by Hannah Meisel, Capitol News Illinois March 16, 2026
Article Summary
A federal judge on Friday granted prosecutors’ motion to dismiss charges against two of the “Broadview Six” who were charged with conspiracy stemming from a September protest outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility near Chicago.
Since their October indictment, the defendants — including Democratic congressional candidate Katherine “Kat” Abughazaleh — have maintained they were targeted because of their positions as liberal candidates or elected officials.
Attorneys for the remaining four defendants on Friday demanded the U.S. Department of Justice turn over records that might show “improper influence” from the Trump administration that led the DOJ to charge just six of the dozens visible in video footage of the protest.
This summary was written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.
CHICAGO — A federal judge on Friday granted prosecutors’ motion to dismiss charges against two of six Democratic officeholders, candidates and activists indicted last fall after protesting outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility near Chicago.
The “Broadview Six,” named for the small suburb in which the ICE facility became a hotbed for protest action in September, have maintained since their October indictments that they were selectively charged among dozens of protesters for political reasons.
Within minutes of the feds making the charges public, Democratic congressional candidate Katherine “Kat” Abughazaleh posted a video on social media calling the indictment “a political prosecution and a gross attempt to silence dissent” by “weaponizing the federal justice system.”
Charges were officially dropped Friday against Cook County Board candidate Catherine “Cat” Sharp, who dropped out of the race in January citing the “emotional and financial” costs of fighting the case. Joselyn Walsh, who does not work in politics but performed songs during protests at Broadview, also had charges dropped. During the same Sept. 26 demonstration at issue in the case, federal agents shot a rubber bullet through Walsh’s guitar.
In a statement Thursday, Walsh expressed relief that her charges were dismissed but that it “does not change the disruption it caused in my life for the past six months.”
“It also does not change that I was a victim of ICE violence when they shot my guitar and that many continue to experience violence at the hands of federal agents in Chicago and across the country,” she said.
Sharp predicted vindication for “all six of us.”
“This motion to dismiss proves what we have always known — that the indictment in this case was flawed from the outset,” Sharp said in a statement.
Indictment narrowed
The feds’ motion to dismiss those charges came two weeks after prosecutors agreed to narrow the scope of the indictment.
Remaining defendants include Abughazaleh and her deputy campaign manager Andre Martin, along with Chicago 45th Ward Democratic Committeeman Michael Rabbitt, a former candidate for the Illinois House, and Oak Park Village Trustee Brian Straw.
The group was charged with felony conspiracy, with prosecutors alleging they conspired to “interrupt, hinder, and impede” a federal immigration agent from the “discharge of his official duties.” They also face charges for misdemeanor simple assault of a federal officer, which does not require physical contact.
The charges stem from a late September demonstration at the height of protests outside the ICE facility, a few weeks into the Trump administration’s Chicago-area immigration enforcement surge campaign dubbed “Operation Midway Blitz.”
Of the 50 to 100 protesters present at the Sept. 26 demonstration, more than a dozen were captured on video — including footage posted to Abughazaleh’s social media accounts — surrounding a vehicle driven by a federal agent into the ICE facility’s property, banging on its hood and windows while the agent drove slowly through the crowd.
To prove a conspiracy charge, which carries a maximum of six years in prison and a $250,000 fine, prosecutors have to prove intent that a group of people agreed to act in concert. And while the burden of proof for the charge is not a particularly high bar, government lawyers haven’t routinely hit protesters with conspiracy charges in modern history.
‘Improper influence’ from White House
And in a new filing, lawyers for the remaining four defendants asked U.S. District Judge April Perry to force the Department of Justice to turn over records — including Trump administration communications — that they believe would show “improper influence” from the White House to the Department of Justice to bring the charges.
In a 26-page motion Friday, attorneys alleged the public record is “replete with public admissions” from members of the Trump administration that it is actively weaponizing the Department of Justice and federal courts “to retaliate against perceived political enemies.”
Lawyers pointed out multiple instances in which White House or Department of Homeland Security officials responded to Abughazaleh’s social media and appearances on cable news.
For example, in early October, a spokesperson for now-ousted DHS Secretary Kristi Noem responded to one Abughazaleh appearance on MSNBC with her own on Fox News. In the interview, lawyers wrote in Friday’s filing that Tricia McLaughlin “personally attacked” Abughazaleh as “dishonest, desperate and demonizing law enforcement to try to get 5 minutes on MSNBC and some fundraising cash.”
Attorneys also bolstered their arguments that the indictment was politically motivated, as “the one commonality among these four defendants is that via social media platforms and public statements they were all outspoken critics of the Trump Administration,” the filing said.
“Put simply, the defendants, the Court, and the public deserve an answer as to whether this prosecution was brought for unconstitutional retaliatory and/or selective reasons,” the lawyers wrote.
The case is set for trial beginning May 26.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
by Reece Dower and Medill Illinois News Bureau, Capitol News Illinois March 12, 2026
Article Summary
Illinois’ paper ballots system protects vote tabulation from hacking, but the federal rollback of cybersecurity programs and reduced federal intelligence-sharing leaves voters more exposed to foreign disinformation.
Trump’s new demand that Congress pass citizenship and photo ID requirements poses a potential long-term barrier to voting, critics say, even though data shows non-citizen voting is extremely rare.
Fair elections advocates are watching closely how the Illinois Primary next Tuesday unfolds and consider it almost a practice run for the November midterms, when they see real challenges looming.
This summary was written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.
SPRINGFIELD — Illinois election officials and community leaders say they are confident the state is mostly insulated from the Trump administration’s aggressive moves and heated rhetoric on election administration as Illinois’ March 17 primary approaches.
Republican county clerks cautioned, however, that while they weren’t fazed by President Donald Trump’s messaging or proposed changes to voting laws, they are concerned about how federal cuts to cybersecurity initiatives could affect future elections in the state.
In January, the FBI seized hundreds of boxes of 2020 election ballots in Georgia’s Fulton County — and more recently, issued a subpoena to Arizona for its voting results — after Trump’s repeatedly debunked claims of widespread voter fraud in those swing states. The Trump administration also made major cuts last year to the cybersecurity agency responsible for bolstering state election security.
Read more: Illinois is one of 23 states and D.C. that are being sued for voter information.
Critics warn these moves are a signal the administration may look to expand its use of aggressive tactics to counter potential Republican losses in the midterms, but many Illinois election officials pushed back on the notion of a looming federal intervention or a fundamental rupture between local and federal officials.
“There is a lot of talk,” said Sangamon County Clerk Don Gray, a Republican. “But until I see (the federal government) take concrete action, there’s no sense in stirring up people’s fears or cynicism.”
Feds at polling places?
Some in Trump’s orbit have even stoked fears of federal immigration authorities being deployed to polling locations, a worry DuPage County Clerk Jean Kaczmarek sought to address in a press conference last week.
“It is a federal crime for the military or federal agents to interfere in elections or intimidate voters,” she said. “Those crimes will not be tolerated in DuPage County.”
In an interview, Kaczmarek, a Democrat, said she was only addressing concerns that were already circulating.
“I did not do anything to start the fear,” she said. “The fear was already there.”
On Tuesday, the Democratic National Committee sued the Trump administration to compel a response to whether the government was planning to deploy agents or troops to the polls. The Department of Homeland Security has denied that its Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents would be dispatched to polling places around the country in the midterms.
