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.

Rep. Jay Hoffman (D-Swansea), left, and Rep. Anne Stava-Murray (D-Naperville), right, present bills to the House Revenue and Finance Committee Thursday.

Members of the House Revenue and Finance Committee heard more subject matter hearings Thursday on bills that committee chair Rep. Mike Zalewski (D-Riverside) said will make it into a package of tax credits lawmakers will pass in the final weeks of session.

House Majority Leader Greg Harris (D-Chicago) debates funding for the unemployment insurance trust fund on the House floor Wednesday night. [Blue Room Stream] 

The House approved a measure Wednesday night to provide $2.7 billion from the state’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to its unemployment insurance trust fund despite severe blowback from Republicans. The bill also made several appropriations changes to pay down debt and fund pension accounts.

Democratic leaders said they hope to get the bill past the Senate on Thursday so Gov. JB Pritzker can meet a federal regulatory deadline by signing it into law by the end of the month.

Nora Collins-Manderville from the American Civil Liberties Union, left, and Rep. Tony McCombie (R-Savanna) speak during the House Human Services Committee Wednesday.

After sailing through the Senate with unanimous support, a bill that would codify rules allowing Department of Children and Family Service (DCFS) investigators to carry pepper spray on home visits was met with opposition by advocates as the House took up the bill.