Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Friday, Jan 10, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller

* First, a little business…

House Speaker Chris Welch making notable leadership changes:
Budgeting will be led by Kam Buckner, Eva-Dina Delgado and Will Guzzardi.
Buckner also assumes the speaker pro-temp position from Jehan Gordon-Booth #twill pic.twitter.com/rTksqPne75

— Ben Szalinski (@BenSzalinski) January 10, 2025

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* Isabel and I have been working since Saturday, so it’s been a long and often weird week…

I need a short fuse, long week longneck song

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Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Leaders; 60; HRO (Updated x1)

Friday, Jan 10, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller

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Isabel’s afternoon roundup

Friday, Jan 10, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller

* WTVO…

Illinois received the federal government’s largest grant in the nation for expansion of the state’s electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

Gov. JB Pritzker announced on Friday that $114 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation will allow the state to build 14 truck charging hubs. The stations will add 345 individual charging ports for heavy-duty freight vehicles.

The second highest amount awarded to another state was $55 million, Pritzker said.

An additional $39 million in state funding will be used to build 1,476 charging stations at 242 locations across the state.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Capitol News Illinois | Bills addressing warehouse quotas, nursing homes, prostitution pass in session’s final days: HB 2547 would also require employers to provide new warehouse employees with a written description of their quota requirements when hired, as well as any “potential adverse employment action,” essentially disciplinary actions, that they may face if the quota is not met. The employer must give the employee a written update within five days if they make any changes to quotas.

* Crain’s | Illinois AG pushes back on Walmart’s plans to roll back DEI programs: Raoul, along with 12 other state attorneys general, sent a letter to Walmart President and CEO Doug McMillon calling for the company to reconsider its decision to phase out supplier diversity programs, close down the Center for Racial Equality, end equity training for staff, and remove the words “diversity” and “DEI” from company documents.

*** Statewide ***

* Sun-Times | Illinois joins IRS Direct File program, allowing some taxpayers to file federal taxes for free: The federal agency confirmed to the Sun-Times on Friday that the state is now a part of the program, joining 24 other states such as Wisconsin, Idaho and California. The Illinois Department of Revenue declined to immediately comment. Direct File was piloted in 2024, across 12 states, and has been pitched as the free government alternative to tax prep services like TurboTax, who have been accused as predatory by courts and the federal government.

* IPM News: IVF patients in Illinois worry, feel uncertain about access and treatments as Trump returns to office: Dr. Eve Feinberg is a board member of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and she specializes in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. “I do feel relatively safe in Illinois,” she said. “I think that Senator Duckworth has made incredible strides towards protecting Illinoisans and towards expanding access to infertility coverage in the state of Illinois, but I worry a lot about government interference in health care, and specifically government interference in the arena of IVF.”

*** Chicago ***

* WBEZ | Immigration advocates warn a proposal for Chicago police to help ICE could be illegal: Immigration advocates and attorneys are sounding the alarm about an ordinance that would allow Chicago police with federal immigration enforcement, saying the one-page proposal would open the door to constitutional rights violations and legal challenges that could leave taxpayers on the hook for multimillion dollar settlements.

* WTTW | Overnight Closures Announced Ahead of Reversible Lanes on Kennedy Expressway Reopening Next Week: The reopening of the express lanes comes after more than 10 months of construction work on the Kennedy that began in March and that was initially supposed to wrap up in the fall. IDOT officials said additional time was needed to test the reversible lane access control system.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Tribune | Dream Team? The exec who bought Michael Jordan’s former Highland Park mansion is offering co-ownership shares for $1M: According to a new release, John Cooper, who is a general partner with Lincolnwood-based HAN Capital, is offering an unspecified number of co-ownership shares in the estate, which the retired Chicago Bulls player had tried to sell for more than 12 years. Jordan had once asked as much as $29 million for the mansion, which sits on 8.4 acres. Cooper, a Lincolnshire resident, declined to comment when reached on his cellphone Thursday evening. However, according his news release, co-owners would be responsible for 2% of the estate’s annual expenses, or an estimated $25,000 per owner, and would be allowed exclusive access to the property for the same designated week each year. Co-owners also would be permitted to invite up to 24 guests during their weeklong stay, including children.

