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Top Illinois Stories
“In reality, the bills do nothing to address the factors contributing to higher premiums, such as higher repair costs, more severe weather, and legal system abuse,” the lobbying groups said in a statement. “Instead, the bills implement a fundamental shift in Illinois’ regulatory environment and move the state towards a more rigid rate-approval system similar to struggling insurance markets like California. This shift will make it harder for insurers to respond in real-time to market conditions and adjust rates up or down based on actual claims experience.”
A sweeping Illinois bill to water down audit requirements is on pause, but its backers have secured the support of the Democratic nominee for state comptroller and hope to push the legislation through next session.
“I get the concept, and we’re open to it,” Burr Ridge Mayor Gary Grasso said in an interview about efforts to encourage more housing options in towns like his. “What we’re not open to, absolutely not open to, is the state telling us how to zone and take away the due process rights of our residents.”
"The fight over who gets to decide where renewable energy goes is far from over."
"Indiana has remained in the top 10 of the Rich States, Poor States index since 2014 and seen consistent in-migration since 2018. The Hoosier State is more competitive than Illinois across nearly every critical economic policy variable, including right-to-work protections, a 2.95 percent personal income tax, no estate tax, and a 4.9 percent corporate income tax (4.6 points lower than Illinois)."
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Following in the footsteps of New York and California, Illinois state lawmakers passed a bill Wednesday that seeks to increase transparency and accountability among the largest and most capable artificial intelligence models. The Illinois attorney general would have exclusive authority to enforce civil penalties up to $3 million per violation.
Similar to communities like Logan, Sangamon, and Champaign counties, most of the 100-plus people at the meeting voiced their opposition to any future data center project. Their concerns include the use of power and the loss of farmland.
“When you consider how many students are actually showing up on a daily basis, it just goes to show that students in Illinois public schools are not being engaged effectively in a way to ensure that they're showing up to class,” said Illinois Policy Institute Manager of Education Policy Hannah Schmid.
The goal of the bill – as said by state Senate sponsor Rachel Ventura – is to shut private equity out of homeownership in Illinois, which both Republicans and Democrats on the committee agreed at least somewhat contributed to an ongoing housing shortage.
He did not give a specific reason for stepping down seven months early, beyond saying he had promised upon election to give the job all he had and to “know when the time was right to step away.”
The budget became more complicated earlier this month when analysts for the General Assembly and Gov. JB Pritzker’s budget office lowered revenue projections for the upcoming fiscal year that begins July 1. The revisions by the governor’s office revealed a $149 million gap between what Pritzker proposed spending and the amount of revenue the state will have to support it — and that includes $728 million in new taxes and revenue changes proposed by the governor.
Retired Police Chief Tom Weitzel: "Illinois politicians have spent years insisting violent offenders can be safely managed in the community with ankle monitors. This case proves — in blood — that they are wrong. A career criminal who had already escaped monitoring was given chance after chance. Now a Chicago police officer is dead."
"Grifting off taxpayers via property tax schemes is a practice that goes way back for (Gov. JB) Pritzker, so it shouldn't surprise anyone that he's seeking to extend these property tax breaks to other billionaires. If he gets his way, Illinois residents will be stuck paying for these sweetheart deals while billionaires get a break."
“Abraham Lincoln, in the House Divided speech that he gave here in Springfield, gave a grim warning that the divisions in America over the issue slavery could destroy our nation,” Durbin, 81, said, from the dais of the Illinois House chamber. “We see similar divisions today. The challenge we face in the days ahead could be just as serious."
The Illinois Revenue Alliance is made up of several organizations in the state...including labor unions like SEIU Healthcare Illinois, Chicago Teachers Union, and community and advocacy groups. Their mission is to advocate for programs to help low and moderate income families thrive. “We have to only raise taxes on the wealthiest individuals in the population,” their spokesman said.
