* ICYMI: An ex-staffer and the Illinois speaker: 2 differing responses to the Harry Benton harassment report. Tribune…

- House Speaker Chris Welch who, a year after his office first received the sexual harassment complaint, spent $1.4 million to help get Benton reelected. In a statement Welch said, “If there are gaps in our policies, our laws, or our workplace practices, then it is our duty to close them.”
- But there was only one real gap — inaction on the young former Benton staffer’s complaint of mistreatment by a lawmaker until three years had passed and two other women were harassed to establish the “pattern of misconduct” in order for Welch to take “decisive action.”
- While some Democrats said privately that Welch is hoping the release of the report will allow the issue to blow over, his lack of public availability is likely to only increase the scrutiny heading into a highly political election season that kicks off with Democrat Day at the Illinois State Fair later in August.

* Related stories…

• WGN: Report: Ex-Rep “violated state law” with harassment. Should Welch have acted sooner?
• ABC Chicago: Report details explosive sexual harassment findings against former Illinois lawmaker Harry Benton

* At 10 am, Gov. JB Pritzker will deliver remarks on helping Illinoisans benefit from the Back-to-School State Tax Holiday between August 6-17. Click here to watch.

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* Sun-Times | Federal judge tosses Trump administration lawsuit seeking full access to Illinois voter rolls: The decision from Illinois’ Central District court in Springfield marked the 19th ruling nationwide against lawsuits filed by the Trump DOJ over the past year in what it has called an effort to ensure election integrity. Trump has long falsely claimed rampant voter fraud led to his 2020 election loss to former President Joe Biden, though cases of fraud have proven exceedingly rare anywhere in the country.

* Tribune | CPS is counting on $150 million more from Springfield. Will it deliver?: “There’s no revenue currently for what they’ve described,” Gov. JB Pritzker told reporters Friday. Pritzker pointedly and repeatedly kept pressure on Welch, describing the additional state money as “revenue that’s expected that the speaker is planning to have a plan for, but we don’t know exactly how.”

* Canary Media | Illinois Solar for All is, at last, taking off: During the initiative’s last cycle, from June 2024 to May 2025, more projects were approved than in its first five years combined, according to the Illinois Power Agency, the state entity that oversees the program. Last year, the Illinois Commerce Commission ordered a funding boost of $20 million, and every last dollar went out the door ​“almost immediately,” the Illinois Power Agency said in its latest annual report.

*** Statewide ***

* Sun-Times | Many women with high-risk pregnancies can’t get abortions in their home states. Illinois welcomes them: Hoping to streamline that process after Roe fell, Gov. JB Pritzker’s administration helped launch CARLA. Three years later, the need has remained steady, said Fleisher, who co-directs the program with Laursen. CARLA receives about 40 referrals a week from around the country — around 1,500 referrals total over the past three years, including from Illinois. Women have come from more than 25 states.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Press release | Illinois Insurance Association Congratulates Kevin Martin on His Retirement After 32 Years of Outstanding Leadership: For more than 32 years, Kevin Martin has provided leadership and steadfast service as Executive Director of the Illinois Insurance Association. Throughout his tenure, Kevin has been a respected voice for the property and casualty insurance industry and a trusted partner to elected officials, policymakers, regulators and consumer advocates across Illinois. […] As Kevin retired at the end of July, the Illinois Insurance Association expresses its gratitude for his service, his professionalism and his dedication to the industry and the people of Illinois. The Illinois Insurance Association wishes Kevin the very best in retirement and thanks him for his years of service. “I have always tried to lead with honesty and integrity, and I’ve taken pride in making sure my word is as good as its bond,” said Martin. “It has been an honor to devote more than 30 years to serving the property and casualty insurance industry.”

* NPR Illinois | Why are so many of Illinois’ county juvenile detention centers non-compliant with state standards year after year?: In both cases, state audits first called out these dire conditions. Every year, reports from the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice, or IDJJ, marked them non-compliant with state standards and listed recommendations. But, every year, the problems persisted. “It’s strange the way the laws in Illinois [work],” said John Albright. He’s with the Department of Juvenile Justice and the person who prepares those annual reports. “We conduct these inspections of the detention centers, but we really don’t have any formal authority to enforce any improvement.”

