Here Are The Top 10 Biggest News Stories Of 2022 In Illinois

As 2022 comes to an end, we're taking stock of the biggest news stories of the year in Illinois.

In the past 12 months, federal corruption charges were filed against the former boss of Illinois Democrats, while his heir as the party's flagbearer secured a second term by spending over $151 million of his personal fortune on his reelection.

The state's only NFL franchise moved forward with its plans to ditch Chicago for the suburbs, a local company's product safety recall led to a nationwide shortage and controversy over family-friendly drag performances prompted threats of violence.

All the while, Illinois residents have faced evolving COVID-19 mandates amid the dominant omicron variant and steadily rising prices as inflationary pressures lifted the consumer price index by more than 7 percent.

Here's a look at 10 of the stories that most interested Patch readers during 2022:

COVID-19 In Illinois: Year 3

The year began with the largest spike in coronavirus infections since the start of the pandemic, driven by the antibody-evading omicron variant.

Two weeks after Christmas, state public health officials reported more than 44,000 people tested positive for the COVID-19 virus in a single day. Gov. J.B. Pritzker described the number of available ICU beds as "frighteningly limited," and Patch reported that state officials explained they were unable to determine how many hospitalized people were children and how many had been vaccinated against COVID-19.

By February, the wave of new infections had subsided, and state mandates related to the coronavirus likewise began to recede. A Springfield judge voided certain emergency rules adopted last year by public health and education officials, granting due process rights to unmasked students and unvaccinated school staff. By the next week, Pritzker announced the statewide indoor mask mandate would expire at the end of month, and Catholic schools adopted mask-optional policies.

Over the summer, federal drug regulators authorized vaccines for young children, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eased school guidelines and the World Health Organization declared the "end is in sight" for the COVID-19 pandemic.

2022 Elections

This year's midterm elections were the first to use electoral maps drawn up using the results from the 2020 Census.

Primaries were held in June instead of March, with six Republicans and two Democrats on the ballot in governor's race. Incumbent Gov. Pritzker spent millions of dollars to influence the GOP primary field, while his longshot opponent in the Democratic primary, Bev Miles, accused him of "buying the Black community to silence and harass and bully me." State Sen. Darren Bailey, a Southern Illinois farmer and vocal critic of Pritzker's pandemic policies, won the Republican primary resoundingly. The billionaire governor vastly outspent his Republican opponent in the general election and won reelection to a second term by a 12-point margin.

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Illinois lost one seat in Congress as a result of redistricting. Starting in January, there will be only four Republicans in the state's 17-member delegation. Following the first redistricting of the Illinois Supreme Court in six decades, Democrats now hold a 5-2 majority on the state's highest court. And in November, Illinois voters approved a constitutional amendment granting workers the right to organize and collectively bargain.

Some of our most-read election stories this year include: a candidate for state representative who dropped out of the GOP primary after revelations about an investigation into grooming and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, citizen-initiated electoral reform referendums that were adopted by voters in a suburban village and the Democratic congressman who paid back property taxes after a Patch report revealed he had been granted a homestead exemption on two houses at once.

Mass Shooting At 4th Of July Parade In Highland Park

Just as Illinois communities began to resume some of the most treasured annual summer traditions that had been canceled during the prior two years, a suburban town's Independence Day parade became the sight of the bloodiest mass shooting in Illinois history.

More than 50 people were shot, seven fatally, when a rooftop shooter opened fire on paradegoers on the morning of July 4. The man awaiting trial for the slayings fled the scene and remained on the lam for more than 8 hours after the shooting before he was arrested upon his return from Wisconsin. In the wake of the massacre, it became clear that the accused shooter had been permitted to legally purchase five guns, including a pair of semiautomatic assault-style rifles, during the summer of 2020 because his father had sponsored his application for a gun license. State police said there was insufficient evidence to deny a firearm owners identification, or FOID, card to the teen despite reports of a suicide attempt and threats to kill his family.

