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Top Illinois Stories
Jim Dey: "'Most of Illinois’ local municipal pensions are distressed, and hundreds are deeply distressed, imposing a costly drag on the towns and cities that sponsor them,' writes Wirepoints analyst Mark Glennon. Just how distressed are they? In 2024, suburban and downstate police pension systems have a funded percentage of 63.65 percent. Their unfunded liability is $7.4 billion."
Brandeis Center general counsel Evan Slavitt said Northwestern agreed to abide by Qatari law at its campuses in both Qatar and Evanston. “That means no criticism of the emir, which is the government of Qatar. And so the result is that they've not only taken a bunch of money, but they’ve signed agreements to take certain positions or not take certain positions,” Slavitt said.
"I'm starting to realize life's too short to try to build in places that people don't appreciate what you're bringing," president and co-founder Arch "Beaver" Aplin III said. He suggested Buc-ee's would increasingly consider the politics of state and local leaders when choosing where to expand. When recently asked about expansion into Illinois, Buc-ee's representatives said the company has no plans to open there.
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"We smell a correlation between how many public offices a person holds and his or her proximity to trouble."
Governor JB Pritzker recently signed House Bill 4592 into law, which bars companies from refusing to accept cash for purchases valued below $500. Illinois joins a growing list of states seeking to support the option of cash payments. In 2024, Florida's state legislature introduced a bill requiring businesses to accept cash and other forms of payment for goods and services. A year later, New York's state legislature passed a bill banning retailers from turning down cash payments.
As enforcement ramped up under President Donald Trump, prosecutors shared the vital information without criminal warrants, public disclosure or legislative oversight. Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul wouldn’t say whether they’re bound by a state law that strictly limits cooperation with immigration enforcement agents.
The new funding will build on Connect Illinois, the State’s broadband expansion initiative. Across the first three funding rounds, the program generated nearly $614 million in combined public and private investments, supporting projects led by 27 internet service providers and local governments to extend access to more than 44,000 households, businesses and community institutions. To date, over 20,610 households have already been connected.
Over several years, the West Suburban Medical Center and Weiss Memorial Hospital received more than $24 million in state grants while racking up debts of roughly $100 million in state loans and unpaid taxes. Then they closed, eliminating more than 400 beds, erasing roughly 1,400 jobs and cutting neighborhood residents off from valuable medical care.
The university’s event listing names the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center (GSRC) and Center for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality (CSWGS) as hosts and lists Academic Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (ADEI) under “Department.” The GSRC’s Huskie Hub profile says the center uses student leadership, advocacy, campus engagement and professional development to “challenge societal constructs of gender and sexuality norms” and “promote social justice.”
New statewide polling shows that nearly 7 in 10 Illinoisans want Pritzker to opt in; otherwise, any dollars contributed will go to students in other states. Thirty percent of Illinoisans said they would still donate if Pritzker doesn’t opt in, meaning over $1 billion in donations would go to other states.
By way of the settlement terms, he said, these funds must be used to remediate harms done by social media to children, especially in the area of mental health. They can not be used for general expenses, as some local leaders have already demanded.
"I really think sometimes that the CTU and the Bears are operating from the same flawed, secret playbook. Both have legit cases to make at the statehouse, but both constantly step on their own messaging and alienate people who should be their friends."
Illinois up 43% in five years.
For more than 50 years, Title X has helped millions of low-income patients access contraception, cancer screenings, sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment, pregnancy testing and counseling, and other preventive healthcare.
The unemployment rate was 4.9 percent in July, down -0.2 percentage point from June, and up +0.6 percentage point from the same month one year ago in Illinois, based on data provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Just two weeks after the Florida Chamber of Commerce launched a viral Times Square ad crowning New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani as Florida's Economic Developer of the Year, "We've had companies from Washington, California, Illinois, of course, New York. This has really been a national reaction," said Florida Chamber President and CEO Mark Wilson. "We've had former governors and state senators in other states. We've had members of Congress who saw this… contact us and say, ‘Okay, this is the conversation our country needs to have.’"
"Illinois has $80 billion in total assets and $220 billion in total debts. In other words, its upside down with a debt ratio of 276 percent. Much of the state’s debt comes in the form of unfunded liabilities in the state’s five public pension systems. As hard as it is to imagine, the city of Chicago is in even worse financial shape."
"The pauses by Pritzker and others may make sense. But a pause is not a policy. And the policies that Illinois and other states develop during their slowdowns will determine how they fare long term. In Illinois, this will mean a redoubled effort to focus on the increased demand for power and water — power to run the computers and water to keep them cool enough to work."
Last month in Illinois, Flock’s cameras pinged 61 license plates flagged in missing persons cases and 6,000 plates linked to stolen cars, according to a spokesman for the Atlanta-based company. But also in Illinois, Flock’s massive cache of license-plate data has been accessed by out-of-state officials monitoring abortions and by federal immigration agents whose coordination with local police is restricted under state law.
