Uh-oh. The Mayor's Advisory Council on LGBTQ+ Affairs flatly denies it was part of a Pride Parade agreement announced by 5th Floor. Mayor's office has angered many by shortening route, limiting participants in the parade. Background: https://t.co/NaK95RHypbpic.twitter.com/8cJQFaWM0Y
The tweet provoked a quick response from the mayor’s office, which denied the claim. They eventually sent me this email chain which showed that at least one person from the advisory council was kept in the loop.
* Today…
A press release was issued from the Mayor’s Press Office on May 10, 2024. The Mayor’s Advisory Council on LGBTQ+ Affairs was listed as a signatory to the joint statement. While advisory council chair Jin-Soo Huh did provide input on technical parts of the statement, there was no explicit agreement for the advisory council to sign on to the letter. Having the advisory council join a statement requires review and input from the full advisory council, which did not take place. As soon as the press release was sent, Huh reached out to the Office of Community Engagement and the Mayor’s Press Office asking for a correction to be sent. This request was denied.
As members of the advisory council, we are disappointed that the initial changes to the Pride Parade were made by the City without consulting the LGBTQ+ community given the significance of this event. While we understand that there are logistical and safety considerations due to festivities after the Pride Parade, selectively enforcing an ordinance without any community engagement is unacceptable. No decisions should be made about us without us. While we are glad that our advocacy in a short time frame did lead to more groups being able to participate in the parade, we are disappointed that the Pride Parade will have fewer entries and a shorter route compared to prior years.
The LGBTQ+ community is a resilient one and we know that Pride will be a celebratory event. We look forward to celebrating with fellow members of the LGBTQ+ community and allies.
Respectfully,
Members of the Mayor’s Advisory Council on LGBTQ+ Affairs
Maliyah Arnold
Dr. Christopher Balthazar
Donald Bell
Miguel Blancarte, Jr.
Robert Castillo
Stefanie Clark
Starr De Los Santos
Anna DeShawn
Jin-Soo Huh
Kim L. Hunt
Mony Ruiz-Velasco
Sanjeev Singh
Stephanie Skora
Less than two weeks after AT&T Illinois’ bill to end mandated land line service became law in 2017, the utility’s then-president, Paul La Schiazza, allegedly received a request from a relative of House Speaker Michael Madigan to sponsor a non-profit event.
The unidentified relative said the idea came “at the suggestion of our good friend, Mike McClain,” a former lobbyist and Madigan’s longtime confidant, according to a new prosecution filing. La Schiazza forwarded the request to a colleague in the legislative affairs department on July 12, 2017, writing “this will be endless,” according to the filing.
“I suspect the ‘thank you’ opportunities will be plentiful,’” the colleague allegedly emailed back, referring to the recent passage of AT&T’s coveted landline legislation expected to save to company millions of dollars.
“Yep,” La Schiazza allegedly responded. “We are on the friends and family plan now.”
The email exchange, which was disclosed for the first time in a recent court filing, gets to the heart of the bribery case against La Schiazza, who is set to go on trial in September on charges he approved a scheme to funnel payments to a Madigan associate in exchange for the speaker’s help passing legislation important to the company.
A ransomware attack has forced hospital group Ascension’s computer systems offline and diverted ambulances away from some of its emergency departments, including one in the Chicago area.
The hospital group that operates Ascension Resurrection in Chicago, St. Alexius in Hoffman Estates and Alexian Brothers in Elk Grove Village said it was a victim of a “cybersecurity event” after noticing “unusual activity” on its computer network on Wednesday.
It confirmed Saturday that it is recovering from a ransomware attack and is working with cybersecurity experts and the FBI. Ascension did not say when its computer systems would be restored.
* Press release…
Governor JB Pritzker joined Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS) Director Lizzy Whitehorn, Department of Human Services (DHS) Secretary Dulce Quintero, and other leaders today to celebrate the success of the campaign to keep eligible Medicaid customers enrolled in coverage during the yearlong unwinding from the federal Continuous Medicaid Coverage Requirement.
During this yearlong process, nearly 3.8 million individual Illinois Medicaid customers went through care redeterminations for the first time since March 2020. Redeterminations are an annual verification to ensure customers remain eligible for Medicaid benefits before their coverage is renewed for the next year.
Throughout this unwinding process, Illinois has consistently been among the leading states in its effort to keep eligible customers enrolled in Medicaid. Roughly 73% of Illinois Medicaid customers have retained their coverage throughout this process according to the latest data available from HFS, which administers the Illinois Medicaid program. […]
According to a Kaiser state redetermination data tracker, Illinois is among the 10 states with the lowest percentage of customers terminated for procedural reasons, such as unsubmitted redetermination forms or lack of a response to a request for more information to verify eligibility before the deadline. HFS is now returning to the regular practice of conducting redeterminations annually for all Medicaid customers in the state.
The story is the same, although the details differ, in a half-dozen small Midwestern cities. A house in Fond du Lac, Wis., sold swiftly and closed at $10,000 over its asking price. In Racine, a house went on the market on a Friday, got a full-price offer, and was under contract to a buyer by Sunday. In Champaign, a seller boosted her asking price by $25,000 just before her house went on the market and still got a full-price offer the first day.
Home prices are rising so fast in those and three other small cities in Illinois and Wisconsin that this swath of the Midwest dominated the National Association of Realtors’ May 8 report on U.S. home price increases during the first quarter of the year. […]
The other five Midwestern cities in the top 10 were No. 2 Kankakee, where prices are up 22%; No. 3 Rockford, 20.1%; No. 4 Champaign-Urbana, 20.0%; No. 6 Racine, 19.0%; and No. 8 Bloomington, 18.5%. Cities in Tennessee, New York, New Jersey and Maryland filled out the rest of the top 10.
Prices in those cities are rising at more than twice the speed of Chicago. The median price of Chicago-area homes sold during the quarter was up 8.8%, according to the same report.
The national median price was up 5 percent from a year earlier.
* Letter to the editor from Madison County Board Chair Kurt Prenzler, who got clobbered 62-38 in the March primary…
Four years ago, we were in lock down and on May 2, 2020, I wrote a letter to Gov. J.B Pritzker, requesting that our county be allowed to re-open. Hearing nothing, the county board voted 26 to 2 to re-open, according to our own schedule.
Later, the county board passed resolutions encouraging school districts to let parents make decisions regarding masks (July 2021) and opposing employer-mandated covid shots (January 2022).
During the past four years I wrote letters to the editor, encouraging people to think for themselves regarding the covid shots.
What did we learn? […]
Is there a way for us to hear alternate views?
Yes, may I suggest X / Twitter, purchased by Elon Musk in 2022. The platform now allows a variety of views, which are often banned from main stream and other social media.
* Did you see it?…
*** Feds ***
* Ex-Loretto Hospital exec charged with helping embezzle $500,000 amid COVID crisis: A former high-level executive at Loretto Hospital has been hit with federal charges alleging she helped embezzle nearly half a million dollars from the small safety-net facility on Chicago’s West Side at the height of the COVID-19 crisis. Heather Bergdahl, 37, who currently lives in the Houston area, was charged in a criminal complaint made public Monday with embezzlement from a federally funded program. Bergdahl was arrested on Thursday night shortly before a scheduled flight to Dubai. She’s scheduled to have a detention hearing in U.S. District Court in Houston on Monday, court records show. An attorney for her was not listed on the docket.
*** Chicago ***
* U. of C. study shows cops at high risk of misconduct also at elevated risk for off-duty trouble: The study, which examined 10 years of Chicago Police Department data as part of implementing the federal consent decree, found that police misconduct was predictable based on an officer’s history of complaints. It suggested that a relatively simple system of tracking past complaints to prevent future incidents could have a public value of “infinity,” considering the potential to avoid costly lawsuits that result from high-profile incidents of officer misconduct.
*** Infrastructure ***
* DigitalBridge CEO: Data Centers To Run Out Of Power In 2 Years Or Less: Data centers are going to be starved for power in as little as two years, according to DigitalBridge CEO Marc Ganzi, who offered a warning for the industry during the company’s first-quarter earnings call last week. “Power is really the constraining factor” for industry growth, Ganzi said. “And that’s going to become more evident to you and to the rest of the investor community over the next two years.” Ganzi said he told investors two years ago that data centers would run out of power in five years. “Well, I was wrong about that,” he said. “We’re running out of power in the next 18 to 24 months.”
* Press release: Rebuilding Springfield: Rails and rest stops highlight another historic construction season: Entering one of its busiest construction seasons ever, the Illinois Department of Transportation announced today that major projects in the Springfield area are planned or underway, fueled by Gov. JB Pritzker’s historic, bipartisan Rebuild Illinois capital program. Six major projects combined represent a total investment of nearly $103 million, improving safety and mobility while sustaining and creating good-paying jobs throughout the region.
* Johnson offers relief to home, business owners soaked by high water bills tied to underground leaks: The City Council’s Finance Committee on Monday unanimously approved the mayor’s two-year plan to offer nearly $2.4 million in financial relief to homeowners and business owners drowning in water bills tied to leaks in underground service lines repaired on or after Jan. 1, 2023. The measure could be passed by the full Council next week.
* ‘Right now, it’s almost a nightmare’: After years of crashes, IDOT eyeing fix for exit ramp in Elgin: Elgin resident Christopher Hilton’s wish is simple — a yard without careening cars. After years of screeching tires and hawklike vigilance when his three kids play outside, his wish may be granted. The Illinois Department of Transportation is considering closing an exit ramp from Route 20 to Route 25 by way of Illinois Avenue, where Hilton lives with his wife, Cassie Ross.
* ‘Tis the Season: Repaving starts on DuSable Lake Shore Drive: From Lawrence Avenue to Hollywood Avenue, the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) has started repaving North DuSable Lake Shore Drive. It marks the first phase of a project that is expected to continue until late June.
*** Suburbs ***
* Embattled Campton Hills trustee resigns: Saying he is tired of fighting efforts to remove him from office, Campton Hills village Trustee Timothy Morgan has resigned. Morgan was elected last year, but a 2002 felony DUI conviction in Michigan dogged his ability to keep his seat. Kane County State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser warned Morgan not to take his seat because the conviction made him ineligible. Morgan said he resigned at Tuesday’s village board meeting, a day before he was scheduled to be deposed on civil litigation brought by Mosser’s office aimed at removing him.
*** Downstate ***
* Metro-east city named among the ‘cheapest, safest’ places to live in US. Here’s why: Edwardsville made the list for its grocery prices, crime rate and cost of living. The metro-east city had the highest crime rate of any locality on the list, but was still “relatively low” at 5.5 per 1,000 residents. The average cost of groceries is $431 per month in Edwardsville, according to the analysis. Lake in the Hills, Ill., also made the list and had the lowest crime rate of the 15 cities. Mundelein rounded out the three Illinois towns in the ranking with one of the lowest housing costs.
