* ICYMI: Trump Admin. announces $12B aid package for farmers; Will it be enough to help in Illinois? WCIA…

- The new $12 billion aid package is supposed to help farmers through the slump in sales caused by the president’s tariffs.
- Champaign County farmer Steve Hettinger said it couldn’t come soon enough, but one problem Hettinger sees is that the one-time payments will only help ease farmers’ pain temporarily. It doesn’t reopen markets that have shut their doors due to high tariffs.
- Jeff Kirwan with the Illinois Farm Bureau said he is hopeful the aid package will put farmers back in the black. He said the next issue the administration should focus on is finding a way to tackle the rising input prices that keep putting farmers behind.

* Related stories…

• NYT: Trump Promises Farmers $12 Billion to Blunt Fallout From His Trade War
• NPR: Farmers say Trump’s payment isn’t enough amid rising health care costs
• AP: Trump is giving farmers $12B in aid. They’ve been hit hard by his trade war with China

* Governor Pritzker will be at La Villita Community Church at 9:30 am to sign a bill enacting protections for immigrants in Illinois “against unjust federal action.” Click here to watch.

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* Crain’s | Feds warn CTA: Beef up policing or lose transit funding: “Creating a safe, reliable transit system is the responsibility of leaders at every level,” FTA Administrator Marc Molinaro says in a letter sent late Monday to Johnson. “CTA, the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois have failed to meet this obligation. If CTA does not promptly increase its law enforcement presence, FTA will act, including by withholding federal funds.” It’s the latest dispute between the White House and the Johnson and Pritzker, including an attempt to deploy the National Guard to Chicago to deal with crime and the Department of Transportation’s threat to withhold $2 billion in funding for the extension of the CTA’s Red Line because of minority-contracting provisions.

* Tribune | Illinois has its latest list of endangered species — the end result of many difficult choices: “OK, take a deep breath,” she said after they voted last winter. They removed southern water snakes from “endangered” status. They added eight bee species as endangered. They added the Little Wabash crayfish. The bluebreast darter went from “endangered” to “threatened.” When they were done, they sat in silence, five years of meetings behind them, 10 months of approvals and public notices and legislative reviews before the list was released. Five years of board members being agnostic toward a species, even if it’s their specialty. Five years of speaking in measured tones, only laughing when someone lapsed into a blunt assessment. Five years of concerns that whatever goes on a new list is backed by data and, as Willink says, “legally defensible.” And five more years of worldwide ecological decline.

*** Statewide ***

* WGLT | Illinois Farm Bureau delegates reject president’s bid for 2nd term: At the IFB annual meeting in Chicago, nearly 57% of the delegates chose Philip Nelson from Seneca, a former IFB president and state agriculture director, as the organization’s 17th president. Duncan led the Farm Bureau into litigation against the American Farm Bureau Federation [AFBF] over the end of a Farm Bureau membership eligibility requirement for non-farm insurance policy holders in Illinois issued through IFB-owned Country Financial. Both the IFB and Country Financial are based in Bloomington.

* WMBD | Study reveals disparity in Computer Science education access in Illinois schools: This part of the study covers the school year 2021-22, two years prior to the mandate. It shows that 482, or 59%, of public high schools in the state offer at least one computer science course, with 39% offering two or more. But only 42% of the schools employed an endorsed computer science teacher.

*** Statehouse News ***

* WAND | Plan requiring new safety, privacy protections for public officials awaits Pritzker’s signature: Current and former state lawmakers, constitutional officers, state’s attorneys, public defenders and election officials could have their personal information protected under the plan. The measure would allow public leaders to request that their information not be posted online by government agencies, people, businesses, or groups. They could also request that information be removed from a website if it has already been published.

* WGLT | Illinois Supreme Court in ‘wait and see’ posture as new public defense policy takes shape: The Funded Advocacy and Independent Representation [FAIR] Act, signed by Gov. JB Pritzker in August, creates a commission and common public defender’s office over the course of two years. The commission is to be formed by July 1, 2026, with a Jan. 1, 2027, deadline to launch the statewide system in earnest. […] During a recent visit to McLean County, Illinois Supreme Court Justice Mary K. O’Brien said there are geographic disparities in public defense, in addition to equity gaps between prosecutors and public defenders. State law requires public defender salaries to be 90% of the state’s attorney’s pay, only in counties with populations greater than 30,000 people.

* Tribune | Advocates hope newly passed bill will inspire more Illinois therapists to take private health insurance: In recent years, many therapists have stopped taking insurance because of what they describe as low payment rates and administrative hoops that can make it difficult to treat patients — a situation that has left many patients either skipping behavioral health care or paying entirely out of pocket. The newly passed bill aims to address those issues by setting into law a formula outlining how much insurers must pay therapists for their services.

* WGEM | Back on the campaign trail: Darren Bailey talks lessons learned in 2022, motivations for 2026: Bailey garnered over 1.7 million votes (42.3%) in 2022 to Pritzker’s 2.2 million (54.9%). The former senator used a Chicago Bears analogy when asked why he wanted to run again. “They’ve had losing records for several years, do we just give up on them or do they get smarter, well they got smarter and they’re doing pretty good this go around,” Bailey said. “As I witnessed the compassion that was shown to my family during this tragedy, as I thought about the past, some of the things that I said over the years that were a little edgy or a little bitey, I realize there’s no sense, there’s no reason in that,” Bailey said.

