By Dave Dahl State Rep. Kam Buckner (D-Chicago) will serve a year on conditional discharge, because he pleaded guilty this month to driving under the influence. In March 2019, police found him asleep at the wheel near the Capitol. He refused a Breathalyzer test and failed field sobriety tests. If he successfully completes the year’s…… MORE
The latest salvo in the opioid crisis is a bill to immunize people from prosecution when they seek treatment or tests. Perhaps you’d be reluctant otherwise.… MORE
By Dave Dahl SPRINGFIELD – Now there is a bill inspired by the falling-out between a big insurance company and a big health provider in Springfield. A non-renewal between Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois and Springfield Clinic has customers scrambling. “Most of our consumers and constituents were complaining about the lack of providers that…… MORE
If hate has no home here, it certainly is comfortable as a long-term visitor.… MORE
Illinois Democrats congratulated themselves Thursday afternoon on the bill that replenishes the unemployment fund. Illinois Republicans wondered why.… MORE
The unemployment rate was down, and Illinois’ jobs were up last month.… MORE
By Dave Dahl SPRINGFIELD – It seems like serving on a volunteer fire department is something more people did in Ye Olde Tymes. Now, people are busy, work in town, or whatever. Maybe a $500 tax credit would be an incentive for more people to join up. Illinois Firefighters Association lobbyist Margaret Vaughn is pushing…… MORE
By Dave Dahl SPRINGFIELD – A bill to replenish the money that pays unemployment benefits to Illinoisans passed the House Wednesday night on a partisan vote. “The $4.5 billion deficit in our unemployment insurance trust fund is historic, it’s monumental and very difficult to address,” said State Rep. Jay Hoffman (D-Swansea) at a post-session news…… MORE
Illinois’ appointment process has become a Big Partisan Thing, and one of the biggest complaints Illinois Senate Republicans have about Gov. JB Pritzker.… MORE
While Republicans try to make hay from Gov Pritzker’s record on crime … there’s also the record of the Prisoner Review Board to examine.… MORE
By Mike Matejka Because of COVID, there is no Labor Day Parade this year. It’s always a great event for our everyday workers to march proudly down the street and enjoys the festive crowd. If there had been a parade, this year’s Labor Day theme was to be “150 years of struggle: your right to vote.” …
By Mike Matejka As President Donald Trump threatens to send federal marshals into Chicago, over the objections of Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, recall another Illinois Governor who protested the incursion of armed federal personnel into the city. Those federal troops, rather than calming, escalated the situation, leading to deaths and violence. Illinois poet Vachel Lindsay…
By Mike Matejka Our nation is at a unique watershed in human relations. African-Americans have been killed too many times in the past before George Floyd, but the response to this man’s death is international and all-encompassing. I was a grade-schooler during the Civil Rights 1960s. I watched Birmingham demonstrators hosed and the Selma – Montgomery…
Looking around our community, when we say employer, most will respond to State Farm, Country, or Illinois State University. We too often forget those who are building our roads, serving our food, or our public employees. COVID-19 has made us more aware of the risk. Going to work every day for some people means…