Before Elizabeth Rochford and Mary O’Brien were elected to the Illinois Supreme Court in November 2022, Gov. JB Pritzker gave each of their campaign funds half a million dollars from both his campaign account and a revocable trust, totaling $1 million to each. The two justices also received six-figure donations out of a campaign fund controlled by Illinois House Speaker Emanual “Chris” Welch”.

After Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) signed a controversial six-week abortion ban Thursday night, Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-IL) reached out to disaffected residents of the state, encouraging them to make Illinois home instead.

Gov. Pritzker posted his support on Twitter. “No one better I can think of to be appointed to the Committee for the Preservation of the

In Will County, conservative groups who support parents for school boards won eight seats in local school board races.

Illinois badly wants to keep the Belvidere plant up and running and is putting a major push with daily talks between officials and Stellantis.

“At least in this state, the Bill Clinton era sure appears to be over. Ginning up fears about crime and promising to throw more money at the police just aren’t enough by themselves any longer to win races.”

Around $30 million has been designated to distribute 60,000 HEPA air purifiers in more than 3,000 Illinois schools across the state.

“Republicans had better get their abortion position straight, and more in line with where voters are or they will face another disappointment in 2024. A total ban is a loser in swing states. Republicans who insist on that position could soon find that electoral defeats will lead to even more liberal state abortion laws than under Roe. That’s where Michigan is now after last year’s rout.”

After a resounding number of local election wins, the Democratic Party of Illinois (DPI) is celebrating its success in preventing extremists from being elected to numerous school and library board seats across the state. While results are yet to be certified, 73 of the 101 extremists that DPI identified and opposed lost their races, and of the 117 candidates recommended by DPI, 84 were elected.

“Friedman was primarily concerned with education. But choice in education turns out to have far-reaching consequences for politics, where teachers unions hold great power. Look at the Chicago Teachers Union, which is now trying to elect a former CTU organizer as mayor.” Comment: Obviously written before Chicago’s election results came in, making it all the more true.

Fertility fraud, where a doctor uses their own human reproductive cells during a patient’s reproductive treatment, is currently illegal in eight states. Illinois is working to make it the 9th.

About 80% of property-tax dollars in Chicago go to pensions. Yet Chicago’s four pension systems have only enough assets to cover about 25% of whatthey owe workers and retirees, which is less than Detroit’s pension funds had when the Motor City declared Chapter 9 bankruptcy a decade ago.

“Statewide (and) nationwide,” he said, “it is a proven fact that students are below grade level and (schools) are just working on starting to get kids caught up at this time, and I think that’s just the trend that was here.”

A new report shows that Illinois is a top state for so-called “thermonuclear verdicts.” Marathon Strategies found that juries in Illinois state and federal courts issued multi-million dollar verdicts against corporations that have totaled $3.3 billion since the Great Recession of 2009.

While anyone in Illinois can experience trauma, the Task Force noted that it is disproportionately experienced by people in marginalized groups. The bill language states that systemic and historical oppression, such as racism, is often at the root of this inequity.

Celina Villaneuva (D-Chicago) said, “We must ensure that women who are seeking reproductive health care are protected from deceptive and misleading practices. At a time when they are already vulnerable, they must have peace of mind that they won’t be taken advantage of.”

A bill targeting the practices of crisis pregnancy centers that do not perform or support abortion passed the Illinois Senate this morning. The measure now goes to the Illinois House. The sponsor of Senate Bill 1909, state Sen. Celina Villanueva, D-Chicago, said in a statement that the bill prohibits the use of deceptive practices that interfere with an individual seeking to gain entry or access to the provider of an abortion or emergency contraceptives, or induce a person to enter a limited-services pregnancy center, in advertising or soliciting.

The Illinois Finance Authority, in its role as the state’s climate bank, is ramping up efforts to establish new financing options for green initiatives with a slate of federal funding applications in the works aimed at moving the state toward clean energy, climate, and equity goals.

The Illinois Senate approved a measure on Thursday that would lift a 1980s-era moratorium on nuclear power plant construction. Senate Bill 76, sponsored by Sen. Sue Rezin, R-Morris, was approved on a 39-13 vote. The bill now goes to the House of Representatives for consideration.

Full costs at elite private colleges now stretch well into the $80,000s, or upward of $320,000 for four years and well above what the typical U.S. household earns. At UChicago, the cost of attendance — tuition, room, board and fees — is just over $81,000. At Northwestern, it’s roughly $84,000.

Randi Weingarten heads the American Federation of Teachers, which is the parent organization of the Chicago Teachers Union.

Peoples Gas, North Shore Gas, Ameren Illinois and Nicor Gas are all seeking rate increases.

Illinois’ economy ranked near the bottom in all 11 of its major industries over Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s first term in office, a time that also saw the state rank just 35th in the country in overall job growth.

One intern candidate had a 1.1 GPA, according to emails prosecutors showed on Tuesday. When Marquez pointed this out to McClain, McClain responded “Holy mackerel, even mine was higher than that number!” Marquez testified that he considered requests from McClain to be directly from Madigan. In one instance, Nicole Madigan, at the request of her father, emailed McClain in 2012 because of a power outage at Tiffany Madigan’s place. McClain in turn emailed Marquez. When power was restored, McClain responded with an email that said, in part, “Fidel Marquez dropped and did … Enjoy.”

The Illinois Supreme Court has thrown a rare brake on the ability of workers and trial lawyers to target employers with potentially massive payout demands through class actions brought under Illinois’ stringent biometrics privacy law, as the high court declared employers can use federal labor law to block unionized workers from suing them over required worker fingerprint scans.

Out-of-state sales make up nearly one-third of cannabis sales in Illinois. Missouri offers the lowest excise tax in the nation with a flat 6% sales tax. Illinois uses a scale that charges up to 25%, depending on the product.

Comment: The Wisconsin court race is hugely important because Democrats believe it can lead to their recapture of control of the U.S. House of Representatives, as explained here in the Wall Street Journal.

Ralph Martire’s Center for Tax and Budget Accountability: After adjusting for inflation, state funding for Illinois colleges and universities has fallen by nearly 50% since 2000, while tuition has more than doubled, making it increasingly difficult for students from low- and middle-income families generally, and Black and Latinx students specifically, to afford getting a higher education degree.

