* 3 Sun-Times staffers win national awards

* Top cop in contempt

A federal judge found Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis in contempt of court Wednesday and set a Monday deadline for him to release the names of officers who have at least five citizen complaints filed against them since 2000.

Weis says handing over the thousands of names would “compromise officers’ performance, threaten safety, reduce morale and improperly impugn many officers’ otherwise well-deserved good reputations.”

* Jody Weis in Contempt of Court

* Mayor Richard Daley and wife flew aboard private jet to Singapore in 2006

Plane was provided by student loan charity with ties to mayor’s wife

* City hiring called corrupt in Chicago fraud trial

“The hiring and promotion process at City Hall was rigged — it was corrupt,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Grimes said in the government’s opening statement.

* Hiring trial ties HDO work, city jobs

Al Sanchez, the city’s former Streets and Sanitation commissioner, lobbied top aides to Mayor Richard Daley to ensure that members of Sanchez’s political organization moved to the front of the line for city jobs, a former department official testified Wednesday.

Jack Drumgould, personnel director under Sanchez, testified at the first day of Sanchez’s fraud trial that Sanchez gave him names of Hispanic Democratic Organization members whom he wanted hired. Drumgould said he in turn took the names to the mayor’s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. Other political groups and labor unions were clamoring for their share of the jobs pie, he said.

Qualifications and performance in interviews “were totally non-relevant,” Drumgould told jurors.

* Fast Eddie’s past ties to a crooked judge

Former Cook County Judge George J.W. Smith pleaded guilty and went to prison in 2002 while keeping his mouth shut about allegations he’d paid a certain unnamed political figure $30,000 to buy his seat on the bench.

Now the 63-year-old Smith wants his law license reinstated, and in the process, he’s disclosed an interesting piece of information you can read here first:

Around the time the judge went to prison, his wife Jolanta went on the payroll of Fast Eddie Vrdolyak, the man long suspected of being on the other end of that $30,000.

* Fast Eddie judge followed letter of the law

* Chicago archdiocese’s sex-abuse tab: $15.8 million in ‘08

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago paid more than $15.8 million in legal settlements related to sexual abuse last year, amounting to $80.2 million in claims for the decade, according to the annual report.

* Chicago Archdiocese pays $35.5M in abuse claims

The Archdiocese of Chicago has paid nearly $35.5 million in claims to the victims of sexual abuse by priests since June 2007.

* Chicago Archdiocese paid $100M in sex abuse claims: Church report

Sex abuse claims have cost the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago almost $100 million this decade, a church financial report shows.

* Chicago 6th on green-cities list

* Budget gap pits city against suburbs

The suburban bus side of Pace will be able to weather the storm this year, but a gap of about $24 million is projected for paratransit, a transport service for disabled people who cannot use fixed routes to reach their destinations mandated as part of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Pace Director Frank Mitchell, who represents Will County, said shortfalls in paratransit should not negatively affect bus operations in the suburbs. He noted that the majority of paratransit riders are from Chicago.

* Illinois tax cap yokes schools in Chicago’s southwest suburbs

With inflation near zero, state formula leaves districts scrambling to trim budgets

In 2008, the annual bump in the rate was an unprecedented 0.1 percent. That means most taxpayers can expect only slight increases in their 2009 tax bills, which are paid in 2010.

But it also means that many school districts and other government agencies will see only tiny increases in the property-tax revenues they will collect next year. And that has sent shock waves around the state, as school districts scramble to adjust their budgets and plan for cuts as early as next school year.

With tax referendum measures unlikely to succeed in the current recession, suburban districts are moving to eliminate everything from staff to band programs and sports teams as they try to cover teacher salaries and other costs that are going up by far greater than 0.1 percent.

* UIC to Close Clinic for Low-Income Latinas

The University of Illinois at Chicago says it’s closing a medical clinic geared for low-income women in a mostly Mexican neighborhood. But a community group is fighting to keep the facility open.

* Cook County assessor cuts 5 suburban offices

Five suburban assessor’s offices will close and the workers will be sent downtown because of budget cuts, Cook County Assessor James Houlihan said Wednesday.

Last month, the County Board approved a $2.9 billion compromise spending plan that imposed a 4 percent cut on most offices, including the assessor’s.

*CN settles suit with West Chicago

* Chicago Heights considers wind farm on old landfill

The city hopes it could make money from the wind farm by selling the energy produced to ComEd, hopefully generating $3 million to $4 million, Sabo said.

* Grants can help pay utility bills

Up to 10,000 Peoria County residents may have benefited from a state energy assistance program when its fiscal year ends this summer.

The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program provides residents with a one-time grant to help pay utility costs.

Administered by the Peoria Citizens Committee for Economic Opportunity, the aid program is funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Energy and the state of Illinois.

* Trustee Candidate’s Past Includes Bombing, Battery Convictions

* Dig out the wallet for a local stimulus

We should rethink that strategy, a group of local experts and residents told Daily Herald reporter Anna Marie Kukec this week. Instead, they advise us to spend wisely and spend locally.

* ‘Gentlemen’ scarf cozy dogs for good cause

* Thirty-five days without a Lt. Gov. Have you noticed?

Sliding Gov. Pat Quinn up the food chain illuminated one budget-saving option for state taxpayers: Eliminate the office of lieutenant governor.

Money? Savings of at at least $2.6 million.

Personnel? State government downsized by about30 employees.

Drawbacks? None.

