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Top Illinois Stories
Protesting Trump outside Medinah Country Club is Arab American Family Services (AAFS) and the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, non-profits raking it in from taxpayers.
More Highlighted Illinois Stories
A survey released this week by the Pew Research Center found that 60 percent of Americans say they would not be too or not at all comfortable with a new data center operating in their area. Concerns over their environmental impact, water and utility usage and their impact on nearby property values have all prompted politicians, including in Illinois, to look for ways to reign in the industry. This week alone, both Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson have floated proposals targeting the industry.
Over the past week, Catholic parishes began circulating a letter from Cardinal Blase Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago, urging members to encourage Gov. JB Pritzker to opt Illinois into the new federal Tax Credit Scholarship Program. According to the letter, recent polling says that if Illinois does not opt in, Illinois taxpayers may send as much as $1 billion for educational services in other states.
Statewide, 13.6 percent of workers worked from home in 2024, compared with 13.3 percent nationally.
Danish biopharmaceutical company Lundbeck will leave its U.S. headquarters in Deerfield to relocate in the greater Boston area, where it plans to create a global innovation hub. The move of headquarters out of Lake County is a blow to the Illinois biopharma ecosystem that has lost business to well-established life sciences hubs like Boston, the Bay Area and elsewhere.
Jim Dey: "That’s why this issue comes down to a political battle in Springfield, where Gov. JB Pritzker and members of the Legislative Black Caucus muscled the SAFE-T Act through the legislative process. Members of the Black caucus have indicated they will tolerate no substantive change in the current law, while Pritzker expressed interest in making only what he called 'tweaks' in the status quo. At the same time, superminority Republicans have called for reconsideration of some aspects of the legislation."
"Whether the measure fares any better in 2026 than it did in 2017 or 2020 remains to be seen, but its reintroduction on McDonald's birthday underscores how a single Chicago case continues to anchor a national argument over how police are investigated when someone dies."
California, New York and Illinois continued to hemorrhage taxpayer returns in 2023--the latest year for which data is available. All three have been the biggest losers since 2012.
In the interview, Stratton addresses affordability, inflation, healthcare, housing, the national debt, government spending, fraud, immigration and border security. She also discusses her position on the Senate filibuster, voting rights, reproductive rights, gun policy and her vision for representing Illinois in Washington.
"Rep. Kelly Cassidy, who has been a Welch critic, had this to say: 'I agree with (the first victim's) perspective. A personal apology is empty unless backed with significant action. We need to fix the policies and procedures that failed her, but also the culture that led to the harm in the first place.'"
Illinois was part of a successful multistate lawsuit to block the Trump Administration’s attempt to put the U.S. Postal Service in charge of regulating the pickup and delivery of mail ballots. Because the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the states’ favor in that case, local election authorities throughout Illinois were able to mail out ballots to people who had requested them Thursday, the official start of early voting in Illinois.
"For years, Springfield defended high spending and generous public sector promises as obligations to disadvantaged communities. Those promises went underfunded. Illinois’s pension burden, among the nation’s worst, crowds out current services and forces taxpayers to fund promises made by earlier politicians."
Mullin and his DHS spokesperson both criticized legislation by Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., a member of the progressive "Squad," that would dismantle most of the department and abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). 
“It's over $2 billion of taxable income that has left Illinois just for Florida alone,” Florida Chamber President and CEO Mark Wilson said.
The federal Individuals with Disabilities Act requires public schools to provide students with disabilities special education and necessary related services such as speech, occupational and physical therapy at no charge to families. But the law doesn’t reimburse families for any special education expenses they incur.
Ted Dabrowski just launched Fight for Illinois, a nonprofit policy group with an app to go along with it. It’s Dabrowski’s newest project after leading Wirepoints.
Illinois law requires schools to maintain bullying policies, and lawmakers have expanded those protections over the years to address cyberbullying. "And yet our kids go to the one other place that they should be the safest in the world, which is school outside of our home. And it's it's chaos. It's absolute chaos," Todd Burrows said.
David Greising, of the Better Government Association: "Surely Pritzker could find funds to bolster the Department of Corrections’ Jail and Detention Standards Unit (JDSU), which is the state unit responsible for inspecting county jails. It has only four full-time inspectors to cover the 90 county jails. Even that slim crew still manages to fail more than half of the state’s jails each year on inspection reports."
Pritzker said he wants the Illinois General Assembly to pass the so-called POWER Act in the next legislative session, scheduled for a few weeks after the election; A separate measure to strengthen local communities' control over data centers never received a vote in either legislative chamber. But even the Protecting Our Water, Energy, and Ratepayers Act doesn't include an outright pause on data centers. Instead, the legislation would hold data centers responsible for energy costs and environmental protections.
Dagoberto Diaz, 48, a teacher at Carl Sandburg Middle School and girls volleyball coach at Mundelein High School, was released Wednesday after being charged with unauthorized video recording of a juvenile. A Lake County judge said Diaz could not be detained under provisions of the SAFE-T Act.
