Stories by Amanda Vinicky

It’s the 700th day of Illinois’ historic budget stalemate and the final day of the General Assembly’s scheduled spring session—and still no budget in sight. The Illinois House will now push budget negotiations into June, when rules change for passing legislation.

Illinois legislators are edging closer to their adjournment Wednesday at midnight, but as of Tuesday evening no agreed plan had surfaced.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson on Monday commended the Illinois House for passing a long sought-after measure cracking down on people caught multiple times for illegal gun possession, but perhaps they were too quick with their praise.

Illinois legislators are under the gun to pass Illinois’ first complete budget since July 2015. The spring session ends Wednesday, though with time running short it seems more likely that the deadline will be put off until the end of June.

Lawmakers heard tales of woe Sunday as the Illinois House resumed what’s supposed to be the swan song of the annual spring session. There is, increasingly, a prevailing sentiment that the Democratic-led General Assembly will fail to pass a budget by May 31.

A new round of finger-pointing played out as Illinois lawmakers left the capitol Friday for a mini Memorial Day weekend break.

Illinois lawmakers are set to spend the bulk of the Memorial Day weekend at the capitol, as Illinois edges closer toward entering a third straight year without a budget.

Illinois representatives Wednesday are beginning to vet the $37.3 billion spending plan – as well as the tax hike that would support it – passed a day prior by their Senate peers.

Democrats in the Illinois Senate on Tuesday passed what could be the state’s first complete budget in two years and a revenue package that includes a 32-percent increase in the personal income tax rate. 

A just-released report from Chicago’s premier group of business executives says Illinois needs $8 billion in new and increased taxes to get back on track. 

A Chicago woman says the classified ads website Backpage.com should be held responsible for her teenage daughter’s murder late last year.

In passing House Bill 40, Illinois senators tossed a political hot potato into Gov. Bruce Rauner’s lap ahead of the 2018 gubernatorial campaign.

The political inertia that’s left Illinois without a budget can’t continue, according to a report released Tuesday by the non-partisan Civic Federation. 

Lawmakers are in the final weeks before the legislative session ends – is there a “grand bargain” in sight?  

A year to the date that Illinois human service providers first went to court, the Pay Now coalition again asked the judicial branch to force the state to make good on its contracts. 

A candidate for Illinois governor gets an early boost from one of Democrats’ traditional allies.

The ringleaders of Illinois’ partisan impasse – Gov. Bruce Rauner and House Speaker Michael Madigan – met Thursday morning for the first time since before Christmas.

Gov. Bruce Rauner sits down with Chicago Tonight correspondent Amanda Vinicky to discuss his agenda for public schools, the state budget crisis and why he drops the “g” when he speaks.

After two hours of debate this afternoon, the Illinois House passed a measure that paves the way for more taxpayer-funded abortions. The legislation allows for Medicaid recipients to use that government health insurance to cover an abortion. Likewise, for state employees.

Gov. Bruce Rauner is casting his promise to veto legislation that’s become known as the “abortion bill” as a matter of timing rather than philosophy.

With Chicago residents increasingly forgoing landlines for cellphones and other technology, state legislators are considering freeing AT&T from a longstanding mandate that it offer copper-wire "plain old telephone service."

It’s illegal in Illinois for insurers to charge rates based on factors like race, but a pair of state legislators say companies’ reliance on credit scores to set auto insurance premium rates contravenes the law. 

Illinois recently sanctioned marijuana for medicinal use, and a law signed last July decriminalized possession of small amounts of the drug. Could full-scale legalization be next? 

It is a new and disturbing mark against the city of Chicago: Early Monday morning a local judge was shot and killed.

It’s rarely taught in schools anymore, so kids today are joining cursive clubs. But a state legislator is moving to once again make cursive lessons mandatory. 

Reports from credit ratings agencies aren’t typically considered thrilling reads. But the latest one from Moody’s is so ominous, it ought to give taxpayers, or at least state lawmakers elected to represent them, the shivers.