Capitol News
State-run developmental center in Dixon will not lose Medicare funding despite citations
By BETH HUNDSDORFER Capitol News Illinois bhundsdorfer@capitolnewsillinois.com A state-operated residential facility that serves people with intellectual and developmental disabilities will not lose Medicare funding despite receiving recent citations from state surveyors for failing to protect its residents from harm. Mabley Developmental Center in Dixon has two pending “immediate jeopardy” citations from the Illinois Department of…
DCFS director to step down at end of the year after agency hit with another scathing audit
By BETH HUNDSDORFER & HANNAH MEISEL Capitol News Illinois news@capitolnewsillinois.com Illinois Department of Children and Family Services Director Marc Smith will resign effective Dec. 31, he told colleagues in an all-staff town hall meeting Wednesday morning. For years, critics had called on Smith to resign or be fired, amid legislative hearings, contempt citations, a murdered…
Pritzker urges Biden to intervene amid ‘untenable’ pace of migrant arrivals
By HANNAH MEISEL Capitol News Illinois hmeisel@capitolnewsillinois.com As Chicago prepares for an increase in the already steady stream of migrants arriving from the southern U.S. border this week, Gov. JB Pritzker is once again publicly pressuring President Joe Biden to play a larger role in coordinating relocation efforts. “There is much more that can and…
7 years after passage, Illinois’ first in string of recent abortion protections gets day in court
By HANNAH MEISEL Capitol News Illinois hmeisel@capitolnewsillinois.com ROCKFORD – In 2016 – before Donald Trump’s presidency paved the way for the eventual overturning of Roe v. Wade – Democrats in Illinois passed what would become the first in a series of laws shoring up reproductive rights in the state. That law altered Illinois’ 1970s-era Health…
Giannoulias recommends permanent increase to driving test age requirement
By ANDREW ADAMS Capitol News Illinois aadams@capitolnewsillinois.com Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias this week filed administrative rules that would increase the age at which a driver is required to pass a driving test when they renew their license, raising it from 75 to 79. The rules – proposed by Giannoulias to the legislative Joint…
As SAFE-T Act goes live, murder suspects previously eligible to post bond are held in jail
By BETH HUNDSDORFER & HANNAH MEISEL Capitol News Illinois news@capitolnewsillinois.com In courtrooms around the state early this week, judges conducted the first hearings under a new system that determines whether a defendant will be jailed while awaiting trial based on dangerousness and risk of fleeing prosecution, rather than their ability to post bail. The abolition…
Welch introduces bill to allow legislative staff to unionize
By PETER HANCOCK Capitol News Illinois phancock@capitolnewsillinois.com SPRINGFIELD – House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, D-Hillside, has filed legislation that would, for the first time in Illinois, authorize legislative staff to form a union and engage in collective bargaining. House Bill 4148, creating the Legislative Employee Labor Relations Act, comes in response to a monthslong effort…
In joint effort, election authorities try to tamp down misinformation
By PETER HANCOCK Capitol News Illinois phancock@capitolnewsillinois.com SPRINGFIELD – Six months before the next presidential primary elections in Illinois, county clerks and other local election authorities are asking for the public’s help in stopping misinformation campaigns before they get started. Officials from 25 counties scheduled a series of news conferences Tuesday in Tazewell, McLean and…
As state Supreme Court weighs another BIPA lawsuit, lawmakers mull child data privacy framework
By ANDREW ADAMS Capitol News Illinois aadams@capitolnewsillinois.com In Springfield on Thursday, the medical industry went to court. The Illinois Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a pair of class action suits brought by two suburban nurses, Lucille Mosby and Yana Mazya, who allege their employers violated the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act, a landmark 2008…
State’s high court opens new interactive learning center
By PETER HANCOCK Capitol News Illinois phancock@capitolnewsillinois.com SPRINGFIELD – In 1946, the Illinois Supreme Court heard a case that would eventually become a landmark in American legal history. The public school district in Champaign, like many other districts in Illinois at the time, allowed a group of local religious leaders to use their schools to…
Biden administration responds to calls from Pritzker, other leaders, for help in migrant crisis
By PETER HANCOCK Capitol News Illinois phancock@capitolnewsillinois.com SPRINGFIELD – The Department of Homeland Security will speed up the processing of work authorizations for asylum seekers and extend Temporary Protected Status to Venezuelan migrants, actions that could help thousands of migrants who have arrived in Illinois in recent months. Those moves were announced by the Biden…
