Articles About Illinois

Former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich became the state’s second chief executive in a row to be sentenced to federal prison for corruption.  Blagojevich, who – among other charges was convicted of attempting to sell President Barack Obama’s Senate set to the highest bidder – was sentenced to a stiff 14-year sentence in a federal prison.  […]

The current national inventory of foreclosed homes represents a three-year supply, according to RealtyTrac.  Not surprisingly, that is depressing home prices.  “This is very bad for the economy,” said Rick Sharga, a RealtyTrac spokesman. In Las Vegas, the foreclosure situation is so dire that more than half of all homes sold in Nevada are foreclosures.  […]

Wisconsin’s Republican Governor Scott Walker – a Tea Party favorite — accused the state legislature’s 14 Democratic senators of “vacationing” because they walked out of the State Legislature and took refuge in Illinois to avoid a vote that would strip most of the state’s employees of their collective bargaining rights.  Because of the Democrats’ absence, […]

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn’s efforts to keep the successful Put Illinois to Work program alive have come under fire from State Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno (R-Lemont).  The issue is $47 million in bond money that Quinn used to extend the job-creation program through the first of the year.  The program was originally funded by […]

Illinois ranks as the nation’s worst state to retire in,  according to a study by TopRetirement.com. The nine other losers include California, New York, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Ohio, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Nevada.  John Brady, TopRetirement.com’s president, says the 10 states belong on this list because of their fiscal health (poor), taxation (high) and […]

Eight Chicago taverns – all built more than a century ago by the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company and which bear the brewer’s signature globe logo – may be given landmark status by the City Council.  The former brewery-tied houses were built in the Queen Anne or Baroque styles and “convey important aspects of the ethnic, […]

America’s states are under water in more ways than one.  This writer got a close-up view of how our aging infrastructure is being taxed by the elements.  A summer storm that brought as much as eight inches of rain in just two hours in the wee hours of Saturday, July 24 wreaked havoc in Chicago’s […]

A historic partnership between the states of Illinois and Indiana gave the green light to constructing the Illiana Expressway, a 56-mile superhighway whose goal is to ease traffic congestion, create jobs and promote economic growth.  Illinois Governor Pat Quinn and Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels recently signed an agreement to construct a roadway that connects Interstate […]

Although upwards of 800 towering wind turbines provide power to countries like Denmark, Britain and other European countries, the United States has engaged in a 10-year debate over constructing Cape Wind, its first offshore wind farm planned for the south side of Cape Cod in Nantucket Sound and recently given the go-ahead by Secretary of […]

Melrose Park’s legendary Kiddieland amusement park may be history, but the site on the northwest corner of North and First Avenues could become home to a long-rumored Costco store. Washington-based Costco’s Chief Operating Officer and Senior Executive Vice President, Dick DiCerchio, has confirmed rumors about the prime site’s potential use.  According to DiCerchio, “The plans […]