Carlos Acosta, 58, a former investigator for the Illinois Department of Children & Family Services and former McHenry County Board member, also was sentenced to 30 months of probation and 200 hours of volunteer service, and ordered to pay $1,000 to the McHenry County Children’s Advocacy Center.

In what was believed to be the first such conviction of a child welfare worker in Illinois, Acosta was convicted last year of endangering the life or health of a child.

AJ’s mother, JoAnn Cunningham, was convicted of murder and is serving a 35-year sentence. His father, Andrew Freund Sr., was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, concealment of a homicide and aggravated battery of a child, and is serving 30 years.

In December 2018, four months before the boy’s death, Acosta was called to investigate after AJ was found to have a large bruise on his hip while living with a heroin-addicted mother in a damaged house filled with urine and feces.

AJ told a doctor, “Maybe mommy hit me with a belt. Maybe mommy didn’t mean to hurt me.” But prosecutors said Acosta let the boy go back with his parents without investigating further.

Defense attorneys raised the issue of DCFS investigators’ workload, but Lake County Associate Judge George Strickland, who handled the case after McHenry County judges recused themselves, said the case “had nothing to do with the DCFS being overworked.”

He said Acosta’s apathy led him to violate the agency’s own procedures for investigating abuse, by failing to use resources like getting a forensic doctor or special investigators to look into obvious red flags, and failing to look into the mother’s history of substance abuse.

Noting that Acosta “falsified” his reports by leaving out damning information, the judge said, “This was truly a willful refusal to investigate.”

Strickland previously acquitted Acosta’s supervisor, Andrew Polovin, in the case, saying he deserved “vilification” but the judge couldn’t tell what he knew due to the faulty reports.

Bailiffs immediately took Acosta into custody to begin the three months he will likely serve due to reduced time for good behavior in jail. Just before the sentence, Acosta apologized for AJ’s death.

“A day does not go by where I don’t regret and feel remorse over the loss of AJ,” he said. “I am truly sorry for the pain I have caused AJ’s family … my family, my community and my colleagues.”

“I am not the lazy uncaring monster that (McHenry County State’s Attorney) Patrick (Kenneally) has portrayed me to be,” he said. “I am a social worker. … I have lived in and served my community for the last 30 years. … I do accept my responsibility for my role in this tragedy.”

“All I can ask for today is leniency from the court, the opportunity for redemption from my community, and forgiveness from my god.”

Despite Acosta’s apology, First Assistant State’s Attorney Randi Freese said he showed an “utter lack of remorse,” noting he wore an earring depicting a raised middle finger to work and to an investigative meeting after the incident, and that his phone password began with “apathy.”

Prosecutors had asked for at least one year in prison, while defense attorney Rebecca Lee asked for probation, arguing that Acosta had paid a high price by losing his career and being publicly shamed and convicted.

“I would submit that he made these grievous errors as a harried, overworked DCFS employee, and not with the intent to cause harm,” she said.

Kenneally said the case was not an indictment of DCFS, but should show that child welfare, police and prosecutors should be held accountable if they don’t do their jobs to protect children.

“I would consider it a wake-up call for everybody,” he said.

“We hope and we continue to pray that AJ’s death and all that he suffered has already saved children’s lives and will continue to do so,” he added.

DCFS workers Chyaire Brown and Alex Medina challenged Kenneally during his post-hearing press conference, saying DCFS employees are badly overworked and supported Acosta. Brown, a supervisor in Will and Grundy counties, said investigators often are assigned more than 12 new cases a month, in violation of a court order to limit their caseload.

Workers are often harassed by parents, Brown said, noting that two workers were murdered on the job in the past six years.

When AJ was born with heroin in his system, he was taken away from his mother and placed in protective custody with Lisa Matsen for the first year and a half of his life.

At the sentencing, Matsen testified that AJ was a happy child with a beautiful smile. She and her family marked AJ’s milestones like learning to crawl and say his first word, and celebrated his first birthday at a nature center. He loved the outdoors, animals at the zoo, Curious George, playing in the snow and being pulled in a sled.

After Cunningham underwent drug treatment and a court order returned AJ to his parents, Matsen and her family continued to help take care of him when needed. But after two years, Cunningham cut off any contact, saying AJ acted up after being with her.

“I was really the person he called mommy, and I remain to this day the only real mother he ever knew,” Matsen said.

Matsen still takes care of AJ’s younger brother, Parker, and another adopted son, calling them “the light of my life.”

“I cannot describe the loss my entire family and others felt and continue to feel,” she said. “We think about him every day. Our only solace is knowing he was able to experience love, family, peace and joy for his short time with us. … He will always be in our hearts and the hearts of others as well.”

DCFS issued a statement calling AJ’s case “heartbreaking,” and cited initiatives the office has made to improve child protective services, implementing recommendations from the state inspector general and experts, such as the evidence-based SAFE Model.

