Mark Konkol: “From the pandemic’s start, Pritzker has consistently downplayed the omnipresent uncertainty of scientific research that guides him. His administration still keeps coronavirus predictive modeling that determines pandemic policy a state secret. And when faced with a Greek chorus of skeptics, the governor warned of the dangers of continued disobedience…”

“Again and again, we see endless delays instead of action: canceled hearings, using the pandemic as an excuse to not schedule hearings, hiding behind another task force instead of taking action,” Illinois House Minority Leader Jim Durkin, R-Western Springs, said Tuesday.

Illinois House Democratic Caucus Chair Rep. Kathleen Willis (D-Addison) is is the 19th member to announce their vote against the Speaker.

The governor announced Monday that dining out in Illinois will continue to be banned for at least the next few weeks. But some restaurants continue to thumb their nose at the restrictions not fearing any repercussions.

Jim Dey: “For what they’re worth, these opinions represent the fears and anger that some students have of the reaction of other students, not the UI administration. They’re somewhat akin to the complaints of Jewish students who recently filed a campus climate complaint with the U.S. Department of Education.”

The roughly $908 billion proposal includes $288 billion in small business aid such as Paycheck Protection Program loans, $160 billion in state and local government relief and $180 billion to fund a $300 per week supplemental unemployment benefit through March, according to a draft framework.

“November was a month of contrasts, with rising rates of COVID-19 infections accompanied by positive news about the likely early availability of a vaccine. It also appears the country has avoided a presidential election impasse,” said University of Illinois economist J. Fred Giertz. “This helps to explain the contrast between the equity markets experiencing the strongest month in over 30 years and the real economy showing little progress.”

State Rep. La Shawn FordFord traced the mistrust of medical experiments back to the U.S. government’s Tuskegee syphilis research, which withheld treatment of poor Black men over a 40-year period. While he called on the governor “to convene a commission to make sure that this is done right,” a Prtizker spokeswoman noted that the administration’s vaccine distribution plan already “has an equity lens on it that prioritizes communities hardest hit by the virus.”

“Unlike doctors, who are ethically obliged to help even patients who cause their own medical distress, the federal government is not obligated to help irresponsible states in financial distress. Places like New York state or Illinois need to be bailed out during every emergency, and then they inevitably fail to address the issue during good times. Instead of pruning their budgets, they hike spending between recessions.”

“Some legislators continue to carry water for them and continue to push for an extension for formula rates, and to me it seems crazy that any legislator would consider that given the circumstances,” said Abe Scarr, director of Illinois PIRG. “But that’s where we continue to be in Illinois politics at the end of 2020.”

The week of Nov. 13, the latest PUA weekly status report we have shows as many as 79,000 people didn’t get paid because the system couldn’t verify their identities. The Call Center Operations Report shows there are fewer agents working each day now than in the summer – in the low 300s on Nov. 13 compared to the mid-400s in the middle of August.

The report from Illinois PIRG, in effect, charged that ComEd’s political clout helped influence legislation that ultimately made the measuring sticks for utility reliability too weak and the ability to make money too easy.