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Isabel’s afternoon roundup

Wednesday, Feb 19, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller

* Sun-Times…

When longtime Illinois Sen. Emil Jones III had dinner in Chicago with a red-light camera executive back in July 2019, Jones gave him assurances about a potentially damaging bill he’d proposed to study the cameras and other automated traffic systems, prosecutors say.

Jones told him, “I got you.” But the feds say he didn’t stop there. When SafeSpeed partner Omar Maani asked how much money he could raise for Jones, the senator allegedly told him, “You can raise me five grand. That’d be good. … But most importantly, I have an intern working in my office … and I’m trying to find him another job.”

Jones allegedly passed the intern’s resume along days later and told Maani in an email, “had a great time at dinner last week, looking forward to the many more good times my friend.” But Jones also allegedly mocked Maani in a separate text message to the intern, joking about how Maani was “trying to make sure I don’t file my red light camera bill.” […]

Now, new details have emerged about the bribery case against Jones, who is accused of agreeing to limit the study of traffic enforcement systems to Chicago in exchange for $5,000 and money for the intern. The Chicago Democrat, who remains in the state Senate more than two years after the feds leveled criminal charges against him, is set for trial April 7.

* More from the Tribune…

[P]rosecutors last month told U.S. District Judge Andrea Wood that there had been recent discussions about a potential guilty plea.

But Jones’ attorney, Victor Henderson, shot down any notion of a deal in a statement to the Tribune on Wednesday.

“There has been no suggestion by the Senator that he intends to plead guilty,” Henderson wrote. “As his lawyers, we have engaged in the typical listen and talk sessions with government lawyers that happen in virtually every case.”

Henderson also wrote the “takeaway from recent cases tells all of us that the legal landscape is changing.”

*** Pritzker’s Budget Address ***

* Tribune | Gov. J.B. Pritzker likens Trump administration actions to Nazi Germany: ‘What comes next?’: The administration cited increased tax collections due to personal income growth and a stable job market, with consumer spending rebounding in last year’s Christmas holiday season, as some of the reasons for the reversal. Still, the administration warned that economically, “forward expectations are mired in uncertainty” and that federal policy decisions driven by Trump and Republicans who control Congress could impact states “which have no means of ameliorating negative impacts.”

* WBEZ | Gov. JB Pritzker’s $55.2 billion budget has no new taxes, cuts health care for adults lacking legal status: Pritzker’s budget plan excludes funding for health care for immigrant adults who lack legal status and are between the ages of 42 and 64. Last year, the Democratic governor included $629 million to provide health care benefits to immigrants without legal status 42 and up, and seniors who would otherwise qualify for Medicaid.

* Chalkbeat Chicago | Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s 2026 budget proposal includes increases for K-12 schools and early childhood education: The plan would increase funding for the state’s K-12 schools by $350 million, early childhood education programs for low-income families by $85 million, and the state’s scholarship program for college bound students by $10 million. However, there were some parts of the proposal that kept funding flat for certain programs, such as the state’s Early Childhood Block Grant, which has helped expand public preschool.

* Crain’s | In budget address, JB Pritzker lays out an unexpected element: Breathing room: The budget situation in the coming year isn’t quite as dire as predicted but will put pressure on lawmakers to tighten their belts more than in past. That’s the overall message as Gov. JB Pritzker today introduces a $55.4 billion spending plan for the fiscal year that starts July 1, up from $53.5 billion a year ago.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Streetsblog Chicago | A new Illinois bill would assert that people on bikes are “intended” users of every roadway in the state where it’s legal to ride: For people who ride bikes, the issue of tort immunity is critical because it determines whether or not a municipality can be held liable if a crash occurs due to poor road conditions, such as a pothole or an obstruction in a bike lane. By ensuring that cyclists are considered “intended users” of all roadways where biking is legal, HB2454 aims to make local governments more accountable for the safety bike riders on streets under their jurisdiction. That would be true whether or not those roads are designated as bikeways or have bike infrastructure.

* It’s just a bill…


*** Chicago ***

* Crain’s | Vote on Johnson’s $830M borrowing plan delayed: The plan was criticized when it was advanced in the Finance Committee and continued to meet resistance over the repayment schedule, which would see the city make interest only payments of $47.7 million through 2044. The city would then pay $74.9 million for five years before debt service balloons to $137 million during the final six years, according to a document obtained by Crain’s.

* Tribune | Green social housing ordinance introduced at City Council meeting: The city’s vision for green social housing is mixed-income rental buildings that are built to certain energy efficiency and decarbonization standards and in which at least 30% of the units are affordable. The city would own a majority stake in the buildings, a first-of-its-kind role for the city.

* Sun-Times | Heartland Alliance Health to remain open thanks to ‘multimillion-dollar’ grant: “We are grateful to share that Heartland Alliance Health announced this morning that they will remain open,” Michael Brieschke, Heartland Alliance Union’s chairperson, told the Sun-Times. “All notices of layoffs will be rescinded, and all operations at the clinics and food pantries will continue.” Brieschke said the grant was given after Cook County Commissioner Stanley Moore learned about the closures in the news and reached out to Heartland Alliance Health’s leadership to see how he could help. Moore connected the nonprofit to One Health, a Michigan-based primary care provider.

* Tribune | Mayor Brandon Johnson escalates push for CPS to pick up pension payment, borrow more money: Bridget Early, Johnson’s deputy mayor for labor relations, emailed several top education officials a presentation dated Feb. 13 that outlines the next steps the board can take to make the controversial payment that is currently paid by the city. Solutions include borrowing and shifting responsibility to the state, which pays for all other school districts’ pension costs.

* WGN | ‘Con man scenario’: Chicago man loses thousands to tap and pay scam: It’s a new twist on an old scam. Goldie Murray thought he was donating $20 to help pay for the funeral of a young boy who was allegedly killed in Chicago. Instead, he may be on the hook for thousands of dollars. It all started last month outside a retail pharmacy in the 1500 block of East 55th Street in the city’s Hyde Park neighborhood. Murray was approached by three men asking for a donation. He told them he didn’t have cash but, in an interesting twist, they told him they only took credit.

* Tribune | How George E. Johnson made millions in the hair care industry while following the Golden Rule: His mother nicknamed him “The Rich Man” before he actually was a rich man. He acted like one. His mother left Mississippi at 18 and arrived in Chicago as part of the Great Migration. He grew up near Bronzeville and took small jobs as early as age 6. He waited tables, washed cars, swept floors, shined shoes. After he made a little cash, he took horseback riding lessons around Hyde Park. He bought wide-legged jodhpurs and liked to walk around wearing them. He would also carry a riding crop, just because.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Tribune | Former Cook County assistant state’s attorneys acquitted of wrongdoing in ‘unprecedented’ trial: Two former Cook County assistant state’s attorneys on Wednesday were acquitted of multiple felony counts following an unusual criminal trial connected to an infamous Chicago wrongful conviction case in the 1982 killings of two on-duty police officers. Dealing a blow to special prosecutors who spent years investigating and trying the case, Judge Daniel Shanes found Nicholas Trutenko, 69, and Andrew Horvat, 49, not guilty after a bench trial that was halted for nearly a year due to a mid-trial appeal.

* Naperville Sun | Naperville D203 board faces more pushback over proposed school start time changes, block scheduling: Parents, students and teachers Tuesday continued to question Naperville District 203’s proposal to alter school start times and switch middle and high schools to a block scheduling format. Superintendent Dan Bridges said the district is listening to the feedback it has received since the tentative changes were announced last month, and no final decision has been made. Board discussions on the subject will resume March 10.

*** Downstate ***

* WGLT | Dismantling B-N’s homeless response system to build a more effective one: While Bloomington-Normal homeless advocates estimate more than 130 people sleep in a tent in the area on any given night, area organizations and city officials have yet to find a response system that adequately addresses the situation, which has worsened in recent years. An answer could very well be shelter villages that consist of temporary, contained dwellings raised off the ground by pallets and have all the basic amenities someone might need: a bed, electricity and space to call their own.

* WGLT | ‘So busy’: Immigration Project informs clients of rights as ICE raid concerns heighten: “We are so busy,” exclaimed Charlotte Alvarez, executive director of the Immigration Project, a nonprofit that provides legal services and other support for immigrants across downstate Illinois. Alvarez said her office has been fielding dozens of calls for help. “[They are] requesting consultations about citizenship and naturalizing within the first two weeks of the Trump presidency,” Alvarez said in an interview on WGLT’s Sound Ideas.

* WCIA | Champaign Co. trying to crack down on stolen firearms: In September, Champaign County received more than $150,000 from the Illinois Department of Public Health. The program’s goal is proper gun storage and theft prevention. “If you want the responsibility of being a firearm owner, you need to take the responsibility to learn how to store it correctly and safely,” said Erin Hardway, whose husband died at the hands of a stolen firearm.

* AP | Illinois faces demanding stretch with roster fighting virus: Illinois wasn’t showing any hard feelings toward its opponent when it declined to participate in a postgame handshake. As several players deal with a virus, the Fighting Illini just wanted to make sure they didn’t spread germs while congratulating Wisconsin after losing 95-74 to the 11th-ranked Badgers on Tuesday night. “They don’t need this,” Illinois coach Brad Underwood said after the game. “In 38 years (as a head coach and assistant), I’ve never seen anything like what’s gone through our team.”

*** National ***

* Rolling Stone | Eric Adams’ Lawyers Offered Trump DOJ an ‘Ever-Present Partner’: The Trump administration’s top immigration enforcer treated Adams like a half-competent intern on national television, and told him he expected more compliance. Eight Justice Department officials quit over what they saw as a corrupt deal. The Department’s reputation for independence — for sometimes bucking the president’s priorities, for keeping politics largely out of prosecutions — has been kicked in the gut. And Adams still isn’t off the hook; the Deputy Attorney General made sure that charges against Adams can be brought up again after the November mayoral election. The judge in his case hasn’t yet agreed to actually dismiss the case, and has ordered Adams and his lawyers to be in court at 2 p.m. Wednesday.

  12 Comments      


Black Caucus angrily responds to Pritzker’s budget proposals: ‘An insult to this entire Black community’ (Updated x2)

Wednesday, Feb 19, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller

* From a post-address rally today, here’s Sen. Willie Preston…

Let me be clear, our work is not done. This is an opening proposal. This is not a time for celebration. Budgets reveal the morals and the values of our state. In Illinois, Black communities contribute significantly to the economy. That when the budget is finalized, those contributions are not flowing back into our community. We don’t need a study. We don’t need to commission a group. All we need to do is go to Rockford, East St Louis, the South Side of Chicago, the West Side of Chicago, Illinois to learn that we are not getting our fair cut. I want to say something that I did not hear from the governor today. I did not hear enough about what needs to be done to change the trajectory of a Black community across Illinois, Governor Pritzker. And while I applaud you for the work that you continue to do, this proposal does not reflect what I hope we pass in a budget in the spring, because it did not speak about the building trades, bringing back trade schools back to our community.

Please pardon all transcription errors.

* Rep. Carol Ammons…

There’s no mention about the fiscal house of the Black community, but the goal of the black community is absolutely a number one target. This spirit that I am experiencing. We have to grow our economy. Yes, we spent over $1.1 billion in one sector. The governor mentioned, he said, We need to live within our means, but our means have been extricated from us for years. We have not received the dollars promised to our communities. We have not, how many in his audience have not received the dollars? … This is a budget address. This is not a rally. We want our money. We pay taxes in this same state and our communities look the same from the time I was on the southwest side growing up as a young mother to Champaign-Urbana and Danville, and we look the same. And we cannot stand in this capital as if it is not true. Let me just say this. I wrote a whole speech without saving for later. What I am clear about is that at this very moment, I’m a no vote on the budget. And until we get to a yes, that means that my community needs to tell me that they are receiving resources that were promised to them. My students need to tell me that they got accepted and admitted and can afford to go to our universities in our state. That’s how we get to yes. I am always going to stand with the most vulnerable in our community. There’s a lot of likeness in this building, and I don’t work for anyone. I work for the poor people of my district and my state, and our people are under attack and for them, not to even mention what is happening in our communities, not even the slightest mention, is an insult to this entire Black community. … Be willing to say no.

* Rep. Will Davis…

Is anybody out there from the south suburbs? We hear a lot about the city of Chicago, but all the Black people don’t live in the city of Chicago, they live all over the state of Illinois. So we are here as an Illinois legislative Black caucus to offer a response to the governor’s budget. And the one question that I thought about, I would ask each of you is: Did you hear something that applies directly to you? Did you hear something in that budget speech that talks about you and your priorities… in your community? Did you hear it? … [Evidence based funding] is a good thing. It’s moving in the right direction, but that’s just a small piece of the puzzle when we’re talking about what it takes and what’s necessary to make sure that Black people in the state get what they deserve, get what they deserve. So we are here to make sure that we hear you and that you hear us. Because what’s important is I look around this rotunda, this balcony, your presence here today is making some people uncomfortable. You are making people uncomfortable because what they’ve never seen before is that you stand up for what you want. And what you deserve. They want to make sure that we are standing always in the background. Well, ladies and gentlemen, we’re tired of standing in the background. … We will fight for Black families. We will fight for our communities. That is what we’re going to do. I’m standing with my colleagues here today in solidarity with all of you. Let’s continue to make people under this dome uncomfortable. Make them more uncomfortable.

Whew.

…Adding… Rep. Will Davis was also in the blue room…

Q: So up there with the black officers speaking at the steps, Representative Ammons had expressed her sentiment that, you know the budget were to come to work today, you know she’d be a no, does? I guess my first question is that, you know, does the entire Black caucus from the House and Senate side share that Senate?

Davis: I would say many members do. I can’t say Black Caucus. Yeah, I would say many of us feel that way. I can’t say it’s the entirety of the group, that would be inappropriate for me to speak on behalf of our joint Chair, Senator Collins, but there are members who feel that way, and we have consistently felt that way, because what we see are others getting the resources that they need. But sometimes it appears that the black community specifically.

Q: So just a quick follow up, would you be a yes vote or a no vote on the governor’s proposed budget?

Davis: I am a present vote. Essentially, it’s a no vote, for what it’s worth. But there’s more, there’s a lot more conversation and a lot more discussion going forward in order to say it right now would be just probably, because we don’t really know what’s in the budget. […] All we’re hoping for is a fair conversation with the administration about where we are financially and acknowledging the priorities that the governor has, his administration has, as well as the Black Caucus and how we can work collectively together to fund the things that we all need.

…Adding… Sen. Karina Villa during the Latino Caucus press conference when asked about the proposed elimination of funding for the HBIA…

Villa: You heard from all of us today that we’re absolutely committed to continuing to fight and hold the line for the program. I think that this is just the beginning. This is the governor’s proposed budget, and now we have a few months here to work hard, and like we said, look line item by line item to see where we’re going to be able to make things up. And, you know, hold the line for HBIA. We believe that health care is a human right, and we believe that taking people off of health care is not the right thing to do.

Q: Why do you think that the governor took that step and do you, are you offended that, of all the programs, this is really kind of the big one that took a hit?

Villa: We haven’t had a conversation with the governor yet. We’re not sure why he chose to do that, but it was a significant hit to a very important program to our caucus. So we’re going to continue to make our voice voices heard, and work towards making sure that we’re moving along on that program.

  24 Comments      


Question of the day

Wednesday, Feb 19, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller

* From the governor’s address…

This is my seventh state of the state address. I’ve come before you to present a budget in good years and in bad, in years of crisis and years of relative stability. There is a whole industry of backseat bellyachers in this state and around the country who make a profession out of rhetorically tearing down Illinois and suggesting that if we would just enact one of their magic bean fixes we would never face another difficult budget year.

But if there’s one thing I’ve learned as Governor – there are no magic bean fixes. And each year there’s some difficulty that requires us to work hard to overcome it. This year the surfacing difficulty is Donald Trump’s and Elon Musk’s plan to steal Illinois’ tax dollars and deny our citizens the protection and services they need.

* A quick search turns up these Pritzker jabs at the Illinois doomer industrial complex…

* The Question: Which one is your favorite, or should the governor stop hitting back? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.

online polls


  48 Comments      


Stop Credit Card Chaos In Illinois

Wednesday, Feb 19, 2025 - Posted by Advertising Department

[The following is a paid advertisement.]

A last-minute provision called the Interchange Fee Prohibition Act (IFPA) was snuck into the budget process last May and will create chaos for small businesses and consumers across Illinois if it takes effect on July 1, 2025.

The IFPA gives corporate mega-stores like Walmart and Home Depot — who pushed for this backroom deal — millions more in profits, while small business owners get new expenses and accounting headaches. What’s more, consumers could be forced to pay for parts of their transactions in cash if this law moves forward.

A recent court ruling in the litigation challenging the law suggests IFPA is likely pre-empted by federal law for national banks and will only apply to credit unions and local Illinois banks, putting local banks at a disadvantage against their national competitors.

Illinois lawmakers should repeal the IFPA and focus on protecting small businesses and consumers across the state — not lining the pockets of corporate mega-stores.

Stop the countdown to chaos by supporting a repeal of this misguided and flawed policy. Learn more at https://guardyourcard.com/illinois/

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Pritzker: ‘If you come to the table looking to spend more – I’m going to ask you where you want to cut’

Wednesday, Feb 19, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller

* More from the governor’s speech…

As always, I stand ready to work with members of the General Assembly to deliberate and negotiate the final budget. But let’s be clear, I will only sign a balanced budget. If you come to the table looking to spend more – I’m going to ask you where you want to cut. I have made difficult decisions – including to programs I have championed, which is hard for me, just as I know some of the difficult decisions you will have to make will be hard for you.

  4 Comments      


Pritzker: ‘We don’t have kings in America – and I don’t intend to bend the knee to one’

Wednesday, Feb 19, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller

* From the governor’s address…

I’ve been reflecting, these past four weeks, on two important parts of my life: my work helping to build the Illinois Holocaust Museum and the two times I’ve had the privilege of reciting the oath of office for Illinois Governor.

As some of you know, Skokie, Illinois once had one of the largest populations of Holocaust survivors anywhere in the world. In 1978, Nazis decided they wanted to march there.

The leaders of that march knew that the images of Swastika clad young men goose stepping down a peaceful suburban street would terrorize the local Jewish population – so many of whom had never recovered from their time in German concentration camps.

The prospect of that march sparked a legal fight that went all the way to the Supreme Court. It was a Jewish lawyer from the ACLU who argued the case for the Nazis – contending that even the most hateful of speech was protected under the first amendment.

As an American and a Jew, I find it difficult to resolve my feelings around that Supreme Court case – but I am grateful that the prospect of Nazis marching in their streets spurred the survivors and other Skokie residents to act. They joined together to form the Holocaust Memorial Foundation and built the first Illinois Holocaust Museum in a storefront in 1981 – a small but important forerunner to the one I helped build thirty years later.

