The $46 billion budget Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law Tuesday includes $1.8 billion in largely temporary tax relief, including $50 rebate checks to adult taxpayers, a one-time increase for property owners worth up to $500, and lifting for a year a 1% sales tax on groceries, meaning that shoppers will save $1 on $100 worth of food.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued the revised executive order hours after Chicago health and transportation officials told riders a state order required them to keep masking up.

Down to the wire on a new city ward map, and some alderpeople are starting to speak out against casino locations. Plus, fallout from the RNC’s decision to avoid presidential debates, and the city’s top cop on ghost guns.

Chicago-area birds are nesting and laying eggs earlier than ever before. A mysterious meteor burns up over Papua New Guinea. A fossil could rewrite the history of the evolution of life on Earth. And a disturbing finding about microplastics.

An alderperson comes out against one of the three Chicago Casino finalists; developers plan new apartments for the Magnificent Mile; and a series of ads hopes to showcase Illinois as “the middle of everything.”

Tracie Hall, executive director of the American Library Association, says the books that are being banned in the past year target topics like racism, sexuality and sexual orientation.

The Republican National Committee has unanimously voted to withdraw from the Commission on Presidential Debates, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that has officially been sponsoring and producing general election presidential debates since 1987. 

To avert the first ward map referendum since 1992, 41 alderpeople must agree on a map no later than May 19, the deadline for the June 28 primary election ballot to be finalized.

Some lesser-known bills passed in Springfield. The city’s three casino finalists for this week’s In Your Neighborhood series. Revisiting mandatory masking. And three major religious holidays at once.

Chicago has three finalists for potential casino sites, but residents of those communities have mixed feelings. Some fear a rise in crime and the impact a casino could have on neighboring small businesses. Others are hopeful it could provide good paying jobs.

This week, three major religious holidays are coinciding for the first time in over 30 years: Ramadan, Easter and Passover. And many people are choosing to observe their holiday traditions in person for the first time in two years. 

Officials granted nearly double the number of COVID-19 vaccine exemptions to members of the Chicago Police Department than to members of any other city department, according to data provided by the mayor’s office.