* High gas prices sticking around

St. Louis-based Bill O’Grady, chief investment strategist for Confluence Investment Management, said this increase is different than 2008, when gas topped $4 a gallon. At that point, part of the problem was because of the way some areas of the country required “almost custom tailoring” in the formulation of their gas. Now it’s the need for oil to fuel China and India.

“Unlike the last time we had a spike, this one is almost entirely crude oil driven,” O’Grady said.

If just-released International Energy Agency forecasts that global use will require 89 million barrels of oil a day prove true, that will stretch the existing capacity.

“It’s going to drive the price of oil higher,” he said. “We’ve got a problem developing. And really, it’s a global one.”

* Another fur coat missing from Inaugural Ball turns up

The owner of a $7,000 mink coat that disappeared from the coat check area during the Jan. 10 ball told the Springfield Police Department over the weekend that an anonymous person contacted her and arranged to ship the coat back to her. It was unclear how the person with the coat tracked down the owner, who lives in Springfield.

Another coat, a $2,000 cashmere one with a faux fur hood, was reported missing or stolen from the coat check but was found at the end of the night when workers searched the area. Best Expo, the contractor that handled the coat check operation at the Prairie Capital Convention Center that night, told police it would make arrangements to ship the garment to the owner in Quincy.

A third coat — a $5,000 mink coat — remains missing.

* State inks deal to take lottery private

As part of a massive deal that has been in the works for nearly two years, state officials announced Tuesday that they’ve inked a final pact with Northstar Lottery Group to run the lottery.

Northstar, which is comprised of three companies that already do business with the state, has said it could generate about $1.5 billion more over the next five years than what the lottery projects it would normally generate.

* Private managers to take over Illinois Lottery in July, state says

The two losing bidders, Intralot and Camelot Illinois, protested the award. The Department of Revenue countered that the bidding was handled properly and that the protests should be rejected. Protest Officer George Logan rejected both the Intralot and Camelot protests Friday.

Logan said Camelot failed to prove “fraud, lack of authority, unfair dealing, favoritism or other arbitrary conduct on the part of the purchasing entity.” Without that proof, he said, the protest cannot be upheld.

Logan also said Camelot missed deadlines for filing some of its protests.

* Waterlogged Offices Reopen

The Capitol Development Board is looking into whether a construction company working near the pipe is to blame.

* Illinois schools revive ‘moment of silence’ - Students take part for the first time since law was suspended

* RTA to weigh cost, practicality of switching diesel locomotives to electric - Concern over soot, emissions prompts officials to study issue

* New law targets wage theft in Illinois

* Death penalty still sought in local case

* Civil engineer to head IMRF board

* Supreme Court rejects appeal from former Glen Carbon attorney in child porn case

* Asian carp fight to rage on - Michigan’s new attorney general not abandoning lawsuit

* Ex-Niles Mayor Finds Salvation

After serving less than a year on a federal corruption conviction, ex-Niles Mayor Nicholas Blase has been released from the prison camp in Duluth.

Blase, 82, was transferred from the Minnesota tundra to a halfway house on Chicago’s West Side just before Christmas, prison officials and a family member confirmed.

* Preckwinkle Vows Budget Cuts

* Environmentalists salute Daley, challenge next mayor to do more - Coalition of environmental groups says there is much for the next mayor to accomplish

* Carlinville defeats curfew ordinance change\

* Crowd dismayed over Stookey Township plan to double sewer rates