the state. […] There was no immediate word on when those services would resume. Motorists are urged to check the state’s website for the latest information on test conditions at their local DMV. * Illinois Answers Project | Illinois’ Low-Cost Library Program Takes on the Justice Gap: The need is serious. Researchers report that in Illinois there are just four legal aid lawyers for every 10,000 low-income residents who need one. And most civil litigants without attorneys struggle to access basic court resources. […] Last fall, it partnered with the Chicago Bar Foundation and the Illinois Supreme Court’s Access to Justice Commission (ATJ) to launch the library initiative that puts a $1,000 computer setup in 18 libraries across the state and provides legal training for staff. * Bloomberg | Illinois among states pressing ‘buy now, pay later’ firms for loan details: “Consumers may not realize that buy-now-pay-later loans don’t have the same protections as other loan products,” Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said in a press release. “Individuals who are facing financial hardship or who are new to using loans are especially vulnerable to getting trapped in a cycle of debt, particularly if taking out many buy now, pay later loans. I join my fellow attorneys general in asking that these lenders provide information, so we can determine whether they are complying with consumer protection laws.” * Sun-Times | Krishnamoorthi’s ‘American Dream’ economic plan includes homeowner tax credit, free lunch for kids: Krishnamoorthi’s “Restore the American Dream” plan includes policies for all stages of life — from children to those in retirement. The fundraising leader in the heated race to replace outgoing Sen. Dick Durbin in August unveiled a “Trump accountability plan” for his Senate campaign that includes pushing to restrict ICE agents from wearing masks and introducing constitutional amendments to block self-pardons and a potential presidential term. * 9th CD candidate Daniel Biss has been endorsed by Attorney General Kwame Raoul…
* WTTW | Mayor Johnson Rejects Rival Budget Proposal, Saying It Is $700M Short: “Look, they’re going to have to find 34 alders who can compel working people that they’re gonna balance the budget off of their backs,” Johnson said, vowing to “protect the working people of Chicago” and calling the rival budget proposal “$700 million short.” It would take 34 alderpeople to override a mayoral veto. * Illinois Answers Project | Budget Woes: Mayor, Council Clash Over Programs That Feds Once Paid for That Johnson Wants to Keep — on The City’s Tab: An Illinois Answers Project review of published data, memos and records requests found that Johnson’s budget proposes to shift 62 full-time employees previously backed by ARPA — mostly mental health outreach workers — onto the city’s ledger at a cost of $7 million. The mayor also wants to carry over $26 million in grants for programming related to youth employment, homelessness services, domestic violence programs and support for victims of violent crimes, according to city budget officials. About $10 million of that sum would be shifted to the Corporate Fund, the city’s core operating budget, with about another $13 million diverted to a new Community Safety Fund and the rest moved into a fund backed by cannabis taxes. * Crain’s | Citywide ban on intoxicating hemp up for a vote over Johnson’s objection: The City Council’s License Committee is expected to vote on a measure that would extend current local bans at the neighborhood level to the entire city despite the Johnson administration asking aldermen to pump the brakes. The full City Council would need to approve the measure. As drafted, the ban would begin 10 days after the ordinance is approved. Lead sponsor, Ald. Marty Quinn, 13th, told Crain’s “I’m confident in my roll call.” * ABC Chicago | Chicago residents worry over Cook County property tax increases as payment due soon: Some West Side residents and pastors held a press conference Monday morning, pleading for help, as the Cook County property taxes are due in two weeks. They fear the higher bills could lead to vacant buildings and homelessness. “The people who can least afford to pay are given the highest bills; it means get out of town. We don’t want you in this city,” said the Rev. Marshall Hatch, with New Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church. * Tribune | Actor and director Robert Townsend raises funds for West Side nonprofits with pop-up film fest: Townsend is in Chicago this week to host a pop-up film festival Dec. 6-7 — one that will showcase films significant to him and subsequently raise funds for the Chicago Westside Branch NAACP and The Answer, Inc., the Forest Park-based organization that supports people of color with intellectual or developmental disabilities and their families. Townsend is childhood friends with Karl Brinson, Westside Branch NAACP president, and Debra Vines, CEO and founder of The Answer, Inc. * Crain’s | Chicago Reader names new editor-in-chief: The Chicago Reader has a new leader: Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Sarah Conway, who was just brought on as editor-in-chief for the weekly newspaper, the outlet announced today. Conway, who grew up in Joliet, joins the Reader from City Bureau, where she held roles ranging from managing editor to senior reporter for eight years. She also co-founded and led Borderless Magazine as editorial director for three years while also reporting for City Bureau. It was during her time at City Bureau that she landed the Pulitzer Prize for local reporting, for a series on how Chicago police investigate missing persons cases. * Sun-Times | Chicago overtakes NYC for worst vehicle congestion in the US, survey says: Chicago placed second worst in the world behind only Istanbul. The report said traffic on average is worsening across the globe. “As the demand for vehicular travel continues to grow faster than the supply of roadway[s], traffic congestion and delay[s] tend to grow,” the authors wrote in the report. Chicago drivers saw a 10% increase in 2025 in the average time wasted this year in peak traffic, according to the report. * Tribune | Northwestern deal with Trump administration divides students, faculty: Jackie Stevens, president of Northwestern’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors, noted that a large cohort of faculty feels “ongoing disappointment” about the agreement. She characterized it as both an acquiescence to Trump and a betrayal to academic freedom. “It’s extortion,” Stevens said. “I don’t even think it’s about the $75 million, I think it’s just about the show of power, right?” * Evanston Now | Biss slams NU deal with feds: Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss said he was “disgusted” by terms in Northwestern University’s agreement with the federal government that includes a $75 million payout to close investigations and return funding. In his first statement since the agreement was announced Friday evening, Biss wrote that the Trump administration had “essentially blackmailed Northwestern University … into bending to its will,” by freezing nearly $800 million in federal funding. * Daily Herald | How to enforce ICE ban? Arlington Heights ordinance suggests going to court: “If they violate this, there’ll be documentation and consideration of legal action, but at the same time we just have to acknowledge the reality of this, and we don’t want to lull people into a false sense of security,” Recklaus said. Trustee Wendy Dunnington, who proposed the rules last month, said the board’s unanimous vote shows residents that village officials care about the issue. “We know that people are scared and that immigrants are an important part of our community and that we really value them in Arlington Heights,” she said. * Aurora Beacon-News | Kane County begins to adjust its roadwork plans: One of those moves was an almost $7 million cut in funding for transportation in favor of public safety spending, by way of reallocating some of the Regional Transportation Authority sales tax funds the county receives. It was shortly after followed by a hike in the county’s motor fuel tax to replace that lost revenue. * Daily Herald | Batavia pub gets OK for video gambling, despite being next to two churches: The Batavia City Council approved a conditional-use permit Monday night after a lengthy debate about whether the business is too close to Bethany Lutheran Church and First Congregational Church of Batavia. The council voted 8-6 to approve the measure, with aldermen Tony Malay, Alice Lohman, Dustin Pieper, Leah Leman, Kevin Malone and Abby Beck voting “no.” * Crain’s | Long-delayed Loeber farm housing