State officials and environmental advocates say some states could be shortchanged hundreds of millions in bipartisan infrastructure dollars to remove dangerous lead pipes because the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has outdated information about the states’ needs. Based on the percentage of the lead pipes in the nation, Illinois’ share of the federal money should be $1.8 trillion, but it will only get $565 million, according to a Metropolitan Planning Council estimate.

“The state has proved incapable of adequately monitoring the nearly 7,000 units of government that exist within its borders, and its citizens—particularly the poor—are paying the price… Kirk Allen and John Kraft founded the Edgar County Watchdogs, an independent government-oversight organization, in 2010 after negative experiences with local government. Their goal: to root out corruption at every level of Illinois government—from the state house to cemetery districts.”

“As long as the crime and violence is contained in the hood, it was OK,” state Rep. Justin Slaughter said shortly after 4 a.m. while pushing for an amendment to the so-called SAFE-T Act. Slaughter went on to say the Republicans were telling a “steady drumbeat” of lies. “Lies that all too often reek of systematic racism,” he said.

Senate Republican Leader Dan McConchie says Democrats are growing spending at too high of a rate. “The biggest concern that I have is how much these election year gimmicks that they did in regard to tax relief is simply not going to help to stem the exodus from the state.”

According to a new annual report from the University of Michigan-based National Registry of Exonerations, Illinois recorded 38 exonerations in 2021 — 20 more than any other state — marking the fourth consecutive year it has led the nation.

The Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE) has worked on the closure or consolidation of 60 colleges since 2016. The Midwest and northeast in general have had more college closures than other parts of the country, particularly the south and southwest where the population is growing more rapidly.

Illinois would provide up to $10,000 for funerals and burials of children who are murdered by a gun. Forty-five children were murdered by gun violence just in Chicago under the age of 17 in 2021 and 14 have been murdered since the beginning of this year.

The proposed provisions include changes to the electronic home monitoring that would allow for defendants with ankle monitors to have up to “two periods of time” of free movement. Another change would give police officers the ability to arrest someone on minor charges if they believe that person is a risk to the community.

During debate on the budget package earlier in the morning Saturday, state Rep. Tom Demmer, said there are no structural reforms to state spending and that will come back to bite taxpayers.

On the final day of spring session Saturday morning, the Illinois General Assembly approved House Bill 4383 which goes further than President Joe Biden’s rule. The Illinois measure would require built-from-scratch firearms for personal use that aren’t transferred to be registered.

House Bill 246 would inject more than $700 million from state and federal tax funds annually into Medicaid-funded nursing homes to reform the facilities by offering a number of incentives for safe staffing. The measure also includes a pay raise for certified nursing assistants.

“The idea that fuel retailers would have to reach into their own pockets to tell their customers about legislation approved in Springfield and then face heavy fines if they don’t is completely absurd,” IL Fuel and Retail Association CEO Josh Sharp said. If Pritzker signs the signage requirements into law, Sharp is considering filing a lawsuit against the state.

At least 153 pieces of cryptocurrency-related legislation were pending this year in 40 states and Puerto Rico, according to an analysis by the National Conference of State Legislatures. While it was unclear how many were influenced by the crypto industry, some bills have used industry-proposed language almost word for word. One bill pending in Illinois lifted entire sentences from a draft provided by a lobbyist.

Supporters said the legislation will offer greater education stability to participating students with year-over-year scholarship priority.

Paul Arena, director of legislative affairs at the Illinois Rental Property Association, said if the bill is signed into law, landlords statewide will lose control. “It’s a blank check for government to further control rental property moving forward, and that is why it is so dangerous.”

The plan, known as the Fair Food and Retail Act, would prohibit services like Grubhub, DoorDash, and Uber Eats from using the name, likeness, or intellectual property of a merchant without first obtaining written approval.

If a subcontractor fails to pay an employee, HB5412 states that an employee can file a legal claim with the general contractor for any unpaid wages and benefits. The measure exempts unionized contractors from being impacted by the wage theft provisions.

The Illinois Constitution has provisions to prevent rushed legislation. Article IV, Section 8 of the constitution requires each bill be read on three separate days before it can be passed into law so lawmakers can know what they are voting for. But the spirit of this provision is often subverted through the practice of gutting and replacing legislation, often through the use of shell bills that contain no real substance.

The justification for the one-page summary of candidates’ on-the-job contributions to diversity, equity and inclusion is to incentivize faculty as early as possible to do societally impactful work, said Bill Bernhard, executive vice provost for academic affairs.

Labor unions say they are at an impasse with business groups in talks over how to resolve the remaining debt in the state’s unemployment insurance fund. The two sides now have until January to work out a deal before automatic tax hikes on businesses and benefit cuts for workers take effect.

It is hailed by many GOP governors as a way to promote what they perceive as greater fairness for all taxpayers and to attract business to their states. Yet the states that have enacted flat tax rates cross the political divide. They include Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Utah. And flat tax rates are holding their own even in states that tend to vote Democratic. Illinois voters, for instance, rejected a 2020 ballot measure to jettison the flat tax in Illinois in favor of a six-tier arrangement.

Jim Nowlan: “I continue to be confounded that the state has never done any long-term thinking. The closest we have is the 6,000 disparate bills introduced into the Legislature every two years. Crazy.”

Jim Dey: “The factors that determine the legal propriety of questions and answers involve grammar as much as law.”

“In Illinois, a Chicago plaintiffs’ firm focusing on nursing home and medical malpractice litigation says it brought 78 cases in March alone. “It’s going to be a knock-down-drag-out battle,” said Steven M. Levin, the founder and senior partner of the firm. “It’s probably going to take years to get some of these cases to trial.”

Overall, COGFA predicts $484 million in higher revenue compared to the February GOMB estimates, largely stemming from net individual income taxes and sales taxes.

While Republicans have repeatedly attacked Pritzker and Democrats over an increase in violent crime that has reached into the suburbs and other areas of the state, internal Senate Democratic polling has found that the economy and the toll of inflation at the gas pump and grocery store are the top concerns of suburbanites.

House Bill 2775 adds “source of income” to the Illinois Human Rights Act’s protections against discrimination in real estate transactions, making it a civil rights violation to refuse to consider an individual for housing solely based on their source of income. In Illinois, Chicago, Cook County, Naperville, and Urbana already have source of income fair housing ordinances.

Find statements here from C.D. Davidsmeyer, Steve McClure, Chapin Rose and Don Tracy.

Kevin Klowden, executive director of the Milken Institute’s Center for Regional Economics, says a decline in the manufacturing sector takes a large share of the blame. “A factory or an operation that exists now might only need to employ one-fifth of the people that it did a number of years ago. That has a real impact.”

Illinois holds the worst credit rating among its peers and pays the highest penalty to borrow of any state. While it’s difficult to draw a direct line from the state’s notoriety for corruption to its bottom line, investors increasingly weigh environmental, social and governance metrics when buying or shunning securities.

Senate President Don Harmon said the bill is “designed to limit the influence of money in judicial elections.” This influence was on display in 2020 with Illinois Supreme Court Justice Thomas Kilbride’s failed retention election.

Should the bill be signed into law by the governor, if a subcontractor fails to pay an employee, ends up going bankrupt or can’t pay an employee for any reason, the employee would be able to file a legal claim with the general contractor for unpaid wages and benefits. It does not include projects where a homeowner acts as their own general contractor.

The U.S. attorney’s office issued a grand jury subpoena in January to the Illinois State Board of Elections seeking records on three campaign funds controlled by Jones, according to a copy of the subpoena provided to the Tribune via an open records request.

In Illinois the average gallon of unleaded gas was $4.36 Saturday. That is two cents less than Friday and down 16 cents from last month.

Lawmakers say that the state’s 1% sales tax on groceries will be suspended through the end of the new fiscal year, and a planned increase in the state’s fuel tax, which currently sits at 39 cents per gallon, will not take effect until at least Jan. 1.

Rob Karr, of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, notes that this type of theft is not exclusive to high-end retailers. “We’re never going to get people returning to the brick and mortar. We’re never going to get to the vitality, particularly the city of Chicago, when we have these kind of safety concerns around our city because it’s feeding other crime.”

Budget bills introduced by Illinois Democrats in the waning hours of session and that were passed early Saturday will require private-sector retailers to notify consumers of temporary “tax relief” measures included in them. Critics say the requirements are an unconstitutional violation of free speech rights and forced campaign propaganda during an election year.

“Prophecy is optional folly, but predicting a convulsive crisis for the nation’s worst-governed state merely involves understanding its present parlous condition.”

Gov. JB Pritzker promised the passage of the $45 billion state spending plan Friday, the final scheduled day of the General Assembly’s shortened spring session.

Sangamon County Circuit Court Judge Raylene Grischow issued a temporary restraining order in the case brought by six CPS staff. “Plaintiffs have due process rights in need of protection which must be afforded to them before they can be excluded from the public school building and prevented from performing their world duties due to their decision not to be vaccinated or submit to testing for COVID-19. When a right such as the one being violated here is alleged, irreparable injury is satisfied.”

In a new version of the budget released Thursday, that provision was taken out. “It does seem like electioneering, you know, kind of giving further evidence to an election year gimmick,” Rep. Ryan Spain said.

From City Hall to Springfield to Capitol Hill, the candy man and candy lady are out in force.

An amendment is advancing at the statehouse on the final day of session to extend the deadline of the so-called “speed bump” that would automatically trigger higher business taxes and lower benefits for the unemployed if the UI debt isn’t paid off.

“Between this spring’s truncated session and the heightened political stakes that always accompany an election year, power dynamics in the Capitol have undergone a quiet but dramatic shift: Despite controlling every conceivable lever of state government as the party with total power in Springfield, Illinois Democrats in the past few months have been forced into a defensive posture, both in direct reaction to the Republican super-minority in the legislature and changing political winds that favor a GOP wave this at the ballot box this fall.”

When the Clean Energy Jobs Act passed in 2021 with electric vehicle language, it specifically excluded motorcycles. But if Senate Bill 2940 is signed into law, it provides an incentive of $1,500 toward the purchase of an electric motorcycle.

“Our people are tired. They are tired of working overtime; they are tired of talking to grumpy people all the time,” said Operations Manager Betsy Smith with METCAD in Champaign County.

The legislation is supported by the Illinois Sheriffs Association and the Fraternal Order of Police Labor Council

“So if we totally froze the gas tax – gave a gas tax holiday, Over the entire course of the year it would be a saving of about $305 a household,” said Dr. Kenneth Kriz, director of the Illinois Institute for Public Finance. “And if we didn’t raise it by… say it was gonna go up by say 2 cents, for example, that would be about 15 dollars per household for a year. So, not a lot.”

Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum sued the Center for Covid Control, or CCC, and its testing partner, Doctors Clinical Laboratory, for deceptively marketing testing services and for violating Oregon’s Unlawful Trade Practices Act.

ABC 7 Chicago reports that Pritzker has contributed more than $3 million to the Democratic Governors Association since 2017, with his most recent contribution being $250,000 at the end of 2021. A recent attack ad against Irvin is part of a $700,000 ad campaign by the Democratic Governors Association.

The Marching Illini’s Low Brass Cheer is a blues riff that has been played during Illini Football games for decades. Professor Lamont Holden and student Jarrel Young took the instrumentation and added some Drumline-like snares, following the Atlantic sequencing formula to create the Illini Anthem. “Being the first rap/hip-hop fight song to represent a Big 10 University is monumental. Being from Champaign, this anthem hits home for me,” Young said.

Kina Collins, a candidate in Illinois’ 7th district, was also provided $28,000 by Lead the Way 2022. Collins participated in a defund the police rally and has called for the abolition of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Dan McConchie said, in part, “What is most unfortunate about the Democrats’ budget plan is we have an opportunity right now to provide permanent tax relief for the people of Illinois…Evidently, they think they know how to better spend your money better than you do.”

“My administration has always supported every constitutional action to address our pension structures while honoring promises made to retirees. This session alone, we are set to invest $500 million beyond the state’s required pension payment, reducing unfunded liabilities by $1.8 billion for taxpayers,” Gov. JB Pritzker said.

“In a year when Pritzker and his legislative colleagues trumpet budget-making moderation, the move recalls a darker fiscal period in the early 2000s when feuding Democrats Gov. Rod Blagojevich and House Speaker Michael Madigan cobbled together state spending with ‘fund sweeps,’ taking what appeared to be large unspent balances in special funds to shore up the operating budget.”

Gov. Pritzker said there will be tax relief in the form of the earned income tax credit, property tax and income tax rebates, and a freeze of the 1% grocery tax. “On groceries, a full year. On gas, again, six months up to Jan. 1, and then we’ll revisit and see where we are in regard to oil prices and the world market and how that affects our gas prices.”

“We have filed HR824 calling on the Illinois Auditor General to audit DCFS and examine the following: Changes the department has made thus far to prevent further deaths, to prevent unnecessary psychiatric stays and better serve the interests of system-involved youths,” state Rep. Tom Weber said.

Most of the funding for the plan, an estimated $515 million, would come from an increased bed tax the state levies on nursing facilities to generate money that is then used to draw down additional federal Medicaid matching funds.

Of the 1,761 journalists who report from state capitols, 20% work for nonprofit news organizations, up from just 6% in 2014. In 10 states, there are more statehouse journalists working for nonprofits than any other kind of outlet.

And the Democrats’ summary of the budget is linked here.

Illinois taxpayers still don’t have the annual comprehensive financial report for the fiscal year that ended June 30 2021, more than 281 days ago. Illinois is consistently among the tardiest states in issuing annual comprehensive financial reports with the audit of FY2020 taking 408 days, according to Truth In Accounting.

Jim Dey: “The crime debate coincides with a movement to reduce prison populations. Corrections Department records reveal the numbers have fallen sharply over the last eight years. In February 2013, Illinois’ prison population was 49,401. By 2021, it was 27,413. Given the propensity of released inmates to re-offend, it should be no surprise that releasing nearly 22,000 convicted felons has gone hand in hand with rising crime rates.”

Edie Moore, of Chicago NORML, says everyone who has won a license, and paid thousands for the opportunity to get involved in pot in Illinois, is stuck in some kind of red tape right now. “They’re discouraged. They’re going broke. Teams are falling apart. It’s hard to find capital, because they’re going to other states like New Jersey and New York.”

According to the Alzheimer’s Association 2022 Facts and Figures report the number of Illinois residents with Alzheimer’s is expected to increase 13 percent by 2025.

With input from Republicans, a provision was added to create a study group on foreign interference in state elections. State Rep. Tim Butler wants to prevent a repeat of the 2016 Russian hack into the Illinois State Board of Elections. “We have 108 election authorities in the state of Illinois that do great work around the state, but they have foreign actors all the time trying to get into their systems.”

“Overdraft fees disproportionately affect people of color and vulnerable families by burdening them with additional debts they cannot afford,” Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said. “I urge JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, U.S. Bank, and Wells Fargo to eliminate these unfair and inequitable fees, and act to protect consumers.”

“Arguably more pertinent are more recent investments by Pritzker personally. As reported in state disclosure documents, they include a membership interest of undisclosed size in funds run by Bridgewater Associates and Two Sigma Fund. Bridgewater’s investments included money in the Chinese Sovereign Wealth Fund, which effectively is the investment vehicle for the Chinese government. Two Sigma, in turn, was one of the largest investors in three large Chinese firms delisted by the New York Stock Exchange as per U.S. rules for being too close

Two boards that deal with the politically charged issues of crime and law enforcement — the Prisoner Review Board and the Illinois State Police Merit Board — are facing vacancy problems. Republicans argue Pritzker and his Senate Democratic allies are trying to avoid holding public hearings for the vacancies because they could create unflattering headlines before the June primary and November general elections.

Governor JB Pritzker has called for expanding surveillance technology to help police solve crimes. That same technology could be useful in the future if the state decided to implement a mileage tax.

Democrats, who control the General Assembly, and therefore the budget process in the House, Senate and governor’s office have each offered different proposals with various forms of tax breaks. They aim to have their differences reconciled before Friday’s end, when the spring session is scheduled to adjourn.

The letter was signed by Letitia James, the attorney general of New York, where the league is headquartered, as well as Illinois attorney general Kwame Raoul and the attorneys general of Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oregon and Washington State. The letter outlines concerns of gender discrimination ranging from the NFL’s treatment of women who have experienced domestic violence to the hiring and promotion of women in NFL offices.

The 85-year-old building, a behemoth structure that takes up an entire city block just north of the Capitol building on 2nd Street, has not served as anything but storage space since the last state agency to call it home moved out in 2008. When the three-year, $112 million renovation is complete, the Armory will return to only one of its original purposes: serving as office space when approximately 600 state employees transition to the building in 2025.

As the Illinois legislative comes to a close on Friday, lawmakers will finalize the budget. More than $100 million in it has been set aside for restaurants and breweries still trying to recover from the pandemic.

In ending cash bail, state Sen. Neil Anderson said the SAFE-T Act denies crime victims of their constitutional rights. “When you start passing legislation that emboldens criminals and doesn’t put them in jail, you are leaving victims out of the scenario.”

A national republication of our Wirepoints column.

During an interview with CNBC Wednesday morning, Democrat Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky doubled down on the need to ban fracking — which she voted for — and falsely claimed oil companies are price gouging customers.

“As I look back in history, there are things that should have been handled better when Republican nominees were before us,” Sen. Dick Durbin said on the Senate floor.

In addition to a guaranteed income pilot program for the Metro East area costing a total of $3.6 million (House Majority Leader Greg Harris said details would have to be developed by a state agency), there could also be a $2,500 pay increase for lawmakers.

A new measure would require gas stations to post a sign reminding customers the automatic gas tax hike is delayed. Retailers without the sign will be fined $500 per day – but they are pushing back. Said Josh Sharp of the Illinois Fuel and Retail Association, “This industry won’t be forced into offering free election year advertising for the Governor.”

“A state tax refund a few weeks before (Election Day) surely would be noted in candidate campaign mailers and commercials. But first, the state should focus on $1.8 billion owed to the federal government’s unemployment insurance trust fund. And legislators should agree to Pritzker’s plan to prepay $500 million of state pension debt, which will save taxpayers in the long run. Finally, they should adhere to the governor’s plan to replenish the state’s nonexistent rainy-day fund with at least $800 million.”

Jim Dey: “…(I)s anyone surprised that either (Mike) Madigan or indicted Chicago Alderman Ed Burke are refusing to spend their money to pay their defense lawyers. A unanimous decision by the Illinois Supreme Court last month guaranteed they can continue — at least for now — to use their multimillion-dollar campaign funds to pay their lawyers.”

“This is no run-of-the-mill biography that examines Madigan’s childhood, how he got along with his old man…The author captures the master in action, for good or bad, in a series of well-told stories of some of his more notable successes and failures–from keeping the White Sox in town to the Illinois Supreme Court striking down a pension reform law he brilliantly guided through the legislative process.”

