Dave Dahl interviews Chris Welch – Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives
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Illinois’ top House Democrat Tuesday predicted passage of an anti-crime package aimed at confronting alarming rises in carjackings and organized retail thefts and possibly disarming Republicans of a potent election-year talking point.
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SPRINGFIELD – One year after being named speaker of the Illinois House, Rep. Emanuel “Chris” Welch says he is proud of the accomplishments he and his colleagues achieved and he looks forward to building on that record.
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SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WGEM) - Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch will celebrate one year as the chamber’s leader on Thursday. He hopes people look back at 2021 as a historic year for Illinois lawmakers, not just because he became the first Black Speaker in the state’s history, but due to the policies made into law.
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Illiniois State Representative Emanuel Welch addresses communities about the importance of getting vaccinated against COVID-19. Vaccines are available across the country, and communities are working hard to ensure that everyone has accurate information about the vaccines so that anyone who wants to be vaccinated has the opportunity to do so. In the meantime, it is important that we continue to follow health and safety guidelines.
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In the first full year of the Covid pandemic — as George Floyd’s murder in 2020 solidified into a nationwide reckoning with racial equity, as increasingly erratic weather events reinforced the brutal reality of climate change and as global threats to democratic governance trickled down to local municipalities — people everywhere were forced to confront new normals.
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SPRINGFIELD — The year 2021 was a time of change in Illinois politics and government, whether it was the ushering in of new leadership under the Capitol dome or the passage of consequential legislation that will fundamentally change how the state generates its electricity.
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The Low-Income Household Water Assistance Program is the latest state effort to help residents pay their utility bills. It joins a $327 million program announced in September to help residents with bills for their energy services.
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Applications for the latest round of funding are due by early January, with the state expecting to disburse the money beginning in February.
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A new generation of Illinois Democrats says it wants to break up the state’s infamous political hierarchy — but the old system was good at winning.
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It is easy to lose sight of all we have to be thankful for. After all, a deadly pandemic still rages on and searing political divisions remain — all threatening the ties that bind us together as Americans.
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State and local leaders from the western suburbs called for money from the $1 trillion infrastructure bill that passed Congress over the weekend to be used to rebuild a 13-mile segment of the Eisenhower Expressway.
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Work is currently underway to reopen the shuttered Westlake Hospital, 1225 W. Lake St. in Melrose Park, as Woodlake Hospital. Westlake Hospital closed in 2019.
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SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Gov. J.B. Pritzker and an entourage of top state officials planned to depart for the United Kingdom Tuesday on a weeklong hunt for climate-friendly investment and to tout Illinois’ new clean-energy law at the global climate change summit in Scotland.
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SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - Gov. JB Pritzker hopes Illinois will become the country's hub to build and drive electric vehicles. Pritzker signed the massive clean energy plan into law last month and hasn't taken his foot off the pedal.
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In 2016, Illinois passed a decent enough energy bill. It shored up the state’s (relatively modest) renewable energy standard and kept its existing nuclear power plants open. It was a compromise among varied interests, signed into law by a Democratic legislature and a Republican governor. At the time, I figured it was the best any state in the coal-heavy Midwest was likely to do.
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Illinois’ revised legislative maps are the subject of ire from government transparency groups and organizations like the Latino Policy Forum, and they’re the subject of federal lawsuits brought by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) as well as Illinois Republicans.
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SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - Gov. JB Pritzker signed a massive clean energy bill into law Wednesday, saving the nuclear fleet in Illinois and starting the process to decarbonize the state's energy sector. Sponsors say it also ensures communities of color have an important role in clean energy moving forward.
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After months of negotiations on the bill, the Illinois Senate on Monday sent the legislation to Pritzker’s desk on a 37-17 vote — with three senators voting present — after the Illinois House voted last week to pass the measure.
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SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Wednesday signed into law a pledge to eliminate the state’s climate-damaging carbon emissions within a quarter-century, including money to keep clean-power nuclear plants running and incentives for purchasing electric vehicles.
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