Both the majority and minority opinions in the Illinois Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on the SAFE-T Act last week claimed the other side was ignoring the “plain language” of the Illinois Constitution. Each focused on a single, but different, word. As the all-Democrat majority noted, the judiciary must look at the “plain language used in its natural and popular meaning when the constitutional provision was adopted.” For the majority, the “plain language” in question was from the Illinois Constitution’s Bill of Rights: “All persons shall be bailable by sufficient sureties, except for the following offenses where the proof is evident or the presumption great.”

Senate President Don Harmon told Public Radio talk-show host Brian Mackey in late June that some of the most prominent business association leaders had “punched us in the nose” after the Senate Democrats devised what he called a “good-faith solution” to solve problems created by the state’s super-controversial Biometric Information Privacy Act. Harmon also claimed the Senate Democratic proposal the business groups attacked was “very friendly to the business community that has been asking for these changes.”

On Sunday evening, May 28, 2023, six stories of the west wall of the building known as The Davenport at 324 Main Street in downtown Davenport collapsed. Three people lost their lives in the tragedy. There is much controversy about city inspections, accountability and the building's owner Andrew Wold. Numerous lawsuits are in play. The building was originally a hotel built in 1907, had more than 50 tenants renting at the time of the collapse, and has since been demolished. Below, we publish the updates the city of Davenport chief strategy officer Sarah Ott issued to local and national media, in the order in which they were released.

As I told you last week, the staid and conservative Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago’s latest and more liberal ideas on taxes and crime reduction have caused some folks to sit up and take notice, including Illinois Senate President Don Harmon. “I think that the Civic Committee is approaching major problems with a very different perspective,” Harmon said.