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Top Illinois Stories
"Illinois can’t tax or subsidize its way out of decline; the state’s survival depends on reversing mass immigration and restoring an American majority."
The governor and his allies in the statehouse have introduced legislation that would remove some zoning control from municipalities to clear a path for faster development of multiunit housing. They are facing opposition from a group of cities and towns. More Highlighted Illinois Stories
Some cited the Pritzker administration’s slow pace in releasing “a standardized list of demographic classifications” for nonprofits to report. One nonprofit said it simply didn’t know the requirement existed. “Frankly, it’s a bit of a head-scratcher that we’re hearing about this from you and not the state, or our compliance partner, or our attorney,” said Jim O’Kelley, director of the Elks National Foundation.
Years of mismanaged fees and inadequate record keeping have hobbled the state’s efforts to plug orphan wells, which, as of May data from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, reached nearly 3,900 in number. The agency calculates the cost to plug them is around $155 million.
Illinois state Rep. Adam Niemerg, who serves on the Immigration and Human Rights Committee, is calling for the resignation of John Laesch after social media posts and videos circulated online alleging the Aurora mayor shared the live locations of federal immigration agents operating in the city.
Jim Dey: "(State Sen. Chapin Rose, who represents both the UI and Eastern Illinois University) points out that in 1995, Illinois had eight four-year institutions. Now it has 13, he said, and 'everybody has been cannibalizing everybody.' At the same time, other states have been recruiting Illinois-based students. 'Illinois has had a surplus of capacity for 15 years,' he said."
House Bill 5776 would impose a 4 percent excise tax on short-term rentals across Illinois, with the money dedicated to a new Community Land Trust Fund to support affordable housing initiatives. The money would be used for development, staffing and technical assistance for community land trusts, which aim to create permanently affordable housing.
"Republicans are also raising alarms about gun-related legislation pending in Springfield."
In a report provided exclusively to The Center Square, The Oversight Project explains it started looking into a contract Oak Brook, Illinois entered with Fusus police technology after reviewing an inspector general report from Atlanta that included more than a dozen other cities.
Rep. Steve McClure revealed that IDHS was allegedly sending packets to noncitizens that included voter registration applications already addressed to county clerk offices. He warned that such practices create confusion and could open the door to unlawful voter registration.
Fuyao manufactures about 1,200 tons of glass per day and provides glass for one in three cars globally.
Since 2000, retail giants and developers have erected more than 146 million square feet of warehouse space in the Chicago metropolitan area, equivalent in size to roughly 1,400 Home Depot stores.
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.
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.
"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 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 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."
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.
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.
More Highlighted Chicago Area Stories
"I think this center is going to be an example of what we can do across America in urban areas," Brooks said. "If we don't wait on government and take responsibility for ourselves, we can change the trajectory of these neighborhoods and urban centers."
Nearly 400 households currently are on waitlists to move, records show. About 150 of the requests are labeled an “emergency” by the CHA. And 241 of the transfer requests are to accommodate disabilities. Among the other reasons CHA residents have sought emergency transfers: “infestation … mold … fire.” Records also show 103 transfer requests cite the Violence Against Women Act, and 24 are described by CHA as “not habitable.” This comes as about 18 percent of the CHA’s roughly 21,400 public housing units — 3,978 apartments — are vacant, most of them because they are uninhabitable, records show.
"What’s so interesting about this dynamic in Chicago [are] the intentions versus the outcomes. What does it look like if your goal is European-style social democracy, but you’re elected to City Council of Chicago? What levers do you really have to bring that about? You don’t have a lot."
"Chicago is already the nation’s most desirable destination for recent college graduates, and more affordable housing options will only increase our appeal. By attracting these energetic new residents and supporting our existing ones, we can turbocharge the city’s growth. I’ve said before we can conservatively fit 400,000 more people in Chicago — but why make little plans?"
A new policy at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools establishes “standards for viewpoint-neutral education” and gives teachers guidance on how to handle “contested issues.” The policy says teachers are allowed to take a stance on “widely settled historical judgments,” like denouncing slavery and the Holocaust, but taking a position on current debates is discouraged. A list of “active areas of disagreement in contemporary public debate” where teachers should remain neutral includes abortion, immigration laws and enforcement, policing and climate policy.
On average, 220 homeowners lose their homes to the county's tax sales every year, entitling them to an average estimated compensation of $70,000 each,
"The dying, violent city is scheduled to produce it’s own version of the hunger games. And the city is invited to bring popcorn."
A coalition of community and labor organizations, including Chicago Teachers Union, SEIU Healthcare Illinois, United Working Families and others gathered outside the Amazon warehouse to disrupt the company's deliveries and call upon elected officials to make large companies "pay what they owe in taxes," organizers said. State Sen. Graciela Guzmán was also in attendance.
"Panelists—including ... Chicago Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez—described using elected office for movement purposes, and leveraging government and law as tools of resistance against what they called a 'white nationalist, patriarchal, MAGA, fascist project.' Chicago’s Sigcho-Lopez discussed elected socialists’ 'responsibility to open up our spaces to organize and organize and organize from the ground up, organize in every space you know.' He also praised local efforts like Los Angeles’s 'rapid response' network. That organization, trained by the far-left immigration-focused group Union del Barrio, is one of the nation’s most radical anti-ICE networks."
“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.
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.
"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."
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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