I do not invoke the specter of Nazis lightly. But I know the history intimately — and have spent more time than probably anyone in this room with people who survived the Holocaust. Here’s what I’ve learned – the root that tears apart your house’s foundation begins as a seed – a seed of distrust and hate and blame.

The seed that grew into a dictatorship in Europe a lifetime ago didn’t arrive overnight. It started with everyday Germans mad about inflation and looking for someone to blame.

I’m watching with a foreboding dread what is happening in our country right now. A president who watches a plane go down in the Potomac – and suggests — without facts or findings — that a diversity hire is responsible for the crash. Or the Missouri Attorney General who just sued Starbucks – arguing that consumers pay higher prices for their coffee because the baristas are too “female” and “nonwhite.” The authoritarian playbook is laid bare here: They point to a group of people who don’t look like you and tell you to blame them for your problems.

I just have one question: What comes next? After we’ve discriminated against, deported or disparaged all the immigrants and the gay and lesbian and transgender people, the developmentally disabled, the women and the minorities – once we’ve ostracized our neighbors and betrayed our friends – After that, when the problems we started with are still there staring us in the face – what comes next?

All the atrocities of human history lurk in the answer to that question. And if we don’t want to repeat history – then for God’s sake in this moment we better be strong enough to learn from it.

I swore the following oath on Abraham Lincoln’s bible: “I do solemnly swear that I will support the constitution of the United States, and the constitution of the state of Illinois, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of Governor …. according to the best of my ability.”

My oath is to the Constitution of our state and of our country. We don’t have kings in America – and I don’t intend to bend the knee to one. I am not speaking up in service to my ambitions — but in deference to my obligations.

If you think I’m overreacting and sounding the alarm too soon, consider this:

It took the Nazis one month, three weeks, two days, eight hours and 40 minutes to dismantle a constitutional republic. All I’m saying is when the five-alarm fire starts to burn, every good person better be ready to man a post with a bucket of water if you want to stop it from raging out of control.

Those Illinois Nazis did end up holding their march in 1978 – just not in Skokie. After all the blowback from the case, they decided to march in Chicago instead. Only twenty of them showed up. But 2000 people came to counter protest. The Chicago Tribune reported that day that the “rally sputtered to an unspectacular end after ten minutes.” It was Illinoisans who smothered those embers before they could burn into a flame.

Tyranny requires your fear and your silence and your compliance. Democracy requires your courage. So gather your justice and humanity, Illinois, and do not let the “tragic spirit of despair” overcome us when our country needs us the most.

  53 Comments      


Pritzker zeroes out health plan for undocumented immigrants - Slashes welcoming center funding

Wednesday, Feb 19, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Click here to read the governor’s address. The Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults program has been eliminated, according to a senior administration official during today’s budget briefing for reporters…

“HBIA is not funded in the proposed budget. The cost for that is about $420 million a year, of which $330 approximately, would come from the General Revenue Fund.”

More on the program is here. It’s a health coverage plan for undocumented immigrants aged 42-64 and is highly controversial.

* A follow-up question during this morning’s budget briefing…

Q: What’s the thinking on [defunding HBIA]?

A: Well, I mean, this was a difficult decision. There’s no doubt about that. But I think it reflects the reality of our fiscal situation that we have flagged now for several months. And I think you will see not just with what the governor is proposing for HBIA and the [Health Benefits for Immigrant Seniors] program, but throughout the budget. It’s a reflection of difficult decisions that we had to make in order to bring the proposal into balance.

As you know, this is a budget request of the General Assembly. The General Assembly is going to start its processes today, after the governor submits his budget. And we’re happy to engage with our partners in the General Assembly for any creative solutions that they might have, not just for HBIA, but for anything else reflected in the proposal. And you know, we have always faced a challenge, some larger than others, in terms of bringing budgets into balance. But as evidenced by what we’re presenting today, those challenges have always been met by working in partnership with with the General Assembly, and this program and other programs that are not being funded in the budget this year are a reflection of the reality that we face.

The senior healthcare program remains intact, but the administrative rule barring all new enrollment will remain on the books.

The proposal also reduces Welcoming Center appropriations from $139 to $40 million.

* Excerpts from the Senate Republicans’ highlights…

·         Largest budget in state history—$55.4 billion, increasing spending by $2 billion.
·         Increases state budget by $15 billion or 37% since Gov. Pritzker took office. 
·         Includes four revenue proposals for $490 million

    o    $198 million - reinstates the FY 20 Delinquent Tax Payment Incentive Program 
    o    $171 million - Pauses shift of sales taxes [to Road Fund] for one year 
    o    $100 million- realigns the tax treatment for 15 of the 16 Illinois casinos (excluding the Chicago casino) 
    o    $20 million - Eliminates the state-level deductions for cannabis industry businesses

* The budget briefing is here. The proposed operating budget is here. The proposed capital budget is here.

* Walkdown…

* Revenue forecast change explained…

• General Funds FY26 revenues are estimated to total $55.453 billion, a $1.553 billion, or 2.9%, increase from revised FY25 estimates.
• Base revenue growth in state sources revenues is estimated at 1.9%.
• Base revenues are approximately $1.5 billion above November preliminary estimates.
• FY26 revenue forecast benefits from several proposed revenue adjustments, including:
• Delinquent Tax Payment Incentive Program - $198 million for General Funds.
• Pause the final shift of state sales taxes on motor fuel purchases to Road Fund - $171 million.
• Realignment of tax treatment for table and electronic games at casinos - $100 million.
• With these adjustments:
• FY26 individual income taxes are forecasted to grow $980 million, or 3.5%.
• FY26 corporate income taxes are forecasted to grow $353 million, or 7.2%.
• FY26 sales tax receipts are forecasted to grow $171 million, or 1.6%.

* Excerpts from a distributed document entitled “Proposed budget toplines”…

New discretionary spending is increasing by less than 1%.

The state is maintaining its commitments to mandatory spending like full pension payments, inflation on healthcare coverage, and debt pay-down.

The budget proposes cost-saving operational efficiencies to save taxpayers money, including consolidating
unnecessary segregated funds, evaluating dormant boards and commissions, and determining what state
government functions could merge to improve efficiency and savings.

Mobilizing $500 million in state capital funds to develop properties and real estate that have been sitting idle into
areas that are ripe for economic development and job creation. […]

Lowering healthcare and prescription drug costs by stopping predatory practices used by pharmacy benefit
managers;

Lowering education costs, allowing community colleges to award BA degrees and streamlining public university
admissions process to reduce application fees;

Lowering property taxes, enabling communities to decide if they want to consolidate townships or eliminate duplicative taxing bodies.

* Various one-pagers…

  25 Comments      


Budget react

Wednesday, Feb 19, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Here we go…

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Today’s number: $2 billion

Wednesday, Feb 19, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Fran Spielman…

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s “exaggeratedly back-loaded” schedule for repaying $830 million in general obligation bonds could saddle Chicago taxpayers with $2 billion in additional costs by 2055, municipal finance experts warned Tuesday. […]

[Municipal Markets Analytics partner Matt Fabian] argued Johnson’s plan is a “more extreme version” of that dubious structure. It calls for the city to make “capitalized interest” payments only — using borrowed money — for the first two years and make interest-only payments until 2045.

“Future taxpayers will be paying for improvements that current taxpayers benefit from. … It leaves future taxpayers to address the city’s current management failure to address its budget in a sustainable manner,” Fabian said. […]

The city’s annual payments will, in contrast, balloon — from $47.6 million in 2028 to $136.9 million in 2050, remaining there until the bonds are fully retired in 2055.

  23 Comments      


McClain’s lawyer: ‘The jury saw through the speaker trying to deny their relationship’

Wednesday, Feb 19, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller

* J. Robert Gough at Muddy River News…

The attorney for Michael McClain said he and his client were “pleased and relieved” after Wednesday’s decision by a federal jury not to convict the longtime statehouse lobbyist from Quincy.

Former Illinois Speaker of the House Michael Madigan was convicted Wednesday on public corruption charges after a federal jury found him guilty on 10 of 23 counts. However, McClain walked free after the jury deadlocked on any charges against him. Prosecutors had alleged the two men, close friends since their days in the state legislature in the 1970’s, ran a “criminal enterprise” to tighten Madigan’s stranglehold of power in the state capitol.

Muddy River News reached out last week to McClain for an interview. He referred us to his attorney, Patrick Cotter, who gave the defense team’s reaction to the trial’s outcome.

According to media reports and interviews with jurors, the jury panel reached a point where they had an 11-1 vote to acquit Madigan and McClain on the racketeering charge and the counts involving the transfer of a state-owned parcel of land in Chinatown. The jury tally on the AT&T-related charges was reportedly 10-2 in favor of acquittal.

As far as Madigan’s testimony where he attempted to distance himself from McClain, Cotter called the former speaker’s remarks “very odd” but said they had anticipated that strategy. It’s also why they had twice requested to have a separate trial from the Madigan defense.

“We were disappointed but not surprised,” Cotter said. “The jury saw through the speaker trying to deny their relationship. They were friends, and (McClain) was (Madigan’s) lobbyist. (Former ComEd vice president) Fidel Marquez testified that Mike’s job was to lobby the speaker.”

  7 Comments      


It’s just a bill

Wednesday, Feb 19, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller

* Capitol News Illinois…

An Illinois Senate committee advanced a bill on Tuesday that would strictly limit police’s ability to search a vehicle after smelling cannabis.

The Senate Criminal Law Committee voted 7-3 to advance Senate Bill 42, which would eliminate the requirement that cannabis be transported in vehicles in an odor-proof container. It would also prohibit police from searching a vehicle based only on the odor of burnt or raw cannabis if the occupants are at least 21 years old.

The bill comes after the Illinois Supreme Court issued a pair of rulings last year. The court ruled in September that the smell of burnt cannabis did not give police probable cause to search a vehicle, but three months later ruled the smell of raw cannabis was probable cause for a search.

“This sets up a contradictory situation for law enforcement,” bill sponsor Sen. Rachel Ventura, D-Joliet, told the committee.

Alexandra Block, director of the Criminal Legal System and Policing Project at the ACLU of Illinois…

The General Assembly has an opportunity to clear up unnecessary confusion by adopting Senate Bill 42. It is highly unlikely that an officer, standing alongside a busy highway or city street, is able to distinguish between the odors of burnt and raw cannabis.

Drivers and passengers are legally able to possess cannabis in our state. This confusion over the odor of cannabis should not be a trigger for officers to continue to harass and delay motorists with intrusive searches. These stops and searches are targeted disproportionately against drivers of color in Illinois. We encourage the legislature to clear up this confusion by adopting the very simple language contained in the bill and Amendment #1.

* Common Cause Illinois…

Illinois lawmakers are considering a bill to preserve American self-government by closing a significant loophole that allows foreign-influenced corporations to spend money to influence Illinois elections.

The legislation, introduced in the House by Representative Amy Briel (HB3071), would prohibit corporations from spending money in Illinois elections if a single foreign investor holds more than 1 percent ownership or more than 5 percent ownership is held by an aggregate of foreign investors. It is similar to legislation that passed and is in effect in Seattle and San Jose and that is pending in several other states.

“This bill is a critical step toward protecting our democracy by ensuring that elections represent the voices of Illinois residents — not the deep pockets of foreign actors and interests. By closing this loophole, we’re preserving the integrity of our elections and standing up for transparency and fairness in the democratic process,” said state Rep. Amy “Murri” Briel.

“Illinois legislators have an opportunity to close the loophole that has allowed foreign-owned corporations to influence our elections. We are proud to support this innovative and important piece of legislation and we are grateful to Representative Briel for her leadership,” said Elizabeth Grossman, Executive Director of Common Cause Illinois.

“We commend Representative Briel for introducing this bold reform. It’s time for Illinois state law to stop multinational corporations from allowing foreign entities to do, either directly or indirectly, what they are barred from doing as foreign governments or individuals: spending money in US elections,” said Alexandra Flores-Quilty, Campaign Director of Free Speech For People.

Across the country, companies with significant foreign ownership, like Amazon, Chevron, and Uber, have used their money to influence the outcome of elections and political agendas in their favor. While federal law prohibits foreign actors—including individuals, governments, and businesses—from spending any money directly or indirectly to influence federal, state, or local elections, the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission created a loophole for foreign interests to acquire stakes in U.S. corporations and then use that leverage to influence or control the corporation’s political activity, including campaign contributions, contributions to super PACs, and independent expenditures.

But though Citizens United created this loophole, nothing in that decision prohibits lawmakers from closing it. Citizens United held that a corporation is an “association of citizens,” and that First Amendment rights held by citizens individually therefore flow to the association. But under the theory of Citizens United, a foreign-influenced corporation is an association of citizens and foreign actors. And with regard to political spending, the First Amendment rights held by citizens do not flow to foreign actors.

This became clear in Bluman v. Federal Election Commission, a decision by the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, authored by now-Justice Kavanaugh while he was a circuit judge. Bluman, which the Supreme Court affirmed, held that political contributions and independent expenditures are “part of the overall process of democratic self-government” that the United States has a compelling interest in protecting democratic self-government by placing a complete ban on foreign actors spending any money to influence U.S. elections.

* SB1331 from Sen. Doris Turner passed through the Senate Higher Education Committee this morning…

Creates the Scholarship Accessibility Act. Establishes the Illinois Scholarship Database, to be developed, implemented, and administered by the Illinois Student Assistance Commission, as a utility to improve Illinois students’ access to higher education scholarships, as well as to improve their knowledge of scholarships. Provides that to inform students and their parents on what scholarships are and how they are attained and maintained: (1) beginning in the 7th grade, a public school shall inform students of the Database and shall require them to create an account with the Database; (2) the account shall be created jointly by the student and the parent; and (3) both the student and the parent shall have access to the account and the ability to manage activity on the account. Provides that the Database shall allow the student to have and the student is required to complete a profile that: (1) presents a portfolio of the student and who the student is and the student’s current year of enrollment; and (2) lists any criminal charge that requires the student to be a part of a registry for a crime the student has committed, unless the student is legally protected under law or court order or another exigent circumstance. Requires the Database to include and display a comprehensive list of scholarships. Allows students 18 or older to be able to create an account with and have access to the Database.

* WAND…

A bill moving forward at the Illinois Capitol will allow agriculture courses to satisfy vocational education requirements for high school students.

Sen. Doris Turner (D-Springfield) said students should be able to use their agricultural studies to fulfill graduation requirements. Her bill clarifies that agriculture education, business or any other ag-related course would meet the vocational requirement starting next school year.

“What is always encouraging to me as a teacher is the number of these students who take my class to fulfill those requirements but in the process discover their passion for the industry that feeds, clothes, and fuels us all,” said Liz Harris from the Illinois Association of Vocational Agriculture Teachers.

Senate Bill 1605 passed unanimously out of the Senate Education Committee Tuesday afternoon. The measure now moves to the Senate floor for further consideration.

* Sen. Sara Feigenholtz filed SB1559 earlier this month…

Amends the Department of Transportation Law of the Civil Administrative Code of Illinois. Requires the Department of Transportation to conduct a traffic study following the occurrence of any crash involving a pedestrian fatality that occurs at an intersection of a federal or municipal highway.

* Tri States Public Radio…

State Senator Mike Halpin (D-Rock Island) believes that investing in education now will save the state money elsewhere in the long-term and should be a priority even when the state is facing fiscal challenges. […]

Halpin [the new chair of the Senate Committee on Education Appropriations] supports Senate Bill 13, which would create the Adequate and Equitable Public University Funding Act. […]

The measure would establish a funding formula for the state’s public universities that is similar to the evidence-based funding formula for K-12 schools, which was approved in 2017.

The estimated cost of the proposal is $135-$150 million per year. The money would come out of the state’s general revenue fund.

  6 Comments      


Stop doing this, please

Wednesday, Feb 19, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Narrowing the tax base is just not a good idea. All this will do is drive up property taxes for everyone else and further lock out younger people trying to buy a home…

A bill filed at the Illinois Statehouse seeks to end property taxes for qualified taxpayers who live in and pay taxes on a residential home for at least 30 years.

State Sen. Neil Anderson, R-Andalusia, said at some point, you have to own your own property.

“This country is founded upon freedom and property rights and at some point, you have to be able to own your property,” said Anderson. “This [bill] is a way to keep people in Illinois. If they own a home for 20 years and they have an option of moving to another state because they’re tired of being taxed in Illinois, now all of a sudden, maybe [with the passage of this bill], they hang out another 10 years and now they don’t have to pay property tax. That keeps them in the state and buying goods in the state and paying taxes in a different way.”

  37 Comments      


The state of the state

Wednesday, Feb 19, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller

* From the State of Illinois Economic Forecast commissioned by the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability and written by Moody’s/Economy.com…

Illinois’ economy strengthened moderately in 2024, allowing the job market to surpass its pre-pandemic level of employment. The pace of job and income growth has slowed further behind the below-average midwestern pace. As it has nationally, the breadth of job creation across industries has narrowed. Strengthening in healthcare, government and leisure/hospitality has kept the economy moving in the right direction despite weakness elsewhere. Professional/business services and finance are in the doldrums, and most other major industries— including manufacturing and transportation/warehousing— have flattened. Illinois’ unemployment rate averaged 5.3% in the fourth quarter, compared with 4.1% in the region and the nation. Joblessness increased partly for an encouraging reason, as the state’s labor force grew at a strong and steady pace. […]

Chicago’s economy is trailing its large peers and the U.S. overall. Payroll employment has been relatively flat for the past year and a half. Finance and professional/business services are losing jobs, and employment in most other industries has been stable at best. Manufacturing and logistics payrolls are slowly trending higher. Healthcare remains the primary job creator, but growth is softening. Tourism-dependent industries are crawling out of a deep hole and progress has slowed markedly. There are other indications that the labor market has loosened. The expanding labor force is a good sign, as Chicago’s labor force growth has lagged the national pace in the previous few years. This has also helped to push the unemployment rate up into the mid-5% range as of December. The employment cost index for Chicago shows wages are growing less than nationally.

The Urbana-Champaign economy is Illinois’ top performer, though some data suggest the labor market is not as strong as it looks. Payroll employment growth is ahead of that in the state, region and U.S. year over year. Anchored by the university of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, known as UIUC, state government leads job creation. Most private-sector industries are moving in the right direction. The Quarterly Census of employment and Wages, a lagged but complete count of jobs, shows that private sector performance has been weaker than it appears in the payroll survey. Specifically, healthcare and construction have worsened since a year earlier. The labor force has risen to new heights, putting some upward pressure on the unemployment rate, which is in the mid-4% range. The pace of residential construction is a touch stronger than in early 2024, though that is not saying much.

The state government is driving progress in Springfield’s economy. Healthcare and office-using industries such as financial and professional/ business services have been sluggish. The size of the labor force has been roughly the same for the past five years. The housing market is generally following national trends, with year-over-year price appreciation on par with that of the state and U.S.

