* ICYMI: Here are the Illinois data centers on track for more than $650M in tax credits. Capitol News Illinois…

- Illinois committed an estimated $666.6 million in tax credits to data center projects through 2025, according to an annual Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity report.
- The $666.6 million in total estimated tax credits through 2025 is lower than the $983.2 million DCEO reported through 2024 in a report released last summer.
- The latest report shows seven data centers inked deals in 2025, pledging to invest a combined $2.6 billion in Illinois to receive $159.9 million in tax benefits. This includes four sites in Elk Grove Village, including a new data center built by Oracle, and a controversial center built by T5 in Grayslake.

* Related stories…

• Labor Tribune: Legislature’s resistance to data centers, lack of progress on legislative priorities behind Illinois AFL-CIO’s decision to defer election endorsements
• WIFR: Incentive deal for proposed Rockford data center shows possible development timeline
• Reuters: Gas plants for US data centers to be major source of climate change-linked emissions, report says

* At 10 am, Gov. JB Pritzker will hold a ceremonial bill signing for legislation advancing equity and oversight in the cannabis industry. Click here to watch. Then, at 2:30 p.m., he’ll head to the Village of Lynwood’s Pre-4th of July Cookout to greet attendees and celebrate America’s 250th anniversary.

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* Subscribers know more. Tribune | Suburban Democratic Party chairs to pick Aurora-area Illinois Senate nominee behind closed doors : Democratic state Rep. Matt Hanson, who represents half the state Senate district in his current role, said Wednesday he had submitted his name for consideration, as did at least two other local Democrats. […] The weighted vote is split among the county party chairs of Kane, Kendall, DuPage and Will, putting a lot of sway into just a few largely unknown party insiders who are expected to move quickly.

* Subscribers know more. NBC Chicago | Illinois House speaker calls on State Rep. Harry Benton to resign: Welch says the IG’s report found “clear patterns of conduct by Representative Benton that are outrageous, unethical and unbecoming of a member of the Illinois House of Representatives, and that he had spoken to Benton to demand his resignation. “Today, I spoke directly with Representative Benton and called for his immediate resignation from the Illinois House of Representatives,” he said in a statement. “If he does not resign, we will initiate the process of expelling him from the House.”

* Sun-Times | Chicago FBI chief leaving unexpectedly, raising eyebrows amid feds’ ongoing credibility crisis: DePodesta led the agency’s Chicago Field Office for nearly two years, taking the helm in August 2024. He’s been with the FBI since 2002, and over the course of his career he’s worked investigations involving drugs, corruption, terrorism and foreign counterintelligence. He’s repeatedly touted the value of partnerships between federal, state and local law enforcement while serving as the FBI’s special agent in charge.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Sun-Times | Can Illinois’ newest state agency improve early childhood services? Officials hope so: State officials hope it will solve the challenges that families faced as they assessed their early learning options. With services spread across different agencies, some parents had to fill out duplicate forms. And it was difficult for families to get an overall picture of where quality programs existed because multiple entities were responsible for monitoring that. Ramos will be in charge of 550 staffers and shepherd a $4.4 billion budget approved by the state legislature for early childhood education and care. That includes 340 staff transferring from the state’s Department of Children and Family Services, the Department of Human Services and the State Board of Education.

*** Chicago ***

* Tribune | No ‘cakewalk’: Chicago school board president reflects on shift to elected governance: Harden, who was handpicked by Johnson, is typically more reserved in public meetings, but he did not mince words Tuesday before a packed audience at City Club of Chicago. He was joined by State Rep. Ann Williams, a Chicago Democrat who helped craft the legislation creating the elected school board. “There isn’t a blueprint for how you do this, and we’re going to mess up, but as long as we fail quickly and learn from it, then we’ll be better off,” Harden said.

* Tribune | Chicago police Superintendent Larry Snelling to retire after nearly 3 years leading department: Snelling, 57, ascended to the top of the Chicago Police Department in August 2023 after nearly three decades with the department, mostly as an instructor in the police academy. His tenure as superintendent was marked by a continuing decline in overall city gun violence, an increase in compliance with a federal consent decree, a global spotlight brought by the 2024 Democratic National Convention and the chaos that the department was foisted into during a federal immigration crackdown last year.

* Bloomberg | Chicago Taps Bank of America for Overdue Parking Debt Sale: Chicago has picked Bank of America Corp. to help sell debt it’s owed from items like overdue parking tickets, according to a city spokesperson. The third-largest US city is seeking to sell about $1 billion in outstanding debt as it tries to close a roughly $1.2 billion deficit this year.

* Block Club | Crime Is Down On The CTA As Ridership Increases, Agency Boss Says: But for the second time this year on Wednesday, it was City Council members — not CTA brass — who did not show up for a scheduled oversight meeting. The City Council’s Committee on Transportation and Public Way scheduled the quarterly subject matter hearing for 10:30 a.m. Wednesday. Seven of the committee’s 14 members needed to be present for the meeting to take place, but only six were.

