The plan is an expansion of the current state law that bans public and private schools from prohibiting hairstyles associated with race, ethnicity, or hair texture. Sen. Mike Simmons said rabbis asked him to file the plan to protect Orthodox Jewish students who have beards.

“Obviously, as fast as we can get this done through the legislature, and that’s going to be up to the legislators to do it that, you know, we want to get it done for the Bears,” Gov. JB Pritzker said.

Gov. JB Pritzker acknowledged that bureaucratic red tape “unnecessarily increases costs, delays construction, and frequently kills projects altogether.” Since January 2015, Illinois has permitted an average of 848 private housing units per month. The national average over that time was 1,426 units.

Senate Joint Resolution Constitutional Amendment 4 and House Joint Resolution Constitutional Amendment 16 would eliminate the constitutional requirement that income be taxed at one flat rate. That means lawmakers could impose as many tax brackets – and rates – as they want.

“Too many angel families feel forced into silence because of the stigma surrounding… ‘overdose death,’” state Sen. Sue Rezin said. “This bill helps to elevate the conversation…and give families some peace in properly describing what happened to their loved ones, by renaming or reclassifying their death as a poisoning.”

With Illinois’ workforce shrinking by nearly 109,000 over a yearlong period ending in December 2025 and the state’s labor force participation rate recently falling to 63.6, Illinois Policy Institute’s Josh Bandoch worries the situation shows few signs of getting better anytime soon.

Springfield’s Statewide Terrorism and Intelligence Center, also known as STIC, works 24/7 to analyze threats, claims of bombs in public places and the ongoing risk from foreign terror groups of domestic lone wolf strikes. STIC does not have any specific information that any individuals, groups or sites in Illinois are being targeted for possible attacks.

It’s a contest that encapsulates how much the Democratic Party has transformed in the Trump era, the growing influence of outside money in safe-blue districts and the generational shift in a seat long anchored by Chicago’s liberal Jewish political tradition.

Illinois African Descent-Citizens Reparations Commission (ADCRC) Chair Marvin Slaughter, Jr. said, “By grounding our work in historical evidence and the lived experiences of those who have experienced harm, we are laying the foundation for informed and meaningful reparative action.”