Springfield News
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Eight weeks ago, Gov. JB Pritzker stood at the podium on the Illinois House floor in Springfield, laying out his $42 billion budget plan for the 2021 fiscal year — a plan based on rosy assumptions the strong economy would keep humming along and with high hopes for his signature graduated income tax constitutional amendment passing muster with voters in November, which he had promised on both the campaign trail and in his first year in office would net the state billions more in revenues.
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No cost projection was completed for state or local governments before the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission approved an emergency rule earlier this week making it easier for essential employees working on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic to claim workers’ compensation, officials acknowledged Wednesday when the commission approved the rule again after critics alleged Monday’s action constituted a violation of the state’s Open Meetings Act.
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With another 74 coronavirus deaths and 1,222 new cases reported in Illinois Tuesday, Gov. JB Pritzker warned that while the state appeared to be “bending” its previously exponential growth in Covid-19 cases, it could be a long road to returning to any semblance of normalcy.
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New summons for wage garnishment and deductions, as well as citations to discover assets for debt collection, will be temporarily suspended for the duration of Illinois’ disaster proclamation prompted by the coronavirus just as Americans are set to begin receiving federal stimulus checks, per a new executive order signed by Gov. JB Pritzker Tuesday.
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Nearly all “essential employees” who contract the coronavirus while working on the frontlines of the Covid-19 pandemic in Illinois will automatically be assumed to have been infected while at work and will be eligible for corresponding worker’s compensation, according to a new emergency rule approved by the state’s Workers’ Compensation Commission on Monday.
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A federal judge on Friday denied a request to release upwards of 12,000 Illinois prisoners as a preventative measure against worsening outbreaks of the coronavirus, noting the Illinois Department of Corrections has already released hundreds of prisoners who are at risk.
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Illinois’ number of completed tests for the coronavirus dipped below 6,000 Thursday, a day after Gov. JB Pritzker admitted Illinois would not soon achieve his goal of testing 10,000 people per day.
Gov. JB Pritzker appears with Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike and Illinois Emergency Management Agency Director Brigadier General Alicia Tate-Nadeau for an update on Covid-19 on March 11, 2019. [Hannah Meisel/The Daily Line] -
A highway maintainer with the Illinois Department of Transportation was hit with a $750 fine on top of a 30-day unpaid suspension after a watchdog found he posted four times on Facebook in early 2018 in support of then-State Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton) while on the clock.
The Illinois Capitol. [Hannah Meisel/The Daily Line]
