At least six people were killed and more than 30 others were injured in Chicago shootings from Friday through Sunday.

Trump said in a social media post on Sunday that Pritzker should call for help.

“I could make Chicago a safe City in ONE MONTH, in ONE YEAR, it would be one of the safest!!!” Trump said.

Pritzker was asked about the post at an event in Decatur on Monday afternoon.

“I wish that he would stop tweeting or Truth Socialing and instead actually help us with the things that we really need,” the governor said.

Pritzker said some terrible tragedies have occurred.

“It’s why I have asked for help from the FBI, the DEA, the ATF,” the governor said.

The Rev. Ciera Bates-Chamberlain, executive director at Live Free Illinois, said Chicago does not need militarization.

“We saw what happened when Donald Trump brought troops to Chicago. It was complete and utter chaos. He doesn't have a track record of bringing peace. He has a track record of bringing chaos and turmoil,” Bates-Chamberlain told The Center Square.

Bates-Chamberlain joined other activists and Chicago Deputy Mayor of Community Safety Emmanuel Andre at City Hall on Monday to call for a new city department of gun violence prevention.

In April, Mayor Brandon Johnson hired Andre, a former public defender and restorative justice advocate, to the position previously held by Garien Gatewood.

Bates-Chamberlain told The Center Square the new department would have procurement power and would be funded by Chicago taxpayers.

“We believe that this this has to come from from the tax base for it to be sustained long term. The first approach to this would be coming in budget neutral,” Bates-Chamberlain said.

Bates-Chamberlain said the department would identify all of the resources currently invested in violence prevention and put them under one roof.

“When you have money in programs functioning all over across the city that we know that naturally that they're not working efficiently, but when you’re able to deploy and coordinate those resources out of one department that just naturally helps with making sure that the strategies are one resource moving efficiently,” Bates-Chamberlain said.

Live Free Illinois receives state taxpayer funding.

When asked by The Center Square about potential state funding for the proposed department of gun violence prevention, Bates-Chamberlain said supporters are in conversations with Illinois Assistant Secretary of Firearm Violence Prevention Quiwana Bell.

he law passed through the state legislature unanimously, despite claims by social media industry giants that the law is unconstitutional.

The Illinois “Children's Online Safety Act” was passed by the General Assembly at the end of May and now just awaits Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s signature before the law would take effect.

Late last week, a similar law in Ohio was allowed to move forward after having been held up by a federal court’s injunction for more than two years, a break from decisions on similar laws in other states.

The injunction came after NetChoice, a leading tech industry trade association, sued to block the law in Ohio on the grounds that it was unconstitutional.

Patrick Hedger, a representative of NetChoice, made a similar argument to Illinois lawmakers in the final days of the legislative session in May – noting the law would likely invite similar legal scrutiny.

“[The bill] imposes precisely the kind of content and speaker-based interference that Moody [v. NetChoice] held requires meaningful First Amendment justification,” Hedger said. “NetChoice has secured injunctions against such censorious laws in Arkansas, Louisiana and Ohio. Implementing such measures in Illinois would likely meet the same fate and lead to costly legal challenges.”

On the Illinois law, Pritzker said Monday that, despite concerns presented by NetChoice about constitutionality, he plans to keep it moving forward.

“I'm always concerned to protect people's freedom of speech, so let's just say that, no question about it. I don't see that problem with our Children's Social Media Safety Act. I proposed that social media safety act, and so I intend to sign it,” Pritzker said.

The Illinois law differs from many of the other states that have attempted to implement online age-verification.

Instead of placing the requirement solely on the platform, a device manufacturer or operating system developer would instead be required to verify a user’s age as the device is set up, and provide a more simple age range of the user to a platform.

The difference, according to lawmakers, is intended to preserve the privacy of users by not allowing age-related data to leave the device beyond initial verification.

Amy Bos, the vice president of government affairs for NetChoice, previously told The Center Square that the law seeks to address something that should be the responsibility of parents.

“The gap really isn't in the tools available. I think education and parental empowerment do work, unconstitutional mandates don't,” Bos said. “Florida and Virginia really kind of led the way on this in their digital literacy tools in their teen online safety courses. And we've been promoting that. A privacy law also goes a very long way to robust privacy protections.”

