Latest News from Prairie State Wire

Watchdog: Illinoisans must keep watchful eye on government during coronavirus emergency

By W.J. Kennedy | Mar 23, 2020

The Edgar County Watchdogs (ECW) are urging Illinoisans to pay close attention to government directives and other actions taken in response to the proclaimed state of emergency over the coronavirus pandemic.

Poll: Pension crisis warnings from fiscal experts not lost on Illinoisans

By W.J. Kennedy | Mar 23, 2020

Warnings from the fiscal watchdogs at Wirepoints and other policy experts about the teetering public pension systems in the state are getting through to voters, a recent poll shows.

Restaurateurs plead with Gov. Pritzker for help after shutdown order

By W.J. Kennedy | Mar 17, 2020

Chicago Chef Erick Williams, and other members of a coalition of city restaurants, are urging Gov. J.B. Pritzker to immediately release unemployment funds and enact additional emergency measures to help their employees withstand the economic shock of his directive to close all the state’s restaurants and bars until March 30.

Attorney: Wednesday’s argument before the U.S. Supreme Court on Louisiana abortion law not about Roe v. Wade

By W.J. Kennedy | Mar 4, 2020

The U.S. Supreme Court will almost certainly pass on taking on Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that gave women a constitutional right to abortion, when it rules on an Louisiana abortion law heard in oral arguments before the court on Wednesday, says Thomas Olp, Vice President and Senior Counsel of the Thomas More Society (TMS), the pro-life legal group based in Chicago.

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Illinois abortions increased by 3,000 in first year of taxpayer-funded coverage

By W.J. Kennedy | Feb 18, 2020

A week before Friday’s 47th annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., the Illinois Department of Public Health (DPH) released figures showing that the number of abortions in the state increased by more than 3,000 from 2017 to 2018.

Wirepoints: Don’t buy the Pritzker, Harmon rhetoric on property tax relief

By W.J. Kennedy | Jan 31, 2020

One of the key selling points for Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s push to switch the state’s flat income for a progressive one is that the higher taxes paid by the top 3 percent of wage earners under a progressive tax will ease pressure on property taxes for the middle class. Newly elected Senate President Don Harmon (D-Oak Park) has been making the same claim.

AVIAC member says Jose Rodriquez is 'a clear flight risk'

By W.J. Kennedy | Jan 30, 2020

A McLean County judge failed to revoke bail for Jose Rodriquez, the 28-year-old man from Honduras living in the country illegally who on Monday pleaded guilty to killing 39-year-old Corey Cottrell in Bloomington in a hit-and-run last June.

Guilty plea but no bail revocation for driver in Cottrell's hit-and-run death

By W.J. Kennedy | Jan 27, 2020

Jose Rodriguez, an illegal immigrant from Honduras, remains free on bail after pleading guilty to the hit-and-run death last June of 39-year-old Corey Cottrell of Normal, a father of two.

Property Tax Relief Task Force poised to miss another deadline

By W.J. Kennedy | Jan 22, 2020

The Property Tax Relief Task Force, an 88-member legislative leviathan, missed one deadline for presenting its final recommendations for property tax relief in Illinois, and it’s about to miss another for putting those recommendations into action.

Illinois businesses await guidelines for new sexual harassment-training law

By W.J. Kennedy | Jan 21, 2020

Employers in Illinois are anticipating an increase in lawsuits stemming from a new sexual harassment-training law, and three weeks into the new year they still await guidance from the state on how best to comply.

Senate GOP Leader Bill Brady said to have voiced private support for abortion funding, gun control legislation

By W.J. Kennedy | Jan 17, 2020

Former high-level aides to Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner has revealed that Senate Republican Leader Bill Brady (R-Bloomington) told the then governor he was right for signing HB 40 in September 2017, the law requiring Medicaid funding of abortions. At a separate meeting, Brady also recommended that the governor sign gun control bills should they reach his desk.

Students running afoul of the law now eligible for grants under new RISE act

By W.J. Kennedy | Jan 14, 2020

A controversial new Illinois state law provides financial aid to two groups of prospective college students.

Reports: Illinoisans continue to flee, taking their tax dollars with them

By W.J. Kennedy | Jan 8, 2020

In ever-higher numbers, Illinois’ tax-weary residents are staking their futures in other states, recent reports by Wirepoints and the Reason Foundation show.

McSweeney jumps into Brady/Plummer dispute over gaming interests while watchdogs urge ethics reform

By W.J. Kennedy | Dec 16, 2019

State Rep. David McSweeney (R-Barrington Hills) pumped more life into a dust-up between two legislative colleagues over the limited disclosure required of lawmakers with financial interests in the gaming industry.

Illegal immigrant charged with killing Normal’s Corey Cottrell free a month before victim’s family learns he’s out

By W.J. Kennedy | Dec 12, 2019

The legal system is compounding the grief of the family of Corey Cottrell, the 39-year-old Normal resident struck and killed in Bloomington last June 22 by a van allegedly driven by illegal immigrant Jose Rodriguez.

Moody's Analytics: Other states fattening reserves in booming economic times, but not Illinois

By W.J. Kennedy | Dec 6, 2019

Illinois bests only Louisiana in its ability to take a fiscal hit in a moderate, or in a severe recession, according to Moody’s Analytics Stress-Testing States 2019.

Co-chairing of Ethics and Lobbying Reform Commission by lawmaker/lobbyist Sims raises questions

By W.J. Kennedy | Dec 2, 2019

The irony of state Sen. Elgie Sims (D-Chicago) recently being named co-chair of the newly created Joint Commission on Ethics and Lobbying Reform hasn’t gone unnoticed.

'Terrible verdict' in Planned Parenthood undercover video case sets up promising appeal, pro-life attorneys say

By W.J. Kennedy | Nov 18, 2019

Attorneys with the pro-life legal group, the Thomas More Society, said that the “terrible verdict” on Friday in the federal racketeering (RICO) case brought by Planned Parenthood in California against David Daleiden and other undercover reporters is nonetheless a sign of a promising appeal, if not a potentially drawn out one.

Market downturn could wipe out Illinois' public pensions, Wirepoints fiscal analysis warns

By W.J. Kennedy | Nov 13, 2019

Even an unprecedented 10-year growth in the market can’t rescue Illinois’ struggling public pension plans.

In Springfield, family ties bind lobbyists, lawmakers

By W.J. Kennedy | Nov 11, 2019

It was a rainy February Tuesday evening in Springfield, and lobbyist Matthew O’Shea was treating State Rep. Robert Rita (D-Blue Island) to dinner.

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