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Top Illinois Stories
An analysis conducted by Gov. JB Pritzker’s office and shared with legislators found that from a hypothetical $20 million payment in lieu of taxes made for a large industrial development, a typical Illinois homeowner would see only $1.29 in relief.
The utility says the added costs were related to connecting data centers and other new businesses, as well as electrification efforts such as building out EV charging infrastructure in 2025. If approved, the cost reconciliation would add $2.97 per month to the distribution charges on the average residential customer bill beginning in January 2027.
In a statement, Gov. JB Pritzker dismissed the inquiry as the Trump administration continuing to “punish states the president does not like,” calling it a “sham investigation.” Pritzker said, “The Civil Rights Division used to investigate actual discrimination concerns to ensure all individuals are treated equally under the law, but they’re now focused on belittling the rights and humanity of LGBTQ+ communities."
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Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon said the inquiry will go beyond classroom instruction and examine whether districts are encouraging or facilitating gender transitions without parental notice or consent, including through policies involving students’ names, pronouns or participation in school clubs focused on gender identity. "Illinois is just pushing these radical agendas," she said.
Illinois has refused to hand over an unredacted voter registration list. Instead, it has provided DOJ with electronic copies of partially redacted files that do not include sensitive information such as dates of birth, driver’s license numbers or partial Social Security numbers.
Rallies were held at more than 50 locations across the state.
But Tracy Sullivan, a consultant who assists businesses with the certification process, said the problem is a combination of difficulty and disillusionment. "I don't believe that businesses don't care about being certified," she said. "You can only bang your head against the wall so many times before the headache becomes too much."
With Gov. JB Pritzker priming for politics outside of Illinois, let’s not forget his scandalous past - including hidden trusts in the Bahamas, scrubbing the Internet of photos with an accused murderer, hypocrisy during the COVID no-travel order, and skirting rules to appoint brother-in-law to a political position.
Jim Dey: "The law requires state pension systems to terminate direct investment in companies boycotting Israel. It passed without opposition in the Illinois House and Senate and was signed into law by former Gov. Bruce Rauner. But is the worm starting to turn as progressive groups, among others, turn against Israel and, to a degree, embrace anti-Semitism?"
State Sen. Elgie Sims has publicly pushed back on calls to revisit the SAFE-T Act, describing the killing of Officer Bartholomew and the wounding of his partner as “one-offs.” His social media posts since the shooting have ranged from a missing person bulletin to criticism of Walgreens for closing its store at 8628 South Cottage Grove Avenue, which the company says it shut down due to theft and violent incidents running above company averages.
A report issued on April 21 by the outgoing auditor general found that the state agency the new state auditor had previously led, the Illinois Finance Authority, lacked a required full-time internal audit program. As executive director, Meister was responsible for appointing a chief internal auditor.
"A shrinking tax base and exploding spending obligations are a recipe for disaster. Government costs don’t magically shrink when people leave; they get slammed onto the backs of the remaining families, small businesses, and retirees who can’t afford to escape. The middle class gets squeezed even harder."
House Bill 5295, also known as the Reproductive Health Records Privacy Act, would require health providers to segregate records related to abortion and gender-affirming care and limit their disclosure. But physician and state Rep. Bill Hauter argued, “We rely, as medical professionals, on the medical record to be complete and accurate and private. To say that this information is unimportant… ignores real-world scenarios where it could be critical to patient care.”
“Believe me, every mayor wants more effective, affordable... [middle class] housing in our communities,” said Mark Kownick, mayor of northwest suburban Cary “But in order for this to happen, you’ve got to work with the municipalities.”
Opioid settlements with other companies linked to the nationwide crisis have totaled more than $58 billion, with Illinois so far earmarked for $1.6 billion. Settlement funds are dedicated to addiction treatment, prevention and recovery programs.
"Armed with whistles and phone cameras, the people of Illinois reminded the nation that everyday people of conscience do still have power in America. That’s the Illinois playbook. The Illinois Accountability Commission honors Illinoisans’ bravery with action."
"Pritzker, who Forbes estimates is worth about $4 billion, is also well aware of the backlash against billionaires in his party and has over the years been accused of "buying" public office. In the run-up to the midterms and 2028, the top-versus-bottom messaging popularized by Sen. Bernie Sanders, is already proving to be a dominant narrative. "
Between one-third and half of police departments surveyed said their use-of-force policies are missing at least one requirement under the SAFE-T Act, the report found. In a separate review of 10 agencies, only one had fully incorporated the law’s standards.
"Sen. Karina Villa, for example, had this to say about the House action on Bears/megaprojects and its refusal to take up a millionaire’s income tax surcharge: 'Illinois families were told there was not enough time to ask the wealthiest few to pay more. Yet there was time to move a Bears package that even the Bears management themselves say still needs changes. When Springfield decides something is urgent, it finds the time. Working families deserve to be treated as urgent too.'"
