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Bipartisan group launches latest effort to remove partisanship from how Illinois legislative boundaries are drawn (Who are they kidding?)

Posted in Chicago Tribune, Look For The Union Label, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Springfield on July 30, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Former White House chief of staff William Daley in his Chicago Loop office of Argentière Capital in 2017. | Chris Walker/Chicago Tribune

By Rick Pearson | Chicago Tribune

For the third time in little more than a decade, a bipartisan group is being formed to launch a voter initiative aimed at amending the Illinois Constitution to try to remove the heavy partisan influence of lawmakers in the once-per-decade redrawing of state legislative boundaries.

Unlike the current controversy in Texas, where Republicans are looking to redraw congressional boundaries to maximize GOP seats in the U.S. House for the 2026 midterm elections, the Illinois effort is aimed solely at Illinois House and state Senate boundaries.

And unlike two earlier efforts, in 2014 and 2016, that were struck down by the courts, the current proposal is more streamlined and designed to fit through the very narrow window that previous Illinois Supreme Court rulings have left for a constitutional amendment by citizens’ petition to appear on the ballot.

The formal unveiling of the effort is set for Aug. 19, when the Lincoln Forum and the Union League Club of Chicago will host a discussion with the movement’s leaders, former White House chief of staff William Daley and former congressman and U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, the co-chairs of Fair Maps Illinois.

Daley is a longtime Democrat who is the brother and son of Chicago’s two longest-serving mayors, while LaHood was a Republican congressman from Peoria who served in President Barack Obama’s cabinet. He’s the father of current GOP U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood. Co-counsels for the effort are veteran election attorney Michael Dorf, a former general counsel for the state Democratic Party, and former GOP state election board member and chairman William Cadigan.

The latest effort comes as the current process for redrawing Illinois House and Senate boundaries has received serious scrutiny and follows years of criticism after its adoption as part of the state’s 1970 Constitution. Its reliance on the legislature to formulate and adopt a map has been described as lawmakers choosing their voters rather than voters selecting their representatives in Springfield, resulting in sharp, partisan gerrymandered lines that have produced few contested general election contests as primaries have become the de facto elections.

More here.

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Editorial: Soaring ComEd bills have us all on edge. Springfield must confront our electricity woes head-on.

Posted in Chicago Tribune, Economy, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Springfield, Taxes on July 26, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Rows of tall ComEd electrical towers follow a north-south pathway through Barrington Hills on May 23, 2023. | Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune

By The Editorial Board | Chicago Tribune

The politics of energy in Illinois are hot this summer. And they’re only going to get hotter.

Residents throughout the Chicago area only now are opening their electric bills and seeing the effect of our sweltering June, combined with substantially higher electricity rates, on their household budgets. With inflation top of mind for everyone, you can add the cost of keeping the lights on and the air conditioners humming to food, insurance, housing, health care and more items making it harder for ordinary folks simply to pay their bills every month.

A spike in the cost of energy that took effect June 1 along with higher usage in one of the hottest Junes Chicago has experienced resulted in a $67.28 increase in the average June 30 household electric bill, according to Commonwealth Edison. So far, July has been no picnic either in terms of heat and humidity, so next month’s bills aren’t likely to provide relief.

And, adding to the electric-bill angst, there was news Tuesday that next summer’s electric bills will see more upward pressure after the results of a power auction just completed by PJM Interconnection, the power-grid manager for a multistate territory running from northern Illinois east to the mid-Atlantic. The details of that auction are somewhat technical; PJM solicits bids from power generators and others for what the industry calls “capacity” and what effectively are promises from those power-plant operators to produce energy during high-demand periods over a year. The amount paid to those selected operators for those promises comes from power consumers throughout the PJM region — that is, virtually all households and businesses — and is embedded in the overall price they pay utilities or other suppliers for energy.

Much of the reason for this summer’s increase in ComEd rates is due to a spike in the current cost of capacity. That capacity cost will rise another 22% in the year beginning in June 2026 after PJM’s latest auction. ComEd says that change by itself will hike ComEd rates another 2%, raising the average residential bill by $2.50 per month.

Politicians and environmental groups, among others, are castigating PJM for the increases and blaming the grid operator for being too sluggish in approving high-voltage connections of renewable power sources such as wind farms to population centers.

Read more here.

