Gov. Pat Quinn may have gotten a chilly reaction to his State of the State speech this week, but the Democrat warmed things up Friday by taking down his spiciest obstacle of the year.

Sen. Mark Kirk might be in a hospital bed recovering from a stroke. But his colleagues in the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives are moving forward with the issues he has championed, from getting tough on Iran to easing visa restrictions for Poland to allowing more public-private partnerships on public transit.

One-thousandth of 1 percent might not seem like a significant amount. But when it comes to paying off the massive budget deficit in Illinois, it could mean everything.

Given the state's financial predicament, lawmakers will need to consider every possible strategy for cutting the state's Medicaid budget this year, says Julie Hamos, director of the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services. Those strategies include shrinking payments to doctors and hospitals, trimming benefits and lowering the number of people eligible for the health care program that now covers 2.7 million poor and disabled Illinoisans.

Gov. Pat Quinn took a shotgun approach to his State of the State address last week, firing a wide blast that hit on topics from jobs to education to mortgages. But he was stingier when it came to details. That left questions about his views on Illinois' condition and where he'd like to take the state.

The federal tax credit that has supported wind energy for almost 20 years is set to expire at the end of 2012.

After scraping by on handyman jobs for a year, Bert Qintana figured he'd have to leave his wife and teenage son at their home near Taos, N.M., and find work elsewhere.

AUGUSTA, Maine — The Medicaid program in Maine is short of money, and conservative Governor Paul LePage has a blunt proposal for solving the problem — drop people from the rolls.