Democrat and Republican candidates for all Illinois House seats, some state Senate seats, all of Illinois’ U.S. House seats and some judgeships across the state are filing their nominating petitions to get on the March 19 primary ballot.

Monday opened the week-long window for candidates of the two major parties to file their nominating petitions. Some started waiting in line as early as 3:45 a.m. Monday, despite the bitter cold. All petitions for seats up for grabs are pending any potential objections.

Two buses arrived in Chicago on Monday — and five over the holiday weekend — at the city’s newly designated “landing zone” for migrant arrivals.

Those stepping off the buses and quickly given blankets are greeted by nonprofit volunteers and ushered to a table where they can pick up warm clothes.

As the Dec. 1 due date for Cook County property owners to pay their taxes looms, taxpayers will have a new way to find out where their money is going and which government body is taking more — or less — tax dollars than before.

Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas has launched a new online tool, “Where Your Money Goes,” showing how much money from an individual property owner’s taxes goes to each school district or other local unit of government.

Chicago’s ethics ordinance should be tightened to apply to political fundraising committees to prevent future city officials from escaping sanctions for violations, including sending emails to city employees at their official city email addresses asking them to send cash to their campaigns, the Chicago Board of Ethics urged the Chicago City Council.

The recommendation followed the Ethics Board’s unanimous decision Nov. 13 to dismiss a complaint prompted by Inspector General Deborah Witzburg’s determination that former Mayor Lori Lightfoot committed three violations of the city’s Governmental Ethics Ordinance by sending pleas for cash to city employees.

Plans to build a tent camp for migrants in Brighton Park hit a snag, with the start of construction stalled as the city scrambles to shelter asylum seekers from the dangerous winter weather.

Ald. Julia Ramirez (12th) said she was told by Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office last week that construction on a tent camp for migrants would begin Monday at a vacant lot at 38th and California, but the mayor’s office said that work won’t begin just yet.

It was all-systems-go on the renovation of a Burger King on Chicago’s Southwest Side in 2017 when the project’s field representative got a strange call from then-Ald. Ed Burke’s longtime ward assistant, who said work had to stop over a permit issue.

“I was concerned and a little bit startled,” Pam Smith, a supervisor with Tri City Foods, testified Monday in Burke’s corruption trial, saying the Oct. 24, 2017, call from 14th Ward aide Peter Andrews Jr. was the first interference from an alderman’s office she’d ever experienced.

The race to replace Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx commenced Monday, the first day of filing for chief prosecutor hopefuls and other candidates seeking to run in the March 19, 2024, primary election.

The embattled Foxx announced in April that she would not seek a third term as the leader of the nation’s second-largest prosecutors’ office.

Monday was supposed to have been the first day in the weeklong federal corruption trial of former Republican state Sen. Sam McCann, who allegedly misused more than $200,000 in campaign funds for personal expenses.

A pull-down projector screen in the Springfield courtroom of U.S. District Judge Colleen Lawless stood ready to play host to prosecutors’ presentation prepared to accompany their opening statements.