The Illinois Manufacturers’ Association, which lobbied against the bill, issued a statement after its signing: “This measure will dramatically increase litigation costs on manufacturers, hospitals, and doctors… Policy makers should be focused on supporting manufacturers to spur economic recovery from the pandemic, not making it harder for businesses to hire workers and invest in our communities.”

According to the State Board of Elections, if the primary is delayed, all other dates would slide accordingly.

“He does not need to cut revenues other government entities and our state need and their constituents are counting on,” said Sen. Don DeWitte “The governor has every opportunity to do the right thing and keep his word and be an honest broker in this process.”

The bill received resistance from Republican lawmakers and religious groups for its “culturally appropriate” guidelines, including education on gender identities, different types of families, sexual orientation, consent and a woman’s options during pregnancy.

The new legislation serves as a compromise, and its sponsors, as well as the Pritzker administration, have indicated the lawsuits will end and the original lottery will go forward upon the signing of HB 1443.

State Rep. Tom Demmer said there’s more revenue than expected, so the governor and Democrats need to drop the motion to do away with a slew of tax credits. “Several of them were bipartisan negotiated products that the House Democrats voted for, the governor himself signed into law and touted the benefits of. These are tools to make Illinois more competitive.”

“Politicians too often take the attitude that the office they hold is somehow a personal possession that they or their party is entitled to control in perpetuity. In fact, these power brokers are temporary occupants of an office that belongs to the public to serve its interest. Unfortunately, the public’s vital interest in who represents them in Springfield is not even an afterthought in the current debate on redistricting.”

Legislative Republicans denounced Democrats for dropping the latest version of the judicial map late Thursday night and scheduling new redistricting committee hearings an hour before those committees were held at 9:30 a.m. Friday. Said Rep. Ryan Spain, a member of the House Redistricting Committee, “In the state of Illinois, not only do we allow politicians to pick their voters, but through this bill, we’re going to let judges do it too.”

The Senate passed the legislative map 41-18, with all Democrats voting in favor and all Republicans voting against. The court remap was approved 73-45 in the House and then OK’d in the Senate on another 41-18 partisan roll.

House Bill 2789 is essentially the teachers unions’ attempt at revenge against private schools, which took innovative steps to keep students in the classroom during the pandemic. They did it with a fraction of the funding public schools have access to while the majority of public schools remained closed.

Federal prosecutors clearly timed Mapes’ indictment to send a message to the Statehouse. Illinois state lawmakers can still take a strong stand on corruption as they enter the final hours of the legislative session.

Demographic summaries released late Thursday by House Democrats showed 15 newly drawn House districts were majority African American, while 14 newly drawn districts have 50 percent or more Latino population.

Under this bill, students could take up to five days off for mental health or behavioral issues. If a student misses two days of school for mental health, they could be referred to counselors or other appropriate support staff.

More than 100 military medals and ribbons are still in the state’s care. “We find almost all of them in safe deposit boxes,” State Treasurer Michael Frerichs said.

Long-time chief of staff to former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan is accused of lying to a grand jury and trying to obstruct justice.

Gov. JB Pritzker and Comptroller Susana Mendoza are right that eliminating short-term debt is the most fiscally responsible use of Illinois’ share of the $350 billion state and local aid in the American Rescue Plan. But that short-term debt was the result of reckless budget adopted shortly after the pandemic began and the governor’s consistent opposition to structural fiscal reforms.

Employers are doing all they can to entice the jobless back to work, but when they can’t offer high enough wages initially to get them to give up unemployment benefits it may make more sense to trade an iPhone for a guarantee the worker will stay six months.

Local police, sheriff’s departments, and some state attorneys agree they’re a great tool but say they need more funding and mandates that don’t limit their usefulness.

David Greising, of the Better Government Association: “Due to lack of political leadership, lack of commitment and the public’s lack of ability to hold their elected representatives accountable, the state is on the verge of missing the chance for major reforms yet again.”

Changes include those requested by the Orthodox Jewish community to keep the community together. The revised map also restores the southern part of Chicago’s North Lawndale neighborhood to its current legislative district. House and Senate Democrats also released new boundaries for the Cook County Board of Review.

An amendment, which could come this weekend, will likely include tighter restrictions on consultants whose activities state Sen. Ann Gillespie said are “pretty darn close to lobbying” and giving the legislative inspector general the power to initiate investigations without the permission of the Legislative Ethics Commission.

The party contended its second mapmaking effort should be less onerous to Republicans, but House GOP leader Jim Durkin of Western Springs said the latest maps were “as dishonest” as the first plans released last Friday night. “The House Democrats turned their back on Illinoisans and every advocacy group who has an interest in honest government.”