Northern Illinois' largest electrical utility was hit with two class action lawsuits, demanding it repay its customers perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars for allegedly using a bribery scheme to curry favor with Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan to pass laws that allowed it to rack up hundreds of millions of dollars, or more, in profit, since at least 2011.
Commonwealth Edison Company (“ComEd”), the largest electric utility in Illinois, has agreed to pay $200 million to resolve a federal criminal investigation into a years-long bribery scheme, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago announced.
Federal prosecutors said Madigan, through his associates, demanded "old fashioned patronage" for his associates and allies in exchange for supporting legislation that steered hundreds of millions of dollars from electrical customers to ComEd.
Public furor enveloped lawmakers over the new rule, which could have resulted in fines and jail time for business owners who opened 'nonessential' businesses earlier than Pritzker believed proper under his COVID rules.
A memo, obtained and published by Edgar County Watchdogs, reveals concerns by prosecutors over their ability to legally enforce Pritzker's COVID-19 emergency orders.
Brushing aside warnings of shortages of properly sterilized health care tools, Illinois lawmakers are moving forward with new legislation to all but force the state’s medical device sterilization plants to close, over concerns emissions from the plants may be linked to an increased risk of cancer in those living nearby.
A man who claimed his campaign to unseat Illinois’ most powerful legislator was shortcircuited by sham candidates planted on the ballot to dilute the Hispanic vote can’t continue to press his lawsuit against Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan over those dirty tricks, because voters had ample knowledge of the shady tactics, yet still chose to elect Madigan anyway, a federal judge has ruled.
A federal judge has determined an insurance company isn’t obligated to pay two women who claim they were victims in a child pornography scandal involving an ex-Illinois lawmaker.
The Illinois Supreme Court says a teachers union lobbyist will be allowed to double his pension after he served as a substitute teacher for one day. The decision came over dissents from other justices on the court who said the law allowing the pension boost was merely written to benefit a handful of union employees at taxpayer expense.
Illinois workers who earn less than $15 an hour are about to get a raise. But the new law could leave many Illinois employers facing potentially crippling legal bills and court orders, should they find themselves sued by employees who claim they were shorted pay.
A contentious divorce case involving a lawyer who represents the town of Cicero and a host of other local governments in Chicago’s suburbs has produced a pitched courtroom battle over his estranged wife’s efforts to reveal who pays him, how much he earns and the depth of his purported links to Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and other prominent Democratic lawmakers, and other influential figures in Illinois government.
Proposed bipartisan legislation currently before a state House committee that would grant legal recognition to blockchain smart contracts could propel the state ahead of the curve in business transactions that currently remain paper based, a Chicago-based attorney said during a recent interview.
Illinois voters will not get a chance to weigh in on the question of whether Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and other legislative leaders in the Democratic-controlled Illinois General Assembly should continue to hold the keys to drawing the state's legislative district maps, after the leaders of the state House and Senate refused to call a vote for a constitutional amendment designed to curtail their influence over the process.
A former primary election challenger to Illinois’ top state Democratic politician has been cleared to continue to sue Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan and some of his supporters for allegedly placing “sham candidates” on the ballot two years ago to confuse and split the Hispanic vote, reducing the threat the opponent posed to the powerful Chicago lawmaker.
The April mayoral election in Calumet City was valid and will not be restaged, a state appeals court has ruled, determining the voters of the city had a valid interest in denying a state representative and anyone else who has served four terms in any city elected office the chance to run for mayor.
As sexual harassment scandals spread in the Illinois General Assembly, some lawmakers are calling for still more action to empower investigators to pull the curtain back on what has been described as a rampant culture of abuse in Springfield. However, unlike private sector employers, state officials don't face a realistic threat of lawsuits over their actions, says a lawyer who specializes in such harassment cases.
After failing to unseat one of Illinois’ most powerful politicians at the ballot box, then hitting roadblocks in the courts, Jason Gonzales has received new life in his legal battle against Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and some of his supporters. This week, U.S. District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly granted Gonzales’ request to alter his original judgment, and revisit the lawsuit brought against Madigan.
The Illinois General Assembly recently ended a two-year budget stalemate by overriding Gov. Bruce Rauner's veto of a proposed spending plan that included a 32 percent income tax increase. But just how much the tax increase will persuade Illinois voters to toss out of office the primarily Democratic lawmakers who promoted and voted for the tax hike remains an open question.