Mark Glennon, Wirepoints News
An irresponsible and wrongheaded op-ed on racial preferences by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul published an op-ed last week in Crain’s ridiculing the view that the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on racial preferences has implications for the private sector. His message to the private sector was essentially to keep doing what it has been doing on diversity, equity and inclusion, and to disregard the Court’s decision.
Response by Illinois progressives to Friday's Supreme Court rulings was shameful, irresponsible and dishonest
The U.S. Supreme Court delivered three historic decisions Friday. The response by leading Illinois progressives insulted not just the Court but most Americans — who side with the Court. The progressive’s comments were intended to inflame division and undermine the Court’s legitimacy. They were brazenly hypocritical, and many comments included flat-out lies.
Many racial preferences across Illinois may be invalidated after Friday's Supreme Court ruling
Friday’s decision by the U.S. Supreme Court has consequences far beyond college admissions. While the ruling arose out of affirmative action admissions at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, the strict, new limitations laid down by the Court put countless racial preferences at risk in both the public and private sectors. In fact, the new limitations may be harder to circumvent in areas other than college admissions.
Wall Street brains contemplate Biden dropping out of race and Pritzker as replacement
Top executives in the financial world and research reports by financial advisers are saying it’s clearly plausible that Pres. Joe Biden could drop out of the race and be replaced, perhaps, by Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker or California Gov. Gavin Newsom, two possibilities mentioned by name.
Some of the dumb new laws from the Illinois General Assembly
Have mercy if this list is woefully incomplete. The recently concluded session of the Illinois General Assembly sent a blizzard of some 560 bills to Gov. JB Pritzker for signature, so we certainly don’t know what all is in them (and most lawmakers don’t, either.)
'Anti-doxing' bill passed by Illinois General Assembly will punish legitimate advocacy and stifle constitutionally protected speech
An awful, unconstitutional piece of legislation that should have been opposed by Democrats and Republicans alike passed unanimously in the Illinois House and Senate. It now goes to Gov. JB Pritzker for signature. The only significant opposition came from the ACLU of Illinois. They are right to oppose it.
Alternate reality: CTBA wants Illinois estate tax expanded even as taxpayers flee
Leave it to the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability to suggest another way to drive taxpayers out of Illinois, especially big taxpayers.
New report exposes growing, billion dollar budget fiasco in Illinois' free Medicaid program for undocumented immigrants
How can it happen that an annual program would cost 94 times times what Illinoisans were told it would cost just three years ago — $188 million in its first year? With subsequent extensions it now costs nearly $1 billion per year and growing, money the state doesn’t have.
All Illinois Democratic reps in U.S. House vote against ban on biological men competing in women's sports despite overwhelming public support for a ban
By overwhelming margins, Americans don’t want biological men competing in women’s sports. Surveys consistently show at least 60% opposed and just 30% in support at best, even surveys by left-leaning sources like NPR and The Washington Post.
Pension reform, Illinois style: Legislation to 'fix' the Tier 2 problem
On the long list of things wrong with Illinois’ pension system, there’s one problem that can’t be ignored: Tier 2 pension benefits are increasingly likely to fall short of minimums under federal rules. If that happens, the sponsoring unit of government would face huge, new liabilities. Those facts have long been widely agreed.
Four things Springfield should do to override Brandon Johnson and salvage Chicago
The buck stops with state government when one of its instrumentalities is failing. Chicago, like any Illinois town or city, is an instrumentality of the state and most everything can be changed by state legislation.
Illinois bill would criminalize routine discipline as 'parental bullying'
While the bill likely will go nowhere, it’s unfathomable that it could even be proposed: In the relevant part, a bill now pending in the Illinois legislature would criminalize, as “parental bullying,” any parent who knowingly, with intent to discipline or alter the behavior of a child, says or messages anything that would coerce the child.
Pritzker's contemptuous answer to a reasonable question on judicial recusal
Should judges who received a million dollars each from Gov. JB Pritzker for their campaigns recuse themselves from decisions on the constitutionality of two of his pet pieces of legislation — the SAFE-T Act and the assault weapons ban?
There's an invisible line item coming to many Illinois property tax bills for low income housing
Most Illinois property owners probably don’t know, but their property tax bills may now effectively contain an invisible line item for funding affordable housing. Statewide authorization for that is now going into effect at least in Cook County.
Don't assume more funding makes schools better
Bring on the debate about all of this, but start by setting aside the broad, knee-jerk presumption that more funding improves outcomes.
Illinois torched business and common sense with its biometric privacy law
How sadly ironic that White Castle became the latest victim of the Illinois General Assembly’s malfeasance. Its stores are modeled after the Chicago Water Tower, which survived the Chicago Fire and stands as a monument to the spirit of tenacity and resilience that once prevailed to rebuild the city.
Five U.S. House Reps from Illinois oppose House resolution rejecting socialism, bucking Dem majority
Majorities of members from both parties in the U.S. House of Representatives voted last week in favor of a nonbinding resolution condemning socialism. All Republicans and 109 Democrats voted for the resolution but 86 Democrats voted against it and 14 voted “present.” The resolution “denounces socialism in all its forms, and opposes the implementation of socialist policies in the United States of America.”
Hypocrisy unbridled as Pritzker claims opposition to 'book banning' will make Illinois a destination state
Gov. JB Pritzker has a new solution for Illinois’ shrinking population: Freedom seeking people and companies, he said Monday, will want to come to Illinois because it doesn’t ban books and interfere in the education process. The Washington Post reported last week that he will amplify that case and grow more vocal on it in coming months.
A responsible Illinois General Assembly would be adopting rules similar to the new U.S. House rules
Plenty of reaction to the new procedural rules for the U.S. House of Representatives to be imposed by its Republican majority was about as hysterical as can be:
Pritzker gets his $400 million slush fund for industrial policy
What’s worse than central planning? Autocratic central planning. What’s worse than autocratic central planning? Autocratic central planning that pours hundreds of millions of dollars into a failing effort.