Get the latest news from around Illinois.
Chicago Tribune: With CPS strike now over, will a new contract agreement transform classrooms in Chicago schools?
A nurse and a social worker in every school, every day. A way to keep class sizes down. Sixteen percent raises.
The tentative agreement struck Wednesday between the Chicago Teachers Union and Chicago Public Schools has been touted by both sides as a historic measure to improve the lives of the city’s children.
Chicago Tribune: Joseph Berrios’ son-in-law and a fired former Chicago cop emerge as figures in federal probe of state Rep. Luis Arroyo
State Rep. Luis Arroyo’s foray into the shady world of sweepstakes machines is at the center of the federal bribery case alleging he agreed to pay off a state senator in exchange for support on legislation that would benefit the largely unregulated industry.
Now other players linked to the alleged scheme are emerging, including businessman James Weiss, the son-in-law of former Cook County assessor and county Democratic Party boss Joseph Berrios, and an ex-Chicago cop who was fired for consorting with a drug trafficker, the Chicago Tribune has confirmed through state records and a source with knowledge of the probe.
Chicago Sun-Times: Feds’ mole’s disappearing debt
Alexander S. Pissios, president of Chicago’s largest movie studio, had gone bankrupt but was still more than $1 million in debt when federal agents showed up three years ago.
They gave him a choice: He could go to prison for bankruptcy fraud, or he could help bring down one of the city’s top labor bosses, John Coli Sr. of the Teamsters union. Pissios, the head of Cinespace Chicago Film Studio, grabbed the deal.
Crain's Chicago Business: Another federal probe of Exelon: This time, it's the SEC
Exelon disclosed that the agency notified the company on Oct. 22 of an investigation it had opened into Exelon and ComEd’s “lobbying activities,” according to the company’s quarterly filing today with the SEC.
State Journal-Register: Lawmaker proposes penalty enhancements for elected officials convicted of crimes
Amid a backdrop of federal investigative activity and bipartisan calls for ethics reform, a state legislator introduced a bill Thursday that would increase the sentences of state lawmakers convicted of a crime related to their public duties.
Barrington Hills Republican Rep. David McSweeney’s bill joins a handful of others that aim to institute a task force to study potential ethical safeguards, increase the fines associated with lying on government forms and bribery, and give the legislative investigator more autonomy in her inquiries.
Daily Herald: Why pressure on property taxes is growing in Illinois amid pension burden
Across Illinois, in many of the small towns and larger cities that manage some 650 independent police and fire retirement systems, those funds have placed an increasingly tightening vise on municipal finances.
Much of the focus on the pension problem in Illinois has been on the massive liabilities facing the five statewide funds as well as Chicago’s citywide pensions. But in many ways the more pressing pension issues can be found in the towns in every corner of the state.
WBEZ: Zoning Won't Save Manufacturing In Chicago
For decades, zoning has been a tool to protect manufacturing in Chicago. But it can’t reverse decades of deindustrialization and disinvestment on its own.
Northwest Herald: McHenry County committee votes down regional office of education elimination referendum
The McHenry County Public Health and Community Services Committee voted Thursday to reject an advisory referendum asking voters whether the county’s Regional Office of Education should be eliminated.
Committee chairman Chris Christensen said he thinks the ROE could be eliminated but there must be a full evaluation of the office and a plan in place in the event the office is eliminated.