Cook County Appellate Court Judge Jesse Reyes, left, and Illinois Supreme Court Justice Joy Cunningham, right, are running for the First District Supreme Court seat. [Reyes Campaign & Illinois Supreme Court]     

What is the right mix of experience and diversity? That’s the question Cook County Democratic primary voters are being asked as Appellate Court Judge Jesse Reyes and incumbent Supreme Court Justice Joy Cunningham try to win over voters in the 1st Supreme Court District.  

Illinois Municipal League Executive Director Brad Cole speaks at a news conference in Springfield on Tuesday. [Ben Szalinski/The Daily Line] 

Local governments want lawmakers to approve a series of bills that municipal leaders say will save local governments money or allow local governments to raise revenue to provide better services. 

Illinois Republican Party Chair Don Tracy speaks at Republican Day at the Illinois State Fair last August. [Ben Szalinski/The Daily Line] 

Early voting and mail-in voting is OK and might even help Republicans win elections, the leader of the Republican Party told a large gathering of Illinois Republicans on Friday night as part of the party’s new embrace of practices to make voting more accessible.

The Illinois Capitol 

A new state task force is beginning to meet to discuss the possibility of implementing ranked choice voting for the 2028 presidential primary election.  

Sen. Doris Turner (D-Springfield) speaks at a news conference on Thursday. [Ben Szalinski/The Daily Line] 

It’s been nearly a year since the Morgan County coroner discovered major issues with misidentified and mishandled human remains at a Carlinville funeral home, which quickly led to dozens of families around the country learning the cremated remains they received from Heinz Funeral Home weren’t actually the remains of their loved ones.  

Investigations into what happened at the funeral home and identifying the correct remains for about 80 families around the country continues, especially for Sangamon Coroner Jim Allmon who had to exhume a fifth set of misidentified remains from Camp Butler Cemetery in Springfield on Thursday before he attended a news conference at the State Capitol.

Sen. Omar Aquino (D-Chicago) leads a news conference in Springfield on Wednesday. [Ben Szalinski/The Daily Line] 

Lawmakers and advocates are continuing to push for Illinois to enact a child tax credit as a critical anti-poverty measure. But in a year with new budget pressures and many requests for tax credits, the lawmakers and advocates behind the proposal faced questions about whether the state can afford it.  

Illinois Manufacturers’ Association CEO Mark Denzler speaks at a news conference in Springfield on Wednesday. [Ben Szalinski/The Daily Line] 

Illinois lawmakers need to do more to position the state as a leader in research and development and new carbon capture and sequestration technologies, according to the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association.  

Sen. Sue Rezin (R-Morris) holds a news conference in Springfield on Wednesday. [Ben Szalinski/The Daily Line] 

Sen. Sue Rezin (R-Morris) has had enough of hearing horror stories from parents about the effects of social media on their children. She’s pushing legislation she believes needs to be passed at the state level to rein in how social media companies target children through advertising and algorithms. 

Lawmakers and advocates call for eliminating the tipped minimum wage at a rally outside the Illinois Capitol on Tuesday. [Ben Szalinski/The Daily Line] 

Advocates want to extend a new Chicago ordinance eliminating the tipped minimum wage to the rest of the state to boost wages for employees who receive tips as part of their income.  

Gov. JB Pritzker delivers the 2023 state of the state and budget address last February. [Blue Room Stream] 

State revenue remains around the same level as this time last year, according to the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability’s (CGFA) January report — the last before Gov. JB Pritzker presents his Fiscal Year 2025 budget proposal on Feb. 21.