* Kraft Heinz explores a sale of Oscar Mayer: The Chicago-based food maker has enlisted the help of Bank of America and Centerview Partners to test the waters of a potential sale of the hot dog and deli meat brand, the report said, emphasizing that it remains possible no transaction actually materializes.
* Here’s how Boeing delivery delays are hitting Chicago ahead of busy summer travel season: Southwest Airlines is slashing the number of flights it will offer out of O’Hare by 33% this summer, according to data from aviation firm Cirium, as it deals with delays getting planes from Boeing and weak financial results. Boeing delays also caused American Airlines to suspend a flight from O’Hare to Paris, and prompted United Airlines to offer pilots voluntary time off in May and June. O’Hare will ultimately have more scheduled flights from May to August than it did last year, according to Cirium, including from the airport’s two main carriers, American and United.
* Peoria distillery earns two medals in ‘prestigious’ spirits competition: Two Peoria-made products were awarded medals at the 2024 San Francisco World Spirits Competition. BLACK BAND Distillery’s Straight Wheat Whiskey earned gold, while its Peoria Bourbon secured a silver medal. “(Getting) a nod from San Fran World Spirits Competition at any level – meaning like of any medal – (is) fantastic,” said Chris Ober, founder and principal distiller at BLACK BAND. “So, we’re really happy with the outcome this year.”
*** National ***
* Canadian wildfire smoke chokes upper Midwest: At least some smoke could drift as far south as Iowa and Chicago, leaving skies looking milky by late Tuesday or early Wednesday, said Rafal Ogorek, a meteorologist in the National Weather Service’s Chicago office.
* Tennessee woman denied abortion after fetus’ ‘brain not attached’ slams state ban: A Tennessee woman who was denied an abortion despite a severe abnormality that meant her fetus would die during the pregnancy says the state’s anti-abortion laws resulted in her losing an ovary, a fallopian tube, and her hopes for a large family. “The state of Tennessee took my fertility from me,” Breanna Cecil, 34, told The Independent. State lawmakers “took away my opportunity to have a family like my own biological family because of these horrible laws that they put in place.”
Four would-be state legislative candidates, including one from Northbrook, are suing state officials over a new law forbidding political parties from slating candidates after primary elections.
The plaintiffs — all Republicans — also are seeking an emergency temporary restraining order to prevent enforcement of the law so they can appear on Nov. 5 ballots. The lawsuit names the Illinois State Board of Elections and state Attorney General Kwame Raoul as defendants. […]
The elections board has said it will accept petitions from slated candidates by a previously set June 3 deadline, and it is encouraging such candidates to file. The board will consider any challenges to those petitions filed by June 10 — again, as scheduled.
The elections board — comprised of four Democrats and four Republicans — will hold hearings to consider any objections. Those likely would be held July 9, a board spokesman has said.
Article III, Section 1 of the 1970 Illinois Constitution guarantees the right to vote to every United States citizen of at least 18 years of age who has been a permanent resident of Illinois for at least 30 days preceding any election.
“Legislation that affects any stage of the election process implicates the right to vote.” Tully v. Edgar, 171 Il. 2d 297, 307 (1996) (emphasis in original). Thus, “the right to vote is implicated by legislation that restricts a candidate’s effort to gain access to the ballot.” Id., citing Anderson v. Schneider, 67 III. 2d 165, 172-73 (1977).
But for P.A. 103-0586, Plaintiffs would comport with the provisions of 10 ILCS 5/8-17 (2023) and 10 ILCS 5/7-61 and stand as candidates for office in the November election.
Plaintiffs were all designated to fill the vacancies in nomination by their respective Representative or Legislative Committees prior to the enactment of P.A. 103-0586.
P.A. 103-0586 removed the provisions of 10 ILCS 5/8-17 that would allow Plaintiffs to gain access to the ballot, after that process had already begun.
P.A. 103-0586 impairs the rights of suffrage exercised by Plaintiffs and others in the 2024 general election by restricting Plaintiffs’ efforts to gain access to the ballot by changing the rules in the middle of that process.
‘When the means used by a legislature to achieve a legislative goal impinge upon a fundamental right, the court will examine the statute under the strict scrutiny standard.” Tully, 171 Il. 2d at 304.
The Illinois Supreme Court has recognized that the right to vote is a fundamental constitutional right, essential to our system of government. Fumarolo v. Chicago Board of Education, 142 Il. 2d 54, 74 (1990).
The elimination of the process of filling ballot vacancies used by Plaintiffs set forth in P.A. 103-0586 does not advance a compelling state interest in preventing Plaintiffs from accessing the ballot in the November 2024 general election.
The provision of P.A. 103-0586 eliminating the process of filling ballot vacancies used by Plaintiffs is not necessary to achieve the legislation’s goal.
Nor are the provision of P.A. 103-0586 eliminating the process of filling ballot vacancies used by Plaintiffs the least restrictive means available to attain the legislation’s goal.
The fact that P.A. 103-0586 would prohibit Plaintiffs from accessing the November 2024 general election ballot using the process set forth in Section 7-61 of the Election Code as it existed prior to the enactment of P.A. 103-0586, but would permit other candidates to be listed on the November 2024 general election ballot who completed the process set forth in Section 7-61 of the Election Code prior to P.A. 103-0586’s enactment is sufficient to show that P.A. 103-0586, as applied to Plaintiffs, fails strict scrutiny.
P.A. 103-0586, as applied to Plaintiffs, fails strict scrutiny analysis and, thus, unconstitutionally restricts Plaintiffs’ fundamental rights to suffrage by negating their efforts to gain access to the ballot.
Plaintiffs need immediate relief from the revisions to 10 ILCS 5/8-17 in order to lawfully comply with the June 3, 2024, deadline to file their nomination petitions with the Illinois State Board of Elections.
* Tully v. Edgar dealt with a new law that ended the terms of elected University of Illinois trustees. The Supreme Court sided with the trustees…
Legislation that nullifies the votes cast in a valid election and removes the elected trustees from office midterm is not necessary to or narrowly tailored to achieve the legislature’s presumed goal. There is no suggestion that the currently elected trustees are incompetent. Nor is there any assertion that the immediate removal of those trustees is necessary to improve the quality of education at the University of Illinois.
Moreover, it is evident that the legislature’s goal could be achieved by other means that would not impinge upon the fundamental right to vote. The legislature could certainly provide that, upon the expiration of the terms of office of the currently elected trustees, successor trustees will be appointed rather than elected. We conclude that the section of the Act which provides for the removal of the elected trustees midterm is not necessary to achieve the legislature’s presumed goal. Nor is the immediate removal of the elected trustees the least restrictive means of achieving that presumed goal. We therefore hold that the portion of the Act that removes the sitting trustees from office does not meet the strict scrutiny standard and is violative of the right to vote guaranteed under the Illinois Constitution.
Tessa Weinberg: Mayor, the CTU is also beginning contract negotiations with a demand for 9% raises or the rate of inflation, whichever is higher. At the same time, the district faces a budget deficit of at least $391 million, which is only likely to grow. Is that request realistic? Where will that money come from?
Mayor Johnson: You know, again, the state of Illinois owes the city of Chicago $1.1 billion. And, you know, we cannot lose sight of that. There has been a real concerted effort over the course of decades now to disrupt public education in this city. And without, you know, full cooperation from the state of Illinois, you’re going to leave one of the largest school districts in the entire country woefully underfunded. And I’m going to continue to advocate to make sure the people of Chicago receive their just due.
Mayor Johnson: You know, as far as making critical investments to build a better, stronger, safer Chicago, of course, there will be ongoing debates and conversations about that. Here’s the problem. We have a 100-year-old building that has owed hundreds of millions of dollars in debt. That’s the problem.
Fran Spielman: It’s a 100-year-old building that’s been rebuilt. It was rebuilt totally in 2003. It was totally rebuilt, that stadium.
Mayor Johnson: So stay with me then. I’m glad you brought that up, because not only is it a 100-year-old building that there’s no, with no dome, so no public benefit for it. We’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars in debt.
When it was, quote-unquote, rebuilt in 2003, 67% of the dollars that were used were public dollars to build a stadium where there’s no public benefit in which we still owe debt to. I’m saying is, I have put forth, so stay with me, I have put forth a solution to the problem. What is that solution?
That the Bears are willing to put $2 billion into the stadium, so their own money, billionaires putting their own money in it, while visitors, the hotel tax, pays for the rest. So we’re talking 72%, almost 75% of the building being paid for by the billionaires. And then there’s another 28% that comes from ISFA, which is designed to build stadiums.
The only function of ISFA is to build stadiums. And so I have this problem, the city of Chicago has this problem, and Illinois has this problem, that you have a 100-year-old building that has hundreds of millions of dollars in debt, and we can’t even use it beyond the 10 or 12 games. So if someone else has another solution that addresses this problem, then they should put that on the table.
Now, the Bears, of course, have a responsibility to continue to make their case, but the bottom line is this, I’ve said from the very beginning, whatever we do, we have to invest in people. That’s what I’ve done this first year, and there has to be a public benefit and a public use for it. The Bears have put together a proposal that absorbs 72% of the cost, and the other cost will be paid for by visitors.
If someone else has a better solution to that, they should put it on the table.
Mariah Woelfel: If we want to stay on Bears for a second, Mayor, I mean, that is the breakdown when you look at the stadium itself, but the overall plan will rely on $1.5 billion in federal and state funding for infrastructure improvements. How much time and political capital are you spending to try to secure that federal funding and state funding from those legislative bodies? And does that add unnecessary strain on your relationship with those legislatures? While we’ve already heard in this interview, you’re using a lot of that political capital to try to solve the migrant crisis. Is it worth it to spend time and energy on a sports stadium when you need those relationships for other priorities?
Mayor Johnson: So the question is, is it worth spending my time to put forth a vision that puts thousands of people to work and provide public benefit and public use, as well as infrastructure needs for the entire city of Chicago?
Mariah Woelfel: Or does it strain your relationship…
Mayor Johnson: Listen, I hear what you’re asking. You’re asking me, is it worth my time to actually show it for the people of Chicago? It will always be worth my time to ensure that we’re investing in people.
That’s what I promised I would do, and that’s what I’m doing. As far as the infrastructure needs, I’m not sure if enough people get enough opportunity to hear more about the inflation reduction act. We’re talking about billions of dollars.
This is an unprecedented amount of resources available for infrastructure. This is actually what the Biden-Harris administration, this is what they want us to do. One of the top tourist attractions for the state of Illinois is the campus in which we’re talking about.
Now, that’s not the only place that needs infrastructure, so my ask is not limited to this particular development. It’s also a need for us on the southeast side, where there are real environmental hazards that have been there for a generation now. And so we have service lines that need to be replaced.
