Capitol News Illinois CHICAGO – Immigrant communities around Illinois braced Tuesday for threatened mass deportations. But the Little Village neighborhood in Chicago, facing subzero temperatures, saw little foot traffic and no anticipated raids as of Tuesday afternoon on the second day of the Trump Administration. Trump has vowed to carry out the “largest mass deportation…

Capitol News Illinois CHICAGO — Gov. JB Pritzker on Tuesday signed a long-awaited bill to stop Illinois organizations from paying less than the minimum wage to workers with disabilities. The bill applies to businesses and other facilities that hold what is known as a 14(c) certificate, named after the section of the Fair Labor Standards…

Capitol News Illinois This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with Capitol News Illinois. Sixty percent of rural Americans live in child care deserts — regions with too few licensed slots for children. In rural Illinois, that number rises to nearly 70%. Over the past decade, Illinois has experienced a 33%…

Capitol News Illinois Sangamon County, its sheriff’s office and its central dispatch system on Thursday announced an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to resolve an investigation spurred by the shooting of Sonya Massey. Massey, an unarmed Black woman who was experiencing a mental health crisis, was shot in her kitchen by Sangamon County…

Capitol News Illinois SPRINGFIELD — Amid multiple recent challenges to state gun control laws, the Illinois Supreme Court heard arguments on Tuesday concerning the constitutionality of concealed carry licenses and open carry bans. Under Illinois’ aggravated unlawful use of a weapon statute, individuals are not allowed to carry a firearm in public unless the person…

Capitol News Illinois SPRINGFIELD – When state Rep. Emanuel “Chris” Welch was sworn in for another term as speaker of the Illinois House this month, he called on his colleagues to “rise to the occasion” and confront the moment that faced them. “We are all defined by the moments in our lives and by our…

Capitol News Illinois CHICAGO – Attorneys for former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan rested their case Thursday, marking the beginning of the end of the longtime Democratic powerbroker’s corruption trial. After prosecutors then recalled an FBI agent to the stand for a short bit of testimony and introduced one final bank record into evidence, U.S.…

Capitol News Illinois Former Director of the Illinois Department of Public Health Dr. Ngozi Ezike, who led state health policy during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, will pay a $150,000 fine for violating a state anti-corruption law. Ezike violated the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act’s “revolving door” provision in 2022 by accepting a…

Capitol News Illinois CHICAGO – For the past three months, the judge presiding over former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s federal corruption trial has reminded jurors before each lunch break and evening recess not to discuss the case with anyone, even among themselves. But as the defense prepares to rest its case Thursday morning, the…

Capitol News Illinois SPRINGFIELD – The Illinois State Board of Education voted Wednesday to approve a budget request for the upcoming fiscal year of nearly $11.4 billion, a 4.6% increase over this year’s budget, despite projections that the state will face a substantial revenue shortfall next year. The request includes a $350 million increase in…