Late last month, the FBI led a call with state election officials from across the country, including Illinois, to discuss the upcoming election. During the call, federal officials reportedly tried to assuage concerns of the prospect of a federal presence at voting locations.
“Some participants (in the call) asked about potential federal presence and increased involvement in the 2026 elections,” Matt Dietrich, spokesman for the Illinois State Board of Elections, told Capitol News Illinois. “The response from the participating agencies indicated no such plans.”
Gray, the Sangamon County clerk, said election officials should be careful making public projections about election interference without evidence of “concrete action” to back them up. He argued such talk can undermine public trust in elections and noted he had received no indication federal officials were planning any sort of election intervention.
“We need to see definitive action before getting people riled up,” he said.
Shuttered cyber programs
Another element of the shifting relationship between local elections officials and the federal government is the cuts to federal programs designed to bolster election cybersecurity of states.
Over the past year, the Trump administration has inflicted deep cuts to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the federal entity charged with providing cybersecurity support to the states, among other missions. While states are responsible for running elections, the federal government has long lent its cyber capabilities to help secure them.
The cuts have targeted CISA’s workforce and led to a significant drawdown of its election security activities, according to the think tank Brennan Center for Justice at New York University. A survey carried out last year by the Brennan Center found that more than 60% of local election officials nationwide were concerned about cuts to the agency.
Because Illinois conducts elections on paper ballots, the actual vote tabulations in the state remain immune from hacking, according to multiple county clerks interviewed by CNI. But the Trump administration’s gutting of programs focused on combatting foreign disinformation could lead to real-world effects in the state.
“We are under constant attack from foreign agitators,” said Tazewell County Clerk John Ackerman, a Republican. “We know from information we’ve already collected in previous years from the feds that China, Iran, Russia, our foreign adversaries, they’ve all attacked little bitty Tazewell.”
Dietrich said Illinois is uniquely insulated from federal cybersecurity cuts because of the state’s massive buildup of its cyber capabilities after the 2016 hacking of its voter database. The Justice Department accused Russian intelligence of the breach, which exposed information on millions of registered Illinois voters according to a department report.
In the wake of the hack, the state established the Cyber Navigator Program to better protect its election system from compromise. The program, which is now fully state funded, embeds one employee at Illinois’ Statewide Terrorism and Intelligence Center to monitor potential threats to elections, including misinformation and disinformation, Dietrich said.
Ackerman expected there to be “some gaps” due to the federal rollbacks, but he said they wouldn’t impact day-to-day operations in his county. He added that while he wasn’t concerned by Trump’s other moves regarding elections, he said he’s noticed the federal government is sharing less confidential intelligence about election threats, a development he’s less sanguine about.
“We’ve insulated and protected ourselves in previous years with the help of the federal government,” he said. “That’s the aspect that I’m nervous about. It isn’t as thorough as it has been in the past.”
SAVE America Act
On another front, in a post on his social media site Sunday, Trump said he will refuse to sign any new legislation until Congress passes the SAVE America Act. He reiterated the demand Monday at a retreat for Republican congressmen in Florida, saying the bill should be the GOP’s “No. 1 priority” before the midterms.
The proposed bill would require individuals to prove U.S. citizenship when registering to vote and require photo identification to vote in federal elections. Opponents of the measure say these requirements are onerous enough to disenfranchise millions of eligible voters in Illinois.
“This would create another barrier to the ballot box,” said Becky Simon, president of the Illinois League of Women Voters. “People do not need more barriers to the ballot box. People need to be encouraged to vote.”
The bill would place the new demands on Illinois voters to solve an issue that data show is not prevalent, as non-citizens are already barred from voting in federal elections. A 2024 audit of voter rolls in Georgia, a state long accused by Trump of widespread non-citizen voting, found only 20 non-citizens were illegally registered to vote out of 8.2 million registered voters. Out of those 20, only nine had voted illegally in previous elections.
Still, these legislative changes would take time to go into effect even if they make it through Congress and are signed into law.
“We expect the primary elections will unfold uneventfully,” Simon said. “The clerks that we’ve talked to are looking at this as almost practice for November, when they see the real challenges coming.”
Reece Dower is a graduate student in journalism with Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media and Integrated Marketing Communications, and is a fellow in its Medill Illinois News Bureau working in partnership with Capitol News Illinois.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
On a recent Tuesday afternoon, at a small, round table in a spacious apartment in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood, 19-year-old Oliver Wilson sits engrossed in front of two laptop screens, neither of which have anything to do with his introductory-level molecular engineering final exam in a few hours.
The University of Chicago freshman is on Polymarket, watching in real-time as users bet whether interest rates will rise in the coming weeks. The cryptocurrency-based platform allows users to wager — through buying and selling contracts — on the outcomes of future events.
Users can make classic sports gambles and pick, for example, the future NBA champion. Or they can bet on the number of people President Donald Trump will deport in 2026. Or whether Jesus Christ will return by 2027. Or betting on whether U.S. military strikes would occur in Iran.
But it was the 2024 presidential election cycle that hooked Wilson, then a senior in high school.
“I was fascinated by the fact that these markets were able to more accurately, than any other poll, predict by what margin and where Trump would win,” he said.
Signing up for Polymarket that fall, Wilson bet on Trump winning, but his simultaneous speculation that Vice President Kamala Harris would win the popular vote ended up costing him about $50 overall.
A year later, the bad bet would be a footnote. Wilson came into a pledge for a lot more money, thanks to Polymarket. He spent a week as an intern at the company’s New York City headquarters this past summer and decided later to pitch Polymarket founder Shayne Coplan to seed a prediction market club on campus.
Over Instagram, Wilson sent Coplan a pitch deck and a brief outline of the club’s goals, and Coplan initially had a one word reply:
“Incredible.”
To start the club, he agreed to send Wilson and another student founder $20,000.
In a few years, prediction markets like Polymarket have gone from pariahs to poster children for all that is hot and trendy in the financial world. While states like Illinois call the markets illegal gambling, they have flourished with the full-throated support of Trump administration officials, who argue they have final say over regulating the markets — which often means little regulation at all. The Trump family has gone all in on prediction markets, with Donald Trump Jr. investing in Polymarket and is a “strategic advisor” to a competitor, Kalshi.
Coplan’s own future has turned from bearish to bullish in short order. He has gone from a man whose New York City apartment was raided by the FBI to being named last month to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Innovation Advisory Committee.
And of course, kickstarting Wilson’s school club.
UPHILL BATTLE IN ILLINOIS?
The Trump administration has not only promoted prediction markets but vowed to fight state efforts to regulate them as they do online sportsbooks.
Commodities Futures Trading Commission Chairman Mike Selig has vowed to support prediction markets in court as they face state lawsuits. (Credit: CFTC video screen shot)
CFTC Chairman Mike Selig said in a statement last month that his agency “will no longer sit idly by while overzealous state governments undermine the agency’s exclusive jurisdiction over these markets by seeking to establish statewide prohibitions on these exciting products.”
“It’s clear that Americans like the product and want to participate,” wrote Selig, whose agency oversees commodities such as grain futures.
The federal move has left states like Illinois scrambling to stop an emerging industry that some observers predict could chip away at state-regulated sportsbooks like FanDuel and DraftKings.
States generally can’t tax prediction markets, losing millions, or regulate them, to protect their youngest and most vulnerable residents.
On-line sportsbooks businesses must pay millions of dollars in taxes to the state for each bet placed, forgo bets on in-state college teams, limit customers to those 21 and older, advertise help for gambling addiction and help pay for addicts’ treatment.
