Illinois
Daywatch: Nearly 17,000 patients traveled to Illinois for an abortion the year Roe fell — a 49% spike
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tronc/BUBOS7ICUVFOJHY5XLBIM3ZQJ4.png?ssl=1 "Daywatch: Nearly 17,000 patients traveled to Illinois for an abortion the year Roe fell — a 49% spike")
Good morning, Chicago.
More than 56,000 abortions were performed in Illinois the year the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, marking the most pregnancy terminations statewide since the mid-1990s, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health’s annual abortion statistics report.
The rise in abortions that year was driven by a roughly 49% spike in out-of-state patients: Nearly 17,000 people came from other states to Illinois to terminate a pregnancy in 2022 compared with roughly 11,000 abortion seekers who traveled from other states in 2021, the data showed.
In contrast, the number of Illinois residents having abortions in-state decreased slightly, from a little over 40,000 in 2021 to nearly 39,000 in 2022.
Read the full story from the Tribune’s Angie Leventis Lourgos.
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Hundreds of migrants who recently arrived in Chicago have been staying in warming buses provided by the city and they haven’t taken a shower for days.
Many are hungry and sick with colds. Each night, they climb into eight warming buses to sleep at the Office of Emergency Management’s “landing zone” in the West Loop. The number of migrants has climbed to 324.
A South Side man already wanted by federal authorities was charged Wednesday with shooting a Chicago police officer in the Gold Coast neighborhood after burglarizing a luxury goods store.
“I’ve always said that if there came a point in time in this race where I couldn’t see a path to accomplishing that goal, that I would get out,” he said. “And it’s clear to be tonight that there isn’t a path for me to win the nomination, which is why I’m suspending my campaign tonight for president of the United States.”
Judge Arthur Engoron rescinded his conditional permission for the unusual plan on Wednesday, a day ahead of closing arguments. He had said that Trump would have to abide by the rules that apply to attorneys’ closing arguments and couldn’t assail the characters of his adversaries, the judge or others in the court system.
Prosecutors alleged the high-profile slaying of FBG Duck, whose real name was Carlton Weekly, was part of a deadly, yearslong conflict between two South Side gang factions who boasted about their exploits and killing rivals through drill rap tracks that often name-dropped specific victims.
But in her closing argument Wednesday, the attorney for the lead defendant, Charles Liggins, accused prosecutors of losing the “ability to distinguish entertainment fantasy from reality,” portraying the South Side rap culture as a lucrative entertainment business that reflected the violence of Chicago’s streets but in no way qualifies as evidence in a murder case.
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Connor Bedard “underwent successful surgery to repair his fractured jaw at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago and we expect him to be out of the lineup for approximately 6-8 weeks,” team physician Dr. Michael Terry said in a statement.
Saban, who won seven national championships — more than any other major college football coach — and turned Alabama back into a national powerhouse with six of those titles in just 17 seasons, is retiring, according to multiple outlets.
Scrooge and the elves are packed away for another year. And Chicago theater reaches boldly into 2024. The winter theater season, generally a time for substantial fare, is upon us.
Sometimes the biggest names in comedy are hard to ignore when they come through town. Just look at Hard Rock Live’s star-filled start to 2024 in Northwest Indiana: Ron White (Jan. 20) and Tim Allen (Jan. 27) one month, Marlon Wayans (Feb. 2) and George Lopez (Feb. 3) the next, before wrapping up with a March that includes Bill Burr (March 8) and Nikki Glaser (March 22).
But let’s spread the love.
“True Detective: Night Country” has a new writer, showrunner and director in Issa López. The setting is a small Alaskan town near the Arctic Circle. It’s late December and for a few weeks each winter the sun never rises; daily life takes place amid the inky darkness of night. That’s an intriguing starting point, writes critic Nina Metz.
When a team of research scientists goes missing from their impressively comfortable outpost, they’re eventually located out on the ice, naked and dead, their faces frozen in a rictus of fear. What the hell happened?
Millions of asylum seekers have been impacted as caseloads have grown
A general crackdown on immigration courts the administration sees as liberal has led to the firing of dozens of immigration judges.
Recent polls show President Donald Trump’s approval ratings continue to dip as the war in Iran endures and national gas prices float above $4.
One such poll conducted by CNN/SSRS illustrates widespread upset among Americans with regards to Trump’s handling of the economy and inflation. Here’s how Trump’s approval ratings look nationally and within Illinois, as of April 20.
Donald Trump approval rating: CNN
Only 31% of Americans approve of how Trump is handling the economy, compared to 39% in January 2026, according to the poll.
The decline in approval on the issue is even higher among Republicans, especially Republicans under 45 years old, according to CNN.
In the poll, President Donald Trump received his worst approval rating yet in either of his two terms on the economy.
CNN findings show about two-thirds of Americans say Trump’s policies have worsened economic conditions, and 27% say they approve of Trump’s handling of inflation.
