Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough has been hospitalized with an undisclosed illness, her government spokesperson said Tuesday.
Yarbrough, 73, has a “serious medical condition and is currently undergoing medical treatment,” her deputy clerk of communications, Sally Daly, said. “Her family is requesting privacy, and we ask for prayers for the Clerk and her family at this difficult time.”
Daly did not say when Yarbrough was hospitalized or whether the clerk had been working during the recent primary election. In addition to managing suburban elections, the clerk’s office is in charge of certain property tax and business records, legislation at the Cook County Board and vital records such as marriage and birth certificates.
* Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson…
Today, Mayor Brandon Johnson appointed Dr. Cristina Pacione-Zayas as Chief of Staff to the Mayor. Pacione-Zayas, a distinguished leader born and raised in Chicago, with an extensive background in public service, policy development, and advocacy, steps into her new role today after serving as the First Deputy Chief of Staff. She will serve as the City’s first Latina chief of staff.
“Cristina’s unparalleled dedication to our city, her depth of knowledge on critical issues affecting our neighborhoods like housing, community safety and education, and her proven track record of leadership make her the ideal person to serve as my next chief of staff,” said Mayor Brandon Johnson. “I am confident that together, we will continue to make strides toward a better, stronger, safer Chicago.”
Dr. Pacione-Zayas brings to the position a wealth of experience gained from her service in the Illinois State Senate, where she served on several key committees including Early Childhood, Education, Education Appropriations, Health, Higher Education, Human Rights, and Revenue. Her contributions as secretary to the Illinois State Board of Education, the Illinois Early Learning Council, the Legislative Audit Commission, the BUILD Initiative, the Illinois Crime Reduction Task Force, State Designated Cultural Districts Advisory Committee, and the Title V Needs Assessment Advisory Committee have been instrumental in shaping policies to support a spectrum of public programs and services across the state.
“I am deeply honored to serve as Chief of Staff for Mayor Brandon Johnson and the City of Chicago,” said Dr. Cristina Pacione-Zayas. “This role presents a unique opportunity to advance our collective vision for a city determined to deliver equity and opportunity for all, and I am committed to leveraging every resource and partnership to make this vision a reality.”
* Senate Republicans…
In the wake of a decision by Governor JB Pritzker’s Prisoner Review Board to release a dangerous felon with a history of domestic violence accused of murdering an 11-year-old boy less than 24 hours after his release, the Illinois Senate Republican Caucus is introducing fundamental reforms that would put victims first, remove politics from the appointment process, and hold members accountable for their decisions.
Crosetti Brand is accused of stabbing a former girlfriend, Laterria Smith, and killing her son Jayden as the boy attempted to defend his pregnant mother from Brand’s brutal attack. The murder occurred just a day after Brand was released by the PRB. In February, while on parole, Brand sent Smith messages threatening to kill her, and tried to break into her home. This violation of his parole landed him back in the State’s custody while the PRB could reconsider his parole. Despite the threats, the boy’s mother seeking an order of protection, and Brand’s history of domestic abuse that included orders of protection from four different women, the Pritzker-appointed PRB voted to release him.
“This never should have happened,” said Illinois Senate Republican Leader John Curran (R-Downers Grove). “Many areas of our criminal justice system failed Ms. Smith and her heroic son, but at the end of the day, it was Governor Pritzker’s Prisoner Review Board that released this violent criminal despite overwhelming evidence that he was a danger to his victims and to the general public.”
At a news conference Tuesday, Curran unveiled legislation that would implement a number of reforms to improve how the Prisoner Review Board operates. Curran’s legislation would:
Put Victims First
- Requires the Prisoner Review Board to immediately inform a victim of the early release of a prisoner from State custody or of the prisoner’s pardon, commutation, furlough, granting of sentence credit, or following a final revocation hearing when an individual has violated the conditions of their mandatory supervised release if the victim has previously requested notification of that information. If they have not, the board is to make every possible effort, which must be documented, to contact the victim.
- Requires members of the board to complete yearly mandatory training on domestic violence and sexual assault so they may better understand these crimes impact the women and children who often become victims.
Put Experience Ahead of Politics
- Requires that appointees to the Prisoner Review Board must have at least 20 years of cumulative experience in the criminal justice system.
- Experience in the criminal justice system is defined as time spent as either a prosecutor, criminal defense attorney, judge, probation officer, or public defender.
Increase Transparency and Hold PRB Accountable
- Requires the PRB to make written notice public within 24 hours of a decision to release in cases following a final revocation hearing when an individual has violated the conditions of their mandatory supervised release.
- Provides that notification must include votes from the members of the board and any relevant notes about information presented in the case, as well as notes about the board’s deliberations on the case.
The Senate Republican legislative package is two-fold, focusing both on reforms to the PRB and on more severe consequences for repeat domestic abusers like Crosetti Brand, who had previous convictions for home invasion causing injury and violating an order of protection.
