Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Friday, Apr 24, 2026 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Son Volt covers Ronnie Wood…

you look so fine and true, baby
no one mystifies me like you do

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Friday, Apr 24, 2026 - Posted by Isabel Miller

The Illinois Department of Human Services is seeking millions of extra dollars from state taxpayers due to federal policy changes.

Illinois DHS Secretary Dulce Quintero told the Illinois House Appropriations - Health and Human Services Committee on Thursday that federal changes require additional state investments to address Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Medicaid. […]

State Rep. Bill Hauter, R-Morton, questioned Quintero when she said the department would need $40 million to hire 450 new caseworkers.

Illinois DHS Assistant Secretary of Programs John Schomberg said the caseworkers could save the state hundreds of millions of dollars.

“By investing in these caseworkers we are preserving services and access and keeping people on SNAP and Medicaid,” Schomberg said.

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Sponsored by Phrma

Illinois is paying the price for 340B medicine markups.

Through the federal 340B program, nonprofit hospitals can buy medicines for pennies, then charge huge markups – even on life-saving medicines. Those markups have become big business for large hospital systems, driving higher costs for Illinois patients, employers and taxpayers.

And the problem is getting worse. The program’s lack of oversight has allowed 340B to become a revenue stream for hospitals, PBMs, private equity firms and big chain pharmacies — with no requirement that the money be used to help patients afford medicines. It’s time for Washington to hold hospitals accountable and fix 340B. Read more.

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* Crain’s…

Gov. JB Pritzker says Illinois lawmakers need to move quickly on a property tax incentive package tied to the Chicago Bears’ future — but the plan that cleared the House will require significant changes. […]

Pritzker noted the amusement tax provision as one of several sticking points for the Bears, although it’s not clear it would apply to the team’s project.

Rep. Kam Buckner, a legislative leader who sponsored the House bill, said the language was not meant to impact the Bears project in Arlington Heights but to allow municipalities without home-rule authority to impose an amusement tax of up to 9% in the same way Chicago and Arlington Heights are already able to.

The language was added to benefit the Destination Illinois megaproject in the Metro East area outside St. Louis. It was first included in a Senate bill creating a supercharged tier of the Sales Tax & Revenue Bond program aimed at Chicago and the stalled One Central project. That bill was incorporated into the amendment Buckner filed this week ahead of approval in the House.

*** Statewide ***

* Chicago Reader | How fire is reviving Illinois’s vanishing prairie: Part of that is due to the efforts of the stewards and local community members, as well as to a wider understanding of what happens when a fire-dependent ecosystem does not receive it. McCabe says that, as much as people were trying to stop the Forest Preserves from doing their work, in turn costing taxpayers more and making preserve workers’ jobs harder, the stewards were actively pushing against those neighbors by calling their alderpeople, showing up to community meetings, and regularly printing a magazine to inform the public.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Capitol News Illinois | Illinois launches online resources for households on federal food assistance: “We were working very closely with (IDHS), because it was DHS who was setting what those parameters, those guidelines, like what a program had to be, in order to meet the standards,” Bruce said. “What we have online with Job Ready IL is something that’s carefully crafted with DHS’s guidance.” The groups also agreed it should be a public-private partnership to remain sustainable. The state was concerned its workforce system wouldn’t have the capacity to serve the number of people who would now need a work program, Bruce said.

*** Chicago ***

* CBS Chicago | Hearing will decide if special prosecutor investigates possible crimes during Chicago’s Operation Midway Blitz: “What we’ve seen in Cook County is that the elected state’s attorney has abdicated her duty to the people of Cook County be refusing to investigate those crimes, by refusing to bring prosecutions in the face of incredibly well documented crimes,” said Steve Art, an attorney with Loevy & Loevy, who are representing the coalition in court.

* Chicago Reader | Chicago mayor visits Illinois prison, meeting with Northwestern Prison Education Program students: The mayor spoke of two of his brothers, who had struggled with addiction and spent time in prison. “This is personal for me,” he said. “I’m here to learn and ensure that my responsibility as a leader of the city in Chicago, that you all know that you will always be front and center in all of the decisions that I make.” Student Patrick Comi asked the mayor the best advice he received from Reverend Jesse Jackson. The mayor responded that the reverend always told him that he “was someone, and to never give up, and to always keep moving forward.” Knowing the struggles the reverend had gone through, Johnson said, that advice stayed with him.

