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Top Illinois Stories
A mother has lodged a lawsuit against her child's public school district, accusing Community Unit School District 300 of allegedly attempting to secretly transition her child's gender and of blocking the parent's attempt to learn more about what was happening and be involved, even when the student struggled with suicidal thoughts and required hospitalization for mental health purposes.
The nine class action lawsuits, filed in Chicago’s federal court between Monday and Wednesday, represent a new frontier for Illinois’ strongest-in-the-nation biometric data privacy law. A group of well-known Chicago-based journalists, podcasters and voice actors accused tech giants like Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and others of “stealing” their voices to train Artificial intelligence.
The upcoming increase follows a double-digit spike in electric bills a year ago credited almost entirely to the rise of data centers. ComEd says there are more than 80 data centers in Northern Illinois using massive amounts of power. In a state filing last year, the utility said there were another 75 proposed commercial projects in the region that also would be large electricity users.
Gov. JB Pritzker can’t skirt the fundamental rules of taxation: The individual always pays.
“The latest estimates shows that our ability to increase spending beyond the Governor’s introduced levels is limited,” said Deputy Gov. Andy Manar.
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"Sometimes a spark occurs, and stuff starts moving again. Sometimes, stuff is set aside until more talks can be held over the summer. Sometimes, stuff just dies. And unless progressives are successful at taxing wealthy individuals and giant corporations this year, the new state budget looks like it’ll basically be what’s known as a 'maintenance' spending plan."
This comes as the FCC preempts most state and local regulation of cable and broadcast TV, but streaming apps operate over the internet and fall outside that scope.
The proposal is intended to give Federally Qualified Health Centers, safety-net hospitals and other healthcare providers that serve large volumes of Medicaid patients greater access to what’s known as the 340B Drug Pricing Program. It could end up costing Illinois employers an additional $89 million a year, including more than $12 million a year for the state of Illinois itself.
Said U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, "Prioritizing homegrown biofuels and year-round E15 encourages job growth, ensures future markets for our farmers, strengthens our national security and secures our nation’s leadership in the energy sector for years to come. Committing to our agriculture industry and supporting our Midwest farmers is a critical element of our transition to lower emissions."
A spokesperson for the governor’s office confirmed the governor’s team is reviewing the federal tax credit. “We will evaluate the issue through a lens focused on affordability for working families and what best supports Illinois students, families, and public schools,” the spokesperson wrote in an email.
As of May 12, 12 county boards had adopted resolutions urging Gov. JB Pritzker to opt Illinois into a new federal program that will funnel donated funds to students for tutoring, special-needs services and other academic uses. Polling also shows that more than half of Illinoisans support opting into the program.
New data from the Illinois Department of Employment Security shows that from 2020-2024 the state had more than 485,000 overpayment cases, totaling almost $1.6 billion. Of that number, more than $106 million dollars were recovered. More than $65 million were waived or forgiven.
The proposal could ban insurance companies from increasing homeowner insurance premiums by more than 10 percent without notifying consumers 60 days prior. Sponsors said this change could allow customers to look for cheaper options with another provider.
"Subsidizing individual decisions that do not generate a public good or service — even legitimate ones well within the rights of, in this case, the parents making them — is an inappropriate use of public money."
State Sen. Rachel Ventura said House Bill 4044 would prohibit retailers from requiring that people accept store credit instead of a refund on unopened or unused products.
All of these plans are locked in the House Rules Committee.
Compared to earlier projections, which guided Governor JB Pritzker’s recommended spending plan released in January, officials said reasons for the downward shift included the economic impact of tariffs, rising living costs, and flattening excise‑tax revenue – such as from marijuana.
The POWER Act is the primary vehicle for regulations that address concerns about the effects data centers have on communities, but it hasn’t seen any action beyond subject matter hearings since it was introduced in February. Republicans have called for regulations on data centers, but they don’t want restrictions to interfere with data centers’ economic benefits and many dislike the requirement that new data centers get their energy from renewable sources.
State Sen. Sally Turner said Illinois has not changed the wind tax law since 2006 and solar property tax laws since 2018, when the industries were first starting. “These are now well established industries operating on some of the most valuable farmland in Illinois, yet they're still being taxed using an outdated, antiquated, artificially low valuation,” she said.
Illinois received zero points for balance sheet transparency because large pension-related deferred inflows and outflows distorted the state’s financial position by more than 25 percent.
With the Illinois General Assembly scheduled to adjourn the 2026 regular session at the end of the month, lawmakers are running out of time to change the state’s unconstitutional property tax law. Two bills pending in the General Assembly propose solutions to end this predatory practice.
Michael Schill, president emeritus of Northwestern University: "The BUILD Act would permit only modest amounts of housing beyond what is already allowed and would not be detrimental to the character of neighborhoods. Cumulatively, though, the new construction made possible could be significant."
