Welcome back. 142,000 ComEd customers woke up without power this week after 3 tornadoes on Tuesday — during a record breaking tornado season with over 200 recorded this year already. In a city where about 100 proposed data centers have 33 gigawatts of requests sitting at that same utility, Tuesday taxed the grid even more, and showed how climate change will make all of this worse.

This week: the alderman who invited the data centers in called the mayor a stunt artist for regulating them, a police district council censured its own chair, and Cook County Health started bracing for 400,000 people to lose Medicaid.

On Monday Mayor Johnson signed an executive order that created tighter air permits on diesel generators, real noise limits on cooling systems, and asked City Council for a temporary moratorium on new data centers.

Zoning chair Gilbert Villegas (36th), via WBEZ: "This is just another political stunt by the mayor to say that he did something."

No one can say that Villegas hasn’t taken real action on data centers, I guess: in 2024, Villegas wrote the ordinance that lured many data centers here — 4% tax credits for storing city data in Chicago, 2% for Illinois.In April Villegas took the Zoning gavel and introduced himself with "Chicago is open for business." Per the Sun-Times board that endorsed it, he wanted $13 million a year in real estate taxes per facility.

Why It Matters: The guy who wrote the tax credits to bring data centers here, who now chairs the committee where any data center ordinance has to pass, is mad the mayor did the only thing a mayor can do alone. His real objection is that Johnson is using executive orders to bypass a City Council that’s gone out of its way to block him from taking any real progressive action.

Related: the $9 billion Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park is going up on an old South Works site — a lead- and oil-contaminated steel mill. In January residents tried to put a pause referendum on the ballot; the Board of Elections blocked it. U of C researchers at Science for the People Chicago have since called the site "extremely toxic" and warned flooding could push contaminants into Lake Michigan.

Want to take action? Join them this Saturday, 12–2 p.m., Arnold Mireles Academy, 9000 S. Exchange — Community Over Quantum rally. RSVP.

14th District council members Ashley Vargas and David Orlikoff voted to censure their chair, Christopher Laurent, over allegations including grabbing a constituent's microphone during public comment, reported by City Bureau Documenters. Laurent didn't attend. His statement says the censure "presents disputed allegations as established facts." Vargas is chair now. In December 2024, 19 council members across 13 districts signed a letter demanding Orlikoff resign over allegations of racist and aggressive behavior.

Why It Matters: Forget the drama for a second: these are the only elected offices in Chicago whose entire job is tracking and (in theory) regulating the Chicago Police Department. District councils have used their meetings to force conditions inside police stations onto the public record, set local public safety priorities, and in one case deliver a no-confidence vote in a high-ranking CPD official. They're also how the citywide commission that can hire and fire the superintendent, a process happening right now! That's a real body with real teeth, currently being used by three people to fight each other. All 22 are up in 2027 and organizers are looking for candidates.

CEO Erik Mikaitis told Cook County commissioners this week that the system is staring at a $138 million drop in patient revenue next year and a $100 million jump in charity care — a line item going from $125 million to nearly $500 million over five years. Via WTTW: "In Illinois, we're anticipating 400,000 people will lose their coverage … and half of them live right here in Cook County."

It has already started — about 90,000 Illinoisans dropped coverage when the enhanced tax subsidies ended. Work requirements hit the largest group next. And in October 2027, eligibility gets redefined for immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers and domestic violence survivors.

Why It Matters: In a country where 92% of people have delayed or abandoned medical care because of cost, these cuts will make things far worse nationally. For Cook County, preventive care is the cheapest thing a public health system does, and it's the first thing to go. To quote CEO Erik Mikaitis: "Instead of managing high blood pressure and diabetes in a clinic, we'll see people down the road in the emergency room with strokes and heart attacks."

In November, Chicago elects all 21 school board seats for the first time in its history.

When I talk to people who don’t live here, most are SHOCKED that Chicago didn’t have a fully elected school board until now, by the way: for decades the mayor just appointed them. In this election, there’s already been huge spending, with already almost 2.2 million spent (for context, these are fully volunteer elected positions) even with the race 4 months out.

No judgment! A fully elected school board is the biggest expansion of local democracy Chicago has had in a generation, and there’s not (IMO) a ton of visibility so far. I, as you can imagine, have strong opinions and will share more here — but for now, I just want to know what you, as a 322 reader, already know about this election.

Tell me in the replies: where would you even go to find out who's running in your district and the issues that matter?

Or, find your current board rep here.

Francesca Hong lost Wisconsin's governor primary Tuesday by less than a point.

The same night, one state over, Peggy Flanagan won Minnesota's Democratic Senate primary — running on economic populism, Medicare for All, universal childcare, and a promise to "tear ICE apart." Groups backing Angie Craig spent over $20 million against Flanagan's roughly $3 million in outside support, in what may be the most expensive primary in Minnesota history but Flanagan won anyway. People are choosing progressives even as those progressives are far outspent.

There was an interesting Tribune piece on influencers in the mayor's race that I think everyone should read.

That said, I think it oversold the role of payment in those relationships, especially locally. Per ABC7: Rachel Cohen with 700,000+ followers is volunteering. The one real payment mentioned in the article was with Rebecca Lehmann, for a July interview, who labeled the videos that followed as paid partnerships.

In contrast, back in the 09 primary, a dark money group was reported offering influencers $1,500 a post to attack Kat Abughazaleh. without any filing anybody really has access to. Disclosure matters, and I guess part of why I’m bringing this up is because I see creators like Cohen and Mermaid FM, who is doing a great job breaking down what’s going on in City Hall.

Assuming a creator with 700,000 followers had to be bought is a bad instinct both for people engaging with their work and those trying to build relationships with creators in politics: assuming that anyone making a video who has credibility was paid is a bad instinct — especially because the people who tend to be most trusted online are the ones that are least likely to take $, especially without disclosing it!

Maybe that sounds unspeakably naive, but it’s one of the things I keep coming back to: sometimes the great secret dark money conspiracy is just progressives supporting each other without an agenda. It can happen, even in Chicago…

Except that I remain jealous of everyone who got a White Sox pope hat.

FYI — I'm out next week until the 18th.

See you soon,

-H

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