Progress Illinois

Freshman U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock made his first appearance yesterday on NBC's marquee Sunday show Meet The Press.  His performance featured the expected litany of GOP talking points and false claims.  Thankfully, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow was on the panel to keep him in check.

With all the publicity it has generated over the years, it almost seems impossible that officials in Washington still have not approved the "clean coal" plant known as FutureGen. This month, however, the waiting games ends. We check in with some environmental advocates to get their thoughts on the potential project.

The Sargent Shriver National Center On Poverty Law tallies up the votes on key anti-poverty measures taken up by Congress in 2009 and finds that virtually every Republican member of Illinois' congressional delegation flunked the anti-poverty test.

In the United States, hunger is often perceived as a foreign problem, reserved for destitute villages in the developing world. But the national recession has brought into focus the magnitude of food insecurity on our own soil.  And Illinois is no exception.