URBANA – Hundreds of University of Illinois students and other local residents gathered at polling places across campus Tuesday to vote in this year’s midterm election. The university’s Illini Union was filled with lines of voters, with some students bringing their friends to vote for their first time. “I feel kind of crazy, like why am…
URBANA – In Illinois, Election Day is a state holiday to give voters every opportunity to cast a ballot. And state officials say you should be able to do it safely. Attorney General Kwame Raoul says more than 170 teams of investigators and assistant attorneys general will monitor elections throughout Illinois. If you witness any illegal…
SPRINGFIELD – Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker was crisscrossing the state Monday while his Republican challenger, state Sen. Darren Bailey, focused on the Chicago suburbs as they both made their final pitches to voters ahead of Tuesday’s general election. Pritzker, along with other Democrats at the top of the ticket, held get-out-the-vote rallies at union halls…
URBANA- Both candidates in Illinois’ redrawn 13th congressional district say their messages are connecting with voters. Republican Regan Deering and Democratic candidate Nikki Budzinski both expect victory in Tuesday’s election. Deering says her team spent the last week visiting all the counties in the district. The former educator says cutting crime will be one of her…
SPRINGFIELD — A valuable cache of 1,500-plus Lincoln artifacts that were part of a multimillion-dollar acquisition 15 years ago was trucked away this week from the Springfield Lincoln museum that had housed them — with no plans of bringing them back. It’s the latest by-product of an acrimonious relationship between the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library…
CHICAGO — Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker pledged to remove a barrier to abortion for people in prison after a WBEZ investigation found incarcerated people had to pay for the procedure and the wages of the correctional officer required to accompany them to appointments outside the prison. “Moving forward, abortion procedures and their associated expenses will…
SPRINGFIELD – Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and his longtime political ally Michael McClain entered not guilty pleas Tuesday to bribery and corruption charges involving utility giant Commonwealth Edison and telecommunications company AT&T Illinois. Both were charged previously in the ComEd scandal, but federal prosecutors last month added new charges involving AT&T after that…
SPRINGFIELD — Since late summer, many Illinois residents have been receiving newspapers that they haven’t paid for nor, in many cases, even heard of. Each paper bears a clear-cut tagline: Real data, real news. And each publication that shows up in driveways and mailboxes carries a partisan punch that’s blatant, but not formally disclosed. “They…
Updated October 29, 2022 at 6:38 AM ET SAN FRANCISCO – The attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, was “intentional” and the police dispatcher’s “intuition” and “quick thinking” resulted in a faster police response, San Francisco Police Chief William Scott said. Paul Pelosi was “violently attacked” by an intruder who broke into…
SPRINGFIELD – Justice Mary Jane Theis was sworn in Wednesday as chief justice of the Illinois Supreme Court, the fourth woman in the state’s history to hold the position. She’ll serve a three-year term replacing Justice Anne M. Burke, whose term as chief justice concluded Tuesday ahead of her planned retirement effective Nov. 30. Theis…
BLOOMINGTON — Illinois will soon have a new Secretary of State for the first time in nearly a quarter century. Longtime legislator Dan Brady of Bloomington says he bided his time until Jesse White retired to run for the office. Brady faces Alexi Giannoulias, a well-financed opponent who is seeking his second statewide office. Listen…
CHICAGO — A recent report from the Better Government Association, a nonpartisan watchdog group, called congressional candidate Nikki Budzinski into question for ‘cashing in’ as a political consultant. Budzinski is a Democrat running in Illinois’ 13th congressional district against Republican Regan Deering. “We looked at a powerful government official, state government official, who welcomed and…
CHAMPAIGN – Doctors began performing abortions on patients at the renovated Planned Parenthood clinic in Champaign earlier this month. But on Wednesday morning, the doctors and patients were absent, as reporters and visiting politicians were given a tour of the health center, where surgical abortions have resumed after several years. “So this is where the…
SPRINGFIELD – Early voting hours and locations greatly expanded across the state this week as the campaign season entered its final two-week stretch. Polling places opened across the city of Chicago as well. Information on early voting for each local election authority can be found on the Illinois State Board of Elections website here, or by visiting…
SPRINGFIELD — In Illinois’ newly redrawn 15th congressional district, Congresswoman Mary Miller is up for re-election. Miller topped fellow incumbent Rodney Davis in the Republican primary in June. Miller will face Democratic challenger Paul Lange, a former precinct committeeman and commodities broker from Quincy, Illinois, in the November midterm election. Lange spoke to Illinois Newsroom’s…