Forget your reusable shopping bags while grocery shopping in Chicago? That’ll be 25 cents if some legislators in Springfield get their way and pass a 10-cent statewide checkout bag fee. The Tribune Editorial Board calls out the proposal today, writing that it is essentially a new state revenue scheme masked as concern for the environment.

The board also explains why you rarely see independent candidates on the ballot in Illinois. One of the main culprits: signature collection math. “In a Cook County Illinois House district, a Democrat or Republican needs 500 to 1,500 signatures to run in a party primary, while an independent candidate in the same district could need around 10,000,” the board writes. Election Day is almost a week away. If you haven’t voted, check out the board’s endorsements.

Math is also on the mind of Sara Albrecht, a lawyer who won against Donald Trump’s administration in the recent Supreme Court tariff decision. Albrecht criticizes Gov JB Pritzker for demanding that all Illinoisans get a $1,700 refund after the court deemed the president's tariffs illegal. Instead, she says, importers and small businesses should get refunds per a legal paper trail. Also in commentary, Clarence Page weighs in on Kristi Noem’s exit from the Department of Homeland Security, and Juan Rangel calls for a “transformative mayor.”

The board met with Israel’s Midwest consul general last week and remains attentive to the conflict in the Middle East. It has become clear that Israeli and the U.S. interests in Iran are not the same, the board wrote over the weekend. We also have a beautiful reflection from Iranian American Talla Mountjoy on where she wants to visit and revisit in Iran once it is safe and open again.

Thanks for reading. We’ll be in your inbox all week long.

— Grace Miserocchi, opinion editor

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