SPRINGFIELD — Gov. Pat Quinn, in his budget proposal to lawmakers Wednesday, suggested for the first time that money from new Illinois casinos could help pay for schools and the state's nearly $100 billion in pension debt. “Any enhancement that we ...

More than 200 volunteers gathered to celebrate 20 years of advocacy for CASA Lake County, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing volunteer advocates for abused and neglected children in Lake County. “With child abuse on the rise, we are esp...

The 2013 collection drive for the Glass Slipper Project is under way at all eight Zengeler Cleaners locations. The Glass Slipper Project is an all-volunteer organization that provides an opportunity for area high school women to experience the joy o...

Just days from the Supreme Court's January 1973 decision on Roe V. Wade, the women's rights movement marked a different advance at a state level. Dawn Clark Netsch, the iconoclastic Chicago Democrat, was sworn into her first term in the Illinois Sen...

SPRINGFIELD — In the year since Gov. Pat Quinn declared it was time for a “rendezvous with reality” on issues like the state’s rising pension costs, suburban lawmakers have offered some of the leading plans to tackle the problem. Suburban faces of b...

SPRINGFIELD — The Illinois House Friday voted to make it illegal to talk on a handheld cellphone while driving. Supporters argued reducing distractions for drivers could prevent wrecks and deaths behind the wheel. “If we can do something about it, w...

SPRINGFIELD — Illinois House Republicans Thursday refused to participate in test votes on severe public pension cuts and Democrats rejected the proposals harshly. Two proposals by House Speaker Michael Madigan to slash retired teachers' and state wo...