The average price of a gallon of gas is currently $4.46 in Illinois according to AAA, and more than 50 cents of that price is from state taxes and fees. But in Missouri, where gas taxes and fees are only 17.42 cents, drivers are only paying $3.76 for a gallon of gas. That makes crossing the border an attractive option.

Illinois Democrats proposed legislation Friday they say will fight crime in the state, but it comes with a hefty price tag. It also comes during an election year and after Republicans have pounded Democrats over rising crime in the state.

“Their signals from Washington were, we don’t want any infrastructure projects so they cut pipelines, we don’t want you to lease off of federal lands so leases stopped, and they tried to put in certain methane taxes,” Watson said. “All these were signals to the industry that we better not invest.”

The statement indicated that Lincoln College had survived other difficult circumstances, including the economic crisis of 1887, a major campus fire in 1912, the Spanish flu of 1918, the Great Depression, World War II, and the global financial crisis in 2008, but the pandemic caused a combination of setbacks that ultimately were too much to overcome.

Ligftoot also says, “I’m going to encourage the Attorney General to look into this huge rapid escalation in gas prices,” she said. “I’m very concerned about gas gouging, and I’m not accusing anyone, but it’s worthy of the Attorney General to look at this, because the escalation is really pricing people out.”

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will soon require diversity-contribution statements from all faculty members for tenure and promotion.The policy says that the departments’ evaluations of teaching, service and research and future potential “must, where appropriate, consider the candidate’s diversity, equity, and inclusion activities and their impact.”

A little-known provision of the SAFE-T Act — the criminal justice reform law Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed last year —now requires that criminal defendants who are on home confinement while awaiting trial must be given a minimum of two days a week to move freely, without being actively monitored. Since the provision took effect Jan. 1, dozens of people on home confinement have gotten into trouble while free of supervision during those “essential movement” days when they aren’t monitored, the Chicago Sun-Times has found.

Thought you’d seen everything in Chicago when it comes to buying votes? Welcome to the great Chicago gas giveaway. Hence, Thursday’s mayoral announcement of the “Chicago Moves” initiative, which includes up to 50,000 preloaded gas cards worth $150 each, valid for a year and usable only at pumps within city limits.

“So prolific is this mostly false claim, PolitiFact developed its own PolitiFact fact sheet: The Gender Pay Gap.“

The March University of Illinois Flash Index moved ahead strongly in March, rising to 106.1 compared to 105.7 in February. “This is a post-crisis high,” said University of Illinois economist J. Fred Giertz, who compiles the monthly index for the Institute of Government and Public Affairs. “The Illinois economy gained strength as measured by state tax receipts for the month, overcoming the economic headwinds of the invasion of Ukraine and the most recent variant of the COVID-19 virus.”

“Since taking office, Gov. J.B. Pritzker has been gradually and quietly transforming the Illinois Prisoner Review Board, which is responsible for deciding whether to release some of the state’s most violent criminals from prison early, to fit his “weak on crime” agenda. That is, until now. Senate Democrats who covered for him for over a year finally had enough of his dangerous gamesmanship.”