Education officials say the public school system here in Illinois has significant gaps in achievement between different groups of students, and this new ranking system will give districts a better understanding of how to close those gaps. Each district’s data will be placed along a four-step continuum, spanning from large equity gaps to minimal equity gaps, for categories like student learning, learning conditions, and elevating educators.

In southwest Chicago, Democrats argue in briefs filed Wednesday, lawmakers tried to balance a number of competing requests from different communities, including a request to establish an Asian American influence district in Chinatown as well as a Latino district in Little Village. “The General Assembly, understanding the different political factions in this area, worked to carefully balance the interest of progressive and moderate factions in separate Senate and House districts to reduce political infighting among Latino groups,” lawyers for the Democrats wrote.

David Parker, director of St. Xavier University’s Center for the Study of Fraud and Corruption, said with the legal process dragging on in the ComEd case and few reforms seen to address corruption coming from the statehouse, there are some remedies voters have. “Don’t re-elect them. Put somebody in there and keep putting somebody in there until we have someone who’s going to step up and make changes that we want to see.”

“The fiscal balance indicator gives us a big picture look at whether states have lived within their means over the long term,” said lead researcher Joanna Biernacka-Lievestro. “A state that has a long-term deficit will eventually have to turn to a mix of tapping into their reserves, taking on more debt, or deferring some payments on their long-term obligations like pensions.”

One of the backers of the new ID effort for people leaving prison is Illinois first lady MK Pritzker. The first lady has been involved in helping incarcerated people make successful transitions back to their communities once they have served their sentences.

Amendment 1 would hand Illinois’ government union leaders the most extreme powers in the nation. It does so by adding four labor provisions to the constitution.

“Nearly 88% of lawmakers received money from unions during 2019-2020. Of the $15.7 million in union contributions, 94 percent of the money went to Democratic campaigns. Unions only represent 15.2 percent of Illinois’ workforce, but their voices are loud and clear in Springfield.”

It reads, in part, “The killing of Ahmaud Arbery leaves a painful mark on history, too reminiscent of the lynch mobs that terrorized Black communities for decades. For too long, these deaths went overlooked and no one was held responsible. The people of this country wouldn’t stand to let history repeat itself.”

Gov. Pritzker said, in part, “I hope Illinoisans take time to reflect on the resiliency and hope that bonds us as we enter the holiday season.”

State Rep. Marty Moylan, the sponsor of the act, points to the July 2020 violence in Grant Park when at least 1,000 people swarmed the Christopher Columbus statue in an attempt to topple it, as proof the legislation is needed. “There’s no respect for police officers anymore. Those people weren’t protestors, they were trained anarchists.”

“I told him to deploy the National Guard [in August 2020] and he goes, ‘It won’t look good for there to be men and women on Michigan Avenue with assault weapons,’ ” Mr. Griffin said. After Mr. Griffin’s comments, Mr. Pritzker’s office used the word liar to describe Mr. Griffin, who stood by his remarks. Jordan Abudayyeh, a spokeswoman for Mr. Pritzker, said the National Guard wasn’t deployed in August 2020 following Mr. Griffin’s suggestion. “The governor does not send soldiers into a city without the request of the mayor

“The war on families is a war we can and will win but it is up to us to be engaged at the state and local level and to be vigilant to stop the indoctrination of our kids because there is nothing more important than standing up for our kids and pushing back against woke indoctrination.”

“A new generation of leaders has emerged, but they are left to figure out whether to restructure Democratic power in the state or mold themselves into the highly consolidated model established by Madigan and a political machine that dates back to the 1930s.”

“These are significant tax dollars that this body is responsible for,” said Republican Sen. Don DeWitte of St. Charles. Added state Rep. Fred Crespo, “(T)he key thing that should concern us is the Move Illinois infrastructure program. If drama curtails or slows it down, that to me is the biggest problem. If there is a power struggle we need to put a stop to it.”

While Kinzinger didn’t say whether he had made a decision on a gubernatorial run, he acknowledged that he would likely face an uphill battle in a Republican primary, given his status as persona non grata in many GOP circles.

The proposal is an attempt to curb impeding inflation rates by helping with the cost of living. As a result, the checks would be of an amount lower than federal checks distributed since the pandemic began.