* New jobless claims fall for 5th time in 6 weeks

* More Illinois homeowners falling into foreclosure

The number of homeowners receiving default notices — the first step in the foreclosure process — continued to rise in Illinois last month, a bad omen for the state’s housing industry and economy.

Lenders filed initial court documents last month against 7,174 Illinois homeowners whose mortgages were delinquent, according to data scheduled to be released Thursday by RealtyTrac. That compares with 6,892 filings in August and 6,770 filings in June.

Altogether last month, some 12,771 Illinois homeowners received some sort of foreclosure filing, which can include initial notices of default, notices of a sheriff’s sale of the property or a notice that the lender has taken possession of the home.

The overall Illinois number, which is down 2.35 percent from August, remains 25 percent higher than in September 2008, said RealtyTrac, an online marketplace of foreclosed properties.

* Test scores static for Illinois students

Fourth-graders above proficient level on par with national average

* Everything is wrong but nothing’s illegal

It’s just possible, I suppose, that Charles Flowers has done nothing illegal. As superintendent of Cook County’s Regional Office of Education, he hired his two sisters and a nephew.[…]

Still, I would think that Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez might find something interesting in the way Flowers has used his credit card. He’s charged thousands of dollars for meals, some for as as much as $863, and purchased plane tickets to Mississippi for family members.

In the meantime, the regional schools office amassed about $1 million in debt and was unable to pay rent on the office space it occupied. So Flowers was handed an eviction notice in October.

Since May 1, in more than 20 stories, SouthtownStar staff writer Duaa Eldeib has chronicled a long list of actions by Flowers that demonstrates he has used his office to enrich himself, his relatives and close friends.

* Pace may slash bus services, raise paratransit fees

Dozens of Pace bus routes across the suburbs would be eliminated or reduced under a budget unveiled Wednesday as board directors also increased fares by 75 cents for 40,000 paratransit riders.

Out of Pace’s 255 routes, weekend service would decrease or end for 19 suburban bus routes under the proposed budget. As many as 33 weekday routes face the same fate.[…]

The board recommended the route cuts and instituted the fare hike to alleviate a $6.5 million deficit in the suburban services budget and a $29.8 million shortfall in the paratransit budget, said Patrick Wilmot, a Pace spokesman.[…]

Pace officials said a bill now before the state legislature could improve the agency’s financial outlook.

* Proposal to privatize snow removal plowed under

After a blizzard of aldermanic opposition and scant interest from private contractors, the Daley administration has scrapped plans to privatize one of Chicago’s most politically treacherous tasks: side-street snow removal, sources said Wednesday.

Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Tom Byrne dropped the idea like the hot potato that it is after only a handful of private contractors responded to the city’s “request-for-proposals” — and their bids were more costly than anticipated.

* Teamsters members sue Chicago over layoffs

Nearly 80 Teamsters truck drivers are suing the city after losing their jobs last summer as part of Mayor Richard Daley’s budget-cutting moves.

* Asset seizure law challenged

High court hears case of Chicago woman who waited 3 years to get car back

* Chicago crime down 9.6%, Weis says

* State favors Rochester FD in harassment case

* Work to begin soon on state building in Chicago

It will cost about $1 million to remove about 1,000 panels on the outside of the James R. Thompson Center. The panels weigh between 200 and 600 pounds.

* IDOT: ‘Pressure Made the Road Erupt’

* Race is on to repair Kennedy Expressway

* IDOT: Normal commute expected Thursday morning

* Cuts in store for Oak Forest Hospital under county proposal

* Two county hospitals may end inpatient admissions

* Cook County seeking docs to give H1N1 vaccinations