* Subscribers know more. ICYMI: Bears have ‘exhausted every opportunity to stay in Chicago’ despite mayor saying new meetings held. ABC Chicago…

-The Chicago Bears had recent meetings with Chicago’s Corporation Counsel regarding the terms for a new lakefront stadium, a spokesperson for Mayor Brandon Johnson’s Office said.
- However, the NFL team put out a statement Thursday afternoon, saying “The Chicago Bears have exhausted every opportunity to stay in Chicago, which was our initial goal. There is not a viable site in the city. As a result, the only sites under consideration are in Arlington Heights and Hammond.”
- The Bears issued another statement in response to the mayor’s office earlier Thursday, saying, “Any meetings between the City of Chicago and the Chicago Bears were limited to counsel-to-counsel engagement. There were no conversations with team management. Such exchanges are subject to heightened confidentiality and routinely encompass a wide range of matters related to the Chicago Bears’ tenancy at Soldier Field.

* Related stories…

• Tribune: Chicago Bears stadium legislation drags amid vague hopes for a Chicago lakefront deal
• AP: Bears reiterate Chicago stadium options are ‘exhausted,’ focused on suburban Illinois and Indiana

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* At 11 am, Gov. JB Pritzker will deliver remarks at the Des Plaines River Bridge event. ​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 | Lawmakers frustrated over delay in distribution of after-school program funds: The budget lawmakers passed last year included $35 million for ISBE to distribute for after-school programs, with $17 million of that earmarked for programs operated directly by schools and $18 million reserved for programs operated by outside organizations. […] ISBE said its delay in awarding funds this year was due to two factors: The last-minute increase in the amount of money lawmakers approved for the year, and an unexpectedly large number of appeals the agency received in response to its tentative award decisions. In an email, an ISBE spokesperson said the agency requested only $25 million for after-school programs and was prepared to issue a “Notice of Funding Opportunity,” or NOFO — an invitation for organizations to apply for grants — as soon as the budget was approved.

* Aurora Beacon News | Phone scam caused Aurora to lose nearly $1.1 million from city bank accounts, officials say: Early findings of the investigation show that, on April 29, a city employee received a phone call from someone impersonating a bank representative, city officials said in the statement. “The caller used deceptive tactics to appear legitimate, establish trust, and create a false sense of urgency, ultimately prompting the employee to disclose sensitive account information,” the statement said. Aurora Mayor John Laesch called the incident a “very sophisticated cyber attack” when he spoke to The Beacon-News on Tuesday. When asked if disciplinary action had been brought against any employees because of what happened, he said that he couldn’t comment since the situation was still under investigation.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Capitol News Illinois | ‘We will be left out and left behind’: Senate GOP urges action on school choice bills: he demand follows a renewed wave of pressure for either Pritzker or the General Assembly to opt the state into the federal tax credit after New York recently became one of the latest states and the second Democratic-led state signaling its intent to do so. Senate Republican Leader John Curran, R-Downers Grove, said “time is of the essence” to opt into the program ahead of its Jan. 1, 2027 deadline. While any taxpayer throughout the country can take advantage of the tax credit, only students in states opted into the program can benefit from scholarships. According to Curran, delaying the decision means hindering the formation of scholarship granting organizations and losing willing taxpayers in Illinois, which would disadvantage the state in the competition for “free federal dollars.

* Capitol City Now | All these years later, AIDS still a Black ‘epidemic’: The overrepresentation of Blacks in the AIDS community, said Simmons, “has nothing to do with us or our DNA or our health makeup. It’s all about health care systems that prioritize profit over people. It’s all about cultural incompatibility in terms of who’s offering health care and the folks like us who feel comfortable seeking out the health care, let alone whether we have Medicaid or health insurance to be able to get us in the door.” Simmons, the first openly LGBTQ senator in Illinois, is carrying a bill to try to resolve the funding disparities.

