It’s just a bill
Monday, Sep 21, 2026 - Posted by Isabel Miller
* Sen. Willie Preston…
The financial crises threatening Chicago and the small businesses that make our city great are dire and require an all-hands-on-deck approach. This much was clear more than nine months ago, when the City Council approved video gaming terminals, or VGTs. […]
Simply put, the city cannot come to Springfield demanding legislators magically find $150 million for Chicago Public Schools while simultaneously refusing to implement a law that has already passed and would ultimately generate billions of dollars in tax revenue for the city and state. […]
That’s why, in the veto session of the General Assembly, I am proposing an emergency package of legislation to allow a cashless option for VGT operators, establishments and customers — to eliminate the legitimate fears of burglary and related crimes. […]
Under my proposal, municipalities such as Chicago that have legalized VGTs would be required to establish a licensing process within 60 days of an ordinance’s effective date and review applications within 30 days of receipt. If the municipality fails to meet those deadlines, authority to license VGT operations would transfer to the state of Illinois for establishments that meet the existing legal requirements.
* The Center Square…
An Illinois father says his daughter is at the center of legislation to shift transfer eligibility decisions from the Illinois High School Association to principals. […]
[Dan Matzen] said he reached out to state Rep. Janet Yang Rohr, D-Naperville, who filed House Bill 5808 on August 25.
The measure would allow high school student athletes to transfer with full eligibility if both the sending and receiving schools provide written consent. […]
“This bill really puts pressure on principals. Now they’re the ones who are establishing the guidance of transfer students and making those ultimate decisions,” [IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson] told The Center Square earlier this month. […]
The General Assembly may take up the legislation during fall veto session from Nov. 17-19 and Dec. 1-3.
* Marijuana Moment…
Illinois would substantially expand its efforts to repair the harms of marijuana criminalization enforcement under a new bill that seeks to give cash payments directly to people impacted by prohibition laws.
The legislation, filed on Thursday by Rep. La Shawn K. Ford (D), would create a new Illinois Freedom Program “for the purpose of issuing direct cash payments to eligible individuals who have been disproportionately impacted by historical cannabis enforcement.”
The effort would supplement the state’s existing Restore, Reinvest, and Renew (R3) program, which uses marijuana tax revenue to support community reinvestment in areas harmed by the war on drugs.
The cash payments would be administered through a new Illinois Freedom Fund, which the bill says would “consist of the incremental growth in cannabis tax revenue.”
- JS Mill - Monday, Sep 21, 26 @ 10:07 am:
The IHSA has a yellow streak that goes back at least 30 years. The IHSA has always determined transfer eligibility anytime there was a question. They were theoretically a neutral party. Now they have chickened out of that as they continue to be a mini NCAA. And then there is the shot clock issue, I won’t get started.
- Walker - Monday, Sep 21, 26 @ 10:22 am:
JS I hear you.. I just have little faith Principals would be any better.
- JS Mill - Monday, Sep 21, 26 @ 10:45 am:
=JS I hear you.. I just have little faith Principals would be any better.=
Agreed. I didn’t really say that, but that is part of my issue. Now you may put two principals at odds over the issue if one agrees and the other doesn’t. And I absolutely see that coming if say a star athlete wants to transfer to a different school for sports.There are a lot of admins out there who were coaches and still place sports as a priority over learning. So I agree with you 100%
I liken this to the NCAA transfer portal. But high school sports isn’t the NCAA. Unless you are a parochial student, your school is based on residency. We just don’t need this.
- Benniefly2 - Monday, Sep 21, 26 @ 10:54 am:
Allowing people to gamble on slot machines with credit cards, what could possibly go wrong?
- Homebody - Monday, Sep 21, 26 @ 12:01 pm:
Brandon Johnson’s biggest failing as far as I can tell is either unwillingness or inability to work with others when he is outnumbered. The aldermen voted for an ordinance to legalize VGTs, and the Mayor’s office is just like… “No, I don’t think we will.”
That isn’t a recipe for a functional representative government.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Monday, Sep 21, 26 @ 12:26 pm:
I say we completely blow up the IHSA system and the fiefdoms it creates.
A Big 10 scholarship is worth a couple hundred thousand dollars. The IHSA and high school coaches have way too much control over who makes the team, gets play time, gets a college scholarship, and in the case of marquee sports, goes professional.
They can even ban you from playing if you transfer from a school where you got rejected during tryouts.
It is a monopoly.
At the very least, if you get rejected during tryouts, or offered a position but do not accept it, you should be allowed to change schools, no limits.
If you get offered a position and accept predicated on a promise you will be starting, and the school renegs, you should be allowed to change schools, no limits. Ditto if you get benched.
