* Two major labor unions reject concessions

Despite a last-minute bargaining session early Wednesday, two hold-out unions refused to agree to Mayor Richard Daley’s demand for cost-cutting concessions, paving the way for 431 members of Teamsters 726 and AFSCME Council 31 to lose their jobs today.

“I feel terrible for workers losing their jobs and their families,” Daley said at a city hall news conference. “I did not want to lay anyone off. It could have been all avoided. … We held out hope that an agreement could be reached. That did not happen. So we’re forced to take this very sad and unwelcome step.”

Later Wednesday morning, top mayoral aides talked with AFSCME representatives and made it clear the city remained open to an agreement that matched the terms accepted by 25 of the city’s 27 unions.

The two-year deal calls for union workers to take 24 unpaid days through June 30, 2011, substitute comp time for cash overtime and convert all city holidays - nine a year for hourly employees and 12 for salaried workers - to unpaid days.

* Laid-Off Teamster: My Throat Has Been Cut

Daley is no stranger to layoffs. The 431 pink-slipped Wednesday were just the most recent Daley job cuts which, since the year 2000, have reduced the city’s workforce by 15 percent to 33,621 employees.

* Daley denies clean slate for Street & San slackers

Mayor Daley on Wednesday denounced as a “phony story” reports that his newly-appointed Streets and Sanitation commissioner has agreed to implement a disciplinary amnesty for Streets and San employees.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported today that longtime Daley favorite Tom Byrne had agreed to wipe the disciplinary slate clean to help convince Laborers Union Local 1001 to agree to cost-cutting concessions.

The two-year agreement averted the need for 323 layoffs that could have impacted garbage collection. The firings would have forced the city to reduced 100 more garbage collection crews from two laborers-on-a-truck-to-one…

“Essentially, we’re going to give a pass to slackers, people who don’t show up. That’s a complete lie. This is a phony story… And I’m not mad because she’ll say I’m mad and you’ll get a picture.”

* Daley to ask arbitrator to handle police, fire contract talks

Mayor Daley said Wednesday he’ll roll the dice and ask an independent arbitrator to dictate new contracts with police officers and firefighters who must do their part to help solve the city’s financial crisis.

During his annual State of the City address, Daley noted that public safety employees who account for 70 percent of city spending were excused from a cost-cutting plan that required other city unions to choose between layoffs and furlough days and other givebacks.

“They’re not in the boat. We’re in the boat. … They have to come back to the boat. … We’re asking them to get back in the boat. Talk to your taxpayers. Talk to your neighbor. They have to be part of the solution and not part of the problem,” he said.

“So we’re gonna go to arbitration with them. And I’ve asked every employee to understand: This is one city and all of us have to come together. It can’t be them and us.”

* Mayor Daley uses State of the City address to ask CPS, CTA, others to hold the line on taxes, fees, fares hikes

The mayor used his annual State of the City address to tackle the issues that have touched a nerve with Chicagoans. They range from higher taxes, youth violence and government corruption to video poker, the Olympics and Chicago parking meters.

“People are upset about a lot of things. They’re worried that they might lose their jobs — or they’ve lost their job or their home or their health insurance. They won’t be able to pay off the student loans or even take a vacation,” Daley said.

“The want to know we can get all we can from every tax dollar and manage government prudently, transparently. They want to know their streets are safe.”

To keep his hand out of taxpayer pockets, Daley urged the Chicago Public Schools, City Colleges, the CTA, CHA and Park District to hold the line on taxes, fees and fare hikes this year and to order their top level executives to join the furlough frenzy.

* Unfiltered: Mayor Daley’s ‘City of Chicago Address’

* CTA says it can avoid service cuts

CTA officials said Wednesday that they would be able to plug a $35 million budget gap without service reductions, which they previously had said may be necessary.

The CTA plans to plug the gap through a hiring freeze overtime reductions, reductions in nonessential travel and seminars and fuel savings through the use of newer buses.

