Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough has been hospitalized with an undisclosed illness, her government spokesperson said Tuesday.
Yarbrough, 73, has a “serious medical condition and is currently undergoing medical treatment,” her deputy clerk of communications, Sally Daly, said. “Her family is requesting privacy, and we ask for prayers for the Clerk and her family at this difficult time.”
Daly did not say when Yarbrough was hospitalized or whether the clerk had been working during the recent primary election. In addition to managing suburban elections, the clerk’s office is in charge of certain property tax and business records, legislation at the Cook County Board and vital records such as marriage and birth certificates.
* Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson…
Today, Mayor Brandon Johnson appointed Dr. Cristina Pacione-Zayas as Chief of Staff to the Mayor. Pacione-Zayas, a distinguished leader born and raised in Chicago, with an extensive background in public service, policy development, and advocacy, steps into her new role today after serving as the First Deputy Chief of Staff. She will serve as the City’s first Latina chief of staff.
“Cristina’s unparalleled dedication to our city, her depth of knowledge on critical issues affecting our neighborhoods like housing, community safety and education, and her proven track record of leadership make her the ideal person to serve as my next chief of staff,” said Mayor Brandon Johnson. “I am confident that together, we will continue to make strides toward a better, stronger, safer Chicago.”
Dr. Pacione-Zayas brings to the position a wealth of experience gained from her service in the Illinois State Senate, where she served on several key committees including Early Childhood, Education, Education Appropriations, Health, Higher Education, Human Rights, and Revenue. Her contributions as secretary to the Illinois State Board of Education, the Illinois Early Learning Council, the Legislative Audit Commission, the BUILD Initiative, the Illinois Crime Reduction Task Force, State Designated Cultural Districts Advisory Committee, and the Title V Needs Assessment Advisory Committee have been instrumental in shaping policies to support a spectrum of public programs and services across the state.
“I am deeply honored to serve as Chief of Staff for Mayor Brandon Johnson and the City of Chicago,” said Dr. Cristina Pacione-Zayas. “This role presents a unique opportunity to advance our collective vision for a city determined to deliver equity and opportunity for all, and I am committed to leveraging every resource and partnership to make this vision a reality.”
* Senate Republicans…
In the wake of a decision by Governor JB Pritzker’s Prisoner Review Board to release a dangerous felon with a history of domestic violence accused of murdering an 11-year-old boy less than 24 hours after his release, the Illinois Senate Republican Caucus is introducing fundamental reforms that would put victims first, remove politics from the appointment process, and hold members accountable for their decisions.
Crosetti Brand is accused of stabbing a former girlfriend, Laterria Smith, and killing her son Jayden as the boy attempted to defend his pregnant mother from Brand’s brutal attack. The murder occurred just a day after Brand was released by the PRB. In February, while on parole, Brand sent Smith messages threatening to kill her, and tried to break into her home. This violation of his parole landed him back in the State’s custody while the PRB could reconsider his parole. Despite the threats, the boy’s mother seeking an order of protection, and Brand’s history of domestic abuse that included orders of protection from four different women, the Pritzker-appointed PRB voted to release him.
“This never should have happened,” said Illinois Senate Republican Leader John Curran (R-Downers Grove). “Many areas of our criminal justice system failed Ms. Smith and her heroic son, but at the end of the day, it was Governor Pritzker’s Prisoner Review Board that released this violent criminal despite overwhelming evidence that he was a danger to his victims and to the general public.”
At a news conference Tuesday, Curran unveiled legislation that would implement a number of reforms to improve how the Prisoner Review Board operates. Curran’s legislation would:
Put Victims First
- Requires the Prisoner Review Board to immediately inform a victim of the early release of a prisoner from State custody or of the prisoner’s pardon, commutation, furlough, granting of sentence credit, or following a final revocation hearing when an individual has violated the conditions of their mandatory supervised release if the victim has previously requested notification of that information. If they have not, the board is to make every possible effort, which must be documented, to contact the victim.
- Requires members of the board to complete yearly mandatory training on domestic violence and sexual assault so they may better understand these crimes impact the women and children who often become victims.
Put Experience Ahead of Politics
- Requires that appointees to the Prisoner Review Board must have at least 20 years of cumulative experience in the criminal justice system.
- Experience in the criminal justice system is defined as time spent as either a prosecutor, criminal defense attorney, judge, probation officer, or public defender.
Increase Transparency and Hold PRB Accountable
- Requires the PRB to make written notice public within 24 hours of a decision to release in cases following a final revocation hearing when an individual has violated the conditions of their mandatory supervised release.
- Provides that notification must include votes from the members of the board and any relevant notes about information presented in the case, as well as notes about the board’s deliberations on the case.
The Senate Republican legislative package is two-fold, focusing both on reforms to the PRB and on more severe consequences for repeat domestic abusers like Crosetti Brand, who had previous convictions for home invasion causing injury and violating an order of protection.
State Senator Steve McClure (R-Springfield), who sits on the Executive Appointments Committee, will also be introducing legislation that will:
Protect Victims of Domestic Violence
- Increases the penalties for violating an order of protection.
- Provides that for a first-time violation, the penalty increases from a misdemeanor to a class 4 felony; and from a previous conviction, it increases from a class 4 to a class 3 felony. […]
Senate Republicans view this legislation as a first step in the larger process of reforming how the Prisoner Review Board operates. The Senators noted that in this particular case, Pritzker’s Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) was also complicit. IDOC was notified of Lateria Smith’s attempt to get another order of protection following Brand’s attempted home invasion three weeks before but failed to make the information available to the PRB.
Who is the rightful heir to Abraham Lincoln’s old U.S. House seat? The district he represented from 1847 to 1849 is currently split between five seats. Here’s how it’s now divided:
* WBEZ | How Eileen O’Neill Burke won the razor-thin primary for Cook County state’s attorney: Harris captured nearly 400 precincts by 50 percentage points or more, compared to about 300 such precincts for O’Neill Burke. Harris was strongest in precincts on the South and West sides of Chicago and throughout the south suburbs and near west suburbs. But O’Neill Burke captured nearly 460 more precincts than Harris overall. Her strongest showings came in precincts on the Northwest and Southwest sides of the city and near downtown. O’Neill Burke also scored big in the near northwest and near southwest suburbs. She carried more than twice as many precincts as Harris — 991 to 430 — in suburban Cook County.
* Crain’s | After nearly a decade, Walgreens kickback lawsuit by whistleblowers can go forward: A federal judge has given the green light for a whistleblower lawsuit contending that Walgreens violated U.S. and Illinois false claims statutes by steering Medicare and Medicaid patients to its own pharmacy by waiving co-pays. In a case that’s been kicked around for about a decade after several amendments and U.S. and Illinois governments trying to hop aboard, Judge John F. Kness of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois ruled on March 29 that the complaint brought by two former Walgreens pharmacy technicians could continue. However, Kness dismissed an accompanying complaint by the state of Illinois.
* Sun-Times | Clark Street closure for outdoor dining ‘pending mayoral review,’ Ald. Reilly says: “It was amazing, what it did to the area,” The Smith General Manager Eric Scofield said. “[Clark Street] didn’t close until mid-July last year, and as soon as that happened, the foot traffic and environment in the area just became so much more vibrant … it was just a really kind of fun atmosphere in an otherwise bustling city.”
* Crain’s | These Chicagoans traded their Ventra cards for car keys: Penn is part of a growing cluster of frustrated CTA riders who are swapping their Ventra cards for car keys as the transit agency struggles to get back to pre-pandemic service levels. At CTA President Dorval Carter’s City Council appearance in February, transit advocates pointed to friends who had abandoned the CTA and become first-time car owners since COVID hit. In interviews with lapsed riders, Crain’s found that reliability stood out as the main reason for leaving the system, though other issues, including safety and cleanliness, played major roles for their exits.
* Crain’s | Bally’s shareholder blasts chairman’s ‘woeful’ takeover bid: In a sharply worded letter slamming “moon shot bets” and accusing Chairman Soo Kim of trying to take over the company “at a fraction of its fair value,” two investors are calling on Bally’s board to reject Kim’s “woefully undervalued” bid and reboot its overall strategy — including rethinking its Chicago plans.
* Fox 2 Now | Western Illinois University waives application fee for the month of April: The universities Assistant Vice President for Student Success and Enrollment is hoping this will bring more applications to the college. “We hope to see an uptick. And as I mentioned, just taking one financial burden off of the plate, so students can at least apply and see if, entering WIU and pursuing their degree is something that they are interested in,” said Justin Schuch.
* Block Club | Chicago Is The Deadliest City For Migrating Birds. Here’s How Advocates Want To Fix It: Advocates want the bird safety building requirements to be mandatory in an update to Chicago’s Sustainable Development Policy, which is set to be released this month, Prince said. […] The current sustainable development policy, last updated in 2016, doesn’t require developers to implement bird-safety measures. Instead, it uses a point system to reward developers who commit to protecting birds.
* NYT | Tesla’s Sales Drop, a Sign That Its Grip on the E.V. Market Is Slipping: Tesla said it delivered 387,000 cars worldwide in the first quarter, down 8.5 percent from 423,000 vehicles in the same period last year. This was the first time Tesla’s quarterly sales have fallen on a year over year basis since a modest drop at the start of the pandemic in 2020. The sales figures were also significantly lower than the estimates of Wall Street analysts who had expected a modest increase.
* Illinois Times | Photographing history: Lee Milner reflects on his life and career : After Milner came back to Springfield from Washington, a legislator friend of his asked then-state Rep. Bill Redmond, a DuPage County Democrat who had recently been elected speaker of the Illinois House and was building out his staff, to consider hiring Milner. Milner became Redmond’s assistant press secretary and worked for Redmond from 1975 to 1979.
* SJ-R | Eclipsing expectations: Why experts say this celestial event might make you gasp: Reif, who is planning a return trip to DuQuoin, said the event can’t be oversold. “It is absolutely humbling,” Reif said. “I’m a geologist. We study big things, and we think we understand it all and then you have this moment where you can see the movement of the heavens, literally.”
Rolling up to a Tesla charging port, Illinois Republican state Sen. Dan McConchie grimaced that wheelchair users like him couldn’t use it—or any of the others at the gas station where he filmed his Instagram reel. They’d all been placed on a raised surface that he couldn’t readily reach. McConchie introduced a state bill to improve relevant accessibility standards, including electric car chargers. But it’s a national problem: Electric vehicle charging stations are often inaccessible, despite being designed and built decades after the Americans with Disabilities Act became law.
By April 2023, the Department of Energy reported, there were more than 140,000 public EV charging ports in the US, up from around 80,000 just three years earlier. The number of charging ports accessible to disabled drivers isn’t easy to pin down, an issue in itself; Department of Transportation data estimates that half of disabled adults under 65, some 10 million people, drive themselves around. By 2030, there will be more than 25 million electric vehicles on US roads, according to industry group Edison Electric Insitute. That includes a growing share of more affordable plug-in hybrids, driving even more demand for charging infrastructure. But for drivers with disabilities, inaccessible chargers make it a lot less appealing to switch: In a 2022 UK survey, though two-thirds of disabled drivers planned to go electric, most—more than 70 percent—said concerns about inaccessible infrastructure factored in. And in a society that considers EVs key to a more sustainable future, the spread of inaccessible chargers signals that disabled people have been left behind. […]
Coming up with more effective ways for disabled people to access EV chargers isn’t always straightforward. Many are on raised platforms in parking lots. Car-to-car differences mean accessible parking spots can’t necessarily become EV stations. Building more municipal chargers on sidewalks near pedestrian ramps could let wheelchair users plug in more easily. These chargers would also help clear sidewalks blocked by the long, hefty cords of household chargers used by some drivers without garages.
