Governor Bruce Rauner has declared a “harvest emergency” across Illinois. The designation means trucks carrying grain can exceed weight limits by 10 percent.

Rauner's first pick for ag director was a farmer. But Philip Nelson, who came to the job after serving as the president of the Illinois Farm Bureau, resigned in late September, less than a year into the job.

The state fair in Springfield and the Du Quoin State Fair are scheduled to begin in August. But if there is no state budget in place, it's unclear how entertainment and vendors would be paid.

In what appears to be a fundamentally new strategy in the use of campaign cash in Illinois, the state’s new Republican governor in May doled out $400,000 in a single day from his main campaign committee, giving to all 67 Republicans in both chambers of the legislature.