* ICYMI: Pritzker administration to lay off workers, reduce operations at downstate Choate facility. Tribune…

- A statement from AFSCME Council 31, which represents employees at the Choate Mental Health and Developmental Center in Anna, said the state plans to let go “some 250 employees” and end most operations at the facility.
- The moves follow Pritzker in 2023 announcing he planned to repurpose Choate while expanding opportunities for residents to move into smaller group homes in the wake of repeated reports that many Choate residents were abused, neglected and otherwise mistreated.
- At Choate specifically, there were just under 200 people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in March 2023, according to IDHS. As of Thursday, that number was down to 16, the agency said. A block of 75 beds for behavioral health patients will be phased down in March, and a 40-bed forensic unit will remain, IDHS said.

* Related stories…

• WSIU: Major changes coming to Choate Mental Health and Developmental Center in Anna
• WPSD: Choate to downsize patient capacity, send beds upstate
• KFVS | 2 state senators, IDHS respond to layoffs, changes at southern Ill. mental health facility

* Gov. JB Pritzker has no public events scheduled today.

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* Capitol News Illinois | These 9 Illinois communities say they’re interested in new nuclear facilities: Of the nine Illinois communities that responded, six are those that already host nuclear: the city of Marseilles and the counties of DeWitt, Grundy, Ogle, Rock Island and Will. Two more are counties that have lived alongside large-scale power plants of another type: coal. Those are Peoria County, which saw its coal-fired power plant decommissioned in 2022, and Jasper County, which is set to see its coal plant decommissioned next year.

* Crain’s | United suspends 10 new routes to small cities from O’Hare: Travelers in Bloomington-Normal, Champaign-Urbana and several other small cities across the Midwest will have to wait a little longer for direct flights to Chicago on United Airlines. The airline says it’s further delaying 10 new routes from O’Hare International Airport because of the Federal Aviation Administration’s recent decision to extend for another year the limits on the number of flights at the airport. The FAA initially limited the number flights to and from O’Hare from May to October but now says the restrictions will continue through October 2027.

*** Statehouse News ***

* NYT | Illinois Changes Tack on Data Centers: Last month, Pritzker suspended those incentives, saying the tech companies building data centers had gotten out of control and were driving up people’s energy prices. “We can put a pause on the building of data centers by disincentivizing, or at least making it harder, taking away those tax credits,” he said on Tuesday at the Aspen Ideas climate conference in Chicago. Pritzker was responding to the growing backlash against data centers, a movement that has swept the country in recent months. President Trump announced on Thursday afternoon that nearly 200 companies and politicians have signed a voluntary pledge to prevent A.I. data centers from driving up electricity costs for millions of Americans. But the pledge is largely symbolic and difficult to enforce, experts said.

* Tribune | Illinois to annually honor Emmett Till, Chicago teen whose 1955 murder galvanized Civil Rights Movement: Illinois will annually honor Emmett Till, the Black teenager from Chicago whose 1955 murder galvanized the Civil Rights Movement and became a glaring example of failures in the justice system, under a new law Gov. JB Pritzker signed Thursday. “Every policy that advances justice passed, every bill signed, every monument built, is in the spirit of the legacy of accountability and progress, every inch of which was fought for, often with blood,” Pritzker said. “Today, we are building on that legacy.”

* Sun-Times | Springfield commission votes to release report on disgraced ex-state Rep. Harry Benton this month: “The Legislative Inspector General’s independent investigation into former Representative Benton provides a full and accurate account of the steps my office took to support those who came forward,” Welch said in a statement Wednesday. “My colleagues in the House Democratic Caucus and I have been clear that the report should be released while taking any necessary steps to protect the privacy and dignity of the innocent people who spoke out. Today’s vote is a positive step for accountability and transparency, and I look forward to the full report being released this month.”

