In Illinois, Chicago is a major port of entry for human traffickers and the FBI has designated it as one of 13 high-intensity areas for child prostitution. The city is not the only problem area in the state, though. As more pressure is put on the illicit trade there, it has fanned out to other locations. Human-trafficking arrests have been made in such places as Springfield and Rockford in the past decade.

Premiums could rise by 43 percent on average in 2017 for Illinois residents who buy health insurance on the state exchange, regulators announced Wednesday.

Coal executives visiting with The Southern Illinoisan’s editorial board on Wednesday said they are confident the industry, despite the challenges facing it, will have a future in the region for decades to come.

People working in the coal mining industry know it’s been another tough year, with jobs lost and mines shutting down. Since 2014, Illinois has produced about two million fewer tons of coal and has lost about 1,600 jobs. But industry leaders in Marion on Wednesday say they’re not giving up, they’re fighting against the trend.

Comment: This is an interesting issue but Proft is right. Most of the regular media have no standing to criticize.

Teachers unions themselves have unionized employees. In collective bargaining with their employees, teachers unions have formally proposed merit pay, reductions to due process protections, health-care and other benefit rollbacks, and threats to use replacement workers. On pensions, that tables are turned: “Will union managers come up with a solution consistent with what they advocate as labor representatives?”

Comment: Talk about “inconvenient truths.”

“Illinois’s next big bond deal sounds like a municipal-market oxymoron: the worst-rated state in the nation is offering more than half a billion dollars of AAA debt.” Comment: That’s because the bonds will be secured by a stream of sales-tax revenue that’s diverted to investors. The muni bond world has finally figured out that secured bonds are better than unsecured general obligation bonds. When municipalities and states hit the wall, expect unsecured creditors (which include unfunded pension liabilities) to be surprised to learn that all valuable assets are already mortgaged to somebody else.

The Teachers Retirement System board is scheduled to vote Friday on whether to adjust its expected rate of return on investments.

“The saying ‘rain makes grain,’ may actually be true this year for Illinois.” Helps keep the murder rate down in Chicago, too.

The business of health care is getting a lot harder on providers. Profit margins of Chicago area hospitals declined significantly in 2015, with a handful of health care systems losing money from operations. Meantime, health insurance plans in Illinois swung to a loss last year, dragged under by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois and Land of Lincoln.