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Ex-ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore sentenced to 2 years in prison in scheme to bribe Speaker Madigan

Posted in Chicago Tribune, ComEd Four, Crime, Resident Spotlights on July 21, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore walks to U.S. Dirksen Courthouse for her sentencing on July 21, 2025. | Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune

By Jason Meisner | Chicago Tribune

Once a rising corporate star, former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore was sentenced Monday to 2 years in federal prison for her role in an elaborate scheme to funnel more than $1.3 million and other perks to associates of then-House Speaker Michael Madigan in exchange for help with the utility’s ambitious legislative agenda.

Pramaggiore, who turns 67 in two weeks, showed little outward reaction as U.S. District Judge Manish Shah announced his sentence, which also included a $750,000 fine.

The sentencing comes more than two years after Pramaggiore’s conviction in the “ComEd Four” case, one of the biggest political corruption scandals in state history.

The investigation, which came to light more than six years ago, ended Pramaggiore’s stellar career in Chicago’s male-dominated C-suite corporate world, where she’d recently been named chief executive of Exelon, a major Fortune 100 energy company that delivered power to millions of customers in the Chicago area and beyond.

Prosecutors asked for a stiff prison term of almost 6 years and a $1.75 million fine, writing in a recent filing that despite all her success,, money and professional status, “she made the choice to participate in a years-long conspiracy that corrupted the legislative process in Springfield” and subverted her own company’s internal controls.

In asking for a 70-month prison term, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sarah Streicker, Julia Schwartz and Diane MacArthur also wrote in a court filing earlier this month that Pramaggiore lied repeatedly in her testimony during the 2023 “ComEd Four” trial. which ended in sweeping guilty verdicts for Pramaggiore and her three co-defendants.

The feds said Pramaggiore’s lies extended far beyond a general denial of knowledge of the scheme and involved a number of specific material matters, including whether she intentionally kept details about more than $1.3 million in subcontractor payments to Madigan allies off of ComEd’s books, and whether she knew that they were doing little or no work for the company.

“Pramaggiore could have remained silent, but instead chose to try to obstruct the jury’s process,” the prosecution filing stated. “Pramaggiore’s lies demonstrate a lack of integrity and
candor, and her interest in prioritizing her own self-interest over the truth.”

Read more here.

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Editorial: At a Coldplay concert, a kiss cam catches a cuddle and ruins lives

Posted in Chicago Tribune, Dumb and Dumber, OP/Ed on July 20, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Chris Martin of Coldplay performs at Allegiant Stadium, June 6, 2025, in Las Vegas. | Ethan Miller/Getty

By The Editorial Board | Chicago Tribune

If only the couple caught canoodling Wednesday night on the Jumbotron at the Coldplay concert in Foxborough, Massachusetts, had simply done what everyone else does in those moments at the arena or the ballpark: Thrown their hands in the air, cheered, hooped and hollered.

Then they likely would have escaped attention afterward, and Coldplay frontman Chris Martin would not have said from the stage, “Oh, look at these two! Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy.”

Hungry people would not then have uploaded the image of the couple to TikTok, Twitter and Instagram, and all the other unfettered, unedited sites that traffic in human misery. Internet sleuths with the aid of artificial intelligence and LinkedIn would not have figured out the identity of the couple and quickly discovered that it was (married) Astronomer CEO Andy Byron and Kristin Cabot, the head of that tech company’s human resources department.

Page Six would not have felt the need to investigate Byron’s work history and Byron’s wife, whose professional life and number of children is now a subject of interest to the Hindustan Times, for God’s sake, would not have had to remove the surname Byron from her Facebook page because she was being hounded and doxed.

But they did not do that. They did the opposite. Cabot, clearly mortified, turned and hid her face, and Byron sunk out of the frame like the guilty party in a lineup of potential perps.

And how did most people react to this horrific, humiliating, unanticipated, life-changing sequence of events for at least three people, not to mention their colleagues and their families?

Simple schadenfreude.

In essence: Serves them right for going together to that Coldplay concert and cuddling.

When did America get this cruel?

Read more here.

Editorial note: Horseshit. Decades ago, the use of the acronym, “PDA,” became commonplace. Most people with common sense recognized the meaning and possible ramifications if it’s practiced.

Related: “Tech company CEO resigns after controversy over video captured at Coldplay concert”

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Editorial: Gov. Pritzker and State Farm should stop throwing rhetorical bombs at each other and start negotiating

Posted in Chicago Tribune, Economy, OP/Ed, Topics Of Interest on July 16, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Scott Stantis editorial cartoon for Wed, July 16, 2025, on Gov. Pritzker and State Farm (Scott Stantis/For the Chicago Tribune).

