* Ex-IDOT workers’ case nears trial…

After six years, countless briefs and motions as well as accusations of impropriety, 16 former state government workers will get to tell a jury why they think they were fired because of their political beliefs.

* The surging pain of foreclosures…

Year-end projections for 2010 show banks and other lending institutions filed 51,900 new foreclosure suits in Cook County Circuit Court. The clerk’s office won’t have a final tally until mid-January, but a spokeswoman said the number is among the highest on the books.

The projections suggest foreclosures continue a steady climb that began in 2006, when filings in Cook County Circuit Court sat at 18,916 and jumped 70 percent in 2007 to 32,269. In the first half of the decade, foreclosures ranged from 12,000 to 15,000 annually.

It also suggests too, experts say, that the housing crisis hasn’t abated, but rather just spread to new demographics.

“What we’ve seen is a lot of shifts in where the growth is occurring and that’s mostly in the suburbs and among middle income and higher income” groups, said Geoff Smith, senior vice president of the Woodstock Institute, a Chicago-based non-profit research organization.

* Full job recovery is years away…

Think three years plus. That’s how long it’s expected to take for Illinois to regain jobs lost during the Great Recession under some of the brightest forecasts. But it could be years longer.

The timelines are unwelcome news for the unemployed.

While this year is expected to bring continued gradual improvements in job growth, the biggest gains aren’t forecast until 2013 and 2014 by economic research firms IHS Global Insight and Moody’s Analytics.

* Jobs 2011 Slight upgrade, but competition still stiff…

If you’re planning to keep your job or find a new one in 2011, the new year’s outlook is positive, labor experts say.

In terms of layoffs, planned job cuts are already down about 60 percent from 2009, according to Chicago employment counseling firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas.

Although hiring will improve slightly in 2011, that doesn’t necessarily mean job seekers will have an easier time finding work, the firm reports.

* Another Victim of the Great Recession: Child Support Payments

* Illinois unemployment rates keep falling

* Tourism numbers at Lincoln sites show a drop: But tourism and historic-site managers said the fall-off from the 200th anniversary celebration of Abraham Lincoln’s birth in 2009 was anticipated. They remain encouraged that numbers in most cases were ahead of 2008.

* Hospitals giving more, but demand also is rising

* Big donors get front row seats at tax sales

* Quinn signs police and fire pension measure into law…

The bill adds some punishment. For towns that don’t make minimum payments, starting in 2015, the state can divert some of a town’s income or sales tax receipts to cover the pension payments. Municipal lobbyists suggested that will lead to dramatic tax hikes or service cuts.

But the measure also pushes pension debt further out, requiring suburbs to reach just 90 percent funding by 2040 instead of the current law: 100 percent by 2033.

And the bill would eventually save Chicago and suburbs by cutting benefits of new hires starting next year. The traditional retirement age would rise from 50 to 55 and it would become more difficult to spike pensions with end-of-career salary bumps.

* New law bars most credit checks in hiring

* Wage-theft law takes effect without many teeth: More than five months since Quinn signed the law, however, his administration hasn’t finished writing enforcement rules.

* Illinois’ first limits on campaign contributions finally becomes enforceable

* Campaign cash, state pensions addressed under laws for 2011

* New Ill. law pushes ‘fair’ taxes on mobile homes: The measure, scheduled to take effect Saturday along with nearly 200 other new Illinois laws, requires a factory-assembled home on private property and not part of a mobile home park to be assessed and taxed as real property. Gone would be the days of such affected properties being taxed by counties at 15 cents per square foot — a rate that drops over time as the home ages… [The law] exempts existing homes until they’re sold, transferred or relocated.

* State FOIA stronger, but work in progress

* New pet laws in Illinois

* Brynden’s Law among new 2011 laws: The new year will ring in more than 200 new laws, of which several originated in southern Illinois. One, named in memory Herrin child Brynden Gibson, will expand the state’s violent offender registry to include persons convicted of shaking babies to death.

* New Speeding Law On the Books: The law, crafted by Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White, eliminates the possibility of court supervision for any driver convicted of speeding 40 miles per hour or more over the speed limit, allowing only for up to a year in jail, probation, or both.

* New Law To Stop Burglars

* Lawmakers go ape with new laws

* Tribune: Eden Martin’s Illinois

* New offer to St. Clair County deputies: ‘If they accept this, there will not be any layoffs’

* ‘I believe they were sick’: Union chief defends East St. Louis cops who did not report to work

* Judge sued twice over land deals

* Opponents fight to protest outside Church of Scientology: A Chicago judge will decide this month whether a city code prevents protesters who oppose Scientology’s teachings from expressing their discontent any time the church’s doors are open or only during its conventional Sunday worship service.

* Ousted Ryan juror wins lawsuit

* Long-serving Illinois Supreme Court clerk retires

* Lost German Chicago: Lost German Chicago traces German-American life through the tumultuous events of the Beer Riots, Haymarket Affair, Prohibition, and America’s entry into two world wars.

* Chuck Berry Collapses On Keyboard At Congress Theater

*Agent: Chuck Berry suffered from exhaustion