Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration refiled an emergency COVID-19 rule similar to one that expired Monday to continue statewide mask and social distancing requirements for Illinoisans for another 150 days.

A rule filed last year before the legislature met in May was repealed by the governor after critics said it criminalized business owners.

Illinois House Republicans say they’re still waiting on Gov. JB Pritzker to propose specific spending cuts to the state’s current year state budget, which is $4 billion out of balance.

Ahead of lawmakers’ lame duck session this week, Republicans said they worried Democrats would try to push through an income tax hike instead of cut spending, but those fears are largely baseless.as Governor J.B. Pritzker has not signaled support for an immediate tax increase, but rather said he’s focused on making cuts to state government.

Republicans in the Illinois House said Tuesday that they hope to use legislation, instead of a constitutional amendment, to change the way state legislative and congressional district lines are redrawn every 10 years.

The so-called “fair maps” proposal would authorize the General Assembly to set up an independent, nonpartisan commission to redraw the lines, taking that highly political process out of the hands of legislators who currently are able to use that process to protect themselves politically, a process known as “gerrymandering.”

For every Illinoisan who moved a trailer of belongings into Illinois, two others moved out.

United Van Lines, the nation’s largest mover, released their annual National Migration Study on Monday. Despite the pandemic upending many industries and untethering workers from a corporate office, the company found Illinois has remained one of the nation’s most pronounced exporters of people.

The state has run out of money for its Business Interruption Grant program, which aimed to help small businesses walloped by COVID-19, and some restaurant operators are not happy.

The program launched over the summer and supplies federal funds from the CARES Act. The Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity administered the first round of grants in August and started distributing a second round in the fall.

Illinois House Minority Leader Jim Durkin, R-Western Springs, is asking the Illinois Secretary of State to appoint a non-partisan provisional parliamentarian to oversee House proceedings when the new legislature is seated.

Proceedings in the House in the 101st General Assembly are managed by House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago. He’s held that role of speaker for all but two years since 1983. Last year, Madigan was implicated in a nine-year bribery scheme involving utility Commonwealth Edison.

More than a year after a Chicago officer hit and severely injured 32-year-old Martina Standley with a police SUV, body cam footage released Tuesday shows Standley laying in the street, bleeding from her head and her leg crushed under the SUV’s tire.

It would be at least eight minutes before paramedics arrived to treat Standley around midnight Nov. 14, 2019, near 71st Street and Jeffery Avenue in South Shore. At points, she appears unresponsive, the video shows.

Aides to Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President Don Harmon on Monday ruled out a state income tax increase during the upcoming, lame-duck legislative session – despite GOP warnings to the contrary.

Lawmakers are set to return to Springfield Friday, and the top House Republican, Jim Durkin, contended a tax hike very well could be on the agenda as part of the embattled speaker’s desperate bid to retain power.

Only half of Chicago Public Schools teachers expected in schools ahead of preschool students’ anticipated return next week showed up, district officials said Tuesday in an increasingly contentious battle over classroom learning during the coronavirus pandemic.

The nation’s third-largest district plans a gradual return to in-person classes starting this month after going remote last March, which the Chicago Teachers Unions has fought over safety concerns.

Illinois restaurants, facing state-imposed restrictions because of COVID-19, had a difficult year in 2020.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker banned indoor dining in November for the second time. Many places don’t have space or funds to set up outdoor dining facilities.

Roughly half the Chicago Public Schools teachers expected to return to the classroom on Monday in preparation for welcoming students back in-person did not show up, CEO Janice Jackson said at a press conference this morning.

Overall, 60.2 percent of school-based staff “chose to return to their school buildings,” she said, “which is significant, considering the fact that they were pressured by the union not to return.”