* ICYMI: Trump administration sues Illinois over state’s attempts to regulate prediction markets. Illinois Answers Project…

- The lawsuit cites cease-and-desist letters that the Illinois Gaming Board had sent over the past year to prediction markets such as Crypto.com, Kalshi, Polymarket and Robinhood, claiming that they offered “illegal gambling” and violated state law.
- “The Trump Administration is carrying water for companies driving well-documented and lucrative insider-trading schemes,” a Pritzker spokesperson said in a statement.
- The Commodities Futures Trading Commission argues in its lawsuit that the prediction markets are not offering gambling but rather commodities similar to grain futures. As such they are “designated contract markets” that fall under the authority of the CFTC.

* Related stories…

• Reuters: US sues Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois to stop regulation of prediction markets
• NPR: Trump administration sues three states over attempts to regulate prediction markets
• PBS: Prediction markets, pardons spark questions over who’s profiting from Trump’s presidency

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*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* Tribune | Mayor Brandon Johnson’s agenda under fire in Springfield: “What you find from lawmakers in Illinois is not being anti-Mayor Brandon Johnson’s agenda as much as we want to incentivize businesses to do business in Illinois,” said that critic, state Rep. Curtis Tarver, an assistant majority leader in the House and a Democrat from Chicago’s South Side. “Some of these policies have very strong unintended consequences.” Attempts to prevent future head taxes and phase out subminimum wages for tipped workers are both backed by business groups. Kennedy Bartley, Johnson’s chief of external affairs, didn’t speculate on what was driving the opposition, but denied any suggestion city lobbyists aren’t communicating with lawmakers. Her team is in “regular and deep” conversations with leadership in Springfield to ensure the city isn’t “cut off at the knees” in its attempts to raise progressive revenue and improve conditions for working people, Bartley said.

* Legal Newsline | IL biometrics privacy reforms apply to past cases, too: Appeals court: On April 1, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals sided with railroad Union Pacific and other businesses on the hotly debated question, with potentially hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars collectively at stake. In the ruling, the Seventh Circuit judges said they believed the reforms were “procedural” in nature, and not “substantive.” Therefore, under prior, consistent rulings from the Illinois Supreme Court, the appeals court said, the reforms must also be considered “remedial” in nature, and therefore, retroactive, even if lawmakers didn’t include language specifically saying so.

* Sun-Times | Illinois conversion therapy ban intact after Supreme Court ruling, though advocates wary of future challenges: Last week the Supreme Court ruled against a law banning “conversion therapy” for LGBTQ+ kids in Colorado, one of 23 states — including Illinois — that ban the discredited practice. Illinois’ ban remains intact, but could be open to future challenges in the wake of the decision.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Capitol News Illinois | 7 years after legalization, final cannabis licensing lawsuit goes to court: Well-Being argues that the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, which operated the lotteries, improperly allowed roughly 450 ineligible entries into a lottery of 901 applicants for dispensary licenses in the Chicago region. That, Well-Being argues, nearly doubled the size of the pool and reduced others’ chances of winning. Well-Being alleges the entries should have been flagged as ineligible because corporate dispensaries that already had a footprint in Illinois’ medical cannabis market had their fingerprints on applications for social equity dispensary licenses.

* WCIA | Pritzker pushes Congress for year-round E15 gasoline: On Thursday, he sent a letter to Congress asking for the measure; he addressed the letter to four members of the Committee on Environment & Public Works. In the letter, the governor stated Illinois and Midwest farmers are under increasing pressure from global instability. “From the devastating effects of tariffs to the manufactured war with Iran, Illinois farmers are being forced to shoulder rising costs while losing export markets to foreign competitors,” Pritzker wrote.

* Sun-Times | Madigan, ex-ComEd defendants assembled a high-powered legal team for appeals court arguments this month: Amy Mason Saharia will argue on Madigan’s behalf. Her past clients include ex-Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes and former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Former Illinois Solicitor General Joel Bertocchi will argue for McClain. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Julia Schwartz and Irene Hickey Sullivan will ask the appeals court to reject arguments from the three former powerbrokers, who were convicted in two separate trials. Madigan is serving a 7 ½ year prison sentence, and McClain and Pramaggiore are each serving two-year sentences. Madigan and Pramaggiore sought to avoid prison while their appeals play out. The law required them to show they’d raised a substantial question of law or fact likely to result in reversal or a new trial; a sentence of no prison time; or so little prison time it could be served before the appeal is done.