The proposal for a hotline connecting police to auto manufacturers is part of a larger legislative initiative to dramatically reduce carjackings as a whole. Lawmakers are looking at a three-prong strategy of science, technology, and ensuring law enforcement agencies are able to work together.

Retired IDOT engineer Kevin Marchek said the demolition of the existing bridge over the Mississippi River would be more costly to taxpayers than keeping the bridge and repurposing it. Further, Marchek says that “repurposing the bridge into the Bison Bridge will be entirely privately funded, resulting in no additional cost to local taxpayers. Private financing is the key to this project that will make it a reality.”

Margaret Vaughn, government affairs director for the Illinois Funeral Director’s Association, said the bill would correct a law forcing thousands on Medicaid in nursing homes to cash in life insurance policies prematurely, for pennies on the dollar.

The legislation directs state pension funds to eliminate any investments in Russian-based companies, prepares the state to accept Ukrainian refugees and sets up a group to study Russian money-laundering in Illinois real estate.

Some advocates are still calling for more reforms at DCFS, including enhanced training, and sending frontline workers out in teams of two.

The news conference was the third in as many session days held by Democrats to tout public safety proposals.

If union leaders don’t like a specific state provision – such as background checks for government workers – they can simply contradict the law in the union contract. Whatever language is in the union contract wins out.

Cook County Public Guardian Charles Golbert said the department is in violation of the B.H. consent decree. That’s a a federal class action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) against DCFS back in 1988.

Hosted by the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association, “Makers Madness” is a bracket-style online tournament in which voters get to decide which product is The Coolest Thing Made in Illinois. The competition celebrates the work of manufacturers across Illinois. More than 400 products were nominated for the 2022 title.

Governor JB Pritzker has officially signed legislation giving vaccinated public school teachers and staff members paid time off if they contract COVID-19. The bill was a compromise piece of legislation born from the Chicago Teachers Union walkout in January.

The poll shows minority-owned businesses are having more challenges with the increase in gas prices, as 74% reported a very significant negative impact on their business growth. However, veterans aren’t far behind with 70% of those businesses also struggling with high gasoline prices.

A letter sent to the State Board of Elections by campaign attorney, John Fogarty acknowledged the violation and blamed it on the printer who sent the mailing. Fogarty’s letter said the placement of the postal permit used on the piece covered up the required disclosure of who paid for the mailing.

According to the latest data, gas prices have gone down by six cents per gallon in the last week, dropping to an average of $4.431 a gallon in Illinois. That’s still higher than the national average, which currently stands at $4.189 per gallon.

Mark Konkol: “The DGA is spending Gov. Pritzker’s money to help fund political attacks against Irvin that sound like they’re coming from folks who wear MAGA hats, and the billionaire says he’s fine with it.”

Jim Dey: “It matters not — at least not now — that Illinois has a myriad of financial problems. Politics always trumps policy here. It will, of course, be back to reality after the election, and that could be a real bite…In its March report, COGFA predicted the state will face severe budget challenges for the next three budget years.”

“Illinois voters have cast their lot with an all-green energy future, and that will not change. But conditions have changed, and there is no reason the government can’t undertake measures that other states have to increase supplies and ease pricing pressures.”

State regulators have pledged not to issue any pot shop licenses pending a federal judge’s ruling in a lawsuit alleging that Illinois’ cannabis dispensary permitting process unconstitutionally discriminates against out-of-state residents.

The bill’s House sponsor, state Rep. Chris Bos, said the state has to learn from mistakes made during the pandemic. “If we don’t take the steps now moving forward to look back and make adjustments where we need to make adjustments like this bill so family members are not dying alone, shame on us.”

Paul Arena, director of legislative affairs for the Illinois Rental Property Owners Association, explained why they are against the legislation: “Section 8 is designed to be a voluntary program. This bill requires that you sign a lease with the Housing Authority. That’s their lease and is non-negotiable and that lease has provisions in it that we oppose.”

The lawmakers touted a proposal creating a Law Enforcement Recruitment and Retention Fund, bills focusing on officer mental health, the creation of a grant program for off-hours day care, and a measure requiring counties to pay their sheriff 80 percent of their state’s attorney’s pay. There was not, however, any appropriations bill tied to the new funds, meaning funding would have to be provided in the budget process which is scheduled to wrap up Friday.

Michael Madigan is projected to collect more than $2.9 million but only contributed $351,000 toward his public poension. It will take Madigan three years to collect back 50 years of contributions to the General Assembly Retirement System as a state representative, and from a pension system with so much debt that it contains only 21% of what it eventually must pay out.

While crime was on the rise elsewhere in Illinois, murders in Aurora decreased 45 percent from 2020 to 2021, dropping from eleven to six. The city also saw a 32 percent decrease in shootings, and a 10 percent decrease in motor vehicle thefts. “That’s because we recognize the value of our men and women that wear that badge every single day, and we increased their budget,” Richard Irvin said.

Madigan remains the 13th Ward Democratic committeeman and a member of the Democratic State Central Committee. Several key leaders have asked him to step down from all of his party posts, but he has not done so.

Republican Senate offices laid the blame for the fallen nomination at the feet of Democratic senator Dick Durbin, who has served as majority whip since last year.

“This is all happening as the spring legislative session winds down and one item at the top of the majority Democratic Party’s agenda is public safety. The party is dealing with sharp internal divisions over how to deal with the topic. This ad campaign, paid for with Democratic money, will only reinforce the GOP’s ‘get tough on crime’ message. Not great timing.”

The accusations target Vendor Assistance Program LLC, a Chicago company led by lawyer and lobbyist Brian Hynes. He got his start in politics as an aide to recently indicted former Illinois Democratic boss Michael Madigan, and Hynes also has close ties to disgraced ex-Chicago Ald. Danny Solis. VAP has thrived as by far the biggest player in a program that allows a small group of state-certified companies to buy up debt from Illinois’ once-mountainous pile of unpaid bills.

The statue has been in storage, its fate uncertain, while the city-created Monuments Project advisory committee has reviewed public monuments to determine if they’re problematic and what should happen to them. In February 2021, the group flagged 40 statues, but has not said what should happen to such monuments.

Harris, a veteran attorney in central Illinois, served as an assistant U.S attorney for the Central District of Illinois for more than 30 years. He’s a Howard University and University of Illinois Chicago law school graduate.

Last year, the school admitted a record 8,303 freshman students. Director of Undergraduate Admissions Andy Burst said that they expect a return to “normal” enrollment numbers after last year’s spike. “It’s important to clarify that we are still planning to grow overall enrollment and that growth will likely be among graduate and online programs.”

In the Land of Lincoln, 2.4% of workers quit their jobs during the ‘Great Resignation’ as compared to the 2.8% rate nationally. Todd Maisch, of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce, said this could be a sign that workers in Illinois feel stuck. “There may very well be a perception amongst the workforce that there are not as many job opportunities to access later if someone resigns their job today.”

Decatur Mayor Julie Moore Wolfe and Palos Park Mayor John F. Mahoney: “All of our communities make tough decisions about how to continue meeting the needs of residents and businesses with fewer resources. Cutting costs helped cover lost revenue in the past, but municipalities and counties must now pay for new unfunded state mandates and skyrocketing public safety pension costs.”

“One might think the early exit from setting priorities, legislating and budgeting means that everything is just fine in Illinois. It is not fine, as chiefs of police, retail merchants, victims of crime and others have told legislators in Springfield in recent days.”

“The legislature has tasked business and labor to reach an ‘agreed’ bill to settle the remaining balance. When the legislature knows it has a controversial topic that could make a lot of people on either side angry, often they will defer to both sides of an issue to hammer out an agreement that is acceptable to all sides, though nobody is ever truly happy with the final solution.”

Professor Bob Bruno identifies many reasons business look to locate elsewhere — including cheaper labor, lower taxes, cheaper land, tax credits — but that reasoning is shortsighted, he said. “They’ve made a mistake. The most important component is going to be the quality of the labor because all of the value is going to be driven in the production process, and I think that gets overlooked.”

Their proposals were largely appropriations-based, requesting nearly $240 million in funding increases from the current fiscal year for intervention programs such as early childhood education and after school programs. But they also included a grant program for establishing anonymous tiplines across the state in an effort to help solve crimes, as well as a program aimed at expanding a witness protection program.

“When you have two of your three higher education institutions report closing or downsizing within 45 days, that’s definitely going to have an impact,” said Mayor Tracy Welch.

House Bill 1167 restores sick days for vaccinated teachers who contracted Covid-19 during the current school year and provides paid administrative leave for every employee of a public school district public university, and public community college who is required, or whose child is required, to be excluded from school because of a positive COVID-19 test result or close contact with a person who had a confirmed case of COVID-19.

State Sen. Dan McConchie called the $1.8 billion initiative from the Illinois Senate Democratic Caucus disingenuous relief to families. “This is not the real reform the people of this state want and need.”

“Illinois is still bleeding people from every corner of the state,” said Ted Dabrowski, president of Wirepoints, an independent organization that researches the state’s government and economy. While pandemic restrictions may have played a part in the decline, it’s hard to determine how significant an effect they had, according to Wirepoints. “But what we do know is that Illinois lawmakers have made no effort to make Illinois more livable,” Dabrowski said.

Illinois’ 90% funding target already violates best practices, but some have proposed going even lower. That’s a bad idea based on a myth, according to the American Academy of Actuaries.

Burberry cannot catch a break. The luxe retailer’s Magnificent Mile location has fallen victim to shoplifting mobs, late-night burglary teams, and looters. On Thursday afternoon, it got hit again.

The average price of a gallon of gas is currently $4.46 in Illinois according to AAA, and more than 50 cents of that price is from state taxes and fees. But in Missouri, where gas taxes and fees are only 17.42 cents, drivers are only paying $3.76 for a gallon of gas. That makes crossing the border an attractive option.

Illinois Democrats proposed legislation Friday they say will fight crime in the state, but it comes with a hefty price tag. It also comes during an election year and after Republicans have pounded Democrats over rising crime in the state.

“Their signals from Washington were, we don’t want any infrastructure projects so they cut pipelines, we don’t want you to lease off of federal lands so leases stopped, and they tried to put in certain methane taxes,” Watson said. “All these were signals to the industry that we better not invest.”

The statement indicated that Lincoln College had survived other difficult circumstances, including the economic crisis of 1887, a major campus fire in 1912, the Spanish flu of 1918, the Great Depression, World War II, and the global financial crisis in 2008, but the pandemic caused a combination of setbacks that ultimately were too much to overcome.

Ligftoot also says, “I’m going to encourage the Attorney General to look into this huge rapid escalation in gas prices,” she said. “I’m very concerned about gas gouging, and I’m not accusing anyone, but it’s worthy of the Attorney General to look at this, because the escalation is really pricing people out.”

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will soon require diversity-contribution statements from all faculty members for tenure and promotion.The policy says that the departments’ evaluations of teaching, service and research and future potential “must, where appropriate, consider the candidate’s diversity, equity, and inclusion activities and their impact.”

A little-known provision of the SAFE-T Act — the criminal justice reform law Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed last year —now requires that criminal defendants who are on home confinement while awaiting trial must be given a minimum of two days a week to move freely, without being actively monitored. Since the provision took effect Jan. 1, dozens of people on home confinement have gotten into trouble while free of supervision during those “essential movement” days when they aren’t monitored, the Chicago Sun-Times has found.

Thought you’d seen everything in Chicago when it comes to buying votes? Welcome to the great Chicago gas giveaway. Hence, Thursday’s mayoral announcement of the “Chicago Moves” initiative, which includes up to 50,000 preloaded gas cards worth $150 each, valid for a year and usable only at pumps within city limits.

“So prolific is this mostly false claim, PolitiFact developed its own PolitiFact fact sheet: The Gender Pay Gap.“

The March University of Illinois Flash Index moved ahead strongly in March, rising to 106.1 compared to 105.7 in February. “This is a post-crisis high,” said University of Illinois economist J. Fred Giertz, who compiles the monthly index for the Institute of Government and Public Affairs. “The Illinois economy gained strength as measured by state tax receipts for the month, overcoming the economic headwinds of the invasion of Ukraine and the most recent variant of the COVID-19 virus.”

“Since taking office, Gov. J.B. Pritzker has been gradually and quietly transforming the Illinois Prisoner Review Board, which is responsible for deciding whether to release some of the state’s most violent criminals from prison early, to fit his “weak on crime” agenda. That is, until now. Senate Democrats who covered for him for over a year finally had enough of his dangerous gamesmanship.”

Illinois needs to gain more ground in putting its fiscal house in order as a burdensome pension tab, population losses, and economic uncertainty threaten progress that has driven a round of positive rating actions. That’s the assessment offered by the legislature?s non-partisan Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability in its annual three-year budget forecast.

Local governments could see an additional $500 million dollars for their share of state income taxes, something that could help fund local services and control local taxes.

The Local Government Distributive Fund, or LGDF, was instituted when the state implemented an income tax decades ago. The LGDF sends a percentage of state income taxes back to local governments as a way to keep local governments from implementing their own income taxes.

Legislation giving only vaccinated school staff the benefit of taking COVID-related sick time as administrative leave rather than sick time could soon head to the governor’s desk.

“Instead of being a man and putting his name on these false attacks, Governor Pritzker chooses to hide behind political insider groups by forcing them to meddle into the GOP primary on his behalf,” Durkin said.

House Minority Leader Jim Durkin, R-Western Springs, said Republicans have been frozen out of negotiations. He expects large amounts of spending supported by federal tax dollars that Democrats will tout as a great accomplishment. Durkin also said despite House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, D-Hillside, saying it’s a “new day” after replacing former longtime Speaker Michael Madigan, Democrats will be taking up what Durkin called the Madigan model to budgeting.

In the Land of Lincoln, gas taxes are the second highest in the nation. Residents close to the borders are taking advantage of neighboring states’ lower rates. Currently, Illinois’ average gallon of fuel costs $4.49, according to AAA. In Wisconsin, it’s $3.95. Iowa’s average is $3.88 and Missouri is even cheaper. Most of that difference is due to taxes. On top of a state gas tax, Illinois also allows local motor fuel and sales taxes.

A number of Illinois housing provider groups are pushing for a “no” vote on legislation that would require landlords to participate in the federal Section 8 housing program by amending the state’s Homeless Prevention Act.

Graduates from Illinois colleges and universities may soon be able to access their transcripts even if they still owe money to the school they attended. The Illinois House on Tuesday gave its approval to a bill that had already cleared the Senate prohibiting higher education institutions from refusing to provide copies of student transcripts either to the current or former student or that student’s current or prospective employer.

Loitering, drinking on public property, fights, shootings — they’re all issues police would typically handle, except for one problem. Champaign police don’t have enough officers to provide extra patrols in the downtown area, where incidents such as these have been occurring. The city’s proposed solution for now: hiring private security officers to address safety and nuisance concerns on the busiest nights for downtown bars and restaurants.

The Democratic Governors Association is pouring $728,000 into a statewide advertising blitz focused on the Illinois Republican race for governor. The first ad ran early this morning. It’s a 30-second spot that targets Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin’s career as a defense attorney (after he was a prosecutor) and questions his decision to represent “violent criminals” accused of domestic abuse, child pornography and sexual assault in the past. The goal is to rev up Republicans to vote for Darren Bailey, or maybe any of the other GOP candidates, over Irvin. There’s nothing Republicans hate more than a candidate who’s not tough

A proposed state law to strengthen environmental protections for low-income communities appears to be dead for a second-straight legislative session as lawmakers fear the wrath of business groups in an election year. Environmental groups say a law is needed to slow the addition of pollution sources in communities already overwhelmed with bad air and other hazards. The businesses say the proposal adds red tape and fees that will kill jobs. The idea of an “environmental justice” law was supported by Gov. J.B. Pritzker last year but a bill was never debated in 2021. The same bill now lacks enough votes

“The pandemic led many Americans to take stock of their lives and what they really valued. Many decided that living in a place with avowed progressive values was not worth the financial and personal costs that come with it. Those choices might portend a significant shift in national politics in the years to come.”

The Illinois House has approved the Innovations for Transportation Infrastructure Act, which authorizes IDOT to use the design-build method to allow for a single entity to both design and start construction on a project. Currently, IDOT uses the design-bid-build project delivery method where the department designs a plan in-house, then reviews bids from contractors.

Illinois is still missing 77,000 jobs from its restaurants, bars, hotels and other leisure industries since COVID-19 shutdowns. That Illinois jobs sector has recovered only 72% of what it lost in the pandemic – one of the nation’s worst recoveries.

“The goal of filing this application was to create generational wealth so I can bring back opportunities to the community that I live in,” said Apriel Campbell, community organizer.

Biden said in his message to Congress that his spending plan, “details the next steps forward on our journey to execute a new economic vision, reduce costs for families, reduce the deficit, and build a better America.”

But state Sen. Terri Bryant, R-Murphysboro, said the governor is promoting a false narrative “Because obviously last night, Eleanor Wilson only got 15 votes,” Bryant told The Center Square. “So, 15 out of 59 when there are only 18 Republicans, give me a break.”

The Illinois General Assembly once had an unusual method of electing representatives — one that may be worth reviving. Every district sent three members to Springfield, and every voter got three votes, which could be spread among three candidates split between two or “bulleted” on one. The 177-member chamber was known as the Big House, the system that produced it as cumulative voting.

In Illinois right now, 3.6 million people receive an earned income tax credit. Senate Bill 3774 would offer that targeted tax relief to 1.2 million more people.

SAT math scores dropped nearly 15%, and reading scores dropped 9% from 2019 to 2021 among Illinois high school juniors. Low-income and minority students saw bigger losses.

In 2020, Gov. JB Pritzker’s trust bought stock in the health insurance company Centene Corp. That same year, Illinois gave $2.6 billion worth of Medicaid contracts to Centene Corp.

A republication of our Wirepoints column.

The Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police is out with a report detailing how much state funding they need to do their jobs and implement mandated reforms – $759 million.

Illinois used federal pandemic money to hire community health workers who connect people with food banks and rental assistance programs, just like public health officials have long hoped to do. What will happen to the community trust that has been built up when the federal money runs out and the workers disappear?

I’ll just repeat one line from a newspaper report from which I quoted this morning.

The Financial Times:

Volodymyr Zelensky has called on energy producing countries to step up their output in order to prevent Russia from using its oil and gas to “blackmail” European nations.

Chicago is a “sister city” of Kyiv, I see.

Monday’s developments represented the latest shakeup on the governor-appointed board that has seen heavy Republican scrutiny in the past year as the Senate repeatedly delayed hearing several of Pritzker’s appointees to the board that determines whether offenders should be released from Illinois Department of Corrections custody and what the terms of their release should be. The board also makes recommendations on clemency, arbitrates the calculation of good time credit, and reviews cases of those who violate the terms of their parole to decide whether they should be returned to prison.

