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Top Illinois Stories
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s deep financial involvement in his state’s U.S. Senate primary on Tuesday has angered potential allies for his possible 2028 presidential bid. More Highlighted Illinois Stories
With barely 24 hours to go before Republican voters in Illinois choose a nominee for governor from four candidates, one thing they agree on is that he must be able to defeat two-term Democrat incumbent JB Pritzker.
Beyond working on balancing the state’s budget, lawmakers in the Capitol are focused on passing “legislation that brings down costs for households, that brings good jobs, grows wages and opportunities,” Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch said. Legislators are also “pushing for ‘real structural reform’ surrounding affordability” following a report that grocery costs in Illinois rose by $1,781 last year.
At one point, the land on which Hillwood wants to build its $20 billion data center comes within a quarter mile of where NorthPoint purchased land for dozens of warehouses: a hodgepodge of fields stretching 3½ miles south from the data center and a mile to both the east and west. “This is not slow and steady growth we can adjust to,” said Mike Adrieansen, mayor of Manhattan, a village of 11,000 people. “It’s very large parcels of land being developed all around us, all at once.”
The average student loan balance for borrowers in Illinois is $40,243, greater than the national average of $37,000.
House Bill 4334 comes as new translation technologies and artificial intelligence tools continue to develop.“Technology changes and as technology changes, we should adapt to make sure we’re providing our students the best education that they can have based on the most recent data of what the future is going to look like,” state Rep. Travis Weaver said.
Women are 27 percent less likely than men to receive bystander CPR because of hesitancy to follow protocol, fueled by fears of inappropriate touching, exposing the chest or drawing accusations of sexual assault, according to the Journal of the American Heart Association. House Bill 4788, sponsored by Rep. Maura Hirschauer, aims normalize CPR performance on women by introducing female manikins in secondary school CPR training.
All 118 state House seats are on the ballot, in addition to 39 of the 59 state Senate seats, and the fight to fill those seats has drawn an influx of political action committees. That includes a PAC co-founded by gun-violence-prevention activist David Hogg and a $50,000 cash infusion from the state attorney general.
Foundation officials told Fox News Digital the volunteers will complement about 300 full- and part-time employees at the long-delayed center, which the organization is promoting as a $3.1 billion economic catalyst for the Windy City's South Side.
Former gun store owner Jeff Regnier and wife Greta Keranen say prosecutors abused their power when they used Illinois’s civil asset forfeiture laws to try to take ownership of their property even though they weren’t convicted of crimes. A judge called the tactics “authoritarian,” but prosecutors say they were following the law.
Gov. JB Pritzker signed an executive order Friday that establishes a new state group that will work with experts to analyze the state’s changing labor market and workforce needs. Right now, around 57 percent of Illinois adults have a postsecondary degree or credential.
"Some wonder whether this primary race spending is just a test, and whether gigantic companies like DraftKings and Meta will eventually unleash on incumbents during future contests. Meta has pledged to stay positive. But that could change."
State Sen. Sue Rezin believes Illinois should eliminate plea deals for people charged with involuntary sexual servitude of a minor, trafficking involving a minor, or grooming. Her bill could also charge child sex offenders with a Class 4 felony if they work, volunteer or knowingly visit facilities that exclusively provide entertainment for minors.
The move follows the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, banning race-based admissions, amid concerns that some universities still use racial proxies like diversity statements.
The proposed 2027 budget would allocate an additional $50 million to the program. The plan is for the state to support the housing market through incentives for new construction and financial assistance to home buyers, reallocating funds from previous programs and bond proceeds.
With a few days left until the 2026 Primary Election, the Bailey/Del Mar campaign bus made a stop in Metropolis on Thursday, March 12. While Darren Bailey, a Republican candidate for the office of Illinois governor, was unable to attend due to family matters, his lieutenant governor running mate Aaron Del Mar met with voters at La Pizza di Shane.
"By far, what is most disquieting about (Secretary of State Alexi) Giannoulias’ baggage train of scandals is the recent revelation his Secretary of State office had illegally issued non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs). According to an annual review carried out by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, it was discovered 20 percent of non-domiciled CDLs issued by Giannoulias’ office failed to comply with requirements in federal code."
