He didn’t know. That’s what Mike Madigan says. I actually believe him.

Had the Illinois House speaker known that longtime top ally Mike McClain would be stupid enough to put in writing a request to save a state job for a “loyal” worker who covered up a rape and ghost payrolling “and other matters,” Madigan would have trashed that email right away. After all, that’s what non-tapped cellphones are for.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot is “still learning” what Rahm Emanuel already knew about legislative lobbying, but she’ll get what she needs during the spring session to avoid a massive property tax increase, retiring Senate President John Cullerton predicted Friday.

Lightfoot came up empty during the fall veto session on her two major priorities: a revised tax structure for a Chicago casino and a graduated real estate transfer tax.

The stock market has come a long way in the past decade, but many public investors have dialed back expectations for investment returns in the coming years, a move that’s seen as fiscally prudent, but one that can mean bigger bills for taxpayers.

A new report from the Pew Charitable Trusts found that more than half of the nation’s public pension funds Pew tracks lowered their expected rate of returns in 2017, the most recent year of available data.

We all know the expression “the gift that keeps on giving.” When it comes to government ethics in Illinois, we face something different altogether: a curse that keeps on hurting.

A cesspool of unethical and likely illegal behavior came to light in 2019, thanks to a sprawling federal probe of public corruption. And now a report from public radio station WBEZ shows 2020 may bring more of the same.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Friday put the kibosh on a plan to freeze development along the 606 trail, but said she “has the votes” and will forge ahead with plans to create licensed places for on-site consumption of recreational marijuana.

The City Council’s License Committee will meet at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday to reconsider the mayoral on-site consumption plan that stalled this week because of rigid state rules that tied the city’s hands.

The Champaign County State’s Attorney revealed Friday that her office is now working with other state and federal agencies on an investigation into a 2012 email written by a former powerful Springfield lobbyist that referred to an unspecified “rape in Champaign,” WBEZ has learned.

Democratic Champaign State’s Attorney Julia Rietz told WBEZ in an interview Friday afternoon that her office is involved in a “comprehensive investigation” with the Illinois Attorney General, the Illinois State Police and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of Illinois into the content of the email.

City Hall lobbyists have to work harder for less-certain results these days. Between a new mayor, steady federal scrutiny and with City Council leadership and coalitions scrambled, officials expect a record number of professional government influencers at work this spring.

“We’re in for some robust economic activity,” says Steve Berlin, executive director of the Chicago Board of Ethics.

A downstate delegation of Congressional Republicans added to the chorus of calls for investigation into an email from former Commonwealth Edison lobbyist and confidant of House Speaker Mike Madigan about what appears to be a rape cover-up. Republican U.S. Reps. Darin LaHood, Rodney Davis, John Shimkus, Adam Kinzinger and Mike Bost asked Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul to appoint a special prosecutor to “investigate the alleged rape and cover up in Champaign.”

Incensed by allegations of child abuse in the death of an infant in his ward , Ald. Ray Lopez (15^th) fired off an incendiary tweet suggesting parents be licensed before having kids.

“Tired of these sick bastards killing babies because they are too immature to be parents,” Lopez tweeted Thursday about the child abuse case in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood he represents.

The Illinois Courts Commission has removed St. Clair County Circuit Judge Ronald R. Duebbert from office after concluding he “demonstrated an utter disregard for the integrity and respect of the judiciary” by lying to police during a murder investigation in 2016 and to Judiciary Board members in subsequent interviews.

The Courts Commission announced its decision Friday. The seven-member commission includes one Illinois Supreme Court judge, two appellate court judges, two circuit judges and two members of the public.

The sticky question of how Champaign County will regulate marijuana businesses in unincorporated areas will be left hanging for a while longer.

The county board’s environment and land use committee voted Thursday to pass along two different zoning-amendment options to the zoning board of appeals for a public hearing, without recommending either of them.

Island Lake officials may once again enact a moratorium on video gambling licenses — but a decision has been delayed two weeks.

The village board on Thursday voted to delay a vote on the matter until Jan. 23 so the Island Foods grocery store could be considered for a license, Village Clerk Georgine Cooper said.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced his second year in office will focus on ending cash bail, reforming low-level drug crime sentencing and reducing mandatory minimum sentences.

Pritzker and Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, both Democrats, laid out their plan at a news conference at Kennedy-King College. Stratton said real justice reform in Illinois will require more than just policing prisons.