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Former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama returned to their old neighborhood on Chicago's South Side on Tuesday to officially break ground on the Obama Presidential Center, a project they hope will become a hub for the development of new leadership and an economic boost to a long-neglected part of the city. "Chicago is where almost everything that is most precious to me began," the former president said. "It's where I found a home." The center is being...
A new report by the credit rating agency Moody’s says Illinois will set a new record this year when it reports a total net pension liability of more than $300 billion, the highest of any state in the nation. As of June 30, 2020, the report stated, the total unfunded liabilities of the state’s five pension systems stood at $317 billion, a 19 percent increase from the prior year. That was largely due to historically low interest rates, which have depressed pension fund earnings throughout the country. With the state’s gross...
Officials from the hotel, restaurant and convention industries told a state Senate panel Thursday that they need a clear plan for how they will be allowed to reopen as the COVID-19 pandemic wanes, warning that without such a plan, many will go out of business permanently. “We need to know … a strategy, we need to know the metrics as we move forward because we cannot, we cannot lose another summer here in the state of Illinois,” Sam Toia, president and CEO of the Illinois Resta...
Gov. JB Pritzker outlined a $41.6 billion budget proposal Wednesday that would hold most state agencies at flat funding levels but which relies heavily on changes to the state’s corporate tax structure that lawmakers have not yet approved. The budget proposal, which is only the governor’s request for lawmakers in the General Assembly, does not call for income tax increases. Over the next four months, lawmakers will work on an operating budget of their own to send to the gov...
More than 107,000 Illinois workers filed first-time unemployment claims last week, a 45-percent increase over the week before as the COVID-19 pandemic continued to wreak havoc on the state and national economies. The Illinois Department of Employment Security reported that there were 107,616 new claims filed during the week that ended Saturday, Dec. 5, up from 75,536 the previous week. That compares to 14,798 initial claims filed during the same period last year. That increase was part of a nationwide trend as the entire...
The chairman of a special committee investigating Democratic State House Speaker Michael Madigan’s role in a bribery scheme involving utility giant Commonwealth Edison has postponed the panel’s next meeting, which had been scheduled for Thursday. Rep. Emanuel “Chris” Welch, D-Hillside, announced Wednesday that the meeting is being delayed, in part because of the worsening COVID-19 pandemic and in part because it is still waiting to receive documents from ComEd. “The Committee is currently awaiting documents requested...
Illinois restaurant owners are asking Gov. JB Pritzker to rethink the state's efforts to control the spread of COVID-19 as yet another medical region was placed under enhanced mitigation measures on Friday. "We want to collaborate with the state of Illinois on a different path, one that addresses the alarming surges we are seeing while protecting the livelihood of industry workers and restaurant owners-operators across Illinois," Sam Toia, president and CEO of the Illinois Res...
Top executives of utility giant Commonwealth Edison faced tough questions from state regulators Wednesday as they publicly apologized for the lobbying scandal that is forcing the company to pay a $200 million criminal fine. "That's the first words I wanted you to hear out of my mouth," ComEd CEO Joseph Dominguez told members of the Illinois Commerce Commission. "But the last words I want to leave you with is that I've observed the character of this company. I know what our...
The chairwoman of the Illinois House Energy and Environment Committee said this week she will not hold hearings to examine what impact Commonwealth Edison's lobbying and bribery practices have had on utility ratepayers, rebuffing a request from two Republican lawmakers. Instead, Rep. Ann Williams, D-Chicago, said in a statement that she plans to introduce "tough new amendments" to the proposed Clean Energy Jobs Act next year "to ensure that we hold utilities accountable and ta...
The state of Illinois saw slight decreases in the number of people filing first-time unemployment claims as well as the number of people receiving continuing benefits during the week that ended July 4. But those gains were more than offset by increases in the number of people applying for and receiving benefits under another program designed for people who don’t qualify for traditional unemployment benefits. The Illinois Department of Employment Security said Thursday that it processed 39,015 initial unemployment claims d...
SPRINGFIELD - New permanent regulations that govern licensed firearms dealers in Illinois have finally been approved 18 months after Gov. JB Pritzker signed the bill into law. The General Assembly's Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, or JCAR, gave its okay to the rules at a meeting Tuesday in Springfield. The Firearms Dealers License Certification Act passed the General Assembly in May 2018, when Republican Bruce Rauner was governor. But knowing he was likely to veto...
Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced Wednesday the formation of a new relief fund to support artists and performers who have been temporarily put out of work by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Arts for Illinois Relief Fund will provide financial assistance in the form of grants to artists, artisans and cultural organizations that have been impacted by the virus. The fund is a partnership between the city of Chicago, the state of Illinois and several charitable foundations. Pritzker highlighted the new fund...