This is not about one stadium. This is about our vision for the entire city of Chicago. And so I’m always going to show up for the people of Chicago. And because there’s a need for real critical investment, something that has not happened in a substantive way for at least the last 40 years, I am proud to show up for the people of Chicago, calling for those types of investments.
Tessa Weinberg: On the Bears, you know, they also are seeking to keep revenue from other events like concerts that take place at the stadium, which would leave a major hole in the Park District’s budget. Will you commit to not allowing the Bears to keep that revenue?
Mayor Johnson: This is a proposal. So there’s still negotiations that are being done around, you know, revenue sharing. This is a proposal.
A group of aldermen are calling on Mayor Brandon Johnson and Gov. J.B. Pritzker to replace embattled Chicago Transit Authority President Dorval Carter.
Nineteen aldermen, including several progressive Johnson allies and other more conservative aldermen, have so far signed onto the resolution that also calls for Carter to resign, according to lead co-sponsor Ald. Matt Martin, 47th. Though nonbinding, it’s the sharpest City Hall rebuke of Carter yet as the leader’s CTA continues to struggle with hiring, service cuts, lagging ridership and a looming financial cliff.
The Sports Betting Alliance, a coalition representing BetMGM, DraftKings, FanDuel, and Fanatics Sportsbook, is warning Illinois customers that a proposed tax rate increase in the state will seriously affect how they participate in sports betting.
If a proposed sports betting tax rate increase to 35%, up from 15%, in Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s (D) state budget is approved, customers will be hit with fewer promotions and worse odds from operators that are already struggling in the state, a Sports Betting Alliance spokesperson told Sports Betting Dime.
The alliance has been encouraging Illinois sports betting customers to reach out to their constituents to oppose the bill. More than 35,000 emails have been sent in opposition so far, said Nathan Click, Sports Betting Alliance spokesperson. […]
“From the consumer side, a 133% tax rate increase will mean worse odds and few, if any, promotions. It means less left for companies to invest in technology upgrades, responsible gaming efforts and their customer support teams. It’s also a subsidy to bookies and illegal market: Legal operators have just started to make serious inroads into Illinois’ robust illegal sports betting market. Worse odds, no promotions, worse product all give the offshore illegal market apps (who pay no tax) a massive leg up when competing for customers,” [Sports Betting Alliance spokesperson Nathan Click] said.
Parents across the state continue to receive the call no one wants to receive: the call that their child has consumed delta-8 THC and is being transported to the hospital. Senate Majority Leader Kimberly A. Lightford is spearheading a measure to regulate these pervasive, unlicensed products.
“We are working diligently to protect consumers of all ages, help our cannabis industry flourish, keep the promise to our social equity communities, and not stifle reputable hemp business establishments,” said Lightford (D-Maywood). “Effective regulation is about safeguarding public health and fostering a sustainable, trustworthy market.”
A recent study by the Journal of the American Medical Association found that more than 11% of high school seniors report using delta-8. In response, Lightford is sponsoring Senate Bill 776 to regulate hemp derived THC, including delta-8 products.
The regulation of hemp derived THC products would be similar to how the state regulates cannabis as it relates to taxing, testing, advertisement and more. While the possession limits would be the same as cannabis, limits would be cumulative with the possession limits of cannabis. Therefore, people could not possess more than 500 milligrams of cannabis or hemp concentrate-derived THC products.
Under the Lightford-led measure, businesses making the products would be required to follow the same guidelines as those within the cannabis industry. Any person working with hemp in a non-intoxicating form would simply be required to register their business and pay a $100 fee.
To ensure equality and fairness, only Social Equity Dispensaries – those that are owned by underrepresented individuals or disproportionally affected groups – would be able to sell these products until July 1, 2026. After that, more businesses could sell hemp concentrate-derived products. The transition is similar to the privilege given to medical dispensaries during the first few years of the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act.
“The current unregulated market undermines social equity license holders who have long worked to establish a legal, well-regulated business,” said Lightford. “As we move toward regulation of hemp and delta-8 products, we must ensure we do so in a way that is equitable and provides opportunities within the evolving industry.”
With two weeks left before the General Assembly’s spring session is set to adjourn, negotiations continue on a labor union-backed initiative that would allow Illinoisans to skip religious and political work meetings without reprimand.
Dubbed the “Worker Freedom of Speech Act,” Senate Bill 3649 advanced out of the Senate on May 2 with only Democratic support.
The Illinois AFL-CIO labor organization brought the measure to Sen. Robert Peters, D-Chicago, in an effort to ban what the unions refer to as employer-sponsored “captive audience meetings” pertaining to religion and politics. Labor advocates say the meetings give employers an opportunity to coerce employees to listen to anti-union rhetoric.
Employers found breaking the law would have to pay $1,000 per violation and provide relief to the wronged employee as the court dictates, which could involve paying owed wages and reinstating their position. […]
Rep. Marcus Evans, D-Chicago, a union ally and chair of the House Labor and Commerce Committee, is the measure’s House sponsor. He said he believes there is enough support for it to pass in the final two weeks – although a minor amendment could be forthcoming.
* Sen. Simmons…
To protect patients from unnecessary medical bills, State Senator Mike Simmons passed legislation out of the Senate on Thursday that would prohibit hospitals from billing a patient who cannot pay.
“When folks get hospital bills that don’t make sense and shouldn’t have been billed to begin with, it erodes confidence in the healthcare system writ large and leaves people afraid to seek care,” said Simmons (D-Chicago). “That is entirely unnecessary and this bill will ensure those folks can get to the doctor without worrying about getting a bunch of bills they cannot afford to pay.”
Senate Bill 2442 prohibits hospitals from directly billing a patient who has a household income at or below the 200% federal poverty line, that qualifies them for free care. Last year, Simmons supported the passing of a new law that requires hospitals to proactively screen for and enroll patients in Medicaid, health insurance and financial assistance beginning July 1.
“Healthcare costs should never be the reason people forgo care. Nor should anyone live in fear of sudden sticker shock from unexpected medical bills arriving in the mail,” said Simmons. “When that happens it represents a systemic barrier to accessing healthcare, which leads to untreated medical conditions and premature death for too many of our family members, neighbors and friends.”
Several constituents in Simmons’ district with low or no income have expressed stress and fear from receiving bills from hospitals and healthcare facilities despite demonstrating a lack of income. This legislation is an example of constituent-led policy, a hallmark of Simmons’ office, and will prohibit hospitals from billing patients who do not have the income to pay.
“No individual or family should be forced to decide between eating or paying hospital bills,” said Simmons. “This critical additional step is designed to protect healthcare consumers from unfair billing practices and abusive collection tactics. It will ultimately save lives, and lead to healthier households and communities.”
Senate Bill 2442 now heads to the House for further consideration.
Legislation filed by State Representative Norine Hammond to assist local road districts with funding challenges was unanimously passed by the Illinois House last month.
House Bill 5190 provides that the allocation to road districts shall be made in the same manner and be subject to the same conditions and qualifications as are provided by current law concerning the allocation to road districts of the amount allotted from the Motor Fuel Tax Fund for apportionment to counties for the use of road districts. It further provides that any funds allocated to a county that are not obligated within 48 months shall be considered lapsed funds and reappropriated in the same fund. The lapsed funds shall be used to provide additional monetary assistance to townships and road districts that have insufficient funding for the construction of bridges that are 20 feet or more in length.
Hammond’s legislation is an initiative of the Illinois Association of County Engineers.
“My legislation addresses the funding challenges that local road districts have had concerning maintaining roads and bridges by updating the current funding formula for local road districts,” said Rep. Hammond. “I’m grateful to the Illinois Association of County Engineers for working with me on this issue and I thank my House colleagues for their unanimous support.”
House Bill 5190 passed the Illinois House on a vote of 114-0-0 and now goes to the Illinois Senate for further consideration.
* Press release…
Advocates for healthy Illinois farm fields are uniting again this spring to urge legislators to provide more support for farmers’ use of cover crops to protect our soils and water supplies.
Environmental advocates and experts are teaming up with Illinois farming organizations to push for $3.1 million in new state funding to support expansion of the highly popular Fall Covers for Spring Savings Program (FCSS), as state legislators debate and formulate Illinois’ next state budget.
The FCSS gives farmers whose applications are accepted a $5-an-acre subsidy on their next year’s crop insurance for every acre of cover crops they plant. These crops are proven to help prevent environmentally and economically damaging soil erosion and other climate and weather challenges. Unlike other similar programs, the more cover crops farmers plant over the years, the more benefit they yield.
Many Illinois farmers have voluntarily embraced this program, giving landowners the flexibility they need to make the best choices for their fields and farm operations to maximize their production and conservation efforts. The main challenge is that the program’s popularity far exceeds the funds available to meet the demand.
In Fiscal Year 2020-2021, 50,000 acres of cover crop benefit were provided under a $300,000 state budget amount. For the 2022-2024 Fiscal Years, the program was more than doubled to a $660,000 budget and 100,000 acres. But in all cases, immediate demand caused all the money to go almost as quickly as the program was opened for applications.
Now, advocates say the time is right to expand the program to provide the incentives for 500,000 acres of eligible land, at a $3.1 million program cost. They expect that will allow 400,000 more acres to take advantage of the powerful benefits of cover crops, including the removal of carbon dioxide that equates to more than 37,000 vehicles off Illinois roads each year, nearly 1,000 rail cars burning coal, and more than 21,000 homes’ energy use.
Cover crops also help build land resistance to floods, reduce the risk that drought causes crop yield losses, improve soil and water quality, and improve farmers’ long-term return on their investment.
The cover crop increased funding proposal is included in Senate Bill 3814 sponsored by Sen. Patrick Joyce, and House Bill 5757 sponsored by Rep. Janet Yang Rohr. Both bills have strong bipartisan support in the Legislature and are expected to be considered in the upcoming budget discussions.
What are the most representative — dare we say, most American — states in the nation? And what does that even mean?
Our friend Lenny Bronner, The Washington Post’s tousle-haired political-stats wunderkind, needed an answer. You may recognize Lenny from his vote-night telecast appearances, or maybe from what his LinkedIn page calls the “Stanford Austria Club — Kaffeehauskulturverein.” Regardless, for his election models, Lenny needed to know how well results in one state could predict those in another.
So he churned through Census variables, creating indexes of how similar U.S. states are to one another — whereupon we realized that his work would be perfect for a less important purpose: finding the most typical and most unusual places in America.
Ever the Austrian, Lenny suggested a careful procession through the data. We started with the variable that, other than party identification, best predicts Americans’ votes. We’ll pause here to give you a chance to guess the answer. But — spoiler alert — it’s race.
So which state most closely mirrors the nation as a whole in terms of racial makeup? By mixing metropolis with corn palace, Illinois reigns as the most demographically “normal” state in America.
They then looked at about 30 other values, including religion, income, education and employment mixture and came up with this ranking…
* Gov. JB Pritzker was asked today about the memo from his deputy governor to state agency directors last week telling them that opposition to the governor’s revenue proposals meant they should start preparing to make $800 million in cuts to next fiscal year’s budget…
Q: I’m wondering where you’re seeing that opposition…?
