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The lawsuit seeks to declare the Illinois Voting Rights Act as violative of the Fifteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, which would essentially cause the current map to be redrawn in compliance with the Fifteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. Former State Representative Jeanne Ives filed this lawsuit.
"This is the moment for bipartisan discipline."
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In the lawsuit, the Public Interest Legal Foundation asserts the Illinois VRA all but forces state lawmakers to use race when deciding how to carve up the state and its population into legislative districts. The lawsuit further asserts Illinois Democrats have intentionally done so, with the goal of artificially creating legislative districts that work to encourage and ensure the election of state and federal lawmakers who are black, Latino or of other preferred, particular races.
The Illinois unemployment rate rose to 5.2 percent in March, up from 5.0 percent in February.
“There are currently no checks and balances on data center developers, and they’re flooding the state with proposals driving up our utility bills, threatening our water supply and leaving communities in the dark,” state Sen. Rachel Ventura said.
State Rep. Patrick Sheehan questioned whether judges who release violent offenders should face greater public accountability when those offenders commit additional crimes. “I think there maybe needs to be a reexamination of the type of immunity that judges have,” he said.
Governors in neighboring states, including Indiana and Kentucky, have recently suspended gas taxes to offer drivers temporary relief. Illinois isn't following suit — at least not yet. Gov. JB Pritzker appears focused on passing his proposed budget before the legislative session ends this month.
A battle over credit card transaction fees continues after a federal appeals court Friday sent the case about a new Illinois law seeking to limit so-called swipe fees back to District Court. A recent order from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (part of the U.S. Department of the Treasury) exempted national banks from the law but not Illinois credit unions and community banks.
House Bill 34 would ban the ability to carry a firearm at any building, property or parking area of polling locations, creating a 24th restriction on open carry laws in the state.
“I can’t stress enough we’re not seeing this from one political party,” Tazewell County Clerk JohnAckerman said. “Both are just as guilty of committing the sin of throwing misinformation into the media circus, and that’s part of the problem.”
"Not all the BUILD Plan proposals would move Illinois in the right direction. One would provide $100 million “to remove upfront infrastructure barriers that prevent otherwise viable housing projects from breaking ground.” Another bill would provide $150 million to support down payment assistance programs."
"Threading through nearly every debate in the Democratic-controlled General Assembly is a fundamental disagreement about the state’s fiscal future. While progressive Democrats are pushing to tax billionaires and close corporate loopholes, Republicans are warning that squeezing job creators will severely damage Illinois’ economy."
"There was some discussion in Springfield earlier this year about skipping the planned gas-tax hike because of rising fuel prices, but so far, nothing has come of it."
"Statewide statistics show that 20 percent of K-12 public school students fall under the category of 'chronically absent.' That means they miss 10 percent of the school year — 17.5 days of a 175-school year. ... Attendance is ground zero in the quest to see that all students have a shot at a good education."
Gov. JB Pritzker's proposed budget includes a cut of $17.5 million to out-of-school programs like After School Matters and Teen REACH, which supports kids who need extra resources and emotional support that a school can not provide. ACT Now, a statewide coalition promoting afterschool and youth development programs, is suing the federal government to pay the $18.5 million worth of grant money that was awarded to Illinois community school programs.
Illinois has provided tax incentives for data centers since Gov. JB Pritzker signed bipartisan legislation in 2019. According to the state’s 2024 report, at least 27 data centers have received incentives totaling $983 million in estimated lifetime tax breaks and benefits.
"Understanding that the best defense for incompetence is a good offense, (Gov. JB) Pritzker is attacking Trump seemingly daily as he vies for national leadership of the Trump resistance and diverts to attention or scapegoats for the state’s considerable problems. Unfortunately for Illinois, with its gerrymandered federal and state legislative maps limiting any real political accountability, Illinois residents with the means will continue to vote with their feet."
The city has just one gas station, no grocery store and a population that has dropped to about 1,200 people, making economic development a growing concern. One suggestion was using an old, roughly 100-acre Caterpillar site to be annexed into the city and sold to data center developers, but aldermen are now split on the idea.
"Again, kudos to the House for passing a Bears/megaprojects bill. It wasn’t easy by any means. As with the Senate’s mass transit bill last year, it was one of those 'whatever it takes' tasks. And it was a good time for House Speaker Emanuel 'Chris' Welch to start conditioning his members to vote for some tough bills as the session progresses. On all that, Welch succeeded."
This plan ensures utility companies and contractors can access service lines located on private property at no cost to the property owner. It also expands who can authorize and perform the replacement.
