* A rising force in Hispanic Chicago

The United Neighborhood Organization, the city’s largest Latino community group, is poised to become the biggest charter school manager in Illinois after scoring a $98 million state grant to build eight more schools.

The group’s Mexican-American chief executive, Juan Rangel, said the organization makes a conscious effort to copy the century-old, up-by-the-bootstraps approach of white ethnic immigrants like the Irish and Italians. He renounces the more recent fight-the-power style of some African-American and Latino leaders who have sought to expand their political influence.

“Is this community going to see itself as another victimized minority or are they going to be the next successful immigrant group?” Rangel said. “There is an assumption that this community mimics the African-American community — where it’s been and where it’s going. That’s not the case at all. It has very little in common with the African-American experience.”

Rangel also is not shy about touting the group’s friends in high places, including Mayor Richard Daley and Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago).

* FutureGen: One town’s hope

* The green paradox

But a new study by the Center for Neighborhood Technology found that while cities produce more greenhouse gases per acre than suburban and rural areas, people who live in cities produce less.

* Jobs program fizzles: ‘It was all a lot of talk’

So when a young charismatic reverend, with ties to the local aldermen and to U.S. Rep. Danny K. Davis, touted a jobs program, people came running.

“We met him through word of mouth,'’ said Tracy Wilburn, one of four brothers who got involved in the program. “He kept using Danny Davis’ name. People were saying that this reverend was going around helping ex-cons get jobs.'’

The men were asked to pay $35 for a uniform and were told to come back later for an orientation and a job assignment.

But the jobs did not materialize, and the men did not get anything for their $35.

* Vote for jobs

A long-stalled bid by Wal-Mart to build a huge store on the South Side could come before the City Council’s Rules Committee soon. If the Rules Committee approves, the measure could go to the full council for a vote by the end of July.

* Exelon plans upgrades to Clinton nuclear reactor

* Homeowners who gave up might get foreclosure refund

The Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court is holding approximately $18 million in mortgage foreclosure surplus funds — profits generated when the bank sells a property for more than what the original owner owed the lending institution.

The county has identified about 1,900 onetime owners who are owed money as a result of foreclosure sales in the last decade, and Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown has launched a campaign to get the word out.

In one case, a property owner could collect $460,000, she said.

So many people turn the keys over to the bank and don’t look back — and that’s why the money has accumulated, Brown said.

* We’re all vulnerable when a home sits empty

* Some tailgaters will see nearly 50% parking hike

The cost of thousands of parking spots near Soldier Field will spike nearly 50 percent for Bears games this fall.

* Credit cards and cabs: New device may make it easier for taxi passengers to pay with plastic

* Concession kiosks going up in parks

The advertising company that provides bus shelters in Chicago is now putting up the first of a series of food concession kiosks planned for city parks.

* Mo., Ill. govs promote high-speed rail project

* Metra to get $46.6 million in stimulus money for repairs

* Urban League gets $700,000 for youths

* Spartan Light Metals rehiring some laid off workers

Spartan Light Metals will be hiring back about 30 employees of the more than 100 who were laid off in the winter in the next month, company representatives have announced.

* Art Institute cutting 22 staffers

* Mayor owes aldermen a voice in 2016 pledge

* Alderman Wants to Cap City Spending on Olympics

FLORES: To just simply say, ‘Well, we’re going to write a blank check and we’re gonna put the City of Chicago, hold the City of Chicago responsible for that blank check,’ I can’t sign on to that.

Flores plans to introduce an ordinance that would cap the city’s financial responsibility at $500-million. The City Council already committed to guarantee that amount. Mayor Daley and Chicago 2016 officials say it’s unlikely they would need to tap into the money.

* Parking Meter Feud Heads South

* Chicago City Hall gets unlikely conscience

* City spends $22 million on rent

The city of Chicago spends more than $22 million a year leasing property, usually from clout-heavy landlords and often at higher rents than other tenants pay, a Chicago Sun-Times investigation has found.

In all, the city’s Department of General Services says it has 75 leases for properties the city uses for such things as libraries, offices, warehouses and clinics.

But the list — provided by the mayor’s staff in response to a Sun-Times records request — appears to be incomplete. It doesn’t include, for instance, the warehouse at 3348 S. Pulaski that the city has occupied on a month-to-month lease since it was acquired by Vanecko and his partners in 2007. City Hall has paid them more than $480,000 in rent over the past 15 months.

* Even a change agent needs a change

* Time to send Flowers packing

* Ex-con could be ousted if he won’t quit Niles board

Niles Trustee George Alpogianis is a convicted felon and the Cook County state’s attorney’s office will seek to remove him from the village board if he doesn’t resign, spokesman Andy Conklin said.

But in an interview Thursday, Alpogianis said he’s not planning to resign.

“Right now, I’m not stepping down,” Alpogianis said.

Alpogianis was elected in April despite news reports that he had pleaded guilty to six felonies as a teenager.

* Campton Hills ousts village treasurer; she threatens suit

* Sheriffs’ officials investigating Ford Heights evidence mess

When Cook County sheriff’s officials opened the evidence vault at the tiny Ford Heights Police Department — a department it took over about a year ago — they found hundreds of weapons, along with drugs, molded sexual assault kits and other items stacked on shelves and sealed in boxes, said Cmdr. Brian White.

Problem is, no one knows why the items were confiscated by Ford Heights police. None of the evidence was properly tagged or marked, meaning authorities don’t know if they are connected to crimes — and if so what crimes — or even how long they’ve been in police possession.

That means there are possibly crimes in Ford Heights that will never be solved, said Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart.

“This is serious. This is horrible. This is devastating,” he said. “There is no way to put a cheery spin on this. … We’ll never know where some of these guns are connected to or where they come from.”

* Illinois Freedom Run honors fallen heroes

* NTSB: High water at site of fatal train derailment

* Fish kill reported along Rock River

Sgt. Carl Lewis of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources says they’re trying to determine if the run off from a train derailment in the Rockford area got into the Kishaukee River, which flows into the Rock River. That train was carrying ethanol, and Friday’s derailment caused an explosion that killed one person.

* State dig revealing 700-year-old village

* 2 Illinois guardsmen killed in Afghanistan

Staff Sgt. Joshua Melton, 26, of Germantown and Sgt. Paul Smith, 43, of East Peoria died when their vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device in Kandahar, the military said.

Including Melton and Smith, the Illinois National Guard has lost 14 soldiers in Afghanistan since September — as many as died in Iraq and Afghanistan in the preceding seven years combined. In September, it called up 2,700 guardsmen in its largest deployment since World War II.