Bloomington’s expansion has slowed. Payrolls have moved sideways during the past year following several years of stronger-than-average growth. Financial and professional/business services have started to recoup jobs lost earlier in the year and before. Improving performance in these higher-paying industries has helped average hourly earnings rebound after plummeting in 2023. However, most major industries have not significantly added to payrolls recently. The labor force has continued to increase, putting some upward pressure on the unemployment rate amid tepid job creation. House price appreciation aligns with the state and U.S. year over year, but new residential construction is weak.

Rockford’s economy is showing signs of life. Total employment remains below the pre-pandemic level but jobs have increased since mid-2024 after a two-year pause in growth. Strengthening in healthcare and leisure/hospitality has offset weakening in manufacturing during this time. Transportation/ warehousing has struggled to gain momentum. With the local Stellantis plant shuttered since 2023, auto manufacturing and related supply-chain employment have been stuck in the mud. The unemployment rate and the size of the labor force have been relatively stable.

Lake County’s economy is sluggish. The labor market has weakened, with employment and the size of the labor force down year over year. The unemployment rate has stabilized at just less than 5%. Payrolls in key manufacturing have been stagnant for the past year, while professional/ business services and finance are deteriorating. The housing market is not much better. Single-family price appreciation has cooled and residential construction remains on ice near Great Recession lows. Healthcare is one of the few bright spots as job growth has regained momentum.

Peoria’s economy has weakened during the last year. Payroll and household employment has turned down, and job losses have caused the unemployment rate to rise even though the size of the labor force has stagnated. Manufacturing has shed jobs, and most of the rest of the economy is sluggish. Healthcare and construction are the only major industries that have added jobs on net since a year earlier. Persistent weakness in housing starts suggests construction payroll growth has come primarily from the nonresidential side. Single-family house price appreciation has been similar to that in the state and U.S.

The economies of the Quad Cities, Decatur and Danville have had a difficult year. The employment situations in these metro areas are among the worst in the state. Key manufacturing industries and downstream business services have shed jobs, offsetting mild gains in healthcare. John Deere has laid off hundreds of factory workers in the Quad Cities as demand for new farm machinery has fallen amid low crop prices and high borrowing costs. The permanent closure of Danville’s Quaker Oats factory has resulted in hundreds of lost jobs. unemployment rates have risen despite shrinking labor forces. Housing markets are also underperforming. House price appreciation has been in line with that of the state and U.S., but that is partly a result of a lack of new-home construction. On the upside, the QCETW data suggest Danville leisure/hospitality performed much better last year than the payroll survey indicated. Industry employment has jumped since the opening of the Golden Nugget Casino

The farm economy faces significant challenges. As they are nationally, Illinois’ farm incomes have retreated from their record highs in 2022, hitting a four-year low in late 2024. expenses remain elevated, and farmers have also had to contend with high lending costs in recent years, limiting their expansion opportunities. Farmers cultivating key crops such as corn and soybeans are receiving lower prices partly because of overproduction, a strong U.S. dollar, and intensifying foreign competition.

More here.

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RETAIL: The Largest Employer In Illinois

Wednesday, Feb 19, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller

[The following is a paid advertisement.]

Retail creates more jobs in Illinois than any other private sector employer, with one out of every four workers employed by the retail sector. Importantly, retail is an industry in which everyone, regardless of credentials, can find a viable career path.

Retailers like Bernita and Derrick enrich our economy and strengthen our communities. We Are Retail and IRMA showcase the retailers who make Illinois work.

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Roundup: Pritzker to pitch $500 million for shovel-ready real estate, crypto ATM regulations, expanding 4-year degree offerings at community colleges, ‘screen-free schools’

Wednesday, Feb 19, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller

* Subscribers were briefed on the governor’s speech this morning. Crain’s…

JB Pritzker will ask state legislators for a half-billion dollars to attract new business to the state with ready-to-go real estate.

More than half that money would be used to turn state-owned property — such as the former women’s prison in Dwight or mental-health and disabled-care facilities in Rockford and Lincoln — into sites for new private development. […]

“It’s intended to address what we hear from industry is a real speed-to-market challenge. we want to make sure we have shovel-ready sites for them to begin either making changes to a greenfield or brownfield in order to pursue an expansion or relocation project,” says Kristin Richards, director of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. […]

Those dollars are separate from the state’s general fund, or day-to-day operating budget, which Pritzker will announce today. Pandemic-relief funds from the federal government have dried up, and Pritzker has warned legislators and staffers to prepare for a tight budget. The governor will outline his budget at noon in the state of the state address.

* Sun-Times…

Gov. JB Pritzker is expected to propose a crackdown on cryptocurrency ATMs during Wednesday’s State of the State address — a move his administration says will help address the scamming and money-laundering that have become pervasive in the industry.

The legislation would establish a daily limit for transactions on crypto ATMs, cap fees to “prevent predatory charges” and require receipts showing the dollar value of digital assets and any fees collected, according to a fact sheet provided by Pritzker’s administration.

“When left unregulated, crypto kiosks are often used as tools for scams that victimize the most vulnerable Illinoisans,” Pritzker said in a statement. “Those who are harmed by these scams have little or no ability to seek restitution or justice because of the unrestricted nature of these ATMs. In addition, the ATMs are a common tool in laundering money for drug transactions and other illegal activities.” […]

Pritzker said his proposal “would institute the same common-sense registration and regulation requirements that already exist for financial institutions across the state.”

* Capitol News Illinois…

Gov. JB Pritzker plans to offer a proposal in his budget address Wednesday that would allow some community colleges to offer four-year baccalaureate degrees.

The goal, according to the governor’s office, would be to make four-year degrees more accessible to working adults, particularly those who don’t live near a public university.

That would be a big change for Illinois community colleges, which typically offer two-year associate’s degrees and other kinds of training certificates. But Martin Torres, Pritzker’s first assistant deputy governor for education, said it’s a concept already in use in many other states. […]

The legislation would allow community colleges to offer programs in subject areas where they have identified unmet workforce needs in their region. The proposed programs would also need to be approved by both the Illinois Board of Higher Education and the Illinois Community College Board.

* AP…

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is aiming to improve student achievement, social interaction and the mental health of public school students by proposing a statewide ban on cellphones in classrooms, an idea that is rapidly gaining traction nationally regardless of political persuasion.

The Democrat’s top education aide, Martin Torres, said Pritzker is expected to endorse “screen-free schools” during his combined State of the State/Budget address at noon Wednesday.

Legislation introduced in both houses of the General Assembly would require school districts to set policies that ban personal wireless devices during class time, with notable exceptions, create a means for secure but accessible storage of phones and tablets, and review those guidelines at least every three years. […]

The legislation, which would require policies be in place by the 2026-2027 school year, has enough flexibility in the plan to allow school districts to develop a policy that best suits them.

Thoughts?

  24 Comments      


Open thread

Wednesday, Feb 19, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller

* It’s budget day! What’s going on in your part of Illinois?…

  6 Comments      


Isabel’s morning briefing

Wednesday, Feb 19, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller

* Subscribers were told about this on Tuesday morning and given a more through briefing this morning. ICYMI: Democratic leaders paint brighter picture for Illinois finances after budget briefing. Tribune…

    - “Revenue projections are up,” House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch of Hillside said after a meeting in the governor’s Springfield office Tuesday.
    - No tax increases are expected in the governor’s proposed budget, which might even include a small surplus, Welch said.
    - “It’s going to be a good — a better proposal than we were bracing for a couple months ago,” Senate President Don Harmon said.

* Related stories…

* Governor Pritzker is scheduled to deliver his State of the State and Budget Address at noon. The Governor is hosting a roundtable on lowering prescription drug costs at 3:45 pm. Click here to watch.

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* Sun-Times | Trump’s Friday firings leave EPA Chicago office down dozens of scientists, staff: Bridget Lynch, a scientist focused on ground water and drinking water, began her job a month ago. A Chicago-area native and graduate of Wellesley College, Lynch said she received a form email around 4:30 p.m. Friday that said that she was “failing to demonstrate that my qualifications fit the role, even though I’m a highly qualified recent graduate, and I was doing my best.”

* Daily Herald | McConchie’s would-be successor isn’t a Republican and can’t serve, lawsuit alleges: Barrington Hills Trustee Darby Hills’ appointment to a vacant state Senate seat should be nullified because she doesn’t meet the state’s definition of a Republican, a lawsuit filed Tuesday argues. Algonquin resident Brittany Colatorti’s complaint also alleges the GOP committee formed to choose a successor for state Sen. Dan McConchie in the 26th District failed to properly notify the public of its Feb. 14 meeting or the application process, and that Hills’ nomination should be canceled as a result.

*** Statehouse News ***

* WAND | Rep. Blaine Wilhour argues Illinois should stop focusing on equity in education funding: Rep. Will Davis (D- East Hazel Crest), a Black legislative leader, said he took offense to Wilhour’s rant. Davis stressed that budget investments for equity and inclusion have helped students in many Illinois schools. […] “We’ve got a lot of work to do on getting students to where they need to be contributors to society,” Wilhour said. “That’s ultimately what we strive for here.” “I agree. We have plenty of work to do,” Davis said. “But, you took particular interest in saying students of color are the ones that can’t do anything.”

* Capitol News Illinois | State official: renewable investments ‘best thing’ to lower energy costs: On Tuesday, Illinois Commerce Commission Executive Director Jonathan Feipel lent credence to some concerns around energy generation. The ICC regulates electric and natural gas utilities and is one of the major entities enforcing the state’s renewable energy goals. “If we all sat and did nothing, we would have a significant problem when we get to 2030,” Feipel told lawmakers.

* WAND | IL Senate Democrats hopes social security age remains 68: A resolution that passed an Illinois Senate committee asks for Congress to not raise the retirement age for social security. State Sen. Christopher Belt (D-East St. Louis) says the average age for low income Black workers is below 68, the age they would receive social security benefits. He also says forcing senior citizens to work during harsh winters could cause major health issues.

*** Statewide ***

* Daily Herald | Nonprofit to distribute iCARE kits for Illinois schools: This March, in conjunction with National Social Work Month, iCARE4 Adoptive And Foster Families will distribute iCARE Schools Connection Kits to public schools across Illinois. The initial distribution of 1,000 kits will reach about 25% of Illinois’ roughly 4,400 public schools, including Chicago Public and Lake County schools, where many of the state’s adopted, foster and kinship students are enrolled, said Laura Adams, president and CEO of iCARE, a nonprofit she founded in February 2024.

*** Chicago ***

* Tribune | Mayor Johnson says staff changes were ‘personal decisions’ despite housecleaning promise: Asked Tuesday if he would soon fire other employees, Johnson said he does not “discuss personnel issues” and “this is not about one individual” before instead highlighting several favorite policies. But despite distancing himself from the staff changes, Johnson maintained he was nonetheless “elected to disrupt the status quo.”

* Crain’s | Johnson signals more City Hall shakeups coming: Despite Johnson promising to shake up his administration by ousting those who don’t agree with his agenda, many key positions have been left unfilled by permanent appointees, including two city sister agencies, the CTA and the Chicago Housing Authority.

* Tribune | UIC proposes plan to close School of Literatures, Cultural Studies and Linguistics amid $22M deficit: The LSCL school is part of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, which has accrued a debt of $22 million, according to a tenured faculty member who asked to remain anonymous. Other faculty members told the Tribune that if the college does not take measures to close the deficit, it will be forced into receivership, in which a court-appointed receiver takes control of the institution’s finances and operations.

* Tribune | Chicago Housing Authority is owed millions in rent and failing to enforce leases, report finds: CHA spokesperson Matthew Aguilar said in a statement to the Tribune that the rent arrears and lack of lease enforcement are “partially due to the COVID pandemic” when there were federal and state eviction moratoria on nonpayment of rent evictions. Once courts began hearing eviction cases again, CHA started addressing its backlog of cases and has seen its eviction cases double over the past year, the agency said.

* CBS Chicago | Chicago organization fuming after federal cuts target legal aid for migrant children: Yet Tuesday, the Trump administration cut all federal dollars that provided the migrants any legal help. “Taking lawyers away is a very effective way to ensure that children will fail in court, and that they will be promptly deported to the conditions that they fled,” said Erfani.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Aurora Beacon-News | Six years after mass shooting shook Aurora, legal battle continues for victims’ families, witnesses: ‘I feel like it happened a week ago’: For the victims’ families and several witnesses, the nightmare is compounded by a protracted lawsuit against the Illinois State Police. The wrongful death suit, filed shortly after killings, blames the state police for allowing the shooter to possess a gun even though the agency knew he was a convicted felon and prohibited from owning a firearm.

* Daily Southtown | Governors State to hold inaugural Black History Education Symposium: The education symposium will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m on Thursday, Feb. 20, at University Park-based Governors State, and include workshops, discussions and presentations at Engbretson Hall led by Black professionals. One session will examine the historical and current challenges faced by Black employees in the workplace and how human resource practices can be adapted to promote equity and inclusion, Black talent development and career progression. Other topics will include how to capitalize on one’s talent and catapult one’s career.

*** Downstate ***

* BND | New District 201 superintendent has deep ties to metro-east, Belleville High Schools: After a decade with Belleville Township High School District 201, Marshaun C. Warren was promoted to become its next superintendent. Warren, who is currently the district’s assistant superintendent of human resources and diversity, equity and inclusion, will assume her new role July 1. She will replace current superintendent Brian Mentzer, who is leaving the district for Millstadt Consolidated Community School District 160.

* WCIA | Meet Willie Comer: The Champaign man transforming lives one basketball game, lunch program at a time: For Willie Comer, East Central Illinois’ Youth for Christ executive director, it’s all about meeting the kids where they are. That means going into Champaign schools to have lunch with students or organizing basketball games to introduce them to the game in a safe environment.

*** National ***

* Sun-Times | SAVE Act would make voting harder for millions of Americans: The head of the League of Women Voters of Illinois explains how the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act would restrict voting access by requiring people to show citizenship documentation when registering to vote or updating registration.

* Tribune | RFK Jr. says panel will examine childhood vaccine schedule after promising not to change it: “Nothing is going to be off limits,” Kennedy said, adding that pesticides, food additives, microplastics, antidepressants and the electromagnetic waves emitted by cellphones and microwaves also would be studied. Kennedy’s remarks, which circulated on social media, were delivered during a welcome ceremony for the new health secretary at the agency’s headquarters in Washington as a measles outbreak among mostly unvaccinated people raged in West Texas. The event was held after a weekend of mass firings of thousands of HHS employees. More dismissals are expected.

* WaPo | A Nobel Prize winner decodes why people aren’t having kids: In places where men do more around the house, fertility rates are higher; where they do less, rates are lower. Goldin’s research paper doesn’t advocate any specific policy, so I called and asked what she thinks can be done to achieve “couple equity,” where couples share child-care and household tasks equally. After a pause, she said men must believe that every other dad is doing more housework now, too.

* NYT | DOGE Claimed It Saved $8 Billion in One Contract. It Was Actually $8 Million: But it appears that the DOGE list vastly overstated the actual intended value of that contract. A closer scrutiny of a federal database shows that a recent version of the contract was for $8 million, not $8 billion. A larger total savings number published on the site, $55 billion, lacked specific documentation.

  9 Comments      


Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Supplement to today’s edition

Wednesday, Feb 19, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller

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Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Today’s edition of Capitol Fax (use all CAPS in password)

Wednesday, Feb 19, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller

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Live coverage

Wednesday, Feb 19, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller

* Click here and/or here to follow breaking news. Hopefully, enough reporters and news outlets migrate to BlueSky so we can hopefully resume live-posting.

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Selected press releases (Live updates)

Wednesday, Feb 19, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller

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Isabel’s afternoon roundup

Tuesday, Feb 18, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller

* Illinois Legislative Black Caucus Foundation…

State Representative Maurice West (D-67th District) will play an original composition entitled “Relentless Power” at the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus Foundation Soiree on Wednesday, February 19. West, an award winning composer and musician as well as State Representative for the 67th District and State Central Committeeman for the 17th District, has performed at a number of political and charity events, including at the Democratic Party of Illinois Gala last year.
 
“I am so honored to have the opportunity to play for my colleagues in the Illinois General Assembly and all supporters of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus Foundation,” said State Rep. Maurice West. “The Illinois Legislative Black Caucus is fighting for equity, freedom, and stronger communities across our state, and I look forward to expressing our shared journey through music.”
 
The event is scheduled to begin at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, February 19, at the Bank of Springfield Center (1 Convention Center Plaza) in Springfield, Ill. Rep. West will post video of his performance on social media after the event.

* Meanwhile.. In Wisconsin…

*** Statehouse News ***

* FYI: The Governor will deliver his State of the State address in the House chamber on Wednesday, Feb. 19 at noon.

* In Memoriam | Craig Roberts: Craig was a fixture on Capitol Hill as the long-serving Chief of Staff to Congressman John Shimkus for twenty-four years. He also served from 2015-2020 as President of the House Chiefs of Staff Association and ended his tenure in the House of Representatives as professional staff at the Committee on House Administration. Craig hails from Madison County, Illinois and held several positions in state government before joining Mr. Shimkus in Washington. Most recently, Craig held the role of Senior Vice President at Milen, Wiener, & Shofe Global Strategies. We were honored that Craig dedicated his time to the Capitol Hill Club as a member of our board.

*** Statewide ***

* Farm Week | Illinois schools expand early ag education opportunities: The Middle School Discovery FFA Degree was established by the National FFA Organization in 1988, and agriculture education in Illinois included middle school students since 2009. Illinois FFA has expanded its programs even more in the last two years, growing from 1,135 seventh and eighth grade FFA members in 2022 to 6,279 members in 2024.

* The 21st Show | How NIH funding cuts are impacting research at Illinois universities : After World War II, the U.S. decided that instead of building its own research buildings, it would carry out those studies at the nation’s universities with the government paying for indirect costs of the grants to support things like operations. But the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency decided to limit reimbursement to 15%. As of Tuesday morning, a judge has put that limit on hold, but there’s already fallout at universities throughout Illinois.

*** Chicago ***

* Sun-Times | After monthlong delay, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson names final member of school board: After being down an appointee for a month, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has named a Black Jewish mom to be the 21st school board member. Cydney Wallace will join the partly appointed, partly elected board. She has children in Chicago Public Schools and is a board member for the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, according to a news release. The Jewish Council is a progressive organization that focuses on local social justice issues, such as housing and fighting antisemitism and racism.

* Tribune | With ongoing slowdown of police discipline in Chicago, department is turning to internal controls: Records obtained via the Freedom of Information Act show CPD supervisors, mostly sergeants, filed more than 5,300 Summary Punishment Action Requests — “SPARs” — in 2024, a sharp increase from the 2,700 SPARs initiated in 2023. The rise in internal CPD discipline comes as the external disciplinary process — where fewer, but more serious cases, such as those involving deadly force incidents, are handled — remains greatly curtailed as a legal fight carries on between the city and Fraternal Order of Police in the Illinois Appellate Court. No decision is expected any time soon.

