New COVID-19 safety guidelines released Tuesday by the Illinois State Board of Education suggest in-person learning should be prioritized over extracurricular activities. The board also said students who are at increased risk for severe illness must be provided with the option of remote learning.

When asked to explain the issues with the scheduler, what is being done to fix them and a timeline for when they might be resolved, Walgreens said the effort “continues to rapidly evolve with fluxing vaccine inventories, varying eligibility guidelines, and continued demand that outweighs inventory.”

Mayor Jim Langfelder thinks in order to get the economy back on track, the city should aim toward being full reopened for the warmer months, but it should be done slowly and in phases. “That’s simply what I’ve asked the state, to take a look and reconsider, move that number, and readjust it. Otherwise, we are looking at herd immunity and there’s speculation on when that will even happen.”

The Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability presented its revenue update and economic forecast for the current fiscal year Tuesday morning. “Let’s not kid ourselves,” Revenue Manager Jim Muschinske stressed. “There is a lot of uncertainty that still resides out there. And until things are well in hand, it’s hard to be too optimistic obviously.”

Individuals who have been convicted at least twice of aggravated cruelty or violations such as dog fighting are barred from owning or having custody of any animal. Rep. Daniel Didech’s legislation would give discretion to judges to extend that prohibition to other members of the offender’s household.

At issue is what’s known as the “B.H.” consent decree, which grew out of a federal class action lawsuit the ACLU originally filed against DCFS in 1988 alleging the agency was failing to provide adequate services to children in its care. The parties entered the consent decree in December 1991, requiring DCFS to make extensive changes over the next two and a half years.

“Illinois cannot justify completely and indefinitely denying its residents their fundamental Second Amendment right to carry a functional concealed firearm in public to defend their lives and families while they wait for the ISP to approve their CCL applications,” the lawsuit states.

“Thankfully we’ve recovered approximately half of the jobs lost, but certainly there is a long way to go,” COGFA Revenue Manager Jim Muschinske said. And while income taxes are down about 1%, the tax withholding from unemployment is way up, he said.

The study shows the average Illinois household pays nearly $9,500 a year in state and local taxes, the highest in the nation.

Alderman have been considered “conservators of the peace” under Illinois law since 1872, granting them the power to make arrests and carry a concealed handgun in the case they or someone else is under immediate threat of bodily harm. They also have badges. But because Chicago is a home-rule municipality, city alderman were able to pass legislation making themselves exempt from the state-mandated firearm training required of law officers to carry firearms.

Although most anti-racism efforts in education have focused on classroom teachers, “school leaders have a huge role to play in the process of challenging whiteness and developing anti-racist cultures and staff,” Tanner said.

“Anti-racist values and skillsets need to be threaded throughout all the courses,” Welton said.

A republication of our Wirepoints article.

The most recent report released Tuesday by Fitch Ratings affirms Illinois’ issuer default rating is BBB-, “notably lower than other states.” S&P Global Ratings also affirmed the state’s BBB- rating for long-term general obligation debt. But the agencies differed on the outlook with Fitch giving Illinois a negative outlook while S&P revised the state’s negative outlook to stable.

Franklin County Circuit Clerk Jim Muir “Perhaps one of the best solutions might be to try and get some business in Illinois, instead of Illinois leading the nation every year in people moving out. It would be encouraging to see some new businesses developed.”

“Why the federal site, using a new batch of federal vaccine, excludes eligibility from the suburbs and the rest of the state remains a mystery that Pritzker didn’t clear up Monday…In the release announcing the changes Sunday, FEMA Region 5 Acting Regional Administrator Kevin Singh implied FEMA was going along with the state’s changes.”

The number of Illinois residents who have been fully vaccinated — receiving both of the required shots — reached 1,194,320, or 9.37% of the total population.

State housing officials are preparing to launch another round of COVID-19 emergency rental assistance grants, funded with $500 million from the federal government as part of the relief package approved in December. The funds will go directly to landlords in most cases, officials said.

“For too long we have seen a revolving door of legislators leaving office, often part way through their term, only to immediately become a lobbyist,” said Rep. Dave Vella. “This revolving door in Springfield has allowed for too many crooked deals with elected officials no longer acting in the best interest of the public and only the best interest of themselves.”

State Rep. Dave Vella introduced the bill as one of his first after winning a close race against former state Rep. John Cabello; Vella also refused to enroll in the retirement system. “We need to make sure we are not wasting resources to fund unnecessary perks for politicians. As our state continues to face financial problems, we should not be adding new financial burdens by promising to pay for the retirements of career politicians.”

Researchers: “Like in so many states, California and Illinois schools are being hamstrung by the CDC guidance. The guidance does not take into account the data we have regarding little disease transmission in schools. Nor, although the guidance cites the work performed across Wisconsin districts performed by our group and published in the MMWR, does it take that data and new analyses from that dataset into account. Keeping schools closed or even partially closed, based on what we know now is unwarranted, is harming children, and has become a human rights issue.”

“If you think California, Illinois, New Jersey and New York are melting down now, wait until they have to compete against regions of the country in the South and the mountain states with no income taxes.”

Rep. Martin Moylan said he presented an identical bill in 2018, but ended up holding it from going to a full vote because of concerns from the Toll Highway Authority, which agreed to work on a resolution. Two and a half years later, the Tollway is still opposed to the legislation due to concerns of the General Assembly setting toll rates and the inability to differentiate between trailer sizes with existing technology.

How many phone numbers are sitting in the IDES callback queue? The total is 155,765 as of our last filled public records request from late February.

Rep. Jim Durkin: “This bill is not about fairness but is outright vilification of law enforcement in Illinois. At one of the most lawless times in our state’s history, punishing the men and women who wear the badge will not make our streets and communities safer.”