plan may get Schaumburg’s financial assist: With about $4.8 million in tax increment financing money going to building a bridge over Salt Creek and connecting to distant utility lines, “you make it financially feasible to have the lower density that the neighbors and the community have been asking for,” Joe Nitti said. His Elmhurst-based homebuilding firm, Nitti Group, is seeking village officials’ approval to develop 122 residential units on the 33-acre parcel off Meacham Road near Algonquin Road. * WSIL | Jackson County officials update CodeRED alert system after cybersecurity attack: The agency shared a statement by Crisis24 Customer Support that on December 1, they successfully integrated data into the CodeRED by Crisis24 platform. This data, sourced from backup information of the legacy OnSolve CodeRED system, includes community notification enrollment, E911 data, and customer utility data. This backup reflects data available as of March 31, 2025. * WJBD | City of Centralia approves next year’s budget: The Centralia City Council approved the city’s FY26 budget at the regular council meeting on Monday night. The budget shows an overall surplus of roughly $455,000. A public hearing was held before the meeting to present the budget. No members of the public gave any questions or comments on the budget at the hearing. The council also approved the annual property tax levy, keeping it the same as the previous year’s levy. Centralia city manager Galen Mahle said that due to increased revenue from the half-cent sales tax increase going into effect on January 1, the city did not need to increase the levy for a balanced budget this year. * WCIA | Springfield Fire Dept. canceling monthly tornado siren due to weather: In a Facebook post Tuesday morning, Springfield Fire said that due to the extremely cold temperatures, they would be canceling this month’s scheduled tornado siren test. They said cold weather can damage testing equipment and that ensuring reliability during an actual emergency is their top priority. The department said the regular tornado test will resume next month, weather permitting. They urged residents to make sure they are signed up for emergency alerts and have multiple ways to receive severe weather notifications. * NPR Illinois | Country artist Ella Langley to play the Illinois State Fair grandstand: The Illinois State Fair has announced country music performer Ella Langley will take the Grandstand Stage as part of the 2026 Illinois State Fair lineup on Friday, August 21, 2026. Langley, one of country music’s most dynamic and fastest-rising new voices, has rapidly become a force in the genre. Her debut album, hungover, earned widespread critical acclaim from Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Billboard and more, while her 3x Platinum-certified breakout single “you look like you love me” featuring Riley Green topped Country radio, hit the Billboard Hot 100 (Top 30), and also made CMA history—sweeping every category it has ever been nominated for and becoming the first song in CMA history to win all four honors: Single of the Year (2025), Song of the Year (2025), Music Video of the Year (2025), and Musical Event of the Year (2024)—making it the first track in CMA history to claim all four honors. * 404 Media | Flock Uses Overseas Gig Workers to Build its Surveillance AI: Companies that use AI or machine learning regularly turn to overseas workers to train their algorithms, often because the labor is cheaper than hiring domestically. But the nature of Flock’s business—creating a surveillance system that constantly monitors U.S. residents’ movements—means that footage might be more sensitive than other AI training jobs. * AP | Trump administration says it will withhold SNAP from Democrat-led states if they don’t provide data: President Donald Trump’s administration said Tuesday that it will move to withhold SNAP food aid from recipients in most Democratic-controlled states starting next week unless they provide information about those receiving the assistance. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday that the action is in the works because those states are refusing to provide data the department requested such as the names and immigration status of the aid recipients.
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It’s Giving Tuesday, so here’s my pitch
Tuesday, Dec 2, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller * As I’ve told you before, I simply cannot imagine what the life of a foster child must be like. They’re abruptly pulled from often-times dangerous environments and handed over to an entirely new family. Yeah, their home life was rough, but it was the only life they’d ever known. Trauma added onto trauma through no fault of their own. But, hopefully, they end up with loving foster parents and maybe one day they can even go back home. * In the meantime, all of these children deserve something to smile about. That’s where we come in. By helping purchase Christmas presents for more than 2,500 foster kids in the care of Lutheran Social Services of Illinois, we can help create those smiles, even if just for a day. As I write this, people have contributed nearly $17,000 to buy Christmas toys. But we can do better. Much better. So, please, look into your hearts and click this link to help create some smiles for kids who deserve to smile a whole lot more. * You don’t have to give a lot of money if you can’t afford it. I would never ask you to do that. All I’m asking is that you click here and give what you can to help buy some Christmas presents for children whose lives have been completely upended. Thanks.
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Pritzker says he understands the pressure on Northwestern, but ‘I just feel like every day democracy is slipping away whenever any of us capitulate in any significant fashion’
Tuesday, Dec 2, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller * I saw lots of stories during the break about Northwestern University agreeing to pay the federal government $75 million to get out of some legal hot water, but I haven’t seen many reports that actually detail what’s in the agreement. Click here for some insight into that, and click here for the actual agreement. Gov. Pritzker is not just one of the state’s most outspoken Trump critics, he’s also a Northwestern law grad who, along with his spouse, donated $100 million to what is now the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. Isabel and I were both curious what he thought about the agreement, so she brought it up at today’s press conference…
* Isabel also asked Pritzker if he’d met with Northwestern’s president. He said he did. She asked some follow-ups to her follow-up…
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Question of the day: 2025 Golden Horseshoe Awards
Tuesday, Dec 2, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller * The 2025 Golden Horseshoe Award for Best Place to Gather for Dinner During Session Weeks goes to Vele…
I hadn’t been there since they moved from downtown, but some friends of mine and I went during veto session and I was impressed. * The 2025 Golden Horseshoe Award for Best Place to Gather for Drinks, Etc. During Session Weeks goes to Saputo’s…
Never a dull moment. * On to today’s categories…
Best Senate Democratic Legislative Assistant/District Office Manager As always, please try to nominate in both categories. Yes, I know it’s not easy, but do your best. Also, please explain your nominations or they won’t count. Last year’s winners were Dana Hooven and Thera Bond, so they’re not eligible this year. * After you submit your nominations, please click here and donate to our annual fundraiser to buy Christmas toys for foster kids. We raised more than $12,000 yesterday, but a whole lot of LSSI foster kids depend on us every year, so please spread some holiday joy. Thanks!
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Rate Brendan Reilly’s TV ad
Tuesday, Dec 2, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller * Spotted last night on Channel 7 news…
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Showcasing The Retailers Who Make Illinois Work
Tuesday, Dec 2, 2025 - Posted by Advertising Department [The following is a paid advertisement.] Retail provides one out of every five Illinois jobs, generates the second largest amount of tax revenue for the state, and is the largest source of revenue for local governments. But retail is also so much more, with retailers serving as the trusted contributors to life’s moments, big and small. We Are Retail and IRMA are dedicated to sharing the stories of retailers like the Hagers, who serve their communities with dedication and pride.