Chad Marlow, policy counsel for the ACLU, explained, “The news I have to share is the value of those laws is limited. If the federal government, you give an example of ICE, were to show up with a judicial warrant or an administrative subpoena for that data, it would not matter much what Illinois law said about it."
State Rep. Jeff Keicher feels the state’s role should be focused on reducing individual harms that could be caused by AI, like job loss or state security threats – which the cabinet is poised to address. “The role of state government in that is to make sure that our individual citizens are protected with guardrails, but not to inhibit the upside that would come from AI being able to make everyone more productive and more successful in any line of work potentially,” he said.
Jim Dey: "Two of those combatants — Gov. JB Prizker and former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel — recently engaged in a public dispute about whether to accommodate or challenge the new socialist contingent. Of no small significance in their unofficial debate is that both men want to win the Democratic Party’s 2028 presidential nomination."
"But especially given the rise of independents — 45 percent, according to Gallup — we believe the old ways still have value. Plenty of people are open-minded enough to hear somebody out. Debate is the great equalizer, and there is simply no hiding on stage once the lights come on. ... When a candidate is only willing to speak into the echo chamber, that’s a bad sign."
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said the new changes are going to impact many residents in the largest Illinois county. “These costs do not disappear. They're shifted to states, local governments, hospitals, and ultimately families,” she said.
A Champaign businessman, Keith Smith, launched a write-in campaign for state representative in the 103rd House District, running against Rep. Carol Ammons. Ammons and her husband, Champaign County Clerk Aaron Ammons, were federally indicted in early July for wire fraud and witness tampering related to a kickback scheme the lawmaker is alleged to have conducted by directing state funds to nonprofits employing her daughter.
Top Chicago Stories
Chicago is rapidly running into a situation where the market won’t let it do that anymore at rates that are anywhere near other muni market rates. So are other governments. Their choice will be to raise many fees and tax citizens at higher rates. 
The exact price tag clocks in at $909 million, which is $59 million more than the center’s previously released figure of $850 million. Obama Foundation CEO Valerie Jarrett said the increase is due to “additional amenities” added to the campus. More Highlighted Chicago Area Stories
"As more and more evidence of prosecutorial shenanigans emerges in exonerations by (George) Soros-backed prosecutors, one can’t help but wonder if the feds will take a wider look at exonerations beyond just (Philadelphia prosecutor Larry) Krasner’s Philadelphia to other prosecutors throughout the country, like (former Chicago state’s attorney Kimberly) Foxx. Where, prosecutors under Foxx may be asking, is that goddamn Pepto-Bismol?"
"The mayor runs the Police Department. The mayor also hires, and can fire, the lawyer who defends it in court. That lawyer negotiates the settlements that aldermen are asked to approve. An elected city attorney would answer to voters instead. That lawyer would be freer to say plainly when the same kinds of cases keep costing taxpayers, and to push for changes that would stop them."
"Like many large progressive cities, Chicago receives its fair share of criticism for overbearing regulations and sclerotic government. It clocks in at number five on the list of large American cities where it is hardest to obtain a business permit. It has some of the highest commercial property tax and sales tax rates of any large city. And as with any overregulated locale, the burden of all this regulatory excess inevitably falls most heavily on the smallest businesses."
Illinois campaign disclosure law does not directly mandate that influencers disclose whether or not they're getting paid for political content. But Ald. Matt Martin proposed new city rules on disclosure --- including requiring paid political influencers to include in their post who they're getting the money from.
The District faces numerous fiscal challenges going forward, most notably a continued structural deficit in which revenue levels continuously fail to keep pace with rising expenditures.
Brad Tietz, director of state government affairs - Midwest for the Data Center Coalition, said Chicago will never be a significant hub for large-scale data center development.
According to Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office, the 11 are accused of a scheme to illegally use municipal funds to pay for airfare, hotel accommodations and exorbitant spending excursions while on personal vacations at casinos in Las Vegas, Nevada and Michigan City, Indiana. One of the former officials charged was Annie Coulter, who served as mayor from 2017-2021.
"As much as this is an election for a new board, it’s also a referendum on the job the CTU is doing, both on the Fifth Floor (mayor's office) and in classrooms across the city. The outcome of these CPS board races will determine whether the district doubles down on its current approach, being led around on a short leash by a militant and unpopular union, or decides to get serious about addressing its serious fiscal and educational challenges."
The comments, made in response to a video posted on Instagram, are beyond raw, even by the standards of the internet. "I looked at 65 units across 10 properties that I’ve owned continuously since 2020, and those three costs make up nearly three-quarters of my operating budget. Since then, my insurance is up 73%, my taxes 45% and my utilities 33%. Together they rose 46% in five years, nearly double the rate of inflation. My rents rose 27%."
