* The Decline: The Geography of a Recession

* State, local authorities reach agreement on high-speed rail

* Hard Hats Don’t Deflect Union Workers’ Hardships

* Chicago’s hiring outlook bleak for early 2010

Employers in the Chicago metropolitan area expect to be hiring at a slow pace in the first three months of 2010, with just 8 percent saying they plan to add staff during the quarter, according to a survey unveiled Tuesday by Manpower Inc.

* Daley aims to help ‘ma and pa’ companies

Calling small business the “backbone” of Chicago’s economy, Mayor Daley today unveiled plans to give Ma and Pa companies the capital and regulatory relief they need to survive the prolonged recession.[…]

City Hall has set aside $3.2 million from the Chicago Skyway windfall to provide loans of $10,000 to $150,000 to small businesses through a fund administered by the city treasurer’s office. And $350,000 in parking meter proceeds will be used to leverage another $23 million in small business loans.

* Daley announces plans for small business loans

* City Gives Small Businesses a Break

* Daley says OT costs won’t stop him from sending out plows

* Daley: Internet feeds media’s snowstorm hysteria

Mayor Daley believes the Internet has taken media hysteria about Chicago snowstorms to a whole new level.

* Chief judge creating domestic violence division

The chief judge of Cook County Circuit Court is creating a domestic violence division to try to improve communication among judges and ensure that abuse victims don’t fall through the cracks.

* Governor’s Conference on Aging opens in Chicago

* CPS students spin wheels in math tests

Students at Chicago Public Schools showed little improvement over two years on fourth- and eighth-grade national math tests, despite a push to improve mathematics achievement, federal data released Tuesday indicates.

* Some CPS Students Inching Up in Math

Overall Chicago public school’s 4th and 8th graders are making small but steady gains. But NAEP’s Andrew Kolstad says in the last two years it’s Chicago’s Hispanic fourth graders making the most progress.

* Hiding from the test

The Tribune reported last month that 10,000 seniors in public high schools magically got there without ever being juniors. That is, they were sophomores, and then they sort of disappeared for a year, and then they popped up as seniors.

They were going to school the whole time. But by fudging their class status when they should have been juniors, their schools shielded them from taking the Prairie State Achievement Exam. The two-day test is given to all juniors and it is used, among other things, to gauge how schools are performing.

* Firefighters, hurt feelings aside, say they’re all on same team

* Conflicts of interest harm government credibility

Just how much of a direct link does there need to be between a proposal before a government body, an elected official and financial interest before the official needs to step away and recuse himself? These are some questions that have been roiling for Woodford County Board member Terry Pille over the issue of wind farm development.

* No Asian carp south of Chicago despite DNA find

* Oak Park crime: Police pass out whistles to help residents fight back

* Illinois video gambling: Kane County bans machines in unincorporated areas

* Lake County groups buying up land

Bad housing market enabling districts to expand green spaces

* Flea markets thriving in down times

* Homer Glen Plan Commission to village: drop land purchase

* Illinois American Water may consider franchise deal with Homer Glen

* Cicero puts brakes on illegal car sales

* Orland Park reviews plan to make wider LaGrange Road safer

* Teamsters threaten supermarket strike

* Stopping the spread of H1N1 flu at homeless shelters

* Community involvement, magnet campus could help rescue District 227

* Elgin officials reflect on former councilman

* U of I Trustees Continue Search for President

* Harpo to carry on after Oprah ends run

* Burglars targeting snowplows

* Enraged Ill. woman dragged from sentencing