* CBS Chicago | Beloved Blue Island, Illinois high school music teacher is a finalist for Grammy: Next month, Dr. Justin Antos will be rubbing elbows with Beyonce and Taylor Swift at the Grammy Awards—and it will not be for what he is doing in the recording studio, but for his accomplishments in the classroom. […] Antos’ excellence in teaching, and passion for music, have led him to be among the 10 finalists for the 2025 Music Educator Award—given by the Recording Academy and the Grammy Museum.

*** Downstate ***

* PJ Star | Peoria Public Schools says new cellphone policy is helping students focus in class: Peoria Public Schools District 150 said Thursday that its new cellphone pouch initiative was showing progress in the first half of the 2024-25 school year, with improvements in student engagement and a better work environment being displayed. The district said in a news release that a majority of students, teachers and principals at its 17 middle and high schools approved of the pouches, brought in at the beginning of the school year as part of an effort to reduce student distractions and create a “more focused and engaging learning environment.”

* WTTW | Eagle Watching Events Kick Off This Weekend as the Nation’s Bird Makes Itself at Home in Illinois for the Winter: On Saturday, the Forest Preserve District of Will County will celebrate the birds during its annual Eagle Watch event at Four Rivers Environmental Education Center in Channahon, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Four Rivers is ideally located at the convergence of the DuPage, Kankakee and Des Plaines rivers, where they join to form the Illinois River.

* Fox Chicago | Off-duty Belvidere police officer charged with sexual assault, abuse: On March 19, Belvidere police received a complaint that a woman was sexually assaulted by Kozlowski while he was off-duty. Belvidere police contacted Illinois State police to launch an investigation and placed Kozlowski on paid administrative leave. On Thursday, Kozlowski was indicted by a Boone County Grand Jury on one count of criminal sexual assault and two counts of criminal sexual abuse, all felonies.

*** National ***

* The New Republic | Biden Launches Hail Mary to Block Some of Trump’s Mass Deportations: The department noted that roughly 600,000 Venezuelans and more than 200,000 Salvadorans living in the U.S. would be permitted to stay for another 18 months, while the program maintaining their status faces an uncertain future under Trump. Homeland Security cited “environmental conditions” in El Salvador, such as heavy storms, “that prevent individuals from returning,” as well as a “severe humanitarian emergency” in Venezuela under the “Maduro regime.” Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was sworn in on Friday for a third six-year term, despite a six-month-long election dispute and international condemnation.

* Press Release | President Biden Signs Underwood-Backed Bill to Increase Social Security Benefits for 3 Million Americans: Under the Social Security Fairness Act, over 2.1 million retirees on Social Security will receive an average increase of $360 per month. Furthermore, over 700,000 surviving spouses will see an increase between $700 and $1,190 in their monthly benefits, on average. Underwood has been a cosponsor of the legislation since she first came to Congress in 2019 and fought for its passage into law.

* CNN | Supreme Court signals it will uphold ban on TikTok over national security concerns and other takeaways from oral arguments: During more than two hours of oral arguments, many of the justices appeared to view the sell-or-ban law approved by Congress in April not as one that primarily implicates the First Amendment but rather as an effort to regulate the potential foreign control of an app used by 170 million Americans.

* New York Post | Yankees fans who mauled Mookie Betts at World Series banned from all MLB stadiums indefinitely: The two fans who grabbed Mookie Betts’ wrist and tried to rip the ball out of his hand during Game 4 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium have been banned “indefinitely” from attending any MLB games, The Post has learned. The fans, Austin Capobianco and John P. Hansen, were ejected from the game and banned from Game 5 in The Bronx, which proved to be the final game of the season.

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Mayor Johnson again claims to actively work with the state when no such work appears to exist (Updated)

Friday, Jan 10, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said this last night at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics…

My finance and my budget team has been working with the state around how we generate more revenue so that the evidence based funding model [for public schools] can be fully funded

I checked with the governor’s people earlier today, so they ran their traps and could find no evidence of the mayor’s latest claim.