Winchester-area native and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Ray Long’s in-depth work The House That Madigan Built moves to paperback after a successful two-year run in hard back for the University of Illinois Press. The book is a lengthy view of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s 36 years as House Speaker, and 38-year leadership of the Democratic Party of Illinois.
Long’s career of covering the Capitol in Springfield coincided with Madigan’s rise to power.
Long says it was important to have the full picture of Madigan’s time in Springfield from beginning to end: “I feel pretty good about the book going to paperback. I thought that it was an important book to write because a lot of people have not followed Madigan closely but they have kind of a gut reaction about him, most often times its negative, especially in recent years. The book lays it out, I believe, on the things that he did that either drew a lot of praise or scrutiny. There were things that he did that got him in trouble. He used the power of politics to push his agenda and pushed his personal political power. The book largely covers the time that he was a legislative leader, which happened to be in 1981 and that also happened to be the first year that I covered Springfield.”
Long says he watched all of the highs and lows of Madigan’s career and tried to portray it objectively and let people make their own conclusions.
A new book by Chicago Tribune reporter Gregory Pratt offers an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look into Lightfoot’s tumultuous time in office that ultimately led to her failed bid for reelection.
“It’s fundamentally an inability to have political relationships and to work with people who you don’t like,” Pratt said. “It’s adapt or die, and she was a prosecutor and she couldn’t get out of that mindset.”
Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Gov JB Pritzker in the early days of COVID when she was dragging her feet, second guessing his moves and commenting on his visit to her conference room, via my book The City is Up for Grabs (now available for sale wherever books are sold) pic.twitter.com/5ZFjzPwvxM
Pratt hoped to talk to Lightfoot for the book, though “by the time 2022 came around, it was clear she was in her bunker and she was not coming out.”
“I was hoping that she would come around, because we’d always had good conversations even about difficult subjects. But by the end, she came to believe that everyone was against her.”
Pratt’s big takeaway? Leaders “have to be open to new ideas and understand soft power in addition to hard power … and be willing to make mistakes,” Pratt says.
“You can’t take things personal, and if you do, you can’t show that to the world at every moment and say ’screw you, poor me.’”
“I think that, when we look back, we’re going to see one of the most critical four years in the history of Chicago,” he told WBBM. “I thought it was important to document it in detail so that people could understand what exactly happened — where we went wrong and where we went right — and we can take some lessons for future generations.”
Pratt described Lightfoot as “an unsuccessful mayor who did a lot of good things but also screwed up a lot of problems.”
“You don’t get rejected by 85% of your voters because you did a great job,” he said.
Lightfoot became the first openly gay Black woman to serve as mayor not only of Chicago, but of any major U.S. city, after she defeated Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle in the 2019 mayoral election.
* WBEZ spoke with Patrick Wohl about his new book…
Long before there was Bush v. Gore and the “dimpled chad” fiasco in Florida, there was Penny Pullen and Rosemary Mulligan, two suburban Chicago Republicans vying for the same statehouse seat in a race so close, it was decided at points by a handful of votes, a coin toss and eventually the Illinois Supreme Court.
Reset dives into a new book examining the significance of that race, the way it changed how we count votes today and why every vote counts.
[Patrick] Wohl, a Park Ridge native and 2012 graduate of Maine South High School, grew up hearing about the 1990 Republican primary for state representative, in which Penny Pullen and Rosemary Mulligan battled for the nomination in one of the closest races in Illinois history. The local election became a proxy fight on the question of legalized abortion, drawing national interest and money into the district.
“Growing up, it was this legendary story that people talked about,” he said. “You know, back in the day, this race was so close that they flipped a coin. I had no idea that it had gained all this national attention or had anything to do with abortion before I started going back to research it.”
The more he dove into the race — the coin flip was, in fact, true — the more he was drawn into the story. Four years later, the election is the subject of his first book: “Down Ballot: How a Local Campaign Became a National Referendum on Abortion.” […]
“When you look at the polls in Illinois now, it’s easy to forget that this was such a contentious issue 30 years ago,” Wohl said. “It was a 50-50 issue. You had Catholic Democrats who opposed abortion. Black Democrats opposed it, based on faith. You also had a lot of suburban Republicans who were supportive of abortion rights. This was a Republican primary, and it was an issue that split the party.”
In 2020, for instance, only 28% [of Illinois registered voters] voted in the primary — a low amount that can be attributed in part to Trump, as an incumbent, facing no competition on the Republican side and Biden having largely sewn up the Democratic nomination. But in the general election that November, nearly 73% of registered voters turned out, the best showing since 1992.
Sen. Dick Durbin was also unopposed in the primary that year.
We’ve seen a lot of hot takes about making changes to laws because of turnout last month. Turnout was indeed low, but Illinois had no other statewide races on the ballot besides POTUS (this happens every 12 years here). And turnout was not nearly as low as was initially reported because lots of mailed, provisional and maybe even some early ballots hadn’t yet been counted by election night.
* Even so, some folks want Illinois to become a “multi-party primary” state. Definition…
A small but growing number of states hold a single primary in which all candidates, regardless of party, are listed on a single ballot. States vary in the number of candidates who advance out of this primary to the general election. For example, California and Washington use a “top-two” primary format in which each candidate lists his or her party affiliation or, in Washington’s case, a party “preference.” The top two vote-getters in each race, regardless of party, advance to the general election.
Elections for Nebraska’s unicameral, nonpartisan legislature closely mirror this process except ballots do not identify the candidates’ party. (Nebraska uses open primaries for other state offices). Alaska uses a similar system except four candidates advance to the general election instead of two.
Advocates of the “top-two” format argue that it increases the likelihood of moderate candidates advancing to the general election ballot. Opponents maintain it reduces voter choice by making it possible that two candidates of the same party face off in the general election. They also contend it is tilted against minor parties who will face slim odds of earning a spot on the general election ballot.
Other options include allowing voters to choose one candidate in each race regardless of party. Others believe voters should have the right to choose their own party ballot without anyone else knowing about it. Some states require people to register as a party member in order to vote in a primary. More here.
* The Question: Should Illinois change its primary system? Explain either way. Thanks.
“The Illinois House is now grappling with a proposal to eliminate the tip credit provision from the minimum wage law. While I choose to believe there are good intentions here, I know – as intimately as one can – that the legislation will actually hurt the workers it seeks to help in addition to increasing the burden to small businesses.”
- Eric Williams, Bronzeville Winery, Chicago
Two massive industrial sites that symbolize Chicago’s manufacturing decline — a former steel mill on the South Side and a former refinery in the southwest suburbs — could get new life in the race to build cutting-edge technology.
PsiQuantum is considering the former U.S. Steel South Works site and the former Texaco refinery in Lockport for a facility to build and operate quantum computers, which could result in more than 1,000 jobs, sources familiar with the project tell Crain’s. A decision could come in the next six weeks. […]
Landing the company would go a long way to fulfilling Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s vision of turning Illinois into “the Silicon Valley of quantum development,” adding to a streak of economic-development wins over the past two years that includes electric-vehicle and battery manufacturing projects involving Stellantis and Gotion. It also would bring a long-awaited revitalization to one of two industrial sites in the Chicago area that had been left for dead. In the case of South Works, it would provide a long-sought catalyst to revitalize a neighborhood badly in need of an economic boost. […]
The massive, long-fallow lakefront property has stumped developers for years on how to repurpose it, with multiple suitors wary of unknown costs to clean up the land’s contaminated soil. But sources familiar with the property said a new developer is entering the mix: Related Midwest, which is believed to be closing in on an option to buy the entire 440-acre site in connection with the quantum project. Representatives from PsiQuantum met with officials from Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office on the project last week, according to two sources familiar with the meeting.
California-based PsiQuantum is part of a select group leading the development of quantum computers, a technology poised to revolutionize various fields. The company seeks a location capable of sustaining cryogenic facilities crucial for operating quantum computers. Initial estimates indicate the creation of 250 to 1,000 jobs, with prospects for expansion in the future. […]
Illinois’ quantum investment, backed by $200 million funding and initiatives like the Chicago Quantum Exchange, has already attracted substantial federal research grants. The state now competes with Colorado for additional federal funding, aiming to establish itself as the nation’s quantum industry epicenter. […]
The prospective project involves colossal investments, spanning two facilities covering 500,000 square feet and demanding significant power and water resources.
* Related…
* WAND | Pritzker, Bloch tech leaders excited for next phase of quantum research: Pritzker announced an ambitious multi-year plan Monday for a Chicago quantum facility to develop technology solutions for fraud detection, grid resilience and drug discovery. The Bloch Tech Hub submitted this idea while applying for the second round of funding through the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s Regional Technology and Innovation Hub Program.
*WGN | Pritzker announces plan to make Chicago quantum technology capital: On Monday, top executives from Fortune 500 companies like IBM and Microsoft joined leaders of tech start-ups and professors from top universities as Pritzker announced a plan for the state to invest $500 million in efforts that would cement Illinois’ status as the nation’s leading quantum tech hub.
Jails largely act independently so it’s up to each to set and enforce policies and procedures, she said. While the Illinois Department of Corrections has a jail and detention standards unit, which oversees county jails, the department does not have policies on reproductive health, the report said. […]
Illinois does have some standards for how pregnant people should be treated in detention. In 2000, Illinois became the first state to ban shackling an incarcerated person while they’re in labor.
Then in 2012, the state banned shackling throughout the entire term of a person’s pregnancy, but only in Cook County. The Illinois Reproductive Health Act does extend protections to people who are incarcerated. […]
A bill to ban the use of leg irons and shackles on pregnant people inside Illinois’ county jails passed a state House committee Friday. The bill would also require that pregnant and lactating people incarcerated in jails get extra rations of food, and it would allow for electronic ankle bracelets to be removed from them during labor and delivery.
Amends the County Department of Corrections Law. In provisions about pregnant prisoners, modifies the definitions of “post-partum” and “correctional institution”, including that “correctional institution” includes institutions in all counties (rather than only in counties more than 3,000,000 inhabitants). Modifies and removes provisions relating to security restraints on a prisoner who is pregnant or in postpartum recovery. Adds provisions relating to annual reports by sheriffs documenting the number of pregnant prisoners in custody each year and the number of people who deliver or miscarry while in custody, relating to county department of corrections providing informational materials concerning the laws pertaining to pregnant prisoners to any pregnant or postpartum prisoner, and relating to supplemental nutrition for prisoners who are pregnant or lactating. Amends the Unified Code of Corrections and the County Jail Act making similar changes. In the Unified Code of Corrections, also adds language relating to restraints of committed persons who are pregnant. Amends the Health Care Violence Prevention Act. In provisions relating to pregnant prisoners, removes a limitation on the provisions to pregnant prisoners in the custody of the Cook County. Provides that restraint of a pregnant prisoner shall comply with specified provisions of the Counties Code, the Unified Code of Corrections, and the County Jail Act (rather than only the Counties Code provisions).
