* ICYMI: Federal government withholding $1 billion from Illinois meant for child care, family assistance. Tribune…

- In Illinois, about $1 billion is being frozen that would normally go toward programs that help families pay for child care, support child care workers and help pay for other services, according to Gov. JB Pritzker’s office. The administration is also withholding funds meant for California, Colorado, Minnesota and New York.
- “Rather than making life easier and more affordable for our families, Donald Trump is stripping away child care from Illinois families who are just trying to go to work,” Pritzker said in a news release.
- The frozen money comes from three areas: the Child Care and Development Fund, Social Services Block Grant funds, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. In Illinois, about 100,000 low-income, working families receive subsidized child care through the Child Care Assistance Program which is partly funded by Child Care and Development Block Grant, according to the governor’s office.

* Related stories…

• AP: Trump administration says it’s withholding social safety net money from 5 states over fraud concerns
• NBC Chicago: Illinois child care funds frozen: What we know as Trump withholds $1B in services

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* Tribune | Republican candidate for Illinois governor Ted Dabrowski fills news conference with contradictions: Dabrowski attempted to tie a rapid rise in spending for human service programs in Illinois under Pritzker to allegations of fraud that have surfaced in Minnesota, linked to the state’s large Somali immigrant community. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the 2024 Democratic nominee for vice president, dropped his bid for a third term as governor on Monday amid the tumult. But, Dabrowski said, “I want to say here is I’m not making an accusation today of fraud in Illinois. I’m not doing that.” Later, he added, “I’m not making any accusations of fraud. I am saying that these kind of growth rates parallel the kind of stuff that could happen in Minnesota.”

* Crain’s | Welch says Bears stadium bid collides with Springfield’s affordability agenda: The Bears aren’t the only ones who are at risk from Democrats’ renewed focus on affordability. Welch, like Gov. JB Pritzker, signaled an interest in insurance reform. “Everything’s going to come down around affordability issues. Folks are concerned about their homeowners insurance, their car insurance,” he said.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Crain’s | ComEd demands guarantees from data centers — and wins: Brad Klein, managing attorney at the Environmental Law & Policy Center, said the transmission agreements “are a step in the right direction but still leave ComEd customers on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars of data-center transmission costs.” The nonprofit advocacy group recommends that big users also be required to pay their own cost for the high-voltage lines required to deliver power directly to their facilities.

* Tribune | Darren Bailey promises a DOGE for Illinois: Bailey, a former legislator from southern Illinois who is again seeking the Republican nomination, sent out a weekend fundraising e-mail, saying one of his first actions as governor would be to “launch DOGE for Illinois.” DOGE is the Department of Government Efficiency run by Elon Musk that promised to save the federal government $1 trillion but, by its own admission, achieved far less. Its job cuts, many of them in Republican districts, sparked a backlash and proved to be one of the more controversial steps of Donald Trump’s second term so far.

* Politico | Giannoulias cash surge fuels City Hall buzz: Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias raised more than $1 million in the fourth quarter of 2025 for his reelection campaign — no small feat, especially during the holiday fundraising doldrums. […] Giannoulias hasn’t decided whether he’ll take on Mayor Brandon Johnson, though the possibility remains one of the biggest unanswered questions in Chicago political circles.

*** Chicago ***

* Crain’s | After a bruising budget battle, Johnson’s CFO Jaworski leaves City Hall: The decision was made near the end of the year, but Jaworski wanted to stay on through the conclusion of the budget process, she told Crain’s. “I’m leaving because I have a great opportunity at Navy Pier,” she said. “I did delay in order to get through the budget and allow an appropriate time for the mayor’s office to be able to transition my position.”

