CHICAGO (AP) – Insurance prices in parts of Illinois are spiking by more than 20 percent on the marketplace that’s a cornerstone of President Barack Obama’s health overhaul. The Illinois Department of Insurance released Wednesday a detailed look at health insurance prices for 2016. While price decreases in the Chicago area are keeping the statewide…
ROUND LAKE BEACH, Ill. (AP) – Authorities are defending the time it took to conclude that an Illinois police officer killed himself and was not killed by others. Lake County Major Crimes Task Force Commander George Filenko told reporters Wednesday that police Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz elaborately staged a crime scene, scattering his pepper spray,…
( KTRS ) An East St. Louis man has pleaded guilty to killing a University of Missouri student after what prosecutors call a botched 2013 drug deal. 26 year-old Deneshion Swope pleaded guilty Tuesday to first-degree murder in Madison County Circuit Court in the shooting death of 21-year-old Jarrett Mosby of Collinsville. Police say Mosby…
WASHINGTON (AP) – A portrait of former Speaker Dennis Hastert has been removed from a hallway outside the House chamber. Just last week, the Illinois Republican pleaded guilty to breaking banking laws in a hush money scheme. The portrait has hung for years in the Speaker’s Lobby, a plush area just outside the chamber where…
( KTRS ) More than 6,000 East St. Louis students are returning to school after a one-month teachers’ strike. District officials and union negotiators struck a tentative deal Friday after a 13-hour bargaining session that lasted until 1:30 a.m. The four-year contract was quickly endorsed by a majority of the roughly 400 striking teachers as…
FREEBURG, Ill. (AP) – A southwestern Illinois school district that paid $5.6 million to settle four lawsuits alleging sexual abuse of students by a former superintendent says its insurers are denying coverage for a fifth complaint. The Freeburg district in St. Clair County settled complaints by former elementary students who claimed abuse by Robin Hawkins,…
DECATUR, Ill. (AP) – Caterpillar Inc. has started laying off Decatur workers. Company spokeswoman Rachel Potts confirmed the employee notifications to The (Decatur) Herald & Review (http://bit.ly/1MAvd7T ), but says the company won’t be releasing the total number by location. In September, the Peoria-based manufacturer announced that it’s planning another round of job cuts that…
( KTRS ) For many people in Illinois, the five-month budget impasse has meant little. But for residents in the low-income counties in far southern Illinois it’s a far different story. In the area tucked between the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, private industry is scarce. Residents rely on government for everything from health care to…
BELLEVILLE, Ill. (AP) – An Illinois state trooper has been found guilty of misdemeanor aggravated assault during a roadside search in East St. Louis. Corey Alberson of Swansea faced a felony aggravated battery charge for pulling down a motorist’s pants and examining his buttocks with a flashlight. The driver wasn’t charged with any violations. A…
COLLINSVILLE, Ill. (AP) – The father of a southern Illinois man who died in a fiery weekend crash says a piece of his son’s skull and the son’s hands were found at the crash site days later. Mike McPherson says the body parts belonging to 25-year-old Jared McPherson of Bethalto were retrieved Wednesday morning so…