* ICYMI: Lawmakers grill Department of Corrections after audit shows dozens of failures. Capitol News Illinois…

- Illinois lawmakers say the Illinois Department of Corrections must fix a slew of errors that were revealed in a recent audit.
- The audit found the department allows people to take a vacation day but show up to work on the same day and receive overtime pay.
- Corrections officials also updated a legislative oversight committee on its progress implementing a rule allowing them to scan and digitize prison mail. It showed an increase of illegal drugs found in jails since the scanning program was implemented.

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* At noon, Gov. JB Pritzker will deliver remarks at the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association Makers Madness competition in Springfield. Click here to watch.

* BlueRoomStream.com’s coverage of today’s press conferences and committee hearings can be found here.

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* Capitol News Illinois | 7th Circuit orders release, new trial for two ‘ComEd Four’ defendants: The 7th Circuit’s decision also comes less than a week after lawyers for Madigan made arguments to a different three-judge appeals panel for the longtime Democratic power broker’s own convictions to be overturned. Madigan is six months into a 7 ½-year sentence on related bribery and other corruption charges, including for having solicited jobs for political allies at ComEd in exchange for helping advance the utility’s legislative agenda in Springfield.

* WSIL | Rising Fertilizer Costs Put Pressure on Southern Illinois Farmers: Leon McClerren, a farmer from Franklin County, said farmers who did not prepay for their fertilizer are probably feeling the impacts of the higher prices. He said he was fortunate to lock in his costs early. “Fuel prices on the other hand, it’s something that’s getting us all very hard right now,’McClerren said.

* Daily Herald | A United and American alliance? United CEO floats idea amid intense O’Hare rivalry: According to Reuters’ sources, “Kirby has argued to administration officials that a combined airline would be a stronger competitor in international markets and noted the Trump administration has focused on U.S. trade deficits around the globe.” But the likelihood of U.S. regulators approving a United/American union is dubious given the impact it could have on competition and ticket prices.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Gov. Pritzker is out with a new TV ad…

* Capitol News Illinois | Costs of state employee health benefits continue steep rise: Officials from the Department of Central Management Services told a legislative panel Tuesday they expect to see an increase of $380 million, or 9%, in total costs to the system in fiscal year 2027. That would bring total expenses paid by all funding sources to about $4.6 billion. That would be a slightly lower rate of inflation than the state has seen in recent years.

* Daily Herald | Pritzker touts BUILD Act reforms as pushback from suburbs grows: “Significant increases in residential density without corresponding infrastructure investment could place substantial strain on these systems,” members of the DuPage Mayors and Managers Conference, Northwest Municipal Conference, Barrington Area Council of Governments, and Metro West Council of Government wrote. They also warned the legislation dilutes inspection and design provisions, which weakens safety standards.

* Crain’s | Illinois to get $50 million in Jewel-Osco parent’s $774 million opioid settlement: Once final, Albertsons would pay more than $773 million in more than 35 states where it does business, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office said in a statement. In addition to the financial terms, the settlement remains contingent on injunctive relief similar to other opioid settlement terms, like monitoring, reporting and sharing data related to suspicious opioid prescriptions.

* IPM News | Democratic Lieutenant Governor candidate Christian Mitchell on downstate Illinois, data centers, and future goals: “You’ve got, you know, multi-billion dollar tech corporations that are looking to build these data centers for the effectuation of their business. Since they’ve got that kind of capital, they need to put some of that capital up in order to make sure that the people of Illinois and the people of the Midwest and the nation are not overly burdened by new price increases driven by the fact that some of these data centers themselves demand as much energy as entire small towns. And so I think that asking the folks who are going to benefit the most to help solve the problem is the right way to go, so that we. Continue to move our economy forward, but not do so in a way that means that the small business owner or the everyday household is paying more for their energy.”

*** Chicago ***

* Tribune | NFL wants to meet with Chicago Bears after the draft for an update on their stadium project: The meeting will be held virtually, the source said, with the committee aiming to get the latest information from team officials. Bears Chairman George McCaskey is a member of the committee, which is chaired by Minnesota Vikings owner Mark Wilf and also includes owners Art Rooney II (Pittsburgh Steelers), Jed York (San Francisco 49ers), Amy Adams Strunk (Tennessee Titans), Stephen Davis (Dallas Cowboys) and high-ranking executives Sashi Brown (Baltimore Ravens) and Kevin Demoff (Los Angeles Rams). The committee’s role is ultimately to make recommendations to Commissioner Roger Goodell and the league as a whole when it comes to stadium construction, financing and renovations.