* Block Club | Residents, Advocates Fear An Encampment Clearing As Tensions At Gompers Park Rise: City officials have made it clear the upcoming Gompers Park AME, which is planned for March 5, is not the same as an encampment closure. However, as neighbors and elected officials continue to push for the park to be restored, some advocates worry encampment residents will be forced out. Sarah-Jayne Ashenhurst, of the group 39th Ward Neighbors United, said that when AMEs are followed by encampment closures “residents can easily end up being coerced into accepting housing that may not meet their needs for fear of being made to leave the park under threat of forcible removal or arrest.”

* Bloomberg | Walgreens shares soar after report that private-equity deal is ‘alive’: The deal for the drugstore chain appeared “mostly dead a couple of weeks ago,” CNBC’s David Faber said Tuesday. He said he was now upgrading the deal to “alive. Walgreens shares gained as much as 15% in New York. They had risen 4% this year as of Friday’s close.

* Crain’s | Special Olympics Illinois expands Chicago presence with Kinzie Corridor move: The move is the nonprofit’s first office purchase in the city. It previously leased a 6,000-square-foot office at 820 W. Jackson Blvd. Around 15 employees will be working at the new location. “It’s like an update and expansion on their Chicago office, and the multifunctional use of the building was everything they wanted,” said NAI Hiffman’s Aubrey Englund, who represented the nonprofit in the transaction.

* Crain’s | Ireland and New Zealand rugby teams to play at Soldier Field in November: The Nov. 1 event, billed “The Rematch,” will be the second meeting of these teams in Chicago, with the first encounter in 2016 leading to Ireland defeating the All Blacks for the first time in their 111-year history. This outcome sparked a competitive rivalry, leading to 10 matches being played between the two teams since, with wins being evenly split.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Daily Herald | Can this interchange be fixed? Tollway wants to tame I-355/I-88 gridlock: The sprawling interchange connecting the Reagan and Veterans memorial tollways has been described by engineers as a “bottleneck on the system.” That’s why the Illinois tollway has launched a massive redo of the interchange, intended to relieve congestion, repair aging infrastructure and expand access and mobility, officials said. In late January, the agency approved a $35.3 million contract with Oak Brook-based Hanson Professional Services Inc. for master plan design services for the interchange. Work includes studying and designing improvements to the roadway, ramps, bridges and other elements.

* NBC Chicago | Lawsuit filed after fight breaks out at Thornton Township meeting: “There’s this confrontation,” said Matthew Custardo, the plaintiff’s attorney. “Kamal Woods pushes and punches Lavelle Redmond. He takes a swing at him. There’s lots of video out there. … [Henyard] attacks Lavell Redmond first, hits him maybe twice. … And then she goes right in on Jedediah Brown.”Both Brown and Redmond say they were attacked and injured for exercising free speech. They also claim Henyard was a participant. The men have filed a civil lawsuit for assault, battery and emotional distress, naming Henyard, her boyfriend, a village of Dolton employee, Thornton Township and South Holland police as defendants.

* Lake County News-Sun | Waukegan Democratic mayoral primary features a 2021 rematch between Cunningham, Rivera: Leaving elected office after one four-year term as Waukegan’s mayor and 19 years on the City Council, Sam Cunningham said he had “unfinished business” and is now seeking the Democratic nomination to regain the city’s top elective office. Miguel A. Rivera, Sr., who lost to Cunningham in the 2021 Democratic primary, is again seeking his party’s nomination in a rerun of the two-candidate contest in which Cunningham received 65.35% of the 2,204 votes cast and Rivera 45.75%.

* ABC Chicago | Bribery charges dropped against former Cook County assessor: Likovski was one of two former Cook County Assessor’s Office employees charged along with the owner of a Chicago Heights fencing company in an alleged 2017 bribery scheme. Co-defendant Robert Mitziga, owner of Fence Masters, Inc., was acquitted following his trial last August. In the government’s motion to dismiss the case against Likovski, they cited the outcome of that trial as the reason for the dismissal.

* Naperville Sun | As homelessness grows in DuPage County, recent grants to DuPagePads help pay for much-needed emergency shelter: ‘A complete blessing’: In early December, DuPage County Board member Paula Deacon Garcia raised the matter with the board’s Human Services Committee. Ultimately, to help bolster DuPagePads’ housing capacity, the board allocated $200,000 from the county’s affordable housing fund to the nonprofit. Concurrently, the DuPage Foundation also heeded the call, dedicating $190,000 to the effort. […] Funding allowed DuPagePads to pay for up to 70 area hotel rooms for emergency shelter, Redzic said. It’s an approach that the nonprofit forged during the COVID-19 pandemic.

* Daily Herald | 10 suburban educators among Golden Apple Award finalists: The Golden Apple Foundation on Tuesday announced the 30 ninth through 12th grade teachers selected as finalists for the Golden Apple Awards for Excellence in Teaching, out of more than 470 nominations. […] Northwestern University provides a spring sabbatical to award recipients at no cost. Each awardee also receives a $5,000 cash prize and becomes Fellows of the Golden Apple Academy of Educators, who play a role in the Golden Apple Scholars and Accelerators programs — initiatives aimed at addressing the teacher shortage in Illinois.

*** Downstate ***

* 25News Now | Illinois lawmakers meet with Peoria leaders to address healthcare worker shortage: “We need students to be able to get from where they are, whether it’s at school or home, to the place where they can learn the skills at issue, and then into a job,” Krishnamoorthi said. He noted the importance of “wraparound resources” which allow students to learn and earn at the same time.

* News Gazette | Staff absences cause Danville schools to close Tuesday: There had been rumors that several school district staff members were going to have a “sick out” and not attend school on Tuesday, over what some have thought was due to the school board not taking action against Superintendent Alicia Geddis working remotely for months now. Possible action items are now on a Wednesday school board meeting agenda.

* News-Gazette | Former Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Garman joins Champaign law firm: Former Chief Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court Rita B. Garman has joined the Champaign law firm of Webber & Thies, PC. She plans to work closely with the firm’s litigation group, particularly its appellate practice. Garman served as a member of the Illinois Supreme Court from 2001 to 2022, including a term as Chief Justice that concluded in 2016. Prior to that, she served on the appellate court (4th District) and as a Circuit and Associate Judge in Vermilion County. The Vermilion County Courthouse now bears her name.

* WCIA | Illinois State Museum looking for judges, volunteers for 2025 state History Day contest: Jenn Edginton, the director of the Illinois State Museum, said this program gets the younger generation excited about history. “National History Day in Illinois is such an important program for middle and high school learners to gain skills and confidence in the history and humanity fields,” Edginton said. “This program aims to inspire the next generation of future historians.” Judges at the Illinois History Day Competition don’t need to have a history degree, however they must be willing to give constructive and useful feedback to the students. All judges will receive training before the competition and then will be tasked to evaluate students’ projects and decide which one will advance to the next round of the competition.

* WSIL | SIU legendary baseball coach Richard “Itchy” Jones passes away at 87: Jones took over the Saluki baseball program as the team’s head coach. He led the Salukis to 10 NCAA tournaments and three College World Series appearances during his time at Southern. His record of 738–345–5 is still the best in program history.

*** National ***

* Chalkbeat | School diversity efforts could violate civil rights, Trump administration says: In a Dear Colleague letter intended for school leaders, the U.S. Department of Education’s top acting civil rights official said Friday that discriminatory practices had proliferated in American schools “under the banner of ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion.’” “But under any banner, discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin is, has been, and will continue to be illegal,” wrote Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights in the Education Department.

* Crain’s | United Airlines turnaround pays off big for CEO Kirby, other execs: United CEO Scott Kirby and other top executives are getting a huge reward for the airline’s rebound from the pandemic that exceeds the run-up in its stock price. The long-term stock incentives Kirby was awarded in 2022 were worth $20.3 million when they paid out recently. Brett Hart, the airline’s president, received an $11.8 million award. Their payouts are four times what United estimated they’d be worth when the grants were made. United’s stock price is up 233%, or more than threefold, since then. It was the third-best performing stock in the S&P 500 last year, and last month the shares hit a record price of $110.52, a remarkable turnaround for a stock that has often been a laggard.

  5 Comments      


The Credit Union Difference

Tuesday, Feb 18, 2025 - Posted by Advertising Department

[The following is a paid advertisement.]

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Poll unsurprisingly finds Trump/Musk and their actions unpopular in Illinois, except for a close division on immigration

Tuesday, Feb 18, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller

* 2024 Illinois state Senate candidate Dave Nayak has moved away from the Democratic Party and headed to the right on DEI and immigration issues, among other things, including RFK, Jr.

He’s definitely gearing up for something, and he released a new poll today…

M3 Strategies surveyed 750 Illinois 2024 voters from February 15-17, 2025. The survey has a margin of error of 3.58%. Respondents were randomly selected from a pool of individuals who voted in November of 2024. All responses were generated via SMS to web survey.

Crosstabs are here.

* Let’s get to the results. How do you rate President Trump’s job performance so far?…



* Do you approve of President Trump’s decision to rename the “Gulf of Mexico” to the “Gulf of America”?…



* Do you approve of President Trump’s actions regarding undocumented immigrants?…



Latinos approved of Trump’s actions 47-42, which is higher than Black and White respondents.

* Which statement most matches your belief on undocumented immigrants: We are a country of laws. The President is correct to enforce those laws. Illegal immigrants divert money away from U.S. citizens and often bring dangerous drugs across the border; We are a nation of immigrants. Trump’s actions are inhumane. He is breaking up families and deporting hard working individuals that the country needs…



Latinos were essentially split on that question, but a higher percentage supported Trump’s position than Black or White respondents.

* Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of the following people…



Just by comparison, a 2022 election poll had Pritzker’s fave/unfave at 50/45 after the incumbent had spent a kabillion dollars. So, the 46/44 result here isn’t all that newsy.

* Do you approve of the work Elon Musk is doing with the Department of Government Efficiency aka DOGE?…



* Which statement most closely matches your opinion regarding the Department of Government Efficiency aka DOGE: DOGE is unconstitutional. It is cutting funding to important programs that were appropriated by Congress including school lunches and early reading programs; DOGE is necessary. Government is bloated and it is finding a significant amount of waste, fraud, and abuse…



  38 Comments      


There’s No End To Credit Card Swipe Fee Greed

Tuesday, Feb 18, 2025 - Posted by Advertising Department

[The following is a paid advertisement.]

Credit card companies collect more than $172 billion in swipe fees from customers and businesses each year, but it’s not enough to satisfy their greed. As consumers and retailers continue to grapple with inflation, Visa raised swipe fees on January 1.

Gov. JB Pritzker, Senate President Don Harmon, House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch and the General Assembly took a stand against swipe fee greed by passing the Interchange Fee Prohibition Act, which limits swipe fees from being charged on the sales tax and tip portion of transactions. This law will provide tangible relief to Illinois families and retailers of all sizes.

While Visa and Mastercard fight to protect their unchecked duopoly in court, Illinois policymakers have sent a clear message that enough is enough.

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It’s just a bill

Tuesday, Feb 18, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller

* WBEZ…

Researchers have found that higher education is one of the most effective ways to prevent people who have been incarcerated from re-offending. Yet just 615 out of 29,470 inmates in Illinois are enrolled in college classes, according to the Education Justice Project based at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Only seven of the state’s 26 prisons offer any higher education programming, and at the facilities that do have courses available, just a fraction of inmates can take part.

But legislation reintroduced in the General Assembly this session could expand access by restoring state financial aid for incarcerated students. That funding could prompt more universities to bring their classes into prisons. […]

Illinois once offered some form of higher education in every prison. But in 1987, state lawmakers passed legislation barring incarcerated students from receiving state financial aid for college, including the MAP grant for low-income students. Shortly after, Congress took away federal financial aid.

The bill passed the House (69-34) last year before stalling in the Senate.

* WGLT…

[The Building Illinois Homes Tax Credit Act] would provide a tax credit for private developers who build low-income housing developments. The program would cost $20 million annually if passed but the credits wouldn’t be distributed until a development is completed and occupied, which limits the state’s financial risk, according to advocates.

Democratic state Rep. Dagmara Avelar of Bolingbrook took the lead as the chief sponsor after [U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez] left the Illinois House in 2023.

Avelar said the bill has not passed in prior sessions due to budget constraints and getting lost in the shuffle. But she said the program is financially beneficial since it could produce jobs and private investment. The current version is a scaled-down package compared to previous efforts. […]

Republican state Rep. Ryan Spain of Peoria is the chief co-sponsor of the bill. Spain said the bill could bring business to Illinois while also addressing the housing shortage.

* Chicago Reader…

Two proposals filed in the Illinois General Assembly as of the February 6 bill-filing deadline would require the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) to ban most physical mail into state prisons. One measure is sponsored by Republican state senator Terri Bryant, a former prison worker who has led the charge for digitized mail in Illinois facilities. The other is backed by Republican state representative David Friess and Minority Leader Tony M. McCombie. […]

[The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 31] released a report in September that claimed staff needed medical care or hospitalization on multiple occasions because they were exposed to drugs or drug use by incarcerated people, often through the mail, though actual evidence of drug-induced health consequences remains rare. The report argues that insecticides, like wasp and roach spray, and synthetic cannabinoids are sprayed onto paper, cut into smaller squares, and mailed into prisons. The union charges that drugs are acquired predominantly through legal mail that looks like it’s coming from someone’s attorney but isn’t AFSCME recommends a shift to photocopied mail where possible and wants IDOC to allow prison staff greater latitude to search legal mail. […]

Kevin Blumenberg served 30 years in Illinois prisons, and he says he was shocked by the push to ban physical mail from prisons. Blumenberg says they should instead scrutinize and fortify existing security measures. […]

“If something is getting in, that means that there’s a breach somewhere. That’s what you need to be fixing, not talking about dismantling and destroying the whole system that has a very vital significance . . . for most individuals who will one day return home into society.” […]

A bill filed by state senator Willie Preston seeks to protect the right for incarcerated people to receive physical mail. It requires that prison officials provide an original, physical copy of correspondence and allows for exemptions only in limited circumstances when supported by evidence that shows “the number of mail items containing contraband, test results of mail tested due to suspicion of mail containing drugs, [and] data on where inside a correctional institution or facility contraband has been found.”

* WCIA…

Rep. Mike Coffey (R-Springfield) filed a bill earlier this month that would amend the School Code to require school boards to invite recruiters from branches of the armed forces to present on high school campuses annually.

Coffey said students should know more information on serving to make the best decision for them after high school.

“I think it’s important we provide high school students with more opportunities to gain understanding of joining the military and the benefits that come from serving the Illinois armed forces,” Coffey said. “Students can learn about the benefits that veterans receive such as property tax exemptions, education and tuition assistance, as well as hunting, fishing licenses and state park camping privileges.”

The bill would require the invites to be for both the U.S. armed forces and the Illinois armed forces, which includes the Illinois Air National Guard, the Illinois Army National Guard, and the Illinois Department of Military Affairs.

* WGN…

Last year, WGN Investigates reported how a team of experts is pushing to reopen the case of a suburban mother who died in 1996.

Authorities ruled that Mary Ann Hayes died of self-strangulation, using a household extension cord.

But the experts believe evidence shows her death was a homicide, staged to look like a suicide. […]

Now, based on WGN’s reporting, state Sen. Craig Wilcox (R-McHenry) has introduced a bill he’s calling Mary Ann’s Law. If passed, the legislation would provide additional training to help law enforcement identify and investigate staged crime scenes.

“Your documentary [Hidden Homicide] really got me interested in it,” said Wilcox. […]

Senate Bill 1781 would also allow families to request an independent review of cases where loved ones die under suspicious circumstances.

  17 Comments      


We are living in a strange timeline

Tuesday, Feb 18, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller

* My weekly syndicated newspaper column…

Mike Madigan knew for a very long time that the US Attorney’s office and the FBI badly wanted to put his head on a spike.

It was no secret. Everybody knew it. Madigan was investigated over and over again, but nothing ever came of it.

“This was a guy they wanted to go after, and they gathered as much as they could against him and something stuck,” the Madigan/McClain jury foreman told the Chicago Tribune.

After the now-pardoned Rod Blagojevich was arrested by the feds in a pre-dawn raid on unseemly corruption charges and was impeached by Madigan’s House, then-Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn appointed a blue-ribbon committee to recommend ethics changes, chaired by former Assistant US Attorney Patrick Collins, who’d helped put George Ryan in prison.

Madigan had been convinced that Blagojevich was a crook for several years. The House Speaker, for instance, would never agree to a major capital plan because he believed the governor and his pals would try to put their grubby paws on every dollar.

But instead of focusing mainly on the executive branch – which had seen the indictments of two governors in a row by that time – the former prosecutor Collins’ commission focused quite significant attention on the General Assembly, and on Madigan in particular.

Most folks just figured that Mike Madigan had avoided the long arm of federal law by being extra careful. And he may have been. But the arrogance of immense power apparently overrode his sense of self-preservation.

He paid a big price last week – two days after Blagojevich received a full pardon from President Donald Trump. Try to put that in a movie and they’d tell you it just wasn’t believable.

The jury believed the prosecution’s (persuasive) arguments that Madigan knew of the move to put the Speaker’s cronies into do-nothing ComEd-related jobs (four counts). Madigan’s insanely unwise decision to associate himself with the widely known scumbag Danny Solis got him guilty verdicts on six more counts.

Madigan was convicted on ten of 23 charges. It’s possible that Madigan, 82, could spend the rest of his life in prison, while Blagojevich may end up serving as the US Ambassador to Serbia.

A few more points:

• The federal government’s much-ballyhooed RICO charge against Mike Madigan and Mike McClain was rejected by jurors 11-1, the jury foreman told some Chicago news media outlets. The foreman told the Tribune that it was part of a “government overreach” against Madigan. The feds almost never lose racketeering cases, but most jurors apparently bought the defense argument that the US Attorney was prosecuting the Mike Madigan “myth” instead of Mike Madigan the man.

• I really thought the G had Madigan cold on the Chinatown thing. They had Madigan on tape numerous times talking with Solis and his consigliere Mike McClain about a land-transfer bill to help a favored developer buy a Chinatown parking lot and build a hotel and how that would result in a new law firm client.

But 10 out of 12 jurors apparently bought the argument that Madigan’s longtime property tax law partner Bud Getzendanner had the final say over who would become a client, and that he would never approve a new client with state land transfer issues before the House.

• Two federal trials have now directly addressed the AT&T charges. Both trials have resulted in hung juries on this topic.

Back in October of 2022, AT&T paid $23 million and entered into a deferred prosecution agreement “to resolve a federal criminal investigation into alleged misconduct involving the company’s efforts to unlawfully influence (Madigan),” the Justice Department declared at the time.

The feds put former AT&T Illinois president Paul La Schiazza on trial, but the jury was unable to convict.

Madigan and McClain were also charged with participating in a bribery scheme in which La Schiazza hired former Rep. Eddie Acevedo (D-Chicago) for a no-show job to help the company pass a bill to exempt the company from having to provide universal landline service. The jury hung 10-2 in favor of acquittal.

