Illinois Issues

Reforms include required implicit bias training for medical professionals.

A man was arrested for domestic battery and had to appear in Cook County domestic violence court. He paid his bond and was released. Then he was charged and arrested again while out on bond. Those cases were still pending when he was arrested for violating an order of protection and finally taken into custody.

Eighty-two years ago, theatrical impresario Orson Welles panicked the nation with his company’s “War of the Worlds” Halloween Eve radio broadcast. That was the reported story, but the truth is more complicated.

The kids called Grayson Alexander "dyke" and "faggot." The bullying got worse when he came out as transgender the summer between eighth grade and high school. Now a senior at Loyola University in Chicago, the Springfield native says attending school was “not fun.”

The campaign over Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s proposal to impose a graduated income tax has focused mainly on who would pay higher taxes. But perhaps just as important is the question of how that money would be used.

When Prohibition became law 100 years ago, it led to bootlegging and gang warfare throughout Illinois. Its effect in Chicago is well-known, but its impact on Southern Illinois was equally devastating. In the 1920s, among Southern Illinois’ hundreds of moonshine stills, hills and hamlets were gangsters whose lawlessness rivaled Chicago’s. However, few people outside of those bottomlands know their names today.

Franny Cole’s now-estranged husband had been emotionally abusive and financially controlling. She thinks sometimes about what might have happened had she not gathered the strength to leave prior to the coronavirus pandemic.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement had announced that international students must take some of their classes in-person. If not, they could be deported from the United States. The Trump Administration just rescinded that decision. But many international students continue to face uncertainty during COVID-19. When he first saw the news from ICE, Sina Tayebati thought he might be getting deported back to Iran. He’s a graduate student studying mechanical engineering at Northern Illinois University. “It was so terrifying for all of us, for me and for my family, because we have spent a lot of money and we have invested a lot for me to come here,” he said. Amin Roostaee felt the same way, he was shocked. He’s a graduate student in the same department. “I'm in the middle of my research. And when I saw this news, I wondered, ‘Oh, what are we doing here? What would come to my research here?’ And if you believe it or not, I barely slept because of this news. It’s really embarrassing.” They were

Editor’s Note: The Institute of Government and Public Affairs assembled a task force of interdisciplinary faculty experts from all three universities in the University of Illinois System to assess COVID-19’s effects on the state. This essay represents the work of several task force members to create a roadmap for safely reopening the state’s economy.

Illinois wants hundreds to potentially thousands of contact tracing workers trained and ready to start tracking the spread of the new coronavirus by the end of this month. At the same time, big tech companies are developing technology that could help with tracing efforts.

School districts across the state have been resourceful in coming up with ways to honor their high school graduates, as health regulations prohibit the typical ceremonies. But some of those plans ran into roadblocks with the governor’s office and the Illinois State Board of Education.

Massive layoffs and furloughs around the state will make it difficult for some to pay their property taxes on time. Some Illinois counties are trying to ease the pain by delaying the mailing of the bills. Others have extended deadlines. And most common are counties waiving interest on late payments.

Illinoisans experiencing mental illness have had to face a new world in the pandemic. Most -- except for those in residential or emergency situations – have had to make the choice between not having therapy or having to do it by phone or computer screen. For this week’s Illinois Issues in-depth report, Maureen McKinney looked into how the transition is working.

‘ Illinois’ population dropped for the sixth year in a row. And Illinois students leave the state for school at higher rates than almost anywhere else. Rockford is trying to leverage its engineering and manufacturing industry to get people to stay.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is already making plans to spend money from a significant change in the state income tax, even though it can only happen if voters agree to amend the Illinois Constitution this November. A significant chunk of Pritzker’s annual budget proposal , delivered Wednesday, depends on the governor's graduated income tax.

As national debate on government-mandated paid family leave continues, lawmakers in Illinois say they want it enacted here.

One was sold away from her children. Another was freed and became a businessman. Others were freed only to be kidnapped and sold back into slavery. These are just a few stories of people who were enslaved in Illinois. Contrary to what we’ve been told and taught, Illinois was not a free state. Slavery and indentured servitude —slavery by another name — were practiced here from the early 1700s until 1863. Blacks (and Native Americans early on) were bought, sold, auctioned, kidnapped, indentured, punished, controlled, gifted and taxed as property in the Land of Lincoln. We know this from our state Constitution, which allowed and regulated enslavement; from newspapers, which advertised slave sales and rewards for escaped slaves; from emancipation records, bills of sale, probate records, wills and tax records which detailed transactions involving enslaved people (many are archived online at the Illinois State Archives Servitude and Emancipation Records ); and from manuscripts and books,

Documents illustrate what happens when a student is put in an isolation room.

Last weekend, lawmakers elected Don Harmon to be president of the Illinois Senate. It’s been described as a bitter fight, but it has nothing on some of the conflicts from Illinois’ past, including one particularly “discreditable row” from the year 1857.

Tuesday marks one year since J.B. Pritzker was sworn in as governor of Illinois. Since then, the state has raised its minimum wage, legalized marijuana, and passed several other pieces of legislation long sought by Democrats. Pritzker marked the occasion with a series of interviews, including with our Statehouse reporter.