Newly retired Jesse White, the first African-American elected as Illinois Secretary of State, is endorsing Paul Vallas, giving Vallas a leg up in his quest to claim the 20% share of the Black vote he needs to win the April 4 mayoral runoff against Brandon Johnson.

White, 88, retired in January after a record six terms as secretary of state. In four of those elections, he was the leading vote-getter statewide. He endorsed City Clerk Anna Valencia as his replacement, but she lost handily to former Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias.

Unions, super PACs and political organizations that threw their money and support behind slates of Chicago City Council candidates are tallying their batting averages for the first round of voting and figuring out their game plans for the April 4 runoffs.

The stakes are high, as the cash and manpower these groups can bestow could help swing many of the 14 remaining head-to-head contests in which they opt to get involved.

A new bill in the Illinois House aims to stop schools from working with police to issue students tickets for minor misbehavior, a harmful and sometimes costly practice that many districts have continued despite pleas to stop from the state’s top education officials.

An investigation by ProPublica and the Chicago Tribune revealed last year that school-based ticketing was rampant across Illinois, with police writing citations that can result in a fine of up to $750 for conduct once handled by the principal’s office.

A proposed 1,300-mile pipeline to carry concentrated carbon dioxide that would run through 13 Illinois counties is being met with pushback from residents of central Illinois.

The Texas pipeline company Navigator has proposed a 20-inch wide pipeline five feet underground to carry the chemical through parts of central Illinois.