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Top Illinois Stories
Pritzker is taking out $40 million from his vast personal wealth to boost candidates in contentious races — and building coalitions with Democrats across the country, including in 2028 early primary states. “It’s a terrific strategy,” says former presidential candidate Howard Dean.
The technical term for this is transit-oriented development, or TOD. But the NITA Act goes further by granting power to buy and develop land for reasons unrelated to transit, says Yonah Freemark, an expert on the method at the Urban Institute. “There are some provisions that give NITA substantial power for undertaking transit-oriented development projects itself that virtually no other transit agency across the country has,” he says. “This could be a potentially massive change.” More Highlighted Illinois Stories
Annette Johnson — then-president of the District 131 Board and current board member serving on the district’s finance and personnel committee — is accused of accepting a $1.3 million payment from one of the private companies she worked for in exchange for using her position to push the district to make a $2.7 million purchase of wearable air purifiers from a reselling company.
According to the Local News Initiative’s 2026 report, Illinois has lost more newspapers and journalists than any other U.S. state since researchers at Medill started tracking that data in 2005. Now, a team of veteran journalists from the Illinois Press Foundation, Capitol News Illinois and Southern Illinois University’s Charlotte Thompson Suhler School of Journalism and Advertising are launching Southern Illinois Source, a nonprofit newsroom.
Ted Dabrowski, of Fight for Illinois, explained, "We need to go on offense… today, sadly, we’re happy when we block a tax hike… but that’s not what we want. We actually want tax cuts. We want tax relief… we haven’t figured out how to go on offense yet."
The effort draws on a process outlined in Article IV, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution, the same provision invoked when West Virginia became a state in 1863.
The evidence shows the program attracts money and erects buildings more reliably than it lifts the people already living there, and it’s performed especially unimpressively in Illinois.
At least 27 questions on whether to increase property taxes will be on ballots in Illinois, whether by authorizing a property tax levy increase or approving an entirely new levy. A new 1 percent sales tax will be on the ballot in Adams, Lake and Tazewell counties.
"Here we are again, Frankfort residents. Four years later, another government taxing district is asking property owners to reach deeper into their pockets."
To find otherwise, the justices said, would limit governmental transparency, make it harder for taxpayers to know how the public funds are being spent, and potentially allow government officials to spend money on projects or programs that differ from what was promised, outside of the public eye.
Kimberly Bates, then deputy director of the department’s Office of Employee Services, received some of the $52,000 extra pay she awarded to herself while she was on leave, the report said. Bates said that was a period when she was recovering from “brain surgery.” She has also filed a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against DCFS, she said.
"Since taking office, the Trump administration has attempted to assert federal executive control over our nation’s elections. This has led my office, in partnership with other state attorneys general across the country, to file lawsuits challenging the administration’s unlawful actions and has generated news headlines that range from confusing to alarming."
Thirty-seven-year-old Matthew Unglesbee, of Quincy, has since 2009 been convicted of threatening a public official, impersonating police and sexually assaulting a minor, then violating the sex offender registration laws. Now, he's facing his first federal charge after the FBI said he admitted sending threatening envelopes to four Illinois members of Congress.
A planned race-restricted event at a public park in Geneva is raising questions about anti-discrimination policies. Former Illinois state representative and Breakthrough Ideas CEO Jeanne Ives is urging local officials to examine whether such gatherings comply with the law after an LGBTQ organization postponed a bonfire advertised for Black, Indigenous and other people of color.
Choate will still lose around 250 positions, but IDHS says the state is bringing 410 human services jobs to southern Illinois, including 87 at Choate, and intends to offer all qualifying affected employees new jobs.
ComEd, in cooperation with Illinois and federal regulators, has sought to weed out speculative requests that drive up energy demand prices by requiring deposits for large customers and requiring them to sign long-term contracts known as transmission security agreements, or TSAs, that require customers to provide a line of credit guaranteeing payment of transmission rates for 10 years, even if the project does not materialize. Of the total $1.6 billion in planned transmission costs, ComEd has $1.1 billion protected through transmission security agreements.
