Get the latest news from around Illinois.
Chicago Tribune: As bombshell trial nears, new details emerge in alleged plot by ComEd to influence Michael Madigan
Two months ahead of trial, federal prosecutors late Tuesday revealed new details of wiretapped conversations and other evidence they intend to use against four people accused in an alleged bribery scheme between Commonwealth Edison and then-House Speaker Michael Madigan.
Capitol News Illinois: After stepping down as minority leader, Durkin to exit Illinois House
Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin will leave the Illinois Statehouse Tuesday for the last time as a state legislator.
After a bruising 2022 election cycle in which House Republicans lost five seats, Durkin did not seek another term as leader of the caucus. But on Tuesday, the final scheduled day of the 102nd General Assembly, he resigned his seat altogether, and he left with some less-than-complimentary words for his own party.
Illinois Answers Project: Cook County TIF revenues smash records, squeeze taxpayers
Cook County’s nearly 450 tax-increment financing (TIF) districts reaped a record $1.6 billion from property taxpayers last year, a new report shows. Just a dozen of the districts, mostly in or around downtown Chicago, accounted for nearly half the haul.
The TIF program lets cities freeze the level of property taxes that are delivered to local governments within specific areas, and divert all new tax growth into special funds that city administrators can tap for construction projects in those areas for 23 years. Designed to kick-start private development in struggling neighborhoods, the tool has drawn increasing criticism for siphoning hundreds of millions of dollars to fast-growing areas already attractive to developers, forcing school districts and other local governments to hike taxes to balance their budgets.
Chicago Sun-Times: Probe of nonprofit halts millions in HIV, COVID research funds at Cook County Health
Cook County Health officials for nearly 10 months have halted new clinical trials at one of the nation’s leading HIV/AIDS research centers as they investigate “concerns” about a nonprofit organization that for decades has managed the county’s medical research grants.
The county in April told researchers at CORE Center, a clinic that’s in the Near West Side medical district and run by Cook County Health and Rush University Medical Center, that they were to “pause” starting new clinical trials while awaiting results of a county review of the Hektoen Institute for Medical Research, a nonprofit founded in the 1940s by Cook County hospital physicians, according to CORE staff interviewed by the Chicago Sun-Times.
The Center Square: John Deere allows Illinois farmers to repair their own equipment
Ending a standoff that has lasted for years, Illinois farmers now have the right to repair their John Deere tractors themselves.
Deere and Co. and the American Farm Bureau Federation signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that outlines the company’s responsibility to provide tools and software outside their authorized repair centers.