* Sun-Times | Illinois Accountability Commission requests testimony from Trump officials responsible for Midway Blitz: The letters, sent Friday by the commission’s chair, Judge Rubén Castillo, were to: Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff for policy; White House “Border Czar” Tom Homan; former Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem; Gregory Bovino, former “commander at large” of the U.S. Border Patrol, and others, according to Gov. JB Pritzker’s office. […] “The people of Illinois deserve to know how this operation was planned, authorized, and carried out — and to identify who was responsible for the decisions that led to its implementation in our state,” Castillo said. “The commission’s work seeks to determine who authorized these actions, what safeguards were in place to protect Illinois residents, and what accountability mechanisms exist when federal operations harm communities.”

* Center Square | Universities warn state funding delays are wasting millions in taxpayer investment: “NIU has not received $34 million of its allocated $52.9 million of capital renewal funds from fiscal year ’20, and this has caused the university to assume prolonged risks associated with aging infrastructure,” said Freeman. The backlog of maintenance requests at state universities and community colleges has grown to a projected $10.8 billion this year, according to the Illinois Board of Higher Education’s 2027 budget recommendation.

* 25News Now | Progress reported in reducing statewide teacher vacancies: ISBE data showed that statewide teacher vacancies fell by 24%, from 2.76% last year to 2.1% this year. As of Oct. 1, 2025, there were 2,943 unfilled positions, a decrease from 3,864 unfilled spots in 2024. Leaders said this is due in part to a $120 million investment into the Teacher Vacancy Grant. The grant has gone to 170 Illinois school districts in need for the last three years, supporting locally driven strategies to recruit and retain educators.

*** Chicago ***

* Unraveled | “Urgency was left in the dust long ago”—few answers from Chicago police superintendent on department collaboration with ICE: Snelling also addressed an unconfirmed ICE arrest that reportedly occurred at the Cook County Domestic Violence Courthouse on Thursday. The Illinois Court Access, Safety and Participation Act, which Governor JB Pritzker signed last October, bars civil arrests (e.g. immigration arrests without a judicial warrant) against people attending state court proceedings. When a reporter for Univision asked if Chicago police should respond to ICE agents apparently violating this state law to conduct an arrest at the domestic violence courthouse, Snelling incorrectly said such a law didn’t exist. “There’s no law like that,” Snelling wrongly stated. “There’s no law that says that immigration enforcement can’t happen around particular locations. That’s not a law.” The Department of Justice has sued Chicago and Illinois over the new law, but the law remains in effect. Both Snelling and other reporters in the press scrum seemed to confuse the new law with the Illinois TRUST Act, which Snelling correctly noted does not compel Illinois law enforcement to interfere with immigration arrests.

* Sun-Times | Mayor Johnson’s administration ‘reflexively hostile to oversight,’ outgoing Chicago inspector general says: “This administration has shown itself to be reflexively hostile to oversight. This has come largely through the Law Department … interfering with OIG’s access to city premises, withholding records from OIG, declining to provide records even though they were, in fact, publicly available, declining to implement recommendations from OIG,” Witzburg told the Chicago Sun-Times. “Reasonable minds can differ on facts, and even on the law. But we are entitled to, and we ought to see, this course of conduct out of City Hall for what it is — a pattern of things,” she said.

* Sun-Times | Top Johnson aide says there will be ‘consequences’ for CHA power struggle over new CEO: Cristina Pacione-Zayas, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s Chief of Staff, says the CHA board will have to answer for hiring a new CEO after what the administration claims was an illegal process that violated the Illinois Open Meetings Act.

* Fox Chicago | CHA Board Chair speaks out against attempted firing: ‘I remain operating chair’: Mayor Brandon Johnson says Matthew Brewer is no longer the operating chairman of the $1.4 billion Chicago Housing Authority. Instead, the mayor says he has installed an ally, Commissioner Jawanza Malone. But Brewer spoke out Thursday, saying, “not so fast.” “I remain the Operating Chair of the board with the authority to lead this organization day to day,” Brewer said in a sit-down interview with FOX Chicago.

* Tribune | Chicago Public Schools second-in-command departs, as officials call for more Latino leadership: On Wednesday, a coalition of school board members, elected officials and community groups urged King in a letter to name “qualified Latino leaders” to her executive team. “This is not a question of talent, but a reflection of a system that has consistently overlooked highly qualified Latino educators and leaders,” said the group’s letter, dated Wednesday. “The result is a clear and persistent lack of Latino leadership at every level.” The letter was signed by eight of 10 elected board members. It was not signed by members appointed by Mayor Brandon Johnson, or elected members Jitu Brown and Ebony DeBerry, who are closely aligned with the mayor.

