Critics the proposed teaching standards the Illinois State Board of Education is advancing call the rules political and fear it could lead to fewer teachers and fewer families educating their children in Illinois.

The ISBE said the “Culturally Responsive” teaching standards the board filed would create a more welcoming environment for all children.

A criminal justice package that passed both chambers of the General Assembly last month contains provisions that would grant the state increased power over police discipline and standards of conduct starting in 2022.

The omnibus package, which was backed by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, has not yet arrived at the desk of Gov. JB Pritzker, although he has said he looks forward to reviewing the bill which needs only his signature to become law.

A plan to reopen Chicago schools remained in doubt Monday as last-minute negotiations over COVID-19 safety measures with the teachers’ union stalled, amplifying the possibility of a strike or lockout if teachers and staff in K-8 do not show up for work.

Roughly 62,000 students and about 10,000 teachers and staff in K-8 were expected to start school for the first time since last March, part of the district’s gradual reopening plans during the pandemic. Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Sunday she still expected all teachers, including those in pre-K and special education who started in-person earlier in January, to show up Monday. But she pushed back students’ arrival until Tuesday over staffing concerns, saying remote learning would be extended a day.

Passage prospects are uncertain as Democrats try to figure out just how far their slender majorities will stretch. But Illinois lawmakers are leading a new charge to repeal the cap on state and local tax deductions that has cost hundreds of thousands of local taxpayers money and put the state at a fair-sized economic disadvantage. The move at least has a shot.

One action came last week, as U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider of Deerfield joined six colleagues from other areas of the country in filing a bill to lift the current $10,000-a-year cap on SALT deductions.

Four months ago, the Chicago City Council banned the sale of flavored vaping products favored by teens, but exempting flavored tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes.

On Monday, that watered-down law triggered its first lawsuit — one that accuses Equte LLC, a marketing firm, as well as Vapes.com, of “marketing and selling flavored vaping products” to Chicago kids.

A federal judge will not punish the lawyer representing Anjanette Young for releasing the video of the botched raid in February 2019 that left Young handcuffed while naked and pleading for help.

U.S. District Court Judge John Tharp Jr. ruled Friday that disciplinary action against attorney Keenan Saulter was unnecessary because the Chicago lawyer acknowledged he violated the court order — but had a “good faith basis” to believe that the video was being improperly withheld from the public by city officials.