Corbett has enlisted Carolyn Schofield of Crystal Lake to be his running mate. Schofield is a former Republican McHenry County Board member who ran for lieutenant governor in 2022 alongside former Republican State Sen. Paul Schimpf. She also recently left her job as a staff assistant for the Illinois Senate Republican caucus.
One of the clearest red flags in the budget process is the growing divide between Gov. JB Pritzker’s revenue assumptions and more cautious projections from the General Assembly’s Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability (COGFA) and Pritzker’s own Governor’s Office of Management and Budget (GOMB). COGFA and GOMB estimates this month predict revenue will be $720 million to $900 million short of what Pritzker has forecast.
In 2011 Illinois enacted the largest income tax hike in state history. At least some of that increase could have offset rising property taxes, but instead the state kept 100 percent of the additional money, decreasing the percentage given to local governments. Since Gov. JB Pritzker took office, total property taxes in Illinois have risen 27 percent, from $31.8 billion in 2018 to $40.37 billion in 2024.
"As you know, we now are one of the best states in the country for infrastructure but that is because were are making the investments that come from the motor fuel tax that gets imposed," Pritzker said. "I think we have enough here so we could make some sort of pause, but I think that is something the legislature is going to consider over the coming week. We will see."
The legislation would require firearm manufacturers to be licensed in Illinois. Money collected from licensing fees would go into a victim fund for related expenses. Funds would then be available for people hurt by guns and their families, covering medical bills, lost wages, funeral costs, and more.
Former U.S. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette: "Reliable energy is not built on aspiration. It is built on physics, fuel and steel in the ground."
One of the proposals could legalize a wider range of middle housing types such as duplexes, triplexes and four flats in lots currently zoned for single-family use. Similar legislation could allow faith-based organizations to develop affordable mixed-use and multifamily homes on their property by exempting them from strict zoning requirements. A separate bill would ban housing authorities and private owners of subsidized housing from mandating work requirements or time limits on residents who do not meet work requirements.
State Rep. Daniel Didech said the measure specifically requires the biggest AI companies to create and publish protocols on how their organizations will prevent and manage harm as a result of their products. The lawmaker also said the bill includes measures to protect whistleblowers in the event an employee seeks to come forward with safety concerns.
As part of the program, participating hospitals and clinics typically charge a patient’s insurance the market-rate of a prescription drug they bought at a discount – leading to a wider profit margin. A bill to require transparency on how that revenue is used by healthcare providers was discussed in the House Executive committee Tuesday, sponsored by state Rep. Camille Lilly.
Americans for Prosperity Illinois Deputy State Director Brian Costin said House Bill 910 exposes taxpayers outside of megaproject districts. “As it stands right now, the bill is extremely dangerous for other taxpayers. It explicitly enables local governments to raise their property tax levies based on the untaxed value of the mega projects,” Costin said.
An apprenticeship generally would require more hours than school, but the apprentice must be paid at least minimum wage. The bill also requires participating businesses to display a sign noting that an apprentice works there.
By law, public school teachers in Illinois must contribute 9 percent of their salaries toward their pensions with the Illinois Teachers’ Retirement System. But many school districts pay part or all of that as an employee benefit.
Raoul and the coalition argue that data and analyses are crucial for the U.S. Department of Education and interested stakeholders to identify whether students with disabilities or students with disabilities who are of a particular racial or ethnic group are disciplined more often than their peers. They also argue the data can show if students of a particular race or ethnic group are disproportionately identified in specific disability categories.
Seth Lewis, budgeteer for the Senate Republican Caucus: "We need stronger leadership from the governor to protect the economic tools that help create jobs and attract investment. Especially as the progressive socialist wing of the Democratic Party continues to push a narrative that economic growth equals corporate greed, we need our governor to boldly and decisively push back against efforts to eliminate or weaken tools that have helped create thousands of jobs and attract billions in investment."
"Many of those attempted assassins on Donald Trump have regurgitated those very same words — ‘Nazi, threat to democracy’—that people like Governor Pritzker used when they tried to kill the president. So they need to stop doing it," said U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, who in 2017 was shot in the hip during an attack targeting Republican lawmakers during practice for the annual Congressional Baseball Game for Charity.
