* As you know, Gov. Pritzker has been pushing Illinois as a quantum computing hub…

Practical quantum computing tools are about 3 to 5 years out from workforce use and will likely be accessed through cloud based environments, a top National Security Agency official predicted at a Tuesday Palo Alto Networks public sector cybersecurity event.

Neal Ziring, the NSA’s cybersecurity directorate’s technical director, said that quantum computing systems — which use the laws of quantum mechanics to solve problems at an exponentially faster rate than traditional computers and are still largely theoretical — will likely be accessed via cloud computing platforms rather than on-premise installs, due to cost and practicality considerations. […]

For now, the U.S. is still in a “good spot” to take advantage of quantum, but better partnerships between government, industry and academia will be needed to reap the full benefits of the nascent technology, Ziring said.

* Shaw Local…

An Illinois Supreme Court ruling that favors truckers in a case against Joliet City Hall has statewide impact, an attorney for the truckers said Thursday.

The court ruling issued Thursday basically says Joliet violated its own city ordinances in issuing fines to truckers ticketed for violating overweight restrictions without allowing them to take the case to a circuit court.

The larger impact, according to Joliet attorney Frank Andreano, is that Illinois municipalities cannot independently fine truckers without providing them recourse in court. […]

The supreme court decision does recognize home rule authority for cities like Joliet that conduct administrative hearings on trucker violations of local laws. But the supreme court ruled that truckers still had the right to object in circuit court once decisions were delivered at city hall.

* Daily Southtown…

A Dolton bar is suing the village in federal court, saying it has been denied the renewal of its business and liquor licenses because it didn’t contribute to Mayor Tiffany Henyard’s first mayoral election campaign.

The village contends, however, that Pablo’s Cafe and Bar is a nuisance and the subject of numerous police calls since it opened four years ago.

It has been closed by the village on multiple occasions and was recently shut after a shooting incident, Lewis Lacey, Dolton’s deputy police chief, said at Monday’s Village Board meeting.

Pablo’s isn’t the first Dolton liquor license holder to go to court over renewal of permits, and others have had success in the courts.

* Here’s the rest…

* Capitol News Illinois | Bill ending state’s tipped wage advances but prospects uncertain amid pushback: While the bill is intended to increase wages for tipped workers and address inequities within the industry, much of the roughly two-hour debate in the committee hearing focused on how the proposal will impact businesses and employees.

* WTAX | Giannoulias calls organ donors “Superstars”: A single donor can save or improve the lives of as many as 25 people in need of a transplant, Giannoulias said. We need more Superstar of all ages, ethnicities and racial backgrounds to register and fill the critical need for organ and tissue donors. A more diverse donor pool increases the likelihood of finding suitable matches for those who wait.

* WTTW | Chicago Police Continued to Target Black, Latino Drivers With Flood of Traffic Stops in 2023: Report: The vast majority of the more than 537,000 traffic stops made by Chicago police in 2023 were based on dubious evidence of minor violations that took direct aim at Black and Latino Chicagoans but spared White Chicagoans, according to a new report from Impact for Equity, a nonprofit advocacy and research organization that has helped lead the push to reform the Chicago Police Department.

* Daily Herald | Pro-Bears-to-Arlington Heights group sends school districts a message: The Bears say they’ve shifted their focus to developing a new domed stadium on Chicago’s lakefront, but a pro-Bears-to-Arlington Heights business coalition isn’t giving up on Arlington Park just yet. In the shadow of the shuttered racetrack property the NFL franchise now owns, Touchdown Arlington hosted a rally and letter-writing party Wednesday night at Jimmy D’s District sports bar to show there’s still plenty of support for a Bears move to the suburbs.

* Shaw Local | State Rep. Yednock appointed to Illinois Forestry Development Council: Yednock was appointed to the state’s Illinois Forestry Development Council by House Speaker Emanuel ‘Chris’ Welch this week. “As an outdoorsman and nature enthusiast, I am ready to get to work to protect Illinois’ forests and make them work better for everyone across our state,” Yednock said in a Wednesday news release. “We are in the midst of a climate crisis, and we must do what we can to keep our forests in good condition for future generations.”

* WBEZ | Democratic National Committee hires local sustainability firms for Chicago convention: The Democratic National Convention Committee and Chicago 2024 Host Committee selected two Chicago-based firms, Bright Beat and Purpose, to help implement sustainability practices during the four-day, multimillion-dollar convention. Together, the two women-owned businesses will be responsible for cutting down on greenhouse gas emissions.

* Pensions & Investments | Chicago’s pension funding crisis is a century in the making. 5 grad students could change that: To decrease liabilities, the team proposed introducing a new tier for newly hired city employees that creates an adjusted vesting schedule. According to the team’s presentation, pension fund participants earn between 2.4%-2.5% of their baseline annuity per service year, and the team proposed a graduated percentage: 2% for one to 20 service years, 3% for years 21-25, 4% for years 26-30 and 5% for 31 or more years. This would save between $20 million and $25 million in liabilities annually, according to the presentation.