Governor JB Pritzker Friday established the Illinois Cyber Security Commission. The goal is to support a coordination effort across all levels of government to build and enhance cyber security.

The three largest numeric losers were L.A. County … New York County (Manhattan) … and Cook County, Ill., which includes Chicago.

The $2.7 billion — a full third of the $8.1 billion in Illinois’ ARPA funds — is more than had been previously floated either publicly or in months of private negotiations on how to handle the state’s unemployment debt. But even with that surprise boost, the state will still have to find another source to fully pay off the $4.5 billion it owes the U.S. Treasury. The most likely funding scenario is a case of deja vu: Just like after the economic downturns of 2001 and 2008, Illinois could go to the bond market to raise a yet-to-be-agreed-to sum. And

Illinoisans are paying a premium at the pump and many blame the conflict in Ukraine, but experts say it has been a long time coming. The price per gallon in the Land of Lincoln has been steadily climbing, with AAA reporting the average price per gallon at roughly $4.54. In some counties, Illinoisans are paying as much as $4.72 for a gallon of gas.

A youth liberty organization, with a chapter in Illinois, is celebrating the end of what they call “COVID-19 tyranny” on campus. Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) fought pandemic mandates on dozens of college campuses around the country, including at the University of Illinois and other state schools, stressing they were not anti-vaccine, but rather anti-vaccine mandate at taxpayer-funded academic institutions.

U.S. Rep. Marie Newman has signed on to legislation that would ban the increasingly controversial practice of members of Congress trading stock in individual companies. But Newman’s conversion to that issue is recent—very recent. Only in the last month have Newman and her husband voluntarily ceased the practice themselves, this after trading stock worth $5.8 million in 2021. That was enough to rank her ninth among the 535 members of the House and Senate, right behind House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is eighth.

In an effort to attract more electric vehicle-related companies to Illinois, a state agency is recommending making changes to the Reimagining Electric Vehicles Act, or REV Act. Changes would incentivize other types of manufacturing of EV vehicles, such as agricultural EV vehicles and other EVs that don’t operate on public roadway.

Civic Federation President Laurence Msall said it’s good news that tax revenues that bounced back much more quickly from the pandemic than expected are going into overdue bills — and an unprecedented $900 million installment in a rainy day fund.

Business and labor negotiators are staring down the barrel of possible tax increases on job creators and benefit reductions for the unemployed after Illinois Democrats approved

Legislation is advancing in Springfield that would increase payments to eligible residents participating in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, welfare program. The Illinois House passed House Bill 4423, brought by state Rep. Marcus Evans, D-Chicago. The measure would increase benefits from 30% of the federal poverty guidelines for each family size to 50%.

Tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts. Everyone in state capitols is talking about tax cuts these days, as elected officials facing voters this fall try to curry favor with a restless electorate.

Treatment service providers who work with those with gambling disorders say they have seen a spike in people seeking help with gambling addiction.

A poll was floated showing Gov. JB Pritzker facing suburban headwinds — even trailing Republican governor candidates Richard Irvin and Darren Bailey. Problem is there was no explanation about which suburb was polled.

“Illinois is primarily about work and cost of living,” Allied President Steve McKenna said. “People are looking to lower their cost of living by buying the Sun Belt.”

House Bill 5013 would require managed care organizations to pay for prenatal and perinatal healthcare, no matter if it’s from a contracted provider or not. The bill passed the House early in March. It’s been sitting in the Senate Executive Committee for about a week as of Tuesday.

In Chicago, drivers pay nine different taxes on gas. In addition, Illinois consistently ranks toward the bottom for its high cost of doing business. Illinois’ public policy decisions result in relatively higher prices for consumers and higher input costs for businesses, worsening the squeeze on Illinois families and businesses. Most important, during times of economic uncertainty, state and local policy should be able to respond quickly to changing economic conditions. In Illinois, this is nearly impossible, but the astronomical increase in pension costs that constrains state and local budgets.

Proteins like meat, fish, poultry and eggs are up nearly 14 percent in Illinois. Fruits and vegetables are up 15.5 percent, while cereals and bakery items are up more than 2 percent. Dairy and related products cost about 3.7 percent more.

“No cost of college life has increased faster than textbooks,” said Committee Chair Scott Bennett. “It’s vital that we set students up for success, and that includes making sure course materials are affordable.”

“The longer it goes without getting a number when all these other states are presenting their best guesses sure is odd,” state Sen. Jason Plummer said. “So is there an idea of when we might have a number?” Illinois Department of Employment Security Director Kristin Richards wouldn’t speculate on when a number would be revealed, saying they’re working on it.

Smaller subsets of the population who identify as Asian, native, or multi-racial also experienced strong employment growth from December 2019-December 2021, adding more than 65,184 jobs (+13.3%). However, growth among just one or two communities isn’t enough to improve outcomes across the Illinois labor market.

State Sen. Steve McClure took PRB member Oreal James to task for his votes to grant leniency nearly 45% of the time since he’s been on the board. “Under horrific crimes you are consistently voting to release these folks, against the wishes of the judges, against the wishes of the state’s attorney and against the wishes of the victim,” McClure said. “Even in cases where they are showing no rehabilitation.”

The plan will include efforts from the Illinois Department of Human Services to provide resources such as kits with naloxone, a medication that can reverse an opioid overdose. Also included in the plan is a mobile service that will provide medication-assisted services to those that need them.

“Despite all of those still-fresh superlatives of shock and outrage, the chances of Democrats pushing through a new round of post-Madigan indictment ethics reforms appear bleak at the moment, with barely three weeks left before the scheduled end of the Legislature’s spring calendar.”

The American Legislative Exchange Council’s 2021 list ranked governors based on three broad categories: Executive policies, economic performance and fiscal policy. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker came in at No. 47.

Jim Dey: “Under the rules, the governor can make nominations and then withdraw them. Every time he makes a nomination, it starts a 60-session-day clock for Senate confirmation. That’s 60 legislative ‘session days,’ not 60 days. That means the clock must follow the session calendar, of legislature, which often goes months at a time without meeting. That flexibility allows Pritzker, like governors before him, to make appointments, withdraw appointments and then re-appoint the same individuals whose appointments he withdrew.”

Opponents warned failure to address potential abuses in the lawsuit funding business will ultimately lead to higher costs for all in Illinois, fueled by an ever-growing “tort tax” of thousands of additional dollars paid by American households every year to cover the costs of so-called “abusive litigation” tacked onto all goods and services.

State senators Dave Syverson and Donald DeWitte: “…(T)he nonpartisan Commission on Government Forecasting & Accountability (COGFA) has projected state revenues are already $4.6 billion higher than originally projected this fiscal year. The state simply doesn’t need this extra gas sales tax revenue. Keeping it would be an act of unconscionable greed by Pritzker and the Democrat-controlled Legislature.

A proposal from Rep. Lindsey LaPointe would require divestment “from Russian stocks and sovereign debt,” along with those of Russian ally Belarus. It names the Teachers’ Retirement System and Illinois State Board of Investment and urges public systems not controlled by the state, such as the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund, to do the same.

Officials say expressway shootings are on the decline so far this year with 33, which is 17 shootings less than this time in 2021.

“For now, things in Illinois are improving, but if conditions here change, I will address the people of Illinois with needed actions,” he said.

Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs announced the Secure Choice Savings Program now has over 100,000 participants. Frerichs said nearly a quarter of Illinois retirees use Social Security for 90% of their retirement dollars.

There’s going to be a balancing act for those leftover federal funds as groups ranging from the hospitality sector to home care workers are looking for more tax dollars. “We have to look at all of these,” House Majority Leader Greg Harris said. “We’re gonna have to weigh these things, and we’re gonna have to make some difficult choices on all these fronts.”

“The U.S. unemployment rate is now at 3.9%, which is very close to the pre-pandemic normal of 3.5%, ” analyst Jill Gonzalez said. “These numbers give the federal reserve room to start withdrawing the economic support that was put in place at the start of COVID-19’s onslaught.” The unemployment rate for Illinois in January was a 5%,

They said that Illinois families are struggling after the end of pandemic aid, as well as with record inflation. They want the state to expand its earned income tax credit and to create a statewide child tax credit.

As the new ideology has been institutionalized, the costs of disobeying it have grown steeper, both for faculty and for students. ​​At the University of Illinois Chicago, for example, a law professor’s classes were cancelled and his career threatened for including a bleeped out “‘n____’” on an exam in a hypothetical scenario about employ

School leaders said “Access 2030” is being created to increase the number of graduates from underrepresented groups by 50% by the end of the decade. This will include students from disadvantaged backgrounds — ethnic and racial, rural and urban.

“The world seems smaller, doesn’t it? The world just seems smaller and more connected because of COVID. So what’s happening elsewhere could possibly affect us right here,” Pritzker said. “For now, though, things in Illinois are improving.”

Said Dorothy Abreu, “We are a significant economic driver to our region and our state.” And, it’s important to bring “moral integrity” to the table. “Knowing that what we need to do — we need to do the right way, in the right manner, and with transparency.”

The department cites the state’s new Criminal Justice Reform Bill as one of the many reasons they are disbanded.

The fine will cost Blue Cross $1,000 per day for every day it is out of compliance with the law. It is the first of its kind ever issued since the state adopted the new baseline requirements for network adequacy in 2017.

“From my perspective, if you were to spend a lot of money right now advertising your candidacy for a down ballot race, it would be kind of lost in the shuffle of everything else that’s going on,” said Charlie Wheeler, a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Springfield.

“We have to compete with states like Ohio and Indiana,” Rep. Mike Halpin said, “and until we can convince either the federal government or our sister states to stop that race to the bottom, we need to provide what we can to good Illinois companies that want to expand their operations here.”

“We don’t want to gloat over people in a war zone, but, yes, this is beneficial for Southern Illinois wheat producers – to the extent that they have not priced that crop yet,” University of Illinois agriculture economist Mike Dougherty said.

Consider the budget, ARP funds, and crime.

“The public aspect recently hit the front page with news stories about lawsuits filed against the state in connection with the deaths of more than 30 residents, beginning in November 2020, at the LaSalle Veterans’ Home….Public-health issues don’t generally translate to the political realm. But they have here in the most unusual, costly and tragic sets of circumstances.”

Jim Dey: “For example, just how much of a problem is it that Illinois continues to lose people and jobs while neighboring states gain both? So far, voters en masse have not shown much interest in those issues. At the same time, our elected officials have done little more than pay lip service to them.”

Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza, a Democrat who met with the state’s congressional delegation in Washington this week, told Route Fifty on Thursday that despite having a $1.7 billion surplus, the state could use the money on other things besides paying tens of millions in interest.

“Illinois Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker is also promising to ‘alleviate some pressure on Illinois’ working families,’ after having doubled the state gas tax to 38 cents a gallon in 2019. His proposal: Suspend this year’s inflation-adjusted gas tax increase (two cents a gallon) and send $300 property tax credits to middle-income homeowners. That’s about as much as inflation is costing the average household in a single month, and it doesn’t come close to offsetting higher property taxes from increasing housing values and pension payments.”

In the letter to Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, 15 elected officials outlined the case of Mexican immigrant Norberto Navarro, who is being held in the Will County jail until he appears as a material witness in a criminal court hearing next week.

School districts across the state continue to divert money from classrooms to boost the pensions of retiring educators despite multiple attempts to curb the practice.

Of the 11 states that collected recreational marijuana tax revenue in 2021, just four — California, Colorado, Illinois and Massachusetts — spent money on such restorative justice and equity programs. Illinois spent the most, devoting almost a quarter of its marijuana revenue to such programs.

The governor says he increased DCFS’s budget by millions of dollars during his time in office and encouraged them to hire more staff.

Current regulations prevent winemakers who produce more than 25,000 gallons from selling directly to local restaurants and retailers. HB 2976 would increase the production cap and allow direct sales (self-distribution) of a portion of produced wine.

“Both of them have a challenge for elected officials,” Jim Watson, Executive Director of the American Petroleum Institute-Illinois, said of the statewide taxes on gas. “If you decide to cut, reduce, end the sales tax that we put on gasoline, that’s going to cut resources for and funding for local governments. Or, you can reduce the Motor Fuel Tax, but that funding goes to expenditures on capital projects like redoing our highways and building our bridges.”

After three confirmation fights in which Democrats vigorously opposed former President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominees, Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin is working to convince Republicans to not return the favor.

The sweeping criminal justice reform bill changes various policies and practices across the entire justice system including the courts, prisons and law enforcement agencies.

“We are looking at ways we can reduce the gas tax across the State of Illinois, because we recognize, even since I introduced my budget, that war has broken out and the result of that war is that oil prices have gone through the roof,” he said.

“Into the ever-changing risk calculations are layers of different experiences, as mask mandates are lifted and workers are increasingly asked to return to the office. For some, COVID-19 has been mostly an inconvenience, upending lives but not killing loved ones. For others, the losses include family, friends or neighbors, and shape perceptions of how best to act.”

A proposal in Springfield could increase grant amounts for temporary assistance for needy families from 30% of the federal poverty guidelines to 50%, and also allow dollars for child support to go directly to parents or guardians instead of the current system where some of the money is dispersed by the state.

“Voters don’t elect Tollway leadership. But they do elect governors, and they put their trust in those governors to make the right choices about who is on the agency’s board, who chairs that board, and who is the Tollway’s executive director. And for as long as we can remember, the agency has been mired in mismanagement and scandal.”

There are 21 states that empower their legislatures to end a state of emergency by joint resolution at any time, and 12 of those require their legislatures to approve any extension of emergency declarations.

At the governor’s direction, the departments of Human Services, Children and Family Services, Public Health, Healthcare and Family Services, Juvenile Justice and State Board of Education are to take part in a working group aimed at bettering support for children in need of behavioral health services.

“The government is not limited to the evidence that it has on the date of indictment,” said Nancy DePodesta, a former federal prosecutor and current white-collar criminal defense lawyer. “In fact, it is very common for the government’s case to improve and become an even stronger case, as they continue to investigate and prepare for trial.”

Longer unemployment durations for Black workers will do lasting damage to Illinois’ economy because higher joblessness among Black Illinoisans represents lost production, forgone investments and reduced economic potential.

While it is clear Illinois’ employment recovery severely lags the rest of the nation, what is far less clear is how the state can ever catch up.

Jim Dey: “With the election-year price of a gallon of gasoline hovering between $4 and $5, Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker and GOP legislators are facing off over rival tax-cut plans. At the same time, businesses and labor unions oppose Pritzker’s plan and want to modify the GOP plan. ‘It’s a question of priorities,’ said Illinois Chamber of Commerce President Todd Maisch.”

Right now, lawmakers are considering how much money they can put into the unemployment trust fund that has $4.5 billion in debt. The Senate passed a plan last week to use $2 billion from the American Rescue Plan to help fill that hole. “What was done in the past is business agreed to raise the unemployment tax to service the bonds,” House Majority Leader Greg Harris noted. “There are different actions labor can take.”

Though he has served in the House and the Senate for a total of 39 years, his influence has largely been behind the scenes. Until now.

“We have seen people step up in a way we could have never imagined,” bakery owner Emily Lewis said. She described people coming in to buy pies with no occasion, people seeking out the businesses specifically because they were new and local.

It reads, in part, “Working together, our offices will advance legislation to remove any Russian companies from Illinois’ pension assets and prohibit contracting with any companies based in Russia. Beyond these financial consequences, we will also join national efforts to assist with this heartbreaking refugee crisis.”

The Department of Insurance has begun reviewing the updated BCBSIL directory of doctors to determine its network adequacy, though it has been careful not to confirm an active investigation. Other sources familiar with the matter say the agency has already opened a broader market conduct exam to investigate and potentially fine Blue Cross Blue Shield for violating consumer protections in the law.

Ezike was the first African American woman to lead the department in its 145-year history. Prior to that she worked for Cook County Health for more than 15 years. Ezike is a board-certified internist and pediatrician, recognized nationally as an expert on health care in the juvenile justice system, speaks four languages fluently (English, Spanish, French and Igbo), and is a mother of four.

Last year, Illinois’ coal-burning power plants burned more coal than the year before, stepping up production by 39% — the biggest percentage increase among the top 10 coal-burning states, according to federal data. The increase came as demand for electricity went up following pandemic-related lockdowns. Coal also benefited from high prices for another energy source, natural gas.

The industries that saw job growth in a majority of metro areas included: Leisure & Hospitality, Wholesale Trade and Other Services, Government, Professional & Business Services, and Manufacturing and Education & Health Services.

Judge Sue Myerscough noted the list is available to state and local political committees, as well as to governmental entities for governmental purposes. This led Myerscough to say, “By Illinois’ own terms, then, the interest in protecting citizens’ privacy is not infringed when the list is made available for viewing.” Myerscough added that “proper redaction of highly sensitive information can be accomplished without an undue burden on the State.”

Seth Whitehead, executive director of the Illinois Petroleum Resources Board, says the Illinois basin only provides 10-12 million barrels of oil a year. The U.S. uses around 23 million barrels each day. It’s only a small chunk of the world’s oil production, but it’ll see the same production increase the rest of the world will.

David Greising, of the Better Government Association: “Utility legislation affecting millions of Illinois ratepayers allegedly was turned, as if on some sort of legislative lathe, to serve Madigan’s purposes, leaving the public to pay the cost. With that track record in mind, it was a swift but responsible act of fiscal stewardship to put a hold on Madigan’s hand-picked projects. Asking Pritzker to reverse course a day later — to unfreeze the projects just as quickly as he froze them — was a different kind of decision. It was based on politics, not ethics.”

Lawmakers met Thursday to address these contempt of court orders – the seventh in 10 weeks – as well as the recent deaths of multiple children with DCFS connections. They say after three years with the agency, Director Marc Smith should be able to point to more positive changes and accomplishments.

“We can improve transportation equity, increase safety, and address climate change, especially in Latino and Black communities harmed by legacy transportation decisions, by investing in the right policies and projects,” Congressman Jesús “Chuy” Garcia said in a statement. Other signees of the letter to Gov. JB Pritzker include representatives Bobby Rush, Marie Newman, Mike Quigley, Sean Casten, Danny Davis, Jan Schakowsky and Brad Schneider.

The case has drawn the attention of national gun control advocates and gun rights advocacy groups, all of which submitted or contributed to amicus briefs in the case. The city of Chicago and Cook County also filed an amicus brief in support of the FOID law, saying it has been an effective tool in helping them combat gun violence.

Illinois Department of Children and Family Services Director Marc Smith was held in contempt of court a seventh time for failing to place a child appropriately. In this case, the subject of the order is a 16-year-old boy who has spent more than 375 days in a shelter that does not have the resources to support his needs given his intellectual and cognitive disabilities.