* Center Square | House GOP pushes Pritzker for local control: Illinois House Republicans say Governor J.B. Pritzker’s housing proposals will give local control to state politicians, but the governor says decisions will still be made by local government units. The governor’s Building Up Illinois Developments plan consists of at least five bills aiming to address housing supply and affordability issues. State Rep. Jennifer Sanalitro, R-Hanover Park, said the plan would take zoning decisions away from local communities and move them to Springfield.

*** Chicago ***

* Tribune | Chicago Teachers Union political director running for school board president: In an interview with the Tribune, Domínguez said his focus as board president would be to insulate Chicago Public Schools from cuts and press state legislators for additional funding. Last week, the district unveiled school-level budgets with reduced teaching staff to close a $732 million deficit. “I’m not going to support balancing budgets through school closures or cuts to programs that students rely on,” Domínguez said. “My priority is simple: We protect our classrooms first, and we organize, organize, organize for the resources that our students are promised.”

* Willie Wilson creates an exploratory for Chicago mayor…

2027 NEWS:

Businessman Willie Wilson creates an exploratory committee in advance of a run for Chicago Mayor.

If 150,000 people write him a check, he’ll make the campaign official.

“We just need the commitment because last time we ran, people didn’t come out and vote.” pic.twitter.com/OUOATnzTJi

— Tahman Bradley (@tahmanbradley) May 21, 2026

* Sox Machine | Justin Ishbia’s path toward building a new White Sox ballpark: During a webinar presentation by the University of Illinois-Chicago Urban Transportation Center, Amtrak Director of Program Management Joe Shacter spoke out of school about plans Amtrak was preparing for the coming years. The thrust of the presentation was to highlight and draw excitement about the Chicago Hub Improvement Program (CHIP) progress in modernizing rail infrastructure. Instead, Shacter gave away Ishbia’s planned course in moving the Chicago White Sox to the South Loop.

* ABC Chicago | Chicago beaches open Friday as Mayor Johnson, officials outline summer safety plan: “We will also have additional resources In our business areas, like the beaches, the lakefront, the downtown, our business corridors throughout the entire summer,” CPD Superintendent Larry Snelling said. This weekend, CPD cancelled days to ensure officers have a presence across the city. Community violence intervention groups are also planning to have expanded hours in neighborhoods.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Tribune | Chicago Tribune strikes 11th-hour deal to buy Daily Herald, outbidding suburban suitor: It took several full-page ads, an 11th-hour bid and ostensibly a premium price, but Tribune Publishing has swooped in and struck a deal to buy the employee-owned Daily Herald suburban newspaper. The board of Paddock Publications, which operates the Daily Herald, sent an email to employees Thursday afternoon announcing that an asset purchase agreement has been signed, with a scheduled June 22 closing date. Terms of the sale were not disclosed, but the board said it would send out an information packet to Daily Herald employees in the next few days detailing the offer. The employee stockholders of the 150-year-old, formerly family-owned newspaper will then vote on whether to approve the offer, according to the Paddock email, which was obtained by the Tribune.

* Daily Herald | Why Arlington Heights Fire Department will start charging for repeated assist calls: The number of so-called lift assists — what fire department officials define as non-emergency service requests to move someone who hasn’t immediately suffered an injury or acute illness — has increased, and is directly affecting the department’s emergency operations, Fire Chief Lance Harris said. Call volume grew by 6% — from 483 lift assist requests in 2024 to 513 in 2025 — and numbers so far this year are on pace to be even higher, according to department statistics. One resident required lift assistance for 25 days in a row in February, and another called 30 times over several months, Harris said.

* Tribune | Elk Grove Village mayor defends data centers at packed community hearing: “All you hear is negative, negative, negative; tonight you’re going to hear facts, facts, facts,” Elk Grove Village Mayor Craig Johnson said. “A lot of this negative stuff comes from Facebook.” The village now has 20 data centers, occupying about 4.5 million square feet and all located within the Elk Grove Village Business Park, a 66-million-square-foot industrial campus on the village’s eastern edge near O’Hare Airport, he said. Several more are under construction or in the planning stages.