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Isabel’s morning briefing
Tuesday, Dec 2, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller * ICYMI: Darren Bailey reflects on tragedy, his decision to continue gubernatorial run. NBC Chicago…
- Bailey said he plans to zero in on issues that he says will “focus on that 80% that we all agree on,” affordability, public safety and schools. - Bailey is also rethinking his criticism that “Chicago is a hellhole.” That was a frequent campaign message in 2022. Bailey concedes he had doubled down on the criticism, but he’s decided to change his message. * Related stories… Sponsored by PhRMA
* At 10:30 am Gov. Pritzker will sign a bill “bolstering vaccine access.” Click here to watch. * Tribune | Nearly 1,900 immigrants were detained during the first half of Operation Midway Blitz. Most had no criminal record: Of the 1,895 people detained by ICE, 1,271 lacked any criminal record. Another 343 people arrested had a pending criminal charge, while 281 had a criminal conviction. Of those with a criminal conviction, the vast majority of offenses were misdemeanors, traffic citations or non-violent felonies. Only 28 arrestees —1.5% — had been convicted of a violent felony or sex crime. * Sun-Times | What Northwestern accepted from the Trump administration to get back $790M in research funds: Professors interviewed by the Sun-Times disagreed that the university remains autonomous. They decried the agreement as a violation of academic freedom and free speech. “I’m disappointed that we have capitulated,” says Laura Beth Nielsen, a sociology professor. “I’m gobsmacked at the idea that anyone can say with a straight face that this isn’t an invasion into our academic freedom.” * WAND | Clean Slate Act: Bill automatically sealing nonviolent felony records awaits Pritzker’s signature: The proposal could allow felony convictions currently eligible for expungement to be automatically sealed by a circuit court judge or the Illinois State Police. State lawmakers passed legislation in 2017 to allow certain offenders with nonviolent felony convictions to apply for expungement. However, each of the state’s 102 counties have addressed the record sealing process differently. * Crain’s | With O’Hare traffic rising, city asks airlines to rethink terminal construction plans: The city of Chicago is talking with the major airlines at O’Hare International Airport about going back to the initial plan for construction of new terminals. The city originally proposed building two new satellite concourses adjacent to Terminal 1 before demolishing Terminal 2 and replacing it with a new global terminal. But the airport’s two largest carriers, United and American airlines, balked at the cost and sequence of construction. During months of tense negotiations, they pushed the city to delay building the second satellite until after the global terminal. * Tribune | More CPS students are graduating high school, but finishing college is a challenge: The overall college completion rate for CPS alumni is 48% — below the national average of 64%, according to an annual study from the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research and the To&Through Project. “Getting students into college is a great first step, but starting college and not completing is not a good outcome, for the most part,” said Alex Usher, director of data and research at the To&Through Project. “There’s definitely work to be done ahead.” * WBEZ | Roseland Hospital opens delayed sickle-cell clinic on Chicago’s South Side: Sickle cell disease is a blood disorder affecting red blood cells and causing pain and organ damage. It disproportionately affects African Americans patients. Many South Side families lack timely access to care, often relying on emergency departments during a sickle-cell pain crisis. Roseland Community Hospital primarily serves African Americans patients. * Tribune | Chicago officials ease capacity limit for Christkindlmarket; organizers say cap remains unsustainable: The city on Monday agreed to increase the event’s space restriction by nearly 1,000, bringing the amended capacity limit up to 2,500 people, according to Mark Tomkins, the president and CEO of the German American Chamber of Commerce, which runs Christkindlmarket. In a statement to the Tribune, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office said the city was working with organizers to “increase capacity in a safe and organized manner” in response to concerns raised. * WBEZ | Illinois prison artist wowed that her artwork reached Pope Leo XIV: Diaz submitted a drawing of herself as a young girl, dancing in a garden with a bouquet of flowers in one hand and a butterfly resting on the other. Half of the drawing is in black and white, depicting a barbed wire fence and a prison tower. The other half is in color, showing sunshine and flowering bushes wrapping around a white picket fence. Diaz called her piece “Praising My Way to Wholeness.” * ABC Chicago | Evanston-Skokie District 65 board deadlocks again on which schools to shutter to close funding gap: There is no consensus again as District 65 school board members arrived at a tie vote Monday night on whether to close one or two additional schools at the end of this school year. That means Dr. Bessie Rhodes School of Global Studies is likely the only one that will shutter next spring. Like last month, board members deadlocked when voting on competing plans to close either just Kingsley Elementary School, or to close both Kingsley and Lincolnwood elementary schools. * Daily Herald | Could goats be forest preserve district’s secret weapon against invasive plants?: Grazing isn’t an uncommon practice but would be new to the forest preserve district. It’s considered a research project to understand longer term costs and effectiveness. “We think this could be a way to provide additional management to degraded areas containing buckthorn,” and help achieve a 100-year plan objective, he said. The agreement would last four years, which matches terms of farm leases, but could be canceled or expanded depending on results. * Daily Herald | ‘I think we’ve got a hit’: Metra riders love café car idea — what’s the next step?: Surveys of riders showed 98% said they would recommend the café car to friends and family, and 94% would pay for drinks and snacks. Nearly 60% of participants said they would visit the café car one to two times a week, and 26% intended to make purchases every week. The prototype car received an average 4.6 rating out of 5 for look and design, and a 4.5 score for space and comfort. * STLPR | Carlyle names ‘temporary’ police chief amid FBI investigation: “The investigation being conducted by the FBI centers around one individual,” Smith said in a statement. “That individual has been placed on paid leave for now. “I want to make clear that the Carlyle Police Department is not, and I repeat, not under investigation,” she said. “Services provided by the police department will not be interrupted, and under new leadership the police will continue to serve the citizens of Carlyle.” * WCIA | Child advocate program expands into Ford County: The organizers behind the Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) program announced that they are expanding their services into Ford County starting after the new year. CASA is a nationwide organization that promotes and protects the best interests of children who have * WGLT | Normal council approves raise for Reece; hears pleas to keep College Ave. firehouse open: The Normal Town Council on Monday approved a year’s contract extension and a raise of nearly 5% for City Manager Pam Reece. The action adds $11,000 to her current salary of $226,000, effective April 1, 2025. It also increases the contribution to her retirement savings account — from $2,750 per year to $3,000 per year. The contract extends Reece’s employment by one year; it now runs through March 31, 2028. * STLPR | Alton company launches $25M fiber project to bring high-speed internet citywide: AltonWorks, which already opened a coworking space and has a number of housing efforts underway, is behind the opening of FiberNet. The service will reach 94% of the city’s residents and provide speeds up to 10 gigabits per second, the same connectivity used by Fortune 500 companies, AltonWorks said. “Today marks Alton’s entrance into the next century,” John Simmons, CEO of AltonWorks, said in a statement. “We’re not just installing cables. We’re dismantling digital barriers, unlocking innovation, and ensuring that every child, every entrepreneur, and every resident has access to the same world-class opportunities as anyone, anywhere. This network will serve Alton for the next 100 years, evolving with technology we can’t even imagine today.” * Floridian Press | DeSantis Will Call for Special Legislative Session on Congressional Redistricting: “Yeah, yeah, so we’re going to redistrict. The issue is that there is a Supreme Court decision that we are waiting on - the argument in October about Section 2 of the VRA [Voting Rights Act] that impacts Florida’s maps, so we’re going to do it next Spring,” Gov. DeSantis said. “I am going to talk to Sen. Albritton about when it makes sense to do it, but that will be done. I think we are going to be required to do it because of this court decision.” * NOTUS | The Plan to Address Expiring ACA Subsidies Is That There Is No Plan: “My assumption is that by next week, when we have to have that vote, that we might not be far enough along on the bipartisan discussions,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Monday. He added: “I think that the conversations are still active on a solution. Whether that originates with the White House or folks working up here remains to be seen.”
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Good morning!
Tuesday, Dec 2, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller * The Beach Boys will kick off our holiday season… She’s candy apple red with a ski for a wheel * If you weren’t at the blog yesterday, make sure to click here and donate to our annual Christmas toy fundraiser for foster kids. We raised $12K yesterday, but we have a long way to go. Thanks! * What’s up?
