* Capitol News Illinois…

[Darren Bailey and Don Tracy] are the headlining statewide Republicans on the ballot this fall with little-known hopefuls seeking other statewide offices. [New Illinois Republican Party Chair Bob Grogan] said Bailey “excites a lot of people, and we need that kind of energy.”

While Republicans face their own natural headwinds as the incumbent party in charge in Washington, Grogan is also betting many Illinois voters will lose interest in Pritzker.

“There is a lot of JB fatigue,” Grogan said. “I mean, he’s also going for a third term. Third terms are not simple either. So, it’s not just about the White House. And I will tell you, just the average high school friend that’s not involved in politics, or the person in line at the Jewel, whereas they were giving Pritzker the benefit of the doubt four, six years ago, you mentioned his name and there’s a lot of grimaces.”

Pritzker’s campaign brushed off the criticism.

“The only thing Illinois voters are fatigued by is Illinois Republicans who pretend to care about working families while acting against their interests with every opportunity,” Pritzker spokesperson Alex Gough said in a statement. “The last time Republicans in this state had a chance to make life better for Illinoisians, they spent four years enabling an incompetent governor who shared their legacy of failure.”

* Tribune | Illinois Medicaid patients can wait more than a year for critical dental care due to low reimbursements: Wilson, of Oral Surgery Solutions in Chicago and Westmont, said some patients have to wait more than a year to get an appointment with a specialist. Medicaid pays far less than the work costs, he said, resulting in a shortage of oral surgeons willing to do the work. While the normal cash fee for removing a fully impacted wisdom tooth at his practice is $780, Illinois Medicaid’s standard fee is only $117, state records show.

* Daily Herald | Rezoning request for potential data center in Hoffman Estates withdrawn: The firm that owns the 186-acre Plum Farms property at Higgins Road and Route 59 in Hoffman Estates has withdrawn its request to rezone the site to manufacturing use that potentially would have enabled a data center there. “We got word last night that it had been withdrawn,” Hoffman Estates Village Manager Eric Palm said Wednesday. That immediately removed the decision from the agenda of Monday’s village board meeting, at which a large crowd of opponents from Hoffman Estates, Barrington Hills and South Barrington was expected.

* KSBI | Carbondale residents voice concerns over data centers, water concerns during town hall: Allison Paige, a Carbondale resident and co-organizer of Tuesday’s meeting, said the discussion extends beyond the proposed data center. “It’s actually twofold. It is in regards to the proposed data center, but it is also in regards to a letter that was sent out by our then state representative, Paul Jacobs, to a few water offices, but not all of them. So it was actually discussing consolidation before that. At what point they started doing it? We don’t know.”

* The Daily Northwestern | State lawmakers talk budget, data center regulation at end-of-session town hall: Gabel said limiting the scope of data centers is necessary to maintain a sustainable energy system. In February, Gabel introduced the Protecting Our Water, Energy, and Ratepayers Act alongside State Sen. Ram Villivalam (D-Chicago) to regulate data center construction while ensuring proper water and energy use across the state.

* Aurora Beacon-News | Planned Yorkville data center project to be rephased as part of resident lawsuit settlement agreement: Yorkville has become a sort of hub for data center projects, in part due to the area’s proximity to a ComEd substation. The Project Cardinal campus would join what may one day be a corridor of data center campuses in Yorkville in the northeast quadrant of Eldamain Road and Route 34. But, like other communities in Illinois where data centers are being considered, with these proposed developments has come significant resident pushback.

* WAND | State’s attorney: Logan County year-long moratorium not valid under zoning rules: A data center could be coming to Logan County after the state’s attorney stated the year-long moratorium that passed in May is not valid. The moratorium was in response to efforts from Hut 8, which was aiming to bring a data center to the area. Logan County State’s Attorney Bradley Hauge told WAND News that the moratorium had never been adopted as an ordinance or as part of an amendment and therefore could not be established. He stated those types of motions must go through the zoning board of appeals and have public hearings before being voted on by county board members.

* Tribune | Mental health crisis teams will again get police terminals, Mayor Brandon Johnson says: Speaking at a City Hall news conference, Johnson confirmed the update following this week’s Tribune story that found the Police Department took out those portable data terminals last July, leading to a major drop in responses for the Crisis Assistance Response and Engagement team that had relied heavily on the machines to learn about incidents in real time. Johnson did not provide a deadline for the teams to again have the terminals.

