Sean Crawford talks with State Journal-Register Business Editor Tim Landis:

Democratic leaders met for the the first time in months. Judging from their diverging responses, you might wonder if they were actually in the same room. Meanwhile AFSCME members rallied after getting bad news from the state labor board.

The state's top political leaders got together in Springfield Wednesday for the second time in as many days. A prime topic of conversation in the closed-door meeting: a new report on just how dire Illinois' budget situation has gotten. Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner and the legislature's top leaders spent part of Wednesday morning talking about the budget mess they helped create. The backlog of bills that the state owes but can't afford to pay now exceeds $10 billion. According to a new report from

Illinois lawmakers will meet in Springfield this week for the first time since the election, but things are already off to a rough start. Gov. Bruce Rauner and his allies made a big public push last week about his wanting to meet with the General Assembly's for top leaders ... including Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan. Mind you, Rauner and his allies spent months making a much bigger public push -- in hundreds of campaign ads -- to paint Madigan as a greedy, corrupt insider. Sunday

If you missed it last month, the state marked an anniversary. 4 years since the launch of video gambling. The machines you see in bars, restaurants, truck stops and other places have permeated the landscape since that time. Springfield leads the state with the most machines, Decatur is also near the top. Overall, Illinois now has more video gambling terminals than Nevada.

If you were a soldier in World War II, a furlough was something to look forward to. It was a sanctioned leave of absence from your normal duties, a chance to relax and go have some fun. In today's economy, the word furlough has lost some of its luster. It still connotes time off, but without pay. Tomorrow, Jeff Brownfield , who represents university civil service employees, will appear before the General Assembly's rules committee to ask lawmakers to approve a measure allowing state schools to