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Archive for the ‘Capitol News Illinois’ Category

Illinois state parks draw highest number of visitors in more than a decade

Posted in Capitol News Illinois, Going green, Taxes, Topics Of Interest on May 9, 2025| Leave a Comment »

The state spent nearly $70 million installing breakwaters at Illinois Beach State Park near Zion protecting the park’s beaches. | Capitol News Illinois photo by Andrew Adams

By Ben Szalinski | Capitol News Illinois

Illinois state parks saw more visitors in 2024 than any point in the past 15 years, according to new data from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

Illinois’ 290 state parks and 56 historic sites recorded more than 41 million visitors last year, which was the most in 15 years, following several significant capital projects to upgrade and improve many of the parks.

Interest in state parks has been growing since the pandemic, IDNR Director Natalie Phelps Finnie said in an interview.

“During COVID, people were stir crazy, shut in, and they once again realized how important nature is to all of us,” Phelps Finnie said.

An aggressive advertising campaign by the state has also helped, she said. The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity launched the state’s “Middle of Everything” marketing campaign in 2022, which promotes tourism at the state’s top recreation and cultural attractions in TV commercials, billboards and online advertising.

Starved Rock State Park in LaSalle County topped the list in 2024 with 2.4 million visitors coming to explore the canyons and waterfalls nestled in gorges along the Illinois River in north-central Illinois.

The second-most visited park last year was Illinois Beach State Park, near Zion, with 2 million visitors. IDNR completed a major $73 million project last year to preserve the park from erosion.

“It’s always been a high number of visitors, but certainly the uptick we’ve seen since the beach was restored and since the resort is being invested in once again and remodeled,” Phelps Finnie said.

Two people fish on a beach at Illinois Beach State Park near one of 22 breakwaters which protect the shoreline from erosion. | Capitol News Illinois photo by Andrew Adams

Beach State Park holds Illinois’ only undeveloped stretch of Lake Michigan shoreline, but it’s subject to the ferocious waves of the lake. The conditions have sometimes eroded up to 100 feet of shoreline a year in parts of the park.

More here.

Related: “After Nearly Vanishing, the Beach Is Back at Illinois Beach State Park. That’s Big News for Local Ecosystems and Economies,” “Illinois Beach Hotel reopens to guests following renovations to only hotel in state located on Lake Michigan”

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Tuition, fees rising at Illinois universities as state funding lags inflation pace

Posted in Capitol News Illinois, Economy, Education, Pension Funding, Property Taxes, Springfield, Taxes, Unions on April 29, 2025| Leave a Comment »

By Bridgette Fox | Capitol News Illinois

The cost to attend state universities has been rising, and some institutions have said they’ll have to continue pushing the brunt of state budget shortfalls onto students and families if there isn’t a change.

Data from the Illinois Board of Higher Education, which oversees public universities, shows university income has had to make up for the steady loss of funding from the state since around fiscal year 2009 as compared to inflation.

Since that point, state investment hasn’t kept up with inflation, and tuition and fees have risen steadily despite the fact that Gov. JB Pritzker’s administration has regularly increased higher education funding. The fiscal year 2026 proposed budget includes a 3% increase for higher education in the general fund for operating costs – which is about the same as the rate of inflation.

The cost of tuition and fees for statewide undergraduates on average has risen 10% higher since FY09 than if it had simply kept pace with inflation. For graduate students, that discrepancy is 16%.

The University of Illinois Chicago is the only school that has seen tuition and fees for both graduate and undergraduate students grow more slowly than inflation

Tuition and fees for undergraduate students have increased at every public state university except for University of Illinois Chicago and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. (Capitol News Illinois graphic by Bridgette Fox)

Tuition and fees for graduate students have increased at every public state university except for University of Illinois Chicago and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. (Capitol News Illinois graphic by Bridgette Fox)

Administrators from many of the states’ universities have said they’re holding out hope that a new funding formula, contained in Senate Bill 13 and House Bill 1581, will alleviate some financial burden.

Read more here.

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Pritzker balances messaging as some Dems encourage party to avoid LGBTQ issues

Posted in Capitol News Illinois, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Springfield on April 23, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Capitol News Illinois photo by Peter Hancock

Newsom, Emanuel argue the party is focusing too much on ‘bathroom’ issues

By Ben Szalinski | Capitol News Illinois

When Gov. JB Pritzker tells audiences how he became interested in politics, it often starts with stories about his mother.