* Transit agency to fight sexual harassment on CTA

* County panel hears railroad concerns

* Red-light cameras: RedSpeed denies River Forest’s proposed 2-level fine plan

The raging safety-versus-money debate over red-light cameras took another twist Wednesday when a suburban traffic camera company said it wouldn’t agree to a break on fines for violators caught making illegal rolling right turns on red.

Lombard-based RedSpeed Illinois rejected a plan by River Forest to set a lower fine for such violations, as opposed to the more dangerous maneuver of blowing through an intersection.

On Monday, the River Forest Village Board voted conditionally to hire RedSpeed to install two traffic cameras on Harlem Avenue. But board members also said they wanted to limit right-turn-related fines to $50, half the usual $100 for tickets from red-light cameras.

* Halt fines until camera laws fixed

Our four-part series Seeing Red revealed that the majority of tickets issued through the use of the cameras are for improper right turns on red. Also, numerous cameras are installed or planned at intersections where few crashes related to running red lights occur. Those two findings make it clear that, so far, these cameras are about making money rather than improving safety.

Adding to the concern is the troubling fact that the state is not informed of violators (cars are ticketed, rather than the driver) and therefore repeat offenders are not tracked.

* Lawmakers call for tighter rules for red-light cameras

“I hate them. I absolutely hate them,” said state Rep. Jim Durkin, a Western Springs Republican who voted for the original red-light camera legislation back in 2006. “It is strictly a moneymaking mechanism. I don’t believe it goes to public safety.”

State Rep. Paul Froehlich, a Schaumburg Democrat who voted for red-light cameras, says he will support tighter regulation to eliminate public concern that the cameras are misused to make money.

“This tends to reinforce the public perception that these guys are trying to haul in as much cash as they can,” Froehlich said. “That undercuts public support, and if you lose that, then these things could be gone entirely.”

Senate President John Cullerton, a Chicago Democrat who pushed for red-light cameras, said he is open to tinkering with the law to allay public concerns. But he also said that “would be tricky.”

* Case of mistaken identity: Granville, not Grandview, in line for half-million-dollar project

* 110 temp, seasonal workers off city payroll

About 110 seasonal and temporary workers and 25 crossing guards were taken off Springfield city government’s payroll as of Wednesday.

Layoff notices also were sent to seven employees at Lincoln Library Wednesday.

* Stark considers public safety tax

* Dan Lipinski: The rock ‘n’ roll congressman?

Public service announcements playing on several area radio stations these days urges listeners to call Lipinski’s office to voice their opinion against a bill moving through Congress.

The announcement urges the congressman to vote against something called the Performance Rights Act. The bill would require radio stations, for the first time ever, to pay royalties to the bands and singers that fill their airwaves.

The spot involving Lipinski is one of six targeting legislators in the Chicago area who support the legislation or remain undecided about it.

* Porch safety: Chicago says it’s up to you

Six years after a catastrophic porch collapse in Lincoln Park killed 13 people and forced a Chicago-wide crackdown on dangerous porches, the city has returned to a more passive vigilance of the hazards. While city officials say their hard work has reduced the potential threats, a shortage of inspection manpower and a continuing stream of newly reported cases mean that bad porches often are discovered only haphazardly — and sometimes too late.

* Economy tied to central Illinois blood drive cuts

* Racial Disparity in Unemployment Numbers

* Foreclosure filings up from last year, but down from May

The number of homes hit with foreclosure filings in Cook County in June spiked 23 percent from a year earlier, but dropped 17 percent from May, RealtyTrac said in its monthly report released Wednesday.

In the Chicago metropolitan area, foreclosures soared 38 percent in June to 10,346 from a year earlier, or one in every 363 homes, the report showed. Filings dipped 2 percent from May. One in every 373 homes in Cook County received a foreclosure filing.

Nationally, filings rose 33 percent over the year and 5 percent from May.

* Foreclosures rise 15 percent in first half of 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of U.S. households on the verge of losing their homes soared by nearly 15 percent in the first half of the year as more people lost their jobs and were unable to pay their monthly mortgage bills.

