A measure to replace the Illinois treasurer and comptroller with a single official may be revived Thursday morning in the state Senate.

Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan threw everyone a curve Wednesday, me included, when he unexpectedly put his considerable influence behind a move to hold a special election for comptroller in 2016.

I was just coming to grips with the idea that Madigan’s seeming resistance to an election to replace the late Judy Baar Topinka might make some sense.

Then Madigan announced through a spokesman he will support legislation setting out new procedures for filling vacancies in the offices of not only comptroller but also secretary of state, attorney general and treasurer — and expects to win approval.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration has quietly approved a $10.5 million addendum to a digital advertising deal at O’Hare Airport that makes it even more lucrative for a clout-heavy company.

The agreement paves the way for Clear Channel Outdoor to take over management of luggage cart services at O’Hare currently controlled by SmartCarte and to sell advertising on those carts.

“This is a supplement to the five-year master agreement approved by the City Council in 2013,” mayoral spokesman Andres Orellana wrote in an email to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Although multi-millionaire Bruce Rauner will not be accepting a salary in his new post as the state’s new governor, other Illinois lawmakers are compensated relatively well compared to their counterparts in other states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Based on the data, Illinois state legislators had the fifth-highest paycheck among state legislators nationwide in 2014. Scroll through the chart below to see how the state compared in annual base salary and in per-diem rates:

If you’re in your early 20s, and graduated college within the last few years, you’re probably filled with a lot of optimism about your future, looking forward to starting your career, and are generally excited about your new independence. But with this independence comes responsibility, because you’ll also have some decisions to make. Some of the biggest financial questions you’ll have to answer concern paying off student loans and starting to save for all of your life events to come.

The upside to your situation is that you have a college degree, and hopefully a decent job in your field of study. A potential issue, however, could be the fact that you have upwards of $30,000 (or more) worth of student loans you need to pay.

Although these loans financed your education, helping to propel you on your career track, it doesn’t take away from the fact that they are still loans that need to be paid back, and at a time when you may not be making all that much. So how do you approach the question of shedding debt while building investments, when your income may be spread a bit thin?

Much of the growth and demographic shifts in the United States over the last five and a half decades have been echoed on a smaller scale in Illinois. But there is one important exception: Illinois’ population is growing at a slower rate than the country as a whole.

During the 1960 Census, the U.S. population was counted at 179 million people, while 10 million, or nearly 6 percent, of those people called Illinois home. According to 2013 estimates, Illinois is home to 12.9 million people, or only about 4 percent of the total U.S. population of 315 million.

But Illinois is similar to the rest of the country in that it has seen a higher percentage of women than men living here since 1960, according to U.S. Census Bureauinformation. The state has also seen an uptick in the median age of its population as large generations such as the Baby Boomers age, similarly to the whole country, from about 30 years old in 1980 to almost 37 in 2010.

A state task force wants Illinois to create a health insurance exchange for undocumented residents and expand the Medicaid program to cover legal immigrants who aren’t eligible to receive federally funded benefits.

Those were among dozens of recommendations in a report released yesterday by the Alliance for Health, a group of more than 500 health experts and community advocates organized last year by Gov. Pat Quinn’s Office of Health Innovation and Transformation.

Health care in Illinois is in a state of flux as providers adjust to changes spurred by the Affordable Care Act. The report recommends ways for the health system to transform smartly and efficiently in Illinois as well as ways to implement funding for Medicaid reform.

Automatic enrollment for traditional IRAs might soon be a reality in Illinois as Governor Pat Quinn signed legislation enacting the Illinois Secure Choice Savings Program (SCSP) into law on January 4, 2015.  However, the program will not become effective until at least July 2017.  With the success of automatic enrollment in 401(k)s and mentions of a federal auto-IRA program by President Obama, it is not a total surprise that a State was willing to implement such legislation in an attempt to improve the retirement security of Americans.  The baby boomers do not have enough money saved for retirement, Social Security’s future is murky and will not look the same in twenty years as it does today, and employers aren’t offering traditional retirement pensions anymore.  As the responsibility of saving for retirement is shifting onto the individual, new savings vehicles and strategies will be needed in order to assist people with developing their own retirement plan.

While the SCSP was passed by the Illinois General Assembly on Dec. 3, 2014 and signed into law by the Governor, it could still face significant hurdles before it becomes operational.  For instance, the legislation itself mandates the program be implemented within 24-months of when it is signed into law, but states that the lack of adequate funds could delay implementation.  Furthermore, the bill contains language prohibiting implementation if the IRA would not be treated as a tax-qualified arrangement or if the program is determined to be an ERISA employee benefit plan under federal law.  Additionally, there could be potential confusion for employees as the myRA, a similar voluntary federal program, is set to begin in 2015 but with much more limited investment options, no automatic enrollment feature, and with Roth tax treatment.

Illinois lawmakers are reconvening for a special session called by outgoing Gov. Pat Quinn. They’re expected to consider a proposal that would establish a 2016 special election to replace late Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka as well as other constitutional office vacancies that arise in the future.

The legislation was filed Tuesday by Senate President John Cullerton. It’s scheduled to be considered in both the House and Senate on Thursday. Both Cullerton and House Speaker Michael Madigan say they support the legislation.

Quinn says he wants voters to help choose Topinka’s replacement. GOP Gov.-elect Bruce Rauner (ROW’-nur) is able to name a four-year replacement by law after his inauguration Jan. 12. Rauner on Monday announced Lincolnshire businesswoman Leslie Munger will fill the vacancy.