State

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. – Asian carp might have breached an electronic barrier designed to prevent the giant invaders from upsetting the ecosystem in the Great Lakes and jeopardizing a $7 billion sport fishery, officials said Friday.

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.

ST. LOUIS – The Army Corps of Engineers is monitoring a Mississippi River levee near St. Louis after discovering a problem that could cause it to fail.

CHICAGO (AP) – Holding back tears, Oprah Winfrey told her studio audience Friday that she would end her show in 2011 after a quarter-century on the air, saying "prayer and careful thought" led her to her decision.

CHICAGO – Dozens of American flags lined the outside a Chicago funeral home where a 21-year-old soldier killed at Fort Hood was remembered Thursday as an optimistic person who loved to dance and who had dedicated her life to service.

CHICAGO – Mentally ill residents of Illinois nursing homes often don’t know their rights and some are confined against their will, a lawyer with 35 years’ experience in mental health law told a state task force Thursday.

CHICAGO (AP) – Oprah Winfrey's iconic television talk show will end in 2011 after 25 seasons on the air, her production company said Thursday.

CHICAGO – Gov. Pat Quinn and Comptroller Dan Hynes disagreed over the best way to raise the state income tax but agreed on their support for a government-run health insurance program during two debates Wednesday between the rival Democratic candidates for governor.

CHICAGO – The University of Chicago Crime Lab and two community organizations – including part of the city’s failed Olympic bid – are expanding a youth program to curb violence by blending counseling, martial arts and nontraditional sports, officials said Wednesday.

CHICAGO – Chicago police said Wednesday that tests revealed gunshot residue on the hand of Michael Scott – the strongest evidence that the president of the city’s school board took his own life.

CHICAGO – Gov. Pat Quinn said a deal to sell a prison in northwestern Illinois to the federal government to house Guantanamo Bay detainees “probably” would happen.

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

CHAMPAIGN – Tristesse Jones probably never will drive a tractor or guide a combine through rows of soybeans at harvest time.

WASHINGTON – Worried that the Army might have missed red flags about the alleged shooter in the Fort Hood massacre, the Pentagon likely will launch an inquiry into how all the military services keep watch on other volatile soldiers hidden in their ranks, officials said Tuesday.

CHICAGO – Divers returned to the Chicago River and investigators scoured cell phone records Tuesday as police declined to call the death of the city’s school board president a suicide a day after an autopsy concluded he shot himself in the head.

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.

SPRINGFIELD – As parties involved in the lawsuit surrounding a 2006 fatal crash on Route 25 await a ruling from the state’s high court, attorneys wonder whether the court’s ruling could broaden who can be held responsible for someone else’s drinking.

QUINCY – A central Illinois utility company announced it would launch a $20 million cleanup of underground contaminants at a defunct gas-manufacturing plant in Quincy.

GENEVA – Kane County Republican Party leaders urged the more than 300 people at the 14th Congressional District candidates forum Sunday to support whichever man wins the February primary so that the party can reclaim the seat from the Democrats.

CHICAGO – Chicago’s school board president apparently shot himself in the head near the Chicago River before dawn Monday, officials said as his death was met with disbelief by civic leaders and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

THOMSON – Some folks in this dying Mississippi River town rather would 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 – A millionaire power broker who was to go to trial on corruption charges alongside ousted Gov. Rod Blagojevich was dropped Monday from the list of defendants.

THOMSON, Ill. (AP) — Federal officials are at a prison in northwest Illinois that the government might buy to house Guantanamo Bay detainees.

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

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.

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.

JOLIET – Hundreds of mourners on Saturday remembered a 22-year-old suburban Chicago soldier killed at Fort Hood as a courageous person, quiet observer and naturally talented musician who shared his love of guitar with all.

CHICAGO – The vaunted Chicago Machine was seemingly unstoppable, with a simple, unwritten rule: If you wanted a city job, you had to help get the mayor and his favored candidates elected.

Guantanamo inmates might land in Illinois

CHICAGO – Prosecutors asked a federal judge Friday to drop millionaire power broker William Cellini from Rod Blagojevich’s corruption trial, while the former governor asked that the trial scheduled for June be postponed for months.

CHICAGO – Members of the Metra board of directors have approved the commuter rail line’s budget, along with fare increases for some train trips.

EDWARDSVILLE – Johnny Cash sang about having shot a man in Reno just to watch him die. Bob Marley belted out that he had shot the local sheriff, but not the deputy.

BOLINGBROOK – The body of a 21-year-old Illinois soldier killed in last week’s shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, has arrived back in his hometown.

CHICAGO – Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin suggests that she recognized quickly that she’d done badly in her interview with CBS anchorwoman Katie Couric.

Illinois is one of 10 states headed for economic disaster, according to a new study.

Man charged in bomb plot will undergo tests

WHEATON – A suburban Chicago 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.

CHICAGO – The Chicago Transit Authority agreed Wednesday not to raise fares for two years under a deal with the state, although the mass transit agency still plans to move ahead with proposed service cuts and more than 1,000 layoffs.

WHEATON, Ill. (AP) – 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.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – California's ongoing fiscal crisis has attracted national attention, but a study warns that nine other states are barreling toward similar economic disaster.

WHEATON, Ill. (AP) — Despite an initial report that a verdict had been reached, the jury deciding whether Brian Dugan should receive the death penalty for the 1983 rape and murder of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico (nihk-AIR'-ih-koh) will keep deliberating.

CHICAGO – Prosecutors claimed in court Tuesday that Northwestern University journalism students paid two witnesses in to make their case that an innocent man was wrongly convicted of murder.

CHICAGO – Gov. Pat Quinn tried to allay concerns Tuesday about the state releasing prisoners early to save money by stressing that the inmates being let go would be electronically monitored and had not been violent offenders.

CHICAGO – Since he was laid off in March, Frank Beil has been on the lookout.

ST. LOUIS – Congress might have to step in if “dramatic change” isn’t forthcoming at a southern Illinois Veteran’s Affairs hospital where major surgeries have been suspended for more than two years after a spike in patient deaths, Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin said.

CHICAGO – Dozens of mourners clutching candles and white carnations gathered Monday for a vigil outside the Chicago home of a soldier killed in the shooting at Fort Hood, Texas.

CHICAGO – U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, who for months contemplated giving up the congressional seat that he has held since 1997 for a run at the top post in Cook County, decided Monday to seek re-election.

Chicago gets new area code, 872

CHICAGO – A Northwestern University professor and journalism students who spent three years investigating the case of a man convicted in the 1978 killing of a security guard believe that they have evidence that shows prosecutors put the wrong man behind bars. But in the quest to prove his innocence, they might have to defend themselves, too.

COKER CREEK, Tenn. – The U.S. Forest Service has begun to uncover the remains of a fort used to temporarily house migrating Cherokee along the Trail of Tears more than 170 years ago.