In Illinois, which two years ago became one of the first states to approve Medicaid spending for violence prevention, Chicago CRED hopes to get approval for its program this spring. Arne Duncan, the former U.S. education secretary who leads the violence prevention group, said, “We’re trying to build a public health infrastructure to combat gun violence. Having Medicaid start to be a player in this space and create those opportunities could be a game changer.”

“People don’t realize how much of a city’s revenue is related to population, because that is how a lot of our revenue from the state and federal governments is distributed,” Mayor Diane Marlin said. “It is one of those things where you don’t realize how important it is until you suddenly lose it.”The small Illinois communities of McDonough, Pingree Grove, and Warrenville are also seeking partial 2020 census recounts.

All signatories expressed their desire to restrict civilian access to ammunition commonly used in semi-automatic AR-15-style rifles, citing in their letter mass shootings in which the 5.56 caliber was used.

“A lot of people my age have bigger plans,” Aubrey Lawson, a barista at Gyspy Queen Coffee in Marshall, said. “So, they travel to places like New York or D.C. Just places that are really drawing people in.”

Community High School District 155 in Crystal Lake and Cary District 26 have joined more than 800 districts across the country in suing the social media giants. The District 26 superintendent said they’ve had to hire more social workers to address students’ mental health needs in part because of social media.

“Historically, the spring session in an election year is basically a budget session with a very light agenda for substantive bills,” said Kent Redfield, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Illinois Springfield. “The overall goal pre-primary is to do as little as possible as quickly as possible so they can go back to their districts and campaign and raise money.”

The Republican failed to get his statement of candidacy form properly notarized. Niemerg was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives in 2020. This would have been his third time running for office.

At the end of fiscal 2023, the average funded ratio for public pension funds in the U.S. was 78.1%, up from 74.9% in fiscal 2022. The states with distressed status, which Equable defines as a funded status lower than 60%, include South Carolina (59.9%), Connecticut (57.8%), New Jersey (53.5%), Illinois (50.9%) and Kentucky (50.1%).

“A significant portion of the money is supposed to go to disadvantaged communities,” Wilhour said. “Folks in Illinois do not need handouts and extra taxes, they need jobs and opportunities, and the government cannot create jobs.”

Southern District of Illinois federal Judge Stephen McGlynn is expediting the case challenging Illinois’ gun ban, despite some plaintiffs wanting to delay a trial so they can attempt to have a hearing with the U.S. Supreme Court. “Not gonna happen,” McGlynn said. “We’re going to conduct a hearing and I’m going to address all the questions of fact and I’m going to apply the law to the questions of fact and I’m going to have a clearly defined record and we’re going to move at deliberate speed.”

Tucked within a 558-page revenue package, the little-noticed tax change came about last spring with passage of the state budget omnibus package approved by the Democratic-led General Assembly and enacted by Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker. The freeze in the widely used state tax credit known as the standard exemption, coming a year after the biggest jump in inflation in four decades, resulted in as much as $114 million in savings for the state — money that went from taxpayers’ pockets to a series of other legislative spending add-ons. And no one is taking credit — or blame — for the

“If nothing else, we raised awareness of an impending problem,” said board member Chuck Erickson, who introduced the measure to ban the use of county tax dollars to support migrants. “Chicago is like other cities where they are reaching maximum capacity and it won’t be long before it gets further downstate.”