* Feds probe Cicero cops

Federal authorities are investigating several Cicero police officers for allegedly trying to thwart FBI agents running surveillance on an Outfit associate and high-ranking member of the Outlaws motorcycle gang who ran a pawn shop in town, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.

Cicero police allegedly ran car license plates, pulled over cars they suspected were driven by federal agents and tried to find hidden surveillance cameras around the business of Mark Polchan, according to recently unsealed court records. Polchan is awaiting trial on charges he bombed a business for the Outfit.

* SJ-R Opinion: Shatter state police’s culture of secrecy

* Prisoners returned to Pontiac Prison

* Illinois February jobless rate hits 8.6 percent

* Big Jump in Illinois Unemployment

The unemployment rate in Illinois has increased at a historic pace. That’s according to a jobless report out Tuesday.

* Ill. unemployment at 17-year high

* Illinois’ unemployment rate reaches highest level since 1983

* ‘Thousands’ line up to apply for 300 hotel jobs

* St. John’s to lay off 38 employees, reduce costs in other areas

* Hog cooperative files for bankruptcy

* Catering firm closes doors after loans called

* Stays at rescue mission’s homeless shelter increase 20 percent

* City to help Chicagoans find out if eligible for foreclosure assistance

“We want to help homeowners get into affordable, sustainable fixed-rate mortgages,” Mayor Daley said of the event co-sponsored by the city and two not-for-profit groups, the MacArthur Foundation and Neighborhood Housing Services.

Last year, Chicago was hit with 20,592 foreclosure filings, a 48 percent increase over 2007. If properties remain vacant, they can have a “devastating impact” on the surrounding neighborhood, the mayor said.

City Hall estimates that as many as 8,000 Chicagoans whose homes are in foreclosure will be eligible for the federal program.

* Hard times affect health care

* Highland makes deal for oil pipeline under Silver Lake

* Chicago Tribune, LA Times merge foreign ops

* State gets ‘A’ for teen protection measure

A teenager in Illinois who feels threatened by a significant other, a parent or anyone for that matter may turn to the courts and file an order of protection.

Over the past six years, hundreds of teens, both male and female, in Peoria, Woodford and Tazewell counties have taken advantage of the state law that allows them to obtain protection orders just like adults.

Illinois is one of only a handful of states that have responded to teen dating violence with this law, an advocacy group stated in a national survey.

* Children’s health: Will County a focal point of national study

* Chicago gun violence: Feds warn against straw purchases

* Municipal candidates rake in campaign bucks

* Money makes Aurora’s campaign go ’round

* Workers welcome layoff delays as candidates open fire on Mayor Stockton

* Chicago’s Olympics team prepares for its big pitch

* Chicago 2016 gives glimpse plan

* Time to give up fight, OK Chatham Wal-Mart

* Chicago Police Using Military Style Rifles

The Chicago Police Department continues to move forward with a plan to equip rank-and-file officers with rifles that were originally designed for military use. Chicago, like other big cities and some smaller towns, has made such weapons available to tactical officers. Now they’d go to cops on the beat. Superintendent Jody Weis says around 500 officers have gone through the training that allows them to use the semi-automatic gun on duty. One group of young people has continually opposed giving Chicago cops the increased firepower, but they’ve not had much luck changing Weis’ mind. WBEZ’s Robert Wildeboer reports on the stalemate and the powerful weapon that’s behind it.