The final scheduled filings have been made in the Southern District of Illinois federal courts in the consolidated challenge of Illinois’ gun and magazine ban. The next key date is oral arguments next month.

Comment: These myths are the very foundation of how state and local public finance work in Illinois, as we’ve written often.

The lawsuit against CheckpointID and IDScan.net means the two companies have become some of the latest facing potentially massive financial damages under the law known as the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act.

The legislation would mirror a federal program administered by the Illinois Housing Development Authority and Chicago Department of Housing which helps finance affordable housing across Illinois and cost Illinois $35 million annually for ten years.

In an unusual move, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has quietly begun a new competition for the contract to run the United States’s sole dedicated particle physics laboratory. Announced in January, the rebid comes 1 year after Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), which is managed in part by the University of Chicago (UChicago), failed an annual DOE performance review and 9 months after it named a new director.

The Democratic Party of Illinois is “committed to supporting credible candidates who will oppose efforts to ban books, revise history, and limit reasonable sex education,” party chair and State Rep. Lisa Hernandez said in a statement. “We can’t afford to sit back while kids and families are at risk.” Added Ben Hardin, executive director of the party: “It’s not Democrats versus Republicans. This is about our need to defend our values.”

“While Illinois’ operating budget is safe for the short term, it’s a different story in terms of long-term debt. That’s why the governor has made it a point to put additional funds in beyond what was statutorily required. As welcome as Pritzker’s talk of undefined tax cuts is, the bigger issue is the state’s horrendous public-pension debt.”

During the first 50 minutes of Madigan staffer Will Cousineau’s testimony, jurors heard snippets from a secretly recorded Dec. 9, 2018 conversation. Michael Madigan told the group that “in the case of the majority leader, I view that as my appointment. I have no compunction about saying that to anyone who wants to listen to me…“I understand we have a lot of people walking around trying to find things to complain about, and every once in a while, the speaker gets to do what he wants to do. Every once in a while.”