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Isabel’s morning briefing

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Illinois

* Here you go…

* Tribune | Democratic dissension over spending priorities to push state budget talks past deadline: As things stood late Thursday, it would not be procedurally possible for both chambers to approve a budget by the end of the day Friday, when the spring session was scheduled to adjourn. It wasn’t clear if legislators would work into the weekend or return to Springfield next week.

* Sun-Times | Democrats’ all-gender bathroom, gun lawsuit bills prompt heated debate — with GOP warnings of court challenges, violence: State Sen. Neil Anderson, R-Andalusia, told lawmakers that he would “beat the living p—” out of any man who walked into a restroom with his daughter. State Senate Majority Leader Kim Lightford said GOP critics “don’t understand that life is evolving.”

* Crain’s | Illinois biz leaders in uproar over last-second lawsuit bill that’s set to pass: The measure is pushed by the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association. It provides for punitive damages in wrongful-death judgments, which the state currently doesn’t allow, but exempts hospitals, doctors, state and local governments and lawyers. That leaves a select assortment of businesses vulnerable to potentially much higher judgments.

* CBS Chicago | Cannabis license holders of color say they need help from state lawmakers: “We’re failing because there’s no access to capital,” said Rickey Hendon, a cannabis license holder. “And this narrative that there’s all this money out there for Black and brown people is just not true.”

* Bond Buyer | Chicago transit talks with state lawmakers remain on track: “All the conversations we’ve had to date with state legislators have been very positive,” said CTA CFO Jeremy Fine, speaking Tuesday at an “Innovations in Infrastructure” conference hosted by the University of Chicago and Bond Dealers of America.

* Capitol News Illinois | Environmental bills seek to improve soil health, ban state use of polystyrene foam containers: Senate Bill 1701 from Sen. Ram Villivalam, D-Chicago, creates a structure for the state to assess soil health through a newly created “Illinois Healthy Soils Initiative.” These assessments would happen under the purview of the state Department of Agriculture as well as local soil conservation districts with the goal of identifying “voluntary and incentive-based strategies that improve healthy soils” as well as improving coordination on soil health strategies.

* Evanston Now | Evanston must be a ‘yes in my backyard’ city: The Margarita has been a shelter since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, in March 2020, but now, Connections for the Homeless is buying the facility and is asking council to approve a special use permit and operating agreement to turn temporary usage into something long-term.

* Crain’s | What’s ahead for Sam Zell’s successors: After the news of Sam Zell’s death at age 81 broke yesterday, it didn’t take long for two of his three public real estate companies — Equity Residential and Equity LifeStyle Properties — to name his successors. Within hours, Equity Residential, a real estate investment trust that owns apartments, disclosed that board member and former CEO David Neithercut, 67, would succeed Zell as the company’s chairman. Following a similar playbook, Equity LifeStyle, a mobile-home park REIT, revealed a couple of hours later that its former CEO and current vice chairman, Thomas Heneghan, 58, would succeed chairman Zell.

* Daily Southtown | Southland now home to ‘world’s best Pilsner,’ second best maibock after area breweries win at World Beer Cup: Horse Thief Hollow, 10426 S. Western Ave. in Chicago’s Beverly neighborhood, earned first place gold for its brew “Little Wing,” beating out 128 other entries in the International Pilsner category.

* Tribune | Photographs shine a light on how a lack of masking is pushing Chicago residents with disabilities out of the public sphere: “Essentially, I have been forced to shield in my home,” Doherty said. “This is an opportunity for me to leverage my skill as a photographer to call attention to how disabled and immunocompromised people are being marginalized by the pandemic and policy and how that’s still going on. We’ve essentially been forced out of public life, so I had to try to find a way to do photography again from my home.”

* Sun-Times | Chonkosaurus, where are you? The hunt for Chicago’s celebrity snapping turtle: A team of journalists and an expert from the Field Museum set out this week to find the renowned reptile that had recently been spotted on the Chicago River.

* Tribune | Liam Hendriks’ return might be the only thing to look forward to for shellshocked Chicago White Sox fans: Still, there is no denying it would be nice to give Sox fans a chance to greet Hendriks with a long and loud ovation in his first game back. There haven’t been many moments to savor in this nightmarish start to the season, and watching Hendriks running in from the bullpen for the first time would be a sight to behold.

posted by Isabel Miller
Friday, May 19, 23 @ 7:37 am

Comments

Sam Zell is dead. The grave dancer has purchased his final piece of real estate.

Comment by Huh? Friday, May 19, 23 @ 9:23 am
- State Sen. Neil Anderson, R-Andalusia, told lawmakers that he would “beat the living p—” out of any man who walked into a restroom with his daughter. -

The World revolves around everybody else…too.

Comment by Dotnonymous Friday, May 19, 23 @ 12:56 pm