Capitol News

Capitol News Illinois SPRINGFIELD — On May 19, 1875, a Cook County jury handed down a verdict in a case concerning the health and welfare of Mary Lincoln, widow of the former president who had been assassinated a decade earlier. After listening to only a single day of testimony, the 12 men on the jury…

Capitol News Illinois SPRINGFIELD — A Senate committee on Wednesday advanced a measure aiming to limit the circumstances under which tenants can be evicted due to local “crime-free housing” ordinances. The measure was backed by housing advocates who argued the crime-free ordinances have been used to evict people in instances where the actual residents of…

Capitol News Illinois With just over two weeks to go before their spring adjournment, lawmakers in Springfield are facing a tight deadline to pass major reforms to Chicagoland’s transit system — but officials have released few concrete details of the plan they say is taking shape. Influential lawmakers said one major element will be addressed:…

Capitol News Illinois SPRINGFIELD – House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch made the extraordinary move of removing an appropriations committee chair on Wednesday with two weeks left in the legislative session and a tightening fiscal landscape. Speaking exclusively to Capitol News Illinois on Thursday, Welch, D-Hillside, said he removed Rep. Fred Crespo, D-Hoffman Estates, from the…

Capitol News Illinois By Sidnee King Pineda, Illinois Answers Project Sidnee King Pineda reported on eviction policies in Illinois as part of The Times’s Local Investigations Fellowship. Photographs by Jamie Kelter Davis. Catherine Lang was evicted from her apartment outside Chicago after the police saw her swerving in traffic and charged her with driving drunk.…

Capitol News Illinois Natural gas customers in the Chicago suburbs and downstate Illinois are likely to see an increase in their monthly bills next year, but it’s up to state regulators to decide how big a hike, if any, to approve. Nicor Gas, which serves 2.3 million customers in northern and western Illinois, requested the…

Capitol News Illinois SPRINGFIELD — Gov. 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 May 31 deadline amid increasing…

Capitol News Illinois SPRINGFIELD — State officials are on track to shut down a program at the end of June that provides publicly funded health care coverage to more than 30,000 non-U.S. citizens in Illinois, including many who are in the country without legal authorization. A legislative oversight committee took no action Tuesday on a…

Capitol News Illinois Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and 19 other Democratic attorneys general filed a pair of lawsuits Tuesday against Trump administration policies designed to block federal funding to states that don’t carry out U.S. immigration enforcement. According to the lawsuits, recently enacted policies at the U.S. departments of Homeland Security and Transportation illegally…

Capitol News Illinois SPRINGFIELD — Fallen Aurora firefighter Cristian Medrano was honored at the state’s 32nd annual Fallen Firefighter Memorial held outside the Statehouse on Tuesday. The memorial is held each May in front of the commemorative statue on the Statehouse’s back lawn as a tribute to Illinois firefighters who have died in the line…