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Appeals court upholds Illinois assault weapons ban
Thursday, Jul 9, 2026 - Posted by Rich Miller * The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals just upheld the state ban on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines…
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Isabel’s afternoon roundup
Thursday, Jul 9, 2026 - Posted by Isabel Miller * Senate Minority Leader John Curran…
* NOTUS…
* GOP Gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey calls Flock cameras a mass surveillance network…
* Capitol News Illinois | Pritzker signs legislation for energy bill transparency, utility discount program: The first of the two bills, House Bill 4456, expands a discount program for low-income electric and natural gas customers established under the state’s landmark energy legislation passed in 2021, the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, or CEJA. Under CEJA, the Illinois Commerce Commission, the regulatory body that oversees the state’s public utilities, was instructed to assess whether low-income discount programs would be appropriate for residential electric and natural gas customers. * WGN | ‘Failure is the only option’: Alders say Mayor Johnson isn’t doing his job with city budget: “Our goal was to build something stronger, more stable, and more honest for the long-term. But corporate-aligned members of the City Council chose a different direction when they adopted their so-called alternative budget. Throughout that process, we raised concerns about the assumptions in that plan,” Johnson said on Tuesday. The coalition of alders argues that Johnson is the reason the budget is not balanced. They accuse him of failing to implement their revenue proposals. “He accepted that budget,” Ald. Scott Waguespack told WGN Political Editor Tahman Bradley on Wednesday. * Tribune | Chicago Tribune seeks ‘serious sanctions’ against OpenAI as deception alleged in copyright lawsuit: Chicago Tribune, The New York Daily News, The New York Times and other media outlets are asking for “serious sanctions” against OpenAI, saying the company destroyed evidence and intentionally hid its ability to locate stolen news stories in training data and responses to ChatGPT users, according to a new motion filed Thursday. The motion, filed in Manhattan Federal Court as part of an ongoing copyright infringement suit, said Open AI expert John Vincent “Vinnie” Monaco “finally revealed” in an April deposition that the company had engaged in a campaign of deception throughout the lawsuit, including by severely misrepresenting technological capabilities and destroying millions of chat histories. * Sun-Times | Judge finds Chicago’s embattled U.S. attorney violated secrecy order in Tren de Aragua case: U.S. Magistrate Judge Laura McNally admonished U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros after ordering him to a highly unusual hearing Thursday. McNally didn’t impose any sanctions, but said Boutros’ decision to detail the case during a press conference alongside top Justice Department officials amounted to a “clear violation of the sealing order.” * Chalkbeat Chicago | Chicago’s Black Student Success Director Eugene Robinson Jr. talks about the initiative’s first year: Eugene Robinson Jr., Chicago Public Schools’ first director of Black student success, has faced a tricky balancing act over the past year. Community advocates called for decisive, visible progress on the district’s Black Student Success Plan, the five-year initiative they had championed for years and helped enshrine in state law. Meanwhile, the Trump administration argued the plan discriminates against non-Black students and withheld federal funding over it — a standoff that’s now playing out in the courts. * Crain’s | AI firms’ office demand seen spreading to Chicago: While those places remain key markets for the artificial intelligence industry, office demand is expected to spread to other parts of the country, VTS said. Seattle, Chicago and Washington are cities that are already showing signs of AI growth. “We will 100% see spillover,” said Ryan Masiello, chief strategy officer of VTS. AI tenants have helped drive a recovery in the US office market, easing the pain for landlords who’d been saddled with large vacancies after the pandemic cratered demand for space. San Francisco was especially hard-hit. * Tribune | Chicken coup? Family flap over control of famous Harold’s Chicken Shack brand lands in court: Six months after the death of Harold’s Chicken Shack CEO Kristen Pierce-Sherrod, the question remains: Who owns the iconic Chicago restaurant brand? Pierce-Sherrod’s five adult children claim it’s their birthright, pointing to a mysterious, still-contested “will” that, they say, makes clear their mother’s final wishes. “This is our brand, our everything — our mom worked for many, many years to make sure that her father’s legacy thrives,” Pierce-Sherrod’s daughter Kasee Gill recently told the Tribune. * Block