By Rich Miller There’s been sort of an unwritten rule the past several years in Springfield to stay away from doing things like ban assault weapons. The votes to pass one have seemingly been there in both chambers, but the will of past Democratic leadership seemed to be to not overtly poke any big, cash-rich…

By Rich Miller The state legislative debate last week over amending the Pre-Trial Fairness Act provisions within the controversial SAFE-T Act featured many of the same obfuscations and outright misinformation that characterized the fall campaign by Republicans and many of the same insufficient answers by Democrats. One of the problems that the super-majority Democrats have…

By Ray Hanania If you listened to Gov. JB Pritzker’s campaign rhetoric, you would think Illinois was well on its way to economic recovery. Pritzker threw a few hundred dollars at us in state tax money, spent hundreds of millions on himself and to help Darren Bailey win the GOP primary last June. Then he…

By Richard Guebert Jr. Americans look forward to celebrating the simplest of gifts and gathering with family and friends around the table during the holiday season. It is also often a time of giving thanks as Illinois farmers mark the end of another growing season. The past few years have confronted all Americans to pivot,…

By Rich Miller The Illinois Senate Republicans’ new leader, John Curran, told Capitol News Illinois the other day that there was nothing left to do on the abortion topic in Illinois. “The reality is, what else can we do here in Illinois?” Sen. Curran said. “The laws of Illinois are more weighted towards guarantees of…

By Lou Berneman For years, China has stolen hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of American companies’ intellectual property — everything from patented software code and computer chips to prescription drug formulas and weapons systems. Thankfully, the Biden administration is making a concerted effort to curtail this theft. Federal investigators now open a new counterintelligence…

By Rich Miller Governor JB Pritzker’s administration recently used its annual Economic and Fiscal Policy Report to outline three new budget proposals. The report revised projected revenues upward by $3.69 billion for this fiscal year, but noted that most of the projected increase was from one-time sources, like an unexpected spike in the state’s Income…

By Ray Hanania In order to understand what happened in Illinois on Tuesday, Nov. 8, you have to understand the surprise election events in DuPage County. For years, DuPage County was the Republican antithesis of the Democratic Cook County. But as Cook County shifted its concerns from protecting law-abiding citizens to protecting the “rights” of…

By Rich Miller State Rep. Tim Ozinga (R-Mokena) made the classic blunder of not focusing on one election at a time. But, his flub does give us an excuse to look at a few fundraising issues. It’s been no secret that Ozinga wanted to be the next House Republican Leader. But he hasn’t really been…

By Ray Hanania There are just some places where political-philes love to hang out and talk politics and life. The top place to go to enjoy a great meal and rub shoulders with politicians and political journalists is Manny’s Restaurant & Deli on Jefferson Street and Roosevelt Road in Chicago. Manny’s has the absolute best corned-beef sandwiches,…