“The work of frontline child protection workers is incredibly difficult, and DCFS continues to implement strategies to improve critical thinking and decision-making by field teams and supervisors,” the statement read.

Lawmakers adjourned Wednesday without even publicly considering the team’s proposal for a publicly owned stadium downtown.

Also Wednesday, Openlands, a regional conservation group, issued a statement opposing the plan, saying that the stadium would have “dire implications” for migratory birds and “breaks this promise” of a lakefront kept clear for public use.

“A stadium proposal that also includes detached hotels, restaurants, retail operations, and other structures is tantamount to a mixed-use commercial district in a public park,” Openlands stated.

The conservation group — not to be confused with the Friends of the Parks group that also has concerns — said the proposal would effectively offer public land for private purposes.

In Arlington Heights, Mayor Tom Hayes declined to gloat over the Bears’ lack of progress in Springfield, but said he hopes the team eventually will return to its previous proposal for a new stadium in his northwest suburb.

“We’ve been working over the last couple of months to stand ready if the Bears do get a ‘no’ and turn back in our direction,” Hayes said. “We’re continuing our discussions with the school districts to resolve the tax issue, which has been the sticking point so far. I think it will be easily resolved.”

In April, the team unveiled its proposal for a $3.2 billion enclosed stadium on the lakefront, just south of its home at Soldier Field. The team would put up $2 billion, but would need the state to borrow more than $1 billion, plus find up to $1.5 billion for new roads, utilities and other infrastructure.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson supported the concept enthusiastically, though City Hall on Friday did not reply to a request for comment on lawmakers’ inaction. In a rare unified show of preemptive force, Gov. J.B. Pritzker, state Senate President Don Harmon and House Speaker Emmanuel “Chris” Welch all cast doubt on the plan.

Downplaying the disinterest, team officials said they weren’t pushing for legislation this session, merely starting a dialogue and having “productive conversations.”

The team issued a statement again promising that the project would create 43,000 construction jobs and more than 4,000 permanent jobs but has not shared how its consultant came up with those projections.

“We look forward to continuing to meet with elected officials, community leaders, business leaders, residents and fans to collaborate on ways to make this massive economic development project for Illinois a reality,” the statement read.

A relaxed timeline doesn’t fit with Bears President and CEO Kevin Warren hoping to start construction this fall and open in 2028, emphasizing that every year’s delay could cost $150 million-$200 million.

Despite what Warren called the team’s “laser focus” on Chicago, officials previously proposed moving to Arlington Heights.

Just last year, the team paid $197 million for the former Arlington Park horse track, which Churchill Downs Inc. shut down in 2021.

In 2022, with much fanfare, officials announced plans for a $2 billion stadium there, with a surrounding mixed-use development of housing and entertainment. But after Warren took over, he reversed direction, saying the property taxes on the site were too high, and turned to Chicago.

The lack of movement with state lawmakers tells Joe Ferguson, president of the Chicago financial watchdog Civic Federation, that it’s time to consider other sites.

“It’s time for the Bears to turn the conversation from an either-or Bears proposal into a broader discussion of what options exist in the city,” Ferguson said.

The former Michael Reese Hospital site in the Bronzeville neighborhood would be ideal for allowing surrounding economic development, including a proposed Chicago White Sox stadium, Ferguson said.

The Bears rejected the site as too narrow, but Ferguson suggested that a public discussion could address how to overcome such limitations. The site also has tax increment financing that could help pay for development costs.

Whatever happens, there is still plenty of time to make a decision. The Bears lease at Soldier Field runs through 2033.

The measure had bipartisan support and easily passed the Senate, but stalled in the House of Representatives at the end of the legislative session Wednesday. Divisions among factions of the cannabis business community again torpedoed the bill.

Pritzker called for regulating hemp products, which can be intoxicating and are widely sold without age restrictions.

“I believe that an unregulated product like this, which has clearly caused some health problems, ought to be regulated by the state,” he said.

Hemp, defined as cannabis with less than 0.3% delta-9 THC, the component that gets users high, is legal under federal law. But producers have found ways to chemically derive intoxicating byproducts such as delta-8 and delta-9 THC that are sold in vape shops and gas stations. As a result, in some cases, adolescents have ended up being hospitalized for overdoses.

“The current unregulated market undermines social equity license holders who have long worked to establish a legal, well-regulated business,” Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford said. “As we move toward regulation of hemp and delta-8 products, we must do so in a way that is equitable and provides opportunities within the evolving industry.”

Unlicensed hemp business owners feared that Lightford’s proposed restrictions, while protecting hemp beverage makers, would have put many of them out of business. Hemp advocates again called for requiring testing and labeling of products, and establishing a minimum age for customers to be 21 or older, which they say responsible companies already do.

“It feels good to still be alive,” said Charles Wu, owner of Chi’Tiva, a hemp grower and retailer. “But the problems have not been solved. We want regulations for 21-plus and packaging and labeling standards, but there’s never been a compromise.”