“I think it’s time for a change and try to bring back some of those supply lines here to the United States, so what this MICRO Act does is provide a very similar series of tax incentives that we applied to the electric vehicle industry,” state Rep. Mike Halpin said.

Danville Mayor Rickey Williams Jr. says the casino will lead to an estimated $4 million to $6 million in revenue for the city, without including additional sales tax or property tax revenue. “This will be an almost 10% increase in our annual revenue, with which we can do a lot of good things with for the citizens of Danville. It’s a huge economic boom.”

“Probably the biggest question as lawmakers near a scheduled April 8 adjournment is if and how the state, business and labor will bail out an unemployment insurance trust fund that’s now roughly $4.5 billion in the hole to the federal Treasury.”

Mark Konkol: “(H)ere we are in an election year, three years after cannabis was legalized, a move that Pritzker promised would create ‘new millionaires in the Black community, in the Latino community, all across this state,’ there still is not a single licensed and operating weed store or grow operation in Illinois with majority Black or Latino ownership.”

Those who work in the field worry that while pot sales have generated more than $2 billion since 2020, the drop in sales indicates that other issues are at play. Andy Seeger, a cannabis consultant, cited controversies over the process of licensing dispensaries which, in some cases, has been held up by requirements prioritized for social equity applicants in an effort to diversify the state’s pot market.

U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider said, “…I think to be clear, Congress’ responsibility is to decide when the United States does or does not go to war and I think we are doing everything we can to avoid a direct conflict between Russian, NATO and U.S. forces. What we are doing and will continue to do is to give everything we can to the Ukrainian forces to defend themselves and provide humanitarian relief.”

Illinois has only recovered 76% of the jobs the state lost during the onset of the pandemic and state-mandated shutdowns – 14th worst in the nation, and the fourth least of any state in the Midwest. Meanwhile, South Dakota, Indiana and Missouri are the most recovered Midwestern states, each having recovered more than 90% of their states’ job losses.

Jim Dey: “The answer is that a powerbroker is a powerbroker. These men (Ed Burke, age 78, and Mike MAdigan, age 79) may have been well into old age when indicted. But that doesn’t mean that they see themselves — or are willing to be seen by others — as has-beens.”

A Chicago Uber driver said the new surcharge won’t cover drivers’ costs, especially for food deliveries, which take longer than just picking up ride-share users. “I’ll stop doing deliveries completely now,” driver George Keske said.

Sales have fallen significantly since Illinois dispensaries unloaded a record $137 million worth of recreational cannabis products last December, raising concerns that limited supply and sky-high prices could be pushing consumers into the illicit market. Illinois’ 110 licensed pot shops tallied $117 million in sales in January and just under $114 million in February, the lowest monthly haul since last March.

Sangamon County Judge Gail Noll on Monday restored the applications of 11 applicants who had sued, challenging their disqualifications by the Illinois Department of Agriculture. Another 185 dispensary licenses are held up by court orders while litigation challenging the application scoring process drags on.

Owner Mike Antonacci says the company has been in business for 89 years, passed down through three generations. But the city has control of how much the cab company can charge, and Antonacci says the rates are so low that drivers don’t feel its worth the gas money.

The PRB appointment process has come under scrutiny by Republican members of the Senate in the past year. PRB members Oreal James and Eleanor Wilson were appointed on April 2, 2019, but Gov. Pritzker pulled their appointments on March 19, 2021. They were reappointed two days later. Jeff Mears , Kenneth Tupy, LeAnn Miller and Jared Bohland also remain unconfirmed by the Senate.

House Bill 5481 would suspend the state’s sales tax on motor fuel when the rate of inflation increases more than 3% over the previous 12-month period. House Bill 5723 would cap at 18 cents per gallon the rate of the state’s sales tax that’s tacked on after federal, state and local gas taxes are applied. State Rep. Tom Demmer offered his own plan for a $400 tax credit to all Illinois resident making less than $150,000 annually.

Joe Boozell from PlayIllinois.com expects $275 million to be bet on the tournament in Illinois, a significant jump from last year’s $200 million. Last year, Illinois sportsbooks made nearly $50 million in revenue off the tournament, resulting in about $7 million in state and local tax dollars.

The main culprit behind high taxes in Illinois is pensions, which take up 26% of Illinois’ budget – the most of any state. Easing the burden on taxpayers is impossible without pension reform.

“While putting American troops on the ground in Ukraine would only increase the risk of an even more dangerous, potentially nuclear escalation between Russia and the full NATO alliance, we must pursue an approach that supports Ukraine in reasserting control of its territory, expelling Russian forces and defending its sovereignty.”

The Republican primary elections for Illinois governor and attorney general are shaping up to be competitive.

“When you look at those who do support a ban on CRT, you’ll find the vast majority of those people support an honest teaching and education, including teaching about slavery and racism,” said Kathi Griffin, the IEA President, in a presentation last week.

“The state should not experience this bump in revenue on the backs of consumers, particularly middle and lower-income consumers who are already suffering financially from inflation and high gas prices,” state Rep. Mark Batinick said.

The Employment of Illinois Workers on Public Works Act, which requires employees on all public works projects to be comprised of a minimum of 90% Illinois residents, took effect on July 1, 2020, when the jobless rate was above 5 percent for two consecutive months.

“We are charged with requiring employers with 100 employees or more to file registration documents with us to show that they are paying their employees an equal wage or salary. Once we receive those documents, we will verify those wage and salary amounts and look at them at a county level basis,” said Jason Keller, assistant director at the Illinois Department of Labor.

At the Lake Forest Oasis on I-94, gas is selling for $4.63 a gallon. They have some customers, but down the road a few miles across the Wisconsin border, the pumps are filled with vehicles. The price in Pleasant Prairie Tuesday was $3.99 a gallon.

“No branch shall exercise the powers belonging to the other,” state Rep. Dan Ugaste said, referring to the state legislature’s hands-off approach to checking Pritzker. “What are we doing? Why are we letting this go on? Why won’t you join me? What is it going to take?”

That tax load is nearly 39% more annually than the nation’s average.

“In the fall of 2020, I had to just bounce back because my students still needed me at that time. But I had no time to process what I needed for myself,” East St. Louis English teacher Briana Morales said. “On top of that no one even asked me, ‘What do you need?”

Jim Dey: “Wirepoints financial analyst Mark Glennon said the curious feast/famine circumstance stems from ‘the astonishing amount of money pumped into Illinois by the federal government under the guise of pandemic relief…That includes not just the $8.1 billion that went directly to the state, but all private sector assistance that helped generate current tax revenue,’ he said.”

Under current Illinois law, someone can run for a state office after they’ve committed a felony and served their sentence, unless it’s election fraud. However, they’re barred from holding any kind of municipal office. “We’re the only state in America that bars you based on the type of office and not the type of crime. It just makes no sense,” Rep. Curtis Tarver said.

Gov. JB Pritzker argued that being the named sponsor of a June NASCAR race at the Metro East track will be positives for Illinois. “I promised to be our state’s best Chief Marketing Officer, and with the return of NASCAR to Illinois, visitors from around the nation have yet another reason to come explore all that Metro East has to offer. This is an incredible opportunity to showcase Illinois.”

3.6 million people in the state receive an earned income tax credit from Illinois right now. A proposed tax equity initiative could offer that targeted tax relief to 1.2 million more people. Rep. Carol Ammons says 44% of all Black households and 65% of Latino households in Illinois could be eligible for the earned income tax credit under her plan.

Despite having one of the better safety records for commercial drivers in the country, Illinois recently considered rolling back requirements for many truck and bus drivers.

The measure, House Bill 5412, makes primary contractors – those who contract directly with the customer – liable for wages, fringe benefits and attorney’s fees if the subcontractors they hire fail to pay their employees. In other words, it allows a worker with a grievance against the subcontractor to sue the primary contractor to rectify the situation

Many Republicans in the Senate are opposed to the implementation of SB2803. State Sen. Winn Stoller said that the $2 billion will not cover the state’s debt. “We currently have a four-and-a half billion-dollar loan to the federal government,” Stoller said. “So my question to you is, what is the rest of your plan to fix this problem?”

Some citizens in Niles, Glenview and Park Ridge have found anti-Semitic flyers in plastic bags left in their driveways. Some of the flyers depict state Sen. Laura Fine.

The federal Build Back Better Act called for extending a temporary federal child tax credit for at least one more year, but the legislation has stalled.

The annual migration report from Allied Van Lines and Zillow found this trend was reflected in the state’s largest city, Chicago, which reported the most outbound moves of any metropolitan area in the nation.

While Illinois is down 3.3%, the national economy was only missing 1.8% of jobs relative to before the pandemic in January 2022. Employment counts across virtually all major industries in Illinois lag the national average. The only industry where Illinois has performed better than the national average is “other services,” with payrolls down 5.1% versus 5.7% nationally.

Many small towns in the Midwest, including Quincy, are trying to attract remote workers by using their sense of community to their advantage. The city is listed on a website called MakeMyMove, where people can browse through a range of incentive packages offered in cities and towns across the United States.

Brian C. Johnson, CEO of Equality Illinois, has an idea is to create a $570 citizen dividend for every American – or about $2,000 a year a family of four— which would be funded through the 5 percent of corporate profits.

House Bill 5285, also known as the Too Young to Test Act, would eliminate the development and funding of the testing, although school districts could choose to test on their own.

Illinois will get more than $200 million in federal money for projects, big and small.

The bill appropriates $2 billion from American Rescue Plan funds to address the deficit in the unemployment fund. State Sen. Linda Holmes said this isn’t the final version or amount of the bill. She said negotiations are ongoing between labor and business representatives. However, the agreed bill process is confidential and cannot be disclosed at this time.

The program was established under a 2013 law known as the Gang Crimes Witness Protection Act. While law enforcement authorities say retaliation against witnesses is rare, and relocation is not often necessary, the move to fund the state program has backing from members of both parties.

Travel and tourism is an essential investment for Illinois, generating nearly $43.1 billion in direct spending (ranking Illinois 6th in the nation), Dave Herrell told lawmakers, pointing out that it supports 344,100 Illinois jobs and saves the average Illinois household $1,300 in taxes each year.

Josh Sharp, CEO of the Illinois Fuel & Retail Association, explained, “We’re only one of a handful of states that permits sales taxes on top of our already lofty motor fuel tax.”

The slew of tax cuts and proposed relief comes as some higher-tax states shed residents. From April 2020 to July 2021, higher tax areas, such as California, Hawaii, Illinois, New York and the District of Columbia, were the top five to lose residents. “We’re seeing a really competitive environment where states are looking for ways to make a name for themselves,” said Katherine Loughead of the Tax Foundation.

Madigan is certainly quoted deep within the 106-page bombshell document, but his comments won’t exactly go down in Chicago corruption history like Ald. Edward M. Burke’s: “did we land . . . the tuna?” Madigan’s are more along the lines of “OK . . . very good.”

A group of Democratic lawmakers had asked Gov. JB Pritzker to hold those funds after an investigation outlined Madigan’s role in securing $144 million for just four Rebuild Illinois projects. Pritzker now says a review confirms that the money was allocated in compliance with state rules and regulations.

She said of her position pre-pandemic, “Well, it wasn’t a walk in the park before the pandemic. There’s always an emergency. We had the measles outbreak; we had the vaping incidents which took lives. … It’s a really big state, so trying to navigate and drive to cover all parts of the state … I was busy.” Dr. Ngozi Ezike is one of USA TODAY’s Women of the Year, a recognition of women across the country who have made a significant impact.

Jim Dey: “As Champaign County’s elected executive, Darlene Kloeppel claimed authority to make appointments to various boards and commissions with the advice and consent of the county board. The county board chair, elected from a single district, claimed the same authority, effectively cutting the executive elected out of the appointment process…In keeping with the longstanding tradition of the Illinois General Assembly, its members decided to address their mess by making a bigger mess.”

“For every kid that gets placed, there are hundreds of kids behind that kid waiting for a bed,” said Cook County Public Guardian Charles Golbert. “And this is gonna continue to go on and on until DCFS creates the placements and the services that it needs for its children.” Golbert says DCFS is currently short more than 500 beds.

According to AAA over half of Americans said they will make lifestyle changes when gas hits over $4 per gallon, which we are well above in Illinois.

“The marketers of these systems are telling local leaders that they can adopt these systems in order to fight a recent spike in gun violence,” said Ed Yohnka, of the ACLU of Illinois. “There’s actually no evidence that it works that way or that it will help in terms of that.”

“A lot of families were angry and put out,” state Sen. Dave Syverson said. “People should never have had to die alone when their family members wanted to be there with them.” He added that people with cognitive disabilities and dementia suffered unnecessarily because they felt abandoned by their loved ones.

“…I asked (state Rep. Kelly) Cassidy about (Michael) Madigan’s legacy, and she said it’s not one way or the other: ‘all the best and worst things that have occurred in this state have his fingers on them.'”

At Wisconsin gas stations near the Illinois border, there are Illinois license plates everywhere as drivers try to save money.

Elected village presidents of Hanover Park and Hoffman Estates op-ed on restoring the Local Government Distributive Fund (LGDF) to its intended rate of 10%.

In what may be the first decision of its kind in Cook County’s courts since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, a Cook County judge has struck down an effort by Cook County health officials to require a public school student to quarantine for 10 days, simply because the child may have been exposed to someone who later tested positive for COVID.

Ashley Gott vs. Ashley Gott.

If the House amendment passes, it would shift the liability for unpaid wages from a project’s subcontractor to the general contractor. Opponents say it would allow subcontractors to forego paying workers without ramifications. But, the bill says, “Primary contractors who are parties to a collective bargaining agreement on the project where the work is being performed shall be exempt.”

Michael Madigan is the chairman and treasurer of Friends of Michael J Madigan. The candidate committee had $10.5 million cash on hand as of Dec. 31, 2021, and spent $2 million with law firm Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP the day after Madigan resigned from the state legislature Feb. 18, 2021. Five attorneys from that firm have filed appearances in federal court to represent Madigan.

With the pain at the pump ongoing and no sign of it subsiding, some say the governor’s suggestion that more people buy electric vehicles is “tone deaf.”

When the casino opens, it is expected to create 300 jobs, and bring in $5-7 million dollars in revenue each year.

Senate Bill 3889 proposes adding a council within the Children’s Mental Health Partnership in Illinois. The council would look for ways to expand the beds in the state, make it easier for out of state residential facilities to be approved with the Illinois State Board of Education, and offer recommendations on how the state can provide better support for children with mental health issues in an annual report to the governor and General Assembly.

Paul Arena of the Illinois Rental Property Owners Association said the bill requires landlords who do not want to sign Section 8 contracts to do so. “All of the control is in the hands of the housing authority. You operate on whatever terms they decide should exist at the beginning of the lease. And it says in the contract that they can change the terms in the middle of the lease.”

Ezike says that she is leaving the position at the right time, with COVID cases on the decline and mitigations being scaled back in many instances. “A fresh set of legs and a fresh set of eyes is exactly what this state needs,” she said.

Illinoisans pay the second-highest gas taxes in the nation after California, according to the American Petroleum Institute — 78 cents per gallon before figuring in any local taxes to the Golden State’s 86.55 cents. Other states in the Midwest have lower rates. Indiana’s is the closest, at 68.19 cents, followed by Michigan at 63.57 cents. In Missouri, which has the lowest average of Illinois’ neighbors at $3.80, the gas tax accounts for 38.32 cents per gallon.

It’s not clear how many Illinois bettors actually were wagering on Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League or other Moscow-adjacent events, anyway. The Gaming Board tracks bets placed by sport, but not by league. It’s safe to say gamblers in the state will make do. Illinois gamblers have plunked down almost $10 billion on sports since the legitimate industry launched in March of 2020.

In addition to a bill that sets a timeframe for the Illinois Department of Public Health to respond to an outbreak, another measure would give the Legislative Inspector General subpoena powers when investigating problems.

With the continued rise in energy prices, some see an open door for fracking to begin in Illinois, but any such moves could be a year out because of strict regulations. It’s possible the Illinois Department of Natural Resources could revisit the rules and regulations to encourage development, but Mark Denzler of the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association isn’t optimistic about any changes.

The law currently requires Illinois wineries to go through a wholesale supplier while selling their product. Senate Bill 2976 would change that, and would also reduce a 60% increase in licensing fees for Illinois wineries that went into effect last year.

“I think one of the first things we have to ask those parents and politicians is, ‘what do they think CRT is?’ I am going to speculate that most Americans did not even hear about critical race theory until it became political, because it really is at the collegiate level. It is not something that we teach in our k-12 schools,” said Illinois Education Association President Kathi Griffin.

In addition, residents who participated in the poll indicated teachers and parents should have the greatest influence over how Illinois schools are being run, with more say than politicians or school administrators.

Mark Konkol: “What Illinois voters are witnessing in the wake of (Michael) Madigan’s indictment is the latest in a series of moves by a governor who appears to be trying to distance himself from connections to the indicted power broker largely responsible for successfully pushing (JB) Pritzker’s legislative agenda.”

In 2002, lawmakers committed $225 million to the fund with money from the state’s share of a national tobacco lawsuit settlement. Another one-time deposit of $50 million was made in 2004, Mendoza said. The fund balance then remained unchanged until it was depleted in 2017 during the two-year budget impasse under former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner.

State Sen. Dave Syverson said governor’s plan could save taxpayers about $135 million while the GOP plan could save taxpayers around $1 billion. “The money that he was talking about is coming directly out of roads, which again potentially cost jobs and delay crucial road work that needs to be done. Ours was money that was never obligated. So, a big difference.”

House Bill 4365 would require school districts to provide funding for a student’s placement if their Individual Education Program (IEP) determines their current district is unfit to meet the student’s needs. The program would be funded by school districts, with funds from the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act grant.

Mailee Smith, of the Illinois Policy Institute: “(D)ubbed a ‘workers’ rights amendment’ by proponents, Amendment 1 would actually place multiple provisions into the Illinois Constitution allowing government unions to demand virtually anything during negotiations. If voters agree, it would prohibit anyone, including lawmakers, from ever limiting what unions could demand or when they could strike.”

The Illinois Education Association is looking for new ways to accommodate staff members. During a meeting Wednesday morning, they shared poll numbers that show 1 in 3 teachers are ready to quit the profession.

The statue is weathered, and the original material now turning green. The bill would require a new statue to be built and installed by 2025.

Antisemitic flyers were left across the University of Illinois’s campus last month, prompting U of I Chancellor Robert Jones to send a mass email criticizing the flyers. “What you see playing out in Urbana-Champaign, in Chicago, is kind of a microcosm of what’s going on across this nation of ours in this climate of intolerance where it just seems to be growing exponentially,” Jones said.

Illinois in 2009, while Michael Madigan was speaker, set caps on campaign contributions, but Reform for Illinois director Alisa Kaplan says the system is weak and rife with loopholes that allow the legislatures’ top leaders to effectively skirt limits. That allows them to exercise a level of control over other lawmakers that she said is “unusual and dangerous.”

