SPRINGFIELD — State Rep. Elaine Nekritz said Sunday she believes there is still time to get a pension deal done before a Wednesday deadline, and a hearing on one proposal she agreed to with House Republican Leader Tom Cross is set for Monday. “I cer...

SPRINGFIELD — Two years ago, the current members of the Illinois General Assembly took their seats only hours after their predecessors — facing a seemingly insurmountable budget deficit — and took a late-night vote to raise the state's income tax ra...

A proposal to hand the state’s future pension costs over to local school districts became such a sticking point that Gov. Pat Quinn and legislative leaders agreed to set it aside to try to get some movement toward a pension deal. But it could come b...

A controversial plan to have local schools pay for teachers’ pensions will be put off for now, Gov. Pat Quinn said Friday. Just one day before what is expected to be a marathon meeting with state legislative leaders to try to solve the state’s pensi...

“We should really get together,” the onetime staffers in former North suburban U.S. Rep. John Porter's office would say, year after year. But life interceded, until news of U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk's stroke helped rekindle the close-knit relationships th...

SPRINGFIELD — As no deal on curbing the state’s rising retirement costs appears imminent, suburban teachers were among a throng of workers at the Illinois Capitol Thursday urging lawmakers not to cut their pension benefits. Sunday could start a poss...

“We should really get together,” the onetime staffers in former North suburban U.S. Rep. John Porter’s office would say, year after year. But life interceded, until news of U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk’s stroke helped rekindle the close-knit relationships th...

State Senate starts moving on gun control plans The Illinois Senate on Wednesday began moving a gun control plan that would ban a wide scope of firearms including “military-style” semiautomatic rifles and handguns. There was also a proposal fr...

SPRINGFIELD — State lawmakers return to Springfield Wednesday with a week left on their terms in office, nearly three dozen lame-duck lawmakers in their ranks and an option whether to sprint through an aggressive agenda before Jan. 9 or wait out the...