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Omicron shows Illinois masks and mandates aren't working: A comparison of Illinois versus its neighbors
A comparison of mask-mandated Illinois to its mandate-less neighbors during Omicron shows that Illinois’ restrictions have failed to provide any benefit so far. In fact, a review of publicly-available CDC data shows Illinois’ per capita COVID cases increased more rapidly than all its neighbors, while the state’s deaths per capita are now higher than all of its neighbors except Indiana. -
Politics getting bad for those using children as human COVID shields
It’s time for public officials like Gov. JB Pritzker to check the political winds on their COVID policies. They may cling to their version of science, but the politics have shifted against them, even within their own party. They are rapidly being left behind, putting Illinois and a few other states in outlier status on COVID policy, particularly for children. -
Here's what real voter suppression looks like in Illinois
If activists and lawmakers really cared about democracy, they’d drop their unfounded claims of “voter suppression” and instead end what really depresses voter turnout: off-cycle municipal elections. -
Destroying democracy to save democracy, JB Pritzker style
Law professor Jonathan Turley wrote on Thursday condemning how Democratic groups and commentators are seeking to remove as many as 120 Republicans from ballots in the name of democracy. Turley is nationally recognized for his objectivity and impartiality, earning his newsletter, Res Ipsa Loquitur, an astounding 55 million subscribers. -
Six sources of Chicago Teachers Union power
The Chicago Teachers Union has walked out on Chicago’s kids once again. It’s the fifth time in the last ten years. -
Some 'plan.' Illinois wants more federal bailout money for unemployment trust fund
Less than two weeks ago, JB Pritzker’s administration told us we would soon see a “plan” for addressing the gaping hole in Illinois unemployment trust fund. It’s the source of money for unemployment claims but it is underwater by something well over $5 billion. Most of that hole is in the form of the repayment obligation of about $4.5 billion for money borrowed by the trust fund from the federal government during the pandemic. -
Why 'Pritzker for President' makes perfect sense
Many of us in Illinois are snickering, but it’s entirely sensible that “talk is abundant – at least in private,” about Gov. JB Pritzker as a candidate for President of the United States in 2024. That’s what the New York Times reported on Sunday. Check off the boxes on who could win the Democratic primaries for president and you have to put Pritzker at or near the top of the list. -
In-kind retaliation, as expected: Fifteen states demand banks ignore Illinois-style threats favoring 'woke capitalism'
It was only a matter of time. Left-leaning states, particularly Illinois, have long been trying to strong-arm the financial sector into enforcing their social justice agenda. Now, more conservative states are responding by using the same tool. Nobody will end up winning. Blame those who started it. -
Revolution now. Illinois must offer what all America wants: School choice
Rarely is anything so popular yet so neglected by politicians as school choice for K-12 education. The public has it right on what is a truly righteous cause. For society to honor its fundamental obligation to educate its youth, parents must be offered an alternative to catastrophically failing schools. Society’s future demands it. Simple justice demands it. The state as a place to raise a family demands it. And it is indeed what it has often been called – a civil rights issue. -
Illinois pension shortfall surpasses $500 billion, average debt burden now $110,000 per household
Illinois just reached an alarming milestone: each Illinois household is now on the hook for, on average, $110,000 in government-worker retirement debts. That figure is the result of dividing Illinois’ $530 billion in state and local retirement shortfalls among the state’s 4.9 million households. In 2019, the burden was $90,000 per household. -
The astonishing statements from Pritzker and Lightfoot on Rittenhouse verdict
“Shooting unarmed citizens is fundamentally wrong,” wrote Gov. JB Pritzker in his statement on the Rittenhouse verdict, which is pasted below. That’s a lie. Pritzker should retract the statement and apologize. One had a pistol pointed at Rittenhouse at the moment Rittenhouse fired, captured in video. -
Gov. Pritzker can't take credit for Illinois' improved budget projections when it's the feds that bailed the state out
Gov. J.B. Pritzker may be celebrating the lower deficits his budget office just projected for the next five years, but Illinois’ latest “improvements” owe little to what he and the General Assembly have done since the governor took office. To the contrary, most of Pritzker’s recent actions have only served to increase the burden on ordinary Illinoisans going forward. We detail those actions later in this piece. -
A blood-boiling performance by Illinois lawmakers to ensure punishment of vax mandate resisters
Unless you want your blood to boil, do not watch the video from last week of supporters of a bill to amend Illinois’ Health Care Right of Conscience Act (HCRCA). Dishonesty, despotism and undisguised ignorance were on full display in a move to assure compliance with vaccine and other COVID mandates. -
Employers are desperate for workers, but Chicago to launch money-for-nothing 'guarantied basic income' program
A more bizarre and destructive mismatch of economic circumstances and policy direction would be hard to imagine. -
Jump in inflation bails out Illinois politicians, punishes ordinary residents
There’s a price tag attached to the unprecedented federal money lavished on states under the pretext of COVID relief, which is over $9 trillion and growing. It’s in addition to higher federal taxes that will be needed to pay for it. It’s inflation, which is finally getting the attention it deserves. -
The Delta variant and its limited impact on Illinois children
Press reports of the Delta virus’ impact on children across the country have been alarming since July, when cases and hospital admissions jumped significantly after a bottoming out in June. Most of the attention has fallen on Florida and other southern states, but there have been concerning stories in Illinois, too. -
The 'never ending saga' of Illinois' botched marijuana licensing process
“It doesn’t make sense how they can delay a year and a half and come back more incompetent than when we started.” That’s what one of the applicants suing Illinois told the Chicago Sun-Times about the state’s process for licensing marijuana retailers. -
Politicians’ next pension 'fix': Gambling with your money
Imagine a husband going to his wife with a grand scheme to get his family out of the financial trouble they’re in. Out of control spending and too much debt has made a mess of their lives and his wife has been asking him for years to scale down spending and cut back excesses. Unfortunately, that’s never happened and now things are desperate. -
CDC squelched its own study showing masks ineffective for kids in schools; Answers needed
Friday’s column in New York Magazine is a must-read for those following the controversy over masks in K-12 schools. -
Politicians who claim to be serious about stopping COVID better get serious about the border
If you think it’s exaggeration to call the situation at the Mexican border an invasion, read on. If you think it’s exaggeration to say that it’s a major and growing obstacle to containing COVID, keep. going. But if you expect to read something about our political establishment taking it seriously, forget it.