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“The latest estimates shows that our ability to increase spending beyond the Governor’s introduced levels is limited,” said Deputy Gov. Andy Manar.
The lawsuit against Cook County was filed in 2022 in Chicago federal court. A separate action has been lodged against a group of other county governments, including Illinois' second and third largest counties, DuPage and Lake counties. And yet another lawsuit is pending in federal court in southern Illinois. The cases all center on one common accusation: That Illinois and its county governments have all but illegally ignored a recent landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision and continued to seize homes over unpaid property taxes.
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State Sen. Rachel Ventura said House Bill 4044 would prohibit retailers from requiring that people accept store credit instead of a refund on unopened or unused products.
All of these plans are locked in the House Rules Committee.
Compared to earlier projections, which guided Governor JB Pritzker’s recommended spending plan released in January, officials said reasons for the downward shift included the economic impact of tariffs, rising living costs, and flattening excise‑tax revenue – such as from marijuana.
The POWER Act is the primary vehicle for regulations that address concerns about the effects data centers have on communities, but it hasn’t seen any action beyond subject matter hearings since it was introduced in February. Republicans have called for regulations on data centers, but they don’t want restrictions to interfere with data centers’ economic benefits and many dislike the requirement that new data centers get their energy from renewable sources.
State Sen. Sally Turner said Illinois has not changed the wind tax law since 2006 and solar property tax laws since 2018, when the industries were first starting. “These are now well established industries operating on some of the most valuable farmland in Illinois, yet they're still being taxed using an outdated, antiquated, artificially low valuation,” she said.
The upcoming increase follows a double-digit spike in electric bills a year ago credited almost entirely to the rise of data centers. ComEd says there are more than 80 data centers in Northern Illinois using massive amounts of power. In a state filing last year, the utility said there were another 75 proposed commercial projects in the region that also would be large electricity users.
Illinois received zero points for balance sheet transparency because large pension-related deferred inflows and outflows distorted the state’s financial position by more than 25 percent.
With the Illinois General Assembly scheduled to adjourn the 2026 regular session at the end of the month, lawmakers are running out of time to change the state’s unconstitutional property tax law. Two bills pending in the General Assembly propose solutions to end this predatory practice.
Gov. JB Pritzker can’t skirt the fundamental rules of taxation: The individual always pays.
Michael Schill, president emeritus of Northwestern University: "The BUILD Act would permit only modest amounts of housing beyond what is already allowed and would not be detrimental to the character of neighborhoods. Cumulatively, though, the new construction made possible could be significant."
Far west suburban Plainfield was the largest-gaining suburb with 1,218 more people last year, or 2.5 percent, reaching 50,043, the census reported. Northwest suburban West Dundee had the greatest percentage growth in the area, at 5.8 percent, or 470 people. Southwest suburban Lockport added 919 people, or 3.4 percent. In the same time frame, inner-ring suburbs have lost residents.
Over the last decade, “meal” was a stated purpose in Illinois election disclosure reports for more than $6 million in campaign spending. Other campaigns have reported visits to restaurants in other ways, including as “meetings.” Illinois campaign funds spent more than $50,000 at Hooters locales since 2001 — with more than $40,000 of that spent at a Lansing franchise by state Rep. Thaddeus Jones, a Democrat who doubles as mayor of Calumet City.
“We’re not trying to completely recreate the wheel here,” said state Rep. Daniel Didech. “This is something that California and New York are already implementing and we think Illinois has an opportunity to play a leadership role in this as well, to ensure that these models are actually safe for public use.”
State Sen. Steve McClure said Illinois currently has the sixth-cheapest auto insurance rates in the country. “Why would we want to do anything to spoil that?” McClure asked.
Pritzker's office said in a statement Monday, "At this time, there is no reason to believe there are passengers from the MV Hondius located in Illinois. However, after many days of uncertainty, the federal government still has key questions to answer." Pritzker's office went on to question why the federal government hadn't provided states with full passenger manifests from the cruise and whether Illinois residents had been exposed to hantavirus.
House Bill 4767 would create new requirements for banks and credit unions to report potential financial exploitation of elderly and disabled adults. Bank and credit union groups oppose the bill over the new requirements that would be imposed on their operations.
Justices heard arguments Tuesday in People of the State of Illinois v. Jesse Post, a case involving a man charged with sexually assaulting children in 2023 and his argument against a circuit court’s decision to keep him detained.
Illinois’ burden is driven by property, sales and excise taxes that exceed national averages and those in neighboring states.