State Senator Steve McClure (R-Springfield), who sits on the Executive Appointments Committee, will also be introducing legislation that will:
Protect Victims of Domestic Violence
- Increases the penalties for violating an order of protection.
- Provides that for a first-time violation, the penalty increases from a misdemeanor to a class 4 felony; and from a previous conviction, it increases from a class 4 to a class 3 felony. […]
Senate Republicans view this legislation as a first step in the larger process of reforming how the Prisoner Review Board operates. The Senators noted that in this particular case, Pritzker’s Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) was also complicit. IDOC was notified of Lateria Smith’s attempt to get another order of protection following Brand’s attempted home invasion three weeks before but failed to make the information available to the PRB.
Who is the rightful heir to Abraham Lincoln’s old U.S. House seat? The district he represented from 1847 to 1849 is currently split between five seats. Here’s how it’s now divided:
* WBEZ | How Eileen O’Neill Burke won the razor-thin primary for Cook County state’s attorney: Harris captured nearly 400 precincts by 50 percentage points or more, compared to about 300 such precincts for O’Neill Burke. Harris was strongest in precincts on the South and West sides of Chicago and throughout the south suburbs and near west suburbs. But O’Neill Burke captured nearly 460 more precincts than Harris overall. Her strongest showings came in precincts on the Northwest and Southwest sides of the city and near downtown. O’Neill Burke also scored big in the near northwest and near southwest suburbs. She carried more than twice as many precincts as Harris — 991 to 430 — in suburban Cook County.
* Crain’s | After nearly a decade, Walgreens kickback lawsuit by whistleblowers can go forward: A federal judge has given the green light for a whistleblower lawsuit contending that Walgreens violated U.S. and Illinois false claims statutes by steering Medicare and Medicaid patients to its own pharmacy by waiving co-pays. In a case that’s been kicked around for about a decade after several amendments and U.S. and Illinois governments trying to hop aboard, Judge John F. Kness of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois ruled on March 29 that the complaint brought by two former Walgreens pharmacy technicians could continue. However, Kness dismissed an accompanying complaint by the state of Illinois.
* Sun-Times | Clark Street closure for outdoor dining ‘pending mayoral review,’ Ald. Reilly says: “It was amazing, what it did to the area,” The Smith General Manager Eric Scofield said. “[Clark Street] didn’t close until mid-July last year, and as soon as that happened, the foot traffic and environment in the area just became so much more vibrant … it was just a really kind of fun atmosphere in an otherwise bustling city.”
* Crain’s | These Chicagoans traded their Ventra cards for car keys: Penn is part of a growing cluster of frustrated CTA riders who are swapping their Ventra cards for car keys as the transit agency struggles to get back to pre-pandemic service levels. At CTA President Dorval Carter’s City Council appearance in February, transit advocates pointed to friends who had abandoned the CTA and become first-time car owners since COVID hit. In interviews with lapsed riders, Crain’s found that reliability stood out as the main reason for leaving the system, though other issues, including safety and cleanliness, played major roles for their exits.
* Crain’s | Bally’s shareholder blasts chairman’s ‘woeful’ takeover bid: In a sharply worded letter slamming “moon shot bets” and accusing Chairman Soo Kim of trying to take over the company “at a fraction of its fair value,” two investors are calling on Bally’s board to reject Kim’s “woefully undervalued” bid and reboot its overall strategy — including rethinking its Chicago plans.
* Fox 2 Now | Western Illinois University waives application fee for the month of April: The universities Assistant Vice President for Student Success and Enrollment is hoping this will bring more applications to the college. “We hope to see an uptick. And as I mentioned, just taking one financial burden off of the plate, so students can at least apply and see if, entering WIU and pursuing their degree is something that they are interested in,” said Justin Schuch.
* Block Club | Chicago Is The Deadliest City For Migrating Birds. Here’s How Advocates Want To Fix It: Advocates want the bird safety building requirements to be mandatory in an update to Chicago’s Sustainable Development Policy, which is set to be released this month, Prince said. […] The current sustainable development policy, last updated in 2016, doesn’t require developers to implement bird-safety measures. Instead, it uses a point system to reward developers who commit to protecting birds.
* NYT | Tesla’s Sales Drop, a Sign That Its Grip on the E.V. Market Is Slipping: Tesla said it delivered 387,000 cars worldwide in the first quarter, down 8.5 percent from 423,000 vehicles in the same period last year. This was the first time Tesla’s quarterly sales have fallen on a year over year basis since a modest drop at the start of the pandemic in 2020. The sales figures were also significantly lower than the estimates of Wall Street analysts who had expected a modest increase.
