The chairwoman of the Illinois House Energy and Environment Committee said this week she will not hold hearings to examine what impact Commonwealth Edison’s lobbying and bribery practices have had on utility ratepayers, rebuffing a request from two Republican lawmakers.

Instead, Rep. Ann Williams, D-Chicago, said in a statement that she plans to introduce “tough new amendments” to the proposed Clean Energy Jobs Act next year “to ensure that we hold utilities accountable and take the politics out of setting fair energy rates.”

There are bipartisan calls for Illinois Democrats to step out from underneath the millions of dollars of political money House Speaker Michael Madigan controls.

A patronage scandal involving a utility and people connected to Madigan, who’s the Democratic Party of Illinois chairman and Illinois House Speaker, could lead to increased scrutiny on political funds he controls.

Republican state Rep. Darren Bailey asked a judge Wednesday for permission to lodge a fifth complaint in his lawsuit against Gov. JB Pritzker: Any further disaster proclamations should not affect Clay County.

The Xenia representative should be allowed to amend his case, he argued in a court document, because it is still pending and “additional facts and science continues to accrue.”

Admissions by electricity provider ComEd that it improperly offered lobbyists and others connected to House Speaker Michael Madigan prompted members of both sides of the political aisle to demand reconsideration for tax breaks and legislative permission to raise rates granted to the utility.

In the complaint released by John Lausch Jr., U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, ComEd admitted to offering “jobs, vendor subcontracts, and monetary payments associated with those jobs and subcontracts, for the benefit” of Madigan or his associates. Prosecutors alleged those associates received $1.32 million in total. In return, prosecutors said ComEd received legislative benefits worth at least $150 million. The company agreed to pay a $200 million fine.

In response to a recent uptick in COVID-19 cases, Sangamon County officials are expected to issue a pair of orders Friday to enforce social distancing guidelines and occupancy limits in bars and restaurants.

The first order, to be signed by county board chairman Andy Van Meter in his capacity as liquor commissioner, will apply to bars in unincorporated Sangamon County. The second notice, which utilizes the county health department’s power to inspect food service establishments, will apply to restaurants across the county.

Not even a pair of record-setting deals could save Chicago-area commercial property sales from plunging during the second quarter.

With the COVID-19 crisis crushing the economy, investors traded $1.8 billion of local commercial real estate during the three months ended June 30, down 41 percent from the year-earlier period, according to research firm Real Capital Analytics.

Organizers gathered in Mandrake Park on Tuesday afternoon for an emergency peaceful protest and art installation with the goal of making the Chicago Police Department release misconduct records.

With the help of documents obtained by the Invisible Institute’s Citizens Police Data Project, #ReleaseTheRecords organizers Maira Khwaja and Trina Reynolds-Tyler set up boards displaying misconduct reports organized by category, ranging from reports on cops in schools to racial slurs to gender violence to sexual assault.