A separate controversy arose in the licensed cannabis industry over a wide-ranging “omnibus” bill would have allowed all dispensaries to sell to medical patients without imposing a retail tax. Instead, medical patients will remain restricted to getting the discount at only the 55 original medical dispensaries in the state.

That means both that the market favors large established companies that own most of the medical dispensaries, and that some patients remain in rural dispensary “deserts” where they have to travel more than 25 miles to get their products.

The proposal also would have allowed curbside pickup and drive-thru windows, remote online doctor exams, reduced barriers to people with criminal records working in the industry, and repealed certain cultivator and craft grower taxes.

The Cannabis Business Association of Illinois, which represents many large companies, supported both a hemp crackdown and the expansion of medical cannabis.

“We are disappointed the House failed to pass needed reforms to our state’s cannabis laws and will continue to allow synthetic hemp products that are sickening children and adults to be sold with no oversight,” Executive Director Tiffany Chappell Ingram said. “Despite overwhelming bipartisan support for these measures in the Senate, there is clearly more work to do to educate legislators about these important matters.”

The Cannabis Equity Coalition of Illinois blamed large Chicago-based cannabis company Green Thumb Industries (GTI) for lobbying to oppose medical dispensary expansion.

The nonprofit coalition, which represents small business owners and advocates, called for a boycott of GTI products and Rise dispensaries, saying they were “under siege by corporate greed!”

The Illinois Independent Craft Growers Association wrote a letter to the governor, calling for expanding medical marijuana discounts to all dispensaries.

“GTI’s opposition to this change is an attempt to maintain their monopoly on being able to offer the tax advantages to medical card holders, preventing new and smaller dispensaries from entering the medical market, which limits competition and harms patients and local craft growers,” the letter stated. “This has to stop. Our legislators need to focus on the 140,000 medical patients and not on those companies that lobby the hardest.”

Green Thumb issued a statement that it has always supported patient access to legal cannabis.

“We have a history of championing patients, including leading advocacy efforts to ensure patients could access their products during the pandemic, and most recently, preserve curbside pickup services for patients,” the statement read.

The proposed measure, HB 2911, GTI said, “included language that was neither operationally viable nor comprehensive enough for what Illinois patients deserve, such as requiring patient lanes or offering delivery services. Illinois legislators recognized the concerns and will continue working on this with the goal of passing it during veto session (this fall).”

The proposed ban by lawmakers is meant to rein in a wild west of hemp products that includes knockoff and mislabeled edibles and vapes that are sold without age limits or regulations. But producers say lawmakers can save businesses and jobs by tightly regulating and taxing hemp instead.

“Banning and killing this segment of the industry, with no process to discuss what to do, seems really excessive and unfair,” Marz Community Brewing Co. founder Ed Marszewski said.

Hemp beverages have been a lifeline in the past year or so for craft brewers, who’ve seen beer sales fall since the COVID-19 pandemic.

In Minnesota, where hemp beverages are regulated and taxed, they are generating sales taxes of more than $1 million a month.

Mars’ brewpub in McKinley Park began making hemp beverages like Power of Flower and Juniper Fizz in 2019. Some contain CBD, the nonintoxicating component of hemp, while others contain THC, the part of pot that gets users high.

Other brewers like Hopewell Brewing in Logan Square, Noon Whistle Brewing in Lombard and Naperville, and Engrained Brewing in Springfield also make hemp drinks.

The Illinois Craft Brewers Guild has 300 member companies that employ about 6,000 people, but reports about 40 breweries closed in the past two years.

“The fact that members can access a new revenue stream is incredibly important,” Executive Director Ray Stout said. “This ban could pull the rug out from beneath our feet.”

The ban, as originally proposed by state Sen. Kimberly Lightford, would put a two-year moratorium on all intoxicating hemp products, including those sold widely at vape shops and gas stations, until a committee can propose regulations. A newer version, put into an existing bill for fast approval, would allow the sale of products, but only by businesses licensed under the current state cannabis law.

Hemp business owners say that would cause widespread closures of businesses and put many people out of work. Instead, they are calling for restricting products to adults 21 and older, requiring testing and labeling of potency and purity, and imposing a wholesale tax of 10% plus a retail tax of 10%.

State-legal cannabis companies have pushed for the legislation, saying it’s unfair they have to follow tight restrictions while hemp businesses are unchecked.

While marijuana remains illegal under federal law, federal lawmakers legalized hemp in 2018, defining it as cannabis or cannabinoids with less than 0.3% delta-9 THC. But processors have figured out how to derive intoxicating cannabinoids, such as delta-8 and delta-9 THC, from hemp, creating the current controversy.

Further complicating the matter, some licensed cannabis companies also produce hemp-derived products.

Tiffany Ingram, executive director of the Cannabis Business Association of Illinois, representing licensed weed companies, called the hemp products “Frankenstein weed” that tests have shown sometimes contain contaminants or much higher or lower doses than labeled.

