“Belleville, SWIC and Metro East, all you who are here today, it would be my honor to serve you for another four years,” the two-term governor said on Friday.

If the weather cooperates, the 2-lane bridge will close at 9 p.m. Friday and reopen at 5 a.m. Monday.

As outdoor temperatures soar, a broken air conditioner is causing a crisis at Gateway Pet Guardians. The public is encouraged to adopt, foster or make a donation to help the shelter through this time.

Students at Joseph Arthur Middle School in O'Fallon are expected to be able to return to their normal classrooms and activities in August.

The state of Illinois will stop imposing a 1% sales tax on groceries on Jan. 1, 2026, but most Metro East residents will continue to pay it.

The completion of a project to control underseepage along the Wood River Levee that runs adjacent to the Mississippi River marks the latest effort to address a crucial flood prevention tool that hasn’t always held up during the region’s worst floods.

The Illinois Department of Transportation used a full closure during the second phase of its I-255 rehab in Cahokia Heights and Sauget, which wrapped up this past weekend.

Five dozen communities in Southern Illinois account for a third of the reported sanitary sewer overflows in the state in the last decade. But with low revenues, population declines, and bureaucratic delays, solutions are hard to come by. Meanwhile, residents face property damage flooded yards and basements and governments that still haven’t fixed the problem.

The new Japanese owner’s acknowledgement that it will maintain the status quo at the Metro East mill provides the first public remarks the company has made about Granite City Works’ future since late 2023.

SunCoke Energy Inc. confirmed this week it plans to forge ahead with its plans to buy the blast furnaces in Granite City that would permanently shut down steelmaking at the Metro East mill. It remains unclear if U.S. Steel or Nippon has the appetite, however.