In Illinois, they pay a $20 million start-up fee and $1 million fee every four years to renew their licenses.
Prediction markets do none of that.
Neither do they have to follow strict truth-in-advertising regulations. During last year’s NBA finals, a Kalshi advertisement consisted entirely of AI characters, with a TV news correspondent asking a screaming woman holding a small dog in a storm how many hurricanes there will be this year, with an arrow pointing to a rising number in green with a dollar attached, indicating a profit.
A Kalshi ad that aired during last year’s NBA finals touts the wide variety of events people can place bets on, including the number of hurricanes in a year. (Credit: Kalshi ad screenshot)
Right now, no one knows how much Illinois and other states are losing in untaxed prediction market bets — the markets don’t have to report betting data to the states. Illinois has netted nearly $1.1 billion in tax revenue since Illinois’ first legal sports wagers were placed six years ago. States have sued to gain the power to tax and regulate prediction markets, but the markets argue their platforms are not gambling, but financial tools to allow users to hedge risk.
In one effort to rein in the platforms, State Sen. Michael Hastings (D-Frankfort) introduced legislation last week that would require prediction market operators to pay a $1 million fee to the Illinois Gaming Board to obtain a “master prediction market license” and empower the state to collect a tax equal to half of a licensee’s adjusted gross receipts from bets made by in-state users. The bill is awaiting to be assigned to a committee.
Experts believe the legal question won’t be settled until the U.S. Supreme Court weighs in. But by then, prediction markets may have become as integrated into American life as sports betting has in the eight years since the nation’s high court struck down a nationwide gambling ban.
DePaul University assistant law professor Karl Lockhart, who has studied prediction markets, said the conservative majority Supreme Court could decide either way on the matter. While the Trump administration has championed the industry, federal oversight of prediction markets would encroach on states’ rights, a traditionally conservative issue.
In any case, Lockhart said there needs to be a stronger regulatory framework.
“You have to have some sort of system of morality in place in a society otherwise, or your laws are just going to keep pushing things to the lowest common denominator and the lowest possible place,” he said.
WHAT ARE PREDICTION MARKETS?
Prediction markets are not new. Depending on whom you ask, they’ve been around for decades or even centuries.
The Iowa Electronic Markets, run by the University of Iowa’s business school, first allowed users in 1988 to bet on the presidential election between George H.W. Bush and Michael Dukakis.
In the early 1900s, people would go to Wall Street and bet hundreds of millions of dollars on presidential elections.
But in the past year, prediction markets have made the leap into mainstream culture thanks to aggressive marketing from companies like Kalshi and splashy bets featured on their websites on everything from congressional elections to the likelihood of when Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce will tie the knot.
Other markets generated national headlines but for the wrong reasons. Just last week, after the United States and Israeli missile strikes killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Polymarket canceled a market on whether there would be a nuclear detonation in 2026.
But the big money for prediction markets is sports wagering.
Even existing online sportsbook operations want a piece of the action, as they launch their own prediction markets to enjoy the benefits of what’s essentially regulation-free gambling in Illinois, the fifth-largest economy in the nation.
FanDuel, which operates the most lucrative sportsbook in Illinois, announced in December it partnered with CME Group, which operates the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, to launch its own nationwide prediction market.
Last month, the company announced that 100 million event contracts had been traded on the platform.
Perhaps seeing the success that its competitors were enjoying in Illinois, the nation’s leading cryptocurrency exchange leapt into action at the end of the year and hedged its bet, with a carrot and a stick.
First, San Francisco-based Coinbase contributed $20,000 to political committees supporting Democrats in the Illinois House and Senate. Later that week, the firm sued Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and other state gaming board officials seeking to stop the state from enforcing local gambling regulations against Coinbase.
The lawsuit brought to the forefront issues that the state had kept on the back burner since the Illinois Gaming Board sent out cease-and-desist letters to prediction markets such as Kalshi, Robinhood and Crypto.com in spring 2025, during the annual sports gambling gold rush spurred by the NCAA basketball tournament.
Earlier this year, the Illinois Gaming Board sent a letter to Polymarket, which does not yet offer a general platform in the United States. National customers have to use a virtual private network to obscure their Internet location to access the software hosted outside the country.
“No person or entity may engage in a sports wagering operation or activity in Illinois unless licensed by the IGB,” the letters said, threatening them with civil and criminal penalties.
Coinbase cited the Illinois letters in its lawsuit, which announced it was launching its own platform in January that would rely on the Kalshi exchange. Illinois’ ban on prediction markets “casts a cloud of uncertainty over the platform and threatens the company’s relationship with millions of customers and its affiliates,” which have facilitated “nearly $1 trillion in trading volume every year across multiple products.”
Coinbase has similar lawsuits against Connecticut and Michigan. Likewise, Kalshi is suing Maryland, New Jersey, Nevada, New York and Ohio.
The Illinois attorney general’s office declined to comment on the lawsuit. So far, it has taken a backseat to litigation, relying on other attorney general’s offices to take the fight to prediction markets.
“…We have seen similar situations in other nationwide litigation where a few lead states do the heavy lifting and the rest of the AGs pile on later,” said Kevin Frankel, a partner at the national firm Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff, who has written about the prediction market litigation. “Of course, a particularly activist state government could decide to grab the bull by the horns and attempt to create good case law in their district/circuit.”
Kalshi routinely promotes itself as the first national and legal sports betting platform, but many states, including Illinois, dispute its legality. (Credit: Kalshi Instagram account)
The Massachusetts attorney general’s office has a reputation as a legal bulldog, and in September 2025, it sued Kalshi in state court. The lawsuit alleged the company had advertised itself on Instagram as “The First Nationwide Legal Sports Betting Platform” and skirted state laws similar to those in Illinois that prohibit people under 21 from sports gambling.
In late January, a state judge issued an injunction that banned Kalshi from offering sports betting in Massachusetts until the company follows the state’s gambling laws.
The lawsuit mentions that 139,600 Massachusetts residents “experience gambling problems” with “another 4 to 6 million … demonstrating problematic gambling behaviors” with Internet searches relating to “gambling addiction” spiking after sports gambling was legalized in the state. Kalshi facilitates gambling without any of the safeguards put in place to curtail gambling addition, the lawsuit states.
An Illinois study conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic showed about 3.8% of the adult population — or 383,000 people — are considered to have a gambling problem with another 761,000 people at risk for developing one. The real numbers might be higher because the survey was conducted during lock-downs and business closures and when online sports gambling had yet to be fully implemented, according to the study.
People who work in addiction recovery see little difference between gambling and prediction markets when it comes to their patients. All it takes to set up an account on one of the prediction markets is download the app and fund it through a debit card, a bank account or crypto.
“People can argue about whether it meets a legal definition, but from a practical perspective, and especially from an addiction perspective, it is categorically a type of gambling,” said Keith Whyte, the former executive director of the National Council for Problem Gambling.
“It can create a lot of the same excitement, and, of course, it can also create the same addiction as other forms of gambling. So a clinician, a psychologist, a counselor, a consumer and certainly, someone with a gambling problem sees prediction markets as indistinguishable from other forms of gambling.”
POKER AND OTHER PREDICTIONS
Wilson, the University of Chicago freshman, said he isn’t worried about becoming hooked because he doesn’t have an addictive personality. He became an avid prediction market user after first learning the finer points of a classic game of skill: poker.
