illinois state police trooper douglas balder was with vincent that night. at this hour, trooper balder is battling for his life at loyola university medical center in maywood. we thank him for his ethic of service and we pray for his recovery. please join me in a moment of silence and prayer for vincent petrella and trooper douglas balder. brblth [moment of silence] in illinois we honor our heroes and we're grateful for their service. i'd like to welcome two more illinois heroes, sergeant brent adkins and sergeant benjamin griest of the illinois national guard. shortly after midnight on monday, january 6, they answered the call. multiple semis had jack-knifed and caused a pile-up on i-57 and i-70 near effingham. the drifts were so thick and the snow falling so hard that even our snowplows could not clear the way and more than 400 motorists were stranded in wind chills of thirty below. sergeant adkins and sergeant griest traveled from the national guard armory in mattoon through arctic conditions in the middle of the night with their wrecker in tow -- a mili

trooper douglas balder is suing a prosecutor who drew heavy criticism in the david koschman murder case, has stepped down. an independent investigation concluded, darren o'brien improperly threw out the case against mayor daley's nephew, richard vanecko, after vanecko punched and killed koschman outside a bar on division street. last week, vanecko pled guilty to involuntary manslaughter. o'brien left the state's attorney's office in december, after 20 years there. a key figure in the rod blagojevich scandal is on his way to jail, for a completely separate crime. raghuveer nayak was convicted of bribing doctors to send their patients to his outpatient surgery centers. he got a two-year sentence. nayak was accused, but never charged, with offering to raise cash for governor blagojevich, if he appointed jesse jackson junior to the senate. julia mancuso won a bronze medal in women's super combined slalom. it's the fourth olympic medal of her career. no other u-s female alpine racer has more than two, including lindsey vonn. a concert violinist returned to a concert to violinist returned to