* Crain’s | Ford City Mall shutdown gets reprieve despite deterioration and sinkholes: The dilapidated Ford City Mall on the Southwest Side can stay open for at least another three weeks after a Cook County judge gave its owner and tenants more time to prepare for a possible shutdown over the property’s hazardous conditions. Judge Leonard Murray yesterday signed off on an agreement between the city of Chicago and the owner of the shopping center at 7601 S. Cicero Ave. to delay a hearing on the city’s emergency motion to vacate the property. The approval came after a successful test last week of the mall’s faulty fire suppression system, which Murray had deemed an “urgent” safety issue and warned of a potential order to shutter the building.

* Block Club | Can This Wellness Center Help West Siders Live Longer? Sankofa Village Aims To Do Just That: “This center was built for the residents and is designed to meet their needs while serving as a space where people can connect, grow and thrive,” said Drea Slaughter, Garfield Park Rite To Wellness executive director. “The resources offered here are just the beginning, and we look forward to continuing this work and building on our mission to strengthen opportunity and improve quality of life across West Garfield Park.”

* Tribune | CTA service resumes after train derailment near Rogers Park station: hicago Transit Authority service was up and running Friday morning after a Yellow Line train derailed on the city’s Far North Side during the evening rush hour Thursday, according to the city agency. Rail service had been temporarily suspended Thursday evening along the entire Yellow and Purple lines, as well as along the Red Line between the Howard and Thorndale stations, the CTA said. Both the CTA and the Chicago Fire Department said there were no reported injuries. Normal service resumed shortly before 11:30 p.m. Thursday, the CTA said.

* Sun-Times | JCPenney to exit Ford City as city pressures mall’s owner: JCPenney said it will close the store in a month or two. In an email, the retailer’s media relations department said, “Despite our best efforts to remain at Ford City Mall, we have been required by the city of Chicago to close this location along with all other remaining tenants at the property, and will be exiting the property in the next 30-60 days. We are actively exploring opportunities for a new store location in the surrounding Chicago area and look forward to sharing updates as plans develop.”

* WBEZ | Chicago area bookstores are set to host their biggest celebration yet for Independent Bookstore Day: All 84 participating stores offer their own specialties and curate selections that reflect the interests of their neighborhoods, said Ryvre Hardrick, organizer of the crawl and owner of Goblin Market in Lake View. The number of participating shops nearly doubled from last year, a shift Hardrick said reflects owners’ desire to keep building connections with their neighbors as well as growing interest in “analog hobbies.”

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Shaw Local | Plainfield passes resolution opposing state taking away local zoning control: Worried that a proposed statewide initiative could take power away from municipalities, the Plainfield Village Board has passed a resolution urging state leaders to not take zoning authority away from municipalities.

* ABC Chicago | Wauconda High School career advisor charged with grooming, solicitation of two students: police: Authorities took Faulkner into custody during a traffic stop for driving on a revoked license on Thursday, just before police and Lake County K9 Enzo executed a search warrant at a home in connection with the case. There, police said, they found evidence that Faulkner groomed and solicited two Wauconda High School students. Faulkner, who provides college and career services at the high school, has been charged with two counts of Solicitation of Child Sexual Abuse Material, two counts of Grooming, and two counts of Indecent Solicitation of a Child.

* Fox Chicago | Chicago Stars FC return home to Evanston with themed match days: The Chicago Stars FC preview their upcoming home stretch in Evanston, highlighting affordable fan experiences, special game themes, and a roster featuring World Cup and Olympic champions.

* Daily Herald | News seniors can use: High school journalists publish newspaper for retirement residents: The students recently sent out their fourth issue of Windmill Weekly, a 12- to 16-page tabloid size printed newspaper with larger type size for easier reading. It’s the business project they chose through the national program led at Batavia by Dennis Piron, the popular and successful football coach at the school.

*** Downstate ***

* WCIA | Champaign County passes year-long moratorium on data center: Champaign County has been looking at implementing a temporary moratorium on data centers since February. After making its way through several county committees, the county board had the final say Thursday night. People were outside the Bennett Administrative Center an hour before the meeting started. It was a packed house with people standing, kneeling and even sitting on windowsills. All this to make sure they were in the room to see whether or not the county board would press the pause button on data center construction.

