Progress Illinois

It's official.  By a unanimous vote, the Illinois Senate just removed impeached Gov. Rod Blagojevich from office.  Pat Quinn automatically took over as governor at the time of the vote and will be formally sworn shortly.

UPDATE: The Senate also voted unanimously ...

Gov. Blagojevich just concluded his hour-long statement before the Senate impeachment trial.  We'll have some video soon.  In the meantime, the clip below includes the last few minutes of House impeachment prosecutor David Ellis' closing argument.  He'll be issuing a rebuttal ...

After days and days of talking only to the media, Gov. Rod Blagojevich has finally decided to address the lawmakers who are inching closer to removing him from office.

During the trial proceedings just now, State
Senate President John Cullerton dropped a bombshell: ...

The second day of the Illinois Senate's impeachment trial of Gov. Blagojevich has just begun.  FBI agent Daniel Cain has explained how the agency managed to record the conversations included in the criminal complaint against the governor and is now confirming that the ...

Just moments ago, the Illinois
Senate made history as members convened the impeachment trial of a
sitting governor for the first time.

Considering that Blagojevich has already rested his case, today’s proceedings (PDF)
will likely move swiftly. The prosecution, ...

If you missed Gov. Blagojevich's bizarre press conference in response to the impeachment vote, you can watch it in full here (complete with a squealing baby, a wheelchair, and Lord Alfred Tennyson) or read the transcript.  

Shortly after the governor concluded his ...

Moments, ago the Illinois House voted 114-1 to impeach Gov. Blagojevich.  The lone no vote came from Rep. Milt Patterson (D-Chicago).  Also of note, Rep. Elga Jefferies (D-Chicago) voted "present."

Here's video of Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie's closing statement ...

The full Illinois House is currently debating the impeachment resolution.  If you're interested in watching online, CNN has a live feed here and WUIS has live audio.  We'll have more on the proceedings later today...

While Roland Burris' testimony before the House impeachment commitee today was largely uneventful, there were a few questionable moments.  The first came early on when Burris asserted that he had not read the criminal complaint filed against Gov. Blagojevich.  That Burris -- ...

Following Burris' testimony this afternoon (more on that later), the 21 members of the House special investigative committee recommended that Gov. Blagojevich be impeached.  From the Tribune:

"This
is a very sad day in the state of Illinois," said Rep. ...