Club | Warehouse Planned For Avondale’s Western Avenue Approved Despite Neighbor Pushback: Although neighbors and the 35th Ward office continue to press for traffic-safety improvements at the nearby intersection of Western Avenue and George Street, the development was permitted to move forward because the site is already zoned for industrial use and did not require a zoning change or City Council approval. City records show the Department of Planning and Development released a zoning hold on June 25, after approving the project’s zoning and landscape reviews. The release cleared a remaining administrative step before the Department of Buildings issued the permit July 1. * Sun-Times | UChicago Press workers vote to unionize: University of Chicago Press Workers Guild members have voted overwhelmingly to unionize, making it the latest in a wave of Chicago cultural institutions to organize. UCP Workers Guild announced Wednesday that 89% of participating voters favored union representation. The guild has 134 members, making it the largest unit in the Chicago News Guild. * Daily Southtown | Will County panel rejects hydro-excavation plan by single vote; County Board to vote next week: Homer Glen Mayor Christina Neitzke-Troike said another piece of property along 159th Street would be better suited for the truck company’s use because it was away from homes and closer to the village’s future wastewater treatment plant, a more industrial use. Badger’s attorney Cass Wennlund said the asking price for the property the mayor suggested was too high and the land wasn’t suitable for the company’s purposes. * Lake County News-Sun | Deerfield solar array promises big savings: ‘A major accomplishment’: Construction for the array first broke ground in October. A village news release celebrated the 574.6-kilowatt, ground-mounted array as a “monumental step” in the village’s sustainability goals, which will also provide long-term tax savings. According to Mayor Daniel Shapiro, about 70% of the roughly $2 million project, built by Veregy, was covered by state, federal and utility incentives, leaving Deerfield to cover about $640,000. * Pioneer Press | Winnetka advances plans to ban short-term rentals for less than 60 days: Month-to-month extensions of rentals would still be allowed, however, so long as it satisfies the minimum 60-day rental period requirement. Community Development Director Scott Mangum told Pioneer Press short-term rentals have always been prohibited in the village by virtue of their lack of inclusion in Winnetka’s zoning code. “The code’s sort of silent on it, so it’s not allowed because it’s silent, but with that we don’t have any definitions for how long the short-term rental [can be],” Mangum said. * PJ Star | Amid scrutiny in Illinois, Powerton discusses remedies for groundwater contaminants: Midwest Generation LLC held public presentations to discuss concerns about unsafe groundwater at the Powerton Generating Station. “Safety is paramount, and it’s the first thing we concentrate on every day at Powerton,” plant manager Todd Mundorf said Tuesday during a presentation at the Avanti’s Dome in Pekin. “We have a very good safety culture that we improve each and every day.” Joyce Blumenshine, conservation co-chair with the Heart of Illinois Sierra Club, said past groundwater monitoring at Powerton has shown unsafe levels of heavy metals from unlined coal ash ponds at the site that threaten nearby drinking water and waterways. And there are still concerns about toxins from coal plants going into the air and water. * WSIL | Cairo bridge shutdown turns 20-minute trips into 90-minute detours: he U.S. 51 Bridge crossing the Ohio River between Illinois and Kentucky is closed, forcing drivers into lengthy detours. The U.S. 51 bridge closure has turned a normally busy intersection into an unusually quiet spot, except for the occasional vehicle arriving only to turn around. Truck drivers have been caught off guard by the unexpected closures. Larry Kirby, a truck driver from Missouri, said the closure has transformed his routine 30-minute commute into an hour-and-a-half journey just to start his workday. Kirby’s first stop to pickup inventory from a business is located on the other side of the bridge in Wickliffe, Kentucky, before he heads to his destination in South Carolina. * Downballot | The Downballot releases presidential results for every new House district, sponsored by Grassroots Analytics: In all, 10 states—which include the three largest—cover 181 districts, though 36 were left unaltered. The 145 districts that did change amount to exactly one-third of the seats in the entire U.S. House of Representatives. […] In all, Republicans have targeted 16 seats by making them redder, while Democrats have done the same for just five seats, and the court ruling in Utah adds a sixth. The presidential results for these districts, along with their predecessors, are shown below, demonstrating just how much each of these districts has changed politically.
