By Peter Hancock Officials from multiple State agencies said Friday that they are cutting ties with a residential school that serves children in state care with mental and developmental disabilities after an independent review documented reports of mistreatment of youth at the facility. Northern Illinois Academy (NIA), in Aurora, is
By Raymon Troncoso The Senate Education Committee advanced several bills Tuesday, May 4, including measures addressing special education, hairstyle discrimination and teaching Asian American history in public schools. Those were among more than a dozen bills to pass the committee, the majority of which passed unanimously without debate or discussion.
By Peter Hancock The Illinois economy shrank by four percent in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on many of its sectors, although there were signs of a recovery taking place late in the year. Those preliminary numbers, released last week by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of
By Grace Barbic New research shows pandemic-related child care burdens have magnified economic inequalities for women in the workforce in Illinois. That research was included in The Child Care Crisis in Illinois: A Survey of Working Mothers During the COVID-19 Pandemic, conducted by the Project for Middle Class Renewal at
By Tim Kirsininkas and Raymon Troncoso Governor JB Pritzker declared health care “a right, not a privilege” Tuesday when he signed a massive reform bill backed by the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus, the last of four policy pillars introduced as part of an anti-racism agenda last year. The “Illinois Health
By Tim Kirsininkas The U.S. Census Bureau announced Monday that Illinois will lose a seat in Congress based on the results of the 2020 Census. Illinois will move from 18 to 17 seats in the U.S. House, an expected result after some advocates had warned that an undercount could lead
By Raymon Troncoso Illinois will provide Medicaid benefits to eligible mothers for up to 12 months postpartum, a major extension from the previous 60-day limit. Governor JB Pritzker made the announcement Tuesday after a waiver submitted in 2019 by the State to the Federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
By Peter Hancock Illinois congressman Rodney Davis joined his Republican colleagues in the General Assembly Monday in calling governor JB Pritzker to support legislation to form an independent commission to redraw congressional and State legislative district maps. “In the end, I think the public is demanding an open transparent process,”
By Tim Kirsininkas Housing advocates including former Lt. Gov. Evelyn Sanguinetti joined State representative La Shawn Ford and State sentor Karina Villa Tuesday to call for support for a measure aimed at supporting low-income renters. House Bill 2775 and Senate Bill 2492 are a pair of identical bills which aim
By Sarah Mansur A Kane County restaurant’s legal challenge to governor JB Pritzker’s ban on indoor dining can continue, a Sangamon County judge ruled this week. Attorneys for Pritzker tried to have the lawsuit dismissed, but Sangamon County Judge RayleneGrischow Wednesday declined to do so. While Grischow decided not to
By Tim Kirsininkas COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continued to rise Tuesday as State officials announced that additional resources were being deployed in the State’s vaccination efforts. Public health officials announced 2,931 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 out of 51,625 test results Tuesday to bring the statewide seven-day rolling
By Sarah Mansur The Illinois House passed a bill Thursday, March 18 that would make permanent some vote-by-mail and curbside voting expansions that the state adopted ahead of the 2020 presidential election due to the COVID-19 pandemic. House Bill 1871, sponsored by Democratic Party representative Katie Stuart, of Edwardsville, passed
By Sarah Mansur Less than a week after a deadly attack on Asian Americans in Atlanta, governor JB Pritzker and members of the General Assembly’s Asian American Caucus spoke out against the murders and against discrimination generally toward the Asian American community. “I do not pretend to know the pain
By Jerry Nowicki Governor JB Pritzker said he will consider ideas for directing hundreds of millions of new dollars toward K-12 education in the upcoming fiscal year, but proponents of such spending must offer ways to cut government spending, or raise necessary revenues elsewhere. He made those comments in an
By Tim Kirsininkas Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) director, Dr. Ngozi Ezike, said on Monday the State is “getting close” to the next phase of reopening amid increasing COVID-19 vaccination rates and decreasing positivity rates. Speaking in a Senate Health Committee meeting, Ezike said the State has been working
By Grace Barbic The University of Illinois System received Emergency Use Authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Monday for its saliva-based COVID-19 test. The statewide, seven-day, rolling positivity rate reached 2.4%. The FDA approval allows for the covidSHIELD test to expand beyond the U of I System.
By Sarah Mansur Two Republican lawmakers Monday unveiled legislation to strengthen internal policies at State-run veterans homes in the case of a disease outbreak, such as the COVID-19 outbreak at the LaSalle Veterans’ Home that resulted in 36 resident deaths since the pandemic began last year. The bill, sponsored by
By Sarah Mansur Dangerous sub-zero temperatures and massive snow accumulation across Illinois prompted governor JB Pritzker to issue a disaster proclamation for the entire State Tuesday. “I have directed my administration to use all resources at our disposal to keep our communities safe amid dangerous and ongoing winter weather,” Pritzker
By Jerry Nowicki Two more regions of the State moved to Phase 4 COVID-19 guidelines, meaning five of 11 regions can now allow both indoor dining and organized sports. Region 1 in northwest Illinois and Region 2 in north-central Illinois each moved to Phase 4, which allows for indoor dining
By Sarah Mansur Editor’s note: This story is part of an ongoing “Lame Duck Look Back” series in which Capitol News Illinois is following up on the major bills that passed both chambers of the General Assembly in the January 8-13 lame duck session. The Illinois General Assembly last week