*** Chicago ***

* WTTW | Chicago Board of Education Members Weigh How to Close $732M Budget Gap: Last week, CPS CEO Macquline King unveiled a proposed $9.88 billion budget to close the district’s funding gap. The plan calls for $200 million in Tax Increment Financing, or TIF, funds from the city, the layoff of 760 teachers and 801 support staff, and five unpaid furlough days for CPS employees. King told reporters last week that her budget focuses on cuts away from the classroom and students.

* South Side Weekly | U. of C. Scientists Call for Halt to Quantum Construction: “What we already know is sufficient to justify canceling the project,” said Josh Sodicoff, a co-chair of Science for the People’s local chapter and a Ph.D. candidate in the University of Chicago’s Genetics, Genomics and Systems Biology program. “But what we have uncovered through review of environmental reporting, permits, press releases and the underlying science shows a project both capable of massive negative impact on its neighbors while unlikely to meet its most basic aims.”

* Crain’s | Chicago safety-net hospitals search for a lifeline as funding crisis deepens: Chicago’s healthcare safety net is at a breaking point — squeezed by rising labor and drug costs, Medicaid reimbursements that can’t keep pace and a funding structure that hospital leaders say systematically advantages large health systems over small ones. ​A payroll scramble at Roseland Community Hospital reflects a broader crisis squeezing hospitals. In the past year, the region has seen the closure of two safety-net hospitals, other hospitals struggling to pay their bills and a storm cloud rising in the form of drastic losses predicted in Medicaid rolls.

* WTTW | Ex-Top Cop Snelling Must Answer Questions Under Oath About Traffic Stops, Federal Judge Rules: U.S. District Court Judge Mary Rowland rejected efforts by lawyers for the city to significantly curtail the duration of Snelling’s deposition and prevent lawyers for the five Black and Latino Chicagoans who had been repeatedly stopped while driving — both before and after they filed suit — from asking about Snelling’s handling of traffic stops while he served as commander of the Englewood (7th) Police District.

* Cook County Record | Chicago can force landlords to pay tenants $10K for ‘relocation assistance’: Nothing in the U.S. Constitution prevents the city of Chicago from forcing landlords who purchase apartment buildings out of foreclosure to pay $10,000 in “relocation assistance” to tenants who don’t want to renew their lease, a federal appeals court has ruled. On July 22, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a challenge to that provision in Chicago’s so-called “Keep Chicago Renting” ordinance, saying the money the city has ordered landlords to pay to tenants is merely a kind of economic regulation on the landlord-tenant relationship, and can’t be considered an unconstitutional “taking” of the landlord’s property by the city government.

* Crain’s | Chicago-based private listing network draws antitrust scrutiny from Congress: Under the deal, Compass agents anywhere in the U.S. could post private listings on MRED’s long-standing private listing network, where homes are marketed agent-to-agent without going on a public listings site. In return, Compass pledged to subsidize some of the cost for as many as 100,000 agents to sign onto MRED, which would more than triple MRED’s membership ranks. Critics, including the big real estate portal Zillow, have said the deal harms consumers because it puts some real estate listings out of sight of some buyers. The lawmakers are looking into that question as well, their letter indicates.

* Tribune | Chicago makes progress installing crossing signals for the blind, but fixes and more signals needed, monitor says: The city “is off to a strong start” in its first year of a court-ordered program to install crossing signals for the visually impaired, an independent monitor found — though none of the new signals inspected met all technical requirements. Chicago installed accessible pedestrian signals, or APS, at 78 intersections — eight more than required initially. With previously installed signals, that brings the total to 165 intersections with the signals, representing about 6% of nearly 2,800 pedestrian signalized intersections.

* WGN | New geofencing will limit e-bikes and scooters in Edgewater: Manaa-Hoppenworth says it’s important to remove e-bikes from the sidewalks on Sheridan Road to improve pedestrian safety. “Getting bikes off of Sheridan Road sidewalks has been a public safety priority for me and my team, because we know that everyone is safer when we organize our streets with clear spaces for pedestrians, vehicles, and cyclists,” the alderwoman added.

