Trump indictment sets the national political world on fire. Vallas and Johnson race toward the finish line. “ComEd Four” trial peels the curtain back on the Madigan machine. And Cubs and Sox are undefeated.

In a presidential proclamation on Thursday and a subsequent statement on Friday, Biden acknowledged “a wave of discriminatory state laws” aimed at trans Americans, squarely blaming “MAGA extremists” for “advancing hundreds of hateful and extreme state laws that target transgender kids and their families.”

While Trump and his lawyers prepared for his defense, the prosecutor in his hush money case defended the grand jury investigation that propelled him toward trial, while congressional Republicans painted it as politically motivated.

Led by former allies of Mayor Lori Lightfoot, the successful push to rewrite the rules for the City Council — which served as a rubber stamp for decades under Mayors Richard J. Daley, Richard M. Daley and Rahm Emanuel — is the result of years of effort to transform it into a legislative body determined to set policy for the entire city.

It becomes the first ever criminal case against a former U.S. president and a jolt to Trump’s bid to retake the White House in 2024.

Fidel Marquez, the government’s witness, continued testifying for the fourth day, now under cross examination from defense attorneys seeking to show how their clients’ actions were above board when they tried to garner Madigan’s support on legislation in Springfield.

Polls show Brandon Johnson, a Cook County commissioner, and Paul Vallas, the former CEO of Chicago Public Schools, running neck and neck with a large portion of voters undecided.

The next mayor will face a number of education hurdles, including the transition to an elected school board, a new teachers union contract, securing school funding and the end of a moratorium on school closures.

The proposal – which has not yet been debated in public – could get a final vote on Thursday as part of supporters’ push for a quick vote before the runoff between Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson set for April 4.

Mayoral candidates Brandon Johnson and Paul Vallas made their case to voters at a packed forum held in Pilsen, and the words “crime” and “police” didn't come up once.

The three proposals would invest $550 million in the Loop to build 1,059 apartments in what is now mostly empty office space, including 317 units set aside for low- and moderate-income Chicagoans as part of an effort to reduce segregation in Chicago in return for $188 million in city subsidies, officials said.

On Monday night, the Evanston City Council approved a cash option to its Housing Restorative Program. Now, the program includes direct cash benefits for those who qualify.

The independent expenditure funded by the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, paid for $258,000 in cable television advertisements on March 16 and $359,000 in digital advertising on March 15, records show. 

Buses that never show up and unreliable train travel times. Filling a CTA staffing shortfall. And a push for better bike safety. Those are just a few of the transit topics on the minds of voters

Much of the focus has been on the mayoral candidates’ public safety plans, but whoever emerges victorious on April 4 will also inherit environmental and climate-related challenges.

Detainees awaiting trial or serving misdemeanor sentences retain the right to vote, but face barriers to exercising it in many parts of the U.S. Cook County Jail, with more than 5,500 inmates and detainees, is one of the largest jails in the nation.