Illinois Politics
An oft-repeated $1.1 billion demand from Chicago’s mayor would actually wind up costing state taxpayers $5.5 billion. And Gov. JB Pritzker is turning a big thumbs down. Chicago Public Schools made the huge mistake of putting a ton of temporary federal pandemic aid into its permanent spending base for years and that money is just…
Read Full Article 
President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 race for the White House on Sunday, ending his bid for reelection after a disastrous debate with Donald Trump that raised doubts about the incumbent’s fitness for office. The unprecedented announcement, delivered less than four months before the election, immediately upended a campaign that both political parties view as the most…
Read Full Article 
MILWAUKEE – Illinois Republicans marked a changing of the guard Thursday morning as delegates met for breakfast ahead of the final day of the GOP national convention. State party Chair Don Tracy officially steps down this week after nearly 3 ½ years in that post, handing over the reins to newly elected Chair Kathy Salvi.…
Read Full Article 
Warning: The following article includes mentions of self-harm and profanity. McHENRY, Ill. – Vernon L. Brooks Jr. was distraught. Forced into a chair in a jail cell with a black mesh hood over his head, he panicked as he felt officers tighten straps like tourniquets around his wrists and restrain his ankles and chest. When…
Read Full Article 
MILWAUKEE – A former Republican congressman from New York told Illinois Republicans Tuesday that to win more elections in their deeply blue state, they need to reach beyond the traditional conservative voting base. “We need to challenge ourselves to get out and talk to the people who vote the least, talk to the people who…
Read Full Article 
MILWAUKEE – Illinois Republicans appeared upbeat and optimistic as the GOP’s national convention got underway Monday, calling for unity and showing little sign of the internal party struggles that have been brewing for years. “Everybody’s got a lot of energy. We’re all really hopeful and looking forward to November and just killing it, you know,…
Read Full Article A little-noticed bill passed both the Illinois House and Senate that will generate $300 to $400 million a year for local governments, including $95-127 million for the Regional Transportation Authority. The bill (SB3362) will help capture sales tax revenue from more out of state retailers and in-state retailers who ship to Illinoisans in out of…
Read Full Article 
SPRINGFIELD – Republicans will gather in Milwaukee next week for what promises to be a historic national convention. Former President Donald Trump will be nominated for the third consecutive time as the party’s presidential nominee, the first major party candidate to win nomination that many times since Franklin Roosevelt. And if he’s successful in the…
Read Full Article 
Gov. JB Pritzker said Tuesday he is “all in” for President Joe Biden after visiting the White House last week with other Democratic governors. He headed to Washington, D.C., to meet with the president and members of the Democratic Governors Association last Wednesday on the heels of Biden’s performance during the first of two scheduled…
Read Full Article 
SPRINGFIELD – Former Republican State Sen. Sam McCann on Tuesday was sentenced to 42 months in federal prison for stealing nearly $700,000 in campaign funds and attempting to conceal his theft with false reports to state election authorities. In February, McCann pleaded guilty to seven counts of wire fraud and one count each of money…
Read Full Article 
CHICAGO – Federal prosecutors told a judge Tuesday that they oppose plans by defense attorneys to seek a new trial for four convicted former executives and lobbyists for the state’s largest utility after the U.S. Supreme Court blunted part of a federal bribery law last month. Assistant U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu said a new trial…
Read Full Article 
SPRINGFIELD – When Illinois high school students sit down to take their annual state assessments next year, they will take a different exam than in recent years. The Illinois State Board of Education recently announced that starting next spring, it will use the ACT exam rather than the SAT. Both are standardized tests that measure…
Read Full Article 
Gov. JB Pritzker traveled to the White House to meet with President Joe Biden and his fellow Democratic governors on Wednesday amid rising worry within the party about the president’s ability to continue running for a second term. Pritzker – whose name had been floated by the pundit class as a possible 2024 candidate for…