By The Editorial Board | Chicago Tribune

The governor of Illinois and one of the state’s biggest employers are engaged in an unusually heated war of words.

Shortly after news dropped last week of State Farm’s eye-watering 27% average rate hike on Illinois homeowners insurance customers, Gov. JB Pritzker erupted, accusing the Bloomington-based insurance giant of pulling a fast one. “These increases are predicated on catastrophe numbers that are entirely inconsistent with the Illinois Department of Insurance’s own analysis — indicating that State Farm is shifting out-of-state costs onto the homeowners of this state,” Pritzker said in a statement. “Hard working Illinoisans should not be paying more to protect beach houses in Florida.”

In the insurance world, those are fighting words.

State Farm responded with its own statement saying Pritzker had his facts wrong, and that the insurer’s rate hike — as shocking as it was — reflected only its experience in Illinois, where hail and wind storms, combined with higher replacement costs, have made its homeowners business here deeply unprofitable. “Illinois families deserve an honest conversation about insurance economics rather than political rhetoric.”

So what we appear to have now are two powerful forces facing off, each effectively accusing the other of being a liar. Not ideal, to say the least.

We understand the governor’s frustration. The 27% increase, set to take effect Aug. 15, is the largest such one-time hike in memory in Illinois, and State Farm isn’t just any old provider. The largest insurer of homes and cars in the land, State Farm is particularly dominant in its home state. For years, it’s insured roughly 1 of every 3 Illinois homes.

So when State Farm raises annual premiums by hundreds of dollars in one fell swoop, that could well have a negative impact on the state’s economy. State Farm is that big of a player. Consumers already are struggling with inflation of all sorts. Insurance — like utility bills, which also are rising sharply this summer — isn’t an avoidable cost. When insurance costs rise this much, many consumers have to tighten other parts of their budgets, which hurts businesses whose products are more discretionary.

More here.

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Barrington Area Library offers the Chicago Tribune online

Posted in Barrington Area Library, Chicago Tribune, Property Taxes on July 13, 2025| Leave a Comment »

“We are pleased to announce that the Chicago Tribune is once again available online, for free, to BALibrary cardholders. 

You have two choices for access:

  • Chicago Tribune – Digital Edition is the best choice for folks looking to have a traditional newspaper reading experience on a tablet, computer, or mobile device. It reads and flips just like a traditional newspaper.
  • ChicagoTribune.com gives readers full access to the Tribune website, which is great for timely articles and/or for content that is web-only.

Enter your BALibrary card number, then choose between two authentication modes:

  • Create a free login with Media News Group and access for 72 hours.
  • Click “No thanks, I want to access the news anonymously” and gain 24 hour anonymous access.

Questions about access? Contact the Digital Services team at digitalservices@balibrary.org.”

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State Farm to raise Illinois homeowners insurance rates by 27.2% in August

Posted in BOHICA, Chicago Tribune, Economy on July 10, 2025| Leave a Comment »

A house on Sandy Meadow Circle on the banks of Big Sandy Creek near Leander, Texas, seen on July 9, 2025, was heavily damaged in the Fourth of July weekend flood. | Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman

By Robert Channick | Chicago Tribune

As Texas grapples with the massive flooding that struck Hill Country and killed at least 119 people during the July Fourth weekend, many Illinois homeowners will soon see their home insurance rates skyrocket due to the increase in such extreme weather events.

State Farm is raising homeowners insurance rates in Illinois by a whopping 27.2% beginning Aug. 15, according to a filing with the state last month. The rate hike, one of the largest in the state’s history, will affect nearly 1.5 million policyholders. New policyholders will pay the higher rates as of July 15.

In its filing, Bloomington-based State Farm said the rate increase is driven by catastrophic losses related to extreme weather events in Illinois.

“Over the last several years, our catastrophe provision has proven to be inadequate when compared to our actual catastrophe loss experience,” State Farm said in the filing. “While there is volatility associated with extreme weather events, our Illinois catastrophe losses have exceeded the year’s catastrophe provision in 13 of the last 15 years, signaling the provision used in rating has been insufficient in recent history.”

A State Farm spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

In February, Northbrook-based Allstate raised homeowners insurance rates by 14.3% for nearly 248,000 Illinois customers, as the broader insurance industry struggles to keep up with the increasing frequency of extreme weather events across the country.

