State & Local News Headlines

Illinois candidate filings for the March 17, 2026 primary began Monday and will end at 4:30 p.m., on Monday Nov. 3. Here are the Adams County first day filings.

At the end of the 2024 spring state legislative session, the Illinois Federation of Teachers issued a decidedly diplomatic press release. IFT President Dan Montgomery praised the new state budget as “crucial for our state’s success,” and applauded increases in K-12 and early childhood education funding. Montgomery did criticize the “meager” increase in higher education…

As a family business owner and attorney from Central Illinois, I’ve witnessed the resilience and ingenuity that define our state. From the assembly lines of Rockford to the precision machine shops of Peoria, Illinois has been a cornerstone of America’s industrial might. Growing up in the shadow of the Rust Belt’s revival, I learned the…

QUINCY — Illinois Governor JB Pritzker joined Quincy Mayor Linda Moore, State Representative Kyle Moore (R-99th District), Quincy City Council members Kelly Mays (R-3rd Ward) and Laura McReynolds (R-5th Ward) and others Monday morning to celebrate the grand opening of the new Illinois Veterans Home at Quincy exactly 139 years after it was first established…

Mayor Linda Moore talks to Ashley Conrad about Governor Pritzker’s upcoming visit to the Illinois Veterans Home and how the city has to work with the state regardless of differences, especially with all of the uncertainty with the federal government. Mercantile Bank brings you Minutes with the Mayor.

Northwest Municipal Conference Executive Director Mark Fowler said in the first year alone, the measure would cost local taxpayers tens of millions of dollars extra. “In some communities, local taxpayers could face the equivalent of a 10 percent property tax increase to fund the pension benefit increases proposed in Senate Bill 1937.”

State Rep. Amy Elik urged the Illinois House Revenue and Finance Committee not to decouple from the federal legislation, saying manufacturing benefits are crucial to U.S. Steel’s potential investment in her community: “I need them to have those immediate tax benefits. I can’t give them five years when other states are giving them immediate tax […]

The bill would also allow an elected official to use an office or work address for their driver’s license and to redact their home address from their nominating papers once the period for filing objections is over.

Though U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis herself said Tuesday that she didn’t want to “micromanage” Commander Gregory Bovino, Department of Justice lawyers accused her of doing just that in their motion, writing that Ellis had “exceeded (her) judicial role by arrogating to (herself) the role of supervising and micromanaging the day-to-day operations of an Executive […]

Critics of a capital tax proposal from the Biden administration argued that taxing unrealized gains stretches the definition of income beyond its legal limits, potentially making the proposal unconstitutional under the 16th amendment. The tax also runs the risk of double taxation which is also prohibited under the Illinois constitution.

Illinois House Democrats introduced a $1.5 billion transit funding plan with a wealth tax on hypothetical income that doesn’t exist anywhere in the world. Even Gov. JB Pritzker doesn’t support the proposal. “As it is, it’s not going forward” Pritzker said referring to the bill.

The planned vote on an agreement to pay $175 million into a city pension fund that covers city workers and non-teaching Chicago Public Schools staff comes less than two weeks after Mayor Brandon Johnson proposed a record $552.4 million funding boost to the district. The intergovernmental agreement the school board will consider states that the […]

Besides signs, physical barriers like locked gates and fences will be used to keep agents away, according to the resolution. Waukegan’s resolution is similar to an executive order issued by North Chicago Mayor Leon Rockingham Jr. Oct. 20.

Grayson was charged in July 2024 in the fatal shooting of Massey, who had called authorities over concerns about a possible prowler outside her Springfield home. Body camera video shows the moments she was shot and killed in her kitchen during a confrontation over a pot of boiling water. Her death led to calls for […]

Proposed bills — some yet to be introduced to the state legislature — would ban immigration agents from making civil arrests at courthouses statewide, ask federal agents to comply with health centers’ rules to protect patients’ privacy and increase protections for immigrants, among other things, advocates said.