Gov. Bruce Rauner has not had a public schedule since delivering his budget address last Wednesday.

Traditionally, after the budget address, the governor travels to promote his budget agenda. But not this year.

Greg Baise isn’t one of the brawlers in the 20-month-old state budget scrum between Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, but he’s sure got a dog in the fight.

As the president and chief executive officer of the Illinois Manufacturers Association, Baise is hoping that any compromise budget and economic growth agreement that emerges from the General Assembly in Springfield will address key issues that have caused a significant drop in manufacturing employment in Illinois while surrounding states have made gains.

Members of the Illinois Municipal League said Tuesday they are opposed to Gov. Bruce Rauner’s idea to impose a permanent property tax freeze in Illinois.

At a Statehouse news conference to announce the organization’s legislative agenda for this year, IML officials said that while municipalities account for only a small part of an overall property tax bill, freezing property taxes would hinder their operations.

City governments across Illinois are asking to have their state funding passed along automatically. It’s the latest consequence of Illinois’ 20-month budget stalemate.

The money in question comes from taxes on gasoline, phone bills, and gambling. It’s collected by the state and passed along to local governments — that is, unless the powers that be never agree on a budget.

Illinois Comptroller Susana Menodoza is catching heat for using taxpayer money to purchase a $32,000 used SUV for her department’s fleet.

This weekend, the Illinois Republican Party levied a series of attacks against Mendoza after the Chicago Sun-Times broke the story Friday. Those attacks include an online ad that attempted to link her purchase to a scandal involving former Illinois Comptroller Alexi Giannoulias, who used money from a state college savings program to purchase an SUV.

Building and food service workers fought for a revised contract and won.

Negotiations started back before Christmas, with union workers fighting to help support their families.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s move to start doling out almost $15 million left over from his largely unused property tax rebate program has turned into a political fight with aldermen over his spending priorities and dedication to anti-violence programs, a dispute that could get an airing Wednesday at the full City Council meeting.

Emanuel announced in a series of recent news releases that the city would use chunks of the rebate money to speed up the equipping of police officers with body cameras, rehabilitate vacant homes and create a cybersecurity training program at City Colleges.

A former Chicago developer was sentenced to three years in federal prison Tuesday for fraudulently raising nearly $160 million from Chinese nationals to fund a failed hotel and convention center development near O’Hare International Airport.

“You took advantage of hundreds of other people for your own personal gain,” U.S. District Judge John Lee told Anshoo Sethi at the conclusion of a lengthy hearing that stretched over two days. In addition to the prison term, Lee ordered Sethi to pay $8.8 million in restitution to his victims.

After two teacher strikes were averted at the last minute last fall, a third group of Chicago educators are set to vote on a potential work stoppage later this week.

One hundred teachers in the ASPIRA charter network – made up of three high schools and one middle school serving a predominantly low-income Latino population of nearly 1,500 students – say they will vote on a strike Wednesday night after months of contract negotiations.

On a weekday summer morning — every weekday summer morning, it seems — a young musician plugs in his amp outside our office window and settles in for a long long long long long day of crooning covers. A block or so away, the pickle-bucket drum corps is warming up. From across the street, we can hear the first riffs from the saxophonist whose repertoire seems to consist of five songs, three of which are the “Flintstones” theme song.

So yeah, Ald. Brendan Reilly, we hear you. But barely.

The City Council’s Finance Committee on Tuesday authorized a $370,000 settlement to a former city supervisor who claims he was the innocent victim of a police prostitution sting.

But aldermen argued that the compensation for Hugo Holmes wasn’t nearly enough to offset the damage done to his reputation after his arrest and status as a field service supervisor for the Chicago Department of Transportation was publicized.

A Texas developer plans to build nearly 500 homes on the site of the former Cabrini-Green housing complex, another big step in the city’s long-running push to redevelop the Near North Side property.

The Chicago Housing Authority said its Board of Commissions has picked a team led by El Paso-based Hunt Development Group to develop 480 units of mixed-income housing on a 6.9-acre site at Larrabee Street and Clybourn Avenue. The project will include a 21-story tower, 32,900-square feet of retail space and several connected mid-rise buildings and low-rise townhomes, according to the CHA.

A proposal to turn the dilapidated former Amerock factory into a four-star Hilton Embassy Suites and 40,000-square-foot conference center got no debate during a Planning & Development Committee meeting tonight with aldermen concerned over the incentives and investment the city is being asked to kick into the project.

Alderman Tim Durkee, R-1, as committee chairman, said he held out the agenda item as a courtesy to officials with continuing concerns about the development deal. It will return to a future committee agenda at the request of aldermen or Mayor Larry Morrissey, Durkee said.

With a new contract for teachers settled, the Springfield School Board went ahead and approved slight pay increases for principals, district office and other support staff Tuesday.

The board approved a 0.86 percent increase for principals for steps in longevity and added another lane to their salary schedule.

The Belleville City Council on Tuesday night approved The EDGE’s architectural and site plans for a $3.36 million expansion.

In August, the council approved tax incentives worth up to $201,000 for the project.

The owners of The EDGE, Keith Schell, and his wife, Mary Dahm-Schell, want to construct a new building for an indoor track for electric go-karts, bumper cars and a 4D theater. The EDGE already features five movie theaters, a restaurant, bar, laser tag arena and game room.