Pritzker: I don’t think it’s some faction or another. Yeah, there were just, there were some some talk in caucus meetings that were occurring in the House or the Senate, in which people had raised concerns or objections, some of which is misinformation or they don’t have the right information about what we’re doing.
For example, there’s some people who think that the increase in the sports betting percentage tax is against sports betters themselves. That’s not the case. It’s only on the sports betting companies, right DraftKings, FanDuel, other companies like that. And similarly on the other manner, which is somewhat complex, net operating loss carry forwards. Not everybody’s familiar with those but we actually have lowered the tax on that operating cost, net operating loss carryforwards from what it had been there’d been a limitation of 100,000 we raised that limitation to 500,000. So more companies could take deductions essentially on their taxes.
So, having said that, we realized that we may not be able to get to all of the members or explain it properly to all of them and just wanted to make sure that they understood, you know, that that, you know, our leaders of our agencies needed to understand, that if those new revenues don’t come through that we’ll probably be hearing from the legislature about cuts that they want to make. And so we wanted to put everybody on notice. That’s the real purpose of that memo.
Sounds like the governor could’ve been working members earlier.
Q: You said within some caucuses.. what caucuses…?
Pritzker: Yeah, I think I couldn’t identify them for you. I think you know, more broadly, obviously, there are Republicans who objected to some of it. There are Democrats who’ve expressed some objection. We’re hoping that people come to a better understanding of it or, or they decide to make changes to the budget. Remember, I introduced a budget in February. This is the normal process, right? It’s a balanced budget. Then it goes to the legislature. It’s really up to the legislature at that point to make decisions about whether they like what was in that original budget, what they might want to change. For the most part, the legislature has accepted my budgets, you know, 90, 95% of them, and made tweaks to them that they’ve seen fit or that we’ve negotiated over time. And then at the end, there’s a vote on it. So, my one principle around this budget is it’s got to be balanced. So whatever happens here, we’re not going to overspend. We’re not going to start sweeping dollars from accounts that had been done before I became governor. We’re not going to go back to the old practices of making us a credit unworthy state. And so we’ve got to balance the budget. And that’s really the real message that I think everybody in the legislature knows that I’m sending.
Much of the Illinois Statehouse appeared to be girding itself for battle with Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson before his Springfield visit Wednesday.
After dramatically announcing to Chicago reporters earlier in the week the city’s families are “owed” $1 billion from state government, particularly education, Gov. J.B. Pritzker sent two distinct messages to the building.
First, Pritzker notified state agency directors to start preparing for $800 million in budget reductions next fiscal year because of lack of legislative support for the governor’s revenue proposals. The directors were told to focus on “grant programs and other discretionary spending that has increased in recent years.”
Then, the governor’s office issued an extensive background memo laying out how much more money Chicago’s school system has received from the state, including a $265 million increase in its annual General Revenue Fund outlays since fiscal year 2019, which worked out to a $1,542 per student hike, or a 30% increase.
The annual Early Childhood Block Grant appropriation was increased by $66.4 million in the same time period. Plus, more money for teacher pensions and enough money from the state’s evidence-based funding formula mean Chicago Public Schools is now funded better than more than 400 Illinois schools and has moved out of the critically underfunded Tier One level to Tier Two.
And then, the Senate Executive Committee, tightly controlled by Senate President Don Harmon, unanimously approved Harmon’s bill, opposed by Johnson, to protect selective enrollment schools from closure, changes to admissions and disproportionate budget cuts until a fully elected school board is seated.
The measure (House Bill 303) was scheduled for a hearing before Johnson made known he was coming to Springfield. But instead of delaying passage out of deference to Johnson, it was put on the agreed bill list, which was quickly zoomed to the floor without debate, where it may be amended.
Perhaps sensing the headwinds, Johnson’s lobbying crew belatedly distributed a one-page memo to legislators containing far more modest budget requests than Johnson had previewed to city reporters and nothing about direct public school funding.
The mayor’s office asked for a little more money from the Local Government Distributive Fund; some lead service line replacement debt forgiveness and more money for lead removal from licensed daycare centers; a change in state law to allow the city to collect more for its 911 services; and money to replace what ultimately turned out to be a federal budget cut for domestic violence hotline funding.
As a result, the mayor did not bring up the $1 billion “owed” for schools during meetings with any of the leaders, I’m told. Instead, he focused on that one-pager, which in one instance was printed from my website to be used during the discussion.
The governor’s office starts putting the budget together in the fall, and they work through February to craft it. That’s the best time to make initial budget requests. A mayoral visit to Springfield in May should be for a victory lap, or to shore up last-minute support for the budget.
A reporter asked Johnson if maybe he should be in town more often or make his budget requests earlier in the process. “Well, look, we’re at the right time,” Johnson said. “As you all know, you all have been covering Springfield for a very long time, you know when stuff gets done. So we’re down at the right time.”
Um, now is when things are finalized. The governor, advocacy groups and legislators have been pushing their own budgetary priorities for weeks, even months. Coming to town with two weeks left can mean settling for leftovers, and if the budget is as tight as the governor says, there may not be any leftovers.
Meanwhile, the Chicago City Council’s Black Caucus was in Springfield the same day for a long-planned lobby day. For whatever reason, the mayor did not attempt to coordinate with the caucus after he belatedly announced his Statehouse trip. That seems odd.
The mayor also held a Springfield press conference. Asked about education funding, the mayor said he wanted to push for that $1 billion over time. When asked whether his proposals would “jump the line” ahead of other school districts, Johnson said, “This is not a zero-sum game. There’s more than enough for everyone.”
Except there’s not, which is what the mayor’s top allies at the Chicago Teachers Union will be told when they visit Springfield en masse for their own lobby day to demand that billion dollars the mayor didn’t bring up.
* Also, the mayor didn’t bring up either of these two topics when he met with the leaders, but Politico asked him about them anyway…
Q: During your trip to Springfield last week, did you get a sense lawmakers might be willing to give an inch on the Bears or Chicago Public School students?
A: Regarding school funding: “The state of Illinois recognizes that the algorithm or the funding formula that they voted on [in 2016] shows the people of Chicago are owed $1.1 billion. So that’s just a fact. Now whether or not they decide to provide the city of Chicago what they deserve. I mean, that that’s something that I’m going to continue to push for. But that really comes down to leadership in Springfield to determine whether or not the largest school district state of Illinois deserves its just right.”
A: Regarding the Bears: “The proposal that the Bears have put forward provides public benefit and public use. It would build a dome stadium that gives public benefit and public use with billionaire dollars and visitor dollars [i.e. hotel taxes]. This stadium would not only be built by billionaires and visitors, it would be publicly owned. If someone thinks we can do better than 72 percent of it being financed by ownership and the other 28 percent with visitors, they should speak now.”
Regarding the Bears, the mayor apparently forgot about the $1.5 billion he agreed to spend of state taxpayers’ money on the project. And he apparently wasn’t reminded via a follow-up question, either.
Monday, May 13, 2024 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
The price-setting board proposed in HB4472 is not the solution for Illinois. It would give bureaucrats the power to arbitrarily set medicine prices, deciding what medicines and treatments are “worth” paying for. We can’t leave Illinoisans’ health care up to political whims. Let’s make it easier, not harder for patients to access their medicines. Click here to learn more.
* ICYMI:Mark Walker has been appointed to 27th SD. Here’s the press release….
Mark L. Walker, formerly the state Representative for the 53rd District, was appointed today as the new state Senator for the 27th District.
“I’m honored to become the new Senator for the 27th District,” Walker said. “Over my time serving the 53rd District in the House, I’ve represented most of the people and communities of the 27th District. It’s great to be representing them again and I’m excited to continue advocating for our communities in Springfield.”
Former state Senator Ann Gillespie resigned her seat on April 14th, 2024, following her appointment by Governor Pritzker as the Acting Director of the Dept. of Insurance. In accordance with the vacancy replacement process, the local Township Democratic Committeepeople comprising the 27th District met on May 11 to fill the vacancy. Walker received the majority of votes to become the new Senator for the District.
“Sen. Gillespie was a tremendous Senator and I thank her for her service to the 27th District,” Walker added. “I’m looking forward to a seamless transition into this new position so we can continue working for Illinoisans delivering another balanced budget, meeting our pension obligations, and building an Illinois for all.”
The 27th Senate District contains most or parts of Arlington Heights, Buffalo Grove, Des Plaines, Mount Prospect, Palatine, Prospect Heights, Rolling Meadows, and Schaumburg.
Governor Pritzker will be at the Lawndale Christian Health Center at 9:30 am to celebrate Medicaid redetermination efforts. Click here to watch.
*** Isabel’s top picks ***
* Capitol News Illinois | Stateville may close as early as September under Pritzker’s prison plan: Top officials with the Illinois Department of Corrections testified in front of a key panel of state lawmakers. The 12 members on the General Assembly’s Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability face a mid-June deadline to make a recommendation on the governor’s plan to close and rebuild a pair of prisons in central Illinois and in Chicago’s south suburbs. But no matter what the panel decides, the Pritzker administration can go ahead with its plans so long as money is built into the state’s next budget.
* WBEZ | Local election officials hope to report aggregate vote totals this November: Election officials in Chicago and Cook County are exploring how they can work together to report their aggregate ballot numbers in the days after Election Day following widespread confusion among voters in March’s primary election. The tight race for the Democratic Cook County State’s Attorney nomination saw mail-in, provisional and military ballots trickle in up to two weeks after primary Election Day, with Eileen O’Neill Burke winning by just over 1,500 votes.
* NPR | Medical residents are starting to avoid states with abortion bans, data shows: Isabella Rosario Blum was wrapping up medical school and considering residency programs to become a family practice physician when she got some frank advice: If she wanted to be trained to provide abortions, she shouldn’t stay in Arizona. Blum turned to programs mostly in states where abortion access — and, by extension, abortion training — is likely to remain protected, like California, Colorado and New Mexico. Arizona has enacted a law banning most abortions after 15 weeks. “I would really like to have all the training possible,” she said, “so of course that would have still been a limitation.”
*** Statehouse News ***
* Capitol News Illinois | Labor-backed bill banning ‘captive audience’ meetings awaits House action: With two weeks left before the General Assembly’s spring session is set to adjourn, negotiations continue on a labor union-backed initiative that would allow Illinoisans to skip religious and political work meetings without reprimand. Dubbed the “Worker Freedom of Speech Act,” Senate Bill 3649 advanced out of the Senate on May 2 with only Democratic support.
