Our Newspapers Work!
Our Newspapers Work!
Sorted by date Results 101 - 125 of 200
Former state Sen. Martin Sandoval was formally charged in federal court Monday with bribery and tax fraud. The indictment comes one day before lawmakers are set to return to Springfield for the 2020 legislative session. Sandoval, a Chicago Democrat whose Statehouse offices were raided by federal agents in September, announced in November that he would resign his Senate office. His resignation took effect Jan. 1, and he has since been succeeded by former Rep. Celina...
The luxury helicopter that crashed Sunday morning in California, killing all nine people on board including former NBA star Kobe Bryant, was once owned by the state of Illinois. The Sikorsky S-76B helicopter was built in 1991, according to the Federal Aviation Administration's aircraft registry. The state of Illinois used it from 2007 to 2015, according to helicopter information database Helis. Under the direction of former Gov. Bruce Rauner, the state sold the helicopter...
A Chicago resident is the second person in the United States with a confirmed case of the novel coronavirus, which originated in Wuhan, China, and has killed at least 26 people in that country and sickened 900 worldwide. "At this time, the risk to the general public remains low," Gov. JB Pritzker said at an unrelated news conference Friday. The individual who tested positive for the virus is a Chicago woman who recently returned from Wuhan. Pritzker said the number of people...
Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker signed a bill into law Friday capping the out-of-pocket cost of prescription insulin for many people in Illinois. Senate Bill 667, sponsored by Sen. Andy Manar, a Bunker Hill Democrat, caps the cost at $100 for a 30-day supply, a significant reduction for many diabetes patients currently paying hundreds of dollars per month for the life-saving medication. The law takes effect Jan. 1, 2021. Each year after that, insurers are allowed to raise the...
Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker and newly-elected Illinois Senate President Don Harmon added their voices Wednesday to a growing chorus of state officials calling for legislative hearings to determine how more than 500 people who identified themselves as non-U.S. citizens became registered to vote through the state's new automatic voter registration system. "I think it's appropriate, again, for transparency, for getting all the information, so we know what went wrong," Pritzker to...
Sen. Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, is the new Senate president, thanks, in large part, to a group of moderate suburban and downstate Democrats who quietly supported him in his monthslong rise to the head of the chamber. The group, calling itself the "X Caucus" is made up of "approximately 10 to 12" members depending on the issue, said Democratic Tinley Park Sen. Michael Hastings. He also noted the caucus sought certain concessions in backing Harmon, including increased power at the...
Two Illinois school districts defended their actions against an elementary school teacher and a restoration company before the Illinois Supreme Court on Wednesday. The justices' eventual decisions could determine how school employees can use paid family leave, and whether contracts are enforceable if they should not have been signed in the first place. Can paid family leave pick up after breaks? Margaret Dynak, a teacher at Westview Elementary School in the Chicago suburb of...
Senator Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, was elected as the 39th president of the Illinois Senate on Sunday after hours of behind-the-scenes negotiations. The race had been weeks in the making, and by the time the closed-door negotiations began Sunday shortly after 11 a.m., the field of candidates was down to two – Harmon, who has served in the chamber since 2003, and Sen. Kimberly Lightford, a Maywood Democrat and the majority leader, who has served in the Senate since 1998. The n...
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker assumed a ceremonial position Sunday as senators chose a new president. The governor, a Democrat, presided over the floor vote as legislators elected Democratic Sen. Don Harmon of Oak Park as the 39th Senate president in Illinois history. It is a constitutional role the state's governor fills when the Senate is without a president - usually after senators are sworn in for a new term in January of odd-numbered years. Sunday's proceedings, however,...
The Illinois Senate will hold a special meeting Sunday to elect a new chamber president. Senate President John Cullerton, a Chicago Democrat, surprised his colleagues at the end of the fall veto session Nov. 14 by announcing his plan to retire from the Senate in January, once a new president is chosen. There are two announced candidates for the job that have received the most media attention – Sen. Don Harmon, of Oak Park, an assistant majority leader; and Sen. Kimberly L...
Government reform advocates in Illinois are urging state lawmakers to impose stricter rules on lobbying activity at the Statehouse, including a ban on lawmakers themselves working as lobbyists with other levels of government. Their testimony before a special legislative committee Wednesday in Chicago came against the backdrop of a sprawling federal investigation that has focused in part on potentially corrupt lobbying practices. Former Rep. Luis Arroyo, who also lobbied the...
State Representative Brad Stephens (20th District)issued this statement regarding the Kennedy Expressway Graffiti: “My office has received numerous emails and phone calls concerning the graffiti on the noise abatement walls currently under construction along Kennedy Expressway near Cumberland and Canfield. I have been working with the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) and advocating for the removal of the graffiti from the vandalized walls. Graffiti removal must be completed during warmer days because when the t...