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Governor Pritzker, Fight For Us.
Thursday, Jul 9, 2026 - Posted by Advertising Department [The following is a paid advertisement.] Working families face rising costs and medical debt, while hospital systems continue to profit by exploiting the 340B program - making billions, while patients are paying the price. Leaders in Kentucky, Virginia and California recognize that a program meant to help vulnerable patients shouldn’t become a profit stream for billion-dollar hospital systems and their business partners. Governor JB Pritzker has the opportunity to lead the way. Illinois deserves better — veto 340B Profit-Grab (HB 2371).
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State school funding is not keeping up, but CPS is still paying the price for its pandemic mistakes
Thursday, Jul 9, 2026 - Posted by Rich Miller * It looks like the state’s progress has stalled out on its equity based funding level goals. From Capitol News Illinois…  The chart shows the state hit a high of 327 schools at 90 percent adequacy in 2024, and then dropped to 313 in 2026. That’s not a huge drop, but it’s most definitely not an increase. One reason is that the state’s annual $300 million payments have not kept up with inflation. $300 million in July of 2017, when the program started would be $410.7 million today. It would be more interesting to see how, exactly, we went from 226 schools at 90 percent adequacy in 2022 to 327 in 2024. CNI…
Illinois was supposed to reach 90 percent adequacy by Fiscal Year 2027, which is the current fiscal year. The problem is the annual “ramp” of $300 million was not enough to accomplish that and nobody really pushed to change it. * Moving along to property taxes…
The tax rate dropped by 10 percent. Something, but not much. Again, inflation contributed to this not only with the state EBF money, but also the annual $50 million designated for property tax relief, which has been paused at least a couple of time. $50 million in July of 2017 would be $68.5 million today. * OK, let’s switch up a bit. This is from a recent Chicago Public Schools report…
According to the report, the district “has more than $9 billion of existing long-term debt that requires $900-plus million in annual debt service payments.” Instead of using the COVID money to pay down its debt, which the state did for itself, CPS put that money into increasing its permanent spending base. And this is from my newspaper column published almost exactly two years ago…
Discuss.
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News coverage roundup: Rep. Ammons indicted on fraud and obstruction charges
Thursday, Jul 9, 2026 - Posted by Isabel Miller * Click here and here for yesterday’s coverage. Sun-Times…
* Tribune…
* More…
* Center Square | Illinois lawmaker, husband indicted over alleged kickback scheme: The indictment also reads that both the Carol and Aaron Ammons made false claims of not knowing there was a conflict of interest with one organization using a state grant to pay her daughter. The pair also allegedly advised a potential witness to communicate with them through code words about ongoing FBI investigations into their conduct. Arron Ammons was alleged to have engaged in conduct toward another person to mislead them and hinder their communication with law enforcement by knowingly directing the potential witness to “muddy the waters” when speaking to the FBI, according to the indictment. * WCIA | Carol, Aaron Ammons indicted for wire fraud, obstruction of justice: The counts against Carol allege that she used donations and contributions to her political support committee, Friends of Carol Ammons, for personal use. They also allege Carol used state grants to fund organizations her daughter Titianna was involved in and to pay her a salary, which is an “impermissible conflict of interest” under Illinois law. * WAND | State Rep. Carol Ammons, Aaron Ammons indicted on federal fraud, obstruction charges: “People are going to do what people are going to do, but if there’s enough holes they’re going to continue to do things like this,” said House GOP Leader Tony McCombie (R-Savanna). “I can tell you as the leader of the House Republicans, if this [were] my caucus, this would be handled immediately.”
