* Subscribers know more. Center Square…

The Texas House of Representatives has sued 33 House Democrats who absconded to Illinois to prevent a vote on Congressional redistricting efforts in the Lone Star State.

The lawsuit was filed in the Eighth Judicial Circuit Court in Adams County, Illinois. It asks the court to hold the Democrats in contempt and to domesticate Texas warrants, allowing for absconding Democrats to be arrested and brought back to Texas.

The lawsuit was filed by the Texas Office of Attorney General and Illinois state Sen. Jil Walker Tracy, R-Quincy.

“From day one, I have said that all options are on the table when it comes to making sure my colleagues who have fled the House return to fulfill their constitutional obligations,” House Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, said. Burrows signed civil arrest warrants for 56 House Democrats on Monday. Since then, eight Democrats have been present in the House. The majority of Democrats remain defiant, unmoved by threats of being arrested; 33 remain in the Chicago area.

* More from Democracy Docket…

Paxton’s filing leans heavily on the U.S. Constitution’s Full Faith and Credit Clause, which generally requires states to recognize the public acts of other states.

“This court must give full faith and credit to warrants duly issued by the Texas House of Representatives that compel these civil servants to return to Texas and to their civic responsibilities,” the petition states.“They do not have the right to deny the voices and votes of other members by withholding their own.”

The Full Faith and Credit Clause applies most strongly to final court judgments, not to legislative attendance orders, and states can refuse enforcement if it violates their own laws or public policy. Illinois could reject the request on grounds that civilly arresting lawmakers over a political protest is incompatible with its protections for legislative independence.

The current legislative special session is set to end August 20 — giving Paxton less than two weeks to get the Democrats back on the House floor for a vote.

* Meanwhile, from the Sun-Times…

A second bomb threat was cleared Friday at the St. Charles hotel and conference center where Texas Democrats are staying in an attempt to stop their Republican counterparts from redrawing congressional maps they say would give the GOP an edge in the 2026 midterm elections.

At 8:32 a.m. Friday, the St. Charles Police Department responded to a report of a second potential bomb threat at the Q Center hotel and convention complex, according to St. Charles police. After a sweep, no threat was found and all 70 guests of the hotel were unharmed.

Wednesday, police responded to a bomb threat at the complex around 7:15 a.m. that was also cleared.

* DHS Secretary Kristi Noem was in the Chicago suburbs today. The Tribune…

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem used a visit to the Chicago area on Friday to criticize Illinois politicians, blasting Gov. JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson at a press conference over state policies that limit local cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

As about three dozen people protested outside, Noem spoke to the media at a Lombard field office, relaying oft-repeated talking points about immigration enforcement priorities for President Donald Trump, who came into office with sweeping promises to hit record-level arrests and deportations.

Though arrests and deportations have increased since Trump took office, the numbers have fallen short of the stated goals, and the administration has aired frustrations with so-called “Sanctuary Cities.” Earlier this week, the Justice Department placed Chicago, Cook County, and Illinois on its latest “sanctuary jurisdiction list,” as Attorney General Pam Bondi promised to continue pursuing litigation against the jurisdictions on the list. […]

Pritzker has repeatedly defended the “sanctuary” law known as the TRUST Act, which Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner signed in 2017, including at a Republican-led congressional hearing earlier this year.

*** Statehouse News ***

* WMBD | A new law could add more beavers and bison to Illinois: The Illinois law gives more tools for IDNR to balance its ecosystems. They could add more Beavers and Bison, who are keynote species that are known for keeping their environments healthier. Healthier environments could mean fewer floods, which could, in theory, save the state billions of dollars. Cynthia Kanner is the executive director for the Prairie State Conservation Coalition, a non-profit organization that assists conservation land trusts. She said when you restore land, you make it more nutritious for farmers and absorb more water.

*** Chicago ***

* WTTW | Appeals Court Rules Serious CPD Discipline Hearings Must Take Place in Public: Chicago police officers accused of serious misconduct have the right to ask an arbitrator — and not the Chicago Police Board — to decide their fate, but those proceedings must take place in public, an Illinois Appeals Court ruled Friday. The ruling, which is likely to be appealed to the Illinois Supreme Court, endorses the effort backed by the city’s largest police union to upend the system used for 60 years to punish officers.

* Sun-Times | Top mayoral aide throws cold water on installing slot machines at O’Hare and Midway: A top aide to Mayor Brandon Johnson is trying to ground the idea of installing slot machines at O’Hare and Midway Airports for fear it would turn the aerial gateways to Chicago into a chintzy Las Vegas replica. Senior mayoral adviser Jason Lee said the last thing a booming O’Hare needs after a record-setting surge in summer travel is to follow the lead of McCarran Airport in Las Vegas, which has 1,300 slot machines distributed throughout the airport.

