This week Contour Airlines took their inaugural flight out of Veterans Airport in Marion to Chicago O’Hare as a part of new flight service which began Tuesday.

“It was an honor to be chosen as a passenger on the inaugural flight,” said Senator Fowler. “Our local economy should feel a boost with easier access to business and leisure travel from one end of our state to the other. “

The 30-passenger jet will take passengers to and from the Windy City twice a day on weekdays and once a day on weekends.

“This is all possible because of Illinois’ investment in our infrastructure. I am thrilled that our state continues to make our roads, bridges, waterways, and now air, a priority in the Southern Illinois region,” concluded Fowler.

The final legislative hurdle in bringing a Kentucky-based fish processing company to Southern Illinois was accomplished late last week with the signing of Senate Bill 1068, filed by State Senator Dale Fowler.

The new law seeks to bring an economic boost to Alexander County and will allow the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to sell a parcel of land adjacent to Fort Defiance State Park to Two Rivers Fisheries.

The sale, contingent on the appraised value, would include .73 acres of property and an unused toll house. Two Rivers Fisheries plans on converting the building into a Copi (Asian carp) fish processing facility employing roughly 20 employees with possible expansion.

“This is a great day for Southern Illinois and my continued efforts to bring economic opportunity to the people of this region,” said Sen. Fowler. “I’m thrilled that Two Rivers Fisheries sees the potential this part of the state has to offer. Sitting at the confluence of both the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, it’s the perfect location for them to be able to utilize our waterways for their operation, which will ultimately decrease the carp population that can be very invasive to native fish.”

“We are extremely excited about the opportunity to expand our operation here in Southern Illinois and thank Sen. Fowler for his work and diligence on seeing this legislation through so that we can invest in Southern Illinois.” said Angie Yu, Two Rivers Fisheries. “Two Rivers' mission is to reduce, reuse, and redefine Asian carp (Copi) by industrializing it along the Mississippi River. The purchase of this building will allow us to set up a processing line to produce value-added items such as fish meatballs, fish dumplings, and much more. Not only will we promote Copi products and open the domestic market, but we also look forward to creating local jobs and cleaning up the region’s water system.”

Pending the appraisal agreement and sale of property, the IDNR Director has 60 days to ensure a quitclaim deed conveying the land will be recorded with the Alexander County Recorder’s Office.

On July 26, the Illinois Auditor General released a 156-page-report on the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) in response to a resolution filed by State Senator Chapin Rose (R-Mahomet) calling for a full performance audit of the state’s handling of the unemployment system during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The scathing report shows overpayments to the tune of $5.24 billion from fiscal years 2020 to 2022. Approximately $2.04 billion was paid in unemployment insurance, with the remaining $3.2 billion coming from Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA). From those overpayments, only $551.7 million has been recovered, approximately 10%. Unfortunately, those numbers cannot be entirely confirmed by the IDES, which means that these numbers could be understated.

The report also found that beginning in March 2020, IDES suspended some routine identity cross-matches, performed on all regular UI claims filed, to prevent fraud in order to handle the increase in claims processing traffic. Unfortunately, the side effect of rushing the approval process seems to have left the unemployment programs more susceptible to fraud.

Furthermore, IDES did not implement one of the tools strongly recommended in May 2020 by the US Department of Labor until September 2021, alongside the suspension of other required and recommended cross-matches early in the pandemic. Even worse, IDES is continuing to still ignore select Department of Labor recommendations made in October 2021 and February 2022, including additional cross-matches that could be used to combat fraud.

Overall, Senator Fowler says the report shows that the IDES prioritized decreasing unemployment claim response times over ensuring accuracy in their payments. Despite their focus on responding quickly, however, the IDES still failed to meet federal timeliness standards in 2021 and 2022.