* ICYMI: Accountability Commission hears shocking testimony about ICE
. Capitol News Illinois…

- The commission used the meeting to focus on four key domains: health, mental health and social well-being; education and youth stability; public safety and economic vitality; and household stability.
- The meeting heard nearly four hours of testimony from experts, advocates and private citizens who testified about the short and long-term consequences of federal immigration enforcement.
- Health care providers and educators testified that immigrant communities began to avoid hospitals, doctors’ offices and schools out of fear of immigration enforcement activities targeting those institutions.

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*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* Capitol City Now | Mautino ready for retirement: Mautino was surprised at how much he didn’t know. “When I came over after being the chairman of the (Legislative) Audit Commission for twelve years, I thought, I know everything about this job, and realized that I had a learning curve. It required me to listen to the experts in the office and learn from them. I thought I knew everything, but in the course of the last ten years, they have taught me well and continue to teach me to this day.” Succeeding Mautino as the state’s inside watchdog will be Chris Meister, who has been leading the Illinois Finance Authority. Meister’s nomination is pending approval in the General Assembly.

* Tribune | Illinois Democrats are trying desperately to tie their opponents to ICE, including in one key state House race: “Some Washington politicians want to expand ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) in our community,” a mailer paid for by state Rep. Jaime Andrade’s campaign reads. “Miguel Alvelo-Rivera is standing with them,” it says in English. “Miguel Alvelo-Rivera supports them,” it says in Spanish. […] And the accusation in the mailer hinges in large part on Alvelo-Rivera’s ties to U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez, one of the most outspoken critics of ICE in Congress, who has called for the agency’s abolition and voted against legislation that increased immigration enforcement funding. Ramirez is the only member of Congress publicly backing Alvelo-Rivera.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Daily Herald | Bears bill passes Indiana House; Pritzker says competing legislation in Springfield is ‘in a good place’: “Lots of conversation and agreement on everything really, as far as I can tell, with regard to a bill that provides what (the Bears) call tax certainty,” Pritzker said during an event Tuesday morning on Chicago’s South Side. “They proposed a few changes over the last couple of weeks,” he added. “There’s been really broad agreement about those. And the leaders of Arlington Heights and the surrounding communities all seem to be on board as well.

* Windy City Times | Comptroller candidate Holly Kim brings LGBTQ+ allyship to statewide race: While serving as a village trustee, she followed the Illinois marriage equality debate and supported Republican State Rep. Ed Sullivan, Jr. after he cast one of the votes that helped pass the legislation. Kim pulled a Republican primary ballot to support Sullivan’s reelection bid amid backlash he faced locally—a decision she’s been criticized for in the Illinois comptroller’s race, but one she said she’d make again.

* WAND | Illinoisans have recycled 60,000 gallons of paint in first 2 months of stewardship program: PaintCare leaders told reporters in Springfield Tuesday that the program is also helping bring more customers into retail stores at a time when many people are choosing to buy products online. The American Coatings Association estimates the new Illinois program will manage nearly 1 million gallons of leftover paint in its first year. “The remarkable turnout and enthusiastic support from local leaders today confirmed what we already knew — Illinois was more than ready for this program,” said American Coatings Association CEO Michael Johnson. “The collection numbers speak for themselves and serve as a strong indicator that the program is working, scaling effectively and meeting a significant need in communities statewide.”

*** Chicago ***

* Tribune | Chicago on the hook for paying back millions in late fees collected for parking, city sticker violations: judge: After years of litigation, Circuit Court Judge William B. Sullivan ordered the city to pay drivers back for the overcharges in an order Feb. 19. The city said it’s considering an appeal. The lawsuit, originally filed in 2018, alleged Chicago had violated Illinois law by charging drivers more than $250 for certain violations, typically by adding on late penalties that sometimes doubled the price of the original ticket.

* Sun-Times | Loyola University starts demolition on Rogers Park flatiron building: The university purchased the site in 2024 for $3 million, according to the student newspaper Loyola Phoenix. It was issued a demolition permit on Jan. 5, according to city records. A spokesperson for Loyola wouldn’t confirm the building’s purchase price, and pointed to a Feb. 11 newsletter that included a statement by Associate Vice President Jennifer Clark. Clark acknowledged the demolition permit “has raised questions” about the site’s future. She wrote the location is part of a future Chicago Transit Authority project, “meaning Loyola will not be the sole decision-maker regarding its long-term use. But, we are committed to stewarding the site responsibly and thoughtfully.”

