Get the latest news from around Illinois.
Daily Herald: State Sen. Terry Link remains silent as more politicians call for his resignation
A day after he was charged with federal tax evasion, state Sen. Terry Link remained publicly silent on the matter Friday, refusing to respond to interview requests or issue a statement.
Meanwhile, the chorus of voices from the Lake County political community criticizing Link or calling for his resignation has grown.
The Center Square: Business groups consider lawsuit over Illinois’ masking, social distancing fines
Two statewide business associations are eyeing litigation against the state of Illinois over a COVID-19 mask and social distancing rule allowed to stick.
The Joint Committee on Administrative Rules allowed the measure promulgated by the Pritzker administration that requires businesses to enforce face-covering mandates and social distancing regulations to stand. Republicans attempted to suspend the measure but only had six votes on the twelve-member panel. To suspend, the motion required eight votes.
Crain's Chicago Business: Springfield tries again on ethics reform
But while they appear to have a shot in the Senate, there was no sign House Speaker Mike Madigan is inclined to go along.
The Center Square: Districts fear teacher shortages with retirements
Illinois is dealing with a shortage of teachers, and now the possibility of educators retiring rather than going back into the classroom during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Illinois State Board of Education reports of the state’s 850 school districts, over 500 will be offering in-class instruction this fall. That involves over 600,000 students.
Chicago Sun-Times: McCormick Place hospital’s cost to taxpayers? $1.7 million per patient. How the deal happened.
Taxpayers spent nearly $66 million fashioning McCormick Place into an emergency coronavirus hospital with 2,750 beds this past spring amid fears that COVID-19 patients would overwhelm hospitals in the Chicago area.
Those fears turned out to be unfounded. Just 38 patients were transferred to the sprawling convention center — meaning taxpayers’ cost for the makeshift hospital turned out to be more than $1.7 million per patient, on average.
Chicago Sun-Times: The boot man cometh: With pandemic, City Hall walks a tightrope on parking enforcement
This is a particularly bad time for someone to wind up having a car booted for illegal parking.
A lot of people are still laid off from their jobs. Rent and mortgage payments are still eating up unemployment checks. Bills are still piling up.
Northwest Herald: Algonquin Township officials keep their own salaries flat for next term, raise assessor's by $3,000
Most Algonquin Township officials will have the same salary for their next term, but the township assessor will make $3,000 more.
These salaries were approved by Algonquin Township Board of Trustees at its meeting Wednesday evening.