As a child growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, Pritzker often shares, he’d attend marches, rallies and protests with his mother in support of abortion, women’s rights and LGBTQ issues. Those experiences, Pritzker says, set the foundation for many of his progressive beliefs.

“I’m living proof that introducing your kids to the gay agenda might result in them growing up to be governor,” Pritzker told a crowd at a Human Rights Campaign event in Los Angeles in March.

Pritzker has made supporting LGBTQ rights a regular part of his platform as governor, including speaking at dinner events for the HRC and Equality Illinois in recent months. He’s set to speak to the New Hampshire Democratic Party on Sunday – one of the first Democratic presidential primary states.

But some Democrats, who are often named as possible 2028 Democratic presidential candidates alongside Pritzker, think the party needs to talk less about LGBTQ issues such as transgender athletes.

“We weren’t good on the kitchen table issues; we weren’t really good on the family room — the only room we really did well on in the house was the bathroom,” former ambassador to Japan and former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said on a podcast with California Gov. Gavin Newsom last week. “We not only look like we were on the cultural periphery, we look like that’s what was front and center for us.”

Read more here.

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Homeschool bill stalls in Illinois House, but sponsor says it’s still alive

Posted in Barrington Education Association, Capitol News Illinois, Ethics, Look For The Union Label, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Springfield, Taxes, Unions on April 15, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Rep. Terra Costa Howard, D-Glen Ellen | Capitol News Illinois photo by Andrew Adams

By Molly Parker and Beth Hundsdorfer | Capitol News Illinois

A bill that would tighten homeschooling regulations in Illinois missed a key deadline on Friday. But its sponsor, Rep. Terra Costa Howard, said it’s still alive — and she’s working on changes recommended by fellow lawmakers to get it passed.

“We recognize that there’s some more changes that need to be made and so we want to be respectful of the process,” Costa Howard, D-Glen Ellyn, told Capitol News Illinois. “I want to pass a bill that we can be proud of. And even though I’m proud of the bill now, I want to be able to take into consideration some of the other suggestions that have been made.”

The proposal, amended twice in recent weeks, would require parents to file a declaration of intent with their regional office of education. If a truancy investigation arises, officials could ask for schoolwork or lesson plans.

Costa Howard introduced the bill after a Capitol News Illinois and ProPublica investigation last summer revealed Illinois’ lack of oversight in cases where children weren’t receiving an education. Illinois has some of the loosest homeschooling laws in the country, and multiple truancy officers told reporters that when they investigated a truancy case and parents claimed they were homeschooling, the investigation came to a grinding halt, even if concerns remained.

In the worst cases, children disappeared from school and endured abuse or neglect at home for years before authorities became aware.

The bill has become one of the most divisive issues at the Capitol this session, drawing thousands of opponents led by two Christian homeschooling organizations: Illinois Christian Home Educators and the Home School Legal Defense Association.

On Thursday, Will Estrada, in an upbeat message on the Home School Legal Defense Association’s Facebook page, shared news that the bill’s sponsors “did not have the votes currently on the floor to move the bill.” The organization’s chief legal counsel called it “hard to overstate how significant this news is.” Estrada congratulated homeschooling families for their efforts, adding, “The good news is your phone calls, your efforts, your talking to your friends, your continuing to get the word out to the legislators in Springfield, your voices are being heard.”

However, Estrada cautioned that the stall “doesn’t mean the battle is over.”

Read more here.

Related: “WATCH: Heavily opposed Homeschool Act stalls in Illinois House before deadline”

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Partisan politics infiltrating non-partisan local Illinois elections (and has been for some time now)

Posted in 220, Agendas, Barrington Education Association, Board of Education, Capitol News Illinois, Deception, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Elections, Ethics, His Master's Voice, Open Meetings Act, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, School Districts, Springfield, Taxes, Unions, What the Ficke (Bradford)?, Wirepoints on March 12, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Illinois Democrats backing candidates in new (not really) strategy to get involved in all elections

By Ben Szalinski and Bridgette Fox | Capitol News Illinois

SPRINGFIELD — It’s been just four months since the last election concluded, but another election is on the horizon in Illinois: the April 1 elections for school boards and municipal offices.

