* Audit: Double fares might not even help RTA

His audit urged lawmakers to revamp the way mass transit is funded. The Regional Transportation Authority, which oversees the three transit agencies, relies on sales taxes in Cook and the collar counties — a formula that has remained unchanged since 1983.

* Auditor says state should give funds, require reforms for RTA

* Audit: RTA in serious financial trouble

* Audit finds public transportation in financial disaster

* Sun-Times Editorial: Mass transit funding needs new route map

* Chicago area mass transit needs overhaul:

The modern criminal code was just 72 pages when it was written in 1961. Now it would take the Rosetta stone to decipher the code’s more than 1,200 pages. Court appearances sometimes have to be continued to give judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys more time to sort through the often conflicting, redundant and outdated morass of laws.

* Tribune Editorial: Cracking the criminal code

* Republicans slam governor’s prison guard plan

* Federal judge appoints lawyers for fired grand jurors

* State law would force parents to lock up guns

“If they can get behind the wheel of a car and they manage to make poor judgments there I don’t know how you are going to sit there and tell us that we absolutely have to lock up every firearm in our house.”

* Future unclear for teen driver ID signs

* State police again deny FOIA request

* State cuts leave offices empty

* Ex TV News anchor, Joel Daley, changes sides to work as federal courthouse spokesman

* Emmanuel tells D.C. freshman to avoid Stephan Colbert

* Lobbying revenues fail to outpace inflation

“It’s hard to know whether lobbying’s flat growth in 2006 was due to Jack Abramoff giving the industry a bad name or an election year in which Congress didn’t consider much legislation for lobbyists to cash in on,” said Sheila Krumholz, the center’s executive director.

* State wants to know sex offenders’ email address

* Fawell sentence reduced

U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer granted a four-month reduction to Scott Fawell’s 6¨-year sentence for racketeering committed while he served as chief of staff to George Ryan in the Illinois secretary of state’s office.

* City workers nabbed in joint city and federal payoff probe

* Presidential candidate Brownback to speak in Peoria

* Guilty plea in Hired Truck case

* Political donors to also be landlords in Cook Co.

* Early voting only 10 days away

* Subprime woes to claim Schaumburg jobs

* New Lennox mayoral candidates vow clean campaigns

* Friday Beer Blogging: Guiness Edition