* Daily Herald | $175M cancer, neuroscience care facility proposed at Arlington Heights hospital: A $175 million expansion for cancer and neuroscience care has been proposed for Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights. The facility is planned for land between the existing hospital at 800 W. Central Road and Kirchoff Road, which is on the north side of the medical campus, according to documents filed with the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board by the hospital’s parent company, Endeavor Health.

* ABC Chicago | Plans in works to turn horse farm in unincorp. Crete into campus for those on road to sobriety: Leu has been sober for two years. On the verge of a new beginning, his transformation is a success story the 2nd Story Ranch hopes to replicate. “Our goal is to help people reach long-term sobriety, and work is just the major dimension of your life that you have to get through to continually be successful,” said Jim O’Connor, managing director of the Second Story Foundation. […] “I’m a little older; I can’t work as physically, as fast and hard as everyone else. But I’m still valuable, and I’m still here. I’m still clean. I’m still sober; I’m still alive,” Williams said.

*** Downstate ***

* BND | Swansea votes to scrap crime-free housing program, citing unused provisions: “The village already has tools to hold rental property and all property to an acceptable standard, has code enforcement working at a rate that has been unseen for years prior and already maintains property maintenance and zoning standards, nuisance violations, and police interventions for criminal matters,” he said. “It sounds bad that crime-free housing is being repealed, but we already do it,” said Police Chief Matthew Blomberg. “We just don’t do it underneath all the red tape that is listed in the 10-page legislation that was passed in 2018. So everything that it’s asking to do, we can do.”

* WGLT | Unit 5 parent sues over alleged harassment of a trans student at Chiddix Junior High: A Unit 5 parent is suing the school district for alleged discrimination of her child at Chiddix Junior High School in Normal. Angela Sutton claims her daughter was repeatedly harassed by other students because she is transgender. Court filings said Sutton raised concerns to administrators on multiple occasions about the harassment and was ignored. The suit alleges the district took no meaningful action after her child was physically attacked at school and that the harassment was preventable.

* WCIA | ‘There are no words’: Central IL racing community reacts to loss of Kyle Busch: Racing fans across Central Illinois are reacting after NASCAR’s winningest driver, Kyle Bush, suddenly passed away after a “severe illness.” The 41-year-old shaped a generation of fans all around the country. “He didn’t leave anything on the table. He raced every single lap like it was the last one,” Brian Rieck, the Coles County Speedway owner, said. Rieck has always watched Busch race, and now has memories of Busch’s young son, Brexton, racing at the Mattoon track. He got second place in a recent junior sprint race.

*** National ***

* NOTUS | How A Republican Amendment Destroyed Bipartisan Support for Women’s History Museum: The legislative push to establish a Smithsonian museum focused on women’s history had finally seemed to be gaining momentum — a rare bipartisan effort in a deeply polarized Congress. Then, Republican Rep. Mary Miller introduced an amendment in March that cost the bill all its Democratic support in Thursday’s House vote. Miller, from Illinois, added the amendment to the bill in the Committee on House Administration, denying the inclusion of transgender women in the museum and giving President Donald Trump the ability to choose an alternate location for the museum if he deems the chosen one unfit. The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Latino, which had moved in tandem with the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum since its authorization in 2020, was also left behind.

* Giz Modo | Trump Admin Takes Equity Stake in IBM and Other Quantum Computing Companies: On Thursday, the Department of Commerce announced that it was investing more than $2 billion in nine quantum computing companies. In turn, it’ll receive “a minority, non-controlling equity stake” in each. […] Shortly after, Trump’s commerce chief Howard Lutnick announced a series of investments in companies that mine critical rare earth elements. One of those companies was a three-year-old startup called Vulcan Elements. Trump Jr.’s venture capital firm, 1789 Capital, also happens to be an investor in Vulcan Elements. Friends in high places, it seems.