* Block Club | Rogers Park’s Historic 400 Theater, Closed Since 2023, Reopening This Month Under New Owner: Theater owner Jordan Stancil announced last year he was taking on the shuttered New 400 Theaters and planned to reopen as The 400 Theater, Block Club previously reported. Stancil is the operator of three movie houses in Michigan, including the Rialto Theater in Grayling, Michigan, which his family has owned since 1915, he said previously. The New 400 closed in 2023, ending a 111-year-run that made it the oldest movie theater in the city and one of its last independent cinemas. Its former owner, who also owns the retail strip the theater occupies, said at the time he would look to find a new operator for the theater, but the space sat dormant since its closure.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Daily Herald | Arlington Heights couple pleads guilty to vandalizing local GOP headquarters: Brock McNerney, a 72-year-old retired financial planner, and Moisette McNerney, a 69-year-old retired special education teacher, admitted to criminal damage to property and criminal defacement of property charges as part of a plea agreement. Cook County Judge Thomas Newinski sentenced the couple to 18 months court supervision, 100 hours of community service, a $100 fine and court costs. Newinski also ordered the couple to pen an apology letter to the Wheeling Township organization.

* The Marshall Project | At Joliet prison, desperate men set themselves on fire: There have been more than 70 fires at the facility in the last three years, according to an investigation by The Marshall Project, WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times. That includes a dozen cases in which men incarcerated there set themselves on fire. […] Cellblocks lacked sprinklers, and fire alarms were turned off or inoperable. At an annual inspection, the prison would not provide a fire evacuation plan. Guards delayed ambulances responding to emergencies at the prison or trying to take men with serious injuries to the hospital.

* Harvey World Herald | Calumet City Ald. Monet Wilson to sue TTHS D205 alleging district violated her civil rights over football camp: But the camp was ultimately cancelled. Wilson and Ebony Rucker, Reach 4 The Sky President Keith Rucker’s niece, provided differing narratives as to why during the meeting. Wilson alleged that president Nina Graham barred Wilson’s family from the camp and that she would sue the board in response. Ebony Rucker, a district employee, took to the podium during public participation first to give a statement on behalf of The Reach 4 The Sky Foundation. Foundation president Keith Rucker decided to cancel the camp to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest and protect the integrity of both the foundation and district, she said.

* Tribune | Woodridge draws thousands of film enthusiasts from across the country to see ‘The Odyssey’ in IMAX 70 mm: John Marks admits he didn’t have to drive his family across state lines in the middle of the night to see “The Odyssey.” But as he stood in the lobby of Woodridge’s Cinemark Seven Bridges and IMAX at 2 a.m. on Thursday, he couldn’t imagine seeing it anywhere else. The Indiana resident is one of thousands flocking to the multiplex since the film’s release last week. One of only 25 theaters nationwide showing “The Odyssey” in IMAX 70 mm, the southwestern suburb has become an unlikely destination for cinephiles determined to watch the nearly three-hour film as director Christopher Nolan intended.

* Crain’s | Chicago-area warehouse vacancy inches up as companies shed space: The share of available warehouse space across the Chicago area inched up to 5.06% midway through the year from 4.91% at the end of the first quarter, according to data from real estate services firm Colliers. The vacancy rate has modestly increased for three consecutive quarters and now tops 5% for the first time in two-and-a-half years, though it remains close to the all-time low of 4.5% set in 2022.

*** Downstate ***

* WICS | Board Tables Ammons Resignation Resolution: The Champaign County Board voted to table for one year a resolution calling on County Clerk Aaron Ammons to resign following his federal indictment earlier this month. Ammons was indicted on charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice and witness tampering. The resolution states the county clerk serves as Champaign County’s chief election authority and keeper of vital public records, positions that require “public trust, transparency and integrity.” Supporters of the measure told board members the allegations have damaged public confidence in the office and urged the board to take action.

