Illinois drivers are paying nearly 90 cents more per gallon than drivers across the border in Indiana. Illinois: $4.91/gal Indiana: $4.03/gal And despite the growing cost at the pump, Illinois Democrats say they haven’t heard anyone complain about the gas tax. The next gas tax increase is coming in just 90 days.
Illinois has two more gas tax increases scheduled — one on January 1 and another on July 1. Illinois also charges a sales tax on the gasoline tax, meaning you’re essentially paying a tax on a tax. As gas prices rise, the amount collected through these taxes rises too. And 80% of that tax revenue reportedly goes directly to Chicago to help its budget. Illinois Democrats say they haven’t heard people complaining about the gas tax. But if these policies continue, drivers could be paying even more at the pump.
Leyden CHSD 212 school district is under scrutiny as its superintendent, Nicholas Polyak receives a significant salary increase despite low student performance metrics.
Dr Nick Polyak
Leyden CHSD 212 school district is under scrutiny as its superintendent, Nicholas Polyak receives a significant salary increase despite low student performance metrics.
benefits and retirement enhancements is $431,326
That’s according to an analysis of Illinois school superintendent salaries by Wirepoints.
This decision comes amid concerns about the district’s academic outcomes and financial management.
Nicholas Polyak’s salary has increased by $84,000, according to Wirepoints. The raise highlights issues in Illinois’ education system, including high property taxes and pension liabilities.
“The near-$500,000 salary being doled out to a superintendent in a failing school district captures the absurdity that is Illinois governance,” said Ted Dabrowski.
According to data from the Illinois Report Card and the Illinois State Board of Education, only 20% of students in Leyden CHSD 212 are proficient in math, while 21% read at grade level.
Chronic absenteeism among students stands at 47%, with 69% of teachers absent for more than ten days.
An exact future pension figure for Dr. Nick Polyak is not publicly available, as he is an active employee and his final pension will depend on his official retirement date and final contract terms.
However, because his compensation is a matter of public record under the Illinois Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS), we can estimate a projected range based on the system’s formulas.
The Financial Data
Current Base Salary: As of recent district disclosures, Polyak’s annual base salary is $310,000, with a total compensation package (including annuities and benefits) reaching almost $500,000.
Historical Contract Growth: His 5-year contract structured scheduled annual flat raises of $10,000, bringing his base salary up
How the Pension is Calculated
Illinois TRS pensions for Tier 1 members are determined by a formula: 2.2% × [Years of Service] × [Final Average Salary]. [1, 2]
Service Years: Polyak has been a superintendent since roughly 2009 (and at Leyden District 212 since 2013), with 27 total years of experience in education as of 2026. If he completes a full career of 34+ years to reach the maximum Illinois pension cap of 75%, his retirement annuity will be calculated at that max multiplier.
Final Average Salary: TRS averages the highest four consecutive years of salary within the final 10 years of a career.
Projected Annual Pension
If Polyak continues to accumulate service years and retires at the maximum 75% formula tier based on his current salary trajectory:
Estimated Annual Payout: He will receive an annual pension of approximately $232,500 to $240,000 upon retirement (75% of a $310,000–$320,000 average base salary).
Annual Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA): Under Tier 1 TRS rules, this base pension amount would automatically increase by 3% compounding annually every year after he retires.
Dr Nick Polyak is the 5th highest paid School Superintendent in Illinois, yet the academic performance of the students does not support such a compensation.
Superintendent pay in Illinois is totally out of whack with what ordinary Illinoisans can afford and how few kids can read at grade level.
The best example, the recent super in Dolton. Nearly $600K in total comp when just 19% of his students in the district could read at grade level.
Or Michael Lubelfeld in Lake County, where there’s a referendum (1% sales tax hike) to raise more money for schools. It’d be better to look for money in administrative bloat and excess pay than via hike taxes.
Illinoisans already pay the nation’s highest property taxes. The below graphic shows one reason why.
Taxes won’t come down until we consolidate Illinois’ massive number of school districts in Illinois. Until we bring administrative pay in line with what taxpayers can afford. Until we end pensions for new hires. Until we stop putting public teacher union “rights” above those of ordinary Illinoisans.
Did you know that LSD and hippies were invented by the CIA in the 1960s? No? Well, the idea was to hook kids on sex, drugs and rock & roll (hey, it worked!), so they would not overthrow the military industrial complex. Accomplices in this diabolical scheme were, in England, the Beatles and, in America, Jim Morrison, Frank Zappa and other residents of Laurel Canyon in L.A. Joseph Flatley dove down this conspiracy rabbit hole to find out how this happened…
“There’s this guy from the CIA, and he’s creepin’ around Laurel Canyon…”
— Frank Zappa, “Plastic People”
Were you aware that Jim Morrison, Frank Zappa, “Papa John” Phillips, and David Crosby were all children of high-ranking members of the American military? Or that the Los Angeles neighborhood of Laurel Canyon, one-time home to all of the above, was also the location of the Air Force’s 1352nd Photographic Group? These factoids might not mean much to you, but according to the late conspiracy researcher David McGowan, they indicated a military psyop (psychological operation) of mind-blowing proportions. McGowan, who died in 2015, laid out the theory on podcasts, through his website Center for an Informed America (CIA, get it?) and later, in his book Weird Scenes Inside The Canyon: Laurel Canyon, Covert Ops, and the Dark Heart of the Hippie Dream.
