In 2000, we started @properties with little more than a passion for real estate and a vision to improve the home buying and selling experience through innovation. Because of that innovation, a small startup with four agents grew into a firm with more than 3,200 throughout Chicagoland, powered by a belief that no two homes or homeowners are the same.

Hey, it’s almost summer, and the Chicago Cubs are in first place in their division.

(The less said about the sorry White Sox, the better.)

So in the spirit of the season, why not hold a corruption double-header at the federal courthouse in Chicago? After all, cynics often say that watching Chicago’s and Illinois’ rancid politics and politicians is one of our favorite sports — rain or shine.

SPRINGFIELD — While the Illinois General Assembly didn’t end up passing legislation this session that helped or hurt the Chicago Bears’ stadium efforts, one suburban lawmaker said the legislature got close to a deal on property tax legislation — a measure widely seen as a way to ease a team move to Arlington Heights.

“We were super close and just ran out of time,” state Rep.

SPRINGFIELD — Along with a budget that passed shortly before Saturday’s deadline, Illinois legislators passed a flurry of bills in the final days of the General Assembly’s spring session on issues ranging from police hiring practices to traffic safety.

Here are some of the bills heading to Gov. JB Pritzker’s desk after passing out of the legislature at the end of the four-month session.

SPRINGFIELD — Another legislative session came and went without the Chicago Bears breaking the line of scrimmage in Springfield for legislation to help them build a new stadium.

With lawmakers scrambling to pass a state budget and agonizing over the future of mass transit, the Bears’ team of lobbyists was left on the Capitol sideline in their push for a bill that would potentially pave the way to a dome in Arlington Heights.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (KWQC) – As federal legislation moves through Washington D.c. in hopes to trim the fat from Medicaid, Illinois Democrats are taking a stance against this move.

The majority party passed a resolution Thursday that calls on the U.S. Senate to table the health care cuts bill.

Instead, the party suggests they pursue reforms such as the Illinois’ Healthcare Protection Act which provides care to illegal immigrants.

* Governor Pritzker held a post-budget press conference this morning…

Reporter: This budget relied on a few one-time fixes. You’ve tried in the past to fix the structural deficit in 2020. Is that something that you’re going to be looking to spend political capital on going forward? Something a little bit more long-term? So we don’t have to do this every year—the one-time moving stuff around?

* From House Speaker Chris Welch’s end of session speech…

Working through uncertainty to make the tough decisions, to make the tough choices it takes to deliver a fiscal plan that is both responsible and compassionate. While it’s clear the decisions in Washington are neither. You see, none of us here know what the future holds in this volatile environment, but the leaders in this house have been unequivocal that we will not surrender our role in shaping the future.

(The Center Square) – Illinois taxpayers are on the hook for over a billion dollars of tax increases to fund a $55 billion budget, the most expensive spending plan in state history.

Before approving the plan in the House, state Rep. Robyn Gabel, D-Evanston, said the budget is compassionate and fiscally and socially responsible.

“Leadership in Washington has affected our economic outlook, our revenue projections, and even threatened federal funding for our most crucial services,” Gabel said during floor debate.

SPRINGFIELD — Democratic state lawmakers voted late Saturday, just minutes before their midnight deadline, to send Gov. JB Pritzker the final piece of a $55 billion budget balanced with a combination of spending cuts and an estimated $800 million plus in tax increases, including hikes on tobacco products, vaping and online sportsbooks.

The governor’s office touted the spending plan as Pritzker’s “seventh consecutive balanced budget that continues to get the state’s finances back on track.”

SPRINGFIELD — After fierce pushback and a narrow vote of support in the House of Representatives, Illinois lawmakers ended their spring session without approving a bill that would let terminally ill people end their own lives.

The House of Representatives had approved the measure Thursday with just three votes to spare to get it passed. But shortly after that vote, Cardinal Blase Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago, issued a rare statement, condemning the plan as “assisted suicide.”

Surrounded by rows of soybeans and corn, Hans Bishop’s farm in central Illinois was an anomaly. He grew kale, peppers, eggplants and radishes, selling to Whole Foods from June through October and to local restaurants, grocers and families year-round. 

The vegetable farm was born in 2009 on a quarter acre rented to him by his father, a row crop farmer.

SPRINGFIELD — Illinois lawmakers closed out their spring session early Sunday without passing legislation to reform mass transit governance in the Chicago area or direct upwards of $1 billion in new funding to the CTA, Metra and Pace to fend off a $770 million fiscal cliff that looms next year.

A bill championed by state Sen.