Senate President Don Harmon (D-Oak Park), seated in back row, presents a bill in the Senate Executive Committee Wednesday. 

A bill forged by union leaders and Gov. JB Pritzker to give vaccinated teachers paid sick leave if they need to miss work for reasons related to COVID-19 advanced to the Senate floor Wednesday, putting it one step away from reaching Pritzker’s desk.

Sen. Scott Bennett (D-Champaign) speaks to reporters alongside Sen. Laura Fine (D-Glenview), right, and students from Springfield.

Illinois leaders should be doing more to keep students in the state for college, and cutting down on the cost of textbooks could be a major incentive for students, Sen. Scott Bennett (D-Champaign) said in a news conference Wednesday.

Comptroller Susana Mendoza announced Illinois has paid off its remaining bill backlog from the state’s 2015-17 budget impasse. And House Minority Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) is using the latest Senate votes on Prisoner Review Board nominees to renew his call to reform the board.

Illinois Retail Merchants Association President Rob Karr speaks during a news conference Tuesday with Sen. John Curran (R-Downers Grove), back, and Sen. Suzy Glowiak Hilton (D-Western Springs), right.

Legislation to crack down on organized retail theft and expand power for prosecutors to pursue charges and investigate organized retail theft is one step away from passing the Senate.

Sen. Omar Aquino (D-Chicago) introduced his Earned Income Credit expansion proposal Tuesday.

A group of Senate Democrats are making a last-minute push to include an expansion of the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit and create other tax credits to help lower-income families with children in the Fiscal Year 2023 budget.

Gov. JB Pritzker blamed Republicans for a bipartisan rejection in the Senate of one of his nominees to the Prisoner Review Board. And advocates representing nurses from around Illinois shed light on the shortage of nurses in the state.

Eleanor Wilson, left, and Oreal James, right, speak to the Senate Executive Appointments Committee on March 22. [Blue Room Stream] 

Illinois’ Prisoner Review Board (PRB) is now short a quorum after the Senate voted to reject one of Gov. JB Pritzker’s nomination to the board and a second nominee resigned Monday.

Chicago Police officers gather in June 2020.

Police departments need more money from Springfield to keep, train and hire new officers, as well as to buy equipment to protect officers and comply with state mandates, according to the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police.

Andrew Bodewes from the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police, left, and Illinois Sheriffs’ Association Executive Director Jim Kaitschuk, right, speak to lawmakers in the House Police and Fire Committee Thursday.

Illinois leaders need to do more to retain and attract police officers, leaders of police groups are telling lawmakers as they enter the final two weeks of session and as legislation to improve public safety continues to remain a hypothetical.

Gov. JB Pritzker speaks to reporters Thursday after lawmakers passed a bill paying several of the state’s debts.

Democrats are claiming victory and touting fiscal progress in Illinois after lawmakers sent Gov. JB Pritzker a bill on Thursday partially paying debt in the unemployment insurance trust fund and paying other debts in full.