Peter Hancock
Peter Hancock joined the Capitol News Illinois team as a reporter in January 2019.
Before that, Hancock covered Kansas state government for much of the past two decades. For the previous 4 years, Hancock had been the statehouse reporter for the Lawrence Journal-World. He provided year-round daily coverage of the Kansas Statehouse, state government, appellate courts, elections and Kansas’ congressional delegation. He previously worked for 8 years as a statehouse reporter for Kansas Public Radio, and with the Kansas Health Policy Authority and the Kansas Education Policy Report.
“As a longtime veteran of statehouse reporting in Kansas, I know how challenging it is for individual newspapers to make that kind of commitment,” Hancock said. “Capitol News Illinois offers a unique opportunity for newspapers throughout the state to pool their resources and enable a small team of reporters to deliver critical news and information about state government to communities throughout the state.
“ I covered state politics and government in Kansas for the better part of the past 20 years, working in both print and broadcast journalism. I graduated from the University of Kansas with bachelor’s degrees in political science and secondary education. Although I was born and raised in the Kansas City area, I have deep family roots in central and southern Illinois, and so coming to Springfield is a bit like coming back home.”
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The 2023 spring legislative session came to an end in the early hours of Saturday morning after the Illinois House gave its approval to a $50.6 billion spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year that begins July 1.
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Gov. JB Pritzker and Democratic leaders announced Wednesday they’ve agreed to a framework for next year’s roughly $50 billion state spending plan, even as negotiations continued in the final stretch of lawmakers’ already-extended spring legislative session.
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Illinois lawmakers are considering further legislation restricting the possession and marketing of firearms, even as state and federal courts are weighing the constitutionality of an assault weapons ban passed in January.
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Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who hears applications from the Seventh Circuit, could decide on her own whether to issue an emergency injunction or she could refer the question to the full court for consideration.
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A bill that would block libraries from receiving state grants if they ban books cleared the Illinois Senate Wednesday and will soon be sent to Gov. JB Pritzker, who is expected to sign it.
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Some Illinois lawmakers are calling for a review of one of the tests prospective teachers must pass in order to be licensed in Illinois.
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The Illinois House passed a bill Wednesday that would prohibit libraries from banning books or other material because of partisan or doctrinal pressure, prompting strong opposition from Republicans who called it an assault on local control.
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Illinois lawmakers are debating whether the state should join a growing list of jurisdictions in the United States that allow voters to pick more than one candidate for an office, ranking them in order of preference rather than choosing just one.
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Measure would apply state’s Child Labor Law to ‘influencer’ videos