Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias speaks at a news conference last month promoting a bill. [Ben Szalinski/The Daily Line]   

Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias hit the ground running in January not just on improving driver's services for residents but on pushing legislation he felt was important to his office’s mission.  

Rep. Brad Fritts, a Republican from Dixon, is the youngest person ever elected to the General Assembly. [Rep. Brad Fritts] 

New college graduates in their early 20s face a lot of questions: when should they live on their own, how do they get into a promising job, what sort of payments should they make on loans, insurance or a fun weekend?   

For Rep. Brad Fritts (R-Dixon), he’s tasked with answering the state’s most pressing issues on behalf of thousands of constituents who picked him to be their state representative.  

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

Illinois closed Fiscal Year 2023 bringing in more revenue than last year’s record, according to a report from the bipartisan Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability (CGFA).  

Natalie Toro is sworn in as the 20th District’s newest state Senator at Hamlin Park Fieldhouse on July 10, 2023. [Michael McDevitt/The Daily Line]

Democratic Party officials appointed Natalie Toro, a kindergarten teacher and former county board candidate, to an open state Senate seat representing the Northwest Side of Chicago following panel interviews at the Hamlin Park Fieldhouse Monday evening. 

Toro received more weighted votes than runner-up Graciela Guzman, a progressive who had the backing of many public attendees and multiple progressive groups. They were the only two of eight candidates to receive votes from local Democratic committeepersons. 

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.