Category: News
This Is Where Birth Rates Are Highest In The US
This Is Where Birth Rates Are Highest In The US
Birth rates in the U.S. have been declining for decades, but that decline has hit some states faster than others.
The projections in this visualization, via Visual Capitalist’s Bruno Venditti, are from SmartAsset, who analyzed results from U.S. Census Bureau’s 2024 1-Year American Community Survey.
The number shown for each state represents births per 1,000 people, and is based on most recent fertility rate data and state demographics.
Utah’s Demographic Advantage
Utah ranks first in the nation, with an estimated 9.7 babies born per 1,000 people each year.
The state’s relatively young population plays a major role, as younger adults are more likely to be in childbearing years. Cultural and religious influences also contribute, with larger family sizes remaining more common than in many other states.
Large States, Strong Numbers
Texas and California rank near the top both in absolute and relative terms. California is projected to see more than 340,000 births per year, while Texas exceeds 278,000. On a per-capita basis, both states are driven by younger populations and higher shares of immigrants.
Where Birth Rates Lag
States in the Northeast and parts of the Midwest tend to rank lower. Maine, Vermont, and West Virginia sit near the bottom, with fewer than eight babies born per 1,000 people annually. Older populations, higher living costs, and delayed family formation all play a role.
If you enjoyed today’s post, check out Countries With the Biggest Gains in Life Expectancy on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 02/06/2026 – 22:10
https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/where-birth-rates-are-highest-us
WNBA submits new proposal, but union president says significant work remains for season to begin on time
NEW YORK — WNBA players union President Nneka Ogwumike said significant work remains for the season to start on time but said she remains confident games will be played in 2026.
“I know our players 100% want to play this year,” she said in a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press on Friday. “We want a season.”
Ogwumike said the league and union are not close on key issues such as revenue sharing in their effort to strike a new collective bargaining agreement. The clock is ticking. The season is scheduled to begin May 8, but an expansion draft, free agency and a rookie draft also need to happen before the league tips off.
Ogwumike said once revenue sharing is solved, the rest hopefully will fall into place quickly.
“We made the point that once we nail this, we can get everything else done,” Ogwumike said.
The league submitted a new proposal to the union Friday evening, according to a person familiar with the negotiations. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the discussions. This ended a more than six-week wait from the players association for a counter to their last offer.
After a three-hour meeting Monday at the NBA offices, the union left with the understanding it would have a new proposal soon. It came Friday.
The major sticking point has been revenue sharing. The players want around 30% of the gross revenue — money generated before expenses — for the first year in their latest proposal. Under the league’s last proposal, players would receive in excess of 70% of net revenue, though that would be their take of the profits after expenses are paid. Those expenses would include upgraded facilities, charter flights, five-star hotels, medical services, security and arenas.
The league’s previous offer last month would guarantee a maximum base salary of $1 million in 2026 that could reach $1.3 million through revenue sharing. That’s up from the current $249,000 and could grow to nearly $2 million over the life of the agreement.
That was on slides that were presented to players at Monday’s meeting and obtained by the AP.
The slides also outlined 37 areas in which the league was willing to make concessions players wanted. Some of those proposals included adding two developmental-player slots to teams, giving pregnant players the right to refuse trades, increasing the guaranteed contracts on a team and codifying charter flights as well as other first-class travel considerations.
If a new CBA isn’t agreed upon soon, it could delay the start of the season. It already has delayed the expansion draft for Toronto and Portland.
The last CBA was announced in the middle of January 2020, a month after it had been agreed to. It could easily take two months from when a new CBA is reached to get to the start of free agency, which was supposed to begin last month. With a massive salary raise expected in a new CBA, 80% of players in the league are free agents this offseason, which makes this the biggest opportunity for player movement in the history of the WNBA.
A delay would hurt both sides as every game that is missed, revenue would be lost, as would be sponsorships, television money and fan support.
Ogwumike, who is in her third term as union president, said that the long wait for a response hasn’t been all bad, as she and union leadership have had a chance to talk with players. She was in Nashville, Tenn., on Thursday with union leadership at Athletes Unlimited. It was a chance to take a pulse of the players. Ogwumike has been talking with as many players as she could over the last few months to keep them abreast of discussions and hear their opinions.
