This Feb. 1978 photo shows Robert MacNeil, executive editor of “The MacNeil/Lehrer Report.” MacNeil, who created the even-handed, no-frills PBS newscast “The MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour” in the 1970s and co-anchored the show for with his late partner, Jim Lehrer, for two decades, died on Friday, April 12, 2024. (AP Photo / FILE)
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Robert MacNeil first gained prominence for his coverage of the Senate Watergate hearings for the public broadcasting service and began his half-hour “Robert MacNeil Report” on PBS in 1975 with his friend Jim Lehrer as Washington correspondent.

The Michael A. Bilandic building, home to the offices of the Illinois Commerce Commission, is pictured in Chicago. (Andrew Adams / Capitol News Illinois)

Natural gas is fueling a fight between consumer advocates, a powerful utility company and the state. Amid competing advertising campaigns, accusations of mismanagement and state decarbonization efforts, the Illinois Commerce Commission is starting a process that will shape how the state regulates the increasingly controversial industry.

(WTTW News)
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Two firms are set to get licenses to keep their 3,000 scooters speeding through Chicago until June 2026. And for the first time since shared e-scooters hit Chicago streets five years ago, city rules will allow the motorized two-wheelers to be ridden between midnight and 5 a.m.

(David Gray / Bloomberg / Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

The price of spot gold reached $2,364 per ounce Tuesday after hitting record highs for seven straight sessions and trading at $2,336 per ounce Monday. Year on year, gold is up 16.5%.

(WTTW News)
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As the Bears and White Sox are on the hunt for taxpayer cash to fund new stadiums, Quinn says it’s once again time to ask the voters what they think.

Construction workers work in Mount Prospect, Ill., Monday, Feb. 26, 2024. (AP Photo / Nam Y. Huh, File)

Friday’s report from the Labor Department also showed that the unemployment rate dipped from 3.9% to 3.8%. The jobless rate has now remained below 4% for 26 straight months, the longest such streak since the 1960s. 

Karen Conn, president of Conn’s Hospitality Group in Springfield, speaks at a news conference April 3, 2024, at the Capitol. She said she will have to raise prices and cut employees’ hours and benefits if the state eliminates a tipped wage credit. (Cole Longcor / Capitol News Illinois)
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Current Illinois law allows employers to pay their tipped workers 60% of the state’s minimum wage. That amounts to $8.40 hourly, compared to the minimum wage of $14 per hour. If their wages plus tips do not equal minimum wage, the employer must make up the difference.

Kansas City Chiefs fans gather outside Arrowhead Stadium before a NFL football game against the Oakland Raiders Sunday, Sept. 20, 2009 in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo / Ed Zurga, File)
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he defeat Tuesday of a three-eighths cent sales tax to fund a new downtown Royals ballpark and renovate the Chiefs’ Arrowhead Stadium was almost assuredly not the end of the matter. Other teams and cities have faced similar setbacks, and that hasn’t slowed a wave of stadium construction underway across the U.S.

LaSalle Street in Chicago. (Michael Izquierdo / WTTW News)
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“Like many cities, we are in the process of recovering from the impact of the pandemic, resulting in vacancies, particularly our storefronts and offices,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said. “We have to respond to these changes. As a city, we have to do it in a creative and collaborative way.”

FILE - An Amazon Fresh grocery store is seen, Feb. 4, 2022, in Warrington, Pa. (Matt Rourke / AP Photo, File)

The company’s well-known technology lets customers pay for items without standing in line and sends them receipts afterwards.

Parking lots on the Museum Campus near Soldier Field. (WTTW News)
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While the team hasn’t yet released plans, Bears president Kevin Warren stated they would commit over $2 billion to transform the Museum Campus and revamp the surrounding infrastructure — all of which Warren hopes could begin as soon as this year.

FILE - Two United Airlines Boeing 737s are parked at the gate at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., July 7, 2022. (Wilfredo Lee / AP Photo, File)

Among the most recent issues, a chunk of outer aluminum skin was discovered to have fallen off the belly of a United Boeing 737 after it landed in Oregon. Earlier this month, a United jet suffered an engine fire during takeoff from Houston, and a tire fell off another United jet as it left San Francisco.

Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias is pictured in a file photo. (Andrew Adams / Capitol News Illinois)

The cause was an outage in the “national network that connects driver’s license facilities,” a network run by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators. That outage resulted in the system having to shut down across the country.

An electric vehicle is pictured charging in Chicago. (Andrew Adams / Capitol News Illinois)

The new standards will avoid more than 7 billion tons of planet-warming carbon emissions over the next three decades and provide nearly $100 billion in annual net benefits, the EPA said.

Illinois Commerce Commission Chair Doug Scott presides over a commission meeting in Chicago in late January. (Andrew Adams / Capitol News Illinois)

Consumers likely to pay more for infrastructure improvements

The plans propose billions of dollars in spending and lay out the companies’ plans for supporting the state’s climate goals, including the transition away from greenhouse gas emitting energy generation over the next 20 years. The ICC is now reviewing the plans in a process likely to last the rest of the year. 

Scott Kirby, CEO of United Airlines, during a Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation oversight hearing, Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2021, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Tom Brenner / The Washington Post via AP, File, Pool)

CEO Scott Kirby said the airline was already planning an extra day of training for pilots starting in May and changes in training curriculum for newly hired mechanics. In a memo to customers on Monday, Kirby tried to reassure travelers that safety is the airline's top priority.