By Peter HancockCapitol News Illinoisphancock@capitolnewsillinois.com If advocates, stakeholders, and members of the public were granted all their requests for public school funding next year, lawmakers would have to increase the State’s K-12 education budget by nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars. That’s the approximate total of all the requests that
By Brenden MooreCapitol News Illinoisbmoore@capitolnewsillinois.com Illinois driver’s licenses and identification cards will officially enter the digital realm this week. Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias announced Tuesday that people will now have the option to add their Illinois-issued licenses and IDs to the digital wallets on their cellphones. The long-awaited technological
By Ben SzalinskiCapitol News Illinoisbszalinski@capitolnewsillinois.com Most state agencies were required to submit spending cut plans to Gov. JB Pritzker by Oct. 23, but the governor’s office has declined to release details about those plans. A spokesperson for Pritzker said the governor’s budget office is still reviewing the proposed cuts. “Gov.
By Brenden MooreCapitol News Illinois bmoore@capitolnewsillinois.com Saying that he could not justify “playing with other people’s lives” as millions of Americans went without their paychecks and benefits, Sen. Dick Durbin on Thursday defended his vote to reopen the government earlier this week after a record-long federal government shutdown that stretched more
By Ben SzalinskiCapitol News Illinoisbszalinski@capitolnewsillinois.com U.S. senator Dick Durbin is once again at odds with other prominent Illinois Democrats over a vote that set in motion a plan to end the record-long federal government shutdown. Durbin, who is not seeking reelection in 2026, was one of eight members in the
By Ben SzalinskiCapitol News Illinoisbszalinski@capitolnewsillinois.com Illinois lawmakers are sending a bill to governor JB Pritzker that makes a pair of changes to Illinois’ tax code in response to new federal tax provisions that could reduce state revenue. The Governor’s Office of Management and Budget projected last month that Illinois is
By Maggie DoughertyCapitol News Illinoismdougherty@capitolnewsillinois.com Illinois mother of four and food delivery driver Aubrey Lewandowski says she immediately started rationing the food she had left after getting a text alerting her that her Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits may not come through next month. Lewandowski will be forced
By Ben SzalinskiCapitol News Illinoisbszalinski@capitolnewsillinois.com Illinois lawmakers approved new funding for public transportation agencies without large statewide tax increases previously proposed. Instead, the measure would be fueled by revenue sources that currently feed the state’s Road Fund and an increased sales tax targeted to the Chicago area. The bill frustrated
By Ben SzalinskiCapitol News Illinoisbszalinski@capitolnewsillinois.com Illinois joined 24 other states and the District of Columbia in suing the Donald Trump administration over plans to stop funding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Saturday as the federal government shutdown continues. About 1.9 million people in Illinois, and about 42 million people
By Brenden MooreCapitol News Illinoisbmoore@capitolnewsillinois.com While candidates filed petitions Monday to run under Illinois’ existing congressional district lines, U.S. House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries brought his redistricting campaign to Illinois, pitching top state Democrats on a new map in a series of closed-door meetings. Dozens of congressional candidates were in
By Hannah MeiselCapitol News Illinoishmeisel@capitolnewsillinois.com The Donald Trump administration has agreed to extend a federal judge’s temporary block on deploying National Guard troops to Chicago while the U.S. Supreme Court weighs whether to stay the judge’s order. In a filing Tuesday — two days before U.S. District Judge April Perry’s
By Peter HancockCapitol News Illinoisphancock@capitolnewsillinois.com A new report about education in Illinois suggests that overall, the state has made significant progress in key areas, from readying toddlers for kindergarten to helping young adults earn college degrees or industry certificates before entering the workforce. But it also shows that despite billions
By Ben SzalinskiCapitol News Illinoisbszalinski@capitolnewsillinois.com Illinois lawmakers will return to Springfield next week hoping to resolve a major unchecked box from the spring: Keep the trains in Chicago running. As the spring legislative session concluded, lawmakers were anticipating a $771 million shortfall for Chicagoland transit agencies beginning next calendar year.
By Jerry Nowicki & Hannah MeiselCapitol News Illinoisnews@capitolnewsillinois.com Illinois cannot yet file suit against the federal government for an apparent plan to send federal troops to Chicago, Illinois attorney general Kwame Raoul said, but if boots hit the ground, president Donald Trump “should expect a legal challenge here.” It would
By Ben SzalinskiCapitol News Illinoisbszalinski@capitolnewsillinois.com Governor JB Pritzker said political leaders — starting with president Donald Trump — need to do more to condemn political violence. “He actively fans the flames of division, as he did on Friday, regularly advocates violence for political retribution, and in more than one case,
By Hannah Meisel& Jerry NowickiCapitol News Illinoisnews@capitolnewsillinois.com Jim Edgar, Illinois’ 38th governor who served from 1991 to 1999, died Sunday after disclosing an aggressive cancer diagnosis earlier this year. He was 79. Though he’d been out of power for 26 years — more time than the two decades he spent
By Anna Claire Vollersstateline.orgavollers@stateline.org After the Donald Trump administration slashed billions in state and local public health funding from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier this year, the eventual impact on states split sharply along political lines. Democratic-led states that sued to block the cuts, including Illinois,
By Peter HancockCapitol News Illinoisphancock@capitolnewsillinois.com The Illinois State Board of Elections said this week it will not hand over to the Donald Trump administration a copy of the state’s complete, unredacted voter registration database, citing state laws that require the agency to protect voters’ sensitive personal information. In a letter
By Ben SzalinskiCapitol News Illinoisbszalinski@capitolnewsillinois.com Governor JB Pritzker said Tuesday, Sept. 2 he expects Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to employ the same aggressive strategies they used in Los Angeles earlier this summer after president Donald Trump said he will deploy the National Guard to Chicago. The information, Pritzker said,
By Peter HancockCapitol News Illinoisphancock@capitolnewsillinois.com Two veteran federal officials from Illinois are relaunching an effort to amend the Illinois Constitution and end partisan gerrymandering in state legislative districts. Bill Daley, a Democrat from Chicago who served as secretary of commerce under President Bill Clinton, and Ray LaHood, a former Republican
