Turnout in this week’s municipal elections across Cook County was low. That’s nothing new.
A measly 286,301 out of 1.7 million suburban Cook County registered voters — 17% — cast a ballot in their local elections, which arguably have more impact on regular people’s lives than what comes out of Washington and Springfield. That this is to be expected in local elections is a sad fact.
Amid a standout season last year, University of Illinois men’s basketball stars found themselves in high demand as they reached the Elite Eight in the 2024 NCAA Tournament.
Three players appeared in a commercial for a local BMW dealership.
One did an Instagram post for TurboTax.
Another promoted an apartment complex near the Urbana-Champaign campus.
But not one of those endorsements — which are allowed now that student-athletes can profit from their personal brands — was reported to the university, as state law requires.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) – A State Senate Democrat plan would add a database showing all scholarships available in higher education.
It would show all the scholarships on one website. Students starting in the seventh grade would be taught to create an account and how to access the website. Students 18 or older would also be allowed to access the site.
(The Center Square) – A measure that could allow for the recall of countywide elected officials in Illinois outside of Cook County is advancing.
State Sen. Doris Turner, D-Springfield, said local voters wanted to recall the sheriff after the police-involved shooting of Sonya Massey in Springfield last year, but the Sangamon County Board sought clarity from legislators on whether it had that ability.
(The Center Square) – There is another push to expand nuclear energy in Illinois.
Senate Republicans have introduced Senate Bill 1527 that would allow for the expansion of nuclear power beyond small modular reactors. The measure removes provisions prohibiting the construction of new nuclear power reactors with a nameplate capacity of more than 300 megawatts of electricity.
Eighty-one Illinois teen drivers and passengers died in car crashes in 2023, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation.
Tragedies like these instantly change the lives of families and friends. For one mother — it led her to push for change.
Chasity Dorathy, of Tampico in northwestern Illinois, lost her 16-year-old son DJ in a car crash accident last March.
(The Center Square) – Parents and community leaders are speaking out against legislation in the Illinois House that would punish homeschool families if they don’t comply with new state government reporting mandates.
Homeschool advocates rally in Chicago on April 3, 2025
House Bill 2827 would require homeschool families to submit information to local public school administrators.
SPRINGFIELD — Illinois Senate Democrats voiced their support Thursday for a bill that would create a program to streamline high school students’ college application processes, reducing fees and making higher education more affordable.
An initiative of Gov. JB Pritzker, the direct admission program is described as a “one-stop shop” for students that would bypass all college application fees.
Every November, Donte Quinn grows restless. His shoulders tighten. He becomes irritable. He finds himself brooding over the nearly 15 years he spent in prison, the time lost with his eldest daughter, and the Chicago courtroom where, before his mother and a crowd of strangers, he was sentenced at age 18 to three decades behind bars for his connection to a 1992 nonfatal shooting.
Numbers tell a story, but rarely without help.
SkillsUSA and the Northern Illinois University P-20 Research and Data Collaborative are promoting a new study on the effort to increase “work-based learning opportunities” such as vocational (or career and technical) education and apprenticeships.
The rest of the column could be lists of data points: more than 21,000 registered apprenticeships; 75% of those in construction fields; 28% increase in new apprentices from 2019 to 2024; only 14% of new apprentices in 2024 were female… The full report is available at tinyurl.com/SkillsUSAstudy
DOWNTOWN — A proposed bill would pave the way for speed cameras on DuSable Lake Shore Drive, aiming to prevent reckless driving in high-crash areas.
But first, state officials want to study how advanced AI-driven traffic cameras could impact driver behavior and safety on one of Chicago’s busiest roadways.
The proposed legislation, sponsored by Illinois Sen.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (KWQC) – Illinois democrats want several changes to mental healthcare in the state.
A new bill would pay off student loans for those who want to enter the mental health profession and choose to practice in Illinois.
Bill sponsors said more than three-quarters of workers in the field were white as of 2023. They hope this inspires more people of color to enter the profession to give better care to match people’s backgrounds.
Chicagoland’s looming $770 million total transit budget gap – caused by still-low ridership and federal COVID stimulus funds projected to run out in 2026 – is a taxing issue for Illinois decision-makers and straphangers.
The post When the levy breaks: Taxpert Maurice Scholten says updating IL sales tax could help fund transit, but not soon enough to avert fiscal cliff appeared first on Streetsblog Chicago.
(The Center Square) – Despite some pushback from county clerks in the state, some Illinois lawmakers want to control how some aspects of voting are done during elections.
State Rep. Nabeela Syed, D-Palatine, has introduced House Bill 1442 that would establish curbside voting during early voting and on election day. During a House Ethics and Election Committee hearing Wednesday, she said during the November election, some voting lines were too long for some people.
Two days before Tuesday’s local elections, the Illinois Republican Party sent out an email to supporters declaring it to be “a do or die moment for us.”
The email was just another in a series of fundraising solicitations. But it may have more accurately captured the importance of the election, which featured wide-ranging Democratic victories in the suburbs critical for rebuilding a state GOP already on the verge of irrelevance in Illinois politics and reflected voter angst over the early tumultuous months of Republican President Donald Trump’s second presidency.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) — Illinois senators could vote on a bill in the coming days to require trauma-informed response training for law enforcement.
Sexual assault survivor and advocate Anna Williams spoke before the Senate Criminal Law Committee on April 2, 2025.
This plan could require the Illinois Law Enforcement Training & Standards Board to teach police officers how to identify conflicts of interest and options to address those conflicts when officers know a sexual assault victim or the abuser.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) — A bill heading to the Senate floor would require criminals convicted of forcing victims into commercial sex work to register as sex offenders.
Senate Republican Leader John Curran (R-Downers Grove) said adding these criminals to the sex offender registry will allow families to be clear on who is in their community and help law enforcement investigate crimes more quickly.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) — Across the U.S. there have been multiple cases of police ticketing students for breaking school rules. A state Senate Democrat hopes to prevent that in Illinois.
The bill would require a police officer to receive extra training to become a school resource officer, which would include training in how to handle students with disabilities.
(The Center Square) – Union leaders support an Illinois Senate bill they say would protect workers’ rights and safety standards, but opponents say it could lead to unfair penalties for business owners.
State Sen. Robert Peters, D-Chicago, said the intent of Senate Bill 1976 is to ensure that Illinois workers have the same rights they had last year, but he added that the bill is not in its final form.