Jim Dey: One asked the other if he should assign “agents” to deliver “body blows” to their target. “I know you’ve got a law degree, but you’re more of a street fighter than anybody knows, except maybe for guys like me. And if you want to put the squeeze on the guy, you could hurt him pretty badly.” That’s a snippet of a conversation between Michael McClain and former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.

“I am eternally grateful for the wonderful neighbors I’ve had over years. We all benefit from being (and having) good neighbors. In some cases, they can be lifesavers. Are you the kind of neighbor you’d like to have?”

Illinois plans to recoup about $180 million from four Medicaid insurance companies this year after the businesses saw a surge in profits during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic — the first of several such payments the state could seek.

The Illinois General Assembly has a plethora of education-centered bills it is considering during this spring session.

Illinois House and Senate versions of a bill were introduced last month. They would require regular sensitivity training relating to caring for people with disabilities, people living with HIV, and people of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities – among other groups.

Do soft-on-crime laws encourage criminal wrongdoing? Or does this kinder, gentler approach help society’s miscreants see the errors of their ways and embrace a more law-abiding approach to life. It depends, of course, on the criminal and the crime. But the example of Cook County resident Jordan Henry is illuminating.

The Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) officially launched the latest $175 million in available resources for restaurants, hotels and creative arts businesses and organizations, all of it coming from the American Rescue Plan Act with allotments for each business being based on revenue declines and tax returns. With applications being accepted from April 5 to May 10, all applicants will receive a grant as long as they meet eligibility requirements, submit proper documentation and attestations outlined by the program.

New legislation that would further regulate freelance work in Illinois is being criticized as government overreach. The Freelance Worker Protection Act in House Bill 1122 requires written contracts for workers and several requirements on payment.

State Rep. Blaine Wilhour, R-Shelbyville: “Allowing a member of the General Assembly or constitutional officer to certify or solemnize a marriage in Illinois, so we’re not dealing with our pension crisis or anything else but we can all officiate marriage ceremonies now.”

Fidel Marquez, who served as the utility’s senior vice president of governmental and external affairs from 2012 to 2019, said those associates didn’t do any lobbying work for the utility but were paid to curry favor with Madigan. Marquez pleaded guilty to bribery charges in September 2020.

It was a very busy week at the Illinois statehouse last week. The House of Representatives raced to beat a deadline Friday to move substantive bills that originated in that chamber over to the Senate. The week featured long nights, short debates that at times got testy and the passage of hundreds of bills. Here are some of them:

The so-called “Build Illinois Homes Tax Credit” legislation included in House Bill 2044 and Senate Bill 1737 would be similar to a federal program now overseen by the Illinois Housing Development Authority and Chicago Department of Housing that currently helps foot the bill for affordable housing across the state.

Our Wirepoints article republished.

Trial testimony revealed that a 2016 law passed by dint of a massive ComEd bribery scheme was worth $1.8 billion to the Chicago-based electric utility. Add $2.3 billion in nuclear power plant subsidies for Exelon, and ComEd’s illegal conduct produced a $4.1 billion corporate windfall.

“After six years of implementation, five of which included new year-over-year funding, Illinois’ school funding formula – the Evidence Based Funding for Student Success Act, or EBF – has worked towards its promise of closing Illinois’ drastic funding and achievement gaps between schools in property-rich and property-poor districts, as well as between schools in predominantly white communities and schools that serve predominantly students of color.”

During a late night run of bills Friday evening, Illinois House Republicans used a parliamentary procedure to expose staff voting the switches of absent Democratic legislators before session was abruptly ended. All week last week, the House passed more than 400 bills. Friday was

On March 17, a group of nearly 150 Waterloo High School students lined up to use the nurse’s restroom after being told if they were uncomfortable sharing a bathroom with a student of the opposite sex, they could use the single-stall unisex bathroom, students told the Daily Caller News Foundation. Following the protest, Superintendent Brian Charron notified the school community that the students who stood in line were marked tardy from class and those who continue to protest the issue will be disciplined, a move students believe is unfair.

Thursday, members of the House of Representatives approved a proposal that would require school boards in Illinois to provide full-day kindergarten starting with the 2027-2028 school year. The measure, House Bill 2396, was met with bipartisan, though not universal, support, passing out of the House on Thursday on an 87-23 vote.

Anger over pandemic mandates has morphed into outrage, injecting Washington-style polarization into discussions among neighbors about what kids are being taught in the classroom and what’s available on school library shelves. The candidates also heard from Ted Dabrowski, president

Illinois on the whole is over 70% higher than the national average.

A 16-year-old girl was already a sex trafficking victim – and we have learned the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services placed her with a three-time convicted felon who is accused of forcing her into prostitution.

Three projects under Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s Rebuild Illinois program, including a proposed port in beleaguered downstate Cairo, have benefited his friends or political allies. Pritzker

The final scheduled filings have been made in the Southern District of Illinois federal courts in the consolidated challenge of Illinois’ gun and magazine ban. The next key date is oral arguments next month.

Comment: These myths are the very foundation of how state and local public finance work in Illinois, as we’ve written often.

The lawsuit against CheckpointID and IDScan.net means the two companies have become some of the latest facing potentially massive financial damages under the law known as the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act.

The legislation would mirror a federal program administered by the Illinois Housing Development Authority and Chicago Department of Housing which helps finance affordable housing across Illinois and cost Illinois $35 million annually for ten years.

In an unusual move, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has quietly begun a new competition for the contract to run the United States’s sole dedicated particle physics laboratory. Announced in January, the rebid comes 1 year after Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), which is managed in part by the University of Chicago (UChicago), failed an annual DOE performance review and 9 months after it named a new director.

Illinois plans to sell up to $2.5 billion of general obligation debt before the fiscal year closes June 30 in its first primary market outing to benefit from upgrades that put two of its ratings in single-A territory. The state plans to sell up to $1.5 billion of new money and is eyeing another up to $1 billion of current refunding bonds.

Trading spreads on Illinois GO bonds narrowed this week after the state’s latest rating upgrade, and an uptick in tax revenues could help keep the positive ratings momentum going if the state makes more headway on paying off debts and building reserves.

