Jim Dey: “(Gas station owners) filed a lawsuit this week in Sangamon County that challenges the constitutionality of a state law that requires stations to tout a gas-tax freeze passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. JB Pritzker…The lawsuit notes that Pritzker and at least one legislator are already running political advertisements boasting of their roles in delaying the gas-tax increase for six months.”

Jonathan Selbin, one of the attorneys representing the putative class, compared ComEd’s bribery of Mike Madigan and associates to an arsonist lighting fires in a high wind: An arsonist wouldn’t need to personally torch a building in such conditions, as the wind itself would carry the flames, but ultimately any fire damage that occurred would still be the result of the arsonist’s actions.

“We celebrate in Illinois when we get an improvement to our credit rating that still ranks 50th out of 50,” state Rep. Andrew Chesney said. “Our biggest issue that we have in northwest Illinois is funding our current infrastructure and our current responsibilities.”

The most significant changes to ODRISA are the new penalties for violations of the rest and meal break periods. Specifically, the amendment provides that an employer that violates ODRISA’s rest and meal break provisions “shall be guilty of a civil offense” (previously, a “petty offense”).

“I cannot imagine anyone actually cheering for Illinois. We’re just not that way here. Pessimism is in our collective bones, partly because it has been beaten into our beings for so many years by opinion leaders, and partly because, well, we do indeed suck at so many things.”

“Senate Bill 1099, now at Pritzker’s desk, attempts to regulate what is known as third-party litigation financing. It has become a lucrative cottage industry in the litigation world in which strangers to the litigation offer loans to people who file lawsuits seeking settlements. As defendants’ cases wind through the court system and sometimes take years to resolve, these third-party funders approach them with an offer of a loan. There’s a catch, though: high interest rates.”