News Progress

COVID-19 death toll surpasses 15,000 •December 23, 2020• By Sarah Mansur Capitol News Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker announced Friday that more than 17,000 doses of the first coronavirus vaccine have been administered to Illinois frontline health care workers outside of Chicago, up from 3,500 doses on Thursday. Pritzker said Illinois hospitals could begin to receive shipments of a second COVID-19 vaccine, developed by the drug company Moderna, as early as next week. That announcement comes one day after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s advisory committee recommended the use of the Moderna vaccine in people ages 18 and older. The … Read More

•December 23, 2020• By Jim Baumann NP Guest Writer I’m sure you’ve been wondering where I fall on the whole Dr. Jill Biden kerfuffle. I chose “kerfuffle” over “controversy” because it pairs so nicely with “malarkey.” This issue caught fire a week ago when a regular contributor to The Wall Street Journal wrote an op-ed that suggests the first lady-to-be drop the “Dr.” title. This elicited grenade-lobbing from various people and publications, even the Bidens. Jill Biden has a doctorate in education. She went to grad school, she wrote a doctoral thesis, she earned her degree. Joseph Epstein wrote his … Read More

•December 23, 2020• Moultrie County has been issued a tentative property assessment equalization factor of 1.0000, according to David Harris, Director of Illinois Department of Revenue. The property assessment equalization factor, often called the “multiplier”, is the method used to achieve uniform property assessments among counties, as required by law. This equalization is particularly important because some of the state’s 6,600 local taxing districts overlap into two or more counties (e.g. school districts, junior college districts, fire protection districts). If there were no equalization among counties, substantial inequities among taxpayers with comparable properties would result. … Read More