Representative La Shawn Ford (D-8th) is opposed to HB 4045, which will allow non-citizens to apply to become Chicago firemen if they have a work permit. Ford says the bill fails to rectify the discrimination he says still exists within the Chicago Fire Department. […]
Standing his ground and making his position clear, Ford said, “Passing this bill without addressing the underlying issues of discrimination and inequity within our Fire Department will only exacerbate the problem. It would ignore the ongoing struggle of marginalized communities who have been systematically excluded from fair employment practices. […]
The bill amends the Illinois Municipal Code and the Fire Protection District Act. It provides that an individual who is not a citizen but is legally authorized to work in the United States under federal law is authorized to apply for the position of firefighter, subject to all requirements and limitations, other than citizenship, to which other applicants are subject. The bill became effective January 1, 2024.
The controversial HB 4045 was introduced by Rep. Barbara Hernandez (D-50th) and supported by and sponsored by Reps. Edgar Gonzalez, Jr. (D-23rd), John M. Cabello (R-90th), Travis Weaver (R-93rd) and Angelica Guerrero-Cuellar (D-22nd).
…Adding…Republican Reps. John Cabello, Bradley Fritts, Jeff Keicher and Brad Stephens were removed as sponsors in early March. Rep Travis Weaver was removed as a sponsor last year.
As originally filed, House Bill 4045 would amend the Illinois Municipal Code and the Fire Protection District Act by establishing that non-citizens legally authorized to work in the country under federal law are eligible to apply for the position of firefighter subject to all other requirements and limitations.
“I hope that the sponsor pulls the bill and we have a bill that deals with hiring practices and also makes sure that we have some type of standards in place because these are taxpayer dollars,” Ford told The Center Square. “You can’t have racism and discrimination in your hiring and promotion practices and everyone should have equal opportunity to be hired in these positions.” […]
Ford added one change he would like to see is fire department doing more recruitment on the campuses of high schools, city colleges and trade schools along with the pools of unemployed people “to create a pipeline of diverse candidates.”
HB4045 was amended by dropping the non-citizen language, but keeping language saying firefighters can be any “individual who is legally authorized to work in the United States.” The measure passed the House Police and Fire Committee last month and awaits further floor action.
* Press release…
Advisory: Illinois Senate GOP to unveil legislation to reform Prisoner Review Board
WHO: Illinois Senate Republican Leader John Curran (R-Downers Grove)
State Senator Jason Plummer (R-Edwardsville)
State Senator Steve McClure (R-Springfield)
WHAT: Zoom press conference to discuss deadly agency failings and Senate GOP policy solutions to improve public safety.
State Senator Erica Harriss (56th-Glen Carbon) has filed and passed a bill out of committee to help combat ongoing trash and debris issues from landfills in Madison and St. Clair counties. […]
Senate Bill 3566 would require any landfill in any county with a population over 250,000 to provide facilities at landfill locations for the cleaning of mud, gravel, waste and other material from wheels and undercarriages of trucks and other vehicles leaving the site. […]
Currently, the Illinois Environmental Protection Act only requires landfills in counties with populations over 270,000 (Cook, DuPage, Lake, Will, Kane, McHenry and Winnebago counties) to have the wheel washing requirements.
SB 3566 unanimously passed the Environment and Conservation committee and Senator Harriss hopes to present the legislation to the full Senate for a vote upon returning from spring recess.
House Bill 3239, sponsored by state Rep. Maura Hirschauer, D-Batavia, would obligate Illinoisans who want to buy a firearm to go through eight hours of training and other requirements. The bill is in the House Judiciary Criminal Committee, which is scheduled to meet in Springfield Tuesday. Her office said she will not be calling the bill this week. […]
A FOID card is required in Illinois for residents to own or purchase firearms and ammunition. According to numbers from Illinois State Police, over 2.4 million Illinois residents possess FOID cards, nearly 19% of the state’s 12.7 million people. The greatest number of these cards have been issued in Cook County, with over 730,000 active cards at the end of 2023. Champaign County had issued 34,144. […]
HB3239 would require Illinois residents who want to buy a firearm to undergo eight hours of mandatory training approved by the director of the Illinois State Police. […]
Students Demand Action of Illinois are proponents of the bill. There are 15 proponents and nearly 1,800 opponents.
* President of Community Access National Network Jen Laws…
State lawmakers across the country are telling patients they’re working to reduce out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs. However, in response to calls to better serve patients, many states are looking to use an unproven tool that simply is not going to get the job done and could worsen challenges patients face today to access medications.
Billed under names like “Prescription Drug Affordability Board,” legislation that states like Illinois are introducing pulls a bait-and-switch that ultimately threatens equitable access to medications and alters the landscape of health care financing in favor of insurers, not patients. […]
Affordability boards that seek to exclusively rely on these reimbursement limits to lower drug prices have yet to demonstrate meaningful cost savings for patients. Despite payment limits threatening the ability of providers to stock and administer critical treatments, nothing in Illinois’ proposed legislation requires any realized “savings” to be passed on to patients or returned to a plan sponsor, such as state public health programs, or employers in the case of employer-sponsored plans. […]
Policymakers’ goal to tackle barriers to care for patients is right. But if lawmakers in Springfield actually care about helping patients, perhaps starting with patients, rather than any other stakeholders, is the way to go.
State Rep. Maurice West, D-Rockford, sponsored House Bill 5617, which would require schools to alter mascots, logos or names with Native American tribes or feature Native American culture. […]
The bill prohibits schools from selling items with banned mascots and removes banned logos from school property. Schools would be able to use uniforms or other materials with Native logos or mascots until Sept. 1, 2027. […]
West said that the issue has been on his desk since 2019, after a group of students from a local student protested the use of a “humongous” Native American face on the wall of their school, sparking the idea of mascot reform.
West said in 2019, his posture was education not elimination and when he filed the original mascot bill it got traction but, members of federally recognized tribes throughout the nation, who originated from Illinois reached out to him to say that’s not what we want. They wanted education reform.
* ICYMI: Report details poor care for pregnant people in county jails. Sun-Times…
-Last week, a report from the ACLU of Illinois and the Women’s Justice Institute shared stories from women who were pregnant in custody and often denied basic medical care.
-A quarter of Illinois jails don’t have written policies for how to treat pregnant detainees. -A bill to ban the use of leg irons and shackles on pregnant people inside Illinois’ county jails passed a state House committee Friday.
* Chicago Crusader | Rep. Ford opposes bill allowing non-citizens to become firemen: Representative La Shawn Ford (D-8th) is opposed to HB 4045, which will allow non-citizens to apply to become Chicago firemen if they have a work permit. Ford says the bill fails to rectify the discrimination he says still exists within the Chicago Fire Department.
Jim Durkin, the former House minority leader and guiding force for the Illinois Republican Party for years, has joined the well-connected law firm of Croke Fairchild Duarte & Beres. Durkin is a partner in the firm’s public finance, government affairs and regulatory law practice groups.
“Partnering with an accomplished legislator and lifelong public servant of Jim’s caliber is an honor for all of us,” CFDB partner and Management Committee Co-chair Lisa Duarte, a former Illinois first assistant deputy governor, said in a statement obtained by Playbook.
“It’s a great fit,” Durkin told Playbook. And in a statement, he called it “an opportunity to help the next generation of leaders apply business and legal solutions to the needs and challenges of our communities while also driving economic growth.”
* Here’s the rest…
* Daily Herald | Illinois’ sights and tax incentives bring Hollywood to the suburbs: A swing through Long Grove last week no doubt had drivers doing a double take: Instead of sporting spring pastels and Easter decorations, the town’s fixtures were all decked out for Christmas. Nope, it was not the result of village crews too busy to take down holiday decorations. Instead, the festive scene was created to accommodate “My Grown Up Christmas Wish,” a Christmas movie starring Mario Lopez that was making use of Long Grove’s quaint downtown and iconic covered bridge.
* Rockford Register-Star | Homicide suspect’s uncle, candidate for Congress: Stabbing should have been prevented: A statement of fact written by Rockford police said Timothy Carter had sought mental health treatment before the attack. Rosecrance Behavioral Health personnel evaluated Carter and then drove him to UW Health SwedishAmerican Hospital which operates a 42-bed psychiatric ward. Police said Carter left the hospital without getting mental health treatment.
* Joshua Bandoch | Illinois could lower unemployment with more apprenticeship programs: In Chicago alone, there are 53,000 residents with at least a bachelor’s degree who live in poverty, according to our analysis of 2022 Census data. Research from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce shows only 31% of Americans actually need post-secondary education for their jobs. And earning those degrees comes at the cost of time, money and usually debt. The better way to prepare people for viable careers is to move to a work-based educational model that translates tangible skills into good, well-paying jobs. This “career-first” model prioritizes professions that are in high demand now and will continue to be in demand as the economy evolves.
* Crain’s | South Works site, Lockport refinery eyed for potential quantum computer factory: PsiQuantum is considering the former U.S. Steel South Works site and the former Texaco refinery in Lockport for a facility to build and operate quantum computers, which could result in more than 1,000 jobs, sources familiar with the project tell Crain’s. A decision could come in the next six weeks.
* WAND | Pritzker, Bloch tech leaders excited for next phase of quantum research: Pritzker announced an ambitious multi-year plan Monday for a Chicago quantum facility to develop technology solutions for fraud detection, grid resilience and drug discovery. The Bloch Tech Hub submitted this idea while applying for the second round of funding through the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s Regional Technology and Innovation Hub Program.
* Daily Herald | Can cement be greener? Industry seeking ways to lower carbon dioxide emissions: One team of researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, alongside the Meta Sustainability Net Zero program and concrete supplier Ozinga, are looking to discover better concrete formulas using artificial intelligence. Early-stage results found the AI-powered formulas reduced the carbon footprint of the concrete by 40% while maintaining the material’s critical strength and durability.
* WTTW | Chicago Tribune Reporter’s New Book Explores Lori Lightfoot’s Tumultuous Tenure Leading the City: “It’s fundamentally an inability to have political relationships and to work with people who you don’t like,” Pratt said. “It’s adapt or die, and she was a prosecutor and she couldn’t get out of that mindset.” Pratt’s book “The City is Up for Grabs: How Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot Led and Lost a City in Crisis” will be released April 2.
* Block Club | Chicago’s 1st Chief Homelessness Officer Will Be Sendy Soto: Soto’s portfolio will include working to expand housing options for people who experience homelessness and housing insecurity, including creating rental assistance, rapid rehousing and non-congregate shelter programs, among other things, according to the Mayor’s Office.
* Tribune | Johnson unveils Chicago’s first chief homelessness officer, takes more shots at ‘wicked’ adversaries of Bring Chicago Home: “If my advocacy is defiant, what does that say about the systems who wish to keep people without dignity and unhoused? I call it wicked,” Johnson said Monday. “And so that’s why we are demonstrating in the first 10 months of my administration that we are committed to ending homelessness. … I had an older brother who had untreated trauma and died addicted and unhoused. So pardon me for wanting to be a bridge.”
