By Ben SzalinskiCapitol News Illinoisbszalinski@capitolnewsillinois.com A long-awaited bill to stop Illinois organizations from paying subminimum wage to workers with disabilities will soon head to governor JB Pritzker’s desk after being approved by the Senate Thursday. The Senate took a bipartisan 43-11 vote to pass the legislation that supporters dub the
By Jerry NowickiCapitol News Illinoisjnowicki@capitolnewsillinois.com The first extensive public look at next year’s State finances contains a warning to lawmakers from the governor’s office: “The ability to fund new programs will be severely limited” next fiscal year. That comes from the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget, which projected a
By Woodrow Carroll Going into last Saturday’s Minnesota at Illinois’ football game, Illinois head coach, Brett Bielema, had a 10-0 lifetime record against the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Seven of those victories were from when Bielema was the Wisconsin coach and the final three were a product of Bielema’s last three
By Woodrow Carroll It was a rare weekend for the state of Illinois’ major college football programs when Northwestern, Northern Illinois, and Illinois each recorded victories last Friday and Saturday. And for a bonus the Chicago Bears won. What is going on? The Northwestern Wildcats (3-3 and 1-2) got things
By Woodrow Carroll After suffering a shocking upset at the hands of Northern Illinois University, there was a feeling that Notre Dame would be fired up when they played Purdue last Saturday at Purdue. It was true! Notre Dame (2-1) won, 66-7, and were up 42-0 at halftime. Historical note!
By Peter HancockCapitol News Illinoisphancock@capitolnewsillinois.com One year after Illinois became the first state in the nation to eliminate the use of cash bail, the impact on the state’s criminal justice system appears to have been far less dramatic than people on either side of the debate had predicted. That, at
By Peter HancockCapitol News Illinoisphancock@capitolnewsillinois.com The Illinois Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday in a pair of cases that test the authority of local courts to hold criminal suspects behind bars while they await trial. The cases come almost one year to the day after the court allowed a new law
By Woodrow Carroll Due to a bye week, the Northern Illinois football program will have an extra week to savor their 16-14 monster upset of Notre Dame last Saturday in South Bend. The next game for Northern Illinois will be at home Saturday, Sept. 21 against Buffalo, a Mid-American Conference
By Dilpreet RajuCapitol News Illinoisdraju@capitolnewsillinois.com Medical marijuana patients can now purchase cannabis grown by small businesses as part of their allotment, Illinois’ top cannabis regulator said, but smaller, newly licensed cannabis growers are still seeking greater access to the state’s medical marijuana customers. Illinois legalized medicinal marijuana beginning in 2014,
By Hannah MeiselCapitol News Illinoishmeisel@capitolnewsillinois.com A federal judge is ordering governor JB Pritzker’s administration to move the vast majority of those incarcerated at Stateville Correctional Center near Joliet out of the aging prison by the end of September, citing health and safety concerns posed by the facility. The Illinois Department
By Hannah Meisel & Andrew AdamsCapitol News Illinoisnews@capitolnewsillinois.com Governor JB Pritzker Tuesday kicked off a decade-long process to address the needs of aging Illinoisans, by signing an executive order to hire a chief planning officer within the State’s Department on Aging. With the U.S. Census Bureau estimating that approximately one
By Hannah MeiselCapitol News IllinoisHmeisel@Capitolnewsillinois.com Illinois governor JB Pritzker Wednesday, July 31 signed legislation aimed at curtailing the practice of “captive audience” meetings, a strategy businesses sometimes use to dissuade workers from forming a union. The law, dubbed the “Worker Freedom of Speech Act,” was a top priority this Spring
The Illinois Department of Transportation announced recently the launch of Next Move Illinois, a new statewide public transportation plan to create a strategic vision, recommend policy, make performance updates and identify specific initiatives. The last public transportation plan for Illinois was completed in 2018. “Next Move Illinois is dedicated to
By Jerry NowickiCapitol News Illinoisjnowicki@capitolnewsillinois.com Governor JB Pritzker said Tuesday, July 9 he is “all in” for president Joe Biden after visiting the White House last week with other Democratic Party governors. He went to Washington, D.C., to meet with the president and members of the Democratic Governors Association Wednesday,
By Jerry NowickiCapitol News Illinoisjnowicki@capitolnewsillinois.com Illinois entered a new fiscal year Monday, July 1, with a bit of a financial cushion when the prior year’s revenues exceeded final projections by approximately $123 million. The state ended fiscal year 2024 with approximately $4.7 billion cash on hand, or approximately nine percent
By Andrew AdamsCapitol News Illinoisaadams@capitolnewsillinois.com Changes to primary election fundraising, the electoral college and the state’s voter registration database are now law after governor JB Pritzker signed a wide-ranging bill Monday his week. The legislation, containing several unrelated election measures, passed near the end of the legislature’s spring session on
By Peter HancockCapitol News Illinoisphancock@capitolnewsillinois.com Governor JB Pritzker signed legislation Tuesday, June 25, to create a new cabinet-level State agency dedicated to early childhood education and development. The new Department of Early Childhood, which will become operational in July 2026, will take over programs currently housed across three State agencies,
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 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
