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The state will see five new faces in Congress next year after a series of retirements created a seismic shift in Illinois politics. Senator-elect Juliana Stratton arrived in Washington on Monday for a two-day Senate orientation after winning the open race to succeed Sen. Dick Durbin.
"I have previously written how Chicago and New York have been the gifts that keep giving for the gun rights community in supplying a line of flagrantly unconstitutional gun laws that have resulted in major wins before the Supreme Court. On December 2, 2026, the Supreme Court is poised to hear oral arguments in Viramontes et al. v. Cook County, Illinois, et al., on the constitutionality of another gun ban involving semi-automatic rifles. Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke has filed a last-minute effort to dismiss the case that may actually backfire in emphasizing the very aspect of the
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Ted Dabrowski said sales tax referendums failed across the state, including in Lake County, which Gov. JB Pritzker won by 36 points. “It's our policy, lower taxes. It's their failed policy, the higher taxes, and yet they still won, so there's an opportunity for us to really hammer that difference,” Dabrowski said.
"We're a small business, right? We can't absorb hits all the time. We're a small family business," said Stephen Bossu, owner of Hopewell Brewing.
Retired Police Chief Tom Weitzel: "In Illinois, former House Bill 4603, sponsored by Democratic Representative Justin Slaughter, proposed prohibiting officers from stopping vehicles for a lengthy list of violations, ... The bill did not advance out of the 103rd General Assembly, but it shows exactly where some lawmakers want to take policing."
The title of the book - "Framed, [expletive], and Freed: A Governor's Odyssey" - shows that Blagojevich maintains his innocence. Blagojevich said that in his memoir, he has conversations with political figures including Gov. JB Pritzker, former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and President Donald Trump.
House Bill 624 would take an initial amount up to $35 million from the state budget for reentry services, civil legal aid and economic development. The Buffalo Grove Democrat said the bill would create the Home for Good Institute to train and assist community-based organizations interested in developing and operating reentry housing.
Court decisions from 1963 and 1972 established the practice of sticking police officers on Brady lists, which track cops with histories of dishonesty, bias, or misconduct. But reporting found inconsistencies about how different localities implement those lists, and that prosecutors are not required to share their lists with one another.
Contradicting state law, Illinois Federation of Teachers Executive Vice President Cyndi Oberle-Dahm claimed public schools could lose money if the federal program prompts a “mass exodus” of students to private schools. That could happen in other states, but Illinois’ school funding formula ensures that public school districts will not lose state funding if students leave for other schooling options.
Nvidia has expanded its presence at major Illinois universities, including the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and the University of Illinois to include recruiting, internship, and university partnership activities.
Gov. JB Pritzker’s plan includes three action points: Strengthening digital privacy through durable federal privacy laws; establishing federal requirements for AI risk assessment, testing and monitoring; and promoting digital infrastructure by requiring data centers to be energy- and water-efficient. It is uncertain what Congress will do and whether President Donald Trump, who has taken a laissez-faire approach toward AI, would have any interest in signing it.
The Champaign school district is looking at a $10 million budget deficit. Decatur is dealing with a $6 million deficit, and Springfield is trying to tackle a deficit of more than $10 million.
“It felt like it was a local chapter of a global movement to destroy the world’s only Jewish state, and I felt it personally and acutely,” Rabbi Adir Glick of Conservative Temple Har Zion in River Forest said about the campaign. “I know people who lost friendships in the last few months, and difficult moments with neighbors and colleagues, but it also galvanized our Jewish community.”
A company spokesperson said small planters do not account for much production at the Moline facility. Some jobs are expected to be affected by the closing of two facilities in Iowa. The company said the number could be as high as 300.
In July, U.S. District Judge David Dugan ruled Illinois violated federal law by allowing certain undocumented students to receive in-state tuition and state financial aid. The ruling effects provisions of Illinois' in-state tuition laws, the Retention of Illinois Students and Equity Act, commonly known as the RISE Act, and the Illinois DREAM Act.
Following a 75-page plan from Gov. JB Pritzker, Deputy Gov. Andy Manar is urging Democrats to pass the Tariff Refund Act of 2026, which he said would require refunds of unlawfully collected tariffs with interest. Then the governor’s office wants the Tariff Relief for Consumers Act to pass, which would require those corporations to demonstrate how they’re lowering prices after receiving tariff refunds.
