* ComEd to ax 500 jobs, freeze exec pay to cut costs

ComEd parent Exelon Corp. said it is slashing 500 jobs, most at its Chicago headquarters, reorganizing its executive team and freezing executive pay to reduce costs amid economic challenges in the industry.

Roughly 400 corporate support jobs at Exelon and 100 management positions at ComEd will be eliminated, the company said. Most cuts are expected to be completed by August 31.

The company said in addition to freezing executive salaries, it will reduce annual and long-term incentive compensation.

* Midwest, Plains bankers say economy remains weak

* Credit repair company run out of business

A Florida-based credit repair company that placed unauthorized charges on the phone bills of thousands of Illinois consumers has been shut down, and victims may now apply for refunds, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan announced Thursday. US Credit Find and its owner, Aaron Stanz, agreed to cease participating in the alleged deceptive practice, called “phone cramming.” Consumers who were victims have until Aug. 20 to file complaints with the attorney general’s Consumer Fraud Bureau to be considered for refunds.

Thirty-year mortgage rates fell this week, reversing course after three straight weeks of rising and hitting the highest level in seven months last week. The average 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage fell to 5.38 percent, down from 5.59 percent last week.

* Tyson delivers 13 tons of chicken to foodbank

* A Chicago First: Charter School Teachers Unionize

* LaHood Asks for 18-Month Extension of Four-Year-Old Transpo Law

* Lack of nearby grocery store takes years off life: study

Living in a food desert — primarily the city’s African-American neighborhoods with no full-service grocery stores — can shorten your life.

That’s a new conclusion drawn by food-desert researcher Mari Gallagher, who released a report Thursday showing that a full-service supermarket in the South Side Roseland community would allow that neighborhood, collectively, to gain about 15 years of life back from diabetes, 112 years of life from cardiovascual diseases, 13 years from liver disease and 58 years of life back from diet-related cancers.

* Your children will pay for city parking deal

* Panel OKs expansion of Congress hotel over objections

A proposal for the Congress Plaza Hotel to expand at 520 S. Michigan survived a raucous crowd and a perturbed alderman Thursday to win clearance at the Chicago Plan Commission.

The mayoral-appointed commission overwhelmingly approved the same proposal it rejected on a narrow vote 18 months ago. But that earlier vote produced a lawsuit in which a Circuit Court judge held the commission’s action was illegal.

Reconsidering the expansion under Judge Sophia Hall’s order, several commission members said their hands were forced on approving the project. The proceedings occurred under watchful eyes of the Unite Here Local 1 hotel workers union, which has been striking at the Congress Plaza for six years.

Union members and sympathetic aldermen opposed the proposal on the grounds that it rewards hotel ownership that allegedly pays substandard wages. They also have complained about conditions at the hotel, which charges budget rates for downtown.

* Turning trash into cash

* Officials Hope to Turn Chicago into a Hub for Independent Publishing

* Alvarez becomes president of Chicago bar group

Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez is set to become the first sitting state’s attorney to lead the Chicago Bar Association.

* Ex-fire chief Trotter did business with Webio

* Madison County sheriff rips budget cuts, he says could endanger public safety

Madison County Sheriff Robert Hertz said Thursday that budget cuts imposed a day earlier by the County Board would mean longer response times to emergency calls by the sheriff’s office and could endanger public safety in the county.

“We were already understaffed before this happened as far as I’m concerned,” Hertz said.

“People want leaner government, but I don’t think they want it at the expense of first responders to emergencies,” the sheriff added.

He said the County Board had mandated a cut of $325,000 for the sheriff’s operations, effective immediately. That means Hertz cannot replace four deputies who have left recently or who are expected to leave soon by retirement or taking other jobs, he said.

* Cicero largely silent as residents rail about aggressive car-towing policy

* Arlington Heights pursues big money for little savings

Arlington Heights is applying for an energy efficiency grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, even though the bulk of the money may yield only small savings.

Village trustees directed staff this week to apply for the $714,000 Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant. The village proposes to spend $460,000 of that on replacing sodium vapor lights in about 240 downtown streetlights with more efficient light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

* Neighbors say Libertyville company’s wind turbine is a nuisance

* Tribune talking with other potential buyers on Cubs sale

* Tribune Re-Thinks Sale of Cubs

* Was Slammin’ Sammy really just Juicin’ Sammy?

* Ozzie mows right over bigots

We’re talking about a T-shirt sold around Wrigley Field during the Crosstown Classic with a likeness of Guillen behind a lawn mower, saying “Ozzie Mows Wrigley Field.”

* Museum of Science and Industry free today, its 76th anniversary

* New Pavilion Opens in Chicago’s Millennium Park