Politics
Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias rejected more than 304 vanity and personalized license plates this year that were deemed too obscene or defamatory. The Secretary of State’s office received 54,768 requests for vanity and personalized plates this year, including the 304 that were denied because of their inflammatory or offensive nature or because they…
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Small business advocates are discussing the impact new Illinois laws going into effect Jan. 1 could have on employers. Several laws will go into effect in 2024, including Senate Bill 2034, which extends bereavement time for workers when dealing with the loss of a child. Other measures include the previous General Assembly’s Senate Bill 208, which…
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With Illinois lawmakers scheduled to return to legislative session in less than a month, a recent government fiscal forecast provides an overview of the budgeting landscape that awaits them. The bottom line from the five-year forecast from the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget: The current fiscal year is now projected to end with a…
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A judge on Monday temporarily postponed sentencing dates for four former executives and lobbyists at the state’s largest utility company convicted of conspiring to bribe former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan. The ComEd 4 — former state lawmaker and lobbyist Michael McClain, former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore, former ComEd lobbyist John Hooker and former contract…
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The Adams County Board Chairman begins his final year in the chair as he wraps up 20 years on the board. He talks about roundabouts, jail construction and the passing of his dear friend and community leader Jeff Spear.
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Missouri’s highest court this week heard arguments over the constitutionality of a two-year-old state law terminating parental rights following a conviction for certain crimes against children. The case, heard Wednesday by the state Supreme Court, involves a Jefferson County father whose parental rights were terminated after he pled guilty to child molestation and sexual misconduct in…
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CHICAGO – The Illinois Commerce Commission on Thursday curtailed proposed rate hikes and rejected grid plans from two major electric utilities, mirroring a series of bombshell decisions rendered last month that cut increases for Illinois’ four largest gas utilities. The ICC rejected the pair of plans from Commonwealth Edison and Ameren Illinois that were…
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SPRINGFIELD – The U.S. Supreme Court issued two orders this week turning down requests to block enforcement of Illinois’ assault weapons ban while challenges to the law are still being heard in lower courts. On Wednesday, Justice Amy Coney Barrett turned down a request from Republican state Rep. Dan Caulkins, of Decatur, and other gun rights advocates…
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A little over six months after pushing Democrats in the General Assembly to pass a law targeted at limited services pregnancy centers, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul has agreed in a legal filing to stop the state’s enforcement of it. Raoul’s decision to permanently halt enforcement of the law came in an agreed order that…
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Gov. JB Pritzker on Friday signed into law a measure that will allow for the limited development of new nuclear power generation technology in the state. The measure, House Bill 2473, does not allow new large-scale power generation facilities like the six plants that are already operational in the state, but rather allows for new smaller-scale…
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CHICAGO – Certain detainees leaving Cook County jail will now be given a state ID card upon release in a new pilot program announced Monday by Sheriff Tom Dart and Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias. Inmates released from Illinois prisons have been receiving state IDs at no charge since late 2020 when state leaders launched…
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Over the years, Carrie Ward’s organization, the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault, has worked with law enforcement agencies and attorneys across the state on how to better understand the complexities of sexual violence cases. But one part of the criminal justice system has been largely absent from that training: judges.
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Gun owners face a Jan. 1 deadline to register their assault weapons with the state under Illinois’ assault weapons law. But between lawsuits and ongoing policymaking, the exact guns, accessories and ammunition covered under the Protect Illinois Communities Act remain unclear to many gun rights advocates, who point out that the ban includes some of the most…
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Pratt sees opportunity for 'new challenge' as he files to run for state's attorney in Hancock County
QUINCY — Christopher Pratt, an attorney in the Adams County Public Defender’s Office since 2016, filed last week to run for state’s attorney in Hancock County. Pratt, who was promoted to deputy chief public defender in 2020, filed as a Republican. He will face incumbent Bobi James in a primary on March 19. No Democratic…
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SPRINGFIELD – The Illinois Supreme Court ruled Thursday that automobile insurance policies must cover people against uninsured motorists and hit-and-run accidents, even if the person covered by the policy is not in a vehicle at the time of the accident. The case involved a 14-year-old Chicago boy, Cristopher Guiracocha, who was struck by a hit-and-run…
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By the end of the month, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey expects to complete work on the mountain of public records requests submitted to the office last year. That will allow the five-person team working through the Sunshine Law backlog to finally turn its attention to the nearly 300 pending requests filed since Bailey took…
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SPRINGFIELD – The Illinois Supreme Court ruled Thursday that people may obtain records about their own Firearm Owners Identification cards, but they may not use the state’s Freedom of Information Act to do so. In a 7-0 ruling, the court said the Illinois State Police acted properly when it denied FOIA requests from individuals who…
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The Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday ruled the state’s strongest-in-the-nation biometric information privacy law does have an exemption: health care workers who use fingerprints or similar scans to access things like medication, materials or patient health information. The nurses alleged their hospitals’ use of these medicine cabinets violated Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act by not…
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QUINCY — There was not baton or torch involved, but State Representative Randy Frese (R-Quincy) certainly made it clear he wants former Quincy mayor Kyle Moore to take his place in the Illinois Statehouse. “Over the course of the past eight years in, in my duties as a state representative, I’ve had the opportunity to…
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SPRINGFIELD – A group of temporary staffing agencies and their trade associations are asking a federal court to block enforcement of a new state law that governs how day laborers and temp workers are managed and paid. The lawsuit, filed earlier this month in Chicago, challenges several changes enacted this year to the Illinois Day and…
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QUINCY — Two Adams County countywide elected officials filed to run for re-election in 2024 on the first day of filing along with one other prospective office holder and a number of precinct committeemen and County Board candidates. Circuit Clerk Lori Geschwandner filed for re-election as a Democrat and Coroner Scott Graham filed as a…
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Monday morning marks the official beginning of the 2024 election cycle in Illinois, opening up the week-long period when candidates for local, state, congressional and judicial races are required to turn in the signatures they’ve spent the last two months collecting to get on the ballot. The first day of petition filing has traditionally taken…
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Missouri could be the first state with a near-total abortion ban to use the initiative petition process to restore access. But time is running short, with a May deadline to collect enough signatures looming and court battles over ballot summaries still plodding along. And while voters in Ohio became just the latest to overwhelmingly back abortion rights on…
Read Full Article The Illinois Supreme Court on Tuesday heard arguments in a case alleging the state’s 2019 law that consolidated nearly 650 individual police and firefighter pension funds actually hurt retirees by diluting their voting power. The nearly three-dozen pensioners and 17 individual pension funds that sued over the law have already lost twice in lower court.…
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SPRINGFIELD – Officials at the Illinois State Board of Education say they’re receiving more requests for increased funding for next year than the state could possibly afford, and they’re bracing for the possibility that budgets will start to tighten in the near future. “It does appear that revenue will be a little bit tighter in…
Read Full Article December 21, 2024
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