The Latest Breaking News from Springfield

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Maria Pike found her calling after her son Ricky was shot and killed in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood in August 2012.

Despite pleas from residents concerned about their health, a bill to protect overburdened communities from more pollution doesn’t have the votes in Springfield to pass during an election year.

Casella Waste Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CWST) has acquired the assets of Northstar Pulp & Paper Co., Inc., Northstar Disposal Corp., and certain real estate holdings. Deal terms were not disclosed. Northstar is a resource management company in Springfield, Massachusetts, focused on recycling processing, brokerage services, and collection across the northeast for industrial, institutional, and…

The four were accused of arranging for the ex-House speaker’s associates and allies to get jobs, contracts and money in order to influence Madigan as key legislation worked its way through Springfield.

Deferring the annual adjustment in the motor fuel tax would be repeating the mistakes of the past — exactly what the Rebuild Illinois Capital Plan was designed to avoid.

Thursday marks 15 years since Barack Obama officially launched his first presidential campaign on the steps of the Old State Capitol in Springfield.

The governor’s top advisers say Pritzker’s new spending plan keeps the state on track to end in the black for back-to-back years for the first time in 25 years. But state House GOP Leader Jim Durkin said, "The governor’s budget address is always a wish-list, and this year it’s clear…

“I actually thought the Republicans in the Reagan and first Bush White House did some of the best climate policies ever,” the Democrat says.

State law requires the budget address to be given this year on the first Wednesday in February, and a spokesperson said Gov. J.B. Pritzker will do so. But because of potential hazardous winter travel, the Senate would convene at noon on Tuesday, but the remainder of the week’s House and…