McGowan claims that the hippie movement of the 1960s was conceived in a government lab somewhere as a way to defuse the nascent antiwar movement. The plan was, simply put, to hook the kids on rock music and hard drugs, taking their minds off of revolution in the process.
Perhaps the individual most emblematic of this scheme was Jim Morrison. “Morrison essentially arrived on the scene as a fully-developed rock star, complete with a backing band, a stage persona and an impressive collection of songs – enough, in fact, to fill the Doors’ first few albums,” McGowan writes. “How exactly Jim Morrison reinvented himself in such a radical manner remains something of a mystery… Jim Morrison’s band arrived on the scene as a fully-formed entity.”
The plan was, simply put, to hook the kids on rock music and hard drugs, taking their minds off of revolution in the process.
Perhaps it should be noted here that David MacGowan was not a stand-up comic mocking the lunatic fringe of conspiracy theory. Nor was he an acid casualty whose mind was blown after watching Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove. No. Not at all. He sincerely believed all of the above.
Was Gen. Jack D. Ripper the forerunner for David MacGowan? You make the call:
McGowan doesn’t tell us how he thinks Morrison made his stunning transformation. He merely notes how strange it is and leaves us to wonder about it. We’ll have to look at the work of another conspiracy researcher for some insight into that process.
John Coleman, in the tradition of so many conspiracy authors, claims that he first found out how the world reallyworks while serving as an agent of Britain’s Special Intelligence Service. After he got out, the story goes, he made it his life’s mission to expose the cabal of Jesuits, Freemasons, Jesuit Freemasons, intelligence agencies, and others that secretly run the world on the behest of the Queen of England. Of course, like the vast majority of conspiracy culture’s so-called whistleblowers, all we have to go by here is Coleman’s word. And judging by his bizarre theories, his word is most likely not to be trusted.
“The phenomenon of the Beatles,” Coleman writes in his book The Conspirator’s Hierarchy, “was … a carefully crafted plot to introduce by a conspiratorial body which could not be identified, a highly destructive and divisive element into a large population group targeted for change against its will.”
The Fab Four, according to Coleman, were the vehicle that “social engineers” from a think tank called The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations used to manipulate American youth. He labeled this plan the “Aquarian Conspiracy.” The tin-eared Coleman confidently states:
Nobody would have paid much attention to the motley crew from Liverpool and the 12-atonal system of “music” that was to follow had it not been for an overabundance of press exposure. The 12-atonal system consisted of heavy, repetitive sounds, taken from the music of the cult of Dionysus and the Baal priesthood by Adorno and given a “modern” flavor by this special friend of the Queen of England and hence the Committee of 300. Tavistock and its Stanford Research Center … created a distinct new break-away largely young population group which was persuaded by social engineering and conditioning to believe that the Beatles really were their favorite group. All trigger words devised in the context of “rock music” were designed for mass control of the new targeted group, the youth of America.
In other words, these four talentless (in his view) Liverpudlians were recruited, dressed up, given silly haircuts, and paid to perform music specifically designed to brainwash the youth. And it worked! I guess that we’re supposed to believe that after the process was perfected on The Beatles, it was taken to Southern California. Besides The Doors, McGowan implicates a large number of groups and musicians in his conspiracy theory, including:
The Byrds
Frank Zappa
Crosby, Stills, and Nash
Love
Gram Parsons
Neil Young
Poco
America
While McGowan doesn’t presume to tell us precisely who is responsible for this plot, he does imply that it’s the same military-industrial complex that escalated along with the Vietnam War, getting a major assist from Jim Morrison’s father, Admiral George Stephen Morrison.
According to his New York Times obit, the elder Morrison “commanded American naval forces in the gulf [of Tonkin] when the destroyer Maddox engaged three North Vietnamese torpedo boats on Aug. 2, 1964. A skirmish and confused reports of a second engagement two days later led President Lyndon B. Johnson to order airstrikes against North Vietnam and to request from Congress what became known as the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, allowing him to carry out further military operations without declaring war.”
The Times fails to mention that the operation was under the aegis of something called OPLAN 34A, a series of covert operations targeting North Vietnam. These attacks were carried out by South Vietnamese mercenaries and Special Forces, with the United States in a support and advisory role. As Douglas Valentine points out in The Phoenix Program, this role included placing Navy SEALs in the South Vietnamese units. As is always the case, the use of “advisors” here was little more than a pretext for putting American boots on the ground in the days before it was legal.
According to McGowan, while Admiral Morrison was overseeing military operations in the Gulf of Tonkin — operations which, depending on who you believe, either accidentally or purposefully drew us into war in Vietnam — his son was being used as a tool to crush the peace movement at home.
