Illinois advocates gathered in Springfield to push the state to release $50 million budgeted for after-school programs this year. Since funding has been delayed to after-school programs throughout the state, more than 27,000 students have missed programming and more than 2,000 staff members have lost their jobs, according to the coalition.

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville administrators had known the shortfall had been looming as operational expenses have increased and enrollment has grown stagnant or declined in recent years.

Attorney Michael Kasper, who also defended Michael Madigan, has defended challenges against the state’s legislative maps in the past and has been successful in having the lawsuits thrown out.

State Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer proposed House Bill 1316 in response to a situation in his district where a student threatened another student that they would shoot them. A school staffer waited until the next morning to notify others about the alleged threat.

“Illinois ranks among the highest in the number of human trafficking cases in the whole United States,” said state Sen. Julie Morrison. “Within Illinois alone, the National Human Trafficking Hotline has identified more than 5,600 victims since 2007, but that is probably just a drop in the bucket.”

“The investigation will examine whether the state unnecessarily institutionalizes, or puts at serious risk of institutionalization, adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities,” the letter from Tonya Piephoff, of the Illinois Department of Human Services, stated. The investigation also will probe abuse and neglect allegations of patients at the Choate, Jack Mabley and Samuel Shapiro developmental centers, three of the seven state-operated residential institutions.

Recipients included nearly 3 of 4 current state lawmakers. IFT also invested heavily in the politics of the Chicago Teachers Union and the union’s former employee, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.

The Illinois legislation would, among other things, ban no-knock warrants unless there’s a threat to the officers or other people. In addition, a search warrant would not be issued when the only offense alleged is possession of narcotics, unless there’s reason to believe that the controlled substance is tied to manufacturing, distributing or selling the drugs. The legislation would also require search warrants to be executed between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. unless a judge grants an exception.

“I’m really proud of my community who stood up for those who need to be defended and protected, making sure we have great schools, which we do by the way, we have incredible, incredible schools, incredible families, an incredible community that has come together to deal with this situation. Because it’s a lie!” state Rep. Bob Morgan, of Deerfield, said. “So the next time a representative wants to talk about other districts, I understand he might be ashamed and, frankly, probably should be, but instead of standing on this floor taking our time today talking about children, try and talk

“Forcing young girls to undress in front of a biological male is not just perverted—it’s an egregious violation of their privacy and President Trump’s executive order to protect girls in female-only spaces,” U.S. Rep. Mary Miller’s post read.

“Know too that even though (Deerfield parent) Nicole Georgas’ story has gone viral world-wide, with world-famous women’s rights activist author J.K. Rowling and champion swimmer Riley Gaines championing the girls cause, it hasn’t gone viral in Chicago media. “I’d remove my daughter instantly from that school, then go full Nemesis,” Rowling posted on X. Is that puzzling that the Chicago media would ignore such a story? Then you don’t know politics.”

Senate Bill 1672 would require all students in kindergarten to third grade be tested for dyslexia, is a learning disorder that affects reading and writing skills. Parents or teachers could also request students in fourth grade or higher be to be screened.

A bipartisan group of state lawmakers approved a bill that would prevent carbon capture and sequestration projects over the Mahomet Aquifer. The aquifer provides water to more than 1,000,000 people.

State lawmakers have unveiled House Bill 2431, which implements ranked choice voting for key statewide offices. The Illinois Governor’s Ranked-Choice and Voting Systems Task Force has not yet published its final report, which was initially due March 1, 2024.

“Nothing in HB 2827 is about what’s best for kids or somehow improves education for those students who are struggling. Instead, it’s about tracking and regulating every single family and school that is not a government public school. That’s why the original version of this bill, which is nearly identical in substance to the amended version, together with the amendment generated a historic 60,000+ witness slips in opposition, versus about 1,000 in support as of March 18.”

At a time when its parent company is battling financial hardship, WBEZ is among more than a dozen public media stations being investigated by the Federal Communications Commission for its underwriting practices, an inquiry which may put federal money the station relies on into jeopardy.

Professor Kilborn’s Civil Procedure II exam described how an employee quit “after she attended a meeting in which other managers expressed their anger at Plaintiff, calling her a ‘n___’ and ‘b___’ [sic].”

“While Pritzker did say much that needed saying before his full house at CAP, it’s hard not to think that anointing a billionaire as the guardian of a model democratic political economy is going boldly backward.”

Illinois’s Deerfield Public Schools District 109 is under the microscope on both sides of the Atlantic after parent Nicole Georgas said Thursday at a school board meeting that administrators and teachers entered the junior high girls’ locker room to force girls to change into their gym clothes after they refused to do so in the presence of a male who identifies as a girl.

Trans advocates are pushing back against a north suburban mom who says her 13-year-old daughter was forced to change in front of a transgender classmate.

In their complaint, filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, the Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies and the Liberty Justice Center allege that the state board and CPS are violating Title IX by “forcing students to share bathrooms, locker rooms, and overnight accommodations with members of the opposite sex, based solely on self-declared ‘gender identity.'”

Governor Pritzker is kicking off the Standing Up for Illinois Tour Wednesday. He plans to travel across the state to “shed light on how the Trump Administration’s extreme agenda is hurting working families, farmers, veterans, seniors, and other Illinoisians.”

“We’ve seen this play out. In Illinois, sheriff’s Deputy Sean Grayson killed Sonya Massey in her home in July after she called for help. Grayson had been discharged from the Army for serious misconduct and had a pattern of misconduct at six police departments in the state. If these departments had been mandated to accurately document and report Grayson’s misconduct, Massey would likely still be alive.”

“Chicago rose from the ashes to demonstrate what American ingenuity looks like,” the Democratic governor said of the 1871 disaster. “It seems wherever we look right now, there is fire. There are embers. Trump and his bootlickers designed it that way. It should scare us, but it should not deter us, so let it instead be a call to action to all of us together (that) we can build something bigger and better.”

JB Pritzker criticized Chuck Schumer and declined to say whether he should continue leading Senate Democrats amid an escalating internal crisis over the party’s strategy in the second Trump presidency.