The cost of renovating the north wing of the Illinois Statehouse will be more expensive than officials initially estimated. Only one bid came in for the project, which is about to get underway. CORE Construction Services of Illinois Inc. priced the job at $243.5 million, well over the $170 million that was originally estimated. “Despite […]
Peter Hancock
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Welch reflects on first year as House speaker
One year after being named speaker of the Illinois House, Rep. Emanuel “Chris” Welch says he is proud of the accomplishments he and his colleagues achieved and he looks forward to building on that record. “I actually thought 2021 was one heck of a year,” the Hillside Democrat said during a recent interview. “You know, […]
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Springfield transportation hub to relieve rail congestion
A railway improvement project intended to improve traffic congestion between St. Louis and Chicago reached a milestone Tuesday, Oct. 12, as work began on a multimodal transportation hub in the capital city. Gov. JB Pritzker was joined at a groundbreaking ceremony by U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, along with several state lawmakers and […]
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Cairo pins hopes on river port development
CAIRO – Anyone who has driven America’s interstate highway system is familiar with those standard blue signs near major exits indicating the services available ahead – fuel, food and lodging. Driving south on Interstate 57 in Illinois, approaching the city of Cairo at the state’s southernmost tip, most of the images on those blue signs […]
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Illinois announces first $24 million in Back to Business grants
Gov. JB Pritzker’s administration on Thursday announced the awarding of the first $24 million in “Back to Business” grants, a program funded with federal relief aid to help businesses recover and reopen from the pandemic. The announcement took place at a Mexican restaurant in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago, Mi Tierra en la Villita, […]
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Session ends with major legislation, but no energy bill
Illinois lawmakers finished a two-day special session June 17 by passing some important legislation but without reaching agreement on the one issue they had hoped to resolve – an energy bill that would phase out all carbon emissions from power plants over the next 30 years. “I think a very successful legislative session got a […]
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Lawmakers pass $42.3 billion budget
Illinois lawmakers worked into the early hours of Tuesday morning, June 1, to pass a $42.3 billion state budget plan for the upcoming fiscal year that Democrats say would fully fund K-12 education and the state’s pension obligations while also paying down a sizeable portion of the state’s debt. Lawmakers have been working on the […]
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Pandemic hit hotels hard
The Illinois economy shrank by 4 percent in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on many of its sectors, although there were signs of a recovery taking place late in the year. Those preliminary numbers, released last week by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), showed that the leisure, hospitality […]
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Education bill to revamp social studies
This story is part of an ongoing “Lame Duck Look Back” series in which Capitol News Illinois is following up on the major bills that passed both chambers of the General Assembly in the Jan. 8-13 lame duck session. Social studies classes in Illinois public schools are about to get a major overhaul, with more […]
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House moves bill to end Medicaid managed care
A House committee on Monday, Jan. 11, advanced a bill that would end the system of hiring private insurance companies to manage the state’s Medicaid program at the end of their current contracts and replace it with a standard fee-for-service payment system. The bill also calls for a three-year moratorium on any hospital closures or […]
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Education reform heads to governor
A bill aimed at improving racial equity throughout the state’s K-12 and higher education system passed both houses of the General Assembly on Monday, Jan. 11, while another bill, to address economic inequities received House approval Tuesday night. Both bills were part of an agenda being pushed by the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus, which called […]
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Butler files GOP ‘fair maps’ legislation
Republicans in the Illinois House said Tuesday, Jan. 5, that they hope to use legislation, instead of a constitutional amendment, to change the way state legislative and congressional district lines are redrawn every 10 years. The so-called “fair maps” proposal would authorize the General Assembly to set up an independent, nonpartisan commission to redraw the […]
