(The Center Square) – The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois is concerned an ordinance approved by the Chicago City Council paves the way for security zones around the Democratic National Convention this summer. With the DNC slated to be held at the United Center beginning Aug. 19, residents and businesses in the area face contending with “buffer zones” set to be installed across the neighborhood. The same holds true for parts of the South Loop, where various event activities and other functions are scheduled to be held at nearby McCormick Place. “The plan the City Council approved is ..read more

(The Center Square) – A cancer advocacy group is applauding legislation it says will remove barriers to access clinical trials for underserved communities in Illinois. Officials at the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network say clinical trials often suffer from a lack of diversity, with underrepresentation of certain demographic groups such as minorities, women and older adults. “This is a complex issue and if we could legislate something like this away this easily, we would have done it a long time ago,” said Cancer Action Network Government Relations Director Ally Lopshire. The measur ..read more

(The Center Square) – House Bill 4611, another measure that is of priority of the Illinois Secretary of State, has stalled. The measure limiting factors that auto insurers can use to set rates didn't advance before last week's deadline. Secretary Alexi Giannoulias responded to concerns that the measure he's supporting will raise auto insurance rates on senior drivers. "When we learned people are paying more for car insurance based on their credit scores and zip codes, that sounds fundamentally discriminatory and unfair, but maybe there’s a good reason for it. So we reached out to insurance com ..read more

Lawsuit over fatal COVID outbreak proceeds Legal proceedings will move forward in LaSalle County in connection with the deaths of dozens of veterans who died at a retirement home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Between November 2020 and January 2021, 36 veterans died during an outbreak at the LaSalle Veterans Home. An investigation by an inspector general found that health and safety protocols were ignored. The firm representing 31 of the 32 families who are taking legal action did not disclose the amount of damages they are requesting. Protests at Northwestern University Northwestern University ..read more

(The Center Square) – The Chicago Bears on Wednesday unveiled details about a proposed new stadium complex on the lakefront in which the NFL team will seek taxpayer funding, something that is not sitting well with Illinois' governor and legislative leaders. The team is planning to build a state-of-the-art, domed lakefront stadium near Soldier Field, its current stadium. The Bears said they'd provide over $2 billion for the project, which they said would cover over 70% of the costs. But projections put the total price tag at around $4.7 billion. The Bears said the project would create 43,000 te ..read more

(The Center Square) – While Gov. J.B. Pritzker contends southern states are creating chaos by sending non-citizen migrants to Illinois, a Republican state senator says Pritzker is “gaslighting” taxpayers. Pritzker was asked Monday about the ongoing migrant crisis. He said the problem is leaders in Texas sending migrants to the state unannounced. “Why do they do that? Because they want to cause chaos,” Pritzker said at an unrelated news conference. “We have managed to reign it in so that it’s not chaos.” State Sen. Jason Plummer, R-Edwardsville, responded Wednesday, saying the state’s policies ..read more

Students protest war Hundreds of University of Illinois students gathered in Champaign Wednesday to protest the school for what they described as complicity in the war in Gaza. The protest was organized by the student group ActNow4Palestine. Pro-Palestinian protests have happened at college campuses across the country this week, including at New York University and Columbia University. Fatal industrial accident A Pekin woman is dead after an industrial accident in Woodford County. Lisa Hoffman, 40, was struck by a forklift at Case IH Factory in Goodfield Tuesday. A preliminary autopsy report i ..read more

(The Center Square) – America First Legal declared victory after three federal judges in Illinois rescinded policies promoting what the group calls “oral-argument affirmative action.” The rescinded policies gave special privileges to “newer, female and minority” attorneys. Constitutional attorney and former attorney general candidate David Shestokas said the rescinding of the policies doesn’t have any precedential value. "But the value is it puts other courts on notice,” said Shestokas. “If in fact they had done so this could consist of appealable error in the future, if in fact they had done ..read more

(The Center Square) – Prisoners leaving an Illinois jail or prison may be sent away with opioid antagonists if lawmakers approve a new bill in Springfield. The Illinois House recently passed House Bill 5527 that would provide naloxone to people leaving incarceration if they were behind bars for drug-related charges or have a substance abuse problem. The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Justin Slaughter, D-Chicago, said studies have shown overdose is the leading cause of death for people recently released from incarceration. He said funds from Illinois’ share of the nationwide opioid settlement will ..read more

Bears' plan includes taxpayer assistance The Chicago Bears are expected to unveil a multi-billion-dollar plan for a new lakefront stadium in the city of Chicago on Wednesday, and according to a new report in the Chicago Tribune, that plan will ask taxpayers to kick in about half of the costs to build the new stadium. Taxpayers would be charged with paying for the proposed infrastructure improvements to the new stadium, as well as about $1 billion in new borrowing to finance the new stadium being built south of Soldier Field. Buyers looking into Oberweis Oberweis Dairy has announced two compani ..read more