Though municipal and school board races in Illinois are nonpartisan, voters may see many of the same political themes that were hallmarks of races during the 2024 presidential election cycle. The Democratic Party of Illinois is applying many of the same tactics it uses in partisan elections to this year’s local races.

“We as the Democratic Party of Illinois should be defending Democratic values in every single election in nonpartisan and partisan elections alike, because all of these local offices have jurisdiction over super critical controls and we think our party has the best platform for governance,” Democratic Party of Illinois Executive Director Ben Hardin said.

The 2025 local elections are the second time that Illinois Democrats are getting involved in nonpartisan races. After recruiting more than 1,000 prospective candidates last year, the state party is supporting 270 candidates for a variety of local offices in all areas of the state.

(Click on image to enlarge)

The party trained the candidates and attached them to “coaches” experienced in running Democratic campaigns. Candidates will also be supported by a six-figure advertising campaign by DPI in the coming weeks.

“I think our voters welcome the information,” Hardin said. “They want to know, and they need to know, who the aligned candidates are.”

It’s also part of the party’s strategy to be more active year-round.

“This is how the party operates now,” Hardin said. “We are not going back to closing up shop after an even-year midterm or presidential election, lying dormant for 18 months and then coming alive again for the next even-year general election.”

Read more here.

Editorial note: This publication strongly endorses incumbent candidates Steve Wang and Katie Karam, as well as that of candidate Deanna Stern, for election to the District 220 Board of Education in the April 1st Election.

Related: “So-called voter education group — League of Women Voters — says don’t attend, engage or watch Trump speech to Congress”

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Pritzker wants Illinois to be latest state to ban cellphones in classroom

Posted in 220, 300, Capitol News Illinois, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, School Districts on March 7, 2025| 1 Comment »

By Ben Szalinski | Capitol News Illinois

Are cellphones a useful tool or a distraction in the classroom? According to Gov. JB Pritzker, they’re a distraction, and he has proposed banning them during classroom instruction.

Pritzker proposed legislation during his State of the State speech in February that would call for banning cellphones during classroom learning time. However, his proposal would not ban cellphones in school entirely, meaning students may still be allowed to use their devices between classes. Private schools would not be included in the ban.

“In conversations with educators from around the state, there is one thing most commonly cited as an impediment to classroom learning: cellphones,” Pritzker said at a news conference Thursday in Champaign.

Some of Illinois’ largest school districts already have adopted their own limits on cellphones in their classrooms, including Springfield, Peoria and Champaign.

Read more here.

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Judge grants retrial on most bribery counts in ‘ComEd 4’ case nearly 2 years post-verdict

Posted in Capitol News Illinois, ComEd Four, Politics, Springfield on March 4, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Mike McClain, left, and Anne Pramaggiore | Capitol News Illinois photo by Andrew Adams

By Hannah Meisel | Capitol News Illinois

A federal judge on Monday granted a partial retrial on several bribery counts in the case of four former executives and lobbyists for electric utility Commonwealth Edison who were convicted in 2023 for their roles in bribing longtime Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.

U.S. District Judge Manish Shah tossed four of the nine counts on which the “ComEd Four” were convicted, agreeing with defense attorneys that the jury was wrongly instructed in light of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last summer that narrowed federal bribery law.

But Shah left the other five convictions intact, including on an overarching conspiracy count and charges that the four were responsible for falsifying ComEd’s records to conceal the alleged bribery. Prosecutors alleged the defendants bribed Madigan with jobs and contracts for the speaker’s political allies in exchange for Madigan’s help passing legislation backed by the company.

It’s unclear what will happen next in the case, which was one in a series leading up to Madigan’s own lengthy trial that ended in a split verdict last month. Prosecutors could accept Shah’s order to retry the bribery counts or the feds could appeal his decision to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu, the lead prosecutor in the Madigan-related cases, said Monday  a retrial on the bribery counts may be “somewhat fruitless,” according to reporting from the Chicago Sun-Times. He indicated that the feds may instead want to proceed to sentencing, though he noted he’d need to check with his superiors within the Department of Justice.

Sentencing hearings for the ComEd Four defendants were scheduled for early 2024 but had been postponed after the Supreme Court agreed to review the 2021 conviction of a northwest Indiana mayor who accepted $13,000 from a company that had recently won contracts to sell garbage trucks to the city.

Read more here.

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