* As you’ll recall, Gov. JB Pritzker said earlier this week that the mayor had called him maybe five times since Johnson has been in office…

“They don’t reach out very often. And it seems like they don’t have good relationships in Springfield, in part because they don’t do the outreach that’s necessary,” Pritzker said. “I’ve always taken calls from the mayor….(and) he has my direct number.”

…Adding… Now he’s making threats about something that may never even happen…

Mayor Brandon Johnson's message to Illinois General Assembly on future of CTA president Dorval Carter:

“Any attempt to hold hostage the people of Chicago for anyone's political gain, we're certainly not going to acquiesce to those levels of constraints.” https://t.co/DWU88foFrG pic.twitter.com/WyNSKqzzDs

— Alice Yin (@byaliceyin) January 10, 2025

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Voting open for Illinois flag redesign

Friday, Jan 10, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller

* Illinois Flag Commission…

After reviewing more than 4,800 entries for the Illinois state flag redesign contest, the Illinois Flag Commission is excited to kick off the public voting period that will run through Feb. 14.

After the public voting period has ended, the votes will be counted and the results will be sent to the Illinois General Assembly. Your input during this period will help guide the General Assembly’s final decision on the future of our state’s flag later this year.

Click here to cast your vote! You can submit one vote every day.

Also, please tell us which flag you’re supporting.

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Dr. Ngozi Ezike agrees to $150K fine for violating Ethics Act

Friday, Jan 10, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller

* The Illinois Answers Project back in 2022…

The state’s former public health director — a well-regarded advisor to Gov. JB Pritzker during the COVID-19 crisis — is under investigation by a state ethics agency for taking a CEO job at a medical non-profit overseen and funded by the state agency she led.

Dr. Ngozi Ezike, a steady, reassuring figure alongside Pritzker during pandemic news conferences, stepped down from her $178,000-per-year state post in March. In April, she accepted an offer to lead Sinai Health System — one of the state’s top medical nonprofits.

The Illinois Ethics Act requires department heads like Ezike to wait a year before accepting positions with companies that hold contracts overseen by their departments, or with companies their departments license or regulate. And while in office they cannot engage in job negotiations with companies that lobby their agencies.

The law is designed to prevent the cozy revolving door between state officials and the companies their agencies fund and regulate.

* The Executive Ethics Commission issued its decision today…

This cause is before the Executive Ethics Commission (“Commission”) upon joint Motion of the Attorney General Kwame Raoul, in his official capacity and pursuant to his authority under Sections 20-45 and 20-50 of the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), and Dr. Ngozi Ezike, Respondent and former Director of the Illinois Department of Public Health (“IDPH”), requesting the Commission grant approval to their negotiated resolution of the matter (the “Settlement Agreement”).

The Complaint in this matter was filed on October 13, 2023. Respondent filed written objections to the sufficiency of the Complaint, and the Commission found the Complaint legally sufficient to proceed on February 20, 2024. On November 8, 2024, the Attorney General and Respondent jointly filed the Settlement Agreement, including:

1. Conditional Stipulations in which Respondent:

(a) admits a violation of the Ethics Act and the facts comprising the violation, in that she accepted employment and compensation from an entity which had contracts involving IDPH with a cumulative value of $4.2 million and over which she had exercised regulatory and licensing authority in the year before her departure from State employment, and

( b) agrees a fine of $150,000 should be levied against Respondent;

2. Respondent’s Mitigation Statement; and

3. The underlying investigatory report issued by Petitioner on February 21, 2023.

* From Ezike’s mitigation statement…

The Ethics Act prohibits high ranking employees, referred to as “h-list employees”, from knowingly accepting employment or compensation from an entity, or its parent or subsidiary, that has or had contracts with a cumulative value of $25,000 or was the subject of a regulatory or licensing decision during the year prior to leaving State employment, regardless if the employee participated in or had knowledge of a contract or a licensing or regulatory decision. 5 ILCS 430/5-45(h). The Ethics Act does not define the term “contract” or “licensing or regulatory decisions” and the ethics training provided while Dr. Ezike was a State employee did not include definitions of these terms.

