Rep. Dan Caulkins (R-Decatur) speaks Thursday during the House Public Utilities and Energy and Environment Committees join hearing. [Blue Room Steam]

Ameren customers are facing a price hike of more than $600 on their electric bills during the next year, but there’s little lawmakers can do to help bring costs down as they debate the role that a 2021 clean energy law plays into the reasons for the price hike.

Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin, top left, Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia), top right, Jesse Sullivan of Petersburg, bottom left, and former Sen. Paul Schimpf (R-Waterloo), bottom right during Tuesday’s debates on NBC Chicago and WGN. [NBC-5 & WGN-TV]

The six Republican candidates for governor took questions on live TV Tuesday night for the first time this year to share their vision for Illinois. As the candidates pushed policy positions or defended their records, some statements require a deeper explanation of the issue and what candidates are pledging to address.

From left to right, Jesse Sullivan (R-Petersburg), Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia) and Gary Rabine (R-Bull Valley) appear at a forum on WGN Tuesday. [WGN-TV] 

Illinois’ Republican candidates for governor covered a wide range of issues in a pair of fast-paced forums Tuesdays night as issues of gun violence, inflation and taxes hang over the state.

Gov. JB Pritzker sent a letter to President Joe Biden urging the federal government to consider Illinois’ population undercount in the 2020 Census when aid is distributed to states. And House Speaker Chris Welch (D-Hillside) visited the New York State Assembly in Albany Tuesday.

The Illinois Supreme Court in Springfield.

Legal contribution limits have been busted in the primary races for the 2nd Supreme Court District, setting up another expensive election cycle for a Supreme Court seat two years after voters removed a justice from the state Supreme Court following an expensive advertising campaign.

Rep. Lindsey LaPointe (D-Chicago), left, and Tina Wallace of Chicago, right. [Blue Room Stream & Tina Wallace Facebook]

Rep. Lindsey LaPointe (D-Chicago) is trying to fend off primary challenger Tina Wallace in her newly drawn 19th House District on Chicago’s Northwest Side. It’s the second consecutive election LaPointe has faced an opponent within her own party after being appointed to the seat in 2019.

Rep. Mike Zalewski (R-Riverside), bottom left, and Abdelnasser Rashid, bottom left, speak during a League of Women Voters debate Wednesday. [League of Women Voters of the La Grange Area/Facebook]

Rep. Mike Zalewski (D-Riverside), a 13-year veteran of the Illinois House and chair of the House Revenue and Finance Committee, is trying to fend off a challenge from Abdelnasser Rashid, a former aide to Chuy Garcia’s 2015 campaign for mayor of Chicago and to former Cook County Clerk David Orr.

A man pumps gas during a gas giveaway by Chicago mayoral candidate Willie Wilson. [Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago]

The Illinois Fuel and Retail Association filed a lawsuit against the Department of Revenue Thursday over a requirement lawmakers included in this spring’s tax relief bill that gas stations must post a sign on gas pumps informing customers the gas tax is frozen.

Rep. Marty Moylan (D-Des Plaines), left, and Deputy Secretary of Transportation Becky Locker, right, speak during a House Transportation Committee meeting Wednesday. [Blue Room Stream]

Three years into the state’s 2019 Rebuild Illinois capital plan, lawmakers are expressing concerns about how fast the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) is allocating money to complete projects.

Rep. Kam Buckner (D-Chicago) speaks at a news conference at St. Sabina Catholic Church in Chicago’s Auburn Gresham neighborhood Wednesday with Gov. JB Pritzker, Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Chicago Police Supt. David Brown. [Ben Szalinski/The Daily Line] 

Days after a teenager was detained by police while in possession of a so-called ‘ghost gun' following the murder of a 16-year-old boy at Millennium Park in Chicago, Gov. JB Pritzker signed a bill to make Illinois the first state in the Midwest to ban the sale and possession of guns that lack serial numbers.

Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia), left, and Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin, right, appear to be the front runners in the Republican primary. [Blue Room Stream & Ben Szalinski/The Daily Line]

Most Illinois voters will become eligible on Thursday to vote early in the June 28 primary. Some races remain without a clear frontrunner six weeks before the votes will be counted as candidates ramp up spending on advertisements and continue searching for cash.

Rep. Steve Reick (R-Woodstock), left, and Rep. Chris Bos (R-Lake Zurich) speak during a news conference Tuesday.

House Republicans have seen enough of Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) Director Marc Smith and are calling on Smith to resign or for Gov. JB Pritzker to find a new department head after an audit released last week revealed the depth of problems at the agency.

Gov. JB Pritzker after signing the Fiscal Year 2023 budget at Chicago State University in April. [Ben Szalinski/The Daily Line]

Illinois lawmakers should be more transparent about how they use federal pandemic relief funds and ensure the money is mostly being used for one time-expenditures, according to a new report from the Volcker Alliance.

Sen. Sue Rezin (R-Morris) speaks at a news conference in Aurora for Richard Irvin’s campaign on May 9. [Ben Szalinski/The Daily Line]

A week after an auditor general report found the Illinois Department of Public Health did not take a November 2020 COVID-19 outbreak at the LaSalle Veteran’s Home seriously, Sen. Sue Rezin (R-Morris), who represents the home, wants lawmakers to consider legislation she says will address some of the issues found in the audit.

Gov. JB Pritzker and Attorney General Kwame Raoul show the bill Pritzker signed at Water Tower Place in Chicago Friday. [Blue Room Stream]

Gov. JB Pritzker signed a bill Friday that retailers hope will reduce smash-and-grabs and organized retail thefts at Chicago-area businesses by targeting people who lead crime rings.

Department of Children and Family Services Director Marc Smith speaks during a House committee in January. [ILGA] 

A new audit two years in the making confirmed what many advocates in Illinois already believed to be true: the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) is failing to properly care for all children under its care.

The Illinois Supreme Court meets on Wednesday.

Two former state senators want the Illinois Supreme Court to order Comptroller Susana Mendoza to pay back wages they lost from a years-long salary freeze, arguing the freeze they voted into place was unconstitutional.

Gov. JB Pritzker speaks at a Planned Parenthood location in Fairview Heights Wednesday. [Gov. JB Pritzker/Facebook] 

Gov. JB Pritzker called on members of the U.S. Senate to pass legislation codifying a national right to abortion at a news conference Wednesday morning ahead of a Senate vote on a measure.

Peoria Police Chief Eric Echevarria speaks at a bill signing ceremony with Gov. JB Pritzker in Peoria Tuesday. [Blue Room Stream]

Police departments in Waukegan, Peoria, Springfield and East St. Louis will soon each have a mental health professional on their police force to assist on calls where a mental health response may be more appropriate than a law enforcement response.

Rep. Barbara Hernandez (D-Aurora) debates a bill in the House on March 1. [Blue Room Stream] 

It started as a headache — something that’s not unusual for anyone who works in the state capitol in the middle of spring session. But when she began feeling worse, Rep. Barbara Hernandez (D-Aurora) soon found out she was having a potentially life-threatening stroke.