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State House District 52 candidates debate taxes, budget and AI

Posted in AI, BACOG, Chicago Tribune, Data Center, Democratic Socialists of America, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Economy, Elections, Lake County News-Sun, Land Use, Pension Funding, Politics, Property Taxes, Resident Spotlights, School Districts, Springfield, Taxes, Topics Of Interest, Village Code on October 1, 2026| 2 Comments »

State Rep. Martin McLaughlin, R-Barrington Hills, and Maria Peterson debate issues at a League of Women Voters forum in Barrington on Tuesday ahead of the Nov. 3 election. | Steve Sadin/For the Lake County News-Sun

By Steve Sadin | For the Lake County News-Sun

A mere 27 votes separated state Rep. Martin McLaughlin, R-Barrington Hills, from his 2024 Democratic challenger and current reelection opponent, Maria Peterson of North Barrington.

While Peterson and McLaughlin agree that making changes in the tax laws is legislation they will attempt to tackle in the 105th Illinois General Assembly, their approach to easing taxpayers’ burdens is different.

McLaughlin said he lowered the real estate tax levy seven of the eight years he served as mayor of Barrington Hills. He sees providing municipalities the 10% of state income taxes they once received instead of the current 5% as giving the towns an alternative source of revenue.

“That money would come back to your community and your community could lower your property taxes,” he said.

State Rep. Martin McLaughlin, R-Barrington Hills, left, talks to a voter before a League of Women Voters forum in Barrington on Tuesday ahead of the Nov. 3 election. | Steve Sadin/For the Lake County News-Sun

McLaughlin and Peterson shared views on taxes, artificial intelligence, reduced federal funding, and more, campaigning for the Nov. 3 election before more than 150 people Tuesday at a Barrington forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters.

After the moderator asked the candidates what they would do to reduce property taxes for homeowners, she queried them several questions later about their top priorities should they be chosen to serve in the 105th General Assembly. Taxes were on both their lists.

Using tax credits as a form of relief, McLaughlin said he had ideas for both younger people and seniors. He would push for a tax credit for young families to “make life more affordable for young families so they can afford a home.”

“I will push for the senior tax credit to be increased to $75,000,” McLaughlin said. “If two seniors are in a home with Social Security, it’s too low. It should be higher, at least $95,000 so seniors can get a break on their property taxes.”

Read the full article here.

Related: “League of Women Voters 52nd District Candidate Forum recordings released”

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Editorial: Chicago considers charging suburbanites more to park. How neighborly

Posted in Chicago Tribune, Cost of Living, Democratic Socialists of America, Dumb and Dumber, Dumb Bunny, Look For The Union Label, OP/Ed, Politics, Preckwinkle's Rules of Order, Taxes, The New Normal?, Unions on October 1, 2026| Leave a Comment »

People walk along North Michigan Avenue as tulips bloom April 12, 2026, in downtown Chicago. | Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune

The last dumb idea from City Council

By The Editorial Board | Chicago Tribune

A new parking meter deal is done and dusted, as City Council on Tuesday approved a $2.53 billion agreement allowing Stonepeak Partners to take over the remaining 57 years of Chicago’s parking meter lease. Good. We were tired of writing about this historic disaster.

But that doesn’t mean there cannot be another one just ahead.

Now, aldermen are looking to the future. And as some gaze into their crystal ball, they see a brave new world in which suburbanites pay more to park.

An idea is floating around to bifurcate parking meter prices, adding a surcharge of 25 to 50 cents an hour for non-Chicagoans who park in the city, according to Ald. Walter “Red” Burnett, 27th.

Ald. Walter “Red” Burnett – Remember his face because we highly doubt this will be the last dumb idea he’ll have.It’ll raise revenue, he says, though he couldn’t say how much, and encourage public transit, though that doesn’t take into account the frequent inadequacy of those options from the suburbs, especially on evenings and weekends.What we know for sure is that such a move is crazy-town nonsense.

