“During the spring when the pandemic hit, Illinois got hurt worse than other states because they have less margin for error with their budget,” said Daniel Solender, director of the municipal bond group at Lord, Abbett & Co. LLC, which holds Illinois debt as part of $31 billion in municipal assets. “Of the states, Illinois is benefiting the most from the recovery of the lower quality part of the municipal bond market.”

The letter was signed by six Madigan-aligned state representatives: Michael Zalewski, D-Riverside, Frances Hurley, D-Chicago, John D’Amico, D-Chicago, Nick Smith, D-Chicago, Justin Slaughter, D-Chicago, and Mike Halpin, D-Rock Island.

Sen. Dave Koehler and Rep. Fred Crespo filed companion bills in the General Assembly which call for reducing the enrollment-based payments by 20 percent for the duration of the COVID-19 disaster declaration. They argue that patient demand for routine, nonemergency medical services like outpatient procedures has plummeted amid the pandemic, while the insurance companies that manage the program have received the same per-patient monthly rates, resulting in higher profit margins.

A trio of Illinois counties are known for being plaintiff friendly, especially for asbestos and no-injury biometric screening cases. COVID-19 liability is expected to fill future court dockets.

Given state Rep. Carol Ammons’ status as a former Urbana City Council member and chairwoman of the Champaign County Democratic party, the investigation took a circuitous route. Her husband Aaron Ammons is Champaign County clerk.

Jim Dey: “Vrdolyak was a symbol of days gone by — the ringleader of the decades-old Chicago City Council wars in which he led White aldermen in a ceaseless struggle for political power against Black aldermen led by Mayor Harold Washington…By contrast, Sandoval epitomized the current grubby corruption and dysfunction of state and local government in Illinois.”

“Illinois is now averaging 152 deaths per day from COVID-19. That’s an average of 35 more individuals per day than the worst rate that we reached back in the spring,” Gov. JB Pritzker said.

Mike Madigan’s approval rating was only 20% before the ComEd bribery scandal exploded, yet the vast majority of Illinoisans have no power to remove him as the powerful leader of the Illinois House.

An annual report from Illinois’ Commission on Government Accountability and Forecasting.

Most of the nine people in this report said they’ve been waiting several weeks for a callback, or they got one after months, or they were disconnected.