CNN also reported 63% of Americans say the prices at the pump have caused financial hardship in their household, including 15% calling it “severe.”
The poll, conducted March 26-30 among 1,201 U.S. adults, found 35% approve of Trump’s job performance overall. The poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.
One poll respondent told CNN and the pollster about the most important issue facing the country: “Prices! Everything is so expensive. Makes it very difficult to do anything other than work and go home. Trips to the grocery store are ridiculous! Between gas and grocery prices, we are poor!”
Trump addressed the concerns about gas prices in his address to the nation on April 1, saying the Strait of Hormuz would reopen when the conflict was over and the prices would fall again.
Trump reaffirmed his promise about the strait on April 18, saying his administration had “very good conversations going on” with Iran after the country said the strait would not be reopened.
Donald Trump approval rating in Illinois: Civiqs
Trump’s job approval rating in Illinois, as of April 18, according to data from online survey platform Civiqs, is as follows:
- Approve — 32%.
- Disapprove — 65%.
- Neither — 4%.
Donald Trump national approval rating: Civiqs
Trump’s national approval rating as of April 13, according to data from Civiqs, is as follows:
- Approve — 39%.
- Disapprove — 57%.
- Neither — 4%.
Donald Trump approval rating in Illinois: The Economist
Trump has a -36% net approval rating in Illinois as of April 20, according to data from The Economist.
Donald Trump national approval rating: The Economist
Trump’s national approval rating as of April 20, according to data from The Economist, is as follows:
- Approve — 38%.
- Disapprove — 56%.
- Don’t know — 7%.
Trump, Iran War approval rating: Pew Research Center
A Pew Research study conducted in mid-March found that about six-in-ten Americans (61%) approve of Trump’s handling of the conflict in Iran, with 39% approving.
A report released in early April found that the largest concern for most Americans as a result of the conflict is higher gas prices, with 69% saying they are “extremely” or “very” concerned about the issue.
Other Trump approval rating polls as of April 20
Here is a look at some other polling aggregators to understand how CNN/SSRS’s poll compares to the average Trump approval numbers as of April 20:
RealClearPolitics Poll Average: 41.2% approve, 56.6% disapprove.
The New York Times: 40% approve, 56% disapprove.
Silver Bulletin: 39.7% approve, 56.4% disapprove.
Which president has the lowest approval rating ever?
Although Trump has dropped to a historic low in approval rating polls this term so far, he hit a 34% low in the first term and other recent presidents such as Joe Biden hit a 36% low, Barack Obama hit a 40% low, George W. Bush hit a 25% low and Bill Clinton hit a 37% low, according to the Gallup polls, whose recorded lowest rating was Harry Truman with 22%.
As for the highest presidential approval ratings, George W. Bush holds the highest approval rating ever recorded at 90%, while his father, George H. Bush holds the second highest at 89%.
Trump is the only president that has not reached a 50% or higher approval to date in the Gallup polls’ history.
CENTRALIA, Ill. – An investigation is underway after multiple people were shot Sunday in Centralia, Illinois, according to a report from WFCN News in southern Illinois.
FOX 2 has confirmed the Illinois State Police is investigating a shooting and taking over the investigation, but ISP could not confirm many further details as of 9 p.m. Sunday.
“The investigation is in its infancy and to protect the integrity of the investigation, no additional details will be released at this time,” ISP said in a statement to FOX 2.
According to WFCN News, the shooting happened around 5 p.m. near the 900 block of East Kell Street in Centralia. Multiple law enforcement agencies have since responded to scene and multiple victims are hospitalized, according to the report.
It’s unclear how many people may have been injured and what led up to the shooting.
Centralia, Illinois is about 70 miles, or just over an hour, east of St. Louis.
This is a developing story. FOX 2 will update as more information becomes available.
The National Weather Service has teams of storm surveryors in the field April 18 investigating several reports of severe storms and tornado touch downs across eastern Iowa, northwest Illinois and northeast Missouri.
According to the weather service’s website, windgusts of up to 60 to 70 mph along with teacup-sized hail and several tornadoes were reported April 17.
Many homes and outbuildings were damaged, trees were uprooted and power lines were downed in Lena, Illinois, where the most significant damage occurred, the site pointed out.
Very strong winds also were reported near Washington, Iowa, and Colmar, Illinois, where several outbuildings and grain bins were destroyed.
The weather service received reports of confirmed and possible tornadoes in the areas of Lena, Pecatonica, Shirland, Rockton, Roscoe and Capron.
The teams will be assessing damage this weekend into next week along with county emergency management teams to determine what types of storms occurred and their paths.
Dozens of power outages were reported, as well.
As of the afternoon of April 18, ComEd was reporting 85 active power outages across northern Illinois, down from 241 on April 17, and 6,751 customers affected, down from more than 18,000.
The bulk of those outages and the most customers impacted are concentrated in Jo Daviess and Stephenson counties.
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