The rules do not prohibit individual municipalities from providing their own tax incentives for data center projects. Residents in Chouteau, Granite City, Nameoki and Venice townships are set to vote on advisory measures in November, asking whether data center development should be allowed in their communities.
Illinois also maintains the lead in pumpkin acreage with 14,800 acres in 2025.
Prosecutors said former Riverdale Mayor Lawrence Jackson and his wife were listed as the owners of Centennial Holdings, a trucking company, but businessman James Bracken actually financed and ran its operations. Bracken also was behind Riverdale Materials, a waste and recycling business that received village approval. The case also examined Bracken’s role in connecting Jackson with Flood Brothers, which handled Riverdale’s 2018 spring cleanup.
Eleven counties are set to vote on non-binding referenda this year to secede from Cook County. If all 11 vote to leave they would join 33 counties that have already approved similar measures.
State Senator Sue Rezin has proposed Senate Bill 4203. “My bill currently adds a community benefits agreement, a CBA that allows a negotiated agreement between the data centers and the local municipalities to put a certain amount of money to then be reimbursed directly to the property taxpayer that’s affected in the area,” Rezin said.
An average home cost roughly $230,000 in 2021, but is now around $300,000. The study also found that five-year annual mortgage costs for a typical home increased around $11,444, and buyers would need to earn nearly $40,000 more in annual salary to afford such a home at today’s prices.
In its request is an additional $14 million to replenish foregone revenue from the state-mandated waivers, including teacher special education, veterans’ grants and scholarships, children of employees, ROTC and the Department of Child and Family Services.
The question relates to a state law signed by Gov. Bruce Rauner in 2015 that prohibits pension funds from investing in companies that are in a boycott of Israel. In April, hundreds of voters opposed putting the question on the ballot at a passionate and heavily attended Oak Park Township Annual Town Meeting. But an organization called Oak Parkers for Free Speech gathered over 3,500 signatures in an effort to have the question placed on the ballots in November.
"Most notably, (Gov. JB) Pritzker, early in his tenure, appointed a property-tax commission to study the issue and make recommendations for change. The commission never met. That about says it all when it comes to taking on this vexing issue."
“We ought to use tariffs in a strategic and tactical way to go after bad actors, China, Russia, North Korea, rogue nations like that,” U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood said. “But we shouldn’t be putting tariffs or blanket tariffs on our allies.” LaHood said reducing some tariffs could benefit agricultural producers and manufacturers, both important sectors in Northern Illinois.
"I held on too long because it had cost me too much in pain and psychic blood at the hands of the jacobin newsroom union that destroyed the once-great Chicago newspaper that I loved."
Americans for Prosperity Illinois Deputy State Director Brian Costin questioned the district’s description of the proposal as a 32-cent property tax increase, arguing the framing could minimize its overall impact. The district says the 32 cents represents the proposed increase per $100 of equalized assessed value. Based on the district’s estimates, a home with a $300,000 fair market value would see an additional $320 annually before exemptions, or about $6.15 per week.
Moraine Valley's own labor-market analysis found the region supports roughly 38,000 related industrial-maintenance jobs with about 3,500 annual openings, according to the college's press packet. The college's enrollment growth backs that up: emergency medical services enrollment is up more than 119.5 percent over the past five years, while welding and HVAC/refrigeration enrollment has climbed more than 60 percent.
Top Chicago Stories
Alderpeople Pat Dowell, Scott Waguespack and Nicole Lee want to compel Mayor Brandon Johnson to use the $75 million up-front payment from Stonepeak they negotiated in the parking meter deal without the mayor’s help to be applied to the 2026 city budget as an extra payment that chips away at the city’s $36 billion pension crisis. Without consulting the City Council, Johnson earmarked the $75 million windfall to help defray the cost of the $363 million pension advance for 2027. That’s not what the Council intended, nor was it required by the ordinance, which passed 46-3.
At the first of nine City Council hearings aimed at popping the hood on Mayor Brandon Johnson’s $17.6 billion 2027 budget, aldermen today encountered an unusual degree of candor from the mayor’s finance team.
