Gov. J.B. Pritzker presents an election-year budget filled with tax relief and more spending on programs. And Rod Blagojevich weighs in on a congressional race. . Our politics team weighs in on that story and more.
Spotlight Politics


Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown joined Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx to announce charges Wednesday against a 16-year-old boy and a 27-year-old man.

Rank-and-file CTU members on Wednesday signed off on the deal, two days after the union’s elected delegates voted to suspend a labor action that saw the vast majority of teachers refusing to work in person amid a spike in COVID-19 cases.

What’s the political fallout of the standoff between the teachers union and the city? The race for the 1st Congressional District heats up after Bobby Rush announces he's stepping down. And U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger decides his future on the eve of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot anniversary.

COVID-19 is surging across the country and here in Illinois as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention faces criticisms for changing its isolation guidelines. Our Spotlight Politics team has that and more.

A look at the political and economic ramifications of the COVID-19 surge. Our politics team and guest reporters weigh in on that and more.

Sports betting, casinos, and COVID-19 bills in Springfield. Our politics team weighs in on that and more.

The mayor’s choice to lead the Civilian Office of Police Accountability has caused some controversy with City Council members.

The state’s political landscape is shuffling with the new congressional map and the political fallout of the Chicago Park District sex abuse scandal. Our Spotlight Politics team on that and more.

Thirteen alderpeople invoked state law to call a special meeting of the Chicago City Council for 11 a.m. Friday in an attempt to force a vote on a measure that would reverse Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s order that all city employees disclose their vaccination status.

“A grave tragedy occurred seven years ago. And that tragedy sits with me, as it has, every day and every week for the last seven years,” Rahm Emanuel said during a hearing before the Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday that took place on the seventh anniversary of Laquan McDonald’s murder.

In a video posted online Tuesday, Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara vowed to take Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration to court if it tries to enforce a mandate, which requires city workers to report their vaccine status by the end of the work week.

Kim Foxx held a rare press conference Tuesday to respond to Mayor Lori Lightfoot, calling it “inappropriate” and “wrong” for the mayor to publicly push for criminal charges in last Friday's shooting “without the benefit of all of the evidence.”

A Bears season ticket holder, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she would approach negotiations to keep the Bears in Chicago not as a fan but as the steward of taxpayer funds and as a “business decision.”

Some Chicago public schools will retain their resource officers, following a split vote by the Board of Education to approve a one-year, $11 million contract with the Chicago Police Department.

The Chicago Board of Ethics has found there is probable cause to believe that Ald. Jim Gardiner (45th Ward) violated the city’s Governmental Ethics Ordinance by using his office to retaliate against his political foes.