Monday, January 5, 2026
Nearly 300 Illinois laws took effect Jan. 1. The Illinois’ 1% statewide grocery tax is eliminated, but more than half the state’s cities and towns have passed an ordinance establishing their own grocery tax.
The CTA must pay $3 million to a woman who killed and dismembered her North Side landlord after an Illinois appeals court ruled that a trial judge properly shielded jurors from learning about the then-pending murder case during her personal injury lawsuit against the transit agency.
A new law will ease auditing requirements on Illinois’ smallest local governments, sparing taxpayers the expense of preparing those investigations.
Immigrant rights and artificial intelligence were two of the hot-button issues that influenced public education in 2025. They are also the subject of new education-related laws that will take effect at the start of the new year.
Chicago police are still working to find out how exactly an 8-year-old boy was able to get his hands on a gun before allegedly shooting another child at a Northwest Side home on Thursday evening.