By Sarah Mansur A Kane County restaurant’s legal challenge to governor JB Pritzker’s ban on indoor dining can continue, a Sangamon County judge ruled this week. Attorneys for Pritzker tried to have the lawsuit dismissed, but Sangamon County Judge RayleneGrischow Wednesday declined to do so. While Grischow decided not to
By Sarah Mansur The Illinois House passed a bill Thursday, March 18 that would make permanent some vote-by-mail and curbside voting expansions that the state adopted ahead of the 2020 presidential election due to the COVID-19 pandemic. House Bill 1871, sponsored by Democratic Party representative Katie Stuart, of Edwardsville, passed
By Sarah Mansur Less than a week after a deadly attack on Asian Americans in Atlanta, governor JB Pritzker and members of the General Assembly’s Asian American Caucus spoke out against the murders and against discrimination generally toward the Asian American community. “I do not pretend to know the pain
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 Former house speaker Michael J. Madigan, 78, announced Thursday he will step down from the State House of Representatives after 50 years in office. “I leave office at peace with my decision and proud of the many contributions I’ve made to the state of Illinois, and I
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 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 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 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 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 Sarah Mansur Members of the State Senate Veterans Affairs Committee had pointed questions for officials with the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs about the agency’s response to an outbreak at the LaSalle Veterans’ Home that resulted in at least 27 resident deaths from COVID-19-related complications. The committee called for
By Sarah Mansur Four restaurants in Sangamon County that continued to offer indoor dining in defiance of governor J.B. Pritzker’s COVID-19 mitigation plan were ordered to shut down temporarily Tuesday. The order from a Sangamon County judge states that the four restaurants, Charlie Parker’s Diner, D&J Cafe, Sweet Basil Cafe,
By Sarah Mansur Republicans on the Illinois House Veterans’ Affairs Committee called for a hearing last week to investigate a COVID-19 outbreak at the LaSalle Veterans’ Home where at least nine residents have died after testing positive for the virus. In a letter to the House’s committee chairwoman representative, Stephanie
By Sarah Mansur An appeals court has handed down a favorable ruling to governor JB Pritzker in a legal challenge to his administration’s restrictions on bars and restaurants to curb the spread of COVID-19. The 2nd District Appellate Court overruled a Kane County judge’s decision to temporarily block Pritzker’s indoor
By Sarah Mansur Illinois House Republicans on a special committee investigating House speaker, Michael Madigan, in his role in a bribery scheme involving Commonwealth Edison sought to tie the longtime leader directly to the $1.3 Million in payments over nearly a decade made by the utility giant to his associates.