According to the OEIG Report, “A determination of whether an employee is restricted pursuant to 5-45(h) is based only on whether the agency contracted with, licensed, or regulated the prospective employer, information readily available to H-listers such as Dr. Ezike.” Dr. Ezike disagrees with this statement. First, the plain language of the Ethics Act applies the prohibition to entities that were the subject of any licensing or regulatory decision within a year before leaving state employment, not only those licensed or regulated. Second, the information necessary to conduct a revolving door determination is not always easily ascertainable. H-list employees must make their own revolving door determinations using their own knowledge, publicly available resources, or information they can gather from others, such as a chief of staff or ethics officer, and hope that the information is accurate. The OEIG does not provide h-list employees with an opportunity to seek a determination before accepting other employment. Rather, h-list employees are urged to review EEC precedent and consult their ethics officer, although they do not have the ability to require an ethics officer to give them a written opinion or require other staff to provide information. Thus, it is up to each h-list employee to decide what information they need to request from the agency, and there’s no guarantee they can get the needed information from their agency, particularly if the individuals they rely on for information don’t know the proper questions to ask or what is considered a “contract” or a “licensing or regulatory decision.” As a result, employees are left to rely on 4 information they can gather and advice from their ethics officer and then hope the information is complete and the ethics officer is correct. […]

As part of a final effort to do everything she could before signing a contract with Sinai, Dr. Ezike emailed the OEIG and disclosed that she was going to sign a contract with Sinai and asked if there were any concerns. The OEIG responded with the following advice:

“The OEIG does not make determinations for employees subject to the restrictions of section 5-45(h) of the Ethics Act (h-listers). As you are an h-lister, we encourage you to continue to consult with your counsel and your ethics officer with respect to this employment opportunity, or any other employment opportunities you are offered during the year following the termination of your State employment.”

That’s precisely what Dr. Ezike did. She relied on the information she was provided by her ethics officer and chief of staff, and she consulted and followed the advice of her counsel. She asked the two people within the agency that would have responsibility or access to the needed information and was told there weren’t any contracts and that Sinai wasn’t the subject of any licensing or regulatory decisions. She worked closely with private counsel who gave her a written opinion indicating it was permissible to accept employment. […]

It is also worth noting that the Director of IDPH is required to be a physician, and if the renewal of a hospital license is considered a licensing decision under the revolving door, a director would be precluded from working for any health system, in any capacity, for a year.

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It’s just a bill

Friday, Jan 10, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller

* The first bill filed in the new GA is about hemp. HB1…

Creates the Prevention of Use of Hemp Cannabinoid Products Intended for Human Consumption by Ingestion or Inhalation by Persons Under 21 Years of Age Act. Permits the sale and possession of hemp cannabinoids by persons 21 years of age or over. Provides that no person shall offer or sell hemp cannabinoid products to consumers in the State unless the person applies for and holds a hemp retailer license issued by the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. Provides that no person shall sell ready-to-eat hemp products to end consumers without holding a hemp food establishment license issued by the Department of Public Health. Provides that a hemp food establishment that sells ready-to-eat cannabinoid products shall be exclusively licensed and located in the State. Provides that hemp food establishments and hemp retailers shall require proof of age from a purchaser of any cannabinoid products before selling the product to that person. Provides that the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation shall administer and enforce the provisions of the Act relating to licensing and oversight of hemp distributors and hemp retailers unless otherwise provided in the Act. Establishes standards for the issuance of licenses under the Act. Provides for criminal and civil penalties for violation of the Act.

* BenefitsPro, a magazine focused on employee benefit news…

The Illinois House is considering a new pharmacy benefit manager regulation bill.

Rep. Thaddeus Jones, D-South Holland, Illinois, introduced the bill earlier this week.

