* Search warrants executed at Flowers’ regional schools office

Investigators from Cook County state’s attorney’s office this morning raided the Suburban Cook County Regional Office of Education in Westchester in connection with an ongoing investigation into Supt. Charles Flowers.

Numerous purchases made on Flowers’ regional office credit card were of a personal nature, the audit shows. Credit card statements obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests detail thousands of dollars spent on food and restaurants, a trip to a hair salon and limousine charges. Documents also reveal that Flowers began his tenure with a credit card limit of $5,000, and it is now at $20,000.

This is all coming from an office where Flowers hired family and friends, including a nephew whom the audit shows was paid to eat lunch. Flowers approved $15,000 in cash advances for his executive assistant - who is also his sister - and another employee. In addition, two assistant superintendents each collected their $80,000-plus paychecks along with $12,000 and $9,400 in grant money for “consulting services” they did during normal working hours, according to the audit.

* ‘He just took the money and ran’

When schools chief Charles Flowers borrowed $190,000 for operations from the Cook County Board a year ago, he had until Tuesday to pay it back.

In a move that Cook County Commissioner Elizabeth Doody Gorman (R-Orland Park) called “embarrassing,” the embattled Suburban Cook Country Regional Office of Education superintendent did not make good on the loan.

“He just took the money and ran. And he’s still running,” Gorman said

* County monitor sees progress - but not enough - on political hiring

* Daley’s new direction: Odd Todd out!

It’s already begun: Sneed hears Mayor Daley has not only pulled the plug on supporting embattled Cook County Board President Todd Stroger for re-election, but he has hatched plans to back Ald. Toni Preckwinkle for the Cook County Board presidency.

* Your Stroger tax turns 1

* Council threatens own budget analysis. Daley responds: ‘They can analycize anything.’

Chicago aldermen agreed Tuesday to swallow a bitter pill and force it down the throats of all 3,700 non-union city employees: 15 unpaid days off by Dec. 31 to ease the city’s budget crisis.

The 42-to-6 vote was designed to pressure organized labor to agree to similar concessions to avert the need for 1,504 layoffs. But, aldermen also turned up the heat on Mayor Daley.

Burned by the parking meter fiasco and spurned in their demand for specific information about city contracts, aldermen are making noises about hiring their own budget analysts and generating their own spending plan to rival the mayor’s version, just as they did during Council Wars.

“We can’t have a partnership when there is no trust. We can’t make a decision on partial information,” said Ald. Manny Flores (1st).

* Chicago schools cutting 550 workers

The first round of Chicago Public Schools layoffs is set to begin Wednesday when more than 550 administrative employees will be fired as part of a cost-cutting plan, district sources said.

The cuts will come from a pool of about 5,300 non-classroom positions and are expected to result in savings of up to $100 million, sources said. Another round of layoffs is expected later in the summer as the district’s new CEO, Ron Huberman, is looking at up to 1,000 layoffs.

The nation’s third-largest school district hopes to save as much as $200 million from layoffs and cutting contracts, but even that would amount to less than half of a budget deficit pegged at $475 million to $600 million, depending on state aid.

* Federal funds could avert firefighter layoffs

Federal grant money may save the jobs of Springfield firefighters.

The Springfield Fire Department could lose 29 employees, more than 12 percent of its 229-member staff, according to the scenarios provided by the mayor’s office. Springfield’s International Association of Fire Fighters Local 37 represents 214 of those employees.

* Deputies could go on 12-hour shifts this weekend

* Chicago aldermen take on Daley’s plan for 2016 Olympics

Ald. Manuel Flores (1st) introduced an ordinance to cap the city’s liability for 2016 losses at $500 million. Just 10 other aldermen in the 50-member council signed as co-sponsors. “I remain a supporter of the Games, but it has to be done in a thoughtful and transparent manner,” Flores said. “What types of guarantees are we offering?”

Restrictions like what Flores proposed could severely harm Chicago’s bid, several observers said. The International Olympic Committee will choose Oct. 2 between Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo.

* Resolution calls for Chicago 2016 books to be opened to ‘objective’ third-party

Chicago 2016 must open its books to an “objective” third-party — possibly the Civic Federation — for an analysis of the city’s Olympic bid, under a resolution approved by the City Council Tuesday.

