By CAPITOL NEWS ILLINOIS

CHICAGO – Oral arguments began Tuesday, Dec. 7, in three lawsuits challenging the new legislative district maps that lawmakers passed earlier this year with three federal judges asking detailed questions of all the parties in the cases.

Each case centers on the question of whether Democrats in the General Assembly violated the U.S. Constitution and the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 in drawing the maps by diluting the voting power of racial and ethnic minorities – specifically, Hispanic voters in the Chicago area and Black voters in East St. Louis and the surrounding Metro East region.

All of the parties have spent the last several weeks filing thousands of pages of written briefs, depositions and other documents to bolster their cases, but on Tuesday it was the judges’ turn to focus the attention on the few questions that could be pivotal in deciding whether the maps that lawmakers approved will stand for the next 10 years or whether changes need to be made to protect minority voting rights.

Among the questions the judges asked was if voters of different races and ethnicities In Illinois still vote as identifiable blocs, whether the exact composition of a district really matters, or if there is enough “crossover” voting in the state that minority groups can still win representation in the General Assembly even though they are minorities within their own districts.

“Illinois in 2020 is not your grandfather’s Illinois,” Sean Berkowitz, an attorney defending the maps passed by the General Assembly, told the judges.

Berkowitz pointed to the fact that there are a number of Black lawmakers in the Statehouse who do not come from predominantly Black communities. He also pointed to the fact that even though whites make up the largest racial group in Illinois, the current lieutenant governor, attorney general and secretary of state are all Black while one U.S. senator, Tammy Duckworth, is Asian American.

“Crossover voting in Illinois is the norm, not the exception,” he said.

Plaintiffs in the cases include a group of Latino voters in the Chicago area represented by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund; Black voters in the Metro East region represented by the state and local branches of the NAACP as well as the United Congress of Community and Religious Organizations, or UCCRO; and Republican leaders in the General Assembly who are challenging both the Chicago and Metro East redistricting plans.

Those attorneys spent the morning trying to convince the judges that racially polarized voting does continue to exist in Illinois and that if the maps approved by the legislature are allowed to stand, Latino and Black voters will lose political influence in state government.

The cases are moving through the court on an expedited schedule in hopes of having a decision in time for candidates in the 2022 elections to begin circulating nominating positions in mid-January.

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RENTAL ASSISTANCE: The application portal is now open for another $297 million of rental assistance for Illinoisans who lost income due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the state announced Monday, Dec. 6.

The Illinois Rental Payment Program, or ILRPP, money comes from the federal American Rescue Plan Act signed into law by President Joe Biden in March. It will be administered by the Illinois Housing Development Authority.

The application portal is available at illinoishousinghelp.org. To be eligible, a tenant must have an unpaid rent balance on a rental property which is their primary residence. They must have experienced a financial hardship due to the pandemic, have a household income below 80 percent of the Area Median Income and must be an Illinois resident.

Proof of citizenship is not required, and assistance is available for renters of state- or federally-subsidized housing.

The portal for the latest round of funding will be open until 11:59 p.m. on Jan. 9. IHDA said it expects that 32,500 households will receive assistance through this round of funding. Approved applicants will receive one-time grants of up to $25,000, paid directly to their landlords on their behalf, and IHDA said it would begin releasing funding by the end of the year.

Rent owed from June 2020 through April 2022 is eligible for repayment, with renters able to receive up to 15 months of back rent and three months of future rent. If a landlord chooses not to participate in the program, tenants may be able to receive payments directly, according to IHDA.

A renter may still apply if they have previously received federal rental assistance, but they cannot cumulatively receive more than 18 months of assistance.

The Illinois Department of Human Services also has rental assistance available, and assistance is also available through a court-based program. IDHS also provides utility and legal assistance, which can be accessed at https://www.illinoisrentalassistance.org/.

The state is also preparing to launch a Homeowner Assistance Fund program to distribute federal resources for mortgage assistance in the spring. Information on that program is also available at illinoishousinghelp.org, where those seeking mortgage assistance can sign up for a mailing list for program updates when they are available.

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RETAIL THEFT BUST: An unrelated arrest by the Chicago Police Department on Sunday led to a state task force this week seizing millions of dollars’ worth of goods stolen from retailers in what Attorney General Kwame Raoul described as an organized retail crime operation.

Raoul announced the raid in a news conference Friday, Dec. 3, calling it the “first major bust” resulting from the work of the Organized Retail Crime Task Force overseen by his office.

“The task force brings together law enforcement from federal, state and local agencies, retailers, online marketplaces, to share information and resources to identify and prosecute criminal enterprises frequently behind these well-organized schemes that can sometimes be mistaken for isolated incidents of retail theft,” he said.

The task force seized four semi-truckloads of goods found after a search warrant was served on eight storage units at two separate locations.

Chicago Police Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan said the bust announced Friday started with a beat officer who made an unrelated arrest on a gun charge. That suspect was charged with a crime, but the retail theft investigation is ongoing, he said.

While Raoul said a complete inventory was ongoing, the task force seized tens of thousands of items, including apparel, beauty products, furniture, food items and electronics from multiple nationwide retailers. Raoul said they’re worth millions of dollars.

