Category: News
Homer Glen seeks $4 million in federal grants for sanitary sewer, water rate assistance
Homer Glen is seeking $3 million in federal grants toward building a one-mile sanitary sewer line extension and another $1 million in federal funding to provide financial relief for senior citizens burdened with high water bills.
The grant money is not guaranteed, but requesting the federal funds is one step in the process to help reduce the village’s dependency on private septic systems or intergovernmental agreements with other companies and communities, village officials said.
The Village Board approved the funding requests Wednesday, a day after its private water supplier, Illinois American Water, announced it is requesting a rate hike with the Illinois Commerce Commission.
Illinois American Water serves about 6,000 homes in Homer Glen, and village officials and residents have long complained about high water bills. Homer Glen has worked with the Illinois attorney general’s office on numerous concerns with residents’ billing, including unexplainably high water bills, meter errors and inadequate customer service.
Illinois American Water is asking the ICC for new rates to support about $577 million in water and wastewater system investments through December 2027.
The company serves more than 1.3 million people in 148 communities in Illinois.
Among the improvements include replacing 42 miles of aging water and wastewater pipeline and upgrading storage tanks, wells, pumping stations, hydrants, meters and wastewater plants, a news release from the company said.
If approved, the typical residential water customer using 3,500 gallons of water would see an increase of about $14 per month, depending on the service area. Typical customers served by sanitary wastewater systems using 3,500 gallons of water would see an increase of about $28 per month, the release said.
Homer Glen officials said Wednesday they plan to fight the proposed rate hikes with the ICC and urged residents to do the same.
“Please contact them (and) let them know we oppose this rate hike,” Trustee Curt Mason said.
The village is also working on steps to reduce its reliance on other jurisdictions.
“The village is actively working to develop solutions to address affordability and service concerns,” Trustee Mike Lepore said. “And this is 100% committed to obtaining meaningful relief for residents facing rapidly increasing water bills and sewer bills.”
Homer Glen has a contract with Lockport to treat wastewater through 2030, and plans to have its own wastewater treatment plant up and running before then, village attorney Michael Pasquinelli said.
He said it has been a “long, thought-out process.”
“It didn’t happen overnight,” Pasquinelli said. “This is a very, very positive step for the village and it’s one additional step in order to get moving toward the goal of providing meaningful relief for residents.”
The $3 million request would support construction of the one-mile sanitary sewer trunk line along 159th Street and Cedar Road, connecting to the existing Fiddyment Creek sewer line. It would be able to serve unserved and vacant parcels for development, village engineer Brett Westcott said.
It helps the village be in control of developments, he said.
Seeking outside funding is the responsible step to reduce the burden from taxpayers, Trustee Robert Schaller said.
The plan to provide relief for high water bills would prioritize senior citizens, officials said. Details would still need to be finalized if the village obtains the grant.
Will County sheriff Deputy Jesus Espinoza receives the Community Guardian Award from Homer Glen Mayor Christina Neitzke-Troike at Wednesday’s Village Board meeting. (Michelle Mullins/for the Daily Southtown)
Community Guardian Award
The Village Board recognized Will County sheriff’s deputies Jesus Espinoza and Michael Ambrosini with the Community Guardian Award for their efforts last month coming to the aid of an elderly man with dementia who was reported missing.
Officers found the 82-year-old Chicago man after receiving a call of a car driving recklessly near 143rd Street and Creme Road. They were able to stop the car and help reunite the driver with his daughter.
“Their actions reflect the care and commitment they show our community every day,” said Mayor Christina Neitzke-Troike.
Espinoza said residents who see something unusual should call police.
Michelle Mullins is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
Letters to the Editor: We must resolve to change the rancor in our world
We must resolve to change the rancor in our world
Have we had enough hostility and chaos from all sides? It was Abraham Lincoln who counselled, “We’re just about as happy as we decide to be.”
What’s true with people is also true with nations. Our political and media leaders at all levels should be cautioned that their actions and rhetoric either contribute to or detract from our happiness as a choice, a matter of personal perspective and emotional control.
