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After more than a year of the pandemic, Illinois has reached a milestone. On Friday, the state moved to Phase 5 of the reopening plan. That means most restrictions, like mask wearing and capacity limits, are lifted for those who are vaccinated. Illinois has seen a dramatic drop in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. Also, lawmakers will return to the statehouse next week to address energy legislation and possibly more. And Republicans have filed suit over the newly drawn political maps. Jerry Nowicki, Bureau Chief for Capitol News Illinois, joins the panel.

On this week's episode, with the state moving to Phase 5 of the reopening plan, people are returning to regular activities. That includes going out to bars and restaurants, as well as returning to the workplace. But some are anxious about getting back to normal. And Illinois is working to create a system to better handle mental health and behavioral situations. Those stories and more on Statewide.

Jess Mador comes to WYSO from Knoxville NPR-station WUOT, where she created an interactive multimedia health storytelling project called TruckBeat, one of 15 projects around the country participating in AIR's Localore: #Finding Americainitiative. Before TruckBeat, Jess was an independent public radio journalist based in Minneapolis. She’s also worked as a staff reporter and producer at Minnesota Public Radio in the Twin Cities, and produced audio, video and web stories for a variety of other news outlets, including NPR News, APM, and PBS television stations. She has a Master's degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York. She loves making documentaries and telling stories at the intersection of journalism, digital and social media.

Ammad Omar oversees coverage of the western United States for NPR, and serves as the editorial lead at NPR West in Culver City, California.

Casey Toner, a Chicago native, has been an Illinois Answers reporter since 2016, taking the lead on numerous projects about criminal justice and politics. His series on police shootings in suburban Cook County resulted in a state law requiring procedural investigations of all police shootings in Illinois.