Federal officials have announced a plan to get children as young as 5 — about 28 million of them — vaccinated within weeks. Teachers in Illinois must be vaccinated against COVID-19 or face weekly testing, but as yet, K-12 students have not been required to add the vaccine to the list of shots they must get to attend school.

A public records request showed that since the ILogin system debuted, the backlog in the state’s callback system grew – with more phone numbers waiting for returned calls for help in early October than we’ve seen since April.

That means bigger items, such as a vote on congressional maps and potential changes to the Health Care Right of Conscience Act and a repeal of the Parental Notice of Abortion Act, will have to wait until next week for substantive action.

State Sen. Chapin Rose said the package was introduced to the criminal law committee but none of the bills were assigned to a committee hearing. “Senate President Harmon recently noted that he accomplished his goals for the last sessions. What wasn’t accomplished? Making the people of Illinois safer.”

Pritzker has issued more than 90 executive orders and 20 months’ worth of disaster proclamations during the COVID-19 pandemic. They’ve ranged from a stay-at-home order that lasted 10 weeks to orders prohibiting in-person economic activity, closing in-person schools, and indoor masking. Last week, he reissued a series of executive orders for another 30 days.

State Rep. LaShawn Ford said his amendment to House Bill 828 would make Illinois the third state in the nation to allow convicted felons behind bars to vote in elections. “Our goal is to not make people worse when they go into our prisons, it is to make them better and return them back as better citizens, and this is one step towards that.”

Change Illinois Policy Director Ryan Tolley, who testified, said that the lack of public input on the map-drawing process is because people know their opinions won’t be heard. “They lack trust in the process and they don’t understand it, and that is why we’ve really been pushing to get a better sense on how these districts are being created.”

The case filed in Macoupin County seeks declaratory judgment and injunctions against the schools, saying it’s unlawful to exclude students from school for allegedly being in close contact with a COVID-19 case without the consent of the parent or a court order that includes due process.

There were no discussions about the proposed congressional maps signed into law last month.

“One of the common complaints surrounding gerrymandering…is that it allows politicians to choose their voters and denies voters the opportunity to choose their representatives. The new congressional map featuring incumbent Democratic U.S. House members arguing over preferred pieces of political turf is Exhibit A for that proposition.”

“From the prosecution end, the one thing that we’ve emphasized on the federal side…is really how important it is that we provide a baseline level of accountability,” said John Lausch. “We need to ensure that when people are driving violence – they are pulling the trigger, they are possessing guns illegally, they are putting guns into the hands of people that should not have them – that we hold those people accountable.”

“In Illinois, the district boundaries are fashioned for the politicians, not for the voters…It’s more than 330 miles by car from Scioto Mills to Oil Grove, both of which are in the proposed 15th District…But how does it help the voters of that enormous district if they want to drive to their congressman’s office, if they want their congressman to visit them?”

“Is this healthy for democracy in Illinois? Of course not, especially since Illinois has no tradition of good government to put a brake on one-party rule. Even more especially since Illinois is now ruled by the party of Rod Blagojevich, Michael Madigan, Dan Rostenkowski, and the Daley family. Illinois Republicans used to be able to present themselves as the antidote to corrupt Machine politics, but (Gov. George) Ryan himself damaged that argument.”

“Democratic Illinois House members huddled Tuesday at the headquarters of the House political operation to air grievances against the draft congressional remap drawn by Senate President Don Harmon and Speaker Chris Welch and figure out what to do next.”

“Even as most undergraduates returned to campuses for in-person classes in August and September, schools such as Southern Illinois and Indiana State University in Terre Haute have fewer students this fall than the previous one…Southern Illinois University in Carbondale is filling only critical positions when needed.”