State

WASHINGTON (MCT) — U.S. demand for oil and refined products — including gasoline — is down sharply from last year, so much that United States has actually become a net exporter of gasoline, unable to consume all that it makes.

Goodwill of Central Illinois accepts electronics for free recycling. Electronics can be dropped off at any of Goodwill’s nine stores or four donation centers. Beginning Jan. 1, in accordance with Illinois’ Electronic Products and Recycling Act, Illinois residents are prohibited from disposing of certain electronics in their garbage and ultimately in the landfill.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (MCT) — Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn of Illinois will deliver a bad news budget Wednesday, suggesting that Illinois close numerous prisons, mental health centers and social service offices, cut health care for the poor and shut down popular tourist sites for two days a week at times during the year.

(MCT) — Fearing the loss of long-term funding for Chicago-area bus and train projects, Illinois congressmen on Tuesday said funding cuts in a major transportation bill being debated in Washington would hurt mass transit programs in Chicago.

(MCT) — Two people were critically injured when a wrong-way driver clipped a car and a tanker truck before slamming head on into another car early this morning on the Kennedy Expressway near Division Street, according to police.

(MCT) — More homes were sold in the Chicago area last month than in any January since 2007, but prices continued to slide and additional declines are expected.

DECATUR (MCT) — A family party turned into a bloody melee when two men got into a fistfight, which was interrupted by a woman stabbing one of the combatants with a knife and pummeling him with a crowbar, while another woman broke a bottle on his head.

(MCT) — Two people were injured when the car they were traveling in ran into a building about 2 a.m. Wednesday, according to police.

CHICAGO (MCT) — A 16-year-old boy with Down syndrome and autism who was killed when he fell down the trash chute of his Chicago high-rise was remembered by neighbors for his friendly smile and by officials with Special Olympics for his grit and determination.

CHICAGO (MCT) — A teenage boy was dead, his crumpled bicycle still lying underneath a van at the South Side intersection where he had been struck by a speeding car shortly after 2 a.m. A few blocks away, off-duty Chicago police Officer Richard Bolling had been stopped driving the wrong way down a one-way street, the windshield of his Dodge Charger smashed and splattered with blood. The patrol officers smelled alcohol on his breath and found an open bottle of beer in the console.

(MCT) — The unseasonably warm weather isn't the only sign of an early spring. Roiled by the specter of Iranian oil cutoffs, gas prices are rising at a record pace, crossing the $4-a-gallon threshold in some parts of the country, and threatening to break an all-time high, experts say.

(MCT) — Less than a year since civil unions became legal in Illinois, a push to give same-sex couples the right to marry has emerged at the state Capitol with the support of high-profile public figures but also much skepticism that gay marriage will be approved this year.

(MCT) — A former TribLocal reporter is suing the Chicago Tribune, claiming she didn't receive hundreds of hours of overtime pay due to her from more than a year of employment.

(MCT) — A 4.0-magnitude earthquake rattled towns in four Midwestern states including downstate Carbondale but no major damage was reported, officials said.

(MCT) — With two days left before the Chicago Board of Education votes to close or restructure failing schools,  community groups staged a candlelight vigil protesting the dramatic measures and marched to Mayor Rahm Emanuel's home on the North Side.

(MCT) — A Blue Island man was cited for DUI after his SUV struck and killed a man unloading a beer truck, pinning him against a CTA bus in the Morgan Park neighborhood on the Far South Side.

WASHINGTON PARK (MCT) — Two women who were working Friday at a strip club in the 2100 block of North Kingshighway have been charged with stealing a customer's credit card and withdrawing money from his account.

NORMANDY (MCT) – A wind energy company is making an offer to neighbors of a proposed project in Bureau County – $1,000 or more a year.

(MCT) — The owner of a South Shore funeral home shut down after authorities cited him for no electricity or heat insists he always treated the bodies in his care "with the utmost respect." 

(MCT) — A 16-year-old boy with autism and Down syndrome fell to his death down a trash chute at a Gold Coast highrise, authorities said this morning.

A three-dimensional (3D) view does more than make for exciting movies in a theater, it can also improve the care of animals.

The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) will host the 2012 Today’s Challenge, Tomorrow’s Reward (TCTR) conference to connect disadvantaged business enterprises with prime contractors and identify business partnership opportunities for minority- and woman-owned entities. The two-day event starting Feb. 21 will feature a keynote address by U.S. Senator Dick Durbin on Feb. 22.

CHICAGO (MCT) — When they got the news last April, Faith Creighton’s parents were thrilled to tell their 7-year-old daughter she was finally getting her own puppy.

(MCT) — A Chicago man was arrested at Midway Airport on Saturday morning after an X-ray scan of his luggage showed he was carrying a loaded handgun in his laptop bag, prosecutors said.

(MCT) — Besides the kids who ride through on their bikes or the homeowners who keep the grass neatly clipped, nobody ever really noticed a triangular 3-acre plot that's a functioning but humdrum component of New Lenox's flood-prevention system.

