As the state continues to operate without a budget, a recent study named Illinois as the second worst-run state in the country. Surprisingly, this year’s ranking is an improvement on last year’s, however.

The financial news corporation 24/7 Wall Street released the results of its annual study on the best- and worst-run states last week, and Illinois earned 49th place, ahead of New Mexico. Last year, Illinois fell in last place.

The reason for Illinois’ low ranking is due to the state’s “fiscal management system,” according to 24/7 Wall Street.

Could Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the city have headed-off this police crisis a year ago? That’s when the mayor received a lengthy investigation and recommendations to reform police practices.

Even Wednesday as Emanuel proclaimed Chicago is at a “defining moment,” it was one year ago that a little-known report he commissioned detailed dysfunctional police practices and procedures and how to fix them. The study looked to dismantle Chicago’s infamous code of police silence, but it would appear that very few of the suggestions in that report last year were ever adopted.

Chicago began voting Wednesday on whether to authorize a strike, amid contract talks with the Chicago Public Schools, although a possible walkout is still months away.

The Chicago Teachers Union and the district remained far apart on terms for a new contract, despite more than a year of talks.

State law requires 75 percent of all CTU members to authorize a strike before teachers can walk out.

A woman who bought a home last year in Chicago’s Ravenswood neighborhood believes the city improperly charged her taxes on her purchase of the formerly foreclosed property from Fannie Mae, and she has filed a class action to demand the city pay her back, as well as perhaps thousands of others who have paid real estate transfer taxes to the city for property they, too, purchased from either of the federal mortgage giants.

On Dec. 7, Lelani Fetrow, through attorneys with the firms of DiTommaso Lubin PC, of Oakbrook Terrace, and Kinnally Flaherty Krentz Loran Hodge & Masur, of Aurora, filed suit in Cook County Circuit Court against the city of Chicago, corporately, as well as the city’s Finance Department and Department of Administrative Hearings. The lawsuit also names as defendants Mayor Rahm Emanuel and City Comptroller Daniel Widawsky, and Patricia Jackowiac, director of the Administrative Hearing Department, each in their official capacities.

Fetrow’s lawsuit comes in the wake of an action introduced in Chicago federal court in October by Fannie Mae, or the Federal National Mortgage Association, as it is officially known, which sued the city over the collection of transfer taxes on the sale of properties it held. Fannie Mae was joined in that actin by the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

When the snow falls, Chicago’s plow drivers first have to make sure all the main roads are clear and safe before turning onto side streets. Since highest priority goes to the most heavily trafficked streets, the main snow-plowing paths often follow bus routes usually spaced about a half-mile apart.

Almost every street through the heart of the clout-heavy ward was treated as a main “salt and plow route,” according to last winter’s “snow book,” which compiles route maps the Streets and Sanitation Department hands out to its truck drivers.

Just one in five Chicago Public Schools students can do enough math to get into college, results released Wednesday from the first-ever round of tougher, new tests for measuring college readiness show.

CPS students overall fared somewhat better in reading and writing — one in about four students in grades three through eight and in high school performed at the pace experts say they’ll need for a post-secondary education. Statewide, 37.7 percent of students — or one in three — earned a proficient score on the English Language Arts test and 28.2 percent — or one in four — on math, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.