* Injustice Watch | ICE contractor locked an immigrant and her baby at an O’Hare hotel for five days: Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., called the false location listing “chilling” and likened the secretive hotel detention to a “kidnapping.” Illinois and Chicago have some of the nation’s strongest laws aimed at protecting immigrants like Galvis by prohibiting state and local agencies from cooperating with ICE. But her and Naythan’s detention at the Sonesta shows the limits of the state’s efforts to block ICE detention. The federal government can still use commercial facilities like hotel rooms to hold individuals and families in its custody. “Nothing that the states or local governments can do will stop ICE from carrying out its operations,” said Fred Tsao, senior policy counsel at Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.

* Block Club | Trump Administration Drops Civil Rights Cases On Environmental Justice, Affordable Housing: One case centered around a 2018 complaint that aldermanic privilege allows alderpeople to block affordable housing from being built in white neighborhoods. The other stemmed from a 2020 environmental complaint — sparked by a troubled North Side scrapper’s plan to move its operations to the Southeast Side — that decades of city policies have pushed polluters into Black and Brown communities.

* Sun-Times | Secret DEA lab examines cocaine surging into Illinois and surrounding states: In a lab in an undisclosed location in downtown Chicago, a brick of cocaine awaits testing by Oliwia Nazaruk, a forensic chemist with the Drug Enforcement Administration. The sugary, compressed white cocaine is stamped with an “L.A.” logo. The plastic packaging that wraps the brick also has an L.A. label in blue-and-white Dodgers colors — likely a Mexican drug cartel’s trademark.

* Crain’s | Burnett’s CHA appointment delayed by federal revolving door rules: The Johnson administration has been looking into whether it would have to ask the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development for a waiver to appoint Burnett, who has been a staunch ally to the first-term mayor. That request might normally be routine, but could be complicated by a Trump administration that has engaged in legal battles with Chicago, Cook County and Illinois on multiple fronts. Johnson’s press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but senior adviser Jason Lee told the Chicago Sun-Times the administration is in “conversations with individuals at the highest level of HUD to try and understand their interpretation of certain regulations.” The Sun-Times first reported the reason for the delay.

* Sun-Times | Judge tosses lawsuit likening pro-Gaza expressway shutdown near O’Hare to ‘false imprisonment’: In her ruling Thursday, U.S. District Judge Mary Rowland wrote that Manhart’s lawsuit was “only a hair’s breadth away from calling Defendants terrorists and placing the loss of innocent lives at their feet.” Rowland also wrote that stopping the flow of traffic didn’t amount to false imprisonment, and that Manhart had other options for getting past the blockade. Other people stuck in traffic left their cars and walked to the airport, the judge noted.

* Crain’s | Bears reset board after stake sale at $8.8 billion value: Edward L. McCaskey is now listed on the seven-member board, according to the franchise’s website. The seat had been vacant since the death in February of his grandmother, Virginia McCaskey, at the age of 102. Edward McCaskey, who didn’t respond to a request for comment, is the son of board secretary Patrick McCaskey, according to public records.

* I’ve been really meaning to catch the Water Taxi…

* Sun-Times | Nearly 1,000 immigrants celebrate naturalization ceremony in Chicago: ‘This is what America is about’: For Jocelynn Carey, who was part of the ceremony, the recent anti-immigration rhetoric was on her mind, saying it added to the emotions of the day. “To be somewhere with 1,000 people and receiving the message like, ‘No, you are welcome here,’” Carey said. “This is what America is about. We’re a nation of immigrants. And immigrants, they make America.”

* Block Club | A Blind Man’s Service Dog Was Stolen In Logan Square. He’s Asking For Neighbors’ Help To Find Him: Every day since June 5, Angel Santiago has stood in front of Tony’s Fresh Market in Logan Square, a green dog collar hanging around his neck, holding the same flyer and reciting the same speech to shoppers: “Missing dog. Please take a flyer and help me find Bam Bam.” Santiago, 58, who is legally blind and has glaucoma and Type 2 diabetes, is on a desperate search to find Bam Bam, his beloved 14-year-old dachshund. The dog was stolen from his backyard near Fullerton and Monticello avenues June 5 while in the yard on a potty break, Santiago said.

