For Carolyn Parrish, a privacy professional based in Evanston, data privacy is just as important in her personal, everyday life, as is it to keeping her business running.

Michael Madigan was re-elected speaker of the Illinois House for the 17th time Wednesday as the 100 Illinois General Assembly got under way. Madigan's election came despite a Republican Party campaign to pressure Democrats into dropping him. The Chicago Democrat used the occasion to call for a focus on economic growth.

The 100th Illinois General Assembly is being sworn in on Wednesday, taking over efforts to resolve the state's 18-month-old financial crisis. The key players in the battle over the state's budget stalemate remain the same: the conservative businessman-turned-governor Bruce Rauner and Michael Madigan, the old-school Democratic House speaker whose decades at the helm has made him a Capitol institution.