* Kane state’s attorney takes on the Latin Kings

Wednesday’s announcement by Kane County State’s Attorney John Barsanti marks the first time his office has used the 1993 Illinois Streetgang Terrorism Omnibus Prevention Act, although similar operations have been conducted in DuPage and Boone counties.

“We have gang crime in the county. It’s no secret,” Barsanti said. “This just gives us another method of attack.”

So far, 50 of the people listed in the Sept. 8 lawsuit have been served with a summons to appear in civil court in Geneva from Oct. 4 to 7.

* Illinois home foreclosures fall 14% in August

A report released Thursday by Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac shows Illinois with 16,808 foreclosure filings last month. Filings include default notices, auction-sale notices and bank
repossessions.

The filings represent one in every 314 housing units in the state. That rate is 29 percent higher than in August last year and ninth-highest nationally.

* U.S. homes lost to foreclosure up 25 pct on year

* Early Illinois corn harvest brings smaller yields

Farmers have already harvested about a quarter of the corn crop in central and eastern Illinois. That’s well above the five year average and certainly topping the late harvest in 2009.

Above normal temperatures are advancing the harvest season. It’s true in Illinois and North Carolina.

* Higher fines for speeding in Illinois start today

* Chicago man gets 23 years for $77M Ponzi scheme

* Kadner: Mayor says bloggers are U.S. terrorists

Internet bloggers who anonymously ridicule public officials are like terrorists who hijack American planes and fly them into buildings, according to Mokena Mayor Joe Werner.

Werner made that comment at a Sept. 13 village board meeting. A videotape of that session is available on Mokena’s official Web site (mokena.org).

During a telephone call Wednesday, Werner told me he wasn’t backing off from his statement.

“They’re cowards,” Werner said. “That was the point I was making.

* Tribune Co. given OK to add another law firm to bankruptcy case

* Will CAPS Officers Be Reassigned To Street Duty?

It was supposed to happen this week. We already had the details: 130 officers to be reassigned.

But once the department’s partners in its Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy, or CAPS, started to protest at 7 p.m. Wednesday, the moves were put on hold — until at least next month.

* Officers Rally Against Weis, Manpower Shortage

* Protesters: More cops, less Weis

* Protesting the Police Protest

* 300 cops protest, demand that Weis resign

* Tribune: What about … Chicago?: One more prediction: A police union that’s unhappy now isn’t likely to get a lot happier. The next superintendent likely won’t be able to manufacture hundreds of new officers any more than Weis could. Chicago … is … broke.

* Cook County commissioners OK ethics reforms, boost fines for violations

Commissioners — and even the head of the county’s ethics board, MaryNic Foster — agree that one of the most significant pieces of legislation bans firms from making political contributions to elected leaders if they’ve audited the county’s finances, aided in issuing bonds or done legal work for the county.

But Cook County Commissioner Forrest Claypool, a North Side Democrat who is running for Cook County Assessor as an independent, hailed the passage of other reform legislation that he authored, aimed squarely at his opponent, Joe Berrios.

* Daley rips Race to the Top education funding process

* Daley blasts education plan pushed by Obama, Duncan

* CTA to cut 70 jobs, $50 mil.

* CTA Proposes Job Cuts

* CTA to slash more than 70 jobs next year

* RTA: Expect fare hikes but no new services

Schlickman, at his last meeting after five years as RTA chief, said transportation officials were skeptical about the state’s ability to come up with the $2.7 billion the legislature approved last year for five years’ worth of highway, transportation and infrastructure projects.

The state already owes the RTA $300 million this year just to pay its bills.

* NIU getting $68.5 million to bring broadband to rural areas

* Taxpayers foot bill for flood victims’ zoo day

* Water main break floods Niles street

* Northbrook reconsiders political sign restrictions

* Sheriff’s officer sues Hanover Park

* Lombard to get rid of its lone red-light camera

* Elk Grove hires new business director

* Ex-Hawthorn Woods official sues over dismissal

A former trustee and director of parks and recreation for the village of Hawthorn Woods has filed a federal lawsuit claiming she was fired because of her loyalties to the previous administration.

However, defendants said the lawsuit is typical political fodder from former mayor Keith Hunt, who is the attorney for Kimberly Lynch, the plaintiff of the lawsuit.

The litigation, filed Sept. 8, also claims Lynch was penalized because she told people in the community Chief Operating Officer Pamela Newton kept toys that had been collected for the Toys for Tots program in 2009, and that the village hired Newton and finance Director Kristen Kazenas to full-time jobs despite not having money in the village budget to do so.

* Boone County votes to restrict use of safety tax

* Preliminary Adams County budget shows $1.86 million deficit

* Pontiac library to review hiring policies after theft charges

* Gas tax to go on spring ballot in Westville

* Danville schools to reopen after strike settled

* SIUE among top 50 safest schools; Wash U ranked 13th most dangerous