(MCT) — Gov. Pat Quinn plans to call for major Medicaid cuts during his annual budget address Wednesday and issue a warning that immediate changes must be made or the state's health care system for the poor could collapse.

(MCT) — Attending a four-year university immediately after high school just wasn't in the cards for St. Charles resident Kathy Arseneau.

DE KALB (MCT) — A 21-year-old man was killed and two other men were airlifted from a crash after the car they were in rear-ended a semitrailer and was dragged a couple of blocks early Sunday in DeKalb.

A man fell through the ice while playing hockey on a pond in north suburban McHenry Township and died hours after rescuers pulled him out of the water, authorities said.

A 4-year-old girl was reported in good condition after a TV fell on her at her residence in west suburban Aurora, officials said.

BELLEVILLE, Ill. — An argument between two passengers in a Ford Explorer early Sunday morning ended in a four-vehicle crash in Madison County that sent seven people to the hospital.

(MCT) — Police are searching for suspects this morning in a South Side drive-by shooting that killed two men and wounded five teens ranging in age from 13 to 16, authorities say.

CHICAGO (MCT) — It almost hit 50 degrees today. Next week, it'll be in the 40s. Then February is nearly over.

SANDWICH, Ill. (MCT) — An extra-alarm fire in La Salle County near Sandwich, Illinois caused the roof of a bar and restaurant to cave in, a witness and officials said.

(MCT) — Sen. Mark Kirk, who suffered a stroke last month, is "adapting well" at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and has started walking on a treadmill. 

PONTIAC (MCT) — An armed man took cellular phones Friday in a robbery of Midwest Cellular in Pontiac.

DIXON (MCT) – Bond was set Thursday at $10,000 for a Dixon man accused of putting duct tape on the arms, legs, and mouth of a 7-year-old boy to restrain him earlier this week.

NORMAL (MCT) — Illinois State University's Board of Trustees gave the official approval Friday to a $25 million renovation project for Hancock Stadium.

SPRINGFIELD — David Del Castillo worked on an assembly line at the Knapheide Manufacturing Co. in Quincy for five years, until the economic downturn caused the company to lay off 185 employees in April 2009.

(MCT) — When Tracey and Todd Fine were engaged, they purchased a two-bedroom condo in East Ukrainian Village in 2006. The price was high, but given the white-hot market in adjacent Wicker Park, they thought it was a strategic investment.

(MCT) — The wind power industry is predicting massive layoffs and stalled or abandoned projects after a deal to renew a tax credit failed Thursday in Washington.

(MCT) — Despite growing up nowhere near an ocean, Rex Flodstrom fell in love with surfing at an early age on trips to the West Coast. It's a spiritual experience, pushing the Chicagoan to brave even the punishing snow and ice on Lake Michigan for the thrill of a winter wave. 

(MCT) — Rejecting Chicago job applicants because of credit history would be banned in most cases under a proposal a City Council committee endorsed Thursday.

(MCT) — The Chicago Teachers Union is asking for raises amounting to 30 percent over the next two years, the opening salvo in heated contract negotiations with school officials who are implementing a longer school day across Chicago Public Schools next school year.

BLOOMINGTON (MCT) — A car struck and shattered plate-glass windows Thursday at Chicago Style Pizzeria and The Wig Salon, both at 1500 E. Empire St., but no one was injured.

CHICAGO (MCT) — A federal appeals court in Chicago says was "outright disturbing" that federal prison officials sent a convicted former U.S. deputy marshal to the Texas prison where his father, a convicted former Chicago police officer, died decades earlier.

(MCT) — A North Barrington woman whose disappearance prompted an extensive two-day search apparently took her own life, authorities said Thursday.

CHICAGO (MCT) — The Chicago area logged the most public corruption convictions of any federal jurisdiction in the United States during the past 36 years, according to a report released Wednesday by the University of Illinois at Chicago.

WORTH, Ill. — (MCT) — Bill Scheibe Jr. knew his mother was a hoarder, but nothing prepared him for what he saw when he stepped into her home for the first time in 20 years last weekend: towering mounds of rubbish reaching to the ceiling and spilling out windows.

(MCT) — Cook County saw a dramatic increase last month in the number of severely delinquent homeowners whose properties entered the foreclosure process.

SPRINGFIELD (MCT) — Illinois already charges so-called sin taxes on smokes, booze and casino gambling. Now state lawmakers are thinking about imposing a $5 skin tax to get into strip clubs.

(MCT) — A federal judge Wednesday all but threw out Michael Jordan 's lawsuit against Jewel-Osco over a congratulatory ad it ran when he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame three years ago.

(MCT) — In an effort to pressure the owners of older high-rises to come into compliance with the city's fire safety ordinance, Mayor Rahm Emanuel is proposing to increase fines for those that don't meet a 2015 deadline, officials said Wednesday.

(MCT) — Charges were dropped Wednesday against a veteran Cook County judge accused of drunken driving last fall in Willowbrook, his attorney said.

OAK PARK, Ill. (MCT) — An Oak Park nursing home failed to report to the state health department a deadly altercation between anAlzheimer's patient and another resident, authorities said Wednesday.