By Hannah MeiselCapitol News Illinoishmeisel@capitolnewsillinois.com Former State senator Terry Link, a nearly 24-year veteran of the Illinois Capitol, publicly acknowledged for the first time this week that he’d worn a wire to secretly record a fellow lawmaker in 2019. Link, a Vernon Hills Democrat, has spent years denying news media
By Andrew Adams Lawmakers in Springfield have unanimously approved a measure that would place new restrictions on the red-light and speed camera industry’s involvement in State and local elections and government. House Bill 3903 would ban automatic traffic enforcement companies or their officers from donating to candidates for public office
House gives final OK to $50.6 billion spending plan By Peter Hancock Capitol News Illinois The 2023 spring legislative session came to an end in the early hours of Saturday morning after the Illinois House gave its approval to a $50.6 billion spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year that
Bill hailed as first step toward broader ethics reform By Andrew Adams Capitol News Illinois Lawmakers in Springfield have unanimously approved a measure that would place new restrictions on the red-light and speed camera industry’s involvement in state and local elections and government. House Bill 3903 would ban automatic traffic enforcement
By Hannah Meisel Catholic dioceses in Illinois failed to disclose hundreds of abusive clerics before the State opened what would become a years-long investigation into sex abuse within the Church, Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced Tuesday. Included in a scathing 700-page report published by Raoul’s office at the end of
By Andrew Adams and Hannah Meisel As the State General Assembly prepares to wrap up its Spring legislative session this week, Democratic Party lawmakers are advancing a bill that would mandate job postings to include a salary range in a move they say would promote equity within the workplace. Meanwhile,
By Nika Schoonover Ride-share companies such as Uber and Lyft would be subject to the same level of liability as other forms of public transportation under a measure moving through the General Assembly. House Bill 2231 would classify ride-shares as “common carriers,” meaning the companies can be held liable, rather
By Hannah Meisel A federal jury Tuesday, May 2, convicted three ex-lobbyists and the former CEO of electric utility Commonwealth Edison for their involvement in an alleged bribery scheme aimed at longtime Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan. Prosecutors alleged the foursome gave Madigan allies jobs and contracts at the utility
By Andrew Adams As Illinois considers ways to achieve its goal of relying entirely on clean energy by 2050, one technology that has courted controversy is carbon capture. Carbon capture is a method whereby carbon dioxide, a common greenhouse gas, is placed in long-term storage, usually by injection into wells
By Hannah Meisel Attorneys for both the defendants and the government made the same appeal to a federal jury Tuesday before it was left to deliberate the fate of four former Commonwealth Edison officials accused of bribery. “Use your common sense,” U.S. attorney Amarjeet Bhachu said while wrapping up the
By Andrew Adams Faculty at Governors State University ended a strike Monday, April 17 after being on the picket line for five days. Governors State was one of three Illinois universities which saw a faculty strike in the past week and the last to see their strike end. Union members
By Peter Hancock Some Illinois lawmakers are calling for a review of one of the tests prospective teachers must pass in order to be licensed in Illinois. The test is known as the Teacher Performance Assessment, or “edTPA,” and it is intended to determine whether a prospective teacher has the
By Jerry Nowicki & Nika Schoonover Lawmakers went on a two-week Spring break last week with more than 700 bills already passed in at least one chamber of the General Assembly. They will return to Springfield on April 18 for a final one-month stretch in which the measures can be
By Andrew Adams Faculty at Chicago State University, a small public university on Chicago’s South Side, went on strike Monday, April 3 after months of stalled negotiations with University administrators. Faculty at Eastern Illinois University and Governors State University have filed paperwork declaring their intent to strike, with strikes possible
By Andrew Adams Consumer advocates, environmentalists and Chicago residents gathered in front of the Chicago offices of Peoples Gas this week to call on the Illinois Commerce Commission to reject a proposed rate increase from the gas utility. Several advocacy groups, including the Citizens Utility Board, Blacks in Green and
By Hannah Meisel Facing a perceived betrayal during a make-or-break election season in 2018, former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan called the person he often sought counsel from: longtime friend and confidant Mike McClain. Several Democratic Party candidates running for the state Senate were using lines in their campaign ads
By Nika Schoonover On his latest marketing tour to sell his State budget plan, governor JB Pritzker visited a community college in Normal Tuesday, March 14 to highlight his proposed investments in higher education. “With an additional $100 million directed to the (Monetary Award Program) grant program, a student can
By Peter Hancock Moody’s Investors Service announced Tuesday, March 14 that it has upgraded Illinois’ bond rating to A3, up from Baa1, marking the eighth credit upgrade the State has received in less than two years. Moody’s is now the second major rating agency to put Illinois in the ‘A’
By Jerry Nowicki With two months to go before the adjournment of Illinois’ Spring legislative session, governor JB Pritzker’s State budgeting task may have gotten easier Tuesday, March 7. The Commission on Government Forecasting Accountability increased its revenue estimate for the current fiscal year by $575 million, yet another positive
By Hannah Meisel In the wake of a pair of recent decisions from the Illinois Supreme Court strengthening the State’s law governing how companies must treat employees’ and customers’ biometric data, longtime critics of the law see an opening to weaken it. But backers of Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act