Far west suburban Plainfield was the largest-gaining suburb with 1,218 more people last year, or 2.5 percent, reaching 50,043, the census reported. Northwest suburban West Dundee had the greatest percentage growth in the area, at 5.8 percent, or 470 people. Southwest suburban Lockport added 919 people, or 3.4 percent. In the same time frame, inner-ring suburbs have lost residents.
Over the last decade, “meal” was a stated purpose in Illinois election disclosure reports for more than $6 million in campaign spending. Other campaigns have reported visits to restaurants in other ways, including as “meetings.” Illinois campaign funds spent more than $50,000 at Hooters locales since 2001 — with more than $40,000 of that spent at a Lansing franchise by state Rep. Thaddeus Jones, a Democrat who doubles as mayor of Calumet City.
“We’re not trying to completely recreate the wheel here,” said state Rep. Daniel Didech. “This is something that California and New York are already implementing and we think Illinois has an opportunity to play a leadership role in this as well, to ensure that these models are actually safe for public use.”
State Sen. Steve McClure said Illinois currently has the sixth-cheapest auto insurance rates in the country. “Why would we want to do anything to spoil that?” McClure asked.
Pritzker's office said in a statement Monday, "At this time, there is no reason to believe there are passengers from the MV Hondius located in Illinois. However, after many days of uncertainty, the federal government still has key questions to answer." Pritzker's office went on to question why the federal government hadn't provided states with full passenger manifests from the cruise and whether Illinois residents had been exposed to hantavirus.
House Bill 4767 would create new requirements for banks and credit unions to report potential financial exploitation of elderly and disabled adults. Bank and credit union groups oppose the bill over the new requirements that would be imposed on their operations.
Justices heard arguments Tuesday in People of the State of Illinois v. Jesse Post, a case involving a man charged with sexually assaulting children in 2023 and his argument against a circuit court’s decision to keep him detained.
Illinois’ burden is driven by property, sales and excise taxes that exceed national averages and those in neighboring states.
Top Chicago Stories
“Didn’t we do that already? I believe the Emanuel administration made the same argument, right? And here we still are. Why are we continuing to ask working people of this city to embrace the same policies of old that continue to fail us?” Johnson asked Thursday during a wide-ranging interview to mark the end of his third year in office.
King’s appearance before Congress would thrust Chicago Public Schools into a national spotlight at a time of intense scrutiny from the U.S. Department of Education.
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“The students were divvied up and Hispanic, Latino students were utilized as slave auctioneers and purchasers and Black students were utilized...slaves and so that seemed intentional that the Latino students were the auctioneers and the Black students were slaves,” said a longtime Carver Military Academy teacher who brought a complaint to the principal and CPS administrators. A CPS spokesperson said the script was written by a faculty member.
"Other cities have paid the cost for extending their pension amortization in the way Mamdani is doing. This was one of the first things Chicago tinkered with during its budget shortfalls. After years of underfunding its public pensions, Chicago repeatedly pushed out its pension repayment timeline. For its police and firefighter pension funds, for example, the target date for reaching 90 percent funding has been extended to 2060. This strategy doesn’t reduce costs, it delays them in the short term and increases them in the long term, saddling future generations with the debt while politicians spend today."
The raid, which began after midnight Sept. 30, unfolded in dramatic fashion as immigration agents rappelled down from a Black Hawk helicopter onto the building’s roof in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood. Some of the roughly 300 total agents who orchestrated the raid deployed flashbang grenades and broke down doors without warrants, allegedly holding residents at gunpoint or using other types of force to march them outside in their pajamas or various states of undress.
“The mayor is constantly picking winners and losers setting neighborhoods against each other,” Ald. Ray Lopez said. “We are rolling sideways on any given day on any given topic because the mayor has not shown a clear leadership path on what his agenda is, where he wants to go and how we take the entire city to that location.”
“You’re not going to be able to cut your way to success,” Johnson said. “Again, you have more white families in our public schools, but the loss of population has been Black students. That’s where the attacks have been. That’s where the cuts have gone. And I don’t believe that that’s the policy that we should continue to move forward on.”
"When monetary bail existed, we had people who posted monetary bail who went out and committed atrocious offenses. It happened. It happened frequently. We no longer have monetary bail. We have other factors. Those things are still happening, right? That is the nature of a system that is designed with the presumption of innocence," Cook County Chief Judge Charles Beach said.
“Where you bank, where you shop for your groceries. I mean, it's everything that they look at. They look at your patterns of life. And they try and say your patterns of life don't portray that you're a resident,” said Roy McCampbell, a former school administrator and attorney. In one mother's case, Alsip Hazelgreen Oak Lawn School District 126 pointed to her bank statements — showing more Chicago transactions than Alsip — and data placing her car in Chicago.
