Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul is asking state lawmakers to approve a $120 million budget for his office. House appropriations leaders noted Friday that is a $15 million increase over his current operating budget.

As prosecutors gave their closing arguments Monday in the trial of state Sen. Emil Jones III, they cast doubt on Jones’ testimony last week that red-light camera entrepreneur Omar Maani made him “uncomfortable” when he hinted at a bribe in the summer of 2019, asking the jury why — if that was true — did he keep meeting Maani for dinner and answering his calls and texts?

Officials in seven counties are suing Illinois, claiming the state’s property tax code requires them to run sales of delinquent property taxes in a way that the U.S. Supreme Court has deemed unconstitutional.

Closing arguments are expected Monday in the bribery trial of state Sen. Emil Jones III, a Chicago Democrat accused of soliciting $5,000 in campaign funding and a job for his former district office intern from a red-light camera company executive in exchange for Jones’ help with legislation in Springfield.

The Illinois Appellate Court Thursday upheld an earlier Cook County circuit court ruling dismissing a lawsuit in which the village of Hoffman Estates claimed a right to 20 acres owned by the Northern Illinois University Foundation.

A proposed ban on mascots, logos, and names depicting Native Americans in Illinois public K-12 schools is one step closer to becoming law. The Illinois House of Representatives passed H.B. 1237 last week and advanced it to the Senate for approval in that chamber.

An appeals court has denied Barton McNeil’s request to reconsider evidence and grant him a new trial in a 1998 Bloomington murder. McNeil was convicted of first-degree murder for the smothering death of his 3-year-old daughter, Christina. He has long maintained his innocence, claiming his ex-girlfriend Misook Nowlin to be the killer. She has denied that.

Early in the morning outside Cook County Jail, a group of new detainees stepped out of a Chicago police wagon and walked bleary-eyed into the bright sunlight before lining up inside against a brick wall. Brought in from the police districts, the men were among the newest bookings to the jail, where they would wait until a judge ruled on whether they would be admitted or released while their charges were pending.

Justice Mary K. O’Brien and the Illinois Supreme Court have announced the appointment of Associate Judge Michelle A. Vescogni as an At-Large Circuit Judge for the 13th Judicial Circuit. Judge Vescogni was appointed to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Cynthia M. Raccuglia on February 28, 2025.