The task force was launched in response to smash-and-grab incidents and other retail crimes in which several individuals clear out retail merchandise from stores in a matter of minutes. Downtown Chicago has seen several such incidents, including at luxury handbag retailers and other high-end stores.

But Raoul said it’s a nationwide problem.

Raoul also said the schemes are more sophisticated than the smash-and-grab videos that circulate online. For example, the loot uncovered this week appeared to have been stolen “at different points along the supply chain,” he said.

Raoul said that often the people seen on videos committing retail theft are not the “kingpins” behind the organized effort.

“Frequently, the criminal enterprises behind these crimes are connected to other crimes, such as the drug trade and human trafficking,” he said.

Deenihan said the retail theft operations were done by criminal networks, “and gangs are involved.”

The bust drew praise from the Illinois Retail Merchants Association.

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CAHOKIA MOUNDS: Visitors of Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site can now try experiencing it in “augmented reality,” or AR, to see the Grand Plaza as it appeared 1,000 years ago, the Palisade as it once stood and the exterior and interior of the temple that once stood atop Monks Mound.

Cahokia Mounds was the central hub and largest city built by the Mississippian culture of Native Americans. The site has been recognized as a National Historic Landmark, an Illinois State Historic Site and a World Heritage Site by the United Nations.

At its height, Cahokia stretched over six square miles and was home to 10,000 to 20,000 people. Set near the Mississippi River, Cahokia was a trade hub and an agriculture production site. There were 120 mounds in Cahokia, including the largest, Monks Mound. The Mississippians built them between 900 and 1400 AD, according to archeologists.

The augmented reality tour unveiling comes as there is a renewed push to make the site a part of the federal National Park System.

Illinois’ U.S. senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, both Democrats, sent a letter to President Joe Biden Tuesday asking him to incorporate Cahokia Mounds into the National Park System. In 2016, a study found that Cahokia Mounds met all four of the criteria – significance, suitability, feasibility, and need for National Park Service management.

In April, Durbin introduced the Cahokia Mounds Mississippian Culture National Historical Park Act to change the current designation as a National Historic Landmark to a National Historic Park. This move would add protections for the ancient mounds that straddle St. Clair and Madison counties in southwest Illinois.

Visitors can experience the site in augmented reality by downloading the app at a cost of $4.99 to their Apple device, or they can rent an iPad for $15 at the site. Developers spent five years creating the new application that allows visitors to step back and experience Cahokia as it once was.

The Cahokia AR Tour application was developed and produced by the Cahokia Mounds Museum Society and Schwartz and Associates Creative of St. Louis and was funded by two grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities. 

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AIRPORT GRANTS: Nearly 100 airports across Illinois will receive state funding in the coming months for projects ranging from new runways and road relocations to the purchase of mowers and snow removal equipment.

The money comes from the $45 billion Rebuild Illinois capital infrastructure plan which passed the General Assembly and the governor signed into law in 2019. Another $11.5 million for the projects will be contributed by local sources.

Gov. JB Pritzker was in Moline Wednesday, Dec. 1, to publicize the funding for 96 airports around the state, including $5.6 million for the Quad Cities International Airport. The Quad Cities funding will go toward entrance road realignment and parking expansion.

The state grants range from $36,000 for the Illinois Valley Regional Airport in LaSalle County to acquire a tractor with a flex wing mower to nearly $11.8 million for the Morris Municipal Airport in Grundy County for a crosswinds runway.

St. Louis Downtown Airport in St. Clair County is slated to receive $5 million for ramp and taxiway access from the airfield, including a jetblast noise mitigation barrier.

St. Louis Downtown Airport is the third busiest airport in Illinois and was recognized by the IDOT Division of Aeronautics as the 2021 Reliever Airport of the Year.

The project has been in the planning stages for several years, and construction is anticipated to begin in 2022.

The Cairo Regional Airport near the state’s southern tip will receive $309,000 from the state, including $72,000 to acquire snow removal equipment and $237,033 to replace airport lighting.

The Tri-Township Airport in Carroll County will receive $171,000 to install new electric airfield security gates.

The Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport in Springfield will see more than $3 million to rehabilitate its north airport’s public parking lot and roadways.

Bolingbrook’s Clow International Airport will receive $2.8 million, $67,500 of which will help replace its rotating beacon, while more than $2.1 million will go toward the construction of a replacement parallel taxiway.

Southern Illinois Airport in Jackson County will see over $1 million, with $252,000 going toward the relocation of Fox Farm Road and $751,000 going to expand the southeast aircraft parking apron.

The Rebuild Illinois plan is a multimodal infrastructure package covering roads, bridges, waterways, air travel and rail, as well as bike and pedestrian pathways.

The transportation projects in the 2019 plan are largely funded through a doubling of the motor fuel tax to 38 cents, a rate that now goes up annually at the inflation rate. The measure also increased several fees motorists pay to the secretary of state, including registration fees.

A full list of projects can be viewed here.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government and distributed to more than 400 newspapers statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.