* Purchase tickets here for the December 16th performance of “No-El, Or How the Blagojegrinch Stole Christmas” - Our Capitol Fax holiday party

* Editorial: Casear’s wife

No doubt Mrs. Blagojevich performed work in exchange for her real estate commissions. Personal friendships also may have helped her land business from people with state connections. She grew up in politics, so she obviously has connections of her own.

Still, it’s hard to avoid the suspicion that the governor’s family is making money from people who might expect more than just their thanks. The Blagojeviches don’t have to go as far as Julius Caesar did — he divorced his wife, Pompeia, when she was involved in scandal. But they should remember what he said: “Caesar’s wife must be above suspicion.”

* Illinois horse-slaughtering plant plans appeal of state law

A series of lower-court decisions upheld a law signed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich in May that effectively shut down the plant by banning the import, export, possession and slaughter of horses for human consumption in Illinois. Cavel, which is based in Belgium, challenged the ban on constitutional grounds, claiming the law violated interstate and foreign commerce rules because the meat is shipped overseas. The plant had been in operation for about 20 years and had 60 employees.

* Don’t like sales tax hike? How about tax on booze?

* Tribune Editorial: Maria Pappas’ surprise

As Cook County Board members gather Wednesday to mull tax increases, county Treasurer Maria Pappas has a sweet surprise for them: millions of dollars in bonus revenue that she already has collected thanks to sheer imagination — the kind of imagination Cook County has to exhibit before it asks taxpayers for one more penny.

Pappas is the pariah that other county executives love to loathe. She relentlessly modernizes and downsizes. Since she took office in 1998, she has reduced her employee head count from 258 to 131. Her total budget, including a terrific automation group that did not exist back then, is lower than it was when she arrived.

Pappas will tell the board that the fees she is now generating will cover a good 60 percent of what it costs to run her office. Pending a ruling from the state’s attorney that it is legal for her to allocate the money, she will slash the amount she requests from the County Board — from taxpayers, really — by a corresponding $7 million.

* Cook Co. stops paying for non-residents prescriptions

Health services bureau spokesman Sean Howard estimated those prescriptions cost Cook County $5 million last year. The burden had become too great to continue serving those who don’t live in the county, he said.

Koehler and officials in other counties said Tuesday they are optimistic residents turned away by Cook County could participate in programs that provide federal money to assist with drug costs.

* Chicago State copier buys were inside deal

State Rep. Monique Davis (D-Chicago), whose district includes Chicago State, was critical of the copier purchase and the lax oversight by the university’s board of trustees.

“If somebody was working there and started a business, it is wrong and it is unethical to simply give him a contract and not put it out for bid,” she said. “It is more than wrong. It is a disgrace.

* One of the ‘hardest jobs on the planet,’ Chicago Housing Authority chief; more here and here

The CHA is also broadening its work-or-study mandate. Under a policy to be decided next week, 5,000 able-bodied adults who live in traditional public housing would be required to work or attend school at least 15 hours a week immediately and 20 hours a week by 2010. Those who didn’t make a good-faith effort would be evicted, beginning in July.

* Chicago may ban chicken as pets

The Chicago City Council is expected to vote today on a proposal to ban chickens, a former barnyard denizen that is pecking its way into cities across the country as part of a growing organic food trend among young professionals and other urban dwellers.

Chicken lovers say the birds make great pets, don’t take up much backyard space and provide tasty, nutritious eggs.

* West Chicago says ex-official secretly installed spy software on city computer

* More speeders on new I-355 extension

They see the wide, open lanes. They feel the fresh, virgin pavement. They experience the light, sometimes non-existent, traffic.

It’s a perfect recipe for speeding.
“A lot of them thank me for stopping them,” Janecek said. “Because it is such a smooth road, you can get lost in your drive.”

The bucolic forests and farms up and down the road also are creating admirers.

Unfortunately, they are behind the wheel.

* Chicago Reader: A little TLC for the Reader

The new leaner, meaner, more melancholy Reader has come in for a little sympathy from New York Times media writer David Carr. A former editor of the Reader’s sister paper in Washington, D.C., the Washington City Paper, Carr’s Monday column tells the story of the Reader’s devastating layoffs last week (City Paper took the same kind of beating) by focusing on John Conroy, one of the four writers dismissed here. Last week, after the city of Chicago reached settlement agreements with four men who had accused its police officers of torturing them, Conroy received a note that may have given him some consolation.