WBEZ 91.5 Chicago

Trying to land a Chicago casino has become an annual sticking point for those who want to expand gambling in Illinois. But Gov. Pat Quinn has axed two gambling bills and invoked images of infiltrating "mobsters."

If she is confirmed as Commerce Secretary, Chicago billionaire Penny Pritzker would be far from the first Obama pal from the Windy City.

An Orthodox Jewish school has lost a legal battle with the City of Evanston over their bid to open a new facility there. The group filed the lawsuit six years ago claiming religious discrimination, but Evanston aldermen said it came down to a declining property tax base.

Both men became free agents in their respective sports recently, both making news, but that's about where the similarity in their situations begin and end.

The Illinois House of Representatives took a major vote Thursday afternoon on pension reform.

Commerce nominee Penny Pritzker, a businesswoman, philanthropist and Hyatt hotel heiress, is Obama's final pick to fill vacancies among Cabinet secretaries in his second term. The Commerce post has been vacant since last summer.

An Illinois House committee approved a measure Wednesday that would change how the state pays for its severely underfunded pension systems. But the bill could face a harder vote in the state Senate.