News Local/State
Efforts to preserve historic buildings in low-income and inner-city neighborhoods throughout the state face challenges — like the lack of access to financing and restoration projects taking a back seat to more pressing issues in the community.
News Local/State
Illinois makes running for office much harder for candidates who file as independents than those who identify as Democrats and Republicans. As Brian Mackey reports, that law is being challenged in federal court.
News Local/State
An overhaul of the retirement benefits Illinois gives state employees, public school teachers and university workers has been the subject of talks between state leaders in recent months. Gov. Bruce Rauner said so Wednesday, but he sounded uncertain as to what will come of it.
News Local/State
Illinois voters go to the polls on November 8, but they won't officially cast the votes for the next President. Both state parties have decided the handful of people who will have that privilege.
News Local/State
U.S. Senator Mark Kirk has gained an endorsement in his bid for re-election. It could help him win crucial votes from suburban moderates, but it might also frustrate an important part of the Republican electorate.
News Local/State
Final work is underway to convert a University Avenue site to a medical marijuana dispensary operated by Wheaton-based Nu Med. The CEO of partner group Education to Grow, Ben Rediger, says market demand in the state's pilot program has grown to a point where one dispensary, Phoenix Botantical in Champaign, will not be able to fully handle the flow of new patients in the region.
News Local/State
Legislation curbing the cost of calls made by Illinois prison inmates has been signed into law by Gov. Bruce Rauner. It sets rates for inmates in Illinois correctional facilities at a maximum of 7 cents per minute for domestic calls. Sponsor and State Rep. Carol Ammons (D-Urbana) says that's about half the current rate. Rauner signed four other related measures at adult transition center in Chicago Monday.
News Local/State
A prison in central Illinois has been placed on lockdown while state officials investigate the assault of six employees by five inmates. The Pontiac Correctional Center is on lockdown following the incident Sunday and will remain on lockdown until the department has finished its investigation.
News Local/State
In 2008, the Great Recession helped to tip Illinois into a fiscal crisis it still hasn't recovered from. A new report from Standard & Poor's found that another even moderate recession would mean big trouble for the state's budget.
News Local/State
U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth says the country should lead an international coalition condemning the violence in Syria. She says if the country turns its back on victims like the 5-year old rescued from a partially destroyed apartment building in Aleppo, "we could potentially create a dialogue out there that America does not care about the victims of violence."
