“For a party that says they’re all about individual freedom, [Republicans] are hellbent on taking away freedoms from so many women,” Gov. JB Pritzker said on CNN Monday. “And remember, if they come after Roe, they’ll come after everything. Gay marriage is next. Then other protections for minority and marginalized communities.”

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul has joined a coalition of eight attorneys general. They say the full cancellation is needed to address the “sheer enormity” of debts owed, along with repayment and forgiveness systems leaders called “systematically flawed” and the disproportionate impact of the debt burden on millions of U.S. borrowers.

Illinois Manufacturers’ Association’s Mark Denzler told lawmakers the situation is repelling investment in Illinois. “And I can’t tell you enough the number of companies I hear from across the state that say ‘we are losing our energy advantage, we are losing that battle,’ and it’s one of the few things we have at our advantage, and we are giving it away.”

House Bill 4736 creates the Co-Responders Pilot Program to have police in certain parts of the state begin a joint effort with multiple social service agencies. Peoria, Springfield, East St. Louis, and Waukegan will all be participating in the pilot program. The measure passed the legislature last month but has yet to be sent to the governor.

“I probably wouldn’t even see it,” said driver Donna Lobdell, of Edwardsville. “I think it has to do with politics, and I don’t think they should be forced to do it.”

Alignable, an online referral network for small businesses, has released its April rent report. It shows while many state’s rent delinquency rates among small businesses are declining, Illinois’ has actually increased at the second highest rate in the country. According to the survey, 34% of small businesses in Illinois suffered from rent delinquency in April. Only New Jersey had a higher percentage.

While the Fed aims to bring down inflation, many states – flush with cash – are handing out money to their residents or introducing record spending plans. While these moves are politically expedient for politicians concerned with reelection, the increase in state transfers to households worsens the problem and provides only modest, temporary relief.

“It’s not just that they’re taking away reproductive rights,” Pritzker said. “It’s that this is a slope that they’re headed down that is going to take away all of the rights that were granted as a result of the right to privacy. It’s a constitutional right to privacy, determined by the court 50 years ago and reinforced along the way, and now they’re taking it away.”

Among the foes of expanded testing is Chicago Teachers Union President Jesse Sharkey, who said standardized assessments “deny qualified Black and brown students access to a fully adequate education, disinvest in and close schools in communities of color, and dismantle Black and brown neighborhoods anchored by long-neglected schools. Instead, our students need the resources to unpack and recover from the trauma of the pandemic and the decades of inequity that preceded it.”