By Ben SzalinskiCapitol News Illinoisbszalinski@capitolnewsillinois.com The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear an appeal on a lawsuit led by Illinois Republican U.S. representative Mike Bost challenging Illinois’ mail-in voting law. Bost and a pair of Illinois primary delegates for president Donald Trump sued the Illinois State Board of Elections
By Ben Szalinski & Peter HancockCapitol News Illinoisbszalinski@capitolnewsillinois.com Illinois lawmakers have one week to pass a new state budget with little room for new spending and Congress presenting further challenges and uncertainty. Revenue projections had already been declining as the spring session has progressed. Now, lawmakers who have long feared
By Jade AubreyCapitol News Illinoisjaubrey@capitolnewsillinois.com Illinois lawmakers passed two bills this week that aim to support mothers in the state. One bill requires employers to give paid time off to employees who pump breastmilk at work. The second allows midwives to help with home births, which is the latest attempt
By Ben SzalinskiCapitol News Illinoisbszalinski@capitolnewsillinois.com Governor JB Pritzker’s office is now projecting state revenues to come in about a half-billion dollars below the baseline projections assumed during his February budget address. The latest downward revision comes as lawmakers are entering the final two-week stretch to approve a budget before their
By Simon Carr & Sonya DymovaMedill Illinois News Bureaunews@capitolnewsillinois.com A growing number of state lawmakers are moving to repeal a 2015 Illinois law penalizing companies that boycott Israel to protest its policies toward Palestinians. Amid concerns about Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza, lawmakers in Springfield supporting human rights for Palestinians
By Jade AubreyCapitol News Illinoisjaubrey@capitolnewsillinois.com Governor JB Pritzker issued an executive order May 7 that bars State agencies from collecting and disclosing data about autism to the federal government unless it’s medically or legally necessary. The order was in response to a move by the U.S. Department of Health and
By Jade AubreyCapitol News Illinoisjaubrey@capitolnewsillinois.com Fallen Aurora firefighter Cristian Medrano was honored at the state’s 32nd annual Fallen Firefighter Memorial held outside the Statehouse Tuesday, May 13. The memorial is held each May in front of the commemorative statue on the Statehouse’s back lawn as a tribute to Illinois firefighters
By Beth HundsdorferCapitol News Illinoisbhundsdorfer@capitolnewsillinois.com As the red velvet curtains at the Vatican parted, a priest realized that his college pal from the South Side of Chicago that he knows as “Bob” had been elected the first American pope. “Oh, dear God,” the Very Rev. Anthony Benedetto Pizzo, the prior
By Ben SzalinskiCapitol News Illinoisbszalinski@capitolnewsillinois.com The General Assembly’s independent forecasting commission has improved revenue projections for the upcoming fiscal year despite growing economic volatility. That’s good news for state lawmakers who are in the final weeks of crafting the fiscal year 2026 budget set to take effect July 1. But
By Grace FriedmanMedill Illinois News Bureaunews@capitolnewsillinois.com Health care unions continue to rally for legislation to address understaffing they say strains hospitals and threatens both patient safety and staff well-being. Lawmakers are considering the Hospital Worker Staff and Safety bill, which would establish mandatory nurse-to-patient staffing ratios and increase support for
By Sonya DymovaMedill Illinois News Bureaunews@capitolnewsillinois.com John Gerend, a Vietnam War veteran from Lake Villa, Ill., was exposed to Agent Orange while on duty. Suffering from diseases associated with exposure to the toxic chemical, he said he still considers himself fortunate. “I’ve had some issues with it — diabetes, some
By Ben SzalinskiCapitol News Illinoisbszalinski@capitolnewsillionis.com Standing on his backyard deck Thursday, April 24, the same place where he declared his 1996 candidacy for U.S. Senate, Illinois’ senior senator Dick Durbin reflected on his decision to retire after four decades in Congress. “I’ve done this my way, making decisions based on
By Ben SzalinskiCapitol News Illinoisbszalinski@capitolnewsillinois.com When governor JB Pritzker tells audiences how he became interested in politics, it often starts with stories about his mother. As a child growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, Pritzker often shares, he’d attend marches, rallies and protests with his mother in support
By Peter HancockCapitol News Illinoisphancock@capitolnewsillinois.com Illinois attorney general, Kwame Raoul, is asking State lawmakers for a $15 million increase in his General Revenue Fund budget for the upcoming year, saying his office needs a more “stable” system of funding as it takes on greater responsibilities, including the growing volume of
By Molly Parker and Beth HundsdorferCapitol News Illinoisnews@capitolnewsillinois.com The Homeschool Act (HB 2827), a bill that would tighten homeschooling regulations in Illinois missed a key deadline Friday, April 11. But its sponsor, representative Terra Costa Howard, said it’s still alive — and she’s working on changes recommended by fellow lawmakers
By Ben Szalinski and Jade AubreyCapitol New Illinois The Illinois House took its first step Monday in passing legislation responding to proposed actions by the Donald Trump administration. The House voted 67-39 to advance House Bill 3637, which would put new protections in State law to safeguard health care licenses
By Sonya DymovaMedill Illinois News Bureaunews@capitolnewsillinois.com Tens of thousands of Illinoisans across the state took to the streets Saturday to protest president Donald Trump’s and billionaire Elon Musk’s government downsizing, foreign policy choices, and actions on the economy, immigration, and human rights. The protests spanned more than 30 cities in
By Peter HancockCapitol News Illinoisphancock@capitolnewsillinois.com Nursing home industry officials are urging Illinois lawmakers to increase the rates they receive from the state’s Medicaid system, arguing the current rates are outdated and are forcing many facilities around the state out of business. “We’ve expressed our concerns that closures will happen. We’ve
By Ben Szalinski & Jade AubreyCapitol News IllinoisNews@Capitolnewsillinois.com President Donald Trump’s administration is pulling back $477 million from Illinois that was to be used to prevent infectious disease and treat mental health and substance abuse issues. The Illinois Department of Public Health announced this week the federal Centers for Disease
By Peter HancockCapitol News Illinoisphancock@capitolnewsillinois.com Illinois attorney general Kwame Raoul and 20 other State attorneys general are asking a federal judge to immediately halt president Donald Trump’s efforts to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education. In a motion filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, the coalition of Democratic
