Now that the Invest in Kids tax credit scholarship program is being allowed to expire, some are wondering why it was not evaluated.

During the fall veto session that concluded Thursday, Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, D-Hillside, never called for a vote a bill to extend Invest in Kids past Dec. 31, when it expires. Nearly 10,000 students enrolled in the program are now in limbo in the middle of the school year.

Consumer advocates in Chicago say a proposed Peoples Gas rate hike would hit low-income households especially hard and are pushing for a smaller increase.

The Illinois Commerce Commission is expected to vote on the proposed increase at its next public meeting 11:30 a.m. Thursday at 160 N. La Salle St. Meetings are livestreamed on the commission’s icc.illinois.gov website.

Patti Serpa is a single mother of five who relies on a state-sponsored tax credit to send her youngest, 12-year-old Santos, to St. Pius V School, a Catholic grade school in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood that she feels provides him with a better education than his former public school.

“Being at St. Pius, it’s a family,” Serpa said in Springfield last week, where she and dozens of others gathered to demand lawmakers keep the tax credit scholarship program alive. “I have all the teachers and principal’s numbers, like their cellphone numbers. When you’re a single parent you look for stuff like that.”

After awaiting trial for more than four years, what’s a few more days for Ed Burke?

It was expected that during the first week of the longtime 14th Ward alderperson’s landmark racketeering trial a 12-person jury would be seated, opening arguments would be given and witness testimony would begin.

Instead, none of those things happened.

Families in one south suburban community have just days before water will be turned off because residents said their landlord didn’t pay the bills.

CBS 2’s Andrew Ramos had the story from Blue Island, where residents were urged to leave.

After months of debate, the Evanston City Council is slated to vote Monday night on an $800 million proposal to renovate Northwestern’s Ryan Field, and Mayor Daniel Biss is expected to have the tie-breaking vote.

At the heart of James Bracken’s multifaceted trucking, demolition and excavation operation is a small office in south suburban Markham surrounded by piles of dirt and rigs rumbling in and out of a trucking yard.

Out front, a reserved parking spot is the only obvious sign of Bracken’s authority. But the unassuming office and dusty parking lot belie the clout Bracken and his family wield throughout Chicago and Cook County.

According to a study by Forbes, Illinois ranks 29th when it comes to healthcare due to cost, quality, outcomes, and access.

In a recent Harris Poll survey, 70% of adults said the healthcare system in America is failing to meet their needs in at least one way, Forbes said.