Elections are sometimes won and sometimes lost. Obviously, the reason why there are terms in office of two, four and six years is to provide the realization and comfort that political victories and defeats are finite. We can work to make changes … but peacefully and without rancor.
We can choose to take our neighbors constructively by the hand and by the heart, or take them destructively by the throats. My guess is your experience in life has been the same as mine: anger never helps a situation and certainly raising our voices at each other only intensifies unhappiness.
As a young freshman state senator in Springfield in 1993, you gave me the privilege to stand at the small desk in the old Illinois State Capitol where Lincoln delivered the great and wise words, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
It breaks my heart that Americans then ignored his (Biblical) advice as thoroughly as we seem to be ignoring it now.
Six hundred and fifty thousand dead members of families was the price paid then. Can’t we learn a little patience and humility before God and each other from that tragedy?
You and I decide. Our minds and hearts are their own places; in themselves can make a heaven of hell, a hell of our heaven.
Chris Lauzen, Kane County Treasurer
Share your views
Submit letters to the editor via email to suburbanletters@tribpub.com. Please include your name, address and town of residence for publication. We also need your phone number and email address for confirmation. Letters should be no more than 400 words.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/30/letters-courier-elgin-rancor-world-lauzen/
DOJ has opened a federal civil rights probe into the death of Alex Pretti
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has opened a federal civil rights investigation into the shooting of Alex Pretti, the Minneapolis resident killed Saturday by Border Patrol officers, federal officials said Friday.
“We’re looking at everything that would shed light on what happened that day and in the days and weeks leading up to what happened,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said during a news conference. “That’s like any investigation that the Department of Justice and the FBI does every day. It means we’re looking at video, talking to witnesses, trying to understand what happened.”
Blanche did not explain why DOJ decided to open an investigation into Pretti’s killing, but has said a similar probe is not warranted in the Jan. 7 death of Renee Good, who was shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis. He said only on Friday that the Civil Rights Division does not investigate every law enforcement shooting and that there have to be circumstances and facts that “warrant an investigation.”
“President Trump has said repeatedly, ‘Of course, this is something we’re going to investigate,’” Blanche said of the Pretti shooting. “It doesn’t mean that every time that there is a federal-officer related shooting that that’s something Civil Rights takes up. It depends on the circumstances.”
FBI to take over federal probe
The Department of Homeland Security also said Friday that the FBI will lead the federal probe into Pretti’s death.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem first disclosed the shift in which agency was leading the probe during a Fox News interview Thursday evening. Her department previously said Homeland Security Investigations, a departmental unit, would head the investigation.
“We will continue to follow the investigation that the FBI is leading and giving them all the information that they need to bring that to conclusion, and make sure that the American people know the truth of the situation and how we can go forward and continue to protect the American people,” Noem said, speaking to Fox host Sean Hannity.
Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said HSI will support the FBI in the investigation. Separately, Customs and Border Protection, which is part of DHS, is doing its own internal investigation into the shooting, during which two officers opened fire on Pretti.
DHS did not immediately respond to questions about when the change was made or why. The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It was not immediately clear whether the FBI would share information and evidence with Minnesota state investigators, who have thus far been frozen out of the federal probe.
In the same interview, Noem appeared to distance herself from statements she made shortly after the shooting, claiming Pretti had brandished a handgun and aggressively approached officers.
Multiple videos that emerged of the shooting contradicted that claim, showing the intensive care nurse had only his mobile phone in his hand as officers tackled him to the ground, with one removing a handgun from the back of Pretti’s pants as another officer began firing shots into his back.
Pretti had a state permit to legally carry a concealed firearm. At no point did he appear to reach for it, the videos showed.
“I know you realize that situation was very chaotic, and that we were being relayed information from on the ground from CBP agents and officers that were there,” Noem said during the interview with Hannity on Thursday. “We were using the best information we had at the time, seeking to be transparent with the American people and get them what we knew to be true on the ground.”
Videos emerge of previous altercation
The change in agency comes after two other videos emerged of an earlier altercation between Pretti and federal immigration officers 11 days before his death.
