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Researcher Kasia Tarczynska said while Illinois does disclose some information, it doesn’t include annual incentives for local facilities. In states that do provide this information, she said revenue losses are soaring, with three states already losing $1 billion or more per year.
Illinois would ban social media companies from using addictive algorithms for youth, stop on-platform location sharing and prohibit scam financial transactions with strangers online.
Two sources close to negotiations confirmed that legislation is being crafted that would enable local governments to set up their own stadium authorities — a mechanism that would allow the Bears to escape paying property taxes altogether.
More than half of all states have passed laws similar to that of Illinois’, with many states also including funding for school districts to enforce the bans through solutions like school-provided lockable bags. The Illinois plan does not include funding for the law’s implementation.
“The American people, regardless of the city or state in which they reside, should not live under threat of military occupation simply because they live in a jurisdiction that has fallen out of a president’s political favor,” Raoul said. “I am proud to have successfully blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to illegally deploy the National Guard in Illinois, and I join my fellow attorneys general in asking the court to uphold the injunction on the administration’s unlawful deployment in the District of Columbia.”
Future programming at the Center in 2026 will include throughout July and August, its “You Are America” summer series of talks, films, and community events honoring the 250th anniversary of America. To celebrate President Obama’s birthday on August 4, the center will host an all-ages celebration with a karaoke DJ set that will invite visitors to join the experience by singing classics from soul, R&B, and contemporary music.
A resident told officers they heard several gunshots around 2 a.m. Saturday but did not call 911. Investigators recovered shell casings at the scene, suggesting the shooting occurred where the body was found. If the shooting occurred when the resident heard the gunshots, the victim’s body lay undiscovered for nearly 10 hours before police were notified.
“In Summer 2025, Washington’s Navy Yard neighborhood became a focal point for the D.C. version of Chicago’s teen takeover problem — repeated large gatherings that spurred violence in one of the city’s busiest dining and nightlife districts. After a particularly chaotic Independence Day weekend in 2025, Mayor Muriel Bowser and the D.C. Council had seen enough. Working together, they created a new tool: extended juvenile curfew zones.”
“What one thing that binds the writer to the reader is giving the reader a chance to engage in dialogue.”
“Reports such as UChicago Justice Project’s should be judged by their methodology, not by how well their conclusions align with a political preference. Too often the media treat such studies as authoritative without scrutinizing their sample windows, control variables, and potential selection bias.”
“Markham has an extremely high effective property tax rate,” said Brian Costin, of Americans for Prosperity Illinois. “To think that taxpayers in a community with a lot of lower-income families could potentially be paying for something like a helicopter prom photo shoot is about as far away from public purpose as possible.”
“The church is still the number one organizing tool in city government, in the city of Chicago,” said Ald. William Hall, also the pastor at St. James Church. “Political candidates know that the same person that has an audience for two hours 52 weeks in a row can literally say or inspire that audience to go in a direction politically that can hurt or help them.”
A legislative draft of the tax proposals wasn’t released Saturday night. But buried inside the 3,551-page document were 3.2 percent cost-of-living increases for the 177 members of the General Assembly, boosting their base salaries to $101,450 — breaking six figures for the first time. Salaries for the governor, other statewide elected officials, and the heads of state agencies also would increase by about 3.2 percent, though Gov. JB Pritzker does not take a salary.
The legislation creates a payment plan option, expands the redemption period, and creates a surplus equity fund for homeowners at risk of losing their homes. Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle called the legislation a step towards equity.
This bill also states schools cannot suspend Pre-K through second graders without the principal receiving written or verbal consent from the superintendent.
In a post on social media, the president said, “Someone should explain to the Pope that the Mayor of Chicago is useless, and that Iran cannot have a Nuclear Weapon!” Johnson responded to the post, saying, in part, “Someone should explain to the president that he’s only making it harder for working families to make ends meet.”
A decade after Illinois became the first state in the nation to restrict its public pensions from investing in companies that boycott Israel, lawmakers are debating whether to become the first to reverse the policy.
That means pending data center projects will not be subject to guardrails proposed in the bill, like water use reporting, community benefits agreements and requirements that data centers pay for their own energy from renewable sources.
The Junk Fee Ban Act generally requires businesses to disclose all mandatory fees upfront, although it includes some exceptions for banks, credit unions, and businesses subject to federal disclosure laws. It also includes modified compliance requirements for retail mercantile establishments and restaurants.
Among the allegations are that a February public notice failed to clearly inform residents that the proposal involved a massive data center campus, that a March meeting violated the Open Meetings Act, that residents were denied a meaningful chance to challenge testimony, and that rezoning the land from agricultural to light industrial was unconstitutional.
A developer is building 20 new single-family homes in the village, and later this summer, a raffle will be held to determine who can purchase them. A church once occupied the site, but Elk Grove Village bought the land and tore the building down.
Jim Dey: “(Bob Grogan, chairman of the Illinois Republican Party) calls for a big-tent GOP in which there is room for divergent views and no ideological litmus tests. ‘You can’t purge your way to 51 percent’ of the vote, he said, referring to internal party power struggles.”
The buyout option has been extended twice since it was signed into law in 2018. To date, more than 15,000 retirees in Illinois’ five state pension systems have taken advantage of it. The initiative has so far reduced Illinois’ pension liabilities by an estimated $2.6 billion to $2.9 billion.
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