Get the latest news from around Illinois.
News-Gazette: Anyone care about costs?
Who would have thought that ignorance would be just another arrow in a politician’s quiver?
In a state as financially debased as Illinois, taxpayers might think that legislators would be especially careful when it comes to how they spend money.
After all, they’ve misspent so much money for so long that they’ve had ample time to learn from their mistakes. With more than $12 billion in unpaid bills, $130 billion in underfunded public pension system and many millions more in deficits resulting from going nearly two years without a budget, Illinois is not in the position of spending without carefully thinking.
Chicago Tribune: Supporters taking another crack at automatic voter registration after Rauner veto
Supporters of automatic voter registration are again pushing to bring the practice to Illinois after Gov. Bruce Rauner vetoed a bill last year citing concerns about voting fraud and conflicts with federal law.
An updated proposal cleared an initial hurdle Wednesday. Sponsoring Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, said he incorporated changes aimed at winning the governor’s support.
Chicago Tribune: Emanuel and Rauner: Is revenge blocking a good deal on the Thompson Center?
We feel sorry for the James R. Thompson Center — bottom-heavy, aging quickly and competing with the specter of something younger and more desirable. The building has outlived its usefulness. It’s inefficient. It’s noisy. It’s in need of more than $300 million in updates and repairs. Even a money-grubbing plastic surgeon would advise against a makeover.
Gov. Bruce Rauner two years ago called for selling the Thompson Center and relocating state employees to other, underused state properties. A sale at the coveted Loop location could raise $220 million for state coffers, Rauner’s office says, and save money going forward on the atrium-style, 1980s shopping mall.
Chicago Sun-Times: Rahm Emanuel postpones briefings on CPS rescue
Itching for an answer, Chicago aldermen will have to wait a bit longer to find out how Mayor Rahm Emanuel plans to prevent the nearly bankrupt Chicago Public Schools from closing their doors three weeks early.
A series of closed-door aldermanic briefings scheduled to be held on Thursday to outline the financial rescue that could jeopardize Chicago’s own shaky finances have been put off until Tuesday.
Chicago Tribune: Pritzker gets early union backing that Dem rival suggests was at Madigan's behest
Democratic governor candidate J.B. Pritzker picked up more than a dozen private labor union endorsements Wednesday, including the backing of the politically influential International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150.
The early endorsements could help blunt criticism from other Democrats in the contest that the billionaire entrepreneur and investor is out of touch with the concerns of average working families. The backing also could help build support for a larger endorsement by the state AFL-CIO.
Chicago Tribune: Director of Illinois DCFS may leave amid ethics probe
George Sheldon boasted a can-do resume when he took the helm of Illinois’ scandal-ridden child welfare agency in 2015 and proposed sweeping reforms.
Two years later, the director of Illinois’ Department of Children and Family Services is the subject of an inspector general’s ethics probe and tangled in allegations that a top Cook County aide misused her authority.
State Journal-Register: Corrections director: Don’t know why files were moved
Illinois’ prisons acting director said Wednesday he didn’t know why another state agency moved paper files out of an unused prison building where they had been stored and into warehouse space in Springfield that will cost the cash-strapped state nearly $2.5 million.
In fact, John Baldwin said he wasn’t even aware unused prison buildings were being used as storage space for other state agencies.
State Journal-Register: Democratic senators criticize Medicaid managed care plan
A group of Democratic senators Wednesday added to the complaints over the Rauner administration’s plan to remake the state’s Medicaid managed care program.
The senators said the changes sought by the administration will hurt health care for the poor and wreak economic havoc on health facilities that provide care for large numbers of Medicaid patients.
Chicago Tribune: Senate vote deals blow to Illinois retirement savings program
A U.S. Senate vote Wednesday will complicate Illinois’ effort to make workplace retirement savings plans available to 1.3 million workers, but state Treasurer Michael Frerichs said the federal action will not stop Illinois from going ahead with its novel Secure Choice program.
Under the Secure Choice plan passed by the Illinois legislature in 2014, companies that employ more than 25 workers and don’t offer 401(k)s or pension plans will be required to make available individual retirement accounts that would be run by the state. Frerichs’ office is in the process of finding an investment manager for the program. The state will phase in the Secure Choice program, with the first group of employers offering retirement savings plans to their employees in 2018, he said.