* Tribune | CPD Superintendent Snelling pushes back on call to probe rising use-of-force incidents: During a status hearing in the city’s ongoing federal consent decree, Assistant Illinois Attorney General Mike Tresnowski noted the “concerning” trend to U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer that Chicago Police Department officers are reporting uses of force more frequently, including in interactions with juveniles. CPD officials told Pallmeyer that reported use-of-force incidents fell sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic but have gradually increased each year since 2022. In 2025, CPD officers reported 3,044 such incidents — 800 more than were reported in 2023.

* City and State NY | Chicago’s mayor fundraises in the Bronx with former Rep. Jamaal Bowman: Johnson is in town to speak at a National Urban League summit, so former Rep. Jamaal Bowman co-hosted a fundraiser for him at Sankofa Haus, an event space in the South Bronx. Guests who had paid between $50 and $7,000 for a ticket enjoyed rum punch and hors d’oeuvres – including miniature chicken sandwiches, vegetable spring rolls and salmon bites with spicy mayonnaise – while Bowman moderated a panel with Johnson and Working Families Party National Director Maurice Mitchell. City & State spotted congressional candidate and former Assembly Member Michael Blake among the 30 or so people in the audience.

* Sun-Times | Delivery robot apologizes in new bus shelter ad after shattering glass in West Town: “Dear West Town neighbors, I took ‘breaking into the market’ too literally. I’m really sorry about the bus stop … and the dramatic entrance. I promise to do better,” the ad reads. It features a photo of the sheepish robot with a digital screen saying ‘Nasir is sorry.’ After the incident, Serve Robotics worked with JC Decaux, the advertising company that built the shelter, to clean up the damages. The shelter was fixed within a few days after the crash.

* Sun-Times | Navy Pier to hold its largest July 4 fireworks display ever: At 10 p.m. July 4, viewers can expect “bigger, more extravagant” fireworks than the pier’s typical shows, said Molly Healy, a pier spokesperson. The pier’s fireworks typically blast off every Wednesday at 9 p.m. and Saturday at 10 p.m., from Memorial Day through Labor Day. But this Fourth of July display will last 15 minutes — five minutes longer than usual — and have almost twice as many fireworks compared to those shows, Healy said.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Crain’s | Medical staff, landlord ramp up efforts to oust West Suburban owner: The Chicago Medical Society and West Suburban Medical Center’s medical staff are urging Gov. J.B. Pritzker to use emergency powers to reopen the shuttered Oak Park hospital, the latest effort to pressure CEO Manoj Prasad amid mounting unpaid bills and an eviction fight with his business partner and landlord. In a letter to the governor, medical staff at the hospital, which closed last month, want Pritzker to exercise his executive authority, direct emergency funding and state resources to stabilize and restore operations, and appoint an interim management team composed of qualified health care leaders and stakeholders.

* Daily Southtown | ACLU says Tinley Park police traffic stop may have violated state’s TRUST Act: Tinley Park police Officer Jason L’Amas was conducting a routine background check during a traffic stop when he found a federal warrant attached to the driver’s name, calling for the driver to be removed from the country, according to a police report obtained by the Southtown. L’Amas reported the man, along with his address, phone number, vehicle, place of employment and mother’s name to the U.S. Bureau of Immigration Aug. 27, 2025, according to the report.

* Evanston Now | Council hikes fines for landlords: Evanston’s City Council Monday boosted fines for landlords who violate the city’s landlord tenant ordinance. The new schedule of fines, ranging from $100 to $1,000 per violation per day, will apply to the entire ordinance. Until now the fines have ranged from $20 and $740, as specified in the general penalties section of the city code.

* Naperville Sun | Naperville weighs alternatives to IMEA as energy deadlines loom: While Naperville’s contract with its current energy provider, Illinois Municipal Electric Agency (IMEA), does not expire until 2035, the joint action agency has asked Naperville to extend its contract with it to 2055, an action to which 29 of its 32 member municipalities have agreed but which the council put on hold in August. “We’ve got 15 months before we have to make our first strategic decision and the clock will not stop,” Mayor Scott Wehrli said.

* Aurora Beacon-News | Kane County Board OKs more reallocations of COVID-19 relief funds, as spending deadline nears: The measures approved Tuesday transfer a little over $400,000 in ARPA funds from one county project to another. One of the transfers reallocates $342,506 from a judicial technology modernization project by the 16th Judicial Circuit Court to the Building Management Department’s jail tower HVAC system improvement project, per the measure. Another $65,497 was allocated away from the 16th Judicial Circuit Court’s technology modernization project toward a Sheriff’s Office HVAC system renovation project.

