ILLINOIS STATE NEWS BRIEF (12/12/2023)

(SPRINGFIELD) At more than $330 million in police settlements since 2009, Illinois had the third highest amount of settlement awards in the nation. New data analyzed by High Rise Financial, a pre-settlement legal funding company, placed Illinois behind New York’s $1 billion and California’s $332 million in settlements. The total amount since 2009 nationwide is more than $2.3 million to settle cases of police midconduct, unlawful arrests, and more.

(SPRINGFIELD) Nearly $47 million in what Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerich’s office says was “missing money” was returned last month. In fact, the cash, interest, and stock value was found for almost 82,000 individuals. Illinois holds more than $5 billion in unclaimed property. So far this year, the state office has returned $267 million thru 305,000 claims.

(SPRINGFIELD) The National Federation of Independent Business announced yesterday that Noah Finley is its new Illinois Director. A former Deputy Chief of Staff in the State Senate, Finley will be responsible for all aspectts of Illinois’ advocacy, operations, political engagement, communications, and programming on behalf of more than 10,000 NFIB members from around the state. Finley was an unanimous selection for the position.

(SPRINGFIELD) Illinois hunters harvested more than 76,200 deer during the seven day firearm season that finished up December 3rd, earlier this month. That’s shy of the more than 76,800 deer taken during last year’s 2022 season. While the statewide Muzzleloader-Only season was this past weekend, there will be limited hunting in only 23 counties in the upcoming Late Winter Antlerless-Only Firearm Season, set for the final four days of the year and during the third weekend in January. Eight of the counties are in our downstate area, including Clay, Crawford, Effingham, Shelby, Coles, Marion, Hamilton, and Saline.