A friend who used poker winnings to pay for his University of Chicago tuition introduced him to the card game two years ago at a holiday party. Wilson then bought David Sklansky’s “The Theory of Poker,” which he kept in his high school bookbag until the cover was worn.
“Every decision that you make inherently has probabilities tied to it, so making the most positive expected value decision is one of the most important things that you can discover within not just prediction markets, but also something like poker,” said Wilson, who counts Elon Musk among his heroes.
His campus prediction market club, Oracle Trading, is expanding. It now has a board with four members, an LLC for liability purposes, and has a goal of publishing one Polymarket-related data science article before the school year’s end.
Wilson said they’re getting the club its own bank account to facilitate the $20,000 contribution from Polymarket that Coplan, the Polymarket CEO, promised him in the Instagram message.
The donation is part of a larger promotional blitz that prediction markets are making on college campuses.
Wilson estimates that he makes up to 50 bets a week on Polymarket, though he says that many of the bets are “arbitrage,” meaning that he’s taking advantage of mispricings or differences in odds across platforms.
Wilson does see the potential for addiction in the same way a person can get addicted to sports betting, roulette or trading financial derivatives.
And what about the students joining his club?
“I think there’s a difference between just a risk taker and a gambler, and I think as long as those risks are exclusively calculated, then I am happy to let them in,” Wilson said.
Cover Photo: University of Chicago freshman Oliver Wilson analyzes interest rates bets on the Polymarket prediction market platform in his Hyde Park apartment late last year. Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan has pledged $20,000 to kickstart Wilson’s prediction market club at his university. (Credit: Victor Hilitski/For Illinois Answers Project)
Oliver Wilson realizes prediction markets can be addictive but argues there’s “a difference between just a risk taker and a gambler.” (Credit: Victor Hilitski/For Illinois Answers Project)
by Jacques Abou-Rizk and Medill Illinois News Bureau, Capitol News Illinois March 9, 2026
Article Summary
The recent mortality and morbidity report by the Illinois Department of Public Health reveals that people experiencing homelessness have a much higher rate of hospitalizations and premature death.
The report found that 2,996 people experiencing homelessness died from 2017 to 2023.
While street outreach programs have increased over the years, experts say Illinois must push to be proactive, not reactive, to the needs of homeless communities.
The Housing First model outlines how to provide services to people experiencing homelessness, but affordable housing faces funding threats at the state and federal levels.
This summary was written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.
CHICAGO — Homeless people are much more likely to face emergency room visits, hospitalizations and premature death than the general population, and state officials are struggling to stem the crisis, according to a new report by the Illinois Department of Public Health.
Underlying these efforts to end homelessness is the Home Illinois Plan, the IDPH’s overarching multiagency strategy to address housing instability, in which the Housing First model is a core pillar. The model emphasizes that homelessness is not driven by individual shortcomings but by housing costs and systemic inequities.
Still, in his 2026 budget address on Feb. 18, Gov. JB Pritzker proposed that funding for Home Illinois be reduced by $7.6 million, bowing to headwinds from federal budget cuts and Illinois budget belt-tightening. It was the second straight year seeing a cut in funding for housing programs, including Pritzker’s signature program designed to eliminate homelessness in the state.
That means people who are homeless across Illinois and especially in urban areas will need to rely more on community-based programs.
Dr. Amanda Bradke, a physician at Rush University Medical Center, participates twice a week with a local nonprofit at a walk-in clinic in Chicago. While she can provide medical care, these centers often offer mental health services, laundry, showers, housing support, and career and legal resources.
“Our big overarching tenet of the work that we’re doing with the center is meeting people where they’re at,” Bradke said. “So that’s also, in terms of their needs, making sure that we have the right staff and the right resources to do that, but also physically bringing care into the community.”
Bradke’s work is a piece of a much larger network of homeless services offered by nonprofits, but their challenge is immense.
An estimated 10,000 people in Illinois experienced “literal homelessness,” according to the IDPH report. An estimated 108,000 to 233,000 are living in unstable arrangements.
The IDPH report found that 2,996 people died statewide from 2017 to 2023 while experiencing homelessness. Their average age at death was 20 years below the statewide average. More than 300 of those who died were veterans, and 30 had worked in the public sector, including as police officers, paramedics and correctional officers.
Those experiencing homelessness are far more likely than the public at large to die of drug overdoses, traumatic injuries and excessive cold — and three times more likely to be murdered.
A tent in a homeless encampment in Chicago. Tents subbing as living quarters are common among unhoused people. (Medill Illinois News Bureau by Jacques Abou-Rizk)
The report has state and nonprofit leaders asking about the need to provide well-rounded services that proactively address the needs of homeless communities.
The state’s Office to Prevent and End Homelessness will focus on interventions that “help close the gap on health care delivery to people experiencing housing insecurity,” based on the report’s data.
“People who experience homelessness tend to live 20 years less than people who are housed, and tracking how this gap changes over time can help assess how interventions are working, ” the Illinois Department of Human Services, which oversees OPEH, said in a statement.
The IDPH report found that from 2017 to 2023, approximately 10,000 people in Illinois experienced “literal homelessness” and more than 200,000 people were in unstable housing situations. During the same time period, more than 75,000 people experiencing homelessness in Illinois accounted for more than 1.8 million hospital visits.
Eugenia Olison, a senior policy advisor at OPEH and an author of the IDPH report, said the study can open more pathways for identifying people experiencing homelessness in hospital settings to provide social services. Pritzker established OPEH and appointed Christine Haley as Illinois’ first chief homeless officer in 2021 through his Executive Order to Fight Homelessness in Illinois.
“My hope for this report is to not only bring awareness to the amount of individuals that are suffering while experiencing homelessness,” Olison said, “but also different advocacy ways that we could highlight the need for additional resources, additional housing, additional health care access for people experiencing homelessness.”
Street outreach programs
Street outreach programs that bring services directly to homeless people are not new, according to Sherri Allen-Reeves, chair of the Chicago Continuum of Care, which is a membership organization funded through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Chicago CoC is partnering with Street Samaritans, a Chicago-based nonprofit dedicated to fighting homelessness through direct outreach, to bring an in-person space to meet and help people facing homelessness.
“By the end of the month, and hopefully, really soon, we’ll be opening up a drop-in center in the Chicago Lawn area … just so people have a place to go and get a hot meal and shower,” Allen-Reeves said.
Illinois’ homeless services infrastructure is headed in the right direction, Allen-Reeves said. Efforts by both nonprofits and state offices to collect data and build networks of communication with homeless communities have steadily increased since Pritzker’s executive order in 2021.
Because of the links between food insecurity, mental and physical health, and housing status, at Nourishing Hope, one of the largest and longest-operating hunger relief organizations in Chicago, advocates aim to provide access to food, mental health resources and social services for all Chicagoans. In 2024, Nourishing Hope provided the equivalent of more than 4.5 million meals to people in need.
Through the organization’s Health and Hope Program, partnerships with local hospitals allow for the identification of individuals who are in need of emergency food support, longer term food services and other social services.
“We really try to address food insecurity from a holistic perspective,” Lisa Mayse-Lillig, chief program officer at Nourishing Hope Chicago, said, adding it’s about “being able to have those partnerships with health care providers so that they understand where they can make that referral and that connection with patients to get access to that nutritious food.”
Housing First model
While Pritzker’s administration has been in tune with supporting homelessness and housing services, budget cuts over the last two years have dampened efforts to address the affordable housing crisis, said Niya Kelly, director of state legislative policy, equity and transformation at the Chicago Coalition to End Homelessness.
