Grundy County Sheriff Ken Briley is raising concerns because the law will ban arrest for people accused certain misdemeanors. “Today, I can arrest him if you sign a complaint for trespassing,” Briley said. “January 1st, I’m not going to be able to do that. The law says I have to write him a ticket and leave.”

Alignable, a small business referral network, asked 7,331 small businesses around the country and 40% indicated that they couldn’t pay their rent in August on time or in full, the highest rate in 18 months. Head of research Chuck Casto says Illinois’ number is even higher at 53%.

Median rents for two-bedroom apartments in Illinois increased nearly 18% between the first quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022, the report said.

July jobs growth was spread across only eight of the 15 metropolitan areas that contain parts of Illinois, according to data released Aug. 25 by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. As of July, only Bloomington has recovered from early 2020 job losses.

Because of permanent tax and fee hikes, the average Illinois family has paid an extra $2,721 since Gov. JB Pritzker took office. To fight rising inflation, Pritzker passed one-year temporary relief saving families $556, so they’re really losing $2,165 in net tax hikes.

Illinois has more lead water-service lines than any other state, but the formula used to allocate federal lead removal money fails to take that into account. Last year, Illinois received just $106 million of the $15 billion earmarked for lead removal in President Joe Biden’s massive infrastructure bill.

While the energy bill was a major topic of conversation, candidates also discussed a number of other issues, from agriculture subsidies to broadband availability in rural areas to infrastructure.

“I do support it, I have some concerns, how is he going to pay for it is one of them,” said U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, fielding questions regarding President Biden’s proposal to provide student loan relief for college students.

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office has been part of several multi-state opioid settlements, bringing, he said, more than $1 billion back to Illinois.

“We passed legislation through the Senate and hopefully the House will take it up that really delineates responsibilities. Clearly, that’s definitely needed there,” said Sen. Laura Murphy, who has led a number of tollway reform efforts under Democratic and Republican administrations. “They need to do the business of the tollway.”

Of the 24 funds surveyed, Illinois’ Teacher Retirement System was the fourth-worst performing. Richard Ennis, former editor of the Financial Analysts Journal, said TRS and its $66 billion is one of the more mismanaged funds in the nation.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s vision of Illinois as an electric vehicle production hub is in danger of becoming a pipe dream. After landing a couple of assembly plants early on, the state has fallen behind in the race for the fast-growing new industry’s top prize. Illinois still hasn’t landed a factory that produces the most valuable component of electric vehicles—the batteries that make them go. Illinois is 0 for 18 in the competition for battery plants so far. Pritzker’s clean energy legislation added a new worry. The Clean Energy Jobs

Perhaps in a rare moment of holding the same view, Democratic and Republican gubernatorial and U.S. Senate candidates spoke highly of the future of green energy. Where candidates differed was the timeline.