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State Week: The Bears make their stadium pitch; Gov talks pensions

State Week 23 logo (capitol dome)
Brian Mackey
/
NPR Illinois

The NFL's Chicago Bears this week unveiled plans for a domed stadium along the city's lakefront, near their current home Soldier Field. The team wants state funding for some of the nearly $5 billion project. So far, state leaders are on the sideline, skeptical of providing that help.

Also, Gov. J.B. Pritzker raised the possibility of the state adjusting Tier 2 pensions for employees. There have been questions about the legality of lesser benefits offered a law passed more than a decade ago.

And, a tribal nation becomes the first to be federally recognized in Illinois.

Host Sean Crawford is joined by Professor Emeritus Charlie Wheeler and Capitol News Illinois reporter Hannah Meisel.

The former director of the Public Affairs Reporting (PAR) graduate program is Professor Charles N. Wheeler III, a veteran newsman who came to the University of Illinois at Springfield following a 24-year career at the Chicago Sun-Times.
Hannah covers state government and politics for Capitol News Illinois. She's been dedicated to the statehouse beat since interning at NPR Illinois in 2014, with subsequent stops at WILL-AM/FM, Law360, Capitol Fax and The Daily Line before returning to NPR Illinois in 2020 and moving to CNI in 2023.