Note: The links today are by no means comprehensive. But, I wanted to be sure to provide some assistance in getting everyone’s morning off on the right foot. Even if it means dropping a few points on my LSAT score, I’m here to serve my faithful Cap Fax Blog reading friends. :-) - Paul

* Miller: Judge dimisses Blago lawsuit, derides atmosphere

Even when a judge asks Gov. Rod Blagojevich to sit down and negotiate in good faith, he can’t bring himself to do it.

As you by now may know, Sangamon County Circuit Judge Patrick Kelley dismissed Blagojevich’s lawsuit against the House Clerk last Thursday….

Also, the Senate met last week and didn’t enter any of the governor’s veto messages into its own journal. The governor’s claim that he is simply attempting to uphold his Constitutional right to a speedy hearing on his vetoes would have been strengthened if he had added the Senate to his lawsuit after Monday’s Senate session.

Instead, by failing to include the Senate, the governor’s case was exposed for what it really was: a bogus judicial extension of his intense political fight with the House Speaker.

* Statehouse Insider: On Blago lawsuit mess

There’s still one more of Blagojevich’s lawsuits pending. This is the one in which Blagojevich wants the courts to say he gets to set both the date and time of special sessions. Madigan thinks otherwise, which is what got him sued by the governor.

Last week, House Minority Leader TOM CROSS, R-Oswego, quietly filed papers to get involved in the lawsuit as an ally of Madigan. Cross argued that any decision made affecting Madigan also affects the Republicans…

Cross is being represented by former Republican Rep. JOHN COUNTRYMAN. Cross spokesman DAVID DRING said Countryman is doing the work for free. Dring added that Cross wants to see Madigan win so that when Republicans win control of the House and Cross is elected speaker, he will not have to face similar questions about special sessions.

* Bernie Schoenburg: Becky Carroll, Poshard, Topinka

* Jones may back tax hike to fund CTA

* Gambling’s future brighter in IL

Supporters hope careful negotiations produce an expansion plan that can pick up enough votes to pass after years of false starts.

“There is a gaming bill that can be crafted that can be passed,” said Rep. Lou Lang (D-Skokie). “There’s a lot of questions to be asked.”

Talk of expanding gambling has become as inevitable as death and taxes at the Illinois statehouse. But in the past, gambling measures usually died because they got so loaded up with goodies that legislators backed away.

This year could be different, though, because circumstances behind the gambling push are different.

It’s being offered as the answer to two specific problems - repairing roads and bridges and bailing out Chicago’s aging mass transit system- instead of as a source of money for state programs in general.

The deadly collapse of a Minneapolis bridge has driven home the need for Illinois to repair its transportation infrastructure, and the financial problems with Chicago’s mass transit are scaring the area’s lawmakers.

* Editorial: Time to consider a capital plan, casinos and all

We are lukewarm on the expansion of gambling in Illinois and suspicious of rosy revenue projections for three proposed casinos, but the need for local capital projects that are part of this deal make it tempting to support.

Mostly we just want to scream: Do something! If not this, what?

The state hasn’t had a capital plan since Gov. Rod Blagojevich took office. How long can the state’s roads, bridges and school buildings be ignored?

The Senate unanimously passed a six-year, $25.4 billion capital plan last week that includes such local public works projects including road improvements and money for the MetroCentre and the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford’s rural health initiative.

* Casino poised to expand if state allows it

* A look at the state’s gambling for construction package

* Editorial: Compromise and OK the capital proposal