The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Janus v. AFSCME on June 27, 2018, that forced government-union fees are unconstitutional. By doing so, the Court affirmed what many people had felt for years: Public unions are inherently political, and making people pay dues to these unions is the same as compelling them to support a political agenda. The decision meant government workers could not be forced to pay union dues as a condition of employment.

Mark Janus, the plaintiff and a native of Springfield, Ill., was a state worker who was required to pay fees to a hyper-political, behemoth government union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31. AFSCME’s Illinois chapter was — and still is — notorious for steamrolling Democrats into contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars, driving up spending and debt in a state that has been broke longer than anyone wants to admit. He did not agree with those practices.

Despite the state making supplemental contributions, a credit rating agency says Illinois’ “poorly funded” pensions will continue to stress state and local government budgets as the state sees “weak demographic trends” and “shrinking population.”

S&P Global Ratings published their “Pension Spotlight: Illinois” report Monday. In announcing the report, the agency said it “expects costs will keep rising because contributions are significantly short of meaningful funding progress, plans are poorly funded, and the Illinois Pension Code allows plans to use assumptions and methodologies that defer costs.”

In the 4 ½ years since the city entered into a federal consent decree, the Chicago Police Department’s bureau of internal affairs has opened more than 11,000 investigations into allegations of officer misconduct, according to a Tribune analysis of police data.

Meanwhile, the head of the independent monitoring team that grades CPD’s compliance with the consent decree has said there are “real concerns” about the city and Police Department’s ability to perform timely analyses of data on officers’ use of force.

Amid tense negotiations over tax issues in Arlington Heights and flirtations with other municipalities that could host a new stadium, Chicago Bears President and CEO Kevin Warren said Monday the NFL franchise isn’t looking to taxpayers for any “handouts” but wants “certainty and fairness.”

Warren, at the Metropolis Performing Arts Centre on Monday evening for a community meeting hosted by a pro-Bears business group, also called representatives of three local school districts to come back to the table and hash out an agreement over property tax assessments and payments at the 326-acre Arlington Park property the Bears now own.

A trip from St. Louis to Chicago via Amtrak’s Lincoln Service will be about 15 minutes quicker starting this week due to track upgrades that allow for increased speeds.

The Amtrak line ran its first 110 mph service on Monday, up from 90 mph previously, which would make the one-way trip less than five hours long. The trip is now a full 30 minutes quicker than when the service ran at 79 mph when the project began in 2010.