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Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Supplement to today’s edition and some additional news
Tuesday, Dec 2, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller
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Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Today’s edition of Capitol Fax (use all CAPS in password)
Tuesday, Dec 2, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller
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Selected press releases (Live updates)
Tuesday, Dec 2, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller
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Live coverage
Tuesday, Dec 2, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller * Click here and/or here to follow breaking news on the website formally known as Twitter. Our Bluesky feed…
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Isabel’s afternoon roundup
Monday, Dec 1, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller * WTVO…
* Sun-Times | Something amid the junk caught their eye, and a bidding war was on : Bigmike11 peered into the plastic tub filled with a tangle of sparkly bangles, bracelets, even someone’s military dog tags, and decided there was something in there that he must have. Ditto for Repostl1975 and 41junk72. How else to explain why these three were in a bidding war — up to $4,050 as of mid-November — for what to most people would appear to be a heap of junk? But here’s the thing: None of the bidders (Bigmike11, Repostl1975 and 41junk72 are their online names) had actually examined the thing (or things) they wanted. They’re online bidders in the State of Illinois’ Online Auction, which runs year-round. Each auction typically lasts a week, offering items as tiny as a set of earbuds or as big as a dump truck. All of it is housed in a one-story, 40,000-square-foot warehouse in Springfield, which isn’t open to the public. * Press Release | Chicago Abortion Fund Launches Statewide Visibility Campaign to Expand Awareness of Abortion Access Across Illinois: The campaign will run from mid-October through December 21, 2025, with placements across Chicago, Chicagoland, Champaign/Urbana, Bloomington, Decatur, Springfield, Ottawa, and targeted border-state digital extensions. It directs people to CAF’s secure landing page and helpline, offering immediate access to funding, logistical coordination, and confidential guidance. Total estimated impressions across Out-of-Home (OOH), digital, and audio exceed 26.6 million statewide. * Capitol City Now | Former Ameren owner settles with Illinois Attorney General on 10-year-old price-fixing allegations: According to a news release, the Illinois Attorney General’s office says Texas-based Dynegy has agreed to pay $38 million to settle allegations it manipulated the energy market back in 2015, a few years after Dynegy purchased the utility. They essentially, the AG says, manipulated the market “to overcharge electric customers by taking advantage of rules that already been deemed unjust and unreasonable.” * Illinois Times | Turner and Coffey find agreement on veto session bills: Turner, a Democrat, and Coffey, a Republican, both voted against the transit bill, explaining that the reform package to fill a funding gap for the Regional Transportation Authority in the Chicago area did little for central Illinois, though a move to fill the funding gap for the RTA felt inevitable. “The reason why I voted no is because I really felt like it was more of a bailout for Chicagoland and wasn’t going to benefit downstate,” Turner said. “There was going to be some type of legislation that was going to be passed, because just looking at what was happening in Chicago with transportation, you knew something was going to happen,” she said. * WAND | Pritzker signs bill increasing weight limit for electric, hydrogen trucks: Gov. JB Pritzker signed a bill into law Friday to create a weight limit exemption for clean energy trucks. The change could help businesses using hydrogen and electric vehicles, but downstate lawmakers are concerned about potential road damage. The legislation calls for a 2,000-pound allowance for vehicles operated by engines fueled wholly or partially by natural gas, electric batteries, or hydrogen fuel cells. Sponsors filed the plan to help a southwest suburban company working with DHL to add hydrogen-powered trucks to their U.S. fleet. * WCSJ | Assisted Suicide Bill Passed “Out of the Blue”: 38th District State Senator Sue Rezin was in our studios recently providing the latest details about a controversial bill that passed during the fall veto session. “Two-thirty in the morning, they called the assisted suicide bill out of the blue. This bill has been assisted suicide has been talked about and come before committees for the last two years, but really hadn’t gained momentum. Well, they called the bill at two thirty in the morning. There’s a tremendous amount of pushback rightfully so from the faith based community. we didn’t support the bill. We haven’t supported the bill because we have heard from not only our constituents, but, you know, I, again, coming from the faith based community, believe that it is not the appropriate approach. The fact the bill was called at two thirty in the morning so people who oppose it could not contact us and really come out and advocate against the bill is exactly why the bill was called and passed at two thirty in the morning.” * Tribune | Who’s to blame for this year’s property tax bills? Finger-pointing and opportunism abound: This year’s bills showed Chicago homeowners’ median property tax bills jumped 16.7% over last year, according to the Cook County treasurer, while the collective bills for commercial real estate in the Loop dropped by $129 million. […] Fueling much of it is a crisis of timing: a monthslong technology snafu involving Tyler Technologies, the Texas-based vendor whose software underpins the county’s tax system. The glitch delayed the release of bills by months, landing them not in the usual quiet of midsummer but at the peak of budget negotiations and election-season maneuvering. […] The collective levies of governments inside the city of Chicago grew $528.6 million in 2024, reaching $8.87 billion, according to the treasurer’s analysis. Chicago Public Schools make up the largest part of Chicagoans’ bills. CPS increased its levy by 4.5% to nearly $4 billion earlier this year, a hike unanimously approved by the Chicago Board of Education this summer, including members aligned with the teachers union. * Sun-Times | Alternative to Mayor Johnson’s budget could entail higher trash collection fee, new package delivery fee: The plan they hope to unveil later this week would likely hold the line on property taxes, but increase the $9.50 a month garbage collection fee that has been frozen since its 2015 inception. Sources said the proposal could more than double the garbage collection fee — to roughly $20 a month — while exempting senior citizens * Block Club Chicago | Construction To Begin Soon On South Loop Data Center: Urbanize Chicago reported that a foundation permit has been issued to HydraVault to renovate a two-story building at 2538 S. Wabash Ave., where the 76,000-square-foot data center will be housed. Construction is set to begin before year’s end, according to the real estate blog. Building owner Scott Greenberg shared details of the plan at a town hall this year, telling neighbors the data center would be available to a wide range of clients, including researchers and government agencies. The facility will have a power supply of 20 megawatts and deliver up to 200 kilowatts per rack, using a hybrid liquid-and-air cooling system that operates on a closed loop, promising “scaleable usage,” per HydraVault’s website. * WTTW | Lawsuit Filed by Man Police Shot in CTA Red Line Station Set for Trial: Roman’s shooting was captured on cellphone video and was one of several instances of police violence that drew widespread attention during 2020, fueling calls for criminal justice reform that grew after a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd in May 2020. The trial, set to start Dec. 8 and last 10 days, represents a high-stakes gamble for the city, whose lawyers typically recommend settling civil cases involving actions by the police that led to criminal charges and are ruled to have violated department policy. […] Chicago taxpayers paid $1.15 million through Aug. 28 to defend the lawsuit filed by Roman, according to documents obtained by Roman’s lawyers through a Freedom of Information Act request and provided to WTTW News. * Tribune | Union Pacific says rail merger could unclog Chicago. Critics worry about costs and traffic tie-ups: Union Pacific says the $85 billion merger would serve the public interest and win federal approval by unclogging Chicago, the cradle of American railroading and still its biggest and most notorious bottleneck. But the “increased monopolistic power” of the combined railroad will drive up shipping costs and could kneecap America’s global competitiveness, according to nine Republican attorneys general in a letter last month. Shipping costs are already a pocketbook issue for everyday Chicagoans. Americans received 66 packages on average in 2024, a 78% increase over seven years, according to