RNC Day 4 live updates from Capitol News Illinois, part 1

Peter Hancock

Statehouse ReporterPeter was one of the founding reporters with Capitol News Illinois. He came to Springfield after many years working in Topeka, Kansas, where he covered the Kansas statehouse and other beats. He began his reporting career in 1989 at a small county weekly newspaper and has worked in a variety of settings including both daily and nondaily newspapers, online media and public radio. A native of the Kansas City area, he has degrees in political science and education from the University of Kansas.

Hannah Meisel

Statehouse & Chicago ReporterHannah has been covering Illinois government and politics since 2014, and since then has worked for a variety of outlets from NPR affiliate stations to a startup newsletter. She’s a graduate of both the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the U of I’s Springfield campus, where she received an M.A. through the Public Affairs Reporting program and got her start reporting in the Capitol.

Andrew Adams

Data and Interactives JournalistAndrew Adams joined the Illinois Answers team in 2025 as a data and interactives journalist. Andrew previously worked for Capitol News Illinois, covering the energy industry, economic incentive programs and legislative issues affecting Chicagoland. Previously, he built a data beat for a national magazine covering the tech industry, conducted academic research into gun violence in downstate Illinois, and worked on an award-winning series analyzing the effects of stimulus programs during the pandemic. He holds degrees from the Illinois Institute of Technology and the University of Illinois Springfield.

Jerry Nowicki

Editor-in-ChiefJerry began his career in news in 2013 and has covered state government since 2019. He was the editor of the LeRoy Farmer City Press in McLean and DeWitt counties from 2013 until it closed in 2017. During that span, the Press was named the state’s best small weekly newspaper by the Illinois Press Association. He was born and raised in south suburban Evergreen Park and graduated from Illinois State University with a degree in journalism. Contact Jerry