Even before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s surprise visit to Washington last week, Durbin was urging colleagues on Capitol Hill to remember the embattled country as negotiations on a budget continued. Zelenskyy’s visit drew high praise from both Durbin and Sen. Tammy Duckworth.

Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski has been critical of Pritzker’s continued proclamations. “We’ve already seen the disaster of inflation that has been created by all the federal spending, so we’re one of the states that is perpetuating that problem,” Dabrowski said in August.

“This is a country whose economy is crushed because of the war and humanitarian aid is obvious. This is a very tough, cold winter. And the Russians are further committing war crimes by targeting civilian targets and their particular infrastructure. It’s a life and death situation. It’s an important role for our country to help,” said Quigley, who is co-chair of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus and was appointed to the escort committee for Zelenskyy’s joint address to Congress.

Since 2019, when Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed legislation into law providing a years-long path to increase Illinois’ minimum wage, there have been four increases in the minimum wage, with the fifth just days away. Starting Jan. 1, 2023, minimum wage in the state will rise from $12 to $13 an hour.

A federal report said more than $45 billion has been stolen in the U.S. from fraudulent unemployment claims, but the state of Illinois still isn’t revealing how much was stolen.

Combined federal, state and local tax rates for Illinois cell phones average just shy of 35% of monthly bills, according to Tax Foundation data. Illinois’ wireless tax is in lieu of a sales tax, but the sales tax would be cheaper for cell phone users. The state’s sales tax averages about 9%.

Matt Paprocki, of the Illinois Policy Institute: “About 53% of Illinois’ private-sector workforce is employed by a large business with 500 or more employees. All businesses, great and small, who stayed and fought led Illinois through two of the most trying years in its history.”

“Wirepoints cited a new national survey that shows the migration isn’t ending. In fact, it’s just starting to pick up steam. What was just a trickle of people moving is now a full-blown river of people that have the ability to move. When it was a trickle, politicians could explain it away by saying it was the weather. No one is moving for the weather.”

Jim Dey: “If indicted, fedheimer victims’ conditions decline further, often causing them to claim they are too sick to go to trial. Look for that problem to come to the fore as the Commonwealth Edison bribery/conspiracy case gets closer to trial. The multiple defendants are long past eligibility for Social Security.”