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“In reality, the bills do nothing to address the factors contributing to higher premiums, such as higher repair costs, more severe weather, and legal system abuse,” the lobbying groups said in a statement. “Instead, the bills implement a fundamental shift in Illinois’ regulatory environment and move the state towards a more rigid rate-approval system similar to struggling insurance markets like California. This shift will make it harder for insurers to respond in real-time to market conditions and adjust rates up or down based on actual claims experience.”
A sweeping Illinois bill to water down audit requirements is on pause, but its backers have secured the support of the Democratic nominee for state comptroller and hope to push the legislation through next session.
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As of May 29, 13 county boards had adopted resolutions urging Gov. JB Pritzker to opt Illinois into a new federal program that will funnel donated funds to students for tutoring, special-needs services and other academic uses. The board resolutions follow a March 17 nonbinding ballot question in 31 counties in which 63 percent of those who voted on it supported opting in.
Yorkville residents filed the first lawsuit in April to block construction of a planned 1,037-acre data center known as "Project Cardinal." Now a second lawsuit is challenging "Project Steel." The most recent lawsuit alleges the city did not provide public notice before holding a public hearing on the project, nearby property owners weren't mailed notices, and the city ignored state notice requirements and approved project that conflict with its own planning documents.
Illinois received a qualified opinion, which means that independent auditors found issues significant enough to limit their assurance on portions of the financial statements.
The bill would ensure all high schools offer students of voting age the opportunity to register during the school day in a safe, accessible and nonpartisan environment. Yet, Senate Republicans argued the State Board of Elections already provides voter registration information to schools.
"About 80 percent of the population of the state has local pretrial service agencies that already provide this service and are paying for it," state Sen. Bill Cunningham said. "There are other counties and pretrial services agencies that do not have this technology. There is a provision that they would be provided grants through the statewide office."
“What exactly will be the cost of this bill? What impact will this bill have on our state? And yet here we are again, avoiding what is in the rules and in the law so we will know what the cost of things are that we’re voting on,” state Rep. Patrick Windhorst said.
Illinois’ sales tax on gas is supposed to go into a “lockbox” for transportation, but lawmakers aren’t adhering to that mandate. For years the state has diverted sales tax revenue on gasoline to fill gaps in the budget, arguably violating the transportation fund lockbox provision in the Illinois Constitution.
Waukegan Ald. Sylvia Sims Bolton, turned herself in Wednesday after prosecutors said she submitted her dead mother’s vote-by-mail ballot during a March primary election, which has resulted in two charges, including one Class 4 Felony.
The bill, which passed 110-0 in the House on Wednesday and 52-5 in the Senate last week, would make Illinois the first state to require independent, third-party audits of the safety practices of large frontier artificial intelligence developers.
For Gov. JB Pritzker, the two bills represent a continuation of his push to put greater controls on the Illinois insurance industry. In 2023 and 2024, he successfully pushed legislation giving the Insurance Department authority to review and approve rates for small- and large-group health insurance plans.
This plan ensures utility companies and contractors can access service lines on private property at no cost to property owners. It also expands who can authorize and perform the replacement.
Mayor Craig Johnson also pointed to the financial upside, with data centers generating major revenue in 2025, including $45 million in property taxes, $11.1 million in building permit fees, $4.5 million in electric tax revenue, and $1 million in sales tax revenue.
NetChoice Director of Policy Patrick Hedger said Illinois could face costly legal challenges after NetChoice secured permanent injunctions against digital ID mandates in Arkansas, Louisiana and Ohio. Hedger said HB 5511 is unconstitutional because it regulates activity outside of Illinois.
Mary Wagoner, of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago: "These buyout programs are not going to solve Chicago’s problems on their own, but the city must do what it can to chip away at its pension costs. ... Implementing a buyout program in Chicago would be a signal to residents, rating agencies and investors that the city is taking its pension challenges seriously by availing itself of proven tools to address pension debt."
The time off can be used in addition to the twelve weeks of unpaid, federally mandated leave through the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
The four state Senate Republican budgeters, including Sen. Donald DeWitte, R-West Dundee, warned that a 3,178 page version of the budget previously introduced isn’t close to resembling what is likely to be the final product.
“The US Department of Justice created what they're calling the anti-weaponization fund – or as I call it the Jan. 6th and Insurrection Fund,” state Rep. Bob Morgan said. “Anybody who is enriching themselves by participating in part of an insurrection should definitely be taxed for that potential payout.”
