State Rep. Kam Buckner and state Sen. Ram Villivalam both predicted that the General Assembly would pass transit legislation during the fall veto session. “It’s not working. We have seven different apps. We have three different service plans, three different capital plans. It’s not where we need to be, and it causing us not to have the efficiencies and meeting the performance metrics that we need to have,” Villivalam said.

When the Obama Foundation snagged a sweetheart deal to build its beleaguered Obama Presidential Center in a Chicago public park, it pledged to create a $470 million reserve fund to spare taxpayers should the project ever go belly up. But new tax filings show the foundation has only deposited $1 million into the fund and has not added to it in years, with critics saying the empty promise could potentially leave Chicagoans on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars.

Because the building was previously vacant, Tasty Breads will also seek a Class 6b tax abatement from Cook County. If approved, the abatement would reduce the property taxes on the 4.5-acre site from 10 percent of market value from years one to 10, 15 percent in year 11, and 20 percent in year 12, before returning to the standard 25 percent. Cook County requires local municipalities to support the tax abatement.

Rising Pharmaceuticals, which is categorized as a manufacturing company, is laying off the employees because of “mass layoffs,” according to Illinois Worknet Center.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker were at the top of the list of nearly 30 elected officials who the Trump administration said incited violence against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents throughout the U.S. Pritzker claimed the country is becoming “Nazi Germany” because ICE is “grabbing people off the street and disappearing them.”

“Here in Illinois, the most urgent threat to democracy is concrete: political maps deliberately and specifically designed to disenfranchise voters. … A shrinking state with a growing budget and soaring debt is a dangerous equation. Yet no foundational fixes are on the table in Springfield. Why? Because in Illinois politics, competition is rare and accountability weaker still.”

A state lawmaker who also serves as a police officer says the recent stabbing of non-police first responders in Champaign underscores his criticism of a new state law. The Illinois Community Emergency Services and Support Act, signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker in 2021, limits police presence unless violence or criminal activity is anticipated.

Relaunched in December 2024, SmartBuy offered an affordable 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage with $5,000 in deferred down payment or closing cost assistance, alongside up to $40,000 in direct student loan relief for borrowers purchasing a home in Illinois.

Chicago has long been one of the top markets for data centers, but it’s losing ground because of fears that BIPA could leave AI companies vulnerable to costly class-action lawsuits If they gather or use biometric information without consent in operating or training their software. The shift threatens Chicago’s status and could cost it thousands of jobs and billions in investment at a time when construction activity is weakening.

Miller also criticized policies Democrats implement in public schools and attempts to interfere with home schooling, and criticized Illinois rescinding parental notification of minor children getting abortions.