Jim Morrison “crushing the peace movement” with “Peace Frog”:
Following the web from the United States Navy through Jim Morrison leads us to Frank Zappa. This connection was facilitated by Zappa’s wife, Gail, who like Jim Morrison was the child of a naval officer. In fact, as Barry Miles revealed in Zappa: A Biography, both Jim and Gail “used to play together in the same naval kindergarten in Virginia where, according to Frank, Gail once hit Jim on the head with a hammer.”
Frank Zappa’s father arrived in the United States from his native Sicily in 1908. A graduate of the University of North Carolina, Mr. Zappa spent his life “in the employ of the US military establishment,” as McGowan writes. This eventually brought him to the West Coast, where the family lived for a time in Lancaster, California. McGowan points out — and I suppose this is important, but he never says how — that other past residents of Lancaster include Clarence White (who replaced Gram Parsons in The Byrds), Dewey Bunnell of “A Horse With No Name” infamy, and Captain Beefheart himself, Don Van Vliet. McGowan also claims that the city of Lancaster is “right alongside” Edwards Air Force Base, although this isn’t accurate; the base is 22 miles northeast of the city. As it so happens, Area 51 is under the administration of Edwards AFB, so perhaps Zappa, Van Vliet, et. al, were working for whoever it is that’s been reverse-engineering extraterrestrial technology since the Roswell Incident in 1947.
In 1968, Frank and Gail Zappa were living at 2401 Laurel Canyon Boulevard, in a home referred to as the Log Cabin. This structure began life as a roadhouse in the early 20th century and was later the home to silent movie cowboy Tom Mix and his horse, Tony. The 2,000-square-foot, five-level house featured an 80-foot long living room and a bowling alley in the basement. It was here, according to McGowan, that Frank hosted a perpetual salon attended by “virtually every musician who passe[d] through the canyon in the mid-to-late-1960s.”
McGowan portrays Zappa as “a rigidly authoritarian control-freak and a supporter of U.S. military actions in Southeast Asia” who used his roles as a producer, label head, and one of the most famous freaks in America to bring down the anti-war movement. (Of course, there’s nothing to the rumor that Zappa supported the Vietnam war, but why let that ruin a good story?)
“Plastic People”-The Mothers of Invention, from the Absolutely Free album:
The world of conspiracy theory is big on establishing “connections,” the idea being that any time two things relate to each other, that relationship must be meaningful. That is why the fact that Jim Morrison lived in Laurel Canyon at some point, and that his father may have basically started the Vietnam War, can’t be a coincidence. (There’s a logical fallacy in there somewhere, but I can’t seem to find my copy of Why People Believe Weird Things, so I’ll leave that for another time.) The conspiracy researcher’s gig is to see the connections, to see reality for what it really is, and then present it to the rest of us innocent fools so that we might learn the truth. And the truth shall set us free, as David Icke—a British conspiracy theorist who claims a secret world government is run by undercover lizard people—once insisted.
McGowan’s work is generally little more than a litany of these “connections,” unsourced and hard to put into proper perspective. What are we to make of the fact that “some have claimed” that J. Edgar Hoover frequented a brothel in the Canyon, or that Frank Zappa’s father once worked at the Edgewood Arsenal chemical warfare facility (where the U.S. military conducted MK-ULTRA-type experiments on human subjects)? McGowan doesn’t really tell us — he just piles it all on, and then throws Charlie Manson and (for some reason) Harry Houdini into the mix.
Let’s reconsider that same passage from Weird Scenes quoted earlier:
“Morrison essentially arrived on the scene as a fully-developed rock star, complete with a backing band, a stage persona and an impressive collection of songs – enough, in fact, to fill the Doors’ first few albums. How exactly Jim Morrison reinvented himself in such a radical manner remains something of a mystery… Jim Morrison’s band arrived on the scene as a fully-formed entity.”
..there is a fascinating story here, and it’s right under the author’s own nose: the Laurel Canyon scene was, at its heart, built by the sons and daughters of the military-industrial complex…
McGowan spends a lot of time being blown away by the fact that The Doors, a group of, in his opinion, no-talent, non-musician hacks, led by a guy who can’t even read music is somehow responsible for some of the most enduring classics of 1960s rock. One has to wonder if McGowan ever bothered cracking open any of the gazillion books about the Lizard King—not to mention, listened to any of their albums. If he did, he’d surely know how The Doors evolved from Ray Manzarek’s bar band, Rick and the Ravens, and how Morrison was referred to by his fellow UCLA film school students as the “pudgy Navy brat” until he moved out on the beach, stopped eating, and started writing songs while flying high on LSD. (He also seems to have had some sort of eating disorder, at least during his “rock god” heyday.) McGowan, it turns out, only believes that the band appeared out of nowhere because he knows nothing about the band. That’s kind of par for the course with his book.
