Area Breaking News

byJenna SchweikertandUIS Public Affairs Reporting (PAR) The Illinois Senate voted overwhelmingly on Thursday, May 21, to advance a bill that would regulate how large artificial intelligence model developers handle transparency and catastrophic risk. Senate Bill 315 is part of an eight-bill package and is modeled after similar legislation in New York and California as lawmakers,…

byMarisa Guerra EcheverriaandMedill Illinois News Bureau CHICAGO — Diverse interest groups, from public school activists and downstate voters to state officials and school boards, have pushed Gov. JB Pritzker to finally make a decision about the Trump administration’s Education Freedom Tax Credit. Yet, there has been mostly silence from the Governor’s Mansion as Pritzker considers…

byNaomi TaxayandMedill Illinois News Bureau CHICAGO — Backers of a bill aimed at limiting law enforcement’s use of biometric surveillance say they’re not looking to move the measure this legislative session. House Bill 5521, the proposed Biometric Surveillance Act, would prohibit law enforcement agencies from using or accessing facial recognition tools. But it failed to…

byMolly A WallaceandMedill Illinois News Bureau CHICAGO — This time every year, Sandra Taylor finds herself in a predicament that is not unusual for people in her profession. Like most other school support staff, her paychecks stop once summer break begins. To prepare, she and her coworkers rely on food pantries and grocery sales to…

byJackson Brandhorst,Molly Parkerand1 others MARION — John “Jake” Wakey, the Carterville High School assistant football coach and teacher at the center of an ongoing criminal sexual abuse investigation, was arrested Thursday, May 7, in Pontiac, Illinois. Wakey is charged with nine Class 2 felony counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse involving victims aged 13-17 by…

byJenna SchweikertandUIS Public Affairs Reporting (PAR) As households across Illinois brace to lose their federal food assistance this month,  grocery stores, especially independent grocers across the state, are preparing for the devastating effects of decreased spending. For some independent grocers, whose profit margins average 2%, a decrease in consumer spending associated with cuts to the…

byJulia LevyandMedill Illinois News Bureau JOLIET — At the Old Joliet Prison, made famous by the “Blues Brothers” film, the Joliet Slammers baseball team staff were generously handing out tickets to a ballgame recently, helping kick off the statewide celebration of the Route 66 centennial. But at this so-called Big House Ballgame, you might have…

byPeter Hancock SPRINGFIELD — The Illinois State Board of Education is asking lawmakers this year for $200,000 to develop a new way of counting low-income students. Although that’s only a small fraction of the overall $10.9 billion general revenue fund budget the agency is seeking to fund preK-12 public schools next year, the request points…

byNikoel HytrekandUIS Public Affairs Reporting (PAR) A bill to strengthen privacy protections for transgender and abortion patients passed a Senate committee Wednesday, April 29, in a 9-4 partisan vote. Senate Bill 4834, would remove testosterone from the state’s Prescription Monitoring Program, which otherwise exists to protect against misuse of addictive controlled substances. It would also…

byHannah Meisel CHICAGO — A federal appeals court on Monday, April 27, upheld the 10 guilty verdicts that sent former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan to prison, finding no errors in the way the jury was instructed or the “mountain of evidence” the government used to prosecute the influential Democrat during his lengthy bribery trial.…