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The man accused of kidnapping Yingying Zhang is scheduled to make his first appearance in federal court Monday morning. Brendt Christensen, 27, of Champaign was arrested Friday, three weeks after 26-year-old Zhang went missing.
The Illinois House has approved a 1.2 percentage-point increase in the state income tax. Last night, more than a dozen Republicans joined the majority Democrats to pass the legislation, despite the objections of Governor Bruce Rauner.
The Illinois House of Representatives on Sunday passed both a budget and a tax increase to pay for it, but both still must clear the state Senate. And the tax increase was met with an immediate promise of a veto from Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner.
The Illinois House will vote Sunday on a revenue plan after all. House Speaker Michael Madigan issued a statement saying he was "encouraged by the progress we continue to make."
The FBI has made an arrest in the Yingying Zhang case, and the agency believes that the 26-year-old University of Illinois visiting scholar from China is dead. The FBI said in a news release that agents arrested 27-year-old Brendt Christensen of Champaign, a former University of Illinois graduate student, on Friday.