As I have listened to McGowan’s podcast appearances and plowed through his extremely dense writing on the Laurel Canyon conspiracy, I’m struck by how bizarre his conclusions are. He doesn’t realize it, but there is a fascinating story here, and it’s right under the author’s own nose: the Laurel Canyon scene was, at its heart, built by the sons and daughters of the military-industrial complex, many of whom were relatively well-to-do and and/or lucky enough to circumvent the draft, who formed their own little community for a brief time in a very special place. It was oftentimes a very dysfunctional scene, and it didn’t last very long, but while it did it was rather remarkable.
McGowan, a life-long smoker, died on November 22, 2015, six months after being diagnosed with lung cancer. His fans on the internet suspect that this, too, was a secret government plot.
Or, maybe they were just freaked out by that date: November 22. The anniversary of the JFK assassination…
Illinois Drivers will see 2 additional Gas Tax Hikes in 2027 if JB Pritzker and Democrats are re-elected.
JB Pritzker just signed the Democrat approved state budget that calls for, not one, but two gas-tax increases next year.
The 1st: January 1, 2027 The 2nd: July 1, 2027
The gas tax increases will be sent to fund Chicago mass transit. 
The gas tax used to be $.19 a gallon prior to JB Pritzker taking Office. It will shoot up beyond $.50 a gallon by July 1
Worst yet, Illinois drivers also pay a sales tax on the state gas tax. “A tax on a tax” – only in Illinois! When you combine local taxes, county taxes,  Illinois drivers pay on average $.75 a gallon in state and local taxes, then when you add on federal tax, the amount is close to $.95 a gallon.
Conversely, Indiana gas prices, on average, are one dollar less per gallon because its Republican governor has suspended its gas tax.
Democrats believe of gas prices go high enough, Illinois consumers will get rid of their vehicles or switch to EV’s and take mass transit.
The Supreme Court ruled 50-years-ago that news organizations are not entitled to access to places or information the government controls – shutting down any claim by CNN that President Trump’s decision to revoke the press-passes for three organizations violates its constitutional rights.
🔻In Houchins v. KQED (1978), the justices held that the First Amendment is neither a Freedom of Information Act nor an Official Secrets Act.
The press’s core protection is the right to communicate information once it has been obtained, not a right to collect it from the government.
🔻Pell v. Procunier (1974) and related cases established that the press has no constitutional right to information or locations not available to the public generally.
🔻Zemel v. Rusk (1965) stated that the right to speak and publish does not carry with it an unrestrained right to gather information, and that entry into the White House is not a First Amendment right.
Also the Supreme Court/federal-court precedent: Sherrill v. Knight (D.C. Circuit, 1977).
That case specifically involved White House press credentials. The court recognized that the White House isn’t constitutionally required to open itself to every reporter, but held that once the White House establishes a press-access system, it cannot deny access to a journalist because of the content of that journalist’s reporting. The court required a legitimate basis for exclusion and procedural safeguards. AP’s current reporting specifically identifies Sherrill as relevant to the present dispute.
Those rulings have never been overruled.
President Donald Trump announced on Friday that CNN, MS NOW, and Politico were banned from the White House effective immediately because they constantly publishes information that is blatantly false.
The President told reporters in the Oval Office those organizations can write whatever they choose; but because they are dishonest he does not have to let them into the people’s house.
Today Secret Service agents deactivated and confiscated hard passes when CNN, MS NOW, and Politico reporters arrived at the press entrance.
CNN called the move an illegal assault on a constitutionally protected right to report without government hindrance.
MS NOW and Politico said they would take every step to defend their First Amendment rights.
Conservatives point out that the three outlets still have cameras, websites, sources, and nationwide reach. He did not ban them from operating.
What they lost is a privilege – workspace, West Wing proximity, and pool access – that ordinary citizens never receive.
White House press access is a courtesy the executive can manage, not a legal entitlement.
The organizations will sue, but the Highest Court already ruled
A federal judge on Thursday declined to block Illinois’ new “medical aid in dying” law from going into effect this weekend, clearing the way for terminally ill adults to legally seek life-ending medication from physicians.
