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Top Illinois Stories
Real adjusted hourly wages in Illinois shrunk 0.02 percent a year on average from 2018 to 2025, making the state one of only seven that saw a dip in that time. Even if paychecks — nominal wages — are going up on average, rising pricing makes the gains basically a wash.
Nick Klein, of the international logistics company OEC Group, said new tariffs imposed by both countries will continue driving up the cost of goods in the state, as Canada is Illinois’ top trade partner – exporting roughly $17.5 billion in goods to the nation annually.
In the case of Gov. JB Pritzker’s Back to Business grants, a July 2025 audit found that Back to Business and four follow-up grant programs handed out millions of federal dollars to companies that weren’t eligible, hadn’t submitted the proper paperwork, or should have had their allotments reduced because they had received funding from other relief programs. The agency responsible so far has made no attempt to recoup any of the money.
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Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said, “Chicago will not stand by while the federal government forces immigrant families to choose between putting food on the table, taking their children to the doctor, or protecting their ability to remain in this country."
There are 1,400 townships in the Land of Lincoln, which levy more than $750 million in property taxes annually. “I think that most of these services provided by townships are easily absorbed by other units of local government,” Illinois Policy Institute’s Bryce Hill said. “Every time we see local government consolidation bills crop up, they very people whose jobs would be consolidated lobby state elected officials to prevent those bills from gaining traction."
Last year, 21 jails had insufficient personnel. Of those, at least nine only had one officer on duty at various times, inspections found. Additionally, 22 jails violated standards related to security. In Menard County, sliding doors to individual cells “were inoperable and always left open.”
"These obligations violate core constitutional protections of freedom of speech and religion," Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich said. "To be clear, the Church’s objection to this statute is not an attempt to impose Catholic teaching on non-Catholics; it is an effort to stop the State from compelling Catholic health care providers to violate their conscience.”
Illinois' Kwame Raoul was among a coalition of Democratic attorneys general who filed a lawsuit challenging the rules. In August, a federal judge in Massachusetts issued a preliminary injunction blocking the rules, but the Supreme Court overturned that injunction on procedural grounds because the Postal Service had not yet finalized the rules.
David Risley, who previously worked as an investigator under former Legislative Inspector General Carol Pope, was an assistant U.S. attorney for Illinois’ central district, and he served in the U.S. Regime Crimes Liaison Office investigating crimes against humanity in Iraq. Risley is also a former ethics officer for the state Department of Transportation, and he has hosted a podcast on crime and criminal justice policy since 2019.
The states, led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, argue the rule will penalize immigrants and their families for using public benefits like food stamps, Medicaid or housing vouchers to which they are legally entitled. The City of Chicago joined a separate lawsuit challenging the rule, filed by a group of local governments and led by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
The governor suggests AI companies and “big tech” should be disallowed from lobbying against regulations, have congressional hearings on AI safety and for the federal government to implement a coordinated plan to safely continue forward.
The results of the first battery power procurement auction mean another 600 megawatts of new utility-scale energy storage projects will come online in Illinois by 2030 — roughly enough to power half a million homes, or the equivalent of what a single coal or natural gas plant generates. But it’s just over half of what regulators sought to procure coming into the process.
While such estimates are required in many other states, Illinois law allows a bill’s sponsor to determine whether it needs a fiscal note. If the sponsor decides it does not, a lawmaker who disagrees must gain the support of a majority of members to require a fiscal note.
"Illinois has a lot riding on the continued health of Big Agriculture. The typical farm operator in the Land of Lincoln today has a strong balance sheet with little debt. But if the government money went away, the consequences would be severe."
“It's good to have some natural growth, but you know, we're still – I will say that the state is still relying on annual tax increases to cover the budget needs that the majority party wants to cover,” state Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer said. Also up year-over-year is the unemployment rate, sitting at an average of 5.1 percent – up 0.7 percent compared to the same period in 2025.
"... (A) second stipulation Raoul struck with the company appears to require them to do everything possible to invest in capital projects at the same level they proposed when they requested the far higher rate increase. Why? The stated reason is to preserve union jobs both within the company and at outside contractors performing much of the pipe replacement and other infrastructure work that has driven these inflated rates."
Chronic absenteeism ranged from 48 percent to 68 percent at the nine schools participating in an intensive improvement cycle, according to a report prepared for the Rockford School Board. The districtwide rate was 42.4 percent in 2025, according to the Illinois Report Card.
The two lobbying organizations first filed to block the tax last month, joining The Digital Chamber in arguing that federal law preempted the Digital Asset Tax Law enacted earlier this year. Wednesday's filing asks the Sangamon County Circuit Court to enact a preliminary injunction, suggesting that the two groups' member companies are already suffering "serious and irreparable harm" due to having to build systems to comply with the law.
A federal appeals court panel in Chicago sounded at times skeptical during oral arguments today of an Illinois law that requires many nonprofit groups to disclose aggregate data about race, gender and other demographics of their board members and officers.
