Illinois Secretary of State Omar Osman speaks at Illinois Department of Transportation headquarters in Springfield Friday. [Gov. JB Pritzker/Facebook]   

The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) announced a new six-year construction plan Friday totaling nearly $41 billion as Illinois begins year five of the Rebuild Illinois capital plan. But as the state reaches that milestone, it’s not clear if the project is on track or behind schedule.  

A Metra train is parked above the Rock River in Rockford Monday. [City of Rockford/Facebook] 

Rebuild Illinois will bring passenger rail service back to Rockford for the first time in more than 30 years, Rockford and Illinois officials announced Thursday.  

The new taxing district for the Central Illinois Regional Airport would include all of McLean County. [Google Maps] 

More McLean County residents could be facing a slight tax increase under a bill on Gov. JB Pritzker’s desk. 

Highland Park’s 2022 Independence Day parade was abruptly ended when seven people were killed and dozens were injured by a rooftop shooter with an assault weapon. [Ben Szalinski/The Daily Line]   

“I’m furious that yet more innocent lives were taken by gun violence… I’m furious because it does not have to be that way, yet we as a nation, we continue to allow this to happen,” Gov. JB Pritzker said on the afternoon of July 4, 2022 just hours after seven people were killed and dozens were injured in a mass shooting at Highland Park’s Independence Day parade.  

Nearly six months to the day after the shooting, Pritzker signed legislation making Illinois the ninth state to ban assault weapons. But supporters of the legislation say there’s still much more work to do to respond to gun violence.  

Gov. JB Pritzker signed Illinois’ assault weapons ban into law hours after it was passed by the General Assembly in January. [Ben Szalinski/The Daily Line] 

After months of litigations at various levels of the legal system, Illinois’ assault weapons ban received its most intense review under the Second Amendment yet when six consolidated cases were heard Thursday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago.  

Gov. JB Pritzker introduces President Joe Biden at a speech at the Old Post Office in Chicago on Wednesday. [Ben Szalinski/The Daily Line] 

President Joe Biden visited Chicago Wednesday to get a political boost from Gov. JB Pritzker and other Illinois Democrats on both the president’s economic agenda and Biden’s hopes for a second term in the White House.  

Former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood speaks at a news conference at Union Station in Chicago on Monday. [Blue Room Stream]   

Amtrak trains began running at 110 m.p.h. between Chicago and St. Louis on Monday, cutting down travel times between Illinois cities and representing the latest step by the state to improve passenger rail service.  

Gov. JB Pritzker speaks at a news conference at Union Station in Chicago on Monday. [Blue Room Stream] 

A week after his administration announced changes to a healthcare program for undocumented immigrants, Gov. JB Pritzker responded to criticism from members of his own party who have asked the governor to reconsider the changes.  

Senate President Don Harmon (D-Oak Park), right, presents a bill in a Senate committee in May. [Attorney General’s Office]   

Illinois’ longest-tenured legislative leader at four years, Senate President Don Harmon (D-Oak Park), likes the direction his Democratic caucus is trending:   

“I’ve joked how hard I’ve worked to make Springfield boring again,” Harmon told The Daily Line. “We’ve had enough headlines or focusing on the difficult task of governing, of passing responsible balanced budgets, of making sure the law works for people in Illinois.” 

Gov. JB Pritzker makes a campaign stop at Planned Parenthood’s Chicago office in August 2022. [Ben Szalinski/The Daily Line]   

When the U.S. Supreme Court dropped the expected end of Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022 in the Dobbs v. Jackson ruling, it was a call to action for Illinois Democrats who spent the next year crafting and passing bills to protect and expand access to abortion in Illinois.