* Illinois Times | Photographing history: Lee Milner reflects on his life and career : After Milner came back to Springfield from Washington, a legislator friend of his asked then-state Rep. Bill Redmond, a DuPage County Democrat who had recently been elected speaker of the Illinois House and was building out his staff, to consider hiring Milner. Milner became Redmond’s assistant press secretary and worked for Redmond from 1975 to 1979.
* SJ-R | Eclipsing expectations: Why experts say this celestial event might make you gasp: Reif, who is planning a return trip to DuQuoin, said the event can’t be oversold. “It is absolutely humbling,” Reif said. “I’m a geologist. We study big things, and we think we understand it all and then you have this moment where you can see the movement of the heavens, literally.”
Rolling up to a Tesla charging port, Illinois Republican state Sen. Dan McConchie grimaced that wheelchair users like him couldn’t use it—or any of the others at the gas station where he filmed his Instagram reel. They’d all been placed on a raised surface that he couldn’t readily reach. McConchie introduced a state bill to improve relevant accessibility standards, including electric car chargers. But it’s a national problem: Electric vehicle charging stations are often inaccessible, despite being designed and built decades after the Americans with Disabilities Act became law.
By April 2023, the Department of Energy reported, there were more than 140,000 public EV charging ports in the US, up from around 80,000 just three years earlier. The number of charging ports accessible to disabled drivers isn’t easy to pin down, an issue in itself; Department of Transportation data estimates that half of disabled adults under 65, some 10 million people, drive themselves around. By 2030, there will be more than 25 million electric vehicles on US roads, according to industry group Edison Electric Insitute. That includes a growing share of more affordable plug-in hybrids, driving even more demand for charging infrastructure. But for drivers with disabilities, inaccessible chargers make it a lot less appealing to switch: In a 2022 UK survey, though two-thirds of disabled drivers planned to go electric, most—more than 70 percent—said concerns about inaccessible infrastructure factored in. And in a society that considers EVs key to a more sustainable future, the spread of inaccessible chargers signals that disabled people have been left behind. […]
Coming up with more effective ways for disabled people to access EV chargers isn’t always straightforward. Many are on raised platforms in parking lots. Car-to-car differences mean accessible parking spots can’t necessarily become EV stations. Building more municipal chargers on sidewalks near pedestrian ramps could let wheelchair users plug in more easily. These chargers would also help clear sidewalks blocked by the long, hefty cords of household chargers used by some drivers without garages.
Winchester-area native and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Ray Long’s in-depth work The House That Madigan Built moves to paperback after a successful two-year run in hard back for the University of Illinois Press. The book is a lengthy view of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s 36 years as House Speaker, and 38-year leadership of the Democratic Party of Illinois.
Long’s career of covering the Capitol in Springfield coincided with Madigan’s rise to power.
Long says it was important to have the full picture of Madigan’s time in Springfield from beginning to end: “I feel pretty good about the book going to paperback. I thought that it was an important book to write because a lot of people have not followed Madigan closely but they have kind of a gut reaction about him, most often times its negative, especially in recent years. The book lays it out, I believe, on the things that he did that either drew a lot of praise or scrutiny. There were things that he did that got him in trouble. He used the power of politics to push his agenda and pushed his personal political power. The book largely covers the time that he was a legislative leader, which happened to be in 1981 and that also happened to be the first year that I covered Springfield.”
Long says he watched all of the highs and lows of Madigan’s career and tried to portray it objectively and let people make their own conclusions.
A new book by Chicago Tribune reporter Gregory Pratt offers an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look into Lightfoot’s tumultuous time in office that ultimately led to her failed bid for reelection.
“It’s fundamentally an inability to have political relationships and to work with people who you don’t like,” Pratt said. “It’s adapt or die, and she was a prosecutor and she couldn’t get out of that mindset.”
Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Gov JB Pritzker in the early days of COVID when she was dragging her feet, second guessing his moves and commenting on his visit to her conference room, via my book The City is Up for Grabs (now available for sale wherever books are sold) pic.twitter.com/5ZFjzPwvxM
Pratt hoped to talk to Lightfoot for the book, though “by the time 2022 came around, it was clear she was in her bunker and she was not coming out.”
“I was hoping that she would come around, because we’d always had good conversations even about difficult subjects. But by the end, she came to believe that everyone was against her.”
Pratt’s big takeaway? Leaders “have to be open to new ideas and understand soft power in addition to hard power … and be willing to make mistakes,” Pratt says.
“You can’t take things personal, and if you do, you can’t show that to the world at every moment and say ’screw you, poor me.’”
“I think that, when we look back, we’re going to see one of the most critical four years in the history of Chicago,” he told WBBM. “I thought it was important to document it in detail so that people could understand what exactly happened — where we went wrong and where we went right — and we can take some lessons for future generations.”
Pratt described Lightfoot as “an unsuccessful mayor who did a lot of good things but also screwed up a lot of problems.”
