Dr. Adam Green, an associate professor of history at the University of Chicago, said, “We know that no individual is flawless and that all historical figures are to some extent prisoners of their pasts. Yet, we can determine whether an individual can be seen to be distinguished by their qualities as a political leader, say, more so than their personal prejudices.”

Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez initially filed a complaint in 2019, alleging his predecessor, former Ald. Danny Solis, improperly used $220,000 from the 25th Ward’s campaign fund for defense lawyers while he was under federal investigation. Sigcho-Lopez lost, but he is now appealing to the state’s highest court to take up the matter.

Lawmakers passed the bipartisan Rebuild Illinois capital plan in 2019. It is funded in part by doubling the state’s gas tax and tying annual gas tax increases to inflation.

In the Illinois House Tuesday, state Rep. Mark Batinick said lawmakers should drop the masks while legislating to set an example for the rest of the state. State Rep. Natalie Manley responded that the mandate should stay in place on the House floor; She said lawmakers are too close together while legislating and she worried the vaccine may not fully protect members.

If House Bill 3097 becomes law, the adult driver education course curriculum in Illinois would have to include lessons on police procedures and appropriate interactions with law enforcement during traffic stops.

Katherine Poole-Jones, associate art history professor at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, said the task force must ask what values they wish to collectively endorse in the public realm. “And I think we also have to carefully balance that against the discomfort, the pain, the alienation, it may cause some members of the community, because we have to understand that the spaces that monuments occupy cannot be entered into in a neutral way for everyone.”

“It does not in any way take away from school district the local authority that they have to be establishing remote learning programs,” State Board of Education Chairman Darren Reisberg said. The resolution does not include a vaccine requirement, but calls for rapid COVID-19 testing at schools across the state.

At the same time prices for animals have been declining, the cost of inputs – the ingredients farmers purchase to make feed – have increased significantly. Corn prices have rallied, and the cost of forages for the beef farms that have to buy their hay or other inputs has significantly increased.

The federation said in its 51-page report issued late last week that it could support the proposed budget if the tax breaks were removed. The money Pritzker hoped to save by repealing those tax breaks could be made up with federal money from Illinois’ share of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, Civic Federation President Laurence Msall said.

April Janney, president and CEO of Illinois Action for Children, lists the impacts COVID-19 has had on providers: “Attendance and enrollment decreasing, overall loss of employment for those parents who had to leave work and for child care providers who had staff who had to leave. The overall employment loss, but then being at home for those parents who could work from home, having to juggle parenting, teaching and working remotely became a big challenge.”

“Government in general has done very little to try to help the housing business like they did other businesses. There (were) forgivable loans given to restaurants and other small businesses. Housing providers got none of that,” Paul Arena of the Illinois Rental Property Owners Association said.

The proposal could allow anyone who has been convicted of drug charges access TANF benefits. Republicans raised concerns about the state giving free money to people who have potentially dealt drugs to younger people in their communities.

Dr. Tom Tarter: “We must work together to find solutions for our state’s litigious environment, as Illinois is now known to be an extremely unattractive place to work in the health care industry…I’ve watched as doctors have fled the state, exhausted by the expensive and toxic legal climate that hinders our ability to do our jobs. Not only that, but it decreases access to proper health care for all Illinoisans, as doctors continue to flee to practice medicine in more health care-friendly states.”

Under the proposed map, heavily GOP portions of U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis’ 13th Congressional District would be merged into fellow Republican U.S. Rep. Mary Miller’s district, diluting Davis’ voting block for reelection. U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger’s 16th Congressional District would be dissolved and merged into surrounding districts.

An attorney representing 22 downstate school districts told justices Tuesday that Pritzker is not living up to the goals outlined in the 2017 funding formula and is therefore violating a provision in the state constitution to achieve efficient education funding.

Governments at every level are about to find themselves flush with more cash than they might know what to do with—but they won’t be allowed to return that money to taxpayers, thanks to a provision in the American Recovery Act that forbids states from using federal aid to cut taxes or fund tax credit programs.