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With fewer than four months remaining until the general election, House Republicans said Tuesday they want to remind Illinoisans of Democratic lawmakers’ “failure” to address corruption in the General Assembly. It has been 260 days since former Chicago Democratic Rep. Louis Arroyo was charged by federal officials with bribery, House Minority Leader Jim Durkin said during a virtual news conference. Arroyo’s case remains pending. Durkin, of Western Springs, also mentioned the case of former Sen. Martin Sandoval, a Chicago...
Local government officials in Illinois have their hands “tied behind their back” when responding to COVID-19-related economic struggles, three community and business advocacy groups argued Thursday. “Burdensome, unnecessary” state rules dictating how federal CARES Act — Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security — funds are allocated to local authorities will “likely” make fewer dollars available to officials to use as they deem appropriate, Brad Cole, executive director of the Illinois Municipal League, said at an outd...
SPRINGFIELD - The Illinois Republican Party wants to be excluded from the state's social gathering restrictions, as it alleged in a federal lawsuit that churches and political demonstrations already enjoy such exclusions. Throughout the year, the party holds a state convention, strategy meetings and candidate rallies - all with more than 10 people present. Under Gov. JB Pritzker's May 29 executive order addressing the continued spread of COVID-19, those in-person gatherings...
Following the lead of nearby states, Gov. JB Pritzker on Friday announced Illinois' public and private schools will remain shuttered for the rest of the school year. The announcement came one month after Pritzker first announced a temporary school closure amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and on the same day the state announced 62 more deaths and 1,842 new confirmed cases – the largest single-day spike so far. That brought total deaths to 1,134 and total cases to 27,575. Pritker s...
Illinois ballot eligibility requirements will be loosened for third-party candidates affected this election cycle by state efforts to combat the novel coronavirus pandemic. In a lawsuit filed April 2, the state’s Libertarian and Green parties said social distancing and stay-at-home orders instituted by Gov. JB Pritzker made gathering enough petition signatures to qualify for the ballot “practically impossible.” Both are considered “new” political parties under state election rules, meaning their candidates must obtain a...
Gov. JB Pritzker said Thursday, one month since he issued a state of emergency, it is "unlikely" his stay-at-home order can be lifted safely before April 30 and organizers of large summer events "need to think seriously" about canceling them. The Illinois Department of Public Health reported an additional 1,344 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus disease, COVID-19, bringing the state total to 16,422 in 81 of Illinois' 102 counties. Dr. Ngozi Ezike, the department's...
SPRINGFIELD — The Illinois department tasked with overseeing unemployment benefits is employing an alphabetized schedule to handle “an unprecedented volume” of claims. Claims now must be filed online and by phone on days and at times set by the Illinois Department of Employment Security based on the first letter of the filer’s last name. Similar systems to manage “increased web traffic” and “high call volumes” were initiated in Colorado and New York as well, according to the department. Illinoisans whose last names begin wit...
The social distancing guidelines that led Illinois county fairs to cancel off-season events on their grounds through the end of April is one part of a financial impact double-whammy, a trade official said. Many local fairs use revenue from off-season events and activities to “pay the bills,” said Ken Tyrrell, president of the state’s Association of Agricultural Fairs. Guidelines from Gov. JB Pritzker’s office regulating the number of people allowed to congregate shrank...
SPRINGFIELD - The novel coronavirus could "create long-lasting, devastating damage" to Illinois health care facilities that serve vulnerable communities. Community health centers are treating fewer patients than normal after all 390 locations around the state canceled routine and preventative medical visits to slow the spread of COVID-19 per guidance from federal and state officials. That means fewer government reimbursements for facilities that use them to pay staff salaries...
SPRINGFIELD - The number of confirmed cases of novel coronavirus, COVID-19, in Illinois almost doubled overnight, from 160 cases to 288, the state's Department of Public Health announced Wednesday. The "novel severe acute respiratory illness" has now been confirmed in 17 counties, including new cases in Kendall and Madison counties. Among the updated count are 20 new cases at a long-term care facility in DuPage County that first reported a confirmed case Saturday. "I know how...
Illinois Supreme Court Justice Robert Thomas, a former placekicker with the Chicago Bears, will retire from his seat on the bench effective Feb. 29. He plans to join the Chicago-based Power Rogers law firm, which successfully represented him in a defamation suit against the Kane County Chronicle in 2006. In a news release Monday, Thomas said “the Lord has truly blessed me” with family — his wife, three kids and soon-to-be nine grandchildren; a former college and profe...