*** Chicago ***

* Sun-Times | Mayor Johnson determined to avert city government shutdown as budget stalemate drags on: Following a City Hall news conference in which Johnson appeared to dig in his heels, top mayoral aides began gauging City Council support for a revised head tax that raises the proposed amount of $21 a month per employee to $33, and imposes that tax on companies with 500 or more employees instead of the threshold of 100 workers that Johnson initially proposed. The revised tax with the new threshold would raise $82 million a year, the mayor’s office said. To avert a city government shutdown, the Council must approve a budget by the end of the year. Johnson said the last time Chicago came this close to a government shutdown was 1984 during the infamous power struggle that saw 29 mostly white alderpersons led by Edward Vrdolyak and Edward Burke thwart Mayor Harold Washington’s every move.

* WTTW | CPD Should Revise Promotions Policy After Officer Under Investigation Promoted, Johnson Says: WTTW News reported Friday that lawyers for the city dropped the charges that could have led to the termination of Officer Brian Collins, according to records published on Nov. 20 by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability. Since Collins shot and wounded the 16-year-old, Chicago taxpayers have spent $591,500 to resolve four lawsuits that allege he violated the rights of other Chicagoans, according to an analysis of city data by WTTW News. […] “We have to revisit our promotion policy,” Johnson said, adding that he has spoken to Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling about this issue. “As we work to build strong relationships within the community and in that constitutional policing, much like other forms of tragedy, we can’t normalize them. We don’t want these types of archaic approaches to set us back. So, it is something that we are looking into.”

* Sun-Times | Attorney and law firm for CHA sanctioned nearly $60,000 for using ChatGPT in court case: Cook County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Cushing sanctioned Larry Mason and his law firm Goldberg Segalla on Friday for $10,000 and $49,500, respectively, for their improper use of artificial intelligence and false misrepresentations to the court. The CHA and the attorney who improperly used AI, Danielle Malaty, weren’t penalized for the error. Malaty was fired from Goldberg Segalla in June and started her own firm, Malaty Law Group. She was sanctioned $10 in July in a separate case where two of her court filings contained 12 hallucinated case citations.

* Fox Chicago | Heated protest erupts in Chicago over new concrete bike lanes on Archer Ave: Residents and business owners gathered outside the office of Ald. Julia Ramirez (12th Ward) to protest the barriers, saying the redesign has narrowed Archer to one lane in each direction, creating longer rush-hour backups and forcing drivers onto side streets. Some said they’re now worried emergency vehicles may struggle to get through. Small business owners also said they’re feeling the impact.

* ABC Chicago | Cook County assessor faces angry questions from West Side homeowners over sharp property tax hikes: “I’ve made no changes in my place. And yet, I’m caught with a 400% increase,” said West Garfield Park resident Michael Strode. Holding onto their second installment property tax bills, dozens of people packed the basement of West Garfield Park’s New Mt. Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church on Monday evening, looking for answers and anything that might explain their skyrocketing bills. “They gave me a bill for $2,500,” said Selestine Washington, another West Garfield Park resident. “Then, I’m going to turn around and get a bill in a couple more months.”

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Daily Herald | After Sears teardown, walls are going up for Hoffman Estates data center campus: Dallas-based Compass Datacenters’ takeover of the 273-acre former Sears’ corporate headquarters in Hoffman Estates now goes well beyond its name on the deed. With Sears’ presence fully erased from the massive site, construction has begun on the first two of five data center buildings planned for the property. Each will exceed a quarter million square feet. “They’re full steam ahead,” Hoffman Estates Village Manager Eric Palm said. “It’s an active construction site.”

* Tribune | DHS claims man detained in prolonged immigration arrest in Elgin Saturday is member of Tren de Aragua: When asked about evidence of Acosta Gutierrez’s alleged affiliation to the Tren de Aragua gang, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist group as of this year, DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said. […] “We are confident in our law enforcement’s intelligence, and we aren’t going to share intelligence reports and undermine national security every time a gang member denies he is one. That would be insane.” […] State Rep. Anna Moeller, a Democrat whose district includes Elgin, was at the scene Saturday with her husband. She said it concerned her how the tear gas was indiscriminately let off as the agents left. “They didn’t need to do that. ICE was leaving the scene. What they did was create chaos and discomfort. Who trains law enforcement to do that?” Moeller said.

* Fox Chicago | Chicago-area shrine prepares for Our Lady of Guadalupe celebration amid ICE concerns: Shrine officials say they are once again working with local police to ensure the safety of all guests, and they are encouraging people to lean on one another during this time. “Our task is to keep everybody safe,” Sanchez explained. “Our concern isn’t just ICE; the concerns are many things when you have a large gathering of people.” Fr. Sanchez urged attendees to think of others who are not planning to attend.