* WCIA | Springfield EMS worker pleads guilty to involuntary manslaughter in 2022 patient death: One of two Springfield EMS workers accused of murder in the death of a patient in 2022 has pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter. Peter Cadigan pleaded guilty to the charge Friday morning in the killing of Earl Moore in December 2022. In police body camera footage, Cadigan could be seen strapping Moore face-down on a stretcher while Moore was experiencing a hallucinatory episode. He later died from asphyxiation.

* WJBD | Salem Police Chief Todd Boles No Longer Employed By City: Salem Police Chief Todd Boles is no longer employed by the city. Boles was placed on paid administrative leave on April 8th for what the city called an ongoing investigation. In today’s news release, the city says that due to the nature of the situation, no further details will be released at this time. At the time of the original release, the city said that paid administrative leave was required for any allegation of a potential internal policy violation.

*** National ***

* AP | US soldier charged with using classified intel to win $400K on Maduro raid is being released on bail: Federal prosecutors say Van Dyke used his access to classified information about the operation to capture Maduro in January to win money on the prediction market site Polymarket. Van Dyke, who is stationed at Fort Bragg near Fayetteville, North Carolina, was charged Thursday with the unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud and making an unlawful monetary transaction.

* NBC | Justice Department drops investigation into Federal Reserve and Jerome Powell: The Justice Department on Friday dropped a criminal investigation into the Federal Reserve and its chair, Jerome Powell, regarding a renovation project at the central bank’s Washington headquarters. “This morning the Inspector General for the Federal Reserve has been asked to scrutinize the building costs overruns – in the billions of dollars – that have been borne by taxpayers,” U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro said in a post on X.

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Built For Illinois. Built With Transparency.

Friday, Apr 24, 2026 - Posted by Advertising Department

[The following is a paid advertisement.]

Public safety technology only works when communities trust it. That’s why Flock Safety built privacy and transparency into every layer of our system from the beginning of the design cycle — not as an afterthought. In Illinois, that means:

See how we’re building trust in Illinois.

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Pritzker: We have to make sure the megaproject bill works for the Bears

Friday, Apr 24, 2026 - Posted by Isabel Miller

* Gov. JB Pritzker was asked a ton of questions about the megaproject/Bears bill at an unrelated news conference this morning…

Reporter: Sen. Cunningham told my colleague [NBC Chicago’s Mary Ann Ahern] that the Senate is not in a hurry to pass this bill next week. Are you pushing the Senate to pass the megaprojects bill?

Pritzker: I will say, I think he said that before the vote in the House. But having said that, either way, I can tell you that there is a need for speed here, we need to move somewhat expeditiously. I realize the Senate has some work to do, and there will be amendments, no doubt about it. But, I have to say Senator Cunningham has been a great partner. I think we’ll have a good bill at the end of the process in the Senate and something that will work for the Bears.

[Cross talk]

Reporter: What amendments do [the Bears] want and how much infrastructure- what is the dollar amount, are they looking for the state to pay for?

Pritzker: Well, that’s all being worked out, as you know, now. I mean, I think we’ve been, I think everybody’s understood what the principles are for the Bears and so again, just trying to hone it down. As you know, that bill went from, I don’t know, 30 pages, to 300 and some pages in the House. And it’s not about the pages, but it’s just the amount of things that were kind of tacked on to it. Much of it, by the way, makes a lot of sense. Some of it, I think, for the Bears anyway, didn’t make sense and so well. Again, I don’t want to— I think they’re working that through with the Senate. I don’t want to get involved here in front of all of you. I think there’s just aspects of it that I would, I’ll just, I guess I’ll give you one example. They had said at the outset that an amusement tax is something that really won’t work and that they really don’t want to see happen on top of all the other taxes that are imposed here. So when a 9, I think it’s a 9% amusement tax has been put on by the House. Obviously, that’s something that they didn’t expect, don’t believe that is a good thing for Bears fans or for the Bears Stadium. So we’ll see what can happen in the Senate about that, but that’s one of the things that I know. From the outset, they were hoping not to see in a bill like this.

Reporter: Can you talk about issues you may have with the bill itself?

