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"Sadly, Minnesota does not have a monopoly on this sort of fraud. Similar misconduct is almost certainly happening in many other states, especially states like California, New York, and Illinois, which impose lax controls on the use of government benefit funds." 
Heidner found himself on the defensive Thursday night when opponent Ted Dabrowski criticized Heidner’s business operation contributing $2,500 to the campaign of former Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and $25,000 to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson — two progressive Democrats frequently
"While the country is outraged over a billion dollars or more of fraud being exposed in Minnesota, the fraud identified in just one official Illinois State Agency, the Illinois Department of Employment Services, makes Minnesota’s fraud look like child’s play."
Illinois becomes the 13th state to create an automatic records relief process for individuals with non-violent criminal convictions. The Clean Slate Act does not apply to serious crimes like murder, sex offenses, DUI and domestic battery.
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Heidner, a controversial Barrington Hills business executive who put $1 million into his own campaign and who has a new digital ad in which he labels himself
Among their proposals, Senate Bill 1235 would repeal the 2030 and 2045 forced shutdown dates for coal and natural gas plants and allow for the construction of new natural gas peaker plants to ensure reliability during extreme weather.
"Remember the national uproar last November when U.S. Rep. Chuy Garcia bowed out of his reelection race at the last minute and quietly passed petitions to put his chief of staff Patty Garcia on the ballot? ... This sort of resign-and-replacement move is far more common at the Illinois Supreme Court than in any other body of government."
Illinois received three letters on Jan. 6 laying out which documents were required for three separate programs targeted in the freeze. Each letter cited concerns that Illinois was providing benefits to immigrants lacking permanent legal status, but none provided proof.
“We must stand together as Illinoisans to prevent our State from being out of the NFL business altogether, and support the Mega Projects Bill,” Arlington Heights Mayor Jim Tinaglia wrote. “The Chicago Bears should not get special treatment just because they are ‘the Bears,’ but they shouldn’t have it held against them, either. They should be treated the same as any other entity.”
A newly introduced bill that would bar former Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from working in state and local law enforcement in Illinois is sparking intense debate, with supporters calling it a necessary accountability measure and critics warning it could worsen police shortages and undermine public safety.
The state dropped to 38th in a nationwide business tax climate ranking.
In 2025, Illinois became the first state to mandate universal screening, requiring annual screening for students in grades 3–12 beginning in the 2027–28 school year. While widespread implementation has occurred somewhat inconspicuously, empirical evidence has shown that universal mental health screening does not improve clinical or academic outcomes and indeed has harmful effects.
Despite a continued downturn in wagering, Illinois sportsbooks notched all-time monthly highs in revenue and handle for November. ("Handle" means total amount wagered.)
Open The Books created a database of “child care” spending by State after the Minnesota fraud came to light. Here, the reporter considers allocations in the Bloomington area.
Chief Judge Charles Beach’s office was asked whether evaluating or improving the SAFE-T Act is part of the assignment given to the electronic monitoring panel and whether the chief judge was preparing a separate report with recommendations for changes to the law. “The answer to both questions,” a spokesperson for the chief judge said, “is, simply, no.”
Gov. JB Pritzker signed Senate Bill 25 on Jan. 8. Starting in 2030, the law adds a charge to consumer electric bills for battery storage.
One new rule, which took effect Dec. 24, states that the date a postmark is applied to a piece of mail may not reflect the day it was received by the Postal Service. Currently, 14 states, including Illinois, will accept mail-in ballots if they are received within a certain period after Election Day if they are postmarked on or before Election Day.
The case centers on whether Illinois’ Minimum Wage Law offers broader worker protections than federal law. A ruling in favor of the plaintiffs could affect employers statewide by expanding what activities must be paid under Illinois law, while a ruling for Amazon would reinforce alignment with federal standards.
Illinois state agencies stood to lose nearly $6 million that goes toward behavioral health and suicide prevention, the agencies said in a joint news release. In the release Gov. JB Pritzker called the terminations “nothing short of abject cruelty.”
Public records show Centro de Trabajadores Unidos, or the United Workers Center, received more than $3.6 million from the state of Illinois since 2015, most of that coming since 2023. “It's a situation where we have tax payers from Illinois paying for an organization that is actively impeding federal law, and they have a mission statement to do just that,” state Rep. Adam Niemerg said.
"Candidates, in short, are not 'mere bystanders' in their own elections," U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority decision. "They have an obvious personal stake in how the result is determined and regarded. Departures from the preordained rules cause them particularized and concrete harm. ... An unlawful extension of vote counting deprives candidates of the opportunity to compete for election under the Constitution and laws of the United States."
