“The new map is so brazen that progressive elections analyst Drew Savicki found it would create up to 85 districts expected to be Democratic in the 118-seat state House, even though only 69 Democrats would be elected in a map that fairly reflected the proportional strength of each party. So while Democrats would naturally win a majority because they dominate the state, the Democratic plan would net them nearly 80 percent of the seats from less than 60 percent of the votes.”

For nearly a year, a list of applicant groups behind the two suits have continued to pursue legal action to maximize their chances of winning the sought-after permits. And while four of those groups have been awarded at least one license so far, they all continue to raise legal questions about the process overseen by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.

The system has reached out to the state for additional staffing, including nurses, nursing assistants and respiratory therapists, and expects those extra hands to arrive next week. The system is also delaying some elective surgeries, and is often keeping patients in beds in the emergency departments until beds become available elsewhere in the hospitals.

Some bus company officials attribute the shortage to mass retirements during the pandemic. Others point to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s vaccination mandate for school employees. Scores of Chicago school bus drivers have reportedly quit because of the mandate.

Ernest Herrera, an attorney with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said the latest maps actually reduce the number of majority-Latino legislative districts in Illinois, despite the fact that the Latino population grew over the last decade, both in terms of total numbers and as a percent of the state’s overall population.

“Seventy-three people went behind that closed map room door and 12,812,435 other Illinoisans were literally shut out,” House Deputy Minority Leader Tom Demmer said.

Illinois has more lead pipes than any other state in the nation, and based on a 2020 Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC) report, Black and Latin communities are affected the most.

Exelon hasn’t given a date for the closure of some of its nuclear fleet, but a shutdown checklist indicates there are about 18% of the necessary decommissioning tasks remaining for it’s Byron and Dresden facilities. Some remaining tasks include workforce reductions and the plants being taken offline permanently.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s statement “reflects progressive anger at President Biden’s decision to nominate Emanuel, a close ally who also served as President Obama’s chief of staff from 2009 to 2010.”

An amendment to Order M.R. 30370 extends the temporary stay on certain residential eviction trials and dispositive motions to Sept. 18. The previous order was set to end Sept. 1.

The General Assembly held multiple hearings to redraw the map before the new maps were passed, but minority advocacy groups have called the process a sham, and Change Illinois Executive Director Madeline Doubek said that the new maps are worse than the ones rushed through originally.

Parents moving to seize control of school districts from the hands of bullying officials serving their overlords in Washington, D.C., Sacramento, California, Chicago, Illinois, and other liberal enclaves, are fighting not only for their children, but for America’s future.

Said Athena entrepreneur Angella Thompson, “(The new law) means huge opportunities for sales, especially online sales. That’s the biggest thing for me. It’s going to be huge to this industry because it provides opportunities to grow a business in the beginning that increases the chance of success in the long run.”

“What seems to be the priority in this resolution is incumbency protection and incumbency suggestions over the overwhelming input that we got from community groups to slow this down, give them time to analyze it, give them the reasons in this resolution before we have to vote on it,” state Rep. Avery Bourne said. “Give them more than 30 minutes.”

It’s unclear when the measure will advance.

“Choosing to vote to uphold this weak amendatory veto is doubling down on the fact that the ethics reform that you passed takes away the ability to have a true and independent watchdog over this body,” state Rep. Avery Bourne said in floor debate. “Choosing to side with this weak amendatory veto is choosing to side to give cover to politicians, rather than having an opportunity for the public to have faith in our government.”

Gov. JB Pritzker’s office responded to an Aug. 10 request filed by Rep. Tony McCombieby by sending a staffer to her legislative office in Springfield to hand-deliver 870 pages of studies and letters from parents that supported the mask mandate. “I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for doing this,” one Elmhurst mother emailed Pritzker’s office Aug. 4. “When the Elmhurst 205 School District voted to make masks optional last week, I was devastated and shocked.”

The one-day session stretched past midnight and the Senate voted early Wednesday to approve an overhaul of state energy policy that would put power customers on the hook for a nearly $700 million bailout of three nuclear plants owned by the parent company of scandal-plagued Commonwealth Edison.