Illinois Senate spokesman John Patterson sent the Illinois Legislative Correspondents Association an email that said anyone who wants to cover the Senate in-person – which has been virtually impossible over the past year – take two COVID-19 saliva tests every week. The cost of each test is $30, payable by the news outfit.

Pritzker did start out his first term with a string of legislative victories, including the legalization of recreational marijuana, the passage of a massive expansion of gambling – including approval of the long-sought Chicago casino — and an infrastructure package. But former Republican Gov. Jim Edgar said the key issue is Pritzker’s handling of the coronavirus. “The trouble sometimes I found was you can win nine things, but if you lost the tenth thing, people remember the last thing,” Edgar said.

“Analysts at Wirepoints, a website whose interests include state finances, write that ‘healthy funds have ratios that ranged from 25 to 40 years worth of assets.’ If there’s any good news here — there’s really not — it’s that the state’s official underfunding estimate is a mere $144 billion, a number that’s certain to increase.”

Wirepoints’s Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner: “Welch is right about the trust factor, but he’s wrong to think Illinoisans will suddenly approve a tax hike just because the Legislature promises to funnel the new revenue to pensions. They know it’s unlikely politicians will keep their promise.”

Of the 177 legislators in the current Illinois General Assembly, 112 signed up for a pension through the optional state retirement system. It provides an average monthly benefit of $5,512 to retirees for life. The General Assembly Retirement System alone racked up nearly $375 million of pension liability in fiscal year 2019, and the state can cover roughly 16% of it.

“Why are we creating yet another layer and another way for people either claimaints or IDES staff to make mistakes and just add to the giant pile of work that you all and we all are dealing with,” State Rep. Lindsey LaPointe said.

Several schools saw large declines in enrollment to start the current school year. Chicago State University saw freshman enrollment decline 30%, and the Illinois State University in Normal saw a 13% decline in new freshman.

Health officials say it happened because of a misinterpretation of who qualified for the shots under Group 1B. Guidelines allowed for vaccinations for teachers and staffers in elementary and secondary education, but not higher education.

Processing time for FOID card applications, as of January, was averaging 121.74 days. As to renewals, the ISP did not have an average processing length, but Sgt. Christopher “Joey” Watson emailed, “There are approximately 138,000 renewal applications pending at this time.”

“Maine passed a courtroom animal advocate program law, which basically allows there to be a victim advocate in the courtroom for the animal victim,” said Kathleen Wood, of the Animal Legal Defense Fund. “But Illinois is definitely not getting worse. It still has very comprehensive and strong laws overall.”

According to the news release, the $1.9 trillion package, which must return to the House for a concurrence vote because of changes made in the Senate, Illinois stands to receive: $275 million for vaccine distribution; $1.5 billion for state health departments; more than $100 million for mental health and substance abuse treatment efforts; $5 billion for K-12 schools; about $1.3 billion for institutions of higher education; about $39 million for Head Start programs; and about $1.3 billion for child care providers.

Critics say it’s another unfunded mandate on schools.

Details of what the $1.9 trillion federal aid bill contains for Illinois.