In a letter issued Thursday (February 26) to Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Michael Selig, Sens. Richard J. Durbin, Amy Klobuchar, Cory A. Booker, Raphael Warnock and Adam B. Schiff said they are “deeply concerned” that the agency’s Central Regional Office in Chicago has shrunk from 20 enforcement attorneys to none.

NEW: Five U.S. senators warn of “significant weakening” at the CFTC’s Chicago office in a letter to Chair Mike Selig.

Senators Durbin, Klobuchar, Booker, Warnock, and Schiff signed the letter.

“We write to express our deep concern regarding reports that the Central Regional… https://t.co/cyv0ii3KE1 pic.twitter.com/oZX79gpFwG

— Nick Devor (@nickdevor_) February 27, 2026

They warned that if those numbers are correct, the pullback would undercut one of the CFTC’s most critical enforcement centers.

Congress created the CFTC in 1974 to police U.S. derivatives markets. Its Division of Enforcement brings cases involving fraud, insider trading, market manipulation and false reporting under the Commodity Exchange Act. For years, the Chicago office has been at the heart of that effort, handling complex investigations tied to futures, commodities and, more recently, crypto markets.

The team reportedly helped deliver some of the agency’s most eye-catching results. In 2023, the CFTC won a $2.7 billion penalty against Binance along with a $150 million civil penalty against its CEO. A year later, it ordered the collapsed crypto exchange FTX to pay $12.7 billion in relief to victims. The senators pointed to those outcomes as proof that seasoned trial lawyers matter.

Lawmakers press for CFTC staffing details in Chicago

According to the letter, departures, retirements and internal transfers have left the Chicago enforcement branch without any trial attorneys. The lawmakers said overall staffing in the Division of Enforcement has fallen by at least 25 percent, and possibly more.

The drop in personnel has coincided with a steep decline in new cases. During fiscal year 2025, the CFTC filed 13 enforcement actions and recovered less than $10 million. This is in sharp contrast to 58 actions yielding $17.1 billion in fiscal year 2024 and 96 actions producing $4.3 billion in fiscal year 2023.

The senators also gave a blunt warning from a former CFTC attorney who said, “If I was a different person, I would launch a crypto scam right now, because there’s no cops on the beat.” Whether or not one agrees with that characterization, they wrote, it reiterates concerns about diminished enforcement presence.

At his confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, Selig described the CFTC as “a cop on the beat” and said it is “vitally important” that the agency has the resources it needs to do its job.

His tenure has already drawn scrutiny beyond staffing. The agency recently withdrew a proposed ban on certain event-based contracts tied to prediction markets, including political contests. Selig has also faced pointed questions from senators about sports prediction markets and whether they fall within the CFTC’s remit. The commission has weighed in on litigation involving prediction market operator Kalshi, including matters connected to Nevada regulators, while other senators have urged a crackdown on contracts linked to events such as deaths.

Against that backdrop, the five Democrats are asking how many enforcement attorneys are stationed in each regional office, whether Chicago vacancies will be filled and on what timeline, how current staffing compares with fiscal year 2024 levels, and whether additional funding has been requested or resources shifted to preserve enforcement strength.

They gave Selig until March 12, 2026 to respond, saying he is uniquely positioned to restore the Division of Enforcement and protect market integrity.

Featured image: Grok / Canva

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“Chicago, you know, over the last, unfortunately, over the last six or seven years, has been engulfed in a series of problems,” Griffin said at the Citadel Securities Future of Global Markets conference in New York on Oct. 6. 

The Windy City, which served as Citadel’s headquarters for more than 30 years, has seen much of the company’s workforce and operations shift south to Miami in recent years.

Griffin, who is worth $50 billion according to Forbes, relocated his company’s global headquarters to Florida in 2022.

“Asking people to leave Chicago for New York or Miami has not been hard. We’ve gone from probably 1,300 people in Chicago to a few hundred. From being the primary tenant of one of the largest skyscrapers to, I think we will be down to two floors in a year,” he explained.

Citadel CEO Ken Griffin speaks at a news conference. AFP via Getty Images

The financial district in downtown Miami, Florida. Bloomberg via Getty Images

Griffin, who leads the world’s most profitable hedge fund, said that the departure of so many longtime employees underscores Illinois’ mounting economic and social problems.

“I think the sad part of the story is how many people who had built lives in Chicago were willing to walk away from that and move to Miami or New York, just given the challenges that Illinois has faced,” he said.

Griffin added that Chicago’s crime remains one of the city’s most pressing challenges.

His comments come as President Donald Trump renews his push for a federal crackdown on crime in major US cities, a plan that includes deploying troops to some Democrat-led areas experiencing rising violence.

The Bentley Residence condominium complex, center, under construction in Miami, Florida. Bloomberg via Getty Images

Griffin added that Chicago’s crime remains one of the city’s most pressing challenges. Citadel

The president’s push to deploy National Guard troops nationwide has ignited repeated clashes with Democratic governors and mayors.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has been among the most vocal critics, condemning Trump’s deployment of troops and federal agents into Chicago.

Trump has also threatened to extend deployments to other cities, including Baltimore and New Orleans. Troops have already been sent to Los Angeles, Washington, DC, Portland and Memphis.

The post Billionaire Ken Griffin says Citadel’s Chicago exodus was ‘not hard,’ cites crime, taxes appeared first on Our Story Insight.