"Finally, recent legislative inspector generals have had judicial backgrounds. Those folks are accustomed to lawyers bringing facts and arguments to their courtrooms. The next person in the post should have some investigatory skills to get to the bottom of things, rather than just looking witnesses in the eye to discern whether they’re telling the truth."
Plaintiff Netchoice has noted the Illinois tax and fee regime is similar to a digital advertising tax in Maryland that courts have already struck down. And Netchoice has noted the Illinois tax and fee measure is very like the city of Chicago's ordinance levying similar "user fees" against social media platforms. Netchoice is also suing the city of Chicago over that measure.
Officials estimate about half of these enrollees live in Cook County.
Democrat Hoan Huynh has no district office, he has missed several votes in Springfield, and constituents say they can't get in touch with him --- despite the fact he's still collecting his $98,0000 taxpayer salary.
When asked if his colleagues in the state legislature might prefer to see the money spent on education or addressing the state’s pension liabilities, State Rep. La Shawn Ford, who sponsored the bill, admitted that $25 million is a big sum.
In an official job posting this week, the qualifications and duties of the statewide public defender are laid out, including the mandate to standardize county public defender practices, workloads and salary scales. The initial statewide public defender will serve a two-year term and receive a salary of $218,400 — equal to that of Attorney General Kwame Raoul, an elected constitutional officer.
Neighbors and local officials tired of “corporate abandonment” have pitched city-funded alternatives to support independent pharmacies. Just this June, Pritzker announced $25 million to support 434 Illinois pharmacies most at risk of closure or financial strain in rural and low-income communities.
“I just had a huge problem with that,” state Rep. Travis Weaver said, “since we actually didn’t budget any revenue from the new taxes. What we did was budget additional cash for the attorney general to defend them.”
Advocates collected almost 9,000 signatures to put two binding referendum questions on the Nov. 3 ballot. One would ask whether voters should be able to recall the mayor, and the other whether they should be able to recall at-large aldermen. Aurora has two at-large aldermen and 10 who are elected.
Retired Police Chief Tom Weitzel: "A familiar pattern is developing across America whenever law enforcement gets a new tool that actually works. First comes technology. Then come legitimate questions about how to regulate it. Then comes an isolated case—or several cases—of misuse. Finally, instead of demanding that police chiefs establish strong policies, conduct audits, and discipline officers who violate those policies, politicians and activists now demand that the tool itself be eliminated."
Top Chicago Stories
Included in the deal is a proposed profit-sharing arrangement equal to 5 percent of net income. That is expected to produce $376.2 million for the city over the course of the agreement, which expires in 2083. That larger payment will also be earmarked for underfunded city pensions.
The Latin School of Chicago, Francis Parker, Shipley, and thousands of other National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) members could lose their non-profit status.
"Unless paid for by Washington, it is clear that urban socialists will not be able to afford the promises made to their core constituencies – poor recent immigrants and the mass of underpaid, overeducated professionals. Chicago, which has followed the Leftist line for years, is already courting bankruptcy and losing much of its business base." More Highlighted Chicago Area Stories
Despite campaigning against them in 2023, Mayor Brandon Johnson added 50 speed cameras in Chicago last year. That led to a nearly 26 percent increase in tickets but still didn’t generate as much additional revenue as the city estimated, highlighting the problem with relying on unpredictable sources to balance the budget.
Funded in part through a grant from the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority's Violent Crime Witness Protection Program, the program now covers all violent misdemeanor and felony cases, including domestic violence, human trafficking, sexual assault and sexual abuse cases. Assistance may include hotel stays, food, moving expenses and rent.
Lawyers for the city and defendant police officers are continuing their pursuit of answers to fill in the blanks left by Kim Foxx's testimony concerning how and why the Cook County State's Attorney's Office under Foxx decided to allow so many people formerly convicted of murder secure certificates of innocence they needed to sue the city for millions.
Eight city vehicles have the license plate readers and cameras, while six buses on the CTA’s No. 20, No. 36 and No. 66 bus routes have cameras, said Sean Wiedel, deputy commissioner for the Chicago Department of Transportation. Cameras will be installed on more than 50 CTA buses by the end of the month.
"We need to find a solution for that because I want everyone to feel safe, I want women to feel safe riding the public transport alone,” said Aisha Khan, a Wicker Park resident.
"This past week, the Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) — also known as the Kenneth C. Griffin Museum of Science and Industry since the billionaire donated to it in 2024 — unveiled a $22 million renovation that will not only obstruct the building’s beautiful façade but will permanently alter the museum we’ve known and loved for over a century."
"Throughout this election cycle, you can expect to hear a lot about an ‘affordability crisis.’ It’s not hard to understand why: thanks to our inability to build, rents in Chicago are now growing faster than every other major city in the country. That also drives up other costs – because many other large household expenses, like daycare, education, and healthcare, are driven in large part by the local cost of housing for those workers."
