Bringing lawmakers back to Springfield at what might otherwise be a dormant stretch isn’t – or at least shouldn’t be – much cause for concern.

"With a new pope elected who is not conservative, I highly doubt there was much rejoicing in Catholic churches in McHenry County," Ronald Lovatt of Crystal Lake wrote in a letter to the editor.

"One of our greatest fears. Knowing all our hard work falls on deaf ears. Or maybe we believe that there will be one. A shining star who thinks learning is fun," Gina Bilinski of McHenry writes in a letter to the editor.

"Now what I, and I’m sure other readers, would like to see is an article on what EXACTLY the schools did with the portion of the $5.6 million taxpayer money they’ve already used," Linda Yackle of Crystal Lake writes in a letter to the editor.

"No one’s perfect, but people need to be as pleasant as possible while out in public and at the workplace," Travis Hafford of Lake in the Hills writes in a letter to the editor.

"Nurses are the backbone of our health care system, consistently going above and beyond to make a meaningful difference in the lives of our patients and their families," Kara Sankey of Mercyhealth writes in a letter to the editor.

But to hear Harper tell it, the issue isn’t so much inability to reach compromise as unwillingness to negotiate.

"My brother is one of 79 million Americans, one in five that rely on Medicaid. What will happen to all of these people if Medicaid is cut?" Nora Fox Handler of Woodstock writes in a letter to the editor.

"These milestones are a testament to the dedication and commitment of CMS, which has embraced efficiency, innovation and collaboration to improve past hiring challenges."

May is National Mental Health Awareness Month, and the theme this year is “In Every Story, There’s Strength.”

The current party line is no pursuit of state funding for stadium construction, but even if the Bears don’t directly request money to deal with infrastructure, a development at the proposed scale would force the hands of many government entities.

"What’s happening now is not just a policy failure—it’s a moral one. Investing in youth mental health should never be up for debate," writes NAMI McHenry County Executive Director Abbey Nicholas.

It’d take the rest of the month to tell superintendents’ stories: falling ceilings, boilers repurposed from World War II ships, infested walls from schools built when Al Capone was still an elementary student in Brooklyn.

Most baseball fans don’t care how someone earns HOF induction. Many taxpayers aren’t attuned to the intricacies of which government gets their money.

House Bill 1085 attempts to tackle some of those challenges by amending the Illinois Insurance Code to impose new obligations on private policies subject to state regulation.