John Kaehny has written and successfully lobbied for the passage of state and New York City laws related to government transparency and accountability, including the first open data law in the world in 2012.
Massachusetts is known for being one of the least transparent states in the country when it comes to the accessibility of public records. The governor, judiciary, and state lawmakers enjoy broad exemptions for compliance with public records requests. There are no independent statewide audits of compliance with public records law.
AIPAC pivoted in the final week of the campaign to focusing its fire on the more pro-Palestinian Abughazaleh than Biss, who was backed by the Congressional Progressive Caucus and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). Another AIPAC affiliate, Chicago Progressive Partnership, ran ads painting Abughazaleh as a closet Republican and boosting a lower tier leftist in the race, Bushra Amiwala.
The companies flooded the state's Democratic primaries with millions of dollars to promote candidates they believed would have a light touch when it came to regulating technologies that have begun to upend how people do their jobs and manage their finances. Using super PACs that are allowed to spend unlimited sums of money, they ran television advertising and distributed campaign fliers that only occasionally alluded to their industries.
A group of Illinois small farmers are meeting with members of Congress on Thursday in Washington to discuss their hopes for "transformational investments" in the next farm bill, which governs policy in the agricultural sector. As they see it, the new law could provide significant financial investment and protections that reduce economic inequality and racial injustice; build crop and human resilience to climate change and unpredictable weather; and improve access to nutritious food and sustainable, local systems.
Starting this summer, most college programs will have to show that their students earn more than someone with only a high school diploma to avoid being cut off from federal funding, as part of a new accountability measure. Congress created the earnings test known as Do No Harm when it passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last summer. The Education Department is still working to finalize the regulations that outline how it will work.
House Bill 1001's final version broadens by-right approval for certain housing types and reduces some local zoning, design and fee authority. However, it permits communities to opt out of key provisions and introduces new rules for impact fees, residential tax-increment financing and state housing infrastructure financing.
In essence, the bill would codify the National Association of Realtors' (NAR) Clear Cooperation Policy (CCP) and Multiple Listing Options for Sellers (MLOS) Policy, which require a listing to be input into the MLS within 24 hours of public marketing, a policy sellers may only circumvent by signing a disclosure form. The bill is a bit more stringent as it requires the listing be displayed online within one calendar day of the listing agreement being signed
The bill, H.R. 7661 also known as the 'Stop the Sexualization of Children Act', was introduced by Illinois representative Mary Miller who has a long history of anti-trans politics. It seeks to amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to ban federal funds being used to 'develop, implement, facilitate, host, or promote any program or activity for, or to provide or promote literature or other materials to, children under the age of 18 that includes sexually oriented material'.
Shortly after Lawrence police began their investigation in September and continuing throughout the fall, Whitman said the school's Division of Intercollegiate Athletics knew little about the allegations against Shannon. Any information relayed from Lawrence investigators to athletics officials via the University of Illinois Police Department was "verbal, unsubstantiated and vague," he would later say in a court filing, and "not sufficient to trigger" a student-athlete discipline policy.
Chicago city planners are trying to solve a national problem that officials in many cities talk about but rarely tackle at scale turning idle public land into missing middle housing in neighborhoods that have seen decades of disinvestment. For a third round, planners and city officials have initiative selling tracts of surplus property for small-scale residential infill, rather than marketing these parcels for parking, speculation or short-term budget plug-ins.
Mayor Brandon Johnson cast the tiebreaking vote as the Chicago City Council narrowly passed a resolution calling for a permanent cease-fire in Gaza Wednesday, bringing a monthslong battle over the symbolic declaration to an end. The resolution passed with Mayor Brandon Johnson breaking a 23-23 deadlock in a meeting that saw him once again clear the Council chambers after disruptions from a crowd filled mostly by pro-cease-fire spectators. The vote makes Chicago the largest American city to call for a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel.
If passed and signed into law, the bill would replace the student regent with a ninth one appointed by the governor. In addition, seven new nonvoting member seats would be established: three for students, two for state senators and two for state representatives. The proposed legislation also details several new policies and programs the board would be required to establish and would give members of the state's General Assembly the ability to override board and university expenditures through a joint resolution.
Pritzker published a direct letter he'd sent to the president, saying Trump had wrecked havoc with his tariffs regime and sent grocery prices through the roof. He calculated $1,700 owed in what he called damages to the citizens of his state, tallying the total he said Trump should pay Illinois at a staggering $8,679,261,600. He went on to threaten legal action if the demand was not met. Pritzker even went so far as to include an invoice: (Screengrab via X)
I don't know about other people. I've been challenged with my weight for, you know, most of my life so the idea and I have succeeded and failed, I mean, like a lot people, you lose weight, you gain weight over the course of your life. I realize that other people want to make this about something that it's not, the governor said.
To raise revenue and offset an increased state cost of administering the healthcare program, Whitmer is proposing five new taxes: on tobacco and vapes, sports betting and digital advertising, along with a new internet tax rate on the state's largest casinos. Lawmakers reviewed Whitmer's latest budget proposal, totaling $88.1 billion, during a joint session of the House and Senate on Wednesday. General fund spending plans were $13.6 billion, while the school aid budget totaled $21.4 billion.
The siege of Minneapolis represents a fitting, if foreboding, capstone to the first year of President Donald Trump's second term. Since returning to office one year ago, Trump has pursued no goal more passionately or persistently than breaking the ability of blue jurisdictions and their leaders to resist him. In the process, he is straining the nation's fundamental cohesion in ways that may escalate beyond his control.
My father froze. He looked at my mom, then at me. For a few seconds, nobody moved. My mom whispered, "Don't open it." But he did. Maybe it was pride. Maybe it was fear. Maybe he thought cooperating would make it all OK. The people at the door said it would be quick, just a few questions. They said he'd be back soon. They said a lot of things that didn't turn out to be true.