* Tribune | Chicago ended 2025 with extra money, but long-term troubles linger: Chicago ended 2025 with $219 million more than expected in its main operating fund thanks in large part to solid tax collections and many departments spending less than they were supposed to, a top official in Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration said as the city unveiled its annual financial report. Adding to the good news: the overall funding levels of its fragile pension funds improved. But long-term liabilities climbed by $1.9 billion and the city’s reserves shrunk further.

* WTTW | As Chicago Swelters Under Heatwave, ComEd Asks Customers to Immediately Conserve Energy to Avoid Outages: The electric grid is showing strain under the high demand. On Wednesday, ComEd issued a request to customers to conserve energy in order to avoid outages specifically in the western suburbs of Berwyn, Cicero, North Riverside, Riverside, Stickney, Forest Park, Maywood and Oak Park, as well as Chicago neighborhoods including Little Village, North Lawndale, Douglas Park, Garfield Park and Austin.

* CBS Chicago | Top federal prosecutor in Chicago says more than 1,000 cases under review after Broadview Six misconduct revelations: More than 1,000 grand jury presentations are under review after federal prosecutors in Chicago were forced to dismiss charges in the “Broadview Six” case due to grand jury abuses and prosecutorial misconduct, the top federal prosecutor in the district said Wednesday. Speaking to the media in Washington, D.C., at an unrelated press conference, U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros for the Northern District of Illinois said his office is scrutinizing prosecutorial conduct in cases that date back as far as 2007, as part of an effort to shore up confidence in the grand jury process.

* Crain’s | Stripe inks massive Chicago office lease expansion: Online payments company Stripe is adding more than 130,000 square feet to its River North office, completing one of the biggest downtown workspace expansions in years and providing a major boost to a local office market still reeling from the post-pandemic downsizing trend. The San Francisco-based company has signed a new lease for more than 222,000 square feet in the office building at 350 N. Orleans St., according to sources familiar with the property. Stripe will occupy the new space in phases over the next couple years, increasing from the roughly 89,000 square feet it leases in the building today.

* Sun-Times | Bob Dylan taps popular Chicago guitarist Joel Paterson for his band after sudden departures: Paterson, 55, has been a fixture on the Chicago music scene for more than 25 years. Besides his long-time residency at the Green Mill on Monday nights with his quartet, he performs regularly throughout the city and suburbs. He has recorded and toured with the Cactus Blossoms, JD McPherson, Kelly Hogan, Pokey LaFarge and Deke Dickerson. His appearance Tuesday in Austin, Texas, came in a tumultuous moment for Dylan who reportedly let go two guitarists the week prior.

* Tribune | Mike Campbell shares a Tom Petty memory ahead of Dirty Knobs concert: ‘I’ve never talked about this’: In 2003, when Petty and the Heartbreakers took over the Vic Theatre for a five-night residency filled with old blues covers and deep cuts they wouldn’t dare touch during their big stadium shows, Campbell remembers the crowd giving him a fervent extended ovation when introduced by Petty at the end of Muddy Waters’ “Baby, Please Don’t Go.” The cheering went on “for like a long time, where almost Tom was getting a little annoyed,” the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer recollects with a twinge of awe. “They really responded to me in such a sweet way.” It’s a situation of “game recognizes game” — industrious Chicagoans can identify a workhorse among them.

* Crain’s | West Suburban sends 500 layoff notices as hospital rescue talks roll on: The permanent layoffs come after the West Suburban hospital building was entirely shut down to all but maintenance and security by the village of Oak Park on June 11 because its last remaining elevator stopped working. News reports said the hospital subsequently received notice from Commonwealth Edison that its power could be shut off for non-payment of bills.

* Daily Southtown | Calumet City library undergoes renovations amid allegations of misuse, politics: Three years later, [Calumet City library director Rep. Rita Mayfield of Lake County] said she’s proud to have secured about $3 million in grant awards that will help refresh the more than 30,000-square-foot space. By September, patrons could see three glass-walled community rooms in the center of the library as well as a new recording studio in the youth services area, she said. But under the surface there remain political tensions that some say have affected the library’s management and atmosphere under Calumet City Mayor Thaddeus Jones.