A programming error in Illinois' automatic voter registration system that mistakenly enrolled more than 500 people was a "wakeup call," the state's top elections official said Wednesday. One string of code among 8.5 million others controlling the "hundreds of functions" of the secretary of state's office resulted in 574 people who identified themselves as non-U.S. citizens being registered to vote, the agency's senior legal advisor, Nathan Maddox, said. Of those people, 15...
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker assumed a ceremonial position Sunday as senators chose a new president. The governor, a Democrat, presided over the floor vote as legislators elected Democratic Sen. Don Harmon of Oak Park as the 39th Senate president in Illinois history. It is a constitutional role the state's governor fills when the Senate is without a president - usually after senators are sworn in for a new term in January of odd-numbered years. Sunday's proceedings, however,...
A Capitol dome study conducted earlier this month revealed “some obvious flaws on the exterior of the dome,” a state employee said Tuesday. Inspectors also found cracks inside the structure and changes made over the years that have altered the Statehouse’s historical profile. The flagpole atop the Capitol needs to be replaced and the holiday lights will probably need to be hung in a different manner, Harl Ray, senior project manager for the secretary of state’s Department of Physical Services, said at a Capitol Archite...
A law mandating baby changing tables be installed in both men’s and women’s restrooms beginning Jan. 1 does not apply to the Illinois State Capitol Complex, but the buildings’ architect plans to add them to some facilities anyway. She said “there is no excuse” not to. Chicago Democrats Rep. Delia Ramirez and Sen. Ram Villivalam sponsored the initiative. With some exceptions — including spaces that ban those under 18 years of age and some health facilities — it applies to public restrooms in buildings constructed o...
A Chanukah menorah was added to the holiday display in the Statehouse rotunda Friday, joining a holiday tree, nativity scene, satanic sculpture and Winter Solstice sign installed days earlier. Lubavitch Chabad of Illinois, a group that aims to further the worldwide Hasidic Jewish movement, placed the symbol of "spreading light and increasing light," Rabbi Meir Moscowitz said. "The Menorah is the oldest symbols of the Jewish faith, a seven-branch candelabra of the nation of...
The foundation supporting the 16th president's library and museum announced Wednesday it no longer needs to auction off a collection of more than 1,000 Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln artifacts. Officials with the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation secured a three-year extension on a loan used to buy historical items - including the bloody gloves the former president had in his pocket when he died and a huge number of Mary Lincoln documents - from former board membe...
Seasonal decorations are filling the Illinois Capitol rotunda - a holiday tree, nativity scene, satanic sculpture and Winter Solstice sign surround the ever-present "Illinois Welcoming the World" statue in the center of the space. The display gained national attention in 2018 for the Satanic Temple of Chicago's contribution of a sculpture of a woman's left arm, with a snake coiled around it, holding an apple. The statue is a metaphor representing the biblical story of Adam...
Lloyd Karmeier is the third Illinois Supreme Court justice from Nashville, home to about 3,200 people two hours south of Springfield. Karmeier said “almost every one” of the cases the state’s highest court has considered over the 15 years he spent on the bench has been “interesting.” Perhaps the most important were two that established state employee pensions as an undiminishable benefit as guaranteed by the Constitution. The 79-year-old justice tendered notice last week he will resign from the Supreme Court, effective...
SPRINGFIELD - Vaping and other industry stakeholders opposing legislation banning flavored products said Thursday the bill would have negative health and economic impacts. Democratic Villa Park Rep. Deb Conroy's Flavored Tobacco Ban Act would outlaw the sale or distribution of nicotine products with a "distinguishable taste or aroma." It applies to cigarettes, cigars, hookahs, chewing tobacco, vape pods and other products. The bill is set for consideration when lawmakers...
A Republican lawmaker has filed legislation to reinstate the death penalty in Illinois, calling it an "effective tool" to dissuade violent crime. Barrington Hills Rep. David McSweeney first announced his intention to introduce the bill in August, after mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, killed 31 people. The Capital Crimes Litigation Act of 2019, filed Thursday, would restore state death penalty law to what it was eight years ago, before former Gov. Pat Quinn...