The database now includes updated salary information available for nearly 511,800 state, municipal, school and many other employees.

While the state is excluding Champaign County data because of the UI, Awais Vaid, deputy administrator at the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District, said the health district has “never viewed campus as separate from the community. Most of the faculty, staff and graduate students are yearlong residents of our community, and even the undergraduates spend (the) majority of their time during the year in our community and contribute extensively.”

Jim Dey: “He (Madigan) contends it is ‘a political stunt motivated by a transparent political agenda.’ That, of course, is true. The GOP is trying to score political points at Madigan’s expense. In fact, the probe is so unprincipled and deceitful, it’s exactly what Madigan, one of whose nicknames is the ‘Velvet Hammer,’ would have done to Durkin if their positions were reversed.”

The video, which has been viewed more than 2.9 million times, plays audio of debate moderator Chris Wallace asking the president if he is willing to condemn the violence committed by white supremacists and other militia groups seen in cities such as Portland and Kenosha. The video shows a still of Rittenhouse on the night he is accused of killing two protesters in Kenosha and injuring one other.

The early voting locations are open. So are the Driver Services Facilities. But why are the Illinois Department of Employment Security buildings still closed?

The university blamed the situation on confusion over FDA protocols. “Our test continues to play a critical role in allowing us to monitor and prevent the spread of COVID-19, and our seven-day positivity rate is at 0.36%,” a university spokeswoman said.

Caucus Chair state Sen. Kimberly Lightford was asked whether she believed Madigan’s promise “to try” to support the ILBC’s initiatives: “He didn’t say he would try. He said he would. Let’s not water down his statement, or the statement of the Senate president or the governor…“a man is only as good as his word, and that’s the word the man gave us.”

Republicans Thursday sent the committee chairman 10 draft subpoenas of people they want to testify, including Madigan, former ComEd lobbyist John Hooker, former lobbyist Michael McClain, former Exelon Utilities CEO Anne Parmaggiore, former Chicago Alderman Michael Zalewski, former ComEd lobbyist Jay Doherty, and Fidel Marquez, who pleaded guilty to bribery in the case on Tuesday.

Illinois Department of Public Health Director Ngozi Ezike explained, “Of Course the No. 1 exposure commonality that people have is their workplace and we can’t close, stop people from going to work.” Other public health officials say the spread is mostly happening within family units and other congregate settings.

Illinoisans with net incomes over $100,000 are 15% of the taxpayers. They earn 54% of the state’s income but pay 62% of the state’s income taxes. Those earning less than $25,000 are 46% of the taxpayers. They earn 14% of the state’s income and pay 6% of the income taxes.

“Specifically, should Springfield have the power to tax Illinoisans — every one of us — in new ways and at higher rates? That could include the power to create a new tax bracket on retirement income. And the power to hike taxes on 100,000 small businesses immediately, as they struggle to climb out of the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression.”

Comment: About 1/3 way down, actuary Mary Pat Campbell puts the infection fatality rate for COVID that we recently wrote about into context by comparing it, for older individuals, to their expected mortality from other causes.

“This election may be the breaking point for a lot of voters who see dropping home prices and rising taxes as the moment to cash in what remaining equity is left and join the growing stampede of those leaving Illinois behind.”

“There should be statues and monuments erected,” Advance Illinois president Robin Steans said of the educational effort but “this is a significant disruption…The amount of learning time that is lost, compounded by summer learning loss and the implications down the line on educational attainment, lifetime earnings, is powerful.”

That’s a 13% increase from the 25,976 claims filed in Illinois one week earlier, the week of Sept. 14, but more than four times the 6,793 claims filed in the same timeframe of 2019.

“We need a justice that is much more even-handed, isn’t always with trial lawyers and organized labor, especially in this time of a difficult economy,” Illinois Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Todd Maisch said.

Vistra Energy absorbed nine of the state’s coal plants during a corporate merger just two years ago. Vistra is the latest company to abandon coal in the Midwest, though it plans to keep operating its coal plants in Texas.

“Honestly, I think most of us know it was a good day when we are able to link somebody to a resource where that person is more calm at the end of the conversation than they were at the beginning.”

“With about one month to go before Illinoisans vote on whether to amend the state constitution and switch to a graduated income tax, let’s review two of the lesser-known tax policies embedded within the F’air Tax.'”

“You shouldn’t be prohibited from advocating for people that you know, or relatives,” state Rep. Chris Welch, D-Hillside, said. “Those black women, all but my mom, were doctors, well qualified.” Welch explained why he went to the speaker to accomplish that goal: “Because I wanted them to get selected and I wanted them to get the best opportunity possible.”