Capital One retail data. During this time, the average price per package dropped by just 4%. * Tribune | Judge’s unusual criticism in dropped immigration case is latest strange twist for US attorney’s office: In granting the prosecution’s motion to dismiss assault charges against Dana Briggs, U.S. Magistrate Judge Gabriel Fuentes took the opportunity to opine more generally on the U.S. attorney’s office’s role in prosecuting a number of other immigration-related cases that have since fallen apart. In his nine-page opinion, Fuentes wrote he could not “help but note just how unusual and possibly unprecedented it is” for Chicago’s venerable U.S. attorney’s office to bring charges “so hastily” that, once more facts came out, they were unable to obtain an indictment in the grand jury or were forced to dismiss the case as not provable. * Press Release | Chicago Board of Elections Welcomes New Commissioner Laura Kotelman: The Chicago Board of Elections welcomed its new Commissioner Laura Kotelman, who was sworn in by the Office of the Chief Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County on November 26, 2025. A long-time public servant and lawyer, Commissioner Kotelman is the first Republican woman to be appointed, and for the first time in its 130-year history, the Board will be comprised of all women. * Sun-Times | 227 vehicles towed on first night of winter parking ban, frustrating unaware drivers: ‘It sucked’: The 227 tows on the first night of the ban were the lowest in four years and the second-lowest this decade. Last year, 244 cars were towed, while 263 cars were hauled away in 2023, according to the department. Those who violate the parking ban will be towed and face a minimum $150 towing fee, a $60 ticket, and a storage fee of $25 per day. Vehicles are towed to auto pounds at 10301 S. Doty Ave. or 701 N. Sacramento Ave. * Block Club | Chicago Could See 4 Inches Of Snow Monday And ‘Bitter’ Cold Through The Week: After seeing its snowiest November day ever Saturday, Chicago is expected to get 2-4 more inches of accumulation Monday, the National Weather Service’s forecast states. The agency issued a winter weather advisory from 2 p.m. through midnight. Chicagoans can expect slippery road conditions and “hazardous conditions” including reduced visibility, with high temperatures only hitting 25-30 degrees and low temperatures falling to 11-21 degrees. * ABC Chicago | New Cook County Circuit Court chief judge sworn in for first time in over 20 years: The new chief judge of the Cook County Circuit Court was installed Monday morning. The Honorable Charles S. Beach II took the oath during a ceremony inside the Chicago-Kent College of Law. He was elected in September. […] Chief Judge Beach is an eight-year veteran of the bench. He took over for former Chief Judge Tim Evans, who served eight terms since 2001. * Chicago Reader | Cook County law enforcement agencies get more money in 2026: The 2026 budget includes massive investments in digital surveillance, including millions of dollars in servers and hardware, as well as dozens of positions in digital forensics and predictive analytics. In all, more than 56 percent of the county’s general fund is earmarked for the public safety system—which encompasses the Cook County Department of Corrections, the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, and the various facets of the county court system. The $1.5 billion allocated for law enforcement in 2026 represents an increase of more than $300 million, or about 30 percent, from the previous year, driven mostly by personnel costs. * Aurora Beacon-News | Kane County Board shoots down chair’s pick for District 2 seat, as some members criticize selection process: Then, on Nov. 17, the full board met, and Pierog recommended Berman’s widow, Mary Berman, for the seat. At that meeting, Pierog said that other candidates under consideration were interested in running for the seat when it is up for election in 2026. She expressed concern that, with early voting beginning in just a few months for the primary election, selecting one of those candidates to fill the seat now would allow them to claim to be the incumbent. * Aurora Beacon-News | Fox Valley Park District gets $330K grant to help fund after-school program in West Aurora District 129: The Fox Valley Park District was receiving the federal funds on a three-year grant cycle, which expired in June. But uncertainty surrounding federal funding availability prompted the park district to look for other funding sources to continue on with an after-school program at West Aurora, explained Fox Valley Park District Recreation Superintendent Becky Harling. “The grant world … can be kind of fluid at times,” Harling said. “You’ll have funding one year and not the next, and trying to make sure that there’s stability within your program when you’re looking at grant funding can be a little tricky.” * Muddy River News | Pike Co. budget shows $880,328 shortfall, county chair gets no confidence vote: Tensions linger from last week’s Pike County Board meeting, which then carried over to a special meeting on Tuesday. Discrepancies emerged after a budget was passed, delaying its filing until late Thursday, with the new budget year beginning today, Dec. 1. Pike County’s projected revenue is $5,876,900. The projected expenses are $6,767,228. That’s a $880,328 shortfall. “$500,000 is debt service that we had to borrow this year to cover payroll and other operational costs,” Board Chair Reta Hoskin told Muddy River News over the weekend. “That leaves $380,328 in 2026 estimated expenses that are not covered by regular revenue sources. * Capitol News Illinois | Budzinski intervenes in local housing dispute on behalf of low-income residents: Yet, past reporting has documented HUD’s inspection process as failing to flag dangerous living conditions in federally subsidized housing. HUD has since shifted to a new set of standards for inspecting publicly subsidized housing, but full implementation of requirements to meet those standards has faced delays. Although Sangamon Towers received a satisfactory score on the inspection, HUD’s September letter to Budzinski notes deficiencies “for cockroach presence in two units and a mold-like substance in a bathroom of another unit.” Neither issue was associated with the original complaint submitted to HUD. * Illinois Times | HSHS to pay cyber attack settlement : The nonprofit health system, based in rural Sangamon County near Riverton, discovered the suspicious cyber activity “by an unauthorized third-party threat actor” on its computer network in mid- to late August 2023, according to Sangamon County Circuit Court documents. The breach caused the personal information of almost 869,000 former and current patients to be disclosed and resulted in several lawsuits to be filed against HSHS, which posts about $2.8 billion in annual revenues and operates HSHS St. John’s Hospital in Springfield as its flagship. * AP | Federal review finds 44% of US trucking schools don’t comply with government rules: The Transportation Department said Monday that it plans to revoke the accreditation of nearly 3,000 schools unless they can comply with training requirements in the next 30 days. Another 4,000 schools are being warned they may face similar action. […] The list of schools being targeted wasn’t immediately released. * The Hill | Flying without REAL ID may cost you $45 under new TSA program: On Monday, the TSA announced it “will refer all passengers who do not present an acceptable form of ID and still want to fly an option to pay a $45 fee to use a modernized alternative identity verification system, TSA Confirm.ID.” The $45 fee would allow the traveler to use TSA Confirm.ID for 10 days. “This fee ensures the cost to cover verification of an insufficient ID will come from the traveler, not the taxpayer,” Senior Official Performing the Duties of Deputy Administrator for TSA Adam Stahl said in Monday’s press release. * NYT | The ‘Race Against Time’ to Save Music Legends’ Decaying Tapes: A huge portion of the world’s recorded musical heritage is stored on magnetic tape, used regularly from the 1940s into the digital age to capture musicians’ sounds in the studio. But as analog tape ages, it grows more fragile and vulnerable, posing a challenge for engineers like Pribble, 60, an audio preservation expert with the giant storage company Iron Mountain. For 15 years, he has been at the forefront of an obscure but vital industrywide effort to save old tapes — for which he employs an assortment of handmade tools and Rube Goldberg-worthy machines in a cramped workshop.
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Question of the day: 2025 Golden Horseshoe Awards
Monday, Dec 1, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller * It’s time once again for our annual Golden Horseshoe Awards. Our first two categories… * Best Place to Gather for Dinner During Session Weeks * Best Place to Gather for Drinks, Etc. During Session Weeks As always, do your very best to nominate in both categories. And make sure to explain your nominations or they won’t count. This isn’t a poll. Let us know why you think your nominees are deserving of this award. This year, we have one new rule to try and mix things up: No repeats from last year. Last year’s winners were Saputo’s and JP Kelly’s. Have fun!