* Block Club | The Mangled History Of 16-Inch Softball Hands: Mallets, Swan Necks And Jersey Fingers: Chicago’s long history with 16-inch softball, a no-glove variant of the popular 12-inch game, is recorded in the mangled, deformed paws of its players. Each bent knuckle, crooked nail or smushed joint is treated like a war wound, a proud and painful reminder of the unique skill involved in fielding unusually large Clincher balls with bare hands. But who actually treats those wounds? Due to 16-inch softball’s propensity for digital deformation, a lesser-known yet important ad-hoc army of city hand specialists and orthopedic surgeons has become part and parcel of the distinctly Chicago sport, ensuring the normally minor but sometimes serious jams, dislocations, breaks and tears remain remnants of on-field battles rather than a threat to future ones.

* Block Club | There Is Not A Man Trapped Inside The Bean, So Please Stop Calling The Downtown Alderman: In recent days, videos of people calling for the release of “the man trapped in The Bean” have been shared thousands of times on TikTok and Instagram. The chaos started on July 31, when a group dressed all in black gathered near the Bean (the more familar moniker of the officially titled “Cloud Gate”) in Millennium Park. They held up signs calling for the release of “the man in the Bean.” The videos caused many to laugh — and others to become very confused. Ald. Brendan Reilly, whose 42nd ward is home to the Bean, said his office has been inundated with calls about a man trapped in the sculpture.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Daily Herald | ‘Stop focusing on the past’: Mundelein won’t revise impact fees for Ivanhoe Village development now: In an open letter to the community, Mundelein Mayor Robin Meier this week quashed any hopes officials with two local school districts may have of increasing the amount of cash they’ll receive from the company behind the massive Ivanhoe Village residential and commercial development. “We have to stop focusing on the past and we cannot keep dividing our community with controversy,” Meier wrote on the village website. “We need to understand that the impact fee approval (process) has been completed, approved and doesn’t need to be reopened.”

* Crain’s | Northwestern’s Tim Franklin stepping down from Local News Initiative he helped launch: Tim Franklin, the well-known voice of local news research and advocacy, is stepping down as director of the Medill Local News Initiative at Northwestern University in September. The initiative, spearheaded by Franklin in April 2018, is instrumental in providing research on local news outlets and closures across the country, as well as offering sustainable strategies to strengthen them. Franklin, 65, is stepping down as part of a phased retirement. He will oversee the department’s annual State of Local News Report through the spring and will continue serving as the John M. Mutz Chair in Local News at the Medill School of Journalism for at least another year, Franklin told Crain’s.

* NBC Chicago | 13 suburban DMVs will now offer walk-in hours on Saturdays. Here’s what you can do: The Illinois Secretary of State’s office announced Thursday it will start offering expanded walk-in hours on Saturdays in numerous suburbs “to help reduce weekday wait times and increase the number of residents the DMV can serve in August.”Beginning Aug. 9, 13 locations will serve walk-in customers from 7:30 a.m. to 12 p.m.

* Daily Southtown | Orland Park OKs tax incentive for Original Pancake House, Egg Harbor: The inducement agreements are meant to help the businesses, both focused on a breakfast-lunch menu, defray the costs of opening, although what is paid to the restaurants is based on how well they perform. Village trustees approved agreements this week that will split sales tax revenue, for up to 10 years, to The Original Pancake House and Egg Harbor.

*** Downstate ***

* Illinois Times | Massey Commission nears end, prepares recommendations: Work groups are submitting their final recommendations to the full commission by next month, with the commission’s full report due by Oct. 1. Earlier this week, the Law Enforcement Hiring, Training, Wellness and Cultural Competency work group deliberated over the recommendations to offer up to the full commission, which meets Aug. 11. “Despite the SAFE-T Act’s reforms, there are gaps in the enforcement of the decertification process, and we heard that through multiple platforms,” Sunshine Clemons, founder of Black Lives Matter Springfield, said at the Aug. 4 work group meeting. “We want to focus on that if we’re going prepare to talk to legislators about it in September.”

* The Alton Telegraph | Alton helicopter-barge crash update: River reopens as probes start: The Missouri State Highway Patrol immediately closed the Clark Bridge after the helicopter crash, but that was reopened within two hours of the crash. The National Great Rivers Research and Education Center was evacuated Thursday morning as a result of the helicopter crash and was closed for the remainder of Thursday.

* WCIA | Lake Mattoon beach closed after algal bloom signs still present, city says: Just days after being reopened, Lake Mattoon is closed to swimming after city officials said there are still signs of a harmful algal bloom in the water. The beach was closed for three weeks after that bloom wreaked havoc on the city’s water supply, resulting in a do not drink order. Even after the order was lifted on July 18, the lake remained closed pending treatment of the water, which was delayed by low levels of oxygen in the water.