* The Nation | Sam Bankman-Fried’s Hallucinations of Grandeur: During his sentencing, Bankman-Fried stuck to—and indeed amplified—one of his most enduring lies: that his theft of more than $8 billion in FTX customer funds resulted in no actual financial loss to anyone. The money to pay back customers was always there, he said in his final statement before being sentenced. “There is billions more than is necessary. It has been true for the whole time.”
* NYT | A Warhol Superstar, but Never a Star: The latest is Candy Darling, the transgender actress who succumbed to cancer at 29 in 1974, after being immortalized in a famous photograph by Peter Hujar and in the Lou Reed song “Walk on the Wild Side.” […] The first full-length biography of her, by Cynthia Carr, a longtime staff writer for The Village Voice — quite the Mother Ginger itself, of late — is compassionate and meticulous, reconstructing its brittle, gleaming subject as one might a broken Meissen figurine.
* AP | A biased test kept thousands of Black people from getting a kidney transplant. It’s finally changing: At issue is a once widely used test that overestimated how well Black people’s kidneys were functioning, making them look healthier than they really were — all because of an automated formula that calculated results for Black and non-Black patients differently. That race-based equation could delay diagnosis of organ failure and evaluation for a transplant, exacerbating other disparities that already make Black patients more at risk of needing a new kidney but less likely to get one.
* NYT | Florida Court Allows 6-Week Abortion Ban, but Voters Will Get to Weigh In: But in a separate decision released at the same time, the justices allowed Florida voters to decide this fall whether to expand abortion access. The court ruled 4 to 3 that a proposed constitutional amendment that would guarantee the right to abortion “before viability,” usually around 24 weeks, could go on the November ballot.
* NYT | Peter Brown, One of the Beatles’ Closest Confidants, Tells All (Again): Next week, Brown and the writer Steven Gaines are releasing a book, “All You Need Is Love: The Beatles in Their Own Words,” made up of interviews they conducted in 1980 and 1981 with the band and people close to it, including business representatives, lawyers, wives and ex-wives — the raw material that Brown and Gaines used for their earlier narrative biography of the band, “The Love You Make: An Insider’s Story of the Beatles,” published in 1983.
* Crain’s | Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes urge Kansas City to seal $2B stadium subsidy: What they want is for Kansas City voters to approve a tax that would raise as much as $2 billion of taxpayer money for two stadiums. The NFL stars made their appeal in an ad encouraging Jackson County, Missouri, residents to vote yes on an April 2 ballot measure to renew a sales tax for another 40 years. The revenue would fund the relocation of the Kansas City Royals baseball team into a new ballpark downtown so the NFL’s Chiefs can expand into the space now occupied by the Royals at the teams’ joint sports complex.
* WaPo | In women’s basketball, ‘the NCAA regrets the error’ all too often: Even now, the women’s NCAA basketball tournament, that ceiling-rupturing Roman candle of an event, is still being treated with a combination of incompetence and indifference by its stagers. Somebody, multiple people actually, didn’t care enough to make sure the Sweet 16 court in Portland, Ore., had the right proportions. What else did they misdraw with such insulting lack of care? The world wonders. Don’t think for a second that small discrepancy in three-point lines didn’t matter. Just because something is petty doesn’t make it unimportant. Actually, it’s all the more belittling.
* News-Gazette | Former Illini great Vontae Davis dies at 35: Police told Miami’s WSVN-TV that no foul play was believed to be involved in the death of Davis, whose body was found Monday morning at a home owned by his brother. Davis played parts of 10 seasons in the NFL.
* News-Gazette | Illini advance to WBIT title game: The Illinois women’s basketball team started April off the same way the Illini ended March. With a win. A fourth win in a row, in fact. One that now has Shauna Green and Co. playing for a championship in the inaugural Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament.
* The Atlantic | The Most Dazzling Eclipse in the Universe: They’re an unlikely confluence of time, space, and planetary dynamics, the result of chance events that happened billions of years ago. And, as far as we know, Earth’s magnificent eclipses are unique in their frequency, an extraordinary case of habitual stellar spectacle. On April 8, anyone who watches in wonder as the moon silently glides over the sun will be witnessing the planetary version of a lightning strike.
A federal judge in Puerto Rico last week told a politically connected former state contractor that if he wants to sue for defamation against the people who’ve accused him of defrauding the state of Illinois, he’ll have to do so in an Illinois courtroom. […]
“Not a single one of the Defendants resides in, conduct business in, or has anything to do with, Puerto Rico,” Magistrate Judge Marshal Morgan wrote in a March 15 report.
The case involves Brian Hynes, a Chicago-based lawyer and one-time protégé of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, who maintains a residence in Puerto Rico. Hynes has operated lobbying and business entities over the years that work with the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago.
The entity at the center of the defamation case is Vendor Assistance Program LLC, or VAP, a company he set up to take part in a program the state has used to pay its bills during periods of tight cash flow. It was used extensively during the 2015-2017 budget impasse under former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner.
Under that program, private financial firms like VAP would purchase unpaid bills that the state owed its vendors. The vendors would receive the money owed to them and the financial firms were paid interest of 1 percent per month, or 12 percent annually.
Today, Governor JB Pritzker and Innovate Illinois announced a multi-year plan for The Bloch Quantum Tech Hub to develop quantum technology solutions for pressing issues such as fraud detection, grid resilience, and drug discovery by accelerating industry adoption to drive research commercialization—an initiative that is projected to generate $60 billion in economic impact for the Chicago metro area over the next decade. The coalition, which includes Fortune 500 companies, quantum startups, world-leading universities, state and city governments, community colleges, and economic and workforce development nonprofits, developed the plan as part of their application for Phase 2 funding through the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) Regional Technology and Innovation Hub program. […]
The Bloch, led by the Chicago Quantum Exchange, is a part of Illinois’ strategic vision to establish itself as a global leader in critical technological sectors, supported by Innovate Illinois Chair Governor JB Pritzker’s historic $500 million proposed investment in quantum technologies.
This substantial state investment is included in the proposed FY25 state budget for developing quantum technology and a state-of-the-art quantum campus, including a cryogenic facility crucial for quantum technologies and next-generation microelectronics. The Bloch is positioned to leverage this investment, leading the nation to a sustainable and inclusive quantum economy.
Should their Phase 2 bid be funded, The Bloch is expected to create 30,000 quantum jobs, train 50,000 workers, and support 200 quantum companies by 2035.
* The Chicago Southland Black Chamber of Commerce…
The Chicago Southland Black Chamber of Commerce and other black business organizations and supporters are calling for the Illinois Community College Board to be defunded until the state-mandated 30% minority participation goals are met by Illinois community colleges. The Illinois House Appropriations - Higher Education Committee, chaired by State Representative La Shawn K. Ford, held a subject matter hearing downtown Chicago last Thursday. At the subject matter hearing, all state universities participated while only one community college participated.
“We were told that the community colleges didn’t want to participate because they felt uncomfortable. They didn’t want to be criticized and they don’t appreciate the criticism that they’ve been receiving. We think their response is horrible. They don’t intend to comply with state law and reach those goals,” stated Dr. Cornel Darden Jr., Chairman of the Chicago Southland Black Chamber of Commerce.
At the Subject Matter Hearing, several universities took the defensive and blamed the system for preventing them from having the ability to reach the goals. The black business organizations and black business leaders argued differently. The sentiment of the black business organizations was that the colleges and universities were just giving excuses.
“We need solutions and not excuses. We need to defund the Illinois Community College Board. Black taxpayer dollars should not go toward funding discrimination against ourselves. The Illinois Community College Board has been communicating with us and we are willing to work with them, however, the madness must stop. We need to halt their funding and develop a working relationship to meet the 30% goals. Until that happens, the community colleges should not get any more of our state funding,” explained Dr. Darden.
Many of the black business organizations and several black businesses have filed witness slips opposing the budget appropriation of the Illinois Community College Board for their scheduled 8:30 am Hearing on Thursday April 4th in Springfield, in front of the House Appropriations - Higher Education Committee. Several black business organizations have registered to give oral testimony at that hearing.
* An historic announcement? Sounds interesting…
Congressman Garcia and Coalition to Make Major Announcement
Chicago, IL - Team Chuy invites members of the press to join them for a significant announcement regarding the upcoming general election. This historic announcement is expected to have a profound impact on our community for years to come.
WHO: Congressman Chuy Garcia and other elected officials
WHAT: Press Conference
WHEN: Monday, April 1st at 9:00 am
WHERE: Chicago City Hall, 121 N. LaSalle St, 3rd Floor
Congressman Garcia will share his vision and detailed plans moving forward.
The Congressman’s announcement comes at a time of widespread speculation and interest in the future of our region.
The big news…
Congressman Jesus “Chuy” García is proud to announce his endorsement of Yesenia López for elected Board Member of the Chicago School Board of Education, marking a historic moment as these positions are elected for the first time. Yesenia López is leading the charge as the first candidate to announce her candidacy for the 7th District, aspiring to represent Chicago’s bustling southwest side.
* Here’s the rest…
* Crain’s | Pritzker leans into role as Illinois’ CMO: Pritzker is leaning into the promise he made when running for governor that he’d be the state’s chief marketing officer. Illinois needs to rev up its economic development game to reverse stubborn population and job-growth trends that have been a drag. The state’s population growth has been minimal, and job growth has lagged the nation.
* Daily Herald | ‘A working relationship’: Elk Grove mayor and developer — once bitter rivals — ink TIF deals: A little more than four years ago — in the throes of a bitter term limits referendum campaign that sought to remove him from office — Elk Grove Village Mayor Craig Johnson took to the village board dais to publicly lash out at local developer Mario Gullo, accusing him of working behind the scenes to support the effort. Johnson — the powerful mayor of Elk Grove since 1997 — even channeled “It’s a Wonderful Life” during his half-hour monologue, comparing himself to main character George Bailey and Gullo to antagonist Henry Potter.
* WCIA | Urbana Middle School moves to e-learning amid staffing shortage: In a Sunday evening email, the school’s principal and district’s superintendent said because of “a significant number of last-minute staff absences and not enough substitutes or administrators district-wide to cover all classes and routines safely, Urbana Middle School will transition to E-learning for all students.”
* Block Club | Most Chicago 911 Calls Don’t Need Urgent Police Response, Report Shows: Most 911 calls Chicago residents made in 2022 focused on car accidents, mental or physical health issues or noise complaints — not shots fired or other violence, a report that looked at more than 1 million calls to the city’s emergency number found. Experts say that data bolsters the need for more alternative policing programs, and more support for those already in place, to meet residents’ needs in Chicago and across the country.
* WBEZ | ‘A sea of trucks’ disproportionately pollutes Black and brown neighborhoods in Chicago: In just one hour, at the day’s peak, about 430 trucks pass through this spot in Archer Heights, a mostly Latino community on the Southwest Side. Trucks in cities belch pollution. In Chicago — North America’s largest freight hub — Black and brown communities living near the city’s industrial corridor are disproportionately paying for it with their health.
