Get the latest news from around Illinois.
Chicago Tribune: Madigan re-elected speaker for 17th time, lays out Democratic economic agenda
Democratic Speaker Michael Madigan won a record 17th term as the leader of the Illinois House on Wednesday and planned to lay out his version of an economic agenda as a counter to Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner.
Leading up to the vote for speaker, the Rauner-funded Illinois Republican Party waged a noisy messaging campaign as it sought to pressure potentially vulnerable Democratic lawmakers not to vote for Madigan, the governor’s chief political foe who has led the House for all but two years since 1983.
Chicago Sun-Times: Madigan starts record-setting term hoping ‘to end the acrimony’
Chicago Democrat Michael Madigan won another term as speaker of the state House on Wednesday, setting the stage to become the nation’s longest serving state House speaker for at least the last century.
Madigan began his latest term expressing a wish to end the partisan bickering that has left the state without a budget.
Associated Press: Madigan re-elected Speaker; Senate adopts leader term limits
Michael Madigan was re-elected Wednesday to a 17th term leading the Illinois House, putting him on track to soon become the nation’s longest-serving statehouse speaker in more than a century, but he faces an ongoing budget crisis and a shrinking Democratic majority.
A member of the Illinois House since 1971, Madigan has held the top job for a total of 32 years. According to the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, Democrat Solomon Blatt of South Carolina served 33 years – from 1937 to 1946 and again from 1951 to 1973. Madigan, who was elected speaker in 1983 but lost his majority from 1995 to 1997 before retaking it, would eclipse Blatt’s tenure early next year.
Northwest Herald: Fear drives vote for Madigan as House speaker
Yes, Michael Madigan has been House speaker for all but two years since 1983. He also controls the state Democratic Party as well as the party purse strings that go along with it.
Madigan is a classic machine politician. He rules Springfield with an iron fist, and he rules it badly. Democrats who cross him risk becoming targets in the next primary, losing any leadership positions and never having any of their bills called for a House vote.
Crain's Chicago Business: Budget peace looms—and biz groups check their wallets
With Springfield leaders all of a sudden talking and throwing out ideas for compromise, the state’s business community is trying to figure out whether it ought to smile or prepare to get smacked.
But the talk thus far is only that—talk.
House Speaker Michael Madigan: Economic growth a better way to improve Illinois
The last two years have been extremely difficult for our state. But with the inauguration of a new General Assembly today, we have an opportunity for a new way forward. Regardless of how any of us feel about the proposals laid out by Gov. Bruce Rauner, the elected leaders of our state must face Illinois’ challenges together. Rather than placing blame and looking to find the worst in each other, we should focus on working together and finding common ground to address the issues facing our state.
In that spirit, I think we can all agree that legislators and the governor must take immediate action to address the state’s budget crisis. There are people across Illinois whose lives are forever altered in a negative way because of our lack of a budget. If we have a repeat of the last two years, there will be more people forever harmed across our state. We can all agree that can’t happen.
Associated Press: New Legislature, same old problem in Illinois: No budget
Illinois’ financial crisis is being handed off from one set of lawmakers to another this week – a problem that, at 18 months, is the nation’s longest-running budget stalemate.
The key players: The conservative businessman-turned-governor Bruce Rauner and Michael Madigan, the old-school Democratic House speaker whose decades at the helm has made him a Capitol institution.
Chicago Tribune: Justice to announce results of its probe of Chicago police
The U.S. Department of Justice plans to announce Friday the results of its 13-month investigation into the Chicago Police Department and its use of force, sources with knowledge of the investigation told the Tribune.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch will make the announcement, according to sources, but the details were still being worked out on Wednesday.
Crain's Chicago Business: CPS inspector hires ex-journalists to new anti-fraud unit
With most news organizations shrinking their staffs these days, a couple of the better-known reporters in town have been snapped up for new gigs with Chicago Public Schools Inspector General Nicholas Schuler.
Named today to run a new performance analysis unit in the IG’s office are former Sun-Times reporters Rosalind Rossi and Art Golab, both of whom “worked on numerous data-driven investigations, covering such education subjects as statewide and CPS test scores, education salaries and pensions,” Schuler said in a statement.
News-Gazette: UI tuition freeze welcome
It wasn’t all that long ago that the University of Illinois was raising tuition every year. But times have changed.
People who have been paying attention know that the high cost of obtaining a college education and the long-term debt students run up in the process pose a significant problem for families today.
So it’s good news that the University of Illinois is able to propose a freeze on in-state tuition for another year. UI trustees are scheduled to vote on the measure at their Jan. 19 meeting. If approved, as the measure is expected to be, it would mark the third straight year of frozen tuition.