* WGN | Nativity scenes around Chicagoland opt for political theme during holiday season: “This year, those who are most vulnerable in our neighborhood have disappeared, and so, the holy family also has disappeared this year,” Rev. Abby Holcomb said. Rev. Holcomb is a pastor at Urban Village Church in River Forest, where she said their Nativity scene is in reference to ICE’s activity in Chicagoland.

* Daily Herald | Recognizing a hero: Renaming of Palatine post office clears important hurdle: The full House still has to vote on the bill to name the building at 1300 E. Northwest Highway the Bernie Bluestein Post Office Building. Bernard “Bernie” Bluestein, a Wheeling resident, is one of only a handful of surviving members of the U.S. Army’s top-secret Ghost Army, a World War II deception unit that used inflatable tanks, fake insignia, dummy convoys and sonic operations to mislead German forces and save American lives.

* Daily Herald | Merry Metra — railroad launches product line just in time for the holidays: What to give the railfan who has everything? How about a Metra clock? Or a Metra body pillow? Those items and many others will be available starting Wednesday when the commuter railroad debuts an online merchandise store. Metra-branded items will range from clothing such as T-shirts to decor like 30-inch Metra station signs.

*** Downstate ***

* IPM News | Champaign’s only low-barrier shelter is at risk of closing. Some guests are worried: As the only low-barrier shelter in the area, Strides does not have sobriety or abstinence requirements, and does not conduct criminal background checks before accepting guests. […] Strides first opened in 2022, with funding from the American Rescue Plan, a federal COVID-19 relief fund. But funding is set to run out as early as February, according to Kathy Shannon, a Champaign Township board member. A new temporary winter homeless shelter recently opened in Champaign, but like other shelters in the area, it’s not low-barrier, so not everyone from Strides will qualify.

* River Bender | Madison County rolls out Text to 911: The Madison County Emergency Telephone System Board (ETSB) launched Text-to-911, a new communication option that allows residents to contact emergency dispatchers via text message during life-threatening situations. “Sometimes, calling just isn’t an option,” 911 Director Arron Weber said. “If you’re hiding during a domestic disturbance, have a hearing impairment, or find yourself in a situation where speaking could put you in danger, being able to text 911 can save your life.”

* Advantage News | Layoff assistance for Mt. Olive plant: More than 130 workers at the Georgia-Pacific box-making plant in Mt. Olive, Illinois, will be without a job at the end of the month. Layoff assistance workshops are taking place today and Wednesday at the plant, and a job fair is being conducted by the company and state rapid response partners on Thursday for other opportunities elsewhere. The company announced last month that on December 31, the Mt. Olive plant would close, and 134 people would be losing their jobs. The plant produces corrugated packaging materials.

* WAND | Ripple Effect brings holiday cheer to those in jail through handwritten letters: The Illinois Department of Corrections has a new mail scanning policy aimed at preventing contraband from entering prisons. Douglas’s son is incarcerated. “They’re going to, just scan the mail and send it through their tablet, and it would only be there for maybe six months, and then it’s going to be erased,” Douglas said. Among the mail being digitized, IDOC prohibits mail that includes crayon, glitter, or other craft material. Families could only use ink pens to decorate holiday cards. Many feel some mail policies impact those behind bars and their loved ones.

* WSIU | Report shows progress, but Illinois rural co-ops still tied to a major polluter: A new scorecard shows rural electric cooperatives in Illinois are making improvements but experts said the majority of them are still helping to power the Prairie State Coal Plant, one of the top greenhouse gas polluters in the country. The 2025 Illinois Rural Electric Scorecard from nonprofit Prairie Rivers Network grades eight Midwest state power cooperatives on 16 performance metrics.

* WICS | University of Illinois rises to 5th in Abbott, Big Ten blood drive competition: The University of Illinois has made significant strides in the Abbott and Big Ten’s We Give Blood drive competition, finishing in fifth place among 18 Big Ten schools with 5,131 donations. This marks an improvement from eighth place last year and represents a 5.4 times increase compared to 2024. University students, alumni, and fans rallied to donate, demonstrating their commitment to saving lives.

*** National ***

* NYT | Supreme Court Is Asked to Take Another Ax to Campaign Finance Limits: Depending on its scope, such a decision could swing the pendulum of power back toward the official political parties and away from super PACs. It could also allow parties to spend huge sums from big donors directly on candidates, potentially expanding the influence of big money compared with small-dollar contributions. Democrats in recent years have done better than Republicans at winning smaller donations.

* AP | Takeover bid of parent company means limbo for CNN, some fellow cable networks: Paramount Skydance’s hostile takeover bid of Warner Bros. Discovery, announced Monday, places CNN and its sister cable networks squarely back into what is likely to be an extended period of management limbo. There was some relief at CNN with last Friday’s announcement that Netflix was buying Warner’s studio and streaming businesses, since the cable network would not be a part of that deal. Paramount’s bid, if successful, opens the possibility of a combined CNN and CBS News. The management uncertainty adds to what is already a challenging time at CNN, where there was no doubt who was in charge before swashbuckling founder Ted Turner sold his company in 1996. “That era might as well be the roaring ‘20s for how long ago it feels,” said Ross Benes, senior analyst at emarketer.com.