Nearly half of states registered enrollment declines greater than 10%, including Connecticut (15.7%), Indiana (15.8%), Texas (16.6%), Utah and Illinois (16.7%), Oklahoma (19.6%), Louisiana (21.5%), Florida (22.2%), Nevada (23.1%), Georgia (36.5%) and Arizona (53.8%). As always, the political left is spinning these declines as a human tragedy. Not so. Republicans have merely ended the literal free lunch for able-bodied beneficiaries and states.

The University of Illinois College of Medicine renamed its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office while retaining the same director and four listed staff members. The office continues to link to initiatives involving equity, bias training, and other programs associated with its former DEI structure.

Among other issues, the 106-page report focused on a sample of so-called home safety checklists, which the agency is required to complete before a judge determines a child can return to the custody of a parent or guardian. In that sample of 50 cases, DCFS was unable to provide 329 of the 399 required checklists, amounting to an 82 percent deficiency rate.

And unless Congress acts to reverse those policies before they take full effect, Illinois Health and Hospital Association officials warn, roughly half the hospitals in Illinois could be forced to reduce staff, cut back on services or close altogether.

The pause on any data center development will automatically renew after one year if the council takes no action.

The program has offered $120 million in total to “support local efforts to recruit, prepare, and retain educators through staffing strategies and partnerships tailored to community needs,” since its inception in 2023, according to the state board.

Illinois’ private-sector job growth is in the bottom five states. Such jobs grew by less than 0.1 percent from 2018 to 2025 in Illinois, compared with a national rate of over 6 percent.

Jim Dey: “The question of pretrial release — who’s detained until trial or released after arraignment — has clogged the courts since the SAFE-T Act took effect. The deluge prompted the Illinois Supreme Court to adopt new rules to reduce the volume of appeals. But the bottom line is that any alleged felon is eligible for pretrial release. That has created some embarrassing possibilities.”

“Dozens of government plans in the worst-funded states and cities pay shockingly high rates to keep their systems afloat. … States like Connecticut, Illinois, and Arizona, and cities like Chicago and San Diego, must ante up 50 cents or more for pensions for every dollar laid out in salary—a rate ten times or more than the private-sector average.”

The additional tax would bring Springfield’s combined hotel tax rate to approximately 17 percent, the second-highest in Illinois behind Chicago. Opponents have also questioned whether increasing lodging costs could make Springfield less attractive to convention organizers when competing against communities including Peoria, Bloomington-Normal, Rockford and the Quad Cities.

The bill allows Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs to invest in the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust (AFL-CIO HIT).

“That’s why a month ago, I signed the Children’s Social Media Safety Act, which establishes some of the most comprehensive safeguards against these addictive platforms in the nation.”