Springfield News
-
Democrat JB Pritzker and Gov. Bruce Rauner face off in a Sun-Times editorial board debate on Oct. 9, 2018.
Gov. Bruce Rauner on Friday made two last-minute appointments on his way out the door, in an apparent contradiction of what he promised last month when he described such an action as “not proper policy.” Meanwhile, though Gov-elect JB Pritzker’s plans to boost his top employees’ salaries with money out of his own pocket may raise eyebrows, the Illinois Constitution doesn’t seem to mind. -
Gov.-elect JB Pritzker’s Monday inauguration will mark the beginning of the end in two separate years-long battles with the state’s largest public employee union, AFSCME Council 31 — battles that have gone from the negotiating table to the Illinois Labor Relations Board, and eventually to court.
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.
-
Illinois’ first openly gay lawmaker, State Rep. Greg Harris (D-Chicago), was announced Thursday as the new House majority leader, filling a role held for more than 20 years by newly retired State Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie (D-Chicago). Former State Rep. Nick Sauer (R-Lake Barrington) turned himself in to law enforcement on Thursday after a warrant was issued for his arrest after he was indicted for disseminating private photos of two ex-girlfriends. Gov.-elect JB Pritzker also established a blind trust for his assets during his time as governor.
[Courtesy of GregHarris.org]
-
House Speaker Mike Madigan (D-Chicago), re-elected Wednesday to the role he’s held for all but two years since 1982, chose to begin his remarks during the House inauguration ceremony looking not forward, but backward to Jan. 14, 2014.
State Rep. Michael Madigan address lawmakers after winning another term as House speaker. [Lee Milner]
-
More than seven months after its passage, the gun dealer licensing bill has been released from legislative limbo in preparation to be sent to Gov.-elect JB Pritzker’s desk after the Democrat is sworn in next week. The Senate on Wednesday morning is expected to take up bills that would give state agency heads and their deputies a pay raise and effectively fire the board of the Illinois Tollway. The House passed those bills on Tuesday.
-
On the eve of an inauguration that will usher in the return of one-party Democratic rule to Springfield and a shrunken nucleus of GOP power in state government, House Minority Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) was surprisingly upbeat Tuesday for a Republican whose own caucus suffered major losses in the November election.
-
Longtime State Rep. Lou Lang (D-Skokie) is the 48th and likely final lawmaker leaving the General Assembly after his surprise announcement Monday. Meanwhile, the state has seen a modest increase in tax revenue in the first half of the fiscal year as compared with halfway through the 2018 fiscal year, according to a new report from the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability.
State Rep. Lou Lang (D-Skokie) addresses allegations of harassment against him at the Statehouse on May 31, 2018. [Hannah Meisel/The Daily Line]
-
