Businesses and manufacturing are starting to feel the impact of steel and aluminum tariffs that took effect Wednesday. The Trump administration is putting a 50% tax on these metals when they’re imported from other countries.

This appears to be the first time in decades that a state’s National Guard was activated without a request from its governor.

The “Clean Slate” Act, which could have sealed thousands and potentially millions of nonviolent criminal records in Illinois, had bipartisan support but failed to pass in the final flurry of legislative action this spring, the sponsor says.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday dismissed an expert panel of vaccine advisers that has historically guided the federal government’s vaccine recommendations, saying the group is “plagued with conflicts of interest.”

A bill passed in this year’s legislative session would rewrite the definition of a “forcible felony” to allow Illinois State Police to use images obtained from automatic license plate readers in cases involving human trafficking and involuntary servitude.

On Monday, scores of scientists at the agency sent their Trump-appointed leader a letter titled the Bethesda Declaration, challenging “policies that undermine the NIH mission, waste public resources, and harm the health of Americans and people across the globe.”

The DOGE victories come amid a messy breakup that started shortly after Elon Musk’s departure from the White House and has included threats to cut government contracts and a call for the president to be impeached.

State lawmakers sent Gov. JB Pritzker a $55.2 billion budget on May 31 that raises $1 billion in new revenue and increases spending by more than $2 billion in fiscal year 2026 compared to the current year.

A bill that would lift long-standing restrictions on small poultry farmers in Illinois, reducing red tape and transforming the way local farmers process and sell their products, is heading to the governor.

President Donald Trump’s latest travel ban on citizens from 12 countries added new questions about the impact on the World Cup and the Summer Olympics, which depend on hosts opening their doors to the world.

Latin America is in the midst of a crucial election year in countries including Venezuela, whose ruling party claimed another win last month amid opposition boycotts. Advocates say last month’s results could further roil the country’s political landscape.

According to agreements obtained by WTTW News, the Illinois State Police has shared data with ICE through its statewide computer system since 2008, including criminal history data and its gang member file, which could contain citizenship information, according to the LEADS manual.

ICE agents reportedly detained at least 10 people in the South Loop on Wednesday after the people were told to check in to a monitoring program administered by the agency.

In the Trump administration’s latest attack against international students, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced last week the U.S. will begin “aggressively” revoking visas of Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party and those studying in “critical fields.”

“You don’t get everything done in one year,” Gov. JB Pritzker said during a post-session news conference when asked about several of his initiatives that failed to pass this year. “Sometimes they (lawmakers) spend two years, four years, six years, trying to get something big done.”

President Donald Trump confirmed the deterioration of his relationship with Elon Musk Thursday, saying he was “very disappointed” in the tech billionaire after Musk repeatedly blasted the president’s sweeping domestic agenda bill in recent days.