Stateline.org IL News

WASHINGTON -- The Great Lakes Compact, a politically painstaking effort to protect lake water from being diverted to distant regions, will be ratified by Congress this year or next, its supporters predicted Wednesday.

Thousands of people will pour into the Quad-City area this weekend, but those using the Interstate 80 bridge that connects LeClaire, Iowa, to Rapids City, Ill., will find the going slower as the bridge is down to one lane each way for an indefinite period.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama released his first Spanish ad in Florida Wednesday with a radio spot that hit markets in the south and central parts of the state.

The time prisoners spend on death row has nearly doubled during the past two decades. Legal experts predict it will rise further as states review execution procedures and prisoners pursue lengthy appeals.

The number of AMBER Alerts, public announcements of a child's abduction, is falling as police use them only for kids in the most danger.

The federal minimum wage increases by 70 cents on Thursday to $6.55 an hour. About one quarter of the people who work for a minimum wage are teenagers, but most are adults like 63-year-old Shirley Golliday.

WASHINGTON -- The House passed legislation that would steer $8 billion to highway projects next year, in a prelude to a broader debate over how much to invest in roads, bridges and other transportation infrastructure.

The House yesterday easily approved legislation that seeks to slow the steepest slide in house prices in a generation, rescue hundreds of thousands of homeowners at risk of foreclosure and reassure global markets that mortgage-finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will not be allowed to fail.

The stumbling U.S. economy is forcing states to slash spending and cut jobs in order to close a projected $40 billion shortfall in the current fiscal year.

WASHINGTON -- A sprawling bill that reaches deep into the U.S. housing industry is close to becoming law, in what will likely stand as the federal government's most expansive effort to stabilize the mortgage and financial markets.