Towns and cities can’t access COVID-19 relief funding allocated to them by the federal government because the state is holding onto it instead, the Illinois Municipal League said Wednesday as it called on Pritzker’s administration to release the money.

Iran is responsible for emails meant to intimidate American voters and sow unrest in multiple states, U.S. officials said Wednesday night in calling out both Tehran and Russia for activities meant to interfere in the upcoming presidential election.

Sen. Dick Durbin has become one of the most powerful members of the Senate, but challengers say he is the ultimate Washington insider who’s lost sight of what’s best for Illinois. Meet two of those challengers.

The mayor’s budget plan, the next coronavirus wave and the final presidential debate. Our politics team takes on those stories and more in this week’s roundtable. 

State health officials on Wednesday reported 69 coronavirus-related deaths – the highest number in a single day since June, when Illinois was coming off its initial peak in COVID-19 infections.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s plan to close a projected $1.2 billion budget gap in 2021 would hike sales and property taxes by $76.4 million, eliminate 1,921 city jobs and dip into the city’s rainy-day fund.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot will face the biggest test of her time in office on Wednesday when she details her plan to fill the massive budget shortfall caused in part by the coronavirus pandemic.

How to educate students during a pandemic is far from the only issue elected officials — and Illinois residents — have to grapple with. And it seems unlikely the federal government will agree to another stimulus package before the election.

What may look like news websites are instead thinly veiled organizations pushing partisan agendas without journalistic standards, according to investigations from the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. 

Republican Jeanne Ives talks about her bid to unseat freshman Democratic U.S. Rep. Sean Casten.

A member of the Wilmette Library Board of Trustees who also works as a state lobbyist sued the city of Chicago, seeking to overturn a ban on elected officials from outside Chicago from lobbying city officials.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot and two of her closest allies on the Chicago City Council remain at odds over long-stalled efforts to put an elected board of Chicago residents in charge of the Chicago Police Department.

Starting Friday, indoor service at bars and restaurants will halt in DuPage, Kane, Kankakee and Will counties due to rising coronavirus positivity rates. But Gov. J.B. Pritzker says he is ruling out another stay-at-home order at this time.

In all, the city’s order warns residents against travel to 30 states and Puerto Rico.

Critics of Thomas Kilbride are making the most of their once-in-a-decade chance to toss a sitting Illinois Supreme Court justice.

Republican state Sen. Jim Oberweis discusses his effort to unseat incumbent Rep. Lauren Underwood, a Democrat, in Illinois’ 14th Congressional District.