The mushrooming foreclosure crisis affected more than 1.5 million homes in the first six months of the year, according to a report released Thursday by foreclosure listing service RealtyTrac Inc.

* Rezko’s Wilmette mansion going on the auction block

Once the site of fund-raisers for politicians including soon-to-be president Barack Obama and then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich, the Wilmette mansion of convicted businessman Tony Rezko is on the auction block.

Bank of America, the mortgage holder that won a foreclosure judgment on Rezko’s defaulted $5.9 million note in May, will auction the opulent, two-story, 8,400-square-foot home next month.

* Goodbye, Sears: Hello, Willis

Sears Tower undergoes its identity change today. The nation’s tallest building becomes Willis Tower, and the guy who negotiated the switch understands the irritation he has created.

Joseph Plumeri, chairman of Willis Group Holdings Ltd., said that instead of bemoaning a name change for the iconic tower, Chicagoans should celebrate his company’s visibility and local commitment. In a time of corporate cutbacks, he’s bringing 500 jobs to Sears Tower by consolidating five Chicago-area offices.

* A Chicago Icon Gets a New Name and a Green Makeover

Chicago’s Sears Tower is getting a new name, later today the skyscraper will be re-christened the Willis Tower. But another, perhaps more significant, change is also on the way for the building. Its owners want to give it a $350-million green makeover…

HUSTON: The windows that are currently installed in the building are single glazed windows; that means they are not insulated glass. Our plan is to change all 16,000 windows to a triple glazed unit…

There are 10 boilers. All of them will be replaced. They’ll also test wind turbines and add solar panels. All told they’re hoping to reduce electricity use by 80 percent.

Huston and his partners won’t say exactly how much of their own money they plan to kick in to accomplish that but they are hoping to get some public and private money for the project. One selling point: they say the rehab could create 3,600 green jobs. Scott Horst is with the US Green Building Council.

* Chicago firm to go on trial in NFL player’s death

Kelci Stringer is suing football helmets and shoulder pads maker Riddell Inc. over her husband’s 2001 heatstroke death at training camp. U.S. District Judge John Holschuh set the trial date Monday in Columbus.

The trial will determine whether Chicago-based Riddell bears any responsibility for Korey Stringer’s death.

* Illinois dam safety proposal beached for now

Dam Safety Rule 3703 would have created 350-foot exclusion zones around all of the state’s public waterway dams. As originally written, it would have required paddlers to remove their boats 300 feet north of a dam, and not put back in until 50 feet south.

The rule, drafted by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, is intended to keep boaters safe from dangerous rolling dams. It was written in response to three drowning deaths near the Yorkville dam in 2007.

But opponents say it goes too far, and doesn’t take into account different types of dams in different locations.

The Joint Committee on Administrative Rules agreed and on Tuesday voted to hold the item indefinitely while the IDNR works out the kinks.

* South Beloit under state EPA deadline

As of March 19, the plant began pumping up to 750,000 gallons a day of untreated wastewater into the Rock River on and off for March and April. The wastewater was pumped into the river because sewage began backing up into some customers’ basements. Cracked pipes, failing pumps and excess groundwater are pushing the plant beyond its capacity of 3 million gallons a day.

South Beloit has until Aug. 4, or 21 days from July 14, to craft a solution to get the treatment plant in compliance, said Charles Corley, water pollution regional manager with IEPA.

Once the solution is created, the problem is typically corrected within six to 12 months. If the city doesn’t correct the problem, the issue will be sent to Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office.

* PJ-Star: More than one step to saving the Illinois River

Construction that the Army Corps of Engineers began last week on an island in Peoria Lake is far from the only step needed to restore a waterway that’s long been choking on silt. Despite some disagreements over its likely effectiveness, it does fit into one of the two broad ways in which the Illinois River’s problems can be addressed.

* EPA seeks public’s input on Great Lakes cleanup