Dick Durbin, a big Cubs fan who’s served as an Illinois senator since 1997, also pledged to reconsider MLB’s anti-trust exemption. “Fans across America deserve better,” Durbin’s tweet also reads.

The Illinois Treasurer’s Office is defending its requirements, saying it has to employ rigorous standards to combat fraud.

If enacted, the bill would make Illinois the first state to regulate that segment of the e-commerce industry, but a broader bill is also pending in Congress where it appears to have bipartisan support.

HB 4410, which passed the Illinois House on March 4 and will now go before the Senate, would create a “real estate evaluation task force” that should investigate whether there is a pattern of racial bias in appraisals and recommend ways to correct it. It would also try to determine whether there are barriers to entry for people of color in the appraisal industry, which would be helping to perpetuate unconscious bias among appraisers.

When Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan promised to help Ald. Danny Solis obtain a state board appointment, he followed up with a request of his own, federal prosecutors alleged last week in his indictment. The indictment accuses neither Andrew Madigan nor The Resurrection Project of any wrongdoing, but it suggests that the speaker’s request to Solis to help his son was part of a corrupt exchange of favors between the two politicians.

“The fertilizer that helps raise that crops, a lot of that comes from overseas. So we’re looking at you know, ocean freight, barge freight, truck freight, just to get it to our warehouse and from there more truck freight and these applicators that we use the spreader that it takes fuel on every step of the process,” said Mark Bauman, general manager of Central Commodity FS.

“There’s a big drive by employers right now go try to get people back to working in a pre-COVID world, but that’s more and more difficult when it costs employees an arm and a leg to get there,” said jobs expert Andy Challenger of Challenger, Gray & Christmas. .

Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly told a state violence prevention task force this week that expressway shootings, gun trafficking, trooper staffing levels and officer wellness are some of the biggest challenges facing the agency.

While in office, Gov. JB Pritzker has been an advocate of the green and environmental movements and their policies. Wednesday, he was asked what can be done about surging gas prices. “I guess if you can find any silver lining it might be that people will more likely choose when they go to buy a new car to go to electric,” Pritzker said.

State Sen. Sue Rezin said the effects of the governor’s unilateral rule and lack of oversight over the past two years has been painful. Other states had fewer restrictions and are thriving, she said. “We are struggling to get back. We’re struggling to employ people. We have higher than normal unemployment versus other states coming out of the pandemic. There are many issue we look at.”

“It’s gonna be lengthy,” Saint Xavier University assistant professor David Parker said. “It sounds like he’s in it for the long haul and he’s gonna play kind of a game of who blinked first.”

“You go home and you tell people ‘there’s a convicted double murderer serving on the prisoner review board voting to let violent criminals out of prison,’ they look at you like you’ve got three eyes,” state Sen. Jason Plummer said. “The people of Illinois would be shocked if they knew what was happening in Springfield and this is example 1A and it needs to change.”

Michael Madigan did not speak during the hearing conducted by telephone because of the COVID-19 pandemic; His not guilty plea was entered by his attorney. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Cole ordered Madigan to be released on a personal recognizance bond.

House Minority Leader Jim Durkin said, “Our role is to restrict Russia’s role in our pension systems and also to restrict our state treasurer from making any investments within any type of Russian domiciled entity that’s doing business with the state of Illinois.”

The legislature has provided little to no oversight of Pritzker’s emergency powers. That’s because, unlike in other states, Illinois law does not give them such a role. In order to curb Pritzker’s emergency executive orders, lawmakers would need cooperation from the governor or a veto-proof majority.

“This should not be a surprise to anyone who’s done business at a Driver Services Facility (especially the one on Elston Avenue). The fidgety patrons want to get in and out as quickly as possible. The weary-looking clerks are waiting for their shifts to end. Nobody wants to be in a Secretary of State’s office. Not even the Secretary of State. (George) Ryan was so eager to move up that his office sold truckers’ licenses for bribes, which ended up in his campaign fund. As a result, Ryan spent more time in prison than he did as governor.”

Before the pandemic, Illinois’ arts and culture sector produced about $30 billion annually — more than agriculture or utilities across the state. These organizations lost, on average, 31% of their revenue to the pandemic in 2021, according to recent data from Arts Alliance Illinois, and they are on pace to match those losses over the first six months of 2022.

While the Illinois Supreme Court hasn’t yet decided if it will review an appeal of the latest ruling on county-executive authority, legislation is pending that would impact whether the county executive or the county board chair has the authority to appoint replacements for elected positions that fall vacant between elections.

The Hotel Jobs Recovery Plan (HB5690 and SB4184) calls for allocating $250 million in federal funds to provide a one-time grant of $1,500 per room for every hotel in the state. The legislation also stipulates that special consideration for funding be given to minority-owned businesses, women-owned small businesses, disability-owned business enterprises, small, disadvantaged businesses, and veteran-owned small businesses.

Aurthur Mae Perkins and Joseph Ruggiero are two of nine members of the Prisoner Review Board that have not been confirmed by the Senate. “Why is it that the impact of the pandemic has been so dramatic on the Prisoner Review Board?” state Sen. Plummer said. “I mean, the only group that this happens to is the Prisoner Review Board. Why is that so?”

“It’s almost like a modern day form of dueling,” Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly said. “Whether it’s motivated by gang issues, personal issues, or neighborhood issues, they’ll say things to each other and then insult one another and say well let’s take it out on the E-way.”

Don Schaefer with the Mid-West Truckers Association said the price increase throughout the region is staggering. “Diesel prices went up in the Midwest alone 68 cents last week. For a trucking company, the second largest cost after putting the truck driver in the truck, the second largest cost for them is the fuel that they put in there.”

State Rep. Ann Williamssaid she’s not questioning the legitimacy of any projects. She and others just want to freeze taxpayer-funded capital projects tied to Madigan so there can be further review.

The Senate will still require COVID-19 testing for individuals wanting to interact inside areas of the Illinois State Capitol controlled by the Senate. But, the announcement said masks would be recommended, not mandated.

Illinois Hotel and Lodging Association President and CEO Michael Jacobson said the hotel sector has been left behind. “The airlines had several rounds of support, the Restaurant Revitalization Fund, the Save Our Stages Act for performing arts venues. Hotels are one of the, if not the only sector of hospitality that didn’t have a dedicated support program from the federal government.”

Under the longstanding definition of money laundering and current federal law that categorizes cannabis as an illegal substance, there is virtually no reason that Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker—as well as his fellow governors across the country—should not be arrested on federal charges. That has to change.

Jim Dey: “The man who reveled in control has lost control. Instead of making others dance to his tune, he’ll be hoofin’ it. There will be no more backroom maneuvers where plots are hatched and minions dispatched to carry out Madigan’s wishes.”

Illinoisans are already taking a hit at the gas pump and officials say your grocery bill could be next. A professor from Illinois State University explains the local effects of the conflict overseas.

Cullerton was accused of collecting $188,320 in salary, bonuses and cellphone and vehicle allowances from Teamsters Joint Council 25 between March 2013 and February 2016, as well as $64,068 in health and pension contributions, while doing little or no work for the labor union. He was also accused of collecting $21,678 in reimbursed medical claims.

The proposed Freedom to Subscribe Directly Act would provide smartphone app companies with the legal right to do business directly with their customers, overriding current smartphone app store policies. Similar bills have been filed around the country, including in Arizona, New York, Florida and Minnesota.

Though the indictment specifically used the plural, “businesses,” only one company, Commonwealth Edison, has so far been named as having participated in that alleged conduct. Last month, AT&T disclosed in a regulatory filing that federal prosecutors had notified them they were considering filing criminal charges against its Illinois subsidiary involving “a single, nine-month consulting contract in 2017″ worth $22,500.

Retirees from all different jobs said politicians have borrowed money from their retirement funds like a credit card over the years and now is the time to make it right. Patricia Johnson, a former admissions professional at Northeastern Illinois University, said she dutifully put money toward retirement her whole career, and now it’s the state’s turn to make a contribution.

“AFSCME strongly condemns Putin’s shameful assault on the nation of Ukraine. Each of us must do our part to support the valiant resistance of the Ukrainian people in their struggle to protect their democracy,” said Council 31 Executive Director Roberta Lynch.

Some Republican lawmakers are concerned such a campaign could turn from a gun safe campaign to an anti-gun campaign. There was also a growing concern among some lawmakers that the General Assembly is going too far using tax dollars in public service campaigns.

Municipalities around the state, including Chicago, Skokie and Oak Park, have all passed some kind of ban on the sale of flavored e-cigarette and vaping products.

“There was no joyous celebration during last week’s Statehouse press conference by the 19. (Rep. Terra) Costa Howard even appeared to tear up while speaking, maybe remembering the trauma of the ferocious push-back she and her colleagues endured as they were told over and over again by colleagues and union leaders and others that they were siding with chaos and defeat over continuity and victory and would be punished accordingly, no matter the outcome.”

The AG’s office and ISBE recommend that schools take a trauma-informed approach to school discipline and prioritize equity for all students. Kwame Raoul wrote in a statement, “School districts have a responsibility to ensure that disciplinary policies and practices do not disproportionately impact students of color.”

Former House Republican Grant Wehrli, who sat on the Special Investigative Committee, claimed Welch and his Democratic colleagues shut down the 2020 probe because it was revealing damning information about how Madigan wielded his power to place his political allies on corporate boards.
“We had one witness, and that one witness shed new light on Speaker Madigan’s operations. And so they did not want any more witnesses coming forward because they didn’t want any new information coming out.”

Jim Dey: “The indictment alone is an epic event, but the ever-resilient Madigan is a long way from trial and conviction.”

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin says the U.S. can not continue to purchase fuel from Russia while Vladimir Putin engages in war with Ukraine.

The NRDC estimated as of last June, Illinois had between 700,000 and 1.4 million lead lines. Last summer, the Illinois General Assembly passed a separate measure to begin replacing the state’s lead lines. The Chicago Sun-Times reports Illinois will receive $288 million to support the efforts via the federal plan.

“Federal prosecutors have trained their sites on legislative leaders in other states, too. The Ohio House last year expelled former speaker Larry Householder after he was indicted for his part in a $61 million bribery scheme from First Energy Corp., which secured a $1.3 billion bailout under Householder’s leadership. Last month, federal prosecutors in Hawaii charged two lawmakers, including a former state senate majority leader, with bribery. The FBI raided the home of former Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada last year. But Madigan may be the biggest target of them all.”

Jim Kaitschuk of the Illinois Sheriffs’ Association said, “The safety of the citizens that are on the Eisenhower, or any expressway or road for that matter, has just become an unprecedented crisis. A lot of times, law enforcement doesn’t have the ability to do things that people would like us to do to make sure that they’re safe – and this is shining example of just that problem.”

Sheldon Zenner will serve as Madigan’s lead attorney, according to court records. Zenner spent seven years as an assistant U.S. attorney in Chicago.

So far, the sportsbooks have come out on top with almost $651 million in revenue, generating $98 million in state tax revenue plus another $7.3 million for Cook County. The state’s $8.9 billion all-time handle would shake out to about $903 wagered for every adult resident — nearly $13.5 million bet every day, or $9,341 every minute.

U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin and U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth joined Representatives Danny K. Davis and Brad Schneider to introduce the “Continued Waiver of Interest on State Unemployment Loans during the Pandemic Act.” Durbin said, “Illinoisans endured incredible hardships during the pandemic. To ease the financial burden on Illinois and other states, we must extend the waiver of interest payments on federal unemployment loans. By extending the waiver, we can give our communities time to recover from the economic pain of the pandemic.”

State health departments have tracked millions of doses that went to waste, including ones that expired, were in a multi-dose vial that couldn’t be used completely or had to be tossed for some other reason like temperature issues or broken vials. Nearly 1.5 million doses in Michigan, 1.45 million in North Carolina, 1 million in Illinois and almost 725,000 doses in Washington couldn’t be used.

“If you read the indictment, it’s not just an indictment of Madigan; it’s almost an indictment of the whole political system in Illinois,” said John Shaw, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.

The average cost of gas in Illinois is sitting at $4.15 a gallon. The highest average the state has seen is $4.32 back in 2011.

From Oglesby… Through Oakwood… The convoy is heading toward the nation’s capitol. “The energy is just so amazing… and nobody’s angry, or trying to cause any problems… we’re just here, we’re peaceful… we’re just tired of it,” “Illinois Freedom Fighters” leader Kristi Hickam said.

After raising his right hand and swearing to tell the truth, Madigan, is by turns serious, funny, calm and stoic as he fends off accusations in a federal voting rights case charging he loaded up a 2016 primary ballot with sham candidates to ensure his own victory.

“Illinois has had one of the weirdest sports betting rollouts in the country, but it’s also one of the most successful markets,” said Joe Boozell, an industry analyst from PlayIllinois.com. “Illinois is so populous and has such rabid fan bases, it’s a recipe for a robust market.” So far, the sportsbooks have come out on top with almost $651 million in revenue, generating $98 million in state tax revenue plus another $7.3 million for Cook County.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Friday issued an updated executive order lifting the school exclusion requirements, which means schools and local health departments can return to addressing infectious disease cases among students and staff.

“Now that the COVID-19 surge has subsided, schools and local health departments can return to exercising their longstanding authority to address infectious disease cases among students and staff,” Pritzker’s office said in a statement.

Reform For Illinois Executive Director Alisa Kaplan said elected officials should be held to a higher standard. “The Legislature should be able to make people accountable for behavior that’s not necessarily criminal, in this case, it turns out that it was, but still perhaps a breach of the public trust.”

State Rep. Dan Caulkins said it is another example of government overreach by telling people how to build their homes. “The free market will dictate what’s needed and necessary. This is an example of why Illinois is not a friendly place to come and live.”

Twenty-three groups have written a letter urging lawmakers to oppose the inclusion of medical devices on any “right to repair” legislation.

“Universities are economic engines,” Gov. JB Pritzker said. “A plurality of the people who were leaving the state of Illinois are young people looking to get a college education. And when its unaffordable you have to get up and leave and go to a place where people are providing you with enough resources.”

Rep. Will Davis says the stain of historic discrimination in housing against Black Illinoisans cannot be erased. However, he argues this approach of using public and private investments to rebuild abandoned homes can help break the cycle of poverty in many low-income neighborhoods.

“I’ve been his lead critic for decades, waiting for this day to come for the people of Madiganistsan. But anyone who thinks they’ll be made whole if Madigan is sent to prison is a fool. After his long reign, Illinois and its politics are broken beyond repair.”

“The indictment of Madigan — in the midst of a legislative session in which ethics reform is not on the agenda — is a reminder of the callous reception in Springfield to statewide calls for reform. And just as surely, it’s a reminder that we the people need to demand better if we hope one day to see a cleaned-up state government.”

Democratic Rep. Terra Costa Howard was among the first to speak out in the summer of 2020 and described bullying by groups and individuals allied with Mike Madigan. The payback included losing major labor union donations and bills getting stalled by colleagues. “People who may have come and helped you in 2018 turned their backs on you in 2020.”

This represents a 6 percent increase from the current fiscal year. Although the prison population is the lowest it has been since 1989, Director Rob Jeffreys told legislators that he is moving IDOC from a punitive position to a therapeutic and rehabilitative model.

In an election year, Springfield could have dedicated one-time federal COVID relief funds to politically popular projects. Instead, the governor’s proposed budget invests in long-term fiscal stability and economic growth. Let’s hope the Legislature takes his lead and uses this opportunity to put Illinois on a better and stronger path.

Mark Konkol: “Felony corruption convictions aside, (former Gov. Rod) Blagojevich’s six years in the governor’s mansion provided him with an insider’s view of the Madigan ‘enterprise,’ as the federal indictment calls it. ‘As a governor who knew what it was like to link men and women to boards and commissions, who knew what it was like to work with Madigan, and work against Madigan, which is what I spent most of my time doing. … Pritzker does not have clean hands in this,’ Blagojevich said.”

The memo from the office of Madigan’s successor as House Speaker, Emanuel “Chris” Welch, instructing House Democrats to say, “While I always stand with law enforcement, I unfortunately feel I must call into question certain aspects of the investigation process regarding Speaker Madigan’s case. From the start, he has faced unfair, partisan accusations; charges which appear to have influenced the indictments…Despite my misgivings regarding this case, I want to reiterate that Speaker Welch has my full support.”

Pritzker and the reform advocates are awaiting decisions from both the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals and U.S. District Judge Edmond Chang, to determine the fate of the longstanding court orders, known as the Shakman Decrees. Most recently, at the beginning of February, attorneys noted Pritzker and his administration have refused their repeated request to sign off on a sworn certification to the court that “the Governor’s office is unaware of evidence that such unlawful political discrimination is continuing to occur” within state agencies.

House Bill 5718, if approved, “Provides that any reference, image, photo, picture, stationary, insignia, label, inscription, statue, sign, or any other type of printing, art, or writing in respect to former Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives Michael J. Madigan shall be removed from the property of the Illinois State Capitol Building, any legislative facilities, and any other State property or facility and no such materials are permitted on or in such State properties and facilities.”

One of those children is just 11 years old. She has been ready to get out of a psychiatric hospital since last April. While she has been locked in the facility, she has not received services such as speech therapy. She also has not been allowed to go outdoors, and she has barely received an education.

“I’m proud that I’ve had the physical and mental strength to last this long,” Ezike said. “And I’m glad we’re at a place where we can think about a changing of the guard.”

“There’s a reason why Illinois is ranked the third most corrupt state in the nation on a per capita basis. It’s not just that too many city and state politicians view public service as the means to inflate their bank accounts and oversize sense of entitlement. It’s that for far too long, Illinoisans have done nothing to prevent their actions.”

Governor’s office spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh said Ms. Madigan was removed from her position before the indictment was announced. Abudayyeh said the reason for Ms. Madigan’s removal was that the governor wanted to take the council in a new direction.

The feds accused Michael Madigan of using intermediaries, falsifying documents, meeting in-person and using third-party phones to avoid detection by federal agents, as well as speaking in coded language to protect the conspiracy.

“If Madigan can be taken down, everyone better be careful with their dealings as elected officials,” State Rep. LaShawn Ford said.

U.S. Attorney John Lausch said, “I think we all shake our heads sometimes when we think that there’s another corruption case that’s happening. It happens with other crimes as well. And that’s why I’ve defined our problem as a very stubborn one.”

Gov. JB Pritzker was asked if he was ever instructed by Mike Madigan or had any conversations with the former speaker about offering former Chicago Ald. Danny Solis a job. Pritzker responded quickly with a “no.”

Under Mike Madigan’s leadership, labor legislation in Illinois only passed if it expanded union powers. The unions rewarded him with that $10 million he used to keep other lawmakers and even governors under his control.