The resolution calling for a Civic Federation analysis was co-sponsored by Finance Committee Chairman Edward M. Burke (14th) and Traffic Committee Chairman Pat O’Connor, Daley’s unofficial City Council floor leader. It drew widespread support.

“There’s a lot of people in my community who don’t trust the 2016 committee,” said Ald. Richard Mell (33rd).

* Big-box measure returns to Chicago City Council

The bitter battle that gave birth to the big-box minimum-wage ordinance that was snuffed out by Mayor Daley’s only veto returned to the City Council today.

It happened when Ald. Howard Brookins (21st), business and community leaders turned up the heat on aldermen to give Wal-Mart the go-ahead to build its second Chicago store — and first super-center that sells groceries — at a former Chatham industrial site at 83rd and Stewart.

With the city facing a $300 million budget shortfall and unemployment among African Americans topping 20 percent, Brookins said it makes no sense to block a $64 million project that would create 600 full- and part-time jobs.

Daley has said Brookins’ request “is not gonna fly” because Wal-Mart backers “don’t have enough votes.” The mayor is reluctant to pick a fight with organized labor before the International Olympic Committee’s Oct. 2 vote on a host city for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.

* Chicago Making Plans for Environmental Stimulus Dollars

Chicago will get more than $27 million in Energy Efficient Conservation Block Grants as part of the federal stimulus program. It wants to spend that money retrofitting nearly a thousand intersections with LED traffic signals, greening city facilities, and replacing some alley and street lights with lower wattage designs.

* Homeowners get second shot at combating foreclosure

Starting today and lasting until just before Labor Day, the county’s court system essentially is calling a time out until it can get its arms around an ever-growing mountain of foreclosure cases.

* Congrats! The value of your home has gone down

Notices sent Tuesday to some 20,000 homeowners, excluding condominium owners, in and around Rogers Park show a median 6.1 percent drop in assessed values, according to the Cook County assessor’s office.

“The downturn in the real estate market combined with the increase in foreclosures are having a pronounced impact on the city reassessment,” said Eric Herman, a spokesman for the office.

The assessor’s office slices the county into thirds — city, north suburbs, south suburbs — examining each section once every three years. This year, it’s the city’s turn.

“This will be the first reassessment of Chicago property that has seen a decline in the assessed value in [recent] memory.”

* Refrigerated truck serves as traveling food pantry

The truck will let the food depository double the number of its mobile pantry sites to 20, with an additional 960,000 pounds of food to be distributed in fiscal year 2009-10, spokesman Bob Dolgan said. With the Chicago pilot program as its model, Kraft has committed to spend $4.5 million on 25 trucks that will work in six other cities in the next three years, including New York, San Antonio and Madison, Wis.

Since 2008, the Greater Chicago Food Depository and the St. Charles-based Northern Illinois Food Bank each say they have seen a 35 percent surge in need at area food pantries.

“We have had seniors and single mothers and people with disabilities” in the past, she said. “Now we also have professionals whose unemployment has run out.”

* Aldermen want pay-to-park plan at lakefront canceled

A pair of powerful aldermen — Rules Committee Chairman Richard Mell (33rd) and Transportation Committee Chairman Tom Allen (38th) — are demanding that the Park District cancel plans to start charging people this fall to park at lakefront parks and beaches.

The $700,000 plan calls for 4,400 lakefront spaces where parking is now free to cost $1-an-hour while rates at 537 metered spaces double or quadruple.

* Evanston to launch beach improvements at Clark Street

* Outside the ballpark: Proposal would move peddlers, bucket boys farther away from Wrigley

The latest round in a years-long battle over the streets surrounding Wrigley Field began Tuesday when the local alderman introduced a proposal to expand a ban on peddlers and street performers.

Chicago Ald. Thomas Tunney, whose 44th Ward includes the ballpark, is sponsoring a measure to add several blocks to the area where it’s already illegal to bang on buckets or sell food and merchandise from a cart, table or other temporary stand.

“It’s a public safety issue,” Tunney said. “You can’t walk to the park.”

