When Springfield insider Michael McClain announced his retirement nearly three years ago, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan broke his usual silence to praise McClain publicly for his “complete honesty and integrity.”

McClain stopped registering as a lobbyist in the Illinois Capitol and informed state officials he was retiring from being a lawyer.

The clock is ticking for Mayor Lori Lightfoot to convince enough lawmakers that lowering the state tax rate on a Chicago casino would still make a winning bet for Illinois.

Changes in the language of the state’s new gambling law have mostly been agreed upon to lighten the tax burden on the big city casino to make it viable, in light of a consultant’s report that high taxes would prevent any developer from securing financing.

As state legislators weigh ethics changes in response to federal investigations into elected officials, businesses and lobbyists, aldermen are lining up behind their own changes to city lobbying rules.

Ald. Michele Smith, 43rd, who chairs the Committee on Ethics and Government Oversight, and Ald. Matt O’Shea, 19th, have introduced a ban on aldermen acting as paid lobbyists and on outside elected officials lobbying on Chicago matters. So far, they’ve convinced a majority of the City Council to support the change.

Republican lawmakers added to their pile of recently-filed ethics legislation Wednesday, promoting two bills aimed at limiting conflicts of interest on the Illinois State Board of Elections.

Sen. Dan McConchie, a Hawthorn Woods Republican, unveiled Senate Bill 2300 during a Statehouse news conference. The measure would prohibit a member of the State Board of Elections from contributing to or being an officer of a state or federal political committee.

Illinois Senate President John Cullerton on Wednesday offered up changes to a Chicago casino measure that would get both the city and state about $200 million a year in revenue once it’s up and running.

But Culleron said the Senate won’t have enough time to pass it this week during the veto session, which ends Thursday.

Nearly 25,000 Chicago teachers and support staff will vote Thursday and Friday on the tentative agreement reached with the school district in late October.

That’s the deal that ended the 11-day teachers strike.

Results are expected as early as Friday evening.

Federal prosecutors want a judge to send a longtime Dorothy Brown worker to prison for more than two years after they said she lied to a grand jury, “threw a wrench in the wheels of justice and ground them to a halt.”

They also said the lies Beena Patel told the grand jury investigating job-selling allegations in the office of Brown, the clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County, “directly impacted the government’s ability to charge those most culpable in the illegal activity.”

Mayor Lori Lightfoot has introduced her proposal to raise the city’s minimum wage to $15 by 2021 and boost base wages for tipped workers—but not to the full $15 that some employee advocates were hoping for.

Her proposal would boost the city’s minimum wage for businesses with 21 or more employees to $14 per hour on July 1, 2020, and $15 one year later. Those wages also would apply to the city’s sister agencies like the park district and Chicago Transit Authority and would rise with inflation.

The Algonquin Township Board plans to vote on a township consolidation referendum next month after it was taken off the agenda during its Wednesday night meeting.

State Rep. David McSweeney, R-Barrington Hills, introduced a bill giving McHenry County voters the option to dissolve all 17 McHenry County townships with a referendum, which was signed into law in August.