* Daily Herald | Legislation could help lower concrete’s carbon footprint in Illinois: ‘It’s literally what the world is made out of’: Lawmakers and advocates are looking to offset greenhouse gas emissions from one of the world’s most consumed materials second only to water — concrete. The building material’s main binding ingredient, cement, represents a whopping 7% to 8% of global carbon emissions. But experts say it’s not likely construction projects will slow down any time soon — or that a zero-emission replacement will crop up like EVs have for gas cars, for instance. […] Rather than replace concrete, the leading solution is to transform it.
* SJ-R | Calls continue for an increase in pay for Direct Service Professionals in Illinois: Due to higher turnover rates and vacancies, state legislators and Direct Service Professionals are asking for $3.00 rate wage increase. The call for a rate increase comes after a $2.50 wage increase for the workers in Fiscal Year 2024. Skipping an increase for Fiscal Year 2025 means that there have been two consecutive years without wage rate increases.
*** Statewide ***
* Pontiac Daily Leader | 2024 list of Most Endangered Historic Places in Illinois released. Here’s what’s on it: The sites, announced during a Tuesday news conference, include historic homes, banks, places of worship, factories, theaters, office buildings, schools, courthouses and cultural centers. “This year’s ‘Most Endangered’ sites are not only incredibly important places in their communities, but many are large-scale buildings that sit prominently in highly visible areas near city centers, in historic districts or on state-owned land. Their neglect is seen and felt,” Bonnie McDonald, president and CEO of Landmarks Illinois, said in a news release.
* PJ Star | OSF, other medical professionals found liable in $41 million malpractice lawsuit in Illinois: A jury in the Circuit Court of Cook County has awarded $41 million to a 72-year-old lawyer whose cerebral artery stroke was brought on by medical mismanagement at the Peoria-based OSF HealthCare System, according to a news release from the law firm representing him. Craig Pierce was awarded the verdict on Tuesday against OSF, an Illinois nephrologist, a kidney care corporation and a dialysis service. According to his lawyers, this is the largest award in Illinois history for a medical malpractice case with a plaintiff over 70 years old.
*** Chicago ***
* Tribune | Mayor Johnson on the record: The full Tribune Q&A as he approaches 1 year in office: Q: What do you see as the area that most needs improvement within your administration? A: Well, I mean, look, we’ve had 40 years of gross neglect and disinvestment within the city of Chicago, right? And we’re talking about real severe disinvestment. I’m not sure if either one of you were here during the time in which schools were closed. It’s a very profound, lasting impact that it has had on the people of Chicago. And when mental health clinics are shuttered, that creates a lot of frustration that leaves a gaping hole, right? And so part of my responsibility, of course, is to address the age-old systems of failure and to build a better, stronger, safer Chicago, and that is something that I’m committed to doing. That’s what the people of Chicago elected me to do.
* Tribune | Mayor Johnson at one year in office: Former activist grapples with being the boss: Jason McGrath, a Chicago-based strategist who was a pollster for the last three mayors, said Johnson should be concerned about these “calls coming from inside the house.” “It’s a very, very hard job, and I think he’s finding now that it’s a lot easier to throw bombs from the sideline than it is to be in the ring and actually defuse them,” McGrath said. “Right now, there are too many people who are openly criticizing him who should be with them. And if that’s not a flashing red light yet, it certainly will be soon.”
* Sun-Times | Chicago cop convicted in Capitol riot has been fired from the police department: Karol Chwiesiuk spent roughly 10 minutes inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as a mob attempted to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s electoral victory. Chwiesiuk was ultimately sentenced to three months of home detention in January. However, his dismissal from the police department is only tangentially related to his case in federal court. A police spokesperson said he was “terminated for a break in service, in violation of the city’s personnel rules.”
* Tribune | U. of C. study shows cops at high risk of misconduct also at elevated risk for off-duty trouble: The study, which examined 10 years of Chicago Police Department data as part of implementing the federal consent decree, found that police misconduct was predictable based on an officer’s history of complaints. It suggested that a relatively simple system of tracking past complaints to prevent future incidents could have a public value of “infinity,” considering the potential to avoid costly lawsuits that result from high-profile incidents of officer misconduct.
* WTTW | Social Service Organization The Ark Celebrates Reopening of $21.5M Renovated Facility Serving Chicago’s Jewish Community: The facility now has the capacity to serve an additional 1,000 clients per year, bringing the total to about 5,000 clients annually. The new building is 60% larger than the original. The renovations include a four-fold increase in the size of its food pantry, which features new walk-in refrigerators and freezers. The pharmacy was relocated to the first floor for better accessibility, and the community space doubled in size.
* Daily Herald | DuPage County clerk to county: Pay my bills: In a Tuesday memo to DuPage County Board Chairwoman Deborah Conroy, Kaczmarek requested that all the invoices approved by her office be submitted to the treasurer for payment. The move would bypass approval from the county auditor. If the invoices are not paid, Kaczmarek said she would “instruct the state’s attorney to commence legal action on my behalf in my official capacity.”
* Daily Herald | DuPage County Forest Preserve invites Stephen Colbert to be featured in follow-up cicada video: A viral cicada video that the DuPage County Forest Preserve District put out last week has reached new and national heights, inviting attention from the likes of CNN, NPR and Stephen Colbert. Colbert joked about the video, which features forest preserve district employees acting out the life stages of cicadas, on “The Late Show” Wednesday night. A former member of Chicago’s Second City improv troupe, Colbert quipped that he would have killed for the role of cicada larvae back in his Illinois acting days.
*** Downstate ***
* BND | Cahokia 187 is getting a new high school. Here’s the timeline, design & financing: District 187 will pay back the lease certificates with corporate personal property replacement tax funds it gets annually from the state and interest earnings for the first two years of repayment, Assistant Superintendent Arnett Harvey told the BND. Starting with the third year, the district will continue paying off the certificates annually with revenue it will get from two retiring tax increment financing districts within the school district’s boundaries.
* PJ Star | After 31 years as a Journal Star reporter and photographer, Leslie Renken says goodbye: In May of 1993 I drove up out of the desert to work at the Journal Star. Peoria was literally a breath of fresh air after working for three and a half years in Odessa, Texas. All the things that were missing in Odessa, like humidity, trees, drinkable tap water, and historic architecture, were present in Peoria. And it felt a lot like coming home, since the move meant I would be only three hours from my family in St. Louis, a far cry from the 18-hour drive to west Texas.
* WCIA | Central Illinois woman gets state award for volunteer service: Sarah Rochnowski has been volunteering in the area for over half of a decade. Now, she has won the Governor’s Volunteer Service Award. Rochnowski said she never thought about getting recognized when she set out to give her time to others, but now she has even more motivation to volunteer. She said it’s always been about others.
*** National ***
* ProPublica | IRS Audit of Trump Could Cost Former President More Than $100 Million: Former President Donald Trump used a dubious accounting maneuver to claim improper tax breaks from his troubled Chicago tower, according to an IRS inquiry uncovered by ProPublica and The New York Times. Losing a yearslong audit battle over the claim could mean a tax bill of more than $100 million. […] But when Trump sought to reap tax benefits from his losses, the IRS has argued, he went too far and in effect wrote off the same losses twice.
* Crain’s | Small Midwestern cities are killing it in home price growth this year: Home prices are rising so fast in those and three other small cities in Illinois and Wisconsin that this swath of the Midwest dominated the National Association of Realtors’ May 8 report on U.S. home price increases during the first quarter of the year. In a three-month period when the median price of homes sold nationwide was up 5% from a year earlier, prices in Fond du Lac were up 23.7%, the highest in the country, according to the NAR report.
* WSJ | There’s Not Enough Power for America’s High-Tech Ambitions: —Bill Thomson needs power fast. The problem is that many of the other businesspeople racing into Georgia do too. Thomson heads marketing and product management at DC Blox, which in recent years built a string of data centers in midsize cities across the fast-growing Southeast. The company more recently set its sights on Atlanta—the would-be capital of the region—joining a slew of tech and industrial firms piling into the state.
* Daily Beast | We Asked Baristas, Retail Workers, and Servers About Their Comfiest Shoes: Most people, except maybe people who use the word “summer” as a verb, will work a service job at some point in their life. And while the vocations under that umbrella vary from barista to line cook to showroom sales associate and beyond, they all require one thing: surviving long shifts—and often long shifts on their feet for eight hours straight.
* Independent | Scientists celebrate ‘first step’ in making food allergies history: Sibel Sonmez-Ajtai, paediatric allergy consultant and principal investigator at Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, said: “This study is enabling us to do something we would never have dreamed of doing before – giving patients the foods we know they are allergic to. “This treatment is not a cure for a food allergy, but what it achieves is life-transforming.
* Isabel is on sick leave for a few days I’ve told her to take it easy, so, as I write this, I’m not sure if she’ll be posting her hugely popular morning briefing today. In the meantime, talk amongst yourselves.
May 25th in Murphysboro I am going to be unveiling an Illinois State Historic Association Marker on the Southwest Corner of the Jackson County Courthouse Lawn dedicated to the life of Lawrence “Big Twist” Nolan. He was a notable Blues Singer, Drummer, and Harmonica Player, born in Terra Haute, but lived his life “off the road” in Murphysboro from 1956 until his death in 1990.
I am not sure how many historic markers are dedicated to Blues Artists in Illinois, but I am confident this will be the first in Southern Illinois.
The unveiling is going also include a street party with live music from Tawl Paul and the Ivas John band. Numerous members of the Nolan family are coming in from across the country for it. Just thought it might have some Friday music post potential.
P.S. The marker was funded by the City of Murphysboro, Jackson County, Murphysboro Tourism, Jackson County NAACP, and myself.
Yesterday, a Lake County Judge granted the State’s petition to detain Jared Honegger, 24, who is being charged with four counts of child pornography.
After the detention hearing, Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart stated,
“Our office is committed to protecting all children in Lake County, and I commend the Sheriff’s team and the Attorney General’s Office for their investigation. This offender is now jailed indefinitely because of our new system that does not allow him to post cash and be released. Others charged with this exact same crime have been able to post cash in the past, and those days are over.”
During the detention hearing, the State argued that Honegger’s pre-trial release would pose a real and present threat to the community because the videos and images found in Honegger’s phone are a form of violence, sexual in nature, and that if it weren’t for people like Honegger consuming that content, there would not be a demand for predators to continue making child pornography and harming children.
The State further argued that Pre-Trial Bond Services does not have the ability to engage in 24-hour surveillance of Honegger’s home and would not be able ensure Honegger wouldn’t continue downloading and disseminating child pornography if he had pre-trial release.
Since September 2023, individuals who are charged with possessing or creating child pornography are no longer eligible to use cash to post bond in order to obtain pre-trial release. The SAFE-T Act prevents violent offenders and sex offenders from being able to post cash bond if a judge determines they are dangerous to the community.
Honegger’s next court hearing is scheduled for May 28 at 1:30 p.m. for preliminary hearing.