* Sun-Times | After problem-free ‘New Year’s Rockin’ Eve,’ Mayor Johnson says he opposes revised curfew measure: “New Year’s Eve was a testament that we did not need an additional tool in order to ensure that our young people were where they need to be, and that our parents and adults who are part of these young peoples’ lives — that they are also held accountable for their whereabouts,” said Johnson, who vetoed the snap curfew ordinance that Hopkins muscled through the City Council after a violent teen takeover last year. Hopkins made the opposite argument about Chicago’s festive riverfront celebration “The mayor used my ordinance on New Year’s Eve… He declared a time-and-site curfew. He announced it and he publicized it. And he told parents, `Don’t send your unaccompanied minors to this event because curfew will be enforced’ and it worked,” Hopkins said.

* Sun-Times | CPS Board is investigating two leaks of internal board information: The Chicago Board of Education has launched two investigations into how internal information got into the hands of the media. It is looking at whether a member is responsible for revealing the names of superintendent finalists to the media and how a reporter recently got an internal update that included information about plans to hold a special meeting to raise property taxes. The board president is so incensed by the recent leak that he is threatening to ask the guilty party to resign.

* Sun-Times | Former CPS principal and network chief defrauded district of nearly $89K, watchdog finds: One such case involves former CPS principal and network chief Brian Metcalf. From 2012 to 2017, Metcalf worked with former CPS vendor Kimberly Maddox to generate fake invoices for goods and services that were never provided, splitting the proceeds after receiving payment from the district. Metcalf and Maddox admitted to the conspiracy as part of a plea agreement in a federal case against them involving a similar scheme to defraud a nonprofit organization and a charter school network in Indiana after Metcalf left CPS in 2018.

* Tribune | Northwestern Memorial Hospital workers demand better staffing, ahead of expansion vote: The Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board is slated on Jan. 13 to consider the hospital’s application to add 42 intensive care unit beds and a two-story connector between two pavilions, among other things. The board must vote in favor of the hospital’s application before the project can move forward. The project is partly intended to alleviate backups in the hospital’s emergency department due to a lack of intensive care unit beds, according to the hospital’s application for the project. Those backups have led to “excessive” emergency department wait times and many patients leaving without being seen, according to the hospital’s application.

* Block Club | Did Chicago Police Help ICE? City Says No, But Watchdogs Hosting Public Hearing: The hearing is being held after police district councils submitted more than 2,000 signatures from community members last month that called for an investigation into how police and federal agents have interacted. A day before petitions were submitted, Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino, in a social media post, thanked Chicago police for “their assistance” during an operation in December.

* Block Club | Black-Owned Brewery, Little Village Visitor Center Among 58 Projects Getting $33 Million From City: The mayor and the city’s Department of Planning and Development selected 58 projects to receive Community Development Grants, announcing in a news release that the recipients were selected from a pool of nearly 400 applicants. The awards, ranging from $51,000-$5 million, will support costs such as construction, rehabilitation and planning for projects sparking investment on commercial corridors, Johnson said. The awards are funded through the mayor’s $1.25 billion Housing And Economic Development Bond, tax-increment financing and the Neighborhood Opportunity Fund.

* Tribune | Chicago Bears preparing for intense atmosphere in playoff opener — on the field and in the stands: Chicago Bears coach Ben Johnson hasn’t heard from a lot of old colleagues about making the playoffs as a first-year head coach, nor has he given himself a second to pat himself on the back for the achievement. It’s a short week before the Bears face the Green Bay Packers on Saturday for the third time in six weeks — and in a wild-card playoff game, no less. “Just really focused at the task at hand,” Johnson told reporters Tuesday at Halas Hall. “We’ll worry about the reflection, we’ll have plenty of time to do that when the season’s over. We’re not ready for that, you know?

* Sun-Times | The future of Walgreens, an iconic Chicago drugstore, looks grim: First and foremost, according to Walgreens’ June 6 proxy statement, Sycamore financed its $18.8 billion leveraged buyout of Walgreens with 70.9% debt — a truly staggering amount, much higher than the average debt level of 41% used by private equity firms to acquire companies last year. The leveraged buyout model is a key driver of instability at private equity-owned companies: By saddling companies with substantial debt, resources that could otherwise be invested in innovation, workforce development or adapting to market changes are channeled toward servicing this debt, leaving companies vulnerable to financial distress and bankruptcy. … Since Staples was acquired by Sycamore in 2017, Sycamore has shuttered roughly one-third of its stores and laid off scores of workers. Meanwhile, Sycamore loaded Staples with debt and extracted a $1 billion dividend from the struggling retailer in addition to transferring Staples’ $150 million headquarters to itself. Mike Motz, the CEO who oversaw hundreds of store closures and tens of thousands of layoffs at Staples, has now been chosen to head up Walgreens.

