Chamber Members: The new month continues to bring good news. COVID-19 hospitalizations and positivity rates continued on a steady decline in Illinois Monday as the state reported just 16 virus-related deaths over the previous 24 hours. Daily death counts fluctuate...

Chamber Members: It is always nice to start off a week and in today’s case a new month with good news. Today we learned that our Region 7 covering Will and Kankakee counties has been allowed to roll back to Phase 4 under the Restore plan with NO tier mitigations. See...

Chamber Members: Last night the Joliet City Council made a major decision to enter into an agreement to bring Lake Michigan water through the City of Chicago. If you would like to view the meeting and hear why the water source selection ended as it did, click here for...

Chamber Members: Today being Thursday, the usual jobs report is shared below. There are several additional items such as the most recent vaccine news, economy notes, stimulus money, and another postponement in Springfield. As a reminder, here is the information for...

Chamber Members: Halfway through the week and tough to think we’re just about done with one month in 2021 already. Today’s update will look at a new IHSA sports announcement, Illinois General Assembly delay, state finance report, the usual vaccine news, and some tips...

Chamber Members: Hopefully everyone that had to dust off their snowblower (or shovel) this morning has recovered and is enjoying the snow-covered landscape. Today’s update shares an announcement from the Governor on vaccine sites, vaccine purchases by federal...

Chamber Members: It looks like the first heavy snowfall is upon us! As we start the week off, one year ago today the CDC announced a test for COVID-19 just one day after Wuhan had gone into lockdown. Today also begins the official start of the Illinois 1B vaccination...

Chamber Members: Now that our region is fully back to Tier 1 mitigations, we’ll look to keep an eye on the hopefully quick move back to just Phase 4 without mitigations. We urge all to keep pushing the messages of mask wearing, hand washing, and social distancing so...

Chamber Members: Some good news today as our region has been given the green light to move from Tier 3 to Tier 1 of mitigations. This has been quite confusing as we’ve been monitoring covid patient numbers as mentioned a few days ago, but this move skipping over Tier...

Chamber Members: It’s inauguration day as President Biden was officially sworn in today at Noon eastern time. The President quickly moved with a plan on a number of action items that you’ll read below. Additionally, you’ll see information about the update to IHSA...

Chamber Members: As of today, all lending institutions are open to accept the Paycheck Protection Program application for both first and second draws. Last week, the program was open only to community financial institutions and small lenders. If you have not reached...

Chamber Members: Today’s update shares the Governor’s announcement of regions moving back mitigation tiers as well as changes going forward on indoor dining allowances. Additionally, the SBA opens the application process further for PPP applications and an article...

Chamber Members: Today is the day to share the weekly jobs report. We also have information regarding an announcement by President-elect Biden tonight regarding his plan for pandemic relief. In addition to this news, see below for some vaccine updates, some bills that...

Chamber Members: Busy day today as impeachment vote takes place, state Senators and Representatives are sworn in and then the new general assembly begins with the first item of business in the House being the election of speaker. Also, we share below the policy items...

Chamber Members: Hopefully by now you are all aware that the PPP application has been released for both first time draws and second time draws. If not, links are below and you can always visit our resource page on the website for the documents and archived updates....

Chamber Members: Good news to begin the week! Governor Pritzker announced today that regions meeting metrics are still on course for rolling back to Tier 2 mitigations on Friday, the 15. Following up from the announcement on Friday, this week the PPP application...

Chamber Members: A big announcement to wrap up quite a first full week of the year. Today, the SBA announced that the PPP application period will open next week. See below for the full press release. After nearly nine months away, the Illinois General Assembly...

Chamber Members: In the early hours of the morning, it was confirmed that Joe Biden is the official President-elect. We’ll now turn focus on what the possibilities will be in his first 100 days of office with a Democrat led House and Senate behind him. Back in...

Chamber Members: Well, yesterday this update did say we were in for some interesting hours ahead of us. The Georgia elections wrapped up last night and it looks as if there are two unofficial winners that will change the balance of the Senate (actually a perfect 50/50...

Chamber Members: Today continues an interesting week of events after a new Congress was sworn in on Sunday, as control of the Senate will be decided in Georgia and then we turn attention to what’s shaping up to be the most dramatic Electoral College count in...