Jim Dey: “While expressing dismay that Illinois’ economy will recover post-pandemic ‘more slowly than in the region and the nation,’ Moody’s issued a glowing assessment of C-U’s status. It said state government employment — ‘anchored by the University of Illinois’ — exceeds the ‘pre-pandemic job count by one of the largest margins in the region,’ that UI’s enrollment ‘soared to an all-time high’ and ‘most private-sector industries (in C-U) have made a convincing comeback’ that sets it apart from the state and ‘the rest of the country.'”

It makes more vaccines available and calls for better surveillance of new variants, but rules out school and business closings as optimism grows that COVID-19 will soon be an endemic disease.

“Democrats dethroned Mr. Madigan as Speaker last January after leaks about the sprawling public corruption investigation helped cost them their progressive tax referendum in November 2020. Mob bosses are only useful until they’re not.”

“I’m trying to reconcile everything,” Linda Chapa LaVia said. “If mistakes were made in the past, a lot of it wasn’t my doing.” LaVia said the logistics of her campaign at the time were run by the political operation of then-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, who resigned last year amid a federal corruption investigation.

“(Former LIG Carol) Pope’s failure wasn’t for lack of trying, but merely another chapter in the long book of Illinois power brokers being unwilling cede control to anyone who might force them to stay in line.”

Like so many federal corruption probes before it, the case is replete with powerful political characters, bit players, well-connected lobbyists and big-business clout.

Though named in the indictment, there is no allegation against Gov. J.B. Pritzker and his staff, U.S. Attorney John Lausch said. “There’s other people that you will notice in the indictment as well that have contacts with Madigan or others and there are no allegations of wrongdoing against them either.”

Illinois’ minimum age of 14 is the highest age in the nation, and 39 states have no minimum at all.

Cook County Public Guardian Charles Golbert says a massive staff shortage at DCFS is keeping cases from being properly handled. “Guess what,” he said. “If you don’t have the investigators you need, you can’t do good investigations – so you keep having more dead kids.”

“The way we are not dependent on foreign oil is not to use it,” Rep. Sean Casten said. The congressman represents an emerging Democratic position that ties Russia’s aggression to America’s dependence on fossil fuels, foreign and otherwise, and positions green energy as key to American energy security.

What’s publicly known about federal efforts related to the now former speaker’s political operation stretches back to at least May 2019. Subpoenas or raids have touched lobbyists, legislators, private companies and members of Madigan’s political operation.

Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin said Wednesday “may be the darkest day in Illinois government history….This is not just an indictment against Michael Madigan, but it’s an indictment against the Democrat Party of Illinois that he ran for decades. But the public needs to get answers from the speaker, and also the Democrats and the governor, of why they did not take action against this man earlier.”

He said, in part, “The government is attempting to criminalize a routine constituent service: job recommendations… I adamantly deny these accusations and look back proudly on my time as an elected official, serving the people of Illinois.”

According to a statement from his office, Pritzker was informed that he was “only a witness” in the investigation, and agreed to speak on his experiences with and knowledge of Madigan.

Teachers continue to be in huge demand in Illinois, according to a new study published by the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools. The study shows 88% of surveyed school districts in Illinois said they believe they have a teacher shortage, and 96% said they have a substitute teacher shortage.

After Biden’s speech Tuesday, Peoria U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood joined Americans For Prosperity for reaction. After trillions in COVID relief dollars that taxpayers are already on the hook for, he said the government should stop spending. “And if you listen to Biden tonight to talk about more government programs, more spending, that’s the last thing we ought to be doing is that.”

The indictment alleges Madigan orchestrated an illegal bribery scheme with utility company Commonwealth Edison in return for influence over favorable legislation in Springfield. It also accuses him of soliciting business for his private property tax law firm during a project involving state-owned land used for a commercial development.

The U.S. Labor Department estimates that state unemployment programs have paid out about $87 billion in phony claims since the start of the pandemic — or about 10% of the $872.5 billion the federal government has allocated to emergency benefits. Virtually no state was spared from bogus payments that went to criminal actors using money mules, identities of deceased people or personal identifying information culled from earlier data exposures.

“A trio of Republican-backed bills have popped up in the Illinois legislature that appear to increase parents’ access to what’s being taught in classrooms. One bill would require all Illinois schools to post textbooks and learning materials online for parental review. Another would require libraries to provide full lists of books if asked, and a third would give parents and students the power to formally oppose a unit of study they find objectionable. But a closer look at the bills, which mirror similar efforts targeting curriculum in other states, shows they could prohibit educators from using content that covers an

Jim Dey: “While both Pritzker and opponents of his mandate can claim a nonexistent victory in a court of law, it’s clear that Pritzker recognizes he was losing public support in the court of public opinion.”

Mark Konkol: “Pritzker seemed to acknowledged that political reality Tuesday when he confessed to being “loathe to accept” Ezike’s unexpected resignation…Dr. Ezike showed Illinoisans, regardless of their pandemic and political beliefs, empathy and grace amid so much turmoil. For that, Dr. Ezike deserves our thanks.”

Gov. JB Pritzker said cooperation would be vital to taking on the challenges facing Illinois and other states across the country. “Coming together to tackle our common problems is what democracy looks like,” the governor wrote on Twitter. “The unity agenda puts a spotlight on the opioid crisis, the mental health crisis, the need to do more for our veterans, and fighting cancer. Our solutions are stronger when we act together.”

On Tuesday, the defiance continued and the House voted to remove three Republican lawmakers: Reps. Blaine Wilhour, Adam Niemerg and Dan Caulkins. Wilhour refused to leave the chamber, which resulted in him losing the ability to vote on the floor. Democratic leadership gave him the option of participating via Zoom.

“So many Madigan allies had been slotted into jobs at the electric bureau at Chicago’s Streets and Sanitation Department that it would be called ‘Madigan Electric.’ But there weren’t enough city jobs for all of them. Another big landing strip was needed. And conveniently, the state’s biggest electric utility, Commonwealth Edison, needed Madigan’s cooperation to push through a big rate hike structure plus other measures pressed by their huge team of lobbyists. “

Dubbed Healthy Illinois For All, the proposal would add an estimated nearly 150,000 low-income people to the state’s Medicaid health insurance program. This group includes people who are undocumented or have been legal residents for fewer than five years and are 19 to 54 years old. These are the last populations in Illinois who aren’t eligible for Medicaid, or for insurance through the Affordable Care Act.

Investigators are looking specifically at thousands of dollars in contract payments allegedly passed on to former state Rep. Edward Acevedo, a onetime member of Madigan’s leadership team who’d recently left the General Assembly, two sources familiar with the probe said.

“‘Union people can make or break any administration regardless of whether they need our money or not because we represent the hearts and minds of Illinois,’ (President of the Chicago Federation of Labor Bob) Reiter said. In other words, hell hath no fury like a union scorned.”

While the divestment efforts are meant as a show of solidarity with Ukraine and a rebuke of Russia’s attack, the amount of money potentially affected compared to the overall size of the nation’s public pension assets is relatively small. And some of the actions would involve legislation and other measures that aren’t yet finalized.

The Democrat wrote Monday night to the Illinois State Board of Investments, the Teachers’ Retirement System and the State Universities’ Retirement System asking them “to explore the potential of divesting state pension assets from Russian-based companies and Russian assets.”

The dissenting justices, Michael J. Burke and David K. Overstreet, said they would have granted Pritzker’s petition to appeal, to allow the state high court to at last weigh in on the question of the limits of Pritzker’s claims to virtually unlimited pandemic emergency powers. To this point, the state Supreme Court has done little to address claims of executive overreach against Pritzker in the past two years.

“In trying to maximize their gains in the Land of Lincoln, Democrats may have stretched themselves too thin, leaving the party vulnerable to unintended losses, particularly in a cycle trending toward Republicans with an unpopular Democratic president in the White House.”

The Secretary of State’s said the flag was raised Monday at the request of Governor Pritzker, the great-grandson of a Ukrainian refugee.

Like the vetoed measure, House Bill 1167 gives administrative leave rather than sick time to staff for COVID-issues, and guarantees pay for school staff if there are emergency closures in schools. There’s one difference. “It structures this bill as an incentive so that teachers and staff need to be vaccinated within five weeks of the bill signing in order to receive the benefits of the administrative days,” state Rep. Janet Yang Rohr said.

State Rep. Justin Slaughter said the chiefs of police and sheriff’s associations are on board with the change in House Bill 3904. “It provides law enforcement a less lethal alternative to their handgun thus reducing preventable police-involved shootings while aiding in the de-escalation techniques and ultimately keeping our officers and communities safe.”

State Rep. Blaine Wilhour said the damage from the governor’s unilateral orders the past two years is vast, impacting businesses and beyond. “Just what we’ve done to school kids over the last two years has been completely irrational. We always knew where the risks were. It was not there [for school children].”

Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike announced she would leave her $178,200-a-year post on March 14. Amaal Tokars, the agency’s assistant director, will serve as interim director during a nationwide search to find a longer-term replacement.

Reason Foundation Senior Policy Analyst Marc Joffe warned of government bloat. “A lot of the wins that have been presented here have to do with state and local governments spending money on broadband, but that’s also in the infrastructure bill as well, so you have a lot of duplication of effort across these bills and naturally you’re going to have a lot of waste.”

Teacher strikes are prohibited in all of the states bordering Illinois. They are also banned in eight of the nation’s 10 largest school districts.

Hospitals, nursing homes, physician offices and other health care facilities will still follow masking mandates.

Jim Dey: “That’s impressive, especially for a chief executive who pledged his opposition to the ruthless political practice when he was running for governor in 2018. But that was then…And this is now — he’s an incumbent governor who realizes how instrumental this age-old practice can be in leveraging political power into even more political power.”

James Warren, former managing editor of the Chicago Tribune: “A spokesperson for the Illinois State Board of Education underscored the importance of students learning credible sources of information, and said that the mandated ‘unit of instruction’ would be defined and monitored separately by each school district. It would be great if this new legislation means that Illinois students will learn the difference between PBS and TikTok. Or the difference between the Chicago Tribune and The New York Times on one hand, and InfoWars.com or RT.com, on the other. RT.com is the English language organ of the Russian government now in

State Appellate Defender James Chadd told a state Senate committee Tuesday, “We are now able to begin working on a case within a month or two of the date we get a complete record. In my 37 years with OSAD, I can remember no time when we’re able to get to cases so quickly.”

Administered by the Illinois State Board of Education and the Illinois Board of Higher Education, the Illinois Tutoring Initiative program will team up school districts and universities around the state. Funding for the program comes from the federal government’s investment of nearly $8 billion in pandemic relief for Illinois schools.

State Rep. Margaret Croke explained that the payment system would involve an outside third party, similar to how credit cards payments are processed. The measure would not mean the state holds digital currency, but rather converts cryptocurrency payments into U.S. dollars.

Comptroller Susan Mendoza just threw her support behind a bill that would slash the 12% annual interest rate that state agencies must pay suppliers for bills that aren’t paid on time. Mendoza and Pritzker like to tout their progress in improving Illinois’ finances. But they have a long way to go—as the state’s massive pension funding shortfall shows. Bringing lasting stability to Illinois finances requires a long-term commitment to sound practices, including timely bill payment. The push to cut the interest rate on late bill payments casts doubt on that commitment.

Starting this year, Illinois will receive nearly $18 billion in federal infrastructure funds, on top of the $45 billion the state already committed to repair roads, bridges, rails and more—a collective windfall for infrastructure that this area has not witnessed at any other point in its history.

The Secretary of State’s office, which oversees the Capitol Complex itself, says masks are now “recommended,” but not required inside the Capitol building. But, both the House and Senate set the rules for their own chambers and office areas, and they will require masks.

State representative Mark Batinick warned that inflationary pressures that have caused a short-term “sugar high” for the state’s tax revenues will eventually even out and start to hit the state’s expense side of the ledger sheet.

The family’s attorney said that despite a previous 17-month investigation finding no medical neglect of one of the three children, who has a complex medical history, all three children were eventually taken away for more than 460 days, including the three-day-old child.

Now that Covid is endemic, why don’t legislatures permanently repeal or relax laws that restrict their citizens’ access to medical care? Mostly because powerful interest groups, including lobbies representing in-state healthcare professionals, oppose doing so. Illinois’s J.B. Pritzker has renewed his Covid-19 “disaster” proclamation every 30 dayssince the pandemic began, most recently on Feb. 4. Governors have another incentive to extend states of emergency: The Family First Coronavirus Act, enacted in March 2020, increased food-stamp benefits subject to states of emergency at the state and federal levels. This is one reason average food benefits nationwide

Marcus Alexander, superintendent of the Pembroke school district in the central Illinois town of Hopkins Park along the Indiana border, said he’d like to see several changes to school lunch programs because “insulating mediocrity of performance and service, that has to go.

“I’m riding the wave with the rich,” state Sen. Patricia Van Peltsays in a promotional video that showed her talking to a crowd about becoming “marijuana millionaires.” Wakanna For Life is a multilevel marketing company and the subject of multiple consumer complaints, as the vast majority of those who paid to set up “dispensaries” have made an average of just $200.

In a statement released on Monday, DCFS wrote that effective immediately Governor JB Pritzker has lifted the indoor mask mandate, which includes day care settings.

The data show that Illinois schools retain Black teachers at the lowest rate of all teacher groups at 80.6% compared to an 87.6% rate for White teachers. The Learning Policy Institute shows that teachers of color boost the academic performance of students of color.

“I love it,” he said. “I’m so excited that we now have no indoor mask mandates. That we have no more school indoor mask mandates, and it’s all because the people of Illinois did the right thing throughout this pandemic and that we’ve been able to bring hospitalizations down,” he said.

House bill 4437 expands health care coverage to nearly 150,000 low income immigrants ages 19 to 54, who don’t have coverage through either the Affordable Care Act or Medicaid. The bill has a price tag of $271 million, but supporters say in the end it will save tax payers money.

A report by the Better Government Association revealed Pritzker’s trust bought stock in Centene Corp., one of Illinois’ largest Medicaid contractors in 2020, the same year his administration made several decisions that benefitted the company’s bottom line.

The state’s highest court also vacated a lower court’s temporary restraining order over the rule. On Monday, Pritzker praised that decision. “The result of which is, if we need to, if we see another variant that is making people ill, that we would be able to impose a mask requirement, but we don’t have any intention to do that now. Things seem to be pretty good.”

Illinois election law allows corrupt politicians to run for office after being convicted; Only politicians convicted of election fraud are prohibited from running for state office. State Rep. Curtis Tarver II has introduced a bill to correct that.

Residential construction permits per capita grew by 17.5% nationally in 2021, according to data released Feb. 17 by the U.S. Census Bureau. Illinois was far slower, coming in at 10.6%.

Illinois is one of only 13 states to apply sales taxes to groceries. While the tax on groceries is 1%, not the full state sales tax rate of 6.25%, surcharges on groceries when consumers in the vast majority of states avoid them are tough to swallow.

According to data released Feb. 17 by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there aren’t as many jobs in Illinois as there are in 46 other states.

In addition to setting up the nonprofit Shield Illinois to disseminate the test to schools and businesses statewide, the university founded a for-profit company, Shield T3, with headquarters in Chicago and Urbana, to market the test beyond Illinois. Last year, that effort brought in $64 million in revenue for the university, says Bill Jackson, Shield T3’s principal officer and a former high-level executive at Johnson Controls. “It’s a viable business,” adds U. of I. president Timothy L. Killeen.

When government estimates show that the number of people experiencing homelessness in Illinois dropped 15% in 2021, and fell 16% in Chicago, housing advocates expressed some skepticism about the results. The counts, conducted by volunteers and fed to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, are used to allocate federal funding.

“Everything Pritzker announces between now and Election Day deserves additional scrutiny. He’s practically at the point where he can designate whatever policies he wishes, based on both the Democrat majority in Springfield and his own confidence that he’s right.”

Madison County State’s Attorney Tom Haine said the biggest issue in the dismissal was based on the case’s standing, meaning whether a party bringing the lawsuit has the right to do so. Plaintiffs in the case included judicial candidates, the county and several individuals.

The purchase of stock in health insurance giant Centene Corp. was made on behalf of the billionaire governor by trustees at Northern Trust, appointed by Pritzker to independently manage his portfolio to separate those investment decisions from his role as the state’s most powerful elected official.

“The Illinois Supreme Court must finally step in. Legislators need to know whether they have to adjust the statutes going forward or if the ones on the books are adequate and merely misinterpreted by a circuit court judge.”

Comment: This probably makes it official as some people see the world. It’s OK to say what Wirepoints has been saying.

During his budget address earlier this month, Pritzker said he believed in paying off the state’s debt, but did not mention the state’s $4.5 billion unemployment trust fund debt.

“Illinois legislators by 2012 recognized that the state’s pensions were in trouble, and that it was imperiling the state’s credit ratings, so they offered an amendment, which, in the Illinois system, must be passed by the General Assembly before being put on the ballot for voters to approve.”

A mix of enrollment decline at higher education institutions in their communities and the untimely clearing out of students during the COVID-19 pandemic have left these communities bracing for lasting impacts, ranging from greater strain on budgets to the potential loss of “Home Rule” status.

A 2019 law made it easier for people who work in fields that require state licenses to activate their licenses in Illinois when their military partner gets transferred. Among the most popular licenses are medical; Teachers and social workers also require specific state-issued licenses.

Proposed ‘right to repair’ legislation at the Illinois Statehouse aims to require equipment manufacturers to provide farmers with all the tools they need to repair what they buy. Similar legislation has also been introduced in Congress and over a dozen other state legislatures.

“It is not useful as a measure of what they know and can do,” Cassie Creswell, director of Illinois Families for Public Schools, said. “What’s not OK is for the state to put their stamp of approval on this type of testing and push it down into those younger grades.”

Reports indicate several independent convoys from across the country could be heading to Washington D.C. in the runup or shortly after President Joe Biden delivers his State of the Union address on March 1.

Chicagoan Ken Griffin: “In 1948 American supplies broke the Russian stranglehold on Berlin. Today American energy can end Berlin’s dependence on Russia. If planeloads of food can get the better of Stalin, boatloads of gas can get the better of Mr. Putin.”

Danville Development, LCC will present virtual outlines of the company’s suitability and address the necessary requirements for the Golden Nugget Danville Casino.

“We would not know what the contract is that the state is requiring us to sign, and therefore we would have limited control of our personal owned properties,” Springfield Area Landlord Association Spokesperson Stella Dean said.

A Chicago state lawmaker is urging the health care profession to confront racial bias that may aggravate medical issues in the African-American community.“There must be some Critical Race Theory training, even in the medial profession,” state Rep. La Shawn Ford, D-Chicago, said.

The announcement also comes after the Illinois Supreme Court declined to immediately take up the case challenging Pritzker’s authority to issue mandates like masks, exclusion, and vaccine or testing for COVID-19, sending the issue back to the circuit court.

