* City unemployment jumps to 10.6%; area rate at 25-yr peak

The jobless rate in the metropolitan Chicago rose to 9.9% in April, a level that hasn’t been seen since January 1984.

The seasonally unadjusted April rate, released Friday by the Illinois Department of Employment Security, was 4.5 percentage points higher than last April, when the unemployment rate came in at 5.4%. It was 0.6 percentage points higher than March, a sign that layoffs were continuing to pummel the Chicago-Naperville-Joliet statistical area.

IDES estimated that there were 171,300 fewer people employed in the Chicago-Naperville-Joliet metro area in April, compared with the year-earlier month.

The unemployment rate for just the city of Chicago was 10.6%, up from 6% last April, according to IDES figures.

* Jobless rates hit double digits

Kane and Kendall counties have each hit the double-digit unemployment rate of 10.4 percent, higher than the rate of Cook County, the state and the nation.

Not only did Kane and Kendall’s jobless rates nearly double from April 2008, but Kane and Kendall also lead neighboring counties on the rate of unemployed.

Will County’s rate is at 10.2 percent, and DuPage County is at 8.2 percent, according to unemployment data released Friday by the Illinois Department of Employment Security.

* Grant funding, private gifts to ISU steady despite economic crisis

Illinois State University was awarded a record $22.3 million in grant funding last year, and its fund-raising efforts for private gifts also fared well.

* College grads in for a rough awakening

* Caterpillar continues to prosper

* Illinois American Water Files for Rate Hike

* Wells Fargo rejects offer for Hartmarx as ill-suited

* Bankruptcy looms for GM; Chrysler awaits fate

* School’s out … forever

* Mistake means slightly higher tax bills in North Aurora

* CPS reviewing its grade security

* Chicago schools settle discrimination lawsuit

* Aldermen are wondering if they’re on tape

* Chicago alderman who apparently wore wire vows to fight federal charges

Despite word that he wore a wire for federal investigators, Ald. Isaac Carothers (29th) said Friday that he would fight the charges against him and had no plans to resign his seat.

“I’ll be at work Monday morning,” he said a day after federal prosecutors indicted him on fraud, bribery and tax charges.

Carothers, a longtime ally of Mayor Richard Daley, declined to discuss the charges, but he defended the Galewood Yards real estate project at the center of the alleged bribery as well as his work as a public servant.

“These allegations are based on things from 2004,” he said. “I’ve been alderman for five years after that. I think we’ve been effective.”

* Indicted Alderman Carothers: ‘You got to deal with it’

* Feds probe city pension deals with Daley’s nephew

City pension officials have been hit with subpoenas from a federal grand jury trying to determine how a start-up company co-owned by Mayor Daley’s nephew won $68 million in pension investments.

The grand jury issued the subpoenas Wednesday, nearly two months after city pension officials refused to comply with similar subpoenas issued by the City of Chicago’s inspector general, David Hoffman.

Hoffman said Friday that he and federal investigators are now jointly investigating the pension fund investments with DV Urban Realty Partners, a minority certified business co-owned by one of the mayor’s top African-American allies, Allison S. Davis, and Daley’s nephew Robert Vanecko.

City pension officials refused to comply with Hoffman’s subpoenas, arguing he had no authority to demand records from them. The federal grand jury stepped in, demanding records from the pension plans for Chicago municipal employees, laborers, police officers and firefighters, even though the firefighters pension fund refused to invest any money with Davis and Vanecko.

* Federal prosecutors probe pension fund investments

* Lisa Madigan jumps into parking meter fray

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has opened an investigation into the implementation of Chicago’s parking meter privatization deal.

“Our goal is to determine if consumers have been defrauded,” said Madigan spokeswoman Robyn Ziegler, who stressed that the office is not investigating the City of Chicago.

Subpoenas were sent May 19 to Morgan Stanley Infrastructure, the winning bidder for the city’s parking meter franchise; Chicago Parking Meters LLC, a consortium led by the infrastructure group, and LAZ Parking, which is operating the franchise for CPM.

* Chicago parking meters: Lisa Madigan launches state investigation

In response to questions, a spokeswoman for Chicago Parking Meters issued a brief statement Friday saying the company, Morgan Stanley and LAZ Parking would give their “full cooperation” to Madigan’s investigation.

* New York Times Weighs In On Chicago Parking Debacle

* U of I explains secret clout list

* Throw out U. of I.’s clout admission list

* U of I President Defends Admission Process

* U of I backtracks on ‘clout list’

* ‘Clout list’ fallout: U of I president doesn’t want trustees pressured

* Local politicians made UI admissions inquiries too

* Senate confirms Quinn’s picks for Natural Resources, Veterans Affairs

* Poll: Majority supports state buying land

* Rep. Gutierrez Profited Through Indicted Developer

* Lake County Republican Federation Dinner Features South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford

* Interstates remain focus of anti-drug efforts

Last year, for instance, Illinois State Police troopers seized more than four tons of drugs – 8,320 pounds worth — on Interstate 55.

“Narcotics go in one direction, and cash goes in the other direction,” said Capt. Scott Compton, spokesman for Illinois State Police. “Interstates are certainly the fastest way to get somewhere, and there’s lots of traffic, so you can blend in pretty easily.”

* New deadline for Illinois State Fair recipes