* Illinois power co-op takes aim at Ameren customers

A downstate Illinois electricity cooperative today will announce plans to offer power statewide, with an eye toward signing up Ameren Corp.’s Illinois customers infuriated by rate hikes.

* Millions of Dollars in Stimulus Checks Go Unclaimed

* Citizens aim to keep Illinois 29 project moving

* Hearing on strip-mine near Banner resumes

After a month-long hiatus, testimony resumed Tuesday at an administrative hearing meant to resolve whether the Illinois Department of Natural Resources made a mistake when it granted a permit for a strip-mining project near Banner in Fulton County

* CPS chief refuses anti-violence award

His voice quaking with emotion, Chicago Schools CEO Arne Duncan refused Tuesday to accept an anti-gun violence award, saying “I don’t feel I’ve earned it'’ with student deaths on track to double this school year.

Duncan left the Abraham Lincoln Award from the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence on a sidetable, but walked away from the lecturn at the Ritz Carlton to a standing ovation from an obviously moved audience.

* One-third of airport police jobs vacant

More than a third of the Chicago Police positions at the city’s two major airports are vacant, but officials say cops are helping to fill the gap by working overtime.

* DuPage deputies, prosecutors could score big raises

DuPage County Sheriff John Zaruba and State’s Attorney Joseph Birkett are pleading for double-digit percentage raises for deputies and assistant prosecutors.

* Iowa AG decision means Chicago cop will be freed

* CPS probes corporal punishment claims

Last school year, Simeon High School senior Bruce Zayas was captain of the volleyball team, a rising star recruited from Mount Carmel, and looking at a volleyball scholarship.

But a paddling by his coach last April for missing serves during a game — a “whupping” that left welts on the 17-year-old — changed that.

* U-46 plans to up high school credit requirements

* Weary flood victims hook up with FEMA center

DuPage County Board Chairman Robert Schillerstrom said the county was prepared to house the makeshift center for as long as it took for all the flood victims from Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Lake, Kane, LaSalle and Will counties to receive help. More than 700 people had registered for assistance after the center’s opening was announced last weekend. DuPage officials estimate the flooding cost the county roughly $10.5 million in personnel costs and infrastructure damage.

* Lake Co. forest preserve wants to buy more land

The district wants approval to issue $185 million in bonds to acquire land, restore habitats and improve public access throughout a system that has grown to nearly 27,000 acres.

* Illinois Voters Rush to Meet Registration Deadline

* Voters register at last minute

* Election offices cope with crowds as voter deadline looms

* Thousands register to vote

“Typically on the last day of voter registration maybe we see 1,000 voter registrations. Based on morning traffic, we’re projecting 12,000 today,” said Jim Allen, spokesman for the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners.

Last-minute registration in Cook County suburbs also increased. On Tuesday, the Cook County clerk’s office handled 13,000 voter registration forms downtown, pushing the total over 40,000 since Oct. 1. That’s already more registrations than before the 2004 election and Tuesday “was the busiest day yet,” spokeswoman Courtney Greve said

* Get political with Gen Y

Young voters are expected to have a hefty turnout this Nov. 4, several analysts have predicted. But Generation Y — those born after 1979 — is still somewhat of a political wildcard

* Renovated Morse Theatre reborn as live music venue

There’s a new player on the Chicago concert stage. The Morse Theatre, 1328 W. Morse, reopens Thursday as a resplendent music hall, restaurant and broadcast studio.

* Moolah from Lollapalooza

This year’s Lollapalooza rock ‘n’ roll festival was music to the ears of Chicago Park District officials who will accept a $1.6 million check today.

The district’s take for this summer’s Grant Park festival is about $400,000 more than last year’s revenues.

* University of Chicago physicist Yoichiro Nambu wins Nobel Prize

Nambu, 87, was woken up early Tuesday with news that he had received the Nobel Prize for physics in recognition of work from the 1960s that many peers described as decades ahead of its time. He took half of the $1.4 million award, with the rest going to Japanese researchers Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa for their work in predicting a third family of the subatomic particles called quarks.

* U. of C. prof shares in Nobel for physics

* Berwyn alderman in court over incident with Wal-Mart guard

Ald. Michael Phelan, 39, appeared in local ordinance court in Forest Park last week to face charges of disorderly conduct in connection with an incident in which he was detained by Wal-Mart security guards for allegedly refusing to show his store receipt.

* Ald. Munoz involved in ‘altercation’ at Southwest Side office