When an Illinois Senate panel met last March to discuss the state’s backlog of untested forensic evidence, there were more than 70 DNA samples in murder cases more than a year old awaiting action from Illinois State Police forensic investigators. That number is down to 14, representatives of the Illinois State Police told the […]
Jerry Nowicki
Jerry Nowicki is bureau chief of Capitol News Illinois and has been with the organization since its inception in 2019.
Before joining CNI, Nowicki spent two years on Illinois Senate staff as a legislative aide to state Sen. Steve Landek. Prior to that, he was editor of the LeRoy Farmer City Press, which won the 2015 David B. Kramer Memorial Trophy for Illinois’ best small weekly newspaper.
Complementing his Statehouse and reporting experience, Nowicki has lived in a variety of Illinois communities. He grew up in Evergreen Park, a southwest suburb of Chicago, and has lived for a time in each of New Lenox, Bloomington, Champaign and LeRoy. He currently resides in Springfield.
He has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Illinois State University and obtained his master’s degree in communication from Purdue University in May 2019.
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Coalition pushes Clean Energy Jobs Act
With federal regulatory changes looming and legislators one week away from a return to the Capitol, some clean energy advocates are looking to jumpstart a stalled proposal to bring major reforms to the state’s energy landscape. Members of the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition, including the legislative sponsors of the Clean Energy Jobs Act, or CEJA, […]
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STATEHOUSE YEAR IN REVIEW
A tumultuous year in Illinois politics draws to its close as the historic legislative accomplishments of May and June give way to a flurry of ongoing federal investigative activity, resignations and indictments. Central to the story of 2019 is Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Chicago Democrat and billionaire who spent more than $170 million of his […]
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Program helps Illinoisans save for retirement
Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs Nov. 18 continued to promote a new state program which he says is a first step to alleviating a nationwide “retirement crisis.” At a Chicago news conference, Frerichs said more than 32,000 Illinoisans have saved more than $8.5 million for their retirement as part of Illinois Secure Choice, a program which […]
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Bills signed into law
Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed more than 50 bills last week and has this week remaining to sign the final 167 of the 599 total bills sent to him by the General Assembly this year. The most recently signed bills include a package of legislation affecting first responders, a bill striking down a 1998 state law […]
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Old folks. Who cares?
For senior care advocates in Illinois, a state funding increase is a reason for optimism after a prolonged period of government disinvestment. The financial crisis was marked by a crippling two-year state budget impasse which continues to leave its mark on social service providers. But advocates for nursing homes and home-based senior care agree there […]
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Census advocates forge ahead
Amid national uncertainty about whether a citizenship question will be included on the 2020 U.S. Census, advocates in Illinois are not changing their approach to ensuring all residents are counted. “Whether a citizenship question is on the form or not, the damage is done,” said Anita Banerji, director of the Democracy Initiative of the nonprofit […]
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Pritzker signs bills doubling line-of-duty death benefits, addressing human trafficking
SPRINGFIELD – While Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker has been touring the state to promote his signing of capital infrastructure and marijuana legalization legislation, several other bills he signed have received less public attention. House Bill 2028, which passed the state Senate and House unanimously, became law last week. It doubles the death benefits for families […]
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Higher education official hopeful new funding will stem tide of student outmigration
SPRINGFIELD — The interim director of the Illinois Board of Higher Education is hopeful a combination of added infrastructure and operations funding for state universities and colleges will help entice Illinois students to remain in the state for their college education. The cause of the optimism is state budget action which provided $154 million in […]
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Mendoza: Illinois must ‘remain grounded’
With a fiscal year 2020 operating budget in place and a historic legislative session in the rearview mirror, Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza is “cautiously optimistic” about the state’s new direction. “I think this was truly the most monumentally historic session that I have witnessed in my lifetime. And I’ve been around the Springfield legislature now […]
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Illinois is ‘one big pothole’
A high-profile Republican gave his support to an increase to the state’s gas tax April 29 during a meeting of a special Senate capital committee. Ray LaHood, a Peoria Republican who served from 1995 to 2009 in Illinois’ 18th congressional district before serving as secretary of transportation under President Barack Obama, said an infrastructure bill […]
