After four months of the drip, drip, drip of testimony about the sickening, sleazy and, in my view, criminal dealings of former Gov. George Ryan and friends, prosecutors say they're about ready to rest their case.

It's a new year, so why not a new direction - at least just this once-for a book club devoted to non-fiction. But, be forewarned, this latest recommendation is limited only to those readers with a strong streak of the cur in them and a deep affection for

University of Illinois basketball star Dee Brown might be a one-man fast break at the Assembly Hall, but former Cumberland County Circuit Judge Robert Cochonour showed again this week that when he gets in court he has some pretty slick moves of his own.

Dec. 24 News-Gazette column

People who know me well will find this hard to believe, but I recently went to another movie, my third is less than three months.

I know it's not my beat, so I'll leave the super analysis of The Fighting Illini basketball team to News-Gazette beat writer Brett Dawson.

I'm not much for movies anymore. I rarely go, and when I do I rarely enjoy what I see. I thought March of the Penguins, a documentary, was good and got a kick out of Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit. (I've never seen such a smart dog).

Come with me now deep into the heart of darkness [] October 1967 [] when American soldiers were fighting and dieing in Vietnam, college campuses were starting to churn with protest and a president was caught in a vise from which he would not escape.

Joe Birkett, the DuPage County state's attorney who ran unsuccessfully for Illinois attorney general in 2002, has been in the news a lot lately, most recently getting front-page coverage in The Chicago Tribune when he announced an indictment in a notoriou

For nearly three years now, a crooked former judge in Cumberland County has been a lonely figure of controversy, drawing all the heat from investigators while his associates escaped attention.