Personally I favor any law which eliminates all restrictions on transfer eligibility. No one says if you switch schools, you can’t go out for marching band or chess team. We treat sports differently and that gives too much power to coaches and that leads to a host of problems, including corruption, hazing and sexual abuse.
- Garfield Ridge Guy - Monday, Sep 21, 26 @ 1:17 pm:
==Allowing people to gamble on slot machines with credit cards, what could possibly go wrong?==
You can’t buy scratch-offs and lottery tickets with a credit card; you have to have a debit card. I haven’t seen the senator’s legislation, but presumably it would have the same protection. (Though I’d be extremely surprised if the VGT hardware/software is able to easily accept debit cards.)
- JS Mill - Monday, Sep 21, 26 @ 1:44 pm:
=The IHSA and high school coaches have way too much control=
Club sports would like a word.
=Personally I favor any law which eliminates all restrictions on transfer eligibility. +
I know you realize these are 14-17 years olds and not pro athletes, but the focus should be on school not sports. If a student actually moves with their family they are usually eligible unless the season is already underway.
- Parlay Vous - Monday, Sep 21, 26 @ 2:08 pm:
It is possible to buy Illinois Lottery tickets with credit cards and other “cashless payment” options …
https://www.illinoislottery.com/help-center/faqs/cashless-payment-option-for-illinois-lottery-vending-machines
Given how video gambling thefts are filling up police blotters across the state, this might be a decent idea.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Monday, Sep 21, 26 @ 2:12 pm:
@JSMill -
I am aware of club sports, they do not have residency requirements, so they have less control over student-athletes’ futures. Also, they are not granted monopolies by the state and the IHSA is, so the state has a vested oversight responsibility.
For middle class students, athletics and school are intertwined. whether you get in to a college and/or can afford to attend depend on extracurriculars and athletic scholarships, even if you are not shooting for the pros.
And again: if my kid decides they want to play basketball and the coach decides she’s not good enough, so my kid wants to go play for a neighboring high school, public or private, why should I have to move? If I am willing to pay the out-of-district enrollment fee, drive my kid or carpool 30 minutes every day, why should the coach who rejected my daughter get veto authority over a kid he did not want?
If, as you say, “its just sports”, why do we give the IHSA so much power?
- H-W - Monday, Sep 21, 26 @ 2:48 pm:
JS Mill +1 on all points made.
I wonder if Principal led agreements will get around the routine fees associated with attending an out of district school.
And with the changes at the college level driving the boat, we need to ask are student athletes still to be educated for successfully navigating life, or are they now a second class of citizens to be trained for the profit motive model in higher education sports? Remember: there are no new slots in the professional sports, just more money at the temporary college level.
A study should be taken on how this heightened focus on player eligibility is playing out at the higher ed. level in terms of children who at some point join a college sports program, completing a 4-year degree. That should inform whether we “invest” more children into that system.
Historically, student athletes were required to make academic progress on schedule. Unfortunately, under the new system, athletics programs do not fully and accurately track graduation rates. Some who do not make academic progress, simply “transfer” and be not counted as failing, much less do they impact the “team GPAs.”
- Blue Dog - Monday, Sep 21, 26 @ 3:08 pm:
Maybe we should follow Europe and Asia models on youth sports.
- harp5339 - Monday, Sep 21, 26 @ 3:51 pm:
== At the very least, if you get rejected during tryouts, or offered a position but do not accept it, you should be allowed to change schools, no limits. ==
The idea that an athlete at the level to be seriously considered for a Big 10 scholarship would be rejected by any coach in the state is laughable at best. You’ve bought into the “Michael Jordan was cut in high school” story, haven’t you.
- JS Mill - Monday, Sep 21, 26 @ 5:40 pm:
=I am aware of club sports, they do not have residency requirements, so they have less control over student-athletes’ futures. Also, they are not granted monopolies by the state and the IHSA is, so the state has a vested oversight responsibility.=
Last try…you are missing the point. A school does not a “monopoly”. Second, the preeminence of club sports has overtaken high school sports for recruiting in all areas except for Football. Now, if you want to get a scholarship you need to be on the right club team or, at the very least, a club team. I put AAU in basketball in the same category as “club”. That you do not understand that is not a slight against you, but it is a fact. While club sports are big money, talented athletes that lack resources seem to find their way onto the best teams.
If you go down south to Florida, Georgia, and Texas “academies” are now the big thing. They have even passed parochial schools. LaGrange Park’s own JJ McCArthy left the football factory Nazareth Academy to go to Florida his senior year. In part due to fall football being postponed, but he was already a big time D 1 recruit.
I will also point out that we agree that the IHSA is a farce though.
- Huh? - Monday, Sep 21, 26 @ 9:26 pm:
“You can’t buy … lottery tickets with a credit card …”
I do it all the time with my Amex card. Just bundle the lottery tickets with other items to be purchased.