Get the latest news from around Illinois.
Chicago Sun-Times: Economy vs. epidemiology? Pritzker gears reopening to science and saving lives – but business leaders call plan ‘misguided’
Gov. J.B. Pritzker says he’s saving lives with his plan to gradually reopen parts of the Illinois economy, but business leaders say it’s costing the livelihoods of more than a million residents left jobless by the coronavirus shutdown.
As state officials announced another unprecedented flood of claims for unemployment benefits Thursday, the Illinois Chamber of Commerce slammed Pritzker’s phased reopening plan as “misguided.”
The Center Square: Problems filing for unemployment in Illinois persist
As the number of people seeking unemployment benefits continues to rise in Illinois during the COVID-19 pandemic, many say they are still experiencing problems filing claims.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker said he has heard numerous stories of people unable to file a claim.
State Journal-Register: Coronavirus yields property-tax payment changes
The state’s shelter-in-place status has yielded changes in how some Sangamon County taxpayers will be paying their property-tax bills, County Treasurer Joe Aiello said Wednesday.
The first installment will be due on June 12, but the county treasurer’s office is closed to the public, and no in-person payments will be allowed, Aiello said. The payments can be made by mail, online, or at any INB drive-thru in the county. The bills will be mailed Friday.
Chicago Tribune: Pritzker’s 5-phase plan a ‘gut punch’ to restaurants desperate to open
When Illinois restaurants were ordered shuttered by Gov. Pritzker in mid-March, restaurant owners, chefs and workers braced for several weeks of zero income.
When the order was extended through April, and then May, the industry pointed to June.
State Journal-Register: Judge to reject lawsuit over ballot obstacles for constitutional amendment
A judge on Thursday sided against an Illinois organization that claimed restrictions implemented to combat the novel coronavirus made it impossible to gather the necessary signatures to place a constitutional amendment on November’s general election ballot.
The official order is expected to be released sometime Thursday, a court clerk said.
Crain's Chicago Business: Alderman lifts ban on Fulton Market residential projects
After years of developers pleading with him to change the policy, the 27th Ward boss said today he will no longer automatically oppose construction of new residential buildings north of Lake Street in the former meatpacking district. Burnett has consistently blocked such plans in the northern portion of the gritty-turned-trendy corporate corridor and reserved that historically industrial section of the neighborhood for commercial use.
Chicago Sun-Times: Lightfoot outlines Springfield agenda for Democratic lawmakers
Mayor Lori Lightfoot told Democratic lawmakers Thursday she has three items on her Springfield agenda: a Chicago casino; renewed authorization for a $5-month-tax on telephone bills; and no cuts to the city’s share of the state sales tax.
Extending the $5 tax added to monthly telephone bills — both cell phones and land lines — “came out of the blue,” according to State Rep. La Shawn Ford (D-Chicago), who ran for against Lightfoot in the first round of mayoral balloting.
Chicago Tribune: Illinois’ convention industry reopens last under Pritzker’s plan. A dark McCormick Place could mean a $923 million economic hit in the year’s second half.
Before Illinoisans were working from home, before restaurants had shut down and before the stay-at-home order was in place, the coronavirus pandemic was already ravaging the state’s convention business.
Now it appears the industry that sustained the pandemic’s first economic blows might be one of the last to recover.
Chicago Sun-Times: Cook County sheriff’s office runs out of electronic monitoring bracelets
The Cook County sheriff’s office has run out of electronic monitoring bracelets, worrying inmate advocates, who say the lack of devices could lead to too many arrestees languishing in jail during the coronavirus pandemic.
The lack of bracelets, which was mentioned by prosecutors during court hearings Thursday, could grow worse as the weather warms, straining the sheriff’s office’s ability to socially distance detainees and leading to more contracting COVID-19 at Cook County Jail, advocates said.