Belvidere’s city council voted unanimously to opt out, citing concerns about burdening residents already facing inflation. “The city of Belvidere is going to do just fine without it,” said Mayor Clint Morris. “And, you know, I think it’s the right thing to do.”

Union leaders were one of the main proponents of stricter public school Covid measures. Their goal, in the words of American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten, was justice. “Justice is our middle name. It is the lens through which we do all of our work. Climate justice is racial justice. It is worker justice. It is gender justice,” said Weingarten in a clip included in the documentary. The actress Jane Fonda went further, saying “Covid is God’s gift to the Left.”

“Too much demand for appropriations and too little supply of revenue to appropriate are setting the stage for another budget scrum, where it’s every lobbyist for himself.”

McHenry County has filed suit against ICE, trying to get the federal government to pay for potential liability for allegedly making immigrant detainees do forced labor. The court battle pits conservative McHenry County, which once fought in court for the ability to hold accused immigrants in the U.S. without legal permission in its jail, against the agency that once paid it millions of dollars every year to do so.

“When I first introduced legislation to allow adult adoptees to access their original birth certificates, I knew it would not be easy. The bill took 14 years to pass: 14 years of hearings, negotiations and emotional testimony from adoptees, birth parents and adoptive families alike.”