By Sarah Mansur When a new year begins in Illinois, there typically are dozens if not hundreds of new laws going into effect. Not this year. Just like so many other things in this year, the legislative Spring session was stunted by COVID-19. Once the global pandemic reached Illinois in
By Sarah Mansur The U.S. Congress reached an agreement Monday evening on a roughly $900 Billion COVID-19 relief package that both extends unemployment benefits, provides stimulus checks to Americans within a certain income bracket and funds to small businesses, but it fell short of providing direct funding to State and
By Sarah Mansur Infection control efforts at the LaSalle Veterans’ Home have curbed the spread of the COVID-19 since a deadly outbreak began at the facility last month, according to officials who testified Wednesday before a House committee investigating the matter. That outbreak has caused at least 33 resident deaths,
By Peter Hancock Illinois’ presidential electors officially cast their 20 ballots Monday for the Democratic Party ticket of Joseph R. Biden and Kamala Harris, marking the all-but-final step in a bitterly-contested presidential election that incumbent president Donald Trump has refused to concede. “Today, all over the country, electors just like
By Sarah Mansur As the Illinois State government attempts to close a multi-billion-dollar budget-hole, Democratic Party House speaker Michael Madigan has said he is prepared to vote for an increase to the State’s flat income tax rate should governor JB Pritzker request it, a proposal met with pushback from his
By Sarah Mansur A COVID-19 outbreak at the veterans home in LaSalle that has killed a quarter of the residents over the span of a few weeks has prompted the chairman of a state House committee to open an investigation into the deaths. “I don’t know what it is or
By Jerry Nowicki Another 125 individuals who tested positive for COVID-19 were reported to have died in the previous 24 hours Tuesday, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health, to bring the death toll to 12,403 since the pandemic began. That came as the State reported another 12,542 new
By Peter Hancock The first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines to Illinois may be less than one-quarter of what officials had originally been told to expect. Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said Tuesday that the latest word from federal officials is that the first shipment may contain only
By Sarah Mansur Members of the State Senate Veterans Affairs Committee had pointed questions for officials with the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs about the agency’s response to an outbreak at the LaSalle Veterans’ Home that resulted in at least 27 resident deaths from COVID-19-related complications. The committee called for
By Peter Hancock Governor JB Pritzker Thursday, Nov. 19 put his own pressure on house speaker, Michael Madigan, and said the Democratic leader needs to answer questions from the press and the public or else resign. The governor’s comments during his daily COVID-19 briefing in Chicago came one day after
By Peter Hancock A bipartisan group of governors from seven Midwest states, including Illinois governor JB Pritzker, issued a joint plea Tuesday for residents of their states to take precautions against the spread of COVID-19 over the upcoming holiday weekend, even if that means avoiding travel and family get-togethers. “This
By Sarah Mansur Four restaurants in Sangamon County that continued to offer indoor dining in defiance of governor J.B. Pritzker’s COVID-19 mitigation plan were ordered to shut down temporarily Tuesday. The order from a Sangamon County judge states that the four restaurants, Charlie Parker’s Diner, D&J Cafe, Sweet Basil Cafe,
By Sarah Mansur An appeals court has handed down a favorable ruling to governor JB Pritzker in a legal challenge to his administration’s restrictions on bars and restaurants to curb the spread of COVID-19. The 2nd District Appellate Court overruled a Kane County judge’s decision to temporarily block Pritzker’s indoor
By Jerry Nowicki With no signs of slowing, key metrics measuring the spread of COVID-19, including hospitalizations, continue to push numbers not seen since April and May. The 4,742 individuals hospitalized in Illinois due to COVID-19 as of Monday night marked the highest number since May 8, which was right
By Jerry Nowicki Although nearly 3.6 Million Illinoisans had already voted by Monday morning, according to the Illinois State Board of Elections, nearly 2.3 Million ballots were still to be cast if the State is to match the 70.56% turnout of 2016. As of Monday, there were 586,709 mail-in ballots
By Jerry Nowicki Two more of the 11 regions of the State’s COVID-19 mitigation plan have reached a threshold necessitating increased restrictions, joining two other regions which remain above the key metric. Will and Kankakee Counties in Region 7 and DuPage and Kane Counties in Region 8 will be closed
By Jerry Nowicki The longest-serving State legislative speaker in U.S. history will have a challenger from his own party in January. The Thursday announcement that representative Stephanie Kifowit, D-Oswego, would challenge Chicago Democrat Michael Madigan as Illinois house speaker came just an hour before Republicans called a news conference to
By Raymon Troncoso Several State-regulated utilities have voluntarily extended a moratorium on disconnections into next year after requests from the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC). The ICC announced that Nicor Gas and Liberty Utilities have agreed to halt shutoffs due to missed or late payments for all residential customers until March
By Sarah Mansur Illinois House Republicans on a special committee investigating House speaker, Michael Madigan, in his role in a bribery scheme involving Commonwealth Edison sought to tie the longtime leader directly to the $1.3 Million in payments over nearly a decade made by the utility giant to his associates.
By Rebecca Anzel Four Republican lawmakers implored the co-leaders of a bipartisan, bicameral and multi-branch panel designed to present ethics and lobbying reform proposals to restart meetings that have stalled since the novel coronavirus outbreak. The call, made during an online news conference Monday by the Joint Commission on Ethics
