Springfield News

  • The Sexual Harassment Task Force launched in the wake of sexual harassment allegations in the Capitol at the beginning of the #MeToo movement issued its final report Wednesday after more than a year’s worth of work.
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  • While the call for a $15 minimum wage has been echoing in Springfield — and across the country — for several years, Democrats are confident that a bill to raise the wage in Illinois finally has the right political conditions to become reality.
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  • House Speaker Mike Madigan (D-Chicago) speaks with reporters on May 30, 2014. [Hannah Meisel/The Daily Line]
    With the General Assembly back in session, there was action across the Capitol on a host of issues — as the revelation that House Speaker Mike Madigan was caught on tape by the FBI was the topic of the day.

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  • Gov. JB Pritzker talks to reporters in Springfield last week. [BlueRoomStream]
    Gov. JB Pritzker on Monday said he supports Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s effort to review the 81-month sentence handed down earlier this month to former Chicago Police officer Jason Van Dyke for the second-degree murder of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald in 2014. The Pritzker administration also said Monday that AFSCME members who had been denied step increases since 2015 will begin seeing their pay rise starting April 1. Meanwhile, the new head of the Department of Agriculture shares Pritzker’s desire for an expansion of broadband service in Illinois, calling it a top priority.
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  • The Illinois House will take their first votes of the 101st General Assembly on Tuesday, approving House rules — as is standard at the start of every new legislative session.
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  • A new report from Illinois’ Office of the Executive Inspector General has found that the husband of State Sen. Kimberly Lightford (D-Maywood) was wrongfully hired at the Chicago Transit Authority in 2016 after he bragged about being married to Lightford.
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  • The "Superman" rollercoaster at Six Flags Great America. [Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons]
    The Illinois Supreme Court on Friday found a 14-year-old boy was “aggrieved” when Six Flags Great America took his fingerprints in 2014 without the consent of a parent — a decision that will have major effects on dozens of other cases pending that hinge on the interpretation of Illinois’ strongest-in-the-nation biometric privacy law.
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  • A sign urging Gov. Bruce Rauner to keep negotiating on a contract with AFSCME is displayed in the window of the union's Springfield office on February 23, 2017 — the same day the union authorized a strike, which never ended up happening.


    After dedicating his first full day on the job to repairing the damage caused by former Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration with state labor unions, Gov. JB Pritzker late Thursday asked for more time to decide his administration’s next step in a long-running lawsuit.
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  • Gov. JB Pritzker signs an executive order on immigration spending at an Aurora immigrant welcoming center on Thursday. [Hannah Meisel/The Daily Line]
    Gov. JB Pritzker on Thursday ordered a review of state spending on immigrant services, alleging there was reason to believe former Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration had intentionally held back funds earmarked to help immigrants. Meanwhile, a new report from Columbia University found that Black “emerging adults” are “incarcerated at a rate 9.4 times greater than their white peers in Illinois.” The state has also fined 117 nursing homes for violations during the last three months of 2018, the Department of Public Health said Thursday.
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  • Gov. JB Pritzker talks to reporters in Springfield on Wednesday. [BlueRoomStream]
    Gov. JB Pritzker’s ninth full day on the job included signing yet another executive order designed to set the stage for his progressive vision for the state and rebuke of President Donald Trump. At the same time, Pritzker’s administration is also dealing with its first crisis as a resident of the Veterans’ Home in Manteno has died after contracting Legionnaires’ Disease.
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