Caterpillar Inc.’s announcement of 670 layoffs comes amid the loss of a quarter of the manufacturing jobs in Peoria and Tazewell counties since 2008.

Chicago’s many bureaucratic barriers to starting a business shield established businesses from competition and keep low-income entrepreneurs from getting ahead.

Illinois lost 3,000 jobs on net in 2015, while other neighboring and Great Lakes manufacturing states all gained tens of thousands of jobs on net for the year.

Enjoy Life Foods plans to move its lone Illinois manufacturing facility and up to 150 jobs to southern Indiana this year.

Part 3 of Illinois’ broken workers’ compensation system: the major components of the 2011 reform

Part 2 of Illinois’ broken workers’ compensation system: the reform law signed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich in 2005, which addressed medical fees and billing, provided benefit increases, and contained anti-fraud provisions.