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He has also come out squarely against federal immigration agents in Cook County, a stance likely to resonate with voters following last fall’s “Operation Midway Blitz. “The whole ICE situation should’ve looked a lot different and better coordinated,” Bailey said. “And I’ll even go so far as to say there shouldn’t be federal agents in Cook County doing this work.”
The average price per gallon in Illinois on Friday was $4.12, nearly 20 cents higher than the national average. “I would encourage the majority party, let’s follow the lead of our esteemed colleagues in the great state of Georgia. Let’s suspend the gas tax for a 60-day period to provide true relief for the great citizens of Illinois” state Rep. Jed Davis said.
Juliana Stratton’s victory was the standout among a handful of Tuesday wins for Gov. JB Pritzker. He also notched a win in the primary race for Illinois comptroller, where he backed state Rep. Margaret Croke to become the state’s next chief fiscal control officer, and in the primary for Cook County Board president, where he supported incumbent Toni Preckwinkle.
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The bill is called the Illinois Biometric Surveillance Act, and it’s being pushed by state Rep. Kelly Cassidy. Her proposed law would ban the use of facial recognition and other biometric identifiers by law enforcement statewide. No agency could use the technology or enter into an agreement with a state or federal agency to use it. The bill would still allow “fingerprinting pursuant to an arrest or conviction, or to collect forensic evidence at a crime scene.” The bill does not include the ultimate biometric, DNA, among its “biometric identifiers.”
"So if the priorities getting funded in FY 2027 are somehow wrong, they’ve been wrong for generations, and neither party has seen fit to change them. Better yet, perhaps (gubernatorial candidate Darren) Bailey could enlighten the rest of us as to which core service area — education, healthcare, social services or public safety — shouldn’t be a priority."
The unofficial results of three non-binding questions on Tuesday’s primary ballot show voters favored cutting personnel and services to address Champaign County’s general fund deficit. Voters were given three options, including raising property taxes and raising sales taxes.
According to the complaint, the reported incidents occur nearly daily. Workers accused the defendants of opting against corrective action and affirmatively acting to cause or increase attacks. The women say the situation constitutes violations of Civil Rights Act Title VII protections against sex discrimination and hostile work environments.
Under the proposal, the Department of Healthcare and Family Services would administer the fund and oversee a grant program designed to support scientific research and innovation related to pediatric cancer. Funding could come from legislative appropriations as well as private donations and other contributions made to support the cause.
"Criminally prosecuted, civilly prosecuted," Pritzker said. "Whatever it is that we can do."
After decades of drift, the troubled city has a chance to restore public order and competitiveness.
Sunday’s incident is only the latest episode of gun violence on and around the ISU campus. One person was shot last April outside an event at ISU’s Bone Student Center. Another shooting happened Sept. 29, 2024, near the Bone during ISU’s homecoming weekend. One person was killed and another injured in that incident.
State Rep. Regan Deering emphasized that Illinois families already shoulder some of the nation’s highest property taxes, much of which goes toward funding education. “If we have an opportunity to expand educational opportunities without increasing taxes, that’s going to deserve some serious consideration,” she said.
Sheila Weinberg, of Truth in Accounting: "Unfortunately, Springfield is now considering mandating Tier 2 benefit enhancements for Champaign and other cities. But when similar reforms were considered for Chicago’s police and firefighters, the governor and lawmakers acknowledged that they did not fully understand how much unfunded pension debt would be added. ... If similar Tier 2 enhancements were applied to Champaign, the city’s police and firefighter pension debt could grow from $50.2 million to roughly $199 million."
"The political infrastructure of Democrat Illinois - from the government employee unions to the bar associations - are loyal to the machine that controls almost everything."
“As far as my own plans for 2028, here’s what I’ll say right now, I’m 100% focused on the people of Illinois,” Gov. JB Pritzker said. “That’s not just me talking. That’s also a 2006 quote from Barack Obama.”
Illinois plans to pump $5 million into alternative protein research at state universities, aiming to boost the plant-based and fermentation food-tech sector. State Rep. Chris Miller voiced skepticism about the initiative, questioning whether taxpayer money would be better spent supporting traditional farmers directly.
Jim Dey: "A quarter-cent hike isn’t much, but voters wanted nothing to do with it then and even less to do with any more tax hikes now. ... A second (referendum) involving property taxes went down by a margin of 10,199 to 6,042."
“This all began because of my family,” he said. “When I began to crack open some of my son’s information, his computer, I got his passwords. Unbeknownst to us, when we got into his computer, we discovered emails, he was considering a run as a state representative. When I saw that, I realized, he got it.” He went on to say he had to run for Zach.
The Illinois Supreme Court has ruled the state’s wage law doesn’t protect employers from lawsuits accusing companies of not paying workers for duties completed before or after assigned shifts. Amazon workers sued their employer for being unpaid for time spent undergoing mandatory medical screenings before punching in, a policy the company implemented in 2020 as a Covid mitigation.
"As Pritzker, a billionaire, told me in a postelection interview, 'A whole bunch of money does not a good candidate make.'"