State Sen. Michael Hastings passed Senate Bill 3866 along party lines. Among other things, it includes issues around fees on energy bills. “It makes a technical change to the energy transition assistance charge, to enable full collection of this charge.”

State Rep. Michael Zalewski said the legislation will continue a program that has provided some savings to the unfunded pension liability. “This helped reduce the unfunded liability by doing something completely constitutional, this is a bill that we can all be proud of.”

If the unemployment debt is not paid by the end of the year, Illinoisans will be on the hook for up to $100 million in interest. House Majority Leader Greg Harris said they hope to get a deal done quickly, but didn’t say if that would be before the April 8 scheduled end of session.

An amendment to House Bill 4305 eliminates the minimum age of 14 years old for children to be left unsupervised in Illinois. If it passes, Illinois would join 39 states that already believe parents are the best judges of their children’s maturity and ability to stay home by themselves.

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker’s fourth budget recommendation proposes taking advantage of a stronger than expected economic recovery to fund supplemental spending and additional pension contributions in the current year, along with plans to rebuild the State’s meager rainy day fund.

“Senate Bill 3865 would remove the use of ‘alien’ in any Illinois statute when referring to people who have mixed statuses and referring to commerce outside of Illinois and the country. Eliminating references to ‘alien’ in Illinois law would remove a regressive and outdated legal term and symbolize the full inclusion of immigrant communities in Illinois. Similar legislation has recently passed in California and Colorado.”

The statewide school mask mandate will end on Monday.

“For too long, our roads, bridges, transit and water systems have been neglected, contributing to accidents and lost time and productivity for millions of Americans. Now, the Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act has set us on a path to progress and innovation. Combined with the America Competes Act we recently passed in the House, and many other policies of the Biden administration, we are spurring innovation, creating jobs, fighting inflation and bringing our infrastructure into a new era.”

“Given the nature of the year and the resources that are massed against him and some of the scars of having to lead a state through the pandemic, he has to be seriously focused. …This is not gonna be a walk in the park for him,” Axelrod said of Pritzker. Polls done for other politicians have recently shown Lightfoot’s approval rate in the 30% range, roughly 10 percentage points lower than Rahm Emanuel’s ratings were when he abandoned plans to seek a third term. “It’s an uphill battle for her. All polling reflects that. She’s a very pugnacious person. She’s

“The ‘status quo,’ Mr. Raoul, isn’t lawful, according to several lower courts, and the body of work over 24 months shows Pritzker’s reckless lack of judgment in determining what is an emergency and in doing the right thing.”

GasBuddy officials say that gas prices could go up by as much as 50 cents in the coming months — if that happens, gas prices in Illinois could exceed the highest recorded national average.

Conventions are coming back and hotel occupancy in Springfield was at or above 2019 numbers in June through October of 2021.

The shortage of teachers in Illinois, according to State Senator Doris Turner, now stands at 4,120.

94 of the 102 counties in Illinois and 104 municipalities will share in the $760 million settlement. Some communities will use the money for treatment programs. Others are expanding services in the jails to help inmates conquer their addictions.

The bill would not only give dispatchers a new title, but also benefits and access to additional training.

The Illinois Education Association, the state’ largest teachers union, and the Illinois Federation of Teachers have argued in court to keep all students in masks. The message to parents is clear: union leaders think their preferred policies should overpower what parents think is best for their children.

“…(T)he State of Illinois owes $3,904,429,632 in unpaid bills to state vendors. One year ago, the backlog stood at $5.0 billion. This figure represents the amount of bills submitted to the office of the Comptroller and still awaiting payment. It does not include debts that can only be estimated, such as our unfunded pension liability which is subject to a wide range of factors and has been estimated to be more than $141 billion.”

Illinois has the highest tax burden, and is one of just three states to receive a failing letter grade of E. Wisconsin and Michigan also rank in the top 10 highest tax burdens.

Although Illinois is one of the top wine-drinking states in the country, the state’s wineries are prohibited from producing and selling wine at levels that compare with their peers in the beer and spirits industries, according to the Illinois Grape Growers and Vintners Alliance.

The Illinois industry is more robust than many people realize, with 139 wineries, 53 vineyards and two homegrown viticultural areas. “We make really good wine in the state of Illinois, and we’re not allowed to self-distribute a single gallon,” said winemaker Andreas Basso.

American Council of Engineering Companies Illinois president Kevin Artl said during a news conference. “But I think the history here in Illinois is that when you skip payments, it only makes things worse. And in this instance, skipping this adjustment will lead to a half a billion dollars in lost funds for infrastructure projects over five years.”

“To give you an example, in December alone, just in December, we received $961 million in corporate income tax receipts,” Illinois Department of Revenue Director David Harris. “That’s in one month. In a given year, a normal year would be $3.5 billion or thereabouts in corporate income tax receipts for the entire year.”

State Sen. Jason Barickman said the Democratic controlled legislature has failed to address Pritzker’s unilateral rule. “All this chaos that’s existed in our schools and elsewhere could have been avoided if the governor simply subjected himself to the legislative process.”

Senate Republicans laid out one of their major initiatives, focusing on giving parents more of a voice in their children’s education. This includes extending the Invest in Kids scholarship program and requiring posting of curriculum online.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker is asking the Illinois Supreme Court to let him keep his authority to force Illinoisans to mask. But his effort to keep his COVID-19 mandate power is ignoring relevant data.

His “reduction” is in his newest budget. He is offering temporary tax relief for families, but has done nothing for long-term reform.

In the plan, $475 million property tax rebates are set for Illinois families. It would be a one-time property tax rebate payment to homeowner of 5% of property taxes paid, up to $300 for those eligible for a state income tax credit.

In a recent letter to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky, U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush raised concerns that policies that too severely limit access to loved ones cause immense suffering for patients nearing the end of their lives. “While limiting the spread of COVID-19 remains critical, I believe that the restrictive visitor policies currently in place at many hospitals in Illinois and around the country should be updated to reflect the latest science and the tools we now have at our disposal.

“Although the actual details are scant, it’s safe to say (Jesse) White’s office didn’t perform even the basic due diligence that would’ve kept (Candace) Wanzo from another spin on the public employment carousel. Whether White hired Wanzo directly, he bears responsibility for approving her promotions, policy changes and continued employment, including a year of paid leave during the investigation and a timely resignation.”

State Police Director Brendan said the seizure of fentanyl increased by more than 400% compared to the previous year. Heroin seizures were up by more than 260%, while seizures of meth were up by 190%. The value of recovered drugs is estimated at $71 million.

Under federal law, the new 988 hotline takes effect in July. The state Senate this month passed a bill creating a statewide 988 trust fund, which is now in the state house. Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s budget proposal puts $70 million toward crisis response services for people who call 988, and $5 million specifically into that trust fund.

Sen. Dick Durbin, who met with foreign leaders in Lithuania Wednesday, called the attack a “dire threat to the established international order,” while Gov. J.B. Pritzker said that Illinois residents stand with Ukrainian citizens during a Russian attempt to “undermine democracy” in the region.

The Department of Healthcare and Family Services Compromise Nursing Home Rate Reform bills would prioritize accountability and workforce development in long-term care facilities, and end the practice of overcrowding “ward-like” nursing home rooms with three or more residents. The legislation would also require greater transparency of nursing home ownership and revenue, and directly tie funding and rates to sustained nursing home performance.

Former judge Michael McCuskey, a Democrat, is as free with his opinions as he is with a story. He once appeared on a radio show and called the University of Illinois president and other administrators “gutless” for their handling of a student protest of an appearance of then-Gov. Bruce Rauner. He’s also unapologetic about two publicly-funded pensions he receives along with the paycheck for his new public job.

State Rep. Camille Lilly has introduced House Bill 5139, which would allow servers and bartenders to receive the state’s minimum wage starting in 2025 in addition to their tips.

“It’s not enough for him to say that we’re going to do a temporary property tax relief for Illinois citizens,” House Minority Leader Jim Durkin said. “[Democrats have] the majority. If they really wanted to do something with the property tax system, make it permanent with some sort of property tax reform, they can do it.”

“We want to be able to do the right thing for the people across the state and so we hope that the supreme court will see that and rule on that despite the decision by the appellate court,” Gov. JB Pritzker said Wednesday. “We actually don’t think there’s any lack of clarity. The judge decided differently, but I also think there were some politics in that … The conflict is political, it is not what is in the written law.”

From 2018 to 2021, 1.4 million new and updated registration applications are estimated to have originated from Secretary of State branches.

Not only is the state’s unemployment rate far higher than before the pandemic, Illinois is seeing the eighth-weakest recovery in the nation with nearly 30% of jobs still missing relative to their 2020 peak. Twenty-one states now have lower unemployment rates than they did before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Only 68 percent of Illinois’ leisure and hospitality jobs have been recouped since recovery started, the lowest in the Midwest and seventh lowest nationally.

People that choose to wear a mask, according to the Illinois Supreme Court, can be asked to take it off by a judge if they consider it necessary for court purposes, such as when addressing the court or testifying.

In 2019, Sen. Tom Cullerton was charged with one count of conspiracy to embezzle from the Teamsters Local Union 734 employee benefit plan, 39 counts of embezzlement from another Teamsters union, and one count of making false statements. He is expected to plead guilty during a status hearing Wednesday.

However, before filing the official petition for leave to appeal, Pritzker and Raoul have first asked the justices of the Illinois Supreme Court to step in on an emergency basis and slap a hold on the temporary restraining order.

“This would specifically mandate participation in any and all programs that are offered to a tenant,” Gideon Bluestein, senior director of Local Government and External Affairs with Illinois Realtors, said. “So that could be rental assistance programs or might be a private foundation’s program.”

The three members removed Tuesday for disobeying mask mandates included Reps. Dan Caulkins, Blaine Wilhour, and Adam Niemerg. They were all allowed to participate remotely.

Speaking to a Senate budget committee Tuesday, Susana Mendoza said the state is nearly caught up on its bill backlog and that those two programs are no longer needed. “This program has allowed private lenders to loan money to state vendors, then rake in the 12 percent interest that state taxpayers were on the hook for with these late bills.”

On Tuesday, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul filed four motions to the Illinois Supreme Court, including an emergency motion for stay pending appeal and a request for expedited consideration. It was unclear Tuesday if the state’s highest court would take up the case.

Former Chicago Bears great Gary Fencik, a former lottery control board chairman, wrote, “For the last three fiscal years, the lottery has been managed by a U.K. company owned by a Canadian pension fund, optimistically named Camelot. It is paid a $24 million fee each fiscal year. And all expenses. Camelot ranked 20th in lottery performance in fiscal 2021. While many state lotteries have set all-time records each year since the pandemic started, Camelot has missed our record FY13 revenue total by about $40 million each year.”

“This piece of legislation would require that mental health resources be taught to children in our schools,” state Sen. Mike Simmons said. “Both how and where to access those resources.”

DCFS director Marc Smith neglected the teen’s right to suitable housing, according to the judge. The agency will face $1,000 daily court-ordered fines until she’s appropriately placed.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot said mandates could make a return should numbers rise in the future.

Jim Dey: “No elected Democrat, of course, will acknowledge that their opposition to the school-mask mandate is driven by public opinion. But it’s clear from the rules panel’s vote that legislative Democrats are not as enthused about publicly supporting Pritzker’s mandates as they once were.”

In January, the state Supreme Court laid down a widely anticipated decision, effectively ending efforts by some Illinois employers to use Illinois’ workers’ compensation law to find relief from the growing burden of the legal actions brought under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act.

Though state residents 65 and older are more likely than most older Americans to have some form of retirement income, pension payments for retired public sector workers in the state are on relatively shaky ground.

“Depending on what type of facility you’re in, we were finding that between 30 and 50% of providers were finding lead in their drinking water,” said Elevate’s Caroline Pakenham.

“To be sure, these are arcane matters of structure that shouldn’t burden the average tollway user…But it would be a mistake to declare that this simple change of personalities puts everything right with the world again.:

Mark Denzler, of the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association, and state Rep. Tim Butler: “Our state’s highly educated workforce, access to reliable energy and water resources, and centralized location in the heart of our country make Illinois an ideal location for the manufacturing of these specialized technological parts, which are commonplace in everything from laptops and cellphones to microwaves and hairdryers.”

A package of four bills currently making their way through the Illinois House would place more oversight on the testing sites. One would require testing sites to collect insurance information from patients so that the government isn’t being fraudulently billed for tests. It would also require that state insurance plans fully cover all COVID-19 tests.

Gov. JB Pritzker doles out $1.5 million a year to subsidize the salaries of 15 employees in his administration in addition to the $1.6 million taxpayers pay.

The number of residential beds and foster homes for children in the state’s care is an ongoing concern. “During the past administration, DCFS lost hundreds of residential beds and thousands of foster homes and rebuilding that network is a much lengthier process than destroying it,” Director Marc Smith said.

“(T)he governor’s people say that legislative leaders wouldn’t consider the quarantine language change proposal. Members were already being inundated with angry, even threatening contacts from constituents and outsiders who’d been ginned up by disinformation outlets to what we thought at the time was the max over the Right of Conscience Act fix. Tossing more fuel on the fire wasn’t something that enough Democratic legislators wanted to do, even though doing both at once could’ve saved a whole lot of grief down the road.”

The reason so much waste was able to make its way into the package was due to a policy that only Illinois politicians could tolerate. The concept of earmarking, or allocating funds for specific projects for your district, was banned by the U.S. Congress in 2011. Recently, it was reinstituted. However, in Illinois, there is no requirement to report earmarks, so the $4 billion of “Leadership Additions” and “Governor’s Office Additions” are difficult to track.

An email from the chancellor said the flyers were left on and around campus ”inside plastic bags filled with small rocks.”

“I’m thinking shootings are down due more to the snowy weather in the city, rather than an increase in civility,” said veteran traffic and spot news reporter Kris Habermehl. “Feuds and bad blood continue unabated on social media, which oftentimes lead to expressway hits.”

“Proponents in both parties contend that the first round of buyouts has saved the state $1.4 billion in pension debt. That is a lot of money in total, but not much in the context of the overall $130 billion pension hole. An analyst for Fitch rating service, Eric Kim, summed it up by saying the buyouts ‘chip away at a much larger problem’ by using debt to fight debt.”

Matt Paprocki, of the Illinois Policy Institute: “Business tax hikes would deter job creation and further hurt Illinois’ business climate. In 2021, Illinois’ unemployment rate remained higher than neighboring states while job creation lagged the national rate. We need businesses to grow and get stronger, not be hindered by higher taxes resulting from poor policy decisions.”

DeVore said the state of Illinois needs “elected officials that support the idea that the people govern….I wonder if the state of Illinois has anybody that might be interested?” he mused, drawing applause from the crowd.

Until now, Pritzker has seen his emergency orders throughout the pandemic upheld by the courts — and the appellate court’s action did not address the legality of the governor’s use of emergency powers.

So here ends the take of the approval of the Tier 2 pension system, with no actuarial review, no opportunity for anyone but the backroom negotiators to assess the changes before the vote was taken, and the need to take on faith the claim of $100 billion in savings. Is there anything in here that is a surprise? No. Is this sort of legislating unique to Illinois? Also no. But I think there’s still some value in observing our legislators in action.

“Much of the withheld information could help state and local health officials better target their efforts to bring the virus under control. Detailed, timely data on hospitalizations by age and race would help health officials identify and help the populations at highest risk. Information on hospitalizations and death by age and vaccination status would have helped inform whether healthy adults needed booster shots. And wastewater surveillance across the nation would spot outbreaks and emerging variants early. Without the booster data for 18- to 49-year-olds, the outside experts whom federal health agencies look to for advice had to rely on numbers

Comment: This is an appropriate place to add our occasional reminder that we link to stories from all sources and articles we don’t agree with. Regular Wirepoints readers will already know why the supposed evidence cited by BGA herein is junk.

The Illinois State Board of Education won’t say if they’ll continue to pursue nonrecognition status for the growing number of schools that are going mask optional in defiance of Pritkzer’s insistence that his orders still stand.

One measure seeks to extend from 90 days to 120 days the amount of time prosecutors have to take a case to trial before a defendant would have to be released. Another bill would increase penalties for attempting to strangle a person in a domestic violence situation.

“Illinois Senator Brian Stewart (R) introduced Senate Bill 3119, legislation that would impose a 10% excise tax on the book value of assets or liabilities, whichever is greater, of a bank that has been purchased by a credit union…If SB 3119 is enacted and the tax raises no revenue because credit unions decline to acquire banks as a result, proponents of the tax will have achieved their goal.”

“It’s economic illiteracy to believe inflation is not running hot and has been for a long time. Every person on the Fed is guilty of not understanding what inflation is. They are also all guilty of ignoring Fed-sponsored clear asset bubbles.”

An Illinois Senate bill introduced in late January looks to extend an existing tax incentive for data centers to crypto mining.

Budgets, nutrient loss reduction, agritourism liability and grants for minority farmers are all bill topics Illinois Farm Bureau is keeping an eye on at the state capitol.

During his budget address Feb. 2, Pritzker said that those without the state’s best interests in mind will not be at the “grown-up table” regarding negotiations. State Rep. Tom Demmer, R-Dixon, said the lawmakers and the governor should be working together on what’s best for the people.

“[I]t seems clear that anyone who takes it for granted that mask mandates have played a crucial role in controlling the spread of COVID-19 is making a series of assumptions that are not justified by the evidence.”

“There will soon be no statewide mask mandates on the mainland United States, if all goes according to plan. California and New York have yet to announce an end to their school requirements. And school mask mandates in Illinois and Maryland are being contested in court.”

“Just as elites led us into this mess, the way out is unlikely to come from “experts” or the elite institutions that have fostered a climate of close-minded authoritarian disregard for the nuances of scientific work and openly show their contempt for people who hold opposing points of view. Instead, we see hope in the voices of dissent.”

A spokesperson for Gov. JB Pritzker said Friday that the governor is “disappointed” in the appellate court’s decision, and is working with the attorney general to request an expedited review from the Supreme Court.

“That rule does not affect the executive orders issued by the governor under the Illinois Emergency Management Agency Act, including the governor’s executive order requiring the use of masks in school, the exclusion from school of persons exposed to COVID-19, and testing of unvaccinated school employees working on school premises,” Kwame Raoul said. “That order continues to apply to all persons not specifically named as plaintiffs in the” lawsuit.

Both the Illinois Federation of Teachers and the Illinois Education Association asked to file legal arguments trying to help Gov. J.B. Pritzker persuade an appellate court to keep Pritzker’s statewide school mask mandate in place.

Comment: $3.4 billion seems newsworthy.

The legislation also calls for reimbursing school staff for sick days they used during the 2021 – 2022 school due to the pandemic. Similar legislation was vetoed by Pritzker earlier this year, because it did not include a vaccine requirement.