* Tribune | Coach houses now legal in much of Chicago as Mayor Brandon Johnson touts housing efforts: After a bitter City Council fight last year, 34 aldermen opted to allow additional dwelling unit construction in parts of their ward zoned for single-family homes. Another 16 aldermen did not. The piecemeal approval means homeowners in many parts of the city — particularly the Far Northwest Side, Southwest Side and South Side — still cannot legally build the units. Aldermen opposed to the change argued the added units would mean too much density and take away their say in what construction gets approved. They fiercely fought a plan backed by Mayor Brandon Johnson to legalize the units across the entire city, forcing Johnson to compromise by allowing individual wards to be cut out of the legalization.

* Sun-Times | City owed millions from its own employees, who aren’t being forced to pay up: Hampton was in prison when all 34 citations were issued in his name, likely for his namesake son, who was fatally stabbed three years ago. That’s difficult to confirm since the city redacted the birth dates and addresses from those tickets. “No, that is not me,” Hampton said. “That must be somebody else. I didn’t get out until ‘23, so that’s not me. I don’t know how they got that confused with me. All you got to do is just check with the Federal Bureau of Prisons. I went in 2003 and didn’t get out until 2023. I don’t need no problems with my job with the city, or none of that, because they got some wrong information.”

* Fox Chicago | Crews digging in Streeterville uncover artifacts tied to Chicago’s origins:
“It’s just this old piece of wood,” Roberts said. “Except for the fact that it’s curved. You wouldn’t think it was anything but lumber, but the curve tells you it’s a boat at the bottom of a boat.” They also found vintage construction nails, medicine bottles, and stylish boots — artifacts from the 1800s — all buried beneath the street.

* Block Club | Skyway Lanes, Chicago’s Last Black-Owned Bowling Alley, Closing After ‘Surge’ Of Support Fades: Brunetta Hill-Corley sounded the alarm that her late father’s bowling alley was in trouble in March 2025, leading to an outpouring of community support and over $25,000 in donations for overdue repairs. But Skyway Lanes, a Far South Side staple since the 1950s that was the city’s last Black-owned bowling alley, will now close for good April 26. By then, the historic alley at 9915 S. Torrence Ave. will have hung on for over a year after the last-ditch campaign to save it — long enough for neighbors to have thrown one more birthday party.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* WBEZ | Property taxes, driven by TIF districts and school funds, outpace inflation and wages: county treasurer study: The county’s property tax levy has increased from $6.8 billion in 1995 to $19.2 billion in 2024, or twice the rate of inflation, according to Pappas. If it had remained on track with inflation, per Treasurer’s office calculations, it would be closer to $10.1 billion. Pappas blames loopholes in the state Property Tax Extension Limitation Law, or PTELL, which was designed to limit tax increases to the rate of inflation or 5%, whichever is less. But “local officials took advantage of that law’s loopholes to enact tax increases that substantially exceeded that limit,” and 94 of the county’s 135 municipalities aren’t bound by the law, the report says.

* Aurora Beacon-News | In wake of new Aurora rules, Sugar Grove eyes changes to its regulations on data center developments: At a meeting of the Sugar Grove Village Board on Tuesday, Village President Sue Stillwell, who brought the topic of modifying Sugar Grove’s rules on data centers forward, expressed concerns about the village’s existing regulations and indicated an interest in putting a moratorium on data center development projects for the time being, similar to what Aurora recently did. In Sugar Grove, a possible data center is under contract and could be built in the next three to four years. It would be part of the controversial mixed-use development that’s planned for 760 acres at Interstate 88 and Route 47, a portion of land that was annexed into the village in 2024.

* Tribune | Committee divided on advancing Will County solar farm following contentious hearings: The board’s committee deadlocked 3-3 on a vote ​Thursday to recommend approval of a special-use permit for Earthrise Energy’s proposed development, dubbed Pride of the Prairie. Republicans Judy Ogalla, whose district covers the proposed project area, and Raquel Mitchell were joined by Democrat Dawn Bullock in voting against the project that would cover 6,100 acres of farmland in Wilton, Green Garden and Manhattan townships. Democrats Sherry Newquist, whose district also covers a portion of the project, Herb Brooks​ and Destinee Ortiz voted in support. Meanwhile, the same committee voted 4-2, with Ogalla and Mitchell voting no, to recommend approval of Earthrise’s 2,400-acre Plum Valley solar farm project in Crete Township.