Ald. Walter “Red” Burnett – Remember his name and face since we highly doubt this will be the last dumb idea he’ll have.

“It’s easy to track, they already have the data now,” Burnett said. “We want our suburban counterparts to help when they’re clogging up the system.”

Clogging up the system? Oy.

We have an altogether different view of our neighbors to the north, south and west.

We view them not as bumbling annoyances from which to extract extra cash for the privilege of parking their car on the street, but value their awe and enjoyment of our city, even if they only stick around for a little while.

Editorial continues here.

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East Dundee to pay to remove dead deer on public, private property

Posted in Animal Welfare, Chicago Tribune on September 20, 2026| Leave a Comment »

A dead deer, believed to have been killed by epizootic hemorrhagic disease, lies in Poplar Creek Forest Preserve near Streamwood in 2012. | Keri Wiginton/Chicago Tribune

By Gloria Casas | For the Naperville Sun

East Dundee is budgeting $8,000 for the removal of deer dying on private and public property from a disease spread through insects.

The village has been actively monitoring an increase in white-tailed deer deaths due to epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD) and working with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources on the local outbreak, Public Works Director Phil Cotter said.

Village crews picked up the first carcass on Aug. 7 and have had to remove about 20 other deer, Cotter said. A majority of the animals have been found in the Lakewood subdivision.

Out of concern for the safety of public works staff, East Dundee started working with Graver Horse Removal to remove the carcasses, he said. The Kendall County company charges $350 per animal and takes the remains to a facility in DeKalb County.

Graver is licensed by the Illinois Department of Agriculture and has removed four deer to date, he said.

Cotter was given village board approval this week to continue outsourcing the work and to collect carcasses from private property.

Article continues here.

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Carpentersville board OKs contract for new 911 dispatching service

Posted in Chicago Tribune, VBHPD on September 19, 2026| Leave a Comment »

By Gloria Casas | The Courier-News

Despite concerns from union leaders and dispatchers, the Carpentersville Village Board took another step toward leaving QuadCom, the 911 emergency dispatch center it helped co-found, for Southeast Emergency Communication.

Trustees this week unanimously — and without discussion — approved an agreement with SEECOM, based in Crystal Lake, to provide 911 emergency dispatch services for the village starting in May 2027.

Earlier this year, the board authorized a formal withdrawal from QuadCom, giving the agency the 12-month notice required under its contract with the agency.

Carpentersville was one of the founding members of QuadCom, which provides dispatch services not only for the city’s police and fire departments but for Barrington Hills police, East Dundee police and fire district, Rutland-Dundee Fire Protection District, Sleepy Hollow police, South Barrington police, and West Dundee police and fire.

Report continues here.

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Forest Preserves spent extra $40 million yearly on expanded conservation, maintenance

Posted in Animal Welfare, BACOG, Bicyclists, Chicago Tribune, Citizens for Conservation, Cook, County, Crabtree Nature Center, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), E-bikes, Education, Elections, Flint Creek Wildlife Rehabilitation, Flint Creek/Spring Creek Watersheds Partnership, Fox River Valley Hunt, FPDCC, Friends of Forest Preserves, FRVPC, Horizon Farm, Horse Boarding, Intergovernmental agreements (IGA), Land Use, Massbach Hounds, Politics, Preckwinkle's Rules of Order, Property Taxes, Public Safety, Real Estate, Riding Club of Barrington Hills, Spring Creek Stewards, Taxes, Unions on September 16, 2026| Leave a Comment »

 

Mark Kolasa, a teaching assistant for a restoration ecology class, uses his binoculars during a tour through Deer Grove East Forest Preserve in Palatine on Sept. 23, 2025, as part of a celebration of the completion of the habitat restoration project. The restoration project, funded by the O’Hare Modernization Mitigation Account, restored acres of native habitat and wetlands at this site. | Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune

By A.D. Quig | Chicago Tribune

Cook County Forest Preserves has used a $40 million yearly windfall from voters to buy up and conserve more land, pay for maintenance and add programming while bolstering its pension funds, the district reported Tuesday.

