* ICYMI: Bears stadium bill, Illinois budget in the balance as Springfield session winds down. Sun-Times…

- Illinois lawmakers were running the hurry-up offense Thursday as the clock winds down on their effort to advance property tax-incentive legislation intended to help the Chicago Bears build a new stadium in Arlington Heights and prevent them from moving to Indiana.
- “We don’t know how many megaprojects there are going to be, and we don’t know how much the recipient in the megaproject is going to pay, so because of that, we have no idea of what the amount of money available for property tax relief is,” Sen. Bill Cunningham said. “There’s three and a half days left, and I’m hopeful we’ll get to something.”
- Gov. JB Pritzker already has gotten a pair of key legislative wins through the uprights with regulations on auto and home insurance companies as well as the burgeoning artificial intelligence industry.

* Related stories…

• Center Square: Tourism spending, Springfield investment bill considered as budget deadline nears
• WCIA: Illinois budget talks continue as session nears end
• NBC Chicago: New Illinois laws regulating AI a focus for lawmakers in closing days of session

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

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* Tribune | Great waste in the Great Lakes: How plastic pollution is clogging our waters: The Chicago Tribune is exploring the plastics dilemma with a focus on the Great Lakes, the world’s largest source of fresh surface water. When confronted about their pollution, industry executives often have blamed consumers, using tactics borrowed from and shared with Big Tobacco, according to a Tribune review of thousands of government, scientific and internal industry documents. This coverage, supported by the Pulitzer Center’s StoryReach U.S. initiative, will delve into the spread of plastic waste in the Great Lakes, research into health hazards and possible solutions.

* STLPR | The story behind the proposed Gateway Arch National Park expansion into Illinois: But while many St. Louisans focused on the Arch itself, Martin became passionate about another piece of Saarinen’s proposal: the east bank. “He realized that the Arch was only part of Saarinen’s dream,” Hier said. Saarinen envisioned a park on the east side where people could get a good view of the Arch. When the Arch was completed in 1965, the vision for Illinois remained unfunded and unfinished.

* Press release | Crisis support program faces complete loss of funding: Turning Point Behavioral Health, a longstanding leader in community mental health services located in Skokie, Illinois, learned last week that the State of Illinois has denied its funding application for the organization’s acclaimed Living Room Program in Skokie. This decision means that the Living Room program located at 8324 Skokie Boulevard will close on June 30, 2026. The Living Room Program offers a safe, welcoming alternative to hospital emergency departments. Because it is grant-funded, adults in distress can access care at no cost, connecting with trained peers who have lived experience. In this setting, guests can openly share fears and challenges while working collaboratively toward problem-solving and recovery. […] Over the years, the program has demonstrated remarkable outcomes, achieving a 98% success rate in helping individuals stabilize without requiring emergency room intervention - reducing both personal trauma and healthcare costs while helping residents in their communities return to their families, jobs, and civic life as soon as possible.

*** Statehouse News ***

* STLPR | Illinois Lt. Gov. candidate Mitchell says he’s ready to step in if Pritzker leaves office: “If anything happens, yes, I’ll be ready,” Mitchell said on the latest episode of the “Politically Speaking” podcast. “But for the most part, what I’m really focused on is how I can be the best lieutenant governor I can be — help move the state forward, help our farmers, help our small businesses.” Mitchell said many of the same goals that first prompted him to run for the Illinois House of Representatives motivate him to run for lieutenant governor: lowering the cost of health care and raising wages.

* WGLT | Illinois lawmakers pass auto and home insurance regulations, but industry says move could backfire: Democratic state Rep. Sharon Chung, who represents Bloomington-Normal where State Farm and Country Financial are headquartered, voted against both bills. She said amendments to the bills did clarify the language about what is excessive and what information companies needed to submit to the Illinois Department of Insurance, which was one reason insurance companies opposed the bill. Chung said she is still concerned about retroactive refunds for excessive rates.

* Center Square | Republicans claim fake transparency in early budget, demand better: The four state Senate Republican budgeters, including Sen. Donald DeWitte, R-West Dundee, warned that a 3,178 page version of the budget previously introduced isn’t close to resembling what is likely to be the final product. “I would have to describe this year’s conversations as amicable and courteous,” DeWitte said “While this session has been interesting and different in many ways, I would say the budget process is rolling out similarly to previous years.”

