The 39 team members come from fire departments around Illinois, including Chicago.

Illinois U.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen, a former meteorologist, said he and others are pushing bipartisan legislation to strengthen NWS operations and staffing, warning that shortfalls may be putting lives at risk. Illinois has two National Weather Service forecast offices, one in Lincoln and another in Romeoville.

“Governor Pritzker’s statements are factually incorrect. State Farm does not shift costs between states, and we have provided information to the Illinois Department of Insurance to demonstrate this fact. Our Illinois rates reflect Illinois-specific claims and risks,” the company said.

Illinois has so far collected about $1.4 billion of the roughly $50 billion in nationwide settlements from investigations and litigation with pharmaceutical companies, according to Raoul’s office.

“Arlington Heights isn’t the first suburb to put the streaming tax on the table, but implementing it would certainly make the village an early adopter. East Dundee adopted a 5 percent amusement tax in April 2022 that includes video and audio streaming services, making it the first Illinois municipality beyond Chicago to levy such a tax. Evanston also adopted a 5 percent streaming tax in 2020. And don’t forget, state lawmakers considered expanding the state’s 6.25 percent sales tax to streaming services across Illinois in the session that ended in May. That didn’t happen, but it was part of the

Jim Dey: “Pritzker’s proposed (grocery sales) tax cut didn’t cost the state a dime because it came at the expense of cities across the state — from Chicago in Cook County to tiny bergs in deep Southern Illinois. … As of 2 p.m. June 27, 278 communities had approved a 1-cent-per-dollar grocery-sales-tax increase, according to the municipal league. … More communities, including Urbana, will join that list before the end of the year. Champaign will not. It approved a sales-tax hike, one not aimed solely at groceries.”

After two weeks of consideration, State Rep. Dan Ugaste, a Geneva Republican, has decided not to make a run for Illinois governor, but to seek a fifth term instead.

Christian Maxwell, a Republican running for Illinois’ 1st Congressional District, said Democrats are fearmongering and rural hospitals will get support in the federal legislation.

The Public Access of the Illinois Attorney General’s Office has determined the Macoupin County Board technically violated the state’s Open Meetings Act on March 26 when Board Chair Larry Schmidt used a text message to solicit the opinions from 15 of the board’s 18 members about whether or not he should step down from the chairmanship.