The eight local unions that authorized strikes are spread throughout Illinois and represent around 3,800 employees, including drivers, highway maintainers and bridge tenders. Negotiations between the state and the unions have lasted more than seven months. 

The emotional debate was over a resolution calling for a cease-fire in Gaza. Chicago became the largest city to pass such a resolution after Mayor Brandon Johnson cast a tie-breaking vote. 

The Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults and Health Benefits for Immigrant Seniors programs provide state-funded Medicaid-like benefits to individuals aged 42 and over who would otherwise be eligible for the federal low-income health care program if not for their immigration status. 

“The City Council, if they’re going to talk about the challenge of war in the Middle East, you’ve got to make sure that you include all the perspectives,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said. “They did not do that.”

The U.S. National Science Foundation awarded the grant to Current Innovation NFP, a nonprofit “innovation hub” whose mission is to “solve pressing water challenges caused by climate change and pollution.” 

The Illinois Department of Human Services is partnering with Google to launch a new centralized portal for children’s mental health care, state officials announced Monday.

Mayor Brandon Johnson did not lift the requirement that migrants leave city-run shelters in 60 days — instead, the nearly 14,200 men, women and children in city shelters will have longer to find more permanent housing.

“The Biden administration has put in place the most extensive set of policies and investments to benefit the middle class and grow the economy that our country has seen in my lifetime,” Yellen said in a speech before the Economic Club of Chicago.

Mayor Brandon Johnson said state officials have not worked fast enough to help migrants move out of Chicago’s shelters into permanent homes, or fulfill promises to open 2,000 new shelter beds.

PreK-12 education spending currently makes up about one-fifth of the state’s entire General Revenue Fund budget. The proposed increase, if approved, would bring the state’s total GRF spending on public education to just over $11 billion.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Monday he’s “deeply concerned” that Chicago is not going to add bed space, as the flow of nearly 35,000 asylum seekers who’ve come to the city since August 2022 shows no signs of abating. 

The 2019 law consolidated some 650 retirement funds for municipal public safety workers into two funds — one for firefighters and another for police officers. Chicago is not included.

Mayor Brandon Johnson will not evict migrants from city shelters until at least Feb. 1, suspending the 60-day limit he imposed for the second time in less than a week, a city spokesperson said.

The law, named the Protecting Illinois Communities Act (PICA), has banned the sale of hundreds of specific guns and types of guns since Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed it in early 2023.

Illinois lawmakers return to Springfield with migrants top of mind. Bad weather prompts Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to suspend his policy evicting migrants from city shelters after 60 days. And a plea from Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

“The next few days are a threat to the families and children you are sending here” because of the bitterly cold weather, Gov. J.B. Pritzker told Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.