Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and First Lady Amy Eshleman will launch a new campaign Monday aiming to “excite and engage Chicago’s young people in all the city has to offer them as Chicago safely reopens.”

The summer-long campaign is being called “Rediscover Summer” and will offer over 200,000 summer opportunities and events for city youth.

Following weeks of steady decreases in new positive COVID-19 cases and with over 67% of residents age 18 and older receiving their first vaccine dose, Governor JB Pritzker is releasing guidelines for Phase 5 of the Restore Illinois plan, which will go into effect on June 11^th and marks a full reopening of all businesses and activities. This guidance will mean businesses, large-scale events, conventions, amusement parks, and seated-spectator venues, among others, will be able to operate at full capacity for the first time since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The State is also lifting the outdoor mask requirement in schools in accordance with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

For Illinois, the changes to voting law that legislators made in the final hours of their legislative session this week seemed innocuous. In some cases — voting by mail, allowing jail inmates awaiting trial to cast ballots — are affirmation or expansion of practices already put to the test.

But they present an electoral dichotomy with what’s happening in other states, where fury over the persistent false claims that last fall’s presidential election was stolen from the Republican incumbent, Donald Trump, have encouraged local legislators in places such as Georgia, Texas and Arizona toward sharp restrictions on some of the whens and hows of balloting.

Illinois health officials reported 342 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, along with 37 additional deaths and more than 48,000 new vaccine doses administered.

According to the latest data from the Illinois Department of Public Health, the 342 new cases reported Sunday are the fewest recorded in a single day since March of 2020. In all, 1,385,245 cases of coronavirus have been reported in the state since the pandemic began.

Karen Conti speaks with Illinois Rep. Kam Buckner about the bill he sponsored allowing college athletes to profit from their endorsements/likeness. Kam explains the specifics of this bill and the impact this will have on college sports, shares an update on the current standing of getting this fully passed and made into a mandated law, and much more.

The Illinois House approved a bill this week that would ban police from lying to youth during interrogations.

The legislation makes Illinois the first state to ban police from giving youth suspects false information during questioning, a practice that has been linked to higher rates of wrongful convictions and false confessions.