Unemployment in Illinois continues to climb
Unemployment continues to increase in Illinois, leading the nation in new filings.
With 142,700 new filers last week, Illinois was second only to California’s weekly claims.
The Land of Lincoln had 35,000 more filers than the week before.
That eclipses the total number of unemployment filings across the country, which reported 21,000 fewer new filers than the week before.
Murphy again calls for hearings on unemployment issues
Instead of sending tweets to a sitting Congressman about his reported fraudulent unemployment claim, state Rep. Mike Murphy said the state’s unemployment agency needs to address mounting issues.
The Republican demanded public hearings to investigate the handling of the problems immediately.
The state agency went back and forth on Twitter with U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis about a fraudulent claim on Wednesday.
Mobile COVID-19 testing teams head to Vandalia, Aledo, Roodhouse, Decatur
Mobile COVID-19 testing teams will be in Vandalia at the Fayette County Health Department through this afternoon.
They’ll also be at the Mercer County Health Department in Aledo.
On Friday, testing teams will be in Roodhouse at the Green County Work Camp and Metamora Township High School.
Teams continue to provide testing at the Decatur Civic Center through Sunday.
Democrats look to close tax loopholes
A group of Democratic lawmakers from across the state plan a news conference Thursday morning to push for closing what they call tax loopholes and giveaways.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced this week more than $700 million in cuts.
The People’s Lobby says the lawmakers will call on others to work together on finding billions of dollars to preserve essential services, according to a statement from the group.
Republicans continue to push for public hearings
Republicans continue to demand public hearings into the problems at the state’s unemployment agency.
State Reps. Mike Murphy and Jeff Keicher said the House State Government Administration Committee should hold immediate hearings to address a host of problems from backlogs to fraud and more.