By Hannah Meisel State elections officials Tuesday, June 18 indicated they were unlikely to step in to clarify what constitutes illegal campaign coordination after voting to dismiss a complaint alleging such coordination in the 2022 campaign for governor. At their monthly meeting in Chicago, Illinois State Board of Elections members
By Andrew Adams, Jerry Nowicki, & Hannah MeiselCapitol News Illinoisnews@capitolnewsillinois.com Governor JB Pritzker Wednesday, June 5, signed the State’s $53.1 billion spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year, the largest in State history. The signing caps months of work – and tension – among top Democratic Party leaders in Springfield
By Hannah MeiselCapitol News Illinoishmeisel@capitolnewsillinois.com In order to boost infrastructure spending and avoid a projected fiscal cliff facing the State in the next couple of years, Democrats who control State government are betting on two of its most rapidly growing revenue sources: Sports wagering and video gambling. The industries –
By Peter HancockCapitol News Illinoisphancock@capitolnewsillinois.com A package of health insurance reform measures that Gov. JB Pritzker called for at the beginning of the legislative session will soon be headed to his desk for his signature. The Illinois House gave final approval Saturday to a pair of bills that limit the
By Dilpreet Raju, Cole Longcor, & Alex AbbedutoCapitol News Illinoisnews@capitolnewsillinois.com Illinois lawmakers missed a self-imposed Friday deadline for passing a budget, but they had approved more than 250 bills last week as of Friday afternoon. Amid the flurry of legislation was a measure prohibiting State universities from admitting students based
By Peter HancockCapitol News Illinoisphancock@capitolnewsillinois.com The Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation is a step closer to acquiring a 1,500-acre state park in DeKalb County, much of which was once part of a reservation that was illegally seized from the tribe in the mid-19th Century. As the Senate worked through its last
By Hannah MeiselCapitol News Illinoishmeisel@capitolnewsillinois.com It’s been four years since some of the worst scenes of COVID-19 played out in locked-down nursing homes during the early months of the pandemic. But while most of the world has moved on, the nursing home industry is still reeling from COVID, which exacerbated
By Hannah MeiselCapitol News Illinoishmeisel@capitolnewsillinois.com Consumer natural gas bills could triple over the next 10 years without state intervention, according to a report from the Building Decarbonization Coalition and Groundwork Data. The report attributes much of the potential increase to the fact that most utility infrastructure spending is going toward
By Peter Hancock & Andrew CampbellCapitol News Illinoisnews@capitolnewsillinois.com The Illinois House approved a bill Tuesday to allow student teachers to receive stipends while earning their education degree, even though the money needed to fund those stipends is unlikely to be included in next year’s budget. House Bill 4652, by Rep.
By Dilpreet RajuCapitol News Illinoisdraju@capitolnewsillinois.com Approximately 73% of Illinois’ Medicaid recipients remain on the rolls after the first redetermination cycle following the COVID-19 pandemic, while approximately 660,000 recipients have been disenrolled. Speaking at a news conference in Chicago, governor JB Pritzker celebrated the fact that 2.6 million Illinoisans remained on
By Peter HancockCapitol News Illinoisphancock@capitolnewsillinois.com In 1977, then-president Jimmy Carter signed into law the Community Reinvestment Act, a federal law that sought to wipe away the last vestiges of racial discrimination and redlining in America’s home mortgage industry. The idea was simple. By requiring lenders – primarily banks – to
By Andrew Adams & Hannah MeiselCapitol News Illinoisnews@capitolnewsillinois.com A year and a half after Republican Darren Bailey lost his campaign to challenge governor JB Pritzker, State election officials are weighing whether he illegally colluded with conservative radio show host and political operative Dan Proft in the 2022 campaign. The State
By Hannah MeiselCapitol News Illinoishmeisel@capitolnewsillinois.com Nearly 200 years after Native Americans were forced out of Illinois, the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation has become the first federally recognized tribal nation in the State of Illinois after a decision from the recent U.S. Department of the Interior. The move represents the first
By Cole Longcor Advocates for stricter gun laws rallied at the state Capitol Tuesday for a measure aimed at protecting domestic violence victims and two other criminal justice reforms. The bills are backed by organizations such as Moms Demand Action and One Aim Illinois among others. “These policies support those
By Alex Abbeduto, Hannah Meisel, and Cole Longcor Governor JB Pritzker’s plan to create a new State agency to oversee Illinois’ various early childhood programs moved forward Friday, April 12 after the State Senate’s unanimous approval. It was one of 244 bills that cleared the Senate last week. Early childhood
By Cole Longcor After two members of the State’s Prisoner Review Board (PRB) resigned last week following the release of a prisoner who then stabbed his ex-girlfriend and killed her son, Republicans are again calling for reforms while governor JB Pritzker said he will order better training. The PRB voted
By Peter HancockCapitol News Illinoisphancock@capitolnewsillinois.com Illinois continues to suffer from a shortage of teachers and other education professionals, although recent efforts by the State to ease the strain have made an impact. That’s according to the latest annual survey of school officials from the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of
By Andrew Adams State regulators are once again considering massive electric utility spending plans that would affect the state’s climate goals – and 5.4 million electric customers’ monthly bills – after rejecting previous versions late last year. The Illinois Commerce Commission forced the State’s two major electric utilities, Commonwealth Edison
By Jerry Nowicki Illinois’ two main fiscal forecasting agencies agree: Illinois’ finances will see a strong close in the final 3½ months of the fiscal year before things tighten a bit next year. It’s a picture laid out in governor JB Pritzker’s budget proposal last month, and it got a
By Peter Hancock A Republican proposal that would give citizens the ability to propose ethics-related constitutional amendments on the ballot received a bipartisan boost Tuesday, March 5 when former Democratic governor, Pat Quinn, endorsed it. “I think it’s very, very important that this year, 2024, that the people of Illinois
