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The Center Square: Ethics, property tax relief, population loss among top concerns for lawmakers as governor prepares State of the State speech
Illinois state lawmakers return to Springfield on Tuesday ahead of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s second State of the State speech on Wednesday.
Lawmakers will return amid ongoing federal corruption investigations involving lawmakers and lobbyists while ethics reforms have yet to materialize. Lawmakers said they also want to address the state’s population losses and high property taxes.
Crain's Chicago Business: County's Board of Ethics takes aim at side gigs
Cook County’s Board of Ethics approved sweeping proposals that would severely limit commissioners from collecting an income outside their regular $85,000 annual salary.
The rules would bar county employees, officials and appointees from accepting or maintaining a job that is likely to “impair his or her independence of judgment in the exercise of official duties,” “create an appearance of impropriety” or hinder their ability to stick to their fiduciary duty to the county.
The Center Square: Illinois private school tuition program reports big opening night for applications
Tens of thousands of students hoping to go to the private school of their choice tuition-free signed up in the opening hours of availability at the state’s largest private school tuition granting organization.
Empower Illinois, one of the state’s scholarship-granting organizations for the Invest in Kids program, opened up its application portal for the 2020-2021 school year. In less than 36 hours, it reported nearly 25,000 student applications, nearly as many as it had in the organization’s entire first year of operation and more than four-and-a-half times as many students that would able to receive tuition assistance.
Belleville News-Democrat: Here’s what Illinois lawmakers want to do when they return to Springfield next week
After a broad federal corruption investigation shook the state in 2019, metro-east and Southern Illinois legislators say they expect ethics reform to be among the top priorities for the General Assembly, which opens its regular session Tuesday.
Local lawmakers say they will join Gov. J.B. Pritzker in efforts to reverse a culture of corruption that allows not only a “revolving door” for retired legislators to immediately become lobbyists, but even permits them to lobby while still in office.
Crain's Chicago Business: The next clerk of Cook County courts will inherit a mess—but some say it's fixable
Now, four Democrats are scrambling to succeed her. The winner will inherit a powerful post as gatekeeper of one of the biggest unified court systems in the country, a $124 million budget and 1,500 employees. The winner will also take over an office tarnished by a reputation for disorganization at best and questionable hiring practices at worst. A larger question looms: What could a navigable, efficient, patronage-free court clerk’s office look like? And can that be achieved in Cook County?
The Center Square: Illinois Supreme Court to decide if teachers can take maternity leave months after giving birth
The Illinois Supreme Court will decide a lawsuit filed by a teacher
Should a teacher who has a baby just before summer break be able to take maternity leave when the next school year starts in August? The Illinois Supreme Court is set to decide.
State Journal Register: JB Pritzker signs bill that limits insulin costs
Megan Blair spends $1,800 for a month’s supply of insulin, but will soon no longer have to after Gov. JB Pritzker signed a bill Friday that caps out-of-pocket insulin costs at $100 for a 30-day supply.
Blair, a 27-year-old from Harristown, has been in and out of the hospital throughout her life and close to being in a diabetic coma more than once after being diagnosed with diabetes about 11 years ago. She is still struggling to pay off debt that has accumulated from conserving her insulin.
Daily Southtown: Harvey police Chief Eddie Winters placed on leave after 8 months
The Chicago police lieutenant who last year signed on to lead Harvey’s Police Department in an effort to rebuild that beleaguered force appears to be on his way out the door after just eight months on the job.
Eddie Winters, a 25-year CPD veteran and former state representative who was one of newly elected Mayor Christopher Clark’s most prominent early hires last May, was placed on leave Thursday, pending his removal from office, according to a memo the mayor sent all city employees.
Chicago Sun-Times: Justice delayed: It took two years to overturn his gun conviction. He’s still in prison a year later.
Jasper McLaurin had served two years of his prison sentence when the Illinois Appellate Court threw out his gun conviction.
But his long wait for that decision — twice as long as what the American Bar Association says appeals in criminal cases should take — didn’t end with him walking out of prison at that point in late 2018.
Chicago Sun-Times: Judge candidate Anne Shaw had real estate license reprimanded over deceptive practices
A candidate for Cook County judge was disciplined by state regulators after an investigation found the real estate business she ran with two relatives engaged in deceptive business practices.
Anne Shaw was issued a reprimand in 2016 for not properly supervising employees of Shaw Real Estate Group, a Chicago apartment-finding company, records show.
Northwest Herald: Huntley Village Board rejects recreational marijuana use, OKs medical use dispensaries
The Huntley Village Board unanimously voted to prohibit recreational marijuana businesses from operating within the village on Tuesday.
In November, the Huntley Plan Commission recommended for board consideration a series of text amendments to the village’s zoning ordinance that would regulate recreational marijuana retailers.