State Sen. Robert Martwick told the Illinois Senate Revenue Committee it is time for businesses to pay high taxes just like his neighbors do to fund public education. “Can’t you just do the same thing? Can’t you invest in my children’s education?” Martwick said. Martwick said Illinois is not properly funding education because it is crushed under massive pension debt.
To address the long-term issues the state faces, there are different approaches lawmakers can take. One solution is to reign in spending on initiatives not core to the function of the state, and bringing more legislative focus to economic growth and development, according to Paula Worthington, senior policy advisor for the Civic Federation. Another possible path forward is to again increase the tax base significantly by making changes to the core state taxes, like the 2018 increase.
State Sen. Don DeWitte said Illinois would face penalties due its error rate for missed or mistaken payments. “Do you have any idea what that payment is going to cost the state of Illinois? I have the answer for you. It’s going to cost the state of Illinois $700 million,” he said. DeWitte said Illinois’ error rate of nearly 12 percent has not changed.
The bill was filed last year after an incident in Taylorville where a 10-year-old girl was allegedly sexually assaulted by a 14-year-old male student on the bus, who then chased the girl from the bus stop and raped her. The student was removed from the school for the rest of the semester but later returned. State Sen. Steve McClure said similar incidents have happened in other districts, including an assault on a 4-year-old girl by a 15-year-old boy in western Illinois. The issue, he said, is that state law lacks clear guidelines on what schools should do with sexual assault
"While Northwestern president, Schapiro pandered to the left and showed little support for free speech on campus.... Now the mob has come for Schapiro."
The youngest juvenile arrested this year in Springfield was an 11-year-old boy charged with aggravated battery with the use of a weapon. Other reported cases in the new report range from weapons-related charges to criminal damage to property costing more than $500.
With long-living smoke detectors on the market and required to be installed in Illinois, public safety officials want cheap, less reliable devices off retailer shelves. A previous law, passed in 2017, changed the requirements for what smoke detectors could be installed in homes and buildings. A smoke detector must be hard-wired to a home and have a tamper-proof battery with a 10-year lifespan.
"The desire to preserve the look and feel of a neighborhood is understandable, but property rights have been trampled in the process, resulting in little construction for the neighborhoods most in need."
The city is in a tough spot, and it’s a warning sign for other cities that could be on the brink of the same. The state must provide cities the tools they need, not stand in the way. Top Chicago Stories
U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly wrote in his decision Monday that the county was “deliberately indifferent to the need to address the … violations that occurred from property tax sales.” Since 2020, nearly 2,500 homeowners not only lost their properties but also the surplus equity in those homes after their delinquent property taxes were sold.
Throughout last year, Mayor Brandon Johnson vowed to protect Chicago’s public health dollars from President Donald Trump. But behind the scenes, his health commissioner voluntarily returned tens of millions of dollars in COVID-19 grants to the federal government months before expiration — funds that could have gone to disease surveillance to help prepare for an outbreak or racial equity programming to improve health outcomes across the city.
More than 40 percent of Chicago Public Schools students were chronically absent during the 2024–2025 academic year — missing at least 10 percent of school days. For about 130,000 young people, that adds up to nearly a month of lost learning
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The owners of the United Center are closer to obtaining a $55 million property tax break for a massive development project surrounding the arena, but questions over minority contracting and a dispute with a hospitality union threaten to thwart or delay final approval of the subsidy. 
Store representatives said the store loses 16 percent of its inventory to theft, four times the company’s average. Walgreens hired security guards at a cost of $400,000 per year and locked up its most frequently stolen merchandise, but executives said those measures failed to stop the losses.
After several Latino aldermen questioned developers about how Latino contracting firms would be involved in construction, Ald. Nicole Lee, one of two Asian aldermen, reminded them that “we live in a very diverse city.”
A review of city records showed Mayor and state Rep. Thaddeus Jones spent more than $35,000 on restaurants and more than $46,000 on travel-related expenses since 2024. And just 30 minutes after the report aired, an email from Mayor Jones’ Calumet City account to seven people, including the park district’s executive director, read: “After Clerk Figgs nasty interview about me tonight on WGN, I am withdrawing my support for the $250,000 for the Park District.”
Chicago is vying against Atlanta, Boston, Denver and Philadelphia, cities which can't boast one selling point scouts will get an early peek at: the Obama Presidential Center.
"Clearly, City Hall has prioritized CTU and its schools over other public employee unions, schools, and agencies. This is evident in both salary increases and headcount growth. Contrast the city’s reduction of more than 2,100 public safety positions with more than 9,000 new full-time budgeted positions added to CPS. There are 7.5 school district employees per student, including more than 22,000 non-teaching positions at CPS — more than 10,000 more non-teachers than the total number of Chicago police officers."
