“I’ve watched him. He was set up by a lot of bad people, some of the same people I had to deal with,” President Trump said at the White House as he signed the pardon. When asked by a reporter about reports that he was considering appointing Blagojevich as ambassador to Serbia, Trump responded: “No, but I would. He’s now cleaner than anybody in this room.”

Asked if Illinois, with an anticipated $3 billion budget deficit for the next fiscal year, should have a similar effort, state Rep. Marcus Evans said not so fast. “This budget deficit is the reality of government operations and we’re going to figure it out, but that Elon Musk department is unnecessary here in Illinois,” Evans said.

The case Illinois vs. Vivian Brown stems from a 2017 case where Brown separated from her husband. She possessed a single-shot .22 rifle in her home. Her husband filed a complaint against her alleging she fired the rifle inside the home. Police found the rifle had not been fired, but the state’s attorney charged her with possessing a firearm without a FOID card.

Aaron Del Mar, who recently resigned his position as co-chairman of the Illinois Republican Party, was Gary Rabine’s running mate in the 2022 gubernatorial primary. The pair lost to former state Sen. Darren Bailey.

Current law allows people asking a court for an order of protection to request a “firearm remedy” that would lead to law enforcement removing guns from the alleged abuser’s possession. Karina’s Law closes the loophole that made it unclear who was responsible for removing the gun from the situation. Under the law, the person who seeks an order of protection can also ask the court to issue a search warrant that will allow local law enforcement to seize firearms from the alleged abuser.

Illinois’ pension funding law dictates the state must contribute more than $11.7 billion to the five state-run retirement systems in the upcoming fiscal year 2026 budget. But the plans’ actuaries have determined the five systems need more than $16.8 billion next year – and annually for at least the next 20 years – to fully fund the systems and begin paying down the state’s pension debt.

The impact, nationwide could be $4 billion in cuts, he said, adding that the University of Illinois system alone would lose roughly $67 million annually. Universities cannot function without cutting-edge labs, high-speed data and effective support staff, Raoul said. What’s more, “it is simply illegal.” He said that in 2017, Congress specifically rejected the idea of cuts to indirect costs and that every appropriations bill since has blocked HHS and NIH to use appropriated funds from altering indirect cuts.

Thirteen attorneys general, including Illinois’ Kwame Raoul and New York’s Letitia James, said in a statement that they were taking action “in defense of our Constitution, our right to privacy, and the essential funding that individuals and communities nationwide are counting on.”

“Leaving most of the largest and fastest-growing segment of the economy out of the sales tax base means the revenue it generates can’t grow as the economy expands. Of course, the cost of providing public services does. To fix that shortcoming, Illinois’ sales tax should be applied to the purchase of consumer services, as in neighboring Iowa and Wisconsin.”

The plan, which was issued Jan. 28, offered most federal employees a buyout to voluntarily leave their jobs by Feb. 6. In a release, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said this “Fork in the Road” directive is “an attempt to force federal workers to choose, giving them only days to decide between accepting a legally fraught ‘buyout’ and potentially being terminated from their jobs.”

Black Leadership Advocacy Coalition for Healthcare Equity (BLACHE) Board Chair Creola Hampton claims the state is withholding funds that were promised four years ago. “You cannot justify 96 percent of your budget going to White-led organizations,” said Hampton. “You’re not going to cut funding for them, but funding that was promised to Black-led organizations that were promised the funding, it’s called a default of contract. We should be suing the state.”

More than 180 unfunded mandates were proposed just last year, and 30 of those were passed and sent to the governor. Twenty-nine unfunded mandates were sent to the governor in 2022, and 35 were sent to the governor in 2023.

With an incoming administration likely to be skeptical of increased bailouts, Illinois cities’ will struggle to fund the current level of services, much less meet their required pension payments. And due to a law allowing local pension funds to petition the Illinois Comptroller to intercept local revenues dispersed by the state, some cities have already had their revenues threatened.

The legislation would create a regulatory framework for the production, distribution, and supervised use of psilocybin, the psychoactive compound found in psychedelic mushrooms. HB 2992 proposes a 15 percent tax on psilocybin purchases, with revenue directed to newly established state funds, and it amends the Illinois Freedom of Information Act to exempt certain psilocybin-related data from public disclosure and modifies the state’s DUI laws to account for psilocybin use.

Jim Dey: “The Illinois Supreme Court has agreed to review a controversial lower-court ruing allowing a former deputy sheriff charged with murder to be released from jail pending trial. … The legal dispute is ironic because the criminal friendly SAFE-T Act is being invoked by a former police officer charged with murder in connection with the fatal shooting of member of a minority group.”

“Only in Illinois, where just a third of Illinois students are proficient in reading and math can such numbers be considered ‘great strides.’ Wirepoints reports that Illinois’ results are even worse than they appear when considering the amount the state’s budget devotes to education in comparison to most states.”