Cook County Commissioners approved Wednesday a 1-percent increase in the county portion of the sales tax, which brings Chicago’s sales tax to 10.25 percent. President Toni Preckwinkle’s proposed penny-on-the-dollar sales tax was approved by a vote of 9-7.

The Democratic-led Illinois Senate on Wednesday passed the temporary one-month budget by a vote of 39-0 (with 15 voting present) that the House passed last week, but can they override Gov. Bruce Rauner's veto? Amanda Vinicky joins us tonight with the latest updates from Springfield.

The Illinois Senate is back in session Tuesday. This week’s showdown is centered on who will keep state workers paid: the Democrat-controlled General Assembly or Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle has proposed raising the county sales tax by a penny on the dollar to help cover a pension-fueled budget shortfall. Wednesday, the county board is scheduled to vote on the hike. President Preckwinkle joins Chicago Tonight. We'll also hear from Cook County Commissioner Bridget Gainer, who opposes raising the sales tax.

Andrea Zopp talks about her candidacy to become the democratic nominee in the primary race for U.S. Senate against Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth. The winner will face incumbent Senator Mark Kirk.

After more than 20 months of negotiations, a landmark deal was reached Tuesday between world powers and Iran that curbs Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for the easing of economic sanctions. The deal reduces Iran’s stockpiles of enriched uranium and the number of its centrifuges by two-thirds. It also prevents Iran from producing weapons-grade plutonium. 

Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle and from both chambers talk about the emergency one-month budget the Senate will vote on this week, and whether there will be any negotiations or attempts to pass a full budget for the coming fiscal year when the House returns to Springfied on Wednesday.

President Barack Obama has proposed a change in overtime regulations that could make an additional 5 million Americans eligible for overtime pay. Join Chicago Tonight for a conversation about who this will affect, when the proposed change might go through, and where the rules stand currently.

Joel Weisman and his panel of journalists discuss this week’s top headlines.

State employees will continue to be paid while the budget stalemate between legislators and the governor continues. Illinois Comptroller Leslie Geissler Munger received verbal authorization from a St. Clair Circuit Court to allow her office to process state payroll.

Lawmakers in the Illinois House on Thursday approved an emergency one-month budget which passed on July 1 in the Senate with no Republican support. But a pass in the House may not resolve the budget impasse, as Gov. Bruce Rauner has vowed to veto the temporary spending plan.

The City of Chicago will have to wait two more weeks before a judge's ruling on whether pension legislation supported by Mayor Rahm Emanuel is constitutional. Lawyers representing city workers, as well as the city and the employee pension funds made their cases to Cook County Circuit Court Judge Rita Novak Thursday morning. Novak said she will issue a ruling on Friday, July 24.

Is Gov. Bruce Rauner's newest pension proposal constitutional? How will it impact city and state employees? John Tillman, CEO of the Illinois Policy Institute, and Ralph Martire, executive director for the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, analyze the plan.

Experts from the American Security Project are in Chicago to sound the alarm that inaction on climate change weakens the United States' national security position. We'll talk with retired U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Lee Gunn and Andrew Holland, senior fellow with the American Security Project and a former aide to ex-Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel during Hagel's time in the Senate.

Illinois House lawmakers are back in session in Springfield a week after representatives failed to pass a one-month spending plan. The Democrat-controlled House led by Speaker Michael Madigan is scheduled to take up the temporary spending plan again despite opposition from Gov. Bruce Rauner and Republican lawmakers. We talk with Chicago Tonight's Springfield reporter Amanda Vinicky about the status of the budget and more.

Several mothers of young men killed by gun violence in Chicago are named as plaintiffs in a lawsuit against three suburban Chicago communities: Lyons, Riverdale, and Lincolnwood. Attorneys who filed the suit Tuesday morning explain that those towns have lax or insufficient methods of licensing and regulating their gun dealers, and are therefore disproportionately impacting poor and minority communities in Chicago.