We're less than a week away from next week's big primary and a new Rasmussen Poll shows Andy McKenna with a slim lead in a tight race for the GOP nomination for Governor. The poll, conducted on Monday, January 25, surveyed 527 likely GOP voters and broke down like so: more ›

Former DuPage County prosecutor and current gubernatorial candidate Jim Ryan has apologized for dropping the ball in the case of Jeanine Nicarico, a 10-year-old Naperville girl who was raped and killed in 1983. But does a simple "sorry" absolve Ryan enough to make him deserving of the top job in Illinois? After all, Rolando Cruz and Alex Hernandez narrowly escaped lethal injection when they were wrongly accused of the murder by Ryan, despite the real killer, Brian Dugan, confessing to the crime after being arrested for a similar murder in 1995. Ryan ignored Dugan's confession and instead stayed focused on executing Cruz and Hernandez. The seeming inability to weigh all the facts and admit when you're wrong really is not something this state needs in a leader right now. more ›

• Former DuPage prosecutor, state attorney general, and current gubernatorial candidate Jim Ryan apologized today for the prosecutions of Rolando Cruz and Alex Hernandez, the men originally convicted and sentenced to death for the 1983 murder of Jeanine Nicarico. He claimed the prosecution “acted in good faith...and still came up with the wrong result."
• Swine Flu's toll so far, according to the CDC: 22 million sick, 4,000 dead.
• Police in Cleveland have arrested a woman from Chicago who's been using her children to help her shoplift.

The field to garner the GOP nomination for next year's gubernatorial election is getting a bit more crowded as former candidate Jim Ryan is entering the contest. Ryan, who lost to former governor Rod Blagojevich in the state's 2002 general election, has spent the last several years out of public office and teaching at Benedictine University in Lisle. But as WBBM-AM explains, Ryan, a former state's attorney general, may face a few new hurdles. more ›

Folks sure are feeling God-y today. Both Neil Steinberg and Harold Henderson are both dipping their column toes in the divine waters. "That must be one hell of a galaxy that God's been busy constructing, somewhere far, far away, because He's sure careless when it comes to keeping tabs on his flock 'round these parts. If the Lord were on the ball, earthwise, then 24-year-olds would not kill themselves," Steinberg writes, in reference to Jim... more ›