Employees from 13 different state agencies are involved in the fraud and have illegally taken these federal public funds, according to the OEIG, which is charged with investigating allegations of misconduct within state government. As of April, more than 60% of those implicated to date worked for the Illinois Department of Human Services, which operates mental health hospitals and developmental centers across the state.

Israel’s security Cabinet approved the ceasefire agreement late Tuesday after it was presented by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his office said. U.S. President Joe Biden, speaking in Washington, called the agreement “good news” and said his administration would make a renewed push for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Trump's choices don't have experience running large bureaucratic agencies, but they know how to talk about health on TV.

With transit advocates hopeful they’ll see shovels in the ground next year to kick off the long-awaited Red Line Extension, the Chicago Transit Authority is racing to finalize the $1.9 billion in federal funding needed to complete the 5.6-mile project before the Biden administration leaves office.

A legislative committee and the Illinois Department of Agriculture agreed recently to delay finalizing new regulations governing hemp production amid an outcry of protests from small, independent producers.

The Justice Department believes President-elect Donald Trump can no longer be tried in accordance with longstanding policy that says sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted.

Mayor Brandon Johnson said he will ask the Chicago City Council to restore 162 now-vacant positions to the Chicago Police Department charged with implementing the court order known as the consent decree. Johnson reversed course after Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and the team monitoring the city’s compliance with the consent decree warned the cuts would make it impossible for the city to comply with the requirements. 

For the son of a president-elect, Trump has already had an outsized impact on the next White House. He lobbied hard for the former president to choose his good friend, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, to be his running mate.

With a rapid assembly of his second administration — faster than his effort eight years ago — the former and incoming president has combined television personalities, former Democrats, a wrestling executive and traditional elected Republicans into a mix that makes clear his intentions to impose tariffs on imported goods and crack down on illegal immigration but leaves open a range of possibilities on other policy pursuits.

Mayor Johnson says alderpeople should stop throwing tantrums and start negotiating the budget seriously. And disgraced former Ald. Danny Solis takes the stand in Michael Madigan’s historic corruption trial.

Following almost a year of legal battles and fierce public opposition, water utility Aqua Illinois is set to raise its rates in 2025. The privately owned water utility has not released an estimate of the exact impact the increase will have on customer bills in 14 northern Illinois counties.

That dictate from the president-elect’s announcement of Doug Burgum for Secretary of Interior sets the stage for a reignition of the court battles over public lands and waters that helped define Trump’s first term, with environmentalists worried about climate change already pledging their opposition.

President-elect Donald Trump said he’ll carry out the largest deportation operation in U.S. history — and has even promised to use the military to help that effort.

“It is time to treat people with developmental disabilities the same and have them be paid what they’re worth, which is what we pay everybody else,” state Sen. Cristina Castro told an Illinois Senate committee.

Seven years after the alleged assault, questions over what happened that night could jeopardize Hegseth’s nomination and seem likely to be central in his upcoming confirmation hearing.

The longtime 25th Ward alderperson, who is testifying under a deferred prosecution agreement, marks the most substantial witness in the government's case against the former House Speaker. He is expected to testify for several days.