Get the latest news headlines from around Illinois.
Chicago Tribune: Editorial: Get fired up, Illinois. Redistricting is underway. Your future depends on it.
Right around this time in 1812 — March 26 to be exact — the word “gerrymander” is believed to have first appeared in a national newspaper. The word derived from two sources: Massachusetts Gov. Elbridge Gerry, who had signed a redistricting map for his state, and the shape of a Massachusetts congressional district that looked like a salamander.
The word has survived those 209 years. And so has the offending practice.
The Center Square: Forced unionization possible outcome in efforts to organize Illinois’ cannabis workers
Efforts are underway across the state to unionize around 16,000 workers in Illinois’ legal cannabis industry.
If successful, employees not wanting to join the union could be fired.
Chicago Tribune: Reopening schools became a rallying cry for parents. Now it’s a campaign issue in suburban school board races: ‘This is a lot bigger than COVID’
Lenny Walker was standing in line at a grocery store in Buffalo Grove recently when he heard someone behind him call out, “Hey, aren’t you with the District 214 school board?”
“I turned around and smiled at him and said, ‘Yes, I am,’ and he replied, ‘Why don’t you open the fricking schools? You’re destroying my kid,’ ” recalled Walker, a father of four from Wheeling.
Chicago Sun-Times: Illinois lawmakers push for more union jobs in renewable energy industry
Several Illinois lawmakers announced legislation Monday aimed at getting more union workers hired in renewable energy jobs in the state and diversify the industry.
The Climate Union Jobs Act sets union labor standards for energy companies that are switching to green energy and prevents employers from interfering with unionization.
Belleville News-Democrat: Madison County reaches settlement in wrongful termination, sexual harassment lawsuit
Madison County has reached a settlement with a former government official who filed a federal lawsuit accusing the county of wrongfully terminating her after she alleged that a county board member sexually harassed her.
Lawyers for Madison County and plaintiff Kristen Poshard, former administrator of the county’s Community Development Department, did not disclose the settlement amount in documents filed Friday in U.S. District Court for Southern Illinois.