By Ben SzalinskiCapitol News Illinoisnews@capitolnewsillinois.com Illinois lawmakers approved the Illinois budget early Monday morning, June 1, after slogging through the night, enacting new taxes on businesses and authorizing less spending than what governor JB Pritzker proposed in February. “It’s allowed us to be prepared for the great reality we face
By Peter HancockCapitol News Illinoisphancock@capitolnewsillinois.com Governor JB Pritzker says he intends to sign legislation imposing a statewide ban on cell phones and other wireless communication devices during instructional time in public schools and charter schools. Although many districts in Illinois have already adopted more stringent bans of their own, Senate
By Brenden Moore & Ben SzalinskiCapitol News Illinoisnews@capitolnewsillinois.com Hours after Illinois lawmakers failed to approve a stadium incentives structure aimed at keeping the Chicago Bears in Illinois, governor JB Pritzker acknowledged that the “pride and joy of Illinois” may take a deal to build a football palace in Indiana. That
By Marisa Guerra EcheverriaMedill Illinois News Bureaunews@capitolnewsillinois.com Diverse interest groups — from public school activists and downstate voters to state officials and school boards — have pushed governor JB Pritzker to finally make a decision about the Donald Trump administration’s Education Freedom Tax Credit. Yet, there has been mostly silence
By Maggie DoughertyCapitol News Illinoismdougherty@capitolnewsillinois.com Watchdog groups are calling on regulators to reject $178 million, or 80%, of a $220.8 million rate hike requested by Nicor Gas earlier this year, citing wasteful capital spending, excessive shareholder profits and “lavish” executive bonuses. Consumer advocate groups including the Citizens Utility Board, the
By Hannah MeiselCapitol News Illinois Over hundreds of pages in legal filings this week, a group of well-known Chicago-based journalists, podcasters and voice actors accused tech giants like Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and others of “stealing” their voices to train Artificial intelligence. The nine class action lawsuits, filed in Chicago’s
By Jenna SchweikertCapitol News Illinoisjschweikert@capitolnewsillinois.com As households across Illinois brace to lose their federal food assistance this month, grocery stores, especially independent grocers across the state, are preparing for the devastating effects of decreased spending. For some independent grocers, whose profit margins average 2%, a decrease in consumer spending associated
By Nikoel HytrekCapitol News Illinoisnhytrek@captiolnewsillinois.com The Illinois General Assembly continues to debate what to do about data centers as the artificial intelligence business keeps booming, and communities complain about their energy bills, noise and environmental impacts. Data centers are warehouse-like buildings that house computer servers and other infrastructure that power
By Peter HancockCapitol News Illinoisphancock@capitolnewsillinois.com The Donald Trump administration’s lawsuits seeking access to sensitive voter registration data in Illinois and dozens of other states is one part of a broader effort to purge state voter rolls of suspected noncitizens, according to documents filed recently in federal court in Springfield. Those
By Maggie Dougherty The Illinois Accountability Commission has spent the last six months reviewing incidents of alleged misconduct by federal immigration agents in Chicago amid Operation Midway Blitz. What it has found, commission officials said, is evidence of three major policy directives that permitted and encouraged agent misconduct, stemming from
By Ben SzalinskiCapitol News Illinoisbszalinski@capitolnewsillinois.com The biggest item on Illinois lawmakers’ agenda this spring is still a work in progress with six weeks left in the legislative session. Democrats are entering the home stretch of budget negotiations ahead of their scheduled May 31 adjournment while monitoring better-than-expected revenue growth alongside
By Jenna Schweikert, Brenden Moore, Ben Szalinski, and Nikoel HytrekCapitol News Illinoisnews@capitolnewsillinois.com The Illinois House approved legislation April 8 that would prohibit the federal government from operating a new immigration detention center within 1,500 feet of any home, school, day care center, park, forest preserve, cemetery or place of worship.
By Peter HancockCapitol News Illinoisphancock@capitolnewsillinois.com State education officials presented their case this week for a $10.9 billion budget to fund preK-12 public schools for the next fiscal year, saying the Evidence-Based Funding formula that has been in place for nearly a decade is now paying dividends. “Graduation rates are at
By Jacques Abou-Rizk and Medill Illinois News Bureau, Capitol News Illinois In downtown Chicago, people have been spotting Google’s Waymo automated vehicles testing and mapping the Windy City’s streets. For now, the autonomous vehicles must be driven by a human, as the industry seeks the endorsement of state lawmakers. For
By Jenna Schweikert, Nikoel Hytrek, Brenden Moore, & Ben SzalinskiCapitol News Illinoisnews@capitolnewsillinois.com The Illinois House passed 264 bills out of committee this week ahead of Friday’s deadline, kicking the legislative session into high gear with two months to go before adjournment. While the committee passage of bills marks early progress,
By Peter HancockCapitol News Illinoisphancock@capitolnewsillinois.com A bill that would give the Illinois Department of Insurance authority to review and approve rates for both homeowners and automobile coverage is advancing in the General Assembly. Those two proposals, which started as separate pieces of legislation, were combined into a single bill that
By Hannah MeiselCapitol News Illinoishmeisel@capitolnewsillinois.com It could be months before a Cook County judge decides whether to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate and charge alleged abuses by federal agents during the Donald Trump administration’s “Operation Midway Blitz” immigration enforcement campaign last fall. But the legal fight over the demand
By Peter HancockCapitol News Illinoisphancock@capitolnewsillinois.com Governor JB Pritzker is calling on agencies in his administration to set goals for increasing the number of adults in the state with college degrees or other postsecondary credentials. In an executive order issued March 13, Pritzker announced the formation of a working group that
By Erika TulfoMedill Illinois News Bureaunews@capitolnewsillinois.com Chicago’s steep new tax on sports betting is creating a backlash in Springfield that could lead to new restrictions on whether municipalities should have the power to tax gambling revenue. The highly contested tax charges sports betting businesses 10.25% on their net gambling revenue.
Republican voters in Illinois have once again chosen former state Sen. Darren Bailey as their candidate for governor, giving him a second chance to unseat incumbent Democrat JB Pritzker in November. Bailey, a farmer from southern Illinois and the party’s 2022 nominee, claimed victory Tuesday night in a four-way primary
