State Rep. Brad Halbrook, R-Shelbyville, said people have a constitutional right to peaceably assemble. “It’s really shameful that they report that I was caught having a holiday party. It was out there for all the world to see and anybody could come and go as they wished or chose.”

With the failure of the progressive income tax amendment Nov. 3, Pritzker has promised difficult choices will be made and a tax increase is likely coming. Prior to the election, his administration threatened Illinoisans with a 20% tax increaseif voters did not approve his “fair tax.”

Another passage has been criticized for allowing facts to be tossed aside in favor of a person’s own truth. It states educators should “understand and value the notion that multiple lived experiences exist, that there is not one ‘correct’ way of doing or understanding something.”

Gov. Pritzker said any business that took a Business Interruption Grant and is not following the law will have the funding taken away. “I feel terrible for the law abiding bar and restaurant owners that there are others out there that are trying to take advantage of the public and get them sick.”

Angela Mehlbrech was escorted from the facility and represents the first of possibly other personnel moves to come in response to an outbreak where 108 residents and 97 staff members have tested positive for the virus since Nov. 1. Also out is the director of nursing, who has been placed on administrative leave.

The investigation by the House committee is separate from an independent investigation by the acting inspector general from the Illinois Department of Human Services, announced last week. It is also not in coordination with Rep. Stephanie Kifowit, chairwoman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, who has called for an in-person committee meeting in Chicago currently set for Dec. 15.

House Minority Leader Jim Durkin said tax increases won’t work and would punish small businesses, which are already struggling during the pandemic; with the rejection of the progressive income tax amendment in November, taxpayers have spoken. “And those are Democrats, independents and Republicans who have had it, who are frustrated and mad as heck that Springfield is continuing to pick their pocket because of their careless and reckless decisions with state money.”

Saint Xavier University Center for Fraud and Corruption Director David Parker said that it “likely stings” to lose a witness like Sandoval for any future prosecutions, but his absence probably isn’t fatal to their case; there will likely be a “battle of motions” to get comments from Sandoval removed or to remain admissible in a court of law.

Pritzker said his teenage daughter, Teddi, was in Florida with his wife, and would “remain there indefinitely” because she had started receiving “hateful and threatening messages.”

Some Democrats have privately suggested plans are in place to increase income taxes during the lame duck session before the new legislature is sworn in on January 13th. Governor Pritzker has indicated he intends to use $2 billion in borrowing from the federal government as well as cuts before raising taxes, but he may not be getting much help from lawmakers to identify necessary cuts.

Coronavirus mitigations are dramatically different across state borders. Illinois and Michigan have long lists of rules and recommendations for the public, businesses, schools and more. Other states like Wisconsin only have suggestions for staying safe, but that is because all rules have to get legislative approval first, leaving Evers’ administration with little to no power over COVID enforcement.

Given the steep challenges school districts are facing trying to find substitute teachers during the pandemic, officials at the Illinois State Board of Education recently launched an emergency program to allow “unlicensed persons of good character” to serve at schools as “supervisors, chaperones or sponsors,” either as volunteers or for pay, during the declared public health emergency.