*** Chicago ***

* Sun-Times | Adam Toledo’s family files new lawsuit against Chicago police officer who fatally shot the teenager: The case was filed a month after the family abruptly dropped another lawsuit filed in Cook County court, just days before opening arguments were set to begin. Now, the legal process will begin again in federal court, over five years after Toledo was killed. “Ultimately we’re seeking transparency, accountability and protection of all of the plaintiff’s constitutional rights,” the family’s lawyer, Adeena Weiss Ortiz, told the Sun-Times. At the previously scheduled trial, a Cook County judge granted the city’s request to split up the initial lawsuit, requiring the family’s attorney to first prove allegations around the shooting before shifting to its claims that the city was negligent in hiring Eric Stillman, the officer who shot Toledo.

* Sun-Times | Juliana Stratton joins calls for Chicago’s top federal prosecutor to step down amid ‘Broadview Six’ fallout: Stratton joins Democratic congressional candidate Daniel Biss in calling for Boutros’ resignation — a week after Boutros announced the dismissal of charges against the remaining members of the “Broadview Six” amid claims of prosecutorial misconduct before a grand jury. The legal damage already has spread to other cases in Chicago and beyond.

* Tribune | Chicago school board delays charter renewals after heated debate: In a contentious, late-night debate Thursday, 11 board members — all of whom are mayoral-appointed or aligned with the Chicago Teachers Union, a staunch charter critic — said they needed additional time and information from the district before voting. The intensified scrutiny comes after a string of charter operators have struggled financially over the past two years. “An accurate sense of finances has been eluding us, resulting in harm to students and cost to the district,” said appointed board member Karen Zaccor, District 4A on the North Side. “We are not here to be a rubber stamp.”

* Crain’s | Mag Mile office tower extends run of downtown distress: Golub and BlueFive are poised to join a long list of downtown office landlords losing their properties as weak post-pandemic demand, elevated interest rates and investors avoiding Chicago decimate their values. The deep pool of distress — largely driven by bad office loans — is not only hampering the city’s post-COVID recovery, but also causing broader headaches: As of April, the balance of delinquent commercial property loans held by commercial mortgage-backed securities investors nationwide totaled $30.9 billion, surpassing the pandemic peak of $30.5 billion set in July 2020, according to a report from ratings agency Moody’s.

* Crain’s | Trump Tower lands first retail tenant more than 17 years after opening: Mediterranean-inspired cafe Prasino will open a 2,800-square-foot location in a terrace-level space at 401 N. Wabash Ave. next summer. The 92-story condo and hotel building overlooking the Chicago River has 70,000 square feet of retail space that’s mostly sat empty since it was completed in 2009.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Elgin Courier News | Elgin council credit card spending to be reviewed after questions arise: All city-issued credit card expenditures made by Elgin City Council members over the last year will be examined after Councilman Anthony Ortiz raised questions about items he saw included in the city bills paid Wednesday night. While the expenses identified did not violate city rules, they may indicate a need for tighter guidelines, he said. Among them was $232 in Uber ridesharing costs and $100 for overweight luggage fees, both stemming from a conference trip.

* Sun-Times | Thousands have been jailed in Cook County for not paying child, spousal support: “Most of these people are incarcerated based on civil contempt, so they did not have access to a public defender,” Katz said. “That’s a problem in jurisdictions where courts have limited time and resources to dig in on whether the failure to pay is willful.” “There’s a real risk,” she said, “that people are being incarcerated for reasons beyond their control and in a manner that is counterproductive.”

* Crain’s | Highland Park rebuffs single-family home proposal for Fort Sheridan condo site: The development team, represented by Scott Borstein, a zoning attorney from the firm Neal & Leroy, and Jacob Dodds of Dirk Denison Architects were requesting Highland Park give zoning relief to permit less space between the planned houses and existing neighbors than the 1998 condo plan allowed. Commissioners noted at the meeting that if a nine-story condo tower were proposed today, it could be built by right, without zoning relief, if it met the original building envelope limits. The plan commission declined to grant the requests, and scheduled the development team to appear again at its June 16 meeting, presumably with changes to the proposal that reflects the board’s comments.

