The state treasurer’s office, due to a lawsuit, can’t audit an insurance company to make sure policy holders are getting their benefits.
The suit contends the companies, which include United Insurance in Illinois, Reserve National in Oklahoma and Reliable Life in Missouri, don’t have to pay benefits unless the beneficiaries or their families file claims, present a death certificate or if the beneficiary is at least 99 years old, if still living.

Frerichs has requested Attorney General Lisa Madigan defend the state.

Roughly $195 million in unclaimed benefits has been recovered in the past few years.

In other State news, from bacteria-laden beaches to factory farm waste to coal residue, Environment Illinois has brewed up a scary stew for you.

Five million people a day get their drinking water from Lake Michigan. Since 2014, twenty billion gallons of contaminated water have flown into Lake Michigan. The untreated sewage that can be in there can contain 120 viruses.

Another of the “Top Twelve Scary Water Facts” is a recent one – on Oct. 9, a federal stay of the Clean Water Rule – which King said would close loopholes in the 1972 Clean Water Act – endangers more than 48,000 miles of Illinois waterway.