• The family of the man whose decapitated body was found in Evanston yesterday believe he committed suicide.
• Mayor Daley: not a fan of Race To The Top.
• Toni Preckwinkle: not a fan of Forrest Claypool.

The ballot positions for several races in this February's primaries, including Governor and U.S. Senate, were set yesterday via lottery by the Illinois State Board of Election. For Governor, Andy McKenna drew the top spot for Republicans and William "Dock" Walls III, the subject of a controversial petition challenge, drew the top Democrat spot. On the U.S. Senate ballot, Don Lowery will be at the top for Republicans and Robert Marshall will be in the first slot for Democrats. You can check out all the candidates, including ballot positioning, here. more ›

The Los Angeles Clippers came away the big winner after last night's NBA Draft lottery. It was only the second time in 11 years that the Bulls didn't have a ping pong ball in play, but that doesn't mean they might not profit. According to the Trib's K.C. Johnson: more ›

That isn't us in front of you at the convenience store, holding up the line while muttering specific numeric combinations to the harried counter attendant like a druid who has the economic downturn all figured out. Straight/box, 4-way combos, Pick 3, Pick 4, and any number of those garish quick-play pieces -- it's wishful thinking in our opinion, and we'd rather spend that cash on a personal stimulus package in the form of Hostess Zingers. more ›

House Speaker Mike Madigan presented a bill yesterday that would allow Illinois to be the first state in the nation to lease its lottery, in exchange for billions of dollars for a statewide capital construction program. The governor has said that leasing the lottery could raise as much as $10 billion. Without an actual offer on the table, though, that number is hard to verify. more ›

When we tried to buy our Mega Millions lottery ticket last night at the local 7-11, the lottery machine was down. No way to get in on the potential $95 million jackpot. Maybe we would have purchased the winning ticket, who knows. But the good news is no one drew the five winning numbers, and thus, the jackpot has grown to a cool $114 million for next Tuesday’s drawing. more ›

House Speaker Mike Madigan, speaking to the press at the Illinois State Fair, said yesterday that he may actually consider leasing the state lottery to pay for a capital construction plan. "Over the last few days in the House of Representatives, we've had two very productive meetings concerning a potential lease of the state lottery, where the proceeds of that lease would be used for a capital construction program," Madigan said. more ›

Go buy your tickets, people. The jackpots of two different lotteries have grown significantly over the weekend, after no jackpot winner selected all the winning numbers in each game. more ›

No one drew the winning combination for the Mega Millions last night, so the jackpot has now grown to $163 million. Folks, that’s winning “Who Wants to Be A Millionaire” 163 times! Illinois is just one of twelve states where we can play the Mega Millions. Twenty-one second prizes were drawn last night, though, each person winning $250,000 for matching five of the winning numbers. Two of those tickets were sold in Illinois -- one in Niles, and the other in Park Forest. 83 people picked four of the numbers, each winning $10,000. Six sold in Illinois. more ›