Highland, Normal and River Forest are just some of the communities considering reinstating the tax, with more likely to follow. Each Illinois city will have until October 2025 to pass an ordinance to continue the 1 percent tax on groceries in order to avoid a lapse in revenue.

“Unfortunately many of the conservative judges who have been appointed have misunderstood what it means to uphold public safety,” Gov. JB Pritzker said.

“Illinois has more than $142 billion in pension debt, the nation’s second-worst unemployment rate, second-highest corporate income tax rate, second-highest property taxes and fourth highest in-state tuition for public universities. Those major problems have festered for years without state lawmakers finding the political will to fix them. But when it comes to the plastic perils found in hotel bathrooms, Illinois’ political leaders are shiny and manageable.”

U.S. District Judge Iain Johnston declared that, under recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, the state and public transit agencies cannot treat transit stations and the trains and buses that serve them as private property at which the government can prohibit Americans from exercising their right to keep and bear arms for self defense.

An analysis of more than 30 websites of Lake Forest-based Local Government Information Services also identified home addresses for those involved in a high-profile federal narcotics case involving a foreign drug cartel, prosecutors involved in public-corruption cases, prominent Illinois-based actors and musicians, Chicago sports luminaries and several billionaires.

The office found that the university did not meet its obligation under Title VI to assess whether a hostile environment was created for students, faculty, or staff related to any of the 139 complaints the university received. The investigation also found that programs in charge of responding to complaints like the above were not coordinated and inconsistently applied policies and procedures.

At Northern Illinois University, school officials recently reported a $31.8 million deficit, while at Western Illinois University as many as 124 faculty and staff members were recently shown the door as part of a plan to erase a $22 million hole. At the same time, at Southern Illinois University early projections forecast a $14 million deficit.

Spokesman Eric Ivers, a member of the Jersey County Board, said he is confident that a vast majority of residents will vote to form a new state. “There are three or four counties downstate that voted blue, but the rest of us are tired of being pushed through the ringer by the folks up in Cook County,” said Ivers.

U.S. District Judge Iain Johnston wrote that the defendants, among them Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin, “failed to meet their burden to show an American tradition of firearm regulation at the time of the Founding that would allow Illinois to prohibit Plaintiffs — who hold concealed carry permits — from carrying concealed handguns for self-defense onto the CTA and Metra.”