* WTTW | CTA Data Shows Reliance on Overtime, Chronic FOIA Delays and Years of Mischaracterized Records: The corrected work hours would have painted a less dire picture about the CTA’s reliance on overtime than earlier reporting showed, had the transit agency caught its error when WTTW News filed its first request for detailed information on operator hours two years ago. But the updated data still indicates a public transit system grappling with a pool of bus and train operators that shrank dramatically after the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, and the potential for dangerously long hours for workers putting in the most time on the job.
* Sun-Times | Invisible struggles of lower-income Asian Americans gain spotlight: Change InSight, a coalition led by the Chinatown-based nonprofit Chinese American Service League (CASL), has been surveying communities in more Asian languages, allowing for better data. The coalition is the first national web platform to collect community-level data from low-income Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities on public health and socioeconomic indicators.
* Tribune | Refuge on the field: A migrant boy finds home in baseball: Baseball is the most popular sport in Venezuela, a country in economic and political disarray, and the home country of most of the 37,000 migrants who have come to Chicago since August 2022. The game is played differently there, said several of Guerra’s family members as they watched him tag players out and catch fly balls Friday morning. Migrants have faced hurdles in adjusting to life in a city that has struggled for almost two years to house and feed them. But for Guerra, whose coaches say has a chance of being recruited for college, baseball is a semblance of home.
* WBEZ | What’s That Building? The Gemini Giant: A coalition led by the Joliet Area Historical Museum had been ready to sweep in with a hefty bid using tourism funds from the state. With the 18% buyers premium the auction house charges, the museum will spend $324,500 funded by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity
* Tribune | Al Larson, village president of Schaumburg for 32 years, dies at 85: During his time at the helm of his northwest suburb, Larson oversaw the continuation of the village’s residential growth — in 2020, Schaumburg numbered 78,723 residents — and he worked to give his community a variety of amenities and attractions, including Town Square, the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center and the Wintrust Field baseball stadium. He also signed off on the village’s 1994 purchase of the Schaumburg Regional Airport to prevent it from being sold to developers.
* NYT | The Eclipse Was So Nice, They’re Doing It Twice: The college town, with a population of nearly 22,000, was among the most popular hot spots in the Midwest for the 2017 eclipse. Now, Carbondale and its neighbors are getting ready for another day with no sun. While towns in the area averaged around two and half minutes in the darkness of totality in 2017, this time they will experience about four minutes of totality. Preparation and hype have increased, too.
* My weekly syndicated newspaper column, which was published during spring break…
As we’ve discussed before, the competition for scarce state dollars is particularly fierce this year in Springfield as various groups elbow each other for money while large surpluses and revenue increases start to dry up.
A poll taken by respected national Democratic pollster Normington Petts in late February of 700 registered Illinois voters purports to show which of those ideas has strong support and which do not.
The program with the most respondents saying they “strongly support” it was “Funding free breakfast and lunch to public school children in grades K through 12, regardless of income. This would cost Illinois about $200M.” The poll found the idea had 64% overall support, with 39% they strongly supported it.
The poll was commissioned by a coalition called Healthy School Meals for All Kids, which is pushing for the free school food and was undoubtedly pleased with that result. Thirty-two percent said they opposed the idea, with 17% saying they strongly opposed feeding all kids at school.
Overall, the most-supported proposal was “Giving grants to businesses to provide jobs for young people over the summer to help reduce violence and provide job training in underserved communities. This would cost Illinois about $150M,” at 75%, with 31% registering strong support and just 19% opposed.
The option of “Raising the pay of state-funded home health care workers from $20 an hour to $22. This would cost Illinois about $200M,” came out at 68% support, with 35% strongly supporting it and 25% opposing it.
Next up was: “A tax credit of $300 per child for families making less than $75,000 a year, or $50,000 if the parent is single. This would cost Illinois about $300M,” at 58% supporting and 35% opposing.
And it may not surprise you to know at the very bottom of the list was “Expanding the program that provides health insurance to undocumented seniors who would be eligible for Medicare if they were citizens. This would cost Illinois about $300M,” which was opposed by 58% (40% strongly opposed) and supported by a minority of 33%. Proponents, however, said last week they don’t have dollar numbers for how much reopening the enrollment to the health insurance program would cost.
When asked to identify their top priority among those five programs, 34% of respondents said free meals in schools would be their top choice, which led the list. That was followed by summer youth job grants (20%). At the bottom was health insurance for undocumented seniors at only 6%.
The coalition did not supply the poll’s full cross tabs, but claimed in an accompanying memo that the free breakfast for all program had majority support across every region, age and partisan demographic.
Its strongest support was among Chicago voters (84%), Democrats (81%) and those 18-44 (74%). Its weakest support was among rural voters (50%-46%), those age 60+ (51%-46%) and Republicans (52%-44%). The coalition did not provide a breakout of those older than 65.
The pollster said the survey was a hybrid live interviewer landline, mobile, text-to-web and online panel survey conducted among 700 registered voters in Illinois from Feb. 21-26. The margin of error was ±3.7%. Party affiliation was 37% Democrat, 37% Independent and 26% Republican.
While we’re talking about polling results, let’s revisit a column I wrote in late 2022.
When Normington Petts asked those same respondents, “What is the single most important problem facing you and your household today?” the top category was “cost of living” at 49%. Crime was the No. 1 issue for just 8% and immigration came in at just 5%.
The Normington Petts poll also found that 27% of Illinoisans thought the state was heading in the right direction, while 60% said it was on the wrong track.
Another recently released poll, taken for the Illinois Education Association by Normington Petts and Republican pollster Next Generation Strategies in late January, found that 32% said the state was on the right track and 58% said it was on the wrong track.
While those results were much better than they were before Gov. J.B. Pritzker took office (the state bottomed out at a 9% right direction and an 84% wrong track in 2018), the results have dropped way down from a high of 52%-48% in an Emerson College poll conducted in October 2022, which we discussed at the time.
Armed with a new poll showing overwhelming opposition to taxpayer-subsidized stadiums for the Bears and White Sox, former Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn is launching the political version of a goal-line stand.
Quinn plans to push for a proposed ordinance Wednesday that would direct the City Council to put an advisory referendum on the November ballot asking Chicago voters a question similar to what he asked 448 voters in the statewide poll he paid for:
“Do you support or oppose the Chicago Bears or Chicago White Sox receiving state or local taxpayer subsidies in order to build a new stadium or real estate development?”
Overwhelming majorities of Illinoisans favor stronger state ethics reforms that lawmakers have sidestepped despite a string of high-profile public-corruption cases, new polling by former Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn shows.
The statewide survey found exceedingly high support for a constitutional amendment empowering voters to impose tougher ethical constraints on Springfield and for a prohibition on indicted ex-legislators, like former Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, from drawing a state pension while awaiting trial. […]
There is no discernible legislative movement on any of these initiatives, and Quinn says he hopes the lopsided results from his polling will spur lawmakers into action.
“It shows convincingly in my opinion that the people really are for reform way ahead of incumbent politicians, whether it’s in the Legislature in Springfield or it’s back in Chicago with the City Council and the mayor,” Quinn said. […]
Quinn commissioned the Democratic polling firm, Blueprint Polling, to conduct a survey of 448 Illinoisans between March 13 and 15. The poll reached people via text message and through live-calling and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5.4%.
* Click the pics for more crosstab numbers. “Do you support or oppose a new law to prohibit Illinois legislators from voting on bills where they have a conflict-of-interest in the bill?”…
* “Do you support or oppose a new state law to immediately suspend taxpayer paid pensions to legislators when they are indicted for corruption and prohibit them from ever collecting a taxpayer-paid pension if they are found guilty of felony corruption?”…
* “Do you support or oppose a new Illinois law to prohibit the double-dipping practice of legislators and other elected officials collecting two taxpayer-paid salaries and pension credits at the same time?”…
* “Do you support or oppose the Illinois Ethics Initiative, a constitutional amendment that would give voters the power to directly enact stronger ethical standards for state and local politicians through initiative petitions and binding referendums?”…
The Illinois State Fair has announced that two-time GRAMMY award-winning The Smashing Pumpkins will headline the Illinois State Fair Grandstand on Friday, August 16.
The Smashing Pumpkins are one of the most iconic, iconoclastic and influential bands of all time, shaping alternative music and culture. Since forming in Chicago during 1988, the group have sold over 30 million albums worldwide and garnered two GRAMMY® Awards, two MTV VMAs, and an American Music Award.
Their catalog includes seminal offerings such as the platinum Gish [1991], the quadruple-platinum Siamese Dream [1993], the diamond-certified Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness [1995], the platinum Adore [1998], and the gold Machina/The Machines of God [2000].
Rolling Stone cited both Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness among its “500 Greatest Albums of All Time.” It would also be impossible to envision alternative music and culture without their signature iconography such as the idyllic album artwork for Siamese Dream, the black Zero shirt, the laissez faire bliss of the “1979” music video, the gothic metamorphosis of “Ava Adore,” or the multi-dimensional live shows that sell out worldwide to this day.
2018 saw The Smashing Pumpkins unveil the SHINY AND OH SO BRIGHT, VOL. 1 / LP: NO PAST. NO FUTURE. NO SUN. and launch the immensely successful Shiny and Oh So Bright Tour, which packed arenas. Maintaining this momentum, the band released their eleventh full-length double album CYR [2020], representing yet another evolution, and more recently, ATUM [2023], the sequel to 1995’s Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and 2000’s Machina/Machine of God. As prolific as ever, The Smashing Pumpkins are currently working on new music. More details to come.
“The Smashing Pumpkins defined a new sound in the 90s and have continued to evolve through the years,” said Illinois State Fair Manager Rebecca Clark. “This show is sure to draw an eclectic and enthusiastic crowd, and we are excited to bring The Smashing Pumpkins back home to Illinois.”
Opening act PVRIS (pronounced Paris), who has appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live, brings artistry and storytelling to their genre-defying music with hits like, “Animal” and “Anywhere But Here.”
Tickets for this event, featuring The Smashing Pumpkins, will be on sale Friday, April 5th at 10 a.m. via Ticketmaster.
Tickets to the new tour dates will be available for presale on April 2 at 10:00 am local with the artist presale code “VAMPIRE”. You can learn more about the presale via The Smashing Pumpkins’ website. There will also be a few more presale events for the supporting artists and VIP packages via Ticketmaster.
General on-sale kicks off on April 5 at 10:00 am local. We recommend looking for non-US tour date tickets on Viagogo for the best deals and best chance at scoring tickets to sold-out dates. For North American fans, Stubhub will be your best bet for finding good seats, especially if your tour date of choice is sold out by the time the presale events end.
Marking the beginning of National Donate Life Month, Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias unveiled the state’s annual organ and tissue donor ad campaign, which encourages Illinoisans to sign up for the donor registry.
“More than 4,000 Illinois residents are currently waiting for a transplant, including many whose lives depend on the availability of a suitable organ,” Giannoulias said. “The month of April presents an opportunity to highlight how someone’s decision to take a moment to sign up will tangibly save lives and why it’s so important to encourage more people to register as donors.”