* Pontiac mayor: Quinn will decide on prison soon

* Mayor expects decision on prison soon

Although the mayor of Pontiac didn’t get the meeting with Gov. Pat Quinn he was seeking, he learned a decision will be made soon on the future of Pontiac Correctional Center.

Mayor Scott McCoy was in Springfield on Wednesday seeking a meeting with Quinn in order to tell him Pontiac is being devastated by the threat of losing the prison and its 500-plus jobs.

* State expands holdings around Volo Bog

Illinois officials have purchased 32 acres in northwest Lake County that they say contain one the state’s natural wonders: a bog.

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources says it bought the land for nearly $1.1 million. The Illinois Conservation Foundation provided a private donation of $125,000 toward the cost.

* SJ-R: Cleaning up funeral fund mess a big job

BUT FOR SOME 49,000 buyers of pre-need contracts through a trust fund administered by the Illinois Funeral Directors Association, the purchase of pre-paid funeral services has brought nothing but headaches and angst. In what is described in a lawsuit as a massive Ponzi scheme, the IFDA is alleged to have made more than $190 million in questionable investments, putting many funeral homes at huge financial risk and leaving thousands of individuals wondering whether their investments will cover funeral expenses for themselves and their loved ones.

* Want a tollway sign?

What does it take to get an informational sign posted on the Illinois tollway? The agency listed guidelines on its Web site Wednesday that define criteria for communities or businesses

* Metzger will keep state board post

Mark Metzger may no longer be president of the Indian Prairie Unit District 204 school board, but he will keep the top spot at the Illinois Association of School Boards.

* Unofficial St. Patrick’s Day at University of Illinois

School is cracking down on booze in class. (This is not a new tend…it will still be a blast)

* IDOT says no stimulus deadlines missed

* Officials have year to set up projects

Then IDOT chief of transit and metro program planning Jim Stack, who had calls in to Springfield, came back with different marching orders: There is up to a year to set up stimulus projects. And IDOT will put up the money at first, as it does for other local road and highway projects included in an IDOT bid letting.

“You have a year,” Stack said. “It’s in the law.”

That is still less time than it seems. To safely meet the deadline, Therkildsen told the group, it should have projects to IDOT by the end of October for the Jan. 15 letting. If the committee wants to be more conservative, projects need to be ready and in IDOT’s hands in early September for the November letting.

* Stimulus money to pave Southland

A list released by the Illinois Department of Transportation this week shows the state is asking the federal government to fund more than $100 million worth of road work in the Southland under the recently passed $787 billion stimulus bill.

Some of the biggest area projects on the list are resurfacing 159th Street between Interstate 355 and LaGrange Road, reconstructing 159th Street from Interstate 294 to Halsted Street, repairing a series of overpasses on Interstate 57 between 103rd Street and 167th Street and resurfacing Interstate 94 from Martin Luther King Drive to 159th Street.

* Planners make Veterans Parkway intersection a priority for stimulus funds

* Dow closes up 149 as stocks rally

* CAT Stock Jumps Up

On Wall Street today, Caterpillar’s stock prices went up 13 percent today…the most in four months…

* GM auditors raise the specter of Chapter 11

* Stocks set to drop on China letdown, GM news

Stocks are set to resume their plunge Thursday, as China deflated investors’ hope that the country will boost spending and worries re-emerged about General Motors Corp. Ahead of the market’s opening, Dow Jones industrial average futures dropped 110, or 1.61 percent, to 6,720.

Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures lost 10.70, or 1.51 percent, to 697.80, and Nasdaq 100 index futures fell 8.50, or 0.77 percent, to 1,092.50.

* Retailers report sales declines in February

* Expect Illinois’ treasurer to try for Senate seat

He could have some powerful help, too:

“The president is mentor to me, a close friend who inspired me to run for office,” he said. “We haven’t had a conversation about what he’s going to do, but I do think it’s important for Illinois to have a senator who brings integrity back to the process, who has a relationship with the administration, who understands the whole state and who will effectively lead so we can talk about issues like the economy, getting people back to work.”

He also is on friendly terms with Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., with whom he traveled recently to Cyprus to meet with diplomats in an attempt to cool the tension between Turks and Greeks that he said “is about two press releases away from a war between Greece and Turkey.”

* Watch Out, Payday Lenders

Abusive interest rates of as much as 650 percent charged for “payday loans” would be outlawed by a just-introduced bill capping annual interest rates for consumer credit at 36 percent.

Sponsored by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois), the Protecting Consumers from Unreasonable Credit Rates Act (S. 500), would impose a federal usury cap of 36 percent Annual Percentage Rate (APR) on all consumer credit transactions. Several states have already enacted similar and even more restrictive interest caps. Durbin’s bill would not affect state laws that impose interest rate caps lower than 36 percent. A 36 percent interest cap law is already in place for U.S. military personnel and their families.

* Lawmakers Want to Expand FDA Funding

Senate Assistant Majority Leader Richard Durbin, D-Ill., says it’s clear that the FDA simply can’t keep up with the challenge. The challenge is the fact that FDA is charged with protecting nearly 80% of our food supply. Senator Judd Gregg, R-N.H., says there is momentum for this and that there is no significant opposition to this bill.

* Burris Refuses to Resign; Digs In

* Only the truth The Blago beat …

* Luciano: Blagojevich has no new tales to tell

* PJStar: May Blagojevich’s book not become a best-seller

* We won’t go buy the book