“The arbitrary method as to contact tracing and masking in general continue to raise fair questions as to the legality of the Executive Orders in light of violations of healthy children’s substantive due process rights,” the judge wrote. “This type of evil is exactly what the law was intended to constrain.”

“The Court finds the Plaintiffs’ legal rights to procedural and substantive due process are being sacrificed each and every day,” Sangamon County Judge Raylene Grischow wrote in her order. “They have a right to insist compliance with (state law) before the Defendant School Districts’ masking, exclusion from school, quarantine, isolation, vaccination or testing policies are being thrust upon them, especially when there has been zero evidence that those children are contagious or highly likely to spread a contagious disease.”

“It’s the right thing to do, and we’re gonna very carefully evaluate how to keep people safe and healthy while we might bring down the mitigation levels,” Pritzker said.

The judge left the door open for further filings on class certification in both cases.

Adam Schuster, of the Illinois Policy Institute: “This is it. After this budget year, the extra support from D.C. goes away. If Illinois fails to use the federal rescue as a chance to fix decades of decay to the financial scaffolding holding up its workers and retirees and vulnerable residents, it will end up shakier and risking collapse even more than before the pandemic.”

Iowa now joins the majority of Midwest states no longer operating under pandemic emergency rule. In Illinois, Gov. J.B. Pritzker offered no end in sight to his statewide pandemic protocols, despite a rapid decline in COVID-19 metrics statewide.

Illinois has only recovered 70% of the jobs the state lost during the onset of the pandemic and state-mandated shutdowns. Neighboring Indiana is the most recovered of Midwestern states, having recouped 91% of the state’s job losses.

The new requirement came as the Democratic governor extended his pandemic-era executive orders through March 5, just four days shy of the second anniversary of his initial COVID-19 disaster proclamation.

Exelon retains its transmission and distribution infrastructure, and has said it plans to spend $29 billion in capital projects over the next three years. The company said most of that will be to modernize the grid and make it more resilient.

Illinois ranks eighth in the nation in business startup growth, from pre-pandemic levels in 2019 to 2021 (behind MS, GA, SC, LA, AL, WY, DE); it is the largest state to rank in the top ten for growth in the nation.

Rep. Marie Newman is facing an onslaught of criticism for a contract she signed with a political rival, in which—according to congressional investigators—she likely agreed to hand Professor Iymen Chehade a six-figure salary in exchange for him not running against her in a Democratic primary. In an Oct. 2018 email to Newman, Chehade memorialized that he and Newman had met earlier in the week and discussed a proposal where Newman would not only pledge to hiring Chehade, but would also “commit” to a number of anti-Israel policy positions.

One of the biggest initiatives in Gov. JB Pritzker’s budget proposal is a $500 million plan to overhaul the way Medicaid pays for nursing home care. Funding would come from an increased assessment on nursing facilities that would be used to draw down additional federal matching funds. The money would then be distributed back to those facilities in a way that rewards those that increase their staffing to recommended levels.

The report from Truth in Accounting viewed the Second City as a “sinkhole city” because it owed nearly $39 billion in debt largely stemming from underfunded pension obligations.

Rep. Dave Vella wants to create a new income tax credit for employers at restaurants, bars, and hotels.

House Republican Leader Jim Durkin said the plan fails to outline enough reform to Illinois’ fiscal policy. “The governor’s budget address is always a wish-list, and this year it’s clear that the governor wishes to be reelected.”