Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Gov. Bruce Rauner reiterated his call on Monday morning for Illinois lawmakers to send him a school funding overhaul by noon, saying he will call a special session this week if it's not on his desk. The Democrat-majority Legislature has approved a plan to ensure the neediest school districts get money first.
State Rep. Bill Mitchell is one of 16 state representatives being targeted by the Americans for Prosperity-Illinois for voting to override Gov. Bruce Rauner's veto of a 32 percent income tax increase. The AFP-Illinois says it will run online ads and distribute mail pieces, as well as "our grass-roots presence," to hit Mitchell and the others for the tax increase vote earlier this month.
An extended family that lost nine people to a roaring flash flood in an Arizona canyon was a tight-knit group that gathered in big numbers for nearly every occasion. Federal records show former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert has been released from prison in Minnesota and transferred to a Chicago re-entry facility.
WASHINGTON U.S. Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth today called on U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao to do more to prevent railroad tank car accidents like the one in Plainfield, Illinois on June 30, 2017, in which multiple rail cars on a Canadian National train carrying crude oil derailed, causing an estimated 45,000 gallons of oil to leak out of the tank cars. "We are extremely grateful for the hard work of Plainfield's first responders, who were able to contain the spill and prevent any injuries or deaths as a result of the incident," the Senators wrote in a letter to Secretary Chao.
WASHINGTON U.S. Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth today announced that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded a total of $2,058,130 in grant funding to Illinois agencies through two programs the Housing Counseling Grant Program and the Service Coordinator Program to help families, seniors, and people with disabilities who live in insured and assisted apartment housing across the state live more independent lives. "This funding will give local housing agencies across Illinois the ability to expand and improve existing supportive services for families, seniors, and people with disabilities, helping them to continue to live as independently as possible in the communities they love and know," Durbin said.
Democratic attorneys general from 18 states and the District of Columbia sued U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Thursday over her decision to suspend rules that were meant to protect students from abuse by for-profit colleges. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington , says DeVos violated rule-making laws when she announced a June 14 decision to delay so-called borrower defense to repayment rules, which were finalized under President Barack Obama and scheduled to take effect July 1. In her announcement saying the rules would be delayed and rewritten, DeVos said they created "a muddled process that's unfair to students and schools."
Police are trying to establish a motive for the deadly ambush of an officer who was shot in a New York Police Department command post vehicle. Police are trying to establish a motive for the deadly ambush of an officer who was shot in a New York Police Department command post vehicle.
Gov. Bruce Rauner implored lawmakers not to override his veto of a proposal to end Illinois' unprecedented budget impasse, calling the plan that includes a large income tax increase a "disaster" that will not solve the state's many financial problems. "This is not just a slap in the face to Illinois taxpayers.
The Illinois Senate voted Tuesday to override Gov. Bruce Rauner's vetoes of a $36 billion budget package fueled by a $5 billion tax increase designed to start digging out of the nation's deepest budget crisis since at least the Great Depression. The Democratic-controlled chamber completed its work within 30 minutes of the Republican governor's vetoes, sending the package back to the House for an override vote that would give Illinois its first annual budget since 2015.
The Illinois Senate voted Tuesday to override Gov. Bruce Rauner's vetoes of a $36 billion budget package fueled by a $5 billion tax increase designed to start digging out of the nation's deepest budget crisis since at least the Great Depression. The Democratic-controlled chamber completed its work within 30 minutes of the Republican governor's vetoes, sending the package back to the House for an override vote that would give Illinois its first annual budget since 2015.
Republican State Sen. Dale Righter of Mattoon voted with Democrats in favor of the initial budget package. He says he did so because of input from his constituents, which includes Eastern Illinois University.
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner speaks to reporters in front of his office at the State Capitol in Springfield, on June 30, 2016. Illinois lawmakers had just passed a stop-gap budget.
Governor Bruce Rauner held his third State of the State address Wednesday in Springfield. He highlighted many of Illinois' accomplishments, while also discussing many of the things that have to change moving forward.
The Latest on a legislative session on Illinois' budget as the state enters a third straight year without a spending plan : The Illinois Senate has adjourned without taking action on House-approved legislation to break the nation's longest budget standoff since the Great Depression. Chicago Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan has scheduled a meeting of the four legislative leaders for the same time.
Illinois' Democratic-controlled House of Representatives passed big, permanent increases in income tax rates and a $36 billion fiscal 2018 spending plan on Sunday with the help of some Republican votes as the cash-strapped state scrambled to stave off a bond rating downgrade to junk. The $5 billion tax package, which passed in a 72-45 vote and drew an immediate veto threat from Republican Governor Bruce Rauner, would boost the personal income tax rate to 4.95 percent from 3.75 percent and the corporate rate to 7 percent from 5.25 percent.
Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, asked New York bond rating agencies on Friday to hold off on downgrading the state's credit rating to junk status as budget negotiations continued. Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, asked New York bond rating agencies on Friday to hold off on downgrading the state's credit rating to junk status as budget negotiations continued.
Hundreds of people gathered at the University of Illinois to show support for a Chinese scholar who disappeared three weeks ago. This undated photo provided by the University of Illinois Police Department shows Yingying Zhang.
The gunman, identified as Dr. Henry Bello who used to work at the hospital, returned... . Police gather outside Bronx Lebanon Hospital in New York after a gunman opened fire and then took his own life there on Friday, June 30, 2017.
Madigan said more work needs t... . House Majority Leader Barbara Fynn Currie, D-Chicago, smiles as the House votes 90-25 to adopt a spending bill amendment to Senate Bill Six in Springfield, Ill., on Friday, June 30, 2017.
That prompted Republicans backed by Gov. Bruce Rauner to accuse Democrats of refusing to "show their cards" on a tax increase, saying without details it's impossible to tell if Madigan's blueprint was balanced. With a Friday deadline looming to strike an agreement before Illinois government enters a third-straight year without a budget, both political parties appear to be locked in a high-stakes game of chicken.