Perhaps the weakest federal criminal charge against former Chicago Alderman Ed Burke was about his plot to extort the Chicago Field Museum because a friend’s daughter never heard back about an internship after Ald Burke sent over her résumé. U.S. District Court Judge Virginia Kendall seemed “unimpressed” by federal prosecutors’ reasoning in mid-December after Burke’s legal team moved to dismiss the charge ahead of closing arguments, according to Tribune reporter Jason Meisner.

A group of ultra-conservative Illinois House members, known as the Eastern Bloc, has been stirring up trouble with the establishment in both parties for years. The Republican districts they represent stretch from north of Decatur, over to Tuscola, and down to Mattoon, Shelbyville, Effingham, and Vandalia. They are the fellas (they’re all men) who demanded that Chicago be kicked out of Illinois.

The Governor’s Office of Management and Budget (GOMB) released a revised state revenue and spending forecast last month for the current fiscal year and it’s pretty good. Its projections for next fiscal year, however, was not nearly as strong. Projected Fiscal Year 2024 revenues have been revised upward by $1.4 billion, according to GOMB. However, “most of this fiscal year 2024 revenue forecast revision is assumed to be one-time in nature,” the budget office warned.

Last Tuesday, November 7, Chicago Teachers Union lobbyist Kurt Hilgendorf told the Illinois Senate Executive Committee that the union had only “one problem” with Senate President Don Harmon’s elected Chicago school board bill. Hilgendorf praised much of the bill during his testimony. But the Chicago Teachers Union has claimed for years that it wants a fully-elected school board, just like every other school district in the state. Right now, all board members are appointed by the mayor.