Voters overwhelmingly gave the preserves the OK to raise property taxes by 0.025% in a 2022 referendum. While at the time it cost the average homeowner about $20 a year, it was a “watershed moment” for the district, according to a new progress report on the district’s spending since then.

Because the new money was commingled with other preserve funds, it’s not possible to trace the improvements dollar for dollar, but the report puts some hard numbers on the “impressive and undeniable” benefits.

Among them: $11 million spent on ecological restoration projects, buying $4 million in new “greener” vehicles and equipment, and spending $2.4 million to expand the district’s “Conservation Corps.”

Revenues have grown only modestly after the referendum infusion. President Toni Preckwinkle is expected to roll out the 2027 budget for the preserves to the forest preserve board — which is the same as the County Board — on Oct. 7.

“The leap in capacity from increasing the budget in 2023 by nearly a third, and continuing that investment, has paid dividends for us all,” Preckwinkle said in a release.

District General Superintendent Adam Bianchi, hired in July 2025, inherited the district’s goals to ecologically restore 30,000 acres and expand the preserves from 70,000 to 90,000 acres by 2039. In the first three years after the referendum, the district added an “unprecedented” nearly 3,000 acres to its restoration work, Bianchi said at the district’s monthly board meeting Tuesday. Between 2023 and 2025, the district added 558 acres overall.

The district also spent $4 million to improve 64 miles of trails, $2.5 million to repair 43 picnic sites and $1.2 million to fix up more than a dozen bathroom buildings across the county. It planted 815 trees at preserves picnic groves, golf courses and campgrounds and created an accessible canoe and kayak launch at Beaubien Woods.

Report continues here.

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Police say Flock is invaluable. But as misuse mounts, many wonder how to rein in the surveillance system.

Posted in AI, Big Brother, Chicago Tribune, Ethics, Flock Cameras, Politics, Taxes, Transparency on September 14, 2026| Leave a Comment »

“Every time you give a bunch of workers access to a database like this, there is going to be the temptation for them to search it for personal ends.”

By Rebecca Johnson and Lila Hempel-Edgers  | Chicago Tribune

The new headlines seem to pop up daily.

The Flock cameras were allegedly used by a former sheriff’s deputy in Wisconsin’s Kenosha County to stalk his then-girlfriend, who also worked as a deputy sheriff. In McHenry County, a police chief allegedly searched their vast network of automated cameras nearly 250 times to track former romantic partners and others connected to them.

In northwest Indiana, three misuse cases emerged in just one week, while officers in Bloomingdale, West Chicago, Itasca and Channahon have been put on administrative leave for alleged improper use.

Automated license plate readers — increasingly synonymous with Flock, though there are other brands on the market — photograph the license plates and other identifiers of passing vehicles. Police officers are then able to search and share the data for investigations.

But a growing number of cops throughout the Chicago area and across the country have been accused of searching those databases for personal reasons. Civil liberties activists too are alarmed that law enforcement departments could use the cameras to work with immigration officials or surveil ordinary citizens.

As allegations of misuse mount, police departments and lawmakers are grappling with what must be done to prevent wrongdoing.

Suburban police chiefs told the Tribune safeguards are necessary, but that the cameras remain invaluable tools in solving — or even stopping — crime. Meanwhile, Illinois state lawmakers are proposing new restrictions and towns are adjusting or canceling contracts. Passionate neighbors, in a rare moment of bipartisanship, are pushing to do away with the technology entirely.

“Every time you give a bunch of workers access to a database like this, there is going to be the temptation for them to search it for personal ends,” said Matthew Kugler, a law professor at Northwestern University.

“This is why hospitals do so much HIPAA training,” Kugler added, referring to federal patient privacy regulation. “The way you stop it is through training and auditing and controls.”

Report continues here.