Pritzker: Well, I mean, again, I think everybody understands that the principle here was to put a bill together that would work for the Chicago Bears. We’re obviously trying to keep the Chicago Bears in the state of Illinois. I also want to remind you that this bill wasn’t about the Chicago Bears alone. This bill is really about economic development, broadly for the state, it’s a megaprojects bill because we have a bunch of megaprojects that we can attract to Illinois if we have the right structure for folks to deal with property taxes. Which, by the way, they do anyway. Just so you know, when companies come to Illinois, they go negotiate with local governments about their property taxes, and if they can’t get a good deal, they go to another state. And so we’re just trying to create a process for that to happen. FYI, out of the 50 states, only 13 states don’t have a PILOT/megaprojects bill. We’re one of those 13 states, so we need to pass something, because it’s good for economic development, and frankly, that was the reason why I introduced the bill way back before the bears were really part of that bill. And now it makes sense. They’re a business in Illinois that wants to expand, and they deserve a hearing, just like any other large project would tax relief part of the bill.

Reporter: Can you talk about the tax relief part of the bill?

Pritzker: I mean, listen, we all want property tax relief. There’s no doubt about that. I think that we want to make sure is that if there’s property tax relief, that it’s meaningful, that it doesn’t penalize the Bears in their desire to stay in the state of Illinois, but that also benefits the particularly the surrounding communities, but also perhaps the larger community of people who own property in the state

Reporter: You talked about speed, but will it be the expense of details which could end up haunting taxpayers down the road?

Pritzker: Yeah, but I want to remind you, Sarah, that this, it’s not like this is a new issue, right? This has been around, people have been talking about this, I think for more than a year. Certainly, I know the Bears have been talking to the legislators for two years I think. So, I don’t think we’re not talking about speed here, or it shouldn’t be a discussion about speed. I think now you’ve got a bill that’s probably has too many items associated with it, or at least some of them that need amending. And there’s an understanding there was already, when it went into the House, that the Bears need to have certain things in the bill and certain things not and so those are going to be guiding the amendments that go through the Senate I believe.

Reporter: There were some Democrats voting against this, and their concern is all this is being done for the Bears or other developers that come in and want some property tax relief at the expense of taxpayers who need things like health care and education and all that. So how do you make sure that everybody’s benefiting?

Pritzker: Well, that’s not true. This is not penalizing health care, for example, in the state at all. And what is true is what we want is more jobs. What we want is economic growth, and we need to be competitive, truthfully. And that’s true of companies across the country. They’re looking where they’re going to move to, and so I’ve worked very hard for the last seven years in office to make Illinois more inviting for businesses, and it’s worked. We’ve attracted a whole lot of folks, but we need to continue to hone our message and deal with the problem that people perceive about property taxes. I believe that’s also true for homeowners in the state of Illinois. That’s why I have been advancing funding and making sure that we’re increasing funding for local public schools. Because guess what? Your property tax bill is mostly driven by the high property taxes for local schools. If the state would get in the game. Remember, we were the worst in the country at funding schools. When I took office, we were 24% of education funding was coming from the state. Average state, 46% comes from the state, so we’ve gotten it almost to 40% now. We’re making a lot of progress. We need local schools to recognize that they’re getting more money from the state and to alleviate the upward pressure on property taxes, and then at the same time, we need to make sure that we’re attracting businesses to the state of Illinois, my opponent, who is running for governor this year, on the Republican side, Darren Bailey, says, well, he doesn’t think that we should do anything to attract the Bears here, and that he does not believe that economic this bill that would promote economic development is a good thing for the state. He’s wrong. We need to do more to make this an attractive state for businesses and not fewer things.

Reporter: What is that infrastructure number for what the Bears want at this point, infrastructure assistance from the state?

Pritzker: It’s the same number that it’s been for since the beginning. I think that the total amount was something like $800 million of infrastructure investment. But remember that much of that is also already in the multi-year plan, or focused on the communities around where the Bears stadium would go in Arlington Heights. So these are projects that would happen anyway. We’re all calling them, ‘Bears infrastructure.’ But the reality is, much of the money, or a good portion of it, is something that already would have happened for the state of Illinois. So I don’t want to overload this thing and make it sound like the Bears, are the ones demanding all this. These are things that the village of Arlington Heights and and other towns and cities around there need in order to advance their cause. For local residents, as well as business.

Reporter: We’re hearing that the NFL is going to put pressure on the Bears next week, are you feeling that same pressure, given that there is another state in the midst, still in play.