Former Illinois State Police trooper who pleaded guilty in relation to deadly crash postpones hearing
By BETH HUNDSDORFER Capitol News Illinois bhundsdorfer@capitolnewsillinois.com Matt Mitchell, the former Illinois State Police trooper who caused a high-speed, distracted-driving crash that killed sisters Kelli and Jessica Uhl, has asked to delay his Sept. 20 hearing for the reinstatement of his driver’s license. Henry Haupt, a spokesperson for Illinois Secretary of State Alex Giannoulias, said…
As SAFE-T Act goes live, murder suspects previously eligible to post bond are held in jail
By BETH HUNDSDORFER & HANNAH MEISEL Capitol News Illinois news@capitolnewsillinois.com In courtrooms around the state early this week, judges conducted the first hearings under a new system that determines whether a defendant will be jailed while awaiting trial based on dangerousness and risk of fleeing prosecution, rather than their ability to post bail. The abolition…
New State Police rules for assault weapons permits will take effect Oct. 1
By PETER HANCOCK Capitol News Illinois phancock@capitolnewsillinois.com SPRINGFIELD – Illinoisans who own weapons that can no longer be purchased or sold in the state under its new assault weapons ban will soon be able to register those weapons so they can legally keep them. The law, officially known as the Protect Illinois Communities Act, bans…
Ahead of cash bail’s end, state’s replacement pretrial justice system takes shape
By JERRY NOWICKI & HANNAH MEISEL Capitol News Illinois news@capitolnewsillinois.com Beginning Monday, state courts in Illinois will be prohibited from jailing individuals who are accused – but not convicted – of crimes simply because they cannot afford to post bail while they await trial. Monetary bond will be abolished in favor of a system that…
Disparately resourced public defenders prepare for the end of cash bail in Illinois
By HANNAH MEISEL Capitol News Illinois hmeisel@capitolnewsillinois.com Illinois on Monday will become the first state to fully abolish cash bail through an act of the legislature — a major criminal justice overhaul spurred by the advocacy of a progressive faction of the Democratic Party that’s grown increasingly powerful in recent years. The reform goes into…
Illinois House Speaker’s staff could test limits of Workers’ Rights Amendment
By PETER HANCOCK Capitol News Illinois phancock@capitolnewsillinois.com SPRINGFIELD – Efforts to form a union by staff in House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch’s office could provide an early and unexpected test of the new Workers’ Rights Amendment to the Illinois Constitution. Brady Burden, a staffer in the speaker’s office who is part of the organizing committee…
‘Thunderdomes of controversy and strife:’ Giannoulias testifies before U.S. Senate committee
By JENNIFER FULLER Capitol News Illinois jfuller@capitolnewsillinois.com Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias was in Washington, D.C. this week to testify before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee regarding a new state law aimed at deterring book bans. LISTEN TO THIS STORY: Capitol News Illinois · IL Secretary of State testifies before U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee…
Former trooper seeks restoration of driving privileges nearly 16 years after fatal crash
By BETH HUNDSDORFER Capitol News Illinois bhundsdorfer@capitolnewsillinois.com For years, former Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White blocked attempts by an ex-state trooper to regain his driving privileges after a high-speed crash that caused the deaths of teenage sisters on a busy St. Clair County interstate in 2007. But after White’s retirement, Matt Mitchell is taking…
Former trooper seeks restoration of driving privileges nearly 16 years after fatal crash
By BETH HUNDSDORFER Capitol News Illinois bhundsdorfer@capitolnewsillinois.com For years, former Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White blocked attempts by an ex-state trooper to regain his driving privileges after a high-speed crash that caused the deaths of teenage sisters on a busy St. Clair County interstate in 2007. But after White’s retirement, Matt Mitchell is taking…
State Fair reports nine-year attendance high
By ANDREW ADAMS Capitol News Illinois aadams@capitolnewsillinois.com The Illinois State Fair – a multi-million annual agriculture festival in Springfield – reported a nine-year attendance record this year. The state Department of Agriculture, which hosts the fair each year, reported on Tuesday that about 708,000 people attended the fair, an 11 percent increase from 2022. Department…
Copay requirements paused for noncitizens on state health plan
By PETER HANCOCK Capitol News Illinois phancock@capitolnewsillinois.com SPRINGFIELD – The state has paused a new policy requiring certain noncitizens enrolled in a Medicaid-like health insurance plan to pay copayments for certain services, instructing health care providers to refund any such payments they have already collected. Omar Shaker, the interim chief of administrative rules at the…
