Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch gave added meaning to the phrase “winning ugly” during last Wednesday’s early-morning hours. I’ve never seen anything like it, so let’s take a look. House members were told to be in their seats by noon on Tuesday after the Senate had easily passed the entire budget package on Sunday.

Back in April, the Executive Director of the American Nurses Association Illinois Susan Swart told my associate Isabel Miller that advanced-practice registered nurses are losing their jobs because of ongoing and severe state licensing delays. Swart said some of those nurses are waiting “a year to eighteen months” to get their licenses from the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR).

Governor JB Pritzker unexpectedly moved away last week from his long-standing opposition to taxing services, saying he didn’t want to start taking ideas off the table as lawmakers search for ways to fund and reform the Chicago region’s mass-transit system. A major business group predictably pushed back.

Just eight of 78 Illinois House Democrats openly sided last week with the once-indomitable Chicago Teachers Union. The CTU hotly opposed a bill to halt all public-school closures and prevent disproportionate budget cuts and changes to admissions criteria at Chicago’s selective-enrollment schools until a fully-elected Chicago school board is seated in 2027. The final roll call was a lopsided 92-8. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, whose popularity has plummeted along with his Statehouse influence, ought to take this as a warning not to follow the CTU’s example. And so should some other Chicago-based organizations.