* Recession hits kids sports: Out-of-work parents pressed for big fees

* IIT kills basketball: Men’s and women’s programs are shut down

* All aboard: high speed rail coming to Chicago?

* Union, Boeing avoid strike

* Navistar cuts jobs at bus plant

* Buyers Market

* Fed grant to help with renovation of Cultural District

* Passenger Travel Down at Gen. Wayne A. Downing Peoria Int’l Airport

New numbers released on Peoria’s airport show passenger travel dropped more than 20–percent compared to last February.

* Grant to restore Ill. Confederate cemetery

A Confederate graveyard and memorial in the Mississippi River city of Alton will be getting a $250,000 upgrade, paid for by the federal economic stimulus measure Congress passed.

* Peotone airport: Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn’s budget offers hope for backers of proposed Will County facility

* Quinn announces $30 million available for counties affected by storms and flooding last year

* Burst Of Energy Money

The Obama administration is giving more than 112 million dollars to the state of Illinois to improve energy efficiency.

* Chicago schools report: Group wants officials to improve communication with parents

* Aide to former Chicago alderman gets 3 years

A former aide to convicted Chicago Alderman Arenda Troutman has been sentenced to three years in prison for mail fraud.

* Daley kin lawyer up

Mayor Daley’s son and nephew have hired a criminal defense attorney to represent them in the ongoing investigation of their investment in a sewer-cleaning company that won millions of dollars in no-bid contract extensions from City Hall.

Charles Sklarsky, a former federal prosecutor now with the law firm of Jenner & Block, confirmed Thursday he is representing Patrick Daley and his cousin Robert Vanecko.

Hoffman recently issued subpoenas to three city pension funds for records involving DV Urban Realty. One of those funds, the Chicago police pension fund, is refusing to comply with Hoffman’s subpoena. Hoffman doesn’t have the authority to subpoena records from the pension fund, its attorney David Kugler said Thursday.

Vanecko and Davis are guaranteed $3 million in fees for managing the pension fund investments under a deal that runs through Dec. 31, 2014. Among the real estate deals in which they have invested so far, they have bought an apartment building at 1212 S. Michigan and loaned $1 million to help restaurateur Matthew O’Malley redevelop the former Chicago Defender building.

* Police Union to Protest When Olympic Committee Visits Chicago?

* Calls to 911 ’simply vanish’

Burned before by a faulty computer-aided dispatch system, the Chicago Fire Department waited a year to move into the 911 center and continued to dispatch emergency vehicles manually for months after they got there because of computer software problems.

“Any time you do any computer upgrades, you experience some issues,” Martinez said Thursday. “Considering this is the first major upgrade they’ve done in 10 years, they’ve been extremely pleased with the technology.”

* Weis picks Latino for Internal Affairs

Juan Rivera was promoted to chief of Internal Affairs after most recently serving as deputy chief of the Grand Central Area.

The announcement comes about a month after Hispanic clergy met with Weis about the lack of Latinos in high-ranking positions — noting that three of 25 districts were headed by Hispanics and that there were no Hispanics among the four deputy superintendents and seven chiefs.

Also promoted Thursday were Roberto Zavala, from commander of the Ogden District to deputy chief of the Grand Central Area, and Berscott Ruiz, a lieutenant in the Ogden District, to commander of the district.

* Pedestrian danger zones: Kankakee County town posts highest per-capita traffic accident rate in greater suburban Chicago area

Hopkins Park, a small town in Kankakee County, had more traffic accidents involving pedestrians per capita during a recent three-year period than any other town in the greater suburban Chicago area, according to a study released Thursday.

* Failure to rein in drunks killed more than parade

* Drunken parade reveler: Don’t blame me for parade cancellation

* City worker happy St. Pat’s parade ended

* Illinois State Toll Highway Authority: Board offers temporary clemency to toll scofflaws

Facing public outrage and a legislative effort by lawmakers, the tollway board voted unanimously to immediately implement a “toll violation spring cleaning program,” effectively eliminating a $50 surcharge on each fine through June 30.

* Tollway proposes scofflaw system reforms