A Cook County judge on Monday denied the Chicago Police Department’s request to toss out a lawsuit seeking records showing how police have used secret cellular tracking systems.

Last year, the department responded to a Freedom of Information lawsuit by disclosing the city spent more than $340,000 between 2005 and 2010 on cell-site simulators, as well as software upgrades and training. The department also provided records showing an outside law firm billed the city more than $120,000 to battle the lawsuit. But the city balked at providing records describing how they’re used.

On Monday, Judge Kathleen Kennedy said she will review the requested records involving the surveillance devices made by Florida-based Harris Corp. under the brand names StingRay, KingFish and Superdog. Kennedy said she will then decide if any of the records should be withheld.

The cash-strapped city of Chicago paid $74.7 million in fees last year to banks, law firms and other businesses that helped it borrow money — a record tab that will rise as more fees get tallied and one that comes as the city pays higher costs to dig itself out of its deep financial hole.

Altogether, City Hall borrowed $4.6 billion through the municipal bond market in 2015, with firms that worked on those deals netting $28.3 million in fees, a Chicago Sun-Times examination of city records found. On top of that, City Hall paid $46.4 million in other borrowing-related fees through the first three quarters of the year; fees for the fourth quarter have yet to be disclosed.

Most of the firms that help the city with borrowing and other financial transactions have long done business at City Hall. Some also have been political supporters of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, whose plan to fix the city’s finances relies in part on ending costly and risky financial deals from the past.

Americans are heading South and West again in search of jobs and more affordable housing, as the nation’s economic health continues to improve.

Census population estimates show that the 16 states and the District of Columbia that comprise the South saw an increase of almost 1.4 million people between 2014 and 2015. The 13 states in the West grew by about 866,000 people.

The gains represent the largest annual growth in population of the decade for both regions and signal that the multi-decade migration to the Sun Belt has resumed after being interrupted by the Great Recession of 2007-09 and the economic sluggishness and anxiety that followed.

The driving idea behind Loop Link, the Emanuel administration’s attempt to speedCTA buses through traffic-clogged downtown streets, is to make bus service more like rail service — in a word, faster. In this optimistic spirit, the city refers to Loop Link bus stops as BRT stations, short for Bus Rapid Transit. But three weeks after Loop Link’s late December debut, the “R” in BRT seems more aspiration than fact.

Let me illustrate with a “bus versus man” experiment I conducted during the Friday morning rush.

First, I rode the CTA’s No. 20 bus down Washington Street, a key corridor in the Loop Link network. The trip from Canal Street to Michigan Avenue took 13 minutes and 22 seconds, a rate of 3.6 mph. Then, I walked the same route, moving, I hesitate to add, at an ambling pace rather than top speed. That took 14 minutes and 49 seconds, which works out to 3.25 mph.

Mario and Lynn Olivi normally spend the start of a new year restocking inventory at their Downers Grove specialty store, The Olive Tap.

But instead of refilling the shelves with gourmet oils and vinaigrettes, the Olivis are running a closeout sale. Onerous regulations enforced by DuPage County government and the state’s unfriendly business climate have made it too difficult for The Olive Tap to succeed in Illinois. The Olivis have decided to close their Downers Grove storefront Jan. 31 and move their lives and their business to Colorado.

“There comes a point when the government does so much that you’re afraid to move and go forward,” said Mario Olivi, 61. “So we’re going to use 2016 as a transition year. Instead of being angry, I’m just looking at other states and locations and making plans to move.”

Don’t look just at the trees as you read the articles grading Bruce Rauner on this first inauguration anniversary — whether his specific and tangible changes were enough given the legislature he had. That’s important, but there’s more.

See the forest. Consider the entirely of what changed since he arrived.

But for Rauner, the state would be continuing in the same direction as Chicago — foot firmly on the gas as the cliff approaches. It’s an entirely new paradigm in Springfield. Once forbidden topics are now debated. Major directional change finally is at least on the table. Most importantly, a redirected and reinvigorated Republican party is setting a course for restoration of a two-party state. Before Rauner, nobody was around with the combination of guts, energy, vision, brains and cash needed to challenge the state’s political establishment.

Three-hundred sixty-five days into his first term as governor, Republican Bruce Rauner has yet to sign a state budget, is in a political standoff with House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) and is battling with the state government’s largest labor union, whose members are working without a contract.

But despite those problems, Rauner says the ideas in his controversial — and, to date, politically paralyzing — “turnaround agenda” are resonating not only with his Republican counterparts, but also with Chicago Democrats, including Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

“Many members of the General Assembly, in private, along with the mayor of Chicago, in private, agree that much of our agenda makes sense,” Rauner told the Chicago Sun-Times Monday, the day before the first anniversary of his taking his oath of office.