The Jan. 13 videos show Pretti yelling at federal vehicles and at one point appearing to spit before kicking out the taillight of one vehicle. A struggle ensues between Pretti and several officers, during which he is forced to the ground. Pretti’s winter coat comes off, and he either breaks free or the officers let him go and he scurries away.
When he turns his back to the camera, what appears to be a handgun is visible in his waistband. At no point do the videos show Pretti reaching for the gun, and it is not clear whether federal agents saw it.
Steve Schleicher, a Minneapolis-based attorney representing Pretti’s parents, said Wednesday the earlier altercation in no way justified officers fatally shooting Pretti more than a week later.
In a post on his Truth Social platform early Friday morning, President Donald Trump suggested that the videos of the earlier incident undercut the narrative that Pretti was a peaceful protester when he was shot.
“Agitator and, perhaps, insurrectionist, Alex Pretti’s stock has gone way down with the just released video of him screaming and spitting in the face of a very calm and under control ICE Officer, and then crazily kicking in a new and very expensive government vehicle, so hard and violent, in fact, that the taillight broke off in pieces,” Trump’s post said. “It was quite a display of abuse and anger, for all to see, crazed and out of control. The ICE Officer was calm and cool, not an easy thing to be under those circumstances!”
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/30/federal-civil-rights-probe-alex-pretti/
The Warsh Washout
The Warsh Washout
Compared to the other candidates, Warsh is certainly more on the hawkish side of the spectrum.
And so, most asset classes wavered:
The record-breaking streaks in gold and silver have also ended – at least for now.
Gold and Silver are currently down about 12% and 25% from their peaks, respectively.
And that is despite concerns over a potential escalation in the Persian Gulf.
US equities are down notably (led by Small Caps – most rate sensitive)…
Momentum is getting mugged…
Treasury yields opened the day higher.. but retraced as stocks tumbled…
The dollar is rallying…
Bitcoin is down… of course…
And FX, Copper, and Oil (geopolitical risk) vols have exploded (with equity and bond vols to come?)…
Simply put, Trump has “put questions around Fed independence largely to bed.”
It’s hard to know how much capital was chasing the trade purely on the belief that Fed credibility was under threat.
But, as Rabobank’s Bas van Geffen notes, while the retracements are notable, we wouldn’t say that the debasement trade or diversification from the US have now stopped.
The FX (dollar) market may respond optimistically to the prospect of Warsh’ nomination, but broader US policy uncertainty is still not doing the dollar any favors.
The real risk to the big picture party is that rates come in and pull the punchbowl.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 01/30/2026 – 12:30
Polly Cooper, an Oneida woman who helped save Washington’s army, is honored on $1 coin
The reverse side of the U.S. Mint’s 2026 Sacagawea $1 coin will feature Polly Cooper, a woman from the Oneida tribe known for helping George Washington’s Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.
The release of the coin this week coincides with celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It recognizes Cooper’s role in a 1778 relief expedition from Oneida territory in what is now central New York to the rebel troops’ winter encampment in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, where they were facing a food and supply crisis.
“Polly Cooper symbolizes courage that is not just found on the battlefield but in compassion and willingness to help others, which is just a part of Oneida culture and hospitality,” said Ray Halbritter, a representative of the Oneida Indian Nation of New York.
Cooper and a delegation of 47 Oneida warriors carried bushels of white corn on the long, cold trek to feed the starving soldiers. According to Oneida oral tradition, Cooper intervened to prevent Washington’s hungry soldiers from eating the white corn raw, which would have made them sick. She taught them how to prepare hulled corn soup.
The coin features Cooper offering a basket of corn to Washington, a design that Halbritter said his community worked on closely with the U.S. Mint. The other side depicts Sacagawea, a young Native American woman who was a crucial guide for the Lewis and Clark expedition.
It’s the latest release under the Native American $1 Coin Program, established by a 2007 act of Congress to commemorate individual Native Americans and tribes.
Past coins have featured Osage prima ballerina Maria Tallchief; Jim Thorpe of the Sac and Fox Nation who was an Olympic champion and multi-sport professional athlete; and landmark historical events like the signing of the 1778 treaty with the Delaware, the first of over 400 treaties negotiated between the United States and Native nations, although not all were ratified.