Sesser Mayor Jason Ashmore, Des Plaines Mayor Andrew Goczkowski, Lexington Mayor Spencer Johansen, and Oak Park Mayor Vicki Scaman: "The reality is simple: Too few homes are being built. Constrained by a patchwork of outdated zoning rules and overly complex approval processes, our current system limits supply and drives up costs."
“States may not use race to allocate power,” the Public Interest Legal Foundation’s president and general counsel, John Christian Adams, said.
Cahokia Mounds is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and National Historic Landmark. The site is where tens of thousands of the Mississippian people once lived. Officials announced the closure in March 2022, anticipating a $5 million project to replace old systems and a weathered roof would take a year or more.
The bill would require drivers who commit two offenses within a year to install the speed limiting device in their vehicle. Participants would also pay $30 per month into the Intelligent Speed Assistance Program Permit Fee Fund. This comes as sponsors said 75 percent of people with suspended licenses continue to drive.
Sen. Bill Cunningham said research shows texts are very effective in helping people make their court dates. The bill would require pretrial service agencies to send two reminder text messages to people on pretrial release before their required court dates.
“At this point, it seems unusual and targeted that the U.S. Department of Commerce had the capacity to complete in-depth reviews and approvals for every single state except for Illinois and California,” Gov. JB Pritzker wrote in his letter to Secretary Howard Lutnick. “Illinois families and businesses in rural areas are the ones paying the price.”
"The scale of the problem is staggering. It has been reported that Cook County alone has 72,000 active warrants, 72,000 individuals wanted by the courts and not in custody. Based on that number, a credible statewide estimate for all active criminal warrants in Illinois would fall somewhere between 40,000 and 80,000 at any given time. And here is the most troubling part: Illinois has no statewide database that tracks the true total number of active warrants. We are operating in the dark..."
Top Chicago Stories
“Didn’t we do that already? I believe the Emanuel administration made the same argument, right? And here we still are. Why are we continuing to ask working people of this city to embrace the same policies of old that continue to fail us?” Johnson asked Thursday during a wide-ranging interview to mark the end of his third year in office.
King’s appearance before Congress would thrust Chicago Public Schools into a national spotlight at a time of intense scrutiny from the U.S. Department of Education.
Teacher losses will be capped at four per elementary school and six per high school as the district adjusts its staffing allocation formulas. The district’s smallest schools will also lose funding for assistant principals. Class size limits will remain unchanged, officials said, citing several years of declining enrollment. More Highlighted Chicago Area Stories
“Where you bank, where you shop for your groceries. I mean, it's everything that they look at. They look at your patterns of life. And they try and say your patterns of life don't portray that you're a resident,” said Roy McCampbell, a former school administrator and attorney. In one mother's case, Alsip Hazelgreen Oak Lawn School District 126 pointed to her bank statements — showing more Chicago transactions than Alsip — and data placing her car in Chicago.
"When monetary bail existed, we had people who posted monetary bail who went out and committed atrocious offenses. It happened. It happened frequently. We no longer have monetary bail. We have other factors. Those things are still happening, right? That is the nature of a system that is designed with the presumption of innocence," Cook County Chief Judge Charles Beach said.
William Cheaks Jr. has spent a lifetime in city government, working his way up the ladder from laborer to manager of major infrastructure projects. He’ll need that experience to run the $1.83 billion Chicago Department of Transportation, which touches all 50 Chicago wards.
“It’s absolutely a trend,” state Sen. Chris Balkema said. “The overall scenario that keeps playing out in Illinois is the higher taxes, the inability for us as a General Assembly right now to dial down the workers’ compensation laws, and the lack of tort reform. Companies run the numbers and look at the cost of doing business in Illinois, and it becomes easy for them to make a decision to relocate to another state.”
Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates called out the school board for not allowing CTU members to lobby at the Illinois Capitol on Wednesday and said everyone in CPS should go to Springfield together and push for more funding. “How about that? How about we show the might of the city and School District 299 in Springfield?” Gates said.
Ald. Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth said no children were involved in the shooting, which happened just before school started for the day.
For now, Mayor Brandon Johnson is using $31 million from the final chunk of federal stimulus funding delivered to Chicago during the pandemic to check another key item off his progressive to-do list. After that, the mayor is counting on revenue from his controversial social media tax — and he’s assuming the innovative source of revenue not only survives an ongoing court challenge, but continues to grow so the program — confined for now to daytime hours on weekdays — can expand.
Cook County State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke said she was alarmed by the data: "We should all be deeply concerned that hundreds of defendants placed on EM are unaccounted for. This creates the potential for more violence, more victims, more fear and heartache in our community."
Facial recognition is a built-in feature of BriefCam, but the sheriff’s spokesperson said the office doesn’t plan to connect the technology to any biometric database. Illinois law requires companies collecting biometric data to provide written notice, obtain written consent and develop a publicly available retention and destruction policy.
