Army veteran Chuck West’s property taxes went up by $1,300 over previous year. “I would tell anybody who thought about moving to Illinois: ‘stay away. This is the last state you want to live in right now. And Quincy, the last city you want to move in.’ And I never thought I’d say that,” said West.

Losing that tax would affect the city’s police, fire and public works operations, which get their largest chunk of funding through the grocery tax, officials said this week. City Manager Bill Nicklas previously said all money collected through property taxes goes to DeKalb pension obligations.

For decades, Northwestern celebrated—and relied on—its growing pot of government funding. Now it’s a liability. The sudden collapse of the once-symbiotic relationship between the federal government and higher education is torpedoing a half-century-old university business model and upending how science is done.

Greg Bishop talks with former state Rep. Jeanne Ives about her efforts to highlight a billion Illinois tax dollars being sent to non-government organizations. Ives has a new webpage on this matter here at DogeIL.com.

Governor Pritzker has emerged as one of the loudest Democratic voices sounding the alarm about what he sees as the authoritarian tendencies of the Trump administration. And increasingly, he’s put his own personal story at the center of his argument.

“People are sick and tired of the sanctuary city policies, and they’re sick and tired of the crime that is being committed by illegal migrants who shouldn’t be here. But they’re welcomed into the city of Chicago and other parts of the state under these policies,” LaHood remarked.

“What’s the moral of the story? If you’re a politician and you testify in your own defense, don’t lie from the witness stand and make a fool out of a federal judge.”

Jim Dey: “Given Illinois’ parlous financial health, it would appear unlikely Pritzker & Co. will acquiesce on a Tier 2 boost. However, one would have thought Chicago’s municipal leadership would have taken the same stance with regard to its pension spending.”

UIS professor emeritus of political science Kent Redfield said it’s tough for the legislature to pass stricter ethics laws. “We tend not to think systematically, we tend to react to the current situation,” he said. “How can we make this go away, how we can deal with any particular problem or particular person, and not get to the heart of, how do we make politics more ethical.”

However, this isn’t the first time the Paris school district has seen money disappear. In 2023, the Illinois State Board of Education found more than $3 million in unauthorized use of government grants. In that same year, the FBI searched former superintendent Jeremy Larson’s home since some of the money was federal. Larson was fired and the district set up a payment plan to repay the money.

The delay follows a federal lawsuit filed in August 2024 by several organizations representing banks and credit unions, and comes after a federal court earlier this year partially enjoined the law—allowing it to take effect only against certain entities, including credit unions and in-state banks.