By Rebecca Anzel Ten frustrated Republican Party senators demanded governor JB Pritzker allow State offices tasked with processing unemployment claims to reopen in a letter sent exactly five months after Illinois’ first stay-at-home order was issued. The Department of Employment Security was widely reported to struggle with the historic influx
By Raymon Troncoso The Illinois Department of Human Services said the State is poised to have one of the top census response rates in the country despite two tumultuous months of changing deadlines as determined by the Donald Trump administration. Illinois sits at a 69.1% self-response rate as of Thursday,
By Rebecca Anzel Statues of two slave-owning men with historical ties to Illinois will be moved from the Statehouse grounds in Springfield to a secure storage site, a panel of four officials voted Wednesday, Aug. 19 morning. The decision comes almost six weeks after house speaker Michael Madigan asked the
By Peter Hancock A legislative panel that oversees the State’s administrative rulemaking process voted along partisan lines to allow governor JB Pritzker’s emergency rule to enforce mask-wearing and other public health orders to move forward. That decision came from the General Assembly’s Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, or JCAR, a
By Rebecca Anzel A group of Commonwealth Edison ratepayers asked a federal judge Monday to force the utility company, House speaker Michael Madigan, and others to pay “at least” $450 Million to be split among all those affected by an alleged extortion scandal. The number of affected ratepayers could rise
By Peter Hancock Financial aid is about to start flowing for Illinois businesses that have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity published emergency rules this week to implement the Business Interruption Grant program, or BIG. Those rules took effect July 21 when they
By Jerry Nowicki COVID-19 cases are on the rise throughout the State and governor JB Pritzker is hoping a new $5 Million State advertising campaign will help slow the spread of the novel coronavirus by encouraging use of face coverings. Pritzker announced the campaign, which has the tagline “It only
By Jerry Nowicki The State Wednesday, July 29 released new guidelines for youth and recreational sports that will drastically limit allowable activities based on the risk of spreading the novel coronavirus. Governor JB Pritzker announced the new guidelines at a COVID-19-related news conference in Chicago Wednesday, calling it a “situation
By Jerry Nowick The Illinois Department of Public Health announced another 1,076 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Illinois Tuesday as the rolling, seven-day test positivity rate remained at 3.8%. IDPH reported that the rolling positivity rate in Region 4 of the state’s COVID-19 mitigation plan, which includes the Metro East
As one who scribbles largely about things Illinois, I feel almost obligated to observe on the bombshell, certainly for the small fraternity that follows Illinois politics, news that utility ComEd has agreed to pay a $200 Million fine for bribery of Illinois officials. The announcement by the U.S. attorney’s office
By Raymon Troncoso More than 200 federal agents will head to Chicago this week when State and local officials take a more measured tone of acceptance after railing against a potential federal surge earlier in the week. That’s because the Donald Trump Administration has offered assurances that the Illinois operations,
By Peter Hancock Republicans in the Illinois House Tuesday, July 21 called on Democratic governor JB Pritzker to convene a special session of the General Assembly to focus on ethics reform. During a video news conference, repsentatives Grant Wehrli, Deanne Mazzochi, and Dan Ugaste said there is an urgent need
By Rebecca Anzel The Illinois Supreme Court announced last week that it approved a change to rules governing eviction proceedings that will simplify the process for both landlords and tenants. The rule change mandates that property owners must file all related documents simultaneously when they file a complaint. That includes
By Peter Hancock One of the State’s largest teachers’ unions said Monday that most schools in Illinois are not yet ready to reopen for in-person teaching in the fall and it urged schools to continue operating remotely until the safety of students, teachers, and staff members can be assured. “At
By Jerry Nowicki Governor JB Pritzker encouraged Illinoisans to complete the 2020 U.S. Census and touted a State investment in youth employment programs Thursday during two public appearances in Rockford. The state has a 66.9% census self-response rate currently. That’s nearly five percentage points better than the 62.1% national rate,
By Jerry Nowicki Hours after filing a court document implicating, but not charging, Illinois’ house speaker Michael Madigan in a years long bribery scheme, federal officials took to the courtyard of the Dirksen Federal Building in Chicago on Friday to deliver a message to those engaging in public corruption: “We
By Jerry Nowicki The State’s COVID-19 test positivity rate remained at three percent Monday when the Illinois Department of Public Health reported 883 new confirmed cases of the virus. The 30,012 test results reported Monday followed more than 70,000 total reported the previous two days, driving Illinois to more than
By Peter Hancock Illinois House speaker Michael Madigan Thursday, July 9 called for removing statues and portraits of the 19th Century U.S. senator Stephen A Douglas from the Statehouse along with other known slaveholders. “While reading Sidney Blumenthal’s book ‘All the Powers of Earth’ concerning the pre-Civil War period a
By Jerry Nowicki Days after the governor donated $51.5 Million of his personal fortune to a committee supporting a graduated income tax constitutional amendment, a new coalition has begun an effort to defeat the measure. At stake is governor JB Pritzker’s signature policy proposal, a constitutional amendment scrapping the state’s
By Jerry Nowicki The U.S. Department of Labor released statistics Thursday showing 705,878 Illinoisans received unemployment insurance for the week ending June 20. While that was a decrease of 4,401 continued unemployment claims overall from the previous week, according to the data, the State still saw 46,005 new initial claims
