As of Monday morning, 5526 opponents have signed onto the Illinois General Assembly website to submit witness slips against HB 4244, a bill introduced and sponsored by only one Democrat lawmaker – Lake County resident Bob Morgan.

Eleven transportation contractors and their attorney faced off last week in the state’s high court against a Cook County attorney and a decision from a panel of the Illinois First District Appellate Court.

A veto would go against the wishes of the Illinois Federation of Teachers.

A bill to cut Illinois’ redundant school district bureaucracy could offer over $300 per student for classroom instruction. No schools would close as Illinois strived to cut administration costs that are double the U.S. average.

Noelle Brennan, the court-appointed attorney who acts as watchdog for agencies Pritzker controls, disclosed to the courts she’s still looking into the hiring last year of four employees by the Illinois Capital Development Board. At least two didn’t meet the minimum requirements in the job description. Two of the employees were fired from earlier state jobs and have “apparent political connections,”and another employee in the group is the son of an unnamed senior official at the board.

A republication of our Wirepoints column.

GOP candidate Gary Rabine said, “I would like to welcome Aurora Mayor, Richard Irvin, to the governor’s race and to the Illinois Republican Party. After years of pulling Democratic primary ballots in years when Pat Quinn, Hillary and Joe Biden were top of the ticket, I am interested to hear what changed your mind on party affiliation.”

“… In addition to stressing that an injunction is a discretionary remedy, which new developments may make unnecessary (if not imprudent), we observed that the Governor likely will take account of legal developments when issuing any new orders. A federal court ought to give state officials the respect of predicting that they will accept and follow the Supreme Court’s analysis,” the judges wrote.

“Our job as the legislature is to do redistricting every 10 years. And we did that this year and last year. And a three judge Federal Court has said that our approach was the right way. Members on the other side are gonna complain. That’s what they do. They do it very well. But we got it right,” Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch said in this wide-reaching interview.

Wrote Jared Walczak, a vice president at the Tax Foundation, “The Census data and these industry studies cannot tell us exactly why each person moved, but there is no denying a very strong correlation between low-tax, low-cost states and population growth. With many states responding to robust revenues and heightened state competition by cutting taxes, moreover, these trends may only get larger.”

The 2020 Illinois Aviation Economic Impact Analysis is the first report of its kind released since 2012. It found the state’s 85 public-use airport facilities also help to support more than 490,000 jobs.

In 2020 Illinois logged 2,944 fatal overdoses due to opioids. Opioid deaths occurred at 2.3 times the rate of motor vehicle deaths, and 2.2 times the homicide rate.