CPS has lost more than 76,000 students in a decade - about 1-in-5 students. The latest enrollment declines call into question whether Chicago’s soon-to-be-elected school board should continue the moratorium on school closures.
Most of the ideas are familiar ones, particularly on the pension front. They include: offering city employees a voluntary buyout program; consolidating the four city employee pension funds into a single fund to reduce administrative costs and improve investment returns and requiring the Chicago Public Schools to “gradually assume” the $175 million annual pension payment for non-teaching school employees.
The board's stance adds to the mountain of local opposition to the plan and puts the almost-entirely Democratic county leadership at odds with the Chicago Federation of Labor, a strong proponent of the Amtrak project because of the hundreds of construction and permanent trade jobs it would provide.
If the $2.53 billion sale to Stonepeak Partners is completed as expected, the New York-based firm will pay the city $75 million. In addition, Stonepeak will share 5 percent of its profits with the city, which is expected to yield $376.2 million over the next 57 years. Those funds will be earmarked for the city’s pension funds, Ald. Pat Dowell said.
A City Council committee this week voted to advance a proposal to sharply increase CTA safety funding and put up to 180 police officers a day on CTA trains and buses.
Union members are asking for AI protections, higher wages, and smaller class sizes, among other issues.
Forty percent of Chicago’s operating budget is gobbled up by pension and debt payments — which is why opposition aldepersons want to make it tougher for Mayor Brandon Johnson or his successor to add to that mountain of debt.
Mayor Brandon Johnson has harshly criticized the opposing ordinance, a sign the mayor is likely to veto the measure if a compromise is not reached.
Conway argued the mayor's proposed moratorium might not be legal, and if it were tied up in court, data center construction could proceed in Chicago without any local oversight. "As a city right now, nearly everywhere, a data center can be placed without any government oversight from government, or any community involvement, and that simply doesn't make any sense," Conway said. "You can't even do that with a nail salon in this town ..."
What’s really going on is that two major forces are waging battle for control of the Mayor’s Office and Chicago Public Schools. CTU Vice President Jackson Potter acknowledged the union is paying social media influencers to advance their political message. “This is the new media system,” Potter said. “This is how people are communicating nowadays.”
Ald. Ronnie Mosley, whose ward includes the block where the man was killed, was among the City Council supermajority that urged the mayor to extend Chicago’s ShotSpotter contract in 2024.
"Too often, (Mayor Brandon) Johnson blamed the City Council’s make-believe 'Corporate Caucus' for his legislative failures. ... What is wrong with being 'corporate?' Johnson doesn’t say; however, if his term refers to the private sector, roughly two-thirds of Chicagoans work in it. Excluding nonprofits, these businesses and their employees pay billions of dollars in taxes to the City of Chicago and related sister agencies, including Chicago Public Schools."
The Chicago Department of Public Health has allocated approximately $1.05 million for the pilot program. To date, each of the two teams has enrolled six patients, with the ultimate being for each team — which includes a social worker, psychiatrist, nurse practitioner, medical doctor, peer specialist and certified alcohol and drug counselor — to have a caseload of 25 people.
"Illinois casinos have seen a nearly 40 percent reduction in gaming revenue directly attributed to video gambling terminals. Why are we not talking about this? This means losing nearly $100 million in tax revenue for the city’s police and firefighters pension funds."
The ordinance acts as a 12-month temporary pause to give city officials time to develop long-term policies concerning energy and pollution risks for Chicagoans. It follows similar action from Gov. JB Pritzker, who announced in June that he would be pausing agreements under the Data Center Investment Program.
With Renee Hatcher’s appointment, Johnson is also recasting the Law Department’s priorities. He wants to see more affirmative litigation — a legal approach of proactively going after bad actors to protect consumers and residents from abuse. “We have to be far more aggressive in protecting working people” because of the rise of “right-wing extremism,” he said.
Wirepoints Research and Commentary
What Pritzker doesn't tell you that it cost taxpayers billions, not millions, in higher taxes to get those upgrades, vastly exceeding the savings. 
Wirepoints will be complementing their mission however we can. 
Ballots start going out next week and Stratton has yet even to attempt to show that she’s qualified for the Senate. She has assessed that Illinois' media environment and one-party political culture will let her get away with hiding. SIGN UP HERE FOR FREE WIREPOINTS DAILY NEWSLETTER
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MORE WIREPOINTS ORIGINAL STORIES
State investment totals have skyrocketed since 2015 from about $10 billion to over $41 billion and political abuse of the money has been common. The money is currently returning just 3.7% per year. 
Most of Illinois' local municipal pensions are distressed and hundreds are deeply distressed, imposing a costly drag on the towns and cities that sponsor them. 
There's an irony surrounding the battles over solar farms in Illinois. Residents are being forced – through mandatory surcharges in their electric bills – to pay for the very subsidies that help make solar projects profitable. Their own money is being used to finance solar farms that many residents don’t want. That’s exactly what’s playing out in Effingham today. 
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