Joe Abraham said he was taken aback when Gov. JB Pritzker spoke publicly after the Minnesota shooting despite staying silent following his daughter Katie’s death.
“It was Justice Scalia that said in a case, U.S. v. Prince, that the federal government cannot commandeer states and state and local resources to do what is the federal government’s work,” Raoul said. “The 10th Amendment gives us our sovereignty, gives us a state’s rights. It used to be that Republicans would advocate for the protection of state rights.”
Republicans have filed a bill to repeal the state's shutdown dates for coal and gas plants, along with the construction of new natural gas peaker plants to improve energy capacity. They are also calling for a task force to study how recent energy laws have impacted electric prices and grid reliability.
U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, speaking on the House floor, outlined three articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, citing obstruction of Congress, violation of public trust, and self-dealing.
Overall, the $10.9 billion request would be a slight decrease from the current budget of just over $11 billion. But that is only because funding for early childhood education, which totals nearly $750 million this year, is being shifted in the upcoming year to the newly created Department of Early Childhood. Otherwise, the request seeks a $350 million increase in the Evidence-Based Funding formula.
Residents in 32 Illinois counties will have an opportunity on the March 17 primary ballot to tell Gov. JB Pritzker whether they think the state’s students should benefit from the new federal tax credit being given for education donations.
The team will grow to over 100 employees a spokesperson said in response to how many long-term jobs for Sangamon County the facility could employ.
The gaming board released October figures that show a 15 percent drop in bets placed in the state, mirroring similar numbers from September, which also saw a steep decline in online bets. This coincides with the state's hefty tax on online gambling providers, which imposed a 50-cent tax on every bet placed by consumers. Other states with legalized online betting have not seen similar declines.
Top Chicago Stories
Once a dicey political proposition, an increasing number of established Democrats are calling for a dissolution of the federal Immigration and Customs and Enforcement agency. 
Union President Stacy Davis Gates said that she’s not surprised that the CTU, under her leadership, is being attacked. As a Black woman, she said she knew she would be vulnerable to being maligned and painted as a crook, which is a historical racist trope. 
Rights to the meters were sold in 2008 by then-Mayor Richard Daley for more than $1 billion. It is believed that revenue since then has more than double that price. Ownership of the meters is now back up for sale, and it could cost whoever buys them billions.
More than 1 in 10 Chicago Public Schools employees owe the city money, and more than 1 of every 3 CTA workers owe such debt. Employees of the Chicago Board of Education owe nearly $10 million, and CTA employees owe nearly $9 million.
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In 2022, property taxes on the 71st Street building were $16,463. By 2025, the bill had risen by 255 percent — to $58,592.
Also this week, Cook County’s inspector general, Tirrell Paxton, reported closing 18 more PPP fraud investigations in the last quarter of 2025. He found county employees obtained a combined $315,000 in bogus loans. Those cases were referred to criminal authorities.
Organizers of the event spoke beforehand, saying their message is to fight against "Nazi-style atrocities" from the Department of Homeland Security, after incidents like Good's death.
It would be the first time since the payment policy took effect in 2023 that the city isn’t planning to pay the full amount in January. The move underscores the financial stress that Chicago is facing. Local property tax distributions from Cook County have arrived late and the city’s expenses including for labor, pensions and material continue to rise.
Here are some jobs the center should offer to provide a more complete picture of the Obama administration’s record.
Retired 37-year police veteran Chief Tom Weitzel calls on Chicago Sun-Times Editor-in-Chief Kimbriell Kelly "to shut down their ICE tracking portal, which endangers police & our communities."
“The amount of debt we have and the way we manage debt is symptomatic of a much deeper issue,” says Justin Marlowe, director of the Center for Municipal Finance at the University of Chicago. “We haven’t really figured out what kind of city government we really want or need. We’ve just kind of assumed that what we had in the past should continue, even though circumstances have changed a lot.”
David Greising, of the Better Government Association: "The City Council Office of Financial Analysis is a well-intended entity. But since its establishment just over a decade ago, it has fallen far short of its objective to establish itself as an independent voice on budget analysis."
Downtown office vacancy hit a record high for the 14th straight quarter at the end of 2025, capping a year that showed signs of leasing stability but failed to reverse the post-pandemic real estate crisis infecting the city's urban core.
District officials told the board this week they estimate that delays in receiving property tax revenue from Cook County have cost the district more than $70 million over the past eight years. Cook County is helping some smaller suburban taxing districts weather the delays with a bridge loan program, but CPS does not qualify.
Transit leaders could vote to create a regional transit police force next January, and new “transit ambassadors” could be monitoring the CTA, Metra and Pace by July of next year. By this November, commuters should have a regional transit app to file complaints and report crimes.