* Crain’s | How the fate of Lake Michigan hinges on a political fight between Trump and Pritzker: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a stop-work order in late July on an infrastructure project on a dam in the Des Plaines River near Chicago. The project is seen as a critical step in preventing Asian carp from entering Lake Michigan, and it’s the second time construction has halted since it began last year. […] Earlier this year, the Trump administration shifted the management of the infrastructure project from the Army Corps’ office in Illinois to Detroit, and Trump said he wouldn’t fund the project unless Pritzker asked for it — though the money had already been set aside. Now, Pritzker said the administration is blocking the project — again.

* Daily Herald | ‘A great start’: Bill based on Mundelein High School grad’s idea will help survivors of sexual assault: The law, which goes into effect in January, aims to make it easier for survivors of sexual assault or abuse to report crimes. It requires law enforcement officers to inform survivors they have the right to request to be interviewed by an officer of a particular sex or gender. It also gives survivors the option of having a support person present during the interview.

*** Chicago ***

* Tribune | Two more Chicago immigration judges fired as court becomes epicenter of removal orders: According to the National Association of Immigration Judges, another judge was fired in June, continuing a wave of firings, resignations and buyouts from the Chicago bench as Trump, who has direct oversight of the country’s immigration courts, seeks to reshape them in the image of his hard-line agenda. Advocates, attorneys and ex-judges all say the changing lineup on the immigration bench, combined with changes to many of the basic elements that define the life of an immigration case, have all helped transform Chicago’s court into the national epicenter of removal orders: from issuing 35 a day on average during President Joe Biden’s final year in office to more than 125 a day this year.

* Tribune | Six overruled objections to Chicago School Board ballots petitioned for judicial review: The petitions for review, filed Friday, concern school board president candidate Hilario Dominguez, as well as Ed Bannon (District 1B), Norma Rios-Sierra (District 3A), Jason Dones (District 3B), Anusha Thotakura (District 6A) and Yesenia Lopez (District 7B). All but Lopez have been backed by the Chicago Teachers Union. The petitions center on a familiar issue: an election law provision known as the dual-circulation rule, which bars petition circulators from collecting signatures for candidates of more than one political party — or for both partisan and independent candidates — in the same election cycle. Since June, the provision has been among several alleged reasons candidates’ nominating papers have been challenged.

* WBEZ | Illinois Institute of Technology cuts 160 faculty and staff just before fall semester: Illinois Tech, which has its main campus in Bronzeville and a law center downtown, is not the only university with these struggles. The Trump administration has significantly cut federal funding for university research and tightened regulations on foreign students. The changes have discouraged and even disallowed international students from coming to the United States, which is hurting college finances. Foreign students typically pay higher tuition than domestic students.

* WTTW | CPD Brass Missed Deadline to Detail How Many Times Officers Used Force Against Chicagoans in 2025: Records: 2025 was the deadliest year for police violence since 2021, according to WTTW News’ analysis of data released by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability. Officers shot 22 people last year, killing nine, according to the analysis. […] Even though CPD had six months to publish its report detailing every time officers used force against a member of the public between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, it could only produce complete data through Sept. 30 by the June 30 deadline, according to the required reports based on data from CPD’s Tactical Review and Evaluation Division, which CPD refers to as TRED.

* Tribune | Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth question FAA flight caps at O’Hare: Durbin and Duckworth, both Democrats, questioned the decision to extend the flight caps in a letter sent Friday to Trump administration transportation officials. “The FAA’s notice of such extension references construction projects as the leading factor in this decision. Yet, through our offices’ discussions with the Chicago Department of Aviation … we understand that construction conditions will improve throughout this summer, with all taxiways and runways open by November 1, 2026,” the senators wrote in their letter, which was addressed to Trump Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford.

