“The new green economy can be as exclusive and as unjust as the old one,” said the Rev. Rodrick Burton. He and others want local residents to decide how the region responds to climate change.

Brittany Green was one of more than 100 teachers in Illinois nominated for the award. The honor comes with $10,000 for the school and for Green to use toward professional development.

Illinois will continue to be a haven for those seeking abortions as other states restrict access to the procedure after the U.S. Supreme Court's expected ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said during a visit today to the Planned Parenthood clinic in Fairview Heights.

“I ain’t going to quit talking and saying what I want until they cut my tongue out and put me six foot under,” Bob Romanik said during a broadcast in 2017 following complaints about his frequent use of the N-word on the air."

The federal agency had threatened taking away the system's accreditation in 2007 after the Army Corps of Engineers determined the levees might be compromised. Work over the past 15 years prevented that from happening.

The federal workplace safety agency has been investigating the deaths of six people at the facility since a tornado hit it in December.

Residents of the former city of Centreville (now Cahokia Heights) have for years dealt with flooding and sewage overflows. Residents feel ignored — and financially trapped — after decades of inaction by officials.

Democrats say the expansion will lower health care costs by reducing care administered at emergency rooms, while Republicans argue it will incentivize illegal immigration and overburden the state’s health system.

“To be honest, I was in complete denial,” the superintendent said. “It just never sunk in what I was really facing.”

“This budget is nothing more than a campaign tool for Pritzker and the Democratic Party,” Senate Minority Leader Dan McConchie, R-Hawthorn Woods, said.