* Tribune | Barnes & Noble to open four Chicago-area bookstores, part of a national expansion: The bookseller will open a store this summer in the former Old Navy outlet at 150 N. State St. Another Barnes & Noble store will open in early 2026 in Hyde Park at 1524 E. 55th St. The company also plans to relocate its store within Skokie’s Westfield Old Orchard Mall to a new two-level space, and build out by late spring a new Barnes & Noble inside the former Borders Books in Oak Park.

* Crain’s | Chicago’s mansion market had a blowout year in 2025: In the year that just ended, sales of high-end homes surged to a new record in the Chicago area, climbing past the old benchmark by almost 15%. As of Dec. 31, Crain’s running count of home sales at $4 million and up was at 156 for the year, head and shoulders above the previous record, the 136 homes sold in that uppermost price range in 2022.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Daily Herald | Railroads say freight merger application falls short; UP says rivals are grandstanding: Four of the nation’s largest railroads hope to throw a wrench in plans by rivals Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern to merge into one huge freight carrier. Officials with BNSF, CPKC, CSX and CN railroads recently filed objections with the U.S. Surface Transportation Board charging that the merger application was incomplete and flawed.

* Daily Southtown | Will County judge criticizes state delays, blocks tax return evidence in final Kee forfeiture case: Will County Judge Brian Barrett told Assistant State’s Attorney Dant Foulk Wednesday to sit down, calling Foulk’s attempt to appeal a ruling, which threatened to halt a case first filed against two New Lenox business owners in 2023, “a wrench thrown into the cogs of justice.” Barrett said the state cannot file an appeal every time they get a ruling that they do not want, calling the state’s continued delays “devious,” “ridiculous,” “absurd” and an abuse of the law. The exchange was a part of the final forfeiture case filed in 2023 against Greta Keranen and Jeffrey Regnier, owners of Kee Firearms and Kee Construction in New Lenox.

* Daily Herald | Mount Prospect spent $700,000 on legal fight with malodorous animal feed producer: According to the information released this week by the village, it amounted to $707,919.97. The breakdown is $539,848.83 for in-house legal services and $168,071.14 for outside services. […] From the village’s perspective, the cost could have been higher — Mount Prospect and Des Plaines settled with Prestige in June. The settlement included Prestige’s commitment to shutter by the end of the year. Legal costs were projected to exceed $400,000, with the potential for appeals, Village Manager Michael Cassady said.

* Crain’s | Chicago Stars FC plans 10-acre training center, HQ in Bannockburn: Chicago’s professional women’s soccer franchise is poised to build its first team-owned training facility in Bannockburn, a $30-million-plus project that would plant permanent roots for the club in the northern suburb and signal its growth ambitions as more money flows into women’s pro sports nationwide. The Chicago Stars FC today announced it is under contract to buy a 10-acre property at 1000 Lakeside Drive along Interstate 94 in Bannockburn, which the National Women’s Soccer League club plans to redevelop into a team performance center and the new hub of its operations. Pending completion of the deal and final zoning approvals from the village of Bannockburn, the Stars aim to break ground on the new facility in the spring and relocate next year from the team’s longtime practice home and office headquarters at SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview.

* Daily Herald | Alexian Brothers labor and delivery unit shuts down: After months of debate over its closure, and a ruling by a state agency in favor of Ascension’s closing it down, the Alexian Brothers Medical Center’s labor and delivery unit in Elk Grove Village served its last patient Tuesday. Ascension confirmed it is no longer scheduling deliveries at Alexian Brothers Women & Infant Services. Operations have been consolidated at Ascension Saint Alexius Women and Children’s Hospital in Hoffman Estates.