Vehicles that fall under the purview of the new law include high speed e-bikes, e-scooters, and any other motor-powered devices primarily used for transportation and that move faster than 28 mph. The law was the final measure awaiting Gov. JB Pritzker’s signature after being passed by the General Assembly this spring.
Hyperscale data centers, such as the Meta facility in DeKalb, have already been built. McLean County passed prohibited data centers from agricultural areas when it adopted zoning regulations for such a facility in June, and Bloomington and Normal are currently in the middle of dual six-month moratoriums pausing all data center proposals.
Attorney General Kwame Raoul, as part of a coalition of 25 states, argues that the Postal Service’s rule violates the Constitution, which makes clear that states have the primary authority to administer elections, and upends successful, longstanding vote-by-mail procedures. The lawsuit argues the rule is inconsistent with the Postal Service’s governing statutes, ignores the Postal Service’s procedural requirements, violates the Privacy Act and is inconsistent with federal voting rights law.
The bill allows Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs to invest in the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust (AFL-CIO HIT), which focuses on building and preserving affordable and workforce housing, creating union construction jobs and generating returns for investors. AFL-CIO HIT has nine projects under construction in Illinois that will add 1,466 housing units, nearly two-thirds of which will be affordable housing, with an investment of almost $150 million.
Attorney General Kwame Raoul also filed a lawsuit against TikTok in 2024 for addictive features, harmful business practices targeting children and alleging the company also deceived the public about the platform's dangers. And, he recently joined other states in suing xAI, which owns social media platform X and its AI chatbot Grok, over AI-generated nonconsensual sexual images and child sex abuse material.
State Sen. Laura Murphy said election-securing efforts have been made at the state level. “I want every voter to know in the state of Illinois we're doing everything possible to protect your vote,” Murphy said. State lawmakers won’t return to work in Springfield until two weeks after the election.
And from 2020 to 2025, Illinois’ population of residents under 20 fell by 6.8 percent, more than three times faster than the national average of 2 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Top Chicago Stories
"It's disturbing to see the agency appearing to be acting as a tool of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s as-yet undeclared reelection campaign as the mayoral election nears and targeting its messages to those already here."
The Neighborhood Market Grant Program is funded through the American Rescue Plan Act and the nonprofit Allies for Community Business, with one-time grants of $10,000 offered to support small food business owners and farmers market operators.
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Mayor Brandon Johnson said workplace data was necessary to identify discrimination and criticized the Trump administration's efforts to end federal reporting requirements. "If you want to do business with this city, we want to know whether the people leading your company reflect the diversity of the communities whose tax dollars are paying your contracts," he said.
"There are likely a number of school administrators and teachers patting themselves on the back right now because the Chicago Tribune put their high school on a Best Of list, but I wonder how many of them will face up to the truth that the majority of the students they graduate aren’t ready for college or even an ability to move into a technical field where math and English skills are required."
"The impulse behind guaranteed income programs makes sense. More than 167,000 Chicagoans live on $21 or less a day. But there is a far better use of this cash than simply cutting checks: eliminating poverty traps inside the current system."
Police said they were on scene to break up a large gathering when gunmen opened fire into the crowd. It was unclear why the gathering took place or who the gunmen were.
"Chicago has been savaged by predatory machines from the Chicago Teachers Union to the radical Marxism of Cook County Democratic Party chair Toni Preckwinkle –who with her ally George Soros and protege Kim Foxx–are most responsible for the massive home building boom in Northwest Indiana as Chicago refugees hope to flee all that Preckwinkle legacy caused with violent crime in Cook County. All of this has contributed to a sense of exhaustion and helplessness of the people."
Last year, the U.S. Department of Education rescinded millions of dollars meant to support magnet schools in Chicago Public Schools, saying the district had violated federal law with its policies that support Black and transgender students.
Since July 29, the community areas of Austin, North Lawndale and East and West Garfield Park saw 49 people shot, a nearly 20 percent increase over the previous year, according to the city’s Violence Prevention Dashboard. In just the last five days, at least six people were shot, including one fatally, within a mile of the school at 5101 W. Harrison St.
"The information gathered will aid the Committee in considering whether potential legislative changes are needed," the letter states.
Gov. JB Pritzker responded to Illinois Federation of Teachers President Stacy Davis Gates’ call to spend the state’s $768 million cut of a multi-state settlement with social media giant Meta for education, saying that “one-time money should really be used for one-time needs. ... And while I understand that some people may view the shortfall in the budget in Chicago as a one-time need, it’s not. There’s an ongoing need.”
Armando W. Saleh, a former chief of staff to a Cook County commissioner turned lobbyist, submitted a passport to the Cook County assessor’s office that showed him as being 15 years older and secured 69 tax breaks that saved him a total of more than $80,000 under Assessor Fritz Kaegi and two predecessors in that elected position going back to 1998.
