* CBS…

[A] CBS News investigation found a pattern of alleged misconduct in Sangamon County, with dozens of allegations against the sheriff’s office over the past 20 years. They include at least eight deaths in the custody of Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office deputies and corrections officers, in addition to Massey’s fatal shooting.

Jaimeson Cody’s was one of the deaths — in 2021, he was arrested for aggravated domestic battery. That night in jail, correction officers wanted to move him to a different room, but he resisted.

“They took him down to the ground…and a man of over 300 pounds sat on his back, broke ribs,” said Sha Kelley, the Cody family’s attorney who is suing the sheriff’s office, which denies wrongdoing.

Cody was pronounced dead the next day. His stepmom, Cindy Cody, said he died from positional asphyxia, a condition where breathing is impaired due to body position, and called his death a homicide. […]

None of the officers involved in the eight deaths or other misconduct allegations have been criminally charged. In each case, the sheriff’s office and the officers denied any wrongdoing, even in cases settled in civil court by the county.

Click here and read the rest.

* The Democratic Party of DuPage…

York Township Clerk Tony Cuzzone (a Republican) has refused to certify the Democratic candidate for York Township Supervisor, Timothy Murray. No objection to Murray’s candidacy was filed, leaving York Township taxpayers responsible for the legal fees. Among the specious reasons noted in a letter sent to Murray, Cuzzone falsely claims that the Resolution to nominate Murray was not filed within the required timeframe.

Murray has filed a lawsuit against Cuzzone in his capacity as Clerk of York Township. Initial court proceedings will begin on Thursday, February 6 in the 18th Judicial Circuit Court of DuPage County. Murray seeks a preliminary Injunction to have his name printed on the ballot pending resolution of the matter.

Democratic Party Chair of DuPage County, Reid McCollum said, “It should offend every citizen that York Township’s GOP incumbents would force taxpayers to foot the bill for their blatantly partisan scheme. This is clearly an attempt to defeat their opponent by refusing to fulfill the duties of Clerk, rather than allowing voters to decide on April 1.”

* Subscribers were extensively briefed about this earlier today. AFL-CIO President Tim Drea and Chicago Federation of Labor President Bob Reiter…

In Springfield, the stakes could not be higher as state legislators consider how they will step up to prevent a true calamity.

The operating budget gap for the Chicago Transit Authority, Metra and Pace will top $750 million next year when federal pandemic funds run out. Without help, the trains and buses that shuttle us where we need to go face devastating service cuts that will cripple the region.

We cannot and will not let that happen. It’s why more than 30 different labor partners came together to form the Labor Alliance for Public Transportation — or LAPT — representing the thousands of transit workers who keep Illinois safe and moving in the right direction.

Our alliance comes with a monumental opportunity to create a new path forward for Illinois’ public transportation networks. Our new road map legislation — Senate Bill 1938 — will jump-start policy conversations that identify solutions to provide more efficient and reliable transit that prioritizes ridership safety instead of just warning about the devastating costs of inaction.

* The Woodstock Institute…

On February 4, the First District Appellate Court, which encompasses Cook County, issued a ruling upholding a decision that a 482% APR loan made by a Utah-based online lender to an Illinois resident did not violate the Illinois Predatory Loan Prevention Act (PLPA), which caps consumer loan rates in Illinois at 36% APR.

This decision is the latest development in an ongoing saga of high-cost lenders – both inside and outside Illinois – blatantly charging Illinois consumers triple-digit interest rates despite the rate cap that Governor Pritzker signed in 2021 as part of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus’s agenda to eliminate systemic racism in Illinois. Just-released polling shows that 88% of Illinois voters and 95% of former payday loan borrowers support a rate cap of 36% APR or lower.

“We knew predatory lenders would attempt to evade the rate cap, so the law was written with strong Anti-Evasion provisions. Nevertheless, lenders are violating the law with impunity, which will most certainly encourage more lenders to do the same.,” said Brent Adams, Senior Vice President of Policy and Advocacy at Woodstock Institute and former head of IDFPR, the state agency that oversees the high-cost lenders.

