“I am proposing we move to adopt changes to the House rules that require members, staff and the public to wear masks, submit to temperature checks prior to entering the building each day and observe social distancing guidelines outlined by public health experts while inside the Bank of Springfield Center,” Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan said in a statement. “The House will take up this rule change immediately upon convening Wednesday.”

“Free the legislative inspector general from interference and oversight by the very lawmakers the inspector general is supposed to investigate. Reconfigure the ethics commission to make it truly independent — to facilitate the IG’s work, not impede it. That means no lawmaker should serve as a member. It’s a baked-in conflict of interest. And allow the IG greater powers to interview and investigate complaints and make them public without signoff of the commission.”

Sheila Weinberg founded Truth In Accounting, a nonprofit that is nonpartisan, but one whose mission it is to give citizens the unvarnished truth about the financial condition of governments. What the REAL numbers show, says Weinberg, is that if the state of Illinois were a business, it would be bankrupt.

State Rep. Delia Ramirez (4th District) said she has conferred with the realtors association and “clarified that rent cancellation can only work if there is a fund to make landlords whole, and we are working to maximize funding to do that. I think they appreciated hearing that.”

U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley of Chicago touted the bill’s “$2.1 billion for (the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) to support state, local, and tribal health departments,” adding, “We know that we will not be able to fully revitalize our economy until we have this health-care crisis under control so the HEROES Act includes $75 billion for testing, tracing, and treatment and it ensures all Americans have increased access to health insurance.”

“In addition to bailing out numerous irresponsible state and local governments and the Postal Service, the legislation is chock full of radical, wildly irresponsible provisions that clearly show that congressional Democrats are more concerned with expanding their power and pleasing their allies than they are fixing our broken economy.”

Comment: “Testing, testing, testing. That’s what every epidemiologist, every immunologist, every responsible business owner and everyone who cares about safely opening up our economy says we must do to successfully maintain a high standard of protection as we move into phase three and phase four,” Pritzker said earlier.

Should these institutions in Winnebago County reopen on June 1, that would be nearly a month earlier than the reopening date outlined in the timeline Gov. J.B. Pritzker put forth earlier this month. While the county’s timeline differs from the governor’s, Rockford Mayor Tom McNamara was not seeking a legal fight with Pritzker over the reopening plan.

Offering Exelon a separate market to sell power in would likely result in higher energy bills, said Todd Maisch, president of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce: “This is yet another subsidy of a business’ assets that are, admittedly by the company, profitable. Those subsidies are going to be paid by all of the other businesses that are struggling to survive in today’s economic atmosphere.”

The Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, or JCAR, is facing pressure to strike down Pritzker’s new rule at its Wednesday meeting, scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Rep. Keith Wheeler, R-North Aurora, announced that he will file a motion during the meeting to object to the governor’s new rule. In order to successfully block the rule, at least eight of the 12 JCAR members must approve the objection.

Special session differs from regular session in that only certain topics can be addressed. This means legislation unrelated to those topics may not be called, debated or voted on. The seven topics at hand are: COVID-19-related legislation, state budget, economic recovery and infrastructure projects, progressive income tax constitutional amendment, sunset clauses, the 2020 general election, and a hospital assessment program.

The state’s unemployment system has been a problem for years, being slow to react to claims and making financial errors. It sent out $142 million erroneously last year, recovering less than $1 out of every $5 after mistakes were discovered. It also just exposed private data for some self-employed workers who on May 11 became eligible for benefits.

The looming battle in the Oregon Supreme Court comes as a case is pending before a lower court in Illinois that has the potential to invalidate that state’s coronavirus restrictions implemented by Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker. A judge who ruled against Pritzker’s order as it applied to just one state lawmaker will hear arguments Friday in a case that attempts to undo the order in its entirety

“Just because Illinois’ public finances are a familiar mess to those of us who live here doesn’t mean this state can’t be humiliated nationwide. With Congress now mulling whether to send financial assistance to state capitals, the only state whose creditworthiness is rated a whisker above junk stands out like jalopy at the Indy 500.”

Gov. Pritzker carries a history of using his personal fortune to fund Illinois expenses. In January of 2020, the Illinois Senate introduced a bill aimed at preventing Pritzker from using private finances on public expenses.

House Joint Resolution 123 requires a simple majority vote from lawmakers, a move that could boost the COVID-19 economic recovery.

“This latest unilateral decision by the governor is one more reason why the executive branch should be working with the legislative branch on responses and solutions to the current health pandemic. The checks and balances we provide are critical to our state,” said Assistant House Minority Leader Grant Wehrli (R-Naperville).

“Nobody’s getting arrested or handcuffed,” Pritzker administration general counsel Ann Spillane said. “But they are getting a citation where they would have to go to court.”

With more than two months to catch up on, but only three days to meet, lawmakers will hope to pass essential bills while minimizing the risk of spreading the novel virus. COVID-19 is the first topic that appears in the special session proclamation; That could mean laws specifically tailored to the pandemic or aimed at economic recovery related to it. And legislators are legally obligated to pass a budget, which takes effect July 1.

Mark Konkol: “Not only is that kind of hate-filled rhetoric vile and unacceptable, it allows Pritzker to easily dismiss valid criticism of his leadership as the musings of anti-Semitic mob of right-wing radicals… But the governor still needs to be held accountable for his mistakes, broken promises and an alarming lack of transparency at the heart of why many people don’t trust him to have so much unchecked power.”