In the News
Winter 2015. Commuter A nips out of her garage in the suburbs, turns onto I-88 and then crawls along the tollway and the Eisenhower Expressway, eventually arriving at work in the Loop where parking costs about $290 a month.
Scott and Caroline Schmauderer know all the acronyms and the nitty-gritty details of the federal government's various programs to help homeowners like themselves, whose plans were derailed by the housing bust.
They read up on loan modifications, but they aren't behind on their mortgage payments, so they don't qualify for one.
For years, Jorge toiled in the kitchen of a Mexican restaurant.
In the midst of hot ovens and the frantic pace of food preparation, where the long hours tortured his feet and racked his lower back, Jorge, a native of Mexico, dreamed of one day getting his legal resident papers, which would permit him to join the U.S. Army.
NEWPORT NEWS -- In August 2010, Sgt. 1st Class Angela Dees sent her stepson off to college, a move made possible because she transferred her benefits to him under the GI Bill.
Or that's what she thought.
A handful of Illinois Democratic members of Congress Tuesday outlined county-by-county numbers of people who will lose unemployment benefits Dec. 28.
Their numbers come from the the Illinois Department of Employment Security.
U.S. Rep. Bill Foster is looking to constituents for answers when it comes to the federal government's budget deficit.
"There are no easy choices to be made here," Foster said Monday at Calvary Church in Naperville, before putting about 50 people through a 90-minute workshop on which items should have priority in the federal budget.
At least seven legislative proposals are pending in Congress to improve the new GI Bill for large swaths of beneficiaries, including active-duty and reserve troops, wounded warriors and families.
An Illinois congressman wants children of soldiers to avoid a case of educationus interruptus. Sgt. First Class Angela Dees of Joliet, now stationed in Virginia, says the Defense Department reversed itself on her son's tuition and demanded a refund.
A bill crafted with the help of The American Legion would, if enacted, correct a "bureaucratic nightmare" that has caused some servicemembers' children to be billed for thousands of dollars in educational benefits for which they were originally approved.