Tuesday marked the beginning of a process to move Illinois toward reopening entirely, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said, but a full reopening isn’t likely for months.

After four health care workers in the Peoria area took the first of two doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine that were delivered Monday, Pritzker said the state is closer to entering Phase 5 of his COVID-19 reopening plan with no restrictions on business or gathering sizes.

Democratic allies of House Speaker Mike Madigan on Monday ended an inquiry into whether the speaker did anything that should disqualify him from serving in the legislature.

Members of a “Special Investigative Committee” formed at the behest of Republicans deadlocked on whether to bring charges against Madigan related to a federal probe into a bribery scheme orchestrated by lobbyists for utility Commonwealth Edison to curry favor with the Speaker.

After Illinois voters rejected his progressive income tax amendment, Gov. J.B. Pritzker has said he plans to focus on cuts to balance the state’s budget.

On Tuesday, Pritzker has announced plans to reduce state spending by $700 million dollars for fiscal year 2021. The plan includes a hiring freeze, grant reductions and operational savings.

The pandemic-induced economic damage will fade slower for cities and towns in Illinois, according to a report from Fitch Ratings, but more budgetary strife could be ahead for local elected officials.

Released earlier this month, Fitch Ratings predicted local municipalities in Illinois and New Jersey will see especially pronounced budget pressure in 2021.

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) will reopen in January, finally returning kids to their classrooms. But many teachers—between a quarter and half, the district suspects—plan to keep teaching from home, even if their students are back at their desks.

To cope with the potential staffing shortages, CPS plans to hire 2,000 new employees. About half of those will be part-time, non-unionized employees, and their job will be to supervise and assist students in the schools, according to The Chicago Sun-Times.

Few businesses are irreplaceable, but JT Walker’s Restaurant and Brewery, an anchor of Mahomet’s downtown, likely falls into that category.

That’s the opinion of people in the know in the west Champaign County community.

A judge on Tuesday threw out the felony drug convictions of six men who were framed by a disgraced former Chicago police sergeant’s team, bringing to 100 the number of overturned convictions linked to a years-long scheme to shake down residents of one of the city’s poorest communities.

The Cook County court hearing marked the latest chapter in a story of corruption that has been breathtaking in its scope in the four years since judges in Chicago started overturning drug casesof Black drug dealers and residents of the Ida B. Wells public housing project on the city’s South Side. They were convicted after they refused to pay then-Sgt. Ronald Watts and his tactical unit.

When leaders of a crucial but troubled industry come to government for help—and offer to do the heavy lifting themselves—a smart government moves out of the way and somehow gets the job done.

That’s not the case at Chicago City Hall. A meltdown yesterday of an effort to boost shopping along the not-so-Magnificent Mile provides a textbook case of how not to act in the middle of a job- and revenue-killing pandemic.

In the November election, four more states joined Illinois in allowing recreational marijuana use in hopes of closing budget gaps, but how reliable is the tax revenue?

Policymakers in these states lobbied for legal pot in part to bring in revenue. For example, New Jersey’s governor said the money would help fund education and infrastructure.

Aldermen and police officials locked heads Monday during a debate over an ordinance that would require police ensure detained people can make a call within an hour of being arrested.

The measure would require the Police Department to provide detained people with a phone call one hour after arriving at a police station. Although the ordinance allows for exceptions in extraordinary circumstances, police officers would have to document the reason for delay.

The city council voted unanimously on Tuesday during a rare lunchtime meeting to approve an agreement with the federal government settle a long-standing issue — sewage overflowing into the Illinois.

Through their Microsoft Teams feed, the 11 members of the Peoria City Council praised the agreement that was touted as of the first in the nation use 100% green solutions to solve sewer overflows.

University of Illinois faculty say an ongoing statewide investment in a public-private research network is key to boosting the state’s economy.

The Discovery Partners Institute, a UI-led research and workforce development hub based in Chicago, is the flagship program of the Illinois Innovation Network that seeks to invest in 15 regional hubs affiliated with the UI system to spur economic growth with state funding. The goal of IIN is to create technology jobs in Illinois and train the state’s workforce to fill them.