State

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Senate ethics committee on Friday admonished Democratic Sen. Roland Burris for misleading investigators about his maneuvering to get Barack Obama’s old Senate seat from the governor who was ousted for trying to sell it.

WASHINGTON (AP) – In a sharp improvement, more than half of U.S. states added jobs in October, though economists said many of the gains likely occurred in temporary employment.

LAKE VILLA (AP) – Lake County authorities say they arrested a 33-year-old school bus driver after she allegedly showed elementary school children sexually orientated animated video clips.

CHICAGO (AP) – Fifteen people with ties to the Mexican drug cartel La Familia Michoacana have been indicted on charges of taking part in a major Chicago-area cocaine conspiracy, prosecutors announced Friday.

TAMMS (AP) – Although he’s confined to his cell for all but about an hour on most days, Steven Wuebbels doesn’t mind being isolated at Illinois’ lone “supermax” prison – a place human rights activists consider inhumane.

SPRINGFIELD (AP) — Illinois is reporting nine new deaths and 241 new hospitalizations from swine flu.

PEORIA (AP) — A state senator from Peoria says he fought off an armed robber who interrupted him while he was doing some remodeling at his business.

CHICAGO (AP) – Mentally ill residents of Illinois nursing homes often don’t know their rights and some are confined against their will, a lawyer with 35 years’ experience in mental health law told a state task force Thursday.

WASHINGTON (AP) – The president of the Illinois Senate says state lawmakers have no formal control over whether terrorism suspects wind up being housed in the state.

CHICAGO (AP) — Holding back tears, Oprah Winfrey told her studio audience Friday that she would end her show in 2011 after a quarter-century on the air, saying prayer and careful thought led her to her decision.

SPRINGFIELD (AP) – Illinois has launched an online tool consumers can use to find an unprecedented amount of information on hospitals and surgical centers.

CHICAGO (AP) — Illinois' unemployment rate continued to climb last month, rising to its highest level in more than a quarter century, officials reported Thursday.

CHICAGO (AP) – Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn and Comptroller Dan Hynes disagreed over the best way to raise the state income tax but agreed on their support for a government-run health insurance program during two debates Wednesday between the rival Democratic candidates for governor.

SPRINGFIELD (AP) – Political organizations are churning out news releases. Hesitant candidates are gradually taking positions. Politicians are trying to steer the debate their way.

CHICAGO (AP) – Funeral services will be held later in the day for a 21-year-old Chicago soldier who was killed during the shooting rampage at Fort Hood.

CHICAGO (AP) — A change in the way skyscrapers are measured has the Trump International Hotel & Tower standing a bit taller these days and now stands as the world's sixth tallest building and not the seventh.

CHICAGO (AP) — Gov. Pat Quinn says a deal to sell a prison in northwestern Illinois to the federal government to house Guantanamo Bay detainees "probably" will happen.

CHICAGO (AP) — A Republican congressman from Illinois said Tuesday that his comment that suspected terrorists imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay follow a "savage religion" has been misinterpreted.

PEORIA, Ill. (AP) — Police say they have apprehended one of two men who escaped from the Peoria County Jail.

SPRINGFIELD (AP) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture says that, despite significant progress last week, Illinois farmers were only a little more than halfway through their corn harvest before the latest heavy rains.

CHICAGO – A tiny suburb’s battle with the city of Chicago over its expansion of O’Hare International Airport is over.

PEORIA, Ill. (AP) — Two inmates have escaped from the Peoria County Jail, and authorities say a hole was found in the ceiling of a second floor cell.

CHICAGO – Republican congressmen from Illinois took steps Monday to slow or halt the transfer of terrorism suspects from Guantanamo Bay to a prison in Thomson.

WASHINGTON – In addition to housing foreign detainees, an Illinois state prison could become a site for military trials of those charged with acts of terrorism, an unnamed administration official acknowledged Monday.

CHICAGO (AP) — The Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority has decided to institute an early retirement program and layoff employees to cut its work force by 20 percent.

CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago Police say they'll continue to investigate the apparent suicide of Chicago School Board President Michael Scott by looking for security camera video.

ROCKFORD – Three Democrats running for the U.S. Senate expressed deep doubts Sunday about sending more troops to Afghanistan but backed the idea of housing terrorism suspects in an unused Illinois prison.

ROCKFORD – Democrats Pat Quinn and Dan Hynes offered Republicans plenty of campaign material Sunday as each accused the other of ducking hard decisions, misleading taxpayers and cozying up to former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

CHICAGO (AP) – The U.S. Census Bureau is looking for thousands of people to work in temporary jobs across Illinois, going door-to-door to interview residents.

CHICAGO – The Internal Revenue Service is looking for nearly 3,600 Illinois taxpayers who are due refund checks worth more than $3.6 million.

CHICAGO (AP) — Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office wants to make sure people understand changes in the state’s public records laws.

CHICAGO (AP) — Gov. Pat Quinn and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin on Sunday tried to build support and counter criticism of a proposal to sell a prison in rural northwestern Illinois to the federal government to house Guantanamo Bay detainees and other inmates.