William Cheaks Jr. has spent a lifetime in city government, working his way up the ladder from laborer to manager of major infrastructure projects. He’ll need that experience to run the $1.83 billion Chicago Department of Transportation, which touches all 50 Chicago wards.
“It’s absolutely a trend,” state Sen. Chris Balkema said. “The overall scenario that keeps playing out in Illinois is the higher taxes, the inability for us as a General Assembly right now to dial down the workers’ compensation laws, and the lack of tort reform. Companies run the numbers and look at the cost of doing business in Illinois, and it becomes easy for them to make a decision to relocate to another state.”
Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates called out the school board for not allowing CTU members to lobby at the Illinois Capitol on Wednesday and said everyone in CPS should go to Springfield together and push for more funding. “How about that? How about we show the might of the city and School District 299 in Springfield?” Gates said.
Ald. Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth said no children were involved in the shooting, which happened just before school started for the day.
For now, Mayor Brandon Johnson is using $31 million from the final chunk of federal stimulus funding delivered to Chicago during the pandemic to check another key item off his progressive to-do list. After that, the mayor is counting on revenue from his controversial social media tax — and he’s assuming the innovative source of revenue not only survives an ongoing court challenge, but continues to grow so the program — confined for now to daytime hours on weekdays — can expand.
Cook County State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke said she was alarmed by the data: "We should all be deeply concerned that hundreds of defendants placed on EM are unaccounted for. This creates the potential for more violence, more victims, more fear and heartache in our community."
Facial recognition is a built-in feature of BriefCam, but the sheriff’s spokesperson said the office doesn’t plan to connect the technology to any biometric database. Illinois law requires companies collecting biometric data to provide written notice, obtain written consent and develop a publicly available retention and destruction policy.
"Over the last decade, we have seen the rise of a new kind of prosecutor: the so-called progressive prosecutor. They run on platforms promising to decarcerate, go soft on so-called 'low-level' offenses and 'reimagine' prosecution. ... Young people are not stupid. They are watching. They see viral videos of mobs overrunning downtowns and hear that "no serious charges will be filed." They see repeat juvenile offenders picked up for robberies, carjackings or violent attacks and then released right back onto the street."
"In the latest Chicago Teachers Union contract, we won $10 million of investment in solar installations, this school year alone, that will improve the health of surrounding communities, create good trades jobs and improve schools for the students who attend them. That can be a model for how larger development moves forward in our state, not an outlier."
In response to cuts affecting assistant principals, the Chicago Principals & Administrators Association sent the district a cease-and-desist letter this week — a formal demand to halt an action it says violates its interim agreement with CPS.
The two-term Far Northwest Side alderperson’s lawsuit indicates he plans to ask a Cook County jury to find the city, the Ethics Board and former Inspector General Deborah Witzburg conspired “to harass, punish, and drive him out of elected office” and award him at least $1 million in damages.
The student at the center of the allegations, 11th grader Jada Gray, says the fight at Perspectives Rodney D. Joslin Campus was not random but the result of ongoing harassment by a group of students.
Asked by the reporter if poll numbers showing only a third of Chicagoans view Mayor Johnson favorably give him pause for concern, Johnson asked, "Why are you worried about that?" The reporter pressed: "You are both a government leader and you're a politician, and we're talking about the vocabulary of politics." The mayor replied, "And I'm talking about the people of the city of Chicago and their ability to feel safe and affordable in their communities."
The Chicago Board of Ethics unanimously found that Paul Vallas violated the rules by accepting $202,000 in contributions during the 2023 city election from 12 individuals doing business with the city. “We, of course, will appeal the ruling,” Vallas said in a statement.
The filing is the latest development in an ongoing legal dispute between the city and the Markham Park District. The city sued the Park District last October, alleging the board had mismanaged its funds and violated a 2012 intergovernmental agreement. Under the terms of that agreement, the city was supposed to assume control of and manage the Park District’s assets.
"For years, aldermen have routinely approved massive settlements with little scrutiny and even less accountability. Time after time, the legal department recommends a settlement, aldermen rubber-stamp the payment, and taxpayers pick up the tab. Then the same politicians act bewildered when Chicago’s financial condition continues deteriorating."
“We know times are tight but we have to focus on our children,” said board member Michilla Blaise, adding that CPS is a greater economic driver than the Bears. “If we get our schools right, think about how many people will stay in the city..."
A male suspect was on a CTA bus just before 2:40 a.m.when he pulled out a knife and demanded the 57-year-old female driver not stop the bus, Chicago police said. The bus operator tripped a silent alarm, the CTA said.
Wirepoints Research and Commentary
Everybody needs a side hustle these days, and mine is Ukraine, where I am now.
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
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Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do. 
The state's existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis. 
Illinois lost another 54,000 tax filers and dependents, net, according to the IRS. Since 2000, fleeing taxpayers have taken $94 billion of annual adjusted gross income with them. 
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