Get the latest news from around Illinois.
Crain's Chicago Business: Pritzker could announce limited reopening of restaurants tomorrow
The Center Square: A look at what passed and what didn’t in Illinois’ frantic final hours of session
Illinois lawmakers spent nearly all of 2020 at home, choosing to let Gov. J.B. Pritzker navigate the COVID-19 pandemic without their guidance and seeing only a handful of new laws take effect in 2021. But, the final days of their session saw a flurry of legislation along with some high-profile bills that stalled out.
While most news reports followed the end of America’s longest-serving legislative leader and the culmination of a year of vindication for a long-ignored Black Caucus agenda, Illinois lawmakers also sent Pritzker legislation that would grant prejudgement interest of 9% annually for wrongful death or personal injury cases. Illinois has historically not granted interest in judgments of this kind.
State Journal-Register: Emotions high during Illinois lawmakers' votes on Black caucus' criminal justice reforms
Emotions were high Wednesday leading up to Illinois Senate and House passage of a bill that would eliminate the state’s cash-bail system.
House Bill 3653 also would reduce the penalty for many drug-possession charges and set in motion a host of other changes to the criminal justice system that the bill sponsors hope will root out systemic racism.
The Center Square: New Illinois House Speaker Welch promises to ‘possibly make a lot of changes’ to House rules
For the first time in decades, there’s a new speaker of the Illinois House and he’s making history.
But he also comes in under a cloud of recently revealed allegations of abusive behavior from years ago, and a close connection to the former controversial House Speaker.
NPR Illinois: Illinois Lawmakers Vote to End Cash Bail
The Illinois General Assembly passed an expansive criminal justice bill on the last day of the lame-duck session, which, among other changes, would end the use of cash bail and impose new certification requirements for police officers. The measure was a part of a slate of bills spearheaded by the Legislative Black Caucus.
Gov. JB Pritzker released a statement Wednesday afternoon, praising the Black Caucus’ efforts and indicating his support for the bill, which now awaits his signature.
ProPublica Illinois: Bill Banning Locked Seclusion and Face-Down Restraints in Illinois Schools Stalls as Lawmakers Run Out of Time
Illinois lawmakers had the support to ban schools from locking students alone in a room or physically restraining them face down. But they didn’t have the time.
A yearlong legislative effort to end decades of controversial practices that often left confined children crying for their parents and tearing at the walls ended without a vote in the Illinois House on Wednesday as the legislative session expired.
Chicago Tribune: Editorial: Chicago teachers want more reasons to strike. Governor, veto the bill.
A bill on its way to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s desk would make it easier for Chicago Public Schools teachers to go on strike. It carries the potential to return Chicago to the days of almost-annual strikes. Remember those? For one stretch starting in 1969, teachers in Chicago went on strike that year, again in 1971, 1973, 1975, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1985 and 1987. The union threatened to strike eight other times.
It took Republicans in Springfield and then-Mayor Richard M. Daley to pass a sweeping CPS reform bill to stop the constant disruption to students’ lives of teacher walkouts.
Chicago Tribune: Mayor Lori Lightfoot pushing for Chicago bars and restaurants to reopen for indoor dining ‘as quickly as possible’
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Thursday she wants the city’s bars and restaurants to reopen for indoor service “as soon as possible” and plans to discuss the issue with Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
“I am very, very focused on getting our restaurants reopened. If we look at the various criteria that the state has set, we are meeting most if not all of those. So that’s a conversation that I will have with the governor,” Lightfoot said Thursday at a news conference about the city’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution sites. “But I want to get our restaurants and our bars reopened as quickly as possible.”
Chicago Sun-Times: Union: CPD suspended 17 officers, supervisors who lounged in congressman’s burglarized office
The Chicago Police Department has doled out suspensions of up to 20 days against 17 Chicago Police officers and supervisors accused of sleeping on a couch, popping popcorn and drinking coffee in the burglarized office of U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush at the same strip mall where looters had a field day last year.
Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara disclosed the punishment and said the union has filed grievances challenging all of those suspensions, which range from one day to 20 days. One suspended officer was punished “for simply walking in and using the bathroom,” he said.
Chicago Sun-Times: Union: Chicago doesn’t have to return impounded cars to bankrupt owners, U.S. Supreme Court rules
Civil-rights advocates in Chicago on Thursday criticized a Supreme Court decision that says the city doesn’t have to immediately return impounded vehicles to people who’ve filed for bankruptcy.
Justice Samuel Alito wrote that a creditor — in this case the city of Chicago — doesn’t violate the law by simply “retaining” the property of someone who owes a debt.
Chalkbeat Chicago: Lame duck legislative session ends with no passage of Chicago elected school board bill
The reopening debate in Chicago renewed energy around a bill that would create an elected school board. But a tumultuous lame-duck legislative session ended Wednesday, at least temporarily slowing progress for the effort.
The day after schools reopened to some students in Chicago, state senators were expected to debate HB 2267, which would create a 21-member board of education and establish elections beginning in 2023.