It is time for Illinois legislators to act and bring our public defense system into the 21st century. Access to justice cannot depend on wealth or geography. 

As the Illinois General Assembly approaches the critical May 31 deadline to secure funding for its public transit system, let’s be clear that this is not a light switch that can be turned off and on with ease.

Public voting from mid-January to Valentine’s Day revealed an overwhelming preference for the status quo, with about 43% of almost 385,000 votes opting against any change whatsoever. The current flag fared better than the combined total of the next five choices.

With summer upon us, now's a good time to brush up on ways to stay safe and avoid skin cancer while enjoying the long, hot days ahead. The American Cancer Society offers some tips and strategies.

Bringing lawmakers back to Springfield at what might otherwise be a dormant stretch isn’t – or at least shouldn’t be – much cause for concern.

The U.S. House’s Energy and Commerce Committee released its recommendations for budget reconciliation. A preliminary review by the Congressional Budget Office projected that, if implemented, at least 8.6 million Americans would lose Medicaid coverage during the coming decade.

It has been seven decades since the Korean conflict began in 1950, and finally ended three years later with an armistice between the United States, North Korea and China. The war came on the heels of World War II and involved 24 nations, with a cost of 2.2 million casualties.

Mom, we children decided to each write a birthday message to you for your 54th birthday, May 22.

But to hear Harper tell it, the issue isn’t so much inability to reach compromise as unwillingness to negotiate.

"These milestones are a testament to the dedication and commitment of CMS, which has embraced efficiency, innovation and collaboration to improve past hiring challenges."

May is National Mental Health Awareness Month, and the theme this year is “In Every Story, There’s Strength.”

The current party line is no pursuit of state funding for stadium construction, but even if the Bears don’t directly request money to deal with infrastructure, a development at the proposed scale would force the hands of many government entities.

"What’s happening now is not just a policy failure—it’s a moral one. Investing in youth mental health should never be up for debate," writes NAMI McHenry County Executive Director Abbey Nicholas.

Needless to say, replacing an appropriations committee chair with barely two weeks to go in the spring session and tough budget votes ahead is not exactly commonplace. I’ve never seen such a thing in 35 years of doing this.

It’d take the rest of the month to tell superintendents’ stories: falling ceilings, boilers repurposed from World War II ships, infested walls from schools built when Al Capone was still an elementary student in Brooklyn.