Oklahoma Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, said the program highlights those who helped establish a country grounded in freedom and self-determination.
Meanwhile, some coin designs previously authorized in anticipation of the 250th anniversary have been scrapped by President Donald Trump’s administration, including coins that would have featured suffragettes who pushed to give women the right to vote and civil rights icon Ruby Bridges.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury, which oversees the U.S. Mint, did not respond to a request for comment.
The Oneida Indian Nation of New York calls itself “America’s first ally.” It broke with the Haudenosaunee Confederacy in allying with the Continental Army “at great sacrifice,” Halbritter said. The alliance made the Oneida a target for retaliation by the British and other Haudenosaunee nations. By the end of the Revolution, as much as a third of the tribe’s population had perished.
“In the long run, the Oneida don’t fare any better than tribes that sided with the British,” said Dartmouth College professor Colin Calloway, an expert on Indigenous history during the revolutionary era.
Calloway said a desire to separate Native people from their land was one force that “catapulted” Americans into revolution, and that millions of acres (hectares) of Oneida territory were seized by the state of New York and private land speculators in the decades following the war. This eventually led to the displacement of many Oneida to reservations in Wisconsin and Ontario, Canada.
Like popular historical narratives around Sacagawea and the first encounters between Wampanoag people and the pilgrims, Calloway said Cooper’s story could be co-opted to signify a “benign, reciprocal relationship” that never truly existed between American settlers and Indigenous people.
Still, the coin commemorates what Oneidas consider their pivotal role in the nation’s struggle for independence.
“The whole country reaps the benefit of Polly Cooper’s conduct because we won the conflict and the United States was born,” Halbritter said.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/30/polly-cooper-coin/
22 people left sick after ‘accidental chemical release’ at Goldfish Swim School, Park Ridge officials say
An accidental chemical release at a northwest suburban swim school Thursday afternoon left 22 people — including children — sick, local fire officials said.
At around 4:15 p.m., the Park Ridge Fire Department responded to Goldfish Swim School at 678 N. Northwest Highway after a mistake by an employee created a “chemical situation,” according to Park Ridge Fire executive officer Paul Lisowski.
The incident caused 22 people, among whom were parents, students and instructors, to be sick, Lisowski said. First responders transported five people, who also spanned minors and adults, from the swim school to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge for inhalation injuries and “general illness complaints,” per Lisowski. Another person left the scene, but later transported to a hospital from home after experiencing difficulty in breathing.
Goldfish Swim School, per its website, offers “indoor children’s swim lessons and programs for children ages 4 months and up.”
All injuries were non-life-threatening, Lisowski said.
There was no risk to the public as of Thursday night, authorities said. Lisowski said officials were confident the incident was an accident and that there was “nothing suspicious at all at this point.”
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/30/park-ridge-goldfish-swim-school-chemical-release/
Fiscal interroga a presidente de Perú tras citas ocultas con empresarios chinos
Associated Press
LIMA (AP) — El presidente interino de Perú, José Jerí, era interrogado el viernes en el palacio presidencial en el marco de una investigación fiscal por presunta corrupción que se inició luego de que a mediados de enero la prensa reveló videos y fotografías del mandatario en reuniones ocultas con empresarios chinos contratistas del Estado.
Por ahora la investigación preliminar contra Jerí —por los presuntos delitos de patrocinio ilegal de intereses particulares y tráfico de influencias en agravio del Estado— es mínima y “reservada”. No habrá allanamientos, ni levantamientos de su secreto de las comunicaciones ni bancario, dijo el fiscal general Tomás Gálvez al diario El Comercio. Avanzará luego de que Jerí entregue el poder a su sucesor, añadió.
Perú celebrará comicios generales el 12 de abril para elegir a 130 diputados, 60 senadores y cinco parlamentarios andinos. Todos iniciarán su gestión de cinco años el 28 de julio.