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Here we go!!! Our annual LSSI Christmas gift fundraiser (Updated x2)
Monday, Dec 1, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller * It’s time to kick off our annual fundraising drive to buy Christmas presents for foster kids! Lutheran Social Services of Illinois cares for more than 2,500 foster children and you’ve helped spread a whole lot of joy in the years we’ve been raising money. I believe it’s one of the most important things this website does. The average cost of each gift is about $25, although that can vary depending on need. Your donations are used exclusively for gifts. LSSI does not take a cut for overhead. Last year, we raised $45,442. Y’all are amazing. As usual, I’ll match the first $2,000 in donations. So, click here and let’s get going! Thanks! *** UPDATE 1 *** Well, that was fast. We’s already reached $2,000 and then some. With my matching $2,000 donation, we’re now at $5,375! Thanks! Please, click here to keep the momentum going! *** UPDATE 2 *** We just hit the $10K mark. We have a long way to go, but thanks! Please, click here.
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Rising electricity costs starting to dominate campaigns
Monday, Dec 1, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller
* AP…
* Illinois’ electricity costs have also been rising fast, and were a major component of the recent energy omnibus bill…
* Illinois has a strong subsidy program for data centers, which is backed by powerful construction unions. Worker demand is pushing wages up, but a massive labor shortage is growing. Wall St. Journal…
* Gov. Pritzker has long been a strong supporter of the subsidy program. From last year…
* But the future looks dicey. The Economist…
* The country got a taste of how reliant business has become on centralized data centers when a key Aurora center went down. Crain’s…
* Related… * Endeavour Energy, behind proposed 560-acre DeKalb data center, won’t use water to cool servers, plans show: According to the city, Edged has proposed a data center build that uses air instead of water to cool its servers. Natural gas instead of diesel would fuel the generators that spin and create electrical energy to run the operation, according to the project proposal. * Potential data center in Illinois village raises local concerns: At the meeting, residents fear their local infrastructure cannot support a large industrial facility. “We are in a very dry area in terms of the groundwater,” Raney said. She noted that when a fire broke out at the High Point Golf Course, land later acquired by Constellation, crews had to haul water from multiple towns. “They actually had to drive to get water from like 10 other municipalities near us because we do not have the fire hydrant system,” she said. * Opinion: Illinois consumers can’t foot the bill for runaway data-center demand: While there’s a lot we can do here in Illinois to protect consumers from data center costs, we can’t do it alone. PJM — a little-known organization that has a tremendous impact on how affordable and clean electricity is for 67 million customers across 13 states — has been struggling to manage runaway data center energy demand. Current PJM policy socializes the costs of those centers across all customers, which means everyday consumers — you and me — are paying big electric bills to cover the wealthiest companies in the world. At a recent media briefing hosted by the Citizens Utility Board, representatives from the Natural Resources Defense Council warned that if nothing is done to manage the estimated 30 gigawatts of data centers seeking to connect to the grid, the PJM region could face rolling blackouts and bill spikes averaging $70 a month. … Although no plan gained decisive support, an advisory vote from members produced striking results: The comprehensive proposal that won the most votes called for the toughest standards. That plan — from the Independent Market Monitor — took a wise “Bring Your Own Generation” approach that would prohibit data centers from connecting to the grid until they brought their own new electricity resources to power their facilities. * AI data centers’ massive demand for aluminum is crushing the US aluminum industry: But data centers guzzle enormous amounts of power, and electricity prices are skyrocketing. In the US alone, electricity demand is expected to grow five to 10 times faster over the next 10 years than it did in the previous decade, per Bank of America. For aluminum smelters, this is a problem. Producing aluminum is incredibly energy-intensive, and without cheap power, those smelters can’t operate. * Flood of AI Bonds Adds to Pressure on Markets: Companies were able to complete their sales. But some had to pay unexpectedly high interest rates. Prices of bonds from the companies have also been sliding—a sign that investors were caught off guard by the sheer quantity of bonds entering the market and of growing concern about the worsening credit metrics of the businesses. Stock investors, already nervous about the sky-high valuations of AI businesses, have taken note of the weakness in the bond market. Meanwhile, the cost of insuring those bonds using credit-default swaps also has climbed, with negative sentiments from different groups of investors feeding into each other. * Trump’s push for more AI data centers faces backlash from his own voters: Political leaders across the U.S. are urging a rapid expansion of data-center capacity and new power production to keep the country competitive in AI. Trump, a Republican, is promoting the build-out as an economic and national security priority and has directed his administration to bypass environmental rules and permitting that give local communities a voice. In Pennsylvania, Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro and Republican Senator Dave McCormick are courting developers with incentives and infrastructure upgrades to attract investment in the fast-growing industry. * Critics scoff after Microsoft warns AI feature can infect machines and pilfer data: Microsoft’s warning on Tuesday that an experimental AI agent integrated into Windows can infect devices and pilfer sensitive user data has set off a familiar response from security-minded critics: Why is Big Tech so intent on pushing new features before their dangerous behaviors can be fully understood and contained? … Both flaws can be exploited in attacks that exfiltrate sensitive data, run malicious code, and steal cryptocurrency. So far, these vulnerabilities have proved impossible for developers to prevent and, in many cases, can only be fixed using bug-specific workarounds developed once a vulnerability has been discovered. * Health care AI will generate real value in 2026: West Monroe: A multisite survey of physicians revealed lower rates of self-reported clinician burnout and less after-hour documentation. A second study of a UChicago Medicine pilot compared ambient AI scribe users to a “look-alike” group of non-users. That study found clinicians using the ambient clinical documentation tool spent 8.5% less total time in the electronic health records, with more than 15% less time spent composing notes.
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Catching up with the federal candidates
Monday, Dec 1, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller * US Senate candidate Raja Krishnamoorthi…
* The Edwardsville Intelligencer: “Seven questions with Senate candidate Juliana Stratton”…
* Evanston Now…
* Evanston Now…
* Politico…
* Evanston Now political reporter Matthew Eadie…
According to the State Board of Elections, Sigcho-Lopez would need 10,816 valid signatures to run as an Independent. He could collect up to 17,304 signatures. * More…
* Sun-Times | Dolton mom turned away from hospital during labor calls for changes to maternal health: “After being kicked out of the hospital and begging to stay but still being pushed away was hurtful, disgraceful,” Mercedes Wells told reporters Tuesday. “I felt unheard. I felt ignored. I felt treated less than human.” She was joined by U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, who said she plans to file a bill to make sure what happened to Wells does not happen again to anyone else. “It’s clear that Mercedes’ story isn’t an isolated incident,” Kelly said. “This is not a Franciscan Health problem but rather a systemic issue.” * Advocate | Illinois Democratic candidate glitter bombs anti-LGBTQ+ Christian group: In his campaign for the state’s 7th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives, Reed Showalter, 32, recently received a survey from Christian nonprofit the Illinois Family Institute. The form asked for his stance on various issues, including LGBTQ+ and abortion rights — with an obsessive focus on trans participation in sports. […] “If it weren’t already clear, this organization is gleefully transphobic and homophobic, so I think it’s only fair that they get a little sparkle in their life,” Showalter concluded in the video.
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More SNAP peril
Monday, Dec 1, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller * My weekly syndicated newspaper column…
Discuss.
