The Sangamon County Board met Oct. 11 to appoint board members.

The Springfield Committee of the Whole met Oct. 25 to authorize various contracts.

“If America is two countries, Illinois is two states,” the Peoria Journal Star said recently in an editorial, censuring House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) and attributing the state’s “abysmal” financial status to continued ineptitude and duplicity in the General Assembly.

Already struggling under a many-tiered fiscal burden, Illinois taxpayers are now confronting incontrovertible evidence of serious fiscal setbacks in their state as a new report this week revealed staggering amounts of pension debt and escalating red ink.

The manufacturing industry in Illinois continues to show job losses, despite October's net gain of 1,600 jobs.

Voting for state Rep. Mike Madigan to serve yet another term as House Speaker may be more difficult for Democrats this time, according to the screenwriter for a documentary about the Chicago Democrat.

Illinois is in a pension debt crisis, according to a report from Illinois' Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability (CGFA), which said the state is facing what could amount to $130 billion in unfunded pension liability, with only an estimated 37.6 percent of all pensions being funded.

The Illinois House failed to garner the votes needed to overturn Gov. Bruce Rauner's veto of Senate Bill 250, which would have automatically registered Illinois residents to vote when they make government transactions, such as renewing a driver's license.

With Illinois' state pension liability 17 percent more than it was last year, the vice president of a Chicago-based think tank recently said that 401(k)-style plans for public employees would go a long way toward easing the pension crisis.

Gov. Bruce Rauner recently took to social media to lay out his terms for another stopgap budget.

Alerted to withheld information, the Illinois consumer group Edgar County Watchdogs recently publicized its continuing concerns regarding a 4-year-old conviction of two local policemen whom the investigative outfit believes may have allowed another to escape justice.

Illinois may be in even bigger financial trouble than what official projections have suggested.

After a year of many changes, something may wind up remaining as it has been for decades in the General Assembly.

The Illinois House will elect a new House speaker in January. While few discuss it, the primary candidate remains Mike Madigan (D-Chicago), who has held the position for 31 of his 45 years in the House.

The Pleasant Plains Community Unit School District 8 Board of Education met Aug. 22 to accept resignations.

The Springfield Public School District #186 Board of Education met Oct. 3 to receive an update on the science curriculum.

The Ball-Chatham School District Board of Education met Sept. 26 to accept an equipment donation.

The Ball-Chatham Board of Education met Sept. 22 to determine how to reduce costs.

The Ball-Chatham School District Board of Education met Oct. 24 to hire faculty and staff.

The reporter's eye view of the apparent disagreement between lawmakers that killed a $215 million bill to bail out Chicago Public Schools' pension fund at the end of 2016 observed the growing acrimony in Springfield over the proposal, a journalist said during the aftermath.