The campaign features a public service announcement (PSA) that urges Illinoisans to enroll in the Secretary of State’s Organ and Tissue Donor Registry by showcasing Tonisha Daniel of south suburban Dolton, who received a lifesaving liver transplant after waiting over a year.
Television and social media ads will run statewide throughout the month. The PSA features the song “The Scientist” by Coldplay.
Currently, 6.5 million Illinoisans are registered with the state’s donor registry. Approximately 4,000 people are on the transplant waiting list. Of those individuals, about 300 die waiting for a transplant every year. A single donor can save or improve the lives of up to 25 people.
To become a donor, Illinoisans can register with the Secretary of State’s Organ and Tissue Donor Registry by visiting www.LifeGoesOn.com, calling 800-210-2106 or signing up at a DMV facility. The entire process takes less than five minutes.
Donate Life Illinois partners include Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network, Eversight, Mid-America Transplant Services and the National Kidney Foundation of Illinois.
Two judges - one from Cook County [recently appointed Associate Judge Natosha Toller] and the other from St. Clair County [recently retired Associate Judge Patricia Kievlan], near St. Louis - have partnered in a lawsuit to potentially take down the state’s so-called Tier 2 pension law, a key pension reform measure they say was passed unconstitutionally and which they claim has unconstitutionally denied them a larger retirement pension than they believe they are owed. […]
In the meantime, the “Tier 2″ law has been interpreted by pension administrators to also limit the retirement earnings of current public employees if they move from one kind of public employment to another.
Under traditional “Tier 1″ pensions, public employees could use all of their years of public employment to calculate their final pension payout, no matter how many different taxpayer-funded agencies they may have worked for.
The judges’ new lawsuit said that practice, in particular, should be unconstitutional, as applied to longtime public workers who later become judges.
The lawsuit notes that Kievlan worked for “many years” as an instructor at a public community college in Belleville, and also served for years as a member of the St. Clair County Board. She was appointed as a judge in 2013, and retired in 2023.
According to the lawsuit, Toller was appointed to the Cook County judicial bench in 2023. Before that, she had worked for 17 years as a Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney, including as a top assistant to Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx. Toller then worked for more than a year for the Illinois Judicial Inquiry Board.
They are missing out on a ton of pension money as a result.
* What they’re basically arguing is that they were covered under the state’s 1963 reciprocal pension law that was in existence long before the Tier 2 law’s passage. From the lawsuit…
Under the Reciprocal Act, participants in more than one of the covered pension systems may combine their service credit earned from two separate government employers to calculate a single pension annuity
The Judicial Retirement System is covered by the Reciprocal Act. The State University Retirement System and the Municipal Retirement Fund are also both reciprocally covered, and the judges in the lawsuit belonged to those systems.
Membership in any pension or retirement system of the State, any unit of local government or school district, or any agency or instrumentality thereof, shall be an enforceable contractual relationship, the benefits of which shall not be diminished or impaired.
As applied to both Judge Kievlan and Judge Toller, Public Act 96-0889 violates the Pension Protection Clause set forth in article XIII, section 5, of the Illinois Constitution of 1970 […]
Both Judge Kievlan and Judge Toller are entitled to all of the benefits afforded to them under the Pension Code, including the Reciprocal Act, as of the day they first began as participants in a state pension system. But in the administrative decisions, JRS erroneously concluded that their respective rights to be treated as Tier 1 participants in JRS had not “vested” because neither of them had begun judicial service at the time Public Act 96–0889 was enacted. This analysis is faulty, and the decisions must be reversed, because prior to enactment of Public Act 96–0889, no tiers existed and Judge Kievlan and Judge Toller were each entitled to join JRS and obtain the full benefits of the Reciprocal Act in the determination of their annuity benefits.
The state’s top parole official resigned from his post [last] Monday after his board allowed a parolee with a history of violence against women to be released from state custody before, authorities say, he attacked a pregnant woman he once dated and killed her 11-year-old son when the child came to her rescue.
Donald Shelton served on the Illinois Prisoner Review Board for more than a decade and led the 13-member panel since last year. His resignation was announced Monday by Gov. J.B. Pritzker hours after the governor also disclosed that one of Shelton’s board members, LeAnn Miller, quit her post for her role in allowing Crosetti Brand, the suspect in the fatal stabbing of 11-year-old Jayden Perkins, to be released from custody following a hearing to determine whether he violated his parole. […]
“The Prisoner Review Board must be able to operate independently as they review enormously difficult cases, but I believe LeAnn Miller has made the correct decision in stepping down from her role,” Pritzker said a statement Monday. “It is clear that evidence in this case was not given the careful consideration that victims of domestic violence deserve and I am committed to ensuring additional safeguards and training are in place to prevent tragedies like this from happening again.” […]
The governor’s office said he will be working with the Illinois General Assembly in the coming weeks to address vacancies on the board and will be conducting “a thorough search for qualified candidates.”
* Tina Sfondeles asked the governor about why the chairman resigned and if the board should be non partisan at an unrelated news conference today…
First of all, the death of an 11-year-old boy is unbelievably tragic under any circumstances, and these especially.
I think that the members of the PRB as you know are of both parties, they’re nominated and approved by the Senate.
As you know, the leader of the panel that made the decision to let the prisoner [Crosetti Brand] out, has resigned. I think that was probably a proper decision on her part and I think that the chairman of the PRB, who served admirably for 11 years, also Republican, chose to leave [they] did not express any reason in particular.
I think that the changes that are necessary here are evident in the fact that the panel didn’t take into consideration enough the domestic violence history of this particular prisoner. And the fact that there were reports by the victim of that person knocking on her door, being around her apartment building, etc.
And so, one thing that we’ve decided to do is to make sure that we enhance the domestic violence training that all PRB members get, including all the ones that are there now and of course, any new ones that are proposed to make sure that this never happens again.
* Pritzker was also asked when the PRB members would be replaced…
Well, the more that people politicize the position, the less likely it is that someone would want to serve in it. And as you know, there have been people in the General Assembly typically the opposite party who have politicized this. So it makes it more difficult, I mean, this has been a very short period of time. I think we’re talking about five work days so far, since the resignations, the two.
And so obviously, we’re contemplating that we need to make nominations to those positions, but we don’t have any decisions yet.
Illinois schools have taken steps to weather an acute shortage of teachers with the state’s help, but a survey released Tuesday points to ways to improve training, support and incentives for classroom instructors.
The annual study by the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools shows that 9 in 10 schools report a serious or very serious teacher shortage, struggle to find substitute teachers and face fewer than five and sometimes no candidates for open positions — and three-quarters of schools say no more than half of the job hopefuls they see have the proper credentials.
There is a particular dearth of special education and English-learner teachers. Among supporting staff, school psychologists, speech-language pathologists and nurses are critically short. Administrators, too, are in short supply.
“This matters,” IARSS executive director Gary Tipsord said in an interview. “This is an issue that people care about. They think it is important, and they think it’s critical enough that it needs to be addressed.”
This year’s survey found more than 90 percent of schools responding reported having a “serious” or “very serious” teacher shortage problem.
That percentage has changed very little in the last several years, although the question has been asked in slightly different ways in earlier surveys. In 2021, for example, 88 percent of those responding said they had a “problem” with teacher shortages, a percentage that was unchanged from 2019. […]
Respondents to the survey reported filling a total of 3,694 teacher positions this year using “alternative measures,” such as hiring substitutes or retired educators, combining classes, and increasing class sizes, among other short-term remedies, according to the report.
Across most educator positions, insufficient compensation, employee burnout, and increased responsibilities were cited as the most common causes for vacancies.
Education leaders also reacted to current strategies to address shortages. District efforts to place student teachers and to improve working conditions were seen by nearly 30% of leaders as effective in improving recruitment and retention. In addition, approximately 50% of leaders indicated that increasing the number of days substitutes, including retired educators, are eligible to teach was beneficial. And finally, the potential solutions that leaders found most promising were financially related: modifying the pension tier system, augmenting loan forgiveness programs for educators, and increasing scholarships for teaching candidates were among the most favorably rated strategies.
These findings suggest that educator shortages are not distributed equally across the state, as 36% of education agencies reported no unfilled positions. But for the education agencies that have unfilled educator positions, a majority of leaders perceive shortages to be severe, resulting in alternative remedies such as hiring substitutes and increasing class sizes that affect the quality of instruction and services students receive. Leaders also shared their views on the causes of shortages as well as current and potential solutions to mitigate the problem. These insights provide a pragmatic foundation that can be used to devise targeted, diverse mechanisms to address unfilled positions, both by supporting current educators and growing pipeline programs.
“There’s just a lot to respond to, there’s a lot to do, and there are a lot of challenges,” said Beth Crider, regional superintendent of Peoria County Regional Office of Education #48.
There are more than 4,100 unfilled positions across the state for teachers, support staff and paraprofessionals. The biggest shortages are for special education teachers, support staff and specialty positions like school psychologists and speech pathologists.
“They’re putting a substitute in there, that’s somebody with a four-year degree that’s not in teaching. They’re using a retired teacher…or worse than that, they’re canceling the class, putting the kids in other classrooms, putting them in study hall, but those are strategies we have to use if there’s no qualified teacher,” said Crider.
With low compensation and reduced pension benefits, Crider said new strategies are needed to attract more people to the field. The current pension system requires teachers to stay in their positions until age 67.
* WGLT | Rep. Sharon Chung joins statewide teacher shortage working group: Chung said while the group has not met yet, she imagines members will meet with different stakeholders, such as Illinois State Board of Education members. “We’ve already done things with raising the teacher minimum pay,” Chung said in an interview on WGLT’s Sound Ideas. “I know that there are bills right now even just being discussed this session about paid student teaching. That could be another thing that’s on the table.”
* Eye On Illinois | Teacher shortage survey shows filled positions up, as are vacancies: A full 36% of education agencies reported no unfilled positions. In the other 64%, a majority report severe shortages. The report indicates a concentration in rural and urban areas – not always aligned on solutions – and then within specific content areas or ages of student population.
Illinois state lawmakers discussed the prospect of a guaranteed basic income during a state Senate Appropriations - Health and Human Services Committee meeting Wednesday.
A bill sponsored by state Sen. Ram Villivalam, D-Chicago, would explore the possibility of a guaranteed income program across the state.
“Giving people cash is one of the most potent tools to creating resilient households and communities,” said Ameya Pawar, a senior advisor for the Economic Security Project, which supports the bill.
He said a guaranteed basic income is what it sounds like, giving people cash directly to supplement their income and fill in the gaps in the social safety net.
The proposal was a key topic at a recent senate committee meeting in Chicago, where the overarching goal of providing a no-strings-attached additional $1,000 monthly income was discussed.
Advocates for the bill argue that such a measure is crucial when the cost of goods and services continues to rise, while wages have largely stagnated. […]
Ameya Pawar, Senior Adviser at the Economic Security Project, cited data from a two-year experiment in Stockton, New Jersey, in 2019, where 100 low-income residents received $500 a month.
Contrary to fears, the initiative saw an increase in employment among participants, with some using the funds to start businesses, pursue education, or enhance their skills.