“You don’t get rejected by 85% of your voters because you did a great job,” he said.
Lightfoot became the first openly gay Black woman to serve as mayor not only of Chicago, but of any major U.S. city, after she defeated Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle in the 2019 mayoral election.
* WBEZ spoke with Patrick Wohl about his new book…
Long before there was Bush v. Gore and the “dimpled chad” fiasco in Florida, there was Penny Pullen and Rosemary Mulligan, two suburban Chicago Republicans vying for the same statehouse seat in a race so close, it was decided at points by a handful of votes, a coin toss and eventually the Illinois Supreme Court.
Reset dives into a new book examining the significance of that race, the way it changed how we count votes today and why every vote counts.
[Patrick] Wohl, a Park Ridge native and 2012 graduate of Maine South High School, grew up hearing about the 1990 Republican primary for state representative, in which Penny Pullen and Rosemary Mulligan battled for the nomination in one of the closest races in Illinois history. The local election became a proxy fight on the question of legalized abortion, drawing national interest and money into the district.
“Growing up, it was this legendary story that people talked about,” he said. “You know, back in the day, this race was so close that they flipped a coin. I had no idea that it had gained all this national attention or had anything to do with abortion before I started going back to research it.”
The more he dove into the race — the coin flip was, in fact, true — the more he was drawn into the story. Four years later, the election is the subject of his first book: “Down Ballot: How a Local Campaign Became a National Referendum on Abortion.” […]
“When you look at the polls in Illinois now, it’s easy to forget that this was such a contentious issue 30 years ago,” Wohl said. “It was a 50-50 issue. You had Catholic Democrats who opposed abortion. Black Democrats opposed it, based on faith. You also had a lot of suburban Republicans who were supportive of abortion rights. This was a Republican primary, and it was an issue that split the party.”
In 2020, for instance, only 28% [of Illinois registered voters] voted in the primary — a low amount that can be attributed in part to Trump, as an incumbent, facing no competition on the Republican side and Biden having largely sewn up the Democratic nomination. But in the general election that November, nearly 73% of registered voters turned out, the best showing since 1992.
Sen. Dick Durbin was also unopposed in the primary that year.
We’ve seen a lot of hot takes about making changes to laws because of turnout last month. Turnout was indeed low, but Illinois had no other statewide races on the ballot besides POTUS (this happens every 12 years here). And turnout was not nearly as low as was initially reported because lots of mailed, provisional and maybe even some early ballots hadn’t yet been counted by election night.
* Even so, some folks want Illinois to become a “multi-party primary” state. Definition…
A small but growing number of states hold a single primary in which all candidates, regardless of party, are listed on a single ballot. States vary in the number of candidates who advance out of this primary to the general election. For example, California and Washington use a “top-two” primary format in which each candidate lists his or her party affiliation or, in Washington’s case, a party “preference.” The top two vote-getters in each race, regardless of party, advance to the general election.
Elections for Nebraska’s unicameral, nonpartisan legislature closely mirror this process except ballots do not identify the candidates’ party. (Nebraska uses open primaries for other state offices). Alaska uses a similar system except four candidates advance to the general election instead of two.
Advocates of the “top-two” format argue that it increases the likelihood of moderate candidates advancing to the general election ballot. Opponents maintain it reduces voter choice by making it possible that two candidates of the same party face off in the general election. They also contend it is tilted against minor parties who will face slim odds of earning a spot on the general election ballot.
Other options include allowing voters to choose one candidate in each race regardless of party. Others believe voters should have the right to choose their own party ballot without anyone else knowing about it. Some states require people to register as a party member in order to vote in a primary. More here.
* The Question: Should Illinois change its primary system? Explain either way. Thanks.
“The Illinois House is now grappling with a proposal to eliminate the tip credit provision from the minimum wage law. While I choose to believe there are good intentions here, I know – as intimately as one can – that the legislation will actually hurt the workers it seeks to help in addition to increasing the burden to small businesses.”
- Eric Williams, Bronzeville Winery, Chicago
Two massive industrial sites that symbolize Chicago’s manufacturing decline — a former steel mill on the South Side and a former refinery in the southwest suburbs — could get new life in the race to build cutting-edge technology.
PsiQuantum is considering the former U.S. Steel South Works site and the former Texaco refinery in Lockport for a facility to build and operate quantum computers, which could result in more than 1,000 jobs, sources familiar with the project tell Crain’s. A decision could come in the next six weeks. […]
Landing the company would go a long way to fulfilling Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s vision of turning Illinois into “the Silicon Valley of quantum development,” adding to a streak of economic-development wins over the past two years that includes electric-vehicle and battery manufacturing projects involving Stellantis and Gotion. It also would bring a long-awaited revitalization to one of two industrial sites in the Chicago area that had been left for dead. In the case of South Works, it would provide a long-sought catalyst to revitalize a neighborhood badly in need of an economic boost. […]
The massive, long-fallow lakefront property has stumped developers for years on how to repurpose it, with multiple suitors wary of unknown costs to clean up the land’s contaminated soil. But sources familiar with the property said a new developer is entering the mix: Related Midwest, which is believed to be closing in on an option to buy the entire 440-acre site in connection with the quantum project. Representatives from PsiQuantum met with officials from Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office on the project last week, according to two sources familiar with the meeting.
