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Truth in Accounting founder and CEO Sheila Weinberg said Illinois’ taxpayer burden is $36,900, and the state does not currently have the money to pay $166.3 billion in bills. “In the private sector, this would be considered bankruptcy, but in the state of Illinois, they claim everything is good."
Some of the lobbyists work for firms that lobby Illinois’ state government, overseen by her political ally and benefactor, Gov. JB Pritzker. Others work for firms that lobby Congress and other arms of the federal government. 
The candidates sparred on state spending, education funding, safety net hospitals, the SAFE-T Act, the Chicago Bears, Choate Mental Health and Developmental Center and more. But much of the debate centered on the relationship between the federal government and the state. More Highlighted Illinois Stories
The Pritzkers also made $1.9 million in charitable contributions last year, the campaign said. Unlike on his 2024 returns, Pritzker did not record any gambling winnings this year.
The settlement allows for a 9.48 percent return on equity for shareholders, which is between the 8.95 percent that Illinois PIRG and Legal Action Chicago had sought and the 10.35 percent rate that Nicor originally requested. Utility watchdog groups had characterized that request as “outrageous” and “exorbitant.”
"In presidential polls, (Gov. JB) Pritzker usually registers around three percent, which should be quite troubling for him, because he’s been posturing for 2028 since Kamala Harris gave her concession speech. (Former Chicago Mayor Rahm) Emanuel doesn’t even register in polls. He does slightly better on the online betting market Kalshi, but like Pritzker, Emanuel is currently under three percent there."
The alleged plot targeted people of Indian descent at a Hindu temple, according to court documents, raising concerns about hate-fueled violence at places of worship in the Chicago suburbs.
A state appeals panel says a nurse practitioner isn't immune from medical negligence litigation for conduct that occurred during a declared pandemic, even if there may have been an order from Illinois' governor a judge thought made it so.
Illinois leaders set an initial goal of erasing $1 billion in medical debt while spending less than $10 million in state funds.
"SIU Carbondale has no plans to shut down its coal and natural gas power plant at this time," SIUC spokesperson Jeff Harmon told the Journal Star. "As with most higher education institutions, we will consider alternative energy sources in the future." The generator produces about 14 percent of the campus' annual electricity supply.
Congress created these grants in the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021, amid the pandemic-related surge in unemployment claims as state unemployment agencies nationwide battled widespread fraud by scammers using information obtained in data breaches to falsely claim unemployment benefits.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said no to a sweetener, while Gov. JB Pritzker added $11 billion to Chicago’s liabilities.
Investigators say they found a manifesto apparently written by the teenager-who called himself the "Aurora Shooter." The writings "expressed words of hate, violence, superior race and mass shooting of Indian people. His hatred was against Jewish people, African Americans, Indians, & "non-white" people."
State Rep. Kam Buckner was asked if it would be possible to give the Bears control and still protect taxpayers. He responded, “Yeah, I think that's a conversation that, number one, has to be at the center of this. I don't know what that part looks like."
Former head of the Illinois GOP Pat Brady weighed in: "The governor came across as a governor. It was fact versus fiction. I thought the governor was very effective, and I give him credit for even doing it. ... I think the problem with the Republican Party right now, we're attacking Pritzker, but we're not talking about what we're going to do."
Some governors had been waiting for the federal government to issue regulations for it before deciding whether to opt in. The U.S. Treasury Department released those rules in early October, but they lack guardrails Democratic governors had hoped for, including provisions that might allow them to steer money toward students from low-income backgrounds or require certain standards for scholarship-granting organizations.
Comment: For a very different viewpoint on what Frerichs is doing, see our own recent column here.
Haywood Talcove, CEO of LexisNexis Risk Solutions, said Illinois has antiquated processes and technology, and the state’s error rate has been high for years. “Imagine applying for a mortgage and telling the bank that you make a million dollars a year and they just check the box and say, yep, that's what you make. Government does not validate the information on the forms, and as a result, the criminals know that,” Talcove said.
“The statute, as interpreted here, does not federalize all gambling, or even all sports gambling,” U.S. District Judge Martha Pacold wrote. “Instead, the statute governs gambling so far as it takes the form of swaps. … People may view these contracts as gambling, but little in the statutory definition turns on what people think. Instead, most of the definition turns on commercial function.”
With Democrats using President Donald Trump’s low approval ratings and the high gas prices triggered by his war in Iran to their advantage, Republicans are not only slapping back by labeling Democrats’ economic policies ineffective but also looking for ways to change the conversation. The Illinois GOP is hoping recent scandals involving Democratic state lawmakers will breathe new life into the party’s efforts to gain more relevance in the General Assembly.
