Newsletter – Main

The director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, Dr. Sameer Vohra, joined a chorus of doctors, epidemiologists and other public health professionals this week in admonishing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest change to its vaccine safety webpage, which states “studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism,” […]

 Illinois and Chicago filed a federal lawsuit Monday to block the Trump administration’s planned deployment of National Guard troops to the state — a move Gov. JB Pritzker called an “invasion.” Trump pushed forward with the plan to activate hundreds of National Guard soldiers, including some from Texas, despite monthslong opposition from state and local […]

Dozens of Springfield residents, including government officials and concerned business owners, attended the Citizens Club of Springfield’s Sept. 26 meeting about a decades-old issue – the state of downtown Springfield. The meeting was moved from its typical location upstairs at the Hoogland Center for the Arts to the main floor LRS Theatre to accommodate the […]

Illinois is among a growing list of states that are issuing their own vaccine guidelines that could supersede those of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Gov. JB Pritzker issued an executive order this month directing the Illinois Department of Public Health to work with other state agencies to develop vaccine guidelines. Specifically, Pritzker’s directive […]

Dr. Jerry Kruse, dean and provost of Springfield-based Southern Illinois University School of Medicine for the past nine years, plans to retire in summer 2026. Kruse, 72, a family physician and member of the medical school’s faculty for more than 40 years, announced his retirement to the SIU Board of Trustees at its meeting Sept. […]

The federal government is significantly ramping up immigration enforcement in the Chicago area as a specialized federal law enforcement team arrived in Chicago on Tuesday. U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commander Gregory Bovino posted a video on social media announcing his specialized team has arrived in Chicago to “continue the mission we started in Los Angeles.” At […]

In the wake of the assassination of conservative pundit Charlie Kirk, a city of Springfield department head posted something on Facebook critical of the influencer and now he no longer has a job. “I had never heard of this guy before he got shot,” James ‘Jayme’ Sullivan told Illinois Times. “I was on vacation when […]

Jurors at former Sangamon County sheriff’s deputy Sean Grayson’s murder trial won’t hear potentially disturbing details from Grayson’s military service and previous jobs in law enforcement even though the revelations led to new requirements for background checks of police statewide. Sangamon County Circuit Judge Ryan Cadagin on Sept. 12 agreed with Grayson’s defense lawyers that […]

Jim Edgar, Illinois’ 38th governor who served from 1991 to 1999, died Sunday after disclosing an aggressive cancer diagnosis earlier this year. He was 79. Though he’d been out of power for 26 years — more time than the two decades he spent in office as an elected official — the former governor was still active […]

As part of a statewide initiative, Planned Parenthood’s Springfield clinic will begin offering free walk-in testing for sexually transmitted infections on the second Wednesday of the month beginning on Sept. 10. “Planned Parenthood of Illinois believes this ongoing effort is important because the most common symptom of an STI is no symptom at all, which […]

After the Trump administration slashed billions in state and local public health funding from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier this year, the eventual impact on states split sharply along political lines. Democratic-led states that sued to block the cuts – including Illinois – kept much of their funding, while Republican-led states lost the […]