Almost halfway through their spring session, lawmakers are off to a choppy, unproductive start. Hope for a broad compromise moving through the Senate seems dimmer than ever with Democrats doubling down on their frustration with Gov. Bruce Rauner. They have been lambasting Rauner’s hand-picked state agency heads for offering no cost-cutting ideas during budget hearings.

If Rauner expects the legislature to do the cutting for him, he’ll be waiting a long time. Not going to happen, especially after Rauner helped stall the compromise resolution that had been moving through the Senate. Rauner and conservative groups said the package didn’t go far enough to protect taxpayers.

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner continues to deny he had a heavy-handed role in derailing the so-called grand bargain to end the state budget impasse, even as Senate Democrats accuse him of pulling GOP votes off of the deal.

Appearing on WBEZ’s Morning Shift on Friday, Rauner said “we should help” senators keep negotiating so they reach his goals of instituting a permanent property tax freeze and changing workers’ compensation rules.

Gov. Bruce Rauner on Friday criticized Mayor Rahm Emanuel for agreeing to use $325,000 in tax increment financing funds to build a batting cage in Humboldt Park — but not to fill the massive budget gap facing Chicago Public Schools.

In an interview on WBEZ Friday morning, Rauner said the plan for the Chicago Park District facility at Division Street and Kedzie Avenue was “lovely” but suggested the mayor should re-evaluate his priorities.

Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration had arranged to pay Leslie Munger, his new deputy governor, in part out of an employee health care account that’s more than $4 billion behind on its bills due to the state’s budget crisis.

But after The Associated Press reported Thursday that half of Munger’s $138,000 salary was scheduled to come from a pool of insurance premiums, a spokeswoman for the governor said an agency had “mistakenly” designated the wrong fund and that Munger’s pay would come from elsewhere.

Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan is again pushing to make the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum a separate state agency.

Madigan, D-Chicago, has filed legislation to separate the facility from the state Historic Preservation Agency. The legislation is part of House Bill 136.

A bill prohibiting employers from screening job applicants based on wage or salary history advanced out of the Senate’s Labor Committee this week.

Sen. Daniel Biss, who filed Senate Bill 981 in February, touted it as a means to narrow the gender wage gap in the state.

A wider range of crimes will be eligible for probation, rather than prison terms, and “trauma centers” might be built within state prisons under legislation that Gov. Bruce Rauner signed Friday.

“This will help keep our community safer, help victims of crime recover, and help those who committed a crime get the rehabilitation they need,” Rauner said during a morning news conference in downtown Chicago. “Prison should not just be about punishment [and] locking people away. It needs to be about preventing the individual offender from committing crimes again.”

The president of the union representing thousands of rank-and-file Chicago police officers faces a runoff in his bid for re-election after failing to garner more than 50 percent of the vote in a race with five challengers.

Dean Angelo Sr., president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7, finished first with 34.8 percent but must now go head-to-head with runner-up Kevin Graham, a former FOP trustee who received 24.8 percent. The runoff will be in early April. Both active and retired officers are eligible to vote.

Chicago police Officer Clay T. Walker was accused of punching a 22-year-old woman in the face and pouring a can of Mountain Dew on her while she was handcuffed to a bench inside a police station after being arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol.

That was nearly 14 years ago.

Another top aide to Chicago Public Schools CEO Forrest Claypool is out over failing to move to the city, as required under CPS’ residency rule.

Even before Matt Walter leaves his $140,000-a-year post, CPS has hired a new budget director to replace him — paying him nearly $30,000 a year more than Walter makes.

Two weeks after holding a nearly unanimous strike authorization vote, Chicago teachers within four ASPIRA charter schools announced they have reached a tentative contract agreement with network administration.

“This tentative agreement acknowledges the vital importance of union educators in the quality of education in our schools,” said Marines Martinez, acting president of A Council of Educators (ACE), the Chicago ACTS Local 4343 council representing ASPIRA teachers, in a statement.

A noise reduction commission voted Friday to restart a controversial runway rotation program at O’Hare International Airport — the latest strategy in a perennial struggle to provide volume relief to nearby residents.

A tweaked version of the program, which aims to reduce nighttime airplane noise in the loudest areas, was approved by the O’Hare Noise Compatibility Commission by a 36-10 vote.

Martin Rathgeber was riding his bike to his Logan Square home from his job downtown this week when he encountered a red truck stopped in the bike lane on Kinzie Street, right next to a sign that illustrated the lane was for two wheels, not four.

He said he tapped on the passenger’s window and asked if she knew the car was sitting in the middle of a bike path. She responded apologetically before returning her attention to her phone, he said.

Tearing down older homes or turning two-flats into single-family homes could get more expensive in neighborhoods along the western part of The 606 trail.

Aldermen Proco “Joe” Moreno, 1st, and Roberto Maldonado, 26th, are drafting an ordinance that would increase the demolition fee for residential properties and charge a deconversion fee when multiple-unit buildings are turned into single-family homes within a still-unspecified area.

Chicago’s next significant historic preservation battle likely will be fought over a century-old, eight-bedroom East Lakeview mansion that a Serbian cultural organization uses as a museum and conservationists consider a rare surviving example of the neighborhood’s elegant past.

The museum requested a demolition permit for the American Four Square-style mansion at 448 W. Barry Ave. on Jan. 23, members of its board of directors confirmed Friday.

When it comes to short-term rental sites like Airbnb, Des Plaines leaders find themselves in an increasingly familiar position for local authorities: trying to strike a balance between addressing local concerns and not getting sued.

Aldermen discussed a possible home-sharing ordinance at a recent City Council meeting, but officials acknowledged that any law they pass could risk a court challenge.

McHenry County College is the latest Chicago-area community college to be hit with layoffs, which officials said was caused in part by the long-running state budget stalemate.

The college’s board of trustee voted late Thursday to lay off 19 employees, including seven unionized support staff members, three administrators and four counselors. No faculty members were let go.