A coalition of anti-abortion groups filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging the state’s law that mandates health insurers in Illinois cover abortion care.
The groups argue that they are being forced to indirectly pay for abortions with their premiums, and contend that the law is unconstitutional because it provides “no exceptions or accommodations for employers or individuals who object to abortion on religious or moral grounds.”
For the first time since 2020, soon neither AT&T Illinois nor ComEd will be facing criminal charges.
A federal judge on Wednesday agreed to dismiss a criminal case against AT&T Illinois, involving a criminal charge leveled two years ago against the telecommunications giant as part of a sprawling public corruption investigation into the company’s former president and ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.
A conservative legal organization is ratcheting up its opposition to the requirement in Illinois that mail-in ballots be counted for 14 days after Election Day by calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse federal court rulings that upheld the law because three Republican plaintiffs lacked the legal standing to challenge it.
The appeal, filed Tuesday by the organization Judicial Watch, also asks the nation’s highest court to clarify rulings about who has the right to appeal post-Election Day challenges, after many lawsuits contesting individual state results of the 2020 election filed on behalf of Donald Trump were tossed for lack of standing.
Election coverage for Chicago and the surrounding area including results, analysis and voter resources.
A northwest suburban GOP state representative appears poised for reelection by a margin of just 47 votes over a better-funded Democratic challenger.
With the final ballots counted this week in the hotly contested 52nd House District that includes Algonquin, Wauconda and Mundelein, Republican state Rep.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) — The Illinois Freedom Caucus is calling on Gov. JB Pritzker to stop spending taxpayer dollars on migrants.
Rep. Chris Miller (R-Hindsboro) told reporters Wednesday that Illinois should welcome President Donald Trump’s border agency to gather up people he claimed are illegally staying in the state.
The local Republican lawmakers argue Illinois cannot tackle the expected $3.2 billion budget deficit without cutting funding for "woke" programs.
Illinois state lawmakers are at odds over how to curb drugs like fentanyl and synthetic cannabinoids from getting into state prisons, a problem that a labor union representing prison workers says has exploded over the last two years.
Republican State Rep. David Friess, R-Red Bud, has introduced a bill that would ban all incoming physical mail, and would instead require Illinois Department of Corrections facilities to have the mail electronically scanned for people in prisons to access digitally.
A longtime Chicago political operative was sentenced Wednesday to 18 months in federal prison for a scheme to bribe then-state Sen. Martin Sandoval on behalf of a suburban construction company that needed state approval for a development in East Dundee.
William Helm, the onetime deputy commissioner of the Chicago Department of Aviation and a former state transportation official, also admitted in a plea agreement with prosecutors earlier this year that he and others helped arrange $40,000 in bribes to other, unnamed officials.
Orland Park officials are criticizing the state comptroller’s office for imposing what it calls “punitive sanctions” on the village due to delays in filing financial audits.
The Village Board approved a resolution Monday accusing the comptroller of singling out Orland Park for harsh treatment while dozens of government entities throughout the state have been late in filing audits but not subject to the same treatment.
Are you a resident of Illinois? Do you earn less than $60,240 per year? Do you have outstanding medical debt?
If you answered yes, keep an eye on your mailbox.
Last week Gov. JB Pritzker’s office announced more than 52,000 Illinoisans will soon learn they no longer owe a collective $72 million in medical debt. It’s the first round of leveraging $10 million in federal funds to eradicate up to $1 billion through a contract with a nonprofit firm called Undue Medical Debt.
A former top precinct captain for former Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan testified Wednesday that he was paid thousands of dollars through another Madigan ally’s law firm so he’d continue campaigning for the Southwest Side Democrat — and for little else.
That money came from ComEd, jurors in Madigan’s racketeering conspiracy trial have been told.
CHICAGO – Chicago businessman Juan Ochoa had heard little more than crickets in the six months since then-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan asked for his resume in November 2017.
Ochoa and his political mentor, soon-to-be-retired Congressman Luis Gutierrez, had met with Madigan to ask for his backing for an appointment to electric utility Commonwealth Edison’s board of directors.
Jurors in the Michael Madigan corruption trial on Wednesday are expected to hear testimony from legendary 13th Ward precinct captain Edward Moody, the onetime Cook County Recorder of Deeds who prosecutors say raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars from ComEd through do-nothing consulting contract.
Moody, who along with his twin brother, Fred, was one of Madigan’s most trusted election-time door-knockers, testified at the related “ComEd Four” bribery trial last year that the speaker made it clear that the money would dry up if Moody stopped working on campaigns.
Utility bills can be confusing, but the nonpartisan Citizens Utility Board of Illinois has helped save consumers an estimated $20 billion in blocked rate hikes and refunds over the past 40 years.
Yet not everyone knows about the group’s role in representing ratepayers, says CUB’s Executive Director Sarah Moskowitz. Sometimes she gets confused looks when she explains that CUB was created by the Illinois Legislature but isn’t funded by the state.
Tier II — remember that reference.
Chances are pretty good that Illinoisans who pay attention to state government will hearing it often — perhaps sooner than later. State Sen. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, said action could come in January, right before the newly elected General Assembly is sworn into office.
What is Tier II? It refers to those public employees — teachers, university and state workers — who were hired after Jan.
In the wake of the Democrats’ Nov. 5 wipeout, there is no shortage of theories on how the party can get back to winning.
One that got my attention is a dubious pitch from David Axelrod, the prominent Democratic Party strategist and CNN political commentator. The Democratic National Committee will be looking for a new chair.
In the 1980s, when a recent college graduate named Rahm Emanuel was fundraising on a bicycle through the north suburban neighborhoods where he grew up and he convinced a wealthy Democrat to contribute $500 to a political campaign after the donor offered only 50 bucks, the signs of political success were hiding in plain sight.
And I can say, 40-plus years later, without a modicum of doubt or hesitation, that he became the most successful and effective political operative in the country before heading home to win a race for mayor of Chicago in 2011, serving two terms, and returning to the national scene in 2021 as President Joe Biden’s hand-picked ambassador to Japan.
The emails began trickling into Carol Jones’ inbox around 4:30 a.m. Nov. 6, shortly after the presidential election was called for Donald Trump.
Later that day, the Chicago-based LGBTQ-focused family lawyer said she was inundated with calls and emails from people with questions about what same-sex parents could do to maintain their parental rights.
In most cases, both parents’ names appear on their child’s birth certificate.
The year after Michael J. Madigan secured the unprecedented 2016 endorsement of then-U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, Madigan found himself in a meeting with Gutierrez and Juan Ochoa, a prominent Latino businessman seeking a slot on ComEd’s board of directors.
Ochoa believed the seat should go to a Latino candidate. He wasn’t impressed with the field lining up for it.
Barring an appeal of the results, Amy “Murri” Briel will succeed state Rep. Lance Yednock as the 76th District state representative.
Following Election Night on Nov. 5, Briel, an Ottawa Democrat, held a 505 vote lead against Liz Bishop, a La Salle Republican, with more than 1,600 mail-in ballots uncounted in La Salle, DeKalb and Bureau counties.