At a young age, I witnessed my father dying in pain from lung cancer and suffering terribly. More recently, my mom contracted pancreatic cancer, and I had her medical power of attorney.
A couple of weeks before she passed, I was sitting on the edge of her bed. She grabbed my arm and begged me to make sure her health care providers didn’t do any medical interventions to keep her alive, like resuscitation, that would prolong her suffering. […]
That is why I am the proud lead sponsor of the End-of-Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act. I recently introduced this legislation that would allow medical aid in dying as an end-of-life care option for mentally capable, terminally ill adults in Illinois, with six months or less to live, to gently end unbearable suffering. It is 100% voluntary for terminally ill people, physicians and pharmacists.
More than 7 of 10 Illinois likely voters (71%) support passing medical aid-in-dying legislation, according to a 2023 Impact Research poll. This majority support spans the demographic, political, racial and religious spectrums, including 73% of voters with a disability, 83% of Latino voters, 69% of Catholic voters and half of Republican voters. In contrast, fewer than 1 in 5 Illinois voters (17%) oppose medical aid in dying.
Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs is spearheading an effort to help families put leftover college savings funds into retirement plans. The change could happen quickly in Illinois thanks to action by the federal government.
Frerichs told reporters in Chicago Tuesday that he is looking out for families who don’t use all of the money in their college savings accounts to roll over funds into a Roth IRA. The Democrat said Congress approved a bill in late 2022 to allow tax and penalty free rollovers from college savings plans to retirement plans. […]
Illinois would need a change in state law to allow people to take advantage of this opportunity. Sen. Steve Stadelman (D-Rockford) and Rep. Diane Blair-Sherlock (D-Villa Park) said it is a common sense change that could help parents, grandparents and guardians who open savings accounts for their young families. […]
Senate Bill 3133 currently awaits third reading in the Senate. Meanwhile, House Bill 5005 could be heard on second reading when the House returns for session next week.
Illinois state lawmakers are looking at legislation to help parents protect their children on social media.
The bill, known as Sammy’s Law, would require large social media companies such as TikTok, Snapchat and Meta — the parent company of Facebook and Instagram — to use third-party software companies that would alert parents if their kid is being cyber bullied, talking about suicide, buying drugs or engaging in other dangerous activity on the platform.
The bill is named for Sammy Chapman. The 16-year-old died from a drug overdose on Feb. 7, 2021. He bought drugs containing fentanyl using Snapchat. […]
Parents would not be alerted to everything their kids do online. They’d only be notified if their kid is in potential danger. […]
The state House Consumer Protection Committee unanimously passed the bill on March 20. It heads to the floor with bipartisan support. Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul has also voiced support for the legislation.
The legislation in Illinois House Bill 5069 would establish a Premarket Tobacco Product Application registry of products that may legally be sold in the state. Manufacturers, distributors or sellers of products who want to add them to the registry must attest under penalty of perjury that the products are either authorized for sale by a Food and Drug Administration marketing granted order, or are still undergoing review by the agency.
“Right now there are a lot of products that are being sold at various places that are illegal in the vape and e-cigarette space,” said the bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Bob Rita, D-Blue Island. […]
Matthieu Fortin with Upper Limits vape shop in Springfield said the measure would essentially eliminate flavored e-cigarettes. […]
The Consumer Advocates for Smoke-free Alternatives Association is running a publicity campaign against all states considering similar legislation. Outside of Illinois, other states where the group highlights possible legislation include Indiana, Washington, Florida, Colorado, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Alabama, Utah, Kansas, Georgia, Wyoming and Missouri.
Education advocates are renewing a push to change Illinois law to allow Chicago school board members to be paid — with the hope that would encourage teachers and parents from low-income households to represent Chicago Public Schools’ diverse student body.
State law currently does not allow school board members to be paid, though they can be reimbursed for expenses related to the job. But a bill filed in the state senate last fall would allow Chicago Board of Education members to be paid. […]
Being a CPS board member requires between 25-30 hours of work per month, according to the board’s website, and involves attending public meetings, briefings with district officials, visiting schools, and reading hundreds of pages of documents every month. […]
State Sen. Robert Martwick, who sponsored legislation creating an elected school board in Chicago, said negotiations are underway for compensating board members, but he’s not hopeful that legislation will be passed this year.
Through House Bill 2287, led by Rep. Marty Moylan, D-Des Plaines, newly purchased and leased school buses would have to be electric starting in 2028. By 2035, all school districts would be required to have solely electric school buses. […]
As a way to help teachers during the school day, Sen. Meg Loughran Cappel, D-Shorewood introduced Senate Bill 2721, a bill that would carve out at least 45 minutes during the school day for teachers to plan. The bill states that during the plan time an educator cannot be forced to substitute or attend meetings or training sessions. If this bill passes it will become a requirement for all public-school districts across the state. […]
House Bill 4175 would prevent nonpublic schools from slapping or paddling a student, placing a student in a physically painful position and the intentional infliction of bodily harm on a student. […]
Introduced by Sen. Rachel Ventura, D-Joliet, Senate Bill 2872 would require each school district to offer relaxation time or relaxation activities for at least 20 minutes a week. The time would be used to emphasize self-care and downtime as a way to improve overall health.
Senate Bill 3646 was filed by Sen. Robert Peters, D-Chicago, and would put limitations hours minors could work, including not working more than 8 hours in a single 24-hour period or more than 3 hours per day or more than 8 hours total of work and school hours on days when school is in session.
The new bill would also ensure children 13 and under would not be allowed to get a working permit.
The proposed legislation would also provide protections for children who are featured in online content and would require that they receive compensation for any appearances made in online content. […]
Senate Bill 3646 is currently waiting for consideration of the full Senate.
Two bills that would regulate battery disposal and storage are awaiting action from the full Illinois Senate after unanimous committee approval.
Senate Bill 3481, sponsored by Sen. Sara Feigenholtz, D-Chicago, would require facilities that store electric vehicle batteries to register with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency by February 2026. The state’s Pollution Control Board would set the regulations for the proper storage of EV batteries. […]
Senate Bill 3686, sponsored by Sen. Dave Koehler, D-Peoria, would require battery producers and importers to implement an IEPA approved battery stewardship plan starting in 2026. Retailers would be encouraged — but not required — to serve as collection facilities.
The plan would regulate the disposal, storage and recycling of certain removable batteries and portable batteries. The bill applies to most types of batteries, with some exceptions. These include liquid electrolyte batteries and lead-acid batteries, like those used in cars.
A bipartisan group of Illinois lawmakers wants to make permanent a grant programing aiming to help farmers, co-ops and other small food producers across the state.
The Local Food Infrastructure Grant (LFIG) program is awarding nearly $2 million in grants to 19 recipients across the state. […]
“It takes more than just sticking a seed in the ground, right? You’ve got to have the infrastructure to be able to handle that and to be able to deliver it and to be able and make it available to people so that’s what this is about,” said state Sen. Dave Koehler, D-Peoria.
Koehler is sponsoring bipartisan legislation making the LFIG program permanent. The bill passed unanimously out of the state Senate Agriculture Committee on March 7. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker did not include LFIG funding in his proposed fiscal year 2025 budget.
Rep. Daniel Didech, D-Buffalo Grove, filed House Bill 4446 earlier this year after a series of incidents in which Illinois residents were keeping servals as pets when the cats got loose.
In October, a Decatur resident purchased a serval from a supplier in West Virginia, and two weeks later, the cat escaped through an open door in the owner’s apartment. The cat was loose until mid-November, when a landowner spotted and trapped the cat north of town, between Maroa and Forsyth. The serval was turned over to local officials and now resides at the Exotic Feline Rescue Center in Center Point, Indiana.[…]
While Didech’s bill has overwhelming support from various organizations, opponents, such as the Illinois State Veterinary Medical Association, have raised some issues. In a statement, a spokesperson for the association said they have “expressed concerns with certain aspects of the legislation with the bill’s sponsor” and anticipate “meeting with the stakeholders to develop agreed upon language.” The spokesperson did not explain what those concerns were. […]
The legislation passed out of committee earlier this month. Didech said he is hopeful that the bill will be called for a vote in the House in the coming weeks.
- With 99% of the vote counted, O’Neill Burke had 50.15% compared to 49.85% for Harris.
- O’Neill Burke led by a margin of just 1,556 votes.
-Up to 53,011 mail city ballots could still arrive for tabulation, but nowhere near that many are expected to arrive by Tuesday with valid postmarks, when counting officially ends.
* State Week | The Illinois Prisoner Review Board under scrutiny: The murder of an 11-year old boy and stabbing of his mother brought focus on the state’s Prisoner Review Board this week. The crime happened just a day after the suspect was let out of prison. He had reportedly threatened the woman previously. In the aftermath, there has been more focus on how the case was handled. A PRB member resigned along with the board chairman. Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who makes appointments to the board, said the case wasn’t given “the careful consideration that victims of domestic violence deserve.”
* Sun-Times | Pritzker reappoints Tate-Nadeau to handle emergencies, but senators concerned over payroll scandal: Tate-Nadeau, appointed by Pritzker in 2019 to lead the state agency that oversees disasters and crises such as the pandemic and the influx of migrants, came under fire last year after the Sun-Times reported an executive assistant accounted for $240,761.30 in billings — double the salary of her boss between February and August 2023. Her total billings to the state emergency agency in other contracting roles through August 2023 topped $1.03 million.
* Rockford Register Star | Officials release names of victims, other details from mass stabbing in Rockford: The suspect in a killing spree that claimed the lives of four people and left at least seven people injured told police that he became paranoid after smoking marijuana that may have been laced with another drug. […] The spree of violence included five crime scenes, some in Rockford and some in Winnebago County. Soto is initially charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder and home invasion. He will face a detention hearing this afternoon.
Governor Pritzker will be at mHUB Chicago for a Bloch Tech Hub event at 9:30 am. Click here to watch.
* Here’s the rest…
* Tribune | After federal cuts, Illinois rape crisis centers ask state for help: ‘It’s essential that services be there’: Across Illinois, scores of direct service providers like Lubel who work at the state’s 31 rape crisis centers are struggling under the weight of crushing workloads, stagnant wages and unsteady job security. Those pressures have intensified in recent months, advocates say, after a key source of federal funding was essentially slashed in half, a loss of around $9.5 million.
* Capitol News Illinois | Appeals court skeptical of Mike Bost’s case to stop ballot counts after Election Day: A panel of federal appellate judges on Thursday seemed skeptical of legal arguments made on behalf of Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Bost, who claims Illinois’ law allowing counting of mail-in ballots for two weeks after an election is in violation of federal law. Bost’s late 2022 lawsuit was filed with help from a conservative group that assisted former President Donald Trump’s efforts to block the counting of mail-in ballots after Election Day 2020.
* Capitol News Illinois | Illinois teacher shortage persists, survey finds: This year’s survey found more than 90 percent of schools responding reported having a “serious” or “very serious” teacher shortage problem. That percentage has changed very little in the last several years, although the question has been asked in slightly different ways in earlier surveys. In 2021, for example, 88 percent of those responding said they had a “problem” with teacher shortages, a percentage that was unchanged from 2019.