Top Chicago Stories
Cook County Chief Judge Charles Beach's office said the three most common crimes for someone who's gone AWOL while on electronic monitoring are retail theft (24 people), theft (18 people) and aggravated battery (18 people). That doesn't include 59 people who violated restrictions on where they can go because of a domestic violence charge.
The study notes there were already five projects with price tags over $100 million under construction last year in Chicago’s Loop and Near West Side alone, not to mention the long-floated One Central development near Soldier Field and a possible new stadium for the White Sox.
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"[This] encounter that I’m going to have with the highest-profile religious leader on the planet is also moving our agenda forward,” Johnson said. “That conversation is not separate and apart from the work that’s happening in Springfield or City Council or anywhere else.”
“Teen takeover in Chicago. Five officers badly hurt. Mayor and Governor are terrible. Should call for help!” Trump wrote on social media.
"I don't run unions; I run the city of Chicago. So I don't opine on any decision that any labor union decides of what they're going to do with their working file," Johnson said.
"A parental accountability ordinance is for parents who just keep allowing their 14-year-olds to be out on the streets at 3am," Ald. Brian Hopkins said. "There's no excuse for it."
Prosecutors claimed that Rashad Johnson, 18, intentionally hit the officers and said his possession of an illegal 30-round MAC-10 pistol proved he is a danger to the community at large. “I want to give people the benefit of the doubt, especially to people that are young and have no criminal history,” Judge Ankur Srivastava said. “But it’s not like you didn’t know how to drive and accidentally hit the accelerator … I think you made a choice, and your choices endangered people’s lives. You have hurt a lot of people.”
"What makes the situation particularly frustrating is that Chicago still possesses enormous strengths. It remains one of the world’s greatest cities with extraordinary architecture, culture, universities, transportation infrastructure, and economic potential. Millions of people still love this city and desperately want it to succeed. But hallmark cities can absolutely decline through prolonged bad governance. History is filled with examples of major urban centers hollowing themselves out through ideological rigidity, fiscal irresponsibility, and administrative incompetence."
Financial distress, as defined in the report, includes credit accounts in forbearance, deferred payment status or otherwise showing signs of trouble. Experts point to several contributing factors: stubborn inflation, uneven wage growth, high housing costs and lingering labor market uncertainty.
Johnson said the “safest cities in America have one thing in common: They invest in people.” To underscore the point, he put up a chart that showed dramatic declines in shootings and homicides in neighborhoods where the city hired the greatest number of young people.
Of the incumbent board members, only Sean Harden, the current president who was appointed by Mayor Johnson, is not running. Two current board members — Jessica Biggs and Jennifer Custer — are giving up district seats to run for president.
But Ald. Peter Chico, a former Chicago police officer, said that data would not change his firm belief that residents of his ward would be safer if a gunshot detection system covered the ward. “What about when there are no calls?”
"Almost half (44 percent) describe the city’s condition as excellent or good, but just a quarter say the same about (Mayor Brandon) Johnson’s performance, and not quite half say it’s been fair or poor. That gap matters. Voters are not saying Chicago is in a doom loop. They are saying the city has potential that is not being translated into capable governance that would make their hometown flourish even more."
Rebecca Weininger, 0f the Anti-Defamation League Midwest, said of Chicago's mayor, “He is cherry-picking Jewish voices that are acceptable to him — either because they are anti-Zionist or because they are willing to go along with any crumbs that he is willing to feed them." She believes Johnson’s strained relationship with the Jewish community is either based on “abject ignorance or intentional exclusion” of those she called the “mainstream Jewish community.”
Shunza Walker, a tattoo artist who was born and raised on the West Side, was driving his black Maserati less than a mile away from the intersection where Reed would die after Chicago police officers stopped him 15 days later. Walker’s lawsuit claimed that traffic stop violated his constitutional rights and left him scared to drive anywhere in Chicago, a feeling that intensified after Reed’s killing made headlines across the city, igniting a firestorm over CPD’s use of traffic stops.
