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Pritzker called on state lawmakers this year to suspend incentives for two years while they hammer out a comprehensive review of the impact centers are having on communities. Pritzker is making the move now after lawmakers did not act.
The U.S. Attorney's Office said Tatianna Ammons applied for and received unemployment insurance benefits from around October 24, 2020, until around September 10, 2021. Tatianna Ammons is the daughter of State Representative Carol Ammons and Champaign County Clerk Aaron Ammons.
U.S. District Judge Edmond Chang filed the ruling June 1, delivering a mixed bag of results for both sides in the case lodged against the Illinois State Supreme Court by former Cook County Judge James Brown.
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The Pretrial Accountability Task Force will be responsible for examining the use of pretrial electronic monitoring, "including the types of cases and charges for which the monitoring is ordered as a condition of pretrial release," according to the release. The Task Force will issue its report to the Supreme Court within 45 days, according to the release.
The plan doesn't raise the state's sales or income tax rates. But it does rely on a series of new taxes and tweaks to be balanced, while also reviving some temporary election-year tax breaks Democrats last deployed in 2022, when Gov. JB Pritzker was seeking a second term.
ComEd CEO Gil Quiniones said, in part, "We introduced a tariff. It was approved by the Illinois Commerce Commission to make sure that the cost imposed by data centers on our transmission and distribution system is paid for by those data centers, to make sure that those extra costs are not passed through the rest of our customers.”
According to police in suburban Plainfield, deputies were called to a home May 22 at approximately 12:50 p.m. for reports of a “male suicidal suspect.” The teen admitted to the intended attack to police at the scene according to officials. Officers collected a handgun, multiple loaded magazines, knives, an accelerant and gloves from the residence.
According to the Tax Foundation, 0.5 a percentlcohol-by-volume bourbon-infused ice cream would be taxed more than 1,000 times as much as alcohol in 14 percent ABV beer under the proposed amendments.
Portions of the law, such as the age requirements to purchase hemp products, will take effect upon the bill being signed into law. Other parts, primarily those focused on hemp product sales and regulation, will take effect at the same time federal regulations do in November.
"In the state budget, there is approximately $150 million labeled as 'surplus' motor fuel sales tax revenue, but this is not surplus in any meaningful sense. It is revenue generated directly from Illinois drivers who are already paying higher prices at the pump. ... At the same time, when examining broader state expenditures, including healthcare services and welcome center programs tied to non-citizen populations, approximately $150 million in spending appears in this category."
“I believe that data centers ought to be paying their fair share and that they ought to be bringing their own energy with them,” Gov. JB Pritzker said after the legislative session ended Monday morning.
In 2023, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that local governments cannot keep excess profit when they seize and sell a home to investors. Illinois did not comply with the ruling for three years.
Nearly 400 bills cleared both chambers of the General Assembly this session, with more than 150 of them moving in the session’s final week.
Gov. JB Pritzker proposed a set of pro-housing reforms that would have reduced red tape and lowered the cost of building, but the General Assembly did not pass them.
Johnson has continued to push for the city's 2024 plan of relying on the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority and its 2 percent hotel tax to help fund a new Bears stadium on the lakefront, along with the team paying for a portion of the construction cost.
Illinois American’s proposal could bump water bills by an average of $168 per year for residential water customers and $336 per year for wastewater customers, according to CUB estimates. Meanwhile, as of April, nearly 47,000 households are already behind on their bills to Illinois American Water, totaling more than $8 million, according to ICC data.
Illinois House Minority Leader Tony McCombie said, in part, "I think (Gov. JB Pritzker) could unpause the data center incentives if he wanted to, just by saying so. He and I actually agree that they should be bringing their own energy. I think the technology is changing, so it helps with protection of water, so we’ll have to see what he decides to do there.”
The bill prohibits social media companies from using a minor’s viewing history or data stored on the device to determine what shows up in their feeds. Instead, feeds for minors will only be allowed to show information the user requested or searched for, or was posted by a creator the user follows.
The budget includes new revenue streams like a social media platform fee, a digital advertising tax, and taxes on cryptocurrency, fantasy sports and prediction markets. It also caps net operating loss deductions for corporations, and decouples from a federal stock exclusion provision of the tax code to allow taxing capital gains at the individual income tax rate.
When President Donald Trump returned to office, he rescinded a 2021 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) policy that had designated schools, hospitals and courthouses as “sensitive locations” where immigration enforcement was generally restricted. And in December 2025, Gov. JB Pritzker signed the Court Access, Safety and Participation Act (CASPA), which bans civil immigration enforcement within 1,000 feet of courthouses. The broader legislation also extends protections to immigrants at universities and day care centers
The demand from the Illinois Democrats comes less than two weeks after federal prosecutors dropped the charges against the remaining defendants in the “Broadview Six” case due to allegations of misconduct during grand jury proceedings.
HB 5487 doesn't explicitly forbid law firms from working with management services organizations (MSOs), but the legislation prohibits non-lawyers and outside investors from interfering in the "professional judgment of attorneys in representing clients; and from "owning, or determining" or "revealing" client records and "attorney-client communications; among other prohibitions.
