Chris Britt's editorial cartoon on Illinois lawmakers ignoring the elephant in the room.

Gov. Pat Quinn delivered a refreshingly short - 20 minutes - relatively to the point and appropriately sober budget address on Wednesday that calls for substantial cuts, especially to schools, unless the Legislature can see its way to approving an income tax surcharge of one percentage point.

Gov. Pat Quinn's proposed budget is an abdication of a governor’s responsibility to persuade the legislature to do the right thing and an unfortunate acceptance of Statehouse gospel that nothing hard gets done in an election year.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn’s budget address Wednesday made the state’s financial picture look every bit as bad as we thought it was.

Calling for a tax hike is never a popular move, and it's even less so in the middle of a historic recession and an election year. Nonetheless, Gov. Pat Quinn called on lawmakers Wednesday to do just that. In a brief speech, Quinn also called for cutting state aid to cities, revamping state pensions and giving small businesses a tax break for creating jobs. 

In the spring, the animals come alive and make new little animals, some of which must rely on the care of animal rehabilitation professionals if they're found injured. There are a few things humans can do to keep animal families together until the babies grow up and move and on out of the way.

Last week, the Illinois Senate opened discussion that could lead to the state increasing the speed limit on some stretches of highway to 70 mph.

It was exactly the kind of news that a beleaguered Toyota didn't need. On Monday afternoon, a runaway Prius topped out at 94 mph on a California highway. It took the intervention of a California Highway Patrol officer speeding alongside the vehicle, shouting instructions via his patrol car's loudspeaker on how to achieve an emergency stop, before the driver was able to bring the hybrid under control.

Chris Britt's editorial cartoon on the state of the Illinois education system.

With an ugly budget situation facing him, Gov. Pat Quinn will propose a new spending plan for next year heavy on borrowing and pushing off old debts to break even.

Springfield lawmakers said Tuesday they will take steps to try and block the Department on Aging from renting new office space at a cost of more than $530,000 a year.

Gov. Pat Quinn gives his long-awaited speech to lawmakers today at noon in the House chamber outlining how he wants to deal with major budget problems next year. The situation, obviously, isn't pretty. But it's how Quinn handles the speech itself that could provide good insight to the future. This week's State Capitol Q&A takes a closer look at what Quinn faces with this speech and what's next.

The House voted 111-1 today for House Bill 5818, which would strip state pension benefits from any statewide constitutional officer impeached and removed from office.

For Sally Schierer, baking is no different than sewing a purse, by hand, from scrap material, growing a lemon tree from seed or stroking paint on a canvas. "I'm a creative person. I like to take something and make something else out of it," she says. "I do it all through the house, the garden and the yard."

A Springfield man was arrested Monday night for allegedly attacking a senior citizen with a tree branch and stealing her purse.