“I actually like the fact that we’ve had these six weeks now, still waiting for a proposal. It’s given us the gift of time,” she said. “And in December, after the strike-authorization vote, we were able to meet in Miami and talk to players.”
Players voted to give union leadership the right to strike in December. Ogwumike said despite that, a strike is not imminent, although the union did post on social media a video about the 1964 NBA All-Star Game strike. The NBA All-Star Game is next weekend in Los Angeles.
“Having the strike on the table is something that we’re very much aware of, but there’s so many more conversations that have to happen,” Ogwumike said. “You know, we’re not just going to say, `Hey, today’s the day (we’ll strike).’ You know, I think that’s what what we’re demonstrating right now is negotiating in good faith.”
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/06/wnba-labor-negotiations-season-opener/
Florida To Make Gold & Silver Official Means Of Payment
Florida To Make Gold & Silver Official Means Of Payment
Authored by Paul Craig Roberts,
The Florida legislature has begun to move legislation (HB 999) to enact their prior approval for gold and silver coins to be legal tender in Florida.
This legislation will exempt gold and silver coins from sales tax in Florida. It also means that within Florida, there will be a means of payment independent of digital money created by governments for the purpose of controlling the population, it’s behavior, and it’s expressed views, in order that governments can rule via official narratives.
It is possible that if circumstances develop the tyrants in Washington will establish martial law in Florida and dispense with the use of real money in place of digital money that has no physical existence.
Unless all states adopt the legalization of gold and silver as legal tender, Floridians would be unable to make out of state payments and would have to become an economy unto itself, producing all of its own needs. This is the safest and most preferable way to exist.
Throughout history, gold and silver have been the means of payments. The Roman legions were paid in silver coins, the denarius. Estates were purchased for gold.
Paper money appeared originally as a receipt on gold holdings. If their gold was a large amount, people kept their gold in the vaults of goldsmiths and wrote notes to the goldsmiths to release the payment amount of the transaction to their business associates in order to pay their bills.
Goldsmiths learned that few ever claimed physical possession of their gold, instead using written notes, in effect checks, to transfer ownership. Thus goldsmiths became the first bankers, knowing that they could lend out the gold in their vaults that few ever came for. Moreover neither did those who borrowed the gold take possession physically. They merely wrote to the Goldsmith that they had made a payment that transferred ownership. Thus some percentage of their holding was transferred to the third-party.
This was the origin of fractional reserve banking.
When I was born gold was no longer a legal means of payment in the United States. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a liberal hero, had confiscated all the goal in the hands of the American population.
Once he had it, he raised the price from $20 an ounce to $35 an ounce. Later, it was raised to $42 an ounce and stood there until Senator Jesse Helms in the 1970s got legislation passed permitting Americans to again own gold coins, but gold was not made an official means of payment.
Following World War II, the Breton Woods agreement gave the US dollar the world reserve currency role. This meant that US debt in the form of Treasury bonds became the reserves of the world’s central banks. Thus, the US government was able to pay its bills by issuing debt as US Treasury debt was the reserves of the world’s central banks. Initially under the Brenton Woods system foreign central banks could redeem their holdings of US treasuries for gold. However, by demanding gold in exchange for France’s holdings of US debt, President Charles de Gaulle prompted the closing of the “gold window” in the 1970s, and US debt could no longer be exchanged for gold.
When I was born, silver was a means of payment. There were one dollar, two dollar, and five dollar Treasury Certificates, not federal reserve notes, that were exchangeable for silver at the price of one dollar per ounce of silver.
In my youth silver was used for transactions less than a dollar.The 10 cent piece known as the dime was silver. The 25 cent piece, or quarter dollar, was silver. So was the 50 cent piece. The penny was copper.
US one dollar bills, whether silver certificates or not, could be exchanged for a silver dollar at a bank, but silver dollars were not used in transactions. They existed to remind us that in the 19th century cowboys were paid 30 silver dollars per month and could survive on it.
For many years as my articles have documented, the US dollar has been able to maintain its value because gold and silver short-selling was able to hold down the rise in the dollar price of gold and silver.
Unlike equities, it is possible to short the precious metals market without holding collateral against the short. The futures market for gold and silver permits the printing of paper gold and silver in the form of futures contracts that are dumped in the futures market where the contracts drive down the prices of the precious metals. The peculiarity of the precious metals market is that the price of gold and silver has not been determined in the physical market where it is bought and sold, but in the futures market where it can be shorted by printing claims to gold and silver.