U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall in February ruled that the law could take effect, based largely on her interpretation of administrative rules written by the federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, an independent subsection of the U.S. Treasury. But the OCC, in a pair of April filings, rewrote the language at question and issued an order specifically preempting Illinois’ law.
State residents paid an average of $8,339 per capita in FY2023, $1,301 (18.5 percent) over the national average, data from the Tax Foundation show.
Federal law blocks the state of Illinois from prohibiting both banks from outside Illinois and payment card servicers, like Visa and Mastercard, from charging so-called "swipe fees" on sales taxes that are charged or gratuities added on when customers use a credit or debit card to make a purchase, a federal judge has ruled.
Jim Dey: "With just two of the Big 3 in positive growth territory for the fiscal year, Gov. J.B. Pritzker and legislators have to be nervous about next year’s revenues. That’s one reason why they raised taxes by $800 million and ordered a series of fund sweeps before finalizing the $55.9 billion state budget that takes effect July 1."
Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch said, among other things, "... Taxing the rich is very important to me. … To those who much is given, much is required. And I fought very hard for a surcharge tax on millionaires to go on our November ballot. It came up just short in the House. The Senate president and I agreed to keep talking this summer and find ways to come to an agreement on that language that we can probably look at in 2028.”
During floor debate at the Illinois Capitol last weekend, state Sen. Jason Plummer said House Bill 5093 would drive up the tuition costs for Illinois families. State Sen. Celina Villanueva, revenue committee chair, responded, “Senator, I’m not sure where you’re getting your information from, but I can tell you that based off of my conversations with universities, the cost is going to be negligible."
Top Chicago Stories
"Some of the cases stagger the imagination.... The U.S. justice system isn’t perfect, and wrongful convictions do happen. But the powerful political and financial incentives to recast contested convictions as cases of racially motivated corruption should give taxpayers pause before footing yet another multimillion-dollar settlement. When facts become subordinate to politics and payouts, justice is the loser."
“Last year, the district's budget was about $10 billion, and it picked up about $300 million in pension costs,” said Danny Vesecky, senior research and policy associate at the Civic Federation.
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Police said two male suspects approached a group of people standing outside and fired multiple shots into the crowd before fleeing.
David Greising, of the Better Government Association: "An Arlington Heights authority would have a credit rating linked to the village, with its high investment-grade credit rating. For Chicago, that would mean the city of Chicago, where the credit rating hovers just a few notches above junk status, and is at risk of going lower. In Arlington Heights, borrowing would cost less. A strong village balance sheet might mean that other financing or revenue sharing options are available to the village that Chicago might not be able to offer. Disadvantage, Chicago."
"How can the Bears, or any major enterprise planning a significant project or expansion in Chicago and relying for a time on discretion from the fifth floor, do business with a mayor who's shown he's willing to betray confidences to further his political ends? Perhaps all is fair in love, war and politics."
Hall is proposing a city-run Office of Pharmacy Access. The idea is straightforward: 77 access points, one in each of Chicago’s 77 neighborhoods, where residents can fill prescriptions and pick up medications close to home. The city would act as landlord. Independent pharmacists would move in without the overhead costs that typically push small pharmacies out of business.
"A data analysis ... revealed the Sheriff’s Office failed to serve 75 percent of the orders of protection issued between 2021 and 2023, leaving thousands of domestic violence victims vulnerable. Furthermore, the office recently finalized a massive $31 million settlement with over 560 women to resolve a historic sexual harassment lawsuit. Compounding these crises, the jail recorded 18 inmate deaths in 2023 — several linked to violence and an influx of drug-laced paper smuggled behind bars."
“Unfortunately, the same way the administration has been dealing with this, by bypassing and not dealing with it, is what they told their colleagues here to say, ‘Hey, let’s call quorum. Let’s end the meeting so we don’t have to deal with this,'” Ald. Gilbert Villegas said.
The citywide elections will take place early next year, and while there will be plenty of buzz around the mayoral race, the city’s 50 City Council seats will also be on the ballot, as will a series of referendums and other items for voters to weigh and consider.
"No one knows — not even the city of Chicago —who these kids are. Within the last decade, including the devastating COVID-19 pandemic, Chicago Public Schools lost 70,000 students. Some may have moved. Some may have gone to private schools. But the number of CPS middle and high schoolers missing 18 days or more of school shot up during the pandemic and has remained high..." 
DHS said a crowd it described as "anti-ICE agitators" surrounded officers during the operation. The agency alleges one person spray-painted an ICE vehicle before fleeing and striking a streetlight pole. Chicago Ald. Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez also attended the protest and spoke about the importance of supporting community members who are concerned about immigration enforcement efforts.
Last June, Chicago police arrested 16-year-old Rogelio Galindo while he allegedly carried an AR-style pistol loaded with a 40-round magazine that bore no serial number or manufacturer markings. A juvenile court judge placed Galindo on electronic monitoring. Prosecutors said the monitor was removed about a month later. He is the 24th person charged with killing or trying to kill someone in the city last year while on felony pretrial release.