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Doors open on new Boys & Girls Club’s impact center in Carpentersville

Posted in 220, 300, Chicago Tribune, Intergovernmental agreements (IGA), Longmeadow Parkway, Resident Spotlights, School Districts, Topics Of Interest on September 13, 2026| Leave a Comment »

A ribbon-cutting event was held Thursday for the Boys & Girls Club of the Northwest Suburbs’ new Foglia Woodlands Impact Center in Carpentersville. | Boys & Girls Club of the Northwest Suburbs

By Gloria Casas | The Courier-News

The Boys & Girls Club of the Northwest Suburbs officially opened its teen impact center Thursday, announcing it would be named for the family foundation whose donation helped them meet the the building’s $13.2 million fundraising goal.

The Foglia Woodlands Impact Center at 770 Navajo Drive in Carpentersville is not only the 17th teen center opened by the national nonprofit organization but the largest in the country, according to the club’s Chief Executive Director Amanda Schleede.

At 41,000 square feet, the building includes, among other things, a technology lab in which members can learn to code, build and fly drones, a recording studio, a café run as a business by club members, and a kitchen run by a professional chef teaching members culinary arts.

Chef Maria Terry, center, shows Kayla Johnson, 15, left, and Allison Morales, 15, how to make dumplings during an event Thursday at the opening of the Boys & Girls Club of the Northwest Suburbs’ new Foglia Woodlands Impact Center in Carpentersville. | Gloria Casas/The Courier-News

There’s also space where members can use a virtual reality program to learn how to drive a forklift or do something fun, like tour Australia, said Mike Berger, senior director of safety and facilities.

The donation from the Foglia Family Foundation put the club over its fundraising goal, but Schleede also used Thursday’s ribbon-cutting event to thank all of those who helped bring the project to fruition, including community partners like Community Unit School District 300 and Barrington School District 220 as well as community leaders and club staff.

Addressing the Boys & Girls Club members, who wore T-shirts that read “I Can Change the World,” Schleede emphasized, “this was always about you.”

“Thank you for your patience, your excitement, and for reminding us all why we do this work,” she said. “This is not just a ribbon-cutting. This is a finish line of a journey that started with a vision. It’s a starting line for thousands of kids who are going to walk through these doors for years to come.”

Report continues here.

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From the Chicago suburbs to short line railroad companies, proposed merger heightens concerns

Posted in BACOG, Chicago Tribune, EJ&E/Canadian National, Politics, Road construction, TRAC, Traffic, U.S. Route 14 Underpass on September 8, 2026| Leave a Comment »

A Canadian National freight train stops traffic along U.S. Route 14 on Aug. 6, 2026, in Barrington. An underpass is being constructed at this location to allow traffic to flow better. The underpass is expected to be completed in late 2027. | Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune

By John Lippert | For the Chicago Tribune

When Karen Darch started agitating in 2007 for an underpass so U.S. Route 14 can pass beneath the Canadian National railroad tracks in Barrington, she had six children and no grandkids.

Nineteen years later, as workers are shattering the affluent quiet of her suburban street by pounding retaining walls for the underpass into place, she has seven grandchildren.

Darch says she can’t say how many grandchildren she’ll have when the half-mile, $94 million underpass is finally complete, hopefully by the end of next year.

But now, Darch is confronting a problem that could aggravate her grandchildren for decades to come.

That problem is a new round of mergers that’s putting the ownership structure of North American railroads through a blender and triggering a prolonged period of tension and uncertainty.

Union Pacific, in tandem with its $85 billion takeover bid for Norfolk Southern, has agreed to start running more trains over Canadian National’s suburban Chicago network. At the outset, this will include rerouting some trains now running through inner-city Chicago.

