O’Hare International Airport is pictured in a file photo. (WTTW News)

Demonstrators used the traffic shutdown to bring attention to the continuing war in Palestine and push for a cease-fire in Gaza. Traffic flow resumed by about 9:20 a.m. 

Mayor Brandon Johnson speaks at a news conference Wednesday, March 20, 2024. (WTTW News)

The City Council’s Budget Committee is set to consider the request at a meeting Monday, six weeks after the mayor pointedly declined to join Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle when they announced an agreement to set aside an additional $250 million to care for migrants.

State Sen. Ann Gillespie, D-Arlington Heights, speaking at an event in 2023. Gillespie was recently named acting director of the Illinois Department of Insurance. (Capitol News Illinois)

The announcement came in the middle of a legislative session in which Gov. J.B. Pritzker is proposing sweeping changes in state regulation of the health insurance industry.

Prosecutors said 11-year-old Jayden Perkins was killed by Crosetti Brand last month as the boy tried to protect his pregnant mother from her ex-boyfriend’s knife, a mere day after Brand had been cleared by the Prisoner Review Board for release from Stateville Correctional Center. (Courtesy of Jayden Perkins Family Support Fund)
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The killing of 11-year-old Jayden Perkins is drawing attention to a small state board responsible for deciding when prisoners can be released on parole.

Prison file photo. (WTTW News)

Housing at Stateville Correctional Center is “not suitable for any 21st century correctional center.” Logan Correctional Center is “inefficient, ineffective, and unsuitable for any population.”

Gov. J.B. Pritzker signs an executive order March 18, 2024, alongside 7-year-old Kioko Jenkins, who has sickle cell disease, at La Rabida Children’s Hospital in Chicago. The order creates an advisory council to investigate how Illinois’ Medicaid program can help cover costs of emerging gene therapies. (Dilpreet Raju / Capitol News Illinois)
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About 5,000 Illinoisans live with sickle cell disease, a gene defect most common in Black people that causes red blood cells to be misshapen and die off early, resulting in chronic fatigue and pain. 

The Madison County Courthouse is pictured in Edwardsville. (Beth Hundsdorfer / Capitol News Illinois)

The law passed last year came in response to the large number of constitutional challenges that were filed in multiple jurisdictions challenging Pritzker’s COVID-19 mitigation orders, as well as a law ending cash bail in Illinois and the state’s 2021 assault weapons ban.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker is pictured during a March 18, 2024, press conference. (WTTW News)
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Under the new law, voters will elect 10 members in Novembers while Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson will appoint 10 members of his choosing, plus the board president. That leaves the board under mayoral control until 2027, when the city would move to a fully-elected school board.

Stateville Correctional Center. (WTTW News)
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An independent report identified Illinois’ Stateville and Logan prisons as outdated and in need of costly repairs.

Illinois Department of Revenue Director David Harris, IDOR Chief Economist Rubina Hafeez and Governor’s Office of Management and Budget Director Alexis Sturm take questions from the House Revenue and Finance Committee in Springfield on Thursday. (Jerry Nowicki / Capitol News Illinois)

Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s proposed spending plan anticipates $52.9 billion in revenue, with new funds raised by increasing certain corporate tax rates, lowering personal and business income tax deductions and making other tax changes. 

The House Human Services Committee hears testimony Wednesday, March 13, 2024, about Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s proposal to limit the ability of insurance companies to deny claims or steer patients toward cheaper, and possibly less effective, treatments.  (Peter Hancock / Capitol News Illinois)

The changes, which Gov. J.B. Pritzker first unveiled in his State of the State address in February, would limit the ability of companies to deny claims or steer patients toward cheaper, and possibly less effective, treatments.

Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability chief economist Ben Varner (left to right), revenue manager Eric Noggle and executive director Clayton Klenke testify at the commission’s annual revenue update meeting in Springfield Tuesday. (Jerry Nowicki / Capitol News Illinois)

The state’s two main fiscal forecasting agencies agree: Illinois’ finances will see a strong close in the final 3 ½ months of the fiscal year before things tighten a bit next year.

(WTTW News)
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A plan headed to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s desk will allow voters in November to choose half of the Chicago Board of Education. Johnson will appoint the other half, plus its president.

(WTTW News)
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A recent Alabama Supreme Court ruling is raising questions about IVF. In Illinois, the Reproductive Health Act protects the increasingly popular path to parenthood while establishing people’s right to make decisions about their own reproductive health.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker delivers his state of the state and budget address before the General Assembly at the Illinois State Capitol, Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2024. (WTTW News)

More money for migrants, increased access to preschool, a break on grocery bills and a prescription for how the state could wipe out medical debt — those are some of the spending plans in Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s nearly $53 billion state budget.

(WTTW News)

Illinois shoppers would save a dollar when they buy $100 worth of groceries under Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s proposal to eliminate a state sales tax on groceries.