Recently in response to uncertainty of the value of increasing amounts of paper dollars not backed by anything, the demand for real money in the form of precious metals has overwhelmed the ability to use short-selling to hold down the prices of gold and silver.
As gold and silver prices rose, speculators joined the rise.
Speculators simply see opportunities, and when they had accumulated sufficient gain, they cashed out of the rise, resulting in a sharp fall in gold and silver prices.
However, the underlying situation that raised the dollar prices of real money has not changed, and therefore once speculative profits are removed from gold and silver prices the rise in the value of precious metals will resume.
One possible reason for President Trump’s desire for Venezuela’s oil and other assets, Greenland, and assets in Ukraine is to prop up the dollar with real things.
As I have pointed out on numerous occasions, the power of the United States rests on the dollar’s role as world reserve currency as this permits the US to pay its bills by issuing debt. China understands the value of having the role 0f being the reserve currency and has announced that it wants this role for the Chinese currency. As China is less indebted, more industrialized, and has a higher gross domestic product than the United States, it is possible that the continuation of the rapid growth of US national debt will result in the US losing the reserve currency role to China.
For several decades, the United States has had a destructive policy of offshoring its manufacturing, thereby weakening its own economy while the US government ran up massive amounts of debt. With the dollar already questionable Washington further undermined the dollar by weaponizing it, thus making it risky for central banks to hold US dollars in the form of Treasury debt as reserves. The seizure of Russian central bank reserves in the amount of $300 billion demonstrated the risk.
With no end of American wars and spending sprees in sight, the US dollar’s role as world reserve currency could well be in jeopardy.
Once this role is lost the dollar’s value in terms of other currencies will fall, and as the United States has become an import-dependent economy, US inflation would explode, further driving down the dollar.
Policy makers should take notice of this threat.
It is a more serious threat to America than is Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Mexico, or Russia in Ukraine and the Arctic.
It is far more important for the United States to protect the value of its currency than for the United States to spend another trillion dollars, clearing Israel’s opponents from the Middle East.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 02/06/2026 – 21:45
https://www.zerohedge.com/precious-metals/florida-make-gold-silver-official-means-payment
Rivers no descarta que Antetokounmpo vuelva esta temporada con los Bucks
Por STEVE MEGARGEE
MILWAUKEE (AP) — El entrenador de Milwaukee Doc Rivers, reiteró el viernes que los Bucks no tienen planes de dejar fuera a Giannis Antetokounmpo por el resto de la temporada, aunque sigue siendo incierta la fecha de regreso del astro dos veces nombrado el Jugador Más Valioso tras una distensión de pantorrilla.
Rivers habló sobre el tema durante las entrevistas previas al partido de los Bucks, un día después de la fecha límite de traspasos. El futuro de Antetokounmpo había sido el centro de atención en toda la liga en las semanas previas.
“Va a jugar cuando esté sano”, afirmó Rivers. “Sólo tenemos que asegurarnos de que esté saludable. Se está acercando. Está entrenando. Se ve bien. Diría que, con suerte, más pronto que tarde”.
Los Bucks, que están en el 12mo puesto de la Conferencia Este, podrían potencialmente mejorar su posición en el draft si continúan dando reposo a Antetokounmpo.
Milwaukee comenzó el viernes con un récord de 15-15 con Antetokounmpo y 5-14 sin él.
El griego no ha jugado desde que sufrió una distensión en la pantorrilla derecha el 23 de enero. Aquella noche, aventuró que se perdería de cuatro a seis semanas, aunque los Bucks no han dado ningún plazo.
Ya sea que Antetokounmpo juegue o no, su mera presencia después de la fecha límite de canjes levantó el ánimo de los Bucks. Toda la campaña han lidiado con los informes de que su estrella estaba a punto de irse.
Al pasar la fecha límite, Antetokounmpo publicó en las redes sociales el mensaje: “las leyendas no persiguen, atraen”, acompañado de un meme de la escena de la película “El lobo de Wall Street” en la que el personaje de Leonardo DiCaprio grita repetidamente: “No me voy”.
“Creo que fue un alivio”, expresó Rivers. “Creo que el tuit de Giannis fue algo unificador para todos los jugadores también”.