The Illinois law indicates that methods of parental consent to restrict or allow content are defined by the federal “Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act,” which leaves methods of verification up to the approval of the FTC.

In recent weeks, representatives from NetChoice have called on Pritzker to outright veto the legislation.

NetChoice did not respond to The Center Square's request for comment Monday.

IDOT said on Monday that, starting July 1, Warren County Public Transportation will expand its coverage area by offering on-demand service to the more than 6,000 residents of Henderson County.

The announcement follows the General Assembly’s passage of $1.5 billion transit legislation last fall. The Northern Illinois Transit Authority Act provides for sales tax hikes for Chicago-area counties and higher tolls on Illinois tollways.

ADM DECATUR MODERNIZATION ANNOUNCED

Fueled by state tax incentives, ADM has announced it will invest $103 million to modernize its Decatur headquarters and create 50 full-time jobs.

The modernization project will enhance soy crush and refining operations, improve production lines, and modernize storage elevators and corn milling capabilities.

The investment agreement includes Economic Development for a Growing Economy tax breaks.

SOYBEAN, SOLAR RIBBON-CUTTING HELD IN IROQUOIS COUNTY

Economic Development for a Growing Economy tax incentives are credited for bolstering Incobrasa Industries’ new $250 million soybean processing plant and solar array in Gilman.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker attended Monday’s ribbon-cutting and said the facility would be an enormous boost for the agriculture industry in Illinois.

A statement from the governor’s office said the completed project would create 40 full-time jobs.

STATE SUES CHEMICAL MANUFACTURER

The state of Illinois is suing a chemical manufacturer over alleged environmental and human health effects at a facility in Cicero.

Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s lawsuit says Koppers, Inc. and Koppers Carbon Materials LLC violated state and federal laws and regulations by failing to properly operate pollution control equipment and conduct required testing and monitoring, allowing an excess of air pollutants, including volatile organic materials, to be emitted into the atmosphere.

The Illinois Policy Institute’s newest Lincoln Poll found that more than half of Illinois voters selected high taxes as a top one-or-two issue facing the state. Next-highest was the economy, selected by 41% of respondents.

IPI policy analyst Lily Rossi said Gov. J.B. Pritzker and state lawmakers are not listening to these concerns.

“Just last week or two weeks ago they passed a record-high budget that sticks Illinois families and businesses with over $800 million in new taxes,” Rossi told The Center Square.

According to the poll, concern about the economy is up 8 percentage points from last year.

Rossi said state leaders should ensure responsible budgeting by not spending more than taxpayers can bear.

“Just last year, for example, taxpayers were on the hook for $3 million spent on pickleball courts and $1 million to rethink capitalism,” Rossi said.

The poll of 517 likely Illinois voters was taken May 9 to 11 by M3 Strategies for the Illinois Policy Institute. The margin of error is 4.13 percentage points.

Sixty-one percent of respondents expressed dissatisfaction with the value their community gets for property taxes.

“That is a really big issue because we see those taxes hurting Illinois families and businesses, and then we see those families and businesses leaving the state,” Rossi said.

According to IPI, Illinois property taxes are more than double the national average, at an effective rate of 1.88%.

State Rep. Anthony DeLuca, D-Chicago Heights, said he is disappointed that the state’s property tax working group has gone two legislative sessions without moving substantive reform.

“None of these reforms are easy. It's a difficult problem to correct, but it's something that is impacting too many residents, and it has to be addressed,” DeLuca told The Center Square.

DeLuca said he would like to see more effort put toward property tax relief and reform.

The Jefferson County Sheriff’s office said in a news release that the two fatalities occurred in separate single wide trailers that were destroyed.

More than 20 tornadoes have been reported in Illinois over the last two weeks.

TRUMP CALLS OUT PRITZKER FOR CHICAGO SHOOTINGS

President Donald Trump is again questioning why Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is not asking for help after a violent weekend in Chicago, where shootings left at least six people dead and more than 30 injured.

On Friday night, at least 12 people suffered injuries in a drive-by shooting on 95th Street, a few blocks west of the Dan Ryan Expressway.