Emmanuel Andre, Chicago’s Deputy Mayor for Community Safety, says he believes added investment from the city is paying off. However, concerns are rising that the pendulum could shift in the wrong direction as the billions in federal COVID relief money the city was able to spend on those initiatives have dried up. "Resources are finite and it causes us to make some really difficult decisions as to what and where should money be invested,” Andre said.
Thirteen people, ages ranging from 14 to 28, received felony charges for possessing a weapon and battery. Police said charges are pending against one more person. Officers confiscated dozens of weapons, including tasers, guns, knives, and bear mace.
“Just as he is using his pulpit, I’m using the executive order pen to protect all of Chicago," Johnson said. The roughly 50-member delegation headed to Rome includes business leaders, Johnson’s deputy mayor for economic development, his sustainability officer, advisor Jason Lee, and top council ally Jason Ervin, as well as non-Catholic faith leaders to represent Chicago’s religious diversity.
"As teen takeovers grow increasingly brazen, and with the summer approaching likely to spiral out of control, Chicago is in need of penalties for those who engage in violent mob actions. Make no mistake, these public disturbances are a direct product of city leadership refusing to ensure that there are consequences for the disruption, damage to property, and the disrespect and often endangerment of police. The mayor's talk of 'systemic causes' is nonsensical excuse-making."
CPD said officers were on foot trying to shut down the incident when a blue sedan ran into five of them. After hitting the officers, police said the car drove over the curb and came to a stop after crashing into a CPD vehicle, pole and a fence.
"He has said, you can never arrest your way out of issues in neighborhoods to solve crimes," Ald. Ray Lopez said, referencing remarks Johnson delivered Thursday. "And that message reverberates with these teens who are now erupting in neighborhoods all across Chicago, trying to become social media famous at the behest of the mayor who supports their antics." Local lawmakers are now pushing to criminally charge parents whose children were tied to the crimes, but Johnson has stopped short of endorsing the proposal.
The ordinance, filed last week by Aldermen Raymond Lopez, Anthony Beale, James Gardiner, Anthony Napolitano and Brendan Reilly, cites the continuing existence of a city hiring freeze implemented by Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration last summer.
CPS took out $1.6 billion in those short-term loans for fiscal 2026 operating costs such as payroll and basic expenses, plus a $246 million loan to support the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund. That borrowing is expected to cost $34 million in interest, according to a March report to the Chicago Board of Education.
As of 8 p.m. Monday, the sole death of the weekend — which runs from 5 p.m. Friday through 5 a.m. Tuesday — came after a toddler fatally shot himself Sunday, according to Chicago police. At least 26 others were shot and injured over Memorial Day weekend, an uptick after 2025 saw the city’s least overall violent Memorial Day weekend since at least 2010.
"With news of an agreement for the city’s parking meter lease to change hands, Chicago has the chance to revisit one of the worst public asset deals in its history. ... Earlier legal efforts faced steep odds partly because the long-term harms were still theoretical. They no longer are."
Part of DuSable Lake Shore Drive was shut down for some time. Cameras captured two officers escorting another officer and loading him into an ambulance.
When it opens June 19, it will set at least three modern-era records for a former White House occupant: time taken to be completed, project cost and the price to get inside.
Neighbors described the scene in the early hours of Sunday morning as restless and chaotic, saying they were caught off-guard by the size of the crowd and struggled to feel safe or get any sleep overnight. “Cars were parked illegally,” one neighbor said. “You saw no tow trucks whatsoever. I mean, they were loud, disrespectful. It was unreal.”
Wirepoints Research and Commentary
With $162 billion more from taxpayers, couldn't you deliver a few bond upgrades, too 
Audio and summary 
A largely unasked question is becoming glaring: Is Illinois doing all it should to use artificial intelligence to make government cost less and work better? So far, the evidence says no.
Everybody needs a side hustle these days, and mine is Ukraine, where I am now.
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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.
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. 
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