By Benjamin Yount and Anthony Brino | Illinois Statehouse News SPRINGFIELD — Jerry and Melanie Howlett didn’t watch Gov. Pat Quinn‘s State of the State speech Wednesday afternoon.

  By Andrew Thomason | Illinois Statehouse News SPRINGFIELD — llinois’ 12 percent increase in higher education spending this year isn’t going to benefit students. Instead, the additional funding for fiscal 2012 is going into the State Universities Retirement System, or SURS, to address its underfunded pension program.

By Scott Reeder | Illinois Statehouse News SPRINGFIELD — It is time for Illinois courts to become more transparent by allowing cameras into courtrooms, Illinois Chief Justice Thomas Kilbride told Illinois Statehouse News in an exclusive interview. On Tuesday, the state Supreme Court is expected to announce it will allow trial court proceedings to be filmed and tape recorded [...]

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second story in a two-part series on the state of Illinois after a year of higher personal and corporate income taxes. By Andrew Thomason and Anthony Brino | Illinois Statehouse News SPRINGFIELD — Illinois Republican lawmakers and businesses blame the state’ staggering economic recovery on income tax increases, but recent indicators [...]

By Andrew Thomason | Illinois Statehouse News SPRINGFIELD — It could be lights out for a proposed $3 billion coal-to-gas plant on the south side of Chicago.

By Benjamin Yount, Stephanie Fryer and Anthony Brino | Illinois Statehouse News SPRINGFIELD — While the Republican presidential candidates are in New Hampshire this weekend, their surrogates are trying their best to bring the one-upmanship of the race to Illinois. Friday was the last day for the 2012 GOP presidential campaigns to file their delegates with [...]