Politics
SPRINGFIELD – Illinois overpaid unemployment benefits to the tune of $5.2 billion during the first 18 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, with much of it paid to fraudulent claimants, according to a comprehensive new audit. Included in that sum was $6 million paid to 481 dead people and $40.5 million in unemployment checks written to…
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Drivers who need to renew their license at a secretary of state facility will likely have to make an appointment starting this fall. Starting Sept. 1, 44 driver services facilities in medium- to large-sized cities around the state will require appointments for driver services – things like renewing a license, updating a license to meet…
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SPRINGFIELD – Gov. JB Pritzker and the state’s largest public employee union announced Tuesday that they have agreed on a new contract that will provide a nearly 18 percent pay raise over four years, including a 4 percent raise this year. The contract also expands parental leave to 12 weeks and calls for new joint…
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Ahead of next summer’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago, top Democratic officials on Tuesday signed a “labor peace agreement,” reinforcing Democrats’ longstanding ties to organized labor and limiting potential disruptions at the highly watched event. The deal means that the Democratic National Committee will use union labor when available and that the unions won’t strike…
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Child care providers who accept a subsidy from the state to serve low-income families will see a boost in payments next month, thanks to a $78.5 million funding increase approved by Missouri lawmakers earlier this year. The funding hike, included in the state budget signed by the governor, went into effect July 1. It won’t…
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The fentanyl epidemic is getting worse in Missouri, with record numbers of overdoses in the last four years and 2023 on course to be another record year. Data points to a nearly 75% increase in overdoses in Missouri since 2019, and last year was the second consecutive year that fentanyl accounted for over two-thirds of…
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SPRINGFIELD – Gov. JB Pritzker has spent much of his time in recent weeks promoting the state’s electric vehicle industry and touting the impact of his signature Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, or CEJA, including during a weeklong trade mission to the United Kingdom. On Friday, Pritzker was in Joliet where he joined other elected…
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QUINCY — Fourth District Appellate Court Justice Amy Lannerd has officially launched her campaign for a full term. Illinois Supreme Court Justice Lisa Holder White and her colleagues on the Supreme Court unanimously assigned Lannerd to the Illinois Appellate Court, and she was sworn in on Dec. 5, 2022. Lannerd filled the vacancy when Justice…
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QUINCY — As part of requirements of the National Voter Registration Act and Help America Vote Act, new voter registration cards are being mailed to all active Adams County voter during the month of July. If you do not receive a card and believe that you are currently an active voter of Adams County, contact…
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QUINCY — Adams County State’s Attorney Gary Farha said he wasn’t surprised with this week’s Illinois Supreme Court ruling that upheld a state law to virtually eliminate no cash bail. Farha said his office was told on Friday the action was coming. He said the Illinois General Assembly made amendments to the law during last…
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SPRINGFIELD — Without comment, the Illinois Supreme Court moved Monday to suspend the law licenses of former Commonwealth Edison CEO Ann Pramaggiore and ex-company lobbyist Michael McClain after their felony bribery convictions.
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SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Illinois is set to become the first state in the nation to eliminate cash bail after the state Supreme Court justices ruled Tuesday that a landmark criminal justice reform law did not violate the state’s constitution.
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QUINCY — While the agenda items were mostly nondescript at Monday night’s Quincy City Council meeting, the no-confidence vote taking against Mayor Mike Troup last week was still a point of discussion. Steve Kennedy, Republican committeeman for Quincy Precinct 27 and a former vice-chairman of the party’s Central Committee, asked both the mayor and the…
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Missouri’s school districts are struggling not just with a teacher shortage but a scarcity of bus drivers, custodians and other essential personnel. In the 2022-2023 school year, teachers with inadequate teaching certification taught more than 8 percent of Missouri public school classes, according to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. The crisis has led…
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After struggling for nearly a year to get federal food assistance to qualified low-income families, Missouri has decided not to participate in this summer’s program — forgoing tens of millions of dollars in federal aid. The problems administering the Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer program, or P-EBT, played a major role in the decision not to…
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CHICAGO — Alex Gough will begin a new role as Press Secretary. Gough previously served in Governor JB Pritzker’s office as Senior Deputy Press Secretary, a role he had held since March of 2022. Prior to that, Gough served as member of the Illinois Senate Democratic Caucus communications team and as a member of the Illinois…
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SPRINGFIELD – Veteran journalists Jennifer Fuller and Molly Parker will join Capitol News Illinois’ newsroom this month, expanding the outlet’s southern Illinois, broadcast and investigative presence. Fuller joins CNI as its broadcast director, bringing more than two decades of experience in Illinois radio, television and digital media to the newsroom as it plans to expand…
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CHICAGO — Michael Madigan’s former chief of staff reached out to a defense attorney for the then-powerful Illinois House speaker after he was approached by FBI agents in early 2019, then he called a longtime Madigan confidant and said he was “reporting in,” prosecutors say. While the feds do not argue those actions by Timothy…
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ST. LOUIS — For kids like Sandy Mitchell, Ted Theis and Janet Johnson, childhood in the North St. Louis County suburbs in the 1960s and ‘70s meant days playing along the banks or splashing in the knee-deep waters of Coldwater Creek. They caught turtles and tadpoles, jumped into deep stretches of the creek from rope…
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State revenues once again reached a record high in the fiscal year that ended June 30, creating what Gov. JB Pritzker called a “one-time” budget surplus of over $700 million. The $50.7 billion in base general revenues that the state collected in fiscal year 2023 – which exclude one-time pandemic-related federal funds – topped last year’s previous…
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Gov. Mike Parson on Thursday signed the tax cut he said a week earlier was responsible for his decision to veto most of the 201 spending items he cut from the state budget. The bill, exempting Social Security benefits and public pension payments from income tax, would reduce state general revenue by an estimated $309 million annually. It would also allow…
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SPRINGFIELD – The Illinois Department of Transportation unveiled a plan on Friday for spending nearly $41 billion in federal, state and local funds over the next six years to repair and upgrade roads, bridges, airports, rail lines and other infrastructure throughout the state. The latest version of the plan, which IDOT updates annually, is the largest…
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The state shouldn’t be responsible for paying people released after their convictions have been overturned, Gov. Mike Parson wrote explaining his veto of a bill that expands who is eligible for compensation for being wrongly imprisoned. Under current law, only someone shown to be innocent by means of a DNA test is eligible for compensation after being released.…
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SPRINGFIELD – Immigrants in Illinois with or without permission from U.S. immigration authorities will soon be able to obtain standard driver’s licenses that can be used for identification. Gov. JB Pritzker on Friday signed House Bill 3882, which will phase out the “Temporary Visitor Driver’s License,” or TVDL, which noncitizens currently use to drive legally in…
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A Cole County judge on Wednesday, June 28 ordered the state to pay more than $240,000 in legal fees as part of a ruling that found the attorney general’s office “knowingly and purposefully” violated open records law while it was being run by now-U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley. “A big win for transparency, election fairness and…
Read Full Article November 13, 2024
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