Sens. Michael Hastings (top) and Celina Villanueva (bottom) discuss SB 577.

Illinois charter school advocates and a Chicago Public Schools lobbyist told a largely skeptical Illinois Senate Education Committee on Tuesday that a pending bill supporting charter school employees’ ability to unionize would infringe on the First Amendment rights of charter school administrators and leadership.

Nonetheless, the bill advanced out of the committee in an 11-3 vote.

News in brief: Johnson & Johnson vaccine halted; Welch, Pritzker staffers test positive; Pritzker announces postpartum Medicaid extension

News in brief: Republicans looking for Pritzker’s input during redistricting; Department of Corrections reopening facilities to visitors  

The LaSalle Veterans’ Home was the center of a deadly COVID-19 outbreak that began in November 2020.

The family of a 90-year-old Korean War veteran who died in November after he contracted COVID-19 at the LaSalle Veterans’ Home is seeking $2 million from the state, according to a lawsuit filed last week.

Attorneys working on behalf of the family of Richard Cieski Sr., who died in November, announced the suit Monday, alleging administrators of the veterans’ home were negligent by failing to protect the veteran.

News in brief: Republicans looking for Pritzker’s input during redistricting; Department of Corrections reopening facilities to visitors

President of the Illinois Democratic County Chairs’ Association Kristina Zahorik faced criticism from Rep. Ryan Spain (R-Peoria) on Friday when she testified in a House redistricting hearing.

Republican and Democratic lawmakers have used very different messages and approaches throughout the first four weeks of redistricting hearings.

Republicans have seized on witnesses’ concerns about using alternate Census data, touted legislation to take redistricting out of lawmakers’ hands and called for the majority to slow down the process.

Common Cause Illinois executive director Jay Young and Rep. La Shawn Ford (D-Chicago) discuss the effort to end prison gerrymandering on the latest episode of The CloutCast.

In January, when Illinois lawmakers approved a comprehensive measure to overhaul criminal justice and policing, the legislation contained a provision that would effectively end so-called “prison gerrymandering.”

Today, prisoners across the country are counted by the U.S. Census as residents of legislative districts where the prisons are located, rather than at a person’s last known address. Critics of the process say it artificially inflates the population of counties with prisons, where inmates cannot vote, while giving those areas more federal money. At the same time, counties with a significant portion of residents who are sent to prison but don’t have a facility are at a disadvantage.

News in brief: Hospitality industry calls for more help from state; Cook County outlines next phase of vaccination effort 

As lawmakers continue to field redistricting recommendations from Illinois residents, members of the Latino community and advocacy organizations are hoping to bolster their influence in the legislature under a new map.

Representatives from one organization have begun urging state officials to create a map that include as many as 20 majority-Latino legislative districts in Illinois. Another group has called for lawmakers to draw maps solely based on each district’s “voting age population.” Other Latino organizations have urged lawmakers to avoid dividing their communities, which in Chicago are struggling to contend with gentrification and the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

News in brief: Hospitality industry calls for more help from state; Cook County outlines next phase of vaccination effort