Capitol News Illinois SPRINGFIELD – A legislative committee and the Illinois Department of Agriculture agreed recently to delay finalizing new regulations governing hemp production amid an outcry of protests from small, independent producers. Those proposed rules have been in development for at least two years. But the most recent draft, submitted in September, contained significant […]
Author Archives: Dave's Team
Posted in1-Draft, State News
Conservative group asks U.S. Supreme Court to review Mike Bost’s challenge to how mail-in votes are counted in Illinois
Capitol News Illinois The conservative group Judicial Watch is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review a case filed by U.S. Rep. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro, challenging Illinois’ law allowing mail-in ballots to be counted 14 days after the election. Under Illinois law, ballots postmarked by Election Day can be counted as late as 14 days […]
Posted in1-Draft, State News
‘You shouldn’t be talking like that’: Madigan scolded alderman-turned-FBI mole for bringing up ‘quid pro quo’
Capitol News Illinois CHICAGO – Then-Chicago Ald. Danny Solis had already been cooperating with the FBI for a little more than a year in June 2017 when he received an unexpected voicemail from powerful Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan. “Danny, it’s Mike Madigan,” began the brief message, which included none of what the speaker wanted […]
Posted in1-Draft, State News
State watchdog uncovers at least $7.2M in PPP fraud by state employees
Capitol News Illinois CHICAGO – A state watchdog has identified at least $7.2 million in fraudulent claims and more than 275 instances of misconduct by state employees accused of bilking a federal program designed to help businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since 2022, the Office of the Executive Inspector General has been investigating allegations that […]
Posted in1-Draft, State News
Lawmakers return to Springfield as projected budget deficit looms
Capitol News Illinois SPRINGFIELD — Illinois lawmakers returned to Springfield Tuesday for the first time since May following news earlier this month that they’re facing a projected $3.2 billion budget deficit for the fiscal year that begins July 1. The news didn’t surprise Republicans, who condemned “drunken spending” policies, but the Senate’s top Democratic budget […]
Posted in1-Draft, State News
‘This is the way things are done in Illinois’: Defense attorneys begin cross-examining star witness
Capitol News Illinois CHICAGO – The former chief lobbyist for electric utility Commonwealth Edison has spent the last week telling a federal jury how he bent over backward to accommodate hiring requests from former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan. Led by the prosecutor questioning him, ComEd exec-turned-cooperating witness Fidel Marquez repeatedly said he and other […]
Posted in1-Draft, State News
Carbondale faces legal battle over protest restrictions outside abortion clinics
Capitol News Illinois The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade turned Carbondale into a critical medical hub: Following the Dobbs v. Jackson decision in 2022, three clinics offering abortion services opened in the small, liberal university town in conservative rural southern Illinois. It’s now the closest place for people across a huge […]
Posted in1-Draft, State News
Plan to ban carbon injections near aquifers stalls in Senate
Capitol News Illinois An Illinois Senate committee hit pause on a bill to ban carbon sequestration injections near aquifers after more than an hour of debate Wednesday. Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, asked that the Senate Executive Committee to wait to act on Senate Bill 3968, which would have banned the practice, until lawmakers […]
Posted in1-Draft, State News
‘You agreed to wear wires against your ComEd family’: Star witness in Madigan trial grilled on cross-examination
Capitol News Illinois CHICAGO – Before the sun rose on a cold Wednesday morning in January 2019, Fidel Marquez agreed to a life-altering assignment as a cooperating witness in a criminal case the government was building against his colleagues at electric utility Commonwealth Edison and powerful Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan. Marquez agreed to the […]
Posted in1-Draft, State News
Families, providers of early intervention services seek $60 million in new state funding
Capitol News Illinois CHICAGO – Early childhood intervention advocates are calling on the state to increase funding by $60 million to better support children with developmental delays and disabilities who are on long waiting lists for the critical services and care. “Babies can’t wait” is the rallying cry for Raising Illinois, the coalition championing the […]