It went almost totally unnoticed at the Statehouse, but Senate President John Cullerton pulled a neat little trick at the end of the spring legislative session and he may end up getting what he wants ...

At least for now, it doesn’t appear that rank and file legislators will have to spend much time in Springfield this summer, even though they failed to finish their work on public pension reform ...

As state legislative support for a cigarette tax hike grew in late May, anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist and other conservatives stepped into the Illinois fray.A top House Republican said over a week...

An often tense and confrontational meeting over gaming expansion last week ended with Gov. Pat Quinn not explicitly saying “no” to adding slot machines at horse racing tracks. That might b...

Senate President John Cullerton has been telling some of his members for weeks that he was resigned to an overtime session. The General Assembly likely wouldn’t be able to adjourn by the schedul...

Call it “Blagojevich Lite,” or whatever else you want, but it became pretty darned clear last week that state Rep. Derrick Smith’s attorneys are planning the same sort of mockery of ...

State Rep. Derrick Smith (D-Chicago) may have more legal troubles than his federal bribery indictment. U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has told the House’s Special Investigating Committee that ...

“It’s so quiet,” sighed Pippin in The Fellowship of the Rings. “It’s the deep breath before the plunge,” counseled Gandalf. “I don’t want to be in a bat...