The AT&T provision was included in an omnibus bill that had been painstakingly devised over a period of years, had bipartisan support and backing from organized labor, and, most importantly, was part of a 2017 effort to test whether Republicans would help break the notorious Bruce Rauner budget impasse, because the bill also included a 911 call center service fee increases. The bill passed, Rauner’s veto was overridden, and a budget was approved shortly thereafter.

On this point, the feds truly did go after the myth and not the facts.

  21 Comments      


Isabel’s morning briefing (Updated)

Tuesday, Feb 18, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller

* ICYMI: Barrington Hills trustee to fill McConchie’s seat representing Illinois’ 26th Senate District. Daily Herald…

    - Darby Hills replaces Republican state Sen. Dan McConchie of Hawthorn Woods, who resigned Feb. 2 to lead a new nonprofit advocacy group for people with disabilities.
    - As his successor, Hills will finish McConchie’s term and can run for election in 2026.
    - Hills is the founder of Barrington Children’s Charity, which provides meals to 525 children weekly across Barrington-area school districts.

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* Tribune | State mental health, substance abuse divisions would merge under governor’s executive order: The Illinois Department of Human Services departments tasked with mental health and substance use would be combined under an executive order from Gov. JB Pritzker, his office announced Friday. The change is aimed at easing administrative burdens and improving accessibility to services for people who need help with both substance use and mental health, according to Pritzker’s office and advocates. Under Pritzker’s order, the consolidation would take effect in July unless state legislators vote against it.

* Subscribers know more. Jon Seidel…


* Sun-Times | ComEd defendants: Trump order means case with Madigan ties should be put on hold: Defense attorneys are pointing to a Feb. 10 executive order from President Donald Trump pausing enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The president’s order says the law’s use has been “stretched beyond proper bounds and abused in a manner that harms the interests of the United States.”

*** Madigan Trial ***

* Tribune | Mixed verdict in Madigan case reflects a new, harder reality for federal prosecutors: On many of the counts that ended in a mistrial, the jury was deadlocked 11-1 to acquit, the foreman said, meaning that if it weren’t for a lone holdout, Madigan could have been cleared on 13 counts — the majority of the charges he faced. “I did not want to find him guilty of anything,” said the foreman, Tim Nessner, 46, an insurance underwriter from Chicago’s Beverly neighborhood on the Far South Side. “I believe that our verdict is very telling of two things: that we are keeping politicians in check but also government overreach in check.”

* Muddy River News | McClain attorney hopeful for new trial on previous conviction following favorable ruling in latest trial: As far as Madigan’s testimony where he attempted to distance himself from McClain, Cotter called the former speaker’s remarks “very odd” but said they had anticipated that strategy. It’s also why they had twice requested to have a separate trial from the Madigan defense. “We were disappointed but not surprised,” Cotter said. “The jury saw through the speaker trying to deny their relationship. They were friends, and (McClain) was (Madigan’s) lobbyist. (Former ComEd vice president) Fidel Marquez testified that Mike’s job was to lobby the speaker.” Cotter said while they would’ve preferred an outright acquittal, the feedback from the jury is positive and, he believes, bodes well in the previous conviction against McClain.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Capitol Connection | Comptroller talks Madigan verdict, federal funding freezes: llinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza sat down with Capitol Bureau Chief Cole Henke on Capitol Connection to give some insight on the upcoming budget address. Mendoza said she believes Governor J.B. Pritzker will rise to the challenge of presenting a balanced budget at his address Wednesday despite a $3.2 billion projected deficit. That job is made much harder due to federal funding freezes from President Donald Trump’s administration.

* Tribune | Ex-Gov. Pat Quinn calls on Gov. JB Pritzker to push ethics reforms after Michael Madigan conviction: The Quinn commission, headed by former federal prosecutor Patrick Collins, delivered a set of recommendations to upgrade Illinois’ laws, but the results were mixed. Some proposals never passed in part because of a largely recalcitrant General Assembly dominated by Madigan, who Quinn and other critics said impeded wide-ranging reforms. Some proposals that did become law had significant gaps that have allowed public officials to skirt tougher standards.

* Rockford Register Star | Lt. Gov. Stratton: Trump ‘chaos’ not helping working families: Stratton said she would consider a run for U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin’s seat if the 80-year-old chooses to retire following his fifth term in office. The PAC is a way to beef up her political infrastructure while supporting candidates and causes in the wake of President Donald Trump’s election. “One month in, we’re seeing the chaos that’s not helping people’s lives get better,” Stratton said. “We have not heard anything about lowering costs. We have not heard anything about protecting healthcare. None of the things that were promised on the campaign. We have seen none of it happen for working families.”

*** Statewide ***

* WJBD | Illinois health officials taking bird flu precautions despite assessing no ‘active risk’ to humans: [T]he director of the Illinois Department of Public Health said this week said the virus is “not an active risk” to humans in Illinois because no human-to-human spread has been recorded. But the state has taken steps to limit its spread among animals.

* Daily Herald | New IDOT crash data shows drop in traffic deaths but pedestrian fatalities spiking: IDOT reported 1,103 fatal traffic crashes last year that killed 1,196 people, a decline of about 3.5% from 2023. However, 219 fatal pedestrian-involved crashes occurred in 2024, a 9.5% spike from the 200 in 2023. […] IDOT cautions that the 2024 data, reviewed by the Daily Herald last week, is preliminary and could change before finalized.

* Sun-Times | Trump’s tariffs raise alarms for Illinois farm industry: The state is the nation’s second-leading exporter of both soybeans and feed grains and related products, said the Illinois Department of Agriculture. About 44% of grain produced in Illinois is sold for export. The U.S. is the world’s largest food exporter. Illinois ranks fifth in the country for agricultural product exports, with $10.6 billion, according to the Illinois Agriculture Department. Overall, marketing of the state’s agricultural products generates more than $51.1 billion annually. Crops account for 40% of that total.

*** Chicago ***

* Sun-Times | Chicago-area federal workers on edge as Trump guts agencies: ‘It’s devastating’: About 82,000 federal workers were based in Illinois as of December 2024, including 48,300 in the Chicago area, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Loreen Targos, a physical scientist at the Environmental Protection Agency’s Great Lakes National Program Office downtown, helps represent about 1,000 local EPA workers as executive vice president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 704. She said “morale is at an all-time low.”

* FOX Chicago | CTU’s Stacy Davis Gates challenged by ‘Real Caucus’ in May election: Real Caucus presidential candidate Erika Meza, a 25-year Chicago Public Schools educator currently teaching at an elementary school on the Southwest Side, is leading the charge. Meza criticized the current leadership, saying they have prioritized politics over the needs and struggles of teachers. “There is loss of trust among members, among parents, and community allies,” Meza said. “Our current leadership seems to think our power is politics, but I’m here to say our power is in our solidarity.”

* Sun-Times | Court revives former White Sox trainer’s claims against team: An Illinois appellate court revived former White Sox trainer Brian Ball’s discrimination claims against the team Friday, finding that a lower-court judge mistakenly put the burden on Ball when dismissing his claims in 2023. In a 13-page opinion that reversed the 2023 ruling, the appellate court found that the lower-court judge failed to accept Ball’s claims as true and to consider them in a light most favorable to him when ruling on a motion to dismiss from the Sox.

* Tribune | Bobby Jenks, the former Chicago White Sox All-Star closer, is undergoing treatment for stomach cancer: Jenks, 43, said he’s planning to recover well enough to return for a second season as manager of the minor-league Windy City Thunderbolts in Crestwood. “Now it’s time to do what I got to do to get myself better and get myself more time, however you want to look at it,” Jenks told MLB.com in an interview. “I’ll tell you one thing: I’m not going to die here in Portugal.”

* Sun-Times | Polar vortex brings wind chills as low as minus 20 to Chicago region: A cold weather advisory is in effect until noon Tuesday, with wind chills ranging between minus 15 and minus 25 before plummeting to minus 10 overnight in outlying areas. But a warm-up is on tap for the end of the week, with Friday’s high at 26.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Lake County News-Sun | Raids hindering Waukegan’s lead pipe replacement efforts; ‘Our engineers are not from ICE’: Since agents from the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began raids to deport undocumented people on Jan. 25 and 26, Moeller said she is noticing residents in the city’s sizeable Hispanic community are reluctant to come to the door. [Diane Moeller, the project engineer with Robinson Engineering assigned to the effort,] has some advice. “We are seeing it more and more,” Moeller said. “They can go to our website and see the pictures of our entire team. If it is one of us at the door, it is safe to open it. We’re all Spanish speakers. Our engineers are not from ICE.”

* WTTW | Cook County State’s Attorney Will No Longer Divert Nonviolent Gun Cases to Restorative Justice Courts: Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke has instructed her office to stop diverting people with gun possession charges to the county’s Restorative Justice Community Courts (RJCC), which reroute people with nonviolent charges from criminal courts to an alternative program. The move guts the RJCC caseload, 82.8% of which was dedicated to adjudicating gun possession cases, according to the Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts. Already the caseload has been cut in half, according to Judge Patricia Spratt, who presides over the North Lawndale RJCC.

* Daily Southtown | Homer Township Reset slate challenges Freedom Caucus incumbents in Republican Primary: Balich and his Will County Freedom Caucus slate are seeking reelection to various Homer Township offices this spring, but are challenged in the Feb. 25 Republican Primary by the Homer Township Reset slate led by Homer Glen Trustee Susanna Steilen. Steilen said Balich and his administration have caused rifts in the community. She said residents are chastised for speaking out and haven’t had input into the administration’s plans, citing the civic center and failed attempts to build houses on open space and sell open space.

* Rodriguez is running against Dominick for Town President…

*


…Adding… Cicero Voters Alliance…

This was a statement we put out immediately after the error by the contractor:

The CVA hired a vendor to execute a robo-call on Monday to residents in Cicero.

The Town of Cicero’s caller-id (708-656-3600)was inadvertently programmed to display the general number

As soon as this error was discovered, the communication was immediately canceled.

No taxpayer funds were ever requested or used to generate this communication.

* Daily Herald | Candidate drops out of race for Aurora mayor: Aurora mayoral candidate Jazmine Garcia dropped out of the race on Monday and threw her support to another candidate, John Laesch. Garcia said she quit because it was “necessary to ensure that our mission for an honest, accountable and corruption-free government continues in the strongest possible way,” according to a video posted on Facebook.

* Tribune | Cook County explores Planned Parenthood partnership in Englewood: A partnership with the county could help maintain care for thousands of Englewood patients while potentially bringing new patients into Cook County Health and its Medicaid managed care insurance program, CountyCare. The need is especially acute in Englewood, where HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, infant mortality and the teen birth rate are higher than the city average.

* Daily Herald | German food manufacturer plans $25.8 million project in Huntley: Open space to the south could accommodate another 60,000 square feet of future expansions. The Huntley village board unanimously signed off on the plans Thursday. The company makes flavorings including barbecue, fruits and cheeses. Huntley is offering economic incentives to Silesia, including a 100% rebate of the village share of the site’s property taxes for the first five years and a $25,000 moving grant.

* Tribune | End of state grocery tax creates conundrum for suburbs facing revenue shortfall: The Clarendon Hills Village Board and staff discussed the grocery tax at a Feb. 10 meeting, and the board is expected to take action soon. First consideration of the ordinance for approval and adoption of a local grocery sales tax is scheduled for the March 17 board meeting, and second consideration and a vote for passage is to take place at the April 21 meeting, said Clarendon Hills Finance Director Maureen Potempa. While discussions about implementing a local grocery tax, beginning at the start of 2026, have not yet taken place, plans exist to do so later in the year in Hinsdale, La Grange, Western Springs and Burr Ridge. In Hinsdale, Village Manager Kathleen Gargano said the possibility of implementing a local grocery tax will be addressed by the state’s October deadline.

* Beacon-News | Six years after mass shooting shook Aurora, legal battle continues for victims’ families, witnesses: For the victims’ families and several witnesses, the nightmare is compounded by a protracted lawsuit against the Illinois State Police. The wrongful death suit, filed shortly after killings, blames the state police for allowing the shooter to possess a gun even though the agency knew he was a convicted felon and prohibited from owning a firearm.

* Sun-Times | Skokie businesses suffer Valentine’s Day heartbreak of lost customers after water main break: Valentine’s Day is Libertad’s biggest, most profitable night of the year. But on Friday, he and his staff had to call and cancel the 140 reservations for Friday night’s special menu of roasted Blue Point oysters with bone marrow, ora king salmon alongside scallion rice and shrimp escabeche, and filet mignon with potatoes au gratin and a bordelaise sauce. “We brought in different, higher-cost ingredients than what’s normally on our menu to help those who came out to celebrate and enjoy something different and special,” Rivera said. “Now, we don’t really know what to do with it since those ingredients aren’t on our normal menu.”

* Shaw Local | Barrington Hills couple wants to sell flowers on their farm. So far, the village has said no.: Trustees and zoning board members were concerned that the residential property would be used for commercial purposes. They approved of wholesaling the product. But they did not want direct-to-consumer sales. Under the new proposal, only products of the property’s own agricultural operations — such as fruits, flowers, vegetables, eggs, or honey — may be sold.

*** Downstate ***

* PJ Star | When this small Illinois high school needed a music director, a student stepped up: Following Best’s sophomore year, Stark County’s long-time band and choir director retired, and her replacement quit unexpectedly just a few weeks into the 2023 school year. Principal Megan McGann said teacher shortages are a “growing concern,” especially in the arts and especially in smaller rural schools like Stark County, a 230-student school located in Toulon, about 45 minutes northwest of Peoria. But instead of going without a music program, [Stark County senior Lauren Best] and other students took over and assumed leadership of the program from September 2023 until last January, when Elswick became music director.

* WCIA | ‘There were people crying’; Central Illinois federal workers face unemployment, uncertainty: A.J. Ruggieri of Champaign walked into the office last week for what he thought would be a normal day. He’d been working for a sub agency of the USDA for nearly two and a half months when he learned that his job was cut short. “I went into the office Friday morning, I looked at my email, and the previous night at 7:50 p.m. I had been sent an email that was titled ‘Termination Notice Probationary Employee,’” Ruggieri said. […] “There were people crying,” he continued. “No type of severance, just nothing other than thank you for your federal service.”

*** National ***

* NBC | Trump administration fires at least 20 immigration judges amid massive case backlog: The Trump administration has fired at least 20 immigration judges – including 13 who were consider in their probationary status – according to NBC 5 Investigates source and those of NBC News. […] We referenced a 2023 Congressional Research Service study that showed that the 3.7 million backlog of cases - where immigrants are either seeking asylum or fighting deportation - is so immense that adding another 300 judges wouldn’t clear it for 10 years. In fact, the study pointed out it would take an additional 700 judges – more than 1300 in total – to clear the case backlog by 2032.

* Nature Communications | Epidemiological data of an influenza A/H5N1 outbreak in elephant seals in Argentina indicates mammal-to-mammal transmission: Our combined ecological and phylogenetic data support mammal-to-mammal transmission and occasional mammal-to-bird spillover and suggest multinational transmission of H5N1 viruses in mammals. We reflect that H5N1 viruses becoming more evolutionary flexible and adapting to mammals in new ways could have global consequences for wildlife, humans, and/or livestock.

* NYT | As Wall Street Chases Profits, Fire Departments Have Paid the Price: Desperate to gain control of flames that were raging through Pacific Palisades last month, the Los Angeles Fire Department issued an urgent call for any available personnel to report for possible deployment. But there was a problem: Dozens of the rigs that would have carried extra crews that day were out of service. The city maintenance yard was filled with aging fire engines and ladder trucks, many of which were beyond their expected service life.

* NBC | Top Social Security official steps down after disagreement with DOGE over sensitive data: One of the sources familiar with the situation, Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, a left-leaning group focused on protecting and expanding Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, told NBC News she learned of the situation after speaking with several current officials at the agency. Altman said some of the information involved in the dispute included Americans’ bank information, social security numbers, earnings records, marital statuses, dates of birth and in some cases medical records if a person has applied for disability benefits.

* The Southern | ‘This is a big moment’: Paul Simon Public Policy Institute weighs in on future of judicial checks: “I do think that, you know, we’re — everyone is exhausted and worn down, and they’re all thinking, ‘OK, this moment will pass,’ but — but this is a big and consequential moment, and it’s worth people taking the time to to following what’s going on and to expressing their concerns,” [John Shaw, the director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute,] said.

* Reason | Birthright Citizenship - A Response to Barnett and Wurman: There are several flaws in Barnett and Wurman’s “allegiance-for-protection” theory. The biggest is that, if consistently applied, it would undermine the central purpose the Citizenship Clause: extending citizenship to recently freed slaves and their descendants. Slaves born in the United States (and their parents, who were also usually slaves) obviously weren’t part of any social compact under which they traded allegiance for protection. Far from protecting them, state and federal governments facilitated their brutal oppression at the hands of their masters.

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Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Supplement to today’s edition

Tuesday, Feb 18, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller

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Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Today’s edition of Capitol Fax (use all CAPS in password)

Tuesday, Feb 18, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller

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Live coverage

Tuesday, Feb 18, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller

* Click here and/or here to follow breaking news. Hopefully, enough reporters and news outlets migrate to BlueSky so we can hopefully resume live-posting.

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Selected press releases (Live updates)

Tuesday, Feb 18, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller

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Reader comments closed for the holiday weekend

Friday, Feb 14, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Turn the lights down, flip on this song and have a sweet dance with the one you love, courtesy of Etta and Satchmo…

All my wildest dreams
Came true

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Isabel’s afternoon roundup

Friday, Feb 14, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller

* Capitol News Illinois…

Gia Biagi made her name building parks. Now, she’s leading the department that oversees more than 145,000 miles of roads, 7,000 miles of railways, 1,000 miles of waterways and 26,000 bridges.

Biagi indicated she wants to increase the speed – and day-to-day impacts – of the thousands of projects [the Illinois Department of Transportation] will approve.

“It’s our job, not only to get that money spent, to get shovels in the ground, get hands on those shovels, get people into jobs, get the work done and get it done as fast as possible,” Biagi said. “One of my goals is to really think as creatively as possible about how we can deliver faster and more. That does mean more disruption, but it’s maybe a good kind of disruption.”

Part of that approach, she said, is to find projects that will improve local communities, both by reducing the “friction” of travel and by creating jobs.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Tribune | Lobbyist sues environmental advocacy group alleging pregnancy discrimination: “These false allegations, filed by a disgruntled former employee, are without merit,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “Our organization, and our leaders, prioritize providing a professional and respectful environment that supports our employees in their advocacy for clean water, air and energy policies across Illinois.” The lawsuit alleges the IEC’s executive director, Jennifer Walling, made comments that showed her “antipathy toward pregnancy” both before and after Koerner announced she was pregnant.

