Illinois

A few times a week, Joseph Dole stands in a back corner of the outdoor recreation area at Tamms Correctional Center, straining to catch a ray of sunlight. "About four feet gets sun," said the rail-thin Dole, who is serving a life sentence for murder. "You can only get it if they call yard between 11 and 1. I just stand there. You feel warm, you feel refreshed." Another murderer, Adolfo Rosario, said he hadn't shaken anyone's hand since his transfer to Tamms 11 years ago.

The woman leans back in the chair, her head flopping from side to side, her bloodshot eyes rolling back. High on heroin and cocaine, she struggles to keep her eyes open. There are lesions on her face, scars of hepatitis B. In a serrated voice, she tells the social workers she is ready to leave the street. "I'm tired. I'm just so tired and scared," says the woman, 26. "I know the next car I jump in may be the last."

Although Erla Feinberg's final act might have disappointed most of her grandchildren, it carried out her late husband's dying wish in a way that held up in court. In a unanimous decision, the Illinois Supreme Court this week ruled that Max Feinberg and his wife could legally disinherit any grandchildren who married outside the Jewish faith as long as the method of doing so did not encourage divorce. "Although those plans might be offensive to individual family members or to outside observers, Max and Erla were free to distribute their bounty as they saw fit and to favor grandchildren of whose life choices they approved," Justice Rita Garman wrote.

Former Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich, his brother and a former top fundraiser were among six men indicted Thursday on political corruption charges, the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago announced. The sweeping indictment comes four months after Blagojevich was arrested and charged with engaging in pay-to-play politics in a major federal complaint that accused the Democrat of trading state jobs, contracts and regulatory favors for campaign contributions.

A popular toy maker is refusing to pull a lead-tainted doll from store shelves across Illinois, challenging a state law governing lead content in toys, the state says. Ty Inc., best known for its Beanie Babies, says federal law takes precedence over the Illinois statute. The state is considering suing Ty, based in suburban Chicago, to force it to comply.

The trial of political fundraiser Antoin Rezko has been delayed one week to give his attorneys more time to prepare. Rezko has raised thousands of dollars for Sen. Barack Obama and Gov. Rod Blagojevich. He was jailed Monday after U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve determined that he might flee to avoid trial. Rezko is accused of shaking down companies seeking state business. Neither Obama, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, nor Blagojevich has been accused of any wrongdoing.

The hottest political souvenir in the childhood hometown of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is a small green "Rodham Corner" sign hanging at Wisner and Elm streets, just a few doors from the two-story brick house where she spent her youth. The sign has been stolen so many times that last year city workers bolted it 30 feet up a wooden light pole, said Mayor Howard P. Frimark. "It's been nonstop political talk here ever since Hillary announced her candidacy," Frimark said Tuesday afternoon.

Sears Holdings Corp. will install safety brackets on its stoves in millions of households or offer gift cards in settling an Illinois class-action lawsuit over the appliances' supposed propensity to topple. Under an agreement signed off on last month by a Madison County judge, Hoffman Estates, Ill.-based Sears will offer to fix all brands of its free-standing or slide-in kitchen ranges in as many as 3.9 million homes by bolting them to a wall or floor.

Starting even before Barack Obama graduated from law school, his career as a lawyer and politician was nurtured by a Chicago businessman named Tony Rezko. Now Obama avoids discussing Rezko, and his former backer isn't in a position to speak publicly. The once-dapper businessman appeared in federal court the other day, unshaven, wearing an orange jumpsuit and leg irons.

. -- When the first thief drove off with nearly a ton of rock salt last month, pilfered from a road de-icing firm's supply stored behind a strip mall, local police officers in this affluent Chicago northwestern suburb were flabbergasted. "It was so strange," said Buffalo Grove Police Commander Steve Husak. "Salt?" Then, as winter storms continued to bombard the Midwest with snow and sleet, there were reports of a second salt heist.