When Abraham Lincoln arrived in the Illinois House of Representatives in 1835 he found himself squarely in the middle of a debate about transportation.

Lincoln was a supporter of U.S. House Speaker Henry Clay’s “American System,” a nationwide web of canals, roads and other infrastructure that would link the young and growing nation together. Lincoln had won his race for the House in part on a platform of building a canal on the Sangamon River to connect his New Salem constituents with faraway markets.

Illinois State Representatives Avery Bourne, Tim Butler, Dave Severin and Ryan Spain weigh-in on the legislative map drawing process in Illinois.

Have All Voted Who Wish · Illinois Republican Lawmakers on Redistricting

It’s amazing what you can find in your own back yard.

The Illinois astronomer George Ellery Hale became famous for developing new and better telescopes and lenses, thus opening the door to greater scientific discoveries and understanding of the universe. While he went down in history as the driving force behind such large observatories as the Yerkes Observatory just over the state line in Wisconsin, he did some of his finest work in the back yard of his family’s home in Chicago’s Kenwood neighborhood.

VETERANS
Top Pritzker officials refuse to accept responsibility for COVID-19 outbreak and 36 deaths at LaSalle Veterans Home. During a nearly four-hour hearing of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Thursday, several top Pritzker administration officials refused to accept responsibility for last November’s COVID-19 outbreak at the LaSalle Veterans Home, which resulted in the deaths of 36 residents. 

Illinois state lawmakers respond to 5 random shapes. Can you guess what they are?

In the middle part of the 19th century as more and more of the land was settled between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains the farmers faced a number of significant challenges.

Winters were colder than they were used to in the eastern United States, and summers were much hotter. Most supplies had to be brought in by train from distant cities. Lumber for building houses, plentiful in the east, was in short supply on the plains. The soil, while fertile, could only be reached by first breaking through an almost cement-like upper layer of sod. Finally some creative settlers figured out that the sod could be cut into blocks and repurposed for building houses, solving two problems at once.

REDISTRICTING

House Democrats go behind locked door to draw new district maps. Excerpted from a WCIA report this week: Our news cameras were rolling as dozens of House Democrats filed in and out of a locked door on the Capitol Complex grounds. Inside, members of House Speaker Chris Welch’s staff showed members one-by-one where the lines of their new districts could be drawn. 

Illinois State Representatives Tony McCombie and Patrick Windhorst answer questions about the House Republican Reimagine Illinois platform.

Reported by WCIA today: 

Our news cameras were rolling as dozens of House Democrats filed in and out of a locked door on the Capitol Complex grounds. Inside, members of House Speaker Chris Welch’s staff showed members one-by-one where the lines of their new districts could be drawn. 

Radio listeners and television watchers around the world are accustomed to broadcast interruptions for breaking news events. We have all seen the “breaking news” graphic and dramatic music which suddenly interrupt programming for coverage of everything from thunderstorm warnings to Presidential press conferences to the outbreak of wars.

Illinois State Representatives Tim Butler and Amy Elik answer questions about Reimagine Illinois and redistricting. 

“Yes, I will pledge to veto,” JB Pritzker said as a candidate in 2018 when asked if he would veto “any state legislative redistricting map proposal that is in any way drafted or created by legislators, political party leaders and/or their staffs or allies.”

He couldn’t have been more clear. “Yes, I will pledge to veto.”

Just in case anyone thought it needed clarification anyway, candidate Pritzker followed up in his answer to a questionnaire in the Northwest Herald: “I support ending the gerrymandering of districts to encourage more competitive elections.”

REDISTRICTING

Pritzker flip flops on independent map pledge. Gov. J.B. Pritzker backed away Tuesday from a campaign promise to veto any new legislative map that wasn’t drawn through an independent process, now saying that he trusts state lawmakers to be fair.

At a Springfield press conference this week, Governor Pritzker was asked about his veto pledge and this was his response: “Well as I said I will veto an unfair map. I have also said that in order for us to have an independent commission, we needed to have a constitutional amendment, something that would actually