Marie Newman’s taxpayer-funded attorneys conceded to a federal judge that the Democrat promised a top job in her office to a local Palestinian activist, which he said aimed to keep him from running in a 2020 primary. The admission came after the activist sued Newman for breach of contract when the Democrat did not follow through with the job offer.

“If we adopt common-sense accounting standards, politicians will simply need to provide the facts about these budget decisions and make their case to voters. Isn’t that how democracy is supposed to work?”

“The question is, where will we be based upon the support that we may get from the federal government and the reduction of the number of people who are on unemployment? So we’ll have to see where that ends up,” Pritzker said Wednesday.

The report from the American Legislative Exchange Council ranks Illinois 47th in the country with over $76 billion in total bonded obligations. That is compared to the top state in the ranking, Wyoming, with only $38 million in total bonded obligations. Only Texas, New York and California have more total bonded obligations than Illinois.

“It really comes down to its business environment right now,” Wallethub spokesperson Jill Gonzalez said. “Things like not a lot of growth in small businesses, a small number of startups per capita, and a five-year business survival rate could be better as well.”

While Pritzker insisted Illinois was a long way from reinstituting those restrictions, he said new mitigations policies would look different than what he ordered in spring 2020. That includes reassessing pandemic policies that favored big box grocery stores and retailers as thousands of Illinois’ small businesses were forced to close their doors.

A republication of our Wirepoints column.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker sidestepped questions about reinstating mask mandates. “We’re gong to continue to incentivize getting vaccinated in every which way we can,” he said. “In fact, I talked with a behavioral economist just the other day who had some pretty good ideas.”

Authorities found that Daniel Brue created a shell company and fraudulently sent invoices to the districts for work that was never performed. The judge noted during Tuesday’s sentencing that Brue’s scheme was not “simple” and involved efforts to conceal the thefts – totaling $343,000 – which could have long-term impacts on the districts.

David Greising, of the Better Government Association: “Springfield’s LIG is so weak, even when the Chicago IG’s office is so strong, for one chief reason: Lawmakers in Springfield won’t sanction any meaningful independent scrutiny of the way they run state government. They even go so far as to starve it of resources: A paltry budget of just $920,000, compared with (Joe) Ferguson’s $11 million.”

The governor, who received the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine in March, did not disclose which artists he plans on seeing at the four-day festival.

This is an 18% increase from the previous week, when 22,004 people filed.

Starting January 1, trained pharmacists will use a screening test to give 12-month prescriptions directly to women.

Rep. Tim Butler says the threats “absolutely need to be taken seriously,” but the State needs to make sure it provides needed services. “I think one way that we can really address the concerns of the public is by opening these offices. We have other offices. Most other government, public-facing offices are open.”

The money, awarded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, will go to state and local authorities, nonprofits and religious institutions, transportation agencies and port facility operators.

Katherine Loughead, senior policy analyst with the Tax Foundation, said there are a number of different consequences to having a low pension-funded ratio. “One of those is taxpayers have to pay more every year to fund existing pension obligations than they would have to otherwise. Then the retirement plan isn’t generating the investment earnings that it would if it were adequately funded.”

SB 154 would allow tenants to have two cats or one dog under 50 pounds at housing providers who receive funds from the Affordable Act Trust Fund. Landlords would also not be able to prohibit dogs because of their breed.

“With things going on in the world today, we thought it was time to make a change,” said Kevin Irons, assistant chief of fisheries for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. ” … Even though the fish are from China, we don’t want to do anything that gives anyone ammunition for hate.” More consumption could increase the harvest of the invasive species and thus help the Illinois River and other waterways.

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