Get the latest news from around Illinois.
The Center Square: Illinois House expected to return to pass largest state spending plan in history
The Illinois House is expected to return Tuesday to finish up the plan on how the state will spend more than $53 billion in Illinois taxpayer money.
The legislature was scheduled to adjourn Friday before the holiday weekend, but budget details failed to surface until it was too late and session was extended into contingency days.
The Chicago Tribune: Gov. J.B. Pritzker continues clashing with Illinois Senate over parole board
The Illinois Senate and Gov. J.B. Pritzker remain divided over changes to the state’s embattled parole board, even as the Democratic-controlled legislature and the Democratic governor move toward a belated state budget deal.
Over opposition from the governor’s office, Senate Democrats, joined by their Republican colleagues, voted without opposition late Sunday to codify a series of changes to the Illinois Prisoner Review Board, a body that has been a source of long-running bipartisan tension between the legislative chamber and the Pritzker administration.
WCIA: Illinois budget would eliminate state grocery tax, give local governments more time to prepare for change
The state budget for the upcoming fiscal year would provide funding for all different areas like education. But it also aims to address the high prices people are paying for their groceries by eliminating the state’s one percent sales tax on groceries.
In 2022, the state put a temporary cut on the grocery tax for one year. Ending the tax was one of the key proposals included in Governor Pritzker’s budget address in February.
CBS Chicago: Leaders, activists push for safety with another violent Memorial Day weekend in Chicago
The family of a 23-year-old man in the Albany Park neighborhood was one of at least nine mourning the loss of a loved one because of gun violence in Chicago this Memorial Day weekend.
The man – identified by the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office as Cristian Diaz Hernandez – was near the street in the 3100 block of West Carmen Avenue when a vehicle pulled up and someone inside shot him. He was struck in the abdomen and was pronounced dead at Ascension St. Francis Hospital in Evanston.
State Journal-Register: Funding for Logan Correctional Center demolition included in $53.1 billion budget
Demolition crews have yet to arrive at Logan Correctional Center, but the funding for their work could be approved in coming days pending action by the Illinois General Assembly.
Tucked into the $53.1 billion budget for the upcoming fiscal year and at the behest of Gov. JB Pritzker is just under $1 billion for the cover the demolition and reconstruction expenses for both Logan and Stateville Correctional Center in suburban Chicago. And with budget approval from the state legislature and the signature of the governor, any roadblocks to the plan will be cleared.
Chicago Sun-Times: Camera caught worker at Illinois state facility for developmentally disabled beating a patient
Cameras in common areas at Choate Mental Health and Developmental Center were supposed to make the troubled southern Illinois facility safer for the approximately 200 people with developmental disabilities who live there.
But a camera caught a mental health technician grab a patient by the shirt in mid-February, throw him to the floor and punch him in the stomach, according to court records.
The Daily Herald: Diamond in the rough or money pit? Metra board chagrined at costs of warehouse ‘fiasco’
It seemed like a good idea at the time.
Faced with insufficient storage space for materials, equipment and parts, Metra leaders hoped a former furniture warehouse in Harvey could solve their overflow problems.