The bill could prohibit a PBM from:

- Steering patients toward its own pharmacy.
- Requiring a patient to use an in-network pharmacy.
- Paying a pharmacy an amount less than the national average drug acquisition cost for the drug dispensed.

The bill could require a PBM to provide detailed annual reports and cooperate with annual audits.

Jones wants the bill to apply to PBMs that work with self-insured employer health plans as well as to PBMs contracting with issuers of fully insured individual and group health insurance. The bill would apply to “any health benefit plan,” not simply to “any group or individual policy of accident and health insurance or managed care plan,” according to the bill synopsis.

* Rep. Rita Mayfield filed HB1170…

Amends the Public Community College Act. Provides that the Illinois Community College Board shall develop and maintain a program to provide free tuition at one community college in each R3 Area (designated as such under the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act) using money appropriated from the Cannabis Regulation Fund. Authorizes the Board to adopt any rules necessary. Amends the State Finance Act to make related changes.

* Capitol News Illinois…

Lawmakers this week passed a bill aimed at boosting the development of renewable energy generation, but its proponents said the final measure was a “skinny” version of what they had hoped to pass. […]

The IEC, and the Clean Jobs Coalition more broadly, didn’t endorse the bill, taking a neutral stance. Kady McFadden, a lobbyist speaking on behalf of ICJC, said she was “disappointed” by the final bill, noting the elements that were cut out or pared down.

Walling and others expressed a desire for broader legislation in the spring. […]

The IEC and ICJC brought hundreds of people to the Capitol Tuesday to advocate for other climate- and energy-related bills, including bills limiting the use of natural gas for heating buildings and reforming the transit systems in the Chicago area.

Cunningham is also considering legislation that would boost incentives for transmission line construction, a critical step as the state increasingly relies on renewable generation.

* HB1205 from Rep. David Friess…

Amends the Election Code. Provides that the county board or board of county commissioners of a county with a population of less than 100,000 may, by ordinance or resolution, dissolve a municipal board of election commissioners within that county and transfer its functions to the county clerk.

* HB1155 from Rep. Will Guzzardi…

Amends the University of Illinois Act. Provides that the Board of Trustees shall direct the University of Illinois System, in addition to the Office of Investments and external investment managers, to not invest the assets of any endowment fund in the stocks, securities, or other obligations of any fossil fuel company or any subsidiary, affiliate, or parent of any fossil fuel company. Provides that this does not preclude the de minimis exposure of any funds held by the endowment fund to the stocks, securities, or other obligations of any fossil fuel company or any subsidiary, affiliate, or parent of any fossil fuel company. Requires the Board of Trustees to direct the University of Illinois System, in addition to the Office of Investments and external investment managers, to not invest in any prime commercial paper or corporate bonds issued by a fossil fuel company. Provides that, beginning one year after the effective date of the amendatory Act, the Board of Trustees, subject to an affirmative determination of prudence and in accordance with sound investment criteria and consistent with its fiduciary obligations, shall direct the University of Illinois System to ensure that any endowment fund does not have any indirect investments; defines “indirect investment”. Provides that the Board of Trustees shall direct the University of Illinois System, in addition to the Office of Investments and external investment managers, to adopt updates to its written investment policies, if necessary, to meet the requirements of these provisions and publish a copy of those updated policies within 90 days after the adoption of the updated policies. Effective immediately.

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Open thread

Friday, Jan 10, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller

* What’s going on in your part of Illinois?…

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Isabel’s morning briefing

Friday, Jan 10, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* Sun-Times | Illinois joins Justice Department lawsuit against RealPage and big landlords: The civil antitrust complaint filed Tuesday alleges the companies coordinated to keep rents high by using an algorithm to help set rents and privately sharing sensitive information to boost profits. The amended lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina against RealPage and six landlords. They include Chicago-based LivCor; Cushman & Wakefield, whose residential property management business formerly operated independently as Pinnacle; Camden Property Trust; Greystar; Willow Bridge Property and Cortland Management.

