Duckworth is on her 13th Congressional Member Delegation (or CODEL) trip since 2018 — and this trip marks her 11th trip to Asia. She said her main goal in Taiwan this time will be to push Hon Hai — better known as Foxconn — to invest in the soon-to-be-constructed Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park on the South Side.

The legislation allows the Illinois Department of Public Health to impose civil penalties against non-community water supplies that violate drinking water standards. Schools, factories, restaurants, resorts, and churches are considered non-community public water systems since their water usually comes from a well.

“When you’re looking at over a billion dollars of deferred maintenance, I don’t think we’re in a position to be choosy and to be prideful and say, ‘you know, these are ours,’” said IDNR Director Natalie Phelps Finnie. “We’re holding on to these if there’s a better way to do it, and the federal government can come in making a national park, we’re open to that conversation.”

“It just reflects an entirely upside-down mentality that’s out of touch with the reality of the economics and what people want. Any growth that we’ve had in jobs is coming from the government,” Wirepoints Executive Editor Mark Glennon said.

Anna’s Law is named after 23-year-old Illinois resident Anna Williams, who said that after she was sexually assaulted in 2021, she met with the police officer assigned to her case as she was being examined at the hospital. When Williams told the officer the name of her perpetrator, she said his response was, “Oh, I know him. He’s a great guy.” Williams said she requested a different officer for her case multiple times, a request which was never granted.

Members of the Illinois General Assembly said their Democratic peers are in stealth mode trying to pass the massive tax increase, claiming the money is needed to solve Chicago’s Regional Transit Authority fiscal crisis. The money generated would mean nearly $2 billion for the state, $50 million for county governments, $390 million for municipal governments and $315 million for the RTA at current baseline tax rates.

The number of English learners in the state has grown and now make up 16.4 percent of Illinois’ student population, roughly 303,166 students, according to the Illinois State Board of Education’s 2024 report card. In 2023, there were 271,983 English learners, or 14.6 percent of the state’s student population.

State Sen. Robert Peters has built a reputation over the years for posting controversial comments on his social media accounts, often turning off comments so people could not respond. It was Peters who, as the COVID pandemic raged in April 2020, blamed the virus’ spread on “the travel of wealthy white people” and opined that the conduct of those “wealthy white people” was “disproportionately hurting working class Black folks.”

In the final days of the spring session, lawmakers are working on a legislative package aimed at addressing the state’s growing energy needs and rising costs without derailing the ambitious goals championed by Gov. JB Pritzker to make the state carbon-free. As is, the average bill for a residential Commonwealth Edison customer is expected to increase this summer by $10.60 per month; The typical Ameren customer’s monthly bill is expected to increase by 18-22 percent.

Americans for Prosperity Illinois said lawmakers are proposing up to $2.5 billion in additional taxes on Illinoisans to help bail out mismanagement and wasteful spending across the state.

Steven Lubet, a professor emeritus at Northwestern University’s law school and an expert on legal ethics, explained, “It is especially weird because full-time law teachers do not obtain credit for teaching law school courses, presumably on the theory that (continuing education) credit requires more than just doing your job. I don’t see why that same principle wouldn’t apply to legislators.”

“Pritzker’s stewardship of Illinois offers little evidence that he is prepared to handle the nation’s most urgent challenges. Voters are responding with their feet: a recent Lincoln Poll found more than 50 percent of Illinois residents would leave the state if they had the means.”

Rahm Emanuel, never humble about his political skills, is trying to accomplish something that seems far-fetched even for him: push his Democratic Party—rooted in the identity politics of the left—to the center.

“Illinois desperately needs progress on pensions; this measure is an essential building block for the larger solution ahead. What the state does not need, and cannot afford, is any form of pension ‘reform’ that makes matters worse.”