Two state workers who joined Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s lawsuit arguing labor unions shouldn’t be allowed to collect fees from non-members say they’re appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower-court ruling Tuesday that allowed unions to collect the “fair share” fees from workers covered by collective bargaining agreements.

Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner said Tuesday that he’s “very troubled” by health care changes being pushed by the GOP in Congress, saying he’s working with governors in other states in an effort to “take a united stand.”

Rauner’s comments come as a House vote on the Republican plan is scheduled for Thursday. Last week, experts said Illinois would stand to lose at least $40 billion in federal funding over the next decade under the original proposal.

Fed up with a lack of hustle from Chicago State University leaders, Gov. Bruce Rauner’s office is pushing to hand the reins to one of his newly appointed board members — at least temporarily.

The governor’s office wants Paul Vallas, the former CEO of Chicago Public Schools, to assume some sort of crisis management role at the Far South Side university, according to Beth Purvis, Rauner’s education secretary.

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner has unveiled a broad-based cybersecurity plan.

The Republican announced the framework Tuesday. He says cybersecurity is one of the most pressing issues facing the nation and Illinois.

Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration has told 124 Illinois prison nurses that their jobs are being privatized, a move their union blasted Tuesday as retaliation for its rejection of a contract offer last year.

Nurses stationed at 12 state prisons will be dismissed on June 15, two days after the contract nurses are hired, according to a letter obtained by The Associated Press that the prison system’s labor chief sent this week to the Illinois Nurses Association.

Former President Barack Obama received a warm reception from his former colleagues in the state legislature when he delivered a speech on the floor of the Illinois House last year, but he didn’t get the same support there Tuesday when lawmakers declined to designate his birthday as a state holiday.

Under a new proposal, state facilities and schools would close each year on Aug. 4, Obama’s birthday. But opponents said while it might be good to recognize the former president and ex-state lawmaker, people shouldn’t get the day off work. The House measure received 54 votes, six votes short of what it needed to be approved and sent to Obama’s old stomping grounds in the Illinois Senate.

The Chicago Board of Ethics chairman said Tuesday the panel will look into questions raised in a Chicago Tribune report about whether some emails to Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s personal accounts crossed the line into lobbying and violated the city’s ethics law.

At City Hall, aldermen criticized the mayor for allowing what they said amounted to back-channel access to the highest reaches of city government.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel took a “small step” by tripling the “grace period” before slapping motorists who blow through red lights with $100 tickets, but the change does not go nearly far enough, an influential alderman said Tuesday.

Ald. Anthony Beale (9th), chairman of the City Council’s Transportation Committee, was equally unimpressed with Emanuel’s decision to remove red-light cameras from six existing intersections and place them at five new locations where a new study shows red-light cameras would have a greater impact on safety.

Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner on Tuesday expanded the list of Democrats he says are working against him, adding Mayor Rahm Emanuel to the group he contends is trying to create havoc in Illinois.

The accusation comes as Rauner has spent weeks publicly sparring with Comptroller Susana Mendoza and Attorney General Lisa Madigan over how state employees should be paid, if at all, during the historic budget impasse. Rauner contends the Democrats are working in tandem with longtime House Speaker Michael Madigan, the attorney general’s father and the governor’s chief political nemesis.

Chicago Public Schools cut at least $1.8 million from alternative learning programs for dropouts and at-risk children last week, following an audit of attendance numbers at the privately operated schools that the district said turned up inaccuracies.

CPS said the late-year budget cut is unrelated to the district’s unfolding financial crisis, a statement that prompted questions about the timing of the funding reduction from one alternative school official.

A lawsuit filed Tuesday by a Chicago civil rights lawyers group alleges the city is violating state law by destroying 911 recordings too quickly.

The lawsuit by the Chicago Civil Rights Project, which describes itself as a group of lawyers specializing in civil rights and police misconduct, said the city is illegally destroying the records after 30 days unless a specific request is made for their preservation.

The Chicago Cubs were unhappy with the way the city’s plaza ordinance played out last June, in part for how it restricts access to the area for those without tickets on game and concert days.

So it had to be quite satisfying for the club to find that three-quarters of surveyed neighbors felt they should have access to the plaza without a ticket, game or no game.