The president said in a social media post on Sunday he could make Chicago a safe city in one month.

LAYOFFS ILLINOIS COMPANIES, HAWTHORNE RACE COURSE

The latest Illinois Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notices include Eklind Tool of Franklin Park laying off 112 workers and Saddle Creek corp. of Edwardsville laying off 78 due to plant closures.

Hyster-Yale Materials Handling of Danville revised its layoff number from 28 to 76 in a planned relocation.

On June 3, Hawthorne Race Course warned that it could layoff 290 workers in Stickney due to bankruptcy.

As part of Illinois' new $55.9 billion state budget, Democratic lawmakers, with the support of Gov. JB Pritzker, slipped in a new measure that Pritzker and other supporters will force "social media" operators to pay the state to make up for the alleged societal damage they say is caused by their platforms.

Styled as a "fee," the measure would impose what observers say is really a tax to extract potentially hundreds of millions of dollars, or more, every year from a host of companies engaged in the creation of platforms hosting interactive or user-generated content.

Specifically, the new "fees" will be charged against any online platform operator that the state believes has more than 100,000 users in Illinois. It would scale up progressively based on how many "Illinois users" a platform may have.

The fees would be charged at rates of:

100,000 to 499,999 users: 10 cents per user/month;

500,000 to 999,999 users: $40,000 base fee per month, plus 25 cents per user, per month, for each user over 500,000; and

Over 1 million users: $165,000 base fee per month, plus 50 cents per user, per month, for each user over 1 million.

The fee would be collected by the Illinois Secretary of State's office, rather than the Illinois Department of Revenue.

The law specifically forbids companies hit by the fees from attempting to raise prices or implement charges to make "Illinois users" pay the new "fees."

Supporters assert the measure will generate at least $200 million annually for the Illinois state government. Supporters, including Pritzker, assert the money will be used to fund programs to deal with mental health issues, allegedly exacerbated by social media, as well as to fund schools and other state budget priorities.

However, the measure faces a very uncertain future.

A variety of groups, including lobbyists and legal advocates for tech companies and internet freedom, as well free speech advocates, tax reform advocates, and others, have lined up to pillory what they call a deeply flawed and rushed measure that tramples not only principles of tax legislation, but constitutional protections.

Several groups, including NetChoice, a trade group representing social media companies and other big tech companies, have indicated they may quickly sue the state to challenge the measure.

NetChoice, for instance, is already in court against the city of Chicago over City Hall's attempt to impose a similar "user fee" against social media platform operators. In that lawsuit, NetChoice has argued the city's taxes are unconstitutional because they illegally "single out" social media platforms for "disfavored tax treatment."

While those arguments would likely also be applied in challenges to the state's new "social media" tax, critics of the state measure note the new law is also highly confusing, contradictory at some points, and lacks key details normally essential to effective and constitutional tax laws.

In a recent analysis of the law, Jared Walczak, a senior fellow at the tax policy and economic research organization, the Tax Foundation, noted the law falls far short of defining the terms it supposedly will use to determine how much the state will demand from online platform operators.

What’s an ‘Illinois user?’

To begin, he said, the law doesn't actually define what a "user" is.

"This isn't a philosophical question," Walczak wrote. "It's an eminently practical one."

He noted many users may have multiple accounts on a platform for various reasons, and they may have accounts across multiple platforms operated by one company - for instance, one person may likely have accounts on Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp, all of which are operated by Meta.

"... Is each taxed separately, or is the person treated as a single user across multiple related services?" Walczak asked.

And, he noted, the law is further silent on whether the tax would be applied to only registered users, or if the state could somehow seek to tax the companies based on other determinations of what a "user" may be.

Further, the law doesn't define what an "Illinois user" is. For instance, Walczak asked, must a person live in Illinois to be counted? Are they still an "Illinois user" if they engage with social media while outside Illinois?

"Would it cover a non-resident who accessed their social media accounts from Illinois at some point during the month, perhaps during a layover at O’Hare or while in Chicago for a convention?" Walczak asked.