The commissioners are allowed by law to hold jobs outside of their state roles (each commissioner is paid a salary of about $150,000), but they are required to disclose the side pay if it exceeds $7,500 in a calendar year. Nina Harris, the commission's chairperson, did not disclose she was paid more than $7,500 in 2024 by the Springfield Urban League.
House Bill 0131 and Senate Bill 2512, which contain the proposed budget for fiscal 2027, would appropriate about $11.6 billion to contributions for the five systems. These payments are required by a 1995 state law known as the “Edgar Ramp.” But while that would satisfy the legal requirement, it would not — by a long shot — meet the fiscally responsible requirements determined by the state’s actuaries.
In the wake of federal changes to the SNAP program to promote work and ensure the right people get benefits, Illinois lawmakers propose developing an alternative definition of “low-income” to count more students. The Illinois State Board of Education requested the initiative.
Following in the footsteps of New York and California, Illinois state lawmakers passed a bill Wednesday that seeks to increase transparency and accountability among the largest and most capable artificial intelligence models. The Illinois attorney general would have exclusive authority to enforce civil penalties up to $3 million per violation.
“I get the concept, and we’re open to it,” Burr Ridge Mayor Gary Grasso said in an interview about efforts to encourage more housing options in towns like his. “What we’re not open to, absolutely not open to, is the state telling us how to zone and take away the due process rights of our residents.”
Similar to communities like Logan, Sangamon, and Champaign counties, most of the 100-plus people at the meeting voiced their opposition to any future data center project. Their concerns include the use of power and the loss of farmland.
“When you consider how many students are actually showing up on a daily basis, it just goes to show that students in Illinois public schools are not being engaged effectively in a way to ensure that they're showing up to class,” said Illinois Policy Institute Manager of Education Policy Hannah Schmid.
The goal of the bill – as said by state Senate sponsor Rachel Ventura – is to shut private equity out of homeownership in Illinois, which both Republicans and Democrats on the committee agreed at least somewhat contributed to an ongoing housing shortage.
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According to a draft of the ordinance, updates to the current landlord/tenant ordinance include a ban on hidden junk fees, such as application and processing fees charged on top of rent, and a requirement that any amounts charged to renters reflect actual, documented costs. It also establishes a Tenant Bill of Rights and requires landlords to disclose if they’re using algorithmic pricing tools.
Most of the fines will be donated to the United Way of Metropolitan Chicago, city officials said this week. 
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"The Indiana deal is obviously bad for their taxpayers, so (Cook County Treasurer Maria) Pappas suggests letting them pay for it if they’re gonna be so gullible. But that seems more like advocacy than an actual study. And it ignores what a huge national spotlight on a very prominent Illinois entity moving across the border could trigger. If the Bears can do it, why not others?"
"As we enter the weekend, I am urging parents, guardians and trusted adults to help prevent unsanctioned teen gatherings, know where your children are, and talk with them about the risks of attending these events," Johnson said. "The Chicago Police Department will enforce curfew and applicable laws, and community violence intervention partners will be on the ground to help keep young people safe."
Superintendent Macquline King noted thousands of largely Black and Latino students would wrap up the school year without certainty about their schools’ future. “We’ll cause instability and concern,” an unusually emotional King said. “For us, it may seem like, ‘It’s just two weeks.’ For a child, this can be a lifetime.”
Joining Brandon Johnson in the delegation were Antonio Romanucci, who served as co-counsel to Ben Crump as attorneys for George Floyd's family in their record lawsuit against the city of Minneapolis and four Minneapolis police officers; multiple Chicago aldermen; president of the Chicago Teachers Union Stacy Davis Gates; and more than 40 other leaders. Johnson gifted the pontiff letters from families of detained immigrants, a pin from the Southwest Community ICE Watch, a sanctuary city pin and a hat reading "Immigrants Make America Greater."
While streaming service taxes are less common, the City of Evanston and Chicago have both introduced these fees for residents (5 percent in Evanston and 10.25 percent in Chicago). According to the finance memorandum, Riverside, East Dundee and Wheeling have also introduced a 5 percent streaming charge for residents.
Friday, the Cook County State's Attorney's Office approved a felony charge of possession of contraband in a penal institution Friday. Jail staff found a 6-inch sharpened piece of metal with a handle made of medical tape in his pants pocket. Medina already faces first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, aggravated assault and weapons charges in Sheridan Gorman's death.