Congressman Bill Foster (D-IL) was named chairman of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee’s Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight. The subcommittee is empowered with investigative and oversight authority over all matters concerning non-defense federal research. “As a scientist who spent 24 years working at one of America’s great national laboratories, I know firsthand just how critical federal research is to our nation’s ability to confront challenges and for supporting the innovation that maintains the com...
The state's agriculture director resigned last weekend at the request of Gov. J.B. Pritzker for failing to disclose contents of a 2012 email that pointed to the possible cover-up of a "rape in Champaign" and government "ghost workers," the governor's office said Monday. John Sullivan, a Democratic state senator from 2003 to 2017 who became ag director last year, knew about the July 2012 email "contemporaneously" but did not disclose its contents to state investigators,...
One year ago, on Jan. 14, 2019, Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker was sworn into office. A billionaire businessman from Chicago with no prior experience as an elected official, he took the reins of a state government that was on the brink of insolvency. A massive pension debt and a mountain of unpaid bills seemed to make the idea of any new initiatives impossible. Yet in one year, with the help of Democratic supermajorities in both chambers of the General Assembly, Pritzker...
Capitol News Illinois today announces that Jerry Nowicki has been promoted to the position of bureau chief with the news service. Nowicki joined Capitol News Illinois as a reporter when the Illinois Press Foundation's news service began covering state government in January 2019. During Capitol News Service's first year of operation, Nowicki was a lead reporter on some of the biggest legislative session issues, including the graduated income tax proposal, a significant...
New rules governing how retail gun dealers do business go into effect Friday and include the types of records they must keep, how weapons and ammunition are to be stored and the kinds of video surveillance and security systems they must maintain. The rules, established by the Illinois State Police and scheduled to be published in the Illinois Register on Friday, will go into effect almost one year to the day after Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the Firearm Dealer...
For the first time since Kayla Unbehaun's disappearance, NCMEC has just released an age progression image of what she might look like today. "We know that this new picture can helps find Kayla. It just needs to reach the right person," says Angeline Hartmann, Communications Director at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. "We ask everyone to take a moment out of their busy day to look at this new photo and then share it on social media. You may be the person...
Illinois House Republicans on Wednesday blasted a draft final report from the special Property Tax Relief Task Force that lawmakers formed last year. They said the panel's Democratic majority summarily rejected dozens of proposals from Republicans. "Following the release of their draft within the last week, we once again see [House Democrats] refuse to be serious ... at a time when our citizens are so desperate and wanting for change in state government," House GOP Leader Jim...
Lawmakers from both parties are calling for an investigation of a 2012 email exchange between a government insider and then-Gov. Pat Quinn's staff regarding a possible cover-up of rape and other criminal activity. The bombshell report was published Tuesday by Chicago National Public Radio affiliate WBEZ-FM detailing emails from former Commonwealth Edison lobbyist Michael McClain and Quinn's staff. WBEZ reported that McClain - a close confidant of Illinois Democratic House...
Sex education in Illinois middle and high schools would be required to include a discussion on sexting if a bill introduced in the state House of Representatives becomes law. House Bill 4007, introduced by Rep. Maurice West, D-Rockford, would require sex education curriculum in grades 6-12 to include material on the legal and social risks of sharing sexually explicit images, messages and videos. "This is something that a lot of our students are dealing with and are partaking...
Legislators and advocates began discussions Tuesday of what action the state can take to counteract the overuse of physical restraint and forced isolation of students in Illinois schools, particularly those serving students with special needs. At a joint Illinois Senate and House committee hearing in Chicago, several of those who spoke credited revelations unearthed by a Chicago Tribune and ProPublica investigation published in November for the increased interest in the topic. That investigation showed there were more than...
The state's minimum wage will increase by $1 hourly, recreational marijuana will go on sale to those over 21 years of age, and some state taxes and licensing fees will increase when the calendar hits January. The changes are among hundreds resulting from laws passed during a busy legislative session which adjourned in early June. Minimum Wage: The minimum wage will increase by $1 to $9.25 hourly on Jan. 1, the first such increase since 2010. The wage will increase to $10...
A pair of researchers are suggesting the best way to reduce property taxes in Illinois is for the state to take over a greater share of funding for public schools and consolidate some units of local government. Frank Manzo, policy director at the Illinois Economic Policy Institute, and Robert Bruno, director of the Project for Middle Class Renewal at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, argue in a new report that such a plan would not only hold down future property tax hikes, but it would actually help create jobs...
A Capitol dome study conducted earlier this month revealed “some obvious flaws on the exterior of the dome,” a state employee said Tuesday. Inspectors also found cracks inside the structure and changes made over the years that have altered the Statehouse’s historical profile. The flagpole atop the Capitol needs to be replaced and the holiday lights will probably need to be hung in a different manner, Harl Ray, senior project manager for the secretary of state’s Department of Physical Services, said at a Capitol Archite...