Chicago Transit Authority officials have approved a capital plan that includes $75 million in funding for an extension of major train line.

It’s the next step in the $2.3 billion expansion of the Red Line. City officials want to expand the line that includes stops in Chinatown and the home of the White Sox from 95th Street to 130th Street, including four new rail stations.

Hashing out the new contract between Chicago Public Schools and its teachers took 22 months and more than $1 million, with Chicago’s taxpayers directly paying at least $880,000 just in legal costs, a Sun-Times analysis shows.

The bulk of the money, about $745,000, has been billed by the Franczek Radelet law firm, longtime lead negotiators for the school system, through Oct. 31. Another $135,000 was paid to the Jackson Lewis firm, longtime associates of CPS CEO Forrest Claypool; that firm was added to the talks by Claypool after he took the helm of CPS in mid-2015.

As part of its struggle to regain fiscal health, the pension fund for public school teachers in Chicago has slapped at least $1.8 million in fines on several city charter schools for late payments that in some cases date back years.

Though privately run, charters receive taxpayer money and are considered part of the Chicago Public School system. As such, charter employees with teaching certificates are members of the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund and are required by law, like other CPS teachers, to contribute a portion of their salaries to fund future retirement benefits.

A mammoth plan to save nuclear power plants in Illinois, derided as a corporate bailout by consumer advocates but hailed as a leap forward in energy-efficiency by environmentalists, faces an uphill climb this week in the final days of the General Assembly’s fall session.

What began as a means of rewarding Exelon Corp. for generating “clean” nuclear energy and of keeping open unprofitable plants in Clinton and the Quad Cities has evolved into a far-reaching, if contentious, revamp of state energy policy.

Maybe there needs to be a GoFundMe drive for St. Clair County Chairman Mark Kern. Apparently his fortune is gone and he needs some help.

One arrives at that obvious conclusion after finding he requires public health benefits as well as a public pension.

St. Clair County Board members, including Kern, cost taxpayers $510,494.69 last year for their Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund and health insurance benefits. There were 27 of them expecting taxpayer contributions to their retirement and 26 expecting taxpayers to fund their health insurance in addition to their salary of $15,267 per member.

The situation for women housed at the Logan Correctional Center in downstate Lincoln has become “untenable,” according to a new study funded by the Department of Justice that found overcrowded conditions, problems with handling mentally ill inmates and the overuse of harsh punishments.

The problems, according to the study, are rooted in part in a 2013 decision by the Illinois Department of Corrections to consolidate the populations of its two largest women’s prisons at Logan, an aging facility that had been used to house about 1,500 men. IDOC now houses about 2,000 women there, according to the review, including hundreds of inmates with mental health problems.

Last year, the Emanuel administration slipped through a tax on streaming video and cloud computing. Now, again without public hearings, City Hall is targeting bars and restaurants with a surcharge on satellite TV feeds.

Earlier this month, the city served notice that its 9 percent amusement tax applies to businesses that subscribe to satellite TV services. The impact likely will be felt most by public spaces that buy premium subscriptions for NFL and college games that can easily run $5,000 to $10,000 a year, meaning their annual taxes would come to at least $450.