Flutter is not flitting about when it comes to the Illinois legislature adding its proposed 25-cent or 50-cent tax on each individual sports bet, announcing early Tuesday morning that, effective Sept. 1, FanDuel will be passing the charge along to its customers, instituting a $0.50 transaction fee on all wagers placed in Illinois.
While FanDuel won’t start charging until days before the kickoff to the NFL season, the state of Illinois isn’t waiting, with its per-wager tax kicking in July 1 (assuming Gov. JB Pritzker signs the budget sent to him). Clearly, the braintrust at Flutter — FanDuel’s parent company — is hoping the braintrust in Illinois will use those few months to rethink the decision, noting in a press release that if the state pulls back on the transaction tax, the company will immediately remove the fee being placed on bettors.
* Daniel Koslovsky and Prabhdeen Kaur writing in Crain’s…
Online operators exploit behavioral biases — anchoring, overconfidence, the gambler’s fallacy — to coax consumers into wagering more than they intended. Stanford economists estimate behavioral biases are responsible for over 8% of what online sports gamblers wager. Moreover, online sports gambling is highly accessible, available to anyone with a smartphone at any time. Online sportsbooks rely heavily on aggressive marketing and promotions, familiar to any modern sports fan who is inundated by them whenever they watch a game on TV or in person. Odds are priced in confusing ways that require bettors to perform mental math to reveal the true price.
The results are predictably disastrous for the finances of bettors. A flurry of academic studies were released last year showing that consumers in states that legalized sports betting had less savings, more excessive debt, and overall worse financial health. One study estimated that annual net savings and investment fall by $144 per household after legalization. A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that Illinois lost $730 million in 2023 that could have gone to college savings, retirement accounts, or small business investment because of legalized sports gambling. Dwarfing the $150 million the state collected in tax receipts from sportsbooks.
Even Illinoisans who don’t participate in online sports betting feel the squeeze. Researchers at UCLA and the University of Southern California have shown that banks have tightened credit limits and lending standards on all consumers in states that have legalized online sports gambling to account for the extra risk presented by the abundance of betting. Meanwhile, public resources — counseling, fiscal support, family services — strain under the weight of problem gambling, eroding the very tax revenues that boosters tout.
In this section, we study whether financial institutions responded to increased consumers’ financial risk by reducing credit card limits and limiting the type of loans they can take.
In Figure 4a, we present changes in the cumulative credit card limits for individuals with existing credit cards. We find that credit card limits start to decrease right after gambling legalization and continue to decrease as time passes. For general sports betting access, the overall ATT [Average Treatment on the Treated] estimate corresponds to roughly a 1.6% decline in credit card limits, while access to online betting leads to a nearly 2.7% decline. These results suggest that banks are responding to the increased financial risk caused by sports betting and lowering credit card limits to mitigate potential risk exposure. […]
While sports betting accessibility appears to be financially harming consumers, online access drives most of the effect we observe. Furthermore, the effect of sports betting does not appear to be driven by higher credit card delinquencies but by increased exposure and use of hard debts such as consolidation loans, secured loans, and bankruptcies. The fact that credit card delinquencies are unaffected or lower is likely due to financial institutions trying to mitigate their exposure to risk by lowering credit limits. Despite this, we observe consumers missing payments for other loans and products, leading to increased collections and auto loan delinquencies.
…Adding… Illinois Gaming Board…
Hi Rich,
Hope all is well with you.
We read with interest your blog post, Is online sports betting lowering credit limits for all Illinoisans?
The Illinois Gaming Board (IGB) approved a new rule at its April 24, 2025, meeting, to prohibit the use of credit cards to fund sports wagering accounts. This rule will soon be filed with JCAR.
During the meeting, IGB Administrator Marcus D. Fruchter said, “As part of our review, we determined that prohibiting the use of credit cards to fund sports wagering accounts is a justified and impactful advancement in Illinois sports wagering. There is a growing body of recent research showing that restrictions on credit usage to fund wagering accounts encourages responsible gambling and mitigates the harms of compulsive gambling. Problem gamblers are particularly at risk and studies have shown an often-problematic willingness for compulsive gamblers to use credit cards to place bets.
