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
By Jerry Nowicki One of the most transformative six-day periods in the history of Illinois government came to an end Wednesday with the election of representative Emanuel “Chris” Welch, D-Hillside, as the State’s House speaker, the first Black man to hold the title. Equally groundbreaking was the fact that Welch
By Jerry Nowicki One day after State House speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, announced a suspension, but not a withdrawal, of his campaign for another term as speaker, a State representative who has been accused of being a staunch Madigan protector has launched a bid for the post. Rep. Emanuel “Chris”
By Sarah Mansur The Illinois House Executive Committee advanced an election bill that would make permanent some of the expansions to mail-in voting that were passed for the 2020 general election. The bill would require election authorities to accept mail-in ballots that were submitted without sufficient postage and allow election
By Grace Barbic The Statewide seven-day rolling COVID-19 case positivity rate remained below eight percent for a third consecutive day Tuesday after decreasing for a fourth straight day. Tuesday’s seven-day rolling positivity rate was 7.5%, a decrease of one-tenth of a percentage point from Monday. Illinois reported 6,642 new confirmed
By Peter Hancock Republican Party members in the Illinois House said Tuesday that they hope to use legislation, instead of a constitutional amendment, to change the way State legislative and congressional district lines are redrawn every 10 years. The so-called “fair maps” proposal would authorize the General Assembly to set
By Raymon Troncoso Illinois reported its third consecutive day with more than 100 COVID-19 deaths Tuesday. Meanwhile, most statistics the State uses to measure progress in combatting the coronavirus ticked up slightly. Tuesday, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported 5,644 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 in Illinois,
By Sarah Mansur When a new year begins in Illinois, there typically are dozens if not hundreds of new laws going into effect. Not this year. Just like so many other things in this year, the legislative Spring session was stunted by COVID-19. Once the global pandemic reached Illinois in
By Sarah Mansur The U.S. Congress reached an agreement Monday evening on a roughly $900 Billion COVID-19 relief package that both extends unemployment benefits, provides stimulus checks to Americans within a certain income bracket and funds to small businesses, but it fell short of providing direct funding to State and
By Sarah Mansur Infection control efforts at the LaSalle Veterans’ Home have curbed the spread of the COVID-19 since a deadly outbreak began at the facility last month, according to officials who testified Wednesday before a House committee investigating the matter. That outbreak has caused at least 33 resident deaths,
By Peter Hancock Illinois’ presidential electors officially cast their 20 ballots Monday for the Democratic Party ticket of Joseph R. Biden and Kamala Harris, marking the all-but-final step in a bitterly-contested presidential election that incumbent president Donald Trump has refused to concede. “Today, all over the country, electors just like
By Sarah Mansur As the Illinois State government attempts to close a multi-billion-dollar budget-hole, Democratic Party House speaker Michael Madigan has said he is prepared to vote for an increase to the State’s flat income tax rate should governor JB Pritzker request it, a proposal met with pushback from his
By Sarah Mansur A COVID-19 outbreak at the veterans home in LaSalle that has killed a quarter of the residents over the span of a few weeks has prompted the chairman of a state House committee to open an investigation into the deaths. “I don’t know what it is or
By Jerry Nowicki Another 125 individuals who tested positive for COVID-19 were reported to have died in the previous 24 hours Tuesday, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health, to bring the death toll to 12,403 since the pandemic began. That came as the State reported another 12,542 new
By Peter Hancock The first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines to Illinois may be less than one-quarter of what officials had originally been told to expect. Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said Tuesday that the latest word from federal officials is that the first shipment may contain only