"If Gov. Pritzker wants to show he is serious about helping the neediest children and willing to stand up to his union allies when policy — not politics — demands it, opting into the federal tax‑credit scholarship program would be direct, consequential, and politically bold."
"Beyond the neighbouring public housing, you can also see a clutch of new luxury apartment towers that have shot up in the last decade – a result of the Obama gentrification effect that local residents accurately feared the new centre would bring. ... Just like his presidency, the Obama campus was no doubt conceived with the best of intentions. And, as with his time in office, the impact of this mighty stone monument to hope looks set to be equally mixed."
This will be Mendoza's second run for the fifth floor of City Hall. She also ran in 2019, entering the race a couple of months after Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced he was not seeking a third term. At the time, Mendoza had just been re-elected as state comptroller. She came in fifth in a wide field.
"Mayor Brandon Johnson came to this office with something genuinely rare — authentic credibility in the communities most affected by this crisis. That connection is real, which makes the gap between his instincts and his execution all the more frustrating. ... The snap curfew veto had defensible grounds. But a veto without an alternative is a position, not a solution."
The accused killer of a Chicago police officer was ordered back into custody Tuesday in a separate carjacking case, after the same judge came under fire for releasing the seven-time convicted felon on electronic monitoring before the alleged murder. Authorities said Alphanso Talley was unaccounted for in the electronic monitoring system when he allegedly gunned down Officer John Bartholomew, 28, and gravely injured another police officer at Swedish Hospital April 25.
The mayor’s relationship with leaders of the mainstream Jewish community has been frayed ever since he cast the tie-breaking vote in favor of a nonbinding resolution demanding a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict. It was further strained by the mayor’s refusal to fire his chief lobbyist and remove Ald. Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez as chair of the City Council’s Committee on Health and Human Relations for their social media posts viewed by Jewish leaders as antisemitic. Johnson also refused to remove a display at the Cultural Center that a City Council majority viewed as antisemitic.
The “teen takeover” trend has been prevalent in Chicago in the late stages of spring and has officials debating how to address the issue, and the arrival of such “takeovers” in suburbs has departments on notice. The juveniles in this case were arrested on a variety of charges, including battery, assault, illegal possession of cannabis, obstructing identification, and disobeying peace officers.
"On the to-do list is also to ensure within public schools that we are supporting some of the programming for our queer and LGBTQ students in mental health," said King.
"Mayor Johnson has repeatedly signaled throughout his political career he views aggressive policing and incarceration with deep suspicion. ... If fewer shootings are detected, fewer enter the official statistics. If police are sent to fewer scenes, fewer arrests occur. If fewer arrests occur, activists can claim progress against 'over-policing.' Meanwhile, actual residents of violent neighborhoods continue dodging bullets."
"I’m not saying there’s not value in the program, and if there was money, absolutely, we would love to keep it, but there’s a lot of different factors here that play into why it’s not sustainable," Local School Council Co-Chair Amy Zemnick said. "The main one being we just don’t have the money or the kids."
The District’s debt burden is high compared to peer school districts, and its below-investment-grade credit rating significantly increases borrowing costs. These challenges are driven by a combination of factors, including aging facilities, declining enrollment, recurring structural deficits, and years of difficult fiscal decisions made under significant budget constraints.
"Several years ago, the Walgreens just feet from my church on King Drive in Woodlawn closed its doors too. Across the street, the McDonald’s fled as well. I didn’t blame either of them then, and I don’t blame Walgreens now. I blamed the violence in the community, the rampant theft and the declining sales that made it harder and harder for those businesses to survive. What really bothers me is the people talking about everything except the real issue."
Johnson’s comptroller Michael Belsky worked for EKI-Digital as it was pushing City Hall to pay nearly $10 million in questionable invoices. Johnson’s former chief operating officer John Roberson also once worked for the company and was part of a city review of EKI amid billing concerns.
It is not clear how much revenue a new digital ad tax could raise, or whether it would withstand an all-but certain legal challenge. Johnson also praised state lawmakers for following the path blazed by Chicago in the city’s 2026 spending plan, which imposed a tax on social media companies under the city’s amusement tax authority, officials said. That tax has been challenged in court.
The $21 million program is funded by Mayor Brandon Johnson’s $1.25 billion housing and economic development bond that was approved by the City Council in 2024. A spokesman said it’s a one-time funding effort for HomeGrown, but the city may revisit the program if it proves successful.
"No civilized society can tolerate the incarceration of truly innocent persons for crimes they did not commit. Nonetheless, the opposite concern is equally serious: When courts vacate murder convictions and release defendants convicted of brutal killings, victims’ families and the public deserve confidence these decisions were reached only after rigorous, individualized investigations grounded in evidence — not through blanket assumptions, political expedience, or informal understandings reached behind closed doors."
Wirepoints Research and Commentary
With $162 billion more from taxpayers, couldn't you deliver a few bond upgrades, too 
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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. SIGN UP HERE FOR FREE WIREPOINTS DAILY NEWSLETTER
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Everybody needs a side hustle these days, and mine is Ukraine, where I am now.
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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.
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