“As we are seeing rents get higher and the price of items continue to grow and wages stay stagnant, we know that we’re going to see more people who are unstably housed,” Kelly said. “We want the governor’s office and the General Assembly to say, ‘We see these folks, and we’re going to make sure that we’re providing all the services that we can, not only get them housed, but get them the services that they need in order to stay housed.’”
Sen. Rachel Ventura, D-Joliet, who is vice chair of the Senate Public Health Committee, said she disagrees with the proposed cut and believes the state should prioritize affordable housing in the face of cuts at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
“Since the 1970s, the federal government has removed funding for public housing, and then states and local governments followed in suit to the point that we have very little public housing today,” Ventura said.
Kelly said addressing housing instability and affordability is the first step to ensuring that the number of people experiencing homelessness and the number of premature deaths decrease, as the Housing First model emphasizes.
“When we talk about the hierarchy of needs, knowing where you’re going to sleep at night absolutely impacts your quality of life and your mental health,” she said. “And so making sure that the person is in housing first makes the most sense, and then doing wraparound services.”
Jacques Abou-Rizk is a graduate student in journalism with Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications, and fellows in its Medill Illinois News Bureau working in partnership with Capitol News Illinois.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
by Peter Hancock, Capitol News Illinois March 10, 2026
Article Summary
A Cook County man is challenging a state law that prohibits people convicted of any felony from ever owning or possessing a firearm.
The U.S. Supreme Court held in 2022 that gun regulations must be consistent with the nation’s ‘historical tradition’ of regulating firearms.
The state argues its statute meets that standard because laws prohibiting felons from owning weapons date back to colonial times.
This summary was written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.
SPRINGFIELD — The Illinois Supreme Court began weighing arguments Tuesday in a case that challenges the state’s ability to prohibit people with nonviolent felony convictions from possessing a firearm.
At issue is whether state laws governing the possession of firearms conflicts with the latest U.S. Supreme Court standard on the Second Amendment, which says laws that limit a person’s right to bear arms must be consistent with the nation’s “historical tradition of firearm regulation.”
“The Second Amendment protects a core constitutional right, the right to bear arms,” Elizabeth Cook, of the State Appellate Defender’s office, told the court Tuesday. “… Just as we would agree that a former felon has the right to a jury trial or the right to free speech, so we should presume that every free American is a member of ‘the people’ and entitled to full constitutional protection, including the right to bear arms.”
Although the issue before the court concerns only one individual and how he was affected by the state law prohibiting anyone with a felony conviction from possessing a firearm, a ruling in his favor could set a precedent for other people with nonviolent felony convictions.
The case involves James Benson, who was arrested in Cook County following a domestic dispute with his girlfriend on Christmas Eve in 2021. During the altercation, a .40 caliber handgun was fired, although there was conflicting testimony about who fired the gun and who owned it.
Benson was eventually convicted of misdemeanor battery, reckless discharge of a firearm and unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon. The latter charge stemmed from Benson’s earlier conviction in 2015 for aggravated unlawful use of a weapon without a Firearm Owner’s Identification card, a felony.
In his appeal, Benson argues the statute prohibiting people with felony convictions from possessing firearms is unconstitutional, but only as it was applied in his case.
Under Illinois law, it is illegal for anyone “to knowingly possess … any firearm or any firearm ammunition if the person has been convicted of a felony under the laws of this State or any other jurisdiction.”
He was sentenced to three-year terms on the battery and reckless discharge convictions and four years for the unlawful possession charge, all to be served concurrently.
In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a landmark ruling in Bruen v. New York State Rifle & Pistol Association that established a two-part test for reviewing gun control regulations. The first step asks whether the law infringes on conduct that is protected under the plain text of the Second Amendment, which says, “… the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”
If a law or regulation does infringe on protected activity, the second step is to consider whether the regulation is consistent with the historical tradition of regulating firearms.
Assistant Attorney General Garson Fischer argued the state law is consistent with historical precedents.
“And we know it is because dating back to colonial times, penalties (for unlawful possession of a weapon) far more severe than mere disarmament were imposed on all felons, including nonviolent felons, people convicted of things like counterfeiting and forgery,” Fischer told the court.
Cook, with the appellate defender’s office, acknowledged there is a long history of regulation in America aimed at keeping weapons out of the hands of people who have demonstrated they pose a danger of violence. But she said there is no rational reason for taking away someone’s constitutional right to bear arms for nonviolent offenses just because they are classified as felonies.
“In Illinois, we have a lot of felonies that are not characterized by dangerousness,” she said. “For example, eavesdropping, driving on a revoked license, transporting hazardous waste without a permit, home repair fraud — these things are all felonies that do not carry any threat of physical violence to another person.”
Fischer, however, argued that Illinois law allows people with previous felony convictions to obtain a FOID card by petitioning a court and demonstrating they do not pose a danger to the community.
“The time to do that would have been before he again illegally possessed a firearm, by taking advantage of the mechanism in the FOID card act to petition for the restoration of one’s firearm rights,” he said.
But Cook countered that process is also constitutionally questionable under the Bruen decision because the decision to grant or not grant a petitioner’s request under that process is completely discretionary.
The court took the case under review but did not indicate when a decision would be issued.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
by Gabriel Castilho and Medill Illinois News Bureau, Capitol News Illinois March 10, 2026
Article Summary
Last November, the Trump administration proposed a stricter definition for “Waters of the United States,” excluding seasonal streams, marshes, bogs, swamps and mangrove forests from protection under the 1972 Clean Water Act.
In response, Illinois Senate Bill 2401 would give the state Department of Natural Resources authority over wetland permitting on private land before construction can begin.
Farming and business interests are pushing back, and the governor has yet to make his intentions clear, due to concerns over spending and potential costs.
This summary was written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.
SPRINGFIELD — As the Trump administration moves to slash federal protections for waterways and wetlands, Illinois Democratic lawmakers and environmental advocates are racing to finally pass a measure that would enact state safeguards.
The Wetlands Protection Act was discussed in both chambers of the Illinois General Assembly last year but failed to get traction or make it to the House and Senate floors, partly due to budget constraints in the 2025 budget year.
“I hope things will turn around,” said Rep. Anna Moeller, D-Elgin. “It’s just really important for our ecosystem, for flood control, for water control, for water quality.”
A proposal from the Trump administration adds urgency to a longstanding issue in Illinois. Last November, the federal EPA proposed a new rule to the Clean Water Act that would bestow protection only to wetlands that hold water during the wet season and with visible connections to major waterways. Excluded are seasonal streams, marshes, bogs, swamps and mangrove forests.
Seasonal streams are those wetlands that dry up during certain times of the year.
In a statement outlining the rule changes last year, the EPA said it wanted to cut the red tape and provide predictability, consistency and clarity for American industry, energy producers, the technology sector, farmers, ranchers, developers, businesses and landowners.
Currently, developers must obtain a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers before building over a wetland to ensure environmentally responsible practices.
If the EPA rule change is finalized this year, over two-thirds (707,566 acres) of Illinois’ wetlands would be without protections, according to a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign study released in September. Neighboring states like Wisconsin, Missouri and Indiana already have safeguards in place to protect their wetlands, but Illinois does not.
“We need to do something: 90% of our wetlands have already been destroyed in Illinois,’’ Moeller said, “and we need to protect the remaining 10%.”