California-based PsiQuantum is part of a select group leading the development of quantum computers, a technology poised to revolutionize various fields. The company seeks a location capable of sustaining cryogenic facilities crucial for operating quantum computers. Initial estimates indicate the creation of 250 to 1,000 jobs, with prospects for expansion in the future. […]
Illinois’ quantum investment, backed by $200 million funding and initiatives like the Chicago Quantum Exchange, has already attracted substantial federal research grants. The state now competes with Colorado for additional federal funding, aiming to establish itself as the nation’s quantum industry epicenter. […]
The prospective project involves colossal investments, spanning two facilities covering 500,000 square feet and demanding significant power and water resources.
* Related…
* WAND | Pritzker, Bloch tech leaders excited for next phase of quantum research: Pritzker announced an ambitious multi-year plan Monday for a Chicago quantum facility to develop technology solutions for fraud detection, grid resilience and drug discovery. The Bloch Tech Hub submitted this idea while applying for the second round of funding through the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s Regional Technology and Innovation Hub Program.
*WGN | Pritzker announces plan to make Chicago quantum technology capital: On Monday, top executives from Fortune 500 companies like IBM and Microsoft joined leaders of tech start-ups and professors from top universities as Pritzker announced a plan for the state to invest $500 million in efforts that would cement Illinois’ status as the nation’s leading quantum tech hub.
Jails largely act independently so it’s up to each to set and enforce policies and procedures, she said. While the Illinois Department of Corrections has a jail and detention standards unit, which oversees county jails, the department does not have policies on reproductive health, the report said. […]
Illinois does have some standards for how pregnant people should be treated in detention. In 2000, Illinois became the first state to ban shackling an incarcerated person while they’re in labor.
Then in 2012, the state banned shackling throughout the entire term of a person’s pregnancy, but only in Cook County. The Illinois Reproductive Health Act does extend protections to people who are incarcerated. […]
A bill to ban the use of leg irons and shackles on pregnant people inside Illinois’ county jails passed a state House committee Friday. The bill would also require that pregnant and lactating people incarcerated in jails get extra rations of food, and it would allow for electronic ankle bracelets to be removed from them during labor and delivery.
Amends the County Department of Corrections Law. In provisions about pregnant prisoners, modifies the definitions of “post-partum” and “correctional institution”, including that “correctional institution” includes institutions in all counties (rather than only in counties more than 3,000,000 inhabitants). Modifies and removes provisions relating to security restraints on a prisoner who is pregnant or in postpartum recovery. Adds provisions relating to annual reports by sheriffs documenting the number of pregnant prisoners in custody each year and the number of people who deliver or miscarry while in custody, relating to county department of corrections providing informational materials concerning the laws pertaining to pregnant prisoners to any pregnant or postpartum prisoner, and relating to supplemental nutrition for prisoners who are pregnant or lactating. Amends the Unified Code of Corrections and the County Jail Act making similar changes. In the Unified Code of Corrections, also adds language relating to restraints of committed persons who are pregnant. Amends the Health Care Violence Prevention Act. In provisions relating to pregnant prisoners, removes a limitation on the provisions to pregnant prisoners in the custody of the Cook County. Provides that restraint of a pregnant prisoner shall comply with specified provisions of the Counties Code, the Unified Code of Corrections, and the County Jail Act (rather than only the Counties Code provisions).
Representative La Shawn Ford (D-8th) is opposed to HB 4045, which will allow non-citizens to apply to become Chicago firemen if they have a work permit. Ford says the bill fails to rectify the discrimination he says still exists within the Chicago Fire Department. […]
Standing his ground and making his position clear, Ford said, “Passing this bill without addressing the underlying issues of discrimination and inequity within our Fire Department will only exacerbate the problem. It would ignore the ongoing struggle of marginalized communities who have been systematically excluded from fair employment practices. […]
The bill amends the Illinois Municipal Code and the Fire Protection District Act. It provides that an individual who is not a citizen but is legally authorized to work in the United States under federal law is authorized to apply for the position of firefighter, subject to all requirements and limitations, other than citizenship, to which other applicants are subject. The bill became effective January 1, 2024.
The controversial HB 4045 was introduced by Rep. Barbara Hernandez (D-50th) and supported by and sponsored by Reps. Edgar Gonzalez, Jr. (D-23rd), John M. Cabello (R-90th), Travis Weaver (R-93rd) and Angelica Guerrero-Cuellar (D-22nd).