“This is why Illinois needs to push pause on these products,” she said.

While there are some bad actors, hemp brewers like Marszewski say responsible companies use the same labs as cannabis companies to accurately test and label their products, and deserve a chance to sell their nonalcoholic drinks.

Marszewski sees the ban as a money grab by billion-dollar cannabis companies to eliminate their startup competition.

“The hemp industry allows people who don’t have deep pockets to start a business, employ people and pay taxes,” he said. “These attacks are merely a way for cannabis companies to maintain their monopoly.”

At least four liens were filed in recent years against Hawthorne or its owners, Carey Heirs properties LLC, by contractors saying they were owed $5.1 million.

The debt calls further into question whether Hawthorne can get financing to build a planned race track/casino combination, known as a racino.

Hawthorne officials said they settled one of the claims, and plan to pay the debt as soon as they get financing for the project. Track President Tim Carey repeatedly has promised that financing was in the works and construction would begin soon, but after nearly five years, it has yet to happen.

The debt takes on added significance because racinos were supposed to save the state’s dying horse racing industry by generating new revenue.

The revelations of Hawthorne’s financial status come as lawmakers are considering whether to revoke an extraordinary monopoly power the track was given under state law to build racinos at its existing track and in the south suburbs.

A Hawthorne spokesman issued a statement that the track is in “the advanced execution phase” of a $400 million financing with an investor that will make the racino a reality.

The unpaid bills are a further sign that lawmakers should revoke the track’s veto power over any racino in a 35-mile radius, state Rep. Marty Moylan said.

“If they ain’t got the money, let’s move on,” Moylan said. “The Carey family is screwing it up for everybody. They should let it go and let surrounding communities open a racino.”

Court documents show that after lawmakers authorized Hawthorne to build a racino in 2019, the track hired W.E. O’Neil Construction Co. as general contractor in 2020 to do demolition and construction at the track in west suburban Stickney.

In 2022, O’Neil filed a lien and a lawsuit claiming breach of contract. O’Neil and several subcontractors did $12 million of work, but Hawthorne paid for only part of it, leaving an agreed debt of $5 million that Hawthorne “refused to pay,” the suit stated.

O’Neil claims in the lawsuit it’s owed that amount plus 12% annual interest and attorneys’ fees, equaling $107,000 by the end of 2022, and accruing $1,400 more each day.

If the debt is not paid, the complaint stated, defendants could be found personally liable, and the racetrack should be sold at auction, with the proceeds to pay its debts.

Hawthorne also took out a series of multi-million dollar mortgage loans, starting in 2016 through 2020, culminating in a $9 million loan from Signature Bank in Rosemont, county documents show.

“Hawthorne has a multi-million-dollar credit facility with its bank, similar to thousands of businesses across the country,” a track spokesman said. “Those proceeds have been used to help rebuild harness and thoroughbred horse racing in Illinois while also funding the expansion development so far. The lines of credit as well as the unfunded agreements with the former general contractor are intended to be repaid in the scope of this soon-to-be completed financing.

“All of this work and the significant capital raise is being done to benefit the future of horse racing in Illinois.”

Since Arlington International Racecourse closed in 2021, Hawthorne has kept racing alive in the Chicago area by hosting both thoroughbred and harness racing.

Another contractor, Milburn Demolition of Bellwood, also filed a lien seeking $430,000 for demo work it did at the track.

Manager James Milburn said they still haven’t been paid, and Hawthorne has only said it will pay when it gets financing.

“We’ve all been hearing that for a long time,” Milburn said. “It’s been a long wait.”

Gurtz Electric Co. of Arlington Heights, also filed a lien against Carey Heirs Properties LLC in 2023, claiming it was owed $1.1 million.

A Hawthorne spokesman said the subcontractor claims were included in the total owed to O’Neil.

Other developers have proposed building a racino if Hawthorne’s monopoly power was lifted. Greenway Entertainment Corp. officials called for an end to Hawthorne’s veto, saying they are ready to construct a harness track racino in Richton Park. Businessman Ronald Awsumb proposed a thoroughbred track in the same town, though industry observers questioned whether the law would allow that.

Dick Simpson, professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a former Chicago alderman, said the gambling expansion was meant to help the racing industry, but the lack of new revenue is delaying the benefits.

“Generally, it’s better to have different companies and individuals compete,” he said. “You end up with a better result.”

Carey proposed a new south suburban racino in 2019 in Tinley Park, partnering with video gaming owner Rick Heidner. But a Tribune story questioned the funding source for the project, and Gov. J.B. Pritzker refused to sell state land for the site, causing the plan to fall through.

This story has been revised to include the correct overall amount of money owned to contractors. 

Chicago lost about 82,000 people, or 3% of its population, from April 2020 to July 2023, giving the city a total of 2,664,452 residents, according to the census. But the city’s rate of population decline has sharply slowed, falling to just 0.3% — or 8,208 people — last year.