En realidad, la incertidumbre sobre el futuro de Antetokounmpo sólo se ha pospuesto un poco. Podría quedarse con los Bucks sólo unos meses más o por años.
En octubre es elegible para firmar una extensión de contrato de cuatro años por hasta 275 millones de dólares. Antetokounmpo tiene un año restante en la extensión de tres años y 186 millones de dólares que firmó en 2023, aunque también tiene una opción de jugador de 62,8 millones de dólares para 2027-28.
Antetokounmpo ha dicho repetidamente que le encanta jugar en Milwaukee, pero también ha hablado sobre cuánto quiere jugar en un equipo que pueda ganar títulos. Lideró a los Bucks a la conquista de su primer cetro en medio siglo en 2021.
Aunque Milwaukee ha hecho muchos movimientos diseñados para buscar más campeonatos en los últimos años, los Bucks han perdido en la primera ronda de los playoffs en cada una de las últimas tres temporadas.
La misión del gerente general Jon Horst es mostrarle a Antetokounmpo que los Bucks pueden volver a la contienda por el título rápidamente si el alero, nueve veces All-NBA, se queda.
___
Deportes AP: https://apnews.com/hub/deportes
Rivers no descarta que Antetokounmpo vuelva esta temporada con los Bucks
Por STEVE MEGARGEE
MILWAUKEE (AP) — El entrenador de Milwaukee Doc Rivers, reiteró el viernes que los Bucks no tienen planes de dejar fuera a Giannis Antetokounmpo por el resto de la temporada, aunque sigue siendo incierta la fecha de regreso del astro dos veces nombrado el Jugador Más Valioso tras una distensión de pantorrilla.
Rivers habló sobre el tema durante las entrevistas previas al partido de los Bucks, un día después de la fecha límite de traspasos. El futuro de Antetokounmpo había sido el centro de atención en toda la liga en las semanas previas.
“Va a jugar cuando esté sano”, afirmó Rivers. “Sólo tenemos que asegurarnos de que esté saludable. Se está acercando. Está entrenando. Se ve bien. Diría que, con suerte, más pronto que tarde”.
Los Bucks, que están en el 12mo puesto de la Conferencia Este, podrían potencialmente mejorar su posición en el draft si continúan dando reposo a Antetokounmpo.
Milwaukee comenzó el viernes con un récord de 15-15 con Antetokounmpo y 5-14 sin él.
El griego no ha jugado desde que sufrió una distensión en la pantorrilla derecha el 23 de enero. Aquella noche, aventuró que se perdería de cuatro a seis semanas, aunque los Bucks no han dado ningún plazo.
Ya sea que Antetokounmpo juegue o no, su mera presencia después de la fecha límite de canjes levantó el ánimo de los Bucks. Toda la campaña han lidiado con los informes de que su estrella estaba a punto de irse.
Al pasar la fecha límite, Antetokounmpo publicó en las redes sociales el mensaje: “las leyendas no persiguen, atraen”, acompañado de un meme de la escena de la película “El lobo de Wall Street” en la que el personaje de Leonardo DiCaprio grita repetidamente: “No me voy”.
“Creo que fue un alivio”, expresó Rivers. “Creo que el tuit de Giannis fue algo unificador para todos los jugadores también”.
En realidad, la incertidumbre sobre el futuro de Antetokounmpo sólo se ha pospuesto un poco. Podría quedarse con los Bucks sólo unos meses más o por años.
En octubre es elegible para firmar una extensión de contrato de cuatro años por hasta 275 millones de dólares. Antetokounmpo tiene un año restante en la extensión de tres años y 186 millones de dólares que firmó en 2023, aunque también tiene una opción de jugador de 62,8 millones de dólares para 2027-28.
Antetokounmpo ha dicho repetidamente que le encanta jugar en Milwaukee, pero también ha hablado sobre cuánto quiere jugar en un equipo que pueda ganar títulos. Lideró a los Bucks a la conquista de su primer cetro en medio siglo en 2021.
Aunque Milwaukee ha hecho muchos movimientos diseñados para buscar más campeonatos en los últimos años, los Bucks han perdido en la primera ronda de los playoffs en cada una de las últimas tres temporadas.
La misión del gerente general Jon Horst es mostrarle a Antetokounmpo que los Bucks pueden volver a la contienda por el título rápidamente si el alero, nueve veces All-NBA, se queda.