Walczak and others have noted the law's potentially sweeping effect, threatening to loop in companies most people may not associate as being subject to the tax. While supporters of such taxes have pointed to large social media companies, like Meta, Google and other operators of prominent social media sites, Walczak noted the measure could also impose a potentially crushing tax on lesser sites like AllTrails, a platform on which users can share route maps and other information about their favorite hiking trails.

"A social media platform is a website or internet medium that 'permits a person to become a registered user, establish an account, or create a profile,' permits sharing and viewing of user-generated content, and 'primarily serves as a medium for users to interact with content generated by other users of the medium,'" Walczak wrote "This captures Facebook, X, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, and Reddit, among others. But how about Yelp, Nextdoor, Substack, GitHub, WhatsApp, or Telegram? The language is unclear."

But beyond the problems with legal definitions, Walczak and others have noted the potentially unconstitutional nature of the law's proposed penalties.

The law would allow the state to impose penalties on companies that don't pay up what the state believes they owe. The penalties would be "an amount equal to 100% of the unpaid fee and any penalties each month until the fee is paid.”

Walczak noted such compounding costs could be "astronomical" and subject to the determination of the Secretary of State's office.

"Bear in mind that at some point, fines become unconstitutionally excessive," Walczak wrote.

The return of the Stamp Act?

But the measure could legally fail at other key points, as well.

Free speech advocacy group, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), has said it believes the social media tax falls far short under the First Amendment.

"Pinpointing where exactly the problems that doom this proposal begin is a tall order," FIRE wrote in an analysis following the measure's passage.

FIRE asserted the measure amounts to an unconstitutional "regulation of speech."

They and other observers have noted the measure's constitutional infirmities date back to the very foundation of the American republic, as they equated such "social media taxes" to the British 1765 Stamp Act that helped to trigger the American Revolution in the first place.

The Stamp Act required publishers to pay a tax to obtain a stamp on all published works to show they had been approved by the government.

In the centuries since the Revolution and the establishment of the First Amendment, in large part in response to the excesses of the British Crown, courts in the U.S. have repeatedly struck down attempts by states and others to impose taxes aimed at publishers, FIRE noted.

FIRE predicted Illinois' tax on "social media" is also "doomed."

"We’re not surprised to see a proposal like this filled with ambiguities and holes. As states have attempted to turn around the losing streak social media regulation has faced in court, we’ve seen a number of half-baked schemes to find some kind of creative workaround," FIRE wrote.

"States have tried to avoid scrutiny by casting their speech restriction as regulating 'design choices,' by targeting platforms through the app store, and by labeling their target 'conduct' rather than 'speech.'

"Fortunately for free speech, the courts aren’t impressed. An attempt to punish speech is an attempt to punish speech, any way it’s structured," FIRE wrote.

Critics have also pointed out what Walczak called the "laughably incomplete" nature of the legislation, passed hurriedly as part of the state budget at 4 a.m. on June 1, the final day of the spring legislative session in Springfield.

Despite state constitutional provisions supposedly requiring all legislation to be read in each chamber on three separate days, the measure was rushed through by Democratic leadership using legislative maneuvers blessed by the Illinois Supreme Court under a legal doctrine, by which the House Speaker and State Senate President can simply sign a document affirming all constitutional rules were followed in passing the legislation.

"The concept of a social media platform tax had been in the governor’s budget proposal for months, but language was only provided with the enactment of the budget early the morning of June 1st," Walczak wrote. "Lawmakers and the public had no time to review the text before the vote.

"And while the governor’s team had months to work on the idea, they seem not to have made good use of their time, because the new tax is silent on crucial points and contains a litany of errors and inconsistencies across a few short pages of text. It would be hard to take the new tax seriously, except that it’s now Illinois law."

For its part, NetChoice had attempted to warn Pritzker of the perceived legal and constitutional infirmities baked into the "social media tax" proposal.

The organization laid out its case in a letter sent to the governor and also posted publicly on its website, calling on Pritzker to veto the tax, as well as a separate tax the state has now imposed on digital ads.

They warned the governor the tax, even if it were upheld, would also result in higher subscription fees or charges, or in social media platform operators essentially blacking out Illinois users from their products and services.

