Those cities in North Dakota and Wisconsin, respectively, are two of 144 that the federal government is proposing to downgrade from the metropolitan statistical area designation, and it could be more than just a matter of semantics. Officials in some of the affected cities worry that the change could have adverse implications for federal funding and economic development.

Under the new proposal, a metro area would have to have at least 100,000 people in its core city to count as an MSA, double the 50,000-person threshold that has been in place for the past 70 years. Cities formerly designated as metros with core populations between 50,000 and 100,000 people, like Bismarck and Sheboygan, would be changed to “micropolitan” statistical areas instead.

With tax day almost a month away, a recent study found that taxes in Illinois are the highest in the country.

The study States with the Highest & Lowest Tax Rates, conducted by WalletHub, found that taxpayers in the most expensive states sometimes pay up to three times more than those in the cheapest states. However according to WalletHub, low income taxes do not always result in low taxes as a whole.

The study compared state and local tax rates in the 50 states and the District of Columbia against national medians, determining that tax rates in Illinois are the highest in the nation. Also, Alaska was determined to have the lowest tax rates.

Volatile parent protests and the dizzying demands of COVID-19-era learning may soon be relegated to the history books at one of Illinois’ largest high school districts, where officials said Monday that all students — with the exception of those whose families demand an exemption — will return to school buildings for daily, in-person instruction on April 5.

House Bill 0724, sponsored by Curtis Tarver II, proposes giving “Conservator of Peace” power to all members of the Illinois General Assembly. This means that Illinois state representatives and senators would be able:

• (i) to arrest or cause to be arrested, with or without process, all persons who break the peace or are found   violating any municipal ordinance or any criminal law of the State,
• (ii) to commit arrested persons for examination,
• (iii) if necessary, to detain arrested persons in custody over night or Sunday in any safe place or until they can be brought before the proper court, and
• (iv) to exercise all other powers as conservators of the peace prescribed by State and corporate authorities.

The Illinois Senate returned to the capital city on Tuesday, March 9, for a busy day of lawmaking.

It wasn’t much of a day for voting for new laws on the Senate floor, however. Instead, committees worked on moving legislation forward, some of which will make big changes if passed.

One proposed bill would ban the planned release of balloons into the air. The fine for doing so would be $500.

Imagine the entire United Center void of fans — every seat in that hollowed-out hall empty. That’s 23,000 people gone. Now you can visualize how many additional lives were lost in Illinois last year compared to what is typical.

The number of people who die each year remains fairly consistent. Numbers above that average are referred to as “excess deaths” and they soared during the pandemic; but an analysis of state death data by WGN Investigates shows COVID-19 was not the only culprit. Twenty-seven percent of Illinois’ 22,933 “excess deaths” last year were not classified as Covid-related.

“We know a number of people had bad outcomes —death outcomes — because of Covid but they weren’t related to Covid,” Dr. Emily Landon, an infectious disease expert at the University of Chicago Medicine, said.