Jim Dey: “While the court concluded Madigan’s trick was not a constitutional violation, it pointed out that Madigan’s election races ‘were not close.’ That reality ‘makes it hard to understand the conduct he is accused of,’ (Judge Frank) Easterbrook wrote. The explanation is that Madigan leaves no details unattended. If that requires him to game the system by recruiting sure-loser GOP and Democratic opponents, so be it.”

“It’s heartening to read Mendoza’s advice, and we hope Gov. J.B. Pritzker and members of the Legislature follow it. This is not the time for spending on new, ongoing programs. It is the time to pay off debts and pay back vendors…Don’t waste this opportunity to address, with federal funds, needs and shortcomings that the pandemic has exposed.”

Mark Konkol: “During his first term, Pritzker has exposed himself as a prolific purveyor of fakequity — especially during the pandemic, when he repeatedly failed to deliver on promises of coronavirus testing and vaccinations in Black and Latino communities suffering the worst COVID-19 consequences. The all-white-owned legal weed industry in Illinois shows that Pritzker’s fakequity tendencies transcend his pandemic policies.”

David Greising, of the Better Government Association: “Public hearings by the state Senate and House redistricting committees began this week…The more inclusive the processes, the better. But don’t mistake public participation for public influence, much less control.”

On average, about 10,000 new numbers come in every day while 12,000 get completed by about 650 agents. On Thursday, there were talks about budgeting for virtual appointments, but no timeline for that for reopening offices.

Part of the reason is confusion over sites like the United Center, and many others that are available to Illinois residents, but then change to specific counties or zip codes. Several people who were done with the back and forth booked an appointment all the way in Quincy. Because they could.

Rep. Tim Butler said the bill’s provision that the collection sites be secured with locks, which may only be opened by election authorities, does not go far enough to protect election ballots. “We need to make sure that everyone has the best access and the right to vote, but we must also make sure that our elections are totally secure, and in this age, we have dangers from all over the place trying to tamper with our elections.”

The omnibus bill is the 4th pillar of Black Caucus agenda. It contains dozens of provisions meant to eliminate race-based and other inequities in the Illinois health care system and expand the medical services available to low-income residents and residents of color.

“The state board will come up with the standards, but the actual curriculum will be up to the local control and that is really important,” said the bill’s chief sponsor, Rep. Kathleen Willis.

“According to the state constitution, the General Assembly has the appropriation authority,” Assistant Senate Majority Leader Bill Cunningham (D-Chicago) said on Wednesday. “We give the governor the ability to spend.” But a spokeswoman for the Pritzker administration said his budget office believes they have broad discretion over how to use the federal funds.

“The feeling that I have and that my constituents have is that we need to be opening up more than what’s being allowed,” said state Rep. Patrick Windhorst, of Metropolis. “Many people where I’m coming from are just simply ignoring it and that’s what we’ve seen throughout this, the governor, by taking a stance that he has, is not actually leading us, he’s behind where the people are.”

“I’m optimistic about reaching that milestone because, as of this morning, that number is 58%,” he said. In a release, his office said 28 days of low viral spread and other metrics must follow that vaccination threshold before he would begin to “turn the dial” toward his final “Phase 5” mitigations.

While the state partly explains the change is from tax collections delayed from April 15 and into a new fiscal year, Truth in Accounting noted that tax revenue has been rising for years. Even sales taxes have grown despite Illinois losing population.

General manager Dennis Traiteur and district board chairman Curtis McCall Sr. both declined to talk about Belt’s role, citing a pending citizen lawsuit against Commonfields over years of flooding issues. Belt’s sister, Yvonne, is married to Curtis McCall Sr.

Sens. Sue Rezin, Don DeWitte and Craig Wilcox: “The authors of the Illinois Constitution were clear in their intent when they created three co-equal branches of government…The authors of the Constitution never intended for one individual to assume almost full control over the running of the state for months and months, and they never intended for the executive branch to become the policy-making branch.”

“COVID-19 has not gone away, but the light we can see at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter and brighter as more people get vaccinated,” said Gov. JB Pritzker. “It’s time to begin to cautiously move toward normalcy, and it’s imperative that we do so in a way that maintains all the progress we’ve made to date.”

Following recommendations from public health experts, Illinois will move forward with a dial-like approach between the mitigations in Phase 4, which currently apply to the entire state, and the post-pandemic new normal of Phase 5. This Bridge to Phase 5 will allow for higher capacity limits and increased business operations, before public health experts tell us it is safe to move to the new normal that Phase 5 will bring.

This figure represents a nearly 24% increase from the week before, when 57,483 people filed. Despite a decline in COVID cases and reopening efforts, the latest unemployment numbers show the devastating effects of the pandemic on Illinois’ economy aren’t over.

This “Bridge Phase” will serve as a transition period with higher capacity limits and increased business operations, without prematurely embracing a reopening before the majority of Illinoisans have been vaccinated. All regions of the state will move through the Bridge Phase and ultimately to Phase 5, together. The state’s mask mandate will continue in accordance with current CDC guidance.

More than 11,200 retailers in Illinois were forced to close up shop last year. Small shops were hit the hardest – 35% of small businesses have closed in Illinois as of March 3, compared to Jan. 1, 2020, according to data from The Opportunity Insights Tracker.

Despite that, Gov. J.B. Pritzker is asking for as much as $2 billion in new taxes on the small businesses that create most Illinois jobs.

“[T]o save Illinois, we need to fix what people don’t like about Illinois: its government. People leave Illinois because it’s poorly governed. Illinoisans are profoundly alienated from our government.”