“I’m frustrated with state’s attorneys and police departments that aren’t doing their duty,” Pritzker said in response to a question about how Cook County’s top prosecutor, Eileen O’Neill Burke, responded to allegations of misconduct during Operation Midway Blitz. “We have laws on the books that are not being prosecuted against people who, it appears to me, have broken the law."
The mayor began to receive negative comments and criticism for releasing the video on a violent weekend that included a deadly mass shooting in Humboldt Park. Johnson defended his record on gun violence and pointed fingers at the Trump administration.
Among the undertakings Adam Bianchi, general superintendent of the forest preserves, cited, the district’s pension fund is now on track to become fully solvent.
Teamsters and supporters of the ordinance say Amazon has too much control over drivers while avoiding direct responsibility because those workers technically work for independent delivery companies. Business groups and DSP (delivery service partners) owners say those independent companies are small businesses that provide jobs and benefits — and that imposing new regulations could put those companies out of business.
The aldermen are asking for Chicago's Transportation Department to be made exempt from a citywide hiring freeze and for the department to see an increase in its budgeted number of traffic engineers specifically."We need safe infrastructure for everyone in our city. I just don't believe that those are the places where we can cut corners," said Ald. Matt Martin. "A lot of what we're talking about is not going to cost hundreds of millions of dollars."
The new deal requires Stonepeak to sell Omni Air International, which has a contract with the Department of Homeland Security to provide long-haul deportation flights, according to the City Council members. In addition, Stonepeak has agreed to pay the city $75 million once the sale closes. Those funds will be earmarked for the city’s pension funds, according to the City Council members.
"On top of home prices that skyrocketed in the COVID era, many of the places where affordability was still the order of the day are crowding out would-be new neighbors with property taxes that are also going through the roof. These seem to rise on their own every year (for 32 years straight, if you're in Cook County), but a new force continues to bump them further still: the dreaded school district referendum."
In all, the CTA turned over 133 customer complaints involving Action K9 since 2022. Many focused on the conditions of the dogs, including one from the CTA's own senior attorney, who wrote, "There is an AK9 unit... with a dog that seems pretty unfit for duty... The dog is muzzled, but it is lunging, growling, and barking at passersby." One rider that said they witnessed "security guards cat calling different women."
Ald. Brendan Reilly argued the higher borrowing threshold is “not about who the current mayor is. … This change applies to all future mayors. ... This body has started to — and it’s refreshing — act independently of administrations and the executive, and by requiring the super-majority vote, it makes the dialogue and engagement with each of us more valuable."
Police said a 12-year-old boy grabbed the gun from an unattended bag on the bus, belonging to a bus aid, and fired a round that hit the window. Police said the man then took the gun and the bag and fled from the scene.
"(Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen) O’Neill Burke’s insistence on soberly reviewing each (wrongful-conviction) case individually has sent the 'Criminal Industrial Complex' into a panic. The CIC is an ecosystem led by trial lawyers who masquerade as civil-rights lawyers, along with activists, academics, consultants, and federal consent-decree monitors who have profited handsomely from the taxpayer-funded legal system and anti-police narratives."
The state law that created Chicago’s elected school board also required the mayor to create a noncitizen advisory board meant to give a stronger voice to immigrant Chicagoans who cannot vote in school board elections.
Lopez also slammed the millions of dollars that the city spends on anti-violence groups. "Sadly, these non-profit grief peddlers do more to show up after a tragic event like this one to soapbox their need for ‘more funding,’ yet have done absolutely nothing to advocate for accountability for the gangbangers they harbor. Chicago needs to wake up to these poverty and fear pimps that intentionally want our communities, communities like Back of the Yards, to remain in fear so that they can continue to profit from it,” the alderman urged.
About 31 percent of those who were food insecure were employed in some capacity, and about 27 percent of food insecure residents were retired, the report found. The report’s findings also indicated those who face food insecurity are delaying or skipping payments for utilities and medical care. About 29 percent of those who are food insecure are also delaying or skipping rent or mortgage payments.
"Giving the state’s attorney the power to effectively determine who gets locked up simply by choosing what charges to file doesn’t just undermine judicial discretion, it risks rigging the system so prosecutors control both the accusation and its consequence."
Six people were standing outside shortly after noon when two vehicles pulled up, and multiple gunmen got out and began shooting, police said. A 30-year-old woman driving nearby was struck by gunfire and crashed into a CTA bus, according to CPD.
World Business Chicago continues to defend its recent video campaign featuring Mayor Brandon Johnson amid questions of whether it borders on political advertising.
“The ethics or ethos of our government can’t just be simply mired in our conversation around the potential for corruption,” Johnson said in 2025. “Ethics is about how we equitably distribute government in a way that everybody can feel proud of.” This is a narrow view of ethics—limited to equity in government services rather than whether elected officials place loyalty to the law and ethical principles above private gain.
Wirepoints Research and Commentary
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. 
State investment totals have skyrocketed since 2015 from about $10 billion to over $41 billion and political abuse of the money has been common. The money is currently returning just 3.7% per year. SIGN UP HERE FOR FREE WIREPOINTS DAILY NEWSLETTER
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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. 
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