Pritzker: Yeah, we’re always competing with other states for businesses, and this is just another example of that. […] The NFL has a meeting next week. It’s not going to completely flip the script, and all of a sudden, on that date you’re going to see Indiana is being chosen if Illinois doesn’t have a bill, having said that, if there is not true progress that gets made, if it isn’t obvious to people that the Senate is moving in the right direction, I think that will make it challenging. But we’re all working together. I think the Bears want to be in Illinois. I think that’s really what their choice would be. If we can put a bill forward that makes sense. They know what that is. I have said before that I created the scaffolding for that. I know that there are legislators who’ve wanted to build on to that scaffolding more than what was originally there, and that’s okay. We just have to make sure that it works for the Bears as it does for the citizens, the residents of the state of Illinois. One last point I want to make from the very beginning and all along here, my number one consideration has been what’s best for the taxpayers of Illinois. You heard me say that on day one, when the bears said they wanted to move, and you’ve heard me say that all along and that’s been my focus. What is the best thing for advancing the interests of the taxpayers, and not only of the Bears or of large businesses. And so that is what we put together in that scaffolding, in that deal that went to the legislature. We want to make sure that whatever comes out of the legislature fills that goal.

Please pardon any transcription errors.

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SB 1486 Raises Premiums And Reduces Consumer Choice

Friday, Apr 24, 2026 - Posted by Advertising Department

[The following is a paid advertisement.]

Illinois is home to one of the most competitive insurance markets in the nation. Hundreds of insurers fight for consumers, leaving families better protected than those in other states.

SB 1486, described by the Daily Herald as “controversial legislation,” could eliminate that system and, in its place, leave Illinois with the most extreme regulatory framework in the nation.

This legislation could:

These policies have been tried in other states, leading to skyrocketing costs for consumers and limited options for coverage. Don’t bring California style overregulation to Illinois.

Protect consumer choice and affordability. Vote NO on SB 1486.

Click here to learn more.

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Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - News update

Friday, Apr 24, 2026 - Posted by Isabel Miller

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Drug Costs Are Rising: 340B Legislation Helps Lower Costs, Strengthen Communities

Friday, Apr 24, 2026 - Posted by Advertising Department

[The following is a paid advertisement.]

Nearly 40% of Illinois residents get their health coverage through Medicaid (25%) and Medicare (18%). Yet, government providers do not cover the full cost of care. Hospitals on average lose 10-15% treating Medicare patients and 30-35% treating Medicaid patients. Despite this, Illinois hospitals continue to provide lifesaving care around the clock.

Congress created the 340B drug discount program over 30 years ago to address financial shortfalls, including inadequate reimbursement from government payers. Last spring, the Senate unanimously passed House Bill 2371 SA 2 to protect 340B. HB 2371 does not ask drugmakers to do anything new, but to do their part in lowering drug costs for hospitals and Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) that serve many low-income patients.

Stand with hospitals, FQHCs and their patients: Pass HB 2371 SA 2. Learn more.

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Isabel’s morning briefing

Friday, Apr 24, 2026 - Posted by Isabel Miller

* ICYMI: Arlington Heights residents cautiously optimistic as Bears stadium bill passes Illinois House. WGN…

* Related stories…

• WGN: House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch on future of megaproject bill, millionaire’s tax
• ChicagoLIVE: Bears stadium bill clears House as Kam Buckner details next steps
• Crain’s: Bears score House win on stadium — but Springfield rewrite raises new risks

* Happy Friday! Quick programming note: We’ll be shutting the blog down earlier than usual today.

***************** Advertisement *****************

Sponsored by The Association of Safety-Net Community Hospitals

No Cuts. No Closures. Fund Safety-Net Hospitals.

For decades, Illinois has underfunded safety-net hospitals, the lifelines for Black and Brown communities. Now, the “Safety-Net Moonshot” and the Medicaid-defunding legislation it has spawned, threatens deeper cuts to these critical health providers. Any reduction inspired by the “Moonshot” would be a killshot to the care our most vulnerable residents rely on.

Weakening safety-net hospitals won’t improve care. It will slash essential services, eliminate jobs, and push entire communities into healthcare deserts and economic instability.

The state cannot balance its budget on the backs of Black and Brown community hospitals. These institutions are not line items to cut, they are the foundation of care for families who have nowhere else to turn. Disinvestment will deepen inequities and worsen outcomes.

When safety-net hospitals are funded, communities are healthier, workforces are stronger, and economies are more resilient.

Illinois must fully fund safety-net hospitals. For the communities they serve, it is life or death.