* State of Illinois…
On the eve of the anniversary marking the end of the Public Health Emergency (PHE) declarations put in place at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the State of Illinois released a playbook detailing measures the state should take to prepare for future public health emergencies as well as recommendations for future administrations that may have to navigate public health crises.
“Following a once-in-a-century event like the COVID-19 pandemic it is critical that we take the time to thoroughly study how our state responded to the emergency and seek to learn lessons that will put us in a stronger position the next time such an all-of-government response is required,” said Governor JB Pritzker.
The playbook was produced through a review of the impact of COVID-19 on Illinois residents, with a focus on health and human services outcomes; compiling lessons learned during the pandemic; and developing forward-looking recommendations to improve preparedness for future public health emergencies and non-emergency state operations.
The playbook lays out three phases of any response: establishing the response, activating the response and delivering the response. Under those headings, 14 steps the state should take are identified as it mobilizes state agencies, other branches of government, health system partners, and outside experts and stakeholders to deliver a coordinated disaster response.
The after-action report found that the strengths of the state’s response included: strong central leadership at the top, including setting out a clear vision and priorities; a data-driven approach; a focus on equity and prioritizing underserved communities in allocating resources; effective use of community relationships and public private partnerships; and effective use of executive orders that speeded up the deliver of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and other resources.
The report noted that the focus on equity contributed to achieving better rates of vaccine uptake for non-white Illinoisans than non-white residents in all but one peer states.
While the report indicated that Illinois demonstrated clear strengths in the COVID-19 response, it also identified lessons learned that can improve future responses to infectious disease public health emergencies.
The key challenges that Illinois state agencies experienced at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic were: limited planning for a major infectious disease emergency that required a whole-of-government response; limitations on health and operational data infrastructure and capabilities; lack of real-time data needed to measure and respond to health equity needs and broader health impacts; variations in the effectiveness of community engagement; and depletion of the public health workforce due to attrition and a slow hiring process.
The Redneck Fishing Tournament, an annual quest to have fun while ridding the Illinois River of an invasive species, is ready for another run this summer.
The tournament, hosted by the 279 residents of Bath, takes place along the Illinois River, which forms the western border of the village. This year’s event will be Aug 1-3. Activities on the first day are dominated by a kids’ fishing tournament.
The tournament is a blend of fun and a serious mission. The fun is the festivities and the fishing. The serious part is fundraising and trying to reduce the number of copi, formerly known as Asian carp, in the Illinois River.
“Ugly fish, cold beer, good causes and great times. If you haven’t experienced the Redneck Fishing Tournament, you owe it to yourself to check it out,” said tournament organizer Nikki Gregerson.
* Tribune | Migrant mourns death of child, one of the many unaccounted for in Chicago: ‘Without money, you’re nobody’: The Venezuelan mother lost her 3-year-old — Luciana Valentina Suarez Calderon — at the end of April to a bacterial infection in Chicago. But without the $2,750 needed for a funeral, Calderon had to wait in mourning while her daughter’s body sat at the morgue for days. “I wanted people to be able to visit her body to say goodbye. If I had the money, I would have taken her out immediately,” Calderon said. “Uno sin plata no es nadie. Without money, you’re nobody.”
* Tribune | Cook County judge seals documents in highly-scrutinized case of man accused of stabbing child: Crosetti Brand, 37, who has a documented history of violence against women, is charged with murder, attempted murder and other felonies in a March attack he allegedly perpetrated just one day after he was released from prison where he was sent after threatening Jayden’s mother weeks earlier. The killing spurred grief and outrage in the community and raised questions about safeguards for domestic violence victims and the Illinois Prisoner Review Board’s handling of Brand’s release. […] “The People make this request out of concern that any publication of pretrial pleadings … may receive further media attention and may affect the Defendant’s ability to receive a fair trial,” the state’s motion to seal reads.
* WGN | Man opens up on alleged sex abuse from former Chicago priest known as ‘Father Happy Hands’: Larry Kubbins, 60, held a press conference opening up about the alleged abuse by the Rev. Daniel Mark Holihan, who died in 2016, and had a message for survivors across the world. “It’s been a weight I’ve had for almost 50 years,” Kubbins said. “They need to not be afraid to report it. I was not smart enough to listen to my mother and walked away from it.” […] The Illinois Attorney General’s Office said Holihan has 40 reported survivors.
* Sun-Times | Chicago Democratic convention leaders ready for anything, but see no echoes of 1968. ‘There is really … no comparison.’: With less than 15 weeks to go before a national spotlight descends on Chicago, Democratic National Convention leaders are swatting away comparisons to 1968 and trying to get ahead of worst-case scenarios. That includes combing through social media posts to prepare for what-ifs, trying to target disinformation, vetting 12,000 volunteers and meeting frequently with Chicago officials and police.
* Sun-Times Editorial Board | To save Greyhound bus service in Chicago, the city has to take the wheel: Yet the city — and the state — don’t seem to care about the very real possibility of Greyhound being evicted within months from its longtime Harrison Street bus terminal, as a scathing report by DePaul University’s Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development found. Other bus lines, including FlixBus (which now owns Greyhound), Barons Bus, Burlington Trailways and others, are at risk of being evicted too.
*** Cook County and Suburbs ***
* Shaw Local | McHenry former, current aldermen violated anti-harassment policy in comments about city worker: investigation: McHenry Alderman Victor Santi and former Alderman Shawn Strach violated the city’s anti-harassment and whistleblower policy for comments made about a city employee to other local officials, the city’s labor attorney has determined. […] The portion of the city’s personnel policy manual Kelly said the two violated states in part: “Although conduct may not rise to the level of unlawful harassment from a legal perspective, the city wants to protect its employees from abuse and to prevent conduct from becoming so severe or pervasive as to alter the conditions of an employee’s employment, create an abusive, intimidating or hostile working environment.”
* ABC Chicago | Wife of Lockport Township man accused in hate crime shooting de-deputized during investigation: The wife of a man accused in a hate crime shooting in the south suburbs is now under investigation too. The Cook County Sheriff’s Office said she is a correctional sergeant at the Cook County Jail. She has been de-deputized while authorities look into the case. […] Prosecutors described what had been a years-long history of animosity between the neighbors, with Shadbar frequently using racial slurs toward Robertson’s two children, who are Black. That includes on May 7, the day of the shooting.
* Sun-Times | ‘I suffered a lot’: Suburban Chicago woman claiming Zantac caused her cancer takes the stand in Cook County trial: Her suit alleges that the drug’s active ingredient, called ranitidine, turns into a cancer-causing substance called NDMA as it ages. The suit, one of thousands against the drugmakers, is the first to make it to jury trial. In December 2022, a federal judge in Florida dismissed roughly 50,000 claims because “no scientist outside this litigation” concluded the drug causes cancer.
*** Downstate ***
* BND | ‘We are in bad shape.’ East St. Louis bridge closing raises concerns in community: Residents, businesses and public officials are raising concerns about safety, impeded access to their neighborhoods and other issues due to the April closing of a bridge on 26th Street in East St. Louis. […] “It has my area blocked in and a lot of my elderly people are having problems,” said Kinnis Williams Sr., Democratic precinct committeeman for the area. “ It’s an old neighborhood, and there are a bunch of elderly people living there. They are concerned and I am concerned for them.”
* WMBD | Speaker of the House Mike Johnson to deliver keynote address at Tazewell/Peoria County GOP Lincoln Day Dinner: The groups have announced that Mike Johnson will be the keynote speaker at the annual Lincoln Day Dinner. The event will take place at Four Points by Sheraton in Peoria on June 1st. Tazewell County Republican Chairman Jim Rule tells WMBD’s “Greg and Dan” that Congressman Darin LaHood (R-Dunlap) helped bring the Speaker to central Illinois. “When we gave him the idea that this is who we wanted, he kinda looked at me cross-eyed and said ‘Really?’ And [I] said ‘yeah’.” Rule said. “So, his team and the Johnson team worked closely together, and he was able to get this done.”
* WSIL | Saluki Recruitment Tour heads to Hollywood: After the success of SIU’s takeover of Southern Illinois, Chancellor Austin A. Lane has decided to bring the tour out-of-state to Hollywood. Lane and SIU alumni will visit the hub of filmmaking in the U.S. in continued efforts to recruit more students to the school. “Whether you’re a student, alumni or fan, this is your chance to connect with the Saluki spirit in the heart of the entertainment world,” said the school.
* WCIA | New Architecture Book Features Hidden Gems In Central Illinois: The book is a collaboration between Architect Jeffery Poss and Photographer, Phillip Kalantzis-Cope. […] The book releases on May 15, 2024. The Krannert Art Museum is hosting a Book Launch event that day from 4-6pm in the main level of the East Gallery, where the authors will be present to discuss the book and available for signing.
* Sun-Times | Bears third-round pick Kiran Amegadjie won’t practice this offseason: Kiran Amegadjie, the Bears’ third-round draft pick, won’t practice this offseason as he recovers from a quad injury. The Bears expect him to be healthy in time for training camp in July, coach Matt Eberflus said before Friday’s rookie minicamp practice. The swing tackle played only four games for Yale last year before suffering the injury. The Bears expected they’d have to bring him along slowly when they picked him 75th overall last month.
*** National ***
* Crain’s | Gannett fires Michigan editor who shared staffing concerns: Sarah Leach, an editor who oversaw 15 Michigan dailies and weeklies for Gannett, has been fired for talking to an industry organization about Gannett operations.[…] In an interview with Crain’s, Leach acknowledged she was the unnamed source for that story, and was fired after the Poynter reporter, Rick Edmonds, sought comment from Gannett on why the company was stalling on its announcement to boost staffing.
* NPR Illinois | The FAFSA failure: This is usually an exciting time for students looking ahead to college. But trouble with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid means the dream of higher education could be in jeopardy for some students in need. We take a look at the impact it’s having.
* AP | Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson needs conservatorship because of mental decline, judge rules: At a hearing, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Gus T. May approved the petition filed by the 81-year-old Wilson’s family and inner circle after the death in January of his wife, Melinda Ledbetter Wilson, who handled most of his tasks and affairs. “I find from clear and convincing evidence that a conservatorship of the person is necessary,” May said at the brief hearing. The judge said that evidence shows that Wilson consents to the arrangement and lacks the capacity to make health care decisions.
The publisher of a chain of Republican-favoring newspapers derided as “pink slime” has agreed to remove specific street addresses and birthdates for “hundreds of thousands” of Illinois voters after being sued by Democratic Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul.
Both Raoul’s office and Lake Forest-based Local Government Information Services agreed to an order from a Lake County judge that the sensitive information be removed from the company’s nearly three dozen online platforms by 5 p.m. Monday.
The order signed by Lake County Circuit Judge Daniel L. Jasica also bars the company from publishing that material while Raoul’s newly filed lawsuit wends its way through court. […]
State election law permits political committees to obtain information about voters but stipulates that it “be used only for bona fide political purposes” and not for “commercial solicitation or other business purposes.” Violation of that provision is a felony.
