Meeks has been mulling retirement for months and said in an April WLS-AM interview it was ""probably time to concentrate on the church and give them that kind of exclusivity that I was willing to give the office of Mayor." more ›

Illinois' Senate Republican leader thinks outside the box for financial advice. more ›

By a vote of 48-1-3, the Illinois Senate passed SB754, which maintained and defined the right of a craft beer brewer and brewpub to self-distribute their product, defined a "craft brewer" as one that produces less than 15,000 barrels of beer a year with the right to distribute 7500 of those barrels, as well as serving as a bulwark against Anheuser-Busch's efforts to take a controlling share in a distributor. more ›

Illinois State Senator James Meeks is thinking about fleeing the sinking ship that is Springfield to return to his true calling as head of the Salem Baptist Church holding court in the 10,000 seat House of Hope in the Pullman neighborhood. more ›

High-speed rail in the Midwest is slowly chugging along. The Illinois Senate passed a bill today to create a 12-member commission that's charged with coming up with an initial plan by March 2011 for how to build the system. The commission will decide how to structure a public-private partnership to design, build, and operate the system and recommend how to approach funding and integrating with existing transportation systems in the Midwest, according to the Midwest High-Speed Rail Association. more ›

Know that bill that would have restricted the free senior citizen transit rides to only the truly needy? It's dead in the water. The Illinois State Senate, apparently intimidated by old people calling their offices and shaking their canes at them, refused to even call the bill up for a vote. And without the vote, the bill gets buried. Senator Rickey Hendon (D-Chicago) admitted that the "seniors are the ones who really carried the ball" on getting the measure quashed, and, as Hendon added, he was "pretty sure" that Govenor Pat Quinn would have vetoed the bill if it passed, anyway. A representative for Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago) said that it didn't seem that the bill had enough support to pass into law. more ›

"After today, I'm going to have to go home and take a shower," said Sen. Dale Risinger, R-Peoria. This in response to Illinois Senate President Emil Jones orchestrated move to keep the Senate from adding ComEd to legislation that would have rolled back electric rates that went up in January. The Senate voted 33-24 to add ComEd to the bill, which currently includes Ameren Corp. from Southern Illinois. Once the vote was completed another Senator... more ›

Having a baby at home just isn't as easy as it used to be; forget the days of someone coming to your home, the boiling of water and biting on a leather strap. These days there are serious legal consequences for taking birth into your own hands. Well, not really your hands, more like the hands of a midwife. more ›

Ah, hazing season: bras in the freezer, round after round of truth or dare, gallons of water and constant heckling. more ›

The Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) is the state agency charged with ensuring citizens have reliable and affordable utilities, as well as regulating utility companies. This job seems more important than ever since energy energy prices are expected to soar this winter. more ›

You'd think that after almost 145 years, especially with our Land of Lincoln motto, we'd've gotten our act together with the whole slavery deal. Apparently we haven't yet. more ›

If you like gambling, and you live in Chicago or the south suburbs, get pumped, because odds are some action is coming your way. Or at least, that's what it looks like. more ›

So.. Alan Keyes lost bigtime. . But, you know, it wasn't his fault. It was the media. The Media! And Republicans "in name only" that Keyes is blaming for his defeat. Keyes also said that he didn't call Barack Obama to congratulate him after his win because doing so would have been a "false gesture" because he believes that Obama's views on issues like abortion are wicked. more ›