Thursday, January 15, 2026

Child care workers rallied outside the Trump Tower in Chicago’s River North neighborhood to condemn the federal funding freeze for child care programs. The final day to enroll in a federal Affordable Care Act health insurance plan is January 15, but the Illinois state-run marketplace has extended its deadline to the end of the month. Chicago is unveiling a first-of-its-kind support center on the South Side for women returning from incarceration. Plus, the Trump administration is using a legal shortcut to make it easier to cut down trees in national forests. Illinois’ Shawnee National Forest, the state’s only national forest, is an early battleground against the increasingly popular tactic to fast track timber sales across the country.