In this Q&A-style report, Speaker Emanuel Chris Welch says, “We need to remember these bills that were put together as part of the Black Caucus agenda, came together after a black man was killed when someone put their knee on his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. Law enforcement needs to realize reform needs to happen, reform is on the way, and Gov. Pritzker needs to sign the bill as is.”

Region 1 in northwest Illinois and Region 2 in north-central Illinois each moved to Phase 4, which allows for indoor dining and drinking and, after last Friday’s announcement from the Illinois Department of Public Health, competitive participation in high school athletics. Regions 3 in west-central Illinois, 5 in southern Illinois and 6 in east-central Illinois are all already in Phase 4.

The Illinois State’s Attorneys Association criticized the legislation, as did the Illinois Law Enforcement Coalition, saying it will make Illinois less safe. “There are more provisions in here that give benefits to offenders than it does to the victims of crimes,” said James Black, the president of the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police.

Jobs losses were felt in every sector of the state economy, except for construction employment which saw a December surge that recouped the year’s losses.

While total numbers for the decade were bad, the ongoing worry is because losses were accelerating.

With 700,000 union workers in Illinois, the state remained among seven that account for more than half of all union members across the nation. California, with 2.4 million union workers, and New York, with 1.7 million, were tops, while Pennsylvania also had 700,000 and Michigan, New Jersey, and Ohio had 600,000 apiece.

IDES reported: “In December, the three industry sectors with the largest over-the-month gains in employment were professional and business services (+13,000), trade, transportation, and utilities (+10,100), and construction (+8,300).” But those gains combined did not make up for the loss of another 41,000 jobs in leisure and hospitality, and information services lost more than 1,000 positions as well.

State Sen. Robert Peters, who sponsored the bill, said, “We cannot cede who’s allowed to define public safety for us. For too long, we’ve allowed law enforcement to tell us what it means to have a safe community, even though many of them don’t live in our community to begin with. So I think the first part about trying to pass transformative pieces of legislation like this is that organizations, legislators and folks who are working on policy understand it is on us to find the safety that we need in our community.”

One priority the lawmakers have for new House Speaker Chris Welch is a rule change that would take away the speaker’s ability to bury bills in committees at will and without explanation. Such a change was seen as futile during Madigan’s 36-year run as speaker.

New state procurement provisions that prioritize descendants of American slavery in state purchasing decisions concerned President and CEO of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce Todd Maisch. “Employers really don’t know how that’s going to work, and they suspect it’s going to make it much, much harder to go ahead and sell a lot of products and services to the state of Illinois.”

Katherine Loughead, senior policy analyst with the Tax Foundation, says the high rates combined with a comparatively narrow tax base means Illinois’ system could use an overhaul. “Illinois is missing out on a lot of revenue it could receive from certain consumer goods and services. One of the ways in which Illinois could really generate some new revenue in a good way, rather than an economic economically harmful way, is by broadening the base and modernizing it to a bigger basket of consumer goods and services.”

Senate Minority Leader Dan McConchie, R-Hawthorn Woods, said other states are getting mostly back to normal with in-person legislating and Illinois should too. “The public, in general, should be available. They need to have access to their elected representatives in a manner that’s more than just having a constituent email.”

“You’re going to have some communities that can’t afford this that won’t comply, and you’ll have some sort of litigation. The only other recourse is pass (the cost) to taxpayers, and residents have to pay for this now,” said Jim Black, President of the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police.

A few presidents learned that the hard way. Northwestern President Morton Schapiro found himself in hot water for castigating anti-police demonstrators who had lit fires and vandalized local chain businesses in Evanston. “They care more about private property than human lives,” one student said, condemning Schapiro and other critics of the violence.

“I think his legacy is being the most powerful legislative leader and effective legislative leader,” said Republican Jim Edgar, 74. “Madigan, I think, gets blamed for a lot of things and he probably gets credit for a lot of things he didn’t really do or control, but he was first among equals, there’s no doubt about that, in the legislature.”

Jim Dey: “’There is a big difference between saying, ‘We will let you talk’ and ‘We will let you participate in the decision-making,’’ she said. (Champaign County State’s Attorney Julia) Rietz said there was ‘absolutely not’ a collaborative process.”