Illinois Politics
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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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 –…
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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.…
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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.…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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More than 140,000 Illinois government workers and retirees took in more than $100,000 in salaries or pensions in 2023, according to data collected by Wirepoints via FOIA. That’s more than a 50% percent jump since Open the Books counted 94,000 government members with $100K compensation back in 2018. The list includes active workers and pensioners from all…
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A hearing officer is recommending the Illinois State Board of Elections dismiss a complaint that alleged conservative radio host and political operative Dan Proft illegally coordinated with former Republican state Sen. Darren Bailey during his 2022 campaign for governor. Proft, a one-time gubernatorial candidate himself, is behind an independent expenditure committee dubbed the “People Who…
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In the final hours of their spring legislative session, Illinois lawmakers approved a tax credit of up to about $300 for families with young children. The credit is available to Illinoisans with children under age 12 who qualify for the federal Earned Income Tax Credit, or EITC. Although it has exceptions, that credit is generally…
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CHICAGO — U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber, who served as a judge in the Northern District of Illinois for nearly 40 years, died Tuesday night at the age of 87. Leinenweber was nominated by President Ronald Reagan and appointed to the court in 1985, and assumed senior status in 2002. He also served as a…
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TORONTO – This week, Governor JB Pritzker joined state economic leaders and Canadian business and government leaders for business development events in Ontario. First, Governor Pritzker and Premier Doug Ford held a public Memorandum of Understanding Signing where both executives made remarks highlighting the rich trade history between the regions. Later Tuesday, Governor Pritzker provided…
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Despite being ignored by the Illinois General Assembly during the recently completed legislative session, the Chicago Bears are not letting up on their quest to get public funding for a new stadium. The nearly $5 billion proposal to build a lakefront stadium complex along Lake Michigan calls for $2 billion in public money from the…
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CLICK HERE to look up how third graders in your local schools are reading. Third grade is a critical reading milestone because students need to have learned to read by then or they will not be able to absorb the rest of their education. “Students who do not ‘learn to read’ during the first three…
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This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with Capitol News Illinois. It was on L.J.’s 11th birthday, in December 2022, that child welfare workers finally took him away. They arrived at his central Illinois home to investigate an abuse allegation and decided on the spot to remove the boy along with his…
Read Full Article A state law essentially designed to prevent Republicans from appointing legislative candidates to the ballot after the March primary was ruled unconstitutional by a Sangamon County judge last week, but her ruling only applied to the 14 Republican plaintiffs in the case who are running for the Illinois House and Senate. The law prohibited local…
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A bill eliminating the subminimum wage for workers with disabilities failed to pass the General Assembly ahead of its May adjournment, although sponsors say they hope to pass it when lawmakers return in the fall. The federal Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 established minimum wage law, but created an exemption for businesses, rehabilitation and residential care…
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Justice Lisa Holder White and the Illinois Supreme Court announced on Thursday the assignment of Seventh Circuit Judge Raylene DeWitte Grischow to the Fourth District Appellate Court. “Judge Raylene DeWitte Grischow will make an outstanding addition to the Appellate Court,” Holder White said in a press release. “She is an accomplished, hardworking, community-minded person who…
Read Full Article November 29, 2024
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