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Isabel’s morning briefing
Thursday, Jul 9, 2026 - Posted by Isabel Miller * ICYMI: Illinois ‘reviewing’ DOJ’s threat to prosecute state election officials over noncitizen voting. Capitol News Illinois…
- The letter, dated Tuesday, July 7, was addressed to ISBE Executive Director Bernadette Matthews. It was similar to letters reportedly sent to top election officials in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. - In addition to Tuesday’s letter threatening prosecution, DOJ is also suing Illinois and dozens of other states for access to the state’s complete, unredacted voter registration list, including sensitive information such as voters’ dates of birth, driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers. The federal government has not been successful in any of those lawsuits thus far. * Gov. JB Pritzker has no public events scheduled today. * Illinois Times | Housing advocates celebrate legislative wins: Bob Palmer, policy director for the statewide housing coalition Housing Action Illinois, said some of the major victories came on the funding front. For one, the General Assembly rejected the governor’s proposed cut of $10 million to the HOME Illinois Program, which aims to prevent and end homelessness in the state. Lawmakers were facing a tight fiscal year, meaning any new funding would be an uphill battle. Even so, David Zoltan, a Chicago-based housing activist, said not increasing funding amid rising inflation is “effectively a cut” for a crucial HOME Illinois program. * Capitol News Illinois | As Illinois enters 10th year under Evidence-Based Funding model, equity remains an elusive goal: But as Illinois enters the 10th year of financing schools under the Evidence-Based Funding model — a formula adopted in 2017 that was supposed to improve both the adequacy and equity of the state’s school finance system — wide disparities still exist in the property tax system that funds more than half the cost of K-12 education. An analysis of school finance data by Capitol News Illinois covering the nine-year period from 2017 to 2025 shows homeowners in the lowest-wealth districts pay tax rates that are double those in the wealthiest districts. The findings are largely consistent with those of other researchers who follow school finance issues nationally. * Chalkbeat Chicago | Johnson-aligned Chicago school board members continue push for more funding from Springfield: Schools had to approve their proposed budgets in early June, but the district has yet to release full details around what might be cut. The Chicago Teachers Union joined Mayor Brandon Johnson-aligned board members at Wednesday’s press conference outside the Board of Education headquarters where they called for state lawmakers to again consider raising education funding through progressive tax policies that target wealthy individuals or corporations. Khari Humphries, the city’s deputy mayor of education and youth, also joined elected board member Jitu Brown and appointed members Michilia Blaise, Karen Zaccor, Norma Rios-Sierra, Emma Lozano, Angel Velez, Cydney Wallace, and Debby Pope. * Crain’s | Illinois ACA health insurance prices set to rise by double digits again in 2027: In Illinois, insurers are seeking rate hikes between 9.2% and nearly 15%. Less than 10% of Americans get their health coverage from the ACA marketplace, or state-run marketplaces like Get Covered Illinois, but the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker points out that factors driving premiums like growth in hospital or pharmaceutical costs are similar across all private plans. * Center Square’s Sean Reed…
* Sun-Times | Cash App parent company agrees to $45 million settlement with Illinois, 44 other states: Illinois will get $1.1 million of a $45 million, 45-state settlement with money transfer app Cash App’s parent company, which was accused of misleading customers about the app’s security. Block Inc. will face $55 million in civil penalties and also have to pay customers nationwide somewhere from $75 million to $120 million as part of the settlement, which includes the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. * WGLT | Illinois’ U.S. Senate Republican nominee Don Tracy aims to slow cost-of-living increases: Tracy said the election centers around affordability, and sees that as an advantage for the Republican Party in Illinois. “Democrats … and Republican politicos seem to agree this is a cost-of-living election,” Tracy said in the interview with Capitol News Illinois. “[I] believe that to be a winning message for Republicans, because everything Democrats do increases the cost of living.” “I’m not sure there’s a tax that they didn’t want to increase and that increases the cost of living for all working families,” Tracy said, referring to Gov. JB Pritzker’s administration. * Illinois Times | Data center details: Questions remain about effects on nearby animals, soil temperature: Sangamon County’s average residential electricity bill has increased by more than 52% in the past five years when comparing seasonal data, according to a database constructed by Heatmap News