SPRINGFIELD, Illinois– Last fall, Governor Blagojevich signed his second increase in the statewide mandatory minimum wage in five years. The legislation raised the Illinois minimum wage to $7.50 per hour with an additional hike to $8.50 in 2010. At the…

SPRINGFIELD, Ill — If you want to raise taxes…vote Republican. At least in Illinois you do. That frank advice was recently delivered by Mike Lawrence, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute, at a Chicago forum on school funding….

Illinois Senate candidate Barack Obama’s speech last month at the Democratic National Convention was not so much a coming out party as a grand orchestration. Since Obama won the primary in March he has received a remarkable amount of national…