Crime on the CTA has become a top issue in Chicago.  

The Senate voted to pass a bill Wednesday evening that gives transit agencies more financial flexibility over the next two years and gives the agencies a mechanism to tackle safety issues on buses and trains.

A map shows how IDOT is considering putting toll lanes on I-55. [Illinois Department of Transportation]   

Lawmakers are moving a pair of transportation-related bills in the final days of session to address a pair of issues increasing plaguing Chicago-area commuters.  

Chief Justice Mary Jane Theis is pictured in the Illinois Supreme Court chamber during her swearing in ceremony last year. (Capitol News Illinois photo by Jerry Nowicki)

Case centers on narrow questions of Illinois state constitution

SPRINGFIELD – The Illinois Supreme Court is now deciding whether the state’s recently enacted assault weapons ban violates certain provisions of the Illinois Constitution.

In March, a circuit court judge in Macon County sided with a group of plaintiffs led by state Rep. Dan Caulkins, R-Decatur, and declared the law unconstitutional. The state appealed directly to the Supreme Court, which put a hold on the Macon County decision and put the case on an expedited schedule.

The court heard oral arguments Tuesday in the case. They argued that the law is unfair because it allows certain people, but not others, to continue buying and selling a category of firearms defined as “assault weapons.”

Rep. Jay Hoffman (D-Swansea) speaks on the House floor Tuesday. [Blue Room Stream] 

Businesses could face a stiffer punishment in wrongful death lawsuits under a bill approved by the House on Tuesday.

Rep. Maura Hirschauer (D-Batavia) speaks on the House floor Friday. [Blue Room Stream]

After targeting high-powered rifles earlier this year in hopes of curbing mass shootings, House Democrats have set their sights on keeping guns away from people accused of domestic violence crimes.  

Parents and children who receive the Invest in Kids Scholarship wearing blue shirts wait outside the Illinois House of Representatives to meet with lawmakers on Thursday. [Ben Szalinski/The Daily Line]   

Thousands of Illinois private school students could lose their scholarships if lawmakers don’t act to renew a controversial program that provides scholarships to help families afford private education.   

The Invest in Kids Scholarship Tax Credit program passed by state lawmakers in 2017 is set to expire at the end of the year and advocates in favor of the program have descended on the state capitol for months asking lawmakers to renew their support for the program that opponents call a voucher program.    

Rep. Curtis Tarver (D-Chicago) speaks to the House Ethics and Elections Committee Friday. [Ben Szalinski/The Daily Line] 

An incumbent public official could be prohibited from holding public office again under a proposal approved by the House Friday that aims to close a loophole in state law.  

Rep. Terra Costa Howard (D-Glen Ellyn), in pink, and Attorney General Kwame Raoul, seated, listen to debate Wednesday. [Ben Szalinski/The Daily Line]

House Democrats advanced Illinois’ latest package of abortion legislation Wednesday responding to last year’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, including the year’s most controversial bill targeting crisis pregnancy centers.  

The House passed a bill that could subject gun manufactures to lawsuits under the state’s consumer protection laws. The Senate passed a bill creating a hotline to recover stolen cars in Cook County. And Michael McCuskey was granted another term as the Legislative Inspector General.  

Gov. JB Pritzker receives his first COVID-19 vaccine in March 2021.   

It started on January 24, 2020: An Illinois woman returned from Wuhan, China with the second confirmed U.S. case of COVID-19. Two months later, Illinois and the country were locked down in hopes of slowing the spread of the then-largely unknown virus as quickly as possible.   

Over three years later, following 4.1 million confirmed cases and over 36,000 deaths in Illinois, the state’s COVID-19 disaster declaration ends Thursday.   

“It’s a significant indicator of the progress that’s been made of getting past the worst parts of the COVID pandemic and the fact that Illinois is one of the most vaccinated sates in the Midwest and that we’re in decent shape moving forward to keep people safe from this deadly disease,” Gov. JB Pritzker told The Daily Line.