State

WASHINGTON — The Senate ethics committee on Friday admonished Democratic Sen. Roland Burris for misleading investigators about his maneuvering to get Barack Obama's old Senate seat from the governor who was ousted for trying to sell it.

CHICAGO — Step outside Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Studios and into the near west side neighborhood that's been home to her television talk show for two decades, and it's easy to get a sense of what she's meant to Chicago.

MIAMI (AP) — The ringleader of a group of men convicted of plotting to destroy Chicago's Sears Tower and bomb FBI offices has been sentenced to 13˝ years in prison.

TAMMS  (AP) — Although he's confined to his cell for all but about an hour on most days, Steven Wuebbels doesn't mind being isolated at Illinois' lone "supermax" prison ‚ a place human rights activists consider inhumane.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate ethics committee on Friday admonished Sen. Roland Burris, D-Ill., for making "inconsistent, misleading or incomplete" statements about the circumstances surrounding his appointment to the seat once held by Barack Obama. The committee recommended no action beyond the letter.

MIAMI (AP) — Four Miami men described as soldiers in a plot to destroy Chicago's Sears Tower and bomb FBI offices have received sentences far shorter than prosecutors sought.

Problems with FAA computers caused long delays at both Chicago airports on Thursday morning.

SPRINGFIELD – Political organizations are churning out press releases. Hesitant candidates are gradually taking positions. Politicians are trying to steer the debate their way.

MIAMI (AP) — A Miami man convicted of plotting to destroy Chicago's Sears Tower and bomb FBI offices has been sentenced to six years in federal prison.

CHICAGO (AP) — An Illinois congressman says his comment that suspected terrorists detained at Guantanamo Bay follow a "savage religion" has been misinterpreted.

CHICAGO — As the Obama administration considers a plan to move Guantanamo Bay detainees to prisons on U.S. soil, including possible sites in Illinois and Michigan, proponents and critics are spinning the facts.

Illinois has long struggled with thorny questions about how best to fund schools and ensure that all children receive a quality education that readies them for employment or further schooling.

MIAMI (AP) — Federal prosecutors in Miami want the maximum prison sentences for five men convicted of plotting to destroy Chicago's Sears Tower and bomb FBI offices.

THOMSON – Some folks in this dying Mississippi River town would rather take their chances with suspected terrorists in their backyard than watch their neighbors continue to move away in despair over the lack of jobs.

CHICAGO (AP) — Autopsy results show that the Chicago Board of Education president committed suicide by shooting himself in the head.

ROCKFORD – Democrats Pat Quinn and Dan Hynes offered Republicans plenty of campaign material Sunday as each accused the other of ducking hard decisions, misleading taxpayers and cozying up to former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

THOMSON – Federal officials are at a prison in northwest Illinois that the government might buy to house Guantanamo Bay detainees.

CHICAGO – Gov. Pat Quinn and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin on Sunday tried to build support and counter criticism of a proposal to sell a prison in rural northwestern Illinois to the federal government to house Guantanamo Bay detainees and other inmates.

CHICAGO (AP) — The Obama administration may buy a near-empty prison in rural northwestern Illinois to house detainees from Guantanamo Bay along with federal inmates, a White House official said Saturday.

NEW LENOX – Want to visit your child's teacher or volunteer in a classroom?

WHEATON – A suburban Chicago jury said Wednesday that a convicted murderer should be executed for the rape and killing of a 10-year-old girl kidnapped from her home 26 years ago – a case that helped lead to landmark death penalty reforms in Illinois, including a moratorium on executions.

WHEATON – A jury told a convicted murderer Wednesday that he should be executed for the rape and killing of a 10-year-old girl kidnapped from her home 26 years ago – a case that helped lead to landmark death penalty reforms in Illinois, including a moratorium on executions.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A study released Wednesday warns that nine states are barreling toward an economic disaster similar to California's ongoing fiscal crisis that has been marked by IOUs and budget-busting deficits.

LONDON (AP) — A United Airlines pilot who failed a breath test shortly before he was due to take off has been charged with having too much alcohol in his system, British police said.

SPRINGFIELD (AP) — A judge has ordered psychological testing for a central Illinois man charged with plotting to blow up a federal courthouse.

