* Moving forward, one step at a time

Northern Illinois University’s Cole Hall stands locked and empty as an uncomfortable reminder of the Feb. 14 shooting that killed five students. State legislative gridlock over a capital construction bill means a plan to renovate the building, retire Room 101 and build a new auditorium elsewhere is going nowhere.

* Poe wants state panel to get final say on building closures

State Rep. Raymond Poe wants to give a legislative panel binding authority over building closures pushed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich such as the planned move of the Illinois Department of Transportation’s traffic safety division to southern Illinois.

Poe, a Springfield Republican, has introduced a bill for lawmakers to consider next spring that would give the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability the final say on whether a closing can proceed.

* IDOT pledges not to scrimp on salt in winter

* Chicago Residents Sue City Over Alleged Misuse of TIF Funds

A group of residents on Chicago’s North Side is suing the city and developers over a development project. The group alleges city officials are misusing tax increment financing or TIF funds.

Chicago has dozens of TIF districts where some property tax money goes into a special economic development fund. A new lawsuit alleges the city shouldn’t be spending that money for a mixed use development in the Uptown neighborhood. Tom Ramsdell is an attorney for a group called Fix Wilson Yard. He says the project doesn’t need TIF funds because the area isn’t blighted or a historic site.

* Meters won’t rest on Sunday

Chicago parking meter holidays, including free Sundays, would end next month as a result of Mayor Richard Daley’s deal to lease the city’s spots to a private company for 75 years for a one-time windfall of nearly $1.2 billion.

Free overnight parking at some meters also would disappear as hours of operation become standard.

In most of the Loop, drivers would have to feed the meters 24 hours every day, with rates halved between 9 p.m. and 8 a.m. In other business areas, most meters would be checked from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. And most neighborhood meters would need to be fed from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

If the City Council approves the lease as expected Thursday, Chicago would have some of the highest big-city parking meter rates in the nation. Most neighborhood rates would quadruple to $1 an hour next year and reach $2 by 2013. Loop meters would rise 50 cents to $3.50 next month and top out at $6.50 in 2013.

* Vote now, debate later

When you form opinions for a living, the commodities that matter most are information and the time to assimilate it. That goes for editorial writers and, we hope, city aldermen, who are supposed to act on those opinions on behalf of their constituents.

So when the mayor drops a plan, for example, to lease the city’s parking meter system to a private group for 75 years, doubling and even quadrupling parking rates almost overnight, it seems reasonable to expect that the City Council would take a week or so to digest and evaluate the proposal.

That’s not how it works in Mayor Richard Daley’s Chicago, where a $1.2 billion deal announced on a Tuesday can find its way out of the Finance Committee on Wednesday and hit the floor for an up-or-down vote on Thursday.

* Why the rush on parking meters?

* CTA rolls out hybrid buses

* CTA using unsafe buses: union

The CTA has cut 29 percent of its mechanics in the last 13 years, and the union claims those cuts means unsafe buses are on the roads.

“There’s not enough people to do the job,” said Dan Hrycyk, financial secretary-treasurer for the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 241. Union representatives said buses are put into service with bad brakes and power-steering problems. “Buses that shouldn’t be going out … they will send out,” Hrycyk said.

* Amtrak drops opposition to EJ&E sale

Amtrak is dropping its opposition to the hotly debated sale of a suburban Chicago railway line.

The passenger service says it’s agreed with the company that’s vying to purchase the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway line that loops around Chicago.

Amtrak had worried Canadian National would stop maintaining other Chicago-area tracks if it purchased the EJ&E. It had feared that would jeopardize Amtrak service south to Champaign, Carbondale and other cities.

CN has now agreed to keep maintaining those tracks.

* Amtrak drops opposition to EJ&E sale

* Study: CN deal would benefit economy

Canadian National Railway’s plan to purchase EJ&E Railroad and divert to it a substantial amount of freight traffic would translate into $267 million in the nation’s gross domestic product - of which Chicago region’s gross regional product would increase by $60 million - a study released Wednesday stated.

* Northwestern Memorial Hospital patient’s complaint leads Sen. Chuck Grassley to question heart device

* Cook County agrees to settle medical death suit for $9.8 million

* 13-year prison sentence for not testifying

An uncooperative witness in a 2007 murder case has been sentenced to 13 years in prison for refusing to testify during the trial.

Cook County Circuit Judge Dennis Dernbach on Wednesday sentenced 22-year-old Jeremy House to prison after he pleaded guilty to one count of direct criminal contempt.

House refused to testify in the case involving his half brother Steven Hebron, who was charged with the 2004 murder of Keith Tiggs. Hebron was found not guilty in September 2008.

Defense attorney David Bickel said House agreed to the 13-year sentence, which prosecutors say is the longest ever handed down for a contempt charge.

* Allow interim justices for Ill. Supreme Court

The Supreme Court should be forward-thinking and fix its quorum problem. If it doesn’t, justice won’t be overtly denied. Without a quorum, the Illinois Supreme Court can’t establish precedent, which is a loss. But the lower court decision, where justice in an individual case is usually resolved, remains untouched.

But when a relatively simple and tested solution is at hand, there’s no reason to settle.

* Window closes on company

Republic Windows & Doors, once an emblem of corporate expansion on Goose Island, said it must shut down Friday because of inability to get financing.

It said more than 200 jobs will be eliminated. Amy Zimmerman, vice president of sales and marketing at Republic, said the shutdown was forced by Bank of America Corp., which withdrew a credit line because of the manufacturer’s declining sales.

* Ace Hardware overhauls financial, retail staff

* A Big Time Hurt: Chicago’s Zenith Plant 10 Years After Closing

* Mortgage Crisis Opens Doors for Squatters

* Sears cutting 128 jobs with Great Indoors closing

Sears Holdings Corp. is planning to lay off 128 workers when it closes its Schaumburg-based Great Indoors store next year, according to a state report.

* AT&T to cut 12,000 jobs, or 4 percent of work force

* United mechanics to be laid off in January

Nearly 700 United Airlines mechanics, including about 150 in Chicago, are going to lose their jobs in early January.

The cutbacks are part of United’s plans to lay off 7,000 workers, or 13% of its work force, as it grounds 100 older Boeing 737s and reduces capacity, which will help the airline cut maintenance and fuel costs. The cuts, announced in July, were expected to take place by the end of 2009.

* New layoffs announced at Chicago Tribune

* Tribune cuts more newsroom jobs