The Illinois Department of Public Health announced Saturday it has confirmed 13 new deaths from the novel coronavirus disease, COVID-19, including an infant in Cook County who had tested positive. IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said during a daily media briefing in Chicago with Gov. JB Pritzker that a full investigation is underway to determine if the cause of death. If COVID-19 is confirmed to be the cause, it would mark the first infant death from the disease in Illinois....
More than 114,000 workers in Illinois filed first-time unemployment claims in the week ending March 21 as the United States saw its biggest one-week spike in recorded history. 3.2 million workers filing for benefits. The U.S. Department of Labor said the seasonally-adjusted number was due entirely to the COVID-19 outbreak, which has forced bars and restaurants to close, halted public gatherings and severely restricted travel across the country. The department said economists...
SPRINGFIELD – The Illinois Gaming Board has ordered all 10 casinos in the state to suspend operations for 14 days starting Monday, citing public health concerns over the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease, COVID-19 "The public health of patrons, casino employees, IGB staff, and others is of paramount importance," the board said in a statement late Friday. "The board is continuously monitoring developments and will update licensees and the public as frequently as p...
All three people who have held the position of legislative inspector general in Illinois told a joint ethics panel Thursday the office needs more independence to police the General Assembly and maintain the public's confidence in the process. Carol Pope, the current officeholder, and former Inspectors General Julie Porter and Tom Homer appeared before the Joint Commission on Ethics and Lobbying Reform, a group that is to make recommendations for governmental ethics reform in...
Former state Sen. Martin Sandoval was formally charged in federal court Monday with bribery and tax fraud. The indictment comes one day before lawmakers are set to return to Springfield for the 2020 legislative session. Sandoval, a Chicago Democrat whose Statehouse offices were raided by federal agents in September, announced in November that he would resign his Senate office. His resignation took effect Jan. 1, and he has since been succeeded by former Rep. Celina...
Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker signed a bill into law Friday capping the out-of-pocket cost of prescription insulin for many people in Illinois. Senate Bill 667, sponsored by Sen. Andy Manar, a Bunker Hill Democrat, caps the cost at $100 for a 30-day supply, a significant reduction for many diabetes patients currently paying hundreds of dollars per month for the life-saving medication. The law takes effect Jan. 1, 2021. Each year after that, insurers are allowed to raise the...
Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker and newly-elected Illinois Senate President Don Harmon added their voices Wednesday to a growing chorus of state officials calling for legislative hearings to determine how more than 500 people who identified themselves as non-U.S. citizens became registered to vote through the state's new automatic voter registration system. "I think it's appropriate, again, for transparency, for getting all the information, so we know what went wrong," Pritzker to...
The Illinois Senate will hold a special meeting Sunday to elect a new chamber president. Senate President John Cullerton, a Chicago Democrat, surprised his colleagues at the end of the fall veto session Nov. 14 by announcing his plan to retire from the Senate in January, once a new president is chosen. There are two announced candidates for the job that have received the most media attention – Sen. Don Harmon, of Oak Park, an assistant majority leader; and Sen. Kimberly L...
Government reform advocates in Illinois are urging state lawmakers to impose stricter rules on lobbying activity at the Statehouse, including a ban on lawmakers themselves working as lobbyists with other levels of government. Their testimony before a special legislative committee Wednesday in Chicago came against the backdrop of a sprawling federal investigation that has focused in part on potentially corrupt lobbying practices. Former Rep. Luis Arroyo, who also lobbied the...
One year ago, on Jan. 14, 2019, Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker was sworn into office. A billionaire businessman from Chicago with no prior experience as an elected official, he took the reins of a state government that was on the brink of insolvency. A massive pension debt and a mountain of unpaid bills seemed to make the idea of any new initiatives impossible. Yet in one year, with the help of Democratic supermajorities in both chambers of the General Assembly, Pritzker...
New rules governing how retail gun dealers do business go into effect Friday and include the types of records they must keep, how weapons and ammunition are to be stored and the kinds of video surveillance and security systems they must maintain. The rules, established by the Illinois State Police and scheduled to be published in the Illinois Register on Friday, will go into effect almost one year to the day after Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the Firearm Dealer...
Illinois Department of Agriculture Director John Sullivan said Tuesday that interest in the newly-legalized hemp industry continues to build, but more work needs to be done for the industry to mature. Sullivan spoke to reporters at the state's first Hemp Summit at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield where nearly 700 farmers, processors and other people involved in the hemp industry gathered to talk about what they learned during the 2019 growing season - the first...
A pair of researchers are suggesting the best way to reduce property taxes in Illinois is for the state to take over a greater share of funding for public schools and consolidate some units of local government. Frank Manzo, policy director at the Illinois Economic Policy Institute, and Robert Bruno, director of the Project for Middle Class Renewal at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, argue in a new report that such a plan would not only hold down future property tax hikes, but it would actually help create jobs...