* Report: 3.5M in Illinois spent time uninsured

* 22 firms plan mass layoffs

During the month, 22 employers advised state government of their plans to cut workers, mostly this spring. In total, the companies disclosed they were shedding at least 2,486 jobs.

Chicago area employers making the list include NBC Universal Inc., which said it is cutting 103 positions at its Chicago offices, home to WMAQ-Channel 5.

The largest of the March layoff announcements were outside the Chicago area. Engine manufacturer Android Industries LLC said it will close a Belvidere operation, costing 273 jobs. Soybean processor ACH Food Cos. Inc. said it will close a Champaign operation and lay off 246 people.

Last week, state officials said the unemployment rate in the Chicago area spiked to 9 percent in February, from 5.6 percent a year earlier, and many experts expect further increases into double digits.

* AMA laying off Chicago staffers

The American Medical Association is laying off about 100 workers, or 8 percent of its staff, to “offset declining revenues amid the ongoing economic downturn,” the Chicago-based national doctors group said this afternoon.
The staff cuts at the nation’s largest doctor group will trim “open and existing staff positions” at both its Chicago headquarters and Washington offices effective May 4, the AMA said. The AMA has about 1,200 staffers.

* AMA to lay off 100 workers, 8 percent of staff

* Ethel’s Chocolate Lounge closing 5 of 6 Chicago-area locations

* Mars closing Ill. Ethel’s Chocolate stores

* Hold those layoffs

The other steps companies are taking to cut costs are not exactly harmless to workers. Chief among them: capping the number of hours employees can work, cutting or freezing pay and suspending matching payments to 401(k) plans.

* Laid-off workers are fired up over Asian steel

* Chicago suburban downtowns: Officials find ways to lure businesses

* Private lenders take students to cleaners

* Chicago Olympics: Pothole protesters stopped in their tracks

For months, South Side residents have called the city complaining about the craterlike potholes along Garfield Boulevard near Throop Street.

So on Monday, they scheduled a protest in Englewood, demanding that the mayor fix potholes in all neighborhoods, not just at proposed 2016 Olympic sites visited by an international commission this week.

But moments before Monday’s protest, Chicago Department of Transportation crews showed up, filling holes along a stretch of Garfield, including the area where the demonstrators had gathered.

CDOT spokesman Brian Steele said the timing was coincidental.

* Chicago Promotes Blue-Green Games

Chicago’s Olympic team told the visiting international committee today that the city would host the most environmentally friendly games ever if Chicago gets the 2016 bid.

* Is it too late to switch bid to Winter Olympics?

* Hip-hop artists rap to CPS beat

Backed by Microsoft, which donated $15,000 to help restore CPS music education programs, the artists headlined a star-filled benefit at the downtown Hard Rock Cafe.

* Illinois to track students’ school progress

Illinois will begin tracking schoolchildren as they progress from preschool through college, logging the schools they attend, the educators who teach them and the high school courses they take, state officials said Monday.

The State Board of Education announced a $9 million grant from the U.S. education department to fund the data system.

* Chicago mental health centers closing: After sit-in at Mayor Richard Daley’s office, supporters meet with top aide

* Plan to close nCENTER also upsetting seniors

* Teamsters Local 743: Chicago Trial opens in rigged-election case

* Contempt ruling challenged: Cook County prosecutors appeal cut in jail time for not testifying

* 911 subpoenas just shoved in a drawer

An employee at Chicago’s 911 emergency center has been disciplined after four months worth of unprocessed subpoenas for 911 tapes were found stashed in her office drawer.

* Seat-belt use up; highway deaths down 9 percent

* Sox Opening Day Not a Second Too Early for Some

…Added content…

* Manzullo’s earmarks beat online deadline

* Hare, Braley seek $545 million in earmarks

* Rep. Hare digs at Schock over his votes, abs

* Rep. Schock seen as crucial to GOP’s outreach efforts

* Rep. Aaron Schock: ‘Hottest freshman’ in Congress pushes beyond his media-friendly profile