* Daily Southtown | Homer Glen fourth grader celebrates playground her fundraising helped create: To help accomplish this, Amelia and her family held Amelia’s Act of Kindness Yard Sale last May at Heritage Park. They also reached out to Homer Glen’s Ability Awareness Committee, which advocates for differently abled individuals, and worked their dunk tank and beer tent during last year’s HomerFest. A relative in Arizona promoted the fundraiser on his radio show, and donations poured in from California, Nevada and Arizona. All together, Amelia and her family contributed more than $11,000 toward playground equipment, which was celebrated Thursday at the school’s fourth grade farewell party.

* Daily Herald | Illinois grant helps preserve Elgin’s ‘Butter Capital’ legacy through digital archives: The transition from century-old paper to high-definition digital pages was made possible by a $1,823 grant awarded last year by the Illinois State Historical Records Advisory Board, overseen by Illinois Secretary of State and State Archivist Alexi Giannoulias. The project was part of a competitive statewide initiative to safeguard Illinois’ cultural heritage. “These original volumes are incredibly fragile, making them difficult to handle without risking damage,” said Angel Flores, director of information and digital services at Gail Borden Public Library. “Thanks to the support from this grant, we have successfully preserved this irreplaceable history. Now, anyone across the globe can explore these remarkable stories and data that shaped Elgin’s identity.”

*** Downstate ***

* WAND | Decatur Public Schools seeks new after-school vendor after budget cuts: Superintendent Rochelle Clark told the board that Champions is likely the best option for the district. The company would operate a state-subsidized program in schools at little cost to families, available to low-income families to cover the cost of childcare. “I do not want us to make a decision based on feelings. I want to give options. To me, Champions was the best option outside of what Decatur already has that families have an opportunity to choose from,” Clark said.

* Oak Park Journal | D97 board member Perez resigns after year in office: Perez’s resignation from the D97 school board was announced at the May 26 school board meeting but was effective May 18. Perez has not immediately responded to phone, text and email messages from Wednesday Journal asking why she resigned from the school board. Perez was quoted in a statement posted on the D97 website as saying that she was proud of her role in hiring incoming superintendent Terri Bresnahan.

* WGLT | How Bloomington might build a long straw to a river to get more water: One of the options under study by Bloomington would be for the city to build a pipeline to the Illinois River to supplement what it already pumps from its primary water sources, lakes Bloomington and Evergreen. Joliet and five other communities are currently building a 60-mile pipeline to the city of Chicago to buy city water taken from Lake Michigan for their towns. It’s a $1.5 billion project they hope will be finished by 2030.

* WGLT | State Police troopers receive Medal of Honor after gun battle with armed suspect in Lexington: “We are grateful for the decisive actions of these officers. They are commended for their bravery and heroism in arresting these two dangerous criminals,” Hartman said during the ceremony. ISP said the officers provided medical care, and the suspect survived his injuries. The other suspect, who had gone inside the gas station, was arrested without incident. State police later released body camera footage of the incident.

*** National ***

* AP | Top federal prosecutor in Chicago denies investigation into E. Jean Carroll, disputing media reports: The top federal prosecutor in Chicago denied Thursday evening that his office had opened an investigation into E. Jean Carroll, the longtime advice columnist who has said Donald Trump sexually assaulted her in a New York department store 30 years ago, hours after multiple news organizations reported that the Justice Department was investigating whether she had lied during the course of civil litigation against Trump. The Associated Press and other news organizations, citing anonymous sources, reported that the federal prosecutors’ office in Chicago had opened an investigation into Carroll examining possible perjury allegations.

* Crain’s | When it comes to mergers, make no little plans, United CEO says: After being spurned by American Airlines, Scott Kirby says he’s not interested in lesser deals, such as a play for JetBlue. “I thought for many years that only the kind of big transaction that we tried was the only one that made economic sense,” the United Airlines CEO told analysts yesterday at the Bernstein Annual Strategic Decisions conference. “And none of the other deals made sense. And I also knew, though, that the big transaction required a willing partner, which we clearly don’t have.