Senator Chapin Rose said new laws prohibiting any carbon capture in areas around the Mahomet Aquifer won’t matter much if new developments drain the aquifer. “Now it turns out these AI data centers, and I’ll point out JB announced this big deal to put one attached to the Clinton nuclear power plant,” Rose said. “Well, they go through 3 to 5 million gallons of water a day. So where’s that water coming from?”

“Hospitals are already required to refer families to early intervention services. This written process will help create a warmer referral process where NICU staff can talk with families about these early intervention services and connect them with the services before the family leaves the NICU,” state Rep. Janet Yang Rohr said.

The Illinois Department of Human Services said incorrect privacy settings exposed protected health information for more than 700,000 Illinois residents on an internal mapping website from 2021 until September 2025. Although federal law requires public notification within 60 days, the agency waited 102 days to disclose the breach, a delay state Sen. Terri Bryant called legally and ethically troubling.

New federal rules will impose tighter caps on how much money states can raise for their Medicaid programs through provider taxes; In Illinois, those taxes pay more than one-third of the state’s share. The new limits, starting in Fiscal Year 2028, and could reduce total Medicaid funding in Illinois by $4.5 billion a year by Fiscal Year 2031.

Their 5 percent raise, the maximum allowed under Illinois law, means state lawmakers will make up to $128,000 a year. They are considered part-time, putting in fewer than 70 days in Springfield. Only three other states pay their legislators more.

Once a dicey political proposition, an increasing number of established Democrats are calling for a dissolution of the federal Immigration and Customs and Enforcement agency.

In terms of cash, the top two Republican gubernatorial candidates were Ted Dabrowski, a conservative researcher, and Rick Heidner, a real estate developer. They both ended the quarter with more than $1 million in the bank.