Springfield News

  • Of the dozens of people selected to serve on Gov.-elect JB Pritzker’s transition committees, 37.5 percent of them are female, mirroring the representation of women in state government, particularly the legislature.
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  • When Gov. Bruce Rauner’s budget office initially pitched a pension buyout program as part of an overall state budget in February, the state was promised $423 million in annual savings from two pension buyout plans that eventually made their way into the FY2019 state budget.

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  • Democratic Gov.-elect JB Pritzker said Friday that he will work to strengthen Illinois’ “Trust Act,” a law that protects undocumented immigrants from being arrested and held by local law enforcement based solely on their immigration status.
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  • Even though it’s been more four weeks since Election Day, — the Illinois State Board of Elections earlier this week certified results from the Nov. 6 contests — two candidates in extremely close races are calling for a rare recount.
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  • Illinois’ General Revenue Fund has borrowed 65 percent of its limit on interfund borrowing this fiscal year, taking advantage of the $1.2 billion limit for the time period beginning in July and ending in March, according to a new report from the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability.
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  • Illinois courts have seen nearly 1 million fewer cases filed during the last five years, according to a new state report out this week reviewing the 2017 caseload of the court system.
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  • The Illinois Supreme Court building in Springfield on Nov. 29, 2018. [Hannah Meisel/The Daily Line]
    Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Lloyd Karmeier penned a little-noticed commentary on the state of politics in America, calling 2018 a “tumultuous” year.
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  • Gov. Bruce Rauner delivers his concession speech on Nov. 6, 2018. [Hannah Meisel/The Daily Line]
    Gov. Bruce Rauner is in Washington, D.C. for only the third time in his official capacity as governor, this time to attend funeral services for former President George H.W. Bush at the National Cathedral.
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  • Nearly four weeks after Gov. Bruce Rauner lost his re-election bid to Democrat JB Pritzker, the two men appeared at the state’s Bicentennial celebration in Chicago, not side-by-side but acknowledging each other and agreeing on the need for bipartisanship fo move Illinois forward into the next 200 years.

    Gov.-elect JB Pritzker, Secretary of State Jesse White and MK Prtizker celebrate Illinois' 200th birthday. [Hannah Meisel/The Daily Line]
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    State Police officials testified at a state Public Health Committee hearing Monday. Family members of murder victims also testified. [Johnathan Ballew/Block Club Chicago]

    State Police officials testified Monday that more forensic scientists are coming to its backlogged crime lab, but acknowledged it could take five years to get caught up, in part, because of a national shortage of experts to process crime scene evidence.

    The officials faced questions at a state Public Health Committee hearing called by State Senator Patricia Van Pelt (D-Chicago), who chairs the panel. Family members of murder victims with cases stuck in the backlog also testified, putting human faces on the stack of unsolved cases.