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Isabel’s morning briefing
Monday, Dec 1, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller * ICYMI: Indiana lawmakers in state House to convene session with redistricting top of mind. AP…
- Republicans who control the House chamber have said there’s no doubt that redistricting will pass that chamber. But the fate of any proposal to emerge remains uncertain in the Senate. - Senate leadership recently backed off from previous intent not to meet at all, agreeing to convene next Monday. But it’s still unclear if enough senators will back a new map. As you’ll recall, Gov. JB Pritzker said he would push for a congressional remap here if Indiana redrew its congressional boundaries. * Related stories… Sponsored by PhRMA
* Sun-Times | Illinois sues USDA to block changes to SNAP eligibility of immigrants: Illinois is among a group of Democratic states suing the Trump administration, seeking to block a change to the federal food stamps program that the states say unlawfully prevented some legal immigrants from accessing the aid. Kwame Raoul, Illinois’ top lawyer, and attorneys general from 20 other states and Washington, D.C., filed the lawsuit Wednesday in an Oregon federal court against the U.S. Department of Agriculture and its secretary, Brooke Rollins, asking the court to block the change’s implementation. * NYT | Times Analysis Finds Errors in Trump’s Supreme Court Filing That Calls for National Guard in Chicago: The Trump administration made erroneous claims to the Supreme Court, mischaracterizing the responsiveness of local police and the actions of protesters in a filing asking the justices to sign off on the deployment of hundreds of National Guard troops to Chicago, a New York Times investigation found. The emergency request, filed by the solicitor general, D. John Sauer, which draws heavily from court declarations made by two Homeland Security officials, misstates what happened in the aftermath of a car crash and shooting on Oct. 4 in Chicago that involved Border Patrol agents. * NPR | Northwestern settles with Trump administration in $75M deal to regain federal funding: Earlier this month, Cornell reached a deal requiring the university to pay $60 million to unfreeze $250 million withheld by the Trump administration over alleged civil rights violations. The private Ivy League university said the settlement did not come “at the cost of compromising our values or independence.” Per the agreement, Northwestern will pay out the $75 million over time through 2028 and “shall maintain clear policies and procedures relating to demonstrations, protests, displays, and other expressive activities, as well as implement mandatory antisemitism training for all students, faculty, and staff,” according to the DOJ. * Tribune | Chicago city employee charged with threatening Illinois state senator from Freeport in emails: Joseph Haggerty, 59, of Chicago, was charged with two felony counts of threatening a public official after authorities said he sent the emails in September to state Sen. Andrew Chesney, a conservative Republican from Freeport. The Illinois State Police, which conducted the investigation, announced the charges Tuesday. Haggerty remained in the custody of Stephenson County authorities, police said. […] The first email from Haggerty stated he would “love to meet” the senator “on the street anywhere” and explained how he “would cave your f−−−−−− teeth in and make you sip your food through a straw for the rest of you dumb −−−hole coward life.” The second email called Chesney “spineless” and contained another threat and insults. * The Nation | Illinois Has Put an End to the Injustice of Cash Bail: Now that the law is in place, “it’s going dramatically better than any of us had expected it would be,” McLoughlin said. In Cook County, most people who are arrested are going free before trial. Because of the law’s provision for low-level offenses, many aren’t even required to go to court; 44 percent of people who were charged by police were given a citation and sent home. Across all arrests that resulted in court appearances, the prosecutor declined to ask for jail time in 82 percent of cases. Nearly all those charged with misdemeanors have been allowed to go home to await trial. All of this has translated to a 14 percent decline in the jail population in Cook County. * Capitol News Illinois | Trump cuts could shrink Illinois economy by $10B: report: Recent cuts by President Donald Trump’s administration could reduce the size of Illinois’ economy by nearly $10 billion each year, according to a new report released Monday by the Illinois Economic Policy Institute. […] “The depth of economic reductions and jobs losses caused by federal actions cannot be mitigated by expenditure reductions at the state and local levels,” researchers Frank Manzo and Robert Bruno wrote in the report. “Policymakers will need to examine new revenue sources to counter the damage done to public schools, Illinois families, and the state’s robust economy.” * Sun-Times | Bodycam video shows feds’ aggressive tactics in vivid detail: ‘Deploy f—ing gas’: A federal judge has released footage from nearly four dozen body cameras showing immigration agents’ ‘unprecedented’ use of force during their months-long deportation blitz in the Chicago area. Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis, handed down a historic order restricting agents use of force in “Operation Midway Blitz,” claiming the tactics she’d seen so far “shocks the conscience.” * WaPo | With ICE in the area, FEMA workers were pulled from storm damage work: The decision to halt the disaster assessment teams’ work on Nov. 6 came amid an ongoing immigration crackdown in the city, leaving the coordinating state and agency officials worried that FEMA’s efforts could put residents as well as the groups of surveyors at risk. The shift meant about 10 groups of federal, state, county and local workers had to stop work surveying hundreds of homes that sustained heavy water damage in parts of the city hit hard by recent storms — assessments that help the federal agency document disaster impacts, and can help make a case for why an area may need help paying for recovery. * WTTW | Former Inspector General Joe Ferguson Fined $5K for Revealing Botched Little Village Smokestack Implosion Could Have Been Prevented: The Chicago Board of Ethics voted 4-1 to fine former Inspector General Joe Ferguson $5,000 for violating the city’s ethics ordinance by divulging a confidential report that found city officials could have prevented a plume of dust from enveloping Little Village in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic when crews demolished the former Crawford Power Plant. Ferguson is now the head of the Civic Federation, a nonpartisan fiscal watchdog group, and has been fiercely critical of Johnson’s financial stewardship of the city. Ferguson paid the fine, which was levied on Nov. 10, according to records published Friday morning by the board. * Block Club | Christkindlmarket’s New Capacity Limit Poses ‘Existential Threat’ To Popular Holiday Market: Organizers: The city recently implemented a capacity of 1,553 visitors at a time at Christkindlmarket, the German-themed Christmas market that has been a beloved Downtown holiday tradition for nearly 30 years, market organizers announced Friday. The capacity restriction, which was implemented after the festival opened Nov. 20, is less than half of the limit during the pandemic, when visitors were capped at 3,494 at a time in 2021. * ABC Chicago | Chicago begins towing cars with winter overnight parking ban in effect: The ban is enforced on 107 miles of main streets in the city, from 3 to 7 a.m. It applies even when there’s no snow on the ground. Violators will be towed and ticketed, with a $150 towing fee, a $60 ticket and a storage fee of $25 a day. * Tribune | Saturday snow breaks record in Chicago, National Weather Service says: The last time O’Hare saw so much snow on a single day in November was 74 years ago, Nov. 6, 1951, when 8 inches fell, according to the weather service. Snowfall reached 8.7 inches at O’Hare by noon Sunday. Amid the record-breaking snowfall, O’Hare saw at least 1,322 flight cancellations and Midway Airport had 250 cancellations, according to FlightAware. * CBS | “How did you get this through security?” Pope Leo asks CBS News’ Chris Livesay of White Sox baseball bat gift: Many on board continued the long-standing tradition of presenting gifts to the pontiff as a courtesy, but Livesay had a particularly personal gift for the Chicago native: a Louisville Slugger baseball bat that once belonged to Hall of Fame second baseman Nellie Fox — a Chicago White Sox legend whose career coincided with Leo’s childhood. * Sun-Times | ‘His word means nothing’: Dismissed case reveals dishonesty of Border Patrol commander, protester says: In a criminal complaint, Bovino accused Sheridan of pushing him. An agent under Bovino’s command accused Sheridan of taking a swing at Bovino. The federal charges accused Sheridan of “forcibly assaulting, resisting, opposing, impeding and interfering with a federal officer.” Most of those charges held up until, four weeks later, a friend happened to spot Sheridan getting pushed down in footage from an Oct. 31 news report. “The video demonstrates that, not only did I have no kind of altercation with Bovino, I wasn’t even in front of