Read more here.

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Editorial: Why Chicago has a restaurant crisis

Posted in Chicago Tribune, Economy, Entertainment, OP/Ed on June 29, 2025| Leave a Comment »

A pedestrian passes the Gale Street Inn on June 20, 2025, in Chicago. The restaurant recently shut down. | Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune

By The Editorial Board | Chicago Tribune

The hit TV show “The Bear” chronicles an independent restaurant’s existential struggles and celebrates Chicagoans’ determination to survive. But you need only traverse one of the city’s real-life arteries, such as North Broadway through Edgewater or along 26th Street in Little Village, to see the the state of one of Chicago’s most celebrated and artful industries: shuttered restaurants pockmark almost every block.

Chicago’s storied restaurant business is mired in crisis.

If you doubt our word that this is a dire emergency, we suggest you swivel your head from road or sidewalk and look for yourselves.

Fine dining. Trattorias. Taquerias. Vietnamese cuisine. Italian beef. It seems not to matter. Chicago has never been a locus of chain restaurants, unlike many cities in the south. The fame of the city’s restaurants has sprouted from the creativity of independent operators, some craving (and winning) James Beard Awards and international acclaim, and others merely wanting to serve and nourish their communities.

We hardly need to tell you that many locally owned restaurants are the foci of their neighborhoods, which accounts for why there was such a howl of anguish in recent days when the cozy Gale Street Inn on Milwaukee Avenue in Jefferson Park announced its closure. Its famously genial operator, George Karzas, had owned and run the restaurant since 1994. Among his many other good works, he supported his local Jefferson Park theater, The Gift, storefront theaters and storefront restaurants sharing much of the same homegrown DNA in this city. At the Gale Street Inn, you always knew you were in Chicago.

The problem? The current headwinds are many in the restaurant business, including the well-documented rise in food costs. But top of mind of those in the hospitality industry in Chicago is the high cost of labor and the city’s shortsighted decision to get rid of the so-called tipped minimum wage following a campaign by an out-of-state activist group, One Fair Wage, which had worked its agenda on Mayor Brandon Johnson and enough of the aldermen in the City Council. Karzas’ decision to close the Gale Street Inn comes as the tipped minimum wage was set to increase again Tuesday, rising from $11.02 to $12.62 an hour as part of a phased-in approach that has been a progressive nightmare for restaurants.

One Fair Wage is led by Saru Jayaraman, a Yale University-educated lawyer, activist and academic who runs the Food Labor Research Center at the University of California at Berkeley. Back in Chicago, Christina Gonzalez from Taqueria Los Comales told us this past week that she worries not about political campaigns, but the price of her burritos at a family business with a 50-year history.

“I can’t charge $24 for a burrito,” she told us. “My customers won’t come.”

Read more here.

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Fireworks 2025: All the Fourth of July shows in the (nearby) area

Posted in Chicago Tribune, Entertainment, Topics Of Interest on June 27, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Chicago Tribune

With the Independence Day holiday comes fireworks — read on to find the best displays near you.

Arlington Heights: The local Frontier Days Festival at Recreation Park (500 E. Miner St.) is back, running July 2-6. The parade is 10 a.m. July 4; more at frontierdays.org. But no community fireworks display for 2025.

Barrington: Main Street parade at 10 a.m. July 4, then fireworks at 9:30 p.m. at Barrington High School (616 W. Main St.); barrington-il.gov

Bartlett: The town’s Fourth of July Festival returns to Community Park (corner of South Bartlett and Stearns Roads). Skydivers at 7:35 p.m. July 4, then fireworks at 9:15 p.m. Festivities continue through the weekend, including a parade at 10 a.m. July 5; bartlett4thofjuly.com

Buffalo Grove: The annual celebration at Willow Stream Park (651 Old Checker Road) begins with a patriotic-themed concert at 7 p.m. July 4 with the fireworks display at 9 p.m.; vbg.org

Elgin: The parade kicks off at 9 a.m. July 4 at the intersection of Douglas and Slade. Later, there will be food, a pie-eating contest and concerts in Festival Park (132 S. Grove Ave.) and the night will end with a fireworks display on the Fox River; cityofelgin.org

Fox River Grove: The town’s annual fireworks event opens 6 p.m. July 12 at Picnic Grove Park with music and food before the show; facebook.com/frgliving

