…Adding… Click here for a live video stream of today’s council hearing.

* Give the guy credit. It takes some serious stones to venture into that weird belly of the beast…

In what appears to be a first for the state, a sitting governor will address the Chicago City Council.

Gov. Bruce Rauner on Wednesday will address the Chicago City Council to pitch the leadership on his pro-business agenda.

NBC Chicago was told that Rauner requested the appearance. City Council leadership agreed to suspend rules to allow the governor to address the body.

* Sun-Times…

“Governor Rauner was born near Wrigley Field and loves Chicago. He recognizes that the City of Chicago and State of Illinois both face unprecedented financial and economic challenges. He looks forward to discussing ways he can work together with the city to find solutions that will turn around the city and the state,” the governor’s spokesman, Mike Schrimpf, said in an email to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Right-to-work zones are not the only point of contention with a City Council filled with pro-union Democrats.

So are Rauner’s doomsday budget cuts that would cost the city, the CTA and Chicago Public Schools hundreds of millions of dollars they can’t afford to lose.

And so is the governor’s warning that the Chicago Public Schools could be staring down the barrel of bankruptcy.

I’d venture a guess that most city council members will hear a speech unlike anything they’ve ever heard today.

* Tribune…

News of Rauner’s planned speech came after he spoke to about 200 people Tuesday at the Chicago Family Business Council in Little Italy, where he acknowledged the financial problems of Chicago and its public schools but said no bailouts were coming from Springfield.

“The city of Chicago’s in deep, deep yogurt. And they need, the taxpayers of Illinois are not going to bail out the city of Chicago. That’s not happening. Not going to let that happen.” Rauner said. “That said, I can, as the governor, can do a lot of things to be helpful, to help this city get its feet back under it. I look at the numbers for the public school system in Chicago and I don’t see how it can ever fund their pensions and fund their pension deficit.”

Instead, Rauner urged the group to contact local political leaders to support nonbinding resolutions endorsing the governor’s “turnaround agenda.” That’s something Emanuel and the City Council have adamantly opposed, in part because it calls for weakening union power and wages and the creation of so-called local right-to-work zones free from union mandates.

“My view is, the City Council, help us get structural change at the state level,” Rauner said of Chicago aldermen. “I’ll help you get structural change in the city that I can authorize as governor so you can get your house in order and the state can get its house in order and we’ll all be better off.”

Even so, the timing is odd. Today is the last day of the lame duck council session. Several new aldermen will soon be sworn in.

* Fox Chicago…

Underscoring how difficult it will be to solve the crisis, leaders of the Chicago Teachers Union plan to hold a news conference shortly after the governor speaks.

Chicago Public Schools face a $1.1 billion shortfall, which is more than 16 percent of their entire budget. At the contract bargaining table, CPS apparently asked teachers to pay more into their pension fund.

Union leaders called it a wage reduction in an angry press release, “The Board has demanded a 7 percent pay cut from our members. The CTU is highly insulted.”

This may sound familiar to those who recall the teacher’s strike three years ago. But it may be different this time, because the teachers can’t go on strike if the schools don’t open for lack of money this September.

Yikes.