By Peter Hancock Facial coverings are now optional in most public places in Illinois, including schools, after governor JB Pritzker issued new guidance Monday to comply with new U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. “Across the state, Illinoisans are taking their masks off today knowing that most eligible...
By Beth Hundsdorfer Republican lawmakers are calling for the passage of legislation that would allow Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) workers to carry pepper spray for self-defense when investigating allegations of child abuse. It comes weeks after the death of DCFS investigator Deidre Silas, who died while checking...
By Jason Crane At the Aurora city government Committee of the Whole (COW) meeting Tuesday, Feb. 15, Council members viewed a presentation about ShotSpotter, a gunshot detection, alert and analysis service, that is used for timely notification to law enforcement. The City Council gave unanimous consent to the resolution and...
By Jason Crane At the Aurora city government Committee of the Whole meeting Tuesday, mayor of Aurora, Richard Irvin expressed enthusiasm about the historic City government budget of more than a half billion dollars, $529 million. Mayor Irvin said, “For the first time in years, probably over a decade, I...
By John W. Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead We are living in an age of mayhem, madness, and monsters. Monsters with human faces walk among us. Many of them work for the U.S. government. What we are dealing with today is an authoritarian beast that has outgrown its chains and will...
By Jason Crane At the Aurora city government Committee of the Whole (COW) meeting Tuesday, mayor of Aurora, Richard Irvin presented the City’s next steps in challenging the results of the 2020 U.S. Census. Recently publicized and certified counts show Aurora decreasing in population by more than 17,000 individuals, or...
Congressman Bill Foster (D-IL) announced Tuesday, Sept. 21 that Two Rivers Head Start Agency in Aurora has been awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Education for $3,203,837. Two Rivers provides educational and community services for Kane and DeKalb Counties. The grant is to support their Head Start programming,...
By Jerry Nowicki The House sponsor of a long-debated ethics bill that failed in the House recently said she will bring it up for another vote if lawmakers come back to the Capitol within a 15-day constitutional window in which such an action would be allowed. The House leadership decided...
By Jerry Nowicki Within five miles of the scene of a 2019 workplace mass shooting that left six victims dead and five law enforcement officers injured, governor JB Pritzker signed a wide-ranging bill reforming the State’s gun laws Monday at the Aurora Police Department. Advocates for the new law, including...
After consulting with health authorities and reviewing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) latest masking guidance, the city government of Naperville will reinstate the use of face coverings for all visitors to government buildings which was set to begin Tuesday, Aug. 3. Participants in board and Commission meetings,...
By Jerry Nowicki Lawyers for Illinois’ Democratic Party legislative leaders last week filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit from Republicans and a Mexican American advocacy group regarding newly drawn legislative maps, calling the challenge “purely speculative” until full U.S. Census data is released. The motion, filed Friday, was an...
By Jerry Nowicki Democratic Party governor JB Pritzker announced Monday he will seek a second term, joined once again by Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton as a running mate. In a three-minute kickoff video ending with the tagline “strong leadership in tough times,” the governor emphasized his response to the COVID-19...
Democratic Party mapmakers in Springfield have crafted new legislative districts that are so laughably offensive to the Illinois Constitution that the State Supreme Court either would have to reject them outright, or confirm the Court’s unsavory reputation for partisan political corruptness. Illinois GOP leaders have challenged the remap in Federal...
Oswego Village president Troy Parlier recently was elected the president of the Board of Directors of the Metro West Council of Governments, an organization that represents Oswego and its neighbors in Springfield and Washington on legislation and policies that affect their residents. The MetroWest Council of Governments represents 33 municipalities...
By Jason Crane At the Aurora city government Committee of the Whole meeting Tuesday, the City Council focused on the good and the bad of the Fourth of July weekend. Mayor Richard Irvin said, “The Fourth of July experience was undoubtedly a memorable one.” Mayor Irvin made a reference to...
By John W. Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead “When you upload your DNA, you’re potentially becoming a genetic informant on the rest of your family.” — Law professor Elizabeth Joh Guilt by association has taken on new connotations in the technological age. All of those fascinating, genealogical, searches that allow you...
State representative Stephanie Kifowit, D-Oswego, issued the following statement upon the General Assembly’s adjournment of the Spring legislative session this week: “Earlier this year, we underwent a refreshing, long-sought-after change to House leadership as my colleagues and I came together to elect a new speaker of the House, Emanuel “Chris”...
By Jason Crane At the Aurora city government Committee of the Whole (COW) meeting Tuesday through the Zoom video conference platform, the City Council members gave unanimous consent to a resolution to authorize the mayor and City treasurer to complete loan documents and agreements required to complete the grant of...
President Joe Biden is proposing to spend more money than I knew existed, on infrastructure and children, families, free college, and much more. I am not opposed to spending all that money, so long as it is aimed at improving our Nation’s weak educational and social outcomes, and so long...
