Pass a budget with an estimated 35% revenue shortfall, dodge lawmakers scorning face masks, shake the Magic 8 ball for an estimate of federal aid, tweak the governor's reopening authority and finalize an income tax referendum by midnight Friday. How...

This article was produced in partnership with the ProPublica Local Reporting Network. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. When Kmart bought Sears in 2005, the retailer famous for its blue-ligh...

Hoffman Estates Mayor Bill McLeod has been both an observer and a participant through all the years since the possibility of a state and local tax deal to bring Sears' headquarters to the suburbs first was raised. As a trustee on the village board,...

This article was produced in partnership with the ProPublica Local Reporting Network. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. On a hot Sunday afternoon in June 1989, two of the most powerful men i...

The suburbs are losing millions of dollars in tax revenue and need unfiltered funding to climb out from under losses caused by COVID-19 and prevent layoffs, local mayors told the No. 2 U.S. House Democrat this week. Not only are sales taxes plunging...

A suburban woman's legal fight to win back the last of four coyotes seized from her property last year suffered a setback when a state appeals court last Friday refused to grant her an injunction that would return the animal to her. Tomi Tranchita ...

Barrington Hills' elected officials want village hall and the adjacent police headquarters to reopen to the public in less than two weeks, with visitors abiding by state regulations such as social distancing. Village board members have set May 19 as...

By Burt Constable It would be fun to start this column with, "A computer whiz nicknamed 'Radar,' a veteran police chief and a woman who does lighting for rock concerts walk into a bar." But a bar wouldn't be big enough to fit all the players behind ...

In what seems like the blink of an eye, our lives and businesses have been upended by the COVID-19 pandemic. As the numbers of sick and dying climbed exponentially over the past month, life as we know it ceased to exist. The shelter at home order me...