* Background is here and here if you need it. Despite Tom DeVore sticking his nose into the case, a Macon County judge has granted Rep. Dan Caulkins (R-Decatur) and others a TRO over the assault weapons ban. This is zero surprise since the 5th District appellate court allowed a similar motion to go through. Plaintiffs had asked for a statewide TRO, but the judge limited his order to cover only the plaintiffs. The order is here.

So, what happened to the DeVore intervention? From the court…

02/02/2023

Clerk presents file this date, the Court finds that Attorney Devore sent a Notice of Hearing on his Application to Intervene without first scheduling the matter for hearing with the Court and in violation of Circuit Court Rule 2.1(f) which requires 14 days notice. The Court has not had an opportunity to review the Application and issues in detail as the focus of the Court has been on the issues presented in Plaintiff’s Motion which was properly set for a quick hearing date due to the emergency nature of the motion, upon request of counsel. Accordingly, the Court will not hear the Petition to Intervene on February 3rd, 2023. Parties are directed to contact Judge Forbes’ Judicial Clerk to obtain a date and time for hearing on that application.

So much winning from the greatest legal mind this state has ever known.

* If you were ever curious how much Facebook ads cost to reach each person, this excerpt from a Change Illinois fundraising pitch gives you the answer…

Now that we have the [redistricting reform-focused candidate] survey responses, we need to reach as many Chicago residents as we can so they can review candidate responses before this month’s election. We’re running a digital ad that has already reached more than 7,000 Chicago residents, but we need your help to reach more!

It costs 4 cents to reach a Chicago resident with the ad below. Will you chip in $18 (or more) today to help us reach 450 more residents so we can make sure voters are informed before the election?

According to a Facebook ad library search, Change Illinois Action Fund has spent $304 on ads (really breaking the bank there, CI). So, at 4 cents per person, they’ve reached 7,600 FB users.

* Nancy Pelosi is doing a fundraiser for the House Democrats. Not the national House Democrats, the Illinois House Democrats…

On March 3, 2023 Democrats for the Illinois House will kick off Women’s History Month with a fundraising event celebrating women leaders in the House. In addition to Illinois leaders, the event designed to encourage, motivate and inspire women, will feature national trailblazer and history maker, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi.

“Women are leaders everywhere you look—from the CEO who runs a Fortune 500 company to the housewife who raises her children and heads her household,” says Pelosi. Our country was built by strong women, and we will continue to break down walls and defy stereotypes.”
Speaker Welch and Democrats for the Illinois House agree.

“Women are powerful. Whenever they have a seat at the table, whenever they bring their power and full selves to the table, we have better outcomes. We have stronger solutions. I am so proud of the group of women who will headline Women in Power and all of the women who serve in the House. They are my colleagues and my friends. They are some of the fiercest advocates for Illinois families that have ever graced the floor. I look forward to hearing them share their challenges and their triumphs to help power other women forward. ”

The event will be well attended by the women and men of Democrats for the Illinois House. Recognized House Leaders include Majority Leader Robyn Gabel, Speaker Pro Tempore Jehan Gordon Booth, Deputy Majority Leader Mary Flowers, Deputy Majority Leader Lisa Hernandez, Assistant Majority Leader Natalie Manley, Assistant Majority Leader Kelly Burke, Assistant Majority Leader Barbara Hernandez, and Majority Conference Chair Theresa Mah.

Women in Power will be held at RPM Seafood [ 317 N. Clark Street| Chicago] from 2-3 pm. There will be a private VIP reception for event sponsors from 1pm-2pm. Tickets are limited and can be purchased at https://secure.actblue.com/donate/women_in_power. Seating is limited. Pre-purchased tickets are encouraged.

* This WaPo piece is about US Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene heckling President Biden during the State of the Union address, but it could easily be applied to the same sort of candidates in Illinois…

Greene easily won the primary and then election in a district that backed Donald Trump by a 3 to 1 margin. So now she’s in Congress — and was a key ally of McCarthy in his struggle to be elected House speaker. Her willingness to throw bombs at her perceived opponents has made her a force in Republican politics, one that McCarthy clearly thinks is useful to keep close.

In other words, Greene is in Congress because her style of agitating the Republican base was useful in winning a primary in a deep-red district, winning election in a wildly pro-Trump one and in getting access to the core of Republican institutional power. And this, really, is the Republican Party’s central weakness, as made obvious in last year’s midterm elections: It is very, very good at energizing its base and not very good at appealing to everyone else.

You gotta wonder what the Eastern Bloc has in store for Gov. Pritzker next week during his State of the State/Budget address.

* Press release…

The Lee County Industrial Development Association (LCIDA) today announced the hiring of Tom Demmer as the organization’s new executive director. Demmer replaces Kevin Marx who is retiring after leading the organization since 2018.