Battery manufacturing plant coming to Illinois – with $530M incentive deal
By ANDREW ADAMS Capitol News Illinois aadams@capitolnewsillinois.com A new battery manufacturing plant is set to open in northern Illinois next year after the state offered more than $330 million in tax incentives to make it happen. Gotion, a Chinese battery manufacturing and development company, announced on Friday that it will build a lithium-ion battery manufacturing…
Complaint alleges ComEd violated state law by raising fees on customer bills
By ANDREW ADAMS Capitol News Illinois aadams@capitolnewsillinois.com A group of businesses filed a complaint with state regulators last week alleging that Chicago electric company Commonwealth Edison improperly raised customer bills this summer. The complaint – centered on a portion of the 2021 Climate and Equitable Jobs Act that allows utilities to recoup carbon mitigation investments…
Local News
Billions of cicadas get ready to raise a racket
By Kelly White If you haven’t heard the buzz yet, you will soon. With 2024 marking a big year for periodical cicadas in Illinois, billions of the red-eyed buggers will soon be making an appearance. Periodical cicada broods XIII and XIX will be emerging throughout much of the state at the same time. Although exact…
‘A man of honor, a beacon of kindness’
. Chicago weeps for Officer Luis Huesca . By Tim Hadac People across the Southwest Side shed tears earlier this week, as throngs of police officers and other filled the St. Rita of Cascia Shrine Chapel at 77th and Western for a funeral Mass for CPD Officer Luis M. Huesca. Officer Huesca was “a man…
Archer Manor Little League starts its 2024 season
. Sunny skies and mild temperatures greeted the boys and girls, moms and dads, umpires and coaches, and everyone else participating in Archer Manor Little League’s Opening Day parade and ceremonies at Archer Park. Since 1952, AMLL has provided athletic opportunities for thousands of boys and girls in Archer Heights, West Elsdon, Central Stickney, Vittum…
Dread over car drifters on streets
. Reckless drivers take over SW Side intersections . By Tim Hadac At the April meeting of the Garfield Ridge Neighborhood Watch, a police officer admitted that the drag racing/drifting phenomenon seen and heard in the Midway area in recent years “probably will increase, but we hope not.” The admission was triggered by a brief…
Don’t raise pilots’ retirement age, García says
. From staff reports U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García (D-4th), senior member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, recently led a letter joined by 121 Members of Congress urging House Democratic leadership to reject any changes to the pilot retirement age in a final version of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill. As it…
CTA launches ‘chat’ feature on website
. From staff reports Artificial Intelligence has made another step forward at the Chicago Transit Authority. CTA officials recently launched the “Chat with CTA” chatbot, a new virtual automated service featured on transitchicago.com. The communication tool allows riders to report issues, provide feedback and receive answers in real-time. Additionally, it provides the CTA with customer feedback where…
New effort to aid kids with disabilities
. From staff reports A new grant program aimed at providing financial assistance to families of children with disabilities was launched recently by Mayor Brandon Johnson, in partnership with the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities and Ada S. McKinley Community Services. Children with disabilities is a population disproportionately affected by the pandemic, officials said.…
Dart warns of Sheriff’s Office imposters
. From staff reports Cook County Sheriff Thomas J. Dart recently alerted the public of an uptick in telephone and email phishing scams in which scammers identify themselves as a Sheriff’s Office employee in an attempt to defraud victims. Scammers are using the actual names and respective titles of Sheriff’s Office employees to appear legitimate.…
Nazareth Academy celebrates ‘special talent’ J.J. McCarthy in NFL Draft
By Steve Metsch Dennis Moran has no doubts that J.J. McCarthy – the former Nazareth Academy quarterback who is now with the Minnesota Vikings – will succeed in the National Football League. Moran was among about 60 or so Nazareth Academy fans, friends and coaches who gathered Thursday night at The Stadium Club in McCook…
Police Council rallies to save ShotSpotter
. By Alexis Bocanegra Your correspondent in Clearing and Garfield Ridge (773) 949-1509 • grcl.alex23@gmail.com . Chicago Lawn (8th) District Police Council members Mark Hamberlin, Al Cacciottolo and Jason Huff have created an online petition to save ShotSpotter. As you may have read in the Clear-Ridge Reporter & NewsHound back in March, Mayor Brandon Johnson…