* Daily Herald | Rosemont firm run by mayor’s brother loses longstanding contracts at Allstate Arena: Bomark Cleaning, headed by Mayor Brad Stephens’ brother Mark Stephens, has had the janitorial contracts for a number of municipal-owned venues since the 1980s, when their father Donald E. Stephens was mayor. But village officials decided last October to put out a request for proposals to see if they could get a better deal.

* Sun-Times | Soon-to-shutter Trinity Christian College campus up for sale: Commercial real estate firm CBRE was named the listing firm last week for the 60-acre property in Palos Heights, about 10 miles south of Midway Airport. CBRE’s Anne Rahm, Matt Ishikawa and Tom Svoboda are the listing agents. Rahm said there’s already been a “great deal of interest” in the campus from local to national buyers, including residential developers and academic institutions.

* Daily Herald | ‘A lot of concerns’: Townhouse plan doesn’t sit well with Vernon Hills trustees: A consensus of trustees opposed the proposal as presented. Trustee Michael Schenk said the plan is highly condensed on a small property, too close to the railroad tracks and would come with “additional traffic that we don’t need right now.” “I’m not for this project,” he added. “I just don’t think it’s the right spot.” Trustee Nancy Forster said it is up to buyers to decide about being close to tracks but also has concerns about traffic. Metra use in Vernon Hills is low, she added.

*** Downstate ***

* WAND | CyrusOne data center project moves into next phase after land approval: Before any building can begin, CyrusOne must submit detailed site plans, along with updated documentation from utility providers. “In this case, it’s Apple Creek for the water, the Rural Electric Co-op for the electricity; we put that in there, that at the time of permitting, we want an updated letter that is still valid,” Harrison said.

* WAND | Springfield alderman speaks up for first time since heated city council meeting: He said that while he regrets losing his temper at the meeting, he will continue to speak up for his community. “The picture is painted [so] that everything is fine, but it’s not fine. We really have a lot of work to do with racial tensions in this city,” Gregory said. The Springfield City Council approved an ordinance codifying rules and procedures for the flow of council on Tuesday night. It also specifies rules for public comment, including a five-minute time limit and a ban on profane or vulgar language.

* WGLT | McLean County Clerk Kathy Michael no-shows County Board Executive Committee: Michael told the board last month she would be there in April to explain about $500,000 in budget overages last fiscal year and would supply invoices as requested by the committee. She did neither, according to board members. Last week, she also again told the board’s Finance Committee she would have to get back to them when they posed the same questions they had last month. Over the weekend, Michael took to Facebook apparently to preempt critiques. “If you hear I was not being ‘transparent’ by not attending Exec. this Monday, I was not invited to attend to answer any questions, nor have I received any questions in the last month,” wrote Michael.

* WSIL | Cairo library explores Illinois’ complex Underground Railroad past: “The exhibit features the different freedom seekers and conductors who participated in the Underground Railroad in the state of Illinois,” said Toya Wilson, the library’s director. “Journey to Freedom: Illinois’ Underground Railroad” is making stops across the state, sharing powerful stories of enslaved people and the network that helped them escape. Wilson says the exhibit shares stories that have often gone untold.

*** National ***

* WaPo | ‘That wasn’t me’: How facial recognition led to a woman being jailed for 6 months: Williams, now 57, offered to take a polygraph test and said she had family members who could provide an alibi for her, according to video of the interview from July 2021 reviewed by The Washington Post. She acknowledged that she had a history of writing bad checks, but she insisted that was in the past. “I’m not trying to waste your time,” Williams said. “I’m telling you —” “You’re telling me, but you’re not telling me the truth,” the officer interrupted.

* Western Edge | ‘Everyone is Replaceable’: Death Rattles Oregon Amazon Facility: For more than an hour, several employees said, workers in the facility were instructed to continue fetching totes, picking items off shelves and loading them onto trucks for delivery as the man lay dead, and management figured out their next steps. News of the fatality quickly spread through the building, but workers say top managers did not call operations to an immediate halt. A week later, several workers said they still do not know what caused the man to die. Amazon said in a statement Tuesday that the man died from a “pre-existing medical condition.” Records indicate he was 46 years old.

* WaPo | DOJ moves to undo Jan. 6 rioters’ convictions for seditious conspiracy: The request, from U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro of D.C., is likely to be granted because prosecutors have broad discretion to pursue or drop criminal charges, even after defendants have been convicted. Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers and a lead organizer behind the riots, is among those whose convictions Pirro is seeking to erase. The move to undo the most serious convictions stemming from the assault on the Capitol marks the latest step in President Donald Trump’s quest to rewrite the event’s violent history. A mob of Trump supporters gathered in D.C. and disrupted Congress’s certification of Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential race, echoing Trump’s false claims that the election had been stolen.