By Ash Ngu, Jodi Cohen and Jennifer Richards, story written in collaboration with Chicago Tribune, includes “… the vast majority of purchases were linked to the pandemic, but that some spending has been questionable. The Illinois State Police, for example, submitted tear gas grenades and other crowd-control equipment as COVID-19 expenses. … Some significant purchases went largely unused: The state leased out entire hotels that sat empty and erected a field hospital that treated only a few dozen patients.”