Redistricting

Amid Republican party efforts to gain congressional seats through off-cycle redistricting in Texas, there's an effort to revive a push for an Illinois state constitutional amendment to make political redistricting less, well, political.

A group of former Obama administration officials and election lawyers announced Tuesday they are attempting to reform the way the state draws district maps for the state legislature. They want to do this by passing a state constitutional amendment via a ballot initiative during the 2026 general election.

The request sets the stage for an escalation of a war between the Trump administration and Illinois Democrats, with Gov. JB Pritzker at the helm. But it’s unclear what role federal agents can play in the matter, and there were no reports of FBI activity in the area housing Texas Democrats as of Thursday morning.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has told NPR if Texas and other Republican majority states redraw new congressional districts outside the usual schedule after census periods, Illinois and blue states might follow the political escalation.

Around 400 people were evacuated and have safely returned to the premises after police conducted a search, St. Charles police said. Texas Democrats are in Illinois to deny Republicans a quorum on a controversial redistricting.

Democrats in New York, California and Illinois are threatening to redraw their own maps in retaliation to Republican redistricting efforts in Texas.

Texas Democrats joined Gov. JB Pritzker at a Sunday night news conference in Carol Stream, where the Democratic governor railed on President Donald Trump as a “cult leader” and “would-be dictator of the United States” for demanding redistricting.

The maps Illinois Democrats approved in 2021 sealed in their political power for a decade — adding one Hispanic-majority blue seat in Congress and forcing two Republicans out of their districts.

Bloomington City Council members stressed the need for funding roads and sewers with federal American Rescue Plan Act (APRA) money when they discussed the issue last fall.

The City of Bloomington could soon offer amnesty to parking violators with overdue fines.