Illinois law makes it a Class 4 felony to knowingly give, lend or promise to give anything of value to influence a person to vote or register to vote, or to influence a person to vote for or against any candidate or public question.
The difference between Democrats and Republicans’ votes above the minimum needed for victory is known as the efficiency gap. While Missouri’s efficiency gap was +17.6 percent in favor of Republicans, Illinois’ 2022 map was +20.9 percent in favor of Democrats.
Unsurprisingly, the states paying the most six-figure pensions are typically the states whose pension funds are at risk of insolvency. Illinois is currently $202 billion away from saving up enough money to pay the pensions it has already promised to current and future retirees, according to Equable.
"Other states are competing to attract upper investment and growth. Illinois Democrats are continuing policies that drive them away."
Gov. JB Pritzker, who also serves as chair of the Ready for the Fight PAC, seeded the committee with at least $20 million for the 2026 midterm election.
State Rep. John Cabello said that before implementing a tax, lawmakers should face the people who will pay for it. “Hold a hearing. Let them testify. Explain what you’re doing before it’s a done deal instead of passing it in the middle of a night without a hearing,” Cabello said. As of Monday, Cabello’s House Bill 5798 to repeal the digital assets tax had 22 Republican cosponsors.
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"Government programs that dole out money based on race are illegal," a White House spokesperson said. "Chicago would be better served if Mayor Johnson focused more on lowering his city’s homicide rate instead of advocating for divisive, unconstitutional government action."
"Party loyalty is the only explanation for a settlement by the city of Chicago to a collection of largely gangbanging, murdering thugs all claiming they were coerced into confessing to their atrocities by a retired detective, Ray Guevara."
In their joint statement, Cook County State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke and transit union president Pennie McCoach said Chevazz Campbell, 37, had been on electronic monitoring following a retail theft conviction but had repeatedly violated his probation before the stabbing. "On at least four occasions … prosecutors filed to violate the defendant's probation because of repeated curfew violations, including multiple periods when he was out of compliance for hours at a time," they said. Campbell's violations were "repeatedly ignored," Burke and McCoach further stated, "because there is a lack of oversight."
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According to the inspector general’s probe, the Board of Ethics employee “falsely denied drinking or being in an accident multiple times and lied to officers about the employee’s occupation before being arrested.”
“I wonder if our work should be centered around not only challenging the ultra-rich and big corporations to pay their fair share in taxes. I wonder that if the State of Illinois is not prepared to do that, then give me and other municipalities the local authority to do it ourselves,” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said.
Critics have long raised concerns over the foundation's failure to fully fund a proposed $470 million endowment — a financial safety net designed to generate income for the center's upkeep and reduce the risk of taxpayers footing the bill if the project runs into trouble. Obama Foundation officials said the agreement with the city of Chicago required them to establish an endowment, not fully fund it, before taking control of the site.
In all, 17 members of the Chicago Police Department have faced termination for allegedly defrauding the Paycheck Protection Program of a total of approximately $517,000, according to reports released by the Office of the Inspector General.
Federal authorities are currently investigating letters with "suspicious substances" that have been mailed to congressional and election offices nationwide. The large building that houses Chicago City Hall also houses Cook County government offices, including the treasurer's office, the assessor's office and Cook County Board offices.
"In affluent wards, a restrictive zoning code and deference to hyper-local aldermanic control is throttling the housing that the market would otherwise build. In South and West side neighborhoods, moderate incomes and high construction costs are translating into vacant lots and disinvestment. And across the city, we’re building and maintaining far fewer publicly funded affordable units than we could."
Among the accusations made by both members of the City Council and colleagues on the 14th District Police Council, David Orlikoff claimed Ald. Ray Lopez and Ald. Nicholas Sposato were "directly responsible" for the 2023 stabbing death of 6 year old Plainfield Palestinian-American resident Wadee Al Fayoumi, because they spread "Nazi style hate and fear mongering."
Despite former Chicago Police Detective Reynaldo Guevara’s well-documented misconduct that sent 55 now-exonerated Chicagoans to prison for decades, any attempt to revoke his pension is sure to fail, since he was not charged with criminal wrongdoing, much less convicted, while a Chicago police officer. Former Mayor Rahm Emanuel commissioned a probe into Guevara’s conduct in 2013 at a cost of $1.9 million, but the report has never been released by city officials.
Cook County Circuit Court Judge Eve Reilly dismissed the case Wednesday on a technicality, saying the lawsuit was premature because none of the candidates had officially filed nominating petitions for mayor. Therefore, she could not rule on future events. “People change their mind. They may not file their petitions,” Reilly said.
The debate was emotional and filled with racial overtones, as well.