"The social media tax’s flat per-user fee, disconnected from any platform’s actual revenue or profit in Illinois, will be passed directly to consumers through higher subscription fees or charges for services currently provided free," NetChoice wrote. "Platforms unable to absorb the cost may exit the Illinois market entirely, cutting residents off from vital communities, educational resources and business services.

"Auto dealers, restaurants promoting daily specials, community organizations coordinating volunteers and Chicago artists reaching audiences would all face higher costs or reduced access."

NetChoice added: "We understand the difficult fiscal environment Illinois faces and respect the legislature’s effort to address it. But these two provisions will not solve it. They will generate lawsuits, compliance costs, reduced services and reputational damage that far exceed any revenue gained."

Pritzker signed the measure into law.

In a letter to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., warned that sending ICE or Homeland Security personnel to voting sites would be illegal and create a “chilling effect” on voter rights.

“Even the perceived presence of immigration enforcement personnel near polling places, especially in communities with large immigrant or mixed-status populations, could chill lawful voter participation and undermine confidence in the fair and impartial administration of elections,” Krishnamoorthi wrote in his letter.

Last week, Mullin made the argument to CNN hosts that ICE deployment shouldn’t be ruled out, citing a potential for non-citizens to fraudulently attempt to vote in the coming election.

“We're going to make sure that our constitution is upheld, meaning that only citizens of the United States are voting. That's the most important thing we can do to protect the integrity of our election,” Mullin said.

In April, Sean Morales-Doyle, director of voting rights and elections with the Brennan Center for Justice, spoke to the Illinois Accountability Commission in a hearing.

The commission was created by the state in response to DHS’s Operation Midway Blitz, which sought to detain undocumented immigrants with criminal records in the Chicago area in September of last year – but faced heavy local scrutiny for how agencies conducted the operation.

Morales-Doyle testified that his organization had no indication of any active plans by the federal governments to deploy agents at the polling locations.

“We at the Brennan Center are not aware of any plans currently underway within the federal government to deploy armed law enforcement to the polls. Indeed, administration officials have denied the existence of any such plans,” Morales-Doyle said.

Despite concerns, Morales-Doyle said the potential for agents to be deployed primarily creates fear in voters that could make them hesitant to show up to polls.

“The sheer number of individual election districts and polling places around our country mean that no matter what ICE or CBP try to do, the vast majority of voters in this country will remain unaffected,” Morales-Doyle said.

U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., issued a statement last week after reporting from Axios revealed Homeland Security Investigations, a unit within DHS, obtained local voter rolls from two counties – one in Texas and the other North Carolina.

“The Trump administration is using DHS to violate our rights, erode our privacy, chill dissent, and consolidate power. We will not concede the power of the people,” Ramirez said in the statement.

Data collected by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank with close ties to the current administration, shows 44 cases of voter fraud nationwide in 2024.

The U.S. Census Bureau reported that roughly 154 million people voted in the 2024 election.

Illinois lawmakers sought to prevent people from concealed carrying a gun while at a polling location, which drove criticisms from Republicans who worried it could infringe upon the duties of law enforcement officers. The initiative did not progress.

Lawmakers also overwhelmingly passed a resolution urging federal agencies to refrain from operating near or at polling locations, while also affirming that the Illinois State Board of Elections administer all upcoming elections without allowing for interference from any third party.

Pritzker condemned the June 10 incident on social media after reports emerged that a burning cross had been found in Chicago's Grant Park.

"Let me be clear that hate has no home here in Illinois," Pritzker wrote. "This symbol has one purpose: to stir up intimidation and terror. We will not be silent — those responsible must be held accountable."

Authorities later identified 21-year-old University of Illinois Chicago student Merlin Lu as the person responsible.

Lu told media outlets he placed a red MAGA-style hat on top of the cross before setting it ablaze as a protest against what he described as "MAGA Christian nationalist" politics. He said he was unaware of the historical racial significance associated with cross burnings and insisted the demonstration was not racially motivated.

Speaking with The Center Square, Miller said the incident was clearly political and questioned whether Pritzker would condemn anti-Trump sentiment with the same force he used to denounce the initial reports of a cross burning.

