“Under normal circumstances, this shoddy education performance would be a call to arms to save a generation of semi-literates from entering the adult world with the kind of skills basic to a successful life. In fact, it’s just more of the same that produces considerable hand-wringing but little else when it comes to improved K-12 public school student performance.”

State officials said the Illinois Grocery Initiative has awarded more than $18 million statewide to support new and existing independent grocers in areas without fresh food options.

“It’s been my experience that human beings love sharing information, even (and often especially) when they’re told not to. And it’s not like these are nuclear weapons secrets or something. It’s state government, not the CIA.”

“Would we stand up to Jim Crow if that was going on today?” asked House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch. “Would we? Would we speak out against internment camps? Because I got to tell you, I have an internment camp in Broadview, in my district, right now.”

“Over the past several years, here in Illinois, we’ve passed balanced budgets that include rainy-day funds and contingency funds to help us get through emergencies,” State Rep. Anna Moeller said. “But certainly, we don’t have the resources at the state level — no state has the resources — to fully make up for the lack of federal participation in these programs.”

Illinois currently ranks 38th in the nation for its state tax competitiveness, but just six years ago the state ranked six spots higher in a Tax Foundation survey. Illinois was far less competitive than any of its neighboring states and the third-least competitive in the Midwest.

Activists claimed that they and other area organizations had “99 percent confirmed” the presence of federal agents, including through the use of a database of license plates seen on federal immigration enforcement vehicles that matched several in the hotel’s parking lot.

Illinois joined the rest of the U.S. today in applying for a piece of the $50 billion the federal government will allocate to rural health over the next five years, with a plan that seeks $1 billion. The $50 billion was a late addition to HR 1, the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, following concerns that health care cuts in the GOP-led spending measure would hit rural hospitals particularly hard. CMS is set to decide on how the awards will be doled out by Dec. 31.

Amending ERISA will eliminate playing politics with pensions. It will bring transparency and accountability to the promises being made to public workers, who deserve to know the truth about their pensions.

137 people died in 97 domestic violence incidents in the state of Illinois in 2024, up from 120 deaths in 90 incidents in 2023.

“Eastern Illinois University is committed to free speech, the freedom of association, and viewpoint diversity. Universities are and should always be the spaces and places where difficult conversations and civil dialogue occur,” administrators said.

Before the pandemic, chronic absenteeism in Illinois was below 20 percent. However, since 2020, the number has increased, with some districts still experiencing a rise. In Springfield, more than 5,000 students missed at least 17 days of school last year without a valid excuse.

“If I’m governor, I’ve got the bully pulpit,” he said. “Expose it. Persuade, persuade, persuade. People don’t want to pay the highest taxes. He added he would not shy away from challenging members of his own party on fiscal issues. “There’s no leadership in the Republican Party,” he said. “We need principles at the top — lower taxes, more jobs, less government.”

“Illinois consumers have been feeling these numbers all year,” said Jim Chilsen, spokesman for the Citizens Utility Board, a nonpartisan nonprofit utility watchdog group. “And the big problem is, right now, everyday consumers are paying for those energy costs for data centers.”

State Sen. Chapin Rose, who represents the area where the fatal crash happened, said that Coles County Board member Michael Clayton and his wife, Gail Clayton, were the fifth and sixth people to have been killed allegedly by illegal immigrants. “I don’t know how many more people have to die for, frankly, Democrats to pay attention and start enforcing the laws we have and start helping and cooperating with President Trump as they remove these illegals from our country,” Rose said.