LONDON (AP) — British police say that a pilot has been arrested at London's Heathrow Airport on suspicion of being drunk.

CHICAGO (AP) — Prosecutors claimed in court Tuesday that Northwestern University journalism students paid two witness in order to make their case that an innocent man was wrongly convicted of murder.

CHICAGO (AP) — Ever since he was laid off in March, Frank Beil has been on the lookout.

CHICAGO (AP) — Two videos produced by Osama bin Laden's al Qaida terrorist network have been found in the home of a Chicago man accused of plotting an armed attack on a Danish newspaper, federal prosecutors said.

CHICAGO (AP) — From Greektown to Chinatown, from the Polish Triangle to Pakistani restaurants on Devon Street, Chicago has a wealth of diverse ethnic neighborhoods to explore.

CHICAGO (AP) — A fourth teen is facing murder charges in the beating death of a Chicago high school honor student last month.

FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) — A suburban Chicago man is reportedly one of the 13 people killed in the shooting rampage at Fort Hood in Texas.

CHICAGO (AP) — Just hours after a state board voted Wednesday to allow the enforcement of a long-debated Illinois law requiring a teenage girl's parents be notified before she has an abortion, a judge issued a temporary restraining order putting the measure back on hold.

CHARLESTON (AP) — An assistant women's basketball coach at Eastern Illinois University has died.

BENTON (AP) — An Army veteran who authorities say threatened to go on a shooting rampage at a Veterans Affairs hospital in southern Illinois has been indicted on a gun charge.

CHICAGO (AP) — Illinois was cleared Wednesday to start enforcing a hotly debated law requiring that a teenage girl's parents be notified before she has an abortion, after a vote by the state's Medical Disciplinary Board.

CHICAGO – A vote by Illinois' Medical Disciplinary Board has cleared the path for the state to start enforced a hotly debated abortion notification law.

SPRINGFIELD – An Illinois lawmaker's wife will nearly double her state salary thanks to an appointment from Gov. Pat Quinn.

SPRINGFIELD – Former Illinois attorney general Jim Ryan formally launched another campaign for governor Tuesday, seven years after leaving politics following a loss to Rod Blagojevich.

CHICAGO (AP) — Two Chicago men charged with scheming to launch a terrorist attack on a Danish newspaper also discussed an attack on a military college in India, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

CHICAGO (AP) — A former Chicago zoning official has pleaded guilty to bribery conspiracy, admitting he took thousands of dollars in payoffs over three years for overlooking city code violations and other favors.

CHAMPAIGN (AP) — The U.S. Army is financing a new research center at the University of Illinois to develop technology for computer networks used on battlefields and in other similarly difficult environments.

CHICAGO (AP) — Tribune Co., owner of The Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times and several other news outlets, will not use most Associated Press content next week to test whether the financially struggling company can do without it, according to a story on the Chicago Tribune's Web site.

CHICAGO (AP) — As Democratic leaders in Washington try to round up votes to pass health care reform legislation, U.S. Sen. Roland Burris on Monday stuck by his demand for a public option, calling any provision that would let states opt out not as strong.

CHICAGO (AP) — It's unclear if Illinois will start enforcing a hotly debated abortion notification law this week after all.

A Massachusetts tribe says construction of the nation's first offshore wind farm would destroy its religion.

CHICAGO (AP) — Illinois hopes to save millions of dollars by releasing about 1,000 prisoners during the next few weeks, and some nonviolent inmates will be released up to a year early.

LONDON (AP) — Hundreds of people on any given day will die, develop the paralyzing Guillain-Barre syndrome or have spontaneous abortions, and that doesn't necessarily mean that their swine flu vaccination shot was to blame, a new study says.

SPRINGFIELD (AP) — The Illinois House on Thursday passed a Democrat-driven compromise that would establish Illinois' first limits on campaign donations and avoid an embarrassing failure on one of the highest-profile ethics proposals to follow the Blagojevich scandal.

PEORIA (AP) — An al-Qaida sleeper agent who admitted having contact with the alleged mastermind behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks was sentenced to more than eight years in prison on Thursday.