By Peter Hancock Illinois received its first credit rating upgrade in 23 years Tuesday when Moody’s Investors Services raised the State’s rating one notch, and cited “material improvement in the State’s finances.” Although the upgrade still leaves Illinois bonds rated just two notches above so-called “junk” status, governor JB Pritzker
By Peter Hancock The Illinois economy showed strong signs of recovery during the first quarter of this year when businesses continued to reopen from the pandemic and direct government payments flowed to businesses and individual consumers. Data released last week from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) showed the
By Roger Eddy The Spring session of the Illinois General Assembly is history. At the beginning of the session, there was renewed hope that critical aspects of Illinois government might change. After all, for the first time in decades, the House had a new speaker. After nearly 40 years as
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”
The Illinois House of Representatives voted last week to pass legislation co-sponsored by assistant minority leader, representative Keith Wheeler, R-Oswego, to impose a 10-year term limit on legislative leaders. The legislation is House Bill 642 and applies to the positions of speaker of the House, president of the Senate, and
I was a State agency director on three occasions back in the day, yet I don’t think I could navigate the maze of dozens of separate, and scattered, State and local social service agencies that have sprung up over the decades to address problems. It’s time for a major reset,
By Sarah Mansur Two Republican lawmakers Monday unveiled legislation to strengthen internal policies at State-run veterans homes in the case of a disease outbreak, such as the COVID-19 outbreak at the LaSalle Veterans’ Home that resulted in 36 resident deaths since the pandemic began last year. The bill, sponsored by
Illinois lawmakers are required to draw new legislative and congressional district maps this year, but that process may be thrown into chaos because of delays in producing the census numbers needed to draw equal districts. The U.S. Census Bureau announced Friday that due to the COVID-19 pandemic and other delays,
By Jerry Nowicki The State’s COVID-19 seven-day average case positivity rate dropped to 5.7% Tuesday, the lowest it has been since October 23, 2020. The positivity rate peaked at 13.2% on a rolling average as of November 13, 2020 and the entire State entered strict Tier 3 mitigations November 20.
By Sarah Mansur Editor’s note: This story is part of an ongoing “Lame Duck Look Back” series in which Capitol News Illinois is following up on the major bills that passed both chambers of the General Assembly in the January 8-13 lame duck session. The Illinois General Assembly last week
Second of two parts First part is at thevoice.us/state-law-enforcement-leadership-a-15-point-plan A coalition representing Illinois law enforcement leadership and rank-and-file officers issued a 15-point plan for a safety strategy. Here is the second part of that strategy. • School Resource Officers: Many school districts in the State are adding School Resource Officers
Written in quill pen, not literally; it was 1965, my master’s thesis was about “Leaderless Politics: The Illinois Republican Party.” Not much has changed. That was an era when party organization mattered. My thesis was that when Republicans lost control of the governorship, the party became leaderless. Not much has
First of two parts A coalition representing Illinois law enforcement leadership and rank-and-file officers has issued a 15-point plan in a Safe Communities and Law Enforcement Modernization Strategy. The proposal is designed to build trust and stronger relationships between law enforcement and the communities they serve. The Illinois Fraternal Order
The Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University asked me to do some noodling about the future of Illinois. I have mentioned it to several friends. The responses: A roll of the eyes; a belly laugh; a retort that it is too late to do anything about Illinois.
Politically, Illinois House speaker and State Democratic Party chairman Mike Madigan is a dead man walking. The recent ComEd admissions of a decade of bribery killed him. And so, the struggle for new leadership is under way, mostly behind the scenes for the moment. Madigan has more or less ruled
By Peter Hancock As the dust settled after Tuesday’s general election in Illinois, Republicans in the State patted themselves on the back after making gains, while high-ranking Democrats pushed back against embattled State party leader Michael Madigan. “I’m going to give ourselves an A because before Tuesday, the House Republicans
By Jerry Nowicki Expiration dates on Illinois driver’s licenses and State ID cards will be extended another three months, secretary of State Jesse White announce Wednesday, Sept. 23 White announced expirations for licenses and IDs will be extended until February 1, 2021, so the cards will remain valid throughout that
The recent passing of Illinois Republican governor Jim Thompson (1977-1990) begs the question: Can the Illinois Republican Party ever again capture the governor’s office? The only answer I can come up with is, unfortunately: Not likely, but not impossible. Here’s why. Jim Thompson served four terms, twice as many as
The recent admission by behemoth electric utility Commonwealth Edison that it repeatedly bribed minions of Illinois House speaker Mike Madigan for years (of course, Madigan knew nothing about all this; sure, right) was breath-taking for its brazenness. The bribery is a classic example of otherwise upright citizens fueling the culture
By JERRY NOWICKI One day before governor JB Pritzker’s budget address, House Republican lawmakers called for another “inclusive” and “bipartisan” effort at adopting a state budget without new taxes. “Let’s go back in time to last spring. Through a bipartisan effort and agreements in both chambers, we were able to