"Over the last decade, we have seen the rise of a new kind of prosecutor: the so-called progressive prosecutor. They run on platforms promising to decarcerate, go soft on so-called 'low-level' offenses and 'reimagine' prosecution. ... Young people are not stupid. They are watching. They see viral videos of mobs overrunning downtowns and hear that "no serious charges will be filed." They see repeat juvenile offenders picked up for robberies, carjackings or violent attacks and then released right back onto the street."
"In the latest Chicago Teachers Union contract, we won $10 million of investment in solar installations, this school year alone, that will improve the health of surrounding communities, create good trades jobs and improve schools for the students who attend them. That can be a model for how larger development moves forward in our state, not an outlier."
In response to cuts affecting assistant principals, the Chicago Principals & Administrators Association sent the district a cease-and-desist letter this week — a formal demand to halt an action it says violates its interim agreement with CPS.
The two-term Far Northwest Side alderperson’s lawsuit indicates he plans to ask a Cook County jury to find the city, the Ethics Board and former Inspector General Deborah Witzburg conspired “to harass, punish, and drive him out of elected office” and award him at least $1 million in damages.
The student at the center of the allegations, 11th grader Jada Gray, says the fight at Perspectives Rodney D. Joslin Campus was not random but the result of ongoing harassment by a group of students.
Asked by the reporter if poll numbers showing only a third of Chicagoans view Mayor Johnson favorably give him pause for concern, Johnson asked, "Why are you worried about that?" The reporter pressed: "You are both a government leader and you're a politician, and we're talking about the vocabulary of politics." The mayor replied, "And I'm talking about the people of the city of Chicago and their ability to feel safe and affordable in their communities."
The Chicago Board of Ethics unanimously found that Paul Vallas violated the rules by accepting $202,000 in contributions during the 2023 city election from 12 individuals doing business with the city. “We, of course, will appeal the ruling,” Vallas said in a statement.
The filing is the latest development in an ongoing legal dispute between the city and the Markham Park District. The city sued the Park District last October, alleging the board had mismanaged its funds and violated a 2012 intergovernmental agreement. Under the terms of that agreement, the city was supposed to assume control of and manage the Park District’s assets.
"For years, aldermen have routinely approved massive settlements with little scrutiny and even less accountability. Time after time, the legal department recommends a settlement, aldermen rubber-stamp the payment, and taxpayers pick up the tab. Then the same politicians act bewildered when Chicago’s financial condition continues deteriorating."
“We know times are tight but we have to focus on our children,” said board member Michilla Blaise, adding that CPS is a greater economic driver than the Bears. “If we get our schools right, think about how many people will stay in the city..."
A male suspect was on a CTA bus just before 2:40 a.m.when he pulled out a knife and demanded the 57-year-old female driver not stop the bus, Chicago police said. The bus operator tripped a silent alarm, the CTA said.
This naming of the pavilion for Nancy Pelosi, the first woman who served as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, reflects the Foundation’s continued commitment to building a campus that honors the significant contributions of the visionary and courageous individuals “on whose shoulders we stand.” The Nancy Pelosi Garden Pavilion is made possible through a donation by philanthropist and business leader Ron Conway.
"I am just elated that the pope is from Chicago, right? And so I'm looking forward to this visit at the end of the month," Mayor Brandon Johnson said. "And the first thing that I'm going to say to him? I'm going to thank him for his moral clarity, standing up for the most vulnerable, making sure that the people who are the least of these have more than what they need."
Could additional progressive measures still be passed by Chicago's City Council? “Not in this term,” Ald. Andre Vasquez says, referring to Mayor Brandon Johnson’s remaining time in office, “because he bungled it that bad.”
"Patrol units need to do a mix of two things: respond to calls for service, and spend time on ‘proactive policing,’ which can include building community relationships, understanding crime patterns in a neighborhood, and being positioned in high visibility places to deter crime. If officers are stretched thin, they lose the opportunity to do that proactive work, which is a necessary part of building a safer city in the long run."
As of April 3, the court’s electronic monitoring program included 21 people with pending murder cases, 13 facing attempted murder charges, 103 charged with criminal sexual assault, 78 charged with robbery, and 16 with pending carjacking cases. How many of those, if any, were missing is unknown.
Wirepoints Research and Commentary
Everybody needs a side hustle these days, and mine is Ukraine, where I am now.
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
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Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do. 
The state's existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis. 
Illinois lost another 54,000 tax filers and dependents, net, according to the IRS. Since 2000, fleeing taxpayers have taken $94 billion of annual adjusted gross income with them. 
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