“In the last few weeks, some have suggested that white people don’t really experience violent crime, or that the attention being paid to the issue is a consequence of the spillover of such crimes as carjacking into traditionally more affluent neighborhoods.Black Chicagoans are far more likely to be the victims of crime, which is why so many voted for Vallas or businessman Willie Wilson, who ran far to Vallas’ right on the issue.”

For the first time in 26 years, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued new guidelines for drinking water safety. Municipal utilities will be required to install expensive filtration systems to lower the amount of PFAS in water supplies. The new EPA drinking water guidelines are expected to cost Illinois municipalities billions of dollars.

A bill before the Illinois Senate would give participants in the state retirement system the opportunity to choose an additional option for their retirement plan coverage. Sen. Dan McConchie (R-Lake Zurich) introduced SB 1516, which would require plans by July 1, 2025 to prepare and implement a defined contribution plan that aggregates state and employee contributions in individual participant accounts that would be used for payouts after retirement. The bill would:

“We should not allow inadequate examination of a potentially damaging, dangerous technology and unverified promises from an industry incapable of meeting budgets or deadlines be the final word on Illinois’ energy future. Those who worked hard for CEJA’s passage in 2021 should be most alarmed that these moratorium repeal bills are Trojan horses for SMNRs designed to sabotage the renewables goals of CEJA.”

The legislation — HB 3098 — would nominally limit these companies’ ability to require use of their own payment processing systems. What it would actually do is inhibit Apple, Google and other software store providers from honoring commitments to customers and safeguarding digital financial transactions. It is based on flawed assumptions and would have consequences for the state’s economy.

Mr. Frerichs said in an interview that he supported SB 2152 stressing “this bill fights for workers’ security” and noted that his office manages $50 billion in a variety of state funds with a strong focus on active proxy voting to urge corporations the funds are invested in to make long-term decisions in managing their companies.

Despite multiple prior constitutional referendums to change the way courts handle pre-trial release of accused criminals, lawyers for the state’s top Democrats told the state Supreme Court that Illinois lawmakers did not need to follow the same procedures when abolishing cash bail altogether, because lawmakers should be left free to define “bail” in whatever way they believe best fits the state’s policy goals.

Prosecutors and sheriffs from more than half of Illinois counties filed civil suits, which were consolidated last year. They argue the Illinois constitution requires a system of monetary bail and the legislature doesn’t have the power to remove it.

Questions over the influence of campaign cash on the public’s perception of judges’ ability to remain impartial has long been a subject of concern among the legal community in Illinois and elsewhere, resulting in relatively recent calls for a strong rule to make clear when judges should step aside from hearing cases involving people or organizations that fueled their election campaigns.

A recent study suggests that, for the first time in nearly 100 years, Americans’ average intelligence quotient (IQ) is declining. The professors who authored the study, including one from Northwestern, theorize that the quality of education could play a role in reversing the IQ gains enjoyed by previous generations.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker rarely passes up a chance to brag about his landmark clean energy law, which requires all fossil fuel-burning power plants in Illinois to shut down by 2045. Yet Pritzker’s signature legislative triumph could backfire if he ignores warnings about its potential impact on electricity reliability.

Many startups and their investors worked around the clock, scrambling to come up with loans and other sources of capital to keep them afloat before regulators stepped in late Sunday and said SVB customers will have access to funds Monday.

She is seen as relatively dovish on Fed policy, analysts say.

Calvin Miller, associate director of the Illinois Council on Problem Gambling, has heard some heartbreaking stories in his work on the council. “People can lose their life savings in a weekend,” Miller told The Center Square. “But there is always a way out. If you

More than 60,000 foster children have been stuck in a vicious cycle of moving from one place to another – four, 10, 20, and even more homes and institutions. Children often suffer trauma as they constantly start over with new caregivers, communities, schools, and friends. Their paths should have been different.

Actuary Mary Pat Campbell: “Wirepoints has several features, and the best part is the daily email. Wirepoints has helped give me more detail on the players, and the specific tactics being tried out so I don’t look like a complete ass from the East Coast when I write about the Midwest. So if you want to know about one of the most important incipient public finance disasters….check out Wirepoints!”

The full interview is here.

In the House and Senate, there are 6,545 bills filed for consideration. Many of those are what is referred to as a “shell bill.” State Sen. Steve McClure, R-Springfield, gave his take on shell bills “Shell bills can be used after deadlines have passed to get sometimes important bills passed but more often than not they’re used to ram a piece of legislation at the very last moment where you can change the bill number by attaching an amendment to a brand new shell bill,” McClure told The Center Square.

The state’s new CDCRC website.

A national republication of our Wirepoints column.

The power grid operator serving northern Illinois and points east to the Mid-Atlantic is sounding the alarm about potential electricity shortages over the coming seven years, driven in part by state policies like Illinois’ clean-energy law that are forcing power plants to close. The report explicitly cites Illinois’ Climate & Equitable Jobs Act, or CEJA, enacted in 2021, as a contributor to the issue.

Joe Cahill: Rivian will have to consider whether it makes sense to go it alone in a fast-growing but increasingly competitive EV market. Rising costs and increasing competition are stiff.

The Times Higher Education has prompted a debate in the teaching academy over a call for “Black bereavement leave” by Angel Jones, a visiting assistant professor teaching educational leadership courses at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville. Jones wrote that Black educators need time off to cope with the killings of black individuals in society. The leave would not depend on the educators knowing or having any relationship to the deceased. The question is whether such race-based leave would be constitutional.

Court records show Montano was arrested near two handguns last summer after running from a stolen car that was wanted in a shooting. He was only charged with a misdemeanor count of resisting arrest, and that charge was later dropped in return for Montano performing community service.

Deerfield-based Walgreens says it will not sell abortion pills in states in which Republican attorneys general have threatened legal action – despite the drug being legal in some of those states.

Where are our counselling services? Where is our grace for missed meetings and deadlines while we mourn?” she asks. Her university biography reads something like the profile pages of woke-parody Twitter accounts:Expertise: “racial microaggressions, Racial Battle Fatigue, and gendered-racism”; research focus on “The impact of racism on the mental health of Black students at historically White institutions”; recent work on “How Black graduate women respond to and cope with gendered-racial microaggression”; Next study on “Exploring the experiences of Afro-Latina students with Racial Battle Fatigue.”