Hoffman Estates: The Northwest Fourth-Fest runs July 2-6, including a carnival, live music, a parade along Illinois Boulevard at 9 a.m. July 4, a drone show at 9:30 p.m. July 4 at Village Green, and fireworks 9:30 p.m. July 5 at NOW Arena (5333 Prairie Stone Parkway); northwestfourthfest.com

Lake Zurich: The annual Independence/Family Day at Paulus Park (200 S. Rand Road) begins 10 a.m. July 4 with music and food vendors. Then fireworks are launched over the lake at about 9:15 p.m.; lakezurich.org

Libertyville: The fireworks event at Butler Lake Park (835 W. Winchester Road) begins with a concert by the Village Band at 7:30 p.m. July 4 at the Band Shell, followed by fireworks at 9:30 p.m.; libertyville.com

McHenry: The city’s fireworks will be 9:30 p.m. July 13 as part of Fiesta Days at Petersen Park (4300 Petersen Park Road). Fiesta Days will be July 10-20 with carnival rides, live music, an art fair and a July 20 parade; mchenryfiestadays.com

Mount Prospect: The 86th annual Mount Prospect Lions Club Festival will be July 2-6 at Melas Park (1500 W. Central Road) with a carnival, music and fireworks on July 2 (short show) and July 4 at 9:30 p.m.; mplions.org

Palatine: The Palatine Jaycees Hometown Fest runs July 2-6 in Community Park (256 E. Palatine Road). Fireworks at dusk July 3 and a parade beginning on Wood Street at 11 a.m. July 5; palatinejaycees.org

Schaumburg: The popular way to see fireworks in Schaumburg is to catch a Schaumburg Boomers baseball game at Wintrust Field (1999 S. Springinsguth Road). There will be fireworks after select home games, including July 3-5; boomersbaseball.com

Sleepy Hollow: A daylong holiday celebration July 4 includes a parade at 11:30 a.m. in Sabatino Park (Winmoor Drive and Thorobred Lane). Then the fireworks are 9:30 p.m. July 6, with gates open at 7 p.m.; sleepyhollowil.org

Vernon Hills: The parade will start at 9 a.m. July 4 at the corner of Deerpath and Atrium Drive. Music begins in Century Park (1002 Lakeview Parkway) at 7 p.m., followed by fireworks around 9:15 p.m; vernonhills.org

Wauconda: The Big Bang fireworks celebration is dusk July 3 at Bangs Lake; wauconda-il.gov

Find more here.

Related: “2025 Fourth of July: Your map and full guide to Chicagoland fireworks, festivities – WGN-TV”

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Editorial: Rahm versus JB in a presidential primary? Bring it on.

Posted in Chicago Tribune, Deception, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Elections, Ethics, Fat Man Walking, OP/Ed, Open Meetings Act, Perjury, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, RINO, Springfield, Unions on June 24, 2025| 1 Comment »

Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, left, and Gov. JB Pritzker seen in photos from 2019 and 2025, respectively. | José M. Osorio and Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune

By The Editorial Board | Chicago Tribune

Neither has said anything even remotely official, but it’s clear that both Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel currently are publicly exploring a run for president of the United States, even if both men are too smart to enter a race they have concluded they cannot win.

Bring it on, gentlemen, say we.

Each man represents a different faction of the Democratic Party and has articulated its goals. Pritzker, who has endeared himself to the party’s progressive wing, would surely have to run to the left of Emanuel, who has staked out an explicitly centrist position. Broadly speaking, the differences between the two typify the internal debate Democrats will have to face before (or if) they can sufficiently unify to regain power. Of course, Pritzker would find it relatively easy to tack right in a general election, should he win the primary, and Emanuel would surely figure out how to at least dance a little in the opposite direction in the primary. If necessary.

Should Pritzker decide not to run for an additional term as governor, of course, that could potentially tee up Emanuel to run the state (in the Democratic view) and leave the presidential race to Pritzker. No doubt that’s in our governor’s mind, but it seems more likely to us that he will decide his candidacy will be far stronger if it is launched from the governor’s mansion than as a private citizen. Hard to argue with that.

“We’re going to continue to be friends, but if we’re running for the same position, it will be awkward,” Emanuel told NBC News.

Awkward? Maybe. It’s far too early to assess anyone’s chances and either or both may yet demur. But we think a presidential campaign by either or both men can only be good for Chicago and Illinois.

Read more here.

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