Written by Kathy Valente
Referred to by the General Assembly doorkeeper as ‘His Excellency,’ Governor JB Pritzker and his entourage entered the House Chamber where he gave his annual Illinois budget address on Wednesday, February 18th.
For the next fiscal year, Gov. Pritzker is proposing an additional $1 billion in spending — along with new taxes to pay for it. Don’t be surprised if the General Assembly adds even more to the budget — and the taxpayers’ tab.… Continue Reading
Tags: Bruce Rauner, Donald Trump, gender reassignment surgery, Illinois budget address, JB Pritzker, John Altgeld, Math proficiency, pap tests, Parental Notification Law, Reading proficiency, Transgenderism
Illinois Politics | David E. Smith | 
February 20, 2026 11:00 AM | 
Comments Off on Pritzker’s Budget Address: The Rhetoric and the Reality
Written by Thomas Hampson
Governor JB Pritzker delivered his eighth consecutive budget address on February 18th. If you closed your eyes and listened, you might have thought you were hearing a man of the people, a defender of the powerless standing up to a tyrannical federal government. He invoked Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and Reverend Jesse Jackson. He quoted the great reform governor, John Peter Altgeld.
He spoke of empathy, love, and the courage to resist authoritarianism.… Continue Reading
Tags: Abraham Lincoln, Alushta, American Railway Union, Bahamian shell companies, Brandon Johnson, Chicago Crime Commission, Chicago Outfit, Chicago Police, Chicago Tribune, Cook County Board, Customs and Border Patrol Emergency Response Officers, Donald Trump, Eugene Debs, fascism, FBI, Frederick Douglass, Gestapo, Grover Cleveland, Gus Russo, Hyatt, illegal immigrants, Illinois budget address, Illinois TRUST Act, Immigration Customs and Enforcement, IRS, IRS Organized Crime Division, Izyum, JB Pritzker, Jesse Jackson, John Altgeld, John Peter Altgeld, LAPD, Michael Brennan, Nikopol, Operation Midway Blitz, Paradise Papers, Pullman Strike, Sangdu, State of the State, Stephen Miller, Supermob, Teamster, The Chicago Record, Toni Preckwinkle, U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Investigations, Welcoming City Ordinance
Federal Issues, Illinois Politics, Immigration | David E. Smith | February 19, 2026 1:00 PM | Comments Off on JB Pritzker, ICE, and the Art of Selective Outrage