Chicago Democrats made sure that, whatever the Democratic performance turns out to be in 2022, minority turnout will drive Democratic performance in the new 13th District. However, establishment Democrats’ radical gerrymandering coupled with their preferred congressional candidate selection created a mystery.

“The real problem underlying the school mask mandate confusion is Pritzker’s overreach. Illinoisans have lived over 700 days under the governor’s emergency authority.”

“Nine times in the six-page section of the order, three appellate judges used the word ‘moot’ to describe Pritzker’s legal arguments in attempting to govern over schools using executive order.”

A statement from Illinois Federation of Teachers President Dan Montgomery begins, “The Illinois 4th District Appellate Court’s decision released late last night makes one thing clear: school districts are free to implement their own safety measures around COVID-19. And they should.”

Purchased at an auction for $400,000 last week, the sculpture previously belonged to the Lincoln family, and it was displayed in their Springfield home until Lincoln took office. Before departing for Washington, D.C., the Lincolns gave the sculpture to a neighbor and it remained with the Miner family until being put up for auction.

House Bill 2367 is modeled after a pilot program Cook County has run since 2017. The program waived the $120 in county fees for expunging or sealing records in cases where the defendant was found not guilty. Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart advocated for the program, citing that nearly 20% of arrestees in Cook County Jail eventually have charges dropped or are found not guilty.

The TRO at issue also covered mandates requiring weekly testing of unvaccinated school employees and the quarantining of students and teachers who are “close contacts” of confirmed or probable COVID-19 cases.

David Greising, of the Better Government Association: “The tension between spending and discipline is coming to a head as leaders in the legislature and the Pritzker administration focus on how to make the most of $8.3 billion in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds.”

During the first year, Illinois residents bought $496 million or 74% of total sales while out-of-state residents bought the remaining 26%. The next year total sales more than doubled to $1.38 billion. That year, Illinoisans bought $943 million or 68% with out-of-state residents purchasing $436 million or 32%.

“The Illinois court system spends tax money. It signs contracts for everything from electronic filing systems to janitorial services. The public should be able to have a transparent look at how that money is spent. It should be able to see which procedures are in place to protect private information, and whether those procedures are carefully followed…No one is talking about digging into private court documents or interfering in the realm of judicial decision-making.”

“Moving the target date does not fix the funding issue,” said Chuck Sullivan, president of the Associated Fire Fighters of Illinois.

Our own column on this new decision is here.

This latest order involves the department repeatedly moving a teenager who has been bouncing between different foster homes, psychiatric hospitals, and shelters. In just six months, DCFS moved her 25 times.

Jim Dey: “Rapping her fist repeatedly on the council dais for emphasis, (council members Alicia) Beck suggested the Morrs — Albert is a retired electrician and Claudia is a retired university employee — were unconcerned about gun violence in Champaign-Urbana until a Feb. 4 shootout near their residence. ‘I want you to come in because you are concerned about Black and Brown babies being shot in the street. And that’s what I want to hear. Period,’ Beck said.”

“It is unclear how far some of these bills will go in the legislature — some are still waiting to be assigned to committee. But the efforts have garnered considerable attention, with thousands of witness slips, and echo debates in school districts across the state and country, where COVID mitigations in schools are seeing pushback from parents and Republican lawmakers.”

Attorney Thomas DeVore, who has a temporary restraining order against the governor’s mask mandates in schools, filed suit against House Speaker Emanual “Chris” Welch in Bond County Circuit Court. The lawsuit is on behalf of his state Rep. Blaine Whilhour and himself as an individual. “Speaker Welch has no authority whatsoever to place quarantine measures on the peoples’ representatives to keep them out of that chamber.”

State Rep. Lakesia Collins made a motion Thursday to eject state Reps. Joe Sosnowski, Tony McCombie, Blaine Wilhour, Brad Halbrook, Adam Niemerg, David Welter, David Friess, Chris Miller, and Andrew Chesney for not wearing masks per the House rules. She made a similar motion Wednesday, but rescinded the proposal.

The report said Illinois is painstakingly building toward a return to the state’s pre-pandemic rating, which according to analyst Eric Kim, was not ideal. “Those concerns are really driven by the fact that Illinois was already at the low end for states from Fitch’s perspective in terms of their fiscal resilience. There really was not much left in the tool box for the state at the start of the pandemic.”

Majority Democrats in the Senate sanctioned Michael McCusky’s appointment despite concerns he was not approved by the bipartisan Legislative Ethics Commission responsible for recommending candidates. “The position of legislative inspector general is too important to stay vacant for as long as it has,” Senate President Don Harmon said. “An impasse is not an option, so we are taking decisive action to move forward with an excellent candidate.”

Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski said he thinks Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office is mishandling the increased crime. “I think it’s a real issue. I hear people say we don’t go down there anymore. People don’t walk around there anymore…It’s really confusing when you hear (authorities) say how much better they’re doing managing felonies when this new report comes out and says just the opposite.”

“The fact that these incentives were laundered partially through jobs does not invalidate the indictment,” U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber wrote. “A company cannot use its payroll line on its accounting ledger to circumvent all Government oversight of public corruption.”

A subsidiary of AT&T led by a former top aide to ex-House Speaker Michael Madigan could face a criminal charge as an apparent offshoot of an ongoing federal investigation into the dethroned Chicago Democrat, the company revealed in a federal regulatory filing.

Currently, people who speed in school zones or pass stopped school buses with its stop arm extended must pay fines ranging from $150 to $1,000, depending on the frequency of their violations.

State Rep. Dan Caulkins called for an overturn of the masking rule but was denied by the House speaker. Caulkins then urged the speaker and the rest of the members to follow the entire rule, which also includes temperature checks before entering the floor.

Under Pritzker’s leadership the state has yet to make any of the significant financial reforms needed to eliminate the structural deficit and reduce Illinois’ economically burdensome taxes. Spending in the state budget actually has increased – significantly – under Pritzker relative to baseline expectations in the state budget.

In terms of overall jobs, Illinois has experienced the worst recovery of any Midwest state, and the eighth worst in the country. Many Illinoisans waited for weeks before their claims were resolved during the height of the pandemic.

House Bill 1772, sponsored by a Republican, would limit the duration of a state of emergency to 60 days unless approved by the legislature to continue, and allow lawmakers to rescind individual emergency orders issued by the governor. According to the Center Square, more than 5,400 people signed up to testify on the bill, the “vast majority” of those supporting the proposed reforms.

Sen. Jil Tracy, who chairs the Ethics Commission, said, “If we value ethics, we’ve gotta follow statutes and procedures. If we want to keep making attempts at being ethical, this gentleman should be acting LIG until he’s vetted, has an FBI check, and then, you’ve gotta open the application process again. That’s how the process is supposed to be in law. I don’t know why the majority party wants continually to rebuke policy and procedures, but apparently you do.”

The pension-buyout program has already cut Illinois’s liability by $1.4 billion, but that still leaves an unfunded obligation of about $130 billion, state data show. “It chips away at a much larger problem,” Eric Kim, an analyst for Fitch Ratings, said in an interview. “But you are paying for it with debt.”

“I can respect Gov. Pritzker doing what is best for his family, as long as he respects my rights to do my best by mine,” said Rep. Deanne Mazzochi. “But he rejected the premise that people deserve their freedom to exercise their best judgment for what is right for their families.”

“I think we share the common view that we need to get a ruling, and either way, the next step is to hear from the appellate court and go from there,” Gov. JB Pritzker said Wednesday morning.

“Based on the current downward trajectory of COVID-19 cases, and what’s going on in states across the country that have dropped their school mask requirements, many school districts believe the school mask mandate is close to coming to an end in Illinois,” said John Burkey, the executive director of the Large Unit District Association. “There has been so much confusion, and everyone has just been trying to navigate all of this,”

During Tuesday’s session, House GOP members entered the chamber without wearing masks and released a joint statement saying that the mandates have “gone on long enough” and that it is “time to return to normalcy.”

While there was some support for the mandate during public comments last month, a spokesperson for ISBE said Wednesday that the board will not take action on the rule during Thursday’s meeting.

Jerame Simmons received a pardon from Gov. J.B. Pritzker and went on to become chief of the Prairie Du Pont Fire department in St. Claire last December. Simmons pleaded guilty to arson when he was 18 after setting fire to a vacant house, then another small blaze at a high school.

Gov. Pritzker brushed off concerns over due process rights for healthy individuals being told to follow quarantine measures like masking or exclusion. “The judge’s decision … poorly decided, it leaves out entirely a section of the law that she obviously didn’t read or didn’t want to address, so I think that’s all going to be addressed by the appellate court.”

House Bill 4920 would expand the earned income tax credit eligibility, including a new state child tax credit, and increase the amount of credit available to each low-income applicant.

“The executive order requiring masks is still in place,” Pritzker insisted at a Wednesday morning press conference. “School districts that aren’t part of the lawsuit should follow the executive order.”

A news release from the U.S. Department of Defense shows three companies split the nearly $2 billion the feds shelled out for the tests: iHealthLabs of California; Roche Diagnostics from Indiana; and Abbott Rapid DX North America, whose production is in Florida and whose parent company is based in the northern suburbs.

Indiana, Florida and California top the list.

“Mark Glennon, the founder of Wirepoints, for once and for all gathers what you need to educate yourself about the uselessness of masks and the dangers they pose…Glennon serves up a useful bibliography of studies and reports that apparently have escaped the governor’s office.”

“The record number of shootings in Illinois cities last year, including Champaign-Urbana, Peoria and Chicago, has citizens fearful. Developers in Chicago have said they’re having difficulty marketing properties because of concerns about violence. Anecdotally, we hear from businesses and University of Illinois officials about how street violence blunts recruitment efforts in C-U.”

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker has made his first public comments since a group of Illinois lawmakers voted against a new push to extend the school mask mandate. Speaking during an unrelated news conference Wednesday, the governor said, “The executive order requiring masks is still in place. We still have a mask requirement in the state of Illinois for schools.”

“With the other branches of government, as it relates to administrative and personnel matters, there are things that are subject to FOIA and transparency for the public,” said bill sponsor state Rep. Curtis Tarver II. “This would just bring the judiciary in line with that, while still protecting the records that should be protected.”

When they arrived at Collinsville High School Feb. 7, maskless students were told that in-person learning wouldn’t be allowed, and they had to separate themselves from other students. “Students who showed up to school and refused to wear a mask could choose to go home (policy for violating dress code) or remain at school in an alternate setting to do their school work,” a spokesperson for Collinsville Community Unit School District 10 said.

A ruling by the Illinois Labor Relations Board blocked an attempt by firefighters in Carpentersville to leave the union. Paramedics and EMTs in Galesburg are also seeking to exercise their right to vote the local Teamsters union out of power at the workplace.

“It’s good for our communities because we know that there’s often lots of needles around in parks and streets because people are using heroin when they do inject. (Safe consumption sites) cut down on the nuisance of needles,” said State Rep. La Shawn Ford, who’s sponsored a bill that would allow for the creation of such sites in Illinois. “It has also been proven that this could save lives.”

The biggest day on the sports betting calendar saw Illinois sportsbooks come out on top to the tune of $9.5 million, generating more than $1.4 million in tax revenue, according to figures released by the Illinois Gaming Board.

Governor Pritzker’s Office released a statement concerning JCAR’s vote Tuesday which reads, in part, “…As doctors have said time and again, masks are the best way to preserve in-person learning and keep children and staff safe. We look forward to continuing to work with members of the General Assembly, school districts, parents, communities and all stakeholders to use the tools we have to keep in-person learning…”

When Gov. Pritzker asked the General Assembly’s Joint Committee on Administrative Rules (JCAR) to renew the mask mandate Tuesday, lawmakers refused. The vote was a stunning bipartisan 9-0, with two lawmakers abstaining.

“The Peoria area does not have a workforce people shortage,” said Mayor Ali. “We have a workforce skills shortage.”

Jerame Simmons got his long-held wish in December when he became the chief of the fire department that dismissed him 24 years ago after he was charged with setting fire to a vacant house and attempting to burn down his high school. It took a prosecutor’s dismissal of a serious felony arson charge, a plea deal to get rid of two other felonies, misdemeanor charges wiped from his record, dismissed domestic violence charges and a limited police investigation into a gun charge to help make it happen. But it was a pardon from Gov. JB Pritzker that finally cleared the

If approved, Illinois State Police would be responsible for the training of DCFS workers on how to effectively use pepper spray. The bill, which has bipartisan support, would require DCFS to provide funding for the training program.

“We’ve paid 2,158 retirees a little over $243 million as part of the [cost of living allocation] buyout program,” said Tim Blair, director of the State Retirement System. The state borrowed to cover those costs, but Blair said it saves more than $300 million in liabilities.

On Feb. 15 the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules of the Illinois General Assembly voted 9-0-2 against extending Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s emergency rules to enforce state mask, vaccine and testing mandates. The Illinois Department of Public Health attempted to reissue an emergency rule to counteract a Feb. 4 Sangamon County court order.

Illinois is still missing 251,900 jobs since the pandemic began, and 35% of the missing jobs are in the leisure and hospitality industry.

Illinois State Police hope to receive a 12.5% increase in state funding in the next fiscal year. Director Brendan Kelly said increased funding can help bring on more state troopers, replace equipment and technology, and create a new state-of-the-art crime lab in Decatur. The proposed budget could also equip every trooper with a body camera.

“The economic impact is a game changer for our farmers, (who are) more competitive now in the world than they’ve ever had to be,” U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin said. “They’re going to get a boost and an opportunity in that regard.”

The Illinois Department of Public Health controls the supply of several of these medications, but isn’t tracking who providers and pharmacies are dispensing them to. That’s after two years of a pandemic where long-standing health disparities forced equity to the forefront.

“I feel we could all be a little bit more patient. I know there are so many more factors — economic, political and psychosocial. But coming from my perspective as an epidemiologist and infectious disease physician, I would like to see the mask mandates continue,” said Sharon Welbel, director of hospital epidemiology and infection control for Cook County Health.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said that Illinois is doing everything right regarding electric vehicles. “The EV revolution needs to happen quickly enough to beat climate change, that it happens on equitable terms that benefits all Americans, and that is a made in America electric vehicle revolution. You see all of those goals at play in what’s going on right here in the Bloomington, Normal area.”

While Chicago Public Schools may seem far away – both geographically and politically – from other districts in the state, no district will be safe from this sort of government union power if Amendment 1 passes. That’s because CTU is poised to take its militant tactics to school districts across the state.

We saw the highest number of suicides last fiscal year than we’ve seen in at least a decade: 8. The average was two to four in the years before this.

Senator Dick Durbin, Democratic whip and one of the loudest proponents of his party’s Build Back Better Act—which offers work permits and de facto legal status to 6.5 million illegal immigrants and would be the largest amnesty in U.S. history—gleefully noted that the bill would put downward pressure on incomes. “If there are more workers filling those jobs, it’s deflationary.” In other words, Democrats’ talking points in favor of the bill are actually some of the strongest arguments against it.

Its passage may be a tall order, however, as the Illinois Restaurant Association successfully lobbied when lawmakers overhauled the minimum wage schedule in 2019 to allow businesses to continue to pay less than minimum wage to employees who earn tips.

Attorney Thomas DeVore filed contempt motions against CPS and District 128 in Libertyville, about which he said, “[The school district is] trying to be clever and say ‘well, yeah, if your child doesn’t have to wear a mask when they’re in the school building for education, but if they come back into the school building for any other reason like an after hours event or something like that they have to wear one,’”

A national republication of our Wirepoints column.

State Sen. Brian Stewart raised concerns: “If I was to pay staff out of my own pocket and then while they were getting state pay and they were expected to do state duties, it’s just a slippery slope. I certainly have continued reservations about that.”

Elected officials in several states have made mask mandates illegal, saying the decision should be left to parents. Here’s a state-by-state roundup of where masks are mandated and where they are optional.

Between 2019 and 2021, a quarter of gun crimes were committed by teenagers and more than half of gun crimes were by people 25 years old and younger.

“The pandemic cannot be ended through executive orders and lawsuits…Executive orders have only so much power and can be fought in court, as we see today. And they often expire with the executive who made them. But laws have more power and set precedent for generations, until a legislature votes them down or amends them. They also set guidelines.”

U.S. Department of Labor data through the first half of 2021 estimates nearly $430 million was given out in fraudulent claims instead of to unemployed Illinoisans. But security experts caution the full figure could be more than $1 billion.

A timeline detailing Midwest states’ repeal of pandemic protocols shows how other governors have already empowered local governments to make those decisions for themselves.

Griffin said, “This is not just about beating J.B. This is about having a person in office who is going to put the people of our state first, who is going to be willing to make the tough calls that need to be made to end the senseless violence that’s been gripping our state, that we put our state on a path of fiscal sustainability, and that we make Illinois a place that firms like Citadel can proudly recruit talent to and build businesses within.”

In a letter to parents, students and staff, district officials announced an adaptive pause would remain in effect until further notice in anticipation of protests that would “confront and/or interact directly with students.”

Buttigieg was joined at the Heartland training site by Gov. JB Pritzker and U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth. Pointing to the Rivian R1T on display and sporting an “I heart trucks” button, Pritzker said, “That’s a good truck!” and said that he had one on order.

AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Pat Devaney said future amendments could “delete the prevailing wage section of the bill as it’s currently written.”

That’s the latest from Sheriff Jack Campbell as the Illinois Department of Corrections, IDOC, continues a pause on transfers from the county because of COVID-19.

Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the state’s top two Democratic legislative leaders have received more than a combined $1.5 million from the state’s top teachers’ unions. In contrast, the state’s top two Republican legislative leaders and former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner have received less than $5,000 combined. Democrats have controlled both chambers of the Illinois legislature since 2003.

A couple Illinois cities made the top-50 list for the worst pothole problems. Champaign ranked 32nd and Chicago came in at number 41.

Rep. Charlie Meier’s statement reads, in part, “While state revenue is declining, Pritzker’s spending is drastically increasing. Things only appear to look good right now because the state was bailed out with $8 billion from the federal government.”

“It’s not going the way this legislative body intended it to go,” said Mark Mitchell, an advocate with Teamwork Englewood. “It’s not happening in four months. It’s taking 18-19 months to get this done on the regular.”

A decision from the appellate court is expected in the coming week. “A temporary restraining order is intended to be short-lived,” said Don Craven, a Springfield attorney and president of the Illinois Press Association. “And the appellate court must hear the case; they don’t get discretion to reject it like the Supreme Court.”

“Those improved credit ratings? Yes, we’re no longer dangling on the precipice of junk status, but Illinois remains the lowest-rated among the 50 states. That strengthened pension funding—with the shortfall down to $130 billion from $144 billion a year ago? That’s in large measure due to a strong 2021 stock market, and still worse than any state but New Jersey.”