Both former Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Mayor Brandon Johnson approved a request from the city’s top lawyer to hire private attorneys to defend Officer Melvina Bogard, and her partner, Officer Bernard Butler, records show. In fact, the city hired four private law firms to defend the city and the two officers.
The ages of the victims range from 17 to 79, according to Chicago police.
"As a child of the South Side, I have seen the incredible potential in this community, particularly the resilience of its people. I’ve also seen great ideas, sparks of progress and coordinated efforts to lift up our neighborhoods — but until now, I have not seen the realization of our collective vision for a resurgence on this scale."
“We must win a majority of the first 21 person fully elected school board in November,” reads the first point in CTU’s member FAQ document. Another constitutional change was slipped into the dues hike vote, which will take place May 20-21, tries to place limits on when members may bring a lawsuit against the union for violating members’ rights.
"We have learned that this year alone, the Chicago Police Department has refused to act on nearly 300 immigration detainers presented to them for known criminals in our custody who are not citizens," said Chicago Ald. Ray Lopez. "When are we going to choose the law-abiding, innocent people who deserve our protection over those that are here abusing our systems?"
The arrest comes as some lawmakers are trying to outlaw the use of facial recognition by state and local law enforcement agencies across Illinois.
"Tuesday’s stunning revelations about former Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s abuse of Certificates of Innocence (COIs) may finally force Chicago’s political and media establishment to confront an uncomfortable reality: The city’s wrongful-conviction litigation system has become a lucrative enterprise in which violent criminals, along with their lawyers, are extravagantly enriched at taxpayers’ expense, all in the name of criminal justice."
And there’s still more work to be done. The final public infrastructure costs are likely to approach $200 million. The costs are not part of the presidential center’s privately-funded $850 million price tag - the funding comes from a $174 million pot created for the center’s benefit by the state back in 2018. 
Apartment conversions continue to look attractive to groups that can buy office buildings at severe discounts. Downtown apartment rents are soaring amid a dearth of new supply and many renters putting off homebuying longer than they have historically.
A Chicago man who gained notoriety after being charged as an adult when he was 13 years old in a gang-related shooting death and later used part of a $25 million settlement from his wrongful murder conviction lawsuit to help rebuild his street gang is facing legal trouble again after being charged with gun offenses.
April’s activity contraction was driven by a reduction in order backlogs, new orders, supplier deliveries and production. While employment improved from March, it remained below 50 (according to the Chicago Business Barometer), signaling continued contraction in work opportunities.
A review of hundreds of pages of city records and dozens of interviews with residents, organizers and experts shows that the city’s promises often fell short of reality as it failed to spend enough money to run some programs, provided little supervision and abandoned others. One home, built in 2019 on a lot that used to be owned by the city, is currently listed for more than a million dollars.
"Some appropriate field trips for Chicago students would consist of the Field Museum, the Shedd Aquarium, and Brookfield Zoo—not protest marches attended by activist groups and unions such as the Coalition Against the Trump Agenda or the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE)."
David Greising, of he Better Government Association: "But when I asked the governor’s staff this week if Johnson or his emissaries have been involved in the megaprojects talks over the last few weeks, here’s what spokesman Matt Hill emailed back: 'The working group on the megaprojects bill has been the Governor’s Office, Bears, House, Senate, and Arlington Heights.'"
After meeting with Johnson Tuesday, Democratic state Sen. Lakesia Collins, of Chicago, said she’s sympathetic to funding needs for local governments. But “it’s just all about like, can we get it done right now? We’re reeling in toward the end of session,” she said.
The investigation was prompted by a request last week from the police department of Franklin Park, where Silverio Villegas González was fatally shot Sept. 12, 2025. Shortly after Villegas González dropped off his children at school and daycare that Friday morning, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents pulled him over and, in the altercation that followed, shot him in the neck.
Evanston is one of more than 100 U.S. cities that have launched "no-strings-attached" cash pilots since 2018. However, it sits in a region becoming a stronghold for the policy. Cook County made headlines by moving to establish the nation’s first permanent guaranteed income program. While Evanston’s program is currently reliant on expiring federal one-time funds, Cook County officials have allocated $7.5 million in their 2026 budget to keep their "Promise" program running indefinitely.
Wirepoints Research and Commentary
Everybody needs a side hustle these days, and mine is Ukraine, where I am now.
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
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Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do. 
The state's existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis. 
Illinois lost another 54,000 tax filers and dependents, net, according to the IRS. Since 2000, fleeing taxpayers have taken $94 billion of annual adjusted gross income with them. 
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