Lightfoot: Accused violent offenders should remain in jail
Mayor Lori Lightfoot is making waves with comments Monday criticizing courts for letting people out on bond or home monitoring if they’re accused of violent crimes.
Lightfoot wants people accused of violent crimes to be held in jail until their cases are decided. The Democratic-led General Assembly voted to end cash bail in Illinois beginning Jan. 1, 2023.
Illinois gas prices rise to $5.45 a gallon
Illinois is one of 13 states where a gallon of gasoline is over $5 a gallon.
The Illinois average for a gallon of gasoline is about $5.45, according to AAA, with some stations in Chicago approaching $7 a gallon. There are some areas in the state where gas is closer to $5 a gallon, including Champaign, the Quad Cities and Metro East.
Pritzker: No new COVID mitigations planned for now
While 50 Illinois counties are now recognized for being at medium or high-level risk for COVID-19, the Pritzker administration is not considering new mitigations.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Monday he is not considering reinstating a mask mandate or other mitigations right now. He said the state is in a much better place to be able to respond to the pandemic today.
Poll: Voters disagree with ending parental notification for underage abortions
A new poll shows a majority of Illinois voters don’t agree with the abortion policies passed by the General Assembly.
Ogden & Fry reports that 78% of respondents were opposed to the measures signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, including ending parental notification for minor children before they get an abortion.
The majority of Illinoisans share common ground on abortion, with 64% of voters describing themselves as “pro-choice with some restrictions” or “pro-life with exceptions.”
Sleep testing company to pay fraud settlement
A suburban Chicago company that provides home sleep testing will pay $3.5 million to settle a civil lawsuit accusing the company of defrauding Medicare and four other federal health-care programs through kickbacks and unnecessary home sleep testing.
The lawsuit alleged the Wheeling-based Snap Diagnostics submitted claims for patients’ second and third nights of sleep testing when, in fact, the company knew that only a single night of testing was needed to effectively diagnose obstructive sleep apnea.
Illinois now has an official state rock
Gov. JB Pritzker joined legislators, students, and teachers to designate Dolostone as the official rock of the state of Illinois. House Bill 4261 began as an initiative led by a group of elementary school students in Burr Ridge and Naperville.
Dolostone, a form of limestone, forms the majority of Illinois’s bedrock. Illinois recognizes several other official symbols of the state, including the cardinal as the state bird and the violet as the state flower.