"(Mayor Brandon) Johnson likes to talk about leading 'with what the data shows.' But robust data that don’t fit his prescribed views obviously aren’t worthy of the same amount of discussion as the biased report he extolled earlier this week."
If ultimately passed and signed by the governor, Cook would move to a new system where the county alone would acquire liens on overdue property taxes, charging taxpayers interest. If the taxes go unpaid after three years, the county would auction off the property deed to the highest bidder and the original homeowner can petition to get the post-debt profits.
"While it is possible to both serve an educational and political mission, CTU members sent a clear message to union leadership: Future funding of political activity should have stipulations and limits, and union dues are not a blank check or a piggy bank for political elections."
Robert Vargas, a sociology professor who leads the UChicago Justice Project, acknowledged that before analyzing response times, his students removed all 911 calls involving shots fired from the city’s dataset. In other words, the study’s conclusions about faster response times, if accurate, did not include gunfire calls, the only type of emergency ShotSpotter was designed to address and the specific response times elected officials had been discussing.
"It seems like bad timing, and it seems hypocritical. It was just two weeks ago that Stacey Davis Gates was in front of the Chicago school board saying this is a five-alarm fire and we need water from Springfield. So you guys need to go down to Springfield," Chicago Policy Center Executive Director Austin Berg said.
Alderman Jessie Fuentes is suing the federal government after federal agents dared to handcuff her when she tried to disrupt a Westside hospital emergency room last October.
"National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores are falling almost everywhere. But they’re falling faster in Chicago than in almost all of our peer cities. Since 2017, Fourth Grade Reading and Math scores have fallen by roughly 4 percent in Chicago."
"[This] encounter that I’m going to have with the highest-profile religious leader on the planet is also moving our agenda forward,” Johnson said. “That conversation is not separate and apart from the work that’s happening in Springfield or City Council or anywhere else.”
“Teen takeover in Chicago. Five officers badly hurt. Mayor and Governor are terrible. Should call for help!” Trump wrote on social media.
"I don't run unions; I run the city of Chicago. So I don't opine on any decision that any labor union decides of what they're going to do with their working file," Johnson said.
"A parental accountability ordinance is for parents who just keep allowing their 14-year-olds to be out on the streets at 3am," Ald. Brian Hopkins said. "There's no excuse for it."
Prosecutors claimed that Rashad Johnson, 18, intentionally hit the officers and said his possession of an illegal 30-round MAC-10 pistol proved he is a danger to the community at large. “I want to give people the benefit of the doubt, especially to people that are young and have no criminal history,” Judge Ankur Srivastava said. “But it’s not like you didn’t know how to drive and accidentally hit the accelerator … I think you made a choice, and your choices endangered people’s lives. You have hurt a lot of people.”
"What makes the situation particularly frustrating is that Chicago still possesses enormous strengths. It remains one of the world’s greatest cities with extraordinary architecture, culture, universities, transportation infrastructure, and economic potential. Millions of people still love this city and desperately want it to succeed. But hallmark cities can absolutely decline through prolonged bad governance. History is filled with examples of major urban centers hollowing themselves out through ideological rigidity, fiscal irresponsibility, and administrative incompetence."
Financial distress, as defined in the report, includes credit accounts in forbearance, deferred payment status or otherwise showing signs of trouble. Experts point to several contributing factors: stubborn inflation, uneven wage growth, high housing costs and lingering labor market uncertainty.
Johnson said the “safest cities in America have one thing in common: They invest in people.” To underscore the point, he put up a chart that showed dramatic declines in shootings and homicides in neighborhoods where the city hired the greatest number of young people.
Of the incumbent board members, only Sean Harden, the current president who was appointed by Mayor Johnson, is not running. Two current board members — Jessica Biggs and Jennifer Custer — are giving up district seats to run for president.
But Ald. Peter Chico, a former Chicago police officer, said that data would not change his firm belief that residents of his ward would be safer if a gunshot detection system covered the ward. “What about when there are no calls?”
Wirepoints Research and Commentary
With $162 billion more from taxpayers, couldn't you deliver a few bond upgrades, too 
Audio and summary 
A largely unasked question is becoming glaring: Is Illinois doing all it should to use artificial intelligence to make government cost less and work better? So far, the evidence says no.
Everybody needs a side hustle these days, and mine is Ukraine, where I am now.
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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.
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. 
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