Ald. Lakeisha Purchase’s hiring is part of a broader shift in Johnson’s intergovernmental affairs efforts in Springfield, where since taking office nearly two years ago he’s had minimal success working with Gov. JB Pritzker and some lawmakers.

State Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth said sealed records can open doors to job opportunities and allow people who served time to rebuild their lives. She stressed this is a key reason why groups from the business industry like the Illinois Retail Merchants Association and Illinois Manufacturers’ Association support her plan.

Prosecutors argue the forfeited money (more than $3.1 million) represents proceeds from Madigan’s illicit dealings, including his influence over the state’s largest utility, ComEd.<

“I don’t have to remind you that in the last few years, under his leadership, we’ve lost Caterpillar, Citadel, Boeing, Tyson Foods, Guggenheim Partners, and TTX. That just scratches the surface. Many, many smaller businesses have shuttered and families are moving out of Illinois in droves,” Illinois Republican Party Chair Kathy Salvi said.

McLean County school districts asked voters to approve a 1 percent sales tax on their taxpayer-funded websites, a move that has one resident accusing officials of a criminal offense. Dean Fletcher, an Illinois resident, lodged a complaint with the Illinois State Policy Special Investigations Unit and the Attorney General’s Public Integrity Bureau, but both agencies declined to investigate. “They’re infamous for not investigating Mike Madigan,” said Fletcher.

“Pretty much everyone at the statehouse has said that funding won’t happen without reform. But the transit leaders are still demanding lots more money without interference with their governance. ‘It’s something that I think we all understand is necessary soon,’ the governor repeated, emphasizing the word ‘soon.'”

Testimony delivered by Civic Federation President Joe Ferguson to the Illinois House Transportation: Regulation, Roads and Bridges Committee reads, in part, “To those suggesting we simply give more authority to the RTA: that has been tried and that has failed. … A well-functioning, fully integrated regional transit system is not just a luxury—it is critical to our future competitiveness and equity.”

“In the South, you’ve got Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, others doing what Florida is doing. On the Democratic side, like Illinois, you have Connecticut, Maryland, California taking staunchly different Democratic approaches. And as we heard, people in some of these states are speaking up for themselves, going to state capitols and protesting on the direction they want to see.”

A statement from House Minority Leader Tony McCombie reads, in part, “Fairness and safety in sports is not a political issue and should not be up for debate. Policies protecting same-sex sports and locker rooms must align with federal policy to ensure the integrity of competition and the well-being of all student-athletes.”

The governor’s office said that Mexico is Illinois’ second largest export market. Bilateral trade between the state and country exceeded $32 billion in 2024. Additionally, Mexico is Illinois’ third-largest import market.

“I want to make sure the Department of Education is efficient. I want to make sure that it’s responsive, but the notion that we’re going to shift all the student loans to the SBA is an example of someone who didn’t think it through. With fewer employees at that agency, they’ll be unable to do the the job which they were assigned the responsibility in doing and change the lives of a lot of American students in the process,” Durbin said.

Illinois taxpayers are being told there will be no added cost from a measure that would ensure non-citizen children have access to public education while being safe from immigration enforcement inside schools. The Illinois State Board of Education has requested $35 million for New Arrival Student Grants for local school districts across the state.

Illinois House Bill 2365, sponsored by state Rep. Maurice West, seeks to appropriate $67 million to the Healthy School Meals for All Program established in 2023. West said he also filed a bill to spend $209 million, but, citing the state’s current budget challenges, said the reduced measure would provide meals for schools with at least 40 percent of their students from low-income families.

House Bill 2982 is before the Illinois House and would end the “tip credit” by July 2027. A survey by the Illinois Restaurant Association found 92 percent of Chicago restaurants would raise menu prices in reaction to the Chicago City Council phasing out the tipped minimum wage. When government forces employers to pay higher wages, those costs are passed on the customers, jobs are cut, work hours reduced or the business closes.

The letter condemns the Community Justice and Civil Rights Clinic at the Pritzker School of Law for giving free legal representation to organizers of a pro-Palestinian highway blockade to O’Hare International Airport last April.

A flyer promoting one January fundraiser mentions Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch as a “special guest” at the event asking for a “sponsorship” for donors of $5,000, $2,500, $1,000 or $500. It’s unclear whether he ended up attending.

Analysis of the use of electronic monitoring is difficult because probation and pretrial services fall under the judicial branch, making both the county level programs and the new Office of Statewide Pretrial Services are exempt from Illinois’ transparency laws.

The RTA said a bailout from Springfield could save the system, but something in the range of $770 million to $1.5 billion is needed. If those funds do not come in, the agencies are predicting not only a drastic reduction in service, but also the cutting of thousands of jobs.

SB 98 would amend the Illinois School Code to implement a mandatory one-year expulsion for any public school student who is determined by that district’s school board to have committed sexual assault, sexual harassment or engaged in a sexual activity without the consent. State Sen. Steven McClure filed the bill after a 10-year-old girl at Taylorville Junior High School in his district was sexually assaulted multiple times on her school bus by a 14-year-old boy and then later sexually assaulted again by that same boy at their school bus stop after the school did not take measures to separate the

“The Home for Good legislation builds upon existing, but limited, housing programs and reentry housing pilots that have proved to help people build stable lives. It would allocate $103 million for the Illinois Housing Development Authority and the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority to expand those housing opportunities.”