It’s now waiting on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to give the green light to the gambling operator, with potential investors alerted to this on Wednesday, with a planned date set for August. The purpose of the $250 million IPO is to raise money to invest in its $1.7 billion casino resort.

Part of the letter, as reported by Casino.org, reads:

“With this filing completed, assuming no additional comments from the SEC, Bally’s Chicago is currently targeting to close both the IPO and the second tranche of the concurrent private placement in early August 2025.”

When it originally opened the IPO, it was exclusively targeted at women and minorities up to 25% of the investment going into the casino. However, since refiling, it is now open to anyone with “preferential allocations” for those living in Chicago and Illinois.

This can be tied to two lawsuits filed in Chicago, claiming discrimination against white men. Rather than deal with the headaches, one of which was dismissed on April 30, it appears that Bally’s is simply removing this requirement to get the ball rolling faster.

The second suit was settled with the plaintiffs, American Alliance for Equal Rights. This group is headed by Edward Jay Blum, with a focus on suing entities based on their diversity efforts.

Bally’s Chicago casino faces constant set backs

Chris Jewett, the Senior Vice President of Corporate Development, said:

“There is definitely [investor] interest, for sure.”

Despite this, the casino itself has been in development hell. It was planned in 2022, with 500 rooms, a theatre that can hold 3000 people, and 10 restaurants. On top of this, there’s also a planned 4000 seats for gaming.

However, it’s now only really getting started and plans to open in 2026. In December 2024, construction debris spilled into the nearby river, forcing a demolition stoppage. The following May, the Illinois Gaming Board was forced to investigate the site after a waste hauler connected to the mob was found to be in use.

Speaking again, Jewett said:

“The tower crane just went up, steel is starting to get delivered.

“Hundreds of thousands of tons of steel are going to come in over time. The main building construct is steel and concrete.”

Featured image: Bally’s

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May 20, 2025, 11:16am

Today, a Bluesky user shared a photograph of what appears to be a summer reading insert published in this Sunday’s edition of the Chicago Sun-Times. The feature looks normal enough, until you actually read it and discover that only five of the fifteen books recommended by this supposedly legitimate newspaper “to deliver the perfect summer escape” are actually, um, real.

Image via ‪@rachaelking70.bsky.social‬, original credit @tbretc.bsky.social

The first ten books on this list are imaginary. The authors might be real, but the titles and descriptions are not. Needless to say, these are not mistakes that a human would make. It’s obvious that this list is AI slop. The only real question is, how did it get published?

The Chicago Sun-Times responded with versions of the same statement on multiple platforms: “We are looking into how this made it into print as we speak. It is not editorial content and was not created by, or approved by, the Sun-Times newsroom. We value your trust in our reporting and take this very seriously. More info will be provided soon.”

This is pretty disheartening, especially for “the hardest-working paper in America.” There are a lot of hard-working writers out there who would be thrilled to recommend fifteen actual books for summer reading, and even more hard-working readers who don’t deserve to be cheated like this.

For the record, Literary Hub’s summer reading list will be 100% AI-free, now and forever. Keep an eye out for it next week.

Update: 404 Media’s Jason Koebler reports that the listicle was “written” by Marco Buscaglia, who admits he used AI to generate it. “I do use AI for background at times but always check out the material first,” he told 404. “This time, I did not and I can’t believe I missed it because it’s so obvious. No excuses… On me 100 percent and I’m completely embarrassed.”

404 also found other evidence of AI usage in the section, which was mostly written by Buscaglia, and which appears to have been syndicated in multiple markets.

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May 7, 2025, 11:27am

We can celebrate a nice bit of bookstore news this week. Three community rock stars—including self-identified “book girlie” Eve L. Ewing—are joining forces to save an imperiled indie.

As Maxwell Evans of Block Club Chicago reports, an impressive trifecta is coming to save the clocktower. (Otherwise known as Build Coffee & Books.)

There’s Ewing, the author, scholar, and educator behind titles like Ghosts in the Schoolyard and Electric Arches; trina reynolds-tyler, the Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist and data director behind Invisible Institute, a South-Side based journalism production company; and Andrea Faye-Hart, director of the Tiny News Collective.

All three organizers were early supporters of the South Side café and bookstore. Build co-founder Hannah Nyhart calls them “some real day-one folks.”

Build Coffee and Books opened in 2017 on the heels of a successful Kickstarter campaign. It’s housed in the Experimental Station, a cultural infrastructure non-profit on Chicago’s South Side (Woodlawn, to be precise). For the past eight years, the store has functioned as a coveted “third space.”

Home to a coffee shop, many poetry and art workshops, and a meal-based artist residency(!), the store is dedicated to serving its community.

The new volunteer-owners, who don’t intend to take profit from their stake in the project, plan to maintain Build’s sterling reputation. Ewing wants to increase literary events. Hart, who lives in Durham, hopes to facilitate some cross-pollination between South and South Side-based writers. All three of the new owners intend to flesh out the store’s catering program and prioritize staff work-life balance.

I’m personally delighted by this joyful bit of bookstore news. If you’re in Chicago, know you can held build the new Build by subscribing to their newsletter here. And while you’re thinking local, it’s probably not a bad idea to get on the lists of Invisible Institute, Block Club Chicago, and Tiny News Collective, if you aren’t already.

For the rest of us? There’s always Bookshop.

Image via

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