Allegations of Discrimination: Disability rights advocates and individual plaintiffs sued the state, arguing the law discriminates against vulnerable populations. [1, 2, 3]
Fear of Coercion: Opponents claim the law could implicitly pressure disabled or chronically ill individuals—who may not actually have a terminal prognosis—into ending their lives prematurely. [1, 2]
Impaired Doctor-Patient Trust: Critics argue the framework strains the relationship between patients with disabilities and their medical providers. (A federal judge declined a preliminary injunction to halt the law, ruling plaintiffs failed to prove immediate irreparable harm). [1, 2]Religious and Conscience Objections
Catholic Leadership Opposition: Chicago Archbishop Cardinal Blase Cupich, local dioceses, and Catholic healthcare organizations strongly oppose the law, viewing it as a violation of the sanctity of life.[1, 2, 3]
Conscience Protections: Legal challenges and temporary restraining orders have been sought to protect faith-based healthcare workers and institutions that refuse to participate in or facilitate aid-in-dying services due to moral objections. [1, 2]Medical and Ethical Debates
The Oath to Do No Harm: Opponents, including some physicians and religious leaders, argue that prescribing life-ending medication directly conflicts with the traditional healing role and ethical oaths of doctors. [1]
Division Among Physicians: While a majority of Illinois Physicians’ Attitudes Toward Medical Aid in Dying express overall support for the concept as an end-of-life choice, practicing doctors remain closely divided on whether they personally would be willing to write a lethal prescription. [1]Capitol News IllinoisJudge declines to block Illinois’ ‘medical aid in dying’ law ahead of Sept. 12 startSep 10, 2026 — Article Summary Illinois is set to become the first Midwestern state to allow terminally ill patients to seek life-ending medication from their physicians when …AxiosIllinois medical-aid-in-dying law takes effect Saturday – Axios ChicagoSep 10, 2026 — Advocates for the Medical Aid in Dying Act in 2023 in New York. Jim Franco/Albany Times Union via Getty Images Legal challenges to Illinois’ medical-aid-in-dyin…STLPRJudge declines to block Illinois’ ‘medical aid in dying’ law ahead of Sept. 12 startSep 11, 2026 — Capitol News Illinois The Dirksen Courthouse in Chicago. A federal judge on Thursday declined to block Illinois’ new “medical aid in dying” law from going into …Facebook·ABC 7 Chicago0:32A federal judge Friday approved a requested temporary restraining order …ABC7 ChicagoFederal judge approves temporary restraining order in lawsuit filed by Catholic leaders in Illinois ‘medical aid in dying’ lawSep 11, 2026 — Judge approves TRO in suit filed by Catholic leaders in Illinois ‘medical aid in dying’ law. … A federal judge approved a temporary restraining order in a law…Compassion & ChoicesSurvey of Illinois Physicians’ Attitudes Toward Medical Aid in Dying as an …By a margin of 58-25 percent, Illinois physicians support medical aid in dying or physician-assisted death (MAID/PAD). When asked whether they support or oppose…ABC7 ChicagoFederal judge declines to block Illinois’ ‘medical aid in dying’ law ahead of Sept. 12 startSep 10, 2026 — Chicago Archbishop Cardinal Blase Cupich and 2 orders of Catholic nuns filed a lawsuit in an effort to block an Illinois medical aid-in-dying law. … CHICAGO –WTTW NewsFederal Judge Rejects Bid to Block Illinois’ ‘Medical Aid in Dying’ Law Days …Sep 10, 2026 — Federal Judge Rejects Bid to Block Illinois’ ‘Medical Aid in Dying’ Law Days Before It Takes Effect. … A federal judge has denied a motion that sought to bloc…NBC 5 ChicagoJudge temporarily blocks Illinois’ ‘medical aid in dying’ law from starting — for someSep 11, 2026 — A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked Illinois’ ‘medical aid in dying’ law that was set to start this weekend — for some. With the judge’s approval, a…Facebook·Eyewitness News0:40A federal judge has temporarily blocked enforcement of portions of Illinois’ new …
You can access state-specific guides, forms, and advance directives through Compassion & Choices Illinois as the state implements its medical aid in dying law. [1]
Illinois is the first Midwestern state to authorize medical aid in dying for terminally ill patients under the End-of-Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act, also known as Deb’s Law. [1, 2]
Eligibility Requirements
Age & Residency: Must be an adult (18 or older) and a resident of Illinois.
Diagnosis: Must have a terminal illness with a prognosis of six months or less to live, confirmed by two independent physicians.
Mental Capacity: Must be mentally capable of making healthcare decisions, and depression alone does not qualify a patient.
Administration: Must be physically able to self-administer the medication.[1, 2, 3, 4]
How the Process Works
Requests: Patients must make explicit oral and written requests. Family members or surrogate decision-makers cannot request the medication for a patient. [1]
Witnesses: Written requests must be signed and witnessed by two individuals who confirm the patient acts voluntarily and without coercion. [1]
Informed Consent: Attending physicians must discuss all end-of-life care options, including hospice, palliative care, and pain control. [1]
Provider Participation and Legal Status
Voluntary Participation: No doctor, pharmacist, or healthcare worker is required to participate.
Facility Rules: Hospitals and healthcare networks can choose not to offer medical aid in dying.
Current Challenges: Ongoing legal challenges and temporary restraining orders apply to certain religiously affiliated health systems while court battles proceed. [1, 2, 3, 4]
Under SB 1950, individuals with a prognosis of six months or less to live can request a prescription for aid-in-dying medication. The oral and written requests can only be made by the patient to the patient’s attending physician. SB 1950 includes language for what that written request should entail. (A written, signed request is required.)
The attending physician’s duties include determining the mental capacity of the patient (with referral to a mental health profession if warranted), confirming that coercion did not play a role in the request, providing information on other end-of-life treatment options, and referring the patient to a consulting physician for medical confirmation. No health care provider is required to participate, and SB 1950 makes it a felony to coerce anyone to request the medication or to forge a request.
