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That requirement lasts for up to one year after a child is born, according to text of the bill.
A group of Chicago aldermen proposed a 29 percent increase in the city’s sales tax on retail alcohol sales. The tax was included in the council members’ budget alternative to Mayor Brandon Johnson’s head tax on employers.
Other universities have cut their budgets, or say they will, in recent months. Northwestern University said it cut 425 staff positions in July, and the University of Chicago is looking to cut $100 million in expenses.
The bill also strengthens laws around prohibiting the sale or distribution of alcohol to minors, and also prohibits the sale of alcohol or liquor to “visibly intoxicated” individuals.
The lawsuit features communications between city officials that indicate they tilted the scales to encourage and favor an African American-owned business to take his place.
Pritzker last week headlined a Democratic fundraiser in Los Angeles that was co-hosted by Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, a campaign spokesperson said, days before the couple was found dead Sunday at their home in the Brentwood neighborhood.
Among the reported wrongdoing, the OEIG said of more than 500 Paycheck Protection Program fraud investigations, 378 resulted in founded reports. The report shows dozens of state employees from the Department of Children and Family Services, Department of Human Services, and other state agencies defrauding more than $20,000 each from the PPP.
“The very first question that you’re asked when you apply for a FOID card is, ‘Are you a United States citizen,’ and now they’re pointing to a 2024 [Department of Justice] memo under the Biden administration saying that he’s allowed to carry a firearm while he’s on duty,” state Rep. Adam Niemerg said. “Now you have a noncitizen with police powers over the citizenry of the state of Illinois given a roundabout back door to violate the FOID card act and break the Constitution and the laws we have in the state of Illinois to carry a firearm.”
“The mayor’s office has shown little interest or ability in tackling the spending side of Chicago’s fiscal crisis, even as total city spending has ballooned by billions since 2019. … The head tax fight is less about sound budgeting than about preserving a political narrative that Johnson is simply asking ‘the rich’ to pay more, even as the rest of his plan quietly squeezes ordinary Chicagoans.”
“Cook County’s Promise Guaranteed Income Pilot, which launched using $42 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funding, gave 3,250 low- to moderate-income families $500 a month in no-strings-attached cash … The same people hoping to stretch that $500 check are also paying the county’s hefty 10.25 percent combined sales tax on many essential items, a reminder that government often constrains purchasing power with one hand while offering aid with the other.”
While officials said Johnson has not proposed to cut any positions charged with implementing the consent decree, city officials did not answer detailed questions about why 60 fewer officers would be assigned to constitutional policing and reform efforts in 2026 than in 2025. The amount of money set aside for constitutional policing and reform efforts will drop by $80 million between 2025 and 2026, records show.
The Illinois Court of Claims serves as the venue for individuals seeking financial compensation from the state in cases involving state responsibility, including injuries, property damage, and wrongful imprisonment.
The bonds, modeled after an initiative with the same name in Kansas, were created by Illinois law more than a decade ago to allow governments to pay for construction, land acquisition and other project costs with future sales taxes generated by the development. The bonds are fulfilled in 30 years but payments must be every six months.
The mayor had vowed to veto any budget that included higher garbage collection fees, and it had become clear aldermen would not get the 34 votes needed to override a veto.
This isn’t the first time the Trump administration has clashed with Chicago over transit funding. During his first term, Trump officials repeatedly questioned CTA expansion plans. Now, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is putting the long-awaited Red Line extension in jeopardy, pausing funding “to ensure no additional federal dollars go towards discriminatory, illegal, and wasteful contracting practices.”
Since 1996, the amount of money municipalities in Cook County outside of Chicago have levied to keep up with police and fire pensions has grown nearly five times. The amount levied to keep up services has not even doubled. And in Chicago, on net, every new property tax dollar raised since 2014 has gone to fund pension costs. In the 2024 Chicago budget, police and fire pensions were responsible for more than 66 percent of the property tax levy.
The ages of the victims range from 14 to 48.
“Illinois has reemerged as a hub of national political activity — and a focal point of Democratic resistance. What once felt like a quieter chapter has given way to a renewed sense of Illinois politics.”
“In fairness, reckless local politicians aren’t the only reason Chicago is in trouble. Reckless state politicians are also a major problem….Unless politicians get serious, actually cut spending and start enacting sane, pro-growth policies, Chicago will get more than a taste of that bitter pill.”
“As a Chicagoan, I have little doubt that Bernstein will have great success in injecting this type of hate directly into the veins of many in the city.”
“The evidence presented in this report is unambiguous: electricity affordability is a function of state-level policy choices. States that have embraced aggressive renewable mandates, 100% “carbon-free” targets, premature coal and nuclear retirements, rooftop-solar cost shifting, and restrictions on natural gas infrastructure routinely deliver the nation’s highest electricity prices.}
“The objective of our audit is to (1) determine whether the Authority complied with HUD’s and its own requirements for verifying eligibility of individuals for HUD assisted housing based on criminal activity, citizenship, and immigration status, and (2) assess the Authority’s practices for preventing and addressing criminal activity,” the audit notice said.
“Just this year, the Board of Review commissioners cut commercial and industrial assessments in Chicago by more than $3.7 billion, while residential values were cut by only one-tenth that amount. Commercial property taxes dropped by more than 4 percent as a result, while homeowners saw their bills jump more than 16 [ercent, meaning the average family is paying $700 more than they should, with many families paying even more.”
“It’s essentially a public relations campaign aimed from both sides at the hearts and minds of Chicago residents, a war of words waged on TV, online and in the pages of papers. Such campaigns are a routine part of politics, but this budget year they are taking place as aldermen decry a lack of meaningful private negotiations where the real work to craft a municipal budget often takes place.”
“Organized labor once built Chicago’s middle class on shared sacrifice and mutual respect. The CTU has traded both for political dominance.”
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