Recently released emails reveal how Illinois Speaker Madigan’s former consigliere and aides worked overtime to make sure his “word was gold.”

The challenge invoked an Illinois state law, signed last summer by Gov. JB Pritzker, which bars voters from applying term limits retroactively, to essentially forbid current mayors, trustees or council members from seeking reelection under the new rules. Rather, all municipal term limit referendums must apply prospectively, the state law said.

Schools that fail to comply with the ban would be ineligible to participate in any playoffs, according to the text of the bill.

Comment: In this article, Mark D. Rosen, a Professor at the IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, says precisely what we have long written at Wirepoints — that the U.S. Constitution is not an impediment to a state constitutional amendment to authorize reasonable pension reform. And, just as we wrote here, he says Governor Prtitzker’s was wrong to say that approach is “fantasy.”

“The problem is a system that’s set up to be gamed by those who seek elected office to better themselves, rather than Illinoisans. Now more than ever, the Land of Lincoln needs to get serious about foundational ethics reforms to end its culture of corruption.”

The bill requires public schools to inform the public at least 90 days before the signing of a contract to use polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon. Those entities also must post, for a minimum of 10 years after application, signage on the school’s grounds regarding the dangers the use of the chemical poses.

Illinois has rules about gifts to public officials and state employees, spelling out what they’re supposed to do with swag they’re given by anyone besides a limited list of relatives or friends. Gifts or donations for political campaigns are tallied on separate filings with the Illinois State Board of Elections.