Get the latest news from around Illinois.
Chicago Tribune: Illinois Senate tinkers with budget plan, but heavy lifting remains
The Illinois Senate continued to tinker around the edges of a sweeping proposal to end the state’s record-breaking budget impasse on Tuesday, but it remains unclear whether there’s enough support to pass several outstanding pieces that are critical to the plan.
An attempt at an answer could come as soon as Wednesday, when lawmakers may vote on some of the most controversial portions of the bipartisan effort, including tax hikes and an overhaul of the workers’ compensation system for employees hurt on the job.
Daily Herald: Irvin, Guzman advance in Aurora mayoral primary
Richard Irvin and Richard Guzman appear headed for an April 4 showdown to determine who will be the next mayor of Aurora, according to unofficial results from Tuesday’s primary election.
Unofficial final vote totals from the Aurora Election Commission and the DuPage County Election Commission show Irvin led the four-way primary race with 3,025 votes and Guzman finished second with 2,713. The top two finishers advance to the general election.
Chicago Sun-Times: Gaming bill clears Senate hurdle, pension bill fizzles once again
A bill to create six new casinos — including one in Chicago — cleared a major hurdle in the Illinois Senate on Tuesday as senators took up “grand bargain” legislation — while a pension reform measure once again failed to garner enough votes.
A motion to reconsider on the pension reform bill wiped the roll call — meaning senators will be able to vote on the measure once again. The controversial measure is facing an uphill battle however, garnering eight more votes than the last time it was called.
State Journal-Register: ‘Grand bargain’ budget deal taking shape in Senate
Illinois senators took another shot at the “grand bargain” Tuesday, approving several of the less-controversial components along with an expansion of gambling.
However, once again a pension reform bill failed to pass and the Senate postponed until Wednesday some of the stickier issues, including workers’ compensation, revamped school funding and a package of tax hikes intended to balance the budget.
Bloomington Pantagraph: Rauner budget ideas reasonable
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner in his state budget address last month called for spending reductions that “need to be real – no smoke and mirrors” to close an unprecedented deficit poised to top $5.3 billion June 30. He also put tax hikes on the table, specifically on services like auto repairs and haircuts, but not for medicine, food or retirement income.
Rauner said increases can’t come without reforms to improve the job climate, and renewed his push for lawmakers to make serious cuts.
Chicago Tribune: Rauner looks for temporary state workers amid strike threat
Responding to the possibility of a strike by state employees, Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration has launched a new website to try to recruit workers who could fill in during a walkout.
The Republican governor has been at odds with the state’s largest public employee union over his proposed contract terms, which would adjust overtime pay, significantly increase workers’ contributions to their health care plans, and give the state greater freedom to privatize duties that are now performed by unionized state workers.
Chicago Sun-Times: Madigan is no champion of schoolchildren
Mike Madigan is creating a special legislative task force in the Illinois House of Representatives to study school funding reform.
Just weeks after the governor’s own bipartisan school funding reform commission released its recommendations, the Illinois House speaker said he needs a new study.
Chicago Tribune: Concerns mount over Chicago cop reform as Sessions vows to 'pull back'
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has sent the clearest signal yet that the Trump administration may not keep pressing reforms to policing in Chicago, sowing uncertainty as to how much change will come to a Police Department the previous administration branded as systemically abusive.
In his first major speech since being appointed by President Donald Trump, Sessions on Tuesday vowed to “pull back” on federal civil rights probes of local police departments like the one that less than two months ago resulted in a damning report accusing Chicago police of engaging in a pattern of civil rights abuses.
Chicago Sun-Times: Despite Jeff Sessions, reform Chicago police force
Jeff Sessions is wrong.
The troubles of the Chicago Police Department go beyond a “few bad actors,” contrary to what the U.S. attorney general said Monday. Rejecting that well-documented fact just makes it harder to reform the department and better fight crime.
Chicago Sun-Times: Emanuel may go it alone — without feds — to push police reforms
It looks like Mayor Rahm Emanuel may well be on his own — without court oversight — to implement the sweeping police reforms recommended by the U.S. Justice Department in the waning days of the Obama administration.
In media interviews Monday and a speech delivered Tuesday to the National Association of Attorneys General, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions criticized the Obama DOJ’s scathing indictment of the Chicago Police Department as “pretty anecdotal and not so scientifically based.” That’s even though Sessions acknowledged that he has only read the summary of the 161-page report.
Chicago Tribune: Charters indicate plans to open 20 new Chicago campuses
Seventeen charter school operators have started the application process to open as many as 20 new campuses within Chicago Public Schools.
The letters of intent submitted last week don’t bind charter operators to open new schools, and a nearly yearlong process to approve detailed charter campus plans must still play out. CPS could reject some of the proposals, though charter operators in some cases can appeal to a state commission.
Chicago Sun-Times: Rahm Emanuel goes public with plan to build Englewood high school
Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Tuesday publicly acknowledged he plans to build a high school in Englewood as part of his “holistic” strategy to fight crime by rebuilding long-neglected neighborhoods.
The mayor let the cat out of the bag during an appearance at the vacant site of the old Kennedy-King College.
WTTW Chicago Tonight: Illinois Education Superintendent on School Funding, Standards
Illinois’ largest school district is in financial turmoil, nearly everyone agrees the school funding formula needs retooling, and the state’s contending with both a new federal administration as well as a new federal education law.
Managing all of this is the Illinois State Board of Education, the agency charged with doling out state and federal dollars to school districts, as well as holding them accountable.
Chicago Sun-Times: Emanuel puts $16M from TIF to wake up dormant retail strips
Long-dormant retail corridors in eight neighborhoods on Chicago’s South, Southwest and West sides could come alive, thanks to a $16 million program bankrolled by tax increment finance money.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants to turn designated retail corridors in Austin, Back of the Yards, Bronzeville, Chatham, Englewood, South Shore, West Humboldt Park and West Pullman into “Retail Thrive Zones.”
Chicago Tribune: Chicago's unpopulated 'people plazas'
In the spring of 2015, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced a new plan to zap Chicago neighborhoods with a bit of cultural energy. City-owned vacant lots could be spruced up to become venues for live music and art exhibits. Locals would gather, mingle, shop at pop-up stores, dance even — all within a stroll of their homes. The mayor called these proposed vibrant spaces “people plazas.”
Almost two years later, there’s something missing from the people plazas. People.
State Journal-Register: Meeting planned to ‘fine tune’ local labor requirement
The city of Springfield is convening a group of contractors and union leaders to hash out how to implement a rule passed last fall on local hiring for large-scale projects, city officials said Tuesday.
Ward 8 Ald. Kris Theilen said he’s received calls from union representatives about difficulty they foresee meeting a requirement for 50 percent of the hours worked on a city construction project to be completed by Springfield residents.
Belleville News-Democrat: Hamilton sentencing rescheduled; admits misuse of credit card was ‘shameless’
Former East St. Louis Township Supervisor Oliver Hamilton has admitted in a federal court sentencing document that misusing a taxpayer-funded credit card was “shameless” and “mindless” and agreed that a recommended sentence of 366 days in a federal lockup was fair.
Under an agreement with the government, Hamilton would also be placed on supervised release for three years and pay $40,000 in restitution, although that amount might be increased when a probation department report is presented at sentencing.