"This would apply when federal law enforcement comes with a valid, enforceable federal warrant," Rose said. "That's critical. This is not a question of, 'hey, we just picked up some guy off the street.' This is a valid, enforceable federal warrant. It's a big deal."
State Rep. Regan Deering, who also serves on the Mt. Zion school board, praised the U.S. Department of Justice’s decision to examine school policies across Illinois, arguing that parents have been sidelined in key educational decisions.
The General Assembly created the independent tribunal in 2013, with the stated purposes of increasing fairness in the tax system and resolving disputes between taxpayers and the Illinois Department of Revenue. The tribunal’s jurisdiction is limited to certain Illinois statutes and it generally hears cases involving more than $15,000 of interest and penalties.
Illinois currently counts low-income students based on their enrollment in federal support programs, including Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. However, under new eligibility rules that were part of the federal budget law Congress passed last year, the number of people enrolled in those programs is expected to decline.
Gov. JB Pritzker on Friday underwent a “routine outpatient urology procedure” and will be stepping back from public duties next week.
The settlement, which still requires approval from the Illinois Commerce Commission, would give affected customers an estimated bill credit of $50 in 2026, $40 in 2027 and $40 in 2028.
Among the 3,086 bills introduced this year in Springfield, Senate Bill 2832 would require the State Board of Education to establish a pilot program to provide Illinois students developmental etiquette education beginning with the 2027-2028 school year. By the 2028-2029 school year, each student in grade 12 would have to complete the program to receive a high school diploma.
Abigail Jackson, a spokesperson for the White House, said in response to the report, “If JB Pritzker spent this much time and energy addressing crime and supporting the arrest of criminal illegal aliens instead of providing them with sanctuary, Illinois residents would be much safer.”
Jim Dey: "If, as (Illinois House Speaker Chris) Welch said, 'everyone knows it needs a lot more work,' why were Welch and a host of others pushing to get the measure on the ballot just a week ago? Perhaps it was because Illinois has a rich history of majority-party leaders ramming controversial, complicated pieces of legislation through the General Assembly before all legislators, the public and the news media have a chance to review it. Call it the 'fait accompli' approach to public policy."
"If they are teaching sexual orientation and gender ideology-related content, the investigations will examine whether the schools have notified parents of their right to opt their children out of such instruction. The investigation will also assess whether the Illinois School Districts limit access to single-sex intimate spaces (such as bathrooms and locker rooms) and girls’ sports teams based on biological sex," the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division said in a release. In total, 36 school districts across the state are being investigated.
Top Chicago Stories
ICE officers went to Chicago and arrested Guatemalan national Erik Giovanni-Quiroa, who had been released from jail after his ICE detainer was ignored following a conviction for aggravated sexual abuse of a five-year-old child. Giovanni-Quiroa, who also had a 2011 firearm-battery conviction, was given a three-year sentence on the pedophilia charge.
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Both Glock and Smith & Wesson are facing potentially massive payout demands in lawsuits in which plaintiffs have said they are trying to hold the gun makers liable for the illegal use of their weapons by violent criminals to commit murder and other crimes. Both lawsuits center on similar claims that the gun makers have violated a recently enacted provision of Illinois' consumer fraud law, crafted by Democratic lawmakers in 2023 specifically to trigger such lawsuits against gun makers.
"These environmental hazards disproportionately affect Black and Latino residents, costing lives, shortening futures, and deepening the inequities that define daily life in Chicago. The failure to address this public health crisis is not a problem of money; it is a problem of will."
They said they've made adjustments to their operations and taken other steps to mitigate the issue, but "ongoing safety challenges" made it hard to keep staff and customers safe, and so they have chosen to close the store.
The case, Westforth Sports v. Chicago, alleged Westforth sold more than 300 guns between 2014 and 2021 to known straw buyers. The lawyers said those guns were used in homicides, shootings and assaults.
Illinois Restaurant Association President and CEO Sam Toia said Chicago is 10,000 jobs below pre-pandemic levels, and independent restaurants have suffered more since Mayor Brandon Johnson began phasing out the tip credit.
"The current Cook County court system is excluded by law from compliance with the Freedom of Information Act... Only high-profile cases receive the attention needed to dissect the complexities of the court proceedings and identify where the system failed. ... This has created an inherent distrust of the court system and reform efforts, including the SAFE-T Act."
The ages of the victims range from 16 to 58, according to Chicago police.
Dr. Daniel Davis, a faculty member at Kennedy King College’s social science department who teaches African American studies, said cash is necessary, but reparations is bigger than that: "So some people think we're only asking for a big check. No, a cash component is necessary as part of the package, part of a compensation, along with maybe home loan help, down payment on homes, tax breaks, education breaks for funding."
