Dana Holland and Christopher Coleman became friends in a downstate prison cell where, through the iron bars and the nearby windows, they could see the Mississippi River and its suggestion of freedom.

There, the two men came to understand the contours of one another’s lives. Holland grasped the depths of Coleman’s depression. Coleman learned to appreciate Holland’s spirituality and his love of gospel music. Holland admired how Coleman played basketball under the basket, even though he was shorter than many of his opponents. Coleman was taken by how much Holland studied his convictions, poring over trial transcripts and other court documents.

Both had been in street gangs. Holland was serving 118 years on two cases, an attempted murder and a sexual assault. Coleman had been convicted of home invasion, sexual assault and armed robbery and was serving 60 years. Neither expected to get out until he was a much older man.

Property taxes in Illinois continue to take a big bite out of the family budget.  That according to a newly released report from the Illinois Policy Institute a Springfield based think tank.

“For a family in Macon County one out of every $25 earned goes directly to property taxes,” Kristina Rasmussen of the Illinois Policy Institute told WAND’s Doug Wolfe.  “For a lot of people they look at their statement they’re paying more in property taxes than they are actually paying towards their principal and interest.”

The report finds Illinois remains second in the nation in property taxes only trailing New Jersey.  Homeowners in Macon County pay an average of $1,907 in property taxes every year.

The allegations read like a movie plot: a lottery industry insider installs undetectable software giving him advance knowledge of winning numbers, then enlists accomplices to play those numbers and collect the jackpots. And they secretly enrich themselves for years — until a misstep exposes them.

Eddie Tipton, former security director of the Multi-State Lottery Association, has been convicted of fraud for fixing one jackpot in Des Moines, but prosecutors say his high-tech scheme extended far beyond Iowa. He’s accused of tampering with lottery drawings in four states over six years, and investigators are expanding their inquiry nationwide.

Investigators have asked states to review jackpots produced by the number-generators Tipton had access to, and whose winning numbers were specifically requested by the ticket buyer. They hope to talk with anyone aware of such payouts being collected by someone other than the person who ends up with the money, said Rob Sand, a state prosecutor in Des Moines who is leading the probe.

Joel Schurtz lived all across the U.S. before coming to Illinois. He took promising job opportunities where he could find them, from California to Alabama. His wife, Michelle, and their three young children would follow.

“Our family always had a plan,” Joel said. “We had three- to five-year goals and a plan. But when we came to Illinois that plan went out the window.”

Before the welcoming committee even arrived at their front door, the Schurtz family’s first property-tax bill arrived in the mail. “We laughed,” Michelle said. “That’s all we could do.”

The Village of Skokie agreed to pay a $875,000 settlement to a Chicago woman who accused a police officer of using excessive force during her arrest on suspicion of driving under the influence.

Court documents show two separate settlements have been reached with Cassandra Feuerstein, according to the Chicago Tribune. Feuerstein filed a lawsuit against the Skokie Police Department after she said former Officer Michael Hart seriously injured her during a drunk driving arrest in March 2013.

Feuerstein, now 48, was arrested for DUI after officers found her pulled over at the side of the road and asleep behind the wheel.

The movement to raise the federal minimum wage has become ever more ambitious. In 2013 proponents deemed $9 an hour acceptable; today the demand is for $15.

Economists point to a crucial question: Will a higher minimum wage reduce the number of jobs for the country’s least skilled workers? President Obama says “there is no solid evidence that a higher minimum wage costs jobs.” On the contrary, a full and fair reading of the evidence shows the opposite. Raising the minimum wage will cost jobs, particularly those held by the least-skilled.

Economists have written scores of papers on the topic dating back 100 years, and the vast majority of these studies point to job losses for the least-skilled. They are based on fundamental economic reasoning—that when you raise the price of something, in this case labor, less of it will be demanded, or in this case hired.