On appeal, Judge Diane Sykes found Susan Bennett’s agreement to pay dues was binding. “The First Amendment does not provide Bennett with a right to renege on her bargained-for commitment to pay union dues,” Sykes wrote. Quoting a 2020 Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision, Sykes added: “By joining the union and receiving the benefits of membership, (Bennett) also agreed to bear the financial burden of membership.”

Rich Miller: “In other words, Pritzker will have his own record to contend with instead of running against a horribly unpopular Republican incumbent in an off-year election during the term of a fabulously unpopular Republican president. The overall trend will not be so friendly next time, unless Pritzker gets lucky with a fatally flawed Republican opponent, or creates his own luck by quietly helping a far-right candidate across the finish line.”

A balanced budget “that protects our most vulnerable,” ethics reform — Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch said “you’re going to hear me talk about that a lot” — and the state’s upcoming redistricting process round out the top of his list. “I am really here to get things done — fast and decisively, but done well and collaboratively. People need us to act, they need to see us do that by working together.”

One area the federal dollars will not go toward is Illinois’ massive unfunded pension liability, currently in excess of $140 billion. “Not a penny of this will go toward mistakes of the past, or pension debt or anything like that. We’re going to be fiscally solvent, that is the goal, and we’re trying to stabilize our finances and inject some predictability and stability into our financial picture here,” Mendoza said.

As for its much-maligned callback system, we found the state’s ratio last summer was just as dire as many reported – in July, for example, completing only 36.5% of requested callbacks. Those numbers did improve in August, with an 88.4% completion rate. The completion rate took a dip in the fall, but that came as the agency fielded an enormous increase in fraud claims.

“We know other states are getting started with their redistricting process as well, Iowa is kicking off their process,” Senate President Don Harmon said. “Oklahoma seems to be a little bit ahead of us. Oklahoma evidently has announced that it’s going to begin using the 2019 estimated data from the American Community Survey, which in the past has been a fairly reliable predictor of what the final census data will look like.”

IDES Acting Director Kristin Richards requested a $450.4 million budget that includes a $133.9 million increase in federal spending over the previous fiscal year. She told a Senate committee that will help with the continued workload during the pandemic. “We’ve seen roughly 9,800 calls coming into the call center on a daily basis, but we are completing just under 13,000 calls per day,” Richards said.

The Health Care for All Illinois proposal from Rep. Mary Flowers would allow patients to go to any physician or hospital they choose. Providers wouldn’t charge people copays or deductibles either. Illinois would also create a health services trust to hold funding for the plan.

“BIPA doesn’t bar anyone from gathering biometric information. It simply requires that if, for example, a company decides to use thumbprint data to identify customers, the company had better be upfront about it. If anything, the law should be stronger.”

IDVA Chief of Staff Tony Kolbeck said 96.9 percent of residents and 53 percent of staff across the four homes are fully vaccinated. Specifically at LaSalle, 92 percent of residents and 62 percent of staff are vaccinated.

CEJA was crafted with a focus on equity aimed to tackle climate change concerns while also addressing social and environmental injustices in Illinois. Based on an analysis done by Ameren Illinois, CEJA would add $19.2 billion to downstate customer bills over the next 30 years. “We don’t just want electric vehicle charging stations, rooftop and community solar, and energy efficiency projects completed in Black neighborhoods and communities. We want Black workers installing them, and we want Black-owned businesses designing the projects and getting them built,” said the Rev. Tony Pierce, Board President of Illinois People’s Action, who testified Monday.

The bill would prevent a practice known as partial replacement, in which only the utility’s side of the lead line is replaced, while the portion of the line that runs under private property remains.

The Senate is using the University of Illinois-developed saliva testing program it calls SHIELD.

State laws enacted in 2016 and 2019 with support of Democrats and Republicans in the General Assembly paved the way for the investment changes with a relatively low risk for taxpayers, said Frerichs. “These common-sense changes include the new ability to invest in highly rated corporate bonds issued by such well-known titans as Caterpillar, Deere and Pfizer,” he said.

In these losses — coupled with the tension that’s built up between the executive and legislative branches of government during the past year where Pritzker has mostly ruled via executive order — does the governor think he has any bridges to mend with fellow Democrats and voters? “Look, I’ve not been focused on the politics what I’ve been focused on is really keeping people safe, keeping them alive,” Pritzker said. “If I was focused on politics, I would have made different decisions and more people would have died.”

In that data, you will see that by March 5, 2020, 114 Freeport High School students submitted their FAFSA documents. On March 5, 2021, that number was 77. Last March, Rockford East saw 157 submissions; And this March, it’s 133. School counselors say it’s critical to get in front of students.

Earlier this month, the University of Illinois system received emergency use authorization from the FDA to expand the use of covidSHIELD, the saliva-based COVID-19 test. The test is 96% accurate, doesn’t have false positives and doesn’t require an uncomfortable, invasive nose swab.

If enacted, the legislation would allow for voters with temporary or permanent disabilities to engage in curbside voting on election day or on early voting days. A curb-side voting program must have at least two election judges, with at least one from the Democratic Party and one from the Republican party, present at each vehicle where curbside voting is taking place and the ballots must be filled out without interference from the election judges.

The Illinois Comptroller’s office has been diverting tax returns to participating municipalities for a decade, collecting fines like unpaid parking tickets, court judgments and sending it to the owed towns. Mendoza’s office will still garnish tax returns for unpaid child support.

Deputy Gov. Jesse Ruiz said the state’s system of funding early childhood development programs is fragmented across too many agencies, that services are unevenly and inequitably distributed around the state, and that early childhood educators are paid far too little for many to make a living. A commission that Gov. JB Pritzker appointed in 2019 is calling for a massive increase in funding for early childhood programs.

Our article detailing this issue is linked here.

Changes in legislature have allowed Frerichs to invest the state’s funds into public sector bonds and highly rated corporate bonds. Some of these bonds come from well-known companies like Caterpillar, Deere & Co, and Pfizer.