The Illinois Department of Public Health will produce annual reports on the number of prescriptions for aid-in-dying medication, the number of physicians who prescribed it, and the number of deaths. Oregon’s Death With Dignity Act was the first of its kind in the nation and dates back to 1997. In 2024, there were 607 recipients of aid-in-dying medication in Oregon and 376 deaths. The number of deaths under the Oregon law has risen over time — from 42 in 2003, to 73 in 2014, to a high of 386 in 2023 (followed by the slight decline in 2024).
Over the past five years, these measures have been introduced but not passed in several Midwestern states: Indiana (HB 1011of 2025), Iowa (SF 2101 and HF 2288 of 2024), Kansas (HB 2202 of 2021), Michigan (SB 681 of 2023), Minnesota (SF 3215 of 2025), and Wisconsin (AB 781 of 2024).
Canada has allowed eligible adults to request medical assistance in dying for nearly a decade. The federal law does not make eligibility contingent on a terminal illness; the criteria is having a “grievous and irremediable medical condition.” The aid-in-dying medication can be administered by either a health professional or the patient. In 2023, the number of medically assisted deaths in Canada reached a one-year high of 15,343 — 4.7 percent of all the country’s deaths that year.
To ensure the highest safeguards for patients, the law is effective in September of 2026, which affords participating health care providers and the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) significant lead time to implement stringent processes and protections as outlined in the law.
Also known as “Deb’s Law,” the bill honors Deb Robertson, a lifelong Illinois resident living with a rare terminal illness who has strongly advocated for the bill and shed light on the impacts on families and individuals struggling with terminal illness as they seek dignity and autonomy to peacefully end their lives on their terms.
“I have been deeply impacted by the stories of Illinoisans or their loved ones that have suffered from a devastating terminal illness, and I have been moved by their dedication to standing up for freedom and choice at the end of life in the midst of personal heartbreak,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “Today, Illinois honors their strength and courage by enacting legislation that enables patients faced with debilitating terminal illnesses to make a decision, in consultation with a doctor, that helps them avoid unnecessary pain and suffering at the end of their lives. This legislation will be thoughtfully implemented so that physicians can consult patients on making deeply personal decisions with authority, autonomy, and empathy.”
The legislation expands compassionate end of life options in a manner that establishes clear processes, guidelines, and protocols. Several safeguards are in place to ensure robust patient protection for Illinois residents. No physician, health care provider, or pharmacist is required to participate in the option. The law makes it a felony to coerce anyone to request the medication or to forge a request. Adult patients (18 or older) requesting end-of-life medication must:
Have a terminal illness that will result in death within six months (as determined by two physicians).
Be informed by their physician about all of their end-of-life care options, including comfort care, hospice, palliative care, and pain control.
Have the mental capacity, confirmed by their physician, to make medical decisions.
Make written and oral requests in order to receive the aid-in-dying medication, among other requirements. The request can only be made by the patient, not by the patient’s surrogate decision-maker, health care proxy, health care agent, attorney-in-fact for healthcare, guardian, nor via advance care directive.
Lawmakers and the Governor have heard numerous personal stories from families and individuals who have faced harrowing circumstances as they near the ends of their lives. Some were enduring unbearable pain, even travelling thousands of miles to seek medical aid-in-dying in other states and countries while sick. They also heard from families who spoke of the pain of seeing their loved one experience prolonged suffering that they were desperate and powerless to end.
“With this law, we are strengthening our commitment to compassionate care for every patient, bodily autonomy for every person, and basic human dignity at every stage of life,” said House Majority Leader Robyn Gabel (D-Evanston).
“Both of my parents died of cancer. I’ll never forget the helpless feeling of watching them suffer when there was nothing I could do to help them,” said Senate Assistant Majority Leader Linda Holmes (D-Aurora). “I believe every adult patient of sound mind should have this as one more option in their end of life care in the event their suffering becomes unbearable.”
“I want to thank Governor Pritzker for signing this measure into law – giving the full range of end-of-life options for Illinois residents,” said Deb Robertson, a retired Lombard social worker who worked to pass the Deb’s Law. “Today, I know the end for me could be near. But I’m pleased to have been able to play some role in ensuring that terminally ill Illinoisans have access to medical aid in dying.”
“As someone who is disabled, disability justice has always meant having the right to determine how I live,” said Beth Langen, a longtime disability rights advocate from Springfield who testified in support of Deb’s Law. “We know that disability is not terminal. And like anyone else, I may face a terminal illness in the future that will make death imminent. If I do, I want my right to self-determination to include the final days of my life.”
“My son, Andrew, died peacefully utilizing the option of medical aid in dying in California, where he lived,” said Suzy Flack, a former Naperville resident who testified in support of Deb’s Law. “Most of our family members were able to travel to be with him, but his grandmother couldn’t travel to California because of her age. She never got to see Drew for a final goodbye. No other family in Illinois will experience that hardship.”
