State lawmakers could face a record number of thorny political issues in the first half of 2021, including a battle over who should lead the Illinois House, decisions on billions of dollars in budget cuts and potential tax increases, and the drawing of new legislative district maps.

The machinations will take place under the cloud of the COVID-19 pandemic — which continues to restrict the Illinois General Assembly’s ability to safely meet in-person — and alongside efforts to pass legislation addressing racism and governmental corruption.

The twists and turns of the ComEd bribery scandal implicating Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan were a plenty in 2020 and the story is far from over.

Madigan, D-Chicago, maintains he’s done nothing wrong, but revelations this year put the long-time Chicago politician in the center of a nine-year bribery scheme that led to federal indictments in 2020.

The Illinois House plans to convene Jan. 8 in Springfield for a “lame-duck” session that could last until Jan. 13 — the date a new legislative session will be convened.

State senators have been told to prepare for a  similar schedule.

As the numbers of coronavirus cases and deaths continue to climb in Illinois, health officials in the county that includes the state’s capital city say enough progress has been made to again allow limited indoor service in bars and restaurants — to the chagrin of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office.

According to the Sangamon County Department of Public Health, bars and restaurants can reopen as of Sunday for indoor service at 25% capacity.

The old factory town of Kalamazoo, Michigan, has become a center for Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing. That may help the area’s economy turn a corner after some tough years.

Ranked highest in this year’s Bloomberg Brain Drain Index of population loss of top talent, Kalamazoo has struggled like the rest of the U.S. with the job-crushing pandemic. But the city got some hope when Pfizer Inc.’s factory in adjacent Portage recently became a key distribution point for the vaccine. The drugmaker and German partner BioNTech SE plan to deliver 200 million doses to the U.S. by July.

Chicago employers who are required to give their workers two weeks’ notice of their schedules in an effort to reduce the stress caused by unpredictable shift work can now be sued, after the law takes full effect Friday after a six-month delay caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot backed the law, which stalled for two years under former Mayor Rahm Emanuel, calling it a needed tool to protect workers in Chicago, many of whom earn the city’s minimum wage and fear losing their jobs if they cannot take on additional shifts at their managers’ request.

The city’s police watchdog blocked Anjanette Young from receiving video of her home being wrongfully raided by police in 2019, newly released emails show.

The raid of Young’s home — and the city’s handling of its aftermath — has become a crisis for Mayor Lori Lightfoot in recent weeks. She was not mayor when it took place, but her administration fought Young’s attempts to obtain videos of the raid and initially sought to punish her attorney for providing the video to CBS2, which broadcast the footage earlier this month.