and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. That’s nearly 15% more than Cook County, and almost 10% more than the state, experienced over the same time frame. Despite utility costs soaring over the past five years, grid operators keep approving more data centers. Utility providers, such as Rural Electric Convenience Cooperative, claim the projects will lower rates for others even in light of the larger amount of power needed to run them. * Shaw Local | Dixon man accused of threatening Lee County official over data center listing pleads guilty to petty offense: A Dixon man charged with felonies accusing him of threatening a Lee County official pleaded guilty to a petty offense on Wednesday and agreed to complete a court-ordered program to get the four felony charges dismissed. […] The charges accused him of threatening Lee County Industrial Development Association Executive Director Tom Demmer. Those charges were amended on Wednesday to also include one count of obstruction of justice, a Class 4 felony, and one count of barratry, a petty offense, court records show. Under Illinois law, barratry is when a person “wickedly and willfully excites and stirs up actions or quarrels…to promote strife and contention.” * Texas Tribune | Planned Texas data centers could emit more greenhouse gases than many countries: Including Stargate’s Abilene campus, at least 15 gas plants tied to data centers are planned for Texas, according to Cleanview. Available permits reviewed by Floodlight show that nine of them combined could emit more than 130 million tons of greenhouse gases every year. That’s the equivalent annual emissions of 35 coal-fired power plants, according to an Environmental Protection Agency calculator. While actual emissions are usually lower than estimates, the impact on the climate could still be enormous: If completed, these nine plants have the potential to emit more annual greenhouse gases than most countries do — even if emissions end up being half of what’s permitted. * Sun-Times | CTA crime has dropped for last 6 consecutive months amid security surge, agency boss says: The Red Line has seen a 47% decline in all crime, and a 76% drop in violent crime through June compared to last year, Leerhsen said. “The perception of safety on CTA is affected by every single incident we have,” Leerhsen said. “But given the importance of our system to the vitality and strength of our city, it is incredibly important to me that we still stop and note this progress, which is real and is continuing to sustain itself.” * Block Club Chicago | Chicago Police Torture Survivors Break Ground On Monument: ‘More Work To Do’: The memorial — a blend of public art, education, reflection and movement-building guaranteed within a 2015 reparations package — broke ground Wednesday at 5520 S. King Drive in Washington Park, with plans for its completion by early next year. “This memorial is about more than remembering the past,” said Gregory Banks, a member of the Chicago Torture Justice Memorials Foundation and a survivor of beatings, suffocation and racial epithets inflicted on him by officers who extracted his confession in 1983. * Tribune | Chicago FBI boss forced into early retirement, skips lunch with US Attorney Boutros: Shortly after Douglas DePodesta became head of the FBI’s storied Chicago bureau, he told the Tribune he would love to call it a career in his adopted hometown when he hit the mandatory retirement age in a few years. “I think I have a lot left in my tank,” DePodesta said in May 2025. Instead, DePodesta’s impressive FBI career came to an abrupt end this week. He was forced to retire early due to a falling out with bosses in the Justice Department, apparently over issues with his fealty to the Trump administration’s political agenda, or lack thereof. * Crain’s | Judge enforces distance rule for cannabis shops in blow to planned South Loop store: Attorneys for Blounts & Moore argued the location 470 feet away from the existing dispensary violates a provision of the state’s Cannabis Regulation & Tax Act that says a new dispensary can’t be within 1,500 feet of a pre-existing one. The ruling for Blounts & Moore appears to be the first time a court has interpreted the setback rule, casting doubt on future efforts to open cannabis shops in the Loop. * Tribune | Chicago White Sox blanked for the 4th time this season in a 5-0 loss to the Boston Red Sox: Despite the loss, the Sox (47-44) remain alone in first place in the American League Central standings. They are one game ahead of the Cleveland Guardians (47-46), who lost 6-5 to the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday. The Twins (46-47) are two games back. * Daily Southtown | Bolingbrook, Homer Glen mayors urge residents to fight Illinois American Water rate hike: “Water is not a luxury,” Bolingbrook Mayor Mary Alexander-Basta said Wednesday. “It is not a vacation. It is not a new television or a shopping trip that can be postponed. Water, electricity and natural gas are essential services that every family needs to live with dignity, safety and health.” Alexander-Basta, along with state legislators, said Bolingbrook residents pay an average of $220 