Briefs: Transit vote next week?
The state's top lawmakers and Gov. Rod Blagojevich are still trying to agree on a gambling expansion that would pay for a statewide construction program and pave the way for a mass-transit bailout. Many lawmakers don't want to approve mass transit aid until a deal is reached on a capital program. Three of the four legislative leaders met with the governor in his Chicago office Monday morning. The state's top two Republicans then left to meet with Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, who skipped the meeting because of a scheduling conflict. Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff says the plan is for legislative leaders to meet again today and then head back to Springfield next week to vote on capital and transit.
Teen charged in shooting
A 15-year-old Chicago Heights boy was charged with involuntary manslaughter Monday after police said he accidentally shot a 4-year-old relative with a service revolver belonging to her mother, who is a corrections officer. Jalynn Hall died Sunday morning at St. James Hospital and Health Centers in Chicago Heights after she was shot in the chest. Police said Jalynn and the teen, who was charged as a juvenile and is not being named, were handling the 9 mm gun belonging to her mother, a Cook County sheriff's corrections officer. The woman was at work when the shooting occurred. She has been relieved of police powers while authorities investigate how the children got her weapon, said Cook County sheriff's police spokeswoman Penny Mateck.
Children killed in blaze
Two young boys were killed and two women injured during a fire that ravaged a crowded home on Chicago's Southwest Side early Monday, firefighters said. Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said as many as a dozen people were living in the single-family brick home that authorities believe may have been used as an illegal boarding house. At least six children were inside the house when the fire began in the building's basement sometime before 5 a.m., he said. "All levels, basement, first floor and attic, were being used as living quarters," Langford said. "Escape should have been easy from the building had there been early enough warning." The Cook County medical examiner's office said Monday the two boys were 10 months and 3 years old. Their names were not released.
More support for Illinois
Two more states are throwing their support behind Illinois' quest to beat out Texas for a coveted next-generation power plant. Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich says his counterparts in Michigan and West Virginia say the cutting-edge, coal-powered plant known as FutureGen would be good for Illinois. The United Mine Workers head thinks so, too. Cecil Roberts says such a project belongs in a coal state such as Illinois. Developers are to announce this month whether the $1.5 billion project will go to Mattoon or Tuscola in Illinois, or to either of two Texas sites. Developers say the plant will minimize air pollution by storing emissions underground. Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Wyoming already were backing Illinois' bid.