* Sun-Times | Got cash? With few properties on sale, Chicago homebuyers are having bidding wars: Chicago homebuyers and real estate agents said there’s bidding wars for the few homes hitting the market, especially in neighborhoods like Lake View, Lincoln Park and Northalsted. The battle among buyers has been great for home sellers as properties sell for up to hundreds of thousands of dollars over their asking price. And some buyers — to help sweeten the deal — have been waiving certain contingencies like inspections.

* Block Club | South Side Seniors Fight To Save Their ‘Magical’ Water Aerobics Class: Whether the class will return next year is still unknown, but Tostado encouraged class participants to reach out to the local park supervisor in support of it coming back. […] Participants, who range in age from 60 to 90, say the class was particularly helpful in their lives. Marie Gunn, 82, said the exercise kept her arthritis asymptomatic. Rose Hanley, a retired nurse from Hyde Park, said it allowed her to stay active after her heart surgery — and helped her meet people after retirement.

* CBS Chicago | Crowds brave a little mud for Chicago Italian Beef Fest in Jefferson Park: Slow-roasted beef was piled high in Chicago’s Jefferson Memorial Park on Sunday afternoon. The inaugural Chicago Italian Beef Fest has been under way at the park, at 4822 N. Long Ave. in the Jefferson Park neighborhood, since Friday. On Saturday, winds took down tents and merchandise amid heavy rain. But the weather was better on Sunday, and a little bit of mud did not stop people from eating and listening to live music.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Mother Jones | A For-Profit Hospital Slashed Costs. Then a Patient Froze to Death on Its Roof: A guard coaxed Adolphus back to bed and told the nurses that she would need a sitter, which hospitals employ to stay with patients at high risk of wandering off or getting hurt. But no one was available: A week earlier, the company that owns Vista Medical Center East in Waukegan, American Healthcare Systems, had furloughed 78 employees, including many of the hospital’s sitters, to cut costs. […] Staff knew there weren’t cameras in many parts of the building, and the ones that were there often didn’t work. Still, at 4:30a.m., they called off the search. They marked Adolphus as “discharged” without any evidence that she had left the hospital.

* Daily Herald | Forever toll increases? Some question rationale of tollway’s plan to raise rates every two years: But not Oswego’s Tom Braun. “Perhaps the most disturbing item in the tollway’s request is the ability to raise the tolls in the future … through an annual increase,” Braun testified at a recent hearing in Aurora. “The families of Illinois are already strained with the increased cost of living — the Illinois tollway feels it needs to do its part to make it worse,” he added. The new revenue is needed for a 15-year, $26.5 billion capital program, Driving Connections, tollway leaders contend.

* Daily Herald | Special interests have dropped more than $4 million on suburban congressional races: Banks, insurance companies and other financial institutions are digging deep for Chicago-area congressional candidates. They’ve backed U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez in the 3rd District, U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley in the 5th, U.S. Rep. Sean Casten in the 6th District, former U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean in the 8th, U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider in the 10th District and U.S. Rep. Bill Foster in the 11th, records show. The donations Casten, of Downers Grove, and Foster, of Naperville, have received from these PACs dramatically exceed what the rest of the suburban delegation has reported. Both serve on the House Financial Services Committee, which oversees the securities, insurance, banking and housing industries.

*** Downstate ***

* Tribune | An Indiana pastor became an Illinois oilman. Spills and pollution followed: Some 150 miles southwest at the far southern tip of the state, utility company Illinois American Water was told to be ready to operate an emergency intake on the Ohio River, downstream of the Wabash, as a last resort to prevent the contaminants from polluting the Mississippi River and, ultimately, the Gulf of Mexico. Over the next few days, a network of at least 30 divisions within local, state, tribal and national agencies would be warned about the spill, which, when it was finally halted a little over a mile from the Wabash, totaled 10,500 gallons of oil and another 42,000 gallons of brine.