“Deb’s Law adds medical aid in dying care to the full range of health options that Illinois residents can choose and safely access as a result of a deep commitment from our state’s leaders,” said Khadine Bennett, Advocacy and Intergovernmental Affairs Director at the ACLU of Illinois. “Terminally ill individuals living in Illinois will no longer have to agonize about spending their remaining days fearful of a painful death because the full range of end-of-life care options were not available in our state. We thank Governor Pritzker for listening to the people directly impacted by this issue and applaud his continued commitment to ensuring that Illinois continues to be a place where our residents are allowed to make the most vital, personal decisions throughout their lives without government interference.”
“We applaud Governor Pritzker for signing this compassionate legislation, honoring the 71% of Americans who support the option of medical aid in dying for their fellow Illinoisans facing their last months, weeks, or days with a terminal illness,” said Kevin Díaz, President/CEO for Compassion & Choices and Compassion & Choices Action Network. “Thanks to Governor Pritzker’s thoughtful leadership in signing Deb’s Law today, Illinois will become the first state in the Midwest to authorize medical aid in dying, joining the growing number of U.S. jurisdictions that have committed to law their dedication to patient-driven healthcare at all stages of life.”
“Today, Illinois affirms the dignity and autonomy of individuals confronting the final stages of a terminal illness” said Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Sameer Vohra. “IDPH is committed to implementing this new law with the highest ethical standards, transparency, and care, supported by strong safeguards and detailed reporting systems that protect patients and guide providers.”
“Abundant research has shown that strong safeguards like the ones in this bill not only protect the patient, but also improve end-of-life care,” said Dr. Cynthia Chatterjee, Psychiatrist and Physician, and member of the Illinois State Medical Society who testified in support of Deb’s Law. “With these safeguards, patients who meet all the requirements will be able to end terrible suffering from a terminal illness and experience an easy, comfortable death.”
“In signing this law, Gov. Pritzker has given those who are at the end of their life freedom from the fear of enduring unrelenting, needless suffering, and replaced it with the chance to experience death as the final sacred moment of their being,” said Episcopalian minister Reverand Judith Doran from Chicago.
PROCESS TO RECIEVE MEDICAL AID IN DYING MEDICATION
Patients who meet eligibility criteria must make several oral and written requests in order to receive medical aid in dying medication.
The written request must be signed by the requesting patient and witnessed by at least two individuals who attest that the patient has the mental capacity to make this decision, is making it voluntarily, and is not being coerced or doing so under duress.
Patients who qualify must be able to self-administer the medication.
Patients who qualify and receive medication have the right to withdraw their request at any time or choose not to ingest it. The death certificates of those who take end-of-life medication under the bill will attribute their cause of death to the underlying terminal disease. The option to prescribe aid in dying will be available on September 12, 2026, when the Medical Aid in Dying bill goes into effect.
REQUIREMENTS FOR PHYSICANS
Attending physicians must provide informed consent regarding all appropriate end-of-life care options, not just medical aid-in-dying.
They must provide an in-person examination to determine whether the patient has an illness that will result in death within six months. Two doctors must concur.
As part of the process, the physician must also confirm that the individual has the mental capacity to make the decision to pursue medical aid-in-dying. If there are any questions about fitness, the patient will be referred to a licensed mental health professional. If the mental health professional determines that the patient does not have mental capacity, the patient will not qualify for medical aid-in-dying.
If a patient elects the end-of-life option as outlined in the Act, physicians must submit information within 60 days after the patient’s death to the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) regarding the patient, their diagnosis, notice that requirements under the Act were completed, and notice that medication has been prescribed pursuant to the Act. This information is to be considered confidential, privileged, and not discoverable in any civil, criminal, administrative, or other proceeding.
Health care professionals are not under any duty to participate in the provision of aid-in-dying and are not subject to criminal or civil liability for participating or refusing to provide aid-in-dying care to a patient in good faith compliance with the Act.
HEALTH CARE ORGANIZATIONS AND ENTITIES
Health care entities can also prohibit their staff from practicing aid-in-dying care while working for the organization. The Act also requires that an insurance plan, including Medicaid, cannot deny or alter benefits to a patient with a terminal disease based on the availability of aid-in-dying care, their request for medication pursuant to this Act, or the absence of a request. It does not require coverage of this care either by private insurers or Medicaid.
Sixty-two years and $22 trillion later, the U.S. poverty rate sits at roughly 11 percent, almost identical to where Lyndon Johnson found it in 1964. The government ran the most expensive social experiment in human history and produced nothing measurable. Bureaucracies perpetuate themselves, and this policy worked exactly as designed.
When Washington transfers purchasing power to the poor through SNAP, Medicaid, housing vouchers, and 126 other overlapping programs, it doesn’t eliminate scarcity; it relocates decision-making from individuals to administrators. Those administrators develop career interests in perpetuating dependency, because a solved problem eliminates their department.
Free market thinkers identified this perverse incentive structure before Johnson signed the Economic Opportunity Act. Every dollar taxed from productive activity carries a deadweight cost before it reaches anyone’s dinner table.
Capital formation lifts people out of poverty. You build wealth through savings, property rights, and voluntary exchange, none of which $22 trillion in redistributed spending actually produced.
