Ultimately, the task force said, the results of the Regional Mapping Workshops will lead to the development of a plan and pilot projects to improve court and community responses to mental health and co-occurring disorders.

“Just take a second to put yourself in the shoes of these folks,” IEA spokesperson Bridget Shanahan said. “We’re seeing a lot of educators take leaves of absences because it’s just become too much. They’re burnt out, it’s too stressful and they need a break. And when that happens, then that means their colleague, then has to pick up the slack which only, in turn, leads that colleague to feel burned out and maybe need a break themselves, so it’s really a vicious cycle.”

Residents are leaving for states with lower tax rates and better job and housing prospects such as Texas, Indiana, Florida and California. All of those states ranked more tax friendly to middle-income residents in the Kiplinger report.

“It’s incredibly important if we are going to be successful as a state and environmentalists are to be successful across the country, that we couch this issue in jobs, jobs, jobs,” Deputy Gov. Christian Mitchell said.

“These maps align with the landmark Voting Rights Act and will ensure all communities are equitably represented in our congressional delegation,” Pritzker said in a statement.​

House Bill 2791 would increase the number of communities that can get the grant money for gun violence programs, based on population size, under the Reimagine Public Safety Act.

“If regular Illinois businesses and families miss financial reporting they are fined and can even face criminal penalties,” said Illinois Senate Republican Leader Dan McConchie. “The governor is not above the law. The UI Trust Fund is deeply in debt and without this report, we have absolutely no idea how big the problem really is.”

Last year, Illinois gas prices outside of Chicago ranged from $2.20 to $2.31 a gallon. This week, gas prices range from $3.46 to $3.51 a gallon.

“We may not be able to address at the state level the root causes of inflation, we can and we think it is our responsibility to provide relief,” state Rep. Avery Bourne said. “And that’s why today we’re proposing inflation tax relief for Illinois families.”

“For the Governor to call the verdict into question is reckless and invites more unrest on our city streets and undermines confidence in our judicial system,” they said in a joint statement.

“With the Land of Lincoln soon to be awash in infrastructure money, expect Pritzker and other Democrats to dangle projects across the state during what could be a potentially treacherous 2022 campaign cycle. It could be one of the best things Democrats have going.”

The 2021 Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researchers list recognizes researchers who demonstrated significant influence in their chosen field or fields. Their names are drawn from the publications that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and publication year in the Web of Science citation index.

“Almost any discussion about the past, present or future of Grafton seems to include a reference to ‘what happened in 1993.’ That’s when one of the worst floods in U.S. history kept the tourist town’s riverfront underwater for seven months, destroying homes and businesses and devastating the local economy.”

Comment: We generally stick to stories that pertain to Illinois in particular, but some matters cannot be ignored and must not be accepted.

Data from the Illinois State Board of Education shows more than 4,120 unfilled positions in schools statewide, including 1,700 teaching posts. Shortages can lead schools to make decisions like canceling electives or credit courses like auto shop and cosmetology, moving students into a massive study hall that require less staffing, increasing class size or moving to split, partial day classes.

Schools would be required to identify their staff members as fully vaccinated or unvaccinated and complying with the testing requirement. Districts would still have to exclude staff that refuse both vaccination and testing.