Tom Demmer comes to LCIDA after having served for the past ten years as State Representative for the 90th district

* Live from the Statehouse…

Keep up the hustle, li'l buddy. pic.twitter.com/Cwc8o0Rbiz

— John Amdor (@JohnAmdor) February 8, 2023

* Isabel’s roundup…

* Forbes | The Illinois Voucher Law Is About To Ride Into The Sunset. Will Lawmakers Rescue It, Or Just Wave Goodbye?: Yeshivas Tiferes Tzvi Academy of Chicago reserves the right to expel any student whose family listens to secular music. Rockford Christian Schools will not enroll a “parent with a child at home.” Westlake Christian Academy of Greyslake will not admit students if they or their custodial parents maintain a “lifestyle” that violates biblical principles; this would include “promiscuity, homosexual behavior, or other violations of the unique God-give roles of male and female.” In fact, Westlake only accepts students from families in which one parent is “a born-again Christian.” These sorts of restrictions are common to many of the schools participating in the state’s voucher program. Taxpayers are footing the bill for this discrimination.

* ABC Chicago | Chicago alderman calls out Cardinal Blase Cupich over opposition to proposed city ordinance: Cardinal Cupich made the unusual move of weighing in on a proposed ordinance in city council. In a two-page letter to Mayor Lori Lightfoot and all 50 aldermen, the cardinal expressed concerns that includes requiring Catholic Charities to sign a labor peace agreement with union officials, which may result in higher wages that he says the archdiocese can’t afford.

* Philip Howard | Public unions are hurting Illinois: Amendment 1 to the Illinois Constitution, approved by referendum in November, was promoted as guaranteeing basic fairness for all workers. But it does something else — by prohibiting any new laws that might impinge on worker collective bargaining, Amendment 1 disempowers future elected officials from changing how government operates. Illinois voters will elect governors, mayors and legislators who have been disempowered from fulfilling their main constitutional responsibility: to make decisions on how to best operate government for the public good.

* Crain’s | Ramirez calls for more action on working-class issues in State of the Union response: And while she criticized Republicans on several issues, Ramirez said Democrats and Republicans have failed so-called Dreamers—immigrants seeking legal status—for more than a decade. These include her husband, Boris, who immigrated to the United States from Guatemala at age 14 and is awaiting the renewal of his status allowing him to work under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA.

* Bloomberg Law | Illinois Court Upholds Pritzker’s Tax Relief Pension Merger Law: Roughly 650 Illinois first responder pension plans must follow through with a statewide consolidation law aimed at lowering local property taxes that are ballooning because of pension liabilities, a state appeals court ruled.

* STLPR | Illinois spent decades refusing to repatriate Native American burial remains: The report, published last month, is part of the news organization’s Repatriation Project, which found that around half of the 210,000 Native American remains in the possession of museums have yet to be returned. The reporting project’s introduction noted, “Tribes have struggled to reclaim them in part because of a lack of federal funding for repatriation and because institutions face little to no consequences for violating the law or dragging their feet.”

* WaPo | Federal official warns $191 billion in covid unemployment aid may have been misspent: The new estimate — computed by Larry D. Turner, the inspector general of the Labor Department — galvanized House Republicans as they intensified their scrutiny of the roughly $5 trillion in emergency funds approved since the start of the crisis. Turner presented the information at a hearing Wednesday convened by Rep. Jason T. Smith (R-Mo.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, according to testimony shared early with The Washington Post.

* ABC Chicago | Chicago street vendors say city licensing requirements are hurting business: During a gathering of street vendors Tuesday, the issue was city licensing. Two representatives from the City’s Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection listened to concerns about fines due to restrictions with the current street cart license that does not allow for preparation on the cart of traditional street foods like elote, freshly cut corn slathered with mayonnaise, cheese and chilis.

* Chicago Reader | Mayoral debate was a poor night for Chicago: I heard a lot of the same old tried-and-failed ideas. Many candidates promised more police and tougher penalties. We hear these same things every election cycle. And how is that working out? Illinois has some of the strictest gun penalties in the country. If an individual possesses a firearm, discharges one, or discharged one to cause the death or serious injury in the commission of a felony, judges are required to add 15, 20, or 25 years, respectively, to their sentence. Despite that, Chicago still has violent crime and high rates of murder.

* Sun-Times | ‘Piles of mail,’ stolen IDs and key-making materials found in downtown Chicago hotel room: Police have released limited information about the probe, saying only that officers responded early Tuesday to an empty hotel room in the 200 block of North Wabash Avenue and “discovered various electronic items and … postal property.” Police radio traffic included a call of a “deceptive practice in progress” at the Virgin Hotel, 203 N. Wabash Ave. A caller had asked for the removal of two men from a room on the 18th floor, where there were “a lot of fraudulent checks,” credit cards and a money order.

* Farm Journal | Illinois Pork Announces New Leadership, Ambassador, Retiring Directors: The Illinois Pork Producers Association recently hosted their 2023 Expo in Springfield and acknowledged retiring IPPA directors, as well as announced new leadership and the next ambassador. Five retiring directors, serving Illinois pork producers in recent years, were acknowledged for their commitment to the industry.

* WCIA | To plunge or not to plunge? Illinois medical expert weighs in: Anne Orzechowski, a family medicine nurse practitioner, said plunges can help with chronic pain, release endorphins and decrease swelling, but only if you’re in the water for long amounts of time. For the most part, she said the risks outweigh the benefits.