“No one can argue that Maine’s statehood, or even the Missouri Compromise itself, was the singular or direct cause of the Civil War. It nonetheless hardened deepening partisan and geographic divisions in the U.S. The absorption of some of Illinois’ most strongly Republican counties into already solidly Republican Indiana, strengthening Democratic control of Illinois in the process, would similarly risk writing partisan and ideological divisions into state borders.”

“For many rural hospitals, Medicaid covers a large percentage of their patients and accounts for a significant portion of the hospital’s budget. Without Medicaid, these hospitals will be forced to shut down, laying off their employees and further isolating Americans from health care.”

State Sen. Jason Plummer said sometimes things sound good in theory and they cause disasters in practice, and this piece of legislation is exactly that. “You’re going to turn the attorney general’s office and who knows who else loose on small and medium businesses around the state,” he said. “It’s well intended but this is going to be a disaster for the people trying to provide goods and services in all our districts, and it’s going to create a litigation nightmare for them.”

The protests spanned more than 30 cities in Illinois as part of a “Hands Off!” National Day of Action campaign in more than 1,300 locations. The largest protest in the state took place in downtown Chicago, where an estimated 30,000 people flooded the Loop, chanting “This is what democracy looks like!” and “This is what Chicago looks like!” More than 3,000 people took to the streets of Gurnee, including U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider.

“But would Pritzker’s hometown of Chicago really miss southern Illinois? Probably not. Let’s face it, the big city regards the rest of the state as an irrelevant agricultural appendage. But here’s what we do care about: The Hoosiers are also going after an institution central to our civic identity, the Bears.”

State Sen. Sally Turner refiled her bill this year to allow tiny homes to be exempt from the 2023 state law requiring all homes to be built with electric vehicle charging capacity.

“Here in Illinois, insurers are able to do this without any meaningful scrutiny as Illinois regulators have no authority to reject or modify excessive property or casualty insurance rate hikes,” said Abe Scarr, director of the Illinois Public Interest Research Group.

The state covers up to 65 percent of expenses for downstate transit agencies. But because of rising costs and lackluster economic growth in downstate communities that hinders sales tax revenue, funding shortfalls are growing.

The Illinois Federation of Teachers represents 186 of Illinois’ 866 school districts. Illinois itself has a low proficiency rate with only 41 percentof third through eighth graders meeting proficiency in reading and 28 percent in math. Outperforming the state average should not be a high bar to meet – yet students in the largest IFT-represented districts are missing the mark.

Brad Weisenstein, of the Illinois Policy Institute: “Illinois is one of five states that don’t allow family members to report issues with an elderly driver. It is the only state that mandates driving tests based on age — for those 79 and older. Both those would change if Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias gets a bill through the General Assembly. … The mandatory driving test age would be raised to 87. Family members could report driving concerns.”

Jim Dey: “College towns haven’t been very hospitable to Republicans in recent years. But former GOP state Rep. Dan Brady handily won his election bid for mayor of Bloomington in Tuesday’s consolidated, supposedly nonpartisan election.”

In a Friday order, five of the court’s conservative-leaning justices halted a trial court ruling that had temporarily required the Education Department to keep covering incurred expenses in the eight suing states. The Democratic-led states went to court after the department canceled 104 of 109 grants under two training programs because of concerns about diversity, equity and inclusion.

“Terminating leases in the buildings where federal workers are assisting Americans is careless and cruel to those who worked hard for these benefits. And it certainly does not make the government more efficient. … Several Department of Labor office leases in Illinois were also terminated, including the Occupational Safety and Health Administration office in Naperville, Illinois, and the Wage and Hour Division office in Springfield, Illinois.”

“My concern with the resentencing efforts that we’re putting in is that we’re putting more burden, I guess, on victims and victims’ families that they’re going to have to go through this trauma yet once again,” said state Rep. Patrick Windhorst, a former state’s attorney in Massac County. The Illinois State’s Attorneys Association objected to the bill on similar grounds.