LBJ asked the highly reputed statesman on his staff, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, to do see some research on “how we can help the black folks.” Moynihan’s research led him to warn LBJ not to expand welfare to the black community because it would drive men out of the households and destroy the black family. Despite this warning, LBJ did just that in his Great Society. The reason? He wanted to steer the black vote from being historically pro-Republican to pro-Democrat. In that, he succeeded, at the price of dooming black families to fatherless homes, poverty, drug use, crime, and the creation of a permanent, unemployable, sociopathic sub-culture.
Insane! Under JB Pritzker’s Illinois’ SAFE-T Act, offenders on electronic monitoring can ‘turn OFF’ the device for 2 days! …every week!
The approved legislation says that offenders can get at least 2 days of movement each week outside their residence with NO monitoring….what could possibly go wrong here?
Yes…two days every week…free to roam! So this is supposed to make our communities safer? another Crazy JB Pritzker idea that puts criminals first!
For all the non-lawyers in the room, here is what happened today at the Supreme Court and why President Trump is allowed to continue building the new White House ballroom.
Every law student learns fairly early that there is generally no such thing as taxpayer standing. Just because you don’t like how the federal government is spending your tax dollars does not mean you have the right to sue the government over that spending.
There is a broader principle behind that rule that is important to understanding today’s decision: You do not get to sue the federal government simply because you believe the federal government is doing something wrong.
As a general rule, the government cannot be sued unless it has permitted the lawsuit. And even when Congress has created a way to sue the government, you still have to satisfy the Constitution’s requirements for bringing a case in federal court. One of those requirements is called “standing.”
In plain English, standing asks a very simple question: What did the government do to you?
It is not enough to say, “The government is breaking the law.”
It is not enough to say, “I don’t like what the government is doing.”
And it is not enough to say, “I am a citizen and I want a federal judge to make the government stop.”
You generally have to show that what the government is doing is causing you a real and particularized injury.
That principle controlled today’s Supreme Court decision.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation sued to stop President Trump from constructing the new White House ballroom. But an organization needs someone with standing to bring that challenge. The Trust relied on one of its members, a woman who lives in Washington, D.C., and expects to visit the neighborhood around the White House about once a month.
Her claimed injury was essentially this: She is interested in historic architecture, she likes looking at the White House as it traditionally appears, and when the new ballroom is completed she is not going to like looking at it.
That was not enough.
The Supreme Court held that mere “offense, disagreement, or distaste” over what the government is doing is not the kind of concrete and particularized injury that gives someone standing to sue.
And this is the part of today’s decision that I suspect will be misunderstood.
The Supreme Court did not rule that President Trump has the legal authority to build the ballroom.
The Court expressly said:
“Today, we do not pass upon the legality of the government’s East Wing project.”
That is an incredibly important distinction.
The question of whether President Trump has the legal authority to build the ballroom is one question.
The question of whether this particular person has the right to walk into federal court and ask a judge to stop him is another question entirely.
Today, the Supreme Court decided the second question, not the first.
The woman simply did not have standing to sue.
And there is a good reason standing matters.
If merely believing that the President is acting illegally were enough to sue, virtually every controversial action taken by every President could immediately become a federal lawsuit brought by virtually anyone who disagreed with it.
That is not how our constitutional system works.
We live in a constitutional republic with three branches of government. The President is not above the law, but federal judges are not general supervisors of the Executive Branch either. Courts decide actual cases brought by people who have the legal right to bring them.
Congress is not powerless here. Quite the opposite. Congress controls federal spending, legislates concerning federal property and the District of Columbia, conducts oversight, and can enact laws restricting what the President may do.
If Congress believes President Trump has exceeded his authority, Congress has constitutional tools available to do something about it.
And if someone who actually has Article III standing brings the proper lawsuit, the courts may ultimately decide whether the President has the legal authority to build the ballroom.
But that was not the case before the Supreme Court today.
Today the Court decided something much simpler:
You don’t get to stop the President in federal court just because you don’t like what he is doing. You first have to show why you have the legal right to be the person asking the court to stop him.
This plaintiff couldn’t do that.
And that is why construction of the White House ballroom can continue.
Nick Polyak, Leyden School District 212 Superintendent Earns $431,326 as an Annual Salary
Dr Nick Polyak is the 5th highest paid School Superintendent in Illinois, yet the academic performance of the students does not support such a compensation.
Superintendent pay in Illinois is totally out of whack with what ordinary Illinoisans can afford and how few kids can read at grade level.
The best example, the recent super in Dolton. Nearly $600K in total comp when just 19% of his students in the district could read at grade level.
Or Michael Lubelfeld in Lake County, where there’s a referendum (1% sales tax hike) to raise more money for schools. It’d be better to look for money in administrative bloat and excess pay than via hike taxes.
Illinoisans already pay the nation’s highest property taxes. The below graphic shows one reason why.
Taxes won’t come down until we consolidate Illinois’ massive number of school districts in Illinois. Until we bring administrative pay in line with what taxpayers can afford. Until we end pensions for new hires. Until we stop putting public teacher union “rights” above those of ordinary Illinoisans.
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