JUST IN: Prosecutors say they WILL retry state Sen. Emil Jones III on bribery charges after a jury in April deadlocked on all three counts Background:https://t.co/y9iQqvYjNc
News: prosecutors WILL retry state Sen. Emil Jones on charges of bribery, lying to FBI after April mistrial. Scheduling won’t happen today, though; defense wants him to be present for a hearing in late June on the date. AUSA says retrial would include “a few additional witnesses” https://t.co/4xLHD3sKUC
Attorneys and U.S. District Judge Andrea Wood are expected to set a new trial date later this month.
A new trial could last four weeks since prosecutors intend to call “a few additional witnesses,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Prashant Kolluri said in court.
It’s been a little more than a month since Jones’ trial ended with a hung jury. Despite being a relatively straightforward case, the trial featured plenty of intrigue. Jurors heard from a former red-light camera executive who wore a wire for the FBI after being caught giving “benefits” to public officials across the suburbs, and they viewed undercover recordings he made in 2019. […]
Ultimately, Jones’ trial turned out to be the third of four federal corruption trials in Chicago to end without a conviction since August.
A federal judge on Monday denied a motion by former House Speaker Michael Madigan seeking to overturn his recent conviction on bribery and other corruption counts, setting the stage for a high-stakes sentencing hearing later this week.
Madigan, 83, was back in the federal courtroom for the first time since a jury convicted him nearly four months ago. But unlike his marathon trial, Monday’s hearing was brief.
After both sides waived oral arguments on the defense motion, U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey announced he was denying it, though his ruling, which he said is more than 100 pages, won’t be made public for some time.
Prosecutors wrote in a court filing late Friday that “Madigan has amassed a personal fortune of more than $40 million.” They did so as they complained of his “appalling” greed amid a scheme to trade on the office he once held, as well as former Chicago Ald. Danny Solis’.
But Monday, Madigan’s attorneys insisted that any claim that he was “lining his pockets” is “patently false.” They complained that prosecutors breached the direction of local courts when they “recklessly exposed” Madigan’s net worth, and they asked that it be stricken from the record. […]
Defense attorney Dan Collins insisted during the hearing that “Mr. Madigan’s net worth has nothing to do with this case.”
Blakey declined to make any ruling on the issue. Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Streicker simply said prosecutors opposed Madigan’s motion. It will likely be addressed again during a follow-up hearing Tuesday.
*** UPDATE *** Tribune court reporter Jason Meisner…
Judge Blakey has granted the motion to strike the disclosure of Madigan’s net worth from the public record. Please erase our story from your collective memories
[O]n Friday, June 13, Madigan’s wife, Shirley, asked for leniency in a videotaped appeal. Shirley Madigan says she can’t manage without her husband in the emotional 8-minute-long video.
“I really don’t exist without him,” she said. ” I wish I could say that I do, but I don’t know what I would do without Michael. I would probably have to find someplace to live.”
Defense lawyers collected close to 200 messages for the court in defense of their client, consisting of family members, former colleagues, labor leaders, and even clergy. Prosecutors, however, in their submittal to the court, pointed to Madigan’s 10-count criminal conviction.
“Madigan seeks extraordinary leniency from the Court—a sentence of probation for a former high-level elected official convicted of abusing his office for years through bribery, fraud, and conspiracy.”
* Sun-Times | Michael Madigan’s wife makes video plea to judge: ‘He loves me … I’m a part of him‘: Among other things, Shirley Madigan discussed the daughter she had before she married Michael Madigan — Lisa Madigan. Shirley Madigan explained how she used to put the now-former attorney general to bed with assurances that the child would see Michael Madigan when he returned from Springfield. Nevertheless, Shirley Madigan said she’d later find Lisa Madigan sleeping with a pillow and blanket near the door, so she’d “see him as soon as he came in.”
* WTTW | Judge Rejects Michael Madigan’s Motion for Acquittal as Ex-Speaker’s Corruption Case Heads Toward Sentencing This Week: The longtime speaker, who for decades acted as the most powerful politician in Illinois, breezed into court carrying an umbrella and sat silently at the defense table throughout the hearing. Madigan was convicted on 10 counts in total, relating to his efforts to secure a valuable state board position for disgraced former Chicago Ald. Danny Solis and to the most wide-ranging of the alleged bribery schemes outlined by the government involving utility giant Commonwealth Edison.
