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Friday, January 24, 2020
‘Litany’ of issues need to be addressed to stem Illinois’ population decline, state officials say
Comptroller (21)
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Demographics, Census, Statistics
Anderson, Neil--State Senate, 36
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Plummer, Jason--State Senate, 54
State policymakers are looking at ways to help stem Illinois’ population
loss.
U.S. Census data shows Illinois led the nation in the past decade in terms
of population decline, losing nearly 160,000 in just six years.
Treasurer Michael Frerichs understands people want security and a plan to
stabilize the state’s finances moving forward.
“In the Treasurer's off...
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Friday, January 24, 2020
Illinois private school tuition program reports big opening night for applications
Education--Elementary and Secondary (36)
Tens of thousands of students hoping to go to the private school of their choice
tuition-free signed up in the opening hours of availability at the state’s
largest private school tuition granting organization.
Empower Illinois, one of the state’s scholarship-granting organizations for
the Invest in Kids program, opened up its application portal for the 2020-2021
school year. In les...
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Friday, January 24, 2020
How To Achieve A Fair Public Pension Reform In Illinois: The Target Benefit Pension Plan
Pensions (70)
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Friday, January 24, 2020
Medline shuts down Waukegan plant to comply with Illinois' new ethylene oxide emissions law
Environment (41)
WAUKEGAN, Ill. (WLS) -- Medline Industries has temporarily
closed in north suburban Waukegan as it works to meet new state standards for
ethylene oxide, a cancer-causing chemical.
Results from recent air testing has detected higher levels of cancer-causing
ethylene oxide near two plants in Lake County, Illinois.
In a written statement to AB...
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Thursday, January 23, 2020
Despite marginal increase in some Illinois pension funding ratios, state still 'worst in the nation,' watchdog says
Auditor General (21)
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Governor (44)
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Pensions (70)
Although funding ratios for three of the state’s five public sector pension
funds increased, a public finance watchdog said Illinois taxpayers still face a
debt crisis.
The Auditor General released financial audits of the State Employees, Judges
and General Assembly retirement systems.
The audits showed the total liability for two of the funds increased while
the total liability ...
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Thursday, January 23, 2020
The High Cost Of Rejecting Public Pension Reform In Illinois
Chicago Mayor (16)
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Governor (44)
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Pensions (70)
Once
more, from the top: here is why public pension reform matters.
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Thursday, January 23, 2020
Powerful union pushes for 'right to work' ban in Illinois
Business (10)
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Governor (44)
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Right to work
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Unions, labor (55)
Brady, Bill--State Senate, 44
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Madigan, Michael--State House, 22
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Villivalam, Ram--State Senate, 8
It's
proposing an amendment to the state constitution. Business groups are fi...
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Wednesday, January 22, 2020
Illinois manufacturers' group says state’s economic growth held back by state policies
Business (10)
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Demographics, Census, Statistics
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Economy (34)
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Labor (55)
Illinois' economy grew in the third quarter of 2019, but at a slower pace
than the national average, something the state’s leading manufacturers’
group said was due in part to the state's business and tax policies.
U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis gross domestic product data showed Illinois
grew by 1.4 percent in the third quarter of 2019. That’s faster than Delaware,
wh...
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Wednesday, January 22, 2020
Illinois Supreme Court could decide if smell of marijuana is enough to justify police search
Courts (27)
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Legal System (27)
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Marijuana, Medical, Recreational
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Police (28)
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Recreational Marijuana
The Illinois Supreme Court could decide if police officers can use the smell
of marijuana as probable cause to search a vehicle during a traffic stop.
The state’s high court heard arguments in a case from Decatur. In that case, police pulled
over a man after they thought...
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Wednesday, January 22, 2020
Lawmaker again files bill to require elected officials to wear body cams to reduce corruption
Ethics, Campaign Reform, Transparency (12a)
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Legislature (56)
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Pay to Play, Corruption
Cabello, John--State House, 68
One state lawmaker has
a plan to reduce political corruption in Illinois.
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Wednesday, January 22, 2020
New bill would allow Illinois library districts to tax local cannabis sales
Libraries/literacy (80c)
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Marijuana, Medical, Recreational
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Recreational Marijuana
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Taxes, sales (88)
Didech, Daniel--State House, 59
A bill filed in Springfield could allow local libraries to get a cut of the
taxes on recreational cannabis sales, but it would come at the potential
expense of county-level taxes.
House Bill 4135 would al...
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Wednesday, January 22, 2020
State task force to release report on ways to help children with incarcerated parents
Children, Teens (19)
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Corrections (74)
Ramirez, Delia--State House, 4
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Tuesday, January 21, 2020
Ahead of March primary, Republicans demand hearing over non-citizen voter registration errors
Election Issues (not candidates) (39)
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Secretary of State (80)
Butler, Tim--State House, 87
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Madigan, Michael--State House, 22
With early voting for the March primary set to begin early next month,
Illinois House Republicans demanded an immediate hearing into how the Secretary
of State's Office improperly caused voter registration cards to be sent
to hundreds of non-citizens.
State officials said 574 people who indicated they weren't U.S. citizens
were sent voter registration cards by mistake in the past 18 ...
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Tuesday, January 21, 2020
New Illinois Senate President makes progressive income tax top priority
Taxes, Graduated/Progressive
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Taxes, income (86)
Anderson, Neil--State Senate, 36
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Cullerton, John--State Senate, 6
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Harmon, Don--State Senate, 39
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Plummer, Jason--State Senate, 54
Illinois' new Senate President said the progressive income tax will be one
of his top priorities, but Republicans worry the proposed tax structure would
make Illinois less competitive at a time when the state's population is
declining.
