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* Daily Herald…
The cost of three days’ work preparing a report for the Metra board about alleged police department misconduct? Around $45,000, documents show.
But while the financials of the $1.57 million police department investigation are clear following FOIA requests, Metra is keeping the report by outside consultants confidential, and that’s troubling some Illinois lawmakers.
“Metra owes the ratepayers, their riders, and taxpayers an explanation on how they spent that $1.57 million,” state Sen. Laura Murphy said.
The Des Plaines Democrat plans to question the commuter railroad about the secret 2023 inquiry at a Senate Transportation Committee hearing this week.
* Pantagraph…
It’s not a Scooby Doo ghost town, though it could be mistaken for one. The 100-acre, 27-building site is the former Lincoln Developmental Center, a state-run facility for people with developmental disabilities that shuttered in 2002. […]
Within Gov. JB Pritzker’s fiscal year 2026 budget proposal is $300 million earmarked for a first-of-its-kind “Surplus to Success” program. The mission would be to develop old, unused or excess sites owned by the state into opportunities for economic development.
For those who represent communities like Lincoln, it is a welcome development, though promises have been made and not kept before.
“We’re gonna hold (Gov. Pritzker’s) feet to the fire and really, really push to make sure that this stays in the budget, because this is something extremely important to Lincoln and Logan County,” said state Sen. Sally Turner, R-Beason.
* WCIA | CMS releases memo detailing next steps for state workers with Health Alliance insurance: Last month, Health Alliance announced they are ending their insurance offerings by the end of 2025. Now, state employees only have a few months before making a choice, officials said in a memo obtained by WCIA. […] All current coverage will stay in place until June 30. State employees will need to choose a new health plan or opt out of State of Illinois coverage during their open enrollment period between May 1 and June 2.
Click here for the CMS FAQ on Health Alliance insurance.
* Hyde Park Herald | Rep. Buckner forecasts looming Trump threats, Springfield session: Buckner said he hopes that Democrats don’t fall into the trap of “responding to the thunder that we miss the lightning.” Although he made sure to acknowledge the dangers of inflammatory rhetoric and condemn such speech, Buckner feels that a lot of Trump’s “nasty comments” about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, are “thunder,” meaning a scary distraction, and not “lightning,” meaning those actions which will do specific damage to people’s lives.
* WCIA | Broad coalition lays out impacts of potential cuts to Illinois Medicaid: “I think that the fact that it’s such a large amount, $880 billion over ten years, there’s no way they can cut that much out of the federal budget without touching Medicaid,” Rep. Anna Moeller (D-Elgin) said. […] “I think, this is performative. We don’t know what will happen. There’s a lot of things that we have no control over budget negotiations going on at the national level,” Rep. Bill Hauter (R-Morton) said.
* Sun-Times | Putting Illinois’ big trees on the map: There is also a national register. Illinois has two national champs, both in DuPage County: Ohio buckeye (Aesculus glabra) inside the circle drive at the Hyatt Lodge in the old McDonald’s campus and a Kansas hawthorn (Crataegus coccinioides) at Morton Arboretum. On Wednesday, I went to find the Ohio buckeye and was justly rewarded with a massive sprawling tree that looked as battered as a heavyweight boxer at the end of 12 rounds. Just magnificent inside a decidedly urban circle of blacktop. Now, I’m inspired to find more champions.
* WTTW | Want to Represent the 35th Ward on the Chicago City Council? Here’s How to Apply: A four-member committee of 35th Ward residents will advise Mayor Brandon Johnson on who should replace soon-to-be former Ald. Carlos Ramirez Rosa on the Chicago City Council. Ramirez-Rosa is set to leave the City Council March 31 in order to lead the Chicago Park District, where he will oversee the city’s 600 parks and 6,000 employees. State law gives Johnson two months to pick a replacement for one of his closest allies on the City Council, who will serve out the remainder of Ramirez-Rosa’s term.