En Perú las citas del mandatario deben ser anotadas en su lista pública y diaria de actividades para evitar conflictos de intereses. Otros mandatarios, incluidos Pedro Castillo (2021-2022) y Dina Boluarte (2022-2025), han sido investigados por reunirse de forma oculta y fuera del palacio presidencial.
La prensa mostró fotografías de Jerí en diciembre vistiendo una capucha y llevando un bolso antes de ingresar a un edificio donde funciona un restaurante y oficinas de diversas empresas chinas ligadas al empresario chino Yang Zhihua. También se han difundido videos de otra reunión con Yang en una de sus tiendas.
Tras las difusión Jerí reveló que se había reunido en más ocasiones con Yang y con Ji Xiaodong, un empresario investigado por su presunta vinculación con una organización criminal de tráfico de madera en la Amazonía.
Jerí ha justificado sus citas ocultas con Yang y Ji indicando que tenía ganas de comer comida china. También añadió que estuvo coordinando detalles del Día de la Confraternidad Peruano–China, que se celebrará el 1 de febrero. Sus respuestas no han convencido a los legisladores opositores que buscan destituirlo. Hay siete pedidos para removerlo que recién serán debatidos en marzo cuando los legisladores se reúnan.
Yang ganó en 2023 una licitación para construir una hidroeléctrica que aún no ha empezado. Fue visto junto a Jerí a los pocos días del inicio de la gestión del presidente en una visita pública a los escombros de un incendio en un barrio. Jerí dijo que conoció a Yang en las actividades de la embajada de China en Lima en 2024.
Jerí ha dicho que no renunciará y mantiene el apoyo de los partidos Fuerza Popular, Alianza para el Progreso y Podemos Perú, que tienen bancadas numerosas y sus legisladores no han firmado los pedidos de remoción.
Perú suma siete presidentes desde 2016 en medio de una inestabilidad política. Jerí era líder del Parlamento cuando, por sucesión presidencial, llegó al poder el 10 de octubre en reemplazo de Boluarte, que fue destituida por el Congreso por su incapacidad para frenar la creciente delincuencia.
Willie Round’s ‘Lawndale King’ recounts the history that MLK made in North Lawndale
In 2019, Willie “Prince Roc” Round participated in Collaboraction Theatre Company’s annual “Peacebook” event. The musician from North Lawndale performed “Broke Down Drone,” a microdrama about two men in a West Side recording studio attempting to fix a broken drone, which they see as their ticket to success and a better life. He cowrote the piece with G. Riley Mills.
Then, in early 2022, came “Trial in the Delta: The Murder of Emmett Till,” an immersive stage adaptation of the 1955 trial transcript featuring the white Mississippi men found not guilty of murdering Black Chicago teen Emmett Till. Mills and Round served as co-creators, co-producers and writers of that project as well. By the fall of the same year, Round performed in Congo Square Theatre’s “What to Send Up When It Goes Down,” a 90-minute series of vignettes focusing on healing from the injustice of racialized violence. As an actor, Round used his experiences of growing up in North Lawndale. This month, Round centered his neighborhood again in his latest work, his first solo play titled “Lawndale King.” It’s a work that focuses on Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s local 1966 stand against inequitable housing, education and employment. On Jan. 19, the Chicago History Museum hosted a staged reading of the play.
“I had this story on my heart since college,” Round said. Violence and the effects of systemic racism pushed him out of Chicago, he said, but seeing his neighborhood in the pages of a book about King in North Lawndale while in Ohio made him pause.
“When I saw that, I was angry and excited at the same time, because I’ve learned about Christopher Columbus, all these other people, but I never learned about Martin Luther King living in my neighborhood,” he said. “Fast forward after ‘Trial in the Delta’ and understanding that was the launch of the civil rights movement, it felt right to do ‘Lawndale King’ because it’s another hidden story.”
Round’s telling of the historical visit is chronological, from the day that King moves into the apartment in disrepair, the struggles with getting the movement across to different ages, and the Chicago political machine. But instead of painting King as iconic, Round gives the audience details that show he was human. Yes, he played pool. Yes, he smoked. Yes, he liked to drink Bristol Cream Sherry, but as Round says, “He wasn’t perfect, and that makes his work that much more extraordinary. He’s human, just like you and I, and that’s what the civil rights movement was about — it was filled with regular people with extraordinary talents that came together for the betterment of a people.”