"Yet despite Illinois’ long-term disinvestment in services, the state’s General Fund consistently runs deficits. Again, the data make it clear why this is the case: Illinois tax policy is so flawed it fails to generate revenue that grows with the economy over time. In other words, Illinois does indeed have a revenue problem. Which means eliminating the structural deficit requires reforming state tax policy to work in the modern economy, not parroting factually discredited tropes."
“All health care professionals have to take continuing medical education, and the General Assembly has mandated a bunch of courses,” said state Rep. Bill Hauter. “That’s hours that could be spent studying something important to your specialty." Over the years, Illinois lawmakers have added required education modules on issues ranging from implicit bias to Alzheimer’s awareness and opioid overdoses.
Illinois has 181 open state and federal seats this year, the vast majority of those in the state General Assembly. Of the 362 possible primaries, only 61 are contested, split evenly between Democrats and Republicans.
Federal COVID funds used to pay for the program have run out, and district leaders said they cannot sustain the program that for the last four years has offered students homework support, a light meal and time to build academic skills. Those services were at no cost to families.
The DuPage County state's attorney announced the dismissal of more than a dozen cases involving the faulty tests. Other county prosecutors and police departments in the metro Chicago area are now reviewing cases, including in Cook County.
A large number of the layoffs were reported from Franciscan Health Olympia Fields Hospital and Franciscan Health Alliance with 1,930 people given notices. Walgreens, which is headquartered in sububarn Deerfield is also set to lay off workers, with more than 400 layoffs at their headquarters alone, and others in Chicago and Danville.
Together with pro-Israel funds, the tech money is swamping Democratic rivals in the Chicago area. “There’s nothing wrong with interest groups getting involved in politics,” said Alisa Kaplan, executive director of Reform for Illinois. “But when some groups can drown out everyone else because of their bottomless pockets… it distorts democracy.” 
Illinois Democrats have a rare opportunity to help send a Black woman to the Senate this year — though it’s an opportunity that may be blocked by a splintering electorate and competing political loyalties.
The proposal would require the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity to create a new broadband grant distribution plan. Grant recipients could then install, maintain and use broadband infrastructure along a highway right-of-way. This comes as Illinois faces a Dec. 31 deadline to submit final proposals to utilize $1 billion in federal broadband funding.
Top Chicago Stories
"If politicians won’t fix bloated pensions amid credit downgrades, the bond market will force their hand."
As CPS charges ahead, district leaders said they will use money from special taxing districts to cover the federal funding gap. A $250,000 pilot grant will fund several initiatives under the Black Student Success umbrella, including a districtwide Black Student Union conference and a new Black Male Educator Pipeline and Retention initiative, focused on building affinity spaces for Black educators with mentoring and wellness programming.
More Highlighted Chicago Area Stories
A trade group representing social media companies and other big tech companies is suing to challenge Chicago's so-called social media user tax, saying the tax — which Illinois' governor also has called to replicate statewide — amounts to unconstitutional taxation and unconstitutional discrimination against social media publishers.
The ages of the victims range from 16 to 63.
"So we have joined with state Sen. Bill Cunningham and state Rep. Bob Rita to introduce legislation in the Illinois Senate and in the Illinois House of Representatives to prohibit mayors from raiding TIF funds to plug temporary budget holes. These bills would limit a mayor’s ability to declare unspent TIF funds 'surplus,' take them out of the neighborhoods and use them to boost spending at City Hall."
"Perhaps if the CTU spent less time parading around for tyrannical regimes and rubbing elbows with dangerous Marxist organizations, they'd be able to focus on educating Chicago's children. But they're not."
Data tracked by HeyJackass.com shows that 26 percent of gunshot victims in Chicago have died from their wounds so far this year. But among those who received a delayed emergency response because no one called 911 and ShotSpotter was no longer there to compensate, the fatality rate climbs to nearly 56 percent — more than double the citywide rate.
"Indeed, (former Illinois House Speaker Michael) Madigan was the last Irish-Chicagoan political boss. He currently resides in a West Virginia prison, after being indicted on corruption charges."
The woman who stabbed them was taken into custody, authorities said.
"No matter his ideological desires and his ire at a council that doesn’t trust him and won’t agree to his economically crippling taxes, his first responsibility is to do no more fiscal harm. As he continues to go ward by ward deriding the finances of his own city, the yields bond investors demanded last week to help bankroll the city’s budget suggest he indeed is doing such harm."