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The Highland Park mass shooting has boosted efforts to pass new firearm regulations. One North Shore group has repeatedly traveled to Washington D.C. in an abortive effort to convince Republican senators to reverse their positions on reissuing a federal assault weapons ban, while a local state representative has sponsored a bill that would ban assault-style guns, magazines that carry more than 10 bullets and FOID cards for anyone under 21 who is not in the military — a bill the governor said he hopes to sign into law by the first anniversary of the shooting. And survivors of the shooting and families of those slain have also filed a civil suit against gunmakers, firearm dealers, the alleged shooter and his father.

The parade shooting — the deadliest in the state since the 1929 St. Valentine's Day massacre — was not the only mass shooting in Illinois of 2022. So far this year, there have been more than 675 murders and 2,700 shooting incidents in Chicago, according to police data. Mass shootings have included five shot during a drag racing incident, 10 shot near the Magnificent Mile and 14 people shot on the city's West Side on Halloween.

The Fall Of Mike Madigan

Just over a year after stepping down as Illinois House speaker and chair of the Democratic Party of Illinois, longtime party boss Mike Madigan was indicted on nearly two dozen federal corruption charges.

Madigan, the longest-serving legislative leader in U.S. history, was initially accused of a racketeering conspiracy, bribery and wire fraud in connection with a scheme to use his political positions for the personal gain of his and his allies. Illinois Commonwealth Edison agreed to pay a $200 million fine and $38 million in rebates after company officials admitted to paying bribes to what prosecutors called the "Madigan Enterprise."

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In October, prosecutors unveiled a deferred prosecution agreement with AT&T Illinois and added a 23rd count to Madigan's indictment. The phone company admitted paying tens of thousands of dollars in bribes, through a lobbying firm, to a Madigan political alley, in exchange for the then-speaker to greenlight legislation that allowed it to get out of his costly obligation to provide landline telephone service to all Illinois residents. The 80-year-old Madigan has pleaded not guilty to the charges and still has millions of dollars left in his political funds, which Illinois law permits him to use to pay for his criminal defense attorneys legal bills.

Arlington Heights Bears: NFL Franchise Seeks Spacious Suburban Home

After the Chicago Bears last year agreed to a $197 million purchase agreement for Arlington International Racecourse, team officials unveiled initial redevelopment plans for the 326-acre property.

Bears Chairman George McCaskey said the team would "need help" from taxpayers to finance the $5 billion project, which is expected to take a decade or more to complete. Although team officials said the bears would not request public funding directly for the construction of the stadium, the Bears would look to local governments to "secure additional funding" for the development.

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Last month, the Arlington Heights Village Board voted to approve a pre-development agreement with the team, which plans to build a new, enclosed stadium at Arlington Park alongside a new arts and entertainment district. The CEO of Churchill Downs, which currently owns the shuttered racecourse, said he expects the Bears purchase of the property to be completed early next year.

Meanwhile in Chicago, a city task force released three potential new concepts for Soldier Field, including adding a dome, an open-air design on which a dome could be added — or a field optimized for soccer games and year-round entertainment events.

Settlements Paid Out, Uncovered

Illinois residents this year began to reap the financial benefits of having some of the nation's strictest biometric data privacy regulations in the form of settlement checks and agreements Silicon Valley tech giants.

This spring, Facebook began mailing out checks of up to $400 to more than 1.4 million Illinois residents as a result of a $650 million class action settlement with the company. TikTok settled a similar suit for $92 million, Snapchat agreed to pay $35 million and about 420,000 Illinois residents are in line to receive an average of $154 after Google paid $100 million to settle a class action complaint involving Google Photos.