“But while Mr. Pritzker declined to provide a yea or nay on whether he would run, he added that a last-minute swap of an understudy for Mr. Biden was ‘such an odd hypothetical if you ask me.'”

An attorney for state Rep. Dan Caulkins, R-Decatur, says he’s confident a final judgment against Illinois’ new gun ban issued by a Macon County judge Friday is statewide pending an expected appeal from the state.

Sales of recreational marijuana to out-of-state residents dropped 10% in February from the same period a year ago, even as overall cannabis sales rose 6%, according to new state data. Missouri dispensaries started recreational marijuana last month. Missouri has much lower cannabis taxes at 6%, compared with 20% to 25% in Illinois. (Local taxes and the general state sales tax can push the total rate in Illinois to about 40%.)

Illinois’ budget and pension stabilization funds would receive automatic deposits when the state hits revenue growth and bill payment triggers under legislation that cleared a House committee this week. With a series of infusions over the last two fiscal years, the state’s once-depleted rainy-day fund remains on track to hit $1.9 billion by the end of the current fiscal year on June 30, but more is needed to reach a healthy level on par with other states, state Comptroller Susana Mendoza told the House’s State Government Administration Committee.

A coalition led by the Illinois Manufacturers Association, Illinois Trucking Association, Illinois Health Care Association and others is urging immediate action by lawmakers to change BIPA.

A proposed 1,300-mile pipeline to carry concentrated carbon dioxide that would run through 13 Illinois counties is being met with pushback from residents of central Illinois.

“So, it’s baffling why some officials around the country appear to want to skip this professional responsibility by banning investment managers and banks that consider the billion-dollar risks related to climate change, environmental degradation, water shortages and poor company governance.”

“A report by Wirepoints found that more than 30 schools in Illinois failed to have even one student reading at grade level. Most of those schools were in the Chicago Public Schools District. The same report found that more than 50 schools in the Land of Lincoln failed to have any students doing math at grade level. Again, most of them were in Chicago.”

Vallas won big in the Northwest and Southwest Side wards where police officers and other first responders live. Johnson did well in Lakefront Liberal neighborhoods like Lakeview, Edgewater and Rogers Park, not to mention Lincoln Square.

“The failure of the Biden administration to recognize the amendment does not impact its legal validity, but it does have serious consequences. The Biden administration has neither published nor enforced the ERA. Congress has not passed laws to implement the ERA nor has it updated existing laws. The judiciary branch has ignored the amendment when rendering legal decisions. State and local governments have not updated their laws or justice systems to take the amendment into account. And we the people have not been informed that the ERA is in force.”

And a little over a year from now, Madigan is scheduled to stand trial in a case that federal prosecutors have been building for the better part of a decade. Along the way, the wide-ranging probes of Madigan and his associates have nabbed more than a dozen other Democratic politicians, lobbyists and business executives, upending Chicago and Illinois politics.

A bill that would trigger automatic payments into the state’s so-called “rainy day” fund is heading to the Illinois House for consideration after unanimous passage out of committee this week.

Under the proposal announced Wednesday, gasoline with higher blends of ethanol could be sold year-round in Illinois and seven other Midwestern states starting next year.

Through CZ Biohub Chicago, the state’s leading institutions will develop new groundbreaking technologies for studying human tissue to improve the understanding of inflammation, which could lead to new treatments for the inflammatory states that underlie many diseases.

“All the signs are there that it’s not going to be an automobile facility anymore,” Smith said. “That’s sad for the community and all the people who need employment.”

An Illinois House committee has approved a plan to end a moratorium on the construction of new nuclear power plants. The ban has been in place since 1987.

Glennon said another reason that is being underreported as to why people are fleeing Illinois and will continue to do so is that research shows people are moving to states that are more politically-likable to them. “If that’s the case, and it probably is more so in Illinois, we have a huge nationally re-sorting going on where the country is going to get far more divided than it is right now,” Glennon told The Center Square.

“If that progressive, 46-year-old Cook County commissioner and Chicago Teachers Union organizer Brandon Johnson, prevails in the April 4 runoff election, it will be another transformational moment for the city and the country.”

Veteran political operative Victor Reyes called White a “fantastic, proven vote-getter” who will “help Paul — not only in the Black community, but also in the white, progressive community because Jesse is a uniter and a collaborator.”

“A [Wirepoints] report recently found that there are 53 public schools in Illinois where not a single student can do math at grade level. That report made international news.”

“This race could outline the fissures that exist throughout the Democratic party all around the country. Paul Vallas represents the old guard. The governing Democrat of the Bill Clinton school of thought that wants to fix budgets, improve education, and doesn’t subscribe to pie in the sky liberal ideology. Brandon Johnson is the modern embodiment of the progressive wish list. He may not lay it out in so many words, but it’s likely Johnson would push, or sign off on, expansive spending

In proposed regulations that would touch any jurisdiction that accepts any sort of HUD funding, fair housing must mean a plan to “promote equity in their communities, decrease segregation, and increase access to opportunity and community assets for people of color and other underserved communities.” Translated that means that the route to upward mobility for disadvantaged minorities lies through their relocation to more affluent communities, where they will no longer be “underserved.” The details as to how this should be done run more than 200 pages. Those required to comply will include more than 1,200 cities and counties receiving HUD

Nearly 30 million Americans are more food insecure as of Wednesday, because the pandemic-era emergency increases in the SNAP program have now ended.

The Illinois Republican’s political organization is launching a nationwide campaign urging voters to reject extreme candidates on both sides of the aisle ahead of the 2024 election. The centerpiece of the campaign is a nearly six-minute-long short film titled “Break Free,” inspired by Apple’s “1984” Super Bowl ad about escaping the conformity of non-Apple computers.

We are in the midst of such a backlash, one that threatens to eradicate decades of progress by warping our view of the nation’s past — including all those previous backlashes — and thwart our future progress toward an equitable, multicultural society. Those very terms, in fact — “equitable” and “multicultural” — are the principal hobgoblins of the movement to preserve white supremacy by distorting history and presenting racial gaps as the result of ‘merit” and “hard work” instead of systemic oppression.

