Seth Whitehead, executive director of the Illinois Petroleum Resources Board, says the Illinois basin only provides 10-12 million barrels of oil a year. The U.S. uses around 23 million barrels each day. It’s only a small chunk of the world’s oil production, but it’ll see the same production increase the rest of the world will.

David Greising, of the Better Government Association: “Utility legislation affecting millions of Illinois ratepayers allegedly was turned, as if on some sort of legislative lathe, to serve Madigan’s purposes, leaving the public to pay the cost. With that track record in mind, it was a swift but responsible act of fiscal stewardship to put a hold on Madigan’s hand-picked projects. Asking Pritzker to reverse course a day later — to unfreeze the projects just as quickly as he froze them — was a different kind of decision. It was based on politics, not ethics.”

Lawmakers met Thursday to address these contempt of court orders – the seventh in 10 weeks – as well as the recent deaths of multiple children with DCFS connections. They say after three years with the agency, Director Marc Smith should be able to point to more positive changes and accomplishments.

“We can improve transportation equity, increase safety, and address climate change, especially in Latino and Black communities harmed by legacy transportation decisions, by investing in the right policies and projects,” Congressman Jesús “Chuy” Garcia said in a statement. Other signees of the letter to Gov. JB Pritzker include representatives Bobby Rush, Marie Newman, Mike Quigley, Sean Casten, Danny Davis, Jan Schakowsky and Brad Schneider.

The case has drawn the attention of national gun control advocates and gun rights advocacy groups, all of which submitted or contributed to amicus briefs in the case. The city of Chicago and Cook County also filed an amicus brief in support of the FOID law, saying it has been an effective tool in helping them combat gun violence.

Illinois Department of Children and Family Services Director Marc Smith was held in contempt of court a seventh time for failing to place a child appropriately. In this case, the subject of the order is a 16-year-old boy who has spent more than 375 days in a shelter that does not have the resources to support his needs given his intellectual and cognitive disabilities.

“I think it’s time for a change and try to bring back some of those supply lines here to the United States, so what this MICRO Act does is provide a very similar series of tax incentives that we applied to the electric vehicle industry,” state Rep. Mike Halpin said.

Danville Mayor Rickey Williams Jr. says the casino will lead to an estimated $4 million to $6 million in revenue for the city, without including additional sales tax or property tax revenue. “This will be an almost 10% increase in our annual revenue, with which we can do a lot of good things with for the citizens of Danville. It’s a huge economic boom.”

“Probably the biggest question as lawmakers near a scheduled April 8 adjournment is if and how the state, business and labor will bail out an unemployment insurance trust fund that’s now roughly $4.5 billion in the hole to the federal Treasury.”

Mark Konkol: “(H)ere we are in an election year, three years after cannabis was legalized, a move that Pritzker promised would create ‘new millionaires in the Black community, in the Latino community, all across this state,’ there still is not a single licensed and operating weed store or grow operation in Illinois with majority Black or Latino ownership.”

Those who work in the field worry that while pot sales have generated more than $2 billion since 2020, the drop in sales indicates that other issues are at play. Andy Seeger, a cannabis consultant, cited controversies over the process of licensing dispensaries which, in some cases, has been held up by requirements prioritized for social equity applicants in an effort to diversify the state’s pot market.

U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider said, “…I think to be clear, Congress’ responsibility is to decide when the United States does or does not go to war and I think we are doing everything we can to avoid a direct conflict between Russian, NATO and U.S. forces. What we are doing and will continue to do is to give everything we can to the Ukrainian forces to defend themselves and provide humanitarian relief.”

Illinois has only recovered 76% of the jobs the state lost during the onset of the pandemic and state-mandated shutdowns – 14th worst in the nation, and the fourth least of any state in the Midwest. Meanwhile, South Dakota, Indiana and Missouri are the most recovered Midwestern states, each having recovered more than 90% of their states’ job losses.