___
Deportes AP: https://apnews.com/hub/deportes
Autopsy: Man found dead near Red Line station died from cold exposure
A 62-year-old man found dead on the South Side near a CTA Red Line train stop died from cold exposure, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
An autopsy performed Friday determined that Zachary Armistead died from a combination of complications of hypothermia and environmental cold exposure and the death was ruled an accident.
Armistead was found unresponsive in the first block of West 69th Street in the Grand Crossing neighborhood on Thursday morning, according to authorities. He was taken to the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, the medical examiner’s office said.
A Chicago police spokesperson did not immediately have any further details of the incident.
Hypothermia is a condition in which the body’s core temperature falls below 95 degrees. The death would be the fifth cold-related death since the beginning of the year, according to county records.
The start of the new year has seen recurring snowfall that has slowed or stalled road and air traffic and, at times, extreme cold that has shuttered schools and canceled public events.
Hisatsune logra birdie tras enviar pelota al agua, firma 63 y lidera Abierto de Phoenix
Por JOHN MARSHALL
SCOTTSDALE, Arizona, EE.UU. (AP) — Ryo Hisatsune sumergió una pelota en el agua pero terminó rescatando un birdie para encender aún más a la animada multitud en el Abierto de Phoenix.
Scottie Scheffler hizo lo necesario para pasar otro corte, al completar la clase de ronda que se espera del jugador número uno del mundo.
Hisatsune hizo un chip para birdie después de lanzar su bola al agua en el hoyo 17, par cuatro. Entregó una tarjeta de 63 golpes, ocho debajo del par, que no incluyó un solo bogey, para tomar la delantera del certamen tras dos rondas.
“Fue un golpe muy afortunado”, dijo el japonés. “Un buen golpe de salida, pero lo tiré un poco hacia el agua. Un poco más de reinicio y lo logré, así que va a ser más divertido”.
Scheffler disfrutó más de su ronda que cuando abrió con un 73 que lo puso en peligro de no pasar el corte por primera vez desde el FedEx St. Jude Classic de 2022.
Después de trabajar en su agarre, Scheffler disparó un 33, dos bajo par, en los primeros nueve hoyos. Se aceró así a la línea de corte y no dejó dudas con cuatro birdies en la segunda mitad.
Estendió así su racha a 66 cortes pasados, la más larga activa en la Gira de la PGA. Su birdie de tres pies en el 18 culminó un 65 sin bogeys que lo llevó a cuatro bajo par, siete golpes atrás.
Y no se debe pensar que la diferencia de siete golpes es insuperable.
Scheffler ha ganado dos veces cuando ha estado detrás por más de esos golpes, incluyendo el Abierto de Phoenix de 2022, donde recuperó nueve golpes para su primera victoria en la gira.
“Me sentí un poco perdido ahí afuera a veces ayer, así que hoy me sentí mucho mejor, tuve más control de mi juego”, dijo. “Obviamente puedes ver eso a través de la tarjeta más limpia de hoy”.
_____
Deportes AP: https://apnews.com/hub/deportes
Goldman: Local Resistance Against Data Centers “Are Not Slowing Development”
Goldman: Local Resistance Against Data Centers “Are Not Slowing Development”
Fierce winter weather across the eastern half of the U.S. put the power grid, data centers, and electricity prices back in focus, especially in the Mid-Atlantic, where Washington, D.C., logged its longest freezing streak since 1989.
Our review of Facebook, X, media coverage, and local officials’ comments suggests that the cold snap across the Mid-Atlantic has put data centers and power bills in the spotlight, especially given that PJM Interconnection is already operating in a very tight grid environment.
Even as residents in Mid-Atlantic states increasingly push back against data centers while watching their monthly power bills soar, local officials, some of whom are partly responsible for tightening grid spare capacity with backfiring “green” policies, are scrambling as public anger grows.
However, Goldman analysts led by Hongcen Wei have some disappointing news for residents in the Mid-Atlantic, and frankly elsewhere, who are trying to slow data center development: “U.S. Local Regulatory Pushbacks Against Data Centers Are Not Slowing Development.”