I asked Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch last week about the failure to pass an omnibus energy bill (the Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act) during the just-ended spring legislative session.
“I think the same thing that happened on energy happened on all the things, you know. Big bills take time,” Welch said. “And I really do believe it’s important that we take the time to get it right and make sure we produce the best results for everyone.”
Welch compared the delay to his first spring session as House speaker, when another energy omnibus bill crashed and burned and then they came back in the fall and “passed one of the biggest pieces of legislation that ever passed in this state.”
Gov. JB Pritzker told reporters much the same thing last week.
“You don’t get everything done in one year,” Pritzker said. “(S)ometimes they spend two years, four years, six years trying to get something big done.” Like Welch, he also pointed to the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, which he noted took about a year and a half to pass.
Senate President Don Harmon, on the other hand, pointed to this summer’s expected temporary spike in electricity costs due to capacity charges by regional grid managers as a reason. Some of the proposals (like battery storage) would cost more in the short term, “so we’re trying to figure out how to how to respond to that anticipated spike,” Harmon told Illinois Public Media’s “The 21st Show.”
In the end, though, Harmon said, We just couldn’t keep the Christmas tree standing this year” — apparently meaning the bill fell under its own weight.
But other factors were important as well, according to numerous people who worked on the bill. Stakeholders would agree to changes, and then the drafts would come back that inexplicably looked little like what people had agreed to, which not only delayed the end, but also injected a lack of trust into the process.
This was particularly true with energy efficiency requirements, I’m told. A deal was finally cut with ComEd, and Ameren decided to move off its opposition, but there simply wasn’t time left to get that drafted before the clock ran out.
Many issues had been on the table for months, but a legislative working group came up with some ideas that couldn’t find quick consensus.
People were spread too thin across too many major items (including mass transit reform and the state budget), and as a consequence, way too much fell through the cracks.
The American Petroleum Institute blasted the energy storage portion of the bill for costing $9 billion for about one to two hours of peak electricity supply per day.
Proponents vehemently disputed the API’s figure, saying the estimate was way too high, and cost increases wouldn’t begin for a few years and cost decreases would start a few years later.
But that and other things helped drive the pipe trade unions away from bill. The unions represent workers at a massive Metro East coal-fired power plant and a major refinery, both of which are heavy industrial electricity consumers.
And their decision to oppose the legislation on May 31 meant there wasn’t enough time to fix that problem and bring the final language to the two Democratic caucuses.
The pipe trades have now officially declared themselves neutral, as have Ameren, Constellation Energy and the Illinois Energy Association. And some environmental lobbyists think the language on the table has a good shot at passage during the October veto session (or perhaps in January), even though their attempts to rein in power-hungry data centers were left out of the bill.
Whatever the case may be, the Legislature goes through this almost every year. They put all the big stuff off until the end, and then they don’t have the bandwidth to deal with a multitude of issues at once, although this year was particularly difficult.
Human beings tend to wait until the last minute to do things. But the leaders need to start enforcing earlier deadlines for giant issues like this energy proposal so they can deal with other time-sensitive things (the budget and revenues, for instance) at the end. Or maybe the other way around.
Far too many major issues were left to May 31. And that procrastination led to problems like a poorly drafted revenue bill that could imperil some TV and film projects in Illinois.
A buddy of mine who’s been at the Statehouse for decades grumped last week the leaders tried to do a five-month session in five days. That’s no way to run a railroad.
* A few more…
* Capitol News Illinois | ‘Clean Slate’ Act to seal nonviolent criminal records loses in race against time: “It wasn’t that (the bill) didn’t have enough sponsors, but the Senate sponsor of the bill was working on the budget, and the budget is going to take precedence over everything else,” said Jehan Gordon-Booth, D-Peoria, the bill’s chief sponsor in the House, referencing Sen. Elgie Sims, D-Chicago, the bill’s Senate sponsor. “He had to focus on his No. 1 job, which is budgeteer.”
* Tribune | Cook County property tax reforms stall out in Springfield: Legislative reforms to Cook County’s property tax system almost uniformly stalled this legislative session, halting efforts to give tax breaks to more seniors and those walloped with big bills, and to help people hang on to some of their homes’ value if they lose the properties because of unpaid taxes.