Senate Bill 2401 would give the Illinois Department of Natural Resources authority over wetland permitting on private land before construction begins. The bill exempts certain agricultural activities like normal farming, silviculture and maintenance of farms and stock ponds
The bill was re-referred for assignment at the end of the last session, and no action has been taken on it this session.
Sen. Laura Ellman, D-Naperville, who sponsored the bill, said she is hopeful this will be the year the state Wetlands Protection Act becomes law. “We had tough budget years, which in short means other topics receive great priority,” Ellman said in an email statement.
“I believe that as we continue to lay out the case for Senate Bill 2401 and other environment-related legislation, the push to take action now is stronger than ever. As you know, actions speak louder than words.”
Does bill have governor’s support?
Still, Democrats supporting the bill face opposition from some Republicans, the Illinois Farm Bureau as well as a question mark surrounding support from Gov. JB Pritzker.
A spokesperson for Pritzker wrote: “The Governor’s Office will monitor and review legislation as it moves through the General Assembly. Any legislation that requires additional state resources will be carefully reviewed with budgeteers to understand the fiscal impact.”
Without support from the governor and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, passage of the bill through the two Democratic-led chambers might be difficult, supporters of the bill said.
“I think our thought is, frankly, if the governor and IDNR would come out as supporting this, it would be a much easier sell to the legislature,” said Brian Gill, senior director of government affairs and policy for the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, one of the organizations supporting the bill.
The Shedd Aquarium, despite its tourist side, works with international, national and local organizations with efforts to promote the protection of waterways, wetlands and wildlife. (Medill Illinois News Bureau photo by Gabriel Castilho)
With the dynamics of consistently tight budgets in Springfield in mind, the Shedd changed its strategy in the state capital recently.
“We last year flipped from pointing at the General Assembly to asking Gov. Pritzker to take a leadership role in this,’’ Gill said. “I think those of us that support this certainly would probably support more budget for IDNR to also handle this, but that is the bigger concern: budget and resources.”
Moeller conceded the law might require additional resources from the state.
“I don’t think the Department of Natural Resources is against this legislation, but I think we are working with them to make sure that they can implement the regulation — with everything else that they’re charged with doing.”
Elsewhere, opposition to the bill centers around the added restrictions to landowners and the potential impact on economic growth and development in rural Illinois. In addition to the farming groups, last year the Illinois Fertilizer and Chemical Association weighed in as opposing it. When asked whether their position remains the same this year, an IFCA spokesperson said, “We are monitoring the wetlands bill and other bills of general interest to the ag industry as a whole.”
Sen. Jason Plummer, R-Edwardsville, has opposed the bill since 2024. On his official website, he said the bill would have a massive negative impact on farmers, the construction industry, anyone looking to build a home and all private property owners.
“This legislation is absurd, and if it becomes law, it will just be one more reason that people choose not to build a home or start a business in Illinois,” he is quoted as saying on the website.
What about the Swampbuster Act?
Sanjay Sofat, director of environmental policy at the Illinois Farm Bureau, said there are already effective government programs in place to protect wetlands.
He cited the federal Swampbuster Act, which discourages farmers from turning wetlands into cropland since 1985. Under the federal law, any farmer who drains a wetland on their property is ineligible for federal benefits such as subsidies, loans and insurance. According to the environmental advocacy organization Food and Water Watch, the program currently protects approximately 78 million acres of wetlands — almost two-thirds of the wetlands left in the continental United States.
“The burden is, you are doubly regulating the same entity that is already regulated on the Swampbuster,” he said.
However, Tucker Barry, communications director for the Illinois Environmental Council, said the Swampbuster Act does not address the legal protections gap that would arise if the new EPA rules were to be finalized. While the Swampbuster rewards farmers’ compliance if they do not convert wetlands, it does not define what a wetland is — instead it uses the CWA definition of wetlands as “navigable waters.”
Barry argued that not all farmers are against wetlands protection. “Many farmers understand that this bill is reasonable and offers vital protections that help them protect their land from flooding, poor water quality and soil health problems,” Barry said.
Part of the public outreach aspect of wetlands protection involves engaging communities with the parks that neighbor their residences. Here is an example of a community engagement program held by the Ford Environmental Center, which has classroom spaces open to school and community groups. (Medill Illinois News Bureau photo by Gabriel Castilho)
Environmental conservation advocates like the Environmental Council, The Wetlands Initiative and the Shedd have been working to lobby for wetland-friendly policies from Springfield for a long time while maintaining restoration projects of their own.
Some counties in Illinois, meanwhile, have stepped up to fill the lack of a firm state policy, Barry said.
DuPage County requires additional documentation for activities that disturb the ground, removes vegetation, builds unpermitted structures, or any activity that affects the flow or absorption of water.
Ellman, who represents the county, sees her bill as an extension of those kinds of efforts.
“As there are wetlands protections already in place for DuPage County, I am thinking beyond the scope of (Senate) District 21 in terms of how important this matter is,” Ellman said. “By enforcing these protections now, we are protecting our state’s ecosystem and more.”
Gabriel Castilho is a graduate student in journalism with Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media and Integrated Marketing Communications, and is a fellow in its Medill Illinois News Bureau working in partnership with Capitol News Illinois.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
by Peter Hancock, Capitol News Illinois March 4, 2026
Article Summary
The 340B drug program requires manufacturers to provide steep discounts for certain medications to safety net clinics, Federally Qualified Health Centers and other health care providers that serve low-income and uninsured patients.
Those providers accuse the drug manufacturing industry of restricting access to those discounted medications, a charge the pharmaceutical industry denies.
Legislation to prevent manufacturers from restricting access to those drugs awaits final action in the House.
This summary was written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.
SPRINGFIELD – Advocates for health care providers that treat low-income and uninsured patients are pressuring state lawmakers to pass legislation they say would prevent drug manufacturers from restricting access to medications that are discounted through a federal pharmacy program.
The program is known as the 340B Drug Pricing Program. It requires drug manufacturers to provide outpatient drugs to safety net clinics, Federally Qualified Health Centers, AIDS clinics and a variety of other health care providers that treat Medicaid patients at substantially reduced prices.
The program has been in place since 1992. But in recent years, according to the Illinois Primary Health Care Association, drug manufacturers have found ways to limit the distribution of those drugs by restricting where patients can go to fill their prescriptions.
“What pharmaceutical manufacturers began doing was limiting the distribution of these drugs to a single location,” Cyrus Winnett, executive director of the IPHCA, said in an interview. “And when I say single location, I don’t mean Walgreens chain or CVS or a local independent. I mean one physical location, which for our organizations and their patients that have wide service areas, that’s extremely limiting,”
Winnett’s organization represents about 430 Federally Qualified Health Centers, or FQHCs, in Illinois that serve a combined 1.5 million patients.
FQHCs are primary care clinics, often run by local health departments or nonprofit charities. They receive federal funding to provide comprehensive primary health services to underserved populations, including Medicare and Medicaid patients and the uninsured.
Winnett said the vast majority of the clinics his organization represents do not have their own on-site pharmacies. Instead, they contract with outside pharmacies to fill prescriptions that are covered by the 340B program.
He said the practice of restricting where patients can fill 340B prescriptions began in 2020 with one manufacturer and one drug. But it has since ballooned to more than 50 manufacturers and thousands of different medications.
“You have providers in the clinic assessing the patient, reaching a diagnosis, and then trying to connect them with a drug that’s available to them and one that they can afford,” Winnett said. “And there was this problem that crept up where providers were having to scramble to find alternative medications, either for patients that they were newly diagnosing or ones who have even been on a particular medication but are being forced to change because they can no longer access it.”