Cook County as a whole from 2020-2023 lost 188,000 people, or 3.6%, leaving the current population at slightly more than 5 million residents. Most of the departures occurred outside the city.

Census 2023 population estimates for the Chicago area: Did your city, town or village gain or lose residents?

Western suburbs like Cicero, Berwyn and Riverside lost about 5%, while south and southwest suburbs, including Summit, Oak Lawn, Dolton, Calumet City, Hazel Crest, Markham, Country Club Hills, Alsip and Palos Heights, lost 4.5% or more.

Meanwhile, far southwest suburbs including Yorkville, Plainfield and Oswego showed the most growth, with Yorkville growing by more than 3,000, or nearly 15%.

Statewide, Illinois lost an estimated 263,780 in the same three years, or 2%, to 12,549,689.

The losses reflect larger demographic changes in recent times, including a shift in population from the Midwest to the South and West; Black migration from the Chicago area; and a lack of in-migration, demographics analyst Rob Paral said.

While the 2020 census counted responses from household surveys, the annual estimates between the 10-year counts are based in part on counting births, deaths, and moves in and out, using the number of tax returns and Medicare filings.

The numbers do not reflect the recent influx of 41,000 migrants bused and flown to Chicago since August 2022. Census methodology does not account for migrant arrivals. Immigrants are typically hard to count because they may be transient, may not speak English and may want to stay under the radar, researchers said.

Oak Lawn Mayor Terry Vorderer, for one, didn’t buy the new estimates, noting that his town has added new townhomes while not losing housing stock.

“I’m shocked,” he said. “I am skeptical of the numbers. I think our population is stable if not increasing. The town is very viable, new businesses are coming in all the time. Younger families are moving in and the schools are full.”

One force that may be at work, census researchers said, is the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. During the height of the pandemic, many people were working remotely and moving out from cities and suburbs to outlying areas. That phenomenon is cooling but still has an effect, researchers said.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office also threw water on the results, highlighting past faulty counts made by the Census Bureau.

“For the last decade, the narrative that Illinois is losing population was fed, by what turned out to be, inaccurate annual preliminary estimates,” Pritzker spokesperson Alex Gough said in a statement. “Illinois remains one of the most populous states in the nation and is on the rise.”

International migration — which has risen nationwide — has nearly tripled in Illinois since 2021, Gough said. The state is in the process of challenging census data to ensure it receives adequate federal funding for programs like Medicare, affordable housing and homeland security, he added.

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration did not challenge the results, but instead linked population loss to decades of insufficient support for parts of the city. A lack of affordable housing, job losses and closed schools and mental health clinics have disproportionately hurt Black Chicagoans in particular, Johnson spokesperson Ronnie Reese said.

“The underlying causes of population loss in Chicago remain deeply rooted in historic disinvestment,” Reese said. “So when you ask questions related to population loss, you need to look at the resources in communities that traditionally keep residents tethered, and if there are none, therein lies the problem.”

Reese highlighted “investing in people” through Johnson’s new $1.25 billion borrowing plan earmarked for housing and workforce development as efforts to help people stay in Chicago.

Rising real estate prices have prompted some people in inner suburbs to sell and seek cheaper, larger housing farther out, said Matt Wilson, associate director of the Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Crime and high taxes can also motivate people to move, and families in particular may seek safe communities with good schools.

“Most broadly, I think the quality of life that neighborhoods of the south side and south suburbs have to offer for the prices people have to pay to live in those areas has made people decide to leave,” Wilson wrote in an email to the Tribune. “Population decline and economic decline (are) mutually reinforcing and I think those areas are on trajectories of disinvestment and decline.”

In Oswego, 20-year-old resident Sam Terry just moved from Utah last month. He’s part of a team of about 40 workers who moved to a rented house to work installing solar panels for Sunrun.

“I love Oswego so far,” he said. “It’s a nice little area. You’ve got everything you need five minutes away. Everybody’s super cool, and it’s safe. We accidentally left the door open all day, and it was all good.”

Ray Hanania, a spokesman for Cicero, Bridgeview and Lyons, said the census typically misses undocumented immigrants. He blamed fear of crime for driving some people away.

Chicago remained the third largest city in the United States, behind New York and Los Angeles. It also lost the third most people, behind New York and Philadelphia.

While the nation’s fastest-growing cities continue to be in Sun Belt states, the new estimates show that some of the top gainers nationally are on the outskirts of metropolitan areas or in rural areas.

A bill in Springfield would end the requirement that prosecutors be notified when a baby is born with controlled substances in his or her system and would no longer necessarily consider that evidence of child abuse.

The hope is that by taking away the threat of losing custody of a baby, mothers would be more likely to seek treatment.

The initiative was prompted by a finding that the leading cause of death in Illinois among expectant or new mothers is drug use. Almost one-third of the 263 such mothers who died in 2018 to 2020 died of substance use, the state Department of Public Health reported.

