novel coronavirus

Illinois will borrow $2 billion more from the Federal Reserve to pay bills associated with COVID-19, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Wednesday.

U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos says she has recovered from COVID-19.

The Illinois High School Association has halted winter sports, at least for now.

As Illinois sees its 12th day of new reported COVID-19 cases over 10,000, Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Tuesday announced new statewide restrictions on businesses, including shuttering casinos, movie theatres, banquet halls and museums across Illinois, and limiting retail store capacity.

U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos has tested positive for COVID-19.

The surge in online shopping is helping the U.S. Postal Service stay afloat financially, but the influx of packages is straining rural letter carriers across the country. 

An increase in online orders is projected to help the postal service run until September 2021. Ronnie Stutts, the president of the National Rural Letter Carriers' Association, says while the increase in mail is good, they are facing a worker shortage because a large percentage rural carriers are still on leave. 

Sandra Martell is in a tough spot. As public health administrator in northern Illinois’ Winnebago County, Martell was threatened with lawsuits from several area bar owners after she included them on a list of businesses allegedly defying the governor’s orders to halt indoor dining.

The county is part of a region that faced tougher restrictions this month after the rate of positive COVID-19 tests rose above 8%.

A group of Springfield bars and restaurant owners say they’re taking legal action and refusing to follow new rules imposed by the governor shuttering indoor service after the west-central Illinois region saw a sustained rise in COVID-19 test positivity rates, triggering the restrictions.

UPDATED 5:45 p.m. | The high school basketball season will play on as planned despite a surge in COVID-19 cases across Illinois.

High school basketball in Illinois — along with hockey and wrestling — won't take place as scheduled as the state struggles against a resurgence of COVID-19.

On any given day, rows of shackled inmates shuffle onto gray-and-white buses to be transferred between Missouri prisons.

State officials halted all regular weekly transfers in March to help curb the spread of the coronavirus, but the Missouri Department of Corrections has continued to accept inmates from local jails and relocate them statewide. Some inmates and criminal justice advocates contend the transfers led to an increasing number of cases this summer.

Bonnie Seifried used to sit outside her husband’s window every day.

The nursing home where Frank Seifried lived, the Woodlands of Arnold, stopped allowing in-person visits in March — so every morning, she set up a folding chair and a polka dot umbrella under a tree outside.

Seifried sat with her husband for hours, separated by a thick layer of glass, writing out messages to him on a little whiteboard and sharing updates about their kids and grandkids.

Sometimes, she noticed, the staff wouldn’t check on him for hours at a time.

U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos said the continual back-and-forth on additional coronavirus stimulus aid is unfair to the American public.

Marisa Hardwick isn’t surprised there are now more than twice as many cases of COVID-19 on the University of Illinois’ Urbana campus than previously predicted by university researchers.

While COVID-19 has hampered farmers this year by forcing many farmers markets and restaurants to close, usually it’s the weather that threatens crops. A practice called “gleaning” helps save crops from going to waste while feeding those in need. 

Heavy rain was causing flooding all along the Arkansas River. Before Joe Tierney knew it, water from the nearby creek was creeping forward onto his farm in Bixby, Oklahoma. He had to evacuate, leaving behind fields full of vegetables. All Tierney could do was watch the water get closer and closer, he says.

Illinois is starting to award grants to renters to help them catch up on late payments. But the need far outpaces the funding available and more than 50,000 applicants won't get help.

Lexington, Nebraska, is just one of the many rural communities that has long dealt with food insecurity, but the global pandemic both intensified need in the town of 11,000 residents and presented new challenges in getting people food. 

Ja Nelle Pleasure never used to think twice about putting food on the table for her family.

Amid growing calls to allow contact sports to resume this fall, Illinois’ governor Tuesday appeared to double down on postponement of the seasons.