Illinois state Sen. Mike Simmons, D-Chicago, is pushing a permanent state-level child tax credit that some supporters estimate could slash child poverty by as much as 8% while impacting roughly half of all the state’s children overall.

First introduced by Simmons in 2023, Senate Bill 1444 is still up for consideration, with the veteran lawmaker adding he plans to again introduce the bill that seeks to award parents a credit of up to $700 per child during the upcoming budget negotiations in Springfield.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson says he supports ending the controversial Chicago Public Schools program that puts uniformed police officers in dozens of high schools.

The mayor said in an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ on Tuesday that he will give the Board of Education the green light to end its $10.3 million contract with the Chicago Police Department. CPS officials told principals in early January to prepare for the possible removal of police officers by next fall.

Facing threats of a legal battle from the city’s rank-and-file police union, aldermen again deferred a decision Wednesday over the future of serious discipline for officers accused of wrongdoing.

A parliamentary maneuver to “defer and publish” a vote on the matter was made by allies of Mayor Brandon Johnson, marking the latest chapter in a contentious dispute over arbitrator Edwin Benn’s decision last year. Benn’s ruling granted members of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7 the ability to have the most serious disciplinary cases heard privately by a third party, rather than in public through the Police Board process.

Advocates for criminal justice reform have often pointed to minor traffic stops as a source of tension between police and the community. An Illinois lawmaker on Wednesday introduced a bill that would restrict the reasons a cop can pull you over.

Justin Slaughter, who represents parts of Chicago’s South Side and south suburbs, has introduced House bill 4603, which would change the motor vehicle code to prohibit police stops for minor offenses like failing to display license plates or expired stickers, as well as excessively tinted windows, defective mirrors, defective bumpers or excessive exhaust.

After steadily buying a collection of vacant department store buildings at Stratford Square, the village of Bloomingdale has taken over the core of the mall itself.

The village already owns the old Carson’s, Burlington and Sears stores along with a strip of land along Springfield Drive. Bloomingdale leaders have now finalized an $8.75 million deal to purchase the remainder of the mall — a step toward re-imagining the sprawling site.

Chicago became the largest city in the nation to demand a cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hamas, thanks to a symbolic resolution approved by a divided City Council Wednesday at a raucous meeting that forced Mayor Brandon Johnson to cast the tie-breaking vote.

Johnson helped deliver the 24 to 23 vote by personally lobbying fence-sitting alderpersons on behalf of the resolution, breaking the tie after a 23 to 23 deadlock and by asking two allies — Stephanie Coleman (16th) and Vice-Mayor Walter Burnett (27th) — to “take a walk” if they couldn’t vote in favor of the resolution.

Every year, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development gives money to counties.

Community Service Director for Champaign County Lisa Benson said getting the money can be competitive.