Ire is spreading among restaurant workers in several cities, including Chicago, about required food and beverage safety training programs that industry insiders say fund anti-minimum-wage lobbying efforts. The National Restaurant Association operates and administers a food and beverage safety training program by the name of ServSafe.

Rivian is searching for a pathway to profitability in what looks to be an intense period of competition, with legacy automakers getting serious about EVs and Tesla planning the next phase of its product portfolio. “The financials for Rivian are just painful right now,” Brauer said. “They’re spending lots of money and not coming anywhere near paying for it with sales.”

Senator Sue Resin: “Thanks to our state’s nuclear energy history, we are poised to take immediate advantage once our own archaic moratorium ends. However, if we continue to sit back and allow the moratorium to continue, we risk losing our competitive edge in the nuclear energy industry, especially as newer and safer nuclear energy technology rapidly emerges.”

Illinois remains the only state to allow individuals to sue over violations. Others allow state attorneys general to take action.

The Illinois Sustainable Investing Act, passed by the General Assembly and signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker in 2019, provides that public fund investment officers should integrate “material, relevant and useful sustainability factors into their policies, processes and decision-making.” But it leaves them latitude in how they evaluate risk. IMRF, for example, has focused on adding diversity to its managers and their suppliers. And investment officers in Illinois could find money managers picking sides — either casting their lot with red or blue sides of the divide. If that happens, managers worry that it will limit choice, restrict

“Last week, my suicidal 15-year-old grandson ingested and smoked a cocktail of several drugs. His loving parents found him nonresponsive, with a heart rate near 200 beats per minute. The emergency responders and doctors saved his life. Sadly, it was not his first attempt.”

“Exports are absolutely crucial to the agricultural sector, particularly in the Midwest,” University of Illinois agriculture economist Gary Schnitkey told The Center Square. Soybean farmers, for example, export 50% of their crop. One of the failings of U.S. trade policy in the past few years, Schnitkey said, is the failure to remove non-tariff trade barriers with

“There is being destitute, oppressed, exploited or crushed — and then there is America’s inner-city student population, most of them minorities…. As the authors of the Wirepoints report stressed: Defenders of the current system are sure to invoke COVID as the big reason for the low scores. But a look at the 2019 numbers shows that the reading and math numbers were

I’s time the Illinois Supreme Court steps up and revisits the issue of “repeated ethical lapses associated with gut-and-replace legislation,” which was used to create two controversial state laws that have since drawn national attention: bans on so-called “assault weapons” and cash bail. That was the sentiment of the three-justice panel of the Illinois Fifth District Appellate Court in Mount Vernon

The Democratic Party of Illinois began by initially looking at 400-some races and then identifying more than 100 what they call “fringe” candidates in 60 different school board districts. All of those districts and most of those candidates will be targeted in what party officials say will be a “robust” campaign. “It’s going to be very much a voter education program,” explained a Democratic Party of Illinois official. The state party will be “shedding light on the fact that there are candidates supported by these national extremist groups that are on their ballot.”

Gov. JB Pritzker on Friday released a blueprint for transforming what the state acknowledges is a confusing patchwork system for families who need greater access to mental health care for their children at a moment of overwhelming need both in Illinois and across the country.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker and other statehouse Democrats heralded the news as a sign of their budget management. “Our continued fiscal responsibility and smart budgeting will save Illinois taxpayers millions from adjusted interest rates, and my partners in the General Assembly and I look forward to building on that success,” Pritzker said in a statement. “I’ve been saying for a while now that I prefer 7’s to 6’s so I’ve been looking for today’s 7th credit rating upgrade from Standard & Poor’s,” Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza said. “This is a testament to the responsible budgeting we’ve done along with the Governor,

At its meeting yesterday, the board agreed with a hearing examiner that “justifiable grounds” exist “with some basis in fact” to believe that Proft coordinated with Bailey’s campaign in efforts to promote Bailey, then a state senator, and bash his Democratic rival, incumbent Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who was re-elected.

Under legislation filed by state Sen. Rob Martwick, a Northwest Side Democrat, tax rates on low-income single filers would be cut to as low as 4%, well under the state’s current 4.95% flat rate and the 4.75% rate the governor proposed. The tax rate wouldn’t even hit the 4.75% mark until a person’s annual income tops $100,000. At the opposite end, rates would max out at 6.95% on annual income above $500,000 for individuals and $1 million for couples

State Sen. Celina Villanueva, D-Chicago, said her Senate Bill 1345 is an extension of a bill that already allows for undocumented residents to vote on local school councils in Chicago. She said this needs to be expanded across the state because these families have children in public schools where they pay taxes

The decision appears to be the first from a federal judge considering whether the ban comports with a U.S. Court Supreme decision. A federal judge in Chicago has denied a motion seeking a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against Illinois’ assault weapons ban and a similar ordinance in Naperville. U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall ruled Friday that both Illinois and Naperville’s bans on selling assault weapons are “constitutionally sound.”

Prosecutors from across Illinois on Friday urged the state’s highest court to affirm a Kankakee County judge’s ruling that a no-cash bail law that was set to take effect at the beginning of the year is unconstitutional.

Able-bodied people without dependents must work 20 hours a week or be in job training to qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). But during the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress suspended the work requirement. Eighteen states and territories have kept the work waiver across the entire state. They are Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Guam, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Washington.

A divided Illinois Supreme Court on Friday ruled that claims under the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act accrue with each alleged violation of the law, a decision that may expose businesses using fingerprint-based sign-ins to computers or timekeeping machines to stiff penalties. The court ruled 4-3 in support of the interpretation of the law by a manager at a White Castle System hamburger outlet, Latrina Cothron, who says the chain did not obtain her consent before requiring her fingerprint

A detailed look at Illinois’ economy prepared by Moody’s Analytics for the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability.

Employers in Illinois could face potential financial devastation under Illinois’ biometrics privacy law, the state Supreme Court has ruled, with little recourse but to appeal to judges’ sense of equity or to persuade lawmakers to rewrite the law to reduce the potential dire economic consequences.

