Thanks to a roaring stock market, Illinois and its taxpayers aren’t quite as deeply in a pension hole as they were. But with gross unfunded pension IOUs still running at nearly a quarter of a trillion dollars—just for the state alone—the Land of Lincoln continues to drown in red ink.

That’s the bottom line of the latest annual look at the conditions of the government retirement systems in the 50 states by Moody’s Investors Service.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the legislators who passed a massive gambling-expansion bill this summer are hoping their move will produce a gusher of new revenue that will ease the state’s financial problems.

But a recent state report shows that, while video-gambling revenue continues to increase at a brisk pace, other gambling options are struggling.

The Chicago Teachers Union is calling a letter from the chief contract negotiator for the school district in which he pressures them to make a deal by Sept. 27 a “noxious combination of self-serving rhetoric and misleading half-truths.”

It’s the latest sign that tensions between the two sides are ramping up as the date of a possible teachers strike approaches. Next week, union members are set to vote on authorizing a strike. If that passes, the union leadership will then set a strike date.

The Chicago Police Department will soon join forces with the video doorbell company Ring — potentially giving cops access to thousands of cameras fixed to residents’ front doors around the city.

Police have “no hesitation” to partner with Ring and will announce a pilot program soon, a Chicago police spokesman says.

Chicago would declare the sale of legal weed off limits in the Central Business District under rigid zoning rules proposed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot that a downtown alderman hopes to relax.

Samir Mayekar, deputy mayor for economic and neighborhood development, said that an “exclusion zone” is justified “given the high density of business and tourists” in the Central Business District.

The chief sponsor of an ordinance to bring Chicago’s minimum wage up to $15 by 2021 is floating a potential compromise for small businesses and nonprofits, as well as a less aggressive rate for tipped wages.

It’s a concession that might make Ald. Sophia King’s push to accelerate Chicago’s path to a $15-an-hour wage standard more palatable to the business forces arrayed against the plan.

After having voted to reduce McHenry County’s property tax levy by about $18 million over the past two fiscal years, the County Board was issued a challenge Tuesday by Chairman Jack Franks.

Instead of issuing tax abatements, Franks recommended establishing permanent tax cuts this budget year.

DuPage County Board Chairman Dan Cronin says he can’t support a “dramatic” budget increase for the clerk’s office, despite calls from seven League of Women Voters chapters to provide additional election funding.

Cronin next week is scheduled to present his proposed county budget for the 2020 fiscal year, which begins Dec. 1. As part of his proposal, he will recommend how much money Clerk Jean Kaczmarek should get for her office.

Since East St. Louis was freed of oversight from the Illinois Financial Authority in 2013, the city has fallen nearly $2.3 million short in mandated payments to the fund that supports firefighters and their families in retirement, according to an audit.

The East St. Louis Fire Pension Board on Monday voted unanimously to recover those contributions from the city through an “intercept procedure,” in which it would petition Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza’s office to seize state payments to the city and deposit them directly to the pension funds.