* Daily Herald | District 214 could ask voters to approve $300 million for school renovations: Fiarito and board members late last week expressed their early preferences for a ballot question at varying cost levels — $300 million, $375 million, $450 million, or an in-between hybrid option — ahead of a July 23 meeting when they’re expected to solidify a dollar amount tied to specific projects. The school board would vote to approve formal ballot language Aug. 6, ahead of the Nov. 3 election.

* Daily Herald | Why drone shows are replacing fireworks in some suburbs: For the first time in five years, an Independence Day display will light up the skies above Arlington Heights. But instead of fireworks marking the nation’s semiquincentennial, drones will entertain the crowds Thursday night. The Northwest suburb’s drone show is part of a trend by municipalities and entertainment businesses to augment or replace traditional fireworks displays with synchronized routines by lighted drones.

* Daily Herald | ‘The right man for the job’: Glen Ellyn’s Superman to lead the Fourth of July parade: Jonathan Charbonneau has auditioned for his latest role nearly all his adult life. Wearing the Superman outfit that has endeared him to his own metropolis, the Glen Ellyn man has walked the village’s Independence Day parade route annually since 1992 — waving, elbow-bumping spectators, picking up a head of steam before launching into Man of Steel-style flying takeoffs.

* Illinois Times | Sangamon County seeks more local control: The proposal by District 7 board member Craig Hall, who represents the area where the Double Black Diamond Solar Farm opened last year and where the CyrusOne data center project is slated to be built, attempts to circumvent the state’s latest laws that prevent local governments from having stricter authority on zoning for renewable energy projects. It would create 1.5 miles of buffer real estate around municipalities through rezoning agricultural parcels as residential.

* IPM | Nearly one year after Mattoon’s water crisis, the city has seen no signs of algal blooms returning: Mattoon’s water supply has been in the clear since those orders were lifted, Public Works Director Dave Clark said. “Ever since mid-July of last year, our test results have come back basically non-detect for any kind of algal bloom contaminant,” he said. […] “Of course, as we found out last year, anything can change in a heartbeat,” he said.

* WSIL | Cave-In-Rock Ferry suspends service due to expired contract: Ferry owner Lonnie Ray Lewis tells Heartland News he wants to keep the ferry operating, but said the current funding proposal won’t cover the company’s costs over the next two years. According to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, Team Kentucky and the Illinois Department of Transportation have jointly funded this ferry service across the Ohio River. Earlier in June, KYTC said both states are supportive of the Ohio River Ferry Authority, but they cannot afford to increase the level of state financial support for the ferry over the next two years.

* WGLT | Bloomington to construct green rain garden to filter and collect flood runoff: This project represents cooperation across many groups, including Illinois State University, the Bloomington-Normal Water Reclamation District [BNWRD], the Dimmit’s Grove Neighborhood Association, Farnsworth Group, Ecology Action Center and more. “The people of Dimmit’s Grove really played an integral role in the design here,” said Joan Brehm, co-director of the Center for a Sustainable Water Future at Illinois State.

* ProPublica | A Troubling Milestone: Most Supreme Court Rulings Are Secretive Votes With Little Justification: ProPublica analyzed over two decades of Supreme Court rulings, which cover all of the years under Chief Justice John Roberts and go as far back as the online archives allow. We found that when the last court term ended, justices had issued 63 orders on the shadow docket, as opposed to 56 orders on the more traditional merits docket — where the court hears oral arguments scheduled months in advance and the justices issue signed opinions. Legal scholars and court watchers were shocked by our finding. They told ProPublica it’s likely the first time in modern history that so many consequential decisions were made in secret by its nine members.

* The Independent | More than half of children in ICE immigration courts are representing themselves, DOJ data shows: Of the 751,861 children with pending removal cases, 57 percent, or 425,093 of them, do not have lawyers, Drop Site News reported Friday. The independent investigative news site’s figures were sourced from an analysis of data from the DOJ’s Executive Office for Immigration Review conducted by the Vera Institute of Justice. […] Among these completed cases, seven percent of children with a lawyer were allowed to stay in the U.S. with some form of legal relief, compared to less than one percent of children representing themselves, according to the outlet.