Prediction: The grand bargain won’t make it through the full General Assembly. Perhaps a stopgap, partial budget will pass, but a downgrade of Illinois bonds to junk status likely will happen in June.

State lawmakers’ latest bill not only forces a failed “evidence-based” education funding program on Illinois, but also bails out Chicago Public Schools.

Prestige Metals’ owner John Annessi made the call to move his business from northern Illinois to Wisconsin. The move was less than 10 miles. He says there are savings and the area offered business incentives, but it was more personal for him too, being a Kenosha-area native.

Democrats in the Illinois House on Tuesday attached their own list of demands to budget negotiations in Springfield. Top Madigan lieutenant state Rep Lou Lang, D-Skokie, said if Gov. Bruce Rauner continues to insist on workers’ compensation reforms and property tax freezes, they’re going to insist on a new business tax and an Obamacare guarantee.

At a head-scratcher of a press conference Tuesday morning, Democratic leaders in the House – not the top leader, mind you – made clear that they’re ready to “roll up their sleeves” and get to work with Gov. Bruce Rauner on finding common ground on a budget and structural reforms that Rauner has insisted be a part of any deal.

Illinois is home to the highest workers’ compensation costs in the region, and the weakest manufacturing recovery. New research details pain points and ways to fix the system while protecting worker safety.

Illinois used to see 45,000 new homes built each year. Bill Ward, director of the Illinois Home Builders Association, said crews are lucky to get a quarter of that in 2017. “The state of Illinois is 50th in the nation in new home construction,” Ward said. “And we’ve been in last place for the past five years.”

On Monday, the state released a list of insurers that responded to a request for proposals to be part of Rauner’s re-imagined Medicaid managed care program. In Medicaid managed care, private insurers administer Medicaid benefits, whereas the state administers benefits in traditional Medicaid.

Some Illinois lawmakers are demanding answers from the Department of Children and Family Services about recent child abuse deaths and new policies that push investigators to speed up abuse and neglect investigations.

Memo to politicians: If you want your op-eds read, don’t publish them behind a paywall.