On Thursday evening, Pritzker put out a statement on his Twitter account, denouncing DeSantis and his visit, saying the Florida governor’s “dangerous and hateful agenda has no place in Illinois” and that every candidate in Illinois should “condemn this event.”

“I wholeheartedly agree with (Illinois Gov. J.B.) Pritzker that there is simply no place in Chicago for a right-wing extremist like Ron DeSantis, and I am disappointed in FOP leadership for inviting him to speak to officers,” Vallas said in a statement.

Analysis of state tax burden rates and the change in population from 2021 to 2022, as estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau, shows that taxes and population growth are related in some states.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker unveiled a $49.6 billion general fund fiscal 2024 budget that banks on still-healthy economic trends to allow deposits into the budget and pension stabilization funds while lifting spending for education and other areas.

“The Pritzkers have a history of legally skirting tax payments.”

Jim Dey: “While devoting much of his speech to undeniable improvements in the state’s financial picture, he once again went out of his way to denigrate those who contend that the state still has serious financial problems. Combining his two favorite insults — ‘carnival barkers’ and ‘spelunkers of misery’ — Pritzker denounced ‘misery’s carnival barkers.’ He was referring partially to the financial analysts at Truth-in-Accounting and Wirepoints.”

“They are doing historical things and the folks who operate in history are really no different than who they are,” said Dr. Lionel Kimble, an Associate Professor of History and Africana Studies at Chicago State University. And Rep. Cyril Nichols (D-Burbank). “If you break down the word history, it’s his story, right.”

Pritzker’s $49.6 billion spending request is an increase of nearly $3 billion from last year’s proposal. It includes a nearly billion dollar boost for education. That includes allotting $250 million toward early childhood education, with increased pay for child care workers and added preschool slots.

The “Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade” is concerned that their research balloon may have been taken out by the US military.

David Greising, CEO of the Better Government Association: The Civic Committee idea [of a “surcharge” of an additional 0.5% on income tax] is strong, and perhaps Pritzker and legislative leaders could be persuaded over time.”

The Cook County Treasurer’s Office is backing two bills geared to hold delinquent property tax investors more accountable for their real estate purchases and ease the burden on individual taxpayers who have fallen behind on their tax bills.

“Chicago and Illinois are in trouble. You know it. I know it. Your neighbors know it. Yet, somehow, it’s considered rude, bordering on sacrilege, to acknowledge in polite company. Best to sweep this inconvenient truth under the rug. To obscure it behind a façade of inspiring lakefront imagery.”

Comment: Arab Americans want out of the disfavored “white” category. Who wouldn’t?

In a Dec. 1 contract obtained by RCI, Kane County, Ill., received $2 million in grants – $650,000 in December 2022 and $1.35 million in December 2023 – and promised to spend the money on personnel, technology, and voting locations; but it is also allowed to use it for sub-grants to local political subdivisions or local governments. The contract is the same as the one used to give grants in 2020.

Given this confusion, the federal government’s efforts to squelch “disinformation,” which include pressure on social media platforms and subsidies for groups like the GDI, are especially chilling. Even “intentionally misleading” speech is protected by the First Amendment, and a government that respects freedom of speech has no business deciding how to apply that slippery label.

The state’s motion seeking a delay in its required response to a federal lawsuit challenging Illinois’ gun ban was denied Thursday. Since Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Jan. 10 enacted the state’s ban on more than 170 semi-automatic guns and magazines of more than 10 rounds

From July 2021 to July 2022, more than 142,000 people moved out of state than moved in. Only New York state experienced a faster rate of population decline. To put that loss into perspective, consider that about 127,000 Illinois residents died in that same period. In terms of state population change, Illinois’ emigration problem effectively doubled its death rate.

Out of 649 Chicago Public Schools, 22 schools have zero students who met grade level expectations for reading while no students were proficient in math in 33 schools during the 2021-2022 school year, according to a Wirepoints report. The data analyzed is from the Illinois State Board of Education annual report which details how schools within the state are performing.

“In the age old fight between happy warriors and misery’s carnival barkers, we’ve shown that if we resolve to do it, happy warriors win every time. And we are winning.”

Long version linked here.

Passengers were quick to snap the deteriorating situation: several people sleeping among a throng of belongings near Terminal 1; a man collapsed inside an entrance vestibule; another slumped over with no shoes on; and a group of half a dozen people who have taken over an indoor area next to the escalators.

A national republication of our Wirepoints column.

Joe Cahill: New taxes are never welcome, especially in a relatively high-tax state like Illinois. But a time-limited tax that eliminates a fiscal albatross and ultimately saves tens of billions makes sense, with two provisos: Legislation enacting the pension surtax must include ironclad prohibitions on extending the expiration date or using the funds for other purposes.

Food pantries are bracing to feed more hungry people in Illinois. In March, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program card holders in Illinois will see reductions of $55 to $250 per person, said Man-Yee Lee, spokesperson for the Greater Chicago Food Depository.

A republication of our Wirepoints column.

“With economic growth and jobs woven into its fabric, this new law is the most significant step Illinois has taken in a generation toward a reliable, renewable, affordable and clean energy future in a generation,” Pritzker said when

Comment: Significant the the Sun-Times would even print this.

“The states heavily relying on POBs (which are borrowed money to fund pensions) are Michigan, Illinois, Arizona, and California.”

Illinois chipped away at its long-term obligations in fiscal 2022 with healthy tax revenue growth and federal funds allowing the state to halt a decade long dive deep into negative territory, according to a recently published interim audit.

The new Megasites Investment Program will use money from the Rebuild Illinois capital improvement bond issue. It will offer grants of up to $5 million for costs typically incurred early in a project, such as site acquisition and cleanup, and road and utility improvements. Sites that could be eligible for the grants include 415-acre lakefront site of the U.S. Steel South Works plant and the 232-acre former Allstate headquarters in Glenview.

Jim Warren, executive editor of Newsguard: “[Laurence Small] did so as a member of that declining, even maligned, species: a trustworthy, authoritative “good government” expert. Our trust in people who are smart is heading south. When smart government folks urged us to wear masks, millions declined.”

