Get the latest news from around Illinois.
The Center Square: Illinois’ pension debt on the rise
With Illinois households already saddled with the third-most pension debt in the country, a new Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability report finds that the state’s mounting pension liabilities spiked by nearly $3 billion over a 12-month window.
Much of the rising cost COGFA attributed to the increase was because of “larger than expected salary increases” for state employees. Researchers added that unfunded costs for the five pension systems overseen by the state now stand at nearly their highest level in well over a decade.
Chicago Sun-Times: Mayor Johnson promised to stand up for CPS families. Instead, he’s shutting them out
As a former teacher, former Chicago Teachers Union organizer and the first Chicago mayor in recent history with children in the city’s public schools, Mayor Brandon Johnson is uniquely positioned to understand the nexus between family, community and education. His history offered hope that he would be attuned to the voices of families too often sidelined in education policy discussions.
Yet despite his background and campaign pledges to “stand for the people,” Johnson is failing to fulfill his promise. Mere months into his first term, both he and his hand-picked Chicago Board of Education have made a series of decisions that have increasingly distanced families from crucial education conversations.
News-Gazette: New state laws | Winners and losers
By now, we trust you’ve heard that Illinois’ minimum wage is about to go up by a buck an hour and gun owners who don’t register their assault-style rifles by New Year’s will be in violation of state law.
But not all of the House and Senate bills autographed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker in 2023 made front-page headlines. Five days before 300-plus measures take effect statewide, here’s our rundown of some of the biggest winners and losers come Jan. 1, 2024.
Journal Star: The new age of prohibition will increase crime
Call it America’s new prohibition era. All over the country, there are discussions about banning books, gas stoves and certain social media platforms. It seems as if every politician has a product they want to take out of the library, off our phones or from store shelves.
These bans, including a proposed national ban on menthol cigarettes, will not work. And we should not let politicians try to control what we read or what we buy — because when they have done so in the past, nothing good has come from it.
Chicago Sun-Times: Public transit in Chicago will fall off a fiscal cliff without a plan for 2025
The Chicago region’s trains and buses are headed straight toward a funding cliff, but there’s still time to avoid disaster if we are willing to change course and work together.
The fiscal cliff facing our transit agencies — the Chicago Transit Authority, Metra and Pace — is the direct result of, and was expedited by, the COVID-19 pandemic that undermined traditional ridership in ways that continue. For example, while CTA ridership has recently increased, ridership is only 53% of pre-pandemic levels.
Daily Herald: Elburn considers ban on unscheduled dropoffs of asylum-seekers
The Elburn village board will vote Wednesday on whether to ban unscheduled bus drop-offs of people seeking asylum.
The meeting is at 7 p.m. at the village hall, 301 E. North St.
Chicago Tribune: Lincoln museum exhibit offers perspectives on life in Illinois from residents past and present
What’s it like to live in Illinois?
A Black doctor recalls navigating a predominantly white neighborhood when she and her family moved to a new home in Springfield’s Washington Park area. A man reflects on growing up in apartments above a funeral home in downstate Anna. A woman talks of serving as an English translator for her Mexican parents as a 7-year-old growing up in Chicago.