* FDA relied heavily on BPA lobby

As federal regulators hold fast to their claim that a chemical in baby bottles is safe, e-mails obtained by the Journal Sentinel show that they relied on chemical industry lobbyists to examine bisphenol A’s risks, track legislation to ban it and even monitor press coverage.

In one instance, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s deputy director sought information from the BPA industry’s chief lobbyist to discredit a Japanese study that found it caused miscarriages in workers who were exposed to it. This was before government scientists even had a chance to review the study.

* Asthma Program Targets Landlords

Almost a quarter of children in Chicago’s North Lawndale neighborhood have asthma. That’s about twice the national average. A hospital in the neighborhood is taking a novel approach to the problem. It’s pressuring some landlords to clean up conditions that can trigger asthma.

* Chicago program addresses rising asthma rates with preventive measures

* S. Illinois still in uproar over storm

“A lot of times you can simply run the tree limbs through a chipper and dispose of the debris quickly,” Land said. “There were 100-year-old oak trees that were uprooted, with root balls that would fill up a dump truck. I say that if we can get all of the debris cleaned up by December, it will be a pretty good Christmas present.”

* 2 veteran auto dealers vow to keep rolling

* Wind could power 60,000 Illinois homes in 2010

A Chicago company plans to build a $400 million-plus wind farm that would stretch across two eastern Illinois counties.

Invenergy LLC says it has deals with property owners to erect up to 133 wind turbines on 28,000 acres in Champaign and Vermilion counties.

* CTA avoids fare hikes by using capital funds to balance budget

The CTA will transfer almost $129 million in cash originally earmarked for station fixups and new buses to help fill $155 million budget hole this year.

* More federal dollars could be headed here, LaHood says

* U.S. Sec. LaHood wants “czar” to run Midwest high-speed rail bid

* RTA seeks $3 million for new bus batteries

* Alderman Destroys Public Art

The mural was a painting of three Chicago Police Department blue light camera’s that you see on light posts in high crime areas. The Chicago Police logo is on the cameras but then the artist also painted Jesus on one post, a deer head on another, and a skull on the third camera. What the mural is supposed to mean is anyone’s guess. Angeles agrees that it’s a rather inscrutable work of art but he liked it and he says he feels bad for the artist.

* Charter Schools are Redefining What’s in a Union Contract

Teachers at three Chicago charter schools are on a course to become the first unionized charter teachers in the city. They still have legal hurdles to overcome. But if they get to negotiate a contract, it’s likely to look dramatically different than traditional teacher union contracts.

* Chicago police measure morale with survey

The department and UIC are promising that those who participate in the survey won’t be identified, although they will have to input a code to allow the department to measure responses by years of service and unit.

Though the FOP helped draft the survey, Dougherty said the union hasn’t endorsed the survey for its members because it wasn’t allowed to take part in the collection of the surveys.

* City adds parking zone number to new vehicle stickers

* City will never hire her, but Circuit Court clerk has

As long as she lives, Patricia Fasula can never work for the City of Chicago.

That was her punishment for filing bogus documents to convince city officials that she — and not her husband — owned and operated Patricia Trucking, one of several “women-owned businesses” in the city’s scandal-plagued Hired Truck Program.

But Fasula is still a $58,816-a-year accountant for Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown, where she was working when she and her husband set up their trucking company out of their Bridgeport home.

Similarly, Fasula’s husband, John Fasula — who had told the Chicago Sun-Times he helped run the trucking company — still works for the CTA, where he makes $89,705 a year as manager of grounds maintenance. He was working for the CTA when the Hired Truck scandal erupted five years ago, and officials of the transit agency seized his computer then to see if he was running the trucking company from his CTA office.

* Mayor Daley doesn’t expect affordable-housing subsidies to be repaid

“That’s all over the country where you could sell [affordable] housing. We changed that,” he said. “Every [affordable housing] development, all developments did it in the country. That is not acceptable.”

Daley said the federal government should impose similar restrictions nationally.

* The fate of Stroger’s tax

The County Board recently voted 12-3 to kill the tax hike. Board President Todd Stroger vetoed that action. And on Tuesday the board is scheduled to decide whether to override his veto.

–That veto override is the Tuesday vote that matters most. Stroger’s allies on the board don’t want you to believe that. They want you to think they’re swell compromisers: As part of their ceaseless effort to confuse this discussion and confound the public will, they’re offering a slow-mo alternative that would phase out the tax gradually. Don’t fall for this. The moment the 2010 election is over and the heat from victimized taxpayers subsides, they’ll surely try to undo any phase-out. In the meantime, they won’t have to do the necessary streamlining of county government. Why? Because your tax dollars will still be washing through their door by the hundreds of millions.

* Stroger interview on tax lien still leaves questions

Asked why he hadn’t set up a payment plan earlier, Stroger replied, “Sometimes things slip through your fingers.”

Although the lien filed by the IRS read “Area: Business/self-employed,” Stroger told Kelley his family has no other outside income or job other than his job with the county and his wife’s job at the Illinois secretary of state’s office.

Stroger said he would not release tax forms and said other officials who do, like Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, are doing more than they’re required.

“I think they’re making a mistake. It’s really none of your business,” said Stroger.

* Time for Preckwinkle to finish off Stroger

* One-third of Illinois inmates get tattoos