* Block Club | Double Door Owners Abandon Plan To Reopen In Uptown: Co-owner Sean Mulroney is moving on from the years-long plan to reopen the iconic Wicker Park music venue on Wilson Avenue. In the meantime, he’s partnering with Gallery Cabaret owner Mike Strandberg at the legendary Bucktown dive bar.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Tribune | Cook County tech company says it will not talk to Treasurer Maria Pappas due to ‘abuse’: In a nine-page letter emailed to Pappas and shared with the county board and President Toni Preckwinkle on Monday, H. Lynn Moore, Jr., the president and CEO of Tyler Technologies, described “just a sampling of the abuse you have hurled at Tyler’s personnel.” […] In letters back and forth over the last year, Tyler officials said Pappas has focused more on criticism than finding solutions to get the project done. Moore described Pappas’ actions in the latest letter as “sabotage” and said she’d never taken accountability for missteps within her office.

* WBEZ | Cook County contractor: Pappas abused, bullied executives in profane ‘tirades’: On Tuesday, Pappas offered no apologies, saying she was angered that tens of thousands of taxpayers across the county are owed refunds that have been delayed. “Of course, I went crazy, because if you were Maria Pappas and you had $189 million worth of checks that you could not get out, you would be upset too,” she said in an interview with WBEZ. “The whole world knows that Maria Pappas is an attack dog.

* Legal Newsline | Foxx to face questions about murder conviction review ‘investigations’: On Feb. 20, federal Magistrate Judge Young B. Kim granted a motion by lawyers representing the city of Chicago and a controversial former police detective requiring Foxx to sit for a deposition. The decision comes as part of the lawsuits filed against the city by Madeline Mendoza and Marilyn Mulero, as they seek potentially millions of dollars from the city over their alleged wrongful murder convictions. Both of the women’s lawsuits were enabled after they secured so-called “certificates of innocence” from a Cook County court, largely because the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, then under Foxx’s leadership, conspicuously chose not to object to the women’s move to vacate their convictions and end their imprisonment.

* Shaw Local | ‘Are we going to sell our souls’ former alderman asks Yorkville City Council while denouncing data centers: As city officials have sought to bring multiple data centers to Yorkville , several residents opposed to the warehouses “literally in (their) backyards” have been asking why Yorkville. The quick answer is the city’s proximity to the ComEd transmission station line along the Eldamain Corridor makes the area attractive to those developers.

* Shaw Local | Joliet City Council member Moreno say he has settled almost $22,000 in election fines for $800: Joliet City Council member Juan Moreno said he has settled almost $22,000 in fines with an $800 settlement with the state election board. A settlement would solve one problem for Moreno, who still faces a challenge to his legitimacy to hold office from the Will County State’s Attorney’s Office.

* Daily Herald | Schaumburg, Motorola settle lawsuit over number of on-site office workers after pandemic: Schaumburg and Motorola Solutions settled a lawsuit over the village’s withholding of public financial assistance due to a dispute about the expected level of the company’s on-site employees after the COVID-19 pandemic. The original lawsuit and its resolution were similar to those between Zurich North America and Schaumburg on the same redeveloping area once fully occupied by a Motorola corporate campus, Assistant Village Attorney Howard Jablecki said. The settlement resulted in Schaumburg immediately paying Motorola Solutions just under $6.1 million in withheld reimbursement funds from the area’s tax increment financing district. Meanwhile, the maximum amount the company can receive over the life of the district was lowered from $27 million to $23.5 million.

* Aurora Beacon-News | St. Charles accepting applications from residents for grants of up to $20,000 for urgent home repairs: The city’s Urgent Need Home Rehab Grant Program was launched in partnership with Habitat for Humanity of Northern Fox Valley, and is meant to help income-qualified homeowners in St. Charles with urgent home repairs, according to a recent press release from the city. The program was approved by the St. Charles City Council in December, the press release noted, and provides grants of up to $20,000 for urgent repair needs, such as work on roofs, windows and mechanical systems. The program is being funded by the St. Charles Housing Trust Fund and is administered in partnership with Habitat for Humanity of Northern Fox Valley, according to the city.

