Rep. Mary Beth Canty, a Democrat from Arlington Heights, was elected to the Illinois House in November 2022 after previous years of public service on the Arlington Heights Village Board and Regional Transportation Authority board. In her first few months as a state lawmaker, Canty has pushed major pieces of legislation that would require all Illinois school districts to offer all-day kindergarten and would require all job postings to have salary ranges and information about benefits.

Ald. Matt Martin (47) introduced a City Council resolution in January calling for a hearing to discuss the possibility of using ranked choice voting in future Chicago elections. Advocates argue the system, in which voters rank candidates by preference in races with three or more people, not only produces elected officials more representative of voters but also can save cities money from not having to run costly runoff elections.

Greg Harris retired from the General Assembly as House Majority Leader following over a decade representing the North Side of Chicago. Harris is the first person to serve who openly lives with HIV and is one of the first openly gay lawmakers in Illinois history. During his tenure in the House, Harris oversaw budget negotiations for House Democrats and led key pieces of legislation on health care reform.

After eight years in the Illinois House and four as House Republican floor leader, Rep. Mark Batinick (R-Plainfield) decided not to run for another term in 2022. The Daily Line’s Ben Szalinski sat down with Batinick to talk about his career in the House, why he decided to elected office, and his observations about the House Republican caucus and the workings of the Illinois House of Representatives.

Larry Suffredin was elected to the Cook County Board of Commissioners in 2002 as an insurgent looking to shake up the county's old ways to make the government more efficient and service-focused. Now, 20 years later, at the age of 74, Suffredin is staring down retirement and reflecting on the changes he and his allies were able to force in the county’s government and political structure. Suffredin spoke to The Daily Line’s Alex Nitkin about his battles with John Stroger, why the Cook County Forest Preserve needs a taxpayer infusion and what county offices can do to head off crippling staff shortages.

Ald. Nicole Lee (11) made history this year when she was sworn in as the first Chinese American member of Chicago’s City Council and the first woman to represent the 11th Ward. The Daily Line’s Erin Hegarty sat down with Lee to hear lessons from her first months in office, how her legislative priorities are taking shape, why she supports a Near South high school and whether she’ll run for election in 2023.

Seven people were killed and more than 40 were injured when a gunman opened fire during Highland Park’s Independence Day parade. Since the shooting, law enforcement officials have revealed details about the gunman’s background including previous encounters with police. Despite making a threat to kill his family, the shooter legally bought a firearm owner identification and purchased multiple weapons, sparking new conversations about ways lawmakers can boost the state’s gun owner requirements. Gun Violence Prevention PAC CEO Kathleen Sances talked with The Daily Line’s Ben Szalinski about the next frontier of gun control measures her group is pursuing at the state level, including expanding fingerprinting requirements, curtailing the sale of assault weapons and limiting magazine sizes. She said the biggest factor in the state’s rampant gun violence is that there are too many guns on the streets.

For decades, the only way to know how to vote in Cook County judicial elections was to go on a research dive or trust the local Democratic Party’s picks. But thanks to Injustice Watch and its new judge’s guide, voters have a third option. Injustice Watch editor Jonah Newman joined The Daily Line’s Alex Nitkin to walk through the ins and outs of the judge’s guide, how Cook County judicial races have changed over the decades and what it means to be an informed judicial voter.

Chicago Animal Care and Control is tasked with taking care of and controlling animals found throughout the city including kittens, dogs, coyotes and even the occasional peacock. The department relies not only on city employees but also on volunteers who help care for animals and get them adopted out. The Daily Line’s Erin Hegarty talked with Executive Director Mamadou Diakhate about the regular and not-so-regular animals the department sees, how it’s ramping up its marketing strategy and how it’s targeting resources in the two Chicago neighborhoods that register the most calls into the department.

Chelsea Laliberte Barnes has been advocating for substance abuse treatment and opioid overdose prevention measures since her brother died of an overdose more than a decade ago. It let her to create Live 4 Lali, a non-profit that has given her a platform to advocate for state and federal legislation to push back on the opioid epidemic. Now, Barnes has decided to mount a run for state representatives in the new 51st House District against Democratic opponent Nabeela Syed of Inverness. The winner will take on Rep. Chris Bos (R-Lake Zurich) in the November election. Barnes talked to The Daily Line’s Ben Szalinski about her experience at Live 4 Lali and laid out her stance on a variety of issues in the campaign including public safety, Illinois’ budget, ethics reform and the state’s business climate.

Deborah Witzburg was confirmed on April 27 as the city’s new Inspector General after the office spent more than six months in a transitory state that she and her predecessor say never should have been allowed to happen. Witzburg sat down last week with The Daily Line’s Alex Nitkin to talk about how she got involved in government oversight, how she plans to balance simultaneously investigating and collaborating with the City Council, what meaningful police reform would look like and how the process to choose her eventual successor should change so the six-month waiting period is not repeated.