* Daily Herald | Lots of construction angst on I-80 in Will County as rebuild revs up: The $1.3 billion project, which is 16 miles in its entirety, stretches between Ridge Road in Minooka and Route 30 near Joliet. Workers will replace over 30 bridges and multiple interchanges, including a new flyover ramp connecting southbound I-55 to eastbound I-80.

* Crain’s | Chicago Fed chief shrugs off inflation pickup in early 2024: The wave of commentary from officials follows remarks by Chair Jerome Powell just a day earlier. Powell emphasized the Fed has time to assess incoming data before reducing rates, signaling policymakers are willing to wait for clearer signs of lower inflation to act. It’s not yet clear whether the pickup in key price gauges at the start of 2024 is a temporary blip on the path to the central bank’s 2% inflation goal or a sign that progress has stalled.

* Sun-Times | Sean Tyler proved his innocence but the trauma of wrongful murder conviction has become its own sentence: “It’s still a hurting feeling and I don’t think that’ll ever be gone,” he said. “It’s so many layers and so much hurt wrapped up in it. It doesn’t feel like you can even enjoy it.” Tyler said he can finally walk down the street knowing no one can look at him and call him a murderer — worse, a person who killed a child.

* Reuters | Bird flu hits Texas dairy cows, hens, human as ducks migrate: The U.S. government since last week has reported cases of the disease in seven dairy herds in Texas and one person who had contact with cows, making it the state most affected by the country’s first-ever outbreaks in cattle. Texas is the biggest U.S. cattle producer.

* MSN | Tired of late messages from your boss? A new bill aims to make it illegal.: If passed, the California bill would require employers to establish a companywide policy on what their working hours are and how they will respect employees’ “right to disconnect.” The law would not supersede any collective bargaining contracts and applies only to salaried workers, as hourly and gig workers are protected by other laws. It’s needed to keep laws up to date with the modern realities of work, said Matt Haney, a State Assembly member representing San Francisco who introduced the bill this week. Thirteen other countries, including France, Australia, Portugal and Canada, already have laws like this, he added.

* NYT | Ford Slows Its Push Into Electric Vehicles: “We are committed to scaling a profitable E.V. business, using capital wisely and bringing to market the right gas, hybrid and fully electric vehicles at the right time,” Ford’s chief executive, Jim Farley, said in a statement.

* Sun-Times | Chicago-area solar eclipse hunters plan trek south to take in totality: ‘You have to experience it’: Sanchez, his wife and their 3-year-old daughter, along with his brother’s family will leave their home in Riverside about 4 a.m. Monday to drive to Carbondale, take in the eclipse, then drive home. It should take about five and a half hours to drive there, he said. Sanchez expects about an eight-hour trip home, plus he wants to find some souvenirs for his daughter to “look back on this experience” that he described as “extraordinary.”

* SJ-R | Are you hearing about a ‘new’ path of totality in Illinois? Don’t worry about it too much: The reports are based on an article, “Why Your Total Solar Eclipse Map Is Now Wrong (And Where to Find the New One),” by Jamie Carter, a Forbes.com senior contributor. The story cites revised calculations for the size of the sun. It says previous maps of the path of totality might be off by about 2,000 feet at their edges. But the article concedes that those heading far into the path will see little consequence.

* Chicago Review of Books | Chicago in Flux: An Interview with Gregory Royal Pratt about “The City is Up for Grabs”: Gregory Pratt: As soon as I started covering Mayor Lightfoot, I understood early in 2018 that we were potentially looking at a big sea change in Chicago, where you had the big bad, established Mayor Rahm Emanuel, leaving. Now, you potentially had a power vacuum and turnover. I thought this could be a great story. I got more serious about writing a book about this in 2020. I would cover Mayor Lightfoot day-to-day then, which I like to think of as our soft apocalypse here. Because it was crazy, right? You had the pandemic, you had civil unrest, you had a lot of institutions being remade and tested.

* Tribune | Do they still make pinball machines? They do, in a huge new factory near O’Hare — with most selling to the 1 percent: They still make pinball machines? They do, and Stern is not alone: There’s also Jersey Jack Pinball of Elk Grove Village, American Pinball of Palatine, Chicago Gaming Company of Cicero, as well as several others, in Wisconsin, Texas. But none as large as Stern these days. Stern, by several assessments, controls at least 75% of the pinball market now, internationally. It’s been so successful the past few years, the company has doubled its workforce since 2019 and sold enough new machines that they need to upgrade from a nearby Elk Grove Village factory of 100,000 square feet to this new one, with 160,000 square feet.