* From the comptroller…

*** Statewide ***

* STLPR | Carnegie Foundation gives top research nod to 11 universities in Missouri and Illinois: The R1 status demonstrates that a university is doing research at an impactful level and is good at training students and developing workforces while also developing technologies and generally innovation, Borrok said. Getting that kind of recognition can snowball, leading to more accolades and more money for research, while being helpful for recruiting students, especially international students, said Mushtaq Gunja, executive director of the Carnegie College Classification Systems.

* Sun-Times | Joann closing 26 stores in Illinois amid Chapter 11 bankruptcy: Struggling fabric and crafts seller Joann plans to close about 500 of its stores across the U.S. — or more than half of its current nationwide footprint — as well as 26 stores in Illinois. The move, announced Wednesday, arrives amid a tumultuous time for Joann. Last month, the Hudson, Ohio-based retailer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for the second time within a year, with the company pointing to issues like sluggish consumer demand and inventory shortages.

* Press Release | IDNR and ICF award 26 youth habitat enhancement projects through the Illinois Schoolyard Habitat Grant Program: “The Illinois Schoolyard Habitat Action Grant program provides students and educators with opportunities to create native habitat in their schoolyards and increase the use of native plants in Illinois landscapes while benefitting wildlife species,” said IDNR Director Natalie Phelps Finnie. “By participating in these projects, students learn that their efforts can make a positive difference in the world, and they gain experience in problem-based learning by planning, developing, and maintaining the habitat.” The Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Foundation is the major sponsor of this program. Nearly $394,000 in Illinois Schoolyard Habitat Action Grant funding has been distributed since the program’s inception.

*** Chicago ***

* WBEZ | Remnant of 143-year-old Chicago Stock Exchange is bound for Texas: The New York Stock Exchange owns what’s left of the equities marketplace. The NYSE has announced it will move it to Dallas and reincorporate it as the NYSE Texas. The NYSE bought the Chicago exchange in 2018 and rebranded it to NYSE Chicago. For years, it has been a fully electronic trading center, without the need for a raucous floor that used to define such daily dealing.

* Crain’s | Lurie keeps pause on gender-affirming surgeries despite halt on Trump order: A small number of patients are being affected by the surgery pause, Lurie said, and the children’s hospital is still accepting new patients to its broader gender-affirming care program. The pause is catching the ire of at least one local group. Indivisible Chicago Alliance, a progressive advocacy organization, is planning to protest Lurie’s decision tomorrow at Seneca Park outside of Lurie’s Streeterville facility. The group calls Lurie’s surgery hold a “harmful elimination of life-saving, trans-affirming care.”

* WBEZ | Thousands of counterfeit Forever postage stamps are seized in Chicago: Return to sender! (But make sure you do it legally.) This reminder comes after Customs and Border Protection agents in Chicago seized nearly 162,000 counterfeit U.S. Forever stamps this past week, shipped from China. The stamps were spread over eight different shipments, and had they been real, would have been worth over $118,000, according to CBP.

* Block Club | Want To Train Your Dog To Hunt Rats? This Ravenswood Workshop Teaches The Art Of Ratting: Urban Pooch, 5400 N. Damen Ave. — which regularly offers grooming, doggie daycare and pet supplies to neighborhood dog owners — is hosting its inaugural ratting workshop on March 16. The two-hour, $75 class will focus on developing a dog’s scent and communication skills by having the pup hunt for rats. At this writing the 9 a.m. class is sold out, but the noon and 3 p.m. classes still have spots available.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Yikes…

* NBC Chicago | Old Orchard Mall closed due to water main break impacting multiple Chicago suburbs: The mall posted on social media Friday afternoon that “due to a loss of water pressure caused by the water main break earlier this morning, and out of an abundance of caution for our retailers, restaurants, and customers; Westfield Old Orchard will be closed for the remainder of today.”

* Tribune | Water main break causes Skokie and Evanston boil orders, flooding and students to be sent home: “I don’t want to want to even check (for damages),” Elvir Dizdarevic, a Skokie handyman and resident of the 9200 block of Ewing Avenue, said inside his flooded and frozen-over garage. Dizdarevic said at its height, flooding was knee high. He said he was concerned for his neighbors who hadn’t opened their garage doors. Freezing temperatures are expected to continue, forming ice, Dizdarevic said, and could make it difficult for his neighbors to open their garages.

* Tribune | Skokie will likely revamp its ‘Welcoming City’ ordinance: Trustee Khem Khoeun asked Mayor George Van Dusen if the village needed to update its welcoming village ordinance given recent immigration enforcement raids and the anxiety that some people in Skokie’s immigrant community are dealing with. “I know that for a segment of our community, they don’t feel safe right now. They are scared,” Khouen said.

* Daily Herald | Celebrity chef considering long vacant Fritzl’s restaurant in Lake Zurich for next venture: Celebrity chef and restaurateur Fabio Viviani and partner Romeo Kapudija are exploring plans for a new restaurant in the former Fritzl’s European Restaurant & Pub, which closed in 2021 after 36 years. […] Fabio operates 40 restaurant concepts nationally including Giostra by Fabio Viviani, which opened last fall at the Arboretum of South Barrington.

*** Downstate ***

* Sun-Times | Sonya Massey’s father discusses $10 million settlement: ‘She would have been 37 years old today’: “He should have never been hired,” Wilburn said, referring to Sangamon County, the Sheriff’s Office and the five other police departments in central Illinois where Grayson had worked. None flagged his misconduct. […] It’s the largest legal settlement in the Sangamon County history, representing roughly 17% of the county’s yearly operating budget of $60 million.

* WSIL | Carbondale based business awarded more than $70,000 in Innovation Voucher Grants: It’s part of a $2.3 million innovation voucher grants awarded which were announced by Governor JB Pritzker on Friday. This grant funding will support research and development projects with universities. A total of 35 awards were announced through the program. One of those was for Thermaquatica in Carbondale through SIU. They were awarded $74,975.

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Cost containment reduces projected immigrant healthcare spending by almost half

Friday, Feb 14, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller

* A good catch by CNI’s Ben Szalinski in his pretty darned good budget backgrounder story…

Two specific programs that have drawn Republican ire provide health benefits for noncitizens regardless of legal residency status. The Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults and Health Benefits for Immigrant Seniors provide Medicaid-style benefits to noncitizens age 42 and older.

The programs unexpectedly stretched the state budget in spring 2023 when costs were projected to potentially reach $1 billion. Lawmakers enacted new restrictions, including giving the governor authority to pause enrollment, and projected program costs are now at $558 million in the current fiscal year. Enrollment in the programs, meanwhile, has remained paused.

Click here for the info source.

* More…

The state also spent hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years on migrants arriving on buses sent by Texas and other Republican-led states, but that problem appeared to largely subside in 2024. […]

Revenue is set to remain relatively flat next year, in part because one-time sources are disappearing. Federal pandemic aid has ended, and the Department of Revenue underwent a “true-up” process to fix a miscalculation of “overpayments” to local governments, which ended up boosting current year revenues that won’t carry over to next year.

GOMB’s report also reflected spending increases that are required by law in FY26, such as $350 million more to K-12 education, $440 million more for pensions, $1.1 billion more for health care as one-time federal reimbursements expire, and general spending increases throughout state government.

Those migrant costs will likely go down in the new budget. And I would expect that at least some programs which were benefiting from one-time federal reimbursements will be discontinued or scaled back.

As we all learned during the Rauner budget impasse, parts of the budget cannot be controlled by the state. But some can.

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Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Session update

Friday, Feb 14, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller

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Carol Marin named Lincoln Laureate

Friday, Feb 14, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller

* I love me some Carol Marin. From the governor…

Governor JB Pritzker today announced the 2025 recipients of the Order of Lincoln, the state’s highest honor for professional achievement and public service. This year’s Lincon Laureates will be honored at the upcoming 61st Annual Convocation at 5:30 p.m. on May 3, 2025, at the Krannert Center for the Arts located on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Established in 1964, the Order of Lincoln recognizes individuals who have made remarkable contributions to the betterment of humanity in or on behalf of the State of Illinois. The six recipients join more than 350 distinguished Illinois residents who have joined the Order of Lincoln over the last five decades.

“With world-renowned achievements in athletics, literature, architecture, education, journalism and history, the 2025 class of Lincoln Laureates embody the very best that Illinois has to offer,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “I am proud to uplift their incredible contributions and to award these talented men and women our state’s highest honor.”

This year’s recipients are: […]

Carol Marin, esteemed journalist and Emmy Award-winning reporter. She is a native Illinoisan and University of Illinois graduate. Her career affiliations include WMAQ-TV Chicago, CBS News, “60 Minutes,” and the Evening News with Dan Rather. She also served as a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times and was a regular contributor to “Chicago Tonight” on WTTW, a public broadcast station. In 1997, Marin was awarded the prestigious Peabody Award for her body of work. She received another Peabody Award, along with producer Don Moseley, in 1998 for their documentary on the facially disfigured. She is the recipient of national Emmy awards in 1989 and 1998, as well as two Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Awards in 1986 and 1998, for exceptional reporting. The American Women in Radio & Television presented her with the coveted Gracie Award in 2002. Marin Corp Productions, her independent documentary company, began an association with DePaul University in 2003, where, along with Moseley, produced programs for CNN and The New York Times/Discovery Channel. ​ Marin returned to WMAQ in 2004, and two years later, became the station’s political editor. Her outstanding journalism once again culminated in industry recognition, this time earning her a third Peabody Award for investigative reporting in 2015 on the police shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. In 2016, DePaul University launched the Center for Journalism Integrity & Excellence with Marin as co-director, where she continues to help guide students as they prepare for a career in journalism. […]

The May 3 ceremony is free and open to the public and will be livestreamed on Facebook and YouTube. A ticketed reception and dinner will immediately follow the ceremony, and tickets must be purchased in advance by April 1.

For further information or to attend the upcoming gala, contact Executive Director Leanne Barnhart at 217-493-0047 or visit www.LincolnAcademyIllinois.org.

Other recipients are Bonnie Blair, Sandra Cisneros, Jeanne Gang, Janice K. Jackson and Julieanna L. Richardson.

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It’s just a bill

Friday, Feb 14, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller

* House Minority Leader Tony McCombie…

Illinois House Minority Leader Tony McCombie has filed a package of new legislation to fund initiatives encouraging young women to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math through mentorships and scholarships. STEM is the acronym used to refer to the four distinct but related technical disciplines in education.
Leader McCombie’s legislation includes:

HB 2801 – Directs the Illinois State Board of Education to create a resource for K-12 STEM teachers to inform young women pursuing STEM careers about externship/volunteer opportunities with Illinois organizations in STEM.

HB 2802 – Allows girls in STEM classes to have one school day long absence per school year to pursue STEM externships if approved by school administration.

HB 2806 – Adds women to the list of demographics eligible for the STEM higher education scholarship program (currently only racial minorities are eligible).

* Restore Justice…

On Friday, February 7, Representative Theresa Mah introduced House Bill 3332. The bill would create a limited opportunity for people under 20 and younger at the time of their offense to petition the court for their sentence to be reviewed.

Restore Justice recently released a report, More Than a Conviction: Stories of Children Sentenced to Life Without Parole in Illinois. This report highlights firsthand journeys of transformation and success, underscoring the urgent need for reform. It concludes that sentencing should be about changing people, not just punishing them. Everyone is more than their worst mistake; people can change and successfully reintegrate into the community.
Currently, people serving life or extremely long sentences have few meaningful opportunities to have their cases reviewed since Illinois abolished parole in 1978 and enacted so-called “truth-in sentencing” in 1998, limiting opportunities for people to earn reentry or time off their sentence.

“I have met a number of people incarcerated in our Department of Corrections from a young age who have genuinely become mature, educated, completely rehabilitated people who could be contributing members of society if given an opportunity,” said Representative Mah. “The current system is in need of reform, especially in light of what we know now about brain development and also the fact that our system of “corrections” really does not afford many opportunities for rehabilitated people to be considered for release.”

HB 3332 would build on recent bipartisan reforms recognizing children’s and young people’s brain development and unique capacity to mature and change. Data shows extremely low recidivism rates for people convicted as youth and released as adults. This bill would create a pathway for people sentenced as children and young adults to show that they have been rehabilitated and return home to give back to the community.

“No one should be defined for their whole life by one mistake. Illinois needs this retroactive reform because people deserve a chance to show who they have become,” said Restore Justice Policy Manager James Swansey. Swansey originally received a life without parole sentence at the age of 17. He received a new sentence after U.S. Supreme Court decisions.

HB 3332 is a fair, cost-effective, age-appropriate way to ensure children and young adults are held accountable for the harm they have caused while offering them an opportunity to redeem themselves.

* HB3061 from Rep. Sonya Harper…

Creates the On-Premise Cannabis Consumption Act. Provides that a county or municipality may issue licenses for temporary events and cannabis hospitality venues that will allow for the consumption of cannabis or cannabis-infused products and for the sale of cannabis paraphernalia at such temporary events or venues. Requires ordinances with specified requirements for such temporary events and cannabis hospitality venues before any licenses are issued. Limits home rule powers. Makes conforming changes in the Smoke Free Illinois Act. Effective immediately.

* HB3780 from Rep. Barbara Hernandez…

Creates the Illinois Universal Health Care Act. Provides that all individuals residing in the State are covered under the Illinois Health Services Program for health insurance. Sets forth the health coverage benefits that participants are entitled to under the Program. Sets forth the qualification requirements for participating health providers. Sets forth standards for provider reimbursement. Provides that it is unlawful for private health insurers to sell health insurance coverage that duplicates the coverage of the Program. Provides that investor-ownership of health delivery facilities is unlawful. Provides that the State shall establish the Illinois Health Services Trust to provide financing for the Program. Sets forth the requirements for claims billing under the Program. Provides that the Program shall include funding for long-term care services and mental health services. Provides that the Program shall establish a single prescription drug formulary and list of approved durable medical goods and supplies. Creates the Pharmaceutical and Durable Medical Goods Committee to negotiate the prices of pharmaceuticals and durable medical goods with suppliers or manufacturers on an open bid competitive basis. Sets forth provisions concerning patients’ rights. Provides that the employees of the Program shall be compensated in accordance with the current pay scale for State employees and as deemed professionally appropriate by the General Assembly.

* Sens. David Koehler and Doris Turner filed SB1607 earlier this month…

Creates the Illinois Freedom Trails Commission Act. Establishes the Illinois Freedom Trails Commission. Provides that the purpose of the Commission shall be to explore, research, and commemorate the journeys of freedom seekers and the sites and landmarks in the State that became the networks of the Underground Railroad. Provides that the Commission shall implement educational, landmark preservation, and grant programs. Sets forth provisions concerning membership; terms; compensation; administrative support; and staff. Provides that the Commission shall submit an annual report to the Governor and the General Assembly. Effective immediately.

* Scott Holland…

If the current legislative session hasn’t ginned up enough controversy for your liking, pay attention to House Bill 2827.

The plan, from state Rep. Terra Costa Howard, D-Glen Ellyn, would create The Homeschool Act. The State Board of Education would create a declaration form any homeschool parent or administrator would submit to the local public school district office. Failure to do so would result in truancy penalties, which at present do not generally apply to kids not enrolled in school. […]

Enter The Caucus Blog, a digital arm of House Republicans, with a post headlined “Democrats take aim at homeschool families.” They labeled HB 2827 a legislative overreach and government expansion that would “impact thousands of Illinois families who have lawfully chosen to homeschool their children” in contravention of the 1950 Illinois Supreme Court opinion People v. Levisen.

A specific concern is the bill’s reference to an “educational portfolio.” The bill doesn’t directly require homeschoolers to keep such a document – basically a record of progress and assessment – but functionally mandates doing so by empowering state and local school officials to request portfolios “as evidence that the homeschool administrator’s homeschool program provides a course of instruction that is sufficient to satisfy the education requirements set forth in Sections 26-1 and 27-1 of the School Code and that is at least commensurate with the standards prescribed for public schools.”

* SB1685 from Sen. Christopher Belt…

Creates the Debt Resolution Services Act. Provides that no person shall provide or offer to provide debt resolution services without a debt resolution services license. Defines “debt resolution services” as a program or service represented, directly or by implication, to renegotiate, settle, or in any way alter the terms of payment or other terms of the debt between a consumer and one or more unsecured creditors. Sets forth requirements for a debt resolution services license. Sets forth the process for obtaining a debt resolution services license. Provides that specified persons are exempt under the Act. Provides the prerequisites and permitted practices for providing debt resolution services. Provides the requirements for a contract between a licensee and a consumer for debt resolution services. Provides that a consumer may terminate a contract to provide debt resolution services at any time without any penalty. Provides that a licensee may terminate a contract to provide debt resolution services if specified conditions are satisfied. Includes provisions concerning the powers of the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation; prohibited activities under the Act, including prohibitions against false or misleading advertising; annual reports filed by a licensee; fees for debt resolution services; information a licensee must provide to a consumer; records a licensee is required to keep; penalties for violating the Act; and transactions entered into before the effective date of the Act. Repeals the Debt Settlement Consumer Protection Act. Amends various Acts to replace references to the Debt Settlement Consumer Protection Act to the Debt Resolution Services Act. Effective January 9, 2026.

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There’s No End To Credit Card Swipe Fee Greed

Friday, Feb 14, 2025 - Posted by Advertising Department

[The following is a paid advertisement.]

Credit card companies collect more than $172 billion in swipe fees from customers and businesses each year, but it’s not enough to satisfy their greed. As consumers and retailers continue to grapple with inflation, Visa raised swipe fees on January 1.

Gov. JB Pritzker, Senate President Don Harmon, House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch and the General Assembly took a stand against swipe fee greed by passing the Interchange Fee Prohibition Act, which limits swipe fees from being charged on the sales tax and tip portion of transactions. This law will provide tangible relief to Illinois families and retailers of all sizes.

While Visa and Mastercard fight to protect their unchecked duopoly in court, Illinois policymakers have sent a clear message that enough is enough.

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Open thread

Friday, Feb 14, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller

* To celebrate Valentine’s Day, here’s Adele covering Bob Dylan…

How’ve you been?

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Isabel’s morning briefing

Friday, Feb 14, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller

* ICYMI: Ex-Speaker Michael Madigan’s state pension suspended following conviction. Tribune…

    - Former Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan’s $158,000 annual state of Illinois pension is being halted following his high-profile corruption conviction.
    - Illinois law bars elected officials in the legislative pension plan from collecting payments once they are convicted or enter a guilty plea in a felony tied to their government job.
    - Timothy Blair, executive secretary of the Illinois General Assembly Retirement System, said Madigan will receive his nearly $13,170 pension check for February because that has already been processed.

* Related stories…

* FYI it’s the last day to vote in the state flag redesign contest.

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* Bloomberg | Top U.S. grid wins speedy review of power plants to feed AI boom: PJM Interconnection LLC, which manages a network from the East Coast to Chicago, won federal approval to fast-track the review of up to 50 new projects. The studies will focus on boosting grid reliability starting in April to help avoid potential shortages toward the end of this decade, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said in an order issued late Tuesday.