The proposed change in the law would create a task force to develop a plan for helping infants and mothers exposed to illicit drugs during pregnancy. These family recovery plans would include medical care, recovery support and referrals to community services for the child and caregiver.

McHenry County State’s Attorney Patrick Kenneally, a Republican, objected to the proposal, saying it would leave such cases to the Department of Children and Family Services, or DCFS, which failed in one such high-profile case, that of AJ Freund.

When AJ was born with heroin in his system and track marks on his mother’s arms in 2013, Kenneally was notified by law and went to court to have the infant taken into protective custody and placed with a relative.

That provided AJ with the only normalcy in his life, Kenneally said, before his parents, JoAnn Cunningham and Andrew Freund, underwent counseling and treatment with the anti-cravings drug Suboxone, and won custody back. In 2019, however, after Cunningham abused heroin and her son repeatedly, AJ was found dead of trauma, buried in a shallow grave.

Cunningham and Freund pleaded guilty in connection with their son’s death and are in prison.

The DCFS investigator in AJ’s case, Carlos Acosta, was convicted of endangering the life or health of a child for failing to fully investigate.

Studies show that substance abuse is a primary cause of child abuse and neglect. Kenneally said nothing now prevents mothers from seeking treatment before birth without penalty.

“The basis (of the proposed change), of course, is not science,” Kenneally said in a statement, “but political pieties that forbid ‘stigmatizing’ the mother, who though severely endangering her child by using drugs during pregnancy, is merely a faultless victim afflicted with the ‘disease’ of substance abuse.”

In response, the Illinois State Medical Society, which supports the measure, called such claims “baseless” and “absurd.”

Under the proposal, DCFS still would be notified and required to investigate, provide services, and when necessary, notify prosecutors.

State Sen. Cristina Castro, a Democrat from Elgin, issued a statement that she was “appalled” to see Kenneally “blame vulnerable new mothers.”

“Rather than making cruel and destructive comments about women struggling with addiction,” Castro said, “I’m working on legislation to keep women and children in Illinois alive, safe and healthy.”

The measure also is supported by the American College of Obstetricians  and Gynecologists of Illinois, the Illinois chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

Others in the justice system also called for the change.

Kane County State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser, a Democrat, said DCFS is in the best position to investigate such cases alongside law enforcement, and she believes new agency Director Heidi Muller will address deficiencies in the agency.

In Cook County, the office of Public Guardian Charles Golbert legally represents children in abuse or neglect cases.

“The current law mostly affects poor minority families, it’s just not necessary,” Golbert said. “There’s really not a need to break up the family and move the child to foster care, much less criminally prosecute the parents.”

The problem has grown with the general increase in opioid use. In 2018, an estimated 8.5% of pregnant women ages 15-44 used illicit substances in the past month, reflecting a 70% increase from 2010 levels, the Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality reported.

Advocates cited several studies whose authors concluded that punitive prenatal substance use policies discourage women from getting treatment, and don’t reduce cases of infants born with drugs in their bodies.

But some studies found no effect, and it’s unclear to what extent such studies apply to Illinois, which does not criminalize drug use during pregnancy, and where substance abuse by itself is not grounds to take custody of a baby.

And the studies cited generally didn’t address the outcomes of children after birth, which Kenneally said the prosecutor notification is supposed to address.

Kelly Hubbard, policy and advocacy director at Everthrive Illinois, a nonprofit group that works to improve maternal and infant health, said that, unlike in AJ’s case, some families are able to overcome substance abuse.

“We have a number of families that our community engagement team has worked with to get treatment,” she said. “The families were able to stay together and go on to have amazing, fruitful lives.”

Hemp entrepreneurs came out Tuesday in favor of a state legislative proposal to license hemp sales, require testing and labeling of their products, prohibit products that look like well-known snack brands, and limit sales to those 21 and over. The bill would create 10% wholesale and a 10% retail sales taxes, and an unlimited number of $500 licenses.

That proposal stands in contrast with a bill backed by the Cannabis Business Association of Illinois, which would prohibit sales of hemp-derived intoxicating products.

Jennifer Weiss, founder and CEO of Cubbington’s Cabinet in Chicago, which sells hemp products, fears that the opposing bill would set such strict limits that it would even prevent sales of non-intoxicating products such as CBD.

“We would have to shut our doors, as well as hundreds of other Illinois companies,” she said. “Let’s not go backward with out-of-touch prohibitions.”

Potentially at stake is the future direction of the cannabis industry in Illinois. Currently, a split between state and federal law has created a stark contrast between the marijuana and hemp industries.

Both marijuana and hemp are grown from the same cannabis plant. State law has legalized marijuana, which gets users high through a component called delta-9-THC. Marijuana remains illegal federally. In 2018, Congress legalized hemp, which is defined as cannabis having less than .3% delta-9-THC, and so was meant to allow sales of non-intoxicating products like CBD.