Chicago Tribune: Obamas unveil design of presidential center in Chicago
Barack and Michelle Obama on Wednesday offered the first look at the design of the planned Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park — a campus of three buildings highlighted by an eye-catching museum, whose height and splaying walls would make a bold architectural statement.
Calling it a “transformational project for this community,” the former president said he and Michelle Obama envisioned a vibrant setting that would be akin to Millennium Park — a destination for those drawn to the presidential center and the park itself. But to achieve this, the plans call for closing Cornell Drive, a major access route used by thousands of commuters a day.
Crain's Chicago Business: Work in a suburban assessors' office? Take cover.
In what’s becoming Cook County’s own rite of spring, homeowners who have received the county’s latest estimate of their homes’ taxable value are inundating assessors’ offices with appeals.
This year, it’s homeowners in suburban townships west and south of Chicago whose turn has come around in the Cook County Assessor’s triennial approach to reassessments. City homeowners got new assessments two years ago, and last year was the northern suburbs’ turn.
Crain's Chicago Business: Aldermen rip North Branch river development plan
Three aldermen who represent the booming neighborhoods just north and west of downtown are threatening to throw a monkey wrench into the city’s plan to redevelop the North Branch industrial district.
In a sharply worded letter, Aldermen Brian Hopkins, 2nd, Scott Waguespack, 32nd, and Michele Smith, 43rd, demanded that the city add more open recreational space to its proposed framework for the area before taking it to the Chicago Plan Commission on May 15.
Chicago Sun-Times: Commander of Rahm Emanuel’s security detail getting off hot seat
The $162,684-a-year commander of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s security detail at the center of a lawsuit filed by former mayoral bodyguards is getting off the hot seat.
Brian Thompson is retiring after 27 years in the Chicago Police Department and the last 17 on the coveted mayoral security detail.
Chicago Tribune: Niles school board president replaced amid unethical conduct allegations
Beleaguered Niles Township High School District 219 school board member Mark Sproat was replaced as board president during a special meeting Tuesday, where officials also announced that an investigation will be launched to look into accusations of power abuse and unethical conduct by him.
Tuesday’s meeting was called to seat the new school board members, two elected for the first time and one board member who was re-elected.
Decatur Herald & Review: City, Sweeney agreement ends lawsuit, changes termination to retirement
The legal battle between the city of Decatur and former police chief Brad Sweeney has come to an end, more than a year after Sweeney alleged he was wrongfully fired.
The two sides have reached a separation agreement that changes Sweeney’s status from terminated to retired, city officials announced at a news conference Wednesday at the Decatur Civic Center.
State Journal-Register: UIS professors’ strike enters second day
A strike involving professors at the University of Illinois Springfield entered its second day Wednesday.
Kristi Barnwell, a UIS associate history professor and vice president of the union representing the teachers, said the tenured and tenure-track professors were joined by former faculty and students during the rainy, day-long event. The picketing concluded with an afternoon rally outside the UIS Public Affairs Building that drew about 75 people.
Associated Press: Tentative deal averts Illinois nursing home workers strike
A tentative contract agreement has averted a possible strike that was planned by thousands of Illinois nursing home workers.
Representatives of more than 5,000 workers at nursing homes around Chicago and Rockford had planned to strike starting on Thursday, but a statement on behalf of Service Employees International Union Healthcare Illinois says an agreement was reached on a 3-year deal.
Belleville News-Democrat: Thickburger may put ex-con politician into deep fryer
It was supposed to be a cheap lunch at Hardee’s, but for Kelvin Ellis it may become very costly with a side order of cosmic justice.
If you don’t remember Kelvin Ellis, he was the guy who turned East St. Louis City Hall into a whorehouse — literally — as opposed to the figurative sense created by decades of human exploitation and degradation in exchange for a little cash. He was the one who thought his plot to kill a government witness against him had succeeded when shown the woman’s “bloody” photo created by a little FBI ketchup artistry. He bought votes. He didn’t even pay taxes on his taxpayer-funded salary.