In a letter to Mr. Trump that Pritzker shared publicly, he wrote, “Your tariff taxes wreaked havoc on farmers, enraged our allies, and sent grocery prices through the roof. This morning, your hand-picked Supreme Court Justices notified you that they are also unconstitutional. On behalf of the people of Illinois, I demand a refund of $1,700 for every family in Illinois.”

“Are we not better than this? Aren’t people tired of this ridiculous pantomime of anger and vulgarity? Absolutely not. Your average working stiff doesn’t care about any of this rhetoric; then again your average working stiff isn’t surfing the internet for Juliana Stratton campaign ads. This is directed at the base, and in the context of a primary. And it will work.”

Illinois law freezes tuition rates for undergraduate students for four years upon entering a public college or university. The total cost for undergraduates will be about $30,605 for most ISU students.

It was harder for workers in Illinois to find a job than in most other states. There were 1.4 unemployed workers for every job opening, the 7th highest ratio in the nation. This reveals a fundamental weakness: Illinois isn’t creating enough job openings to offer sufficient opportunities to its unemployed workforce.

Jim Dey: “A statement issued by Fair Maps-Illinois contends that political face-off has ‘only deepened voter distrust in government, and the resulting hyper-partisanship has increased cynicism that nonpartisan and bipartisan good government reform is attainable.’ It would, of course, be attainable, if the issue was ever put to a public vote. At least that’s what public opinion polls indicate.”

In Illinois, six grant awards to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the University of Illinois-Chicago that are collectively worth over $20 million — which Attorney General Kwame Raoul said are to “make the electricity grid more reliable and resilient, reduce carbon emissions, and utilize domestic sources of rare earth elements and critical minerals” — were on the chopping block.

“Ted Dabrowski knows how the state got off track, but he’s the underdog in the GOP primary for governor…. Mr. Pritzker has been a frequent target of Wirepoints’ unflattering statistics, and he once lashed out at Mr. Dabrowski’s firm, calling it a ‘carnival-barker organization’—a phrase that drew a rebuke from the people of the circus and carnival culture.”

Campaigns are not legally allowed to coordinate with outside spending groups, though a loophole called red-boxing allows the campaigns to signal the kinds of ads they want to see without directly coordinating with the groups. Candidates Daniel Biss and Laura Fine both have redboxing pages, which both have recently been updated with negative information about each other, indicating negative ads may be coming soon.

Illinois consumers blame data centers — which often receive generous tax incentives in Illinois — for straining the grid and driving up prices, and they want relief. But companies that operate the centers are seeking ways to build more quickly and pushing for looser regulation, arguing the centers are key to the state’s economic future.

“We’re going to build Illinois. … I want us to become a state of ‘make’ again. I want to bring businesses here. This is what I know how to do,” he said.

According to the Lake Zurich Police Department, at about 1:45 p.m. Feb. 12, several of their officers were present at the high school for a scheduled walkout protest related to ICE operations. School personnel reported a fight taking place inside the school near the main entrance and asked officers to respond.

“F— Trump, vote Juliana,” one person after another says in the new TV ad. The ad also features Gov. JB Pritzker and U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth.

Rockford Mayor Tom McNamara has argued for years that the state has “stolen” the city’s share of income taxes as it mandates huge pension cost increases. In dollars and cents, Rockford officials place the funding loss from a 2011 reduction of about 3.5 percentage points at about $143.5 million, or roughly $9.5 million a year.

“We must not lose sight of what works. In 2023, in addition to ending money bond, opening back up our schools, recreation centers and public gathering spaces, we started investing in programs that have been shown to actually protect safety: community violence interruption programs, substance use disorder treatment and harm reduction programs and hospital-based violence intervention programs that support the people most affected by gun violence.”