A coalition of 16 Chicago museums and cultural institutions has weighed in on the ongoing battle over the Obama Presidential Center, coming down firmly on the side of the center versus those who would block its construction in historic Jackson Park.

U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly cannot solicit campaign funds for candidates running in state contests as the head of the Democratic Party of Illinois, the Federal Election Commission ruled Thursday. Instead, the party can create a separate committee to seek campaign cash.

Aldermen should have input on who gets hired as their ward superintendents — but cannot have the final say, Inspector General Joseph Ferguson determined.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot acknowledged that the rise in shootings and murders concentrated on Chicago’s South and West sides has forced her to reset her agenda as mayor. “We have experienced too much bloodshed in this city,” she said Thursday.

Working to reverse a notion that Chicago and Illinois have become false confession capitals in the U.S., Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed legislation Thursday that prohibits the use of deceptive tactics by law enforcement officers when interrogating juveniles.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker was among a handful of governors and mayors who scored an invitation Wednesday to the White House. His visit comes as the primary for the 2022 governor’s race is less than a year away. 

President Joe Biden made a quick foray to the Capitol on Wednesday hunting support for his multitrillion-dollar agenda of infrastructure, health care and other programs. Our Spotlight Politics team weighs in on this and more.

The Texas voting bills that prompted state Democrats’ flight to Washington this week include a raft of tweaks and changes to the state’s election code. Some are dramatic, others highly technical, and a couple could make life easier for voters.

Supporters of the plan told aldermen Wednesday that it will benefit young residents of the West Side and bring much-needed investment to one of Chicago’s most violent neighborhoods. If the plan is approved, it will end a ferocious controversy that has raged for nearly four years.

The island nation of Cuba has seen unprecedented demonstrations amid the country’s worst economic crisis in decades — and nearly 60 years into the United States’ embargo on the nation.

It won’t be smoke-filled, but members of the Chicago City Council will head to a backroom at City Hall later this month to start crafting new ward boundaries that could shape Chicago politics for the next decade.

President Joe Biden declared preserving voting rights an urgent national “test of our time” on Tuesday but offered few concrete proposals to meet it. Texas Democrats took their own dramatic action to stymie Republican efforts to tighten ballot restrictions in their state.

Chicago officials have reinstated the city’s COVID-19 travel advisory as cases spike with the spread of the delta variant of the virus in Missouri and Arkansas. The order had been suspended for 42 days.

In the midst of a right-wing attack on creating a more inclusive education in the U.S., Illinois just became the first state to require Asian American history to be taught in public schools.

Facing rising fears of summer violence, President Joe Biden is embarking on a political high-wire act, trying to balance his strong backing for law enforcement with the police reform movement championed by many of his supporters.

Over the past year, a small group of people who are homeless have established a tent encampment in a small Avondale park. Similar encampments are all over Chicago, and as Illinois’ eviction moratorium nears its end, the number of unhoused people is expected to grow.