* CBS | Earth records hottest year ever in 2024, passing major symbolic climate threshold: “It’s a red flag”: American monitoring teams — NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the private Berkeley Earth — were to release their figures later Friday but all will likely show record heat for 2024, European scientists said. The six groups compensate for data gaps in observations that go back to 1850 — in different ways, which is why numbers vary slightly.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Capitol News Illinois | Lawmakers give small boost to renewable developments, delay broader reform: Lawmakers this week passed a bill aimed at boosting the development of renewable energy generation, but its proponents said the final measure was a “skinny” version of what they had hoped to pass. The bill comes as several state officials warn that Illinois is falling behind on its clean energy goals. The state’s main funding mechanism for renewable energy projects also faces a potential $3 billion budget shortfall in the coming years.

* Capitol News Illinois | Potawatomi land transfer clears General Assembly: Nearly two centuries after losing its reservation in Illinois in a land sale that most people now concede was illegal, the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation could soon get its land back. In the final hours of a lame duck session Tuesday, the Illinois House gave final approval to a bill authorizing the state to hand over to the tribe a 1,500-acre state park in DeKalb County, land that largely overlaps the tribe’s original reservation.

* Center Square | Illinois General Assembly approves rules Republicans say are unfair: Without debate, the Senate approved its rules. Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford, D-Maywood, explained a few committee additions, and changes to how senators conduct themselves. “We will specifically require senators to avoid threats, inciting violence or other assaults in debate,” Lightford said.

*** Statewide ***

* Tribune | Federal government to deliver Chicago and Cook County millions in disaster relief funds for severe storms and flooding: Communities in Illinois will receive a portion of $12 billion in federal disaster recovery funds for severe storms and flooding over the last two years, including $426 million for Chicago, $244 million for Cook County, $96 million for the town of Cicero and $89 million for St. Clair County.

* Tribune | Bird flu: Here’s what Illinois residents should know, following the first US death from the virus: Nationally, there have been 66 confirmed cases in humans during this latest outbreak, and a man in Louisiana recently died from the virus. He became sick after he was exposed to a backyard flock and wild birds, and he was older, with underlying health conditions. In Illinois, there have been no confirmed cases yet of humans with the virus. But there have been detections of bird flu in two commercial flocks of poultry in the last 30 days in Illinois, affecting 81,200 birds. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources also said in late December it was monitoring “a large event of waterfowl mortality” at numerous locations due to bird flu.

*** Chicago ***

* Crain’s | Moody’s flags the risk that O’Hare project costs could rise: Aviation watchers breathed a sigh of relief late last spring when the city of Chicago sewed up a deal with the airlines at O’Hare International Airport to move ahead with a major terminal upgrade and expansion. Although the two sides have agreed on a budget, ratings agency Moody’s is keeping a close eye on the potential risk that costs could keep climbing until the airport locks in construction contracts. Work is scheduled to start late this summer on a satellite concourse before starting on the centerpiece of the project, a new global terminal.

* Sun-Times | Casino operator Bally’s faces no city fines for demolition debris dumped into Chicago River: Bally’s will not be fined for a mishap at the site of its future casino that sent demolition debris into the Chicago River last month, officials confirmed Thursday. Demolition work at the site can resume as early as Friday, according to a city spokesperson. Bally’s and its general contractor were required by the city’s buildings department to submit a “corrective action plan” after the incident.

* NPR | Chicago has started powering its municipal buildings with renewable energy: In effort to fight climate change, cities across the country are working to go green - think solar panels, trees, electric buses. Well, the country’s third-largest city just took a major step. At the start of the year, Chicago began sourcing all of the electricity in its municipal buildings from 100% renewable energy. Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco, of member station WBEZ and the environmental newsroom Grist, has this story.

