Posted by Barton Lorimor (@bartonlorimor)

For those of you just joining us after the long weekend, the master of the house is taking some time off in order to, according to commenter “Calhoun Native…”

He is following the state fair food vendors home.

He should be relieving you of my company on Tuesday.

* City retail sales still growing faster than in suburbs

* After nearly 5 years in office Gov. Quinn has no long-term plan for Illinois prisons On the Afternoon Shift, Quinn said he couldn’t remember the last time he was in an Illinois prison but nonetheless insisted the facilities are not overcrowded despite complaints of overcrowding from inmates, correctional officers and the non-partisan prison watchdog John Howard Association.

* Chicago’s top cop: Slight drop in homicides ‘progress’ but ‘not success’ And through the first eight months of the year, there were 85 fewer murders, 374 fewer shooting incidents and approximately 500 fewer victims of gun violence than during the same period last year, McCarthy said.

* CPD May Have To Do More With Less

* Union president to cops: Sorry for errors that may cost you back pay The Chicago Police contract expired on June 30, 2012. Shields missed an earlier deadline to notify the city he intended to terminate the old contract and negotiate a new one. So the contract automatically rolled over for another year — and unionized officers won’t automatically receive a retroactive pay raise for the first year after the contract expired.

* Emanuel Opponents Want CTU’s Lewis To Run For Mayor Newsradio reached out to the creators of the Facebook page, and was told the founders are people who are “sick, angry, and ****ed off about the way things are in Chicago, and have been for a long time.

* Emanuel aids bicyclist after crash on ‘hipster highway’

* Cook County Land Bank aims to help towns beat blight

* U of I Flash Index holds steady; economic growth in Illinois crawling

* Ill. officials to demonstrate photo speed checks

* Herald & Review: Higher taxes won’t help state grow

* McHenry County Clerk Kathie Schultz Announces Retirement

* Cicero, Organized Labor Hail Union Construction of Cicero Slated Wal-Mart Super Center

* Normal’s financial position strong, pension funding a concern

* (Decatur) City Council approves new lease

* Houston opens door to re-election run

* Charleston to vote on loan to buy vehicles

* SIU freshman up 12.7 percent; overall enrollment down nearly 5 percent again

* Assistant public defender now Madison County judge