“We need more teachers. Not only do we need more teachers, we need more substitute teachers, paraprofessionals, school bus drivers, food service, and maintenance staff.”

“It’s amazing,” said Kent Redfield, an Illinois campaign finance expert and professor emeritus of political science at the University of Illinois at Springfield. “It denied the public, the news media and the people who participated in the campaigns full knowledge of what’s going on.”

Pritzker’s office did not provide an estimated cost of expanding access to prekindergarten statewide, saying his budget proposal has yet to be finalized. Block grant dollars, which a spokesperson said would eventually fund the initiative, already fall short of demand, with 16 eligible full-day preschool programs denied grants due to a lack of funding in the current fiscal year, an Illinois State Board of Education report shows.

State records show that Dan Proft’s People Who Play by the Rules PAC spent almost $36 million during the second half of 2022, mostly on advertising boosting Sen. Darren Bailey’s gubernatorial bid and opposing Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider collected more campaign cash from special interest groups during the last election cycle than any other representative serving the North, West or Northwest suburbs, records show. Democrat Sean Casten collected more than $1.1 million from special interests en route to defeating Republican challenger Keith Pekau of Orland Park.

Fore the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2022.

David Kolata, executive director of Citizens Utility Board and Valeria Rincon, National Resources Defense Council’s Midwest Building Decarbonization advocate: “Chicago needs to begin implementing an exit strategy from gas and start investing in cheaper, safer, cleaner and more reliable options for meeting our household energy needs.”

The regional manufacturing business index showed its fifth straight monthly reading indicating contraction.

“Without an anti-right-to-work constitutional amendment in place, union bosses feared that it would become more and more difficult over time for their allies in the Illinois Legislature to defend maintaining the labor-policy status quo…. But no sensible person should regard the adoption of Amendment 1 as a victory for workers. Instead, by locking in a system that already foisted on Illinois a net loss of nearly 300,000 residents in their peak-earning years from 2011 to 2021, Amendment 1 can be expected to lead to even greater out-migration in the future.”

Jonathan Jackson was named to the House Foreign Affairs Committee along with Rep. Brad Schneider of Highland Park. Jackson also gong to agriculture committee along with Rep. Eric Sorensen and Rep. Mary Miller. Sorensen also going on the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, along with Reps. Sean Casten of Downers Grove and Bill Foster. Rep. Delia Ramirez is joining the Homeland Security and Veterans’ Affairs committees. Ramirez and Budzinski will be joined on the Veterans’ Affairs Committee by a fellow Illinois member and new chairman of the committee, Republican Rep. Mike Bost as well as their Democratic colleague Rep.

Soaking the rich used to be mostly a game for left-wing politicians pushing higher marginal rates on upper-income taxpayers. Now local utilities want in on the action. As my colleague Steve Daniels reported Jan. 19, gas companies Peoples Gas and Nicor are seeking regulatory approval for a new regime of income-based rates. Electric utility Commonwealth Edison plans to offer a “progressive” rate plan next year.

California lawmakers passed a law that would pay fast-food workers more—and the world’s biggest fast-food chain is slamming it. In a letter on McDonald’s website, the company’s president of the U.S. division, Joe Erlinger, says the measure “makes it all but impossible to run small-business restaurants.”

The shortage is not universal; several counties in the region, including DeWitt, said they were fully staffed. But for those who are affected, it comes as prosecutors across the state are preparing for significant potential changes under the Pretrial Fairness Act, a component of the broader criminal justice reform legislation known as the SAFE-T Act.

Democrats finally have a strategy to stop billionaires from fleeing high tax states: Block the escape routes. That’s the logic behind coordinated moves in progressive states to tax wealth. The reforms aren’t likely to pass immediately, but they illustrate the increasingly open socialist goals of progressives and their public-union backers. The Illinois plan would treat billionaires’ unrealized capital gains as income, taxed at 4.95%. The targets would

Under a proposal being introduced by Rep. Will Guzzardi, D-Chicago, anyone with a net worth of at least $1 billion would have to pay 4.95% of it off the top to the state each year regardless of whether investment markets are rising or falling and notwithstanding underlying economic conditions. “The bill’s prognosis is good,” said Guzzardi, whose measure also will be sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Robert Peters, D-Chicago. “The pandemic has only deepened the already wide economic disparity in this state. We need to act.”

“Companies should commit to re-examining their commitments to DEI and to providing greater DEI disclosures. This includes greater use of data across companies’ efforts to consider diverse talent. The current external pressures suggest companies that do not adequately and proactively tell a comprehensive story about the effectiveness of their DEI initiatives and their impact on employees, operations and the communities they serve will be called on to do so by their internal and external stakeholders.”

Tom Weitzel retired Riverside Chief of Police: If law enforcement leaders cannot stay out of the political fray and refrain from making purposefully inflammatory statements for their own personal gain, the profession is doomed.

In 1967, when many campuses were inflamed and the University of Chicago was under internal pressure to announce opposition to the Vietnam War, the university produced the Kalven Report, which said campus free speech and the academic mission depend on a “heavy presumption” in favor of institutional neutrality regarding political matters:

The Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) announced today that the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.7 percent, while nonfarm payrolls were almost unchanged, down by just -800 in December, based on preliminary data provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and released by IDES.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker has signed a measure that would change guidelines for how defendants who are unfit to stand trial are placed in proper care. The measure, however, is being criticized by the Illinois Sheriffs’ Association.

Illinois voters rejected a proposal in 2020 to change the state’s flat income tax to a graduated tax. There are currently discussions to try the measure again. Gov. J.B. Pritzker, however, said that’s not on his radar.

The judge’s order and opinion linked here.

In New York and Illinois, for example, the proposed bills would change the rules around capital gains and estate taxes to tax unrealized gains even if an individual hasn’t sold the asset. This so-called mark-to-market form of taxation has been proposed at the federal level by Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-OR).

When asked about companies saying they are thinking of leaving, Pritzker says “that’s not what we are hearing.”

A republication of our Wirepoints column.

In a phone interview, Sen. Rob Martwick, who represents portions of Chicago’s Northwest Side and adjacent suburbs, said he still believes the state, and particularly middle-class families, need the income and lower property taxes, respectively, that a graduated income tax would bring, even though voters in 2020 rejected a proposed constitutional amendment to do that by about a 10-point margin.

