Under the Dome Podcast: Police & Fire pension consolidation, poll shows support for graduated income tax, Shimkus no longer supporting Trump

Financial assets of downstate and suburban police and fire pension systems should be consolidated to ease burdens on local property taxes, a state pension task force is recommending.

Most people in Illinois still think the state is moving in the wrong direction, but compared with last year, twice as many think things are going the right way, according to a poll conducted by the University of Illinois Springfield Survey Research Office.

A new state law allowing voters in McHenry County to more easily dissolve their townships already appears headed for tests in court and on the ballot.

A Chicago woman who was convicted for the murders of two gang members in 1992 has become a model prisoner, an Illinois Innocence Project attorney says.

Democrat BETSY DIRKSEN LONDRIGAN is being opposed in the party's primary in March, though the candidate collecting signatures to qualify for that ballot in the 13th Congressional District is clearly not your traditional politician.