Proft did not respond to a query from WBEZ. LGIS’s president, Brian Timpone, could not be reached for comment.
[On Thursday, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson] held a meet-and-greet with lawmakers and labor leaders at the American Federation of Labor & Congress of Industrial Organizations, or AFL-CIO, Illinois headquarters. […]
The mayor also joined with labor leaders in advocating for a new Bears stadium in Chicago, which would provide many new jobs.
“The problem that we have is we have a 100-year-old building that is owed hundreds of millions of dollars in debt. And it doesn’t have real public access, public benefit or for public use,” Johnson said.
* The Question: Now that the stadium plan the mayor negotiated with the Chicago Bears has been declared a “non-starter,” do you think the Bears will use that as an excuse to move to Arlington Heights? And, if so, who gets the blame? Explain.
Volkswagen filed a federal lawsuit in December [of 2022] describing a bill that overwhelmingly passed both Illinois legislative chambers and was signed into law in 2021 as “crony capitalism at work: redistributive legislation that takes hundreds of millions of dollars from some (but not all) motor vehicle manufacturers and, for no public purpose, deposits that money directly into the pockets of politically favored Illinois [car] dealers.” The automaker claims the law is costing it an extra $10 million a year.
The bill in question (HB3940) was hotly opposed by automotive manufacturers. The law forces manufacturers to reimburse car dealers at a much higher rate (the auto industry says it’s a 50% higher rate) for warranty repairs. The bill came about after a labor dispute between dealerships and a mechanics union. They apparently decided to let the carmakers pay to resolve their monetary dispute, although the mechanics ended up on strike anyway because the dealers allegedly kept the new windfall initially instead of passing it through.
Just about every state legislator has multiple auto dealers in their districts, and Democrats have been eagerly allying themselves ever closer with organized labor in past years, so the bill hit a sweet spot with both parties and cleared the House 85-24 and then passed the Senate without a single dissenting vote a few weeks later.
The manufacturers say the law is costing the industry $240 million a year. Yes, you read that right. $240 million. Per year. They claim Illinois has the highest warranty repair costs in the nation. By far.
Volkswagen Group of America, the stateside subsidiary of German auto giant Volkswagen, lost its year-and-a-half old lawsuit against the Illinois state government on Monday after a federal judge in Chicago decided it failed to properly state some of its claims and lacked standing to pursue others. […]
Deflating Volkswagen’s equal protection claim, [U.S. District Judge John Tharp Jr.] concluded newer electric vehicle manufacturers like Tesla, Lucid and Rivian are not bound by the Motor Vehicle Franchise Act or Multiplier Act amendment in the same way as the older company — in part because the younger businesses don’t make use of a traditional network of franchise dealerships like Volkswagen has for decades. […]
Tharp ruled that Volkswagen lacks standing to bring its First Amendment claims. He found the Multiplier Act doesn’t prohibit the company from raising prices in Illinois to cover its new expenses, nor does the law bar Volkswagen from telling customers that the Multiplier Act is the reason for the increased prices.
After an extensive Illinois State Police (ISP) investigation into a bomb threat at two state facilities in Springfield last month, 23-year-old Gabrielle Williams was taken into custody yesterday, May 9, 2024.
On April 22, 2024, the Illinois Department of Human services received a call from an individual saying a bomb had been installed at a public aid office building and the Illinois State Capitol. This threat was relayed to the ISP Statewide Terrorism and Intelligence Center, which implemented the State Agency Facility and Employee (SAFE) Threat Protocol. The Secretary of State (SOS) Capitol Police and its Hazardous Device Unit quickly cleared the grounds of the Capitol, while ISP and the Springfield Police Department secured the other state facility until the SOS Hazardous Device Unit could clear that building. The SAFE Threat Protocol also triggered an investigation by ISP special agents. Using cellular information and conducting interviews, ISP special agents were able to identify and locate the suspect.
“ISP took immediate action upon receiving information about this bomb threat and implemented our SAFE Threat Protocol,” said ISP Director Brendan F. Kelly. “Deploying ISP resources as quickly as possible allows our special agents to track down crucial information, identify suspects, and make arrests. ISP and our law enforcement partners in Springfield take every threat seriously and will track down and arrest those responsible for this criminal conduct.”
The SAFE Threat Protocol has three main objectives:
- capture, assess, and route threat information
- investigate threats towards state employees, offices, and executives
- maintain a comprehensive understanding of the material reported and outcomes
“I want to thank our Secretary of State Police, Illinois State Police, and Springfield Police for collaborating on this investigation and making an arrest,” said Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias. “We take the security of the Capitol Complex and the safety of its employees, public officials, and visitors extremely seriously. We will never tolerate threats of violence and will do everything within our power to hold those responsible and accountable for their actions.”
Williams is being held in the Sangamon County Jail pending a pre-trial detention hearing. A Clear and Present Danger report has been submitted to the ISP Office of Firearm Safety. A Clear and Present Danger report is filed when a person poses a threat to themselves or others. When ISP affirms a clear and present danger determination, if a person has a Firearms Owner Identification Card or an application for one, it will be revoked or denied.
ISP thanks the various local, state, and federal law enforcement partners, including the U.S. Marshals Service, who assisted during the investigation and arrest of Williams.
Williams has been cited for Class 4 felony disorderly conduct for making a false bomb threat. If convicted, Williams faces between 1-3 years in prison and a fine of up to $25,000. The offense is probationable.
Mugshot…
Willams was arrested last year on a retail theft charge.
Friday, May 10, 2024 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
The price-setting board proposed in HB4472 is not the solution for Illinois. It would give bureaucrats the power to arbitrarily set medicine prices, deciding what medicines and treatments are “worth” paying for. We can’t leave Illinoisans’ health care up to political whims. Let’s make it easier, not harder for patients to access their medicines. Click here to learn more.
* Some news media outlets are still reporting that Mayor Brandon Johnson lobbied the governor and legislative leaders for a billion dollars in additional school funding. From Tina Sfondeles’ report yesterday…
Democrats were prepared to talk to Johnson about his Monday reference to $1 billion owed to Chicago Public Schools due to years of underfunding under the state’s school funding formula — but the issue wasn’t even broached during a nearly 30-minute meeting with the governor.
* But the CTU is coming to town next week along with CPS, and they will try to talk to legislators about the $1 billion demand. Ben Bradley…
Chicago Public Schools leaders are giving more than 600 teachers and staff members a paid day-off so they can go to Springfield to lobby lawmakers for more money.
A CPS spokesperson confirmed it’s working in conjunction with the Chicago Teachers Union on the legislative push just as the two sides begin contract negotiations. Schools CEO Pedro Martinez and board of education president Jianan Shi will also take part in the lobbying day on May 15. […]
“Chicago Public Schools is committed to standing alongside Chicago Teachers Union and other organizations to advocate for our fair share of funding from the State of Illinois,” a school district spokesperson said in an emailed statement to WGN. “While we are grateful for increased funding in this year’s budget at the state level, we continue to be uniquely disadvantaged by several funding inequities when it comes to pensions, capital projects, and the State’s own Evidence-Based Formula.”
* Mayor Johnson was asked by reporters this week whether Chicago was trying to jump the line ahead of other school districts with this $1 billion demand…
No, I’m not saying that. I’m saying that the state of Illinois has the funding formula that we all follow to ensure that there’s equity. But this is not a zero sum game. There’s more than enough for everyone. This is about equity. And so what the students need in Cairo, in Tamms, Illinois, or Waukegan, or in East St. Louis, or Rockford. Those students need it, Chicago as well. This is an opportunity for us to do right by the people of Illinois. Chicago being obviously the economic engine of the state. This is not about a line. This is not about a line. It’s not about what you get and what you don’t get. This about what we all deserve.
As you have seen by now, CPS leadership has rolled out school budgets across the district, including cuts to schools and staff across the city. These budgets won’t create the schools our students deserve. As CTU members, we have been consistently clear that the state isn’t fully funding its own equity formula, underfunding CPS by more than $1 billion each year. We need Governor Pritzker and our state legislators to fully fund all Illinois schools, including Chicago Public schools.
If we’re going to get what we need, we must push for it. We need you to come to Springfield with us next Wednesday, May 15, to advocate for more school funding.
It will be an exciting and important day.
We’ll talk with your legislators about the need for real investments in our schools. They need to hear directly from you about how the lack of sufficient school funding impacts your students. And, a large presence of red shirts at the capitol will tell the Governor and our Springfield lawmakers that they must support our students and fully fund our schools.
CTU will provide transportation and lunch for the day. We’ll leave from the CTU Center, 1901 W. Carroll Ave. Please arrive by 6:30 a.m. for a departure of no later than 7 a.m. We’ll arrive at the State Capitol around 10:30 a.m. and head back to Chicago around 2 p.m.
CTU members will be eligible for a release day to attend this important effort to advocate for our schools and our students. The time and effort you will spend making this trip to Springfield is an important investment in your work and our students and families’ futures.
We have an opportunity this year to transform our schools like never before. We have presented CPS with transformative contract proposals that would provide every child, in every school, in every neighborhood with a better, fuller school day. More arts programming, bilingual supports, a librarian and a library in every school, and healthy, green schools are among the items we are beginning to negotiate with CPS.
But we won’t be able to truly transform our schools without additional funding for CPS. That’s why your presence in Springfield next week is so critical.
Can we count on you to help us secure the investments we need to create the schools we deserve?
Friday, May 10, 2024 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Illinois could become the first state to eliminate prior authorization for mental health care, which would put “patients before profits,” said A.J. Wilhelmi, President and CEO of the Illinois Health and Hospital Association (IHA).
IHA and the Illinois hospital community strongly support Gov. JB Pritzker’s legislation to reform predatory health insurance practices and protect patients. The Healthcare Protection Act (HB 5395) would address a top challenge for hospitals in “delivering timely and appropriate healthcare, especially when it comes to critically important mental health services,” Wilhelmi said.
The Governor’s legislation would prohibit prior authorization for inpatient mental health admissions for the first 72 hours. This change would ensure patients receive the specialized mental healthcare they need and deserve.
Wilhelmi noted the “bill that would ensure healthcare professionals are the ones making final decisions when it comes to their patients’ medical care, not insurance bureaucrats,” adding that insurance companies use prior authorization to benefit their bottom line at the expense of the patient.
IHA urges passage of HB 5395 and passage of legislation that addresses the same issues with Medicaid managed care organizations (MCOs), which deny coverage requests at twice the rate of Medicare. Support HB 4977 and SB 3372.
A Chicago mother, Suzy Flack has recorded a Mother’s Day video to urge legislators in Illinois to pass medical aid-in-dying legislation as quickly as possible to honor her only son, Andrew ‘Drew’ Flack, who died from cancer.