Pending legislation
The legislation pending in the General Assembly is a Senate amendment to House Bill 2371. Sponsored by Sen. Dave Koehler, D-Peoria, it would prohibit anyone, including drug manufacturers, from imposing any restrictions on the ability of 340B-eligible clinics and hospitals to contract with outside pharmacies to fill 340B-funded prescriptions.
It also prohibits anyone, including manufacturers, from requiring 340B clinics and hospitals, or their contract pharmacies, to submit ingredient cost or pricing data about 340B drugs beyond what is required by state or federal law. And it prohibits anyone from imposing requirements regarding how clinics, hospitals or contract pharmacies manage their inventory of 340B drugs.
In testimony before the House Executive Committee near the end of the 2025 legislative session, Jessica Lynch, of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, denied that drug makers are restricting access to discounted medications and said the proposed legislation would not benefit health care consumers.
“This is not an access bill,” she said. “This bill does not directly impact patients at all in any clear or comprehensive way. A pharmacy’s status as a contract pharmacy has no impact on whether or not a patient can go pick up their medicines at the pharmacy.”
In an email statement Monday, PhRMA spokesperson Tom Wilbur did not comment on the specific language of the legislation. But he said the organization believes generally that the 340B program needs broader reforms that would be best addressed at the federal level.
“The 340B program was created by Congress to help low-income and uninsured patients access medicines, but there is little evidence that patients are benefiting,” Wilbur said. “Instead, large tax-exempt hospitals and their for-profit partners are exploiting the program, buying medicines at steep discounts, and then marking them up by thousands of dollars.”
The bill awaits final action in the House before it can be sent to Gov. JB Pritzker. A spokesperson for House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch said in an email the bill is still under review and the next steps will be determined in consultation with the Democratic caucus.
The next session of the House is scheduled for Wednesday, March 18.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
by Maggie Dougherty and Nikoel Hytrek, Capitol News Illinois March 4, 2026
Article Summary
Lawmakers are looking to further regulate alternative retail energy suppliers, tying the rates they can charge for energy to what utilities can charge.
Consumer advocates said the retail suppliers can often be predatory in nature, locking consumers into prices that are much higher than what the utility charges.
Another bill seeks to prohibit electric utilities from charging customers for expenses related to the utility’s advertising, insurance, legal costs and trade association dues
This summary was written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.
CHICAGO — When Illinoisians look to power their homes, they are faced with what can be an intimidating landscape of energy providers. That includes the major energy utilities — Commonwealth Edison, Ameren Illinois, Nicor Gas and Peoples Gas — but also smaller, alternative suppliers.
Lawmakers are looking to further regulate the latter, charging that a 2019 law aimed at reigning in predatory sales tactics is falling short.
Utilities are not allowed to mark up the supply price of energy they deliver, instead making their money by charging customers for energy delivery. State regulators also heavily scrutinize those expenditures in a formal review process.
But Illinois also allows consumers to buy their energy from other less-regulated third-party companies known as alternative retail energy suppliers.
Those alternative suppliers are not restrained by the same pricing limitations as the utilities. Rep. Kimberly Du Buclet, D-Chicago, said a bill she’s sponsoring aims to change that. House Bill 4313 would cap excessive pricing, prohibiting alternative suppliers from charging residential and small commercial customers more than 25% above utility supply prices.
Du Buclet said the issue of alternate suppliers came onto her radar particularly via complaints from seniors, who may be more at risk of signing up from aggressive door-to-door or telemarketing campaigns.
“For far too long, many consumers have believed that they were signing up for savings only to find themselves locked into higher rates, confusing terms (and) automatic renewals that they clearly did not understand or agree to,” Du Buclet said. “This is not what consumer choice should look like.”
Bills doubled or tripled
Retail suppliers can sometimes charge double or triple the utility rate, which might mean paying $40-$200 more per month, depending on energy usage.
A 2025 analysis of annual state reports conducted by the Citizens Utility Board, a consumer watchdog group, found that residential customers of ComEd and Ameren had lost a combined total of more than $2 billion in business to alternative electricity suppliers since 2015.
There are over 50 registered electric suppliers in the ComEd service territory alone, according to CUB Director of Governmental Affairs Bryan McDaniel.
The bill would require alternate suppliers to report rates and how pricing compares to utility rates, while also prohibiting suppliers from automatically renewing customers into higher cost contracts without clear written consent and explanation of those costs.
It also targets aggressive sales tactics by prohibiting commission-based compensation for sales agents.
“Salespeople should not be rewarded simply for closing a deal, regardless of whether that deal is actually in the consumer’s best interest,” Du Buclet said. “If a company is offering a strong product at a fair price, it should be able to compete honestly; it should not have to rely on high pressure sales tactics or misleading pitches to get customers to sign on.”
Senior, green consumers at risk
Philippe Largent, state director of AARP Illinois, said seniors are often hit hardest by rising utility costs.
“A surprise increase in an energy bill doesn’t just cause frustration, it forces hard choices, like cutting back on groceries, delaying medications,” Largent said. “Energy choices should never come with a financial risk.”
Some alternate suppliers offer high-priced plans that are advertised as “green” or environmentally friendly. Customers might be willing to pay more to use renewable energy sources, but McDaniel said the claims are often misleading.
Though they may be marketed as “green,” he said, the companies often don’t send renewably sourced energy to the consumer’s home. They may put energy from renewables on the grid somewhere, or they may just be purchasing renewable energy certificates, essentially an investment in renewable sources.
“They like to try to charge a premium for that clean energy, when a lot of times clean energy ought to be cheaper,” McDaniel said. “So, we just tell people, you know, really look closely.”
Du Buclet said while lawmakers passed the Home Energy Affordability and Transparency Act, or HEAT Act, in 2019, there are still gaps to be filled regarding alternative suppliers.
“At its core, this bill is about accountability,” Du Buclet said. “It’s about saying that in Illinois, consumer choice must be real, consumer choice must be informed, and consumer choice must be fair.”
Company expenses
Another new bill called the Utility Transparency Act would prevent utility companies charging customers for expenses related to the utility’s advertising, insurance, legal costs and trade association dues. Connecticut, Colorado and Maine have passed similar laws.
Under Illinois law, utilities are currently allowed to charge customers for those costs.
“The Utility Transparency Act is commonsense legislation that would end the practice of utilities making consumers pay for a long list of expenses that should otherwise be paid for by shareholders,” said State Rep. Theresa Mah, D-Chicago, at a February news conference announcing the bill.
“We are in an affordability crisis, and the last thing that any of my constituents need is to pay higher utility bills for expenses that simply advance the agendas of Illinois utilities and increase their political power,” Mah, who is sponsoring the bill in the House, said.
State Sen. Suzy Glowiak Hilton, D-Western Springs, who is sponsoring the bill in the Senate, said her constituents have told her their bills have gotten unreasonably expensive.
“What we should be doing is delivering energy to homes and businesses, not asking people to pay for extra things that don’t do that,” she said at the same news conference.
The Citizens Utility Board estimated the bill could, in an average year, save Illinois ratepayers $40 million based on utility rate-hike cases from 2023 to 2025.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
by Ben Szalinski, Capitol News Illinois March 5, 2026
Article Summary
Illinois municipal leaders are calling on state lawmakers to increase the amount of income tax revenue that is distributed to local governments.
