CARBONDALE - A long-time researcher at Southern Illinois University Carbondale will lead its flagship coal research center on an ongoing basis, after serving as its interim leader since last summer.

SPRINGFIELD (AP) ? Illinois lawmakers are trying to shuffle money to keep child care services from shutting down across the state.

BENTON - Local officials are asking people in the community of Benton to keep their distance from the site of a natural gas leak, which started early Wednesday afternoon.

MURPHYSBORO - The incident where two youths left work detail Tuesday will not have a big impact on the Illinois Youth Center in Murphysboro, an Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice spokesman said.

The South Highway Water District has issued a boil order until further notice for customers on Phillips Road and Craft Lane.

The boil order issued by Lakeside Water District for Playport Marina has been lifted.

The South Highway Water District boil order has been lifted for customers on West Pleasant Hill Road between South Illinois Ave. and Union Hill Road and on Union Hill Road from West Pleasant H…

MURPHYSBORO - Tickets are on sale for the Shawnee Art & Wine Festival at Riverside Park in Murphysboro.

SPRINGFIELD ? A Senate panel endorsed a revamped tax on strip club operators Wednesday, designed to help fund rape crisis centers in Illinois.

ALORTON (AP) ? Four current or former elected officials in a southwestern Illinois village are accused of violating the Illinois Open Meetings Act.

EAST ST. LOUIS (AP) ? A tax preparer in southwestern Illinois has been ordered to spend seven and a half years in federal prison for submitting false returns in exchange for kickbacks from clients.

CARBONDALE? Southern Illinois senior track and field athlete Malaikah Love has been named a Prairie Farms/Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Week.

SPRINGFIELD (AP) ? Illinois is planning to step up efforts to enforce wearing seat belts over the Memorial Day holiday weekend.

ST. LOUIS (AP) ? The St. Louis-based utility company Ameren is urging customers to watch out for a scam aimed at illegally obtaining Social Security numbers.

MURPHYSBORO - Two inmates of the Illinois Youth Center in Murphysboro who escaped from a work detail Tuesday afternoon were arrested about an hour later when a pickup truck that had been in th…

SPRINGFIELD ? Money meant for maintaining state highways could be paying for some of the Illinois Department of Transportation's day-to-day expenses.

The South Highway Water District has issued a boil order until further notice for customers on Boskydell Road from Branson Woods Road west to Furlong Lane.

CHICAGO (AP) ? A groom whose bride had sought to keep their impending wedding secret from most of her family is wanted on a murder charge after his new wife was found stabbed to death in a bat…

Two Southern Illinois school districts will share federal funds with 35 other Illinois school districts to help close performance gaps.

SPRINGFIELD ? A House panel is scheduled to discuss a plan today that could divert more than a billion dollars from local governments to help plug a hole in the state?s underfunded teacher ret…

SPRINGFIELD ? The Illinois Senate unanimously approved legislation Tuesday designed to toughen child sex abuse reporting requirements for university and college workers.

MURPHYSBORO ? The state?s new top doctor made his first visit to Southern Illinois on Tuesday, and he took the opportunity to tout a proposed tax on cigarettes.

CARBONDALE ? The Carbondale City Council on Tuesday gave city staff the go-ahead to apply for more than half a million dollars in grant money for improvements to downtown.

BENTON ? A fan of the Insane Clown Posse filed a lawsuit in federal court last week alleging he was injured at the 2010 Gathering of the Juggalos in rural Hardin County.

HURST ? Friends of Michael Pulliam, the toddler allegedly killed by his mother?s boyfriend last month, hope to remember him with a memorial garden at Hurst City Park, a place where his face wa…