Former Barrington Village President Karen Darch stands near construction for the new U.S. Route 14 underpass on Aug. 6, 2026, in Barrington. Darch spent years seeking solutions like this underpass to rail-induced traffic problems. The underpass will be routed under freight train rails where currently traffic gets blocked several times a day. | Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune

Darch, an attorney who served as Barrington’s village president for 20 years until last year, says she believes that sooner or later, the railroads will build a second freight track through Barrington, a suburb 35 miles northwest of Chicago. That’s because Canadian National has already spent years double-tracking the line to within 10 miles south of Barrington, she said.

In theory, rail experts say, this second track could mean dozens of additional Canadian National and Union Pacific freight trains rolling each day through downtown Barrington at 40 miles an hour, up from 20 currently.

That’s in addition to the  50,000 cars and trucks that converge on Barrington each day, and 800 daily school bus trips. Barrington also attracts 70 Metra commuter trains per day. Each of these blocks the main north-south and east-west streets through downtown for a few minutes as passengers come and go.

“If they build another track, there’s going to be a much greater impact than we’re feeling now, so more has to happen in response. We may need another underpass, or maybe two other underpasses,” said Darch in an interview last month. “And a greater portion of the funding should come from businesses that are benefiting from traveling the rail.”

Report continues here.

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Two deer deaths in East Dundee among 40 Illinois cases tied to midges

Posted in Animal Welfare, Chicago Tribune, FPDCC on September 6, 2026| Leave a Comment »

A deer grazes near a retention pond in Carpentersville in 2021. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources is keeping track of the rising number of viral disease cases transmitted to deer by midges, with two confirmed cases so far in East Dundee. | Mike Danahey/The Courier-News

By Mike Danahey | For the Elgin Courier-News

Forty deer deaths in Illinois this year — including two confirmed cases in East Dundee — are being attributed to a virus transmitted by a tiny insect, according to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

The two infected deer were found in the area of the Lakewood subdivisions, north of Barrington Avenue, according to a post on the village’s website this week.

Both died from Epizootic hemorrhagic disease, known as EHD, the result of midges biting white tail deer and other hooved animals, according to government resource websites. Such cases tend to occur in late summer or early autumn and during drought conditions, officials said.

Public Works Director Phil Cotter said this was the first time the disease has been detected in East Dundee in the more than nine years he has worked for the village.

“Village officials are in direct communication with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources regarding this issue,” the village website post said. “EHD cannot infect humans. It poses no public health risk. Dogs and cats cannot contract the virus.”

According to the IDNR website, “drought conditions tend to exaggerate the impacts of EHD as deer tend to congregate around the limited water sources. Receding water levels around ponds, lakes, streams and rivers result in exposed muddy areas from which the midges hatch.”

Report continues here.

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Ex-caregiver charged with sharing videos on Snapchat of nude residents at memory care home in South Barrington

Posted in Chicago Tribune, Crime, South Barrington on September 1, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Kristen Fisher looks at her wedding ring from her late husband Bernard “Skip” Fisher while at the Levin and Perconti law office in Chicago, Aug. 31, 2026. Fisher alleges that her late husband was videotaped nude while in the care of Encore Memory Care in South Barrington. | Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune

By Robert McCoppin | Chicago Tribune

Bernard “Skip” Fisher II suffered from Parkinson’s disease, and couldn’t speak. He was completely dependent on care at Encore Memory Care in South Barrington. Five days before he passed away in July, his wife, Kristen Fisher, said she received an alarming phone call from the Encore executive director.

Fisher was told that her husband and other residents had been videotaped naked at the home, and the images were shared among a group of facility employees via Snapchat.

“I was completely shocked,” Fisher said. “I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. My husband was humiliated, he was degraded, and not able to defend himself. It immobilizes my every thought since then.”

Madison Russo, 25, of Bartlett, was charged with unauthorized videotaping and unauthorized dissemination of a person at their residence without their permission. Russo was scheduled to face arraignment on the charge Tuesday.

Officials from Encore did not return a phone call in a request for comment.

At least three other residents were also videotaped, a police report stated, one while naked in the shower, one on the toilet and another in her underpants in front of her wheelchair.

Report continues here.

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