Illinois’ ability to withstand financial hits was anemic even before the global pandemic hit, but the novel coronavirus has led the state to craft a novel budget strategy. We talk COVID-19, unemployment and police reform with Illinois’ senior U.S. senator.

The U.S. government’s top infectious disease expert issued a blunt warning Tuesday that cities and states could “turn back the clock” if they lift coronavirus stay-at-home orders too fast. U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin weighs in.

Five Republican candidates are vying to take on Illinois’ long-serving and well-funded incumbent senior senator, Dick Durbin, who is running for a fifth term this fall. All five join “Chicago Tonight” for a candidate forum.

When he cast his vote finding President Donald Trump guilty on two articles of impeachment, Sen. Dick Durbin called it a “sad and angry moment.” Now that the trial is over, Durbin fears Trump won’t change his behavior.

Sen. Dick Durbin and Mayor Lori Lightfoot held a joint news conference Friday to call for federal funding to manage and protect the region’s vulnerable shoreline.

As part of an effort to steer youth away from vaping, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi are proposing a new fee on e-cigarette manufacturers and importers to fund prevention programs.

In a flurry of tweets, President Donald Trump spent the last several days attacking the newly launched impeachment inquiry against him. U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin weighs in on the situation.

As underage vaping and hospitalizations linked to vaping continue to rise, Mayor Lori Lightfoot is calling for a citywide ban on flavored e-cigarette products. “The dangers are manifesting themselves literally every day. We must act and we will,” she said.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin is calling on Food and Drug Administration Acting Commissioner Ned Sharpless to take “decisive action” against the vaping epidemic that has claimed five lives or resign.

Wealthy businessman and Chicago pastor Willie Wilson announced Tuesday he’ll run as an independent against U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin. “As an independent Democrat I want to go into the belly of the beast in Washington, D.C.,” Wilson said.

Illinois’ two senators continued their pressure campaign on Major League Baseball to be more proactive about fan safety at ballparks, urging greater transparency about how often and how seriously fans are hurt by foul balls.

Tens of billions of gallons of untreated sewage and stormwater runoff end up in the Great Lakes each year, polluting the water and prompting beach closings and swimming advisories. How new legislation aims to help.

Several hundred students ditched classes Friday for a march and rally downtown as part of the Youth Climate Strike, a global movement demanding action to address global warming.

A pair of bills would increase funding for biomedical and scientific research at top U.S. agencies and “defend America’s place as a world leader in scientific progress,” U.S. Rep. Bill Foster said in a statement. 

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin is calling for federal action following a report that identified an Illinois meat-processing plant as the worst-polluting plant of its type in the country.

News of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s decision not to run again caught the senator by surprise. “I think it’s a wide-open contest at this moment,” Sen. Dick Durbin said on Chicago Tonight.