Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s personal email accounts have served as a private avenue of influence where executives and investors sought favorable action from City Hall, raising questions about whether some of the messages crossed the line into lobbying and violated the city’s ethics law, the Chicago Tribune has found.

Usually, such requests don’t become public. But late last year, pressure from open records lawsuits resulted in Emanuel releasing a trove of emails in which he conducted public business on personal email. The messages offer a rare look at how the mayor operates out of the public spotlight and reveal who has his ear.

Comptroller Susana Mendoza might have surprised a few luncheon guests on Monday when she suggested she wanted to praise Gov. Bruce Rauner.

“I did ask my staff to put together a thorough list of [Rauner’s] accomplishments over the last few years so I could read them to you here today,” she told a receptive audience at a City Club of Chicago luncheon.

State Sen. Daniel Biss kicked off his run for governor on Monday, taking shots at two of the most unpopular politicians in Illinois — Republican Bruce Rauner and Democratic House Speaker Mike Madigan.

The Evanston Democrat is entering an increasingly crowded primary field, but he is the first of his party’s major candidates to go after the powerful Southwest Democrat.

The Illinois Supreme Court will not immediately decide whether state employees can continue to be paid without a state budget in place.

The court on Monday denied a request by Attorney General Lisa Madigan to directly take up the case and bypass taking it to a state appeals court first.

With an unfunded Illinois Teachers’ Retirement System liability estimated at $71.4 billion, taxpayers might think school boards across the state are reining in contributing salary costs.

Someone’s lost or forgotten treasures could soon be yours.

The Illinois State Treasurer’s Office is auctioning off $32,000 in unclaimed property.

Chicago motorists will get a longer grace period before getting hit with a $100 red light camera ticket, following a new city-commissioned study about the controversial program.

Monday’s report by the Northwestern University Transportation Center recommended that Chicago extend the “enforcement threshold” when cars are given tickets from 0.1 seconds to 0.3 seconds after the light turns red. A city Transportation Department spokesman said that the longer grace period, which will go into effect immediately, will cut the number of tickets issued by about 29 percent and result in an expected revenue loss of $17 million this year.

City Council is expected to vote March 29 on an amendment to the city’s noise ordinance that would restrict some street performers from major stretches of two downtown streets.

If passed, the ordinance would prohibit street performers that can be heard from 20 feet or more from performing on sections of Michigan Avenue and State Street.

There’s a lot to like about Chicago’s snazzy 606, the 2.7-mile greenway that slices through the Northwest Side, built on what used to be an elevated freight rail line. Runners, cyclists, skateboarders and strolling families wend their way over the Bucktown, Wicker Park, Humboldt Park and Logan Square neighborhoods, passing by hydrangea and tufts of sedge, comfortably aloft over the cacophony and congestion of city streets.

Some of the trail’s neighbors, however, aren’t that enamored with one aspect of the 606: The price of real estate around it has shot up. Longtime residents complain that the trail’s popularity and aesthetic have accelerated gentrification in their neighborhood, which is sending home prices — and property taxes — soaring.

Downtown boosters, business owners and construction workers tonight spoke out in favor of a proposal to transform the former Amerock factory into a four-star hotel and 40,000-square-foot conference center with Alderman Tom McNamara offering a series of changes to the deal in hopes of winning Rockford City Council approval.

The proposal was laid over to give aldermen time to consider the changes and what the project could mean for the city’s economy.

On Monday night, Belleville District 201 officials told the school board they were still negotiating on possible changes to the district’s school bus services.

The district’s current transportation contract is coming to an end, so it has been exploring three options: extending that contract, offering the service itself or hearing proposals from other companies.

Mayor Ann Rodgers said she plans to veto action taken last week by the village board, which voted 4-2 to fire her governmental affairs consultant and TIF administrator, Ray Coleman.

But Village Clerk Rickie Thomas said there is nothing about it on Tuesday night’s meeting agenda.