…Adding…Republican Reps. John Cabello, Bradley Fritts, Jeff Keicher and Brad Stephens were removed as sponsors in early March. Rep Travis Weaver was removed as a sponsor last year.
As originally filed, House Bill 4045 would amend the Illinois Municipal Code and the Fire Protection District Act by establishing that non-citizens legally authorized to work in the country under federal law are eligible to apply for the position of firefighter subject to all other requirements and limitations.
“I hope that the sponsor pulls the bill and we have a bill that deals with hiring practices and also makes sure that we have some type of standards in place because these are taxpayer dollars,” Ford told The Center Square. “You can’t have racism and discrimination in your hiring and promotion practices and everyone should have equal opportunity to be hired in these positions.” […]
Ford added one change he would like to see is fire department doing more recruitment on the campuses of high schools, city colleges and trade schools along with the pools of unemployed people “to create a pipeline of diverse candidates.”
HB4045 was amended by dropping the non-citizen language, but keeping language saying firefighters can be any “individual who is legally authorized to work in the United States.” The measure passed the House Police and Fire Committee last month and awaits further floor action.
* Press release…
Advisory: Illinois Senate GOP to unveil legislation to reform Prisoner Review Board
WHO: Illinois Senate Republican Leader John Curran (R-Downers Grove)
State Senator Jason Plummer (R-Edwardsville)
State Senator Steve McClure (R-Springfield)
WHAT: Zoom press conference to discuss deadly agency failings and Senate GOP policy solutions to improve public safety.
State Senator Erica Harriss (56th-Glen Carbon) has filed and passed a bill out of committee to help combat ongoing trash and debris issues from landfills in Madison and St. Clair counties. […]
Senate Bill 3566 would require any landfill in any county with a population over 250,000 to provide facilities at landfill locations for the cleaning of mud, gravel, waste and other material from wheels and undercarriages of trucks and other vehicles leaving the site. […]
Currently, the Illinois Environmental Protection Act only requires landfills in counties with populations over 270,000 (Cook, DuPage, Lake, Will, Kane, McHenry and Winnebago counties) to have the wheel washing requirements.
SB 3566 unanimously passed the Environment and Conservation committee and Senator Harriss hopes to present the legislation to the full Senate for a vote upon returning from spring recess.
House Bill 3239, sponsored by state Rep. Maura Hirschauer, D-Batavia, would obligate Illinoisans who want to buy a firearm to go through eight hours of training and other requirements. The bill is in the House Judiciary Criminal Committee, which is scheduled to meet in Springfield Tuesday. Her office said she will not be calling the bill this week. […]
A FOID card is required in Illinois for residents to own or purchase firearms and ammunition. According to numbers from Illinois State Police, over 2.4 million Illinois residents possess FOID cards, nearly 19% of the state’s 12.7 million people. The greatest number of these cards have been issued in Cook County, with over 730,000 active cards at the end of 2023. Champaign County had issued 34,144. […]
HB3239 would require Illinois residents who want to buy a firearm to undergo eight hours of mandatory training approved by the director of the Illinois State Police. […]
Students Demand Action of Illinois are proponents of the bill. There are 15 proponents and nearly 1,800 opponents.
* President of Community Access National Network Jen Laws…
State lawmakers across the country are telling patients they’re working to reduce out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs. However, in response to calls to better serve patients, many states are looking to use an unproven tool that simply is not going to get the job done and could worsen challenges patients face today to access medications.
Billed under names like “Prescription Drug Affordability Board,” legislation that states like Illinois are introducing pulls a bait-and-switch that ultimately threatens equitable access to medications and alters the landscape of health care financing in favor of insurers, not patients. […]
Affordability boards that seek to exclusively rely on these reimbursement limits to lower drug prices have yet to demonstrate meaningful cost savings for patients. Despite payment limits threatening the ability of providers to stock and administer critical treatments, nothing in Illinois’ proposed legislation requires any realized “savings” to be passed on to patients or returned to a plan sponsor, such as state public health programs, or employers in the case of employer-sponsored plans. […]
Policymakers’ goal to tackle barriers to care for patients is right. But if lawmakers in Springfield actually care about helping patients, perhaps starting with patients, rather than any other stakeholders, is the way to go.
State Rep. Maurice West, D-Rockford, sponsored House Bill 5617, which would require schools to alter mascots, logos or names with Native American tribes or feature Native American culture. […]
The bill prohibits schools from selling items with banned mascots and removes banned logos from school property. Schools would be able to use uniforms or other materials with Native logos or mascots until Sept. 1, 2027. […]
West said that the issue has been on his desk since 2019, after a group of students from a local student protested the use of a “humongous” Native American face on the wall of their school, sparking the idea of mascot reform.