The video comes as Illinois legislators consider the End-of-Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act (SB 3499) which would allow mentally capable, terminally ill adults with six months or less to live the option to request a prescription for medication that they could decide to take to die peacefully. To see the video, click here.
Andrew was a special education teacher and an avid hockey player who spent his last months of life advocating for medical aid in dying in his home state of Illinois by recording a video for Compassion & Choices and through his blog and podcast. Fortunately, he had moved from Illinois to California before he became ill, so Andrew had the option to use California’s End of Life Option Actto die peacefully. Andrew died on November 16, 2022. He was only 34 years old.
“That option was so comforting to Drew,” Suzy says in the video. “Even m ore than death itself, he feared that his body would just deteriorate to the point where he had no quality of life.”
For two years, Andrew endured numerous rounds of chemotherapy, radiation and surgery after he was diagnosed in 2017 with stage III colorectal cancer. Unfortunately, the painful treatments did nothing to cure the cancer. In December 2020, doctors told Andrew his cancer was terminal.
“When Drew found out [he] was terminal…I asked him, [I] actually pleaded, please come back home.” Suzy says in the video. “It was a hardcore ‘no,’ because Illinois did not offer the option of medical aid and dying.“
This majority spans the demographic, political, racial, and religious spectrums, including 87% of Democratic voters, 86% of Latino voters, 73% of voters living with disabilities, 69% of Independent, African American/Black, White, and Catholic voters, 58% of non-Catholic Christians and 50% of Republican voters. In contrast, fewer than one in five Illinois voters (17%) oppose medical aid in dying.
“The way he died and the peacefulness of it,” she said. “That is something I will be carrying around forever.”
Suzy recalled that evening of November 16, 2022, when Drew took the medication, surrounded by his loved ones, including Jaxson, his roommate’s dog. She said a nurse mixed the medication and gave Andrew a spoon with raspberry sorbet.
“Within two minutes, he was snoring, and my ex-husband looked over at me…we both smiled, because Drew had not had a good night’s sleep for many years,” she said. “…The snoring was just music to our ears. Drew’s final words before he fell asleep were, ‘I’m happy.’”
Illinois lawmakers hope to recruit more people to the early childhood education workforce by creating a scholarship program.
The Illinois Student Assistance Commission would work with the Board of Higher Education and Illinois Community College Board to design the program and solicit feedback from an advisory committee. […]
Advocates noted that the scholarship program would be subject to state appropriations.
House Bill 5024 passed unanimously out of the House Child Care Accessibility and Early Childhood Education Committee Thursday. The proposal now heads to the House floor for further consideration.
A bill in the Illinois legislature would health insurance companies cover continuous glucose monitors (CGM) for all diabetics.
Sponsored by state Sen. Julie Morrison, D-Lake Forest, the bill is currently in the state House of Representatives after the state Senate passed it unanimously on April 10. It is a follow-up to legislation requiring insurers cover CGMs for people who have type 1 and 2 diabetes. Under the bill, all types of diabetes, including gestational diabetes, would be covered beginning Jan. 1 2026.
“As family physicians, we strongly support improved access to care for our patients. For diabetic patients, using CGMs has been shown to improve blood-glucose control even in the absence of other interventions,” said Illinois Academy of Family Physicians President Dr. Emma Daisy.
The bill would also require insurance companies cover CGMs prescribed all doctors and nurse practitioners not only endocrinologists.
Cancer patients in Illinois may soon be guaranteed insurance coverage for their wigs.
The Illinois House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill Thursday requiring insurers cover wigs and scalp prostheses for people who lose their hair due to radiation or chemotherapy or due to a hair-loss condition like alopecia. Starting Jan. 1, 2026, insurers will be required to cover at least one wig or scalp prosthesis every 12 months.
“It will give women empowerment to feel better about themselves knowing they can get a hairpiece and wigs are expensive,” said state Rep. Yolanda Morris, D-Chicago, the bill’s House sponsor.
The bill now heads to Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s desk. The state Senate passed the bill unanimously April 12.
* Sen. Paul Faraci…
State Senator Paul Faraci advanced legislation to extend the Energy Assistance Act, which provides low-income households with financial assistance on utility bills. […]
Faraci’s measure would eliminate the scheduled sunset date on a state fund that finances two needs-based assistance programs – the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) and the Percentage of Income Payment Plan (PIPP). The fund was set to shut down Jan. 1, 2025.
LIHEAP and PIPP offer bill payment assistance to low-income residential utility customers by helping eligible households pay for home energy services. Both assistance programs are administered by the Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity. […]
House Bill 4471 passed the Senate Energy and Public Utilities Committee on Thursday and advances to the full Senate for consideration.
About 130 state residents journeyed to the Illinois State House May 8 to lobby legislators for an easier name-change process, a grant-making program helping schools with sex education and other measures aimed at supporting the LGBTQ+ community. […]
Among Equality Illinois’s agenda items is Senate Bill 2930, which requires nonprofits that report grants of $1 million or more to other charitable organizations to disclose diversity information about their boards on their websites. […]
Equality Illinois is also pushing two house bills aimed at making it easier for transgender people to update personal documents to better reflect their gender identities, Ziri said.
House Bill 5164 modernizes the state’s name-change process by allowing name-change records to be impounded and removing the requirement that people publish their name change in a newspaper.
The other measure, House Bill 5507, allows Illinois residents to request documentation from a state judge that they could use to update birth certificates held by another state or country.
Both bills have already passed the Illinois House of Representatives.
* ICYMI: Measure to create new state agency for childhood services now on Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s desk. Tribune…
- The new agency would be an umbrella for early intervention for children with disabilities and developmental delays from the Department of Human Services; preschool programs overseen by the Illinois State Board of Education; and day care licensing responsibilities handled by DCFS.
- The Senate passed the bill in a 56-0 vote.
- The bill is part of Pritzker’s suite of initiatives aimed at enhancing early childhood services in Illinois. The governor has also pushed for greater preschool funding.
* Sun-Times | Illinois Domestic Violence Hotline deluged with calls, hindered by lack of shelter beds: According to the report, the Illinois Domestic Violence Hotline saw a 90% increase in calls, texts and messages in 2023, compared to pre-pandemic levels. […] The network, which operates the state’s hotline, reported 47,349 contacts made in 2023 — up 27% from 2022 and 90% from 2019. The National Domestic Violence Hotline has not yet released its data for 2023, but it too reported a “historic high” in 2022, with more than 2,000 calls, chats, and texts received per day.
* WBEZ | Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul sues company for publishing voters’ personal data: A publishing company whose politically slanted newspapers have been derided as “pink slime” is being sued by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul for illegally identifying birthdates and home addresses of “hundreds of thousands” of voters. Raoul’s legal move against Local Government Information Services accuses the company of publishing sensitive personal data that could subject voters across Illinois to identity theft.
* WGN | CPS to let teachers skip school to lobby lawmakers for more money: hicago Public Schools leaders are giving more than 600 teachers and staff members a paid day-off so they can go to Springfield to lobby lawmakers for more money. A CPS spokesperson confirmed it’s working in conjunction with the Chicago Teachers Union on the legislative push just as the two sides begin contract negotiations. Schools CEO Pedro Martinez and board of education president Jianan Shi will also take part in the lobbying day on May 15.
* WICS | Educators react to legislation aiming to address the teacher shortage: Quincy Public Schools superintendent Todd Pettit said this bill would help those who may have test anxiety because it is a difficult exam to pass. However, he’s unsure if it would help with the shortage in the long run. “Will that assist us with, you know, teacher recruitment and retention? Of course, more people that are in the pool of applicants, that [would] certainly assist us in filling those open positions. But I think that would remain to be seen,” Pettit said.
*** Chicago ***
* South Side Weekly | Many School Districts Have Reformed or Removed Police Since 2020: Starting fall of 2024, there will no longer be any police working as school resource officers (SROs) in CPS. The new policy, passed by the Board of Education in February, is aligned with a significant number of other school districts. According to a report from the advocacy nonprofit Chicago Justice Project, 10 percent of the nation’s largest school districts have reduced the number of police in schools since 2020, and another 27 percent have removed police completely.
* Sun-Times | The ups and downs of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s roller coaster first year: In an interview with the Sun-Times and WBEZ, Johnson reflected on his “remarkable journey” to the mayor’s office and the very “different trajectory” he followed to get there. He’s proud of fulfilling so many items on his progressive to-do list and described a year of accomplishments tempered by impatience. “There are frustrating moments that I do have where you … just wish you could address everything at the same time,” Johnson said. “That’s just unfortunately not where we are — just because the damage has been so severe and it has been so widespread,” especially in “historically marginalized” communities.
* Sun-Times | Crooked Bridgeport bank was ‘a rat’s nest,’ judge says, sentences ex-board member to year and a day in prison: George Kozdemba, a retired manager for the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, spent 20 years on the board of Washington Federal Bank for Savings until regulators shut it down in December 2017 because it was being looted by its president, CEO and board chairman, John Gembara. He was found dead days before the bank closed. “I can’t minimize the significance of the criminal activity that caused that bank collapse,” U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall told Kozdemba as she ordered him to spend a year and a day in prison and pay a $25,000 fine.
* Sun-Times | Pedal mettle? Bicycling in Chicago doubled in 5 years, but bikers still worry about safety: Biking is up 119% between the fall of 2019 and the spring of 2023, the study showed. That’s the largest jump in any of the country’s 10 largest cities. […] “Imagine how many more people would be biking if it was safer,” said Christina Whitehouse, founder of the bicycle safety advocacy group Bike Lane Uprising.
*** Cook County and Suburbs ***
* Sun-Times | Secret Service building secret Democratic convention communications center in southern suburb: Why so far from the main convention locations of the Loop, where the delegates are booked in eight hotels; the McCormick Place complex, the site of daytime meetings and press briefings; and the United Center, where President Joe Biden will be nominated for a second term? It’s called, in law enforcement lingo, “being off the X.” “The X is the event,” Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told the Chicago Sun-Times about the location. “You want to be far enough away from the event so that if something were to occur it doesn’t affect your ability to command and control your response.”
* My Stateline | Northern lights possible across northern Illinois this weekend: These blasts of electrically charged particles help make the northern lights visible from the poles to as far south as the mid-latitudes. A few of these CMEs in particular were ejected into space hours after the other, hence why the Space Weather Prediction Center issued a G4 geomagnetic storm watch for tonight and Saturday morning. […] Again, with each opportunity to view the northern lights comes a few uncertainties. The first of course being the timing in which the solar storm impacts the the Earth’s atmosphere.
*** Downstate ***
* SJ-R | Springfield urgent care clinic transitioning to SIU Medicine. Here’s what to know: The care previously provided at Memorial Care on North Dirksen Parkway will move to a federally qualified health center administered by SIU Medicine at 3220 Atlanta Street on the north side. The change will impact urgent care employees at the North Dirksen clinic, who have been offered the option to transfer employment to SIU Medicine or move to another Memorial Care location.
