Illinois has embarked on a record-setting transportation upgrade program.

The state will spend more than $41 billion to build and repair transportation infrastructure. It is the largest investment in state history and will involve all 102 Illinois counties.

Candidates for Chicago’s elected school board filed their nominations with the Chicago Board of Elections Monday morning, throwing their hats in the ring for the city’s first elected school board race.

Twenty-one candidates lined up at the city Board of Elections office in the Loop, vying for one of 10 board seats. The final number of candidates in each of Chicago’s 10 districts will be determined after the nomination deadline next Monday.

Four West Side neighborhoods will see a boost in violence prevention programs targeted at people most at risk from gun violence, as a group of business leaders nears its ambitious goal of raising $100 million in private funding.

The expansion was announced Monday by leaders of nonprofit groups who largely hire workers from the streets to mediate neighborhood conflicts and recruit people at risk into programs that include therapy, education and employment training.

Chicago Ald. David Moore (17th) is putting his safety on the line to help people in his neighborhood stay safe—vowing to camp out overnight in a tent on a notoriously dangerous street.

The temperature hit a record 97 degrees in Chicago on Monday—and since he set up his tent this past weekend, Moore has already had to dodge some gunfire.

DuPage County hopes to include more minority- and women-owned businesses in its construction projects.

County board members recently approved the creation of a disadvantaged, women- and minority-owned business enterprise program. With it, the county will hire a director to lead the newly created division of contracting equity.

Mayor Brandon Johnson launched a task force Monday to examine implementing a reparations program for Black Chicagoans, casting the move as the latest step in his administration’s agenda focused on racial justice.

Under Johnson’s new executive order, the commission will conduct an examination of “all policies that have harmed Black Chicagoans from the slavery era to present day and make a series of recommendations that will serve as appropriate remedies,” according to a statement from the mayor’s office. The announcement came after Johnson earmarked $500,000 in the 2024 budget toward studying the issue.

The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity has announced $5 million in grants to more than 150 organizations.

It’s through the Back to Business local chambers program. The goal is to help chambers of commerce bounce back from the impacts of the pandemic.

Two central Illinois cities made the list of the top 100 places to live in the U.S. according to Livability.com.

According to the list, both Bloomington and Peoria ranked in the top 100 best small to mid-sized cities to live in 2024. Bloomington ranked 36 and Peoria ranked 88. Both cities made the list last year as well.