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* At 9 am, Gov. JB Pritzker will deliver remarks at Northwestern’s Inaugural Quantum Innovation Symposium. Click here to watch.

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* WGLT | ISU’s president requests more state funding as hundreds of employees remain on strike: Tarhule was responding to a comment from state Rep. Sharon Chung, a Democrat from Bloomington, who expressed support for the striking employees. “I would like you to try to see what you can do to end the strike in good faith,” Chung said, while wearing a button that said “Fair Contract Now.” Tarhule said the university is facing an increasing deficit and maintenance backlogs because of the lack of funding and if the university does not get more money this year, it might have to increase tuition.

* Tribune | ‘Millionaire tax’ amendment won’t be on November ballot as Illinois Democrats can’t come to agreement:
State Rep. Will Davis, a Democrat from Homewood and a sponsor of that funding formula, said it would have been difficult for him to support the millionaire’s tax proposal. “Those of us that kind of understand EBF a little bit have raised that concern about whether or not it ultimately walks back EBF,” he said.

* Sun-Times | Obamacare premiums in Illinois rose sharply but not as much as expected: Premiums haven’t skyrocketed since federal tax subsidies expired in December. But experts say it’s still early. And providers worry increased health care costs also could drive up insurance rates.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Sun-Times | Illinois House punts millionaires’ tax to 2028, advances voting rights amendment: “What we heard from listening to a lot of people over the last few days is that more work needs to be done,” said Welch, who emphasized a need to bring more business-focused representatives on board with the measure. Because the Illinois Constitution enshrines a flat tax system into law, the millionaires’ tax would have needed approval from voters. The deadline for the Legislature to put amendments on the 2026 November midterm ballot is May 3, and while the Senate is back in session next week, the House won’t reconvene until May 4.

* Daily Herald | Intentionally causing someone emotional distress by phone or electronic harassment? Proposed law takes aim at that: Kane County State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser and former Naperville police detective Rich Wistocki, president of BeSure Consulting, teamed up to add “causing significant emotional distress” as a crime in Illinois Senate Bill 2741. State Sen. Linda Holmes, a Democrat from Aurora, agreed to sponsor the bill. The bill would also eliminate the requirement that harassing content must be of a sexual nature.

* Center Square | Autism care providers, parents urge change in ownership mandate: Dr. Rebecca Thompson, president of the Illinois Providers for Applied Behavior Analysis Access and Quality, said an amendment to Senate Bill 712 forces every ABA provider in Illinois to restructure so only licensed behavior analysts hold ownership. “This forces out non-licensed owners, including parents, business partners and multidisciplinary collaborators who have helped build and sustain access to autism care across the state,” Thompson said.

*** Chicago ***

* Tribune | Outgoing watchdog notes Chicago’s ‘deficit of legitimacy,’ Mayor Brandon Johnson considers successor: Chicago, she told the Tribune during an interview as part of a media tour before she leaves office, “operates at a deficit of legitimacy.” The leader of this famously corrupt city’s most visible watchdog agency has long described her work as “paying down” that gap in trust. In four years at the helm of the Office of Inspector General, she has certainly presented an invoice. Her departure gives Johnson a new challenge: Tasked with selecting her successor, the mayor must convince aldermen the person he nominates to follow Witzburg will be a strong independent investigator who will hold him and his administration to account.

* Crain’s | Second City is serious about using improv to train police leaders: The law enforcement folks are part of the latest cohort working their way through the Policing Leadership Academy, a program for police officers who are transitioning into senior management roles. The academy, or PLA, is based out of the University of Chicago Crime Lab and born out of what Crime Lab Executive Director Roseanna Ander calls the “scandalous” insight that police officers generally aren’t well prepared to become executives.

* Sun-Times | ‘This was built for you.’ West Garfield Park celebrates nearly $50 million wellness center: Like many in the crowd, Pitts was there to celebrate the opening of Sankofa — and heal. At 60,000 square feet, around the size of a football field, Sankofa beams along Madison Street, a once-bustling corridor devastated by white flight and the 1968 riots that has not seen big investment in decades. At the new center, residents can see a doctor or a dentist, play in the indoor gym, stroll on a walking track, or get help finding a job. It was years in the making and created with community input to improve health disparities in West Garfield Park. In 2023, residents in this mostly Black neighborhood were expected to live until 67 years old — the lowest life expectancy in Chicago — compared to 87 in the Loop, where the majority of residents are white.

