Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan won a legal victory on Thursday when a Cook County Circuit Court judge upheld a bid her office made to strip former Gov. George Ryan of his pension following his conviction on corruption charges.
Ryan has not yet started serving his sentence.
For the Madigan release, click below...
WASHINGTON--Michelle Obama's mother, Marian Robinson, starts on the surrogate circuit this Saturday when she stumps for her son-in-law, Democratic White House hopeful Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), in New Hampshire at a women-for-Obama event.
for the latest Obama public schedule ( including only campaign-selected fund-raising events), click below.
The debate over overhauling the health-care system is newly invigorated because the three 2008 Democratic front-runners -- Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Edwards -- are making it a priority issue.
WASHINGTON--Screen star and former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) is going to run for president, a source who will be associated with his campaign told me Wednesday.
WASHINGTON -- Democratic White House hopeful Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) unveiled his long-awaited health care plan on Tuesday, promising that everyone will be able to buy affordable health insurance and that people now covered will pay less. Employers would keep their insurance expenses down because the federal government would pay for the most costly cases.
WASHINGTON--Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama, courting national press, talks about the food he likes on the campaign trail--green tea and trail mix--and his dreams during an "On the Trail" interview that ran Tuesday morning on NBC's "Today Show" and taped during his Memorial Day visit to New Hampshire.
WASHINGTON--White House hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) in a New Hampshire speech on Tuesday, called for ending tax breaks for big oil and gas firms and U.S. firms sending jobs overseas and allowing the government to negotiate Medicare drug prices.
WASHINGTON--Bob Kjellander, the sometimes controversal Illinois Republican, will be the vice chairman of the 2008 Republican National Convention, to be held in Minneapolis/Saint Paul.
WASHINGTON--President Bush on Tuesday called for tighter economic sanctions on the Sudanese government in the wake of their refusal to take steps to stop the genocide in the Darfur region. More than 30 companies owned or controlled by the Sudan government now will be barred from doing business with the U.S.--either corporations or individuals.
Bush is also seeking an expanded embargo on weapons sales and limiting the ability of the Sudan military to fly over Darfur. This is the latest in a series of Bush administration moves to try to end the conflict.
"And I promise this to the people of Darfur: The United States will not avert our eyes from a crisis that challenges the conscience of the world," Bush said.
click below for fact sheet and transcript. plus statement from the "Save Darfur" coalition.....
WASHINGTON--White House hopeful Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) wants to create a new health federal-backed health insurance program--and to expand Medicaid, the state-federal program providing health coverage for the medically needy.
Obama also wants to provide alternatives to the current system, where most individuals can obtain health insurance only through their employers. If an employer does not offer insurance, the company (except for some small business) must help pay for the purchase of private insurance. All these are elements towards Obama's goals of providing health coverage to all the uninsured in the U.S. One Obama proposal calls for insurance companies to let parents carry their children on their plans longer--up to the age of 25.
Obama unveils his long-awaited health plan Tuesday morning in at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. Democrats don't differ much in calling for covering the estimated 45 million uninsured in the U.S. It's how to get there--to universal coverage--that will be part of the presidential debate.
Last week, chief rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) in Washington offered the first elements of her proposal, dealing with containing and lowering costs. Both candidates called for investing more in electronic medical records systems, lowering drug costs by allowing imports from some--not all--approved countries and by investing more in preventive medicine.
In 1993 and 1994 Clinton was scorched when, as First Lady, she failed to sell Congress on a comprehensive overhaul of the health insurance system. Since then, the climate has changed, as corporations are looking for ways to reduce costs.
"We now face an opportunity--and an obligation--to turn the page on the failed politics of yesterday's health care debates," Obama said in speech excerpts released by his campaign after an embargo was broken.
click below for Obama's "fact sheet" on his health plan and other material and the text of Clinton's May 24 speech at George Washington University on lowering health care costs.
WASHINGTON -- The unintended byproduct of Illinois moving up its primary to boost White House hopeful Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is putting the state in major play for the GOP presidential candidates.
WASHINGTON -- Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs chief Tammy Duckworth told the Chicago Sun-Times she is considering a second run for Congress, torn this Memorial Day weekend over whether she can do more good for vets in her current post or in the House.
WASHINGTON---After simmering for months over Gov. Blagojevich's inaction, the two Illinois senators and nine of the 19 House members on Friday unloaded on the governor for risking $6.1 billion in federal money for Illinois transportation projects.
At issue is the need for the state to come up with more than $1 billion in order to trigger the release of the $6.1 billion. The money was part of a big transportation bill Congress passed during the last session, when Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) was the speaker.
Blagojevich has been in no hurry to come up with the state match. The theory, perhaps, is that the state should not automatically be obliged to all these expensive projects just because the federal goverment is willing to send in a down payment. These projects, perhaps, could also be held hostage by the governor and used as negotiating fodder.
Anyway, time is running out, the lawmakers said in the letter sent to Blagojevich and the four top state legislative leaders.
"If the State of Illinois does not enact a capital bill and provide the non-federal match this year, as much as $6.1 billion in federal funding could be at risk," the letter said.
to read the letter, click below
WASHINGTON--Previewing a general election race, GOP White House hopeful Sen. John McCain (R-Az.) went after Democratic presidential front-runners Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) by name on Friday for voting against an Iraq war funding bill.
"I was very disappointed to see Senator Obama and Senator Clinton embrace the policy of surrender by voting against funds to support our brave men and women fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan," McCain said in a statement.
In reply to criticism over the no vote from McCain and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, also in the GOP primary, Obama said in a statement, "Governor Romney and Senator McCain are still supporting a war that has
cost us thousands of lives, made us less safe in the world, and resulted in a resurgence of al-Qaeda.''
Obama and Clinton were under pressure from the anti-war left--a potential critical component in a Democratic primary--to vote against the spending bill. McCain did not bother to mention Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Ct.) who is also in the Democratic 2008 primary and voted no. Rival former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) said he would have voted no. Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.), also making a bid, voted yes.
McCain also did not note one of his rivals--Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Ks.), who stayed on the fence--he simply did not vote on the measure when it came up on Thursday night. Fence-sitters face tough times in primaries where activists want to know where candidates stand.
WASHINGTON--Eight of nine Illinois House members voted for the Iraq supplemental funding bill on Thursday. One GOP member did not vote. Three Illinois Democratic lawmakers voted yes. Seven Illinois Democrats voted no.
WASHINGTON--Three of the four Democratic senators running for president voted against the Iraq war funding bill Thursday night--Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chris Dodd. The fourth hopeful, Joe Biden, voted yes.
Clinton and Obama had been getting pressure from the anti-war left to vote no.
The two top Senate Democrats, Harry Reid and Dick Durbin, voted yes.
Obama and Durbin rarely are divided on major votes.
WASHINGTON--President Bush at a Rose Garden press conference on Thursday insists he is credible when it comes to the war.
Q Mr. President, after the mistakes that have been made in this war, when you do as you did yesterday, where you raised two-year-old intelligence, talking about the threat posed by al Qaeda, it's met with increasing skepticism. The majority in the public, a growing number of Republicans, appear not to trust you any longer to be able to carry out this policy successfully. Can you explain why you believe you're still a credible messenger on the war?
THE PRESIDENT: I'm credible because I read the intelligence, David, and make it abundantly clear in plain terms that if we let up, we'll be attacked. And I firmly believe that.
for transcript of entire press conference, click below.
