The longtime Springfield power broker was found guilty on two of the four counts against him. more ›

Judge James Zagel penciled Oct. 6 in for Rod Blagojevich's sentencing hearing and, if the former governor testifies on his behalf, it could go a while. more ›

The Governor whose hair is perfect filed a motion yesterday to have be granted a new trial, citing judicial bias. Good luck with that. more ›

The judge presiding over former governor Rod Blagojevich's trial has ruled against allowing Blago to subpoena President Obama. more ›

Former governor Rod Blagojevich's motion to move back his trial has been denied. The motion was filed because Blago's lawyers claim a trio of cases before the Supreme Court for rulings could have implications on parts federal mail fraud law and, therefore, could affect aspects of Blago's federal trial. Judge James Zagel disagreed, saying that either way the current start date of June 2010 should give both sides plenty of time to prepare. [WBEZ] more ›

U.S. District Court Judge James Zagel announced today he wouldn't be giving a public release to the FBI's tapes of former governor Rod Blagojevich's conversations amassed via wiretaps. Several media outlets had requested the release of documents such as the tapes and transcripts. Zagel is still weighing how much information he'll release in regards to the government's case against William F. Cellini, a request made by the Tribune. [Sun-Times] more ›

As attorneys for ex-gov Rod Blagojevich attempt to deal with a ridonkulous amount of evidence the prosecution plans to use, the defense also learned today how many attorney's they'd be allowed to use in the case (for now). U.S. District Judge James Zagel ruled Blago could hire three attorneys to take the case to trial, though his lead attorney Sheldon Sorosky asked for four trial lawyers and three additional lawyers to help tackle the evidence. [Sun-Times] more ›

• Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg was completely evacuated this afternoon after a citizen reported seeing a man with a gun. After a subsequent search by police turned up nothing, the mall was reopened.
• A federal judge sentenced Paul Schiro to 20 years today. Schiro is the first defendant from the Family Secrets trials to be sentenced. While the jury had only convicted Schiro of racketeering, his sentence was longer because, according to the Sun-Times, "U.S. District Court Judge James Zagel found that the prosecution had proven by a preponderance of evidence that Schiro had helped kill [Emil] Vaci."
• Box maker Smurfit-Stone, who has a headquarters located here, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Such a filing would allow them to restructure their debt.