SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - An Illinois Senate committee has debated a pension reform plan developed by officials from the University of Illinois and Northern Illinois University. According to the plan, the State University Retirement System would be fully funded by 2044. It gradually phases in employer funding of pensions and phases in an increase in contributions for workers. Southern Illinois University's president says it could a template for fixing problems in the state's other retirement system.
CHICAGO (AP) - A federal judge today told both sides in the fight over Chicago school closings to be ready for a hearing next month that could halt the closings. He says he won't delay the hearing scheduled to begin July 16th. The teachers union sued after the Chicago Board of Education voted to close 50 schools and programs.
GEORGETOWN, Ill. (AP) - City leaders in Georgetown have agreed to sell to a half-million gallons of water a day to Sunrise Coal for their proposed mine near Homer, 20 miles southeast of Champaign. Village leaders in Homer said earlier this year they would sell 20,000 gallons of treated water a day but declined to sell the larger amounts the mine says it needs.
EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. (AP) - DNA evidence has led authorities in East St. Louis to free a man arrested in a rape investigation and charge another man. Marlon Miller spent about four months in jail for the January attack on a woman getting off a commuter train. Prosecutors say the DNA evidence points to another man, Dominic Hood, who has pleaded not guilty.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