* Chicago population rises for 2nd year in a row

From July 1, 2007, to July 1, 2008, Chicago grew by 20,606 people, according to population estimates released Wednesday by the Census Bureau. That’s more than three times the previous year’s reported increase of 6,400 people, which reversed five consecutive years of population declines.

* Recession means there are more of us

Census data released Wednesday highlight a city resurgence in coastal regions and areas of the Midwest and Northeast, due to a housing crunch, recession and higher gas prices that have slowed migration.

* More security getting aboard on Metra trains

Metra is alerting its riders that they will soon see federal Transportation Security Administration personnel patrolling their commuter trains.

The so-called VIPR teams — that’s short for Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response and pronounced “viper” for those of you keen on law enforcement acronyms — will consist of federal air marshals, transportation security officers, TSA-certified canine teams, surface transportation security inspectors and local law enforcement.

To be clear, “transportation security officers” are those same TSA folks who already order you around at the airport, some with more attitude than others.

* Federal security to patrol Metra trains

A Metra statement says they’ll work with existing security to bolster detection and deterrence. It adds the intention is to use unpredictability to disrupt potential terrorist planning activities.

The statement says the initiative isn’t a response to any specific threat.

* Judge: I’m tired of crooked cops in Chicago

An ex-Chicago cop was sentenced today to almost 11 years in prison for robbing drug dealers — a case that prompted the judge to declare he’s tired of the growing pace of wrongdoing by police officers.

“In this city, it seems to me we are bombarded by stories and cases and prosecutions of police misconduct,” said U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman, who imposed the sentence on Richard Doroniuk. “It’s been accelerating . . . It’s very discouraging.”

* Ex-Chicago cop sentenced in corruption case

* Illinois judge arrested for DUI

* Boost for Will County

Honeywell is consolidating two smaller sites, one in Chicago and another in Skokie, into the larger Bolingbrook headquarters. Most of the jobs will be filled with workers who transfer from those locations, said Jeff Morris, president of Honeywell Safety Products. But there will be some open positions now and in the future, he said. Information on job openings is available at www.honeywell.com.

Of the 125 jobs at the site, 75 will be manufacturing spots and 50 will be office workers.

* Hinsdale shopping plan would boost local economy

* This Fourth of July, boom goes bust

Fireworks shows are being canceled or scaled back in some small and midsize cities, as municipalities’ tax revenue dries up. Funding from corporate sponsorships also has fizzled.

Last week, west suburban Berwyn joined North Riverside, Elgin and Gurnee, among others, in canceling their annual shows. North Aurora opted to forego its usual display and instead donated $4,000 to fund neighboring Aurora’s event. Joliet struggled to pay for fireworks, but donors came through. And Woodridge, which put on two nights of fireworks last year, will have only one night this year.

* Joliet residents rally to keep fireworks flying

* Smoking bans extended to more parks in Chicago suburbs

* DuPage County residents rekindle fight against ComEd tree-trimming plan

* Federal judge won’t block BP refinery expansion

HAMMOND, Ind. — A federal judge has rejected a move by environmentalists to stop the $3.8 billion expansion of BP’s oil refinery along Lake Michigan.

The facility is the largest oil refinery in the Midwest. BP has said the expanded refinery would be the nation’s top processor of heavy high-sulfur Canadian crude oil.

* Deer in Illinois: Researchers track culinary clues left by deer in forest preserves

Nearly extinct a century ago in Illinois, deer have adapted to urban environments and are increasingly brazen when tempted with tasty vegetation. Forest preserve managers, like any backyard gardener, don’t want to waste money with plantings that become instant breakfast to a ravenous herd. They hope the university can help them figure out the deer’s gastronomic preferences so they can plant accordingly.

* Brookfield Zoo marks its 75th anniversary

* Sears Tower Skydeck is on top of the world

The Sears Tower Skydeck opens its lure for thrill-seekers Thursday. It’s called the Ledge and it gives the illusion of standing on air a few feet outside the building, 103 stories off the ground.

It could put the Skydeck on the must-see list for tourists, right up there with the museums and Michigan Avenue shopping. It’s supposed to be an engineering marvel.

* We don’t yet know ending of Jackson story

* Michael Jackson lip-synched in 1983 concert

* Gary to host Jackson memorial July 10