* Community groups near 2016 Olympic deal: sources

If an agreement is not reached, Communities for an Equitable Olympics, an umbrella group of neighborhood organizations, has threatened to protest during the International Olympic Committee’s visit to Chicago beginning April 2. The IOC evaluation team will be in town to review Chicago’s bid and tour proposed venues, such as the Olympic Stadium in Washington Park and Olympic Village on the former site of Michael Reese Hospital.

If a set-aside deal is worked out, it will be taken up at a City Council Finance Committee meeting set for Friday.

* Fire-damaged casino hopes to open within 90 days

* Empress to pay staffers, encourage volunteering

* Hospira cutting 10 percent of work force

Lake Forest-based Hospira plans to eliminate 10 percent of its work force as part of a cost-cutting restructuring plan.

The reduction of about 1,450 jobs over the next 24 months is expected to save the company between $110 million and $140 million annually.

* Rolling layoffs at Cat mean long lines at unemployment offices

Buildings SS, NN and LL of the East Peoria Caterpillar complex that employs about 2,800 tractor and transmission workers is shut down for the week, which may explain the long lines at local unemployment offices, said Rick Doty, president of United Auto Workers Local 974 in East Peoria.

“Rolling layoffs have been going on since mid-December, but this is one of the first times a complete division has been shut down,” he said.

* Stockton wants to delay city layoffs to consider other options first

* Ill. VA facilities land $79M in stimulus money

* U.S. gives two Chicago-area labs $48 million

* Fermilab and Argonne Receive New Federal Funding

* Fermi to get $34.9 million in fed recovery cash

* Arsenal gets $19.95M from stimulus

* SJ-R Opinion: Take the next step toward high-speed rail

* Federal dollars may help rebuild 80-year-old bridges in Livingston Co.

* Alderman’s push for 2nd Wal-Mart could renew big box fight

Ald. Howard Brookins (21st) said Monday he plans to introduce an amended redevelopment agreement at the April 22 Council meeting that would allow Wal-Mart to build its second Chicago store at a former Chatham industrial site.

“There’s no other way to get this moving. The [Daley] administration is not willing to do it themselves. The only way is to force their hand is by spelling out that Wal-Mart shall be permitted to come,” Brookins said.

* Alderman hospitalized after fall

Ald. Brian Doherty (41st) was hospitalized with a “nasty head wound” on Monday — and the paramedic who treated the “combative” alderman was slightly injured — after Doherty fell down a flight of stairs at his Far Northwest Side home.

Doherty, 51, is the City Council’s lone Republican. He was listed in stable condition in the intensive care unit of Resurrection Hospital. Barring further complications, he is expected to be released Tuesday.

* O’Connor faces write-in Garcia for at-large post

* Parking meters great — if you’re gone in eight

* Fewer Neighborhood Schools Exist in CPS

Throughout the city, many Chicago Public Schools are getting education makeovers. Failing or under-enrolled schools are being closed and new ones opened, sometimes even within the same building. The Chicago Board of Education is scheduled to vote tomorrow on where next fall’s new schools will open up. But the whole process leaves some parents and education activists questioning the correlation between urban planning and school planning.

* State seeks ways to prevent child suicide

* Illinois among top with dating-violence laws