“The implication of this decision is that state rate caps are void as long as the lender uses an address in a state without a rate cap, which can be as easy as using a private mailbox,” said Daniel Edelman, a nationally recognized consumer rights attorney.

Advocates including Woodstock Institute have raised alarms over “rent-a-bank” arrangements where high-cost lenders circumvent state rate cap laws by partnering with out-of-state banks to make loans far in excess of a state’s rate cap. One such rent-a-bank lender partnered with an out-of-state bank, once again based in Utah, to make a loan at 159.5% APR to an Illinois resident. This decision represents a significant escalation of this practice by theoretically allowing any online lender to circumvent Illinois law and charge usurious interest rates to Illinois consumers.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Press Release | AG Kwame Raoul’s statement on federal court granting injunction against an unconstitutional birthright citizenship order : “As I have previously indicated, the issue of birthright citizenship is a personal one to me. I am pleased the court has granted our request for a nationwide preliminary injunction and refused to let ‘the beacon of light’ that is the rule of law darken. The 14th Amendment was enshrined in our nation’s Constitution more than 150 years ago, and since then, the right of an individual born in this country to be a citizen of this country has been uniformly recognized. The judge correctly said today, ‘It has become ever more apparent that to our president, the rule of law is but an impediment to his policy goals.’

* WAND | Donald Trump is ‘calling for ethnic cleansing,’ says Illinois House Democrat: State Rep. Abdelnasser Rashid (D-Berwyn) said President Donald Trump is enacting an ethnic cleansing after Trump called all Palestinians to leave Gaza. “Let’s call that what it is, ethnic cleansing,” Rashid said. The lawmaker said this at a press conference where he unveiled a new bill. The plan would repeal a current Illinois law that restricts companies from boycotting Israel. The Illinois Investment Policy Board can currently restrict public funding to a company if they believe they are protesting Israel.

*** Statewide ***

* Journal Courier | Historical sites marking Lincoln’s birthday with events: The Lincoln Log Cabin State Historical Site in Lerna will be open for tours from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday. Refreshments and crafts will be available. The Lincoln Tomb in Springfield will be open for visitors from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday. Lincoln, his wife and three of their children were laid to rest in the tomb.

* WAND | Thousands of cars sold in Illinois have fake odometer readings: CARFAX told WAND News more than 2.14 million cars on the road may have had their odometer rolled back in 2024, up more than 18% since 2021, and up more than 82,000 vehicles since 2023. […] Illinois is among the leaders in the nation in odometer rollbacks. The state ranks number 5 nationwide with an estimated annual rollback of 79,200 miles. That’s up from the number 6 position in 2021.

*** Chicago ***

* Tribune | CPS security video shows Secret Service trying to enter Chicago’s Hamline School: The footage from Jan. 24, released in two, 30-minute recordings that offered different angles of the conversation, begins with two agents in plainclothes walking up to the main entrance and buzzing the intercom. They then fidget and peer through a window as they wait to be allowed entry. At one point, an agent tries unsuccessfully to yank open the door. The recordings have no sound, but agents are seen carrying file folders and showing identification cards that bear the U.S. Secret Service emblem. One agent twice shows that identification outside the building’s main entrance.

* Sun-Times | $27 million settlement proposed for family of pedestrian hit by SUV fleeing police: The money would go to the family of Angela Parks, a single working mother of five who was rendered a quadriplegic, then died 18 months later — at age 45 — after being struck by the passenger door of a Jeep that Chicago Police Department officers were pursuing because they believed it had been stolen. […] Officers in an unmarked vehicle were chasing a Jeep they suspected had been stolen — even though the police department’s general orders dating “as far back as 2000” prohibited officers from conducted a vehicular chase that could endanger motorists or pedestrians “for a property crime or theft,” Gallagher said. The chase occurred shortly before noon on a Sunday in a busy area with lots of traffic and pedestrians.