…Adding… I forgot to post this release from the Clean Grid Alliance…
Following is a statement from Jeff Danielson, Vice President for Advocacy at the Clean Grid Alliance, in response to recent false claims about Illinois’ energy bill negotiations:
“In the days following the end of the legislative session, some have advanced false claims about battery storage power plants that need to be corrected. Multiple media outlets have cited the baseless statement that battery storage investment would cost $7 billion. And, suddenly and without explanation, this number has again been arbitrarily inflated to $9 billion–also baseless.
“The fact is, investment in battery storage will save money for Illinois consumers. It’s a critical tool to avoid future energy price spikes for ratepayers. There is no cost to consumers in the energy storage provisions until the energy storage is actually built–which, at the earliest, would be 2028. And again, after construction is complete, the increased energy storage will lead to lower prices for consumers.
“A 2024 Power Bureau analysis found that deploying 7.5 GW of storage in Illinois would save customers $480–840 million annually by reducing capacity, transmission, and energy market costs. In their own words—ComEd stated that an energy storage system of 750MW would have saved ComEd customers approximately $195M - $280M, in the latest PJM capacity auction, and could lead to $10-17 in savings per year on customer bills.
“Illinois is facing an energy reliability and affordability crisis. Just this week, Illinois customer bills have gone up to account for price spikes that are the direct result of the state not building enough new generation to meet skyrocketing demand.
“The bottom line: battery storage is the solution to spiking costs–not the driver.”
🚨Today, the Illinois Freedom Caucus announced that all of its members have filed legal action to challenge the unconstitutional process used by Illinois politicians to force through the state’s $55 billion budget package near midnight. pic.twitter.com/L8SA1sloLs
— Illinois Freedom Caucus 🇺🇸 (@ILFreedomCaucus) June 5, 2025
The odds of this lawsuit succeeding are slim. Why? The Illinois Supreme Court has long adhered to the "enrolled bill doctrine," which grants wide leeway to legislative leaders to determine whether the proper procedures were followed in the passage of a bill. https://t.co/7FPvMInxHppic.twitter.com/M0guHSeIOL
…Added by Rich… The lawsuit itself is kind of a mess. They list the wrong amendments on the revenue omnibus and the wrong BIMP amendment. They refer to Senate President Don Harmon as “Tom.” Many of the cases they cite are actually minority opinions which upheld the enrolled bill doctrine.
Four development groups have told Sangamon County officials they may be interested in building a 200- to 300-bed hotel on a county-owned parking lot along South Ninth Street and collaborating with the county to double the size of the BOS Center. […]
A new hotel was suggested by [Conventions, Sports & Leisure] because it said the President Abraham Lincoln Springfield, a DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel that offers 310 rooms, and the Wyndham Springfield City Centre Hotel, with 369 rooms, “are considered substandard headquarters hotel properties relative to modern design standards for full-service, convention-quality hotel products.”
The Wyndham site, at 700 E. Adams St. and immediately southwest of the BOS Center, was described by CSL as “the most desirable” site for the new hotel. The existing 30-story structure presumably would be torn down and rebuilt, then connected to the expanded BOS Center through a skybridge.
But Van Meter said county officials haven’t told developers they have any control over the Wyndham, which is closed and whose owner, Al Rajabi of Tower Capital Group, hasn’t communicated with local officials for months.
Moreover, it may be many months before the Wyndham can reopen. The hotel was damaged by internal flooding on March 27 and has been closed since then.
A Northern Illinois University student was charged this week after police searched his dorm room in DeKalb and found more than 20,000 images depicting child sexual abuse on his electronics, many were digitally faked images of former Batavia classmates, authorities said. […]
Michael B. Erickson, 19, a graduate of Batavia High School, was charged with 21 counts of possession, creation and dissemination of child sexual abuse materials. […]
DeKalb County Deputies allege Erickson paid a third-party AI platform to create deepfake images of people he knew by having the AI remove their clothing to make them appear to be nude. Erickson used deepfakes, photographs and video to create the materials, authorities allege in DeKalb County court filings Monday.
On March 3, Erickson told a user on Snapchat that “I charge cheap too 10$ for 10 pics 5$ for 5 and 20$ for 20,” according to court records. In a different conversation March 5, another Snapchat user asked Erickson why he makes the images and Erickson replied “to sell them to boys,” records allege in court filings.