When voters knew a referendum was an actual tax hike, they were more likely to vote it down; When bond referendums were promoted with a misleading “no-property-tax-hike” message, residents voted yes; Many ballot questions don’t give voters a clue that they’re voting on a tax hike; Taxpayers are up against cottage industry that spends lots to get “yes” votes; School district officials can demand tax hikes over and over again; And voters generally rejected tax hikes – but they keep electing the politicians who raise them.
Several hemp businesses have filed a federal lawsuit asking a judge for a temporary block on the ban, saying the law could put thousands of businesses and jobs at risk.
Four House Democrats who were instrumental in drafting and circulating a letter last week that successfully called for a new Illinois House speaker issued another letter the next day aimed partly at the now-departing chamber leader and his internal organization: Back off.
Illinois voters have rejected sales tax referendums in four Illinois counties. The margins were similar in Adams, Crawford, Lake and Tazewell counties, with between 54% and 57% of voters saying no to a 1% sales tax for school facilities.
Democratic voters in the suburbs have different priorities than Democratic voters in Chicago, not to mention Democratic voters downstate. Our policymaking must reflect those differences if Illinois is going to reverse its stagnant trend lines.
The program was made permanent through federal House Resolution 1, or the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and will redesignate opportunity zones every 10 years. Illinois’ now 240 zones include Jacksonville, part of Greene and Jersey counties, and Carlinville.
Pritzker didn’t seem so sure that needing an investigation into DOGE also warranted an investigation into Musk himself. "I don't know about focusing on one person," Pritzker said when asked about investigating Musk.
McHenry County, the reddest of the collar counties surrounding Chicago, is riding the blue wave that swept through the political world this week. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker became the first Democratic governor to carry the county since 1852, according to election result data.
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Those individuals are accused of targeting 22 victims, five of whom — including a Chicago police officer and a Chicago firefighter — died.
In the ruling, the three justices said a Cook County judge was right to conclude the Chicago Department of Public Health has broad powers under city ordinances to intervene on a case-by-case basis into development proposals, and use criteria to block the projects that aren't written out in any city ordinance or regulation, even after the project has satisfied all of the city's permitting rules and requirements.
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In a statement released Monday, a CPS spokesperson said the decision to block the AI apps was made for "student privacy and safety." The district said it has not yet determined its response to the Google search engine restriction. CPS is one of hundreds of school districts across the U.S. that uses Google Classroom and Google Chromebooks in its schools for students.
"We will not vote for a budget that includes a tax on jobs, the increase in the personal property lease transaction tax, or new spending," the letter from the 28 alders who labeled themselves the "Budget Accountability Coalition" told Johnson. "This budget would hold back growth just when Chicago needs it most."
The deal adds to the growing list of office towers changing hands at prices that would have been unthinkable before the COVID-19 pandemic rocked the business of owning workspace.
"I think at the end of the day, we are laser-focused on what residents want," Mayor Brandon Johnson’s policy chief, Jung Yoon, said. Asked later about the spending on the migrant emergency when Black chicagoans have so many needs, she explained, "We were dropped in the middle of a global humanitarian crisis with the federal government intent on diving us so that they could conquer us."
“At this current tax rate, I will probably be able to stay for another two, maybe three years,” said Randy Temple, whose property tax bill jumped from $13,022 in 2024, to $27,411 in 2025.
The mystery program will still test a variety of ideas, including more violence intervention, “drone-based situational awareness, license plate recognition and incident response systems for evidence preservation.” Gunshot-detection technology is still only part of the pilot.
"To have precincts, tons of precincts, do not have enough ballots, to send people away to another site, to have people sitting for hours, waiting on ballots, it's egregious," said Ald. Michelle Harris, chairperson of committees and rules.
"With the district spending over $32,000 per student but only half of CPS’s $10 billion budget reaching individual school buildings, the newly configured board has a clear opportunity. It can balance the budget without hurting classrooms, while simultaneously elevating neighborhood school quality and expanding public options."
"The idea comes from the private sector. Companies ... sometimes will raise capital with hybrid securities such as convertible bonds. These pay little or no interest but give investors a share of the upside if the company performs well. While Chicago can’t issue equity, it can offer investors participation in its future growth. To my knowledge, no city has tried this. But Chicago’s finances aren’t typical."
