“The LaSalle County Republicans have received hundreds upon hundreds of emails, text messages, and phone calls from our county and beyond expressing their frustration and a lot more with Congressman Kinzinger’s actions and statements the past few months,” said Larry Smith, the county’s GOP chair. “Many have been very direct that their support for the Republican Party is over if Congressman Kinzinger’s behavior isn’t addressed.”

“It’s proof that patience and persistence are key. “

A settlement was reached Thursday between a coalition of attorneys general, including Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, and the consulting firm McKinsey. McKinsey was sued due to its work for Purdue Pharma, the company behind the manufacture of OxyContin, an addictive opioid, which helped exacerbate the opioid crisis.

This week, attorney Thomas DeVore filed a motion asking a Sangamon County judge to voluntarily dismiss the lawsuits he initiated against Pritzker and eight local health department officials in Region 4. DeVore argues the lawsuits are no longer necessary, citing statements from health department officials from four of the eight health departments that they never enforced the executive orders because they lacked the authority to do so.

Tulsa, Oklahoma, is offering $10,000 dollars to pack up and relocate. The Tulsa Remote program requires that you already have a job and stay at least one year. “Already this year, just from Jan. 1, we’ve had 300 people from Illinois apply,” said program manager Grant Bumgarner. Funding for Tulsa Remote comes from the George Kaiser Family Foundation.

State Rep. David Welter, R-Morris, said the bill barely passed in the final hours of a lameduck session. “I imagine there was some arm twisting on the other side to get that bill to that 60 votes, so by no means was this a mandate. They pulled out all the tricks and stops to get this thing passed.”

U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis said any new federal funding for Illinois must come with strings attached. “Because we’ve seen that Gov. [J.B.] Pritzker and his administration have failed miserably in spending the dollars, the billions that we’ve given the state in the multiple COVID relief packages since March of last year.”

Advocates for pension reform like Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski say it’s time to end lawmaker pensions. “If there’s one way to start pension reform it should be with their plans, we should move them to 401(k) style plans immediately. Pension checks may bounce in the future and these legislators have just dramatically failed to manage it.”

Dr. Rajeev Kumar, medical director at two suburban facilities, said roughly 90% of residents have chosen to be vaccinated, while about 40% to 50% of staff have. “The front-line staff are made up of ethnic minorities and our country has had a long history of inequities, health and social, and also a history of governmental distrust. All of this combined together with the prevailing misinformation in the community … a lot of people are questioning these vaccines, and that has trickled down to our front line health care staff.”

That’s a 58% decrease from the week before, when 95,481 people filed claims, but still a 309% increase over the same time last year.

With no actual penalty for noncompliance and no financial assistance being offered for the equipment or the data storage fees, it’s unclear how successful the provision will be in encouraging the adoption of body cameras.

In Illinois, 225,409 forgivable Paycheck Protection Program loans valued at approximately $22.85 billion were approved, according to the Small Business Administration; Congress passed legislation in December making the change explicitly tax exempt. Whether states, who also impose a tax on forgiven loans, will agree is a different matter.

The complaint letter American Institute of Action released included dozens of pages of exhibits featuring news articles and internal emails obtained via the state’s Freedom of Information Act. Among them is an April 19 statement, which Dr. Ezike said COVI-19 deaths are classified as “anyone who passes away after testing positive for the virus is included in that category,” and “even if you died of a clear alternate cause, but you had COVID at the time, it’s still listed as a COVID death.”