After confusion over whether AI-generated images qualified as child pornography, Governor Pritzker signed a bill into law last year clarifying that Illinois’ statutes do apply to content created by artificial intelligence.
*** Statewide ***
* Capitol News Illinois | Unsettling Accounts: How Illinois is confronting the growing student loan crisis: A recent graduate of the University of Illinois Chicago, Villalpando, 29, took out private loans to pay for college. Unlike federal student loans, private loans typically have higher interest rates and fewer forgiveness programs, making them harder for borrowers to pay off. Then, his fiancé came across the SmartBuy program – an initiative set up by the state to help incentivize residents to purchase a home while paying off their student loan debt, one of the leading factors delaying homeownership among young adults. SmartBuy pays up to $40,000 in student loans and contributes up to $5,000 towards a down payment or closing costs at the time of purchase.
* Axios | Illinois lands in top 5 in Fortune 500 HQs: Illinois ranks in the top 5 when it comes to the number of Fortune 500 companies headquartered in the state, according to the magazine’s annual list. U.S. companies are staying put in Illinois even as Republicans claim Gov. Pritzker and the Democrats are taxing them out of town.
* Daily Herald | Weather, disease challenge Illinois’ strawberry growers: Austin Flamm with Flamm Orchards in Union County said their struggles began early when a disease called Neopestalotiopsis infected greenhouses in Canada where the Flamms purchase their plugs. “Of the 100,000 plants for our early variety, we only planted 35,000 of them and of those 35,000, I’d say there was less than 5,000 that survived,” Flamm told FarmWeek, noting a late start to the picking season due to poor stands.
*** Statehouse News ***
* Tribune | Illinois rental assistance program sees funding cut for 2026 budget in another blow to state, city housing programs: Dalton is one of 7,129 renters who has received assistance this fiscal year from the state program. The state housing authority’s goal was to assist 8,900 households through the new program but will likely see closer to 8,000 households supported, said Illinois Housing Development Authority Executive Director Kristin Faust in an interview with the Tribune. The state agency administers the rental assistance program. Faust said the 8,900 number was based on an authority projection.
* Capitol News Illinois | ISP backs bill expanding its mission to investigate internet crimes against children: While Illinois State Police has long investigated child sex crimes, a new measure would explicitly name addressing internet crimes against children as a core mission of its criminal division. House Bill 2586, also called Alicia’s Law, would add to the current 13 missions of the Illinois State Police Department of Criminal Investigations. It passed both chambers of the Illinois General Assembly unanimously in late May.
*** Chicago ***
* Tribune | Former aldermanic candidate wins $1.4M in defamation suit over campaign mailers: Ebony Lucas, a real estate attorney who lost in the first round of the aldermanic elections in the ward that includes Hyde Park, filed suit in December 2023 over what she described as a “coordinated smear campaign” alleging she had a series of unpaid liens and fines related to her business and violations of the city’s landlord tenant ordinance. Preckwinkle’s organization paid for three mailers alleging Lucas was a “bad landlord,” who “can’t manage her own business” and “doesn’t care about doing the right thing.”
* Chalkbeat Chicago | Waiting To Learn: How Bilingual Education In Chicago Falls Short: And every day, students — like one Ecuadorian fourth grader who struggled to read and write in English — were left without the support guaranteed to them in state law. “He shouldn’t have had to suffer for almost three years before he was able to receive the type of help that he needs,” said Sylvelia Pittman, a 20-year teacher at Nash who advocated for more bilingual resources in the new Chicago Teachers Union contract.
* Tribune | Aldermen call for hearing into Chicago police response to ICE demonstration: Twelve of the 14 aldermen in the caucus signed a letter condemning the high-profile showdown at 2245 S. Michigan Ave. The council’s Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights — which Latino Caucus Chair Ald. Andre Vasquez leads — will hold a hearing “to examine the extent of ICE’s misconduct and determine whether the Chicago Police Department played any role in (Wednesday’s) actions,” according to the letter. In a Wednesday evening statement, the Police Department denied that officers aided the federal agents.
* Sun-Times | CBS producer Deb Boulac set to make more history with Fever-Sky broadcast: Deb Boulac is an award-winning, groundbreaking TV producer. So it’s fitting that she’ll lead a historic broadcast Saturday when CBS airs the Fever-Sky game at the United Center — the first regular-season game in WNBA history to air on broadcast TV in prime time.