a month for their water bills. Senior citizens on fixed incomes and households already cash-strapped by rising costs in food, insurance and housing, cannot afford more rate hikes, she said. * Tribune | Prime Healthcare seeks to permanently close inpatient pediatric unit at St. Joseph hospital in Joliet: St. Joseph, which was bought by Prime last year, said in April 2025 that it was temporarily suspending pediatric inpatient care. At the time, the move drew criticism from nurses union the Illinois Nurses Association, which represents nurses at the hospital. Now, the hospital has filed an application with the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board to shutter the 13-bed unit for good upon board approval or by the end of the year. The board will vote on the request at a future meeting. * Daily Herald | Plan for massive industrial park approved in Vernon Hills: Including an existing warehouse, the 70-acre Vernon hills Industrial Park could total about 1.2 million square feet in five buildings, following approvals Tuesday by the village board. Property owner JCA Hayes LLC has been pursuing the project at 100-230 S. Milwaukee Ave., in the Continental Executive Parke, since late 2024. The approved plan for the site once scouted by Amazon calls for three speculative buildings, use of an existing warehouse and a huge build-to-suit facility for hand2mind, a sister company of tariff-busting Learning Resources * Aurora Beacon-News | Aurora residents still struggling with storm damage: Residents across Aurora, and particularly in the 4th and 6th Wards, experienced basement flooding, tree damage and power outages Friday and Saturday morning, with varying degrees of damage, said Ald. Jonathan Nunez, 4th Ward. Nunez said some basements flooded twice, including his own, and residents struggled to keep the water out. “It’s disheartening when you spend several hours, you know, trying to save whatever you may have,” he said. “A lot of us had to throw away a ton of different items that you just can’t recover.” * Capitol City Now | Springfield Mayor supports Flock contract extension: The company has been accused in the past of violating state law regarding data, which led to other cities ending their contracts with Flock. “It’s our job at the city to police our cameras and our contract with Flock, so that’s what we will do and have been doing,” said Buscher. “I can’t speak on what was going on in other communities. But, for the City of Springfield, we will make sure our data is secure.” * Capitol News Illinois | IDOC worker pleads guilty to padding the payroll of her correctional officer husband: An Illinois Department of Corrections payroll worker admitted in federal court Wednesday that she falsified her correctional officer husband’s overtime and holiday pay, defrauding the state of nearly $125,000. […] According to a stipulation of facts she signed, Tudor doctored her husband’s payroll records for about two and a half years, from July 1, 2022, through Dec. 30, 2024, while he worked as a correctional officer at the Murphysboro Life Skills Re-Entry Center, a satellite facility of the Pinckneyville Correctional Center. Under the plea agreement, the parties calculated an advisory federal sentencing guideline range of 10 to 16 months in prison and a fine of $5,500 to $55,000, but the judge is not bound by that recommendation. * The Daily Egyptian | SIU board expected to give Lane $65K bonus Thursday: The Southern Illinois University Board of Trustees is set to determine Thursday if Carbondale Chancellor Austin Lane will receive his annual bonus — an additional $65,000 on top of his annual base salary of $378,000. Whether he gets the bonus depends on a series of goals, which for this past academic year included keeping the hiring chill in place and increasing online enrollment. Many of Lane’s goals are focused on improving the university’s enrollment and graduation rate and controlling school spending. A document obtained by the Daily Egyptian through a Freedom of Information Act request outlines 10 goals for the 2025-2026 academic year. * Post-Tribune | Indiana Gov. Mike Braun says Hammond stadium for Chicago Bears is ‘in the red zone’: “I’m excited by the Bears. I think we’re almost there, but we’re not there yet,” [Northwest Indiana, Family Express President and CEO Gus Olympidis] said. “It is always a little risky to overplay something before it happens because if it doesn’t happen, you have some explaining to do,” he said. * Wired | Self-Driving Cars Are Interfering With First Responders. Feds Aren’t Happy:Morrison wrote that NHTSA has documented a “clear pattern” of interference over the last few months, including incidents in which the vehicles drove into active emergency scenes, blocked ambulances and firefighters, and didn’t respond in situations involving flashing lights, fire, and traffic cones.
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Good morning!
Thursday, Jul 9, 2026 - Posted by Isabel Miller
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Selected press releases (Live updates)
Thursday, Jul 9, 2026 - Posted by Isabel Miller
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