The creative license added to this project on the first significant Freedom Movement in the North was solely used to add context to the actions surrounding King’s eight-month stay in the third-floor apartment at 1550 S. Hamlin Ave. The figures that worked with and against King are featured, including Charles Swibel, former chairman of the Chicago Housing Authority; Andrew Young, an activist and politician; Fred Douglas “Bobby” Gore a one-time leader of the Vice Lords street gang turned activist and community organizer; former Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley; Rev. James Bevel; Coretta Scott King and Al Raby, the person who brought King to Chicago.
Raby’s daughter Kathy and granddaughter Katanya were in attendance at the recent reading in the Chicago History Museum.
“It was wonderful to see Al because he’s not celebrated in the way that he should be,” Katanya said. She offered one suggestion for the Raby character — showing her granddad’s propensity for walking into someone’s home and grabbing a beer from a person’s fridge before a meeting. Round said he was looking forward to adding the tidbit to the play going forward.
Dr. Martin Luther King, played by Edwin Edvanzd, left, speaks during a staged reading of “Lawndale King” on Jan. 19, 2026. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)
Round spent three years researching the city and King’s moves therein at the time, including the Chicago City Council’s ”Silent Six,” the bloc of Black aldermen who could be counted on to vote with Daley regardless of the issue. He pored over the transcript of the summit meeting between Daley and King and gathered testimonies from elder North Lawndale residents.
Round is focusing on getting funds to produce a full production of the play. Filmmaker Pemon Rami heard King speak in the city as a teen. He signed up to direct the work because it’s a story “we need to hear.”
“When you understand the power that Daley had in the city and what King was able to accomplish, it’s amazing,” Rami said.
“I was talking to a young man running for office, and he says Malcolm was fighting for our humanity and he was killed. King, who was nonviolent, was killed. Fred Hampton was trying to feed people and set up medical centers. Was the whole process a failure?” Rami said. “I would say, no. The failure comes in our inability to tell the stories about ourselves and our greatness. It’s about telling the positive things that are being done. Unless we do that, we’re inundated with negative stuff. We have people who came together and said, ‘In spite of the things that have happened, we have to push on. We have to make the world the kind of place that we want it to be.’ What else can we do other than that?”
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/30/collaboraction-lawndale-king/
Why Your IRS Tax Refund Could Be Delayed In 2026 – And How To Avoid It
Why Your IRS Tax Refund Could Be Delayed In 2026 – And How To Avoid It
Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Millions of taxpayers could face unexpected delays in receiving their tax refunds beginning this filing season, as the IRS rolls out new procedures tied to its shift away from paper checks and toward mandatory electronic payments.
The IRS in Washington on Jan. 6, 2026. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times
Under changes taking effect for refunds claimed on 2025 tax returns filed in 2026, the IRS will temporarily freeze refunds in many cases where direct deposit information is missing, incorrect, or rejected by a bank, according to recent guidance published by the Taxpayer Advocate Service.
“The IRS will still process individual income tax returns (Form 1040 series) filed without bank account information,” the guidance states. “However, the IRS will temporarily freeze the refund until the taxpayer provides direct deposit information or requests a paper check.”
The changes are part of a broader federal effort to modernize payments, reduce fraud, and cut administrative costs. But advocates say taxpayers who are unaware of the new rules could experience weekslong delays if they fail to take simple steps before or after filing.
“I applaud the goal of modernization, particularly efforts that reduce the IRS’s dependence on paper,” National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins said in a December 2025 statement, describing paper processing as the IRS’s “kryptonite” that has long been a source of operational delays, inefficiencies, and greater vulnerability to theft.
Treasury checks are 16 times more likely to be stolen, lost, or altered than electronic payments and, once compromised, they can result in a long and stressful process for taxpayers to resolve the problem.