Read Full Article 
SPRINGFIELD – The U.S. Supreme Court announced Tuesday it will not immediately review Illinois’ assault weapons ban, leaving the law in place at least until challenges to the law have been fully heard in lower courts. The announcement came just two days before the two-year anniversary of a mass shooting at an Independence Day parade in Highland…
Read Full Article 
Nine months after cash bail ended in Illinois, the state is taking its first steps in publishing the data that crafters of the bail reform law saw as essential to judging its effectiveness. The data shows that judges in the 75 counties served by the Illinois Supreme Court’s Office of Statewide Pretrial Services had collectively issued failure-to-appear…
Read Full Article 
Abortion remains legal as an emergency medical procedure in Idaho, for now, after a Thursday U.S. Supreme Court ruling, while a bill that would cement those protections in Illinois law awaits Gov. JB Pritzker’s signature. The 6-3 decision saw the three liberal justices concur with the order. Three of the court’s conservatives – Chief Justice John Roberts…
Read Full Article During the last couple weeks of the spring state legislative session, Senate President Don Harmon got whacked twice by allies, including Gov. JB Pritzker, but still managed to keep his cool. On May 14th, the pro-choice powerhouse group Personal PAC issued a blistering press release blasting the Senate super-majority for an “unacceptable decision” to strip…
Read Full Article 
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday narrowed the scope of a federal bribery law prosecutors have relied on in their cases against former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and several of his allies convicted of bribing him. A jury last spring found those allies – former lobbyists and executives for electric utility Commonwealth Edison –…
Read Full Article 
Chicago — Governor JB Pritzker has signed a package of bills to incentivize corporate development and attract new businesses and capital investments to Illinois. The bill also expands River’s Edge Redevelopment Zones to seven new downstate communities, which will enable them to leverage new incentives to attract investments, create jobs and invest in their communities.…
Read Full Article 
CHICAGO – Ed Burke, who served on the Chicago City Council longer than anyone in history, was sentenced to two years in prison Monday for racketeering, bribery and attempted extortion of businesses who did business with the city. He must also pay a $2 million fine. Federal prosecutors had asked for eight years. Burke, 80,…
Read Full Article As you’ve probably heard by now, Illinois Republican Party Chair Don Tracy announced his resignation last week, apparently effective the day after the Republican National Convention concludes on July 18. The announcement came after far-right activists forced out the state party’s vice chair, Mark Shaw, and the resignation of the party’s finance chair, Vince Kolber.…
Read Full Article 
QUINCY — With 250 days to go until the Feb. 25, 2025, Illinois consolidated primary, the two Republicans who have announced their intentions to run for Quincy mayor have some money in the bank to run their campaigns. But probably not enough yet. According to documentation filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections, Mayor…
Read Full Article 
SPRINGFIELD – Don Tracy, who presided as the chairman of the Illinois Republican Party, resigned from the position Wednesday after three-and-a-half years. Tracy, a Springfield attorney, was unable to rally a party that sits in super minorities in both chambers of the Illinois General Assembly and hasn’t held a single statewide elected position since Democrat…
Read Full Article 
SPRINGFIELD – An Illinois law banning the sale and use of “bump stocks” and other devices that increase the firing power of semiautomatic weapons remains in place, at least for now, despite a U.S. Supreme Court decision Friday striking down a federal ban on such items. “Illinois law is not affected by the decision,” a spokesperson for…
Read Full Article “What was supposed to be a simple storage warehouse for the Metra transit agency has now buried the nation’s fourth-busiest commuter rail system in a sinking money pit, the ABC7 I-Team has learned.” The Chicago broadcast station’s scoop last week is an almost perfect encapsulation of why northeastern Illinois’ mass transit fiefdoms need to be…
Read Full Article November 12, 2024
DAILY MUDDY: THE RINK AND HANNIBAL ARTS COUNCIL
Current Weather
WED
THU
FRI
SAT
SUN