* WBEZ | Lunchroom workers block Downtown street in protest as contract talks with CPS stall: But Penson, who has worked for Chicago Public Schools for 21 years and makes an annual salary of about $34,000, said she feels deeply disrespected by the school district’s leadership. She and her colleagues, who are represented by the union Unite Here Local 1, have been negotiating a contract for more than 11 months. To “sound the alarm” on what they see as unfair and unequal wages, about 250 workers and their supporters held a protest Thursday afternoon at which two dozen of them — including Penson — sat down on Madison Street outside the school district’s downtown headquarters as an act of civil disobedience. Chicago police officers quickly detained the workers and escorted them away to cheers from their fellow union members, who later chanted “we will be back.” The union said they were quickly released and ticketed for pedestrian traffic violations.

* Sun-Times | No injuries in Yellow Line derailment: No one was injured after a Yellow Line train derailed Thursday, cutting off service to the Yellow and Purple Lines while diminishing the far north portions of Red Line service, according to the CTA. The trains derailed near the Howard station shortly before 5:40 p.m., suspending two lines as well as the Red Line between Howard and Thorndale, a CTA representative said in a statement. No injuries were reported.

* Tribune | Rickea Jackson is embracing a clean slate with the Chicago Sky: ‘They get who I am’: “I wanted to be somewhere where I’m prioritized from the beginning,” Jackson told the Tribune. “It’s no secret that I basically had a different coach almost every year of my career, so I know how to adjust. But I just wanted to be somewhere that, from the jump, they got it right. From the jump, I felt prioritized. They know my game. They get who I am.” […] Jackson brought some familiarity to her new home — she’s a Detroit native and her mother, Caryn, grew up in Chicago — but she hadn’t visited the city outside of games in more than a decade, when she drove down to watch her godsister Betnijah Laney debut with the Sky in 2015.

* Tribune | UIC researchers use mural art to raise awareness of invasive plant species: In spring 2024, the lab received a $300,000 Biota Award from the Walder Foundation, a Skokie family foundation that funds Chicagoland area environmental research and other initiatives. Nunez-Mir said the grant was used mostly to develop a database of over 1,000 invasive plant species. Researchers evaluated and recorded the same 28 characteristics for each species based on preexisting data from universities and government agencies, Nunez-Mir said.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Crain’s | Executive in $15M Loretto Hospital embezzlement case pleads not guilty, released on bond: Former medical supplier Sameer Suhail, facing federal fraud indictments in an alleged $15 million scheme tied to Loretto Hospital, pleaded not guilty to several felony charges yesterday and was ordered released on a $5 million bond and home confinement, the U.S. Department of Justice said. Suhail had fled the U.S. to Dubai after being indicted in 2024 alongside former Loretto CEO George Miller, former CFO Anosh Ahmed and former executive Heather Bergdahl.

* Daily Southtown | University Park residents can seek claims as part of Aqua Illinois $12.5 million water contamination settlement: Those affected by water contamination issues in University Park between August 2018 and May 2019 will soon be entitled to compensation, after a federal judge on Wednesday approved a $12.5 million settlement agreement negotiated between the village and Aqua Illinois. Current and former residents and business owners will soon be given the opportunity to submit claims to determine the amount they are owed from Aqua Illinois, which owns and operates the village’s existing water infrastructure. Tom Zimmerman, whose office represented the class action lawsuit’s hundreds of plaintiffs, said the inconvenience of water pollution alone could result in $3,000 for those who submit a claim.

* NBC Chicago | How Illinois affordable housing bills could change suburban neighborhoods: “We were developed intentionally over the last 114 years to keep open space. And giving up the idea of giving up our zoning rights and how we do things, it could be detrimental in many ways to Palos Park,” Milovich-Walters said. Housing advocates voiced their support during a committee hearing Thursday. “Everyone is struggling with a lack of affordable quality supply for people to buy homes, whether it’s a single family home or a condominium,” said Bob Palmer from Housing Action Illinois.