* JB Pritzker Press Secretary Alex Gough: We’re encouraged that PJM and FERC both recognize that interconnection queue delays are contributing to the power grid’s lack of capacity. As this initiative is implemented, we believe resources should not be diverted from addressing underlying problems with the power grid interconnection queues, and we hope the initiative leverages clean resources like nuclear and battery storage.

* AP | Illinois data shows inmates with violent records from shuttered prison sent to medium-security sites: Among the approximately 400 inmates transferred when Illinois’ decrepit Stateville prison closed over the summer, 278 were convicted of murder and 100 more are serving time for other violent offenses. Yet, nearly four in five of the offenders formerly housed at the suburban Chicago lockup were not shipped to top-level maximum-security prisons, where the toughest criminals, troublemakers and escape risks are housed. Instead, they went to mid-level medium-security facilities, according to an Associated Press analysis of Illinois Department of Corrections data.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Sun-Times | Trump, pensions, health care among pressure points as Gov. JB Pritzker crafts state budget:
Pritzker will outline his budgetary priorities in an address on Feb. 19 at the Illinois State Capitol. So far, he has hinted that raising taxes to balance the budget is a last-resort proposition. But things could change. “It’s very important that we live within our means in this state, and that we not resort to tax increases as a way to, you know, to balance the budget,” Pritzker said last month.

* Center Square | Illinois lawmakers zoom in on budget ahead of governor’s address : State Rep. Barbara Hernandez, D-Aurora, proposed several fee increases. One involved quadrupling the cost of judicial transcripts. “Right now it’s at 70 cents per page and it hasn’t been changed since 1980, so we’re just adjusting that because of inflation to maybe $3 a page,” Hernandez told The Center Square.

*** Statewide ***

* 25News Now | Illinois is short 100 court reporters, but a free training program could be the fix: Spradlin said half of the staff are age 55 or older. Longtime court reporter and training program instructor Melissa Clagg is one of them. “We have such a shortage right now. We are kind of in dire straits,” Clagg said. “We’re retiring right and left. It’s putting more of an impact, more of a strain because we’re covering more courts, more hours in court, and trying to get through the volume of cases.” To boost interest in the career, the state started offering a tuition-free training program in 2024. It features guaranteed job placement and requires a two-year employment contract.

*** Chicago ***

* Sun-Times | Aviation, COPA chiefs out after Johnson vows to purge disloyal staff: The Sun-Times reported Mayor Johnson’s warning that he was ready to send people packing. On Thursday, Aviation Commissioner Jamie Rhee and Civilian Office of Police Accountability chief Andrea Kersten retired. Jose Tirado, director of the city’s Office of Emergency Management & Communications, is leaving to take a job with the Cook County state’s attorney.

* BGA | Alleging Obstruction, Chicago’s Inspector General Turns to City Council for Stronger Laws: In a memo sent Friday to the Chicago City Council’s ethics committee, city Inspector General Deborah Witzburg laid out a series of what her office characterizes as obstructions by the city’s law department and sought new legislation to buttress the OIG’s independence. In unusually strong language for a council memo, the document alleges that the city’s Department of Law “selectively acts in opposition to OIG’s investigative work when OIG’s work may result in embarrassment or political consequences to City leaders.”

* Tribune | City watchdog: Mayor Brandon Johnson’s Law Department hindering probes over fear of political embarrassment: In a scathing 14-page letter sent late last week to the head of the City Council’s Ethics Committee, Inspector General Deborah Witzburg said the law departments for Johnson and other mayors selectively impeded investigations by withholding records, slow-walking compliance with inspector general’s office subpoenas and demanding top mayoral lawyers be allowed to attend confidential investigative interviews. “It is not, and cannot be, within Corporation Counsel’s authority to unilaterally choose which City actors may be meaningfully investigated by (the inspector general’s office),” Witzburg wrote.

* Block Club | Snow Returns Friday Night, Followed By ‘Really, Really Cold’ Week Ahead: The silver lining is a warmup arriving Friday, with temperatures in the upper 20s and potentially reaching the mid-30s by Saturday, said National Weather Service Meteorologist Gino Izzi.

* Sun-Times | ‘I ain’t got nothing to lose,’ says ex-White Sox star Tim Anderson, who’s trying to save his career in Angels camp: It’s a different-looking Anderson this spring. He’s sporting a thick, black beard and wearing No. 77 in red. When a player’s number goes up by 70, it’s usually not the best sign, a visitor from the Sun-Times pointed out. “That’s true,” Anderson said, laughing easily, “but I’m just thankful to be here, grateful all the way down. I got another shot at it. It’s just a little challenge, and I ain’t got nothing to lose.”

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Tribune | In absence of state regulation, some suburbs are banning hemp products that get users high: In a family-friendly suburb northwest of Chicago, local officials were worried about a proliferation of shops selling hemp products that can get users high. One smoke shop in Rolling Meadows moved in next to a Dunkin’ Donuts. Two more are down the street from a middle school. […] Citing safety concerns, particularly for kids, Mayor Lara Sanoica and the City Council approved a ban on the retail sale of products containing hemp-derived THC, a psychoactive compound that gets users high. The ban took effect this month.

* Daily Herald | ‘This is a safe environment’: Amid fears of deportation sweeps, schools work to protect students: While many suburban school districts say they have not had any interaction with immigration authorities in recent weeks, President Donald Trump’s stepped up enforcement efforts have led to widespread concern. Many districts have sent home letters to parents reassuring them that they will provide a safe environment for students to learn.

* Evanston Now | A step toward zero waste?: In 2018, the City of Evanston passed a Climate Action and Resilience Plan, calling for the city to achieve zero waste by 2050. While the goal may seem lofty, a community-led grassroots effort to make it a reality took a step forward Thursday night with a presentation of a roadmap to the city’s Environment Board.

* Tribune | Actor Steve Carell tapped as Northwestern University’s Commencement speaker: “I’m thrilled to be speaking at Northwestern’s Commencement this year,” Carell told Northwestern. “My speech’s theme will be ‘The Importance of Lowering Expectations,’ which for these graduates, should start with my speech.” Carell’s comedy career got started in Chicago, according to the university, when he joined The Second City beginning in 1987. While there, he worked with Stephen Colbert, a Northwestern alum, and both did Dana Carvey’s short-lived sketch comedy show before Carell joined “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.”

*** Downstate ***

* WCIA | Urbana Mayor candidates making final pushes before primary: There’s less than two weeks until the Urbana Democratic primary on Feb. 25. That’s when Deshawn Williams will face off against Annie Feldmeier-Adams for the right to replace current Mayor Diane Marlin. “We’re feeling strong as we finish out,” Feldmeier-Adams said.

* BND | Belleville mayor’s former advisers endorse her challenger as campaign ramps up: Two of Belleville Mayor Patty Gregory’s closest former advisers are throwing their support behind her challenger in the mayoral race. Gigi Dowling Urban, who worked as administrative liaison to the mayor from the beginning of Gregory’s term in 2021 until she resigned last month, endorsed City Clerk Jenny Gain Meyer in a Facebook post this week. “When I consider honestly which candidates will represent our citizens with hard work, honesty, and integrity, there really is no other choice,” wrote Urban, who also is running for Ward 2 alderperson in the April 1 consolidated election.

*** National ***

* NBC Chicago | This obscure law is one reason Trump’s agenda keeps losing in court: Lawyers challenging President Donald Trump’s aggressive use of executive power in the courts are turning to a familiar weapon in their armory: an obscure but routinely invoked federal law called the Administrative Procedure Act. While lawsuits challenging such provocative plans as ending birthright citizenship and dismantling federal agencies raise weighty constitutional issues, they also claim Trump failed to follow the correct procedures as required under the wonky 1946 statute.

* Nieman Lab | Trump wants news outlets to get on board with “Gulf of America” — or else. Will they?: You know what else is political? The language that news organizations choose to use. “Illegal immigrants” vs. “undocumented people,” “estate tax” vs. “death tax,” “rebels” vs. “freedom fighters,” “racist” vs. “racially charged” — each choice tells readers something about the underlying assumptions of the writer or publication. Language choices can either lend legitimacy or withhold it. So it’s not surprising that the tension between these two forces — a government changing a familiar place name and journalists deciding whether to go along — has become a political flashpoint.

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Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Today’s edition of Capitol Fax (use all CAPS in password)

Friday, Feb 14, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller

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Live coverage

Friday, Feb 14, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller

* Click here and/or here to follow breaking news. Hopefully, enough reporters and news outlets migrate to BlueSky so we can hopefully resume live-posting.

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Selected press releases (Live updates)

Friday, Feb 14, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller

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Isabel’s afternoon roundup

Thursday, Feb 13, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller

* Bloomberg…

The New York Stock Exchange plans to move its Chicago equities exchange to Texas, the latest firm seeking a slice of the financial services industry in a state where the taxes are lower and regulation looser.

NYSE said it will reincorporate its NYSE Chicago operations in Texas and will launch the fully electronic exchange in Dallas, pending regulatory filings. The exchange will serve companies from Texas and around the world, it said. NYSE Chicago is the successor to the Chicago Stock Exchange, founded in 1882.

NYSE’s move underscores the heightened allure of Texas for corporations and financial firms seeking to benefit from a more relaxed regulatory environment than blue states like New York and California. Dallas is host to the Texas Stock Exchange, which counts BlackRock Inc. and Citadel Securities among its backers and plans to begin trading in early 2026. Nasdaq last year reorganized its listings business into three regional divisions including Texas.

“As the state with the largest number of NYSE listings, representing over $3.7 trillion in market value for our community, Texas is a market leader in fostering a pro-business atmosphere,” NYSE President Lynn Martin said in a statement.

* Illinois Department of Agriculture…

The Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDOA) is issuing a 30-day suspension, effective today, Tuesday, February 11, 2025, on the exhibition or sale of poultry at swap meets, exhibitions, flea markets, and auction markets in response to the ongoing threat of H5N1 avian flu. The move is intended to reduce and prevent the spread of the disease, which has been detected in commercial and backyard flocks in Illinois.

“Prevention is our most effective tool to mitigate the spread of avian flu. By being proactive in biosecurity and limiting poultry movement and exposure, we are protecting the public as well as the poultry industry,” said Dr. Mark Ernst, IDOA State Veterinarian.

Avian flu is caused by an influenza type A virus which can infect poultry (such as chickens, turkeys, pheasants, quail, domestic ducks, geese, and guinea fowl) and wild birds (especially waterfowl). Avian flu virus strains are extremely infectious, often fatal to chickens, and can spread rapidly from flock to flock. […]

Everyone is reminded not to handle or attempt to capture wild waterfowl or other birds displaying signs of illness. Due to risk of infection to other animals, dogs, cats and other pets should be kept away from the carcasses of birds that may have died from avian flu.

*** Madigan Trial ***

* WTTW | After Madigan’s Conviction, Lawmakers Ask: Has Illinois Done Enough to Root Out Corruption?: “The time to start cleaning up Illinois government was many years ago,” House Minority Floor Leader Patrick Windhorst (R- Harrisburg) said. “That work should begin in earnest now.” Some Democrats say with Madigan four years out of the speaker’s chair, that change has already happened. In a statement, Gov. J.B. Pritzker called the verdict an “important message to anyone in government” that “if you choose corruption you will be found out, and you will be punished.”

* If you need a refresher…


*** Statehouse News ***

* WAND | Attorney General Raoul joins coalition proving guidance for businesses on diversity and inclusion: The guidance comes in response to a Trump Administration executive order that targets “illegal DEI and DEIA policies.” The coalition’s guidance informs companies that efforts to seek and support diverse, equitable, inclusive and accessible workplaces are not illegal, and the federal government cannot prohibit these efforts in the private sector through an executive order, Raoul said.

*** Chicago ***

* WTTW | Chicagoans Dissatisfied With CPD, Have No Confidence in Reform Push: Federal Court Monitor Survey: The third community survey from the monitoring team charged with enforcing the federal court order known as the consent decree found that Chicagoans’ confidence in CPD and the reform effort is exceedingly low, despite a reform push that is slated to cost Chicago taxpayers $208.8 million in 2025 alone. The survey’s results are the latest indication that CPD has so far failed to address the decades of brutality and civil rights violations that led to the consent decree, even as that binding federal court order prepares to mark its sixth anniversary.

* Block Club | Heartland Alliance Health Clinics, Food Pantries Will Close This Month, Earlier Than Planned: Heartland Alliance Health will abruptly close its clinics and food pantries in less than two weeks, far sooner than what employees were initially told last week. The community health care nonprofit will close its three food pantries Feb. 22 and its Uptown and Englewood clinics Feb. 26 due to financial issues, according to Michael Brieschke, chair of the union representing many Heartland workers.

* Sun-Times | After Sun-Times inquiries, Tara Stamps says she’ll step down as Mayor Johnson’s campaign chair : Cook County Commissioner Tara Stamps says she’s stepping down as chairperson of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s campaign fund, after facing questions about whether it was appropriate for her to be overseeing it at the same time that she’s on the payroll for the Chicago Teachers Union. “It just made sense,” Stamps said this week. “For all parties involved.” A Chicago Sun-Times reporter asked Stamps and Johnson’s aides earlier this month whether her employment with the CTU — which is in the midst of contract talks with Chicago Public Schools — presents a conflict of interest.

* The Newberry | Newly Digitized: E. Winston and Ina D. Williams NAACP papers: The Newberry has launched a new digital collection featuring photographs, brochures, correspondence, and more documenting the Chicago chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The E. Winston and Ina D. Williams NAACP papers—made up of over 1,000 individual items—are the latest of the Newberry’s holdings to be made freely available online for study and re-use by researchers worldwide.

* Block Club | Isadore Channels, 1920s Trailblazing Athlete, Was ‘Queen’ Of The Courts: In Chicago, Channels began a new era as another kind of pioneer, clinching titles and setting records on the basketball and tennis courts before quietly retiring from sports to become a nurse. Channels “may have been Chicago’s first trash-talker, pre-dating Chicago Bulls star Michael Jordan by more than 50 years,” according to the Black Fives Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving the history of Blacks in basketball. Yet, Channels’ story and legacy as “one of the greats” has gone largely unrecognized, Pruter said.

* WBEZ | Chicago History Museum workers want to join an arts industry unionization wave: About two dozen workers at the Chicago History Museum have signed a letter saying they plan to unionize. In the letter, issued Wednesday morning, the employees said they are seeking clear communication from management and competitive wages. The move is one in a wave of similar organizing efforts at other Chicago cultural institutions. The workers are organizing with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, or AFSCME Council 31. Workers from the Art Institute of Chicago, the Field Museum and Newberry Library, among others, have joined that same union in recent years.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Daily Herald | Elgin moves to ban sale of THC products: Saying they couldn’t wait any longer for the state to provide guidance, Elgin City Council members on Wednesday granted preliminary approval of a citywide ban on sales of synthetically derived THC products. The ordinance, which needs final approval during an upcoming city council meeting, would ban the advertisement, display, sale and delivery of Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, products without a state license.

* WBEZ | Ravinia announces a $75 million renovation plan for the Highland Park venue: The Ravinia Festival in Highland Park will undergo a $75 million, multi-year transformation of its 36-acre music campus over the course of the next several years, leading up to the outdoor venue’s 125th anniversary in 2029, it was announced Thursday. This marks the first such all-encompassing renovation since the iconic park, with its Prairie School architecture and sprawling lawn/picnic areas, opened in 1904 as a summertime “high-end amusement park” and music-venue escape from the congestion of Chicago at the turn of the century.

* Shaw Local | Plainfield playground dedicated to Muslim child killed in alleged hate crime: On Wednesday, the Plainfield Park District’s Board of Commissioners passed a resolution honoring the memory of Wadee Alfayoumi, 6, by naming a sensory playground at Van Horn Woods in his remembrance. […] In a statement, Carlo Capalbo, executive director of the park district, said the district is “honored to dedicate this playground to Wadee’s memory.” “Our hope is that it will serve as a space where all children, regardless of ability, can experience the joy of play,” Capalbo said.

*** Downstate ***

* CBS | Residents describe interactions with Illinois sheriff’s office tied to Sonya Massey’s death: “I was terrified”: When Billie Greer saw the video of Massey, her reaction was that she thought it could have happened to her. In 2022, Greer got a knock on her door by a different Sangamon County Sheriff’s deputy than the one who shot Massey. When she declined to accept court paperwork for a relative, she said a longtime deputy followed her to an elderly neighbor’s home where she was delivering food and arrested her.

* Press Release | Southern Illinois University Carbondale officially among top research schools in the U.S.: Southern Illinois University Carbondale today (Feb. 13) has officially entered the ranks of the top research universities in the nation: It has been designated Research 1, or R1, in the Carnegie Classifications of Institutions of Higher Education. The prestigious designation by the American Council on Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching confirms SIU Carbondale is in the same league as elite private and flagship universities across the country. Less than 5% of the nearly 4,000 classified institutions are designated Research 1: Very High Spending and Doctorate Production.

* WCIA | Popular true crime Netflix show filming in Kankakee Co.: The third season of “Monster” has taken over downtown Momence. And, according to the Momence Police Department, crews were filming on Wednesday, beginning around 9 a.m. The scene took place on Washington St. and involved a large number of men, armed with rubber/plastic prop firearms. The firearms are “non-operational” according to police. But, for safety reasons, police inspected the weapons before filming.

* WJBD | Lincoln Unlocked brings new digital experiences to presidential library: Museum visitors can point their phones at exhibits to see historic figures spring to life. They can take themed tours to dive into the roles of women and African Americans during Lincoln’s life. And they can hear “Lincoln” deliver the Gettysburg Address or listen to a music box owned by Mary Lincoln. It’s also an accessibility aide, offering content in six languages and enriching visits for people who are Deaf or visually impaired.

* News-Gazette | After 12 years of work, it’s showtime for Hoopeston’s Lorraine Theatre: When the lights go down today for the first showing of the new film “Captain America: Brave New World” at the Lorraine Theatre, the president of the Save the Lorraine Foundation will be thinking about all the volunteers, hours of work and donors and community members who made it a reality. Alex Houmes said reaching this historic night has involved more than 12 years of fundraising, renovations and equipment upgrades at the more-than-100-year-old theater at 324 E. Main St., Hoopeston.

*** National ***

* Chalkbeat | Linda McMahon invested in dozens of bonds funding public school projects across the US: Based on her holdings, it’s likely McMahon earns at least $900,000 a year in interest payments from investing in those public education-related bonds in two dozen states, a Chalkbeat analysis found. That’s based on the minimum value of the bonds and assumes a conservative 2.5% yield on the investments. […] A representative for McMahon could not be reached for comment. But McMahon has said she would divest from 78 bonds that fund public education projects, the ethics forms show, including 64 bonds issued to K-12 school districts or agencies.

