State Rep. Dan Caulkins, a Decatur Republican, has introduced new legislation that aims to make it easier for retired teachers to return to the classroom.
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WBEZ: Ex-state Rep. Arroyo pleads not guilty to federal bribery charge
Long-time former Illinois State Rep. Luis Arroyo pleaded not guilty Tuesday to a federal bribery charge.
Arroyo, a Democrat who represented Chicago’s West and Northwest sides in the state House of Representatives for 13 years, is accused of offering a bribe to an unnamed state senator to help advance legislation to expand gambling.
Associated Press: Illinois speaker defends handling of sexual misconduct probe
Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan on Tuesday defended his office’s handling of a sexual misconduct investigation into former Democratic state Rep. Jack Franks.
The allegations against Franks date back to 2016, and Madigan said his actions were designed to protect an employee of the speaker’s office.
Rockford Register Star: House overrides Pritzker’s veto on aircraft parts tax break
The Illinois House overwhelmingly voted Tuesday to override the governor’s veto of legislation restoring and retroactively applying a tax break for aircraft parts.
Democratic Rep. Monica Bristow, of Godfrey, said it would protect more than 3,700 jobs at 14 aviation facilities in 12 communities across the state, including Rockford. She added 36 other states have similar laws on the books.
The Center Square: Sangamon County State's Attorney says Madigan's office ignored nondisclosure order in search warrant in Franks case
The Sangamon County State’s Attorney said House Speaker Michael Madigan ignored a nondisclosure order contained in the search warrant served on Madigan’s office last week seeking information related to sexual harassment allegations involving a former state lawmaker.
Through a Freedom of Information Act request, The Chicago Sun-Times reported Friday that the Speaker’s Springfield office was served a search warrant by Illinois State Police on Jan. 29 for information regarding sexual harassment and stalking allegations against former state Rep. Jack Franks. Franks served at the statehouse up to 2016 and is now the McHenry County Board chairman. He denies any wrongdoing.
Chicago Sun-Times: GOP leader Durkin challenges Arroyo replacement, attributing appointment to ‘corrupt process’
Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin on Tuesday filed a qualification challenge against appointed state Rep. Eva-Dina Delgado, calling for a “clean break” from former Rep. Luis Arroyo.
“A clean break from the arrested legislator is required to re-establish the General Assembly’s trust with its constituents,” Durkin wrote in his letter challenging Delgado. “Had the votes of Mr. Arroyo not been part of the selection process, this appointment would not be called into question.”
Chicago Tribune: Mayor Lori Lightfoot says she will put tighter reins on taxpayer funding for developments
Mayor Lori Lightfoot is promising to tighten up the procedure for awarding taxpayer subsidies to projects under a program that critics have for decades hammered as a slush fund for wealthy developers.
The first-term mayor is under pressure to show she’s serious about reforming the much criticized tax increment financing program, which doles out hundreds of millions of property tax dollars in TIF districts that blanket the city from the downtown area to struggling outlying neighborhoods.
Chicago Tribune: Corruption trial for Chicago Ald. Edward Burke won’t happen until at least mid-2021
Indicted Chicago Ald. Edward Burke will be more than halfway through his record 13th full term in City Council by the time he faces trial on federal racketeering conspiracy charges.
During a brief status hearing Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Robert Dow blocked off his schedule beginning in May 2021 for what’s expected to be a monthlong, blockbuster trial featuring dozens of undercover recordings made by then-Ald. Daniel Solis.
Crain's Chicago Business: Why your next food delivery might cost more
Grubhub was informed by the Department of Revenue that it is “initiating action” to look into the taxes companies collect on delivery fees that customers pay when they order food, says a source familiar with the matter.
Chicago Sun-Times: Lightfoot urged to pull the plug on facial recognition technology
Mayor Lori Lightfoot was urged Tuesday to pull the plug on the Chicago Police Department’s use of a “racially-discriminatory, inaccurate and highly-biased” facial recognition tool that matches images of unknown suspects to three billion photos scraped from social media.
Freddy Martinez, executive director of the Lucy Parsons Project, said the police department’s “quiet acquisition” of facial recognition technology developed by Manhattan-based Clearview has “threatened the civil rights, due process and civil liberties of everyone” in Chicago.
Herald-Review: Caulkins proposes bill to reduce fee for lapsed teaching licenses
Illinois, and the nation, has a significant teacher shortage, with 5,200 teaching positions open statewide at the start of this school year. One of Caulkins’ constituents contacted him after she had to pay $500 to renew her teaching license, which had lapsed after her retirement.
Chicago Tribune: Lincoln Park High School investigations include claims of sexual misconduct, retaliation, recruiting violations: CPS
The investigations into alleged misconduct at Lincoln Park High School are wide-ranging and include claims of athletic recruiting violations, retaliation against witnesses, sexual misconduct and financial misconduct involving athletic program accounts.
In outlining the reasons why several school administrators were suspended and the boys varsity basketball season was abruptly halted late last week, school officials told hundreds of community members gathered Monday night that the moves were the result of “egregious and systemic policy violations.”
Capitol News Illinois: Former inmates incorrectly removed from voter rolls
Nearly 800 former inmates may have had their voter registrations incorrectly canceled “due to a data-matching error” between the Illinois State Board of Elections and the Illinois Department of Corrections, the elections board announced Monday.
ISBE said in a news release it had notified 59 local election authorities of the issue, which stemmed from an incorrect classification of the 774 former inmates as “currently incarcerated.”
Bloomberg: Behind Amazon's HQ2 fiasco: Jeff Bezos was jealous of Elon Musk
When Elon Musk secured $1.3 billion from Nevada in 2014 to open a gigantic battery plant, Jeff Bezos noticed. In meetings, the Amazon.com Inc. chief expressed envy for how Musk had pitted five Western states against one another in a bidding war for thousands of manufacturing jobs; he wondered why Amazon was okay with accepting comparatively trifling incentives. It was a theme Bezos returned to often, according to four people privy to his thinking. Then in 2017, an Amazon executive sent around a congratulatory email lauding his team for landing $40 million in government incentives to build a $1.5 billion air hub near Cincinnati. The paltry sum irked Bezos, the people say, and made him even more determined to try something new.
Peoria Journal Star: Black market marijuana still in business, arrest reveals
A Pekin man’s arrest Sunday demonstrated that marijuana’s legalization hasn’t yet erased its popularity on the black market.
Tazewell County prosecutors charged Paul Hilliard, 22, on Monday with possessing nearly 100 grams of marijuana with intent to deliver. He also was ticketed for illegal transportation of the substance in a vehicle under traffic laws that came with marijuana’s statewide legalization last month.
Winnetka Talk: Winnetka-Northfield library director resigns after months of turmoil; officials mum on details: ‘This brings up more questions than it answers’
Following months of turmoil, the director of the Winnetka-Northfield Public Library District has resigned from her post “to pursue other opportunities,” library officials said.
Library spokeswoman Sarah Quish confirmed in a statement that library director Rebecca Wolf had resigned, adding that library officials declined to comment on the departure. The library’s board of trustees had already announced last month that they intended to replace Wolf, who officials said was, “out of the office for an indefinite period of time.”