The newest data from the Census Bureau is like an MRI of the local economy: The figures show, in sharp relief, just how delicate Chicago’s condition truly is.

Like New York and Los Angeles, the Chicago area is losing population, albeit slightly. We are, however, shrinking faster than those metro regions, according to an analysis of the latest numbers by Crain’s senior reporter John Pletz.

Aiming to address a disparity in what Illinois residents pay for the water they use for drinking, cooking and bathing, proposed legislation in Springfield would require a comprehensive review of water rates throughout northeastern Illinois. The review would initially focus on how rates are set in communities that use water from Lake Michigan, but eventually include an analysis of rates throughout the entire state.

The goal of the legislation, proponents said, is to make water rates across Illinois more affordable and equitable. Several sponsors of the legislation in the Illinois House and Senate represent communities in the suburbs south and west of Chicago where residents pay some of the highest rates in the state.

Since March 2014, 20 state-licensed skilled-care nursing homes have closed for financial reasons, while many of those continuing to serve the state’s neediest elderly populations face staffing shortages and operating deficits caused by diminishing state government investment.

Nursing home advocates warn that the industry is already in crisis, and a continuance of this trend could mean an unavailability of care for Illinois’ aging population within a decade.

A bribes-for-jobs scheme allegedly being run out of Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown’s office will be at the center this week of a federal trial involving one of Brown’s top former aides.

But when Beena Patel faces a jury Tuesday at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse on charges that she lied to a grand jury investigating the pay-to-play allegations, one figure will be noticeably absent from the proceedings:

Brown herself.

The Chicago Teachers Union and the Service Employees International Union of Illinois lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in their effort to crown Toni Preckwinkle mayor, but both say they’re proud to have successfully supported a left-wing swing in the City Council.

And in their first major foray into Chicago politics, the Illinois Network of Charter School’s political fund saw six supported candidates win in the runoffs — for a total of 10 of their 13 endorsed aldermanic candidates having won during the February and April elections.