Brian Mackey
Inside the Illinois State Capitol dome
David Wilson / Flickr/ CC BY 2.0

Rebuilding Illinois After Budget Impasse & Public Opinion; Sears Nostalgia

On the 21st: Illinois finally has a budget. But after two years of going without - what will it take to rebuild? Plus, one of the reasons Illinois budget standoff become the longest since the Great Depression -- most people said it didn’t really matter to them. And, Sears has been losing billions of dollars and 43 more stores nationwide are closing. Retirees in Illinois join us to talk about what Sears meant to them.

House Speaker Michael Madigan, left, speaks with reporters on Wednesday.
Brian Mackey/WUIS

How Illinois’s Budget Impasse Affects Schools, Businesses, Social Services; DCFS Director Resigns

On the 21st: Illinois legislators ended yesterday’s final scheduled session without approving crucial state funding. We heard from listeners and spoke with stakeholders. Plus, the director of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services announced he's stepping down, amidst an ongoing ethics probe and following several recent deaths of children whose homes were being investigated.

Falling Union Membership? The Governor Has A Theory About That ...

Gov. Bruce Rauner has spent much of his first few months in office talking about labor unions. He’s shared not only policy proposals, but also his ideas about the history of the union movement. Illinois Public Media's Brian Mackey wrote about the state of labor in the April edition of Illinois Issues magazine and decided to take a closer look at one the governor’s theories.

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