Gov. J.B. Pritzker spent $152 million in defeating state Sen. Darren Bailey for re-election, down from the $171 million for his first Illinois gubernatorial campaign.

A state audit found the Illinois Department of Employment Security lost to fraud more than half of the $3.6 billion in federal COVID-19 dollars earmarked for out-of-work Illinoisans. The full scope of the unemployment fraud remains unknown.

Four of the past 10 former Illinois governors are among the public officials who have been convicted of offenses in Illinois. The state needs stricter ethics reforms to change its culture of corruption.

America’s longest-serving politician is at the center of a federal corruption investigation into lobbying, bribery and using ComEd for political patronage jobs.

The state is attempting to shore up its supply of personal protection equipment, but received millions of masks the state health department recommended only using in a crisis.