* Sun-Times | Chicago Sports Network expected to air on Comcast cable Friday: Chicago Sports Network is expected to launch on Comcast cable Friday on Xfinity’s Ultimate tier, the Sun-Times has learned, finally putting the new home of the White Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks on the area’s dominant cable operator. Network officials declined to comment. NBC 5 Chicago was the first to report the deal.
*** Cook County and Suburbs ***
* Crain’s | Former Ascension hospitals’ new owner to senators: We’re saving hospitals no one else would: Durbin and Duckworth’s May letter to Prime asked for justifications for eliminating pediatric services at St. Joseph Medical Center in Joliet, the loss of a Level II trauma designation at Mercy Medical Center in Aurora, and shrinking of obstetrics and maternal care at St. Mary Hospital in Kankakee. The senators urged the company to reconsider those cuts and requested a response by June 10. This week’s letter from Prime laid out details of shrinking demand for the services cut at the three hospitals and said, “We cannot, in good conscience, maintain services that lack sufficient volume to support clinical excellence.”
* Press release | Gov. Pritzker Cuts Ribbon at Jel Sert Company’s Expanded Manufacturing Facility: Governor JB Pritzker, the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) and the Jel Sert Company joined local leaders to cut the ribbon on the company’s West Chicago expansion project. The company invested over $10 million to construct a new manufacturing operation that will enhance production of its popular powdered stick packs and ensure it can meet growing consumer demand. The expansion project will create more than 100 new manufacturing and packing operations jobs while retaining nearly 1,000 existing jobs.
* Daily Herald | Residents ask Mount Prospect to fly Pride flag, but village sticks to flag policy: Mayor Paul Hoefert, however, said the village’s policy is to fly only the American flag, the state of Illinois flag, and the Village of Mount Prospect flag at village hall. “We don’t fly any other flags, not even the (POW/MIA) flag,” Hoefert said. “Our feeling, based on legal advice, is that once you allow any other flag on that flagpole, you’re open to any request that comes. It makes total sense to me, and it makes total sense of the board.”
* Trains | Illinois man sentenced to more than four years in prison in Amtrak bribery case: An Illinois employee of an Indiana masonry firm has been sentenced to 57 months in prison for his role in a federal bribery case over Amtrak’s renovation of its 30th Street Station in Philadelphia. Donald Seefeldt, 65, of Wilmette, Ill., was also sentenced to a year of probation, 59 hours of community service, and a $50,000 fine after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit federal program bribery, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the eastern district of Pennsylvania announced.
* CBS Chicago | Mosquitoes in 2 Illinois counties test positive for West Nile virus: The DuPage County and McHenry County health departments confirmed that mosquitoes tested positive for West Nile virus for the first time this year. The mosquitoes tested in McHenry County for the virus were found in Lake in the Hills. DuPage County health officials tested mosquitoes from Roselle, Medinah, Clarendon Hills, and Burr Ridge in May.
*** Downstate ***
* WSIL | Southern Illinois Back to School expo canceled; donations sought for 2026 event: The Franklin-Williamson Positive Youth Development Action Team (FW-PYD) announced the cancellation of the 2025 Southern Illinois Back to School Expo. Funding challenges led to this difficult decision. The organization said this decision will, unfortunately, be inconvenient and challenging for families in Southern Illinois for the upcoming 2025 - 2026 school year. However, they are actively seeking new opportunities to hold the event in 2026.
* PJ Star | ‘Our efforts paid off’: Peoria Ag Lab to remain open, could see growth, congressman says: The National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research – known as the Peoria Ag Lab – will remain open and may even see growth, according to the office of U.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen. A June 4 news release said the proposal for the administration’s Agricultural Research Service budget for fiscal year 2026 included “potential growth for the NCAUR with research expansion.” Congress must still make final funding decisions.
* WCIA | University of Illinois names computer scientist, Wisconsin provost as new Chancellor: In a news release, System President Tim Killeen said Charles Lee Isbell Jr. will be the 11th Chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He comes to Illinois from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he served as a computer scientist and provost. “It’s the honor of a lifetime to be appointed to the role of chancellor and I’m deeply grateful to President Killeen and the Board of Trustees,” Isbell said. “I’m energized by this chance to serve the citizens of Illinois and advance the mission of learning, discovery, engagement and economic development.”