"I look forward to J.B. Pritzker holding Merlin Lu accountable for MAGA hate because MAGA hate shouldn't have a home here in Illinois, right?" Miller said.

Miller argued that the student's actions were influenced by political rhetoric directed at President Donald Trump and his supporters.

"Obviously, this wasn't intended to be a hate crime. This was politically motivated, and it's all the direct result of the dangerous rhetoric that's been spewed by these people," Miller said.

The Republican lawmaker also blamed what he described as ideological influences on college campuses, saying young people are often more susceptible to political activism because of their lack of life experience.

Asked whether Pritzker should specifically condemn the anti-Trump message behind the protest, Miller said, "I think it's a no-brainer," arguing the governor reacted before all the facts surrounding the incident were known.

Miller further contended that the controversy has distracted from issues Illinois residents care more about, including taxes, energy costs and public safety.

"I would guess that a very, very small percentage of Illinoisans would even care that this guy burned a MAGA hat," Miller said. "They're worried about how they're going to pay their real estate tax bill. They're worried about the high escalating cost of energy. They're worried about safer communities."

Pritzker's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the governor's position changed after Lu publicly explained his motivations.

Cross burnings have historically been associated with racial intimidation and white supremacist groups in the United States, particularly the Ku Klux Klan. However, Lu has publicly stated that his actions were intended as a political protest against the Trump administration rather than a racially motivated act.

Preckwinkle’s announcement came in a statement released on a Wednesday night, after two years of residents being impacted by dramatic property tax increases.

The board president said her administration has done things the right way when it comes to budgeting.

“We use best practices, we spend responsibility, we pay down legacy obligations, we plan ahead and set aside money for emergencies, but the county is not immune to extraordinary outside factors like federal action or court rulings,” Preckwinkle’s statement said.

Preckwinkle said a court-ordered restriction on the use of transportation tax revenue helped drive a projected $336 million general funds budget gap.

The county’s health enterprise fund is forecast to have a $214.7 million deficit due to added spending on charity care services and an expected decrease in CountyCare membership caused by “sweeping federal cuts and Medicare eligibility restrictions.”

Illinois lieutenant governor candidate and former Cook County Republican Party chairman Aaron Del Mar said the budget gap did not happen overnight.

“It's the result of years of spending decisions that have failed to account for the long term realities,” Del Mar told The Center Square.

Last November, the Cook County board unanimously approved a $10.12 billion budget for fiscal year 2026.

The county budget in fiscal year 2018 was $5.2 billion.

Del Mar said Preckwinkle and county commissioners need to examine their departments, contracts and programs to identify waste and inefficiency.

“We need to protect the essential services of public safety, public health, infrastructure, but we need to eliminate spending that doesn't serve taxpayers,” Del Mar said.

He said raising taxes again would only make the problem worse.

“The people of Cook County are already paying some of the highest taxes in the country, and many are leaving because they can no longer afford to stay,” Del Mar said.

State Rep. Anthony DeLuca, D-Chicago Heights, said the Illinois legislature needs to make more of an effort to provide property tax reform.

DeLuca said tax relief is needed before additional state spending.

“We should not be throwing new money at a problem that is structurally broken. So we have to have some of those reforms that take place, and none of them are easy,” DeLuca said.

On June 11, Preckwinkle announced the appointment of Angela Manning-Hardimon as Cook County Bureau of Finance’s new chief financial officer.

Topics include transportation, energy, workforce strategy, tourism, housing and the economy. The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and the Illinois Economic Development Corporation are scheduled to make presentations.

CLEAN PORTS MEETINGS SCHEDULED

The Illinois EPA has announced Clean Ports Program meetings for stakeholders and near-port communities to begin a planning process for port decarbonization.

The first scheduled meeting for port districts within the Illinois Waterway Ports Commission is Tuesday in Peoria.

Details are available at illinoiscleanports.org.

ILLINOIS IS No. 48 FOR ROAD TRIP AFFORDABILITY

Illinois ranks last on a list of the best states for an affordable summer road trip in the contiguous U.S.

Dunhill Travel Deals considered hotel, gas and everyday prices along with national park sites, attractions and road quality.

Arkansas finished first. Iowa and Indiana ranked ninth and tenth, respectively.