Said Illinois Municipal League President Brad Cole, “Last year, I believe there were about 175 bills introduced that would have imposed an unfunded mandate. This legislation says we have to get serious about unfunded mandates and if the General Assembly isn’t going to pay for something, then they shouldn’t force it on another unit of government and make them pay for it.”

“Illinois Democrats are hell-bent on passing a new law—the REACH Act —that will require every school-age child in Illinois public schools to be introduced to homosexuality and cross-sex impersonation through mandatory “comprehensive sex ed.” To be clear, that’s every child from kindergarten on up…”

Jim Dey: “Surprise, surprise — the revised Welch rules aren’t much different than the Madigan rules. Give Welch credit though. He ran a great misdirection play — proposing term limits for House legislative leaders. The nice contrast to Madigan’s decadeslong tenure drew the lion’s share of media attention.”

That figure represents a 14% decrease from the week before, when 40,008 people filed. For comparison, during the same timeframe last year 9,794 people filed claims in Illinois. That’s a 250% increase.

Deputy Director Andrew Friend attributed the initial lag in numbers to requests from local public health departments to stay in Phase 1A of the vaccine distribution plan longer than other states. “We just wanted to be there to support them in that regard, and also ensure that everyone in 1A that could get addressed before we shifted to Phase 1B.”

Pritzker issued his first COVID-19 executive order March 9, 2020. His 13th order for another 30-day disaster proclamation was filed last week. While the state legislature steered clear of any legislation clarifying the governor’s authority, there have been numerous lawsuits against the rolling orders.

A 2018 law requires state jobs remain in Springfield as much as possible. That is unless those positions must be located elsewhere to serve a geographic function.

Sen. Don DeWitte said the lack of communication about the lifelines was entirely unacceptable. “Most of the people that I have in my district simply received letters in December that said the money was all gone and got virtually no communication as to why their application was denied, overlooked, or if it was even processed to begin with.”

How does a person end up with a $20,000 property tax bill on a $125,000 house? It defies logic and the answer is complicated.

Winnebago County Public Health Administrator Dr. Sandra Martell said that the health department expected 5,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine this week. However, according to state officials, the county is only entitled to 500 doses of the Moderna vaccine and 2,925 doses of the Pfizer vaccine. The county said it received the correct shipment of Pfizer vaccines for this week.

The Illinois State Police is working to outfit Illinois state troopers with body cams – at an estimated cost of $4.4 million.

U.S. House Republicans Adam Kinzinger, Darin LaHood, Rodney Davis and Mary Miller also released a statement backing Lausch as well as U.S. Attorney John Milhiser of the Central District of Illinois. Milhiser is prosecuting former state Sen. Sam McCann for fraud, money laundering and tax evasion.

And last week, the new speaker invited only deeper scrutiny of himself by allowing one of ComEd’s contract lobbyists to organize and host his first campaign fundraiser as the No. 1 House Democrat – a move that surprised some consumer advocates considering how ComEd’s past lobbying misdeeds damaged the utility’s brand and remain very much a fresh issue.

In Illinois, the Utah school’s problem looks like a minor dust-up compared with a proposed rule that a joint legislative committee is scheduled to decide soon. The proposed Culturally Responsive Teaching and Leading Standards would mandate all of the state’s public schoolteachers to “embrace and encourage inclusive viewpoints and perspectives.”