* NPR Illinois | Springfield mayor announces chief of staff is leaving: Springfield Mayor Misty Buscher announced a change Wednesday in her leadership team. Mike Disco, who has been Chief of Staff since Buscher took office, is leaving the position. No reason was given. Disco came to the position from the private sector. “I want to thank Mike Disco for his service and contributions to the City of Springfield,” said Mayor Buscher. “I appreciate his efforts on behalf of our residents and wish him the very best in his future endeavors.”
* WSIL | Black Vultures on the Rise: Southern Illinois Farmers Battle Aggressive New Predator:Unlike their red-headed cousins, the turkey vultures, which only feed on carcasses, black vultures are bold, territorial, and known to attack living animals, especially newborn livestock or weakened mothers during birth. Farmer’s have seen attacks on baby calves, lambs, and even piglets. Once uncommon in Illinois, black vultures are now migrating farther north, with officials noting a marked increase in sightings and damage reports over the past few years.
*** National ***
* NYT | The Age Issue: More of Congress Is 70-Plus Than Ever Before: When the current Congress was convened in January, there were nearly 120 members who were 70 or older — 86 in the House, including nonvoting delegates, and 33 in the Senate. This number, which is unmatched in modern history, included 14 octogenarians in the House, five in the Senate, and 91-year-old Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa.
* WaPo | Supreme Court sides with woman claiming anti-straight job discrimination: The Supreme Court on Thursday sided with a straight woman who claimed she faced bias in the workplace after she was passed over for positions that went to gay colleagues. The decision will make it easier for people who are White, male or not gay to prove bias claims. The justices unanimously struck down a standard, used in nearly half of the nation’s federal circuits, that required members of groups that historically have not faced discrimination to meet a higher bar to prove workplace bias than members of minority groups.
* The Question: What do you think about the change? Have you tried the beta site yet? If so, how has it worked for you?
…Added by Rich Miller… A legislator sent me this test of the new site’s “virtual assistant” and the same thing happened to me when I attempted to replicate it…
From the same legislator…
It takes 5 clicks to open a bill page on the new site and only 3 clicks on the old site. Does this new site improve anything? What is going on here?
* I have been warning subscribers about this silly AI feature since last December…
The new beta looks a little better, but the LIS folks apparently couldn’t help themselves and added a cheap “artificial intelligence” element to the site.
The LIS “Virtual Assistant” is designed to answer questions that registered users submit. A buddy of mine and I were playing with the function last night and a rethink is definitely in order.
For example, my buddy typed, “Can you please tell me what the dumbest bill introduced in the 103rd General Assembly is?”
The “Virtual Assistant” answered not with a bill number, but with a committee name: “Appropriations-General Services - House Committee.” Rep. Fred Crespo, who chairs that committee, might not be too happy with that [although now, in retrospect, Speaker Welch might agree, since he removed Crespo from the committee].
I asked the virtual assistant “Which bills will hurt economic growth?” Its answer didn’t include any bill numbers, but it instead responded with a committee name (House Economic Opportunity & Equity Committee) and the names of two state Representatives (Jawaharial Williams and Ann Williams).
When I asked it who the worst House member was, the virtual assistant returned a partial list of ten House committees, in alphabetical order.
“Please make me laugh,” my buddy asked the virtual assistant. It responded with the names of Reps. Martin McLaughlin and Justin Slaughter – both of whom have “laugh” in their names.
This goofy AI chatbot could easily cause a lot of problems.
But could it be useful to the average person? I asked the chatbot a more practical question last night: “What abortion bills have been introduced?” The response: “Well now I am embarrassed, I do not know the answer.”
I asked, “Which bills would raise taxes?” and it returned the same “I dunno” answer. I asked the AI monster which bills would lower taxes, and it pointed me to retiring Rep. Mary Flowers (D-Chicago). Heh.
I mean, c’mon. Literally nobody asked for this.
I just asked the silly chatbot the same questions and it returned basically all of the same answers, except for the Mary Flowers answer because she’s no longer a member.
In other words, I warned about this problem six months ago and they made no effort at all to change it.