But hemp processors figured out how to synthetically derive other intoxicating cannabinoids from the plant, such as delta-8 or delta-10, or even delta-9-THC. The CDC issued a health advisory in 2021 warning of adverse events involving consumption and insufficient labelling of delta-8, similar to delta-9 intoxication.

State weed licenses remain very limited and expensive, and are subject to strict testing and labeling requirements, meant to ensure their purity and potency. In contrast, unlicensed hemp is being sold in vape shops, corner stores and gas stations across the country, with no age or other restrictions.

As a result, sales of hemp products have exploded into a $28 billion industry, even larger than the legal cannabis market, by one estimate. The recent move by federal regulators to relax restrictions on cannabis would not likely affect the hemp THC conundrum. As a result, some licensed cannabis businesses have even resorted to selling hemp-based products.

Last month, some lawmakers and the Cannabis Business Association of Illinois, which represents the licensed cannabis industry, called for a ban on intoxicating hemp products until an advisory committee can recommend how to proceed.

Tiffany Chappell Ingram, the association’s executive director, issued a statement again calling for a “pause” of hemp intoxicant sales pending further studies.

“We look forward to working with legislators to find a path forward that empowers consumers, protects minors and ensures the state’s adult-use cannabis law lives up to its full promise, including uplifting social equity license holders and communities disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs,” she said.

State Rep. La Shawn Ford, a Chicago Democrat and chief sponsor of the bill to regulate hemp, said lawmakers shouldn’t kill a multi-billion dollar industry, and create an illegal market.

“Prohibition doesn’t work, and Illinois should reject going backward,” he said.

John Murray, CEO of Sustainable Innovations in Rockford, said his company is using its larger hemp business to help finance its licensed cannabis venture.

While licensed dispensary owners could be undercut by hemp businesses, they could operate in both spheres, he said.

“We believe we can do both, and we are doing both,” he said.

For reference, $1 billion is more than the budgets of the Chicago Park District, Cook County Forest Preserves and Greater Chicago Food Depository combined. Annual spending for Chicago police is about $2 billion, while Chicago Public Schools’ budget exceeds $9 billion.

Now, Illinois politicians are faced with the Chicago Bears’ request to build a new, publicly owned $3.2 billion enclosed stadium on Chicago’s lakefront. The state’s top leaders expressed reluctance, but Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is all in.

So what exactly is proposed, what else is at stake, and how will this play out? Here are a few highlights.

What is proposed

Bears President and CEO Kevin Warren envisions a stadium just south of the Bears’ current home at Soldier Field, on the site of what is now a parking lot. The facility would seat about 65,000 for football, with standing room up to 70,000, and a capacity of 77,000 for basketball.

The structure would have a fixed, translucent roof, and a glass wall on the north end to take in the skyline. Unlike Soldier Field, it could hold events year-round, including concerts, soccer, college basketball playoffs, or, once in a great while, the Super Bowl.

Soldier Field would be torn down, but its colonnades would be saved and 14 acres of athletic fields and open space added in between and to the north of the colonnades, for use by local sports teams, graduations and other events. If approved this year, the stadium would open in 2028.

A little context

The stadium would be designed by Manica architects, which designed Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. That stadium, referenced by the Bears in their presentation, also has a translucent roof, and opened in 2020 at a cost of $1.9 billion, with $750 million from taxpayers.

What it could cost

The Bears say they would pay $2 billion, a huge private investment, plus $300 million requested from the NFL. The rest of the $3.2 billion cost of the stadium alone would be paid with $900 million from the state. The team said another $325 million would be needed for infrastructure, including improved road access and utilities as part of up to $1.5 billion for full build-out with extras like a hotel.

The public money would be borrowed through bonds issued by the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, or ISFA, which previously financed construction of Guaranteed Rate Field, where the White Sox play, and the 2003 renovation of Soldier Field. The bonds are to be repaid over 40 years by the city’s 2% hotel tax.

Some context

The first problem is, the hotel tax has not been enough to repay even the past work on Sox park and Soldier Field. The state still owes about $430 million for that, which would have to be refinanced, with interest totaling $1.3 billion, ISFA calculates.

Borrowing $900 million in new spending would add an additional $2.6 billion in interest, plus a $160 million reserve, which would earn interest, for a total stadium cost nearing $4.8 billion.

That’s not counting the $1.5 billion in infrastructure costs, or the $1 billion already paid for both existing stadiums.

The Bears say that’s an unfair way to look at it. Home mortgages often cost twice the value of a house, but nobody cites the interest cost as part of the sales price. To be consistent, the team’s investment, to be paid by equity and debt, would also have to be figured with interest.

Unanswered

How the state would pay for the $1.5 billion in infrastructure. Officials proposed using federal and state grants, but how much they could get is unknown.

What reaction the Bears are getting

State lawmakers would have to approve such a deal to make it happen, but the leadership is against it.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker called the Bears’ proposal a “non-starter.”

