The state released a statement saying in part, “Several unemployed workers are being asked to pay back some of their unemployment benefits after the Illinois Department of Employment Security said they received too much money.” As for how something like this could happen, IDES says it is not aware of an issue within the PUA system miscalculating weekly benefit amounts.

Research done by AdvisorSmith claimed Peoria is number three on the fastest shrinking list. Peoria is one of three Illinois communities in their top ten, with Springfield ranking number five, and Rockford ranking number six.

Eric Zorn: “‘If’ is a dodge. It suggests a commitment to fairness and legal standards of proof, but is in reality a word of refuge for political cowards. Madigan needs to step down from party leadership and the speaker’s chair if for no other reason than that the brazen bribery scheme to which ComEd has confessed played out right under his nose.”

Elizabeth Bauer: “Ever since Gov. J.B Pritzker took office, he has acknowledged the deep difficulties the state of Illinois faces due to its pension debt…And for just as long, he’s refused to make any real reform to the system and rejected a constitutional amendment enabling pension reform. Why?”

Alan Bruggeman, a Mokena-based attorney representing the group of Chicagoland business owners, wrote in a court filing that by classifying some businesses as essential and others as non-essential, Pritzker’s executive orders were “applied in a completely arbitrary and capricious manner.”

“Both sides of the political spectrum should acknowledge that the science is not always clear—and even when it is, it rarely mandates a specific policy direction.”

Six of the governor’s 11 regions flash warning sign for positivity rate increase, but the number of hospital beds in use by COVID-19 patients remains relatively level near pandemic lows.

Chuck Miller, deputy state long-term care ombudsmen in Illinois, said using video chat isn’t the same as visiting a resident of a long-term care facility. “No, because when you walk in a facility you can see, smell and hear things, and now we have to look through windows.”

According to Johns Hopkins University data, Illinois’ seven-day rolling average of positive cases as a percentage of total tests was 3.8 percent on July 26. Indiana’s was 7.9 percent, Iowa’s was 9.3 percent, Missouri’s was 13.5 percent, and Wisconsin’s was 7.1 percent. Each of those states is performing fewer daily tests than Illinois and have fewer residents.

“But no matter how radical or pragmatic the proposal, there is one thing nearly all reform efforts in Illinois have in common: police unions’ veto power over them. This is because, oddly, state law in Illinois declares itself subservient to government employee union contracts.”

Three state lawmaker corruption probes led Illinois’ governor to call for three resignations, but the fourth involving Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan received a weaker response.

After learning about the need, community colleges and universities statewide started to train hundreds of people who hoped to become tracers. Experts such as Abigail Silva, a public health professor at Loyola University in Chicago, leveraged their resources to make ready. But she said her group, the Contact Tracing Corps, is still waiting to hear from the state after submitting an interest form more than a month ago.

“Speaker Madigan’s continued service in the legislature and on the Democratic State Central Committee are matters for his constituents to decide,” state Sen. Heather Steans, D-Chicago, said. “The many ethical questions swirling around him, however, should disqualify him from legislative or party leadership posts.”

The suit, filed in Cook County Monday, comes less than two weeks after ComEd stipulated to a “yearslong bribery scheme” involving jobs, contracts and payments to Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan’s allies as it sought favorable treatment from the legislature.