New Illinois Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, faces a number of
challenges heading into the start of the spring legislative session next week.
Among the...
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Tuesday, January 21, 2020
A Tale Of Two Markets: How Illinois Succeeded In Rollout Of Adult-Use Cannabis And Why Massachusetts Floundered
Marijuana, Medical, Recreational
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Recreational Marijuana
The rollout of
marijuana legalization in Illinois has been well covered by the press for the
first few weeks of 2020, primarily due to the long lines and sky-hig...
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Tuesday, January 21, 2020
One-party rule enabled property tax dysfunction
Legislature (56)
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Taxes, property (87)
Chesney, Andrew--State House, 89
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McCombie, Tony M.--State House, 71
Joining
a chorus of fed-up legislators recognizing overburdened taxpayers deserve real
property tax reform in Illinois, we must blow the whistle on the actions, and
inactions, of the Illinois Property Tax Reform Task For...
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Tuesday, January 21, 2020
State Board of Elections admits non-U.S. citizens may have voted illegally in 2018
Election Issues (not candidates) (39)
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Immigration (99a)
SPRINGFIELD, Ill.
(NEXSTAR) — The Illinois State Board of Elections acknowledged that
out of 574 non-U.S. citizens who were inadvertently registered to vote in
Illinois, an unknown number of them may have voted illegally in the 2018
election.
“We do know that some of them voted” in the 2018 election, s...
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Sunday, January 19, 2020
Illinois officials correct error that added more than 500 possible non-citizens to voter rolls
Election Issues (not candidates) (39)
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Immigration (99a)
Illinois’ automatic voter registration program, though not
fully-implemented, appears to have allowed more than 500 non-citizens onto
various county’s election registries.
In letters first obtained by Bloomington-based political blogger Diane
Benjamin, the Illinois Secretary of State’s office notified the State Board of
Elections that a keypad glitch in the non-REAL ID ...
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Sunday, January 19, 2020
Pritzker announces expansion of free tuition program for University of Illinois schools
Education--Higher (37)
More than half of Illinois’ households would qualify to be able to send a
student to the University of Illinois with tuition paid for by taxpayers this
fall after changes made at the request of the governor.
The University of Illinois will expand its tuition assistance program to
cover half of the households in the state, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said.
The announcement came one day aft...
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Sunday, January 19, 2020
Proposed highway project focus of task force report
Road construction, Construction (91a)
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Transportation (91)
Schimpf, Paul--State Senate, 58
The Southwest Illinois Connector Task Force has released its final
recommendations.
The task force was created by a resolution introduced by State Sen. Paul
Schimpf, R-Waterloo.
The task force was created to study the cost, feasibility and environmental
impact of a proposed four-lane divided highway between Waterloo and
Murphysboro.
The group also looked at the short and ...
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Saturday, January 18, 2020
Illinois farmers helped by latest U.S. trade deals, but many questions remain
Agriculture (2)
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Foreign affairs (99)
Experts say gains
from China agreement and USMCA need to be provenSPRINGFIELD – Illinois farmers will get a much-needed lift from two
international trade agreements approved by the federal government this week,
but experts are uncertain if their situations will improve in the long term.
After exchanging hundreds of ...
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Saturday, January 18, 2020
New ‘Rape In Champaign’ Disclosure: State Braced For Senator’s ‘Extremely Negative Reaction’
Governor (44)
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Legislators (former) (58)
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Lobbyists (12a)
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Sexual assault, Sex Crime (96)
A former member of Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s cabinet appears to have taken
a more aggressive role than previously known in safeguarding the state job of a
campaign volunteer tied to the “rape in Champaign” email scandal, newly
obtained records show.
Pritzker, a Democrat, ousted former state Agriculture Director John Sullivan
on Monday as a result of the furor created by WBE...
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Friday, January 17, 2020
Illinois lawmaker files bill to end automatic pay raises for legislators
Legislature (56)
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Pay Raises
Murphy, Mike -- State House, 99
A state lawmaker has filed a bill to end automatic pay hikes for state
legislators.
Every year, lawmakers must vote to freeze their own pay, or it goes up
according to the statute. In 2019, lawmakers left that language out of the
budget and got raises of about $1,600 a year.
State Rep. Mike Murphy’s bill would remove the automatic cost-of-living
adjustments and requir...
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Friday, January 17, 2020
Illinois’ congressional delegation mixed on cannabis legalization
Marijuana, Medical, Recreational
With Illinois now more than two weeks into the legalization of cannabis for
adult recreational use, some Illinois congressmen are sounding off on if the
federal government should follow suit.
Illinois was the eleventh state to legalize cannabis for recreational sales.
Before Jan. 1, Illinois decriminalized possession of small amounts before it
went legal at the beginning of the year. Before th...
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Friday, January 17, 2020
Pritzker, lawmakers look to end cash bail, mandatory minimums and expand deferred prosecution
Crime (28)
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Governor (44)
Gov. J.B. Pritzker plans to make criminal justice reform a major focus in
the years ahead.
The governor recently took part in a fireside chat about his
administration’s Justice, Equity and Opportunity Initiative. Afterward, he laid
out some of the things he wants to tackle over the next three years.
“One of those things is working on ending cash bail,” Pritzker said. ...
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