* Aurora Beacon-News | CTU President Stacy Davis Gates to be keynote speaker at Aurora event honoring legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.: “Davis Gates is a dynamic speaker who brings courage and clarity,” Aurora Deputy Chief of Staff Nicholas Richard-Thompson said in the news release. “Her fearless leadership and commitment to the ‘common good’ approach to organizing make her the ideal voice to help us reflect on King’s legacy of labor advocacy and our current struggle for structural justice.” In addition to Davis Gates’ keynote speech and performances by local choruses and artists, the event will also feature the presentation of the Donna J. Williams MLK Service Awards and the MLK Youth Liberation Awards, officials said.

*** Downstate ***

* WGLT | First non-congregate shelter village in McLean County to open in coming weeks: The McLean County Chamber of Commerce officiated the ribbon-cutting ceremony of Home Sweet Homes Ministries’ 48-unit facility on Oakland Avenue. However, residents are unable to move in until city officials issue a certificate of occupancy permit, said CEO Matt Burgess. […] Burgess hopes the permit will be issued in the next few weeks after a fence is installed around the property and an electrical reinspection.

* WCIA | Pre-apprentice program for at-risk people needs Champaign’s help: A program aiming to place people in trades is now going to the City of Champaign for some help. East Central Illinois Building and Construction Trades Council started a pre-apprentice program more than a year ago. People get hands-on training, certifications, and exposure to different kinds of trades. They also get paid $13 an hour as a stipend. The goal is to help place members of the program with full-time apprenticeships. Now, they’re wanting to create a separate program only for at-risk individuals.

* Herald-Whig | QPS projections better, but staffing shortage prompts concern: What sounds promising, QPS Chief of Business Operations Ryan Whicker said, potentially could be even more troubling for the school district. With 60 open positions for teachers and support staff, “when you factor in salaries and benefits for the folks we’re missing, we’re right back where we were,” Whicker said. “It looks better than it has, but we’ve had more openings this year than we’ve ever had. It’s a blessing from the finance side but a curse on the other side of harming the educational environment.”

* Herald-Whig | Quincy man receives 30 months probation, GPS monitoring over threats: Benjamin J. Inman, 28, of Quincy entered a guilty plea to one count of threatening a public official. The charge, a Class 3 felony, carries a maximum possible penalty of five years in prison. As part of the negotiated plea, Inman will serve 30 months on probation. He was also sentenced to 364 days in the county jail, with credit for 14 days served since he was arrested on Dec. 23 and the other 350 days stayed pending successful resolution of probation.

* WCIA | Danville Mass Transit steps into void left by CRIS RMTD closure: Danville’s Mayor, Rickey Williams, said the city’s transit system had to step up and fill the void on short notice. But right now, they can’t help everyone who has been left out by the sudden closure. “We’re actually providing that for all of those Vermilion County patients now,” he said. “Unfortunately, we don’t have the authorization yet to work outside of the county, but we are currently providing rides for all of those who need dialysis service that were previously provided transportation through CRIS.”

*** National ***

* NYT | Warner Bros. Board Rebuffs Paramount’s Latest Buyout Offer: Warner Bros. Discovery announced a deal in December to sell much of its business to Netflix for $83 billion, shocking much of the entertainment industry. Warner said Netflix’s offer, for its TV and movie studios, was a better deal than Paramount’s proposal to acquire the full company. Paramount has since made a hostile bid, taking its case to shareholders. It has also proposed a deal for which Larry Ellison, a co-founder of Oracle, has personally guaranteed $40 billion in equity.

* WaPo | X users tell Grok to undress women and girls in photos. It’s saying yes.: Ashley St. Clair, a conservative influencer, had just put her baby down for the night Sunday when she got a text from a friend that turned her weekend into a nightmare: People on X were using the app’s chatbot, Grok, to generate sexual images of her, including one based on a photo of St. Clair at 14 years old.