Dana Underwood’s day job is a mechanic. But on occasion, that job requires a bit of animal wrangling. On Thursday, Underwood was given the job of removing a kitten from the dashboard of a van owned by an animal shelter.

A recording of the 911 call was released on Thursday. A store manager, identified only as “Jeff,” stayed on the telephone with McDonough County telecommunicators for over 16 minutes. During that time he hurried customers and other employees to the store’s exit as he relayed information about the incident.

Anne Alexander has a lot of memories from her long career in state government. Some of her fondest are of her most prominent boss – former Gov. Adlai Stevenson. Lawmakers last year made his birthday the honorary Adlai Stevenson Day in Illinois.

Both sides of the medical malpractice debate say a new state Supreme Court ruling means the fight will go on. The court ruled Thursday that lawmakers stepped too far into judicial turf in 2005 when they approved caps on medical malpractice verdict payouts for pain and suffering. It's the third time the high court has tossed out such lawsuit caps. Now doctors, hospitals, insurers and trial lawyers who squared off then are headed for another round.

With Comptroller Dan Hynes' concession in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, Gov. Pat Quinn now knows he won't carry the "lame duck" moniker through the spring session. But not everyone thinks that Quinn securing the nomination will have an impact.

State Briefs 2/4/10

Diners may not be thinking price while tearing into a plateful of chicken wings on Super Bowl Sunday, but the country is seeing historic price increases as demand soars. As of Feb. 1, the wholesale price of chicken wings for the Midwest ranged from $1.62 to $1.80 a pound, compared with $1.16 to $1.38 for boneless skinless chicken breasts. And even though wing prices usually jump near the Super Bowl, prices were only $1.41 to $1.53 last year at this time.

A six-hour standoff ended Wednesday evening with the alleged gunman dead of what authorities said was a self-inflicted gunshot wound. 

Voter uncertainty about several key races on Illinois' political scene after Tuesday's primary election didn't get much better Wednesday.

State Briefs 2/3/10

The numbers are in. The votes are all counted. The winners are clear. Well, maybe not. After all, it's Illinois and it’s never that easy. With four statewide races up in the air from Tuesday night's primary election results, Illinoisans have a new reason to be confused by their politicians. This week's State Capitol Q&A tries to make some sense of where these races are at and what could happen next.

Chicago businessman Scott Lee Cohen, who blanketed Illinois with advertising, narrowly beat state Rep. Art Turner to become the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor on Tuesday. Another novice candidate, Jason Plummer, appeared on the verge of defeating State Sen. Matt Murphy, R-Palatine, to win the Republican nomination as lieutenant governor.

Judy Baar Topinka was declared victor in the Republican primary for comptroller Tuesday night, but the Democratic primary remained too close to call early Wednesday. State Rep. David Miller of Lynwood and former deputy treasurer Raja Krishnamoorthi were in a dead heat for the Democratic nomination.

Two candidates were slugging it out in a virtual dead heat late Tuesday in the contest to become the Republican nominee for governor. With 98 percent of the vote counted, the contest was still too close to call between state Sen. Kirk Dillard of Hinsdale and state Sen. Bill Brady of Bloomington.

The Democratic race for governor capped off a frenzied final few weeks with a neck-and-neck finish Tuesday, as Gov. Pat Quinn and Comptroller Dan Hynes showed no signs of budging in their fight for the nomination.