* Bloomberg | BMO joins IBM’s quantum network with plans to hire in Chicago: The Canadian bank will join another 50 financial institutions including Wells Fargo & Co. and HSBC Holdings Plc in gaining access to IBM’s quantum computer. The technology will be used by a team of quantum specialists BMO is currently building, said Kristin Milchanowski, chief AI and data officer at the bank. The finance industry is expected to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of quantum computers, which are exponentially more powerful than traditional machines. The technology helps sort large amounts of data and solve complex mathematical problems that would take binary computers days, months and even years.

* WBEZ | Under Trump administration, some Chicago students think twice about applying for financial aid: In light of President Donald Trump’s threats of mass deportations, Chicago-area high schoolers with undocumented parents are weighing whether it’s worth it to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. “It’s creating an additional barrier to keep Brown kids out of college,” said Aidé Acosta, chief college officer for the Noble Schools charter network in Chicago.

* Hyde Park Herald | Talk draws attention to untold stories of freedom seekers on the Underground Railroad in Illinois: Larry McClellan, a founding professor at Governors State University, has spent decades researching, writing and speaking about the myriad stories of freedom seekers and sites of the Underground Railroad throughout Illinois. And yet, over that lengthy span, one figure has stood out as the source of particular fascination – Lewis Isbell. The son of a plantation-owner and an enslaved mother, Isbell was “in the middle of every significant thing that happens in Chicago’s Black community” from the moment he set foot in the Windy City until his death in 1905, McClellan said at a University of Chicago talk this week.

* Tribune | Virginia McCaskey, principal owner of the Chicago Bears and George Halas’ daughter, dies at 102: McCaskey was reluctantly forced by circumstance to take over her father’s enterprise. She guarded it with passion, patience and more than a touch of Papa Bear’s legendary toughness and stubbornness. When she removed eldest son Michael as team president in February 1999 and went outside the family to replace him with financial director Ted Phillips, she made the difficult decision with a style and grace that defined her personality.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Lake County News-Sun | Judge asked to allow Highland Park parade shooting victims who testify to watch trial of alleged shooter: Prosecutors filed a motion to allow victim witnesses to be in the gallery, which goes against normal courtroom procedure. Judge Victoria Rossetti said during a Thursday case management conference that she will hear arguments on the question on Feb. 20, four days before jury selection is scheduled to begin in the case. Outside of giving their testimony, witnesses are usually barred from being in the courtroom during a trial because authorities are concerned that they might hear something that would affect their testimony. Witnesses are sometimes allowed to be in the gallery after they testify.

* Shaw Local | With Hebron down to 1 full-time cop – who some want gone – village contracts with sheriff for local patrols: The department, which then had a mix of full- and part-time officers, now numbers one. Police Chief Peter Goldman is the department’s only active, full-time employee. Hebron’s lone sergeant is on medical leave after a fall at the station in December, and the village’s community service officer resigned in early January. But residents demanded more patrols – an activity some say they have not seen Goldman doing since becoming chief on Nov. 13.

*** Downstate ***

* Daily Journal | Former Iroquois County official accused of gambling while being on the clock: Attorneys for former Iroquois County Public Health administrator Dee Ann Schippert argued in a motion that her allegedly gambling for more than 750 hours while claiming to be on the clock for her job is not relevant to the charges against her. According to charging documents, the 58-year-old Schippert stole more than $100,000 from the health department between May 31, 2020, and July 15, 2022, and has been charged with eight felony counts of theft of government property, eight forgery felonies and 17 felony counts of official misconduct.

* Illinois Times | City Council enacts new conflict-of-interest standards: The Springfield City Council voted 8-0 on Feb. 4 to spend about $1.5 million in TIF funds to help a local couple renovate a dilapidated building in the 300 block of East Adams Street. But the Ward 5 representative on the council, Lakeisha Purchase, who has worked with Martin and Laurie Haxel for two years on the project at 322 E. Adams St. as part of Purchase’s efforts to revitalize downtown, abstained from voting on the measure or taking part in debate.

