While a large part of the job for Illinois’ attorney general involves consumer protections, the election comes at a time when there are pivotal legal issues are playing out within the state and nationwide.

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul on Wednesday urged potential donors and surviving victims to use caution and be on alert for scams related to the July 4 shooting that left seven people dead and dozens more wounded.

Incumbent Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul ran unopposed for the Democratic nomination. In November, he will face Republican Tom DeVore, an attorney who successfully fought against Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s mask mandates in public schools.  

Louis Lay Jr. and his wife Erica Beck were each held on $20,000 D-bonds during a hearing Friday, a day after Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced an indictment that included dozens of charges filed against six current or former postal workers.

According to the FBI’s latest annual report, there were 8,263 hate crime incidents in the U.S. in 2020. That’s up from 7,314 in 2019 when the country experienced the highest number of hate crimes since 2008. Now the Illinois Commission on Discrimination and Hate Crimes is set to examine how to prevent and address hate crimes across the state.

The federal lawsuit Illinois joined charges the Postal Service with botching its review of a plan to buy as many as 165,000 new delivery trucks in an effort to modernize its fleet. The contract calls for just 10% of those trucks to be electric vehicles.

Charles Sikanich is accused of trying to sell an MP-40 fully automatic machine gun, which is illegal to possess in Illinois, to an undercover ATF agent while on the clock in a city vehicle, according to Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul. 

“Judge Raylene Grischow’s ruling is out of step with the vast majority of legal analysis in Illinois and across the nation,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Monday at an unrelated press event in Chicago.

Attorneys from the attorney general’s consumer fraud division are probing allegations that those who sought a COVID-19 test at pop-up sites run by the Center for Covid Control did not get their results as promised.

Navient, the second largest student loan servicer in the U.S., agreed Thursday to cancel $1.7 billion in debt owed by more than 66,000 borrowers across the country as part of a multistate lawsuit that accused the company of abusive lending practices.

In need of a COVID-19 test? Don’t just go to any site, cautions Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, who says pop-up COVID-19 testing sites aren’t licensed or regulated by any government agency. He shares tips for how to choose a testing site. 

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul on Friday said law enforcement recovered “four semitrailers of merchandise” from eight storage units in two Chicago locations Wednesday night that had been stolen from major national retailers.

Thieves claiming to be affiliated with ComEd are contacting Illinois residents and threatening to shut off their electricity unless a purportedly “past-due” bill is paid immediately via Bitcoin, according to a warning from Attorney General Kwame Raoul.

Attorney General Kwame Raoul renewed his call Thursday for Chicago officials to ban no-knock warrants and put tighter restrictions on officers to prevent mistaken raids like the one that left Anjanette Young handcuffed and pleading for help in February 2019. 

Homeowners and businesses cleaning up from strong storms that produced two tornados Sunday night, including an EF3 that tore through the Naperville area, should be on alert for scammers, according to Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul.

The Chicago Police Department has announced changes to its search warrant policy that will go into effect later this month following widespread calls for reform after a botched raid at the home of Anjanette Young in February 2019.