By Jerry Nowicki Governor JB Pritzker signed into law a tax incentives package Tuesday this week that State lawmakers hope will help Illinois become a manufacturing hub for the budding electric vehicle industry. The Reimagining Electric Vehicles in Illinois, or REV, Act, passed the General Assembly with near-unanimous bipartisan support
By Peter Hancock The latest draft of a new congressional district map for Illinois met with much of the same criticism as the first draft during a House committee hearing Tuesday. The latest proposal from legislative Democratic Party leaders was released Saturday. It divides the State into 17 congressional districts,
By Peter Hancock A three-judge federal court panel in Chicago ruled Tuesday this week that the legislative redistricting plan that governor JB Pritzker signed into law in June – before official 2020 U.S. Census numbers were available – was unconstitutional because the population variances among districts violated the “one-person, one-vote”
By Jerry Nowicki Governor JB Pritzker, Tuesday this week, urged eligible Illinoisans to get a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot and called on skilled nursing facilities to make booster shots available to patients and staff members by Thanksgiving Day. Currently anyone who received the Pfizer vaccine and is over 65 years
By Peter Hancock A railway improvement project intended to greatly improve traffic congestion between St. Louis and Chicago reached a milestone Tuesday, Oct. 12 as work began on a multimodal transportation hub in the capital city. Governor JB Pritzker was joined at a groundbreaking ceremony by U.S. senators Dick Durbin
By Peter Hancock State attorney general Kwame Raoul joined local and federal prosecutors Monday to announce new efforts to combat a rise in online child exploitation in Illinois. The efforts include greater outreach and education for parents and teachers, and a new mobile computer forensics unit that will be deployed
By Jerry Nowicki Governor JB Pritzker signed an executive order Monday, Oct. 4 that would prevent companies contracting with the State from paying disabled workers at less than the minimum wage. Pritzker took the action in what he said was a broader effort to try to push federal lawmakers to
By Peter Hancock Former president Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama returned to their old neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side Tuesday to officially break grounad on the Obama Presidential Center, a project they hope will become a hub for the development of new leadership and an economic boost
By Peter Hancock In spite of opposition from Republicans as well as reform groups, governor JB Pritzker Friday signed into law the revised State legislative district maps that lawmakers passed in August, which opens the door to almost certain court challenges. “These legislative maps align with the landmark Voting Rights
By Jerry Nowicki A case before the Illinois Supreme Court centers on whether a former Super Bowl MVP has a right to learn the identity of a woman who accused him of sexual harassment, allegedly leading to the termination of contracts between his energy services company and a subsidiary of
By Jerry Nowicki The Illinois Supreme Court is being asked to consider the laws of the state of California and the U.S. Constitution in ruling on one man’s eligibility to be issued a Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) card by the Illinois State Police (ISP). The high court heard oral arguments
By Jerry Nowicki The State’s moratorium on enforcement of residential evictions will expire October 3, according to governor JB Pritzker’s latest COVID-19 executive order issued Friday. Pritzker had extended the order each month with minor to substantial revisions since March 2020. The extensions have come in 30-day windows, coinciding with
By Jerry Nowicki Governor JB Pritzker was joined by environmental and social justice activists, union representatives, and lawmakers from both parties Wednesday, Sept. 15 when he signed into law a sweeping energy regulation overhaul that aims to greatly reduce carbon emissions from the energy sector by 2045, while diversifying the
By Peter Hancock The Illinois House Thursday, Sept. 9 voted to accept changes to an ethics bill that governor JB Pritzker had requested, paving the way for it to become law once the governor signs it Thursday’s vote came a little more than a week after an earlier attempt fell
By Jerry Nowicki The Illinois Senate put the final legislative stamp on an energy regulation overhaul bill Monday to send it to governor JB Pritzker, who said he will sign it. It’s the culmination of years of negotiation, and it marks a policy win on one of Pritzker’s biggest outstanding
By Jerry Nowicki The House sponsor of a long-debated ethics bill that failed in the House recently said she will bring it up for another vote if lawmakers come back to the Capitol within a 15-day constitutional window in which such an action would be allowed. The House leadership decided
By Jerry Nowicki The Illinois House was scheduled to return to Springfield Thursday, Sept. 9 to try again at passing an elusive energy regulation overhaul, days after the governor’s office announced support for a new proposal. It’s the latest push for a legislative accomplishment that has eluded governor JB Pritzker
By Jerry Nowicki The statewide mask mandate indoors is back, and educators and health care professionals will be required to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, governor JB Pritzker announced last week amid an ongoing surge in the pandemic that first arrived in Illinois in March 2020. Beginning Monday this week, indviduals
By Jerry Nowicki As federal unemployment benefits created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic are set to expire next week, Illinois continues to see high unemployment rates, although things have improved from one year ago. Select Illinois Department of Employment Security offices, meanwhile, have opened for appointment-only in-person services for
By Peter Hancock Voting rights advocates and minority community members urged Illinois lawmakers Thursday, Aug. 26 to take more time in redrawing legislative district maps so the general public can have more time to study whatever new maps will be proposed. “We’re joining other advocates today in asking for more