While Bally’s was flat, new facilities led a boom in casino revenue last year in Illinois. The state’s 17 casinos generated more than $1.9 billion in adjusted gross receipts in 2025, a 15 percent year-over-year gain, according to data published by the Illinois Gaming Board.
Renovations on the stadium in 2003 were supposed to be paid off with a tax on hotel stays, but the pandemic limited that revenue. The city has paid nearly $52 million since 2022 to cover the costs and $356 million in debt still remains. When considering the interest and total amount to be paid over the life of the bonds, it is closer to $534 million. The Bears team already paid their share, so the rest is entirely on Chicago taxpayers.
"Judge (James) Brown was a private citizen when he wrote his column for me and appeared on the podcast. The very bar groups asking for removal from the bench found him fair and impartial in prior evaluations. ... Now they’re passively-aggressively implying Brown was transphobic and racist. They have no shame. And they expect the Illinois Supreme Court to do their dirty work."
"Preckwinkle is a far-left Democrat, and she is largely responsible for the county party’s embracement of radical policies, such as the enactment of Illinois’ no-cash bail SAFE-T Act and the abrupt about-face from established law enforcement practices that have protected people for decades. ... Boss Toni uses her power as party leader and County Board president to get her way, while generally remaining in the background."
The figures are slightly higher than a national poll conducted by the Pew Research Center in mid-October.
The mayor's office says Chicago receives more than three billion dollars in federal grants annually, spending about $1 billion each year. "First of all, he can't do that, right?" Johnson said. "So, I just wanted to level set this president has threatened our city and other cities across America on multiple fronts. I just want to name the fact how unnatural this person's behavior is."
The coalition of progressive unions that helped put him in office remains fractured. His tax-the-rich agenda has produced more rhetoric than results. Animosity lingers from tactics the Chicago Teachers Union used to intimidate alderpersons who rejected Johnson’s proposed corporate head tax. 
"Chicago needs a public inventory of mandates. There is no table that lists which requirements impose recurring costs for the city. There is no annual accounting of how many full-time operations exist solely to satisfy external requirements. There is no systematic effort to compare mandates against outcomes or to sunset those that fail. ... A system so saturated with compliance obligations that it cannot describe its own compliance costs is not a sign of good governance."
Mayor Brandon Johnson called the latest threat from the president unconstitutional and immoral. "Chicago will never back down from a fight,” Johnson said in a statement. “To the president, our message is simple: we’ll see you in court.”
Mayor Brandon Johnson calls President Trump's Venezuela move 'illegal regime change' as the Chicago Teachers Union union rallies for a socialist regime that crushed its own people.
But the biggest issue looming over the legalization push is the city’s need for a better split in tax revenue with the state, a mayoral spokesman said. As it stands, Chicago would receive just 5 percent of the revenue from the machines, while state government would get a 30 percent split. The city’s video gambling machine share is far below the around 20 percent it receives from casino slot machines.
"In Lincoln Square, there’s a three-bedroom house selling for $1,099,000. In Buffalo Grove, there’s a four-bedroom house on sale for $425,000. At those prices, who can blame a middle-class family for leaving the city?"
Wirepoints Research and Commentary
On Thursday night, all four leading major Republicans candidates for governor -- Rick Heidner, Darren Bailey, James Mendrick and Ted Dabrowski -- in the Tazewell County Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Forum. The video is a bit blurry, but the whole program is linked here. 
JB Pritzker's scheme to boost the Republican he though he could best most easily -- Darren Bailey -- worked beautifully four years ago, so he's at it again. 
Chicago’s mounting fiscal pressures and public safety concerns were front and center on Chicago’s Morning Answer as guest host Chris Krok spoke with Mark Glennon, founder of Wirepoints. The discussion ranged from a recently approved Chicago Public Schools tax increase to broader warnings about crime, budgeting, and government accountability in Illinois and beyond. Listen here.
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The state's mandatory, annual training for its workers demands obedience to the worst of DEI catechism not just on language, but on thoughts and conduct. All state employees are now subject to DEI social engineering that’s as dogmatic and extreme as ever. Disobey and you can be fired. 
Wirepoints founder Mark Glennon joined Dan Proft to discuss what they described as a deepening crisis of accountability in Chicago and Cook County. Interview linked here begins at the 7.0 mark. 
A widely reported study about the impact on Illinois of recent federal budget cuts is flimflam, says Wirepoints' Mark Glennon. Click here to hear the interview. 
Government dependence is no way to go through life. Click here for the interview. 
A blind man could see through it in a minute. The now infamous video posted by six members of Congress was a transparent attempt to condition Americans to believe the Trump Administration should be stopped through military intervention. 
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