Stories by Medill Illinois News Bureau

Advocates argue the legislation will secure legal protections for Illinois children if they are placed in other states. Republican legislators fought the bill, arguing it infringes on other states and might deepen administrative burdens on DCFS.

Illinois grows more soybeans than any other state, harvesting more than 639 million bushels in 2025. But almost none of those millions of bushels end up as food on Illinois plates. According to the Illinois Soybean Association, 60% of soybeans grown in the state are exported.

Advocates for the bill say they are wary of debates happening in the wake of major news events, which can emphasize the technology’s role in investigations over its risks, including misidentification of individuals and expanded surveillance.

The tax credit, passed under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in 2025, is a dollar-for-dollar non-refundable federal tax credit for donations of up to $1,700 a year to authorized scholarship-granting organizations.

The Higher Education Student Loan Repayment Assistance for Engineers Pilot Program will reimburse engineers up to $15,000 annually after four years of service at the agency.

The road that helped stitch the nation together with automobile travel turns 100 this year. As the starting point for Route 66, Illinois plays a central role in launching centennial celebrations.

A lack of domestic workforce participation in agriculture pushes Illinois farmers to employ foreign workers through the temporary H-2A non-immigrant visa program.

For the last year, legislators in Springfield have been trying to work through a variety of issues raised by skeptics of the autonomous vehicles, known as AVs.

Because raw milk has not been pasteurized to remove illness-causing organisms, Illinois imposes strict limitations on its sale to protect public health. Some want to change that.

Named after the late Rev. Jesse Jackson, the act aims to increase youth voter registration.

Last November, the Trump administration proposed a stricter definition for “Waters of the United States,” excluding seasonal streams, marshes, bogs, swamps and mangrove forests from protection under the 1972 Clean Water Act.

An estimated 10,000 people in Illinois experienced “literal homelessness,” according to the IDPH report. An estimated 108,000 to 233,000 are living in unstable arrangements.

A new state transit law redirects revenue from the state’s motor fuel tax and interest from the Road Fund — funding historically used to fix roads — to public transportation.

The current Kratom Control Act in Illinois from 2014 only prohibits its sale to minors under the age of 18, but it does not require any labeling, testing standards, licensing or additional taxation.

Gov. JB Pritzker has also proposed a two-year pause on state financial incentives for data centers that have been in place since 2019.

The lack of fixed guidance at the state and federal levels on how to address the scarcity of new pennies has left some businesses at a loss.

Legal experts say the newly enacted Clean Slate Act may help reduce gaps in record-clearing, and federal marijuana reclassification could spur broader reforms across the country.

As the U.S. sheds manufacturing jobs, Illinois is accepting applications for $24 million in grant funding to establish training facilities at community colleges aimed at bolstering the state’s manufacturing labor pool.

For the first time in five years, certain forms of student loan forgiveness will be taxable following a change in federal tax policy this year.

At least 100 people have died from the flu this season in Illinois, with 77 of those deaths occurring this month alone, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

This development marks a dramatic reversal from 2021, when the number of expressway shootings spiked at 310. Since then, incidents have dropped 80% to 61 shootings last year. Of the 89 shootings in 2024, 12 were fatal. In 2025, the number of shootings decreased by 31%, with no fatalities, police said.

Bee loss is a persistent issue throughout the state. It’s not uncommon for beekeepers to lose over half of their colonies each year — primarily during winter — due to disease, competition, poor nutrition or limited resources.

It marked the third consecutive year that a regulatory bill failed, the latest front in a legislative fight that largely pits the state’s legalized cannabis industry against its industrial hemp growers.

Over the past 10 years, women have held fewer than one in 10 construction jobs. Prior to 2021, fewer than 5% of new construction apprentices in Illinois were women, according to data from the U.S. Department of Labor.

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.

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.