SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - Illinois lawmakers have approved a Democratic budget and are preparing to go home for the summer, avoiding a long legislative deadlock but leaving behind a spending mess for Governor Rod Blagojevich to clean up. The Illinois ...

CHICAGO : A top political fundraiser parlayed his success at amassing enormous amounts of campaign money for Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich into the access and influence to launch a $7 million shakedown scheme in state government, a prosecutor told ...

When Gov. Rod Blagojevich last week released agriculture money tied up in a budget dispute, he spared eight to 10 jobs in the University of Illinois Extension office in Belleville. But Rep. Ron Stephens, R-Highland, accused Blagojevich, a Democrat ...

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - Governor Rod Blagojevich's office says he is releasing all the agriculture money that had been tied up in a state budget standoff. Aides said today that it will be about a week before the paperwork is finished and the state ...

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - Gov. Rod Blagojevich will release all the $38 million in agriculture money that had been tied up in a state budget standoff, plus an additional $32 million, his office said Friday. Aides said a day earlier the governor planned to ...

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - Reversing course, Gov. Rod Blagojevich agreed Thursday to release state money to agriculture programs, although it was not clear if agencies would get all of the $36 million that had been tied up in a state budget standoff ...

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - Governor Rod Blagojevich has now agreed to release millions of dollars in state money he had been withholding from agriculture agencies. Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said today that the governor agreed to release ...