* Steven Can Plan | If parking relief is granted to just about every development, why require parking in the first place?: The Chicago zoning code requires nearly every development, new or renovated, to provide on-site car parking. The code also provides relief from that requirement, most often in the form of cutting the requirement in half if the development is in a “transit served location”. Further relief – getting closer to zero parking spaces required – can be requested via administrative adjustment to the Chicago Zoning Administrator. […] Sometimes, however, that administrative adjustment must be converted to an application for variation that’s heard by the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA).
* WTTW | Chicago Launches New Dashboard to Track Vacant Positions After Budget Clash: The new database, which will be updated on the first of every month, launched one week after WTTW News reported that approximately 250 positions charged with implementing a court order that requires the Chicago Police Department to stop routinely violating Black and Latino residents’ constitutional rights are vacant.
* Tribune | Chicago’s storied U.S. attorney’s office at crossroads as indictments dip, search for leader underway: Through the turmoil of changing administrations and a global pandemic, scores of veteran prosecutors fled for private practice or judgeships, leaving large gaps in leadership. Morale has dipped amid a variety of issues, sources told the Tribune, including COVID-era hybrid work schedules that limited face-to-face time, a focus on one-off gun cases, and now a federal hiring freeze. The bleeding continued last week, with the announcement that Assistant U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu, the veteran boss of the Public Corruption and Organized Crime Section who led the prosecution of ex-House Speaker Michael Madigan, is leaving Friday.
* FYI…
* WBEZ | Rising rents aren’t just a problem for those living in poverty: A recent WBEZ examination shows the cost of rent and utilities has grown three times faster than income over the last two decades. And the tidal wave of rising rents has come crashing down hardest on Chicagoans who are least able to pay. Before the surge in rent prices, most of those struggling to get by were already spending more than half their income on housing costs and barely keeping their heads above water.
* WTTW | Registration Open for Chicago’s Home Repair Program. Here’s What You Need to Know: Starting Monday, eligible homeowners can register for a chance to apply for a city program designed to provide roof and porch repairs at no cost to homeowners. The program is open to residents who own and occupy a single family or duplex residential property as their primary and only residence. Households earning up to 50% of the area median income are eligible to participate in the program. View income qualifications here.
* Sun-Times | Concrete chunks fall from viaduct, damaging woman’s car: ‘It could kill someone’: Sections of the viaduct show obvious signs of deterioration. Paint is chipping away in spots. Some support columns have sections of concrete missing and visible cracks. And some of the overhead sections are missing large patches of concrete, leaving rebar exposed. The viaduct is owned by Union Pacific. A spokesperson for the company said such structures are inspected a minimum of twice a year, with inspectors examining each bridge component for corrosion or cracks in trusses and decking.
* Daily Southtown | Calumet City District 155 Board member censured for inappropriate behavior with students: The Calumet City Elementary District 155 Board recently censured one of its members, Lamarr Miller, after learning he previously was disciplined for inappropriate behavior with students. […] “One day, as I’m walking from the nurse, he put an arm around me and said, ‘I haven’t told you how fine you look in awhile,’ and he was squeezing me so I told him to move and he shouldn’t be telling me that,” the student also reported in the account.
* Daily Herald | Village resident tabbed as Antioch’s new parks director: Katie Kotloski was selected from more than 25 applicants for the position, which comes with an annual base salary of $110,000. The post had been filled on an interim basis by retired Highland Park District executive Jeff Nehila since Mary Quilty retired in August. Kotloski has overseen recreation programs for the Lindenhurst and Northbrook park districts and managed cooperative programs for the Highland Park-based Northern Suburban Special Recreation Association.
* River Bender | Illinois Secretary of State’s Mobile DMV Will Be Offered at R.P. Lumber Center in April: The City of Edwardsville and the Illinois Secretary of State are teaming up once more to offer a Mobile DMV service in the city. It will take place at the R.P. Lumber Center on Wednesday, April 9, 2025. The Mobile DMV is part of an effort by the Illinois Secretary of State’s office to provide some of the basic Illinois Department of Motor Vehicle services, including REAL IDs, at easily accessible community sites. It’s an additional and alternative option to visiting a traditional DMV location. This service of the Illinois Secretary of State’s Office has been offered in Edwardsville several times since last year.