* WaPo | Animal owners used these chips to track pets. Then the company went dark: For years, animal shelters and veterinary clinics have implanted grain-of-rice-size microchips in cats and dogs meant to help reunite them with their owners. Clinics scan the implant to get its unique number and call the chip company to find a lost pet’s family. But what happens when the microchip company disappears, taking its pet-owner information with it? That’s the situation facing potentially thousands of pet owners who used devices from pet-chip maker Save This Life, which has stopped responding to all entreaties even as its data has disappeared, according to animal shelters and others in the industry.

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What is a Credit Union?

Thursday, Feb 13, 2025 - Posted by Advertising Department

[The following is a paid advertisement.]

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The jury reached a partial verdict. Now what?

Thursday, Feb 13, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller

* Click here to check out yesterday’s coverage. US Attorney’s Office…

A federal jury in Chicago [yesterday] convicted former Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives MICHAEL J. MADIGAN on conspiracy and bribery charges for using his official position to corruptly solicit and receive personal financial rewards for himself and his associates. […]

A sentencing hearing has not yet been scheduled. Each wire fraud count is punishable by a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison, while each bribery count is punishable by up to ten years. The maximum for conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States and each count of using interstate facilities to promote unlawful activity is five years.

* Tribune Court Reporter Jason Meisner…


* ABC Chicago explained what will happen in the forfeiture hearing…

While Madigan’s defense team will undoubtedly appeal the verdict, he still faces a forfeiture hearing during which the judge will determine how much money he will need to fork over to the federal government.

And then, there is the sentencing. That is likely still several months away, but it is expected the judge will sentence him to serving at least some time in prison. How much will depend on a variety of factors, including how much of an example the government wants to make of him, but also his age. […]

He remains free on bond pending sentencing.

Yesterday when Madigan attorney Todd Pugh was asked about a potential appeal he said it was “too soon.”

* Courthouse News Service…

Acting U.S. Attorney Morris Pasqual said “no decision has been made” on whether prosecutors would try to retry Madigan or McClain over the jury’s deadlock.

Presiding U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey, a Barack Obama appointee, in his own comments to attorneys prior to the verdict, said prosecutors could “let the dust settle” on the deadlocked counts before deciding if it’s worth it to retry them.

“Maybe it isn’t,” the judge quipped.

* Tribune…

In addition to deciding whether to retry Madigan on the deadlocked counts, prosecutors are scheduled to retry a related case against former AT&T Illinois boss Paul La Schiazza in June, after a different jury also failed to reach a verdict in his trial last year.

Also, a decision on whether the “ComEd Four” defendants — which includes McClain — will get a new trial is expected to come down any day.

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AG Raoul says more attorneys needed for Trump admin lawsuits

Thursday, Feb 13, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller

* WBEZ on Monday…

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul is suing to block President Donald Trump’s administration from cutting off billions of dollars in federal funding to medical and public health institutions nationwide, a move that Chicago experts warn would have “catastrophic effects” on critical research.

Raoul announced the lawsuit Monday along with 21 other Democratic attorneys general who argue “cutting-edge work to cure and treat human disease will grind to a halt” if courts allow the Trump-led National Institutes of Health and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to slash grant funding. […]

The University of Illinois system relies on about $67 million in NIH funding annually — dollars that last year helped develop an updated drug to treat blood cancer in children, Raoul said. NIH grants “have led to innumerable scientific breakthroughs,” their lawsuit states.

This is the fourth multi-state lawsuit Raoul has joined since President Trump’s inauguration.

* Rich dug into Raoul’s lawsuit against the federal government’s funding freeze last month…

Last Monday night, the White House announced a sweeping new policy that would’ve at least temporarily defunded trillions of dollars of government spending on everything from the national school lunch program to Head Start to cancer and sleep disorders research, and on and on through 50 small-print pages. […]

The White House withdrew the order, but then the White House press secretary insisted that the cuts would still happen even without the directive. Another lawsuit, filed by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and several colleagues from across the country, began to move forward.

That process came to a head on Friday when a federal judge issued a sweeping temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration from doing anything that could reduce spending already approved by Congress. Judge John J. McConnell even quoted a ruling that Trump-appointed Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh handed down when he was a circuit court judge, “even the President does not have unilateral authority to refuse to spend the funds.”

The state could similarly be in for years of court fights over this current federal-spending battle, and likely more in the future, while, as under Rauner, the institutions and people down below try to survive.

There’s no way that this state government can adequately plan for what might happen next because nobody knows what will happen next. I mean, who could’ve predicted perhaps the most aggressive challenge ever to the U.S. Congress’ constitutional-appropriations powers would be launched last week?

* On Monday, Peter Hancock asked Raoul how his office is handling the surge of lawsuits…

And while Raoul admits the cost of those cases is stretching the resources of his office, he said he is not yet ready to ask lawmakers for additional funding to cover those costs. […]

In an interview with Capitol News Illinois, Raoul said the volume of litigation has become so intense, he would like to add new attorneys who would focus solely on litigation battling the Trump administration.

“The role of state attorneys general has expanded from what it used to be. It has happened on both sides of the aisle,” Raoul said. “There’s been more involvement of state attorneys general, like during the Obama administration. Republican state attorneys general were very active trying to respond to the administration’s executive orders and suing over the Affordable Care Act and numerous other things. So during Trump’s first term, likewise, Democrat attorneys general were involved in trying to protect against federal executive branch overreach.”

Raoul noted that his office’s budget has grown since he was first elected attorney general in 2018. According to the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, it has more than doubled in six years to just under $194 million in the current fiscal year.

Thoughts?

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It’s just a bill

Thursday, Feb 13, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller

* Crain’s…

Illinois, whose notoriously high property taxes are a constant source of grief for property owners, should look into abandoning the concept and relying more on income taxes for revenue, according to a bill introduced in Springfield last week.

It’s an ambitious five-year plan. Research should start forthwith to “determine the feasibility of eliminating, by no later than January 1, 2030, the property tax system in the state,” says HB3338, introduced Feb. 7 by Rep. Thaddeus Jones, 29th-Calumet City. […]

The Jones bill is more specific about the direction the state should go than a law passed by both houses last year and signed by Gov. JB Pritzker in August. That measure requires the Department of Revenue to undertake a “comprehensive review” of the property tax system, but doesn’t mention shutting it all down.

The 2024 law is similar to a law Pritzker signed in August 2019 creating a property tax relief task force. The report that resulted recommended reforming the assessment process, reorganizing school funding and other measures, but didn’t call for ending the state’s property tax system that dates to the early 1900s.

* WAND…

Illinois House Democrats have a new bill that would allow migrants with federal work permits to become firefighters.

Under current law, anyone applying to become a firefighter has to be a U.S. citizen.

State Rep. Barbara Hernandez (D-Aurora) said she wants to be clear that undocumented immigrants will not be allowed to take the job.

“They automatically think I’m helping undocumented individuals or I’m allowing them to be firefighters. That is not the case,” Hernandez said. “This is only for individuals that have federal approval to work here.”

Migrants that apply for the job will still have to go through the same recruitment and training process that is required of every firefighter.

* Rep. Kam Buckner filed HB3256 earlier this month…

Creates the People Over Parking Act. Provides that, except as otherwise provided in the Act, a unit of local government may not impose or enforce any minimum automobile parking requirements on a development project if the project is located within one-half mile of a public transportation hub. Limits the concurrent exercise of home rule powers. Defines terms. Effective June 1, 2025.

* WICA…

Illinois judicial campaigns have become very expensive, with interest groups and wealthy donors throwing around lots of cash to get their favorite judge on the bench. This has raised questions about the fairness of the election and money’s influence on the campaign.

Sen. Rachel Ventura (D-Joliet) filed a bill looking to reduce the influence of private donors in Supreme Court and Appellate Court races. This will allow candidates to use public funds instead of interest group funds. She filed the bill in response to the record-breaking amount of money spent in the 2022 Illinois Supreme Court Elections. […]

“The goal is to allow all judges to have the same opportunity, “ Ventura said. “And to get rid of that kind of off-putting feeling that someone is donating to a judge who may then later be making decisions that harm or hurt them or help them.” […]

The bill proposes a public financing program for Supreme Court and Appellate Court candidates through the Judicial Election Democracy Trust Fund.

* SB1874 from Sen. Patrick Joyce…

Amends the Public Utilities Act. In provisions regarding a certificate of public convenience and necessity, makes changes to the limitations on the construction of a nuclear power reactor. Provides that, beginning January 1, 2026, construction may commence on an advanced nuclear reactor (rather than a new nuclear power reactor with a nameplate capacity of 300 megawatts of electricity or less) within the State under specified conditions. Defines “advanced nuclear reactor”. Makes other changes.

* Rep. Jed Davis…

State Representative Jed Davis (R-Yorkville) recently filed three bills aimed at supporting students with disabilities, offering more resources to their parents, and promoting new disability training for teachers, staff, and administrators in Illinois schools.

“These bills are a game-changer – giving students with disabilities, their families, and educators the real support they deserve,” said Rep. Davis.

    - House Bill 1097 allows parents or guardians to record audio during meetings regarding their child’s individualized education program (IEP).
    - House Bill 1106 lets school districts create volunteer Special Education Advisory Committees when parents request them.
    - House Bill 1107 requires school staff training to better understand and support students with disabilities.

Rep. Davis concluded, “These bills tackle multiple weak spots in current Illinois law addressing students with disabilities. Together, we can create a framework for children, parents, and educators to ensure all Illinois students succeed.”

These are three of the twelve bills included in Rep. Davis’ Protecting Kids Bill Package.

* Meanwhile… In Indiana. The Post-Tribune…

A bill aimed at attracting the Chicago Bears, or another sports franchise, to Northwest Indiana passed out of the Indiana House Ways and Means committee Tuesday with two amendments.

House Bill 1292 would establish a Northwest Indiana professional sports development commission, which would study plans to attract one or more professional sports franchises.

The commission would be tasked with creating a comprehensive master plan for building the facilities needed to attract one or more professional sports franchises in the region.

The House Ways and Means Committee amended the bill Tuesday to remove language about paying any state employee on the commission travel expenses and non-state employee commissioners the minimum salary per diem and reimbursement for travel outlined in state code.

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RETAIL: The Largest Employer In Illinois

Thursday, Feb 13, 2025 - Posted by Advertising Department

[The following is a paid advertisement.]

Retail creates more jobs in Illinois than any other private sector employer, with one out of every four workers employed by the retail sector. Importantly, retail is an industry in which everyone, regardless of credentials, can find a viable career path.

Retailers, like Andrea and Fran enrich our economy and strengthen our communities. We Are Retail and IRMA showcase the retailers who make Illinois work.

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Open thread

Thursday, Feb 13, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Alabama Shakes is reuniting and playing at the Salt Shed on July 16. Isabel and I have tickets. Anyone want to join us? We could make it a blog group outing.

From a long time ago when they were still doing party barge shows…

Anyway, what’s happening by you?

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Isabel’s morning briefing

Thursday, Feb 13, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller

* ICYMI: Jury foreman grew up thinking Madigan was ‘good person,’ but in the end was convinced of his guilt. Sun-Times…

    - Jury foreman Timothy Nessner and other jurors interviewed by the Sun-Times said the jury managed to keep its cool as they reviewed months of testimony and evidence, including video secretly recorded by the FBI.
    - “We re-listened to the tapes over and over, ad nauseam,” one juror, a 44-year-old suburban educator, said.
    - Another juror said she was “shocked” when Madigan was called to the stand, but in her eyes, it “really humanized him” in both a “good and bad way.”

* Subscribers received more details about the trial this morning.

* Related stories…

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* NYT | A Lost Silent Film About Lincoln Was Unearthed by an Intern: Standing in the vault during the final week of his internship last August, Martin could have picked his next stack of films from any number of shelves. The one he happened to select included a remarkable discovery: five film cans containing 16-millimeter film of “The Heart of Lincoln,” a 1922 picture that was one of more than 7,000 silent films considered lost by the Library of Congress.

* WIRED | The GSA Plans to Sell Hundreds of Its Federal Government Buildings: According to the list, the buildings destined for the block include the John C. Kluczynski Federal Building in Chicago, which houses satellite offices for the Department of Labor, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, a probation office, and offices for Democratic Illinois senators Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin. The building also has broader cultural significance—it was designed by renowned architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and features an iconic Alexander Calder sculpture. … Many of the federal buildings on the list of non-core real estate are fully occupied, sources tell WIRED. This includes buildings like the Senator Paul Simon Federal Building in Carbondale, Illinois, which houses offices for the Federal Aviation Administration, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Social Security Administration

* WCIA | IL Manufacturers’ Association hosting 6th Annual ‘Makers Madness’ contest: Nominations for “The Coolest Thing Made in Illinois” are now being accepted at makersmadnessil.com. Voting will also take place here, beginning March 4. Any product that is manufactured in Illinois can be nominated for the tournament. Additionally, while qualifying products must be made in Illinois, the manufacturers’ headquarters don’t have to be in the state.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Naperville Sun | Man charged after allegedly threatening to ‘blow up’ Naperville-based state rep: A Downers Grove man has been charged with threatening to “blow up” state Rep. Anne Stava Murray in a phone message he allegedly left for the Naperville Democrat. William Dzadon, 71, of the 100 block of 55th Street, turned himself in to the Illinois State Police Tuesday after an arrest warrant on two counts of threatening a public official was issued Feb. 7, a news release from DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin and Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly said.

* Daily Herald | Transit funding crisis coming to a head in Springfield: “We’re really at a critical point,” RTA Executive Director Leanne Redden said at a Transit is the Answer Coalition meeting. “If the General Assembly does not find a funding solution for the fiscal cliff by the end of May” it will result in a budget gap and 40% service cuts to Metra, Pace and the CTA, Redden cautioned.

*** Statewide ***

* Illinois Times | Student MAP grants lower than expected: College students who receive Monetary Awards Program grants are seeing an 8% cut in their spring semester assistance after a higher-than-expected number of eligible students enrolled in classes this school year. The cuts represent a $12 to $336, or 8%, reduction compared to students’ previously estimated MAP grants, according to the Illinois Student Assistance Commission, which administers the grant program.

*** Chicago ***

* WTTW | Acting CTA President Pledges Outreach, Engagement as Agency Works to Tackle Budget Gap and Draw Back Passengers: A key way for the CTA to learn about rider priorities is the agency’s chatbot launched last spring, which allows people to submit complaints about issues on the system. Leerhsen said she asked the team behind the chatbot to look for trends, and that baseline things like cleanliness and smoking quickly emerged as common themes. “The smoking issue does come up as a primary complaint,” Leerhsen said. “Not all rule violations are created equal, and I think smoking really has an ability to really set a tone for a rider that is not indicative of what we want them to see.”

* Block Club | Mayor’s Office Releases ‘Gift Room’ Log, Video Following Inspector General Investigation: A dedicated city webpage now hosts the full log of gifts received by the city dating back to when Johnson took office in May 2023. The city has also posted a brief video of the room to YouTube, which it plans to update quarterly. The protocols now require all gifts be logged within 10 days of receipt and reported to the city’s Board of Ethics and comptroller. The gifts will be posted on the city’s website and will include a description of the gift, the date it was received and the name of the donor “to the extent provided,” among other criteria.

* WBEZ | Parents demand answers on the fate of Acero charter schools: Nearly two months after the Chicago Board of Education voted to save five of the seven Acero charter schools slated for closure, Chicago Public Schools officials and the schools’ private operator still have not landed an agreement for the schools to remain open. School board members joined Acero teachers and parents in asking for the status of those talks at a board meeting Wednesday and voicing their impatience at the lack of clarity on the future of the privately managed, publicly funded charter schools.

* Chalkbeat Chicago | Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez one of six candidates for superintendent job in Clark County, Nevada: The school board voted to fire Martinez without cause in December after growing hostility with Mayor Brandon Johnson. His contract allows him to stay on as CEO until June and he is currently suing the Chicago Board of Education. But according to an agenda for a special meeting posted online, Martinez was one of 46 people to apply for the job leading the Nevada district, which is the fifth largest in the nation after CPS. The Clark County Board of School Trustees will meet Feb. 18 to discuss the slate of six candidates vying to be the next superintendent.

* Block Club | ‘The Bear’ Looking For Babies, Chefs And Average Chicagoans To Be Extras In New Season: Filming starts as soon as Feb. 25, according to local casting agency 4 Star Casting, which posted a call for extras on social media. That includes a 2- or 3-year-old body double for Richard “Richie” Jerimovich’s (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) daughter, Eva. There’s also a 4 Star Casting call for an infant under six months old for March, according to the agency’s Facebook.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Daily Herald | Hayes endorses Tinaglia to succeed him as Arlington Heights mayor: After initial reluctance to make an endorsement, Arlington Heights Mayor Tom Hayes Wednesday threw his support behind Trustee Jim Tinaglia to succeed him in the village’s top elected post. At the same, Trustee Robin LaBedz — Hayes’ president pro tem — backed Trustee Tom Schwingbeck to be the next mayor.

* Daily Herald | Supervisor Tiffany Henyard absent from Thornton Township Board, trustees push back budget vote: From her Thornton Township office, Henyard recorded and posted a live video at around the time of the meeting where she said she chose not to attend due to security concerns. Tuesday marked the first regularly scheduled meeting since a brawl broke out Jan. 28 involving Henyard, her boyfriend, community activists and others. “I was not going to be in jeopardy of being attacked or anything of that nature,” Henyard said in the video. She claimed trustees changed the layout of the board meeting last minute, “which was very concerning and alarming.”

* Daily Herald | Schaumburg trustees approve village’s first residential conversion of office building: The project’s anticipated 16- to18-month time frame includes replacing the original facade with an aluminum surface with a wood appearance. The interior work will carve out a mixture of 19 studio, 63 one-bedroom, and 16 two-bedroom apartments. Each unit will have its own balcony, laundry machines and temperature control.

*** Downstate ***

* The Southern | ‘This is our moonshot:’ Marion approves issuing first STAR bonds: It was then that the Marion city council voted unanimously to pass an ordinance approving the issuance of series 2025 STAR bonds, the first such bonds issued by the city since legislation was passed in 2010 allowing Marion to do so. In short, STAR bonds, short for sales tax and revenue, uses the state and local sales tax generated in a specific area to pay for projects developed in that area.

* WAND | UIS hosts ‘Hackathon’ to solve real-world challenges using tech: “The goal is they work in these teams and they really begin to see how what they’re learning in the classroom can be used to for real world problems for populations that maybe many aren’t thinking about or aren’t thinking about how technology can be the solution,” said Travis Bland, interim dean of the College of Health, Science and Technology.

*** National ***

* Mediaite| ‘Costs And Chaos!’ Ford CEO Warns Trump Tariffs Will ‘Blow A Hole’ In Auto Industry: Ford CEO Jim Farley warned that President Donald Trump’s tariff threats will “blow a hole” in the auto industry and manufacturers faced a spike in “costs” and “chaos.” Speaking at a Wolfe Research conference on Tuesday, according to Axios, Farley warned that Trump’s tariff-heavy trade tactics, whether targeting neighbors like Canada and Mexico or raw materials like steel and aluminum, are poised to wreak havoc on his industry.

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