Lawyers for the 17 defendants who were wrongfully convicted of murder dating back to 1987 noted it is the largest police misconduct settlement in U.S. history. "There's the thing called evidence. That if you take this thing to court, what we actually save the taxpayers by voting for this one is $500 million," Ald. Andre Vasquez said.
Prosecutors say the 67-year-old woman was walking near a koi pond at the mall when the suspect in the case struck her in the head with a bag, knocking her to the ground. The suspect then grabbed the woman’s head and shoved it underneath the surface of the koi pond, prosecutors said. The victim tried to kick and scratch at him, but he shoved her head back under the water, slamming it into the bottom of the pond.
“We have a prompt payments act with the state government that if there are public dollars involved, and somebody is doing work and not getting paid, that's a violation of the law,” state Rep. Kam Buckner said. “These students were not just missing out on education, on their athletic experience, but many of them who are juniors and seniors are in the running for scholarships. This is affecting their recruiting process.”
"Chicago cannot erase the pension debt by outsourcing garbage collection. It cannot rewrite an existing employee’s pension merely because the city’s finances deteriorate. It cannot necessarily select employees for dismissal because their pension tier is expensive. The City, however, can decide how many people it employs, which functions the government performs directly and what retirement package it offers people who have not yet joined the workforce."
The Protecting Renters Ordinance has been significantly pared down since Mayor Brandon Johnson introduced it earlier this year, but a key remaining plank would fulfill a longtime goal of advocates and organizers: a comprehensive, city-managed public database showing who owns each of the thousands of apartment buildings in the city. City officials argue it is a step toward regular, proactive safety inspections for every unit in the city.
Chicago voters will see a question backed by Mayor Brandon Johnson on their Nov. 3 ballots that asks if the city should seek compensation from the Trump administration for the economic fallout from the immigration enforcement operation.
Wallace “Gator” Bradley says he logged 4,607 hours at $75 an hour and has submitted about 70 pages describing the work he says he did as an "urban translator" between 2013 and 2025. He listed dozens of City Council and Rainbow/PUSH Coalition meetings he says he attended, along with his preparation for those meetings.
District leaders held several meetings last month updating the community about a $5 million deficit, which they felt was only going to get worse because of declining enrollment and aging buildings. The move would force 713 students to change schools district-wide.
The ballot language is similar to a constitutional amendment that failed in the Illinois House earlier this year and a previous statewide ballot question from 2024. However, notably absent from the Cook County ballot question is language that specifies the additional 3 percent income tax would be only on income above $1 million rather than on all income for a taxpayer whose income tops $1 million.
"Last week, I stood in front of our new Leadership and Economic Opportunity Center that we built to steward young boys like our 11-year-old. High up on one of the window panes, someone shot a hole through the glass. This is the third window pane that has been broken. ... It wasn’t a liquor store or a vacant lot. It was a building — one of the first constructions on the South Side in who knows how long — going up where a motel notorious for crime once stood. And on a block that was known as America’s most dangerous."
The latest findings mark continued progress in the department’s yearslong effort to overhaul its policies and practices. But monitor Maggie Hickey warned that Larry Snelling’s retirement will test whether the reforms can withstand a leadership change, while staffing shortages remain a significant obstacle to fully implementing the changes.
"There are at least 67 zoning districts with at least 28 geographic overlays layered on top of these districts," their research found. "At least 180 specific land use types are listed in the zoning code and at least five government decision-making bodies make official decisions about zoning."
“What remains to be seen is whether the corporate-aligned caucus will have the collective courage to choose the interests and priorities of Chicagoans, or choose to cower before the influence and campaign donations of corporations,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said.
“What does it mean for Chicago to have no charter? It means that there is no coherent, enforceable structure to the way government works here. Inadequate transparency, fractionalist politics and almost constant fiscal crises are just some of the issues that haunt Chicago,” said Joe Ferguson, president of the non-partisan Civic Federation.
Terry King, 40, was released in that case because, under the SAFE-T Act, aggravated battery of a police officer does not qualify for pretrial detention unless the officer suffers great bodily harm.
Last year, Chicago's team collected a combined seven tons of trash, with 1,000 volunteers tracking submissions online with photo proof for every bag collected.
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To top it off, Stratton is funded mostly by Gov. JB Pritzker, who has long purported to be a rock solid supporter of Israel's right to exist. El-Sayed is anything but. SIGN UP HERE FOR FREE WIREPOINTS DAILY NEWSLETTER
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What Pritzker doesn't tell you that it cost taxpayers billions, not millions, in higher taxes to get those upgrades, vastly exceeding the savings. 
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Ballots start going out next week and Stratton has yet even to attempt to show that she’s qualified for the Senate. She has assessed that Illinois' media environment and one-party political culture will let her get away with hiding.
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