Illinois hosts one of the largest international student populations in the nation, ranking fifth, with more than 55,000 international students, according to a 2024 Open Doors report.

Ald. Gilbert Villegas plans to invoke a rarely used rule at Wednesday’s Chicago City Council meeting to force representatives of Mayor Brandon Johnson to answer questions publicly about their plan to handle police misconduct lawsuits.

The Trump administration abruptly revokes visas for students at local universities. And state elections officials look into the Illinois Senate president’s campaign fund.

Even after a four-hour hearing, several alderpeople said they were not prepared to vote on the proposal designed to leverage the city’s financial power to build what the city calls “green social housing,” permanently affordable, mixed-income and environmentally sustainable housing.

Chicago alderpeople are pushing to ban Jan. 6 participants from city jobs. And the Trump administration is yanking funding for arts and cultural groups — a look at the local impact.

More than 1,000 grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities for cultural programs across the country were terminated by the Trump administration last week.

A joint session of the Housing and Finance committees on Wednesday will consider the proposal to leverage the city’s financial power to build permanently affordable, mixed-income and environmentally sustainable housing.

What the new round of tariffs means for your wallet. And the impact of federal funding cuts on local libraries.

According to the American Library Association, more than 77% of rural public libraries are the only source of free public access to computers and the internet in their communities.

The U.S. president has shown few signs of backing down on tariffs despite the mounting pressure in the financial markets. His commitment to tariffs could have devastating effects for the global economy, even though Trump is banking that it will ultimately pay off with manufacturing jobs.

Stocks plummet after Trump’s sweeping tariffs. And after a long year of negotiations, Chicago teachers have a tentative contract deal.

Mexico was Illinois’ second-largest export market in 2024 with $32 billion worth of goods being sent to the country. Another $19 billion worth of Mexican goods came to Illinois that year, making the country Illinois’ third-largest import market.

Wednesday’s vote comes two days after the union announced it had reached a tentative agreement with Chicago Public Schools following nearly a year of bargaining.