State & Local News Headlines

A YouGov poll conducted last month shows Illinois registered voters overwhelmingly believe that the cost of renting and buying a home is a problem in Illinois, think that there aren’t enough affordable homes for average folks and want the state legislature to take action. The poll of 806 Illinois registered voters was taken March 1-9…

The trend in special elections around the country for the past several months has shown spiking Democratic voter turnout and tanking Republican turnout. And some preliminary primary election results from earlier this month show the same trend here.  What follows is a quick look at governor’s race turnout in the state’s five most populous counties.…

One of the biggest stories to come out of election day was that several candidates with the most money came up short.   The obvious example is the race for United States Senate, where US Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi reportedly spent $29 million on TV ads and benefited from another $10 million spent by the crypto industry…

Josh Higgins, an Air Force veteran and crop insurance salesman, beat State Rep. Norine Hammond Tuesday night, ending the Macomb Republican’s 15-year tenure in the Illinois Statehouse. Hammond, 73, was appointed to the seat in 2010 and was a House Minority Leader. Despite a significant fundraising advantage and help from the Illinois House Republican organization,…

Read that again. A Walmart General Manager is the top leader at a facility responsible for billions of dollars in inventory and hundreds of employees. That person earns $218,317, which is at the high end for that role. Meanwhile, the Vice President of Operations at the Greater Chicago Food Depository—who has a much less demanding […]

Illinois-based providers performed nearly one out of every four abortions for patients seeking the procedure outside of their home state, often as a result of outright abortion bans or prohibitive restrictions where they live.

"The door is open, then, for Illinois and Chicago to return to D.C. and ask for federal assistance. If granted, taxpayers nationwide will pay for the Windy City’s fiscal recklessness. And the bailouts likely won’t stop there. Officials in other cities, such as Mayor Zohran Mamdani in New York, will be watching closely. If Chicago […]

Illinois lawmakers are advancing legislation that would significantly curtail where federal immigration detention facilities may operate in the state, further demonstrating the state’s willingness to obstruct federal law enforcement operations. The proposal, House Bill (HB) 5024, would prohibit immigration detention centers from being located within 1,500 feet of residential areas and numerous community locations, including schools, […]

Chicago voters’ appetite for the union has shifted — drastically — and politicians have noticed. The CTU was a kingmaker, but its endless support for new and higher taxes coupled with organizational scandals, its latest “May Day” push to cancel school for a day and recent electoral defeats suggest the mighty has fallen.

The Financially Distressed City Law allows home-rule municipalities in the top 5% of tax rates and the bottom 5% of tax income per capita to apply for fiscal relief via a state takeover of finances. The law was invoked once before, in East St. Louis in 1990. The Department of Revenue determined that while Harvey […]

Fat salaries, taxpayer funded.

Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the […]

"The tragic tale of Sheridan Gorman…her story must be told."