* Elgin Courier-News | Elgin returns to manual siren system after residents complain about recent storm alerts: The Office of Emergency Management will return to manually triggering the warning sirens after they went off four times during one recent storm despite there being no tornadoes in the area. They were activated automatically by National Weather Service warnings for severe conditions in the area, Fire Chief Robb Cagann told the Elgin City Council Wednesday night. Elgin’s warning system was upgraded in 2024 to include the automatic activation when a NWS warning for a tornado, thunderstorm or other severe weather situation is released, said Cagann, who oversees the city’s Office of Emergency Management. It does not get activated during severe weather watches.

* Crain’s | Claire’s moving HQ to distressed Rosemont office building: Yet the deal also stands out as an example of a company moving to a building recently seized by a lender. New York-based Rialto Capital took control of the 249,433-square-foot Rosemont property in September to resolve a $29 million loan default by the building’s previous owner, Canadian real estate firm Adventus Realty Trust. While some lenders reinvest in seized properties to lure new tenants and boost revenue, companies typically avoid such distressed buildings over concerns about who their landlord will be in the future.

*** Downstate ***

* WGLT | Bloomington city manager says expanded police oversight power is not possible for the PSCRB: Bloomington City Manager Jeff Jurgens spoke to the city’s Public Safety and Community Relations Board [PSCRB] during its monthly meeting Wednesday. […] “At first, there was discussion about, well, could a citizen review board actually investigate and be the one to review citizen complaints, and to follow up on discipline and things like that,” he said. “And the answer to that was no.” Jurgens said state law and collective bargaining agreements prevent the PSCRB from any direct oversight or disciplinary power.

* BND | Metro-east post office closed with no home delivery. It’s not the first time: The small community of Brooklyn’s post office recently closed its doors with no warning and no timeline for reopening. With no home delivery service in the village of 650 people, residents are forced to travel to an East St. Louis post office to pick up their mail, according to Village Mayor Trenton Atkins.

* WCIA | Mahomet-Seymour schools looking to set rules on AI usage with guidebook: The district said security systems would be put in place to flag AI-generated content and anything that could indicate bullying or deep-fake creations. Teachers will provide guidelines for when students can use AI, while the guidebook lays out what the punishment would be if kids break the rules. “The big focus, or a big section of the guidebook, is on the teacher usage and the student usage. And there’s some different examples for acceptable use and unacceptable use throughout the guidebook,” said Assistant Superintendent Meghan Bagby. “One of the main reasons why is, we still want the focus to be on student learning and human learning, and teachers to be the facilitator of that learning.”

* WCIA | Months-long Central Illinois drought recovers in weeks: Thursday’s drought monitor shows no counties across Central Illinois are experiencing drought conditions for the first time since last July. The drought peaked in early March, leaving farmers like Dennis Riggs of 1874 Maple Lawn Farm anxious about soil conditions leading into planting season. “It has been dry and we’ve been worried about it, because you do have to have moisture in the ground to sprout the seeds,” Riggs said. “We select hybrids of corn and beans that can handle the drought better, we were looking at that.”

*** National ***

* AP | Meta slashes 8,000 jobs, or 10% of its workforce, as Microsoft offers buyouts: Meta is laying off about 8,000 workers, or about 10% of its workforce, the company said Thursday as it continues to ramp up spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure and highly paid AI-expert hires. The company said it was making the cuts for the sake of efficiency and to allow new investments in parts of its business, as first reported by Bloomberg, which also said the company will leave about 6,000 jobs unfilled. Also Thursday, Microsoft said it was offering voluntary buyouts to thousands of its U.S. employees.

* Bloomberg: Amazon.com Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc. have struck a multibillion-dollar deal for the social-media giant to rent hundreds of thousands of Amazon’s general-purpose chips for its AI efforts. The multiyear deal gives Meta access to the Graviton line of processors, Nafea Bshara, an Amazon vice president and co-founder of the company’s Annapurna Labs chips unit, said in an interview.

* NYT | Youth Suicides Declined After Creation of National Hotline: Over the two and a half years following the 2022 rollout of the 988 national suicide prevention hotline, the rate of suicides among young people in the United States dropped 11 percent below projections, decreasing most sharply in states with a higher volume of answered 988 calls, a new study has found. The findings, published today as a research letter in JAMA, compared suicide deaths from July 2022 to December 2024 with sophisticated mathematical projections that were based on historical trends. This yielded good news, with 4,372 fewer suicides of adolescents and young adults, ages 15 to 34, than had been projected.

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Friday, Apr 24, 2026 - Posted by Isabel Miller

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Friday, Apr 24, 2026 - Posted by Isabel Miller

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