And a Monmouth University poll this week found that a large majority of Americans, 70 percent, agreed that “it’s time we accept that Covid is here to stay and we just need to get on with our lives.”

If you were to spend $100 a week on groceries, you would save $1 on your bill. According to the Tax Foundation, 14 states tax groceries, including Missouri (1.2%) and Tennessee (5.5%). If you were fueling up, you also might save about $1 a month, if you fill up once a week.

“While he couldn’t give details, (Illinois Manufacturers’ Association President and CEO Mark) Denzler said negotiations over paying the debt between the governor’s office, legislative leaders and business and labor groups continue, one thing has been made clear. ‘The business community has called for using federal dollars for a long time now,’ Denzler said. ‘Thirty-eight states across the county have done that. Illinois is one of only 10 states I believe that still have an unemployment insurance debt.'”

“We need to take into account the lack of evidence for mask efficacy and re-evaluate our policies and procedures. We know much more now than two years ago. The virus is likely shifting from a pandemic to endemic, and we need to shift with it. Parents should be able to follow the science, properly evaluate risk, and have the choice to unmask their children.”

“It’s certainly not the best policy,” David Merriman, an expert on state finances at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said of Pritzker’s overall tax relief proposal. “It appears from the governor’s speech … that what he wants to do is ease the tax burden on lower- and middle-income households. … I think that there are better options for doing that than the three options that he picked.”

Susana Mendoza said the credit ratings agencies will “love to see” Pritzker’s moves to add money into the state’s ‘rainy day fund.’

Sen. Jason Barickman said the numbers don’t add up in the governor’s budget. “It looks like the governor is proposing temporary tax relief coupled with permanent spending increases.”

Gas averages $3.60 per gallon statewide and inflation is at its highest rate since 1982. Pritzker, a Democrat facing reelection this year, last week proposed freezing the motor fuel tax, which is scheduled to jump 2 cents on July 1.

“In Illinois politics, pension underfunding is like the weather. Everyone complains, but no one does anything about it. Why? It’s hard to do, and laboring to fix pensions doesn’t resonate with voters. There is little political bang for the buck. That’s why state pensions have been underfunded year after year for a century.”

Jim Dey: “Another Pritzker target, Mark Glennon, also was not impressed by (Pritzker’s) claims. He suggests ‘a more honest speech would have been just a thank you to the federal government for bailing out Illinois.’ A financial analyst for Wirepoints.org, Glennon contends that Pritzker’s claim that Illinois would have a balanced budget without federal money is ‘beyond preposterous.'”

“Illinois is actually doing well,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in an interview Friday. “The upper northeast and the Midwest, represented by Chicago and Illinois, are doing better in general than the rest of the country.”

Paramedics and EMTs at the Galesburg Hospitals Ambulance Service are seeking to exercise their right to vote Teamsters Local 627 out of power at the workplace, a growing trend around the country. Also in Illinois, Village of Carpentersville part-time firefighters are attempting to decertify the Service Employees International Union affiliate in their workplace.