Jacqueline Y. Collins

As authorities move to address K-8 absenteeism and truancy in Chicago schools, where tens of thousands of elementary students miss a month or more of school each year, they may not have to look far for workable strategies. Government agencies and...

As home foreclosures tear apart neighborhoods throughout the state, an annual battle plays out in Springfield between the banking industry and community activists over how to deal with the damage. The banks always emerge largely unscathed. It happened...

Residents of Illinois nursing homes would receive at least 46 minutes per day of direct care from registered nurses by 2014 under a new proposed rule that a state legislative panel is expected to vote on today. Advocates of nursing home reform view...

Where do our lawmakers stand on the issue of legislative scholarships -- those tuition waivers that members of the state house and senate have traditionally been allowed to dispense to constituents? As part of the renewed effort to abolish that......

Though nursing home operators and advocates for seniors have expressed support for an overhaul of Illinois' troubled long-term care system, sharp differences are emerging in Springfield over how much change is needed. The nursing home industry is balking...

At an emotionally charged hearing Saturday on Chicago's South Side, U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush grilled top law enforcement officials about whether they respond forcefully enough when African-American and Hispanic children are reported missing or potentially...

Following bans on salvia and synthetic marijuana, Illinois lawmakers are now trying to curb the latest store-bought choice of people looking to get high: bath salts. These are not the Epsom salts that Aunt Ethel used to sprinkle in a warm tub, nor are...