* Illinois Times | Springfield parents struggle with lack of child care options: Day care directors throughout the area say they are continually rebuffing parents seeking a place for their children – particularly infants. “I have over 100 infants on my waiting list,” said Kasi Maisenbacher, owner of Kardinal Kids on the west side of Springfield. “I only have four infant slots. It’s because babies are so labor-intensive, and it’s hard to find people who have the qualifications to care for babies.”

* WAND | FedEx facilities in Springfield, Urbana, and Effingham to close: In a statement they said, “FedEx regularly evaluates its network and makes adjustments to align with the evolving needs of the business… Decisions of this nature are the result of much thought and consideration for maintaining the high level of service expected from our customers and other needs of our business.” FedEx went on to say that affected team members were notified several months before any changes occur and will receive assistance with finding other employment opportunities within the company, including additional support options like “relocation assistance or severance where applicable.”

*** National ***

* AM NY | Subway crime plummets as ridership jumps significantly in 2025 in congestion pricing era: In the first month of 2025, there were 147 reported crimes on the subway down from 231 last year—resulting in 36% fewer crimes committed on the rails this year. At the same time, subway ridership has increased significantly since the start of congestion pricing on Jan. 5. This means that the drop in crime on the tracks has actually decreased even as more people are using NYC’s busy transit system—one of the largest in the world.

* The Guardian | US immigration is gaming Google to create a mirage of mass deportations: That four-day operation in Colorado? It happened in November 2010. The 123 people targeted in New Orleans? That was February of last year. Wisconsin? September 2018. There are thousands of examples of this throughout all 50 states – Ice press releases that have reached the first page of Google search results, making it seem like enforcement actions just happened, when in actuality they occurred months or years ago. Some, such as the arrest of “44 absconders” in Nebraska, go back as far as 2008.

* AP | Second federal judge in two days blocks President Trump’s birthright citizenship order: U.S. District Judge John Coughenour in Seattle on Thursday decried what he described as the administration’s treatment of the Constitution and said Trump was trying to change it with an executive order. The latest proceeding came just a day after a Maryland federal judge issued a nationwide pause in a separate but similar case involving immigrants’ rights groups and pregnant women whose soon-to-born children could be affected.

* Crain’s | Rivian adopts AI-powered, sensor-rich strategy for self-driving tech in bid to catch Tesla: Rivian has one potential advantage over Tesla: It’s willing to spend the money for high-tech sensors, such as radar and lidar, that could help close the gap with Tesla’s camera-only approach to hardware. “As competition in this space evolves, I think you are going to see [automakers] with more sensors,” Scaringe said at Rivian’s showroom here in late January. “One of the areas where we are different than Tesla — we’ve put more sensors in the vehicle, recognizing that is a way to catch up to what they’ve built using a camera-only system.”

* WaPo | DOGE broadens sweep of federal agencies, gains access to health payment systems: In recent days, officials affiliated with DOGE have visited the offices of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), according to five people with knowledge of the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private interactions. DOGE officials have also sought access to payment and contracting systems across the Department of Health and Human Services that control hundreds of billions of dollars in annual payments to health-care providers, and they appear to have gained access to at least some of those systems, the people said.  The Wall Street Journal earlier reported that DOGE aides had been granted access to the CMS grant-management system.

* NYT | Schumer Urged Democrats to Oppose Trump Nominees in Protest of His Policies: The plea for blanket opposition was only symbolic. Relegated to the minority in the Senate, Democrats have no power to block Mr. Trump’s nominees unless they can persuade a handful of Republicans to join them, and the Republican Party has largely fallen into line behind the president’s picks. But the entreaty was a notable change in strategy for Mr. Schumer, who has come under increasing pressure from progressive activists, Democratic governors and some senators to take a more aggressive and confrontational stance against Mr. Trump in response to the president’s efforts to steer around Congress on spending and policy.