Illinois’ primary election isn’t until March, but perhaps the most consequential state race of the year has already taken place, as state senators on Sunday elected a new president: Sen. Don Harmon of Oak Park.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday proposed a condensed, two-day calendar for each side to give opening arguments in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, ground rules that are raising objections from Democrats.

As the nation marks the holiday honoring King, the mood surrounding it is overshadowed by deteriorating race relations in an election season that has seen one candidate of color after another quit the 2020 presidential race. 

Pritzker gets heated over Madigan aide. Hurt feelings between the mayor and City Council over LGBTQ language. Preckwinkle’s Cook County Health power play. And a new national newscast out of Chicago.

A new report issued by Chicago’s Department of Planning and Development says the Obama Presidential Center will have an “adverse” impact on Jackson Park’s Historic Landscape District and the city’s historic Park Boulevard System.

President Donald Trump’s legal team for his Senate impeachment trial will include a pair of well-known attorneys who have vigorously defended Trump on television and played roles in some of the most consequential legal dramas in recent history.

Chicago aldermen have proposed a ban on single-use plastics and Styrofoam containers in an effort to cut down on plastic pollution. We learn more from Abe Scarr of the Illinois Public Interest Research Group, which helped craft the proposal.

A close associate of President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani is claiming Trump was directly involved in the effort to pressure Ukraine to investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden.

House Speaker Michael Madigan has shelled out big money from his campaign fund to pay attorneys – and he isn’t the only public official to do so.

Three CTA Red Line stations in Edgewater that were scheduled to be shut down this weekend will remain open after construction work was canceled due to a high wind advisory, according to the office of 48th Ward Ald. Harry Osterman.

The impeachment of President Donald Trump is the Senate’s challenge now. Look Thursday for a series of striking ceremonial matters to set up the Senate as a court of impeachment. 

Just weeks into 2020, fresh headlines are shining light on politicians behaving unethically. Our politics team digs into those stories and more in our weekly roundtable.

Undocumented immigrants stand to gain more protections in Chicago after City Council approved an ordinance Wednesday. The meeting also featured a tense debate over contracting for LGBTQ business owners.

After nearly a month of delay, the House of Representatives voted Wednesday to transmit articles of impeachment for the trial of President Donald Trump to the Senate. We discuss the latest and look ahead.

Chicago is getting tough on plastic waste. A new city ordinance would, if passed, ban Styrofoam to-go containers and reduce single-use plastic utensils.

A resolution introduced at Wednesday’s City Council meeting calls for an emergency “climate mobilization” on a scale not seen since WWII.