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Ald. Marty Quinn called the purchase “not a good deal,” a “colossal risk,” and a potentially poor use of $50 million of tax increment financing district money — something the city may regret when facing a billion-dollar budget gap later this year, he added.
“There’s a real irony at its heart. A bill that is written to protect minors requires collecting birth dates, requires collecting age data on every user in Illinois, creating exactly the kind of sensitive database about minors that, quite frankly, predators and hackers would love to get their hands on,” said Amy Bos, vice president of government affairs for NetChoice.
When Chicago Public Schools Superintendent Macquline King testified before Congress, U.S. Rep. Burgess Owens questioned the academic proficiency rates for students in Chicago Public Schools: “Is a 77 percent failure rate in reading ok? A 76 percent failure rate in math and 88 percent of our Black students not being able to read, is that ok Dr. King? Is that success or failure?” King replied, “That is not acceptable.”
Gov. JB Pritzker said there could be a special session if the General Assembly can get together on one piece of Bears legislation.
Although Illinois also provides health coverage outside the Medicaid system that is funded entirely with state dollars, the language in this year’s bill specifically states that it “shall not require any category of non-citizens or part thereof to be funded at state-only cost.”
Between the start of Trump’s term and April 2026, the AG’s office filed 63 lawsuits against the Trump administration.
Using data from multiple state sources, including the Illinois State Board of Education, the state had almost 3,900 teacher vacancies during the 2024-25 school year. With over 136,000 positions filled, the vacancy rate for the state was about 3 percent.
While the motive behind the burning cross was not immediately clear, cross burnings in the U.S. have historically been seen as “symbols of hate” that are “inextricably intertwined with the history of the Ku Klux Klan,” according to a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision written by the late Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
The Illinois Network of Charters praised the longer terms and a greater emphasis on academic performance as part of the district’s new oversight measures, but still criticized CPS for waiting until the summer to tell charter families and staff how many more years their schools would survive. Jodie Cantrell, chief of public affairs for INCS, described the delay as a political move for which “children pay the price.”
Last year, victim specialists attempted to reach 18,052 victims of violent crime and made contact with 6,383 of them, mostly domestic violence survivors. Of the 56 community service providers on the program’s list, only four organizations said they received any referrals.
To most questions, including those about accommodations for trans students on overnight trips, King flatly told the lawmakers that CPS policies are aligned with Illinois laws.
“I think of (Cook County Democratic Chairwoman Toni) Preckwinkle as a terrifying ogre deep in a damp cave, as part of the Scandinavian myth, as ferocious as the creature who gave birth to Grendel, of the Beowulf Saga. But until someone in the Democratic party enters the ogre’s cave, challenges her and dispatches her, Chicago Crime and violence will continue raining upon the people without mercy.”
In the absence of a comprehensive federal law, states continue enacting their own protections for residents, as seen in Colorado and California. “Right now, it’s the wild, wild west,” state Sen. Mary Edly-Allen said.
The issue, notable in U.S. Rep. Nikki Budzinski’s district and across Illinois, was raised amid larger conversations about the independent agency’s financial viability.
This year, the state is holding off for six months on a 1.3-cents-a-gallon increase that was slated to kick in July 1. Gov. JB Pritzker made affordability a central theme of his fiscal 2027 budget, but this temporary reprieve does nothing to change the long-term reality of yearly automatic gas tax increases.
Illinois’ 222 data centers have attracted billions in investment to the state over the last five years, but they’ve also driven skyrocketing consumer energy bills while using millions of gallons of water a day, which they don’t currently have to report to the state. According to the governor’s office, “Demand from data centers has already raised [energy] costs by $13 billion and data center demand could raise costs another $37 billion in Illinois alone in coming years.”
Corbett first raised concerns on social media near the end of the General Assembly’s spring session, alleging that language in Senate Amendment 3 to House Bill 1832 would have exempted certain Chicago school board petition circulators from requirements that other candidates were required to follow.
“Like a sleazy used car salesman, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and his Democrat allies are taking a victory lap over the state’s supposedly ‘balanced’ budget. But a quick look under the hood reveals that the Land of Lincoln is far from the model of fiscal responsibility that Pritzker is making it out to be. In reality, the state is barreling toward disaster – and Democrats are trying to sell a lemon of a state as a model of good governance.”
The governor said what’s past will be prologue, promising to keep fighting for BUILD and a solution that results in the Bears building their new stadium in Illinois. “Absolutely, I’m going to be campaigning on this,” Gov. JB Pritzker said of BUILD. “So, yes, it’s a political issue.”
Preckwinkle did not point to a culprit for the two-month deferral. In an attempt to head off further uproar from various local government leaders, Preckwinkle announced Tuesday she is again setting aside $300 million to loan to local governments to help them balance their budgets and pay their employees.
“All Chicagoans hate the parking-meter deal. It exacerbates the annual budget shortfalls that have plagued Johnson’s term more than any other single issue. Why, if you’re Brandon Johnson, would you want to be perceived as obstructionist on something that unites Chicagoans?”
Attorney and former Illinois state lawmaker Scott Drury filed the lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court, alleging Motorola has improperly shared data from its license plate reading cameras with federal immigration agents and other federal law enforcement offices in violation of California state privacy law.
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