Editor's Note: This article was created by aggregating news articles from Illinois Statehouse News that were written by various Illinois Statehouse News reporters.

The scenery on a walk through the neighborhoods surrounding Illinois' Capitol building is filled with signs of a sagging housing market.

As Illinois' housing market continues to struggle, it weighs down the state's economy and exacerbates a high unemployment rate, according to the July 2011 Monthly Briefing report released this week by the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, or COGFA, a bipartisan research arm of the Legislature.

On nearly every block, a house has a "For Sale" sign, weathered and worn from the long period of time it's been in the elements, or a house has deteriorated, because the homeowner, unable to make their mortgage payment, abandoned it.

The number of new, single-family housing permits for June — 680 — saw a 14.9 percent decline, or 120 fewer, compared with June 2010, according to the report. Single-family housing permits have seen minuscule fluctuations during the past three years, but have been stagnant more or less since dropping dramatically after the housing bubble burst in 2008.

A two-front push is being made in Illinois to weaken some of the most restrictive gun regulation laws in the country.

Gun-rights advocates claim that Illinois is violating the Second Amendment by prohibiting Illinois residents from being able to, in some fashion, carry a firearm in public.

Recent events around the nation could give gun-rights advocates the momentum they need to win a fight that's time and again seen them on the losing side. Wisconsin passed a concealed carry law earlier this year, leaving Illinois the only state that prohibits nearly everyone from carrying a firearm, concealed or not, anywhere that is not their property or another person's property with permission.

A hearing on one such case , in which Michael Moore, of Champaign, and the Second Amendment Foundation Inc., a gun-rights advocacy group, are suing Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office and the state of Illinois, is scheduled Thursday in the U.S. District Court in Springfield.

Madigan's office argues in court filings that the state is following constitutional law, because a person isn't outlawed from owning a firearm, just limited in the manner he can wield it.

Keeping businesses in Illinois part of Tuesday's tax focus

An outspoken critic of Illinois' corporate tax increase may not attend a lawmakers hearing on the state's business tax system, but his comment will dominate the debate.

Craig Donohue, CEO of the CME Group, parent company of the Chicago Board of Trade and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, told Reuters news service last week that Illinois' high tax burden is motivating him to relocate his business to possibly Texas, Florida and Tennessee.

"Our tax situation is untenable," said Donohue. "I don't think CME Group is different from other companies" that relocate.

Tuesday's hearing in Rockford is one in a series of gatherings where business groups statewide discuss tax rates, tax fairness, tax incentives and the tax code with lawmakers.

Ill. treasurer looking to feds for protection

Illinois Treasurer Dan Rutherford wants to use the federal government to protect the state's money — from the federal government.

Rutherford's office will have $7 billion in assets available throughout August that could be move into an account protected by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., or FDIC.

The money is in different investments revolving around mainly U.S. Treasury securities that last from 24 hours to a month. The first of that money will be available Tuesday morning.

Rutherford said determinations about moving the money to the temporary account will be made on a daily basis depending on what happens to the federal debt limit in Washington, D.C. A new wave of fiscal conservatives in Congress demanded cuts in spending in exchange for increasing the debt ceiling, throwing a wrench into what has been the pro forma task of raising the limit on how much the federal government can owe.

Regional superintendents: We'll stay without pay for a little longer

Illinois' regional superintendents will stay on the job so schools statewide can open on time, even though they don't know when they will receive their next paycheck.

The state has not paid its 44 regional superintendents since June when the state budget was passed.

Gov. Pat Quinn eliminated $11 million in state funding that was supposed to pay the superintendents' salaries.

The regional superintendents spoke with the Quinn administration Wednesday here to decide whether they will continue to work without pay. The regional superintendent earn about $95,000 annually.

Illinois' productivity is ahead of its neighbors

Illinois' economic growth in a given year may be sluggish, but its overall productivity is well ahead of its neighboring states, according to a quarterly report by the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis.

The report ranks the growth in real gross domestic product, or GDP, among the states. The numbers for 2011 are not in yet, but the 2010 figures tell an interesting tale. The GDP is the sum of all goods and services produced within given borders, in this case, per state.

Indiana saw the biggest growth at 4.6 percent between 2009 and 2010, while Illinois' GDP grew at 1.9 percent.

Illinois pols in both parties vote against debt ceiling deal

Despite the threat of the federal government defaulting on its debt, a handful of Illinois congressmen on both sides of the aisle voted against the plan to raise the national debt ceiling and cut trillions of dollars in spending over the next decade.

Their votes came in spite of wide bipartisan support for the last-minute deal, which passed the U.S. House with a 269-161 vote late Monday night and the U.S. Senate, 74-26, on Tuesday. President Barack Obama signed the legislation into law shortly after it gained approval from the Senate.

Tea party-backed U.S. Reps. Joe Walsh, R-McHenry, and Randy Hultgren, R-Winfield, were two of the 161 votes in the House against the measure that increases the amount the federal government can borrow by $2.1 trillion through 2013.

Both said the legislation doesn't address the country's deficit sufficiently.



