The Capitol Fax Blog

• Reader comments closed for a week July 23, 2021
  * OK, campers, I’m taking next week off. Other than the governor’s campaign announcement, state news is kinda boring and slow these days. I’ll come back if anything big breaks. Peace… ‘Cause it won’t be too long
• Weekly COVID-19 update: The trend is not our friend July 23, 2021
  * Press release… The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today reported 7,983 new confirmed and probable cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 47 additional deaths since reporting last Friday, July16, 2021. More than 73% of Illinois adults have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose and more than 58% of Illinois adults a […]
• Rate Pritzker’s three new TV ads July 23, 2021
  * Press release… Today, Governor JB Pritzker’s campaign released three ads featuring Illinoisans who came together and stepped up to help lead efforts in their communities to get Illinois through the COVID pandemic. “It’s the people of Illinois all across the state who came together during tough times to lead the effort to save lives and protect [...] […]
• Question of the day July 23, 2021
  * Background is here if you need it. From the Shriver Center on Poverty Law on behalf of several groups… Dear Governor Pritzker: We write in response to the Illinois Retail Merchants Association’s (IRMA’s) July 13 letter. This letter ignores the realities of struggling families in Illinois, grounds its assertions in misleading or inaccurate information, and […]
• Tinfoil hats crushed in Kane County July 23, 2021
  * James Fuller at the Daily Herald… A small group of [Kane County] Republicans, based mainly in the Campton Hills area, have spent the past couple months pushing county officials to have an independent, third-party, forensic audit of the 2020 election. The request is based on the group’s interpretations of election data posted on the Kane [...]
• Another year, another federal “strike force” for Chicago July 23, 2021
  * From the Tribune’s coverage of the US Attorney General’s visit to Chicago yesterday to announce a new “strike force”… The strike forces — a mix of federal agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and other law enforcement agencies — will be tasked with identifying and disrupting pipelines that are responsible for [...] […]
• Kind of odd July 23, 2021
  * This Virginia Mercury story is mildly amusing on two levels outside of the paper’s legit local angles… A coalition of gambling companies hoping to get slot machines back into Virginia convenience stores and bars kicked off its legislative push this week with a private flight for four lawmakers to Chicago. While the plush jet raised some [...]
• Unclear on the concept July 23, 2021
  * Jerry Nowicki at Capitol News Illinois… Gov. JB Pritzker isn’t considering using federal American Rescue Plan Act funding to pay down a multi-billion-dollar Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund deficit […] The reason Pritzker won’t consider using federal ARPA funds on the $4.2 billion Trust Fund deficit, he said, is because he did not believe it a permissible […]
• Open thread July 23, 2021
  * What’s up?
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