Let's put aside the politics and trust the people. Let's embrace the unique opportunity we all have take the heat and make the hard and difficult decisions knowing that we're doing it to make things better for the people of Illinois.

Almost 70 percent of U.S. ag exports travel the upper Mississippi River and the Illinois waterway system.

Our party is a diverse one as is my home state of Illinois.

President Obama's fight for rural America is personal. He was raised by a single mom and grandparents from Kansas. He hails from a farming state Illinois.

To my great disappointment it appears that the politics of division are making a big comeback. Many Americans share my disappointment - especially those who were filled with great hope a few years ago when then-Senator Obama announced his candidacy in Springfield Illinois.

In Illinois community migrant homeless and public housing health centers operate 268 primary care sites and serve close to 1 million patients every year.

Many seventh graders I know in Illinois as well as around the Nation are studying the Constitution. I was pretty impressed with the quality of education our children are receiving because they had not expected me to ask them about it.

I grew up in a small town in Illinois and my dad was a basketball coach. Thanks to him I have excellent fundamentals in both basketball and baseball.

I was living on the wrong side of the tracks in Evanston Illinois in a home for boys. We had these Jackson 5 records. I really related to their voices - they were about my age but they were doing it.