News Local/State
Michael Madigan was re-elected speaker of the Illinois House for the 17th time Wednesday as the 100 Illinois General Assembly got under way. Madigan's election came despite a Republican Party campaign to pressure Democrats into dropping him. The Chicago Democrat used the occasion to call for a focus on economic growth.
News Local/State
Test your knowledge on the Affordable Care Act, and compare it to respondants in a new NPR/Ipsos poll. Only 14% of those polled want to repeal the ACA without a replacement.
News Local/State
Illinois state legislators opened a new two-year session of the Illinois General Assembly Wednesday. Amid the ceremonies and celebrations, the focus remains on the political stalemate that's left Illinois without a budget for more than 18 months.
News Local/State
The Illinois Supreme Court will hear arguments today in a case on the constitutionality of hospital tax exemptions involving Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana. In this encore conversation, University of Illinois Law Professor John Colombo spoke about the arguments both sides are making in the case.
News Local/State
Newcomers Kipper Nichols and Te'Jon Lucas led the way as the Illini men plowed past MIchigan 85-69 last night in Champaign. Illinois evened its Big Ten record at 2-2, while improving to 12-5 overall. Michigan drops to 11-6, 1-3 in the conference.
News Local/State
A new emergency shelter program for homeless men in Champaign-Urbana opened on January 6th during the recent cold snap. Two local churches are hosting the shelter program, to replaces others that closed down last year.
Meanwhile in Danville, a men’s emergency shelter program has been running for years --- with an emphasis on getting participants into jobs and their own housing.
News Local/State
The NPR Politics team and reporters across the newsroom will be live-annotating a news conference with President-elect Donald Trump, expected at 11 am ET/8am PT on Wednesday. We will be fact-checking and providing background to his remarks in real-time. We will be paying special attention to any comments about conflicts of interest, health care and national security.
News Local/State
The city has been working on tearing down and rebuilding homes in the northeast Champaign neighborhood since outlining its goals in 2007. Unanimously backed by the Champaign City Council Tuesday, the plan initiates an agreement with suburban-Chicago based AHDVS, a minority-owned contractor. But city council members stipulated that hiring local minorities was key to the plan's continued backing.
News Local/State
The 100th Illinois General Assembly is being sworn in on Wednesday, taking over efforts to resolve the state's 18-month-old financial crisis. The key players in the battle over the state's budget stalemate remain the same: the conservative businessman-turned-governor Bruce Rauner and Michael Madigan, the old-school Democratic House speaker whose decades at the helm has made him a Capitol institution.
News Local/State
Champaign County voters will get a chance to say whether they want to raise their property tax rates to help the financially strapped county nursing home, or allow the county board to sell or otherwise dispose of the facility.
Champaign County Board members approved both questions for the April 4 ballot, during a more than four-hour special meeting on Tuesday night.