*** Downstate ***

* WGLT | Ransomware cyberattack hits City of Bloomington payment vendor: vendor for the City of Bloomington suffered a ransomware cyberattack early this month. That criminal action disrupted about 1,500 credit and debit card payments to the city, it said in a statement. BridgePay Network Solutions has been down nationwide since Feb. 5, but the city said the company “has received an Attestation of Compliance from its security auditor and is preparing for an orderly restoration of services.

* BND | Former Fairview Heights officer challenges Watson for St. Clair County sheriff: Ellis said he applied for a job with the Belleville Police Department at one point, but he wasn’t hired, and that later led to inquiries by state and federal investigators. The BND had published a series of stories revealing the existence of a secret Belleville police patrol whose job was to stop, question and ticket Black drivers coming into town. It also was discovered that the city hadn’t hired any Black employees in its 175-year history. Fallout from the series led to a federal lawsuit and an agreement by the city to hire more Black employees and send its police officers to racial-sensitivity training to avoid further litigation. Ellis said investigators showed him a copy of his application, on which someone had written the word “black” in the upper right-hand corner. The city offered him a job in 1997.

* WCIA | Livingston Co. public transit program expands to Ford Co.: WCIA’s partners at the Ford County Chronicle reported that Futures Connections is now offering “door-to-door” transportation services in Ford County. Service will be on weekdays between 7 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. with no set routes. Rides must be scheduled at least 24 to 48 hours in advance for non-medical related trips and 72 hours in advance for medical trips. Roundtrip rides are available for “per-day” fees of $2 for in-county rides and $5 for out-of-county rides.

* WCIA | Champaign County Board endorses ‘RIFL Act’: The Champaign County Board endorsed a state bill that would mean tighter regulations for gun manufacturers in Illinois. The RIFL Act — or Responsibility in Firearms Legislation — would require gun manufacturers to pay into a program to keep their license. The amount a specific company pays would equal the public health costs caused by their guns in violent crimes. The money collected by the program would go to a fund to pay for medical bills of victims.

* WGLT | Normal Police investigating second Chiddix teacher after alleged inappropriate conduct with a student: WGLT confirmed DCFS issued a report earlier this year which found credible evidence that sexual exploitation and sexual molestation had occurred. The report does not confirm whether physical contact took place. DCFS does not prove allegations beyond a reasonable doubt. A spokesperson for Unit 5 confirmed Knapp is currently on paid leave. The district did not answer questions about the previous paid leave or the DCFS investigation.

* WCIA | U of I plot hiding in plain sight is celebrated for 150 years of research: It’s the longest running agricultural experiment in North America and this year, the university is celebrating the Morrow Plots’ impact on farming in the area. Adam Davis, the head of the soils sciences department, said research techniques may have changed, but its purpose of finding higher yields has remained. “They established these plots to ask questions,” he said. “How could we maintain soil productivity over the long term.”

*** National ***

* The Guardian | Fears of polio resurgence as US vaccine adviser questions need for childhood shots: With preventable infectious diseases surging and a top US vaccines adviser saying all vaccine recommendations may be reconsidered, experts are bracing for more polio cases while survivors say the medical system is not ready for polio. “We don’t have a healthcare infrastructure to take care of a polio outbreak,” said Grace Rossow, an operating-room communications coordinator in Illinois, who has long-term health issues following a case of polio as an infant.

* NYT | Yondr Pouches, a Solution to School Phone Bans, Are No Match for Teens: That morning, his school had distributed Yondr pouches, fabric smartphone pockets that schools around the country are using to enforce bell-to-bell cellphone bans. Some four hours later at Van Nuys, students had figured out that whacking the pouches against tables and railings at a particular angle would cause them to spring open, freeing the smartphones trapped inside. Soon, Joel’s classmates had figured out that a strong magnet available on Amazon could unlock the pouches, too, he said. “A lot of kids picked rocks up off the ground, flat rectangular rocks, and just slipped them in,” said Joel, 18, a senior. “You can’t tell if it’s a phone or not.”

* AP | Supreme Court rules the Postal Service can’t be sued, even when mail is intentionally not delivered: By a 5-4 vote, the justices ruled against a Texas landlord, Lebene Konan, who alleges her mail was intentionally withheld for two years. Konan, who is Black, claims racial prejudice played a role in postal employees’ actions. Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for a majority of five conservative justices, said the federal law that generally shields the Postal Service from lawsuits over missing, lost and undelivered mail includes “the intentional nondelivery of mail.”