A suburban Chicago man who organized hundreds of fake armed robberies to help people fraudulently obtain U.S. immigration visas has been sentenced to two years in federal prison.
"Johnson can keep calling his approach 'tax the rich,' but a tax should be judged by who pays it and what it costs them. His budget would make everyday purchases, running a business and employing Chicagoans more expensive."
More Highlighted Chicago Area Stories
The work — paid for by state transportation and local TIF funds — is set to begin in late fall 2027, according to the CTA.
The government says migrants paid Parth Nayi between $5,000 and $30,000 for each fake robbery. He hired the robbers, coached the fake victims on how to report the crime to police, and then helped them apply for the visa, which is open to victims of certain crimes who cooperate with law enforcement and can lead to permanent residence.
“I am hopeful we can agree that we should not have Jim Crow decide elections in the South and also that we should not have billionaires decide them in the North,” CTU chief Stacy Davis Gates wrote in a May letter that she circulated among union members.
The city’s Office of Inspector General discovered more than $57 million in the dormant Community Catalyst Fund earlier this year. Mayor Brandon Johnson said Tuesday he would repurpose $20 million into the Building Up Independent Local Developers fund to support entrepreneurs, developers and small businesses with below-market loans and vacant parcels.
"Chicago doesn’t just need to negotiate a few concessions from its municipal unions. It needs a fundamental transformation in the way it spends taxpayers’ money, manages its workforce, and delivers basic municipal services. In short, it needs a productivity renaissance. And unless that happens, the city is going to continue down the road toward fiscal catastrophe, taking its taxpayers and businesses along for the ride."
The motion to dismiss lands a little more than two months since the CTU named the Liberty Justice Center as one of a group of co-defendants, who are accused of allegedly waging a years-long campaign to allegedly slander the CTU and make the controversial and powerful labor union politically "toxic." The LJC notably is representing CTU members in a lawsuit claiming the CTU has violated their members' rights by refusing to release years' worth of financial audits.
The data posted on George Cardenas's website included voting histories and personal addresses for what appears to be every registered voter in Chicago, including Gov. JB Pritzker, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Cardenas himself. The data also included the addresses and voting histories of judges whose personal information is protected under a state privacy law.
"In Chicago, one of America’s prized and wealthiest cities, only 23% of its fourth graders scored proficient or higher in reading on the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress ... I see the damage from this illiteracy epidemic on the South Side of Chicago every day. I see young people who cannot fill out a simple job application. They come by my church for help. ... I have even had to help people who graduated from high school without being able to read and cannot read a lease or understand a text message from a supervisor."
Officials said the paperwork error - a result of accidentally counting some capital expenditures twice - does not mean D65 has more money to work with; Without the $20 million structural deficit reduction plan (budget cuts, staff layoffs, eliminating School Age Child Care, and closing two schools), District 65 would run out of its fund balance by FY’30.
Movement leaders say while the 2015 ordinance legalizing street vending in Chicago marked a major victory for local vendors, the law still requires food to be pre-cut and pre-packaged in a licensed commercial kitchen . They say the law prevents vendors from preparing or seasoning food to order and subjects them to citations and potential immigration enforcement.
Judge Rivanda Doss Beal ordered Obon Akpan, 34, of Park Forest, detained while the charges are pending.
Officials did not immediately say whether anyone was else injured or provide details on what led up to the shooting. People who live nearby say they heard several gunshots and saw several officers rush to the area.
"Collective bargaining agreements for most unionized Cook County and city of Chicago workers expire next year. Add that to the stakes
"Johnson’s budget has done little to address the spending commitments expanded with the COVID money that has dried up, as he again calls for taxes he can falsely package as an attack on wealthy corporations. After all, the city budget has grown by over 60 percent since the pre-COVID era."
In all, 14 candidates have filed to run for mayor of Chicago.
The audit comes with a slew of immediate and proposed policy changes to the way Chicago police officers are allowed to access license plate reader data. The department said it has immediately reduced access to outside license plate reader systems to only those whose “position and job duties” require access.
