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Top Illinois Stories
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.
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.
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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."
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."
“Student journalists are the best watchdogs for a college campus because they’re the ones who are on the ground,” said Marie McMullan, of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. “Sometimes, though, there are officials, government officials, in the case of a public university or college campus, who use that moniker of ‘student’ almost as a way to try to limit their rights when they still have press rights, they still have speech rights, and they should be able to freely publish without fear of intimidation.”
Both Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker and Republican nominee Darren Bailey traveled to Dallas to court supporters in and around the Republican National Convention. But each showed up with very different agendas: Pritzker used the event to widen his campaign against President Donald Trump, and Bailey sought his own exposure for policy ideas and money.
The Pretrial Fairness Act requires the judicial branch to collect data—including the ethnicity, gender, charges, case outcomes, and rearrests—on people facing trial. The Office of Statewide Pretrial Services does maintain a public dashboard that includes the number of ongoing misdemeanor and felony investigations, the seriousness of crimes, the percentage of people eligible for detention under the law, and the number of people on electronic monitoring in most of the state’s 102 counties. But it lacks required information such as the percentage of people who appear in court, the outcomes of trial verdicts, and the demographics of people detained pretrial in
Backed by an influx of taxpayer funds, the Northern Illinois Transit Authority board has voted to expand reduced fare programs for students and Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program recipients.
Thirty-three percent of Illinois students said using violence to stop someone from speaking on campus is acceptable, at least in rare cases, compared with 30 percent nationally.
Top Chicago Stories
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." 
The mayor faces high disapproval ratings and a field of strong challengers, including Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, Rep. Mike Quigley and Comptroller Susana Mendoza – all of whom tack closer to the ideological center.
"Chicago Public Schools reported more than 40 percent of students as chronically absent in the 2024-25 school year. Ninth-graders logged 48.5 percent chronic absenteeism, while seniors hit an astonishing 72 percent. These numbers are not random. They are the predictable result of a government-run monopoly that faces no real competition, and therefore has little reason to meet the needs of families or keep students interested in attending."
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"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.
Alderman Brendan Reilly criticized the developer's financial standing and weak returns from its temporary casino. “Many of us thought that the projections both for the temporary casino and for the permanent casino were grossly inflated,” Reilly said. “We were reassured by the previous administration that ‘no, no, no, the temporary casino is going to
The Sheriff’s Office issued a statement criticizing Judge JohnLyke’s treatment of the deputies and his lax security practices: “Judge Lyke’s decision to take into custody two deputies assigned to his courtroom and his threat to jail them for contempt after they raised security concerns over his decision to allow contact between a defendant, charged with murder, and family members in court shows he has little concern for the challenges court deputies face in their efforts to protect the safety of the Court, courtroom staff, defendants, and members of the public who attend these proceedings. This is not the first time
Brian Costin, deputy state director with Americans for Prosperity, said the decision to keep the race out of downtown Chicago could benefit taxpayers.
"The Cook County judge who released repeat violent felon Alphanso Talley on electronic monitoring before he was charged with killing a Chicago police officer is accused of holding two courtroom deputies in contempt this week for not immediately removing handcuffs from a different inmate charged with murder. It’s an upside-down world in Judge John Lyke’s courtroom, where deputies are locked up and repeat violent offenders are sent home."
According to comptroller Louis Williams, about a third of the city’s budget comes from real estate taxes. Without them, the city is in a “cash flow crunch.”
Over the past week, he has posted videos of himself directing traffic as part of what he has dubbed a “Stop the Bull$HI+” campaign to get help from the city and other agency departments. “How long will it take for city departments to have someone out here to direct traffic? Let’s see, shall we?” Vasquez posted on Instagram on day two of his social media campaign.
Speaking about the 2027 budget forecast, Ald. Jason Ervin said, "It’s probably the most honest interpretation of the city’s financial condition that I’ve seen in my 16-year tenure as an alderman. For us to talk about having our pension obligations fully disclosed and put on the table. To have the lawsuits and settlements that we know exist fully disclosed and put on the table — it’s something that we have not seen, which is part of the driving factors of an $882 million deficit."
However, several City Council members have spun up a competing renter’s ordinance without relocation fees or just cause eviction provisions.
"She pointed specifically to proposals such as a corporate head tax and digital advertising tax as policies she wants to help explain to residents."
A review of public data shows 35 percent of Chicago’s public schools are less than half full. “They’re missing all the things that kind of make school, school, right?” said Hal Woods, of Kids First Chicago. “The ability to have a drama program. To be able to participate in athletics, all the…things that make school an exciting place for kids to go.”
A group of 40 to 50 sheriff's officers patrol the Mag Mile every day of the week, and have made more than 100 arrests so far this year. So far this year, sheriff's officers also have recovered more than 20 weapons during arrests on or near the Mag Mile.
"It's depressing, because this is such a beautiful city and we're in the heart of it, and we're proud of it and we love being here," 20-year resident Kim Cooper said. "I don't blame this on any certain group of people. I just want help. That's all. Just help."
Wednesday’s victim is the seventh person shot in the Loop this year, up from five at this point last year. One of the 2025 shootings was ruled self-defense. At this point in 2024, eight people had been shot, including two shootings ruled self-defense.
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. 
Illinois paid the price for embracing Fauci's "science." Here's the retrospective. 
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