West said in 2019, his posture was education not elimination and when he filed the original mascot bill it got traction but, members of federally recognized tribes throughout the nation, who originated from Illinois reached out to him to say that’s not what we want. They wanted education reform.
* ICYMI: Report details poor care for pregnant people in county jails. Sun-Times…
-Last week, a report from the ACLU of Illinois and the Women’s Justice Institute shared stories from women who were pregnant in custody and often denied basic medical care.
-A quarter of Illinois jails don’t have written policies for how to treat pregnant detainees. -A bill to ban the use of leg irons and shackles on pregnant people inside Illinois’ county jails passed a state House committee Friday.
* Chicago Crusader | Rep. Ford opposes bill allowing non-citizens to become firemen: Representative La Shawn Ford (D-8th) is opposed to HB 4045, which will allow non-citizens to apply to become Chicago firemen if they have a work permit. Ford says the bill fails to rectify the discrimination he says still exists within the Chicago Fire Department.
Jim Durkin, the former House minority leader and guiding force for the Illinois Republican Party for years, has joined the well-connected law firm of Croke Fairchild Duarte & Beres. Durkin is a partner in the firm’s public finance, government affairs and regulatory law practice groups.
“Partnering with an accomplished legislator and lifelong public servant of Jim’s caliber is an honor for all of us,” CFDB partner and Management Committee Co-chair Lisa Duarte, a former Illinois first assistant deputy governor, said in a statement obtained by Playbook.
“It’s a great fit,” Durkin told Playbook. And in a statement, he called it “an opportunity to help the next generation of leaders apply business and legal solutions to the needs and challenges of our communities while also driving economic growth.”
* Here’s the rest…
* Daily Herald | Illinois’ sights and tax incentives bring Hollywood to the suburbs: A swing through Long Grove last week no doubt had drivers doing a double take: Instead of sporting spring pastels and Easter decorations, the town’s fixtures were all decked out for Christmas. Nope, it was not the result of village crews too busy to take down holiday decorations. Instead, the festive scene was created to accommodate “My Grown Up Christmas Wish,” a Christmas movie starring Mario Lopez that was making use of Long Grove’s quaint downtown and iconic covered bridge.
* Rockford Register-Star | Homicide suspect’s uncle, candidate for Congress: Stabbing should have been prevented: A statement of fact written by Rockford police said Timothy Carter had sought mental health treatment before the attack. Rosecrance Behavioral Health personnel evaluated Carter and then drove him to UW Health SwedishAmerican Hospital which operates a 42-bed psychiatric ward. Police said Carter left the hospital without getting mental health treatment.
* Joshua Bandoch | Illinois could lower unemployment with more apprenticeship programs: In Chicago alone, there are 53,000 residents with at least a bachelor’s degree who live in poverty, according to our analysis of 2022 Census data. Research from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce shows only 31% of Americans actually need post-secondary education for their jobs. And earning those degrees comes at the cost of time, money and usually debt. The better way to prepare people for viable careers is to move to a work-based educational model that translates tangible skills into good, well-paying jobs. This “career-first” model prioritizes professions that are in high demand now and will continue to be in demand as the economy evolves.
* Crain’s | South Works site, Lockport refinery eyed for potential quantum computer factory: PsiQuantum is considering the former U.S. Steel South Works site and the former Texaco refinery in Lockport for a facility to build and operate quantum computers, which could result in more than 1,000 jobs, sources familiar with the project tell Crain’s. A decision could come in the next six weeks.
* WAND | Pritzker, Bloch tech leaders excited for next phase of quantum research: Pritzker announced an ambitious multi-year plan Monday for a Chicago quantum facility to develop technology solutions for fraud detection, grid resilience and drug discovery. The Bloch Tech Hub submitted this idea while applying for the second round of funding through the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s Regional Technology and Innovation Hub Program.
* Daily Herald | Can cement be greener? Industry seeking ways to lower carbon dioxide emissions: One team of researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, alongside the Meta Sustainability Net Zero program and concrete supplier Ozinga, are looking to discover better concrete formulas using artificial intelligence. Early-stage results found the AI-powered formulas reduced the carbon footprint of the concrete by 40% while maintaining the material’s critical strength and durability.
* WTTW | Chicago Tribune Reporter’s New Book Explores Lori Lightfoot’s Tumultuous Tenure Leading the City: “It’s fundamentally an inability to have political relationships and to work with people who you don’t like,” Pratt said. “It’s adapt or die, and she was a prosecutor and she couldn’t get out of that mindset.” Pratt’s book “The City is Up for Grabs: How Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot Led and Lost a City in Crisis” will be released April 2.
* Block Club | Chicago’s 1st Chief Homelessness Officer Will Be Sendy Soto: Soto’s portfolio will include working to expand housing options for people who experience homelessness and housing insecurity, including creating rental assistance, rapid rehousing and non-congregate shelter programs, among other things, according to the Mayor’s Office.
