The peaceful Trump rally at the Illinois State Capitol was called “Save the State.”

Jim Dey: “The 78-year-old Chicago politician has 54 votes but needs 60 retain the speaker’s post. If he falls short, as is now expected, the question is whether Madigan will abandon his candidacy, a move that he would find humiliating, or maintain his bid through a potentially protracted process that would block further House action. There are precedents in Illinois for leadership battles that paralyze the General Assembly.”

Quigley said he has one goal in mind – to get back to the House Floor to continue the election certification vote, and before the day is out, if possible. But other lawmakers said the riots on Wednesday make it clear that serious conversations about the future direction of the country are needed.

State Senator Andy Manar, who will resign his seat later this month and join Pritzker’s administration as a senior advisor, directed some pointed comments at the IHSA: “I do not believe the IHSA has handled this situation well…The idea that the IHSA would give direction to their members to go have sports, knowing that wasn’t going to happen and opening them up to legal ramifications for property tax payers. To me is just a move that was really ill-advised. Unfortunately that was the case.”

“So on Jan. 15, exactly one incubation period from New Year’s Day, any region that has met the metrics for a reduction of mitigations will be able to move out of Tier Three of our mitigation plan,” he said.

State lawmakers continue to get inundated with calls from constituents having problems with the state’s unemployment agency. Republicans Wednesday said problems began in March with a backlog of filers, which grew and grew as the government COVID-19 restrictions continued. Then the fraud reports began.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker last month revealed $711 million in cuts included $75 million from personnel “cost adjustments” and furlough days. Asked for an update on those furloughs and personnel cost adjustments Wednesday, Pritzker said: “nothing to announce yet.”

U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville, said on Twitter that he and his staff members were safe. “This is a sad day for our country. The lawlessness has got to stop. Protestors must leave the Capitol so Congress can resume the process of confirming the Electoral College vote,” he said.

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, said objections to the results of the Electoral College put a peaceful transition of power “at risk.”

Ryan Bandy, a business owner and officer with the Illinois Licensed Beverage Association, said on WMAY radio that local leaders are best suited to make local decisions. “We can’t just have this unilateral decision-making done by the governor all the time, this needs to stop. We need to get at least the legislature involved in it.”

Newly-sworn in Rep. Mary Miller was speaking at a rally in Washington, D.C. when a Twitter user posted video Tuesday showing a portion of her speech. “If we win a few elections, we’re still going to be losing unless we win the hearts and minds of our children. This is the battle. Hitler was right on one thing. He said, ‘Whoever has the youth has the future.’”

Economist Fred Giertz, who compiles the Flash Index for the U of I’s Institute of Government and Public Affairs, says Illinois tax receipts have improved a lot from the low they reached last spring. “Starting in the summer, there were all kinds of predictions about the bottom falling out of the state revenues. And they are in fact down, but not nearly as much as people expected.”

The age is lower than a government advisory panel’s recommendation of 75 and older. Pritzker said it was lowered in Illinois to make distribution more equitable, citing data showing elderly Black and Latino residents die younger from COVID-19.

Despite ongoing pandemic restrictions on other businesses, the 79 licensed pot stores in Illinois finished the year in December with $86.9 million in sales. That was more than $10 million more than was sold in November.

In doing so, Pritzker joins a growing number of governors who have tried to tweak CDC guidelines and state policies to address hitches in the vaccine delivery process. In Illinois, state agency officials and public employee unions are pointing their fingers at each other for the low vaccination rates of workers at veterans homes, even after 34 residents died of COVID-19 at one of the facilities.

Scott Reeder: “State representatives return to Springfield on Friday, but if you ask any of them what they expect to consider, you’re more than likely going to get a shrug. No one knows. It’s a mystery, wrapped in a conundrum and bound up in a riddle.”