News Local/State
Any day now, Governor Bruce Rauner's criminal justice reform commission is expected to release its final set of recommendations. It's trying to figure out how to safely reduce Illinois' prison population by 25 percent over the next decade.
News Local/State
Ameya Pawar, a two-term Chicago alderman, on Tuesday became the first Democrat to formally announce he will seek his party’s nomination to run against incumbent Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner.
Pawar, who represents Chicago's 47th Ward, said he is running because he wants to tackle income inequality and criticized Rauner’s tenure.
News Local/State
Vermilion County Board Chair Mike Marron is appointing a bipartisan ad-hoc committee to investigate whether the county would function under a part-time chairman and professional administrator, the same leadership structure used in Peoria and McLean Counties. He says the county has expanded to where it may need someone with more experience in public administration.
News Local/State
Once again, an arbitrator acting under terms of the Champaign police union contract has ruled in favor of fired police officer Matt Rush, in one of the two charges cited for his 2016 dismissal.
Independent arbitrator Micheal Falvo determined that the Champaign County State’s Attorney’s refusal to use Rush as a courtroom witness was not valid grounds for firing Rush last April --- and that State’s Attorney Julia Rietz overstepped her bounds in doing so. The Illinois Fraternal Order of Police announced the arbitrator’s ruling on Monday.
News Local/State
By the end of the year, 41 children younger than 14 were wounded or killed in shootings, according to a WBEZ review of police data.
That is nearly the same amount as 2013, 2014 and 2015 combined.
News Local/State
Ben Johnston doesn't follow the rules of music. Sure, the retired University of Illinois music professor has degrees from two colleges and a conservatory. But from an early age, Johnston heard music differently. When he was growing up in Georgia, he questioned the standard scales he was taught in school. "I played by ear and I invented my own chords," he says.
News Local/State
With the dysfunction in Illinois politics, state government this year is projected to spend as much as $13 billion more than it will collect in taxes. And the situation could be getting worse.
News Local/State
The state still doesn’t have a budget. A stopgap spending plan, which was approved over the summer, will end on January 1, leaving social service agencies, institutions of higher education and others in the lurch. But, in the past year, legislators did approve hundreds of pieces of legislation, which the governor signed. Nearly 200 laws will go into effect at the start of the new year — close to the number that went into effect at the start of each of the past three years.
News Local/State
Illinois is 1-1 in the Big Ten after a 75-70 win over Ohio State at State Farm Center in Champaign. The Illini lost a 15-point lead before recovering to get the win on New Year's Day.
News Local/State
A published report details problems during former Gov. Pat Quinn's administration as Illinois closed an institution for adults withdevelopmental disabilities. The Chicago Tribune reports state officials required
group home operators to promise not to undermine the closure plans - or risk getting no referrals to fill beds. The Tribune reports 67 businesses signed a loyalty pledge to avoid being shut out of referrals in what amounted to an auction.