Wei, Daan Struyven, and Samantha Dart explained:
Media coverage highlights growing local community pushbacks against data center developments, posing a slow-down risk to data center power demand growth, along with US power market tightness. While local regulatory reviews could pause data center approvals temporarily, we believe resulting regulations could lead to fewer pushbacks and streamlined development processes by enhancing power reliability and affordability and establishing clear requirements. Ultimately, we believe power tightness remains the primary risk that could slow the US in the AI race with China.
We note that these pushbacks mostly originated from local communities with little exposure to data centers. In such cases, we expect proposed data centers to relocate rather than be canceled in the extreme scenario of a ban, given elevated demand for data centers and AI. This suggests no significant impact on overall future data center power demand growth at the state or national level.
We take Georgia as an example, where we estimate the power market is not tightening and power price increases were below the national average in 2025. There was wave of moratoriums enacted by at least six counties in the past year, putting a pause on new data centers for at least a few months (for example, in Coweta and DeKalb counties). However, most of these counties have no existing data centers, only proposed projects to start in a few years, so we do not expect these moratoriums to impact data center developments in the near future. Going forward, with no clustering advantage within these counties (to stay close to another data center with established data highways), we believe even permanent bans would only result in project relocation to a more welcoming area (potentially the neighboring county) rather than cancellations
In other communities with both regulatory actions and existing data centers, regulatory reviews are often followed by continued and even accelerated growth. Rather than creating red tape, we believe updated regulations could streamline development processes by clearly defining specific requirements for data centers which are easier to follow than addressing diverse local community concerns.
Douglas County, the only one of the six Georgian counties with existing data centers (a top-10% county in the US), activated multiple new data centers in 2H2025 and more are scheduled for later following its 90-day moratorium on data centers starting from March 2025 (Exhibit 1).
Nationally, Loudoun County, Virginia, the world’s capital of data centers, started reviewing and updating its data center regulations in 2024 and approved them in 2025, with further regulations under consideration. However, the county continues to lead in data center capacity, with additions in the past year surpassing any other US county and its own previous records
Beyond local ordinances, we also see state-level legislation increasingly focusing on power affordability and reliability, which we do not expect to slow down data center developments. Specifically, we expect more regulations in the next few years aiming to shift more power costs from the public to data centers to incentivize additional power supply and to mitigate power bill increases. These regulations could take various formats, such as the President and several governors’ plan for the PJM (Mid-Atlantic) power market, or reductions in data center tax exemption (as seen in bills introduced in Arizona and Maryland). Nevertheless, we expect higher power costs to have limited impact on future data center power demand growth, as power costs are not a primary driver for data center expansion
Conversely, we believe state-level regulations that enhance power affordability and reliability could lead to a more favorable environment for accelerated data center developments, as Texas has started to demonstrate (Exhibit 2).
In June 2025, Texas passed its Senate Bill 6 (SB6) to regulate large electricity consumers, including data centers and cryptocurrency miners. The bill could be a bellwether for other states, with its new requirements for large-load customers to ensure power reliability, including backup generation and potential curtailments during emergencies. We do not expect these requirements to be a dealbreaker for new data centers, given our estimate that the Texas (mainly ERCOT) power market will be softer than other key regional power markets, resulting in a lower probability of curtailments, a key factor for data centers when choosing their location, while backup generation is always a standard component of data centers. In fact, Texas/ERCOT ranked second only to Virginia/PJM in data center capacity and additions across US states/power markets in 2025 (Exhibit 3). Going forward, we continue to consider Texas as one of the most competitive states for new data centers, with both high power availability and low time to client.
Professional subscribers can learn more about the data centers and power grids on our new Marketdesk.ai portal.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 02/06/2026 – 21:20
Conservation Foundation buys Dundee land once eyed for warehouse development
Dundee Township land once proposed for a warehouse development has been purchased by The Conservation Foundation to be preserved for open space.
Brook McDonald, president and CEO of the Naperville-based foundation, said the sale was finalized in May 2025 but not made public until the nonprofit put up a “Land Saved” sign at the corner of Binnie and Randall roads.
The foundation is leasing the 122-acre site to the Forest Preserve District of Kane County for now but hopes to sell it to the district to be added to its 24,228 acres of open space.
Owned by the Galvin family, the property was on the market about four years ago when a developer interested in using it for a warehouse/distribution center approached Carpentersville about annexing it into the village.
