The AP has already run a series of stories outlining how everything works, and has a team of reporters who will be assigned on election night to write in plain language why it is “calling” key individual states for presidential candidates Kamala Harris or Donald Trump.

The rival positions get at a fundamental distinction between the two candidates on how to guide the world’s largest economy: Harris’ team is arguing that the rule of law creates the certainty that can make markets and workers thrive, while Trump is arguing that tariff increases and tax cuts are the keys for growth.

With just five days until the election, Chicagoans have already cast more than 320,000 ballots.

With global tensions and an intensely partisan presidential campaign fueling division among Americans, Illinois is launching the Help Stop Hate program to combat the severe increase in hate crime throughout the state. 

Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, 82, and his longtime confidant Michael McClain, 77, are charged with racketeering, bribery and wire fraud. They have each pleaded not guilty.

The Black male vote has turned into a crucial bloc this election, with both Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump making appeals to get their votes. 

Early intervention, or EI, comprises an array of developmental and social-emotional services like speech and language, occupational and physical therapies and social work that are designed to improve the long-term outcomes of a child and family’s life.

Illinois’ first-in-the-nation law doesn’t outlaw so-called interchange fees completely, but it does preclude credit card processors from applying the fee on the portion of a card swipe that pays for state and local taxes and tips.

Mayor Brandon Johnson said proposing the tax hike, the second largest in modern Chicago history after the $588 million property tax hike pushed through by former Mayor Rahm Emanuel in 2016, was a “difficult decision” that was the result of an "excruciating process.”

The Chicago City Council confirmed four of the five Chicagoans picked by Mayor Brandon Johnson to serve on the board of the Regional Transportation Authority, which is facing a $730 million deficit in 2026.

The Chicago City Council voted to pay $4 million to the family of a man who spent 33 years in prison after he was wrongfully convicted of murdering a woman in 1989 in Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood.

The hotline aims to help the U.S. Department of Justice deter and combat discrimination and intimidation at the polls, election fraud and threats of violence directed at election officials and poll workers, according to a news release.

This year in Illinois, there are no statewide elections. And yet, political campaigns in the state raised about $600 million in itemized individual contributions, according to a Capitol News Illinois analysis of Illinois campaign finance data.

Two nights and 200 miles apart, the dueling closing arguments outlined in stark terms the choice U.S. voters face on Nov. 5 when they will weigh two very different visions of leadership and America’s future.

The high court, over the dissents of the three liberal justices, granted an emergency appeal from Virginia’s Republican administration led by Gov. Glenn Youngkin. The court provided no rationale for its action, which is typical in emergency appeals.

Members of the Illinois Flag Commission have nearly 5,000 designs to wade through, as the state moves onto a new phase of potentially overhauling its flag.