“I didn’t say that there’s not ever the possibility of having a domed stadium in Chicago, I’ve never said that,” the governor said recently. “I have said, however, that it’s not a high priority for the taxpayers and, very importantly, it’s got to be a good deal for taxpayers. So, there’s a lot of questions about whether the deal could get done.”

House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch and state Senate President Don Harmon both said the chances of passage are low.

In contrast, the state just announced that Rivian would make a $1.5 billion investment in its electric vehicle plant in Normal, with a 30-year $827 million incentive package from the state, mostly from tax credits.

The not-for-profit Friends of the Parks issued a statement questioning the rush for a new stadium on the lake, saying it could be built elsewhere, and raising numerous issues, such as: “Does it seem reasonable that the Chicago Bears should get their wants satisfied immediately while poor neighborhoods suffer from benign neglect?”

The group failed when it challenged the renovation of Soldier Field, but successfully fought off filmmaker George Lucas’ proposal for a museum on the same site.

What are the economic impacts

Warren says the public money is not a donation, but an investment.

The Bears project $8 billion in regional economic impacts during construction, with 43,000 job-years. Once operational, the team projects 4,000 permanent jobs, generating $450 million in annual regional impact, though only about 25% of that would be new.

Economists often are skeptical of such estimates, saying that officials must consider how else they could spend money to promote public benefit and productivity.

What’s unknown

The Bears have not specified what they would expect in return for their investment. Pritzker has said the Bears are asking for revenues from other events at the stadium, including from tickets, concessions and parking. That could cut into a major revenue source for the landlord, the Chicago Park District, which is budgeted to make $54 million from Soldier Field in 2024.

What happens if this doesn’t fly?

Just last year, the Bears paid $197 million to buy the former Arlington Park racecourse. Similar to its presentation for a Chicago stadium, the team proposed building a $2 billion domed stadium in Arlington Heights, while saying it would need unspecified public help for infrastructure. The major difference was that the suburban stadium would be surrounded by a $5 billion mixed-use development, with housing, hotels and entertainment, that would generate significant revenues and taxes.

That project stalled after the team could not agree with local school districts on property taxes, though they were apart only a few million dollars — a pittance compared with the overall costs. Warren said that plan is now off the table while the team pursues Chicago, but noted that the Bears remain the largest property owner in Arlington Heights.

Village officials are biding their time, saying they think the Bears will be back. Mayor Tom Hayes said “we are ready, willing and able,” if the Bears want to turn again to the suburbs.

The Associated Press reported that the Drug Enforcement Administration will move to reclassify marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III. Rather than continuing to classify cannabis with much stronger drugs such as heroin and LSD, the move would put pot in the same class with certain prescription drugs such as codeine, ketamine, steroids, and testosterone.

The change will not be immediately noticeable to most consumers in Illinois, where medical and recreational use already are legal under state law. But it may have a huge impact on weed businesses, allowing them greater ability to take tax deductions for business expenses and making it easier to get loans.

“I’m hopeful it will open the door for financial institutions to provide capital, specifically to smaller players,” said Reese Xavier, CEO and managing partner of HT23 Growers, a Black-owned craft cannabis company trying to get money to start production in Chicago Heights.

With increased competition and cheaper access to capital, customers might see better pricing, he added.

Others warned of harmful fallout from the move.

Kevin Sabet, president and CEO of the not-for-profit Smart Approaches to Marijuana, said public health officials, law enforcement and substance abuse treatment experts opposed the change.

He challenged the decision, saying that the raw plant has never passed safety and efficacy protocols, and that it would encourage further addiction, and could lead to further cases of psychosis, depression and IQ loss.

“A drug isn’t medicine because it’s popular,” he said.

The change should allow greater research into the effects of cannabis, and could help the industry pass the SAFER Banking Act, which would allow greater access to banking services and reduce reliance on cash.

Currently, federally-licensed banks generally are reluctant to work with a federally illegal business.

Charlie Bachtell, CEO of industry giant Cresco Labs, based in Chicago, said the change marks an important shift in attitudes toward the plant that could help pass the banking legislation.

“Patients and consumer should embrace finally getting recognition from the federal government that cannabis has medicinal value,” he said.

Verano, another cannabis company based in Chicago doing business in multiple states, issued a statement that it expected to see $80 million in savings from being able to deduct business expenses. It anticipated additional payment methods for customers, more vendors participating in the industry and U.S. stock exchanges warming to the idea of listing cannabis companies.

Verano founder and CEO George Archos said the decision should help amend the effects of the war on drugs that has negatively affected society, especially people of color.

“We’re excited for this potential monumental step forward in support of cannabis legalization, and look forward to seeing further progress at the federal level,” Archos said.

Scott Redman, founder of the Illinois Independent Craft Growers Association, welcomed the change, but said it could lead to unintended consequences, such as greater federal regulation. Pharmaceuticals under Schedule III generally are held to strict manufacturing standards.

“It’s a step into the right direction, but it opens a whole Pandora’s box,” he said. “This could very well be one of those be careful what you ask for situations.”