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State Week: DCFS Troubles, Budget Warnings, Cook County's Chief Judge

State Week 23 logo (capitol dome)
Brian Mackey
/
NPR Illinois

The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services is once again under scrutiny, the Pritzker administration issues a budget warning, and Cook County judges reelect their leader.

As DCFS prepares to move more than 17,000 kids to a priavately run Medicaid managed-care program, critics wonder if the agency is ready. Meanwhile, 19 children who'd been involved with the agency have died since July 1, the start of the state budget year.

In other news, the Pritzker administration says state agencies should game out what a 6.5 percent cut would look like in the next budget year. And Cook County trial judges have decided to keep Timothy Evans as their chief judge, despite a challenge.

Sean Crawford hosts with regular panelists Charlie Wheeler and Brian Mackey, and guest Hannah Meisel of The Daily Line.

Brian Mackey formerly reported on state government and politics for NPR Illinois and a dozen other public radio stations across the state. Before that, he was A&E editor at The State Journal-Register and Statehouse bureau chief for the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin.
The former director of the Public Affairs Reporting (PAR) graduate program is Professor Charles N. Wheeler III, a veteran newsman who came to the University of Illinois at Springfield following a 24-year career at the Chicago Sun-Times.
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