Former Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan, who resigned amid an ongoing federal investigation, just collected his first pension check — the initial payment in what could become one of the richest retirement payouts to any Illinois legislator.

Disgraced former Ald. Danny Solis has gotten nearly $170,000 in retirement pay since he quit the Chicago City Council two years ago after the Chicago Sun-Times revealed he’d been an FBI mole, secretly recording conversations with now-indicted Ald. Edward M. Burke and others at City Hall as part of a widespread investigation into government corruption.

A new report finds that Cook County’s process to return delinquent properties to the tax rolls is largely failing to do so and suggests a bottom-to-top overhaul of the system may be in order.

The analysis by the University of Chicago’s Center on Municipal Finance focuses on the county’s scavenger sale, an auction held every two years, in which private entities may bid to acquire an interest on a property with severely delinquent taxes. Since 2007, more than 50,000 properties have been listed in the scavenger sale, but the analysis finds that ultimately only 7% have returned to normal market conditions.

Would more women run for office if they could use campaign funds to pay for childcare and elder home care?

State Sen. Melinda Bush, D-Grayslake, said that some people who want to run for office don’t have the financial wherewithal to cover child care and elder home care expenses.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the Illinois Predatory Lending Prevention Act late last month, which caps annual interest rates on short-term loans at 36%.

The law, which took immediate effect, impacts payday loans — typically a two-week loan in which the money is taken from the borrower’s next paycheck. It also impacts auto title loans and other short-term lending products.