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KMOV: More than half of Illinois adults fully vaccinated for COVID-19
More than half of Illinois adults have been fully vaccinated for COVID-19, public health officials announced Sunday.
Overall 11.2 million vaccines have been administered in the state, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. Health officials said about 67% of all adults have received at least one vaccine dose.
Canton Daily Ledger: New COVID-19 cases plummet in Illinois
Illinois reported far fewer coronavirus cases in the week ending Sunday, adding 6,159 new cases. That’s down 33.4% from the previous week’s tally of 9,241 new cases of the virus that causes COVID-19.
Illinois ranked 17th among the states where coronavirus was spreading the fastest on a per-person basis, a USA TODAY Network analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the latest week coronavirus cases in the United States decreased 20.4% from the week before, with 140,886 cases reported. With 3.81% of the country’s population, Illinois had 4.37% of the country’s cases in the last week. Across the country, five states had more cases in the latest week than they did in the week before.
Chicago Tribune: Illinois lawmakers head toward final day of spring session still facing issues including budget, ethics and energy policy
Illinois lawmakers have ensured a hectic windup to the end of their spring session Monday, facing an agenda of high-profile issues that includes putting together a new state budget, toughened ethics rules and the future for the state’s energy policy.
The legislature’s Democratic majority also was looking at moving the March 15, 2022, primary back to June to allow for new congressional boundaries to be redrawn using delayed census data — something that didn’t stop it from adopting new boundaries for the General Assembly for the next decade.
FOX 32 Chicago: Illinois bill bans police from lying during questioning
Illinois becomes the first state to pass a bill to ban police from lying or tricking juveniles during questioning.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker is expected to sign the bill in the next few weeks.
Northern Public Radio: Illinois Lawmakers Debate Meaning Of ‘Fiscal Responsibility’ As Budget Deadline Looms
As lawmakers’ end-of-session budget-making process wraps up, Republican lawmakers assert the state has enough money on hand to achieve a balanced budget and are calling on Gov. JB Pritzker and Democrats to not end previously agreed upon economic incentives.
Illinois’ economic recovery from the pandemic has resulted in greater-than-expected revenues in the current fiscal year, and the state has more than $8 billion coming from a federal stimulus package.
The Center Square: Republicans urge veto of maps poised for Pritzker’s desk
The partisan divide was on full display over the weekend as lawmakers debated, and majority Democrats passed, new legislative boundaries that could be the law of the land for the next ten years.
During debate late Friday state Rep. Jay Hoffman, D-Swansea, criticized Republicans for not producing a proposed map of their own.
WTTW: Time Is Running Out to Preserve Illinois’ Telehealth Protections
In the same way that Zoom reshaped conference calls and staff meetings during the coronavirus pandemic, visiting the doctor has become, for many, a virtual affair.
But with COVID-19 cases on a steady decline, Illinois is set to resume business as usual as soon as June 11, when the state will enter what Gov. J.B. Pritzker has dubbed the Phase 5: Restore stage of reopening.
The Center Square: House bill decreasing trailer tax, removing trade in cap, advances
Illinois taxpayers with sticker shock from the $100 tax increase on the annual trailer tag implemented two years ago may soon get some relief.
A measure that drops the tax on utility trailers from $118 to $36 in exchange for a $5 increase in the fee for a vehicle title transfer to $155 is advancing at the statehouse with just one day left.