Illinois banned state, county and local law enforcement agencies from enforcing traffic ticket and arrest quotas in 2015, but many departments are still forcing officers to meet a set number of traffic stops and citations each month.
In the past, tourists from other countries could use a passport or other government issued photo ID to purchase a license, but now the rule is no Social Security Number – no fishing or hunting license.
Posts made by then-officer Jason Lentz suggested the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection conduct immigration enforcement at three locations in Elgin and surrounding communities. DHS and CBP were tagged in the posts, city officials said.
The order stated that ComEd’s pipeline includes more than 75 large-load projects that are expected to draw over 28,000 megawatts of energy. That’s more than ComEd’s highest-ever 24,000-megawatt peak demand in its 118-year history.
The bill was written in response to State Farm's $523 million, or 27 percent, homeowners insurance rate hike in the summer of 2025. Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul has also sued State Farm, saying they have failed to turn over data for an investigation into its insurance premium increases.
AIPAC and affiliated shell committees reportedly spent more than $21 million in multiple Democratic races in the Prairie State, with mixed results. Pritzker, who himself spent at least $5 million in support of Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, called the AIPAC spending “interference” and accused the lobbying group of straying from its initial goal to support peace in the Middle East.
"We don’t need to reach out to the governor," Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., said of Gov. JB Pritzker, according to a new Politico report. "Others are going to have to reach out to us." Meeks helms the CBC's PAC, which backed Rep. Robyn Kelly's failed Senate campaign.
Illinois will return to market with about $1.4 billion of general obligation bonds next week, with proceeds funding accelerated pension benefit payments, Rebuild Illinois capital expenditures, information technology projects and other capital projects.
Top Chicago Stories
Many residents currently pay between $700 and $800 a month in rent. Some say they have lived in the building for 30 or 40 years and fear they will not be able to find comparable housing in Woodlawn if rents rise or the property is redeveloped. Tenants say they have been offered $2,000 per household to move out.
Court records show the 25-year-old Venezuelan man was arrested in June 2023 for allegedly shoplifting in the Loop, and gave as his home address at the time the address of Leone Beach Park, where the fieldhouse had been converted into a migrant shelter by City Hall. According to court records, he was released from custody “by rule of the court." He never showed up for court again.
In Chicago, the city council is now drifting toward bankruptcy like a ship of fools. For those of us who love our home city, it is a painful thing to watch. Despite a history of corruption under the Daley machine, the city was always a pro-growth town that attracted industries. It is now following Detroit’s path toward insolvency as politicians kick the debt can down the road for someone else to pay. 
The suit, filed in U.S. district court in Chicago, among other things called the administration's action "arbitrary and capricious" in violation of a federal law called the Administrative Procedure Act. It said the administration's purported justification of the freeze – to ensure nondiscrimination in federal transportation funding programs - "is pretextual, and the freeze was instead based on political retaliation." More Highlighted Chicago Area Stories
"The mayor has ignored calls for more responsible budgeting for three years. He’s rapidly accelerated the city’s financial decline through reckless borrowing and a refusal to slow spending. Barring divine intervention, Johnson will not change. Superman will not emerge from the fifth floor of City Hall to stop this runaway train."
Chicago’s distressed dining scene—recently described as “on the brink of collapse”—was bolstered by good news last week, as the City Council voted to halt future increases in the minimum wage for servers and bartenders.
"If Oak Park gains a reputation as a place where officers face constant political attack and scrutiny, recruitment will decline, and seasoned officers will keep leaving. This is not speculation; it’s exactly what’s occurring in departments across the country today."
While Chicago spends 40 percent of its money on debt service, actual services suffer, Illinois Policy Institute's Austin Berg said, adding is also the only city besides New York that doesn’t require voter approval of new general obligation debt. "Voters didn't decide to have all of that debt. And it's important for voters to be able to decide because those decisions affect Chicagoans 30 years from now. So, shackling them with these political decisions now is just really unfair," he said.
"It seems that school system chiefs in Chicago—and across America—prefer to indoctrinate students as politically fixated young agitators who can act out with impunity. As long as leftist narratives dominate, those vulnerable children are simply passed along, advancing grades without mastering the basic skills of a fully formed thinker." 
"By the end of 2033, the city will end up paying more than $140 million in interest, bringing the total cost of this $512 million bond financing to $652 million. Part of the reason the interest costs are so high is that the city chose to include more than $52 million of interest itself in the amount of bonds it issued. In other words, the city is paying interest on its interest!"
Hawthorne Race Course officials expressed optimism to Illinois Racing Board (IRB) officials on Wednesday that they can conduct thoroughbred racing at their south Chicago suburban track this year. 
He is the fourth person charged this year with killing or attempting to kill someone in Chicago while on felony pretrial release.
"For years, Chicago has operated a legal ecosystem in which one outcome produces another. Convictions are vacated. Civil suits follow. The city is forced to hire expensive law firms to defend the cases. Multi-million-dollar settlements are paid. Private attorneys grow richer and richer. Meanwhile, the City’s financial condition continues to take one massive hit after another. ... Every new wrongful-conviction settlement adds yet another obligation to taxpayers who had nothing to do with the underlying cases."