“To avoid refund delays, I strongly encourage taxpayers to provide their direct deposit information on their 2025 tax return or update their direct deposit information through their IRS online account,” Collins said in December, while calling on the IRS to communicate the changes to taxpayers and provide them with resources that they will need to comply with the new rules.
“Millions of taxpayers depend on their refunds to meet their basic living expenses, and they should not be surprised by unanticipated delays.”
The IRS has outlined specific scenarios in which refunds may be temporarily frozen under the updated rules.
When Refunds May Be Frozen—and What Happens Next
Beginning in 2026, the IRS will continue to accept and process individual income tax returns even if taxpayers do not provide direct deposit information. In those cases, however, the agency will place a temporary hold on the refund rather than automatically issuing a paper check.
Refunds may also be frozen when a bank rejects a direct deposit due to incorrect routing numbers, closed accounts, or other verification issues. Under the new system, most rejected deposits will no longer be automatically reissued as paper checks, requiring taxpayers to take action to release the funds.
Some groups are excluded from the freeze rules, including international taxpayers, minors, prisoners, taxpayers with approved religious exceptions, and decedent estates.
When a refund is frozen, the IRS will send a CP53E notice explaining the reason for the hold and outlining the steps required to move the refund forward.
What to Do If Your Refund Is Frozen
The CP53E notice instructs taxpayers to update or add direct deposit information through their IRS Online Account. Taxpayers generally have 30 days from the date of the notice to respond.
Once new bank information is submitted and successfully verified, the IRS will issue the refund by direct deposit. The agency advises taxpayers to allow two to five days for refund status updates to appear online and to monitor progress using the “Where’s My Refund” tool.
If no action is taken within the 30-day window, the IRS will issue a paper check after six weeks. However, taxpayers are given only one chance to update their banking information.
“You will only have one opportunity to add or update your bank account using your online account,” the IRS said in recently updated guidance. “If your direct deposit is not accepted by the bank and is rejected, we will issue a paper check.”
The CP53E notice includes a toll-free, information-only phone line that provides recorded explanations of the notice and next steps. IRS employees cannot update bank account information over the phone, and taxpayers must use their online account to make changes.
Taxpayers who do not have a bank account or online access must call the IRS’s main customer service number to request that their refund be converted to a paper check, according to the Taxpayer Advocate Service.
Most refund freezes can be avoided with careful preparation, the service said in the guidance, which urges taxpayers to double-check routing and account numbers before filing, use direct deposit whenever possible, and set up or access an IRS Online Account in advance so they can respond quickly if action is required.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 01/30/2026 – 12:00
Teen accused of stabbing pregnant Downers Grove mom critically injured in custody, sheriff’s office says
The teenager accused of stabbing a pregnant Downers Grove mother to death is in critical condition from what appear to be self-inflicted injuries, according to the DuPage County sheriff’s office.
Nedas Revuckas, 19, of Westmont, suffered the injuries in his housing unit just before 5 p.m. Thursday at the DuPage County Correctional Center, the sheriff’s office said in a news release. Earlier in the day, Revuckas was ordered detained while awaiting trial.
Revuckas faces charges of first-degree murder, intentional homicide of an unborn child, armed robbery, arson and aggravated cruelty to animals. He’s suspected of stabbing 30-year-old mom Eliza Morales about 70 times, killing her and her unborn child before setting her home on fire, prosecutors have alleged in court.
The sheriff’s office said it’s continuing to look into the incident, but believe his injuries were self-inflicted. A preliminary investigation indicated no other individuals were involved.
Revuckas is in critical condition at a medical facility that isn’t being disclosed for “safety and security concerns,” the sheriff’s office said.
Morales’ family remembers her as a kind person who cared deeply about children and human rights causes. She worked in the payroll department at Lurie Children’s Hospital. She was about five months pregnant at the time of her death and leaves behind a husband and 1½-year-old daughter.
“She always said my kids are going to be smart, they’re going to read, they’re going to know,” Morales’ mother-in-law told the Tribune earlier this week. “She always was at the library with the baby, always trying to absorb knowledge.”
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/30/downers-grove-stabbing-suspect-injured/
