Good afternoon, Chicago.
The Chicago Bears will proceed with plans for a new stadium in Hammond, Indiana, the organization announced today.
“Yesterday, the Chicago Bears Board of Directors met and voted to advance our stadium development project in Hammond, Indiana, with the exact site to be selected,” the team said in a joint statement from Chairman George H. McCaskey and President and CEO Kevin Warren. “We believe a world-class stadium project in Hammond will transform the region, connecting Northwest Indiana to the South Side of Chicago through the Loop and across neighborhoods and suburbs stretching north of the city. It will bring Chicagoland together and deliver new opportunities to its residents and businesses.”
The board’s decision comes less than a week after the Illinois legislature adjourned, without taking up a last-ditch Senate bill that would have allowed Arlington Heights or Chicago to enter into a public-private ownership deal with the NFL franchise. Such legislation would have given the team a path to build a new stadium without paying property taxes on the facility, bill sponsors said.
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The details of Illinois’ budget raising social media, crypto and fantasy sports taxes and pausing gas tax hike
A nearly $56 billion state spending plan is headed to Gov. JB Pritzker’s desk after the Democratic-controlled Illinois legislature approved it in the early-morning hours of another overtime spring session.
The Democratic governor called the budget package one that would make “people-first investments while maintaining our positive fiscal trajectory and protecting working families from paying new taxes” at a celebratory news conference Monday at the Illinois State Capitol. Here’s a look at tax changes it includes for the state budget year that begins July 1. Read more here.
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It’s past time to use football analogies to describe the Chicago Bears’ long-running quest for a new stadium. Fourth down. One-yard line. Precious few seconds remaining on the clock. All of that has been used repeatedly. What became salient this morning was the Bears moved a step closer to leaving Illinois for an undetermined site in Hammond, Ind., after announcing the club’s board of directors voted Thursday to proceed with plans in the Hoosier state. Read more here.
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The Senate passed legislation to fund President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement agencies early this morning, after weeks of delays and fierce backlash to an unrelated $1.776 billion settlement fund that threatened to derail the bill. Senators voted 52-47 to pass the $70 billion legislation to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol for the next three years, through the end of Trump’s term, after Democrats have blocked the money for months. The bill will now head to the House, which is expected to take it up next week. Read more here.
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