* WCIA | Deficit of over $400K projected in GCMS school district’s proposed budget: WCIA’s partners with the Ford County Chronicle reported that with projected expenditures of $18.87 million and revenues of $18.46 million, the overall deficit is projected to be $413,200. The budget also anticipates ending the fiscal year on June 30, 2026, with a fund balance of more than $11 million. […] Additionally, Superintendent Jeremy Darnell said after Wednesday’s board meeting that the operations and maintenance fund, with expenditures of $2.97 million compared with expenditures of $2.28 million, is expected to run the largest deficit. This will come as a result of $3.1 million in planned upgrades to outdoor recreational spaces next summer.

* Illinois Times | City Council set to approve third round of cannabis grants: A $100,000 grant from the city’s cannabis grant program, expected to be approved at the Aug. 6 City Council meeting, would help fund what McNeil estimated will be a $400,000 to $500,000 project to renovate the former office of Dr. Edwin Lee at 501 S. 13th St. The council is expected to vote to authorize the city to work out agreements with McNeil’s business, Dr. Edwin Lee Historical Building Inc., and four other minority-owned east side businesses that could receive $406,000 in total grants.

* 25News Now | Numerous Central Illinois school districts receiving evidence-based funding: round 20 school districts and regional offices of education in Central Illinois are getting “significant” new evidence-based funding. State Sen. Dave Koehler (D-Peoria) said the FY2026 budget invested $300 million in new funding through evidence-based funding.

* BND | Opponents, supporters of solar farm at Belleville cemetery face off at meeting: “It looks like it’s going to court,” said opponent Jesse Berger, who had warned earlier that the city was opening itself up to legal challenges if it proceeded with the controversial project. “It may be the only way to get it stopped. (Officials) aren’t backing down,” he said. About 60 people gathered on Thursday evening at the Southwestern Illinois Justice and Workplace Development Campus. The city had been required to hold the meeting under guidelines of a state program that’s providing financial incentives for the project.

* WTVO | Roscoe Village board votes to paint over existing mural: One trustee said he hopes to replace the mural with something the community can contribute to. “We wanna be proud of what the village does, nothing against what’s up there now, we just think it’s time for a change, something a little more vibrant, hopefully, if the board okays this, we’ll actually ask the public for help this time around,” said Trustee Mike Wright. The mural, painted by Thomas Agran in 2022, depicts an aerial view of the Pecatonica River as it flows into the Rock River. When the mural was commissioned, Roscoe officials hoped that community sponsors would cover half the cost. No donations were made, so the village had to cover all of the costs.

*** National ***

* WaPo | The price increases that should cause Americans more alarm: Meanwhile, since 1999, health insurance premiums for people with employer-provided coverage have more than quadrupled. From 2023 to 2024 alone, they rose more than 6 percent for both individuals and family coverage — a steeper increase than that of wages and overall inflation. For many people who have the kind of insurance plans created by the Affordable Care Act (because they work for small companies or insure themselves), rates have probably risen even more drastically. In this market, state regulators scrutinize insurers’ proposed rate increases, but only if they exceed 15 percent.

* Crain’s | United’s tech outage shows breaking up with mainframes is still hard to do: One of the first things CEO Scott Kirby pointed out when he joined United in 2016 was its outdated technology. The airline has been upgrading its technology for years, investing heavily in mobile apps for customers and employees alike, which run on newer systems built around the mainframe platform at the core of its operations. United also has been migrating data and software from its own computers to the “cloud,” or hardware maintained by vendors such as Amazon Web Services. Last year, Chief Financial Officer Mike Leskinen told analysts the airline had moved “70%, 80%, 90% to the cloud, but we still have to maintain that mainframe with 10% or 20% of the systems on that — on that mainframe.”

* NYT | Trump Wants U.C.L.A. to Pay $1 Billion to Restore Its Research Funding: The proposal calls for the university to make a $1 billion payment to the U.S. government and to contribute $172 million to a claims fund that would compensate victims of civil rights violations. If U.C.L.A. accedes to the demand, it would be the largest payout — by far — of any university that has so far reached a deal with the White House. Columbia University agreed to pay $221 million in connection with its settlement with the government, and Brown University pledged to spend $50 million with state work force programs.

* NAFSA | U.S. Economy Could Suffer a $7 Billion Loss from Precipitous Drop in International Students: Preliminary projections by NAFSA: Association of International Educators and JB International reveal that recent actions such as visa bans and disruptions in visa interviews and processing could have a devastating effect on U.S. local economies. An analysis of SEVIS and State Department data predicts a potential 30–40 percent decline in new international student enrollment, contributing to a 15 percent drop in overall enrollment this fall. Such an outcome would deprive local economies of $7 billion in spending and more than 60,000 jobs.