News Local/State
Gov. Bruce Rauner will strike an optimistic tone in his State of the State address, while acknowledging Illinois faces ``significant challenges.''
The Republican's Wednesday speech comes as he gears up for a 2018 re-election bid.
WILL AM 580 and WILL-TV will carry live coverage of the governor’s speech, beginning at 12 PM Central Time. WILL AM 580 streams at www.will.illinois.edu.
News Local/State
There's an active debate inside newsrooms, and particularly within the NPR newsroom, about how to characterize the statements of President Trump when they are at odds with evidence to the contrary.
News Local/State
President Donald Trump is vowing to "send in the Feds'' if Chicago can't reduce its homicide figures. In a tweet Tuesday night, Trump says the city is experiencing "horrible carnage,'' with surge in shootings since New Year's Day. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel acknowledged his own frustration with Chicago's crime rate Monday, but also criticized Trump for worrying about the size of the crowd at his inauguration.
News Local/State
Champaign’s City Council has unanimously signed off on new procedures for citizen review of police complaints, though some members admit the plan isn’t perfect. Tuesday’s vote comes after prior attempts to create a citizen review board in Champaign with greater powers had fallen short.
News Local/State
Sales of existing homes in Illinois were down in December, but up overall in 2016. The trade group Illinois Realtors reports that 162,380 houses and condos were sold in the state last year --- up 3.9% from 2015.
News Local/State
President Trump on Tuesday gave the go-ahead for construction of two controversial oil pipelines, the Keystone XL and the Dakota Access, a White House official tells NPR's Tamara Keith.
News Local/State
The Champaign City Council gets its first look during its study session on Tuesday evening (Jan. 24) at proposals for handling citizen complaints about police.
Those include a police review board that would review those complaints and how the city investigates them.
News Local/State
The last time the General Assembly tried to make school funding more equitable across Illinois, the legislation got derailed largely due to a fight over teacher pensions. Now pensions have cropped up again, this time in a bipartisan commission working to overhaul the school funding formula.
News Local/State
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner's administration is urging congressional leaders to avoid "hasty" or "incomplete" action as they proceed with a planned repeal of the Affordable Care Act. A letter dated Jan. 17 signed by Acting Illinois Insurance Director Jennifer Hammer says Congress and the states "must work together" to achieve "important reforms" in health care policy.
News Local/State
Illinois Senators are expected to soon consider a complicated deal meant to end to Illinois’ 18-month budget standoff.
That has some legislators worried about what such a compromise would mean for the future.
