Hannah Meisel

CHICAGO — Gov. JB Pritzker used part of his eight-minute primetime speech at the Democratic National Convention this week to push his own party to shift its messaging on abortion rights and reframe the issue as an economic one.

U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Chicago, appears at an Illinois delegation breakfast during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last week. Rush was the Illinois chair for Kamala Harris’ run for president in 2019

Hannah Meisel — Capitol News Illinois | August 27, 2024 3:24 pm

Jury selection is set to begin Tuesday in the trial of former AT&T Illinois president Paul La Schiazza, who federal prosecutors allege bribed once-powerful Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan in exchange for favorable legislation in Springfield.It’s the last in a series of related trials that have played out in Chicago’s Dirksen Federal Courthouse over the last 18 months leading up to Madigan’s own bribery and racketeering trial, which is scheduled to begin Oct. 8. A jury last year convicted four former executives …

CHICAGO — Jury selection began Tuesday in the trial of former AT&T Illinois president Paul La Schiazza, who federal prosecutors allege bribed once-powerful Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan in exchange for favorable legislation in Springfield.

Feds claim AT&T won big in Springfield only after hiring ex-Illinois House speaker's political ally By Hannah Meisel - Capitol News Illinois

As the federal corruption trial of former AT&T Illinois president Paul La Schiazza formally kicked off on Wednesday, prosecutors and defense attorneys painted two very different pictures of a political hire the telecom giant made in 2017.

The day before Thanksgiving in 2016, then-AT&T Illinois president Paul La Schiazza read some news that frustrated him.It seemed that energy giant Exelon, the parent company of Chicago-based electric utility Commonwealth Edison, was going to get a big assist from Springfield that would prevent it from having to close any more of its nuclear plants.La Schiazza forwarded the news to several of his colleagues, bemoaning how “leaders and legislators are working so hard to get the Exelon bill done” the week of a major …

On an afternoon in late April 2017, recently retired state Rep. Eddie Acevedo was called to a meeting in the state Capitol in Springfield.The 20-year veteran lawmaker had joined his sons’ lobbying firm and was looking for work. Meeting with a trio of lobbyists for telecommunications giant AT&T Illinois was a major step forward in Acevedo’s new lobbying career.But Acevedo grew agitated when the lobbyists offered him $2,500 per month, raising his voice to express that he was worth more, according to testimony Friday in …

After years of pushing in Springfield, AT&T Illinois’ executive team was thrilled when the Illinois General Assembly in 2017 passed legislation that would get the company out from under expensive obligations to maintain its aging copper landline wires in Illinois.“Game over. We win,” AT&T Illinois President Paul La Schiazza wrote to a colleague after the final vote to override then-Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto of the legislation on July 1, 2017. “I am very proud of our team persevering through the most difficult of …