"Mayor Brandon Johnson's press office insists it is 'common practice' for them to tell the press what questions they are allowed to ask at official events. So much for that open and transparent administration we were all promised."
The city awarded two local nonprofits a total of $250,000 for a program to activate storefronts along the 26th Street and Cermak Road commercial corridors in Little Village, according to a city press release.
Since 1996, the amount Cook County municipalities outside Chicago have levied to keep up with police and fire pensions has grown by 416 percent, while the amount levied for services hasn’t even doubled.
"For all of Chicago’s challenges these days, a bright spot for the city remains its abundance of excellent colleges and universities. ... When an incident this awful happens at any of our universities, the concerning ripple effect is that parents of future collegians will bypass Chicago in favor of places they feel confident their kids will be safe."
Altogether, records show, Annette Guzman got $3,434.59 in erroneous exemptions on a South Loop condo over the past five years, yet the assessor’s office told her to repay only $2,071.89. It’s unclear if the assessor - formerly her boss - will order her to repay the $1,362.70 in tax breaks she got while she wasn’t living in the South Loop condo.
Judge Michael Mullen ruled that it was illegal for the city to keep body-worn camera footage for longer than 90 days, since state law says that footage “must” be destroyed. Despite that, city officials have “enacted their own policy of the indefinite retention” of the videos captured by the body-worn cameras and have disciplined officers based on footage older than 90 days that was not flagged for review, Mullen ruled.
Johnson created the position of deputy mayor for community safety just hours after his inauguration in May 2023. He saw the role as crucial to delivering on a key campaign promise to confront the “root causes” of violent crime.
CPS and Aspira blame each other for the charter network’s downfall. CPS says that Aspira created budgets based on unrealistic enrollment projections, while Lopez says CPS’ student assignment system directed students away from charter schools like his; he said underfunding and low enrollment made the schools difficult to operate. Over the past 10 years, more than 20 privately run charter or contract schools have closed in Chicago.
The Chicago City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to explicitly grant the the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, known as COPA, the authority to investigate whether Chicago Police Department officers helped federal agents carry out deportations. Forty complaints involving CPD’s interactions with federal agents have been filed since June.
“There is like a real disconnect going on in City Council now. It’s like an alt-universe... The entire world is calling for affordability and raising wages, and this City Council just took raises away from Black and Brown women," the mayor said after the vote.
“At a time in which … it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to afford to raise a family in this country — Democrats rolling back the wages of Black and Brown women — that is not only tone-deaf, but it’s irresponsible,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said. “Democrats have to pay attention to what the voters in the city of Chicago are calling for, and quite frankly, what voters across America are expecting from leadership.”
Of the 350,000 free meals served daily at CPS through the Community Eligibility Provision, none includes pork; a vote during a virtual COVID-era board meeting quietly removed this nutrient-dense protein from the menu. Just by swapping a beef sausage patty with a pork sausage patty at breakfast alone, it would save CPS $1.2 million over 180 days.
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who won re-election, didn’t seek CTU’s endorsement. Right before the primary, CTU favorability hit a record-low among likely Chicago voters.
Preckwinkle heads to the general election in November, where she ’s likely to win her fifth, four-year term. There is no Republican candidate for Cook County Board president; Michael Murphy is running as a Libertarian. Should she win in November, Preckwinkle said it would be her last term as County Board president.
Wirepoints Research and Commentary
Illinois lost another $54,000 tax filers and dependents, net, according to the IRS. Since 2000, fleeing taxpayers have taken $94 billion of annual adjusted gross income with them. 
Borrowing for current and past operating expenses, blanks for use of funds and more make Chicago's bond sale planned for next week smell mighty bad. Mark Glennon's interview is in the first ten minutes starting here.
It’s March, which means we are being subjected the dumbest annual study going about how well Chicago is doing. SIGN UP HERE FOR FREE WIREPOINTS DAILY NEWSLETTER
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“You didn’t have to be a wizard t.o see it,” Glennon said, recalling that warning signs were evident as far back as the early 2000s when state revenues faltered after the tech bubble burst. The fiscal trajectory of many major cities, he said, has long reflected a pattern of expanding government commitments without sustainable funding models. Full interview here.
Justices on Illinois' top court ran a Star Chamber. They personally comprised a cancel mob and acted in blatant disregard of constitutional rights to due process and free speech. With just weeks remaining before Illinois voters head to the polls for the Republican gubernatorial primary, the contest has evolved into a broader referendum.
The Hispanic Chamber of Commerce is one among thousands getting billions in total from Illinois taxpayers that needs a close look, says Glennon. Audio Link Here.
Questions about how Illinois spends taxpayer money resurfaced on Chicago’s Morning Answer, as guest hosts Jeanne Ives and Jim Iuorio spoke with Mark Glennon, founder of Wirepoints, about millions of dollars in state grants flowing to nonprofit organizations with political ties. Audio and summary here.
Concerns about widespread benefits fraud, government spending, and the reliability of official data took center stage with Dan Proft and Mark Glennon, as new revelations from outside Illinois renewed questions about similar vulnerabilities within the state. Audio link here.
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