Quick hits: Illinois news in brief for Monday, March 8, 2021
Attorney questions documents in restaurant’s legal challenge
The attorney for Geneva restaurant FoxFire challenging the governor’s COVID-19 orders says the Pritzker administration has turned over 2,000 documents ahead of a possible trial in Sangamon County.
Attorney Greg Earl, with Myers, Earl and Nelson P.C., said documents he’s reviewed so far show the administration doesn’t know thresholds for COVID-19 tests, and whether there could be false positives.
Earl said the documents also don’t reflect information shared publicly online. A status hearing is set for later this month
Nearly 10% of people in Illinois fully vaccinated
Nearly 10 percent of the state’s population has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
As of Monday morning, the state reports 8.9 percent of residents have been fully vaccinated.
The seven-day rolling average for administering vaccines is around 93,000.
Illinois, local governments to get $13.2 billion in federal aid
Illinois state and local governments are set to get $13.2 billion in state and local funding from the federal government in the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill that passed the U.S. Senate along party lines.
The Democrat-backed bill has the Illinois state government getting $7.5 billion, $5.5 billion for local governments, including $1.8 billion directly for Chicago.
Illinois State Rifle Association files another lawsuit
The Illinois State Rifle Association has filed another lawsuit over delays in the state’s gun owner licensing program.
State law requires Illinois State Police to approve or deny a conceal-carry application within 90 days if fingerprints are provided or 120 days if they’re not. ISP’s website shows the average processing time for applications with fingerprints is 157 days and 166 days without.
There’s a pending case challenging the state’s Firearm Owner Identification Card law, which is also experiencing months of delays.
Customs officers seize counterfeit N95 masks
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency said its officers recently seized more than 65,000 counterfeit 3M branded N95 masks.
The department said last week officers at the Port of Chicago seized parcels arriving from Columbia and upon inspection of 136 boxes, there was an unfamiliar chemical smell and grammatical errors on the packaging.
The masks were destined for a company in Virginia.
Lawmakers attempt to reverse fee hike
Some Illinois lawmakers are trying once again to reverse a massive increase for small-trailer registration fees.
Annual license renewals for trailers 3,000 pounds or less jumped from $18 to $118 recently.
State Rep. Jeff Keicher said he and others are working on legislation to lower that back to $18.
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