* Block Club | South Siders Still Waiting For Tree Cleanup After June Storms, But City Departments Are ‘Overwhelmed’: Between June 10-25, the Department of Streets and Sanitation recorded about 30,771 tree-related requests submitted through 311, according to city data. Those requests ranged from cleaning up fallen tree debris to tree emergencies, which the department defines as trees blocking city streets. The 13th Ward, which includes neighborhoods on the Southwest Side, had the highest number of tree service cleanup requests with more than 1,700, according to city data. The South Side’s 21st Ward had the second-highest total with about 1,600 tree cleanup requests.

* WBEZ | Top aide to ex-Ald. Carrie Austin gets probation for role in home improvement kickbacks: The former top aide to one of Chicago’s longest-serving alderpeople has been sentenced to three years probation and a $20,000 fine for his role in a scheme in which the pair allegedly used their public office to attain granite countertops and other home improvements. The sentencing this week of Chester Wilson Jr., former chief of staff to then-Ald. Carrie Austin (34th), could be the closing chapter in an infamous, yearslong public corruption case in which U.S. District Judge John Kness previously ruled Austin, 77, was medically unfit for trial.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Tribune | Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle proposes new transit board members: Preckwinkle’s proposed CTA appointees are Tom Kotarac, a current member of the Regional Transportation Authority board, and Ann Kalayil, associate vice president of facilities and construction at Columbia College Chicago and the former bureau chief of asset management for the county.

* Lake County News-Sun | Waukegan D60 planning to cut spending by $11.5M this year: ‘There was no way we could continue the services we had’: Learning that cash reserves dropped $28.2 million, from $92.3 million to $64.2 million in the past year, during a May 13 budget workshop, board members asked Superintendent Theresa Plascencia and Associate Superintendent for Business and Financial Services Gwen Polk for a plan. When the board gathered for its second budget workshop on June 18, Plascencia and Polk explained plans to cut spending by $11.5 million for the fiscal year starting July 1.

* Tribune | With $225 million donation, Northwestern Medicine hopes to construct new cancer care facility in Orland Park: In all, the new four-story office building, along with a 484-car parking garage, would cost $275 million. The facility would be the latest entry into a race among Chicago area health systems to expand their cancer offerings to meet growing demand for the care – due to an aging population and advances that have led to people living longer after a diagnosis. The new facility would sit on the Northwestern Medicine Orland Park campus, which is already home to Northwestern’s St. George Cancer Institute, according to an application for the project filed with the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board. The project must gain approval from that board before it may move forward.

* Daily Herald | District 15 school board member steps down: Palatine Township Elementary District 15 board member Lisa Beth Szczupaj announced Tuesday she is stepping down after nine years, eight as board president. Szczupaj, who won reelection in 2025, said the decision did not come easily. “It is not driven by dissatisfaction, but rather by evolving professional responsibilities and increasing family commitments that require more of my time and attention,” she said.

*** Downstate ***

* KSDK | Pritzker tours Southern Illinois tornado damage, pledges recovery support: The visits came a day after Pritzker issued a state disaster proclamation for 11 Illinois counties affected by months of severe weather, including tornadoes, flooding, hail and straight-line winds. The proclamation makes additional state resources available to support response and recovery efforts and can help communities pursue state and federal disaster assistance. Still, Pritzker said federal assistance may be limited. “The recovery mode, making sure we can get resources from the Small Business Administration at the federal level. I doubt that we’re going to see FEMA because they really cut back at what they provide at the federal level,” Pritzker said.

* WGLT | State-issued disaster proclamation will not have immediate impact on McLean County: The proclamation was signed to “provide state relief to support those impacted by severe weather and storms in order to accelerate the recovery process,” Pritzker said in a press release. But to have an impact on Illinois and McLean County, the proclamation will need to be approved at the federal level, McLean County Emergency Management Agency Director Cathy Beck said. “Right now it doesn’t mean anything other than it’s going up the channels. It needs to go to federal and be approved at federal before there’s really any chance of assistance,” Beck said.

* WGLT | Farmer fined $250K after pesticide drift near Morton school: She filed the initial complaint with IDOA after she and other parents were notified by the school by email that high wind drifted the pesticides from the farm across the street to the school’s parking lot. Vandenberg said she supports an amendment to the Illinois Pesticide Act to better protect families and communities. Some Illinois lawmakers feel the same. Democratic state Rep. Laura Faver Dias, representing a suburb of Chicago, sponsored a bill to require farmers spraying pesticides near a school or park to send an email 72 hours in advance notifying when they would be applying the pesticides.

* WCIA | Surgery ‘temporarily’ paused at Central Illinois hospital due to ‘extreme heat’: On Wednesday, a Carle Health spokesperson confirmed with WCIA that the Champaign Ambulatory Surgery Center cooling system has been impacted by the extreme heat conditions. “Our priority is to create the safest surgical environment possible, and we will be temporarily halting procedures to assure safety. We are in the process of contacting impacted patients and will be working around the clock to resume care as soon as possible,” Carle Health said in a statement sent to WCIA.