Valerie Leonard, the co-founder of North Lawndale Alliance, told lawmakers the new proposed maps were “just ridiculous” in how Illinois’ Black population would be reflected. “This is not because of the Census,” she said of the changes. “Someone had a very, very deliberate way of drawing this, such that — well, I’m going to keep it clean, I’m going to be nice: You didn’t care about our voting rights. And this dilutes Black voting power to the hilt.”

A qualified opinion means the overall report is sound but the auditors found some issues within specific areas of the report that prevent them from giving it an unqualified or clean opinion. In this case, the qualified opinion was a result of the problems at Illinois’ Department of Employment Security.

Jim Dey: “The four defendants in the high-profile ComEd bribery conspiracy case have asked U.S. Judge Harry Leinenweber to dismiss the charges against them. Their defense, expressed in stellar legal motions citing numerous court cases, amounts to the following — even if we did all the things the government says we did, we didn’t do nuttin. Nothing illegal, they mean.”

The Governor’s office said Illinois has distributed the third highest amount of rental assistance aid of any state, and the state’s progress with rental assistance compared with other states is held up as a positive example.

The law will allow S-corporations and partnerships to avoid the $10,000 cap on the state and local tax deduction, known as the SALT deduction. State Sen. Win Stoller said the legislation has the potential to help up to 400,000 Illinois business owners save thousands of dollars annually on their federal tax filings.

Madison County Circuit Judge Amy Sholar said as she declined joining the Illinois Judge’s Retirement Pension System, “I wanted to send a clear message that I accepted the appointment as Madison County Circuit Court Judge to help people and interpret the law fairly for everyone.”

The Illinois Department of Public Health reported as of Friday there are 546 schools across the state with “possible exposure.” Most schools listed have fewer than 5 possible exposures and a handful having 5 to 10 possible exposures.

“We all watch the numbers very closely,” Pritzker said. “The fact is that I think we’ve all lived through this long enough now to not jump the gun and say, oh, gosh, it’s flattened out, everything is so much better.”

Adam Schuster, of the Illinois Policy Institute, said that instead of raising taxes, the state should look at reallocating funds to programs that increase spending. “Pritzker’s way of thinking about things is the belief that it is better to take the money and spend it down in Springfield and let the politicians decide where it goes. I think the people of Illinois should be very worried about future tax hikes under this Governor.”

Recently signed by Gov. Pritzker, the Lead Service Line Replacement and Notification Act will require water utilities to replace all lead service lines in Illinois. It is expected to create 11,000 jobs.

Transportation will only be provided for all Kindergarten through 4th-grade students, and all special education students. The school district said it will continue to work with the Illinois Board of Education to find a solution.

A 46-member Urban Search and Rescue Team will help with water rescues caused by flash flooding and storm surges due to the impact of Hurricane Ida. Team members from various fire departments will stay in the affected area for 16 days.

Like other judicial circuits in the U.S., much of the in-person legal work in McLean County was reduced to a handful of hearings in felony cases starting in March 2020, as COVID-19 rules were put in place. The record number of murder trials put the state’s resources to the test.

“If they don’t speak the same language, there’s no relationship,” said Aaron Goldstein, chief of the civil division of the public defender’s office. “There’s no opportunity to call and say … ‘I noticed you missed a meeting or session or therapy. Work on it.’”

The state and local taxes, or SALT deductions have a current cap of $10K that was put in place back in 2017 by former U.S. President Donald Trump’s tax cuts.

Last Friday, Gov. JB Pritzker signed SB 2531, which allows small business owners across the state the ability to avoid the federal cap by changing the way they file with the IRS. This move could potentially save the small business owners thousands of dollars each year.