Chicagoans are set on June 28 to vote for everything from governor and Secretary of State to county commissioners and, likely, a new Chicago ward map. But how does a city prepare for a primary, general and municipal election all set to occur in less than a year’s time? The Daily Line’s Erin Hegarty talked to Max Bever of the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners about election prep, what’s on the June ballot, the variety of ways Chicagoans can cast their ballots and what’s next in the evolution of how people vote.

The Illinois General Assembly passed HB1091 in the final hours of the spring session to crack down on organized retail crime and smash-and-grabs that have become a nemesis for business owners along the Magnificent Mile and at stores in suburban shopping malls. It was one of several bills lawmakers passed at the end of session to address concerns about public safety. Illinois Retail Merchants Association CEO Rob Karr led the push for the bill and sat down with The Daily Line’s Ben Szalinski to talk about what the bill does, address some criticism after Republicans said the bill was too weak, and give listeners an inside perspective of the negotiations and how the bill was agreed to in the final hours of session.

For months, The Daily Line has been teaming up with WBEZ and Crain’s Chicago Business to calculate how often all 50 aldermen have been absent from meetings of their assigned City Council committee meetings between May 2019 and December 2021. The resulting project, published on Monday, includes a deep dive into how the results break down, what they mean for the way the council conducts business, and what it says about power (and the lack thereof) in the City Council. In this cross-over episode with the AD Q&A podcast, Crain’s reporter A.D. Quig talks to Alex Nitkin and Erin Hegarty of The Daily Line and Claudia Morell of WBEZ about what this investigation tells us about Chicago government in 2022.

The COVID-19 pandemic put Cook County in the position of having to overseeing triage and recovery for more than 120 suburban municipalities — first with CARES Act funds and now with $1 billion in aid from the American Rescue Plan. Cook County Chief Financial Officer Ammar Rizki sat down with The Daily Line’s Alex Nitkin to talk about how the county got into position to weather the pandemic’s fiscal storm without hiking taxes, and how county leaders are hoping to make the federal money last while following through on a pledge not to spend any of the dollars on policing or incarceration.

Ald. Anthony Beale (9) has been pushing since last June for members of the City Council to have their own legal counsel, separate from Chicago’s Corporation Counsel charged with representing the city’s interests as a whole. The addition would also bring aldermen their own parliamentarian to advocate on their behalf when there are disagreements over process during City Council meetings. But Beale’s proposal has hit delay after delay as other aldermen seek to introduce their own proposals for legislative legal counsel. Beale talked to The Daily Line’s ErinHegarty about his proposed ordinance, which ward map he supports and what the rest of the year holds for the 9th Ward.

Since the beginning of 2022, Department of Children and Family Services Director Marc Smith has been found in contempt of court multiple times by a Cook County judge for failing to place children in appropriate care settings in a reasonable amount of time. Cook County Public Guardian Charles Golbert explains what is going on in an interview with The Daily Line’s Ben Szalinski. The department has also been mourning the murder of Diedre Silas., a DCFS employee who was killed visiting a home in Sangamon County. Sen. Steve McClure (R-Springfield) also sits down for an interview to explain legislation moving through the General Assembly to improve employee safety.

After 11 years overseeing the department that manages the city’s properties and equipment, Commissioner David Reynolds is stepping down to take on a new role at the Obama Foundation, he announced in an exclusive interview with The Daily Line’s Alex Nitkin. Reynolds defended the Department of Fleet and Facility Management’s 2020 merger with the Department of Innovation and Technology to become the new Department of Assets, Information and Services — a move that some still say was a mistake. He also gave an update on the city’s negotiations with ComEd over a new franchise agreement, and he described the city’s efforts to switch to renewable energy and upgrade its software technology.

Going back to his days as a 20-year-old member of the Elmwood Park school board, Pete Silvestri has always been a mediator. Now that Silvestri is about to retire from politics after 28 years as a Cook County Commissioner on the Northwest Side, he sat down with The Daily Line’s Alex Nitkin to reflect on his legacy and the ways he’s tried to soothe conflicts while moving the county past its legacy of outdated systems and clout-based hiring. He also talked about how today’s elected leaders can bridge partisan divides, and he described what kind of candidate he would support to fill his seat.

Ald. Silvana Tabares represents the 23rd Ward on the Southwest Side and also serves as vice-chair of the City Council’s Latino Caucus. As the city’s remap process continues to heat up and drag on past a critical December deadline, Tabares has helped lead the push for the adoption of the so-called “Coalition Map” spearheaded by the Latino caucus and the proposal for a new set of protocols for the remap process. Tabares talked to The Daily Line’s Erin Hegarty about what a new map could mean for the city and the 23rd Ward, issues facing residents in her ward and possible legislation on the horizon this year.