* Top cop ‘nervous’ about likely retirement surge

Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis said Friday he is “extremely nervous” that a wave of police retirements next year — after an arbitrator rules on the new police contract — will stretch a burgeoning manpower shortage beyond levels he considers safe.

Roughly 1,000 officers are eligible to retire now that Mayor Daley has promised to extend premium health benefits to officers who call it quits at 55. But many are waiting until the contract is settled in hopes that a raise will lock in a higher rate of retirement pay.

The Police Department has 600 sworn vacancies and is 2,000 officers short of authorized strength.

After hiring only 46 police officers this year, Daley’s 2010 budget uses federal stimulus funds to add just 86 officers, 30 of them for the CTA.

* Some Chicago aldermen say they’re frustrated at the continued lack of diversity in the top ranks of the police department.

* Speeding tickets get tossed, but no LIDAR letup

* Speeding tickets: Use of laser guns in Chicago to catch speeders is questioned

* DUI case might lead judge to rule on LIDAR

A Skokie lawyer’s challenge of a speeding ticket that also led to his client being charged with DUI may finally provide the test case that will restore some sanity to how accused speeders are treated in Chicago’s Traffic Court.[…]

Livas has asked a Traffic Court judge to hold what in legal circles is known as a “Frye hearing” — during which the burden will be on prosecutors to prove that LIDAR technology is scientifically proven to be reliable.

Cheering him on — but only to a point — are both the Cook County state’s attorney and Chicago corporation counsel’s offices, which have been seeking exactly such a test case for the local court to establish the presumed validity of LIDAR speed calculations.

* It’s our money

The city’s 160 tax increment financing districts, or TIFs, have generated more than half a billion dollars in property taxes in each of the last two years — money that’s off-limits when it comes to balancing the budget. The average taxpayer isn’t particularly sympathetic to the legal explanation for that, especially in hard times. Our property taxes are going into a mayoral slush fund while the city can’t afford to pick up the trash?

* Lawsuit over contracts could hurt watchdog

It ranks among the strangest-sounding lawsuits ever. The City of Chicago is suing the City of Chicago to reveal what advice the City of Chicago gave to city employees over a questionable city contract.[…]

The inspector general hasn’t publicly identified the contract it’s investigating, but the Chicago Sun-Times reported Friday that it involved former city employee and Cook County Commissioner Charles Bowen, who was awarded a $100,000 no-bid contract to recruit and retain minority police officers.

* Prosecutors seek Northwestern journalism students’ grades

Cook County prosecutors have outraged the university and the journalism community by issuing subpoenas to professor David Protess seeking his students’ grades, his syllabus and their private e-mails. Prosecutors claim since the team was made up of students, they may have been under pressure to prove the case to get a good grade.

It’s a first for Protess and his investigative reporting students, who have helped free 11 innocent men from prison, including death row, since 1996. Their work also is credited with prompting then-Gov. George Ryan to empty the state’s death row in 2003, re-igniting a national debate on the death penalty.

* School board chief asks kids: ‘How can I help?’

Rides bus with Fenger students to show safety is a big concern

* Fourth teen charged in Fenger beating

With the arrest of a 14-year-old, Chicago Police say they now have charged the four “main offenders who struck the critical blows” that killed Fenger High School honors student Derrion Albert, but they’re still looking for three others.

* Ex-state health official indicted for misconduct

* Bus driver charged with lying about beating by cop

* You’re next, Ike

After traffic-snarling projects on other interstates, I-290 resurfacing to begin in April

* Track work to slow L next weekend

* Ads target sexual harassment on CTA

* 51,000 in city vaccinated in a week

Chicago Department of Public Health officials say they’ve vaccinated almost 51,000 people against the swine flu in seven days.

* Flu having an impact in central Illinois

And the Illinois Department of Public Health reported eight new flu deaths Friday, bringing the total deaths since April to 36.

* School districts’ salary gaps don’t always affect test scores

Teachers’ pay determined by many factors including experience and cost of living, but rarely based on student performance

* Illinois Math and Science Academy named Intel’s top school nationally for science excellence

* Fed money to target foreclosed Southland homes

* Laid-off workers tapping 401(k) funds to survive

* New Chicago Numbers Get New Area Code

* Want to make your e-mail disappear?

Software in the works erases sensitive data from Internet after a specified time — so it doesn’t last forever