Lion Electric is getting nearly $50 million in state incentives for its electric-bus factory outside Joliet, significantly more than originally expected. Lion began manufacturing buses in late 2022 and completed a 900,000-square-foot factory in Channahon last year. To receive the payroll tax credits, Lion will have to create 608 full-time jobs by the end of next year and 1,228 jobs by the end of 2028, according to recently filed state documents. The company declined to say how many workers it has in Channahon now.

“Independent research firm Wirepoints found that, shockingly, 53 schools in Illinois had zero students proficient in math at grade levels. The state spends $40.6 billion on K-12 education or $21,750 per student – some of the highest in the nation.”

The total amount of money wagered (or handle) in the Illinois sports wagering market for 2023 was $11.6 billion. Taxes collected on that handle totaled $1,550,367,441, with $1,307,113,715 going to the state and $243,253,726 for local governments.

“First and foremost, we need to hold the majority party accountable to spending,” House Minority Leader Tony McCombie said. “No new taxes, we certainly do not, and the voters have spoken that they do not want a graduated income tax, so that will be a number one priority.” McCombie said addressing state agency mismanagement and dysfunction will be high on their session list. McCombie is also looking at meeting the party’s obligations from the 2019 capitol bill, which includes $41.8 million in projects that haven’t been released.

After an initial budget estimate by Gov. JB Pritzker for migrant health care of $550 million, that figure has ballooned to about $770 million. “The money spent on this program inevitably reduces funding and resources available for other crucial and essential programs for Illinois citizens,” state Sen. Sue Rezin said.

Illinois Fraternal Order of Police President Chris Southwood said what needs to happen is for prosecutors to prosecute crimes. He also said a recent story in Dolton of a defendant facing murder charges awaiting trial on electronic monitoring being suspected of a mass shooting is proof the SAFE-T Act provision allowing two eight-hour periods of free movement time per week for such defendants is proving to be dangerous.

One measure filed by state Sen. Doris Turner, “would require the death-care industry to implement a mandatory unique identification tagging system for all human remains.” Another measure from state Sen. Steve McClure would make the new punishment for any misuse of human remains a Class 4 felony.

Pritzker understands how to serve as the happy warrior for Biden even as theories about his political ambitions persist, according to U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Evanston. “That’s something that J.B. will manage well,” said Schakowsky, who once competed with Pritzker for her House seat. “He knows what it is to be a surrogate. He has no intention of trying to outstrip the president of the United States.”

“Just a few short weeks after the CARES Act passed, members of the (Illinois) state senate and the Senate President mailed a $46 billion federal bailout request to Congress. As Wirepoints reported, most of the requested funds ‘amount[ed] to a national bailout of Illinois’ pre-pandemic failures.’ This included $15 billion for a ‘no-strings-attached block grant,’ $6 billion for the state unemployment trust fund, $10 billion for state pensions, and $9.6 billion in ‘unrestricted aid to Illinois municipalities, again for pensions.'”

In 2022, Illinois voters enshrined collective bargaining into the state constitution, effectively giving union leaders unprecedented power over our elected representatives. Specifically: “No law shall be passed that interferes with, negates, or diminishes the right of employees to organize and bargain collectively.” The question must be asked: How can democracy work when the people we elect do not have the power to govern?

Since the 1990s, at least 10 suburban politicians have changed parties. Jim Zay, the DuPage Republican Party chairman and the longest-serving county board member, suggests switching parties is an opportunistic move. “They’re taking advantage of this situation where they think, ‘The Republican Party’s done in DuPage, and so I’m going to jump on board the Democratic side here and run for office and nobody will know,’” Zay said. “And I think the voters in DuPage County are a lot smarter than that.”

If passed, the bills would require insurance companies to cover the diagnosis and treatment of infertility, certain prescription medications, and preservation of reproductive cells by amending the Illinois Insurance Code.

GasBuddy analyst Patrick DeHaan says prices have jumped to $3.39 generally in the suburbs, $3.49 and more in the city. DeHaan says it’s possible gas prices could jump 25 to 50 cents more a gallon in the Chicago area and across the Great Lakes just from the BP refinery shutdown.

Approximately 3,800 IDOT workers authorized a strike by a 95% vote, although a strike date has not yet been announced. The union accused IDOT of refusing to pay workers a fair wage or allow them to stay on their preferred health insurance.

The State of New Jersey’s unfunded liability for post-retirement benefits other than pensions in state health care plans reached $174.9 billion in 2022. That was the highest in the country, according to a report by the American Legislative Exchange Council. California ($140.2 billion), New York ($133.2 billion), Texas ($120.2 billion) and Illinois ($103.1 billion) rounded out the top five states with the highest liabilities.

Advocates hoped the state would become less reliant on large institutions for people with developmental disabilities when they filed a lawsuit in 2005, alleging that Illinois’ failure to adequately fund community living options ended up segregating people with intellectual and developmental disabilities from society by forcing them to live in institutions. Negotiations resulted in a consent decree, a court-supervised improvement plan. Now, the state has asked a judge to consider ending the consent decree, citing significant

The event titled Brotherhood Sister Circle (BHSC) Retreat states that as part of the schools Equity and Excellence Policy, its goal is to “provide Black and Latinx students with additional academic resources and social/emotional support to ensure they have the tools to be successful at IMSA and the global world.” In an email chain that includes a student from the yearbook staff and another DEI staff member, the school’s DEI director asks for “Black/ Latinx photographers so that pictures can be taken throughout the day.”

A new bill in Springfield would ban single-family-only zoning across eight cities in Illinois, following similar measures that have passed in Oregon, California and Washington state. On Feb. 5, state Rep. Kam Buckner introduced the Single-Family Zoning Ban Act, which would prohibit zoning areas exclusively for single-family residential use. The bill would phase in that ban, applying to cities with a population between 100,000 and 500,000 by June 1, 2025, and cities with more than 500,000 residents by June 1, 2026. The Illinois Association of Realtors is

More than 9,000 students attended private schools in Illinois with financial support from the tax credit scholarships during the 2022-23 school year, according to officials. “It’s the schools who serve the greatest number of low-income students who are now going to get the biggest hit,” said Greg Richmond, superintendent of schools for the Archdiocese of Chicago. “Not

Federal law prohibits non-citizens from voting in US elections. However, the prohibition is essentially mooted by caveats in the law.