Four seats opened up this cycle. Commissioners Bridget Degnen and Sean Morrison are stepping aside, while Kevin Morrison and Donna Miller opted to run for Congress instead.
By state law, most homeowners have 30 months after the auction to pay back what they owe. If they don’t, the investors, also known as tax buyers, can take over their properties, sell them, and pocket the profit. Greg Bingham has taken ownership of and sold more than 350 properties in Cook County this way, mostly in majority-Black neighborhoods, for a total of more than $25 million. He also has raked in nearly $8 million in public funds by taking advantage of an obscure legal loophole more than any other tax buyer. To pay Bingham, the county had to dip
Chicago Public Schools said in a prepared statement, "To resolve this matter in a mutually-acceptable way, the District and the Moody Bible Institute collaborated to modify the student teaching agreement, ensuring it aligns with the constitutional rights of faith-based organizations."
The mayor’s office has categorized it as an amusement tax, which NetChoice rejects because it’s “not calculated based on consumers’ use of social media.” Their suit contends it’s based on the data the social companies collect from users and monetize just like “myriad other online services collect data from their users — and those services are left untaxed.”
CTU is joining a national resistance movement called “May Day Strong,” whose organizers say 500,000 workers and families will walk out that day, supposedly sticking it to billionaires while really just affecting the services middle-class families need. It’s the same type of progressive activism that drew criticism in 2024 when CTU took kids out of school for a “day of political engagement” and got caught telling kids what to vote for.
By actuary Mary Pat Campbell.
"CTU is also encouraging students to join in their protest and calling upon the Board of Education and Mayor Brandon Johnson to allow middle and high school students an excused absence to do so. That shifts this event from a labor action by teachers to something closer to a school-wide political mobilization."
Just before midnight, the 37-year-old male victim was standing on the northbound platform at the Grand station, 521 North State Street, when the offender walked up to him and stabbed him in the left tricep, according to CPD.
The state's attorney's office is also trying to prevent deaths by requesting detention for felony domestic battery offenders at a much higher rate. The detention rate has risen from 54 percent to 81 percent.
According to the latest report from the state police, reflecting 2024 seizures, the Chicago Police Department took in $9.4 million in assets that year — including 962 vehicles worth more than $7.7 million, plus cash. Every other law enforcement agency in Illinois combined reported seizing 595 vehicles. A Chicago police spokesman says civil asset forfeiture “plays an important role in disrupting organized criminal networks,” saying the money goes toward “strengthening public safety.”
The union wants staff and students to use the date to protest everything from ICE arrests to school funding, housing costs and what they claim is the threat President Donald Trump poses to democracy.
Incumbent Assessor Fritz Kaegi and Pat Hynes are fighting for control of the office that sets valuations of more than 1.8 million parcels across the county, a key component to calculating annual tax bills.
David Greising, of the Better Government Association: "Mayor Brandon Johnson comes to mind as a player who helped get us here. He has proved remarkably inactive when forceful city leadership could have made a difference."
“We have access to water. We have access to energy. We have access to the workforce,” said Kristin Richards, the director of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. “We are very much open for business.”
Ald. Anthony Napolitano said he insisted on Thursday’s vote which prohibited ward-by-ward bans, to prevent Johnson from blowing a hole in the $16.6 billion, 2026 budget approved by a City Council majority that rejected Johnson’s corporate head tax. That alternative budget assumed that Chicago would generate $6.8 million by licensing newly legalized video gambling terminals across the city.
"Whatever the outcome in this matter, the settlement sums we’ve been seeing in cases where law enforcement hasn’t even directly caused the alleged harm make us wonder whether the current administration simply is too gun-shy about fighting some of these claims in court."
With the survey conducted just days after residents were hit with $34 million in new property tax increases, Illinois Realtors researchers found 41 percent of residents now point to housing affordability as the issue lawmakers need to be most concerned about, with 23 percent listing property taxes and 18 percent overall costs. Crime and gun violence were listed as the city’s second biggest issue at 23 percent.
Wirepoints Research and Commentary
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.
“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.
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MORE WIREPOINTS ORIGINAL STORIES
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.
The cancel mob lives on. The latest example is in Illinois courts. There, the mob could hardly have been more brazen, defrocking a judge for daring to write about one of their favorite weapons – “lawfare” – abuse of the legal system for political or social goals.
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