It’s fitting that Mark Janus, the plaintiff behind a highly anticipated U.S. Supreme Court ruling this week, works for Illinois government. The union he sued is particularly influential in politics and policy here — with perilous outcomes for taxpayers.

The 200-page American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31 contract exemplifies how the demands of public employee unions have grown extreme in Illinois government and why Janus got fed up. Overtime costs, seniority rules, a hyperactive grievance process, pay raises and step increases that far outpace the consumer price index, health care plans heavily subsidized by taxpayers, costly pensions and worker protections that keep bad employees on the job have soured the image of public employee unions. They’ve gone too far.

As it prepares to wrap up another term, the U.S. Supreme Court has disposed of its gerrymandering cases, and not in a way reform proponents had hoped.

The high court has repeatedly declined to rule that political gerrymandering is unconstitutional, not just another permissible, although unsavory, practice that goes back to this country’s earliest days.

Cook County homeowners who want to get a jump on their latest property tax bill can now pay online, according to the Cook County treasurer’s office.

The second installment of Cook County property tax bills will be mailed next week, but homeowners curious about how much they’re going to fork over can check online at CookCountyTreasurer.com, according to a news release from the treasurer’s office. The online payments will not require an additional fee when using a bank account, but an additional 2.1 percent fee does apply for anyone paying with a credit card, said Maria Pappas, the Cook County treasurer whose office is tasked with distributing the bills and overseeing tax collection.

Principals at two prominent Chicago high schools were removed from their duties Monday, pending what officials described as ongoing investigations into how the administrators handled sexual abuse allegations.

Sheldon House, the principal of Simeon Career Academy, was removed amid a newly disclosed allegation of sexual abuse lodged against an unnamed school volunteer. District officials said that allegation was discovered during an audit of “systemic issues” in the school’s background check process.

The Chicago Board of Education will vote Wednesday to get rid of a long-standing policy that requires high schools to fail students who are chronically absent.

The already generous existing policy prevents students from moving to the next grade if they are absent without an excuse for 20 percent of the school year. That’s 36 days.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel got the go-ahead Monday to issue $900 million more in bonds to refinance old debt and continue the massive rebuilding of Chicago’s crumbling water and sewer system.

Shortly after taking office, Emanuel doubled water rates over a four-year period – followed by annual increases to match the cost of living – to modernize the water and sewer system, instead of privatizing it.

Print up some new T-shirts: Instead of the “Carbondale bitchers,” this batch needs to read “Carbondale whiners” and should come with a Magic 8-Ball.

The Carbondale trustees for a second time tried and failed to oust Southern Illinois University President Randy Dunn. Their whine was that they weren’t informed that state lawmakers might split up the system if they didn’t end the practice of giving 64 percent of the state money to the Carbondale campus and 36 percent to Edwardsville. Enrollment at the two campuses is nearly identical, with Edwardsville expected to be larger this fall.