Illinois Public Media News

A bill on Governor Bruce Rauner’s desk would require insurers to notify families of any death benefits they may be due from lapsed life insurance policies going back to the beginning of the century. State Treasurer Mike Frerichs backed the bill (HB302), which won approval in the General Assembly in May — and now he’s calling on Governor Bruce Rauner to sign it.

Illinois lawmakers met briefly on the first day of their special session to work on a state budget, quickly adjourning so that Democrats and Republicans could meet behind closed doors to strategize. 

Authorities now say that a 15-year-old Champaign boy who died after what was first reported as potential bullying actually died of a previously undiagnosed medical condition.

On the 21st: One in 5 children in Illinois are from families who worry about where they’ll get their next meal. What’s being done to get healthy meals to kids in Illinois this summer? Also, we revisit our conversation with former poet laureate Natasha Trethewey about how poetry can help Americans better understand each other. 

If two nearly simultaneous hearings Wednesday by the House and Senate Intelligence Committees into Russia's meddling in last year's presidential election revealed anything, it's that U.S. officials saw what was going on but were all but powerless to stop it.

In his prepared remarks, former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said the Russian government, "at the direction of Vladimir Putin himself, orchestrated cyberattacks on our Nation for the purpose of influencing our election — plain and simple."