* Block Club | West Suburban Hospital Owner Offers No Clear Plan For Reopening: But Prasad didn’t provide any new ideas for how he might reopen the hospital, instead repeating his previous statements that it would send out a new round of bills to try to collect on unpaid debts and raise enough money to restart full operations. By the end of the event, state Rep. La Shawn K. Ford indicated he wasn’t confident Prasad would be able to reopen West Suburban. He said Prasad needs to gain the trust of the people the hospital is supposed to serve.

* ABC Chicago | Illinois denies request for Harvey to be declared ‘financially distressed’ city: Harvey city attorney Keri-Lyn Krafthefer confirmed the denial to ABC7 Friday, saying it was not a surprise to the city and state law should be changed to make it easier for cities to request help from the state. Municipalities can’t declare bankruptcy in Illinois. As of October 2025, Harvey has a 52% property tax collection rate, bringing in less money than it spends, even though it has the third highest property tax rates in Cook County. Also, 35% of state revenue & restricted funds gets diverted by the State Comptroller to fund the fire pension.

* WGN | PTO treasurer for suburban elementary school accused of stealing over $13,000: “Through her alleged actions, Ms. Piasecki abused the trust placed in her by the Goodrich Elementary School PTO for her own personal gain,” DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said. “This money, approximately $13,000, was intended to be used for the benefit of the children of the school, not for Ms. Piasecki’s personal use, as is alleged in this case. If the allegations in this case are proven true, Ms. Piasecki treated the PTO as her own personal fundraiser and in doing so, lined her own pockets while depriving the Goodrich Elementary School PTO of much-needed funding.”

* Aurora Beacon-News | Aurora Mayor John Laesch to host State of the City Address on April 16: The event is set to be held from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Aurora University’s Crimi Auditorium. Official details about Laesch’s planned speech are sparse, with the city’s webpage simply noting that it will be “spotlighting how Aurora is growing, together!” However, the webpage also said that Aurora is “moving beyond traditional governance and exemplifying a people-centered strategic model.” Laesch isn’t focused on maintaining the status quo, city officials wrote on the webpage, but is instead focused on making the city “fiscally resilient, environmentally conscious, and deeply rooted in community voice, supported by an economy which serves its people.”

* Daily Southtown | Funding dwindles for home-delivered meals in Palos, Orland, Lemont and Worth, advocates say: Becker said government funding for the home-delivered meals program was reduced by 7% in 2026, and Pathlights staff anticipate additional decreases next year. The program is funded through a combination of 67% state funding and 18% federal funding, according to Becker. That state funding comes from a line item titled “home-delivered meals” in the Illinois Department of Aging budget. Gov. JB Pritzker proposed in February to maintain that funding at $63 million for this coming budget year, but advocates are pushing for more, Becker said.

*** Downstate ***

* Tribune | As Trump administration rolls back LGBTQ+ protections, some flock to Peoria for a reprieve: Over the past six years, Peoria real estate agents Mike Van Cleve and Jacob Rendel have seen an influx of transplants to Peoria, they said. They credited much of the early interest in relocating to Angelica Ostaszewski, a Peoria transplant who, in 2020, started posting videos to her TikTok channel encouraging people to move to the city. Her posts garnered her thousands of followers, widespread media coverage — and relocations. When Ostaszewski spoke to the Tribune in 2022, she listed Peoria’s job availability, affordability and welcoming environment as primary draws.

* Tribune | ‘We were just special’: Eclectic group of Illinois players says emotional goodbye after memorable season ends: The emotions were evident in the locker room afterward. Coach Brad Underwood, a onetime community college coach who just carried his “dream job” program to college basketball’s biggest stage, was in tears. He was far from the only one. Asked about this season, Humrichous — a senior who grew up 50 miles from Lucas Oil Stadium — was puffy-eyed as he described this team. “It was a joy,” Humrichous said, seemingly at a loss for words. “It was a joy.”

* WGLT | Rivian union organizers frustrated with UAW’s slow play at Normal plant: The workers say that work has now stalled at Rivian. That’s made organizing difficult for the dwindling members of the voluntary organizing committee [VOC] at Rivian, said Renee Leonard, a VOC member who works in a manufacturing role at Rivian. “When I start to lose my faith in the UAW, what am I supposed to tell my peers?” said Leonard. “As one of the leaders, when I have no answers, people stop trusting me.” The UAW did not respond to multiple requests for comments for this story. The Normal plant used to be a UAW shop, back when Mitsubishi built vehicles here.

