Topic: Government

With the public clamoring for action to reduce gun violence, Congress may soon create a federal grant program that would offer incentives for states to pass so-called “red flag” laws. Those make it easier to take firearms away from unstable people.

Two sessions on Tuesday at Danville Area Community College will give local residents the chance to tell the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency what they want from new rules regulating coal ash, a toxic substance produced by coal-fired power plants.

This June the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced its plan to move two of its research agencies out of Washington, D.C., to the Kansas City area. Most of the people working at the agencies have since quit, leaving gaping holes in critical divisions.

Missouri lawmakers passed a bill last session that would restrict counties’ ability to block CAFOs from locating within their borders.

The Champaign County Circuit Clerk's office is dropping collection and late fees on all criminal and traffic cases, this week only, during the office's third annual Amnesty Week. 

Online registration for the upcoming Fall Residential Electronics Collection Event for Champaign County begins Monday September 9 at 8:00am.

There are rising calls for tighter restrictions on the use of e-cigarettes in Illinois. They come as another death linked to vaping was reported this week.

Across the country, local residents are working to restore rundown theatres to their old luster, often with the hope that their community will benefit as well.

Analysis: University of Illinois Springfield Distinguished Public Finance Professor Kenneth Kriz co-edited a book that documents the evolution of tax increment financing, an economic and community development method widely used across the country, including in Illinois, which has more than 1,400 TIF districts in over 500 municipalities. Tax Increment Financing and Economic Development: Uses, Structures, and Impacts was recently published by SUNY Press.

Bahamas Prime Minister Hubert Minnis says at least five people have died in the Abaco Islands, where Hurricane Dorian made landfall Sunday as "the strongest hurricane in modern records" to hit the archipelago.