The public may be invited to discharge scattershot firearms at jumping fish from boats speeding along the bumpy waters of the Illinois River. What could go wrong? more ›

State Rep. Sara Feigenholtz has introduced legislation in Springfield that will make it illegal to sell shark fin in Illinois. HB 4119, if passed, would institute the ban on the delicacy beginning in July 2013. more ›

The proposed bill would also link the state’s unemployment rate to the corporate tax rate. more ›

The breaks in the package will cost an estimated $218 million per year, and with the breaks for individual workers included, could jump up to $350 million. more ›

Some downstate reps in the General Assembly have a resolution to boot Cook County out of Illinois. It is a stupid idea. But let's suspend disbelief and consider the journey to Chicagoland statehood. more ›

Persistence pays off in Springfield. Take the effort to foist a new “clean coal” plant on Illinois ratepayers that has been percolating in the General Assembly after being repeatedly voted down in the Senate. more ›

Ever wonder how our General Assembly Representatives in Springfield see their constituents? If you have been involved in Occupy Chicago, some of them have frank words about you scary, lazy, downright un-American pawns! more ›

The new package, SB397, would cost Illinois about $250 million per year and gives the companies, who have threatened to leave the state, about $100 million in combined tax relief. more ›

Allowing hunters to remove the dead animals can be seen as a cost-saving measure by the state. Hammond also believes hunters may then be able to skin the furs off the roadkill and sell them. If you're in the market for a coonskin cap, get a hunting license, instead. more ›

Gov. Pat Quinn vetoed a bill that would have raised ComEd rates to pay for the company's infrastructure updates, while blocking government oversight. more ›

Illinois' biggest state park was once a series of coal mines and waste mounds. If the General Assembly has anything to say on the subject, it will be again. more ›

Gov. Quinn is wearing his best poker face and not saying whether he'll sign the recently passed gambling expansion passed in Springfield, or veto the bill. more ›

Even with House Republican Leader Tom Cross on board, a bill to start a three-year pilot program to legalize marijuana for medicinal use fell seven votes short of passage today. This news calls for a smoke. more ›

ABC 7 political reporter Charles Thomas is reporting that State Sen. Rickey Hendon has resigned. The West side senator is one of the more colorful politicians in a city full of them. more ›

A bill closely resembling Arizona’s controversial immigration law (SB1070), which requires law enforcement to detain or question anyone suspected of being undocumented, made its way into the Illinois General Assembly last week. Rep. Randy Ramey, Jr., a Republican representing the 55th district, introduced the Taxpayers Protection Act, which would require Illinois law enforcement to make a “reasonable attempt” to determine the immigration status of any person stopped, detained, or arrested before they are released. The bill would also impose penalties on immigrants not carrying residence permits at all times and provides for sanctions against employers that “knowingly or intentionally employ an unauthorized alien.” more ›

(Cue the jokes about lawyers in 3,2...) Attorney General Lisa Madigan siad her office raised nearly $1 billion for the state's coffers last year through litigation and collection of estate-tax revenues. more ›

We're still trying to wrap our heads around how the $52.7 billion budget Gov. Quinn proposed to the Illinois General Assembly yesterday can be called "lean" when one of the centerpieces of the budget is a record $8.75 billion borrowing plan that GOP leaders have adamantly opposed. Maybe that's why Quinn tried to focus on the spending cuts in his address. more ›

Our legislators persevered through a perilous election season where they touted transparency, reform and ending business as usual. Part of their first official act on the job was getting in tune with their idea of transparency. The Illinois General Assembly has decided performance evaluations of all Illinois public employees shall remain top secret and out of the hands of the public. more ›

Paying for school textbooks is already a burden on students, but it’s about to become even heavier this year. The Illinois General Assembly for the fiscal year 2011 eliminated the $40 million in state funding for K-12 textbooks. School districts statewide are now raising their textbook fees leaving students with no other options. Catholic private schools are the hardest hit, the Tribune reports. more ›

Of all the causes to get behind, it’s not often we hear about activists fighting for prisoners’ rights. But that’s the purpose of The Sewing Rebellion’s + Tamms Year Ten event, taking place this Sunday. more ›

Last week, both houses of the Illinois General Assembly passed a law that would enable Illinois to bypass the Electoral College in future presidential elections. The move came just before New Jersey Governor John S. Corzine signed similar legislation on Sunday that would eliminate New Jersey's participation in the Electoral College. The only other state to have passed a similar law is Maryland, which was the first state to take up the cause. more ›

Ron Huberman et al handed down the proposed 2008 CTA budget, and it ain't pretty. At all. more ›

State Rep. Edward Acevedo (D-Chicago) is no stranger to the long green. As one of the chief sponsors of HB 429, the wine shipping bill that aims to bring Illinois in compliance with the 2005 Supreme Court ruling in Granholm v. Heald by limiting the ways consumers can obtain wines, Acevedo received $7,500 in campaign contributions from the Associated Beer Distributors of Illinois for carrying their water. Turns out that Acevedo is also the litigious... more ›

While the state government devolves into a teeming cesspool of Machiavellian intrigue and self-loathing (quickly becoming an annual tradition in one form or another here in the Land of Lincoln), the world of politics moves on. While we have no problem kicking around Blagojevich (and the other asshole cynics downstate), this week, we're putting it aside, damn it! With out further adieu, here it is, your dose of news before lunch: Daley Takes his Public... more ›

On Tuesday, the CTA Transit Board passed its 2007 budget. And then promptly asked for more money. In order to remedy the slow zones throughout the system, which now make up 34 percent of the Red Line and portions of the Blue Line, the CTA estimates it needs an additional $500 million dollars over and above the state and federal dollars it already receives (the budget currently allocates $35.7 million for 2007 but nothing for... more ›

How are Polling Places Selected? more ›

It’s been 11 years since the Illinois General Assembly passed a parental-notification abortion law, but it has never gone into effect. That’s something the Illinois Supreme Court plans to change. Chief Justice Robert Thomas called a suburban Christian radio show last week and said he planned to revive the law, which would prohibit minor girls from getting abortions without parental consent. more ›

The price tag on the Dan Ryan construction project wasn't the only thumping big number in the news this past weekend. True to the predictions that we wrote about a couple weeks ago, ComEd announced the results of their first energy auction late Friday afternoon, translating into a whopping 25 percent increase in monthly electricity bills come January. more ›

Houstonist reports on cross-dressing thieves and undressing educators this week. A Peeping Tom defends himself with a papaya and an outraged onlooker asks Ken Lay, "TATER TOTS OR FRIES?" Also, FEMA wants it's money back. LAist are a bug bunch of geeks. They're Star Trek geeks, David Duchovny geeks and Frank Gehry geeks. During their Cochella preview their readers reveal themselves to be Depeche Mode geeks. Seattlest saw their basketball team preparing to leave for... more ›

Since members of the Republican-dominated US Congress aren't too keen on impeaching President Bush for screwing over the country, the Illinois General Assembly is trying to find a way to make it happen. Democratic State Representatives Karen A. Yarbrough, Sara Feigenholtz, and Eddie Washington are pushing a resolution to "submit charges to the U.S. House of Representatives to initiate impeachment proceedings against the President of the United States, George W. Bush, for willfully violating his... more ›