Last winter, a buddy of mine asked me if I thought I could cover state-legislative sessions from a remote, perhaps warmer, location.

I've been writing about Illinois politics and government for 30 years. Like many of my more-experienced colleagues, I've developed an extensive list of sources and contacts that I can reach out to. I can also watch General Assembly floor debates and many committee hearings on the Internet.

Governor JB Pritzker has repeatedly said he's delegating enforcement of his stay-at-home order to local governments.

That stance has frustrated some folks who want him to get tougher with violators (although he'd undoubtedly risk making martyrs out of them if he did crack down hard). And the governor's position seems to have emboldened some local officials to defy the governor's order and open up their economies on their own.

The First Amendment to the US Constitution prevents government intrusion on journalists' rights to tell their stories and your rights to read or watch or listen to them.

But that means things can get messy. Some reporters can make everyone else look bad.

The libertarian-leaning Illinois Policy Institute (IPI) has tried reaching out more to Democratic legislators since Governor Bruce Rauner lost his reelection bid. Rauner at one point was so close to the group that he fired several of his longtime staffers and replaced some of them with IPI staff, which did not work out well, to say the least.