* Tribune | DCFS, under a new leader and following years of criticism, seeks a new wave of workers: Permitin was among a couple hundred people who attended the employment expo at the Rusu-McCartin Boys & Girls Club to check out opportunities from DCFS and other government agencies, including the Illinois State Police, Chicago Fire Department and U.S. Postal Service. The hiring event comes at a significant time for DCFS, which has been regularly criticized from government watchdogs to elected officials. In the last five years, Gov. J.B. Pritzker has been a regular target of that criticism as the agency he oversees was accused of poorly handling some of its investigations and failing to get troubled youths into the right places quickly.
* WTTW | Cook County Courts Have Seen ‘Mostly Smooth’ Transition After Elimination of Cash Bail, New Report Finds: According to the report, judges have granted detention in 59% of the 2,732 cases in which the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office has requested a pretrial hold. […] But in observing actual court proceedings, the report authors found that the pretrial release processes in Cook County “have not changed drastically” from what they were prior to the Pretrial Fairness Act.
* WAND | State law enforcement board asks for funding to implement SAFE-T Act training, add more instructors: ILETSB leaders told a Senate Appropriations Committee Wednesday that the board has already hired 15 people to help with operations and implementation of the SAFE-T Act. Although, the agency anticipates they will need 23 more people hired over the next year. Executive Director Keith Calloway told lawmakers the board approved a 640 hour basic law enforcement curriculum and a 320 hour correctional course to allow for more scenario-based training for officers.
* Tribune | Illinois House proposal could pave way for video gambling in Chicago: In addition to helping address the city’s revenue needs, the Illinois House measure also aims to address racial disparities within the state’s video gambling industry by finding a way for Chicago businesses to swap the legally murky sweepstakes machines that can be found at bars, gas stations and even laundromats around Chicago for state-licensed — and taxed — betting devices.
* Center Square | Vaping industry insider blames big tobacco for new e-cig legislation in Illinois: The legislation in Illinois House Bill 5069 would establish a Premarket Tobacco Product Application registry of products that may legally be sold in the state. Manufacturers, distributors or sellers of products who want to add them to the registry must attest under penalty of perjury that the products are either authorized for sale by a Food and Drug Administration marketing granted order, or are still undergoing review by the agency.
* Sun-Times | Pritzker eyes bigger piece of Illinois sports betting action after 4 booming years: A hike from 15% to 35% of sportsbook revenue is a slam dunk to generate an extra $200 million for the cash-strapped state, according to the Illinois governor. But major gambling corporations say it will block growth in a market that has ballooned into one of the nation’s biggest.
*WAND | Frerichs hopes Illinois lawmakers allow unused college savings to rollover into retirement plans: Frerichs told reporters in Chicago Tuesday that he is looking out for families who don’t use all of the money in their college savings accounts to roll over funds into a Roth IRA. The Democrat said Congress approved a bill in late 2022 to allow tax and penalty free rollovers from college savings plans to retirement plans. […] Illinois would need a change in state law to allow people to take advantage of this opportunity. Sen. Steve Stadelman (D-Rockford) and Rep. Diane Blair-Sherlock (D-Villa Park) said it is a common sense change that could help parents, grandparents and guardians who open savings accounts for their young families.
* Tribune | Full House Resorts awaits Illinois Supreme Court decision before building its casino in Waukegan: A lawsuit against the City of Waukegan and the Illinois Gaming Board by Forest County Potawatomi Community to halt the board’s proceedings to grant the Waukegan license was dismissed in 2021, just before the license was awarded to Full House. After the Illinois First District Appellate Court reversed the dismissal in August, Full House paused plans to start work on the permanent facility. Alex Stolyar, Full House’s senior vice president and chief development officer, said Wednesday a wait is necessary.
* Sun-Times | Illinois approves nonbinary state ID documents but gender-neutral option to come: However, the gender-neutral cards cannot be offered until the Illinois Secretary of State’s office updates its driver’s license and ID card issuance system. It’s a process that could take years, according to Dave Druker, a spokesperson for the secretary of state’s office. Druker said Illinois is locked into a six-year contract with IDEMIA, a multinational identity solutions company formerly known as MorphoTrust USA. The state renewed its contract with IDEMIA in 2018 to implement Illinois’ REAL ID program, and the contract doesn’t end until 2024.
* WAND | Black advocates say Illinois colleges, universities should hire more Black vendors for services: State lawmakers know that most universities and colleges across the state are far from reaching the goal of 30% procurement with minority-owned businesses. However, leaders from the University of Illinois System said they have seen great improvement over recent years. “We just finished our high water mark for certified achievement at almost $130 million,” said Aaron Carter, Assistant Vice President of Procurement Services for the University of Illinois System. “As a percentage of addressable spend, that puts us right at about 11%, almost 22% of state appropriations when you look at that.”
* SJ-R | Springfield convenience stores found to be selling unauthorized vaping products: Thousands of unauthorized vaping products are hitting the shelves of convenience stores weekly in Illinois – and all it takes is a walk down to Circle K on South MacArthur Boulevard and Ash Street for Springfield locals to see for themselves that Breeze and Glas vapes, which are unauthorized by the FDA, are slotted next to FDA approved e-cigs.
*Tribune | Glencoe to consider adopting home rule government: Village President Howard Roin believes it is time for a switch. “Being an outlier has not resulted in lower property taxes for our residents,” Roin said. “Every day our residents are spending more money than the residents of other communities because we are not home rule.”
*Tribune | Chaotic federal juice-loan case has links to FBI efforts against Chicago Outfit figures: Cassano is also the president of Games Gone Wild, a company based in Norridge that leases so-called sweepstakes machines to area businesses. Since the machines can be played for free, the machines are not considered gambling devices. But the machines are largely unregulated and have been known to have links to organized crime, a link that federal authorities were investigating around the same time Cassano was indicted in 2021.
* Tribune | Many of Chicago’s vacant lots are near transit, posing challenges for neighborhoods and CTA, study says: More than one-third of vacant lots in Chicago are close to “L” stations, a new report shows, creating challenges for neighborhoods and the CTA alike. […] They found the communities that had among the most vacant lots near transit included Englewood and West Englewood, home to the terminus of one branch of the CTA Green Line. Also topping the list were East and West Garfield Park, served by two CTA train lines, and North Lawndale, served by the Pink Line.
* Crain’s | Measles cases around Chicago tick up past 50: Single cases of measles also have been reported in Lake, Will and suburban Cook counties. Each case is related to the Chicago outbreak, the county public health departments have said. […] Of Chicago’s 52 measles cases, CDPH said, 60% are among children younger than 5, 25% are among people aged 18 to 49, 13% are 5 to 17 and one person 50 or older.
* Tribune | Aldermen push for more transparency and tracking of migrants Chicago evicts from shelters: In addition to eviction data, the ordinance also would force the city to share information about conditions at each shelter, including how many residents are staying there with exemptions, how many residents are back in shelters after being evicted and how many grievances residents have filed. Since evictions began on March 17, the city has only shared limited information with the public. On Saturday, March 23, the total number of evictions was added to daily census counts, with additional information about exemptions available upon request.
* WREX | Winnebago County moves forward in response to possible migrant arrivals: Winnebago County’s current emergency response plan follows the guidance of Illinois Emergency Management in the event of asylum seekers in the area it would help them get to Chicago where more resources are established. Some opposing board members felt that the resolution wasn’t necessary as the county already had that emergency plan in place used back in December.
* Sun-Times | Migrants begin moving out of five Chicago Park District shelters: With a recent ebb in the flow of migrants to Chicago from the southern U.S. border, Johnson’s office says it will redirect a total 730 asylum seekers over the next few weeks from five park facilities to other nearby shelters. That’ll open up Brands Park, Gage Park, the Leone Beach Boathouse and Piotrowski Park, in addition to Broadway Armory Park.
* Block Club | Could ShotSpotter Be Kept In Some Wards? Alderpeople To Debate Proposal: Introduced to City Council in February by Ald. David Moore (17th), an amended version of the ordinance would require a City Council vote to stop the use of ShotSpotter in any ward, according to legislation available on the City Clerk Office’s website.
* Tribune | With logjam over police discipline broken, Snelling faces early leadership test: Roger Farias, 39, is one of 28 cops who were recommended for firing by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, or COPA, in the first two months of the year, according to an agency source familiar with the decision but not authorized to speak publicly, and confirmed through other sources. Records obtained by the Tribune show Farias has been the subject of 68 misconduct investigations since the department hired him in 2009.
* Tribune | Richard Phelan, former Cook County Board president who protected access to abortion, dies at 86: Using his executive power as Cook County board president from 1990 to 1994, Phelan reinstated access to abortion at the county hospital amid protests and litigation, reversing his predecessor’s steps to ban the medical practice. Phelan, a devout Catholic, plowed forward with his reproductive health campaign, despite loud criticism from the Catholic Church.
* The Telegraph | Some Illinois schools canceling classes for eclipse: Jacksonville School District 117 will have a School Improvement Day on April 8, with the hope students will use the time to experience the solar eclipse, the likes of which won’t be visible again in the contiguous United States until Aug. 23, 2044.
* The Wrap | After Jeremy Allen White Dining Snub, Illinois Governor Wants to Treat ‘The Bear’ Cast to Dinner at Chicago Steakhouse: As White told Jimmy Kimmel on a recent appearance, the show has been so wildly popular, he assumed he had an in at every Chicago restaurant. “Sometimes we get a little too confident,” the actor admitted. “Like in Chicago, I feel like we’re good anywhere. It should be fine.” But when he and Edebiri dropped by Gibson’s without a reservation during filming of the show’s second season, the staff was unimpressed. […] Pritzker said when he heard the story, “I immediately called up his manager and the show’s producer and I said, ‘I want to invite all the cast. We’re going to host them at Gibson’s.’ Because, let’s face it, they’re kind of hometown favorites.”
* AP | AT&T notifies users of data breach and resets millions of passcodes: The telecommunications giant said Saturday that a dataset found on the “dark web” contains information such as Social Security numbers for about 7.6 million current AT&T account holders and 65.4 million former account holders. The company said it has already reset the passcodes of current users and will be communicating with account holders whose sensitive personal information was compromised.
*News-Gazette | Illinois’ worst governor? That’s saying a lot: Incumbent Gov. Len Small, a Republican, had three years earlier been indicted on embezzlement charges while state treasurer. He was found not guilty by a jury that deliberated 90 minutes — likely because the jurors had been paid off. At least eight of them ended up on the state payroll. Small, cleared but not clean, ran again in 1924. The Chicago Tribune, Chicago Daily News and Belleville News-Democrat, all Republican newspapers, lined up against him. The Tribune called him “the worst governor the state ever had.” One hundred years later and numerous bad Illinois governors since, that may still be true.
* Tribune | Autonomous tractors plow path to the future at Caterpillar’s secluded Peoria Proving Ground: Caterpillar, which began experimenting with autonomous construction equipment nearly a decade ago, is one of several major companies developing it, along with Doosan in South Korea and Volvo Autonomous Solutions, which unveiled its new Swedish testing site in November. The potentially transformative technology is still in the early stages of commercialization.