“What is your plan B if the head tax doesn’t pass?” Ald. Anthony Beale asked. Acting Budget Director Jonathan Ernst did not directly answer Beale, a frequent critic of the mayor, but cited the overwhelming number of people surveyed by the mayor’s office who urged officials to tax the city’s largest corporations to bridge the city’s budget gap.
"We have $1 billion of uncollected debt, and a lot of the financial strain falls on Black, brown and poor people who already are struggling to afford their basic needs. ... Understanding that people will pay their fines, fees and other obligations if given a reasonable and affordable option to do so, an ability-to-pay scale would adjust how much a person needs to pay based on their income."
The $6.2 million housing project will offer 26 units, supported by $3.7 million in funding from the Chicago Recovery Plan, $2 million from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, a $500,000 grant from the nation’s Department of Housing and Urban Development, and $25,000 in equity from Unity Parenting and Counseling.
In Evanston, Joe Martin, a 46-year-old reparations recipient who works as a Delta flight attendant, said he was pleasantly surprised with the program. The nation’s history has been to ignore the contributions of Black Americans helping “build America” or the terror they endured, he said. “We all know the history, 40 acres and a mule didn’t go down the way it was supposed to,” he said, and so someone establishes a program that’s legitimate and “the (federal) government’s like, naw.”
In fact, the Chicago Teachers Union spent more running its internal operations than on representing teachers; Stacy Davis Gates gave herself a 7.5 percent raise. CTU also spent nearly $2.6 million on politics.
Chicago's broader tourism recovery has been uneven even as these discounted trades pile up. The city's visitor count collapsed 73 percent to just 16 million in 2020, and it still hasn't fully clawed back to the record 61.6 million visitors logged in 2019.
"History does not have to repeat itself," Johnson said during his budget speech, which touched on Washington's term under President Ronald Reagan's tax cuts, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s visit to Chicago and, more recently, President Donald Trump's attacks on the city.
"The head tax gets the headlines. But that’s not where most of the new money is coming from. Johnson wants to raise Chicago’s personal property lease transaction tax from 15 percent to 20 percent. ... But Big Tech doesn’t really pay it. The law puts the tax on whoever leases the property or uses the software. Microsoft, Salesforce, Anthropic and Amazon Web Services simply add it to the invoice. And it’s not just software. The tax hits: copier and equipment leases, tool rentals at Home Depot, a tux for prom, a bouncy castle for a block party."
Former Chicago Public Schools chief executive officer and 2023 Chicago mayoral race finalist Paul Vallas said that cloud computing tax hike ends up being regressive too: "It's already the highest in the nation. And that impacts everyone, so that means anytime you use computer services, your platforms, your databases, you're going to pay 20 percent. You're going to pay 20 percent on the cost for you individually. So that's not millionaires."
"Let us plant the seeds of a fair Chicago," the mayor exhorted aldermen during his budget speech, introducing a $17.5 billion spending plan that includes ten new teams of tree-trimming workers, an expansion of the "Chicago Youth Works" job program to hire a total of 40,000 young people, and pulling hundreds of millions of dollars out of economic development funds to help Chicago Public Schools.
Jim Dey: "But two justices — Sonya Sotomayor and Neil Gorsuch — raised questions about the 'takings' argument and urged lower courts currently divided on the issue to examine it in greater detail. They suggested the goal behind the city’s traffic laws is to make money, not enforce the law. That, the two justices said, could raise a 'takings' issue. Describing the city’s 'vehicle-forfeiture scheme' as 'vast and profitable,' Sotomayor pointed out that Chicago brought in $264 million in 'traffic-ticket revenue' in 2016."
Wirepoints Research and Commentary
Among the consequences of economic growth that badly lags national averages are billions of lost revenue every year. Yet denial reigns in Illinois, fueling the vicious cycle of demand for higher taxes. SIGN UP HERE FOR FREE WIREPOINTS DAILY NEWSLETTER
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To top it off, Stratton is funded mostly by Gov. JB Pritzker, who has long purported to be a rock solid supporter of Israel's right to exist. El-Sayed is anything but. 
What Pritzker doesn't tell you that it cost taxpayers billions, not millions, in higher taxes to get those upgrades, vastly exceeding the savings. 
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