That lesson became abundantly clear with the renovation of Soldier Field in 2003. The team kicked in $200 million toward the $632 million project. The public still owes $467 million for the job, which, once it was completed, drew widespread criticism. Another lesson in taxpayer costs, Rate Field cost about $137 million to build when it opened in 1991. It cost another $118 million in renovations in the 2000s — all of it paid by taxpayers. The public still owes another $45 million for the ball field
Evanston's Healthy Buildings Ordinance is set to require around 500 buildings larger than 20,000 square feet to meet staggered energy use and efficiency benchmarks until they reach zero emissions by 2050. “What we don’t want is for Evanston to be viewed as this really onerous city where it’s difficult to hurdle all of the bureaucratic red tape and all these requirements,” spokesman Baxter Swilley said.
Buses took students to a rally at Operation PUSH on the South Side and other community-based events, while others transported students to an afternoon rally in Union Park that marched to Daley Plaza. Ultimately, 40 field trips were approved, allowing 2,200 students to participate in off-campus activities.
Kane County State’s Attorney Jamie L. Mosser, president of the Illinois State’s Attorneys Association, said prosecutors need to look at every case individually. “I do agree with State’s Attorney O’Neill Burke’s process now, because I think they’re doing what is just in every case, which is making sure that if a certificate of innocence is going to be granted, it is going to be based on the fact that they were actually innocent,” she said.
A DePaul University journalism institute focused on “racial justice” is drawing scrutiny from media experts who say it contributes to skepticism of the news.
"Thousands of residents live in fear and are often terrorized by violent habitual offenders who are on the streets because of pretrial release and are reluctant to help police because they fear retaliation."
"In fact, nearly 9 in 10 parents in Chicago and nationally believe their child is at or above grade level, even though closer to only 3 in 10 Chicago students are on grade level in reading and only 2 in 10 in math. When families believe their child is doing fine, they may be less likely to see attendance as urgent."
All drivers — even those who stay in the car — face charges of $4.07 to $23.39 after a 15-minute grace period. Park district officials expect the new automated system to generate about $9.4 million in revenue this year.
Chicago budget director Annette Guzman left Cook County Assessor Fritz’s staff in January 2020 to take a job as budget director for Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, then left that post in May 2023 when Brandon Johnson made her the city of Chicago budget director.
Illinois African Descent-Citizens Reparations Commission Chair Marvin Slaughter, Jr. told students at Kennedy King College, "We want the government that is responsible for enslaving our ancestors and responsible for the gaps that we see in everything from mother and infant mortality, education, educational attainment, wealth. They're responsible for all of these things."
Last week, Gov. JB Pritzker signed an executive order barring state employees from using insider information to bet on prediction market apps, citing highly accurate bets made in February regarding U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, an anonymous trader who earned more than $400,000 after placing large bets on the removal of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and a user who placed a $40,000 bet that OpenAI would launch an AI web browser before the end of the month.
They started as young attorneys on opposite sides of the courtroom — John Lyke as a prosecutor, Charles Beach on the defense — and years later found themselves on the bench in the Pretrial Division at 26th and California, one of the most grueling assignments in the building, where 50, 70, sometimes 100 defendants a day cycled through to have bail amounts set on charges ranging from pot possession to murder.
"Imagine if city decision-makers had walked the Grand Avenue bridge at 8:15 on a Tuesday morning in October 2024, stood at Grand and Halsted and Milwaukee, and watched the No. 65 inch forward. Watched the cyclist’s narrow choice. Watched the parent with a stroller. And said: Maybe all of this at once is not a good idea. Let’s go back to the planning table with CDOT, the CTA, the departments of Buildings and Water Management, the Gaming Board and the casino, together, and center our citizens instead of our regulations."
Roughly 2,290 student workers, represented by the UIC Graduate Employees Organization, went on strike Monday after months of stalled contract talks. The union’s three-year contract expired last August.
"It absolutely needs to be amended because I think while the intention was good, not forcing people to sit in jail because they couldn't afford bond on minor crimes, it has been utterly manipulated and abused by dangerous violent repeat offenders who have no regard for the sanctity of human life, no regard for property, and no intention of ever following the law," Ald. Ray Lopez said.
Joseph Graciosa, a computer science teacher at Solorio Academy High School, said that May 1 at his building will begin with an assembly about the history of May Day and the power of students in education reform. Discussions will highlight the impact of recent immigration raids on the school’s community.
A team of local real estate investors has raised its bet on a downtown office recovery, buying a distressed Loop office building loan for roughly 84% less than the property was worth over a decade ago. It's the 23-story office property at 200 W. Monroe St. Wirepoints Research and Commentary
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
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Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do. 
The state's existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis. 
Illinois lost another 54,000 tax filers and dependents, net, according to the IRS. Since 2000, fleeing taxpayers have taken $94 billion of annual adjusted gross income with them. 
Borrowing for current and past operating expenses, blanks for use of funds and more make Chicago's bond sale planned for next week smell mighty bad. Mark Glennon's interview is in the first ten minutes starting here.
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