Since Jones racked up $44,000 on a city credit card in September, much of which was during the Congressional Black Caucus' 54th annual legislative conference in Washington, aldermen say they have regularly requested documentation tying expenses to city business. The mayor promised to reimburse the city for $25,000 spent during the Washington conference, but the check Jones provided came from a local business that already owed the city the money.
Kennedy-King described the program as “Open to all.” City Colleges of Chicago curriculum materials, however, describe the program’s admissions process as “equity-driven.” City Colleges of Chicago is facing a $5.2 million deficit for fiscal year 2026.
Ald. Matt Martin called Mayor Brandon Johnson’s failure to appoint new board members unacceptable. “Over the past term, it’s taken the Johnson administration an average of nine months to fill vacant board seats,” Martin said. “It’s disappointing that ethics is not a priority for the administration.”
"Agencies representing more than 35 west and northwest suburbs announced plans Monday to build their own system for extracting and distributing Lake Michigan water in their communities. ... The big loser if this ambitious plan is realized? The city of Chicago, which has supplied water to these suburbs for decades."
After years of sitting vacant, the building has undergone a $34 million city-supported transformation. Nearly half of the 50 units are occupied.
Ald. Peter Chico’s office told the city in a 311 complaint Sept. 26: “We have received odor complaints … from residents and were provided with some concerning information regarding the business owner.” Agency records show the inquiry was marked as “Completed” within seven minutes of being opened.
“Chicago has utilized this program far more than any other major American city,” said Juan González, a senior research fellow with the Great Cities Institute. “Over the decades, the program morphed into a runaway development tool with little accountability to the public. ... Instead of reducing the city’s historic economic inequities, it has exacerbated them."
This is the sixth decree signed by Mayor Brandon Johnson this year, and the 26th of his term, as he turns to his executive power pen to avoid divisive political battles with a City Council majority that increasingly distrusts Johnson. “We certainly cannot rely upon a body of government when you have some members who are more interested in protecting the status quo in the interests of corporations,” Johnson said. “I have to do whatever is necessary.” According to the campaign’s research team, Chicago currently holds $3.19 billion in contracts with companies that also do business with ICE.
He pointed to the work of the city’s Youth Commission, which has paid more than 40 teens a stipend for their ideas. “We actually pay young people to develop activations, safe spaces for them to participate, because the last thing that they want is a 50-year-old mayor of Chicago to tell young people what’s fun, even though I think I know how to have a good time,” he said.
"More fundamentally, it also just strikes me as a terrible idea for our pension funds to double down on investment strategies - like a Chicago-specific infrastructure fund - whose risks and returns are highly correlated with the success of the city itself. If those investments don’t pan out, it’s probably because Chicago is struggling in some way. ... Our city’s fiscal health and pension solvency would become even more correlated than they are today. I’m sure you could come up with a worse plan, but I’d have to think a little bit on how."
"The exoneration of killers like Solache and Reyes, then making them rich through lawsuits, is the lifeblood of the modern radical Democratic Party, having originated in Chicago but now spreading across American cities like a cancer."
"The city has trailed the nation under every mayor from Richard M. Daley onward. Compounded, the U.S. economy grew 64 percent over that stretch. Ours grew only 25 percent."
Executive Order 2026-06 prohibits contracts with companies that have committed workplace discrimination or wage theft and also requires the disclosure of contracts with immigration agencies. Those with more than $100,000 in city contracts will also be required to disclose “certain workplace antidiscrimination violations, worker protection violations, board composition and charitable giving.”
When asked how budget negotiations could be less contentious this year, Mayor Brandon Johnson responded: "For them (alders) to be in agreement with me."
Awake Illinois recently highlighted the school’s “Contemporary Social Themes” course, which focuses on “social engagement and ethical reasoning.” The curriculum examines how gender, class, sexual orientation and race shape how people experience and understand the world. Students also explore “unexamined assumptions, prejudices, and invisible systems,” consider their “universe of obligation” and discuss ways to initiate change when societal assumptions and biases result in injustice.
Wirepoints Research and Commentary
Most of Illinois' local municipal pensions are distressed and hundreds are deeply distressed, imposing a costly drag on the towns and cities that sponsor them. 
There's an irony surrounding the battles over solar farms in Illinois. Residents are being forced – through mandatory surcharges in their electric bills – to pay for the very subsidies that help make solar projects profitable. Their own money is being used to finance solar farms that many residents don’t want. That’s exactly what’s playing out in Effingham today. 
Summary and audio 
Much of the routine trade and investment between China and America is entirely appropriate and in America's interest. But inserting the Chinese Communist Party into America's pay-to-play system and its economic development strategy isn't just crossing a line. It's a leap into an abyss of stupidity. SIGN UP HERE FOR FREE WIREPOINTS DAILY NEWSLETTER
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Illinois paid the price for embracing Fauci's "science." Here's the retrospective. 
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