* WGLT | March rains lift Bloomington’s water supply out of drought conditions: The combined lake deficit was 6.4 feet on Thursday morning. That’s a big improvement from the 10-foot deficit that triggered City Manager Jeff Jurgens to issue a water conservation proclamation in February urging residents and businesses to cut back on use. The region had been experiencing moderate and severe drought conditions throughout the fall and winter. The city revoked the proclamation on March 20 and said additional recent rain “allows us to move out of the Moderate Drought phase.

* WCIA | University of Illinois-Springfield faculty go on strike: On Friday, marching their way down the picket line and chanting through campus, were dozens of University of Illinois-Springfield faculty, fed up with their administration. “We wanted to be in our classrooms. We wanted to be in our offices with our students, working with them on research, doing service for this institution to keep it running. But we’re out here,” said Dathan Powell, President of the UISUF.

* WIFR | Historic Ogle County cemetery provides new life for Illinois’ prairies: “This is a relic of the original tall grass prairie,” Branhagen says of the land. Once a slice of Illinois’ 22 million acres of prairie, this 4-acre plot marks one of the final resting places for the state’s amber waves. Between 1820 and today, the “Prairie State” transformed 99% of its namesake into farmland or urban development. The Conservation Fund reports about less than 2,600 acres of “high-quality remnants remain.”

* WSIL | 51st Annual Cardboard Boat Regatta Ready to Make Waves at SIU: The 51st Annual Great Cardboard Boat Regatta is set to dock once again on Saturday, April 18 at Campus Lake, bringing waves of excitement to Southern Illinois University Carbondale. […] Registration begins at 10 a.m., with races officially launching at 1 p.m. Teams will paddle their handmade vessels in hopes of staying afloat long enough to claim victory, or at least avoid a soggy surrender. For more than five decades, the regatta has remained a cornerstone campus tradition, drawing students, families, and spectators eager to see which boats will sail smoothly and which will… well… go down with the ship.

*** National ***

* The Guardian | US health department investigates 13 states that require insurance plans to cover abortion: While HHS did not list the states, the Associated Press reported that the 13 states with the coverage requirements are California, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington. Mikie Sherrill, New Jersey’s governor, criticized the investigations in a statement on Thursday, calling the investigation “nothing but a fishing expedition wasting taxpayers’ money”.

* Post-Tribune | Experts: Trump’s mail-in ballot executive order unconstitutional: On Tuesday, Trump signed an executive order to create a nationwide list of verified eligible voters and to restrict mail-in voting, a move that swiftly drew legal threats from state Democratic officials ahead of this year’s midterm elections. The order, which voting law experts say violates the Constitution by attempting to seize states’ power to run elections, is the latest salvo from Trump to interfere with the way Americans vote based on his false allegations of voter fraud. The president has repeatedly lied about the outcome of the 2020 presidential campaign and the integrity of state-run elections, asserting that he won “three times” — even though Joe Bident was certified as the 2020 election winner — and launching accusations of voter fraud that numerous audits, investigations and courts have debunked.

* Gateway Journalism | How Data Journalism Is Creating A Public Record Of Trump’s Immigration Crackdown: Last year, ProPublica documented cases of U.S. citizens wrongfully arrested or detained by ICE through court filings and public records. The Guardian tracked everyone who died in ICE detention in 2025. The Minneapolis Star Tribune used crowdsourced data about the frequency and locations where ICE agents remain even after federal authorities announced the end of “Operation Metro Surge” in mid-February. Then, in late March, the Chicago Tribune published an analysis of arrests and deportations from “Operation Midway Blitz” that found of the roughly 3,800 people detained and 2,500 deported, most had no criminal record. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment, the newspaper reported.

* Politico | ‘Proactively fall in line’: Holocaust Memorial Museum quietly changed content after Trump returned to office: Leaders at the museum also renamed a one-day civic education workshop designed for college students from “Fragility of Democracy and the Rise of the Nazis” to “Before the Holocaust: German Society and the Nazi Rise to Power.” In an email, obtained by POLITICO, between a senior staff member at the museum’s Levine Institute for Holocaust Education and a staffer planning the workshop, the senior staff member said the change was necessary due to “concerns regarding how the term fragility may be perceived or interpreted in the current climate.”