* WAND | Champaign County Board tables resolution calling for Ammons’ resignation: During public comment, some residents spoke in defense of the county clerk and said that he deserves his chance to defend himself in federal court. “And it seems designed to short circuit the justice system in order to force the resignation of a local elected official who hasn’t even had their day in court,” said one resident. Others took the time to implore the board to pass the resolution. “Your no vote [on] this resolution will confirm to the public that your political party and protecting your friends are more important than the public trust,” said a second resident. The motion to table the vote was made by a single board member instead of the entire board.

* The Southern | Records reveal why Benton mayor sought ISP investigation against fire chief: The investigative file shows investigators reviewed charitable donations, fundraising proceeds, checks written to the Benton Fire Department and outside bank accounts after questions were raised about how some donations were handled. After reviewing the investigation, Franklin County State’s Attorney Abby Dinn declined to prosecute, writing in a June 17 memo that she found “no evidence whatsoever that a crime has been committed.”

* BND | East St. Louis schools launch 24/7 mental health crisis line: East St. Louis School District 189 now has a 24/7 crisis line to help students and their families navigate mental health struggles. Individuals can call or text 618-228-3622 any time to connect with a trained professional. Support is offered in English and Spanish, and is made possible through the district’s partnership with Gaggle ReachOut, according to a news release.

* WCIA | EIU AD Wilson to take ‘really close look’ at upgrading football facilities: Among Wilson’s many accomplishments in 21 years leading Tennessee Tech sports was the beginning efforts of a $55 million renovation to the Golden Eagles’ football stadium. He plans to take a close look at EIU’s football facilities, with upgrades being entirely possible in the future. “I know that [the football] facility is about the same as it was 22 years ago during my first visit here at Tennessee Tech,” Wilson said of EIU’s football facilities. “Certainly [Wilkerson] needs some updating, and we’ll work to make that part of a strategic plan – and work to fundraise with our alumni and friends – and see if we can implement.”

*** National ***

* Climate Colored Goggles | Researchers used electric stoves to treat asthma. It worked: For 72 homes where at least one resident suffered from “poorly controlled asthma,” the team measured health outcomes before and after the gas-to-electric switch: How often were participants awoken by asthma at night? How much time did they spend wheezing? How much shortness of breath did they experience? Did they need to visit the emergency room? Did they have to stay home from work or school? Lo and behold: Across every health metric studied, people got better. Not just better, actually — dramatically better.

* Variety | Why Aren’t There More Imax 70mm Screens for ‘The Odyssey’? ‘It’s Not Practical,’ Company Says: “We build new projectors every day, but film projectors using this film — it’s just not practical,” Gelfond said. “Can all 2,000 of our theaters be film projectors? No. There’s just not that many around. But I think we can continue to grow it.” After reaching a near-record year at the box office in 2023, fueled by Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” Imax knew it needed to expand its fleet of 70mm film projectors ahead of “The Odyssey.” For over a year, Imax embarked on a massive effort to track down broken, abandoned and often-forgotten projectors, salvaging parts to refurbish and install additional projectors. The strenuous process also required training 60 new projectionists from scratch.

* WaPo | Man gets two life terms for killings of Minnesota lawmaker and her husband: The man who shot and killed a former speaker of the Minnesota House and her husband at their home last year was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday. Vance Boelter had pleaded guilty last month to fatally shooting state Rep. Melissa Hortman (D) and her husband, Mark, at their home outside of Minneapolis in June 2025. In the early-morning rampage, Boelter disguised himself as a police officer and targeted other lawmakers, injuring state Sen. John A. Hoffman (D) and his wife, Yvette.

* MediaIte | Ousted 60 Minutes Reporter Says She Was Asked To Report on Things That Didn’t Happen Under Bari Weiss: According to an audio recording obtained by Oliver Darcy’s Status, former 60 Minutes correspondent Cecilia Vega accused CBS News chief Bari Weiss of leading a push to include claims in stories that her reporting team could not verify, alleging she was asked to report on incidents that “never happened.” Speaking with ABC News’ John Quiñones Thursday at the National Association of Hispanic Journalists Conference & Expo in New Orleans, Vega publicly discussed her firing for the first time, detailing what she described as repeated efforts by CBS News’ new leadership to influence her reporting.