* Daily-Journal | Manteno police gun range tabled: Manteno Trustee Joel Gesky posted on social media Wednesday night that he and fellow Trustee CJ Boudreau met with resident Greg Olejarz and his wife after Monday’s Village Board meeting. […] When reached by phone Thursday, Gesky said the proposal for a gun range would be tabled for at least six months. “We’ve got to look at other options,” he said. “What else is there available, and what makes sense? And we’re asking for public input. … It was never a done deal, and we were exploring our options.”
* BND | Congressman tells metro-east leaders cuts to Medicaid, Social Security will hurt residents: A Chicago-area congressman traveled to East St. Louis on Saturday to meet with Black leaders who shared their concerns about cuts to federal programs by President Donald Trump’s administration. U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democrat representing the 8th Congressional District, told them to expect reductions in Medicaid benefits and Social Security services to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy if the president and billionaire Elon Musk have their way.
* WSIL | Boys and Girls club of Southern Illinois will host a Spring Break Camp: Carbondale’s Director Halston Lewis is helping to plan some of the fun activities. “We’re going to have the kids do a triple play. We’re going to have them doing basketball,” Lewis says. “And we get into the arts and crafts.” Lewis says he has grown with the Southern Illinois branch, starting as a member in 2004. He wants to make it feel like a second home for the kids.
* AP | Top US health agency makes $25,000 buyout offer to most of its 80,000 employees: Most of the 80,000 federal workers responsible for researching diseases, inspecting food and administering Medicare and Medicaid under the auspices of the Health and Human Services Department were emailed an offer to leave their job for as much as a $25,000 payment as part of President Donald Trump’s government cuts.
* Pew | Slowdown in Private Sector Jobs a Boon for State and Local Hiring: Since January 2023, more than 1 in 5 new jobs in the U.S. have been in either state and local government or public education, which is over twice the scale of public sector job growth seen in the decade before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to an analysis of federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data conducted by The Pew Charitable Trusts. The public sector hiring surge marks a clear turning point from the years immediately after the pandemic-induced recession, when states and localities struggled to staff up and accounted for fewer than 1 in 10 new jobs. The shift in public sector hiring over the past two years also created a rare role reversal in which state and local government employment growth outpaced the private sector’s rate—a phenomenon not seen since the onset of the Great Recession in 2007. All told, states and localities have added more than 1 million employees since the start of 2023 and now employ more than 20.5 million people.
posted by Isabel Miller
Monday, Mar 10, 25 @ 1:26 pm
Previous Post: New Hampshire ain’t what it used to be
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Metra’s Police Department is a poster-child for why reforms are needed to the regional system. They’ve been pinged for corruption and mismanagement for years, while providing minimal service to commuters. Meanwhile CTA has had so many problems with their security contracts. Either shift to a regional police department for all three services or scrap the concept entirely.
Comment by NIU Grad Monday, Mar 10, 25 @ 2:19 pm
Props to Jason at the Trib for a thorough article about the Northern District. The Chicago office has always been “underfunded” in proportion to their workload in Illinois. Sending out unsigned letters from the “screening committee” is one problem. Failing to investigate anything in the 18 counties outside Cook is another. What the office needs is leadership like Fitzgerald provided.
Comment by Payback Monday, Mar 10, 25 @ 2:23 pm
The loss of Health Alliance is big at least, I think. I happened to have as a retiree. It would be great to see a breakdown what retirees are doing I am sure I am not the only. Given we don’t pay for health insurance with over 20 years seems choice all the more important. Would be great to see some things others are thinking when switching. This is most important for those of use still not eligible for Medicare given we are not 65.
Comment by clec dcn Monday, Mar 10, 25 @ 2:55 pm