Patch also broke the news of several significant settlements in suburban communities. One town paid $93,000 to settle a lawsuit stemming from an altercation during a 2020 Black Lives Matter demonstration and spent $200,000 to resolve a racial discrimination suit from a retired police officer, while a suburban school district's secret $225,000 sex abuse settlement that was never approved by the school board was revealed only Patch filed a lawsuit alleging violations of the Freedom of Information Act.

Other notable settlements last year included a $4 million payout for the former president of College of DuPage who sued after he was fired without a severance package, $6.4 million for the family of Sema'j Crosby five years after her unsolved homicide, a $10.7 billion national opiod settlement with Walgreens and CVS and a historic class action settlement where a suburban hospital group agreed to pay a combined $10.3 million to employees who were denied exemptions from its COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

Rising Inflation, Spiking Gas Prices

Russia's invasion of Ukraine sent gas prices soaring earlier this year, adding to the squeeze on household budgets created by the highest inflation rate in four decades. By June, average gas prices in Chicago were up to $5.75 per gallon.

As the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine worsened, Chicago area residents sought to help. Some travelled to Poland to air refugees, others donated medical equipment or supplies and held vigils and protests.

After reaching more than 9 percent earlier in the year, the inflation rate declined to 7.1 percent last month, with the average price for a gallon of gas in Illinois down to $3.44.

Baby Formula Shortage

A recall of powdered baby formula produced by a subsidiary North Chicago-based Abbott Laboratories triggered a nationwide baby formula shortage.

Production at the nation's largest formula manufacturing plant, an Abbott Nutrition facility in Sturgis, Michigan, was halted until June after four babies were hospitalized and two died after developing Cronobacter sakazakii infections.

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The commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration told Congress that the conditions at the facility were found to be "egregiously unsanitary" during an inspection. It later emerged that the FDA had been in possession of a whistleblower complaint since October 2021 and the Occupational Health and Safety Administrations, or OSHA, had been notified of potentially unsafe formula in February 2021.

While Speaker Nancy Pelosi said there "might be a need for an indictment," company officials said there was no evidence linking its formulas to the infections.

Illinois Capitol Rioters Arrested, Sentenced

More than 30 people from Illinois have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

Although some of them have already pleaded guilty and been sentenced, federal authorities have continued to arrest and charge more people, most recently the sister of a Chicago police officer was already awaiting trial.

Several of those already sentenced for misdemeanor offenses have avoided jail time over the objections of prosecutors, while some admitted rioters who face significant prison terms are still awaiting sentencing. They include a member of the Proud Boys extremist group from Aurora and a Sangamon County man who has been charged with first-degree murder for allegedly killing a woman during a drunken suicide attempt ahead of his sentencing hearing.

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The Justice Department announced earlier this month that 115 people have pleaded guilty to felonies, 355 have pleaded guilty to misdemeanors and 33 have been found guilty at trial. About 185 people have been sentence to some time behind bars, with one former New York cop sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Drag Queen Controversies

As cultural conflicts shifted away from coronavirus-related controversies, family friendly drag performances have emerged as a hot-button issue. While progressives have sought to promote the acceptance of diverse ideas of gender and sexuality, conservatives have opposed exposing children to queer performers and looked to prevent publicly funded institutions, like libraries, from hosting events where people dress in the attire associated with the opposite sex.

In the Chicago area, a planned drag show at Uprising Bakery and Cafe in Lake and the Hills led to protests and vandalism. A southwest suburban man was later charged with criminal damage and accused of spray-painting "groomers," "Christ is King" and a homophobic slur on the bakery. A planned drag queen bingo event at Downers Grove Public Library event led to threats to the library and the county, which received a letter containing a bullet and a homophobic slur.

The library went on to cancel that event, and while Uprising has hosted periodic drag events after the vandalism, it decided to cancel a scheduled drag show earlier this month in light of a terrorism advisory bulletin from the Department of Homeland Security. Pritzker, a longtime supporter of LGBTQ rights, visited the bakery to show his support and campaigned at a drag show on Chicago's North Side during the election's home stretch.