Neighbors and open space advocates banded together to oppose the development, nicknaming it “Diesel Farm,” and flooded a Carpentersville Planning and Zoning Commission meeting in September 2022 where U.S. Capital presented an overview of its plans.
Opponents were concerned about the number of diesel trucks that would be going to and from the facility and the noise, pollution and potential danger for vehicles that would accompany them. Ultimately, the village nixed discussions in 2023 after the developer failed to provide additional details about what was being planned.
McDonald said many Conservation Foundation members and volunteers live in the Dundee Township area and were active in trying to prevent the site’s development.
When U.S. Capital opted not to proceed with the purchase, an anonymous person stepped in to buy it, he said. They then sold it for $6 million to the foundation, which used a $1.5 million donation and private family foundation financing to make the purchase, McDonald said.
The land had been used as a horse training facility when the Galvin family, founders of the Motorola Corp., owned it. Aerial photos show the outline of a horse training track, said McDonald, who noted it would make a good walking path.
There’s also a grove of mature oaks and wetlands on the property, and it’s not far from Schweitzer Woods Forest Preserve in West Dundee, he said.
The foundation is holding onto the land for now but hopes to eventually sell it to the forest preserve district, which recently passed a tax referendum to buy more open space, McDonald said. The district is “trying to be prudent with their funds,” and has been applying for grants to help fund the purchase, he said.
District officials were not available for comment.
In addition to being near Schweitzer Woods, the land is also across the street from the Randall Oaks Recreational Center. Ideally, an overpass or underpass could be built to connect it to the center grounds, allowing other trails to link to the forest preserve, McDonald said.
The foundation’s decision to buy the property is in line with its longtime mission to preserve open space, he said.
“We’ve been around for over 50 years. We’ve helped save 36,000 acres of land over that period,” said McDonald, who has been with the group since 1996.
This was an unusual purchase for them, he added, because it involved a large financial donation and was financed through a private foundation.
But the end result was a good one: “Everybody walks away happy,” McDonald said.
Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/06/dundee-land-conservation-foundation-warehouse-kane/
Five arrested after armed robbery pursuit ends in crash in Aurora, police say
Five teenagers were arrested Thursday following an armed robbery pursuit that ended in a crash on Aurora’s East Side, the Aurora Police Department said on Friday.
On Thursday at around 3:25 p.m., Aurora police officers responded to the area of Howell Place and Fourth Avenue on the city’s East Side for a report of an armed robbery, a news release from the police department said.
Dispatchers relayed a report that a juvenile had been approached by two masked individuals who displayed a firearm and forcibly took the person’s property, according to police.
A preliminary investigation suggests that the juvenile was walking home from school when two people, dressed in black and wearing ski masks, blocked the juvenile’s path on the sidewalk, the news release said. One produced a handgun, while the other forcibly removed the juvenile’s property, according to police, with the two then running to a nearby SUV which fled the area.
Shortly after, responding officers located the vehicle through the use of license plate reader technology relayed through the Critical Incident Intelligence Center, police said. Officers attempted to stop the vehicle, which resulted in a pursuit after the driver failed to stop, the news release said.
The pursuit ended when the fleeing vehicle crashed near East Galena Boulevard and North State Street in Aurora, police said in the release.
Two of the people involved fled the scene of the crash, but were apprehended after a brief foot chase, the release said. Five individuals in total were detained, and a firearm police believe is related to the incident was recovered, according to police.
Detectives from the department’s Investigations Division responded to the scene, as did evidence technicians, to begin an investigation, the release said.
As of Friday evening, charges have been authorized against three of the five individuals.
Antoine Jackson, 19, of Oswego, has been charged with armed robbery, theft, mob action and aggravated battery on a public way, according to the news release. Rufo Alarcon, 18, of Aurora, has been charged with aggravated fleeing and eluding and resisting a police officer, causing injury, officials said. A third individual, from Aurora, 16, whose name was not given, was charged with armed robbery, unlawful possession of a defaced firearm, a FOID card violation, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, theft, mob action, aggravated battery on a public way and resisting a police officer, causing injury, according to the release.
The other two individuals, 16 and 15, were taken into custody, but had not yet been charged as of Friday evening, per the department.
The investigation is ongoing, the department said, with additional charges possible pending lab results and forensic review. The Aurora Police Department is asking anyone with information about the incident to call the Investigations Division at 630-256-5500.