JB Pritzker’s budget proposal calls for reducing the amount of revenue from income taxes that goes to local governments, therefore keeping funding for the Local Government Distributive Fund flat in fiscal year 2027.
Local government leaders say the flat funding amounts to a cut as they face rising costs to provide services.
Funding for LGDF was reduced in fiscal year 2011 and local government leaders have been unsuccessfully lobbying the state for an increase since then.
This summary was written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.
SPRINGFIELD – Local government leaders in Illinois are once again calling on state lawmakers to increase funding for their communities after Gov. JB Pritzker called for reducing the share of income taxes disbursed to municipalities.
Pritzker’s budget, introduced last month, calls for reducing the share of income tax revenues that is divided among counties and other municipalities via the Local Government Distributive Fund, from 6.47% of the revenue the state takes in to 6.23%.
The reduction would keep total funding for LGDF flat in fiscal year 2027 at $2.3 billion. That’s $60 million less than the state would spend otherwise, according to budget documents from Pritzker’s office.
Pritzker introduced a $56 billion spending plan that represents roughly 0.5% growth in most areas compared to the current fiscal year.
“The proposal suggests that overall LGDF formula distribution would remain flat, but flat funding is not neutral,” said Illinois Municipal League President Sheila Chalmers-Currin, who is also village president of Matteson, in southern Cook County, at a news conference in Springfield Wednesday. “Flat funding during a time of rising costs is a cut.”
Local governments would receive $2.3 billion from LGDF under Pritzker’s proposal, but the IML is seeking $3.7 billion.
The IML leaders say the change prolongs a funding battle that began 15 years ago.
“It is the continuation of a long-term erosion of state revenue sharing,” Chalmers-Currin said.
She said more LGDF funding would allow local governments to provide more services and tax relief.
“When the state reduces shared revenue, costs do not disappear,” Chalmers-Currin said. “Costs shift. They shift to property taxes, local sales taxes, and service reduction.”
She said it flies in the face of lawmakers’ affordability message.
“You cannot talk about affordability while also cutting the revenue that funds essential local services,” she said. “If we want meaningful property tax relief, the state must stop reducing the dollars that are shared with municipalities.”
Years of lower rates
When the state income tax was first enacted in 1969, LGDF was earmarked to receive 10% of the revenue it brought in — although the initial personal income tax rate at the time was 2.5% compared to today’s rate of 4.95%.
That amount was set aside for local governments, which do not collect their own income taxes.
The state raised the income tax rate to 5% from 3% in fiscal year 2011. At the same time, they reduced the LGDF cut to 6%. The change in percentages meant that while the LGDF shrunk as a percentage, actual dollar amounts remained relatively stable.
Since then, IML data shows local governments received $13 billion less than they would have under the 10% rate.
The distribution rate has changed over the years, but it has never risen back to 10% and has hovered between 6% and 7% since fiscal year 2021.
While the IML has lobbied state lawmakers to increase it to a more substantial amount, their pleas went answered even amid surpluses in the early 2020s.
“In the last couple of decades, the state’s budget has gone from $30 billion to $56 billion,” IML CEO Brad Cole said. “And during that time, we have lost a billion dollars a year in funding. So this is a matter of priorities.”
Pritzker’s office disputed that narrative.
“Since 2019, the governor has increased revenue sharing with local governments by nearly $1 billion — a 71% increase — and enacted more than $2.5 billion annually in additional ongoing resources through transportation funding, cannabis legalization, video gaming, casino expansion, and other measures,” a spokesperson for Pritzker said in an email. “He has also given local municipalities greater authority to adopt local sales taxes without requiring voter referendums and eliminating certain state administrative fees on collections — giving communities greater flexibility and control over their fiscal future.”
The state has provided other funding to local governments as budgets have increased. That includes funds from changes to the tax code, more motor fuel tax and bond revenue for infrastructure, and tax revenue from cannabis sales and video gaming. Some local governments with public transportation will also get more funding in FY27 under a new funding formula for public transit.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
by Jenna Schweikert and UIS Public Affairs Reporting (PAR), Capitol News Illinois March 5, 2026
Article Summary
Illinois honored 28 schools with Blue Ribbon Schools awards at an event at the Governor’s Mansion.
Gov. JB Pritzker established the statewide award program after President Donald Trump’s administration abolished the national equivalent.
At the event, 15 public and 13 private K-12 schools received awards for academic excellence.
This summary was written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.
SPRINGFIELD – The state honored 28 schools from across Illinois for academic performance at an event at the governor’s mansion in Springfield Wednesday evening.
The schools, a mix of K-12 public and private institutions, were the first to be awarded in the Illinois Governor’s Blue Ribbon School Award program. The program was established in October 2025, soon after the national equivalent was abolished by the Trump Administration.
The recipients from Illinois had already been selected by the U.S. Department of Education before the program was closed in August 2025.
“Twenty-eight outstanding schools are represented here tonight, recognized for the prestigious distinction that’s based upon the rigorous criteria, the same ones that were used by the Department of Education, so you have met and exceeded those really high standards,” Gov. JB Pritzker said at the ceremony.
The Trump administration said the closure was part of a series of downsizing initiatives in the Department of Education in an effort to return education to the states, the Chicago Tribune reported.
The National Blue Ribbon Schools program honored thousands of public and private schools for academic achievement since 1982. In 2024, 18 Illinois schools received the prestigious award.
“I believe that this level of educational excellence really should be celebrated at every opportunity,” Pritzker said. “We should be constantly uplifting our students and our teachers, our administrators and the school’s achievements and successes. Each and every day, you come to school eager to support your students, their safety, their growth, their well-being. You put forward your best efforts, and you commit yourselves to, well, making their lives better.”
The Illinois State Board of Education will manage the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Schools application and awards process in the coming years.
Fifteen public and 13 nonpublic schools, included below, were awarded in the ceremony.
Sunset Ridge Elementary School, Northfield, Sunset Ridge School District 29
William Fremd High School, Palatine, Township High School District 211
Highlands Elementary School, La Grange, LaGrange Highlands School District 106
Pleasantdale Middle School, Burr Ridge, Pleasantdale School District 107
Lyons Township High School, La Grange, Lyons Township High School District 204
Glen Oaks Elementary School, Hickory Hills, North Palos School District 117
Warren Elementary School, Warren, Community Unit School District 205
Prescott Elementary School, Chicago, Chicago Public School District 299
Clarendon Hills Middle School, Clarendon Hills, Community Consolidated School District 181
Walker Elementary School, Clarendon Hills, Community Consolidated School District 181
Kennedy Junior High School, Lisle, Naperville Community Unit School District 203
Liberty Intermediate School, Libertyville, Community High School District 128
Sarah Adams Elementary School, Lake Zurich, Lake Zurich Community Unit School District 95
Mascoutah Middle School, Mascoutah, Mascoutah School District 19
Lincoln-Way East High School, Frankfort, Lincoln-Way Community High School District 210
Private Schools:
Ascension Catholic School, Oak Park
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Academy, Chicago
Regina Dominican High School, Wilmette
St. Giles School, Oak Park
St. Matthias School, Chicago
St. Therese Chinese Catholic School, Chicago
St. John of the Cross Parish School, Western Springs
St. Norbert School, Northbrook
St. Anne Catholic School, Barrington
The Academy of Saint Joan of Arc, Evanston
Timothy Christian (PreK – 8), Elmhurst
Wheaton Academy, West Chicago
Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart, Lake Forest
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
