As fiscal conditions tighten going into 2024, a new analysis shows Illinois’ budget reserves are among the lowest in the nation.

According to Pew Charitable Trusts, rainy day funds hit all-time highs in 38 states at the end of fiscal year 2023, including in Illinois. But most states expect their total financial cushions to decline by the end of the current budget year.

Straight out of the starting blocks, Chicago is learning how hard it will be to write an ordinance to reduce a broad array of pollutants built up over many years across a big, diverse city.

Chicago’s first-ever “Cumulative Impact Assessment,” released in September, is already sparking debate.

Members of the public would have to make reservations and show government-issued identification to sit in the main, second-floor gallery in the Council Chambers during meetings of the Chicago City Council under revised rules designed to limit access to where members of the public can sit.

The new rules, issued Thursday, came several days after the president of the Better Government Association warned Mayor Brandon Johnson that the administration’s efforts to restrict access to meetings of the City Council were “inequitable and likely illegal.”

John Billis hasn’t gotten a parking citation, let alone a traffic ticket, in about 50 years, he says.

So why, Billis wonders, must he take a driving test to renew his license upon turning 79?

Gov. JB Pritzker on Friday signed into law a measure that will allow for the limited development of new nuclear power generation technology in the state.

The measure, House Bill 2473, does not allow new large-scale power generation facilities like the six plants that are already operational in the state, but rather allows for new smaller-scale emergent technology.