* Tribune | Johnson unveils Chicago’s first chief homelessness officer, takes more shots at ‘wicked’ adversaries of Bring Chicago Home: “If my advocacy is defiant, what does that say about the systems who wish to keep people without dignity and unhoused? I call it wicked,” Johnson said Monday. “And so that’s why we are demonstrating in the first 10 months of my administration that we are committed to ending homelessness. … I had an older brother who had untreated trauma and died addicted and unhoused. So pardon me for wanting to be a bridge.”
* The Nation | Sam Bankman-Fried’s Hallucinations of Grandeur: During his sentencing, Bankman-Fried stuck to—and indeed amplified—one of his most enduring lies: that his theft of more than $8 billion in FTX customer funds resulted in no actual financial loss to anyone. The money to pay back customers was always there, he said in his final statement before being sentenced. “There is billions more than is necessary. It has been true for the whole time.”
* NYT | A Warhol Superstar, but Never a Star: The latest is Candy Darling, the transgender actress who succumbed to cancer at 29 in 1974, after being immortalized in a famous photograph by Peter Hujar and in the Lou Reed song “Walk on the Wild Side.” […] The first full-length biography of her, by Cynthia Carr, a longtime staff writer for The Village Voice — quite the Mother Ginger itself, of late — is compassionate and meticulous, reconstructing its brittle, gleaming subject as one might a broken Meissen figurine.
* AP | A biased test kept thousands of Black people from getting a kidney transplant. It’s finally changing: At issue is a once widely used test that overestimated how well Black people’s kidneys were functioning, making them look healthier than they really were — all because of an automated formula that calculated results for Black and non-Black patients differently. That race-based equation could delay diagnosis of organ failure and evaluation for a transplant, exacerbating other disparities that already make Black patients more at risk of needing a new kidney but less likely to get one.
* NYT | Florida Court Allows 6-Week Abortion Ban, but Voters Will Get to Weigh In: But in a separate decision released at the same time, the justices allowed Florida voters to decide this fall whether to expand abortion access. The court ruled 4 to 3 that a proposed constitutional amendment that would guarantee the right to abortion “before viability,” usually around 24 weeks, could go on the November ballot.
* NYT | Peter Brown, One of the Beatles’ Closest Confidants, Tells All (Again): Next week, Brown and the writer Steven Gaines are releasing a book, “All You Need Is Love: The Beatles in Their Own Words,” made up of interviews they conducted in 1980 and 1981 with the band and people close to it, including business representatives, lawyers, wives and ex-wives — the raw material that Brown and Gaines used for their earlier narrative biography of the band, “The Love You Make: An Insider’s Story of the Beatles,” published in 1983.
* Crain’s | Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes urge Kansas City to seal $2B stadium subsidy: What they want is for Kansas City voters to approve a tax that would raise as much as $2 billion of taxpayer money for two stadiums. The NFL stars made their appeal in an ad encouraging Jackson County, Missouri, residents to vote yes on an April 2 ballot measure to renew a sales tax for another 40 years. The revenue would fund the relocation of the Kansas City Royals baseball team into a new ballpark downtown so the NFL’s Chiefs can expand into the space now occupied by the Royals at the teams’ joint sports complex.
* WaPo | In women’s basketball, ‘the NCAA regrets the error’ all too often: Even now, the women’s NCAA basketball tournament, that ceiling-rupturing Roman candle of an event, is still being treated with a combination of incompetence and indifference by its stagers. Somebody, multiple people actually, didn’t care enough to make sure the Sweet 16 court in Portland, Ore., had the right proportions. What else did they misdraw with such insulting lack of care? The world wonders. Don’t think for a second that small discrepancy in three-point lines didn’t matter. Just because something is petty doesn’t make it unimportant. Actually, it’s all the more belittling.
* News-Gazette | Former Illini great Vontae Davis dies at 35: Police told Miami’s WSVN-TV that no foul play was believed to be involved in the death of Davis, whose body was found Monday morning at a home owned by his brother. Davis played parts of 10 seasons in the NFL.
* News-Gazette | Illini advance to WBIT title game: The Illinois women’s basketball team started April off the same way the Illini ended March. With a win. A fourth win in a row, in fact. One that now has Shauna Green and Co. playing for a championship in the inaugural Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament.
* The Atlantic | The Most Dazzling Eclipse in the Universe: They’re an unlikely confluence of time, space, and planetary dynamics, the result of chance events that happened billions of years ago. And, as far as we know, Earth’s magnificent eclipses are unique in their frequency, an extraordinary case of habitual stellar spectacle. On April 8, anyone who watches in wonder as the moon silently glides over the sun will be witnessing the planetary version of a lightning strike.
