By imposing confusing rules during the employment verification process and threatening employers with penalties if they do not comply, SB0508 discourages and complicates the use of E-Verify and Form I-9 inspection requirements. E-Verify allows any U.S. employer to electronically confirm the employment eligibility of newly hired employees and Form I-9 is used to verify the identity and employment authorization of individuals.

“You can’t win statewide with just downstate conservative votes,” said UIS emeritus professor Kent Redfield. “You can run against the Republicans and be the lesser of two evils for a suburban voter, but it’s much better to look at how can you build the Republican Party that has some ideological coherence.”

At nearly $55 billion, Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s proposed budget will be the most expensive ever for taxpayers.

At one point in his speech, Dr. Jerry Kruse, Dean, Provost, and CEO of Southern Illinois University School of Medicine said he would provide employees with the “resources” to “fight back.”

The plan, which has been in development for the last four years, calls for adding roughly $1.7 billion in new university funding over the next 10-15 years, but distributing that under a formula that would give priority to schools that are currently the least adequately funded.

“Despite his pledge to invest in economic growth and jobs, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s 2026 budget proposal cuts state dollars for economic development by around $325 million and then hopes $339 million from the feds will be there when he needs it. So, how likely is it Pritzker will get those federal funds when his main occupation seems to be taking shots at the Trump administration?”

Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford and Rep. Carol Ammons are leading the effort to shake up the funding process for the state’s 12 public universities, as they argue funding should be based on the needs of each college rather than a flat method of distribution.

This plan could require the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice to provide employment opportunities, educational resources, and parental mentorship training for youth who committed nonviolent crimes.

CTU is currently part of a coalition pushing state lawmakers to pass $6 billion in new taxes and is spreading its gospel of strikes, politics and Socialist doctrine to New York and other blue cities.

Voters were unhappy with their home state: 49.5 percent said they would move out of Illinois if given the opportunity, a slight increase from January. Only 40 percent said they would rather stay in Illinois. The remaining 10.5 percent said they were unsure.

HB 4045 and its companion bill in the Senate would allow anyone who knowingly manufactures, sells, offers to sell, purchases, receives, manufactures, imports, or transfers a “convertible pistol” to be charged with unlawful possession of a weapon; a class 4 felony in the state punishable by a minimum of one year in prison and up to three years behind bars and a $25,000 fine.

“It’s time to fight,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said during a virtual town hall. “Everybody has to get up, stand up, speak out, show up.”

Sen. Don DeWitte, ranking Republican on the Senate’s Transportation committee, said the deal would leave in place the three “service boards” that operate transit in Chicago and the suburbs, and provide new oversight powers to a “newly empowered” RTA, the agency that currently handles some financial oversight for the region’s transit agencies.

“A state payroll tax would punish businesses for … hiring people, something we desperately need them to do. While intended to help workers afford time off for health and family reasons, it would increase the cost of hiring and maintaining jobs here and expose both employers and employees to future tax hikes if the program runs deficits.”