She wrote, in part, “If this information is not sufficient to lead to a favorable review, Governor Pritzker’s recently announced budget proposal will surely check off any remaining doubts that Illinois is on the right track to fiscal stability.”

Gov. JB Pritzker did not say what specific metrics would prompt him to remove the state’s indoor mask mandate or other mitigations, other than “hospitalizations, hospitalizations, hospitalizations…I’ve been saying that for quite some time now. As you know we reached an all-time high in hospitalizations at around 7,400.”

State Superintendent of Education Carmen Ayala wrote to school districts Sunday, “ISBE continues to support the state’s mitigation strategies to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and keep students and school personnel safe. If necessary, school districts may enter into adaptive pause consistent with the guidance issued by the Illinois Department of Public Health and ISBE.”

Gov. J.B. Pritzker said he is “hopeful” Illinois could soon drop statewide pandemic protocols after COVID-19 dropped by half. His peers in Delaware, New Jersey and earlier Iowa dropped their mask mandates.

Lawmakers in Illinois are pushing a more targeted bill supported by Gov. JB Pritzker that would give emergency sick leave to vaccinated employees at K-12 schools and colleges, an effort to quell frustrations among staff that has led to school closures in Chicago and elsewhere.

During a press conference on Monday, Gov. Pritzker called out the judge saying, in part, that she showed poor legal reasoning. “Judge Grischow’s ruling is out of step with the vast majority of legal analysis in Illinois and across the nation…As if kids need a minute more of remote learning when there are common-sense tools that we have to reduce and prevent it.”

The new proposal would establish the Organized Retail Crime Act. Anyone found participating in smash and grab robberies or looting of supply chain vehicles could be prosecuted for organized retail crime as well as by the Attorney General via the Statewide Grand Jury. Prosecutors would also be given wider discretion to bring charges regardless of where the crime takes place.

In 2021, according to data from the Business Formation Statistics Report, 198,827 business startups opened in Illinois.

Senate Bill 3460, would apply to elected county and township officials who award contracts and have access to taxpayer funds. “If it was a county clerk that was accused of rigging elections, he could stay in that office and keep rigging elections until the trial,” state Sen. Dave Syverson said of the current situation.

Illinois Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Todd Maisch said of Illinois businesses, “If they were left alone then, yeah, we’d find kind of a balance here.” But, he added, they worry what the government is going to do to them next.

Among the actions taken around Illinois, District 26 in suburban Cary said it would comply with the judge’s ruling but only for the 11 district students who were plaintiffs in the lawsuit. And District 300 in suburban Algonquin and Carpentersville announced early Monday that schools would be closed Monday after initially telling parents the mask mandate would continue to be enforced.

“If the goal of the governor and the Democrats was to defund the police, then they’ve gotten their wish because this bill has driven more law enforcement officers (away) from the state of Illinois,” House Minority Leader Jim Durkin said.

The scientific and medical establishment’s uncritical support of masks and other dubious policies is just the latest manifestation of its lack of independence from political imperatives. After several years of finding themselves at the receiving end of rhetorical assaults from rising Right-wing populists, the experts seized on the pandemic as an opportunity to reassert their own status and authority — and that of the liberal-technocratic politicians with whom they are largely aligned.

At least one Illinois school district has canceled classes for Monday and many others have decided to recommend masks following a decision by a downstate judge that effectively prohibits a statewide mask requirement in schools.

There were roughly 260 shootings on Chicago-area expressways in 2021, about double the number on those roadways the previous year, according to the state police. Aabout a dozen people have been arrested in the last several months for crimes on Chicago-area expressways, with charges ranging from first-degree murder to attempted murder to fleeing a law enforcement officer.