him,” Sheridan said. * Naperville Sun | Naperville Planning and Zoning Commission votes in favor of proposed data center: The Naperville Planning and Zoning Commission voted 8-1 in favor of a controversial data center proposal Wednesday evening, marking the fourth and final commission meeting on the topic. “This has been long, it’s been unlike any case we’ve ever worked through,” Commissioner Whitney Robbins said. Developer Karis Critical is proposing one 211,000 square-foot, 36-megawatt data center to be built on the 40 acres of land at the former Alcatel-Lucent site at 1960 Lucent Lane, located off the Interstate 88 (I-88) corridor. The request is scaled back from the initial proposal, which called for two data center buildings that would total 72 megawatts. * Daily Southtown | Will County holds the line on taxes, but now faces budget shortfall: The board voted 12-10 to approve no increase in the levy, but will capture any new construction, which expands the total tax base and adds to the overall assessed value of property. The levy to hold the line on taxes passed with 11 Republicans and Democrat Destinee Ortiz, of Romeoville, supporting it. The budget that was approved was based on a 1.75% levy increase. “As of right now we have an unbalanced budget,” Speaker Joe VanDuyne said. “It’s illegal.” * Tribune | McHenry County takes on an old client in court: ICE: McHenry County has filed suit against ICE, trying to get the federal government to pay for potential liability for allegedly making immigrant detainees do forced labor. The court battle pits conservative McHenry County, which once fought in court for the ability to hold accused immigrants in the U.S. without legal permission in its jail, against the agency that once paid it millions of dollars every year to do so. Both county and federal officials have denied liability. * Forest Park Review | House Speaker Welch joins town hall on D209’s Sports Complex at Proviso West: “Yes, $40 million is in this state budget for Proviso West High School to build a sports complex and I make no apologies about it,” said Chris Welch, speaker of the Illinois House. Welch is widely credited, and sometimes criticized, for getting the Proviso funding into a tight state budget. Welch was back in the cafeteria of his alma mater on Thursday, Nov 20. to speak with D209 administrators, community members and stakeholders about the $40 million grant designated for the construction of a new sports complex at the high school. * Aurora Beacon-News | Aurora expands number of gambling machines allowed in local businesses: City code previously allowed licensed establishments to have up to five “video gaming” terminals, but now that number has been increased to six. The change, approved by the Aurora City Council on Tuesday, also raised the total number of allowed terminals within city limits by 40 for a total of 240. The increased cap on video gambling terminals is expected to bring in new revenue both for the local businesses they are installed in and for the city through taxes and licensing fees. * Daily Herald | Geneva council considering referendums for new police station, home rule: If approved, the referendum for a new police station would be on the March 17, 2026, primary ballot. The home rule question would appear on the April 6, 2027, ballot. Home rule status is automatic when a municipality’s population exceeds 25,000. Geneva’s population is 21,393, according to the 2020 census, requiring voter approval for home rule status. * Naperville Sun | YMCA urges Naperville Park District to halt referendum plans: The YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago and Naperville’s Fry Family YMCA are urging the Naperville Park District to not pursue a referendum for the March 2026 ballot, citing possible duplication of services and affordability concerns for residents. As part of its efforts, the YMCA sent a letter asking the park district to pause its referendum plans. The YMCA has also created a website to help communicate its stance with others, which includes a section where residents can send a letter opposing the referendum. * Injustice Watch | Timothy Evans Expects to Endure: In September, his tenure came to a surprising conclusion when he lost his eighth reelection bid to Circuit Judge Charles Beach — a relative newcomer to the bench with no background in politics. As the county’s vast and complex court bureaucracy prepares for its first change in leadership in decades, questions about Beach and his plans abound. His election would have many believe the courts no longer need a career politician at their helm. But Evans’ story suggests otherwise. Evans’ political acumen allowed him to endure as chief judge for 24 years and to enact significant progressive change in the inherently conservative courts, often for the benefit of the most vulnerable people to come through the system. His actions often seemed to come under duress, and his inaction was often criticized. But he achieved longevity in this role by keeping enough judges happy, absorbing public pressure, and weathering scandals unperturbed. His deliberative and self-assured leadership style was also well suited to the peculiar nature of the circuit court, an institution whose opaqueness is baked into law, whose principal actors are themselves elected officials, and whose bureaucracy is an entrenched extension of Chicago’s old political machine. * BND | Ameren Illinois gas customers to see average $3.65 increase on bills in January: Ameren Illinois residential customers will see an average $3.65 increase on their natural gas bills in January after the Illinois Commerce Commission last week slashed proposed rate hikes for two of the state’s largest utilities. Ameren, which serves approximately 816,000 customers in central and southern Illinois, initially held off on estimating the impact to customers until it could conduct an in-depth review of the ICC’s order, Brad Kloeppel, Ameren senior director of gas operations and technical services, said after the ruling. * WGLT | Bloomington City Council OKs anticipated $3M increase in property tax levy: The Bloomington City Council on Monday voted 7-2 in favor of the staff’s recommended tax levy estimate that is based on McLean County’s projected equalized assessed value of $2.7 billion. The pending tax levy reflects a rate of 0.98%. “We realize that property taxes are certainly a burden. We do not want to put all of the stress on the taxpayers,” City Manager Jeff Jurgens said near the end of his lengthy presentation during the 70-minute regular council meeting. “We work really hard to be inventive and to try and be more lean and as efficient as a government as we can be.” * WJBD | Marion County Board Approves Budget with 2.9-Percent Levy Increase: The Marion County Board has voted to approve a $13,452,049 budget with a 2.9-percent property tax levy increase and a new 1-percent state mandate levy to fund a county veterans commission. The decision came at a special meeting on Friday to get the budget passed before the county’s new fiscal year begins on Monday, December 1st. The initial vote did not pass by the required two-thirds majority, but Brock Waggoner changed his initial no vote to yes to allow for passage by a nine-to-three margin. * NYT | ‘The New Price of Eggs.’ The Political Shocks of Data Centers and Electric Bills: As loyal Republicans, Reece Payton said that he and his family of cattle ranchers in Hogansville, Ga., had one thing on their minds when they cast their ballots in November for the state’s utility board — “to make a statement.” They were already irked by their escalating electric bills, not to mention an extra $50 a month levied by their local utility to cover a new nuclear power plant more than 200 miles away. But after they heard a data center might be built next to their Logos Ranch, about 60 miles southwest of Atlanta, they had enough of Republicans who seemed far too receptive to the interests of the booming artificial intelligence industry. “That’s the first time I ever voted Democrat,” Mr. Payton, 58, said. * AP | What a federal ban on THC-infused drinks and snacks could mean for the hemp industry: But the ban doesn’t take effect for a year. That has given the industry hope that there is still time to pass regulations that will improve the hemp THC industry — such as by banning synthetically derived THC, requiring age restrictions on sales, and prohibiting marketing to children — rather than eradicate it. “We are very hopeful that cooler heads will prevail,” said Jonathan Miller, general counsel of the industry group U.S. Hemp Roundtable. “If they really thought there was a health emergency, there would be no year-long period.” The federal ban would jeopardize more than 300,000 jobs while costing states $1.5 billion in lost tax money, the group says.
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Good morning!
Monday, Dec 1, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller
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Selected press releases (Live updates)
Monday, Dec 1, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller
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Live coverage
Monday, Dec 1, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller * Click here and/or here to follow breaking news on the website formally known as Twitter. Our Bluesky feed…
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