“Reform in the states continues despite little notice in the national media, and the latest example comes from Wisconsin. Badger State Republicans are proposing a major tax cut and reform that includes a flat rate of 3.25% on income.”

Today’s affordability crunch in expensive coastal cities creates an opportunity for the Midwest. The trouble in Illinois is that when you add property taxes to the cost of housing, the state is no longer on par with its Midwestern neighbors. In 2022, Illinois had the second-highest property tax rate in the country. Altogether, Illinois ranks fourth in the country for the highest tax burden on residents when accounting for all state and local taxes—higher even than California, the state with the highest income taxes in the country.

Illinois restaurants continue to tread lightly as adversity hits them from multiple directions. The combination of inflation, rising costs, staffing shortages and current and potential employees demanding higher pay can be a recipe for disaster.

Open heat, double bypass surgery for columnist John Kass. We wish him a speedy recovery.

U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois John Lausch will be leading the investigation of classified documents found at the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Biden Center, nearly two years after President Joe Biden nearly fired him.

Big corporations have been fleeing Chicagoland for more business-friendly jurisdictions. But now Allstate says that its big headquarters downsizing is because employees prefer to work from home. How long before these remote workers want to join the flight from expensive Illinois governance?

An Assault Weapons Ban for the state of Illinois is still on the table after an expected vote on the bill Sunday during a Senate session didn’t take place. And though the Senate is scheduled to reconvene Monday, the clock is ticking to take action on the bill before the 103rd General Assembly is sworn in Wednesday.

During late night session over the weekend, Illinois lawmakers approved giving legislators, statewide officers and executive agency staff pay raises, amid more than $1.7 billion of other spending of tax resources.

“With this dynamic, not to mention speculation that he could be eyeing a 2024 presidential run should President Joe Biden step aside, all eyes are on the course Pritzker seeks to chart as he sets course in this second term.”

The Chicago-based burger restaurant operates 40,000 restaurants in over 160 countries with a total of two million staff in its franchised outlets. Around 13,000 of those locations are in the United States.

“A raise of 15.9% is unheard of in recent times. Secretive House action in 2019 inserted a 2.4% cost-of-living adjustment to increase base salaries to about $67,800.”

“Mr. White, 88, is retiring as Illinois secretary of state after a career that took him from the pews of Martin Luther King Jr.’s church to statewide office.”

“It’s important for employers and employees to be aware of the new laws taking effect Jan. 1, and those already in effect,” said Illinois Department of Labor Acting Director Jane Flanagan.

A national republication of our Wirepoints column.

Packed into the big omnibus spending bill that Congress approved on Dec. 22 was well past $300 million for member-designated projects. The earmarks are derided by some as pork politics at its worst. But every member of the Chicago area’s congressional delegation—except for the now-retired Adam Kinzinger, R-Channahon—sent out a press release claiming big wins for their district.

In the fight against climate change, national goals are facing local resistance. Piatt County, IL scheduled 19 nights of meetings to debate one wind farm.

Depending on who you ask, members of the billionaire Pritzker family of Chicago are either the proud descendants of a financial genius who are doing good by funding progressive causes —

The Chicago Business Barometer, a regional manufacturing index also known as the Chicago PMI, rebounded to 44.9 in December from 37.2 in the prior month, which was the lowest reading since the 2007/2008 financial crisis.

“Exporting Pritzker to the White House would let him take his Illinois record nationwide. What could go wrong?”

A national republication of our Wirepoints column.

Much of the media’s coverage of the November midterm elections was dedicated to individual races (and their surprising outcomes) that would determine control of Congress . But another critical result that slipped under the radar was Illinois voters’ landmark decision on Nov. 8 to permanently alter the fiscal future of their state.

But the political stakes are also high for key Democrats — including Govs. Gavin Newsom of California, J.B. Pritzker of Illinois and Phil Murphy of New Jersey — who have touted their records as fiscal stewards as they angle for a bigger role on a national stage.

California (343,230), New York (299,557) and Illinois (141,656) lost the most residents to other states. Businesses are also growing their workforces in states with more economic freedom. This is one reason employment lags pre-pandemic levels in California (-0.5%), Illinois (-0.7%) and New York (-2.8%). The unemployment rate in the Miami metro region was 1.8% in November compared to 4.7% in Chicago, 4.9% in Los Angeles and 5.8% in New York City.

A mounting body of scientific research shows there are specific ways students should be taught to read. But many popular reading lessons in American schools, including those used in Illinois, aren’t aligned yet with that science. Data show that, even before the pandemic, only 1 in 3 Illinois third graders were reading at grade level according to the state test.

“It will be interesting to see how the leaders of the Democratic Party in Champaign and Vermilion counties — Mike Ingram and Sandra Lawlyes, respectively — finesse a power struggle over who will replace the late state Sen. Scott Bennett.”

“It was a shock when the manufacturer, Stellantis, announced this month that the 57-year-old plant would shut down indefinitely at the end of February, putting 1,350 people out of work. And there is fear across the area, an hour’s drive west of Chicago, that “indefinitely” could mean forever.”

The U.S. Senate on Thursday passed a $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill for the rest of fiscal 2023 that Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois touts as including money for numerous projects and spending priorities in the state, including some targeted to the Chicago area.

Illinois continues to have the highest wireless taxes in the country at 34.9 percent, followed by Washington at 32.9 percent, and Arkansas at 32.2 percent.

Teacher at Crete-Money High School: “All you right wing conspiracy theory nut jobs who seem to think the teachers are out here just indoctrinating children into some sort of woke agenda that you can’t actually define, I’m just going to come clean,” Godbout says. “I am, in fact, indoctrinating your children.”

Stellantis has announced that it will idle its plant in Belvidere, Illinois and move Jeep Cherokee production to the Toluca plant in Mexico.

Pritzker announced in the meeting that he had a conference call scheduled at 10:30 a.m. last Friday to “land the plane” on a deal that would bring electric vehicles to the Belvidere plant. Instead, Stellantis said during the meeting that the plant would be going idle for at least six months starting in February with all hourly and salary workers receiving WARN notices.