* WGLT | Rivian to add second shift for R2 production in Normal by end of September: A second shift, expected by Sept. 30, will move Rivian closer to profitability. It allows Rivian to make more vehicles at more hours of the day, taking full advantage of a $1.5 billion investment in the R2 expansion in Normal. It’s unclear how many new employees Rivian will hire for that second shift, if any. In a departure from past practice, Rivian no longer discloses how many people work in Normal.

* WCIA | Mahomet School Board will discuss issuing $84M in bonds for new junior high building: The Mahomet-Seymour School Board is expected to vote Monday on whether or not to put a special referendum on the ballot in November. Then, the people would get to vote in favor — or or against — of the issuing of $84 million, with no tax increase in school building bonds to build a new junior high building.

* WMBD | Caterpillar announces $10 million investment in Illinois: The investment is part of a plan to grow the careers and community foundation the company has placed in the Illinois region. “We will work with the local communities where we operate and decide the best way to deploy the funds,” Pambianchi said. “It’ll go toward creation of education programs, curriculum, pipeline and efforts to bring students, educators and employers together to create a pipeline of talent, particularly focusing on manufacturing and careers.”

* NPR Illinois | Women’s baseball league celebrates past, future of sport on opening weekend: All games of the league’s first season will be played in Springfield, with the season concluding in early September. The league was established two years earlier when co-owner Keith Stein tapped Commissioner Justine Siegal to help found it. Siegal was the first woman to coach a Major League Baseball team when she was hired by the Oakland Athletics for a two-week stint in 2015. She said she helped found the league because there wasn’t a reason for it not to exist. “Women play baseball,” Siegal said. “Why wouldn’t we have a professional league, too?”

*** National ***

* WaPo | How rogue officers turned a nationwide camera network into a tool for stalking: In Wisconsin, a police officer allegedly used Flock to check whether his ex-girlfriend had gone to an abortion clinic, according to a police affidavit for a case set for trial this month. In Kansas, a police chief who tracked his ex through Flock sneaked up on her while she was intimate with another man, a state police certification body alleged, leading to his firing In Florida, a deputy speeding to stop a young actress he’d added to a watch list for a license-plate tool called Guardian nearly caused a head-on crash, according to a police report and video from his dashboard camera. The deputy was arrested in March, and his attorney declined to comment. […] While some of the searches resulted in officers’ firings, prosecutions and prison sentences, police departments in other cases allowed officers to continue using the systems even after receiving warnings that they were being misused.

* Politico | GOP Staffers Say the Party Has a Groyper Problem: Of specific concern are those labeled groypers — technically, followers of the self-described “White Identitarian” Gen Z streamer Nick Fuentes, though it’s also used as a catch-all term of abuse for young, anti-establishment right-wingers, akin to the usage of “neocon” in the other direction. Fuentes, who has millions of viewers and a deeply antisemitic and misogynistic worldview, gained celebrity among young conservatives as a pro-Trump internet personality and far-right campus agitator. He has since turned on the president for his handling of the Epstein files and his support of Israel and the war in Iran.

* AP | Trump overhaul could gut Head Start preschool standards, leaving states to set the rules: Head Start, established in the 1960s to help fight poverty, has long been considered by experts to be a gold standard early learning program. Its regulations, which stretch more than 100 pages, outline requirements on everything from child-to-teacher ratios and child health screenings to family engagement. The Republican administration would replace those regulations with around a dozen pages of rules, leaving most of the specifics up to state and local law, said the people familiar with the deliberations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss information that was not yet public and because they feared reprisal.

* New Yorker | The Myth of the Food Desert: Even as politicians from both parties have taken up the cause, though, some scholars have had second thoughts. Like many terms that migrate from academia to mainstream discourse, this one is slipperier than it seems. Food deserts are generally defined by how far residents must travel to reach a supermarket, which leads to debates about how “super” a market must be, and about which distances qualify, especially in dense cities like New York. The goal of identifying food deserts was to eliminate them, increasing residents’ retail options as a way of improving their diets. But there is little evidence to support the idea that bringing supermarkets to neighborhoods that lack them has a measurable effect on what residents eat.