By contrast the CTU spent less than $4 per vote in these winning races.
The hotel occupies the 12 floors in the landmark building below the office block that is being converted into apartments.
State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke on Monday announced her office revised its contract with Appriss Inc. — a vendor company that handles statutorily mandated victim notifications. “Everyone participating in the justice system — regardless of immigration status — should be able to trust that their personal information will be protected,” O’Neill Burke said in a statement.
The kidnapping is the latest in a series of violent incidents involving CTA workers. In October, a CTA janitor was stabbed to death at the Damen Green Line station. Earlier in the spring, police said another CTA driver was threatened by a passenger, this time with a knife.
"Hours after returns showed (Hilario) Dominguez losing the race for board president, CTU President Stacy Davis Gates was already talking about a strike. 'I’m ok to negotiate when I know that this union will take it to the picket line,' she said. ... Now that the board is elected, this behavior should be called out for what it is: refusal to accept the results of a legitimate election."
Ald. Silvana Tabares (23rd) and Ald. Marty Quinn (13th) say the national Democratic wave carries a message for Washington and for City Hall: residents want relief from rising costs, and they want their votes on ShotSpotter and school spending to count.
Are prosecutors who were sacrificed at the altar of former top prosecutor Kim Foxx’s radical agenda banding together to expose the inner workings of Foxx’s administration?
The unveiling builds upon a UChicago–IBM relationship that has grown steadily in recent years. In 2023, at the G7 Summit in Japan, UChicago, IBM and the University of Tokyo launched a 10-year, $100 million initiative to develop blueprints for a quantum-centric supercomputer powered by 100,000 qubits.
Developer Related Midwest has released renderings of a proposed domed Bears stadium at the site. Company President Curt Bailey said the proposal has been presented to both the Bears and lawmakers who will return for the fall veto session later this month.
"The results of this week’s referendums should give elected officials a mandate: Listen to the supermajority of Chicagoans calling on government to address budget challenges through increased taxes on corporations and very wealthy Illinoisans. ... Despite this clear consensus, the city’s pathways to raising progressive revenue remain quite limited. The Illinois Constitution does not allow taxes to be levied at different rates based on income."
Whether it's the ongoing prostitution on 5th Avenue or the ongoing homeless encampments and fly dumping, West Siders said when the city comes out, the issue just returns. "Who has the audacity to put these tires on their truck and to bring into another neighborhood and dump them?" neighbor Talei Thompson said.
David Greising, of the Better Government Association: "...(T)his first election proved as fractious as Chicago politics can get. ... Electoral politics have created a circumstance in which the new school board president has vanquished a candidate put forward by the CTU."
Celadon Partners CEO Scott Henry said he understands CPS’ funding needs, but he thinks a vacancy tax isn’t the right approach for both spurring development and supporting the school district: "Implementing something like this just adds to the list as to why it’s so difficult to do business in Chicago. We need to be creating programs or processes that create certainty and predictability if we’re going to attract developers and investors back to the city.”
Backed by $2 million in private, corporate and government funds, potential projects include The Link, which proposes turning a portion of Lower Wacker Drive into a music venue; The Vault, a large canopy and pedestrian walkway imagined for LaSalle Street between Jackson Boulevard and Adams Street; and The Pause, which aims to “transform the humble public restroom into a bold statement of what a great city can be.”
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Governor JB Pritzker's 70-page federal wish list would cost trillions of dollars, but not a word is provided on that or how it would be paid. Summary and audio linked here.
Glennon raised the stakes of the moment in broader civilizational terms: “This election in Illinois is not about the usual pedestrian issues… it’s about nothing less than whether Western civilization survives in our democratic republic of America because [the left], just on the open border alone, will destroy the country, and now they’re bringing in the jihadists, frankly, into the party.” Audio and summary linked here.Audio and summary linked here.
New Trier High School made national headlines nine years ago as a "canary in a coal mine" for political indoctrination in public schools. The canaries lived. 
Among the consequences of economic growth that badly lags national averages are billions of lost revenue every year. Yet denial reigns in Illinois, fueling the vicious cycle of demand for higher taxes. SIGN UP HERE FOR FREE WIREPOINTS DAILY NEWSLETTER
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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. 
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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