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The Center Square: Pritzker's office pressures newspaper to unpublish news story on progressive tax
The office of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker asked the editor of a west-central Illinois newspaper in February to unpublish a news story by The Center Square about the governor’s plans to cut spending if voters don’t pass a progressive income tax in November.
In an email to the editor of The Jacksonville Journal-Courier, a spokeswoman for the governor said the article was “flawed” and lacked context.
Chicago Tribune: Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s graduated income tax plan won’t fix Illinois’ pension problems, ratings agency says
Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s plan to devote $200 million in new annual revenue toward the state’s severely underfunded pension systems if voters approve his graduated-rate income tax plan in November would do little to address the problem, a Wall Street credit ratings agency said Monday.
The additional contributions “would be helpful,” Fitch Ratings said in its analysis of the proposal Pritzker presented last month for the budget year that begins July 1. “But on their own, they would not materially affect Fitch’s view that the state’s budget remains structurally unbalanced.”
The Center Square: Illinois lawmakers look to remove retail wine shipping ban
A new proposal in Springfield would open up a whole new market of direct-to-consumer wine delivery.
Currently, only the producer of wine can ship bottles into Illinois and deliver them to a customer. A vineyard sending their wine club shipment, for instance. If Senate Bill 3830, sponsored by state Sen. Sara Feigenholtz, D-Chicago, is enacted, Illinois residents could have wine shipped to them from retailers or wine clubs from all over the world.
WBEZ: Beginner’s luck: How one video gambling company worked the odds and took over a state
Andrew Rubenstein rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange last November, then pumped his fist and cheered. He had much to celebrate. In a decade, the company he founded and led, Illinois-based Accel Entertainment, had grown from a tiny startup into the largest video gambling operator in the nation. Accel had also become the country’s first video gambling operator to be publicly traded. With the backing of investors, Accel now hopes to bring video gambling to other cash-strapped states hungry for new sources of revenue.
Chicago Sun-Times: Weed war: Pot firms race to get city OK for 7 potential dispensaries — but only 3 will ever open
Call it a weed war.
Cannabis firms seeking local approval to open recreational pot shops at seven different locations will take part in a special meeting Friday of the Zoning Board of Appeals — though only three will be allowed to sell weed.
The Center Square: Municipalities raise concerns over governor’s plan to hold funds in reserve
Officials from the Illinois Municipal League said communities have concerns about the governor’s proposal to hold 5 percent of Local Government Distributive Funds in reserve from local governments if voters don’t approve a progressive income tax in November.
Illinois Municipal League laid out its legislative agenda, called “Moving Cities Forward,” on Monday.
Dail Herald: Facing federal charges, Urlacher says he'll stay as Mettawa mayor
Mettawa Mayor Casey Urlacher said Monday he’ll stay put and expects to be exonerated of federal charges in connection with an illegal sports betting operation.
Urlacher said he has received an outpouring of supportive calls, emails and texts from residents asking him to continue as mayor. He also said he has received the support of a majority of the village board.
Rockford Register Star: Rockford to pay $11M to three who claim they were framed for murder
City Council on Monday night agreed to pay out $11 million to settle lawsuits with three men who say a former Rockford police detective coerced witness statements, encouraged false testimony and framed them for the 2002 murder of an 8-year-old boy.
The men — Anthony S. Ross, 39, Tyjuan T. Anderson, 38, and Lumont D. Johnson, 46 — spent more than a decade in prison after being sentenced to 50 years for the killing of Ellis Arts Academy student DeMarcus Hanson. The men were acquitted after a retrial in 2015 and their convictions were overturned. They will each receive $3.7 million from the city.