Scott T. Holland

On Monday, the panel clarified that the U.S. Attorney’s district office, under Andrew Boutros, could retry the case. Although the initial convictions were flawed, lawyers failed to show justification for outright acquittals

The contradiction reminds there’s a large gap between the accomplishment of a grant award and the optimistic press release from a lawmaker who “secured the funding” and the day the check actually clears and concrete plans can take effect.

I’m very much guilty of identifying as “not a math person” or, as written in September, an “English major who can’t help his sons with their math homework once they reach middle school.”

That said … real fixes aren’t possible without extra money, either, otherwise the problems probably wouldn’t persist. And so it’s back to the beginning: absent additional spending, no improvements will be sufficient.

To the extent these bills placate either of the competing interests at this juncture – or even after all the audits are released and scrutinized – everything is subject to change if or when Congress changes the tools in the box.

My inbox was full of releases from groups that typically lean left but had plenty to say about the General Assembly’s funding commitments for certain priorities.

The people who know all too well what consequences this lack of attention has effectuated don’t have the luxury of turning to different challenges.

I’ve spent an awful lot of time trying to figure out how to make that all fit into eight semesters for my own kids and suspect I might not be alone.

You can drop in any other policy area (property tax reform, transportation infrastructure, prescription drug access, etc.) and the question is equally applicable: Do voters want somebody with a plan or someone who is merely opposed to the status quo?

Nothing exists in isolation, least of all venues that seat tens of thousands of people.

The plan gets the biggest detail (mostly) correct: 'If a homeowner fails to pay their debt in an initial redemption period, and their property is seized and sold, they will receive any surplus funds left over from the auction.'

Some of the push for new revenue now could be an attempt to offset a deficit in fiscal 2028 – a February report suggested the figure might reach $1.5 billion – with at least one Democrat specifically targeting concerns toward uncertainty from Washington

June 23, 2021: 'Sports owners have notoriously short arms when it comes to their own deep pockets but gladly open their palms wide for public handouts.'

China is a leading importer of Illinois soybeans – a bit of a concern given recent disruptions in traditional international trade relations – and the fact that so much of the yield leaves the state overlaps significantly with transportation infrastructure concerns.

"The evidence shows the county was deliberately indifferent to the obvious risk of constitutional violations when it failed to act to address property owners’ loss of equity when a tax deed was issued."