* Tribune | Chicago area to see some snow, accumulation during Friday morning commute, Weather Service says: Chicago-area residents will wake up to a light blanket of snow Friday morning that could complicate the morning commute, according to the National Weather Service. Snow was forecasted to begin falling between 5:30 and 6 a.m. Friday and would likely amount to about an inch or an inch and a half, tapering off around midafternoon as the snowstorm moves to the east, according to David King, a meteorologist with the weather service.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Sun-Times | Slain gunman who targeted far-right provocateur Nick Fuentes had mounting legal battles: Lyons had been scheduled to appear in Cook County court the following morning in a pending criminal case stemming from a hit-and-run crash in Proviso Township in September, court records show. Reports obtained from the Berwyn and Mahomet police departments offer a window into Lyons’ psyche at the time of the crime spree. But the records don’t provide any indication why he targeted Fuentes, whose apartment building had become a magnet for his critics after the address was leaked online in response to a controversial social media post he made.

*** Downstate ***

* WIFR | Winnebago Co. veterans speak about battle between the county board and VAC: At Thursday night’s county board meeting, the VAC’s former community outreach liaison, Ray Richmond, raised his concerns over the commission’s most recent annual report, citing issues such as financial mismanagement. Richmond says despite what’s being claimed, the VAC’s budget has not been cut but has been going up the past couple of years, as well as its expenses. “I’m a veteran, I’m a taxpayer myself, I’m a homeowner myself, and I understand that other taxpayers and homeowners would like to know what’s happening with their tax dollars,” Richmond says. “Well, it goes to the Veterans Assistance Commission, but how? How’s it being utilized? Why is it being utilized the way that it is? Those questions need oversight and if we do not do that, it’ll continue to run amuck.”

* Capitol News Illinois | “All our future money is gone”: The impossible task of providing child care in rural Illinois: Over the past decade, Illinois has lost nearly 4,300 licensed child care providers, a 33% decline. As a result, it has also lost nearly 38,000 licensed child care slots for kids, outpacing the rate at which the child population is shrinking.

* SJ-R | Rochester school board hires law firm to investigate superintendent on leave: The Rochester Board of Education has hired an Monticello, Illinois-based law firm to investigate the district superintendent who was placed on paid administrative leave. Board President Amy Reynolds didn’t detail following Thursday’s special board meeting why Dan W. Cox was being investigated. Miller, Tracy, Braun, Funk & Miller, Ltd. was hired by the board, Reynolds said at the meeting. The announcement followed a two-and-a-half hour executive session.

* WCIA | Tuscola potential home of $750 million corn wet-milling plant: The China-based company, Fufeng USA Inc., is looking to build a $750 million corn wet-milling plant somewhere in the country, and Tuscola is one of their options. Their nationwide search includes the site of the former LyondellBasell plant that closed three years ago. Brian Moody, Douglas County Economic Development Corp. executive director, said Tuscola could see a huge economic impact if selected by the company.

* Rockford Register Star | Hard Rock Casino Rockford rakes in nearly $100M in 2024: Despite closing for more than two weeks starting Aug. 12 as the casino transitioned to the big joint and out of the temporary location on Bell School Road, the Hard Rock made 41% more in revenue than the $69.1 million it did in 2023, according to data from the Illinois Gaming Board.

*** National ***

* Bloomberg | LA Fire Hydrants Running Dry Poses New Danger in Combating Blazes: As the Palisades and Eaton fires spread on Tuesday night, multiple crews reported losing that crucial firefighting tool. The issue wasn’t California’s water management, as some including President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk have suggested, but rather systems that simply aren’t designed to handle fires of such ferocity burning in or near urban areas.

* Better Conflict Bulletin | Meta Drops Fact-Checking Because of Politics, but Also Because It Wasn’t Working: There were 302 fact checks of Facebook content in the U.S. conducted last month. But much of that work was conducted far too slowly to make a difference. For example, Politifact conducted 54 fact checks of Facebook content in January 2020. But just nine of those fact checks were conducted within 24 hours of the content being posted to Facebook. And less than half of the fact checks, 23, were conducted within a week. This is slightly less than 10 